Compiled by Luke Langlois
To generate new ideas, fun, and creativity, thebirdonfire.org staffers respond weekly to a given prompt. Prompts are often borrowed from Poets & Writers, sometimes from Reddit. Luke curates the responses to “What if there was a rent-paying monster under your bed?”
When we fear the dark, are we afraid of being alone, or are we afraid of not being alone? In this Wednesday Writing Prompt, us bloggers have been mysteriously finding money around our homes for an extended period of time. Who knows where the money is coming from? Is it carbon monoxide poison causing us to lose our memory? No; it’s MONSTERS. One day, we discover that there have been rent-paying monsters living under our beds. Is the monster kind? Cruel? Murderous? Hungry? What do we do? Bloggers said. . .
Doreen Yuan: He was a pure black foggy body with only two white eyes. He seemed to have no mouth and could not speak, but his foggy body could be changed into the shape of words, and they let me understand what he wanted to say. Then I learned that he was the creature of all my negative energy. I accepted the rent paid by the monster and promised to keep a positive heart; otherwise, the monster would grow because of my more and more negative energy, and finally, the monster would climb out from under the bed and eat me.
Luke Langlois: There’s a monster under my bed who I’ve never noticed for any reason whatsoever, and he’s paying rent? Sounds good to me! I do nothing.
James Zheng: I don’t want to accept the traumatic fact that a monster has been renting shelter under my bed. So I made an agreement with him. I can provide him with food, water, and shelter under the bed. But he can only go out during the nighttime and must stay under the bed in the daytime. Someday I would have to make a tough decision and think of a way to find out what this monster truly is. I genuinely don’t want to betray him, but I don’t want him to live here forever.
Chelsea Xu: There was a monster under my bed! They said they were the one who was providing money to my pocket randomly! I was so scared when they said they wanted something in return. But I had nothing!! So I ran to the kitchen and came back with a kitchen knife and told the monster to back off. But instead of attacking, they freaked out and explained to me why they were there. They were looking for a friend. I understood, and we became best friends forever yay!!
Quintus Ni:
First, I will say thank you!! I appreciate the money!
I hope that monster can invite their whole family~ All come to my bedroom, and sleep under my bed, then I can get lots of money as rent. I would like to make friends with new strange guys. We can have lots of parties, and live together!!
Next monster, please~ I’m waiting~~
Some Anonymous Blogger:
I keep finding pennies. Everywhere, in everything. I find them in my drawers, in my clothes, and in my socks. I have no idea why these show up. One day, I decide to investigate. I compile all of the pennies into a pile, and then go to sleep.
I wake up, look up, and see a dark figure.
The figure is a man with backwards arms and a lizard head. He jumps up and yells “I SMELL PENNIES!!!!!!!” Then, I wake up.
My bed feels oddly hard. I pull back the sheets, to reveal more and more pennies. All of a sudden, the wallpaper peels off and reveals pennies. Everything dissolves into more and more pennies, and I drown in the mass of coins.
Renée Vazquez:
I stared at my rent bill, exasperated I had chucked it under the bed before jumping on to it and pulling the blankets over me.
“Out of sight, out of mind, I’ll deal with it later.”
This was two years ago when I had moved into my new apartment. After that, once a month, I kept finding wads of cash in my desk drawer, always half my rent. I never put any money there, but I assumed it was just my faulty memory.
I came home early one day and as I headed straight to my bedroom, I saw a large thing crawling from under my bed.
It crept toward my desk and gingerly placed a wad of exact cash in the drawer I always found it in.
“What wait?!?! Wait! What the–?!”
I stared at it and it stared at me.
“Well, um.. lemme explain…..”
“I don’t mean to be impolite, but… Who are you?” My voice came out as a cracked and quivering whisper.
“My name is Petunia, actually…”
“So, Petunia, are you the one who comes up with half of my rent money?”
“Well… yeah…”
“One doesn’t expect that from their monster from under their bed. Actually one doesn’t expect a monster under their bed…”
“But you actually seem pretty nice…” I added.
“Wait, how did you get all this money?”
She shrugged and maybe smiled.
I nodded.
“Well, Petunia. It’s probably uncomfortable under there, isn’t it?”
She shrugged again.
“Well… why don’t you sleep in the extra room? In fact, I can make some dinner now, and we can finally be actual roommates.”
She maybe smiled again.
