They're not really out there...
It was one of those god awful Christmas presents that your grandmother buys on a whim with the intent of subjecting at least one unsuspecting grandchild to its horrors. I was the unfortunate grandchild, but I feigned gratitude, as that's what one must do in these situations.

I hadn't used it, it just sat on a shelf like a tacky, garish ornament that no one in their right mind would ever consider buying; spaceship shaped, dingy grey in colour and coated in a rainbow of LEDs it wasn't particularly clear what purpose this thing served and people would eye it warily when they came into my room.

So it just sat and eventually a layer of dust and familiarity rendered it almost invisible to my eyes, so much so I never got round to removing the batteries as had been my intent the entire time it was there.

And so it was, on a night not unlike any other I settled in for a very drunken, stoned sleep (read: passed out at the wrong end of my bed, half my clothes strewn across my room and the other half still covering my snoring frame) entirely oblivious to the devious plan hatched by my siblings before the night's revelries had begun.

I was lost in the deepest of sleep when the noise began. It was an indescribable screeching that sent my heart to an instant gabba techno BPM and shattered the peaceful silence that filled my room. I scrambled about in the dark like a wild man, sending old glasses of water flying and clearing entire shelves of their contents, my own screaming reaching similar levels to that of the machine.

Then the lights began, punctuating the dark without rhyme nor reason the device revealed itself to have a multitude of LEDs that went well beyond those I'd previously noticed and they each made themselves repeatedly apparent until I seized upon and flung it against the wall, sending shards of plastic about my room.

Silence and darkness descended once again upon my world and I fought my racing heart in search of the cloak of sleep to take me away from the horror I'd just endured. And I may have found it, too, if not for the millions of tiny pieces of plastic that now littered my bed and found their way to sticking into every part of my body far easier than I could seek them out in the blackened room.
( Moey, Tue 28 Jul 2009, 15:22, Reply)