Under the bed

Ti was a monster-under-the-bed. He was small and hairy and had long fingers with sharp nails. He had lived all his life under Sally's bed, since she was a toddler, and his job was to scare her if she ever got out of bed at night. Ti's job was a boring one, it involved lots of waiting, and also having to move around every time Sally changed houses, as he was bound to her for life. 

Ti wasn't a very good monster-under-the-bed, he had never scared Sally, and sometimes he fell asleep during his work hours. He had been with Sally for almost thirty years and he knew that he would never scare her. All that time waiting under her bed had led him to know her fairly well, he had heard her sleep peacefully when she was a teen, whisper in teenage love some years later, and he had witnessed how partners came and went bringing their own monsters-under-the-bed in the process. Of late, though, Sally spent her nights sleepless, turning and tossing on the bed, finally crying herself to sleep. Every time Ti wanted to crawl out of under the bed and hug her between his furry arms. Yet, he knew he couldn't do it. He knew that Sally would be too scared about the monstrosity he was, that she would recoil at the sight of his long fingers and sharp nails, of his small eyes set to close one to the other. And Ti stayed under the bed blaming his nature for not being able to do anything for Sally, biting his fingers when he heard her cry, being a monster-under-the-bed.