Leave A Light On For Me

"Please!" The fight had become as much a part of Jessie's bedtime routine as brushing her teeth or putting on pyjamas.

"No, and that's my final answer." A look she recognized, but never understood, flashed across her mother's face. Some secret that Jessie was too young to understand no doubt.

Her mother's fingers lingered tantalisingly over the light switch, while her focus shifted down the hall to the box where the money went. Jessie had seen her father feed it coins, every few days, grumbling that it was all he ever did.

"Now, sleep, we don't want you waking up your father again." Echoes of her father's temper still clung to the walls, haunting her sleep.

Silently her mother plunged the room into near-total darkness. She left the door ajar so Jessie could make out the light from the living room spilling into the hall. Both of them hoped Jessie would be sound asleep by the time her mother left for work.

Pulling the faded sheets up and over her head, Jessie listened to the creaks and groans of the building settling.

When the family had lived in a top floor flat, Jessie could look out of her bedroom at the moon and take comfort in the dull orange glow of the street lights. Now they lived behind a supermarket, whose walls blocked out the sky, so all she could see was shadows slithering around in the communal gardens.

Her parents' room was at the front of the building and was illuminated all night by the street lights. Jessie had begged her mother to swap rooms, only to be told their window didn't close and she would not have her daughter dying of pneumonia.

Trapped by her own body heat and warm breath, Jessie had to pull back the covers and let in some cold air to avoid suffocating. Her father had told her, repeatedly, it wasn't cold enough to put the heating on. It never was these days, so Jessie slept in socks and pyjamas and under at least two blankets to avoid freezing.

Wafting the sheet backwards and forwards, guiding the cool air over her flushed skin, she heard her name. It sounded like someone trying to whisper while inhaling. For a second she hoped she had just imagined it, some random noise her mind attributed to It.

Then the mattress rose beneath her, as if It was testing whether Jessie was actually in bed before it started tormenting her. Arching her back, she tried to trick It into thinking the bed was unoccupied. Eventually It gave up, and the mattress settled back into place.

Her back ached from holding the awkward position for so long. Trying to force sleep, Jessie closed her eyes so tightly that she began to see fireworks on the inside of her eyelids. She blinked a couple of times to make them go away.

A cold wind blew down the hall as her mother opened the front. Before closing it, she turned off the living room light and plunged Jessie's world into darkness.

From his room across the hall, her father let out a grunt of annoyance then an incomprehensible murmur. Jessie's little heart was beating so fast she worried it might burst.

Jessie and her friend Angela had come to the conclusion that the darkness under your bed was a tunnel to another place, allowing the creatures that dwelled there access to our world. But only if it was as dark here as it was there.

Most people would never have to worry about it; they could afford to leave the lights or the TV on. All Jessie could do was try to fall asleep before It arrived or be brave enough to put the light on and hope her father didn't wake up.

The still healing bruise on her left arm reminded her of how often that happened.

'1, 2, 3...' Jessie tried counting sheep, her voice rising from a whisper. She needed to be loud enough to hear over the blood rushing in her ears but not so much that it drew the attention of either It or her father.

It struck the underside of the bed, lifting the mattress and Jessie off the frame and into the air. She grasped the edges of the cushion, keeping herself from being catapulted onto the floor.

Releasing the mattress, Jessie tried to flex her aching fingers. The taste of the stagnant air rising from beneath the bed was making her nauseous. A wet patch on the top of her pyjamas let Jessie know she had been crying. She rubbed the tears away with her palms.

At the foot of her bed, pinned to the wall, was a large map of the Earth her Aunt had gotten free in one of the Sunday papers. Only it was suddenly missing the key that was printed along the bottom edge.

As Jessie struggled to work out what It was doing with the poster, the top of her skull made a dull thud as it collided with the headboard. Jessie thrust the palms of her hands over her head, like she was doing a hand stand, to keep herself from toppling off the bed.

The silence of the night was shattered when It suddenly dropped the bed. Jessie bounced a couple of times, the old springs squealing in defiance, before she heard her father's roar.

"I've got to be up the crack of fucking dawn to go and work my bloody fingers to the bone for your ungrateful arse! All I want is a couple of hours sleep! Is it too much to ask..." Light flooded the hall, her father's silhouette looming in the doorway.

Jessie let out a small grunt, turned and pulled the sheet over her shoulder. Facing the wall, she could feel his eyes boring into her back. Her father's sudden silence meant he couldn't tell if he had imagined the whole thing or not. Relief began to flood through her body.

"You had better be sleeping," He snarled before turning the hall light off and slamming his door.

Jessie hated him, a part of her had always hated him. His old job meant he was hardly ever around. Always travelling somewhere and she could literally go weeks without seeing him or experiencing his temper.

At least It only tormented her in the dark, Her father was a terrible presence that haunted every moment of her life.

It struck again, flipping the entire bed over onto its side. Jessie caught the edge of the frame, keeping her legs bent at the knees and her feet off the ground. The bed rocked back and forth gently, threatening to topple over and rouse the entire building. Fortunately, Jessie's meagre weight was not enough to upset the balance.

Kicking her left leg up, Jessie pulled herself onto what had once been the side of the bed. She perched on the wood, one hand keeping the mattress from falling the other holding her steady. She could hear the pine splintering and straining under the pressure.

The frame was going to snap any second and Jessie would fall onto the floor in a storm of shards and splinters. Down by the skirting boards, she heard something brushing against the walls and circling the floor.

As the noise rose higher, Jessie took a deep breath and launched herself across the room. Pain exploded from her chest as her body collided with the wall, then spread through her back as she landed on the ground. A coppery taste flooded her mouth as she struggled to catch her breath.

Jessie didn't notice the light or the shadow looming over her as she spat blood onto the carpet. All that mattered to her was getting air back into her lungs and stemming the bleeding.

"What the FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!!!" Her father's fury was palpable. Spittle ran down his chin as his eyes tried to comprehend what he was seeing.

Jessie didn't want to look at him, she couldn't even remember why she had turned the light on, let alone why she had jumped out of bed. All she could think to do was pull her legs up and make herself as small as possible.

Her father lunged forward, his hand grabbing for her hair. Jessie crawled between his legs, driving her elbow into the back of his knee with all her strength. The man collapsed to the floor, howling in outrage rather than pain.

Jessie could see the hall and front door beyond. If she could get into the street maybe she could find someone to help, maybe even call the police. Only that's not what she did.

Jessie pulled the door to her bedroom shut, flipping the light switch at the last possible moment. In the hall, she put one foot against the wall and pulled with all her strength, holding the door closed until her father's screaming stopped.

When the pain in her fingers became too much, Jessie finally let go. Stepping back, she slid down the wall and fell asleep.

The next morning her mother found her, the last of the credit on the electricity meter gone. Neither It nor her father were ever seen again.