Bedtime Stories
At bedtime, she would ask her mother to tell her scary stories and, afterwards, beg her not to leave because she was too afraid to sleep.
“Stop being silly. I’ve got to go to work,” her mum would answer. “Monsters aren’t real. Even if they were they wouldn’t bother coming all the way here for kids like you who never sleep.”
Soon after, she would close her eyes and let the hours pass, but, sometimes, the low creak of her door would wake her. She would smell him first, despite her tired senses, and see the shape of her father coming near.
Left me thinking: could be a scary story, but then sometimes perfectly nice dads check in on their kids. Is our society so obsessed with paedophilia and child abuse that we immediately think the worst?
True, but the worst is definitely what the story is pointing to. Well the media certainly is, and this story hooks onto that obsession.
Disturbingly dark and excellently written.
Well written. Leaves me anxious, disturbed and wanting to scoop that child out of danger.