"Why do you get everything!" screamed Evelone as she lunged toward Sebastian and his sword. "It's not fair!" Stunned by the sudden rush, Sebastian froze. He had seen his sister angry, on many occasions in fact and he knew too well, if Evelone ain't happy, nobody's happy, and today, God help us all, today, that girl was pissed! Inches from the boy's face now and with a dead man's grip on the sword, she spoke deliberately, emphasising each word so not one would be forgotten, "You are nothing and I wish you would disappear." Sebastian felt in his heart the truthfulness of his sister's statement, and on his face, he felt the bits of uneaten cake as she spoke them. Ever since he was small, she had taken - his toys, his food, his security, his brother, but today, as she pulled the sword toward her, this theft would be met with some resistance.She pulled, he pulled back and would not let go. Poking the bear, he stepped to the right taking the sword and Evelone with him. Enraged, Evelone pulled harder and in kind, Sebastian did the same, but the girl was older, stronger, and with little effort, she pulled up the boy, lifting him off the ground where their eyes met parallel and his feet dangled two feet from the floor. "Give me the sword," she muttered, her eyes burning into Sebastian's. "Give it to me or I swear to God...I swear to God." And with no more words, their staring contest was over. Evelone's left eye, and only her left eye, slowly moved away from Sebastian's gaze and focused on the tiny yellow parakeet still hiding behind Sebastian's left ear. "Give me the sword," she spoke again, eyes separated in a most disturbing way. "Give it to me or I swear to God...I will fry up that little bird of yours and serve him on a platter with carrots and potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner." Sebastian knew she was serious and so did Sampson. Scared as he was, the bird held his ground, and even if by some miracle, Sampson's clipped wings magically healed, he would not have flown to safety, leaving his friend alone, no, they were in this together, but something needed to be done. Sampson sucked up all the courage his tiny lungs could hold, spread his clipped wings and with one ferocious chirp, the tiny yellow parakeet with the heart of a falcon jumped from Sebastian's shoulder and rammed himself straight into Evelone's staring left eye. "My eye!" Evelone screamed, her pain strengthening Sampson's resolve. Like a woodpecker, Sampson's pointed beak continued poking that crazy eye a good three or four times before his adrenaline ran out and he fell to the floor happily joining Sebastian and his sword.
"My eye, my eye, my beautiful eye!" Evelone cried, stumbling around the room, half blinded by Sampson's attack. "When I get my hands on you!" Sebastian knew they had little time. Seeing his sister blocking the door, the boy grabbed his bird and the sword and ran to the only place Evelone could not follow - underneath the bed. Too small a space for a grown teenager but just big enough for a ten year old boy and his tiny little friend. He crawled and crawled, the bed so large, its space underneath was sprawling. All the way to the corner, safe, safe from the long arms of his sister, reaching in, grabbing for something, a bit a hair, the sleeve of his jacket, the frayed edge of the gray blanket tied tightly around his neck, covering now both the boy and the bird. "Come out!" she screamed, but Sebastian could barely hear, his hands to his ears. The bed started shaking, Evelone had climbed on top, jumping, trying to squash the boy out like the last bit of toothpaste in an old toothpaste tube. "Come out!" she screamed again, but he was not moving.
Finally, the jumping stopped, the noise had stopped. Sebastian looked to the edge outside the underneath, hoping to see two feet walking across the room to the door, opening it then leaving, but instead, his sister's face appeared. Evelone spoke in a calm voice...in a calm terrifying voice. "Enjoy your little fort now, brother, because in a few minutes, when the darkness comes, your safe place is gonna get very, very scary." Sebastian knew she was right. "You're underneath the bed, and at night, you will be surrounded by all that's underneath. All those monsters have been waiting for you for so long, waiting. While you've been sleeping tight in your bed, they've been waiting for that one night you poke your little arm or foot or head down underneath, waiting to bite it off, to swallow you whole, just waiting. You made it easy for them, you're in there world now, and soon they will find you a rip you apart...and your little bird too." Evelone's head disappeared and once again the jumping began.
Sebastian wanted to run out, but he didn't know what was worse - the monsters he couldn't see, or the one jumping on his bed. "They're gonna get you!" she screamed over and over again. "They're gonna swallow you whole!" Jumping and banging and screaming, so much noise, Sebastian couldn't think. Snuggling up close to the bird, covered in JoJo's old grey blanket, he tried blocking out his sister's cries, but it was no use, she was too loud. Too much noise, too much noise, the bed spring now pounding the top of his head, no escape, no escape, he wanted to scream but didn't, couldn't, had no memory of how. The monsters were coming, getting closer and closer and closer and in the middle of his wooden floor, underneath his very large bed, he saw a very small hole.
A hole he had not noticed just moments before. His heart stopped. As he stared, the small hole seemed to, appeared to become, started to get...a wee bit bigger. He closed his eyes, hoping it to be just a shadow, a dust bunny, anything, but when his eyes opened, the hole, and it was most definitely a hole, was still there and was still getting bigger. It wasn't a crack in the wood or a missing piece of flooring nor was it round really. The shape, kind of oval, wider in the middle, narrowing at the edges, and the nails that had, up until today, held these boards together, popped out and lined up side by side forming themselves into rows. Sebastian, now pressed hard again the wall, watched as the hole grew to the size of a beach ball and then as quickly as it opened...it shut. Sebastian breathed a sigh of relief, but too soon. Without warning, the hole opened again, then closed, then opened again, like a mouth, like a hungry nails-for-teeth filled mouth, biting, starved and Sebastian realized it wasn't like a mouth - to his horror, it was a mouth, and it was coming for him.
Deciding to deal with his sister's wrath instead, Sebastian reached out to scoop up Sampson, but to the boy's surprise, the bird was not at his side, he was instead, inching toward the open mouth, its edges now curled up in a sly, evil smile. Sebastian flung himself forward, reaching for the bird, grazing Sampson's feathers with his fingertips, but it was too late, the mouth opened a bit wider and swallowed Sampson whole. If Sebastian could scream, his house would have exploded. He crawled to where the mouth was and with his mighty sword, he began pounding on the wooden floor, pounding on it again and again. If he could speak, he would have screamed, "Give him back, give him back!" With his sword, with his fists he hit the floor again and again and again and with a loud wooden creak, the floor opened, the mouth opened, the nail-like-teeth opened and before Sebastian could jump away, the mouth sucked him in and swallowed him whole.
Falling, falling, falling into the darkness, the totally darkness. Sebastian fell and fell with no landing in sight. Reaching out for something, anything, but nothing. Falling and falling in this forever bottomless pit. He looked up, the mouth still open, the lights of his room still on, getting further and further away. The mouth started to close slowly, slowly and at the last second, before it had completely shut, before he was lost in total darkness, a face appeared far away, looking down. It was Evelone, watching her brother fall and Sebastian's last sight of his world was the smile on his sister's face.
Darkness. Falling. Falling. Darkness. Falling, falling, Under the Neath.
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