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Morgan had a monster under his bed.
Anytime everyone else checked, nothing was there, but Morgan Knew.
The monster was a shadow, dripping black onto the floor, although it never stained. It was infinitely formless and yet of many forms, constantly shifting and changing so often that it was easier to consider it formless, although it wasn’t (and was).
In one moment, the monster had horns, and the next it had wings. It had the tail of a deer, a mouse, a lion, a demon. It was large, thin, big, small - there was an uncertainty to its form.
But there was one thing that didn’t change: the eyes. Yellow, with black slits.
Morgan thought it was a nightmare when he first saw the monster, yet all he saw was it’s hand. Or perhaps claw? Talon?
Morgan had gotten up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water. The hand slipped out and dripped on Morgan’s feet, and Morgan bolted when he felt it, running to his parents’ room and crying that there was something, someone, in his room.
His parents checked, and there was nothing.
When Morgan was forced to return to his room to sleep, he saw the monster’s yellow eyes.
Morgan did not sleep that night.
The next time Morgan saw the monster, it was after the first time his parents hit him.
Chad had broken a plate. It wasn’t his fault. He was so little, and he couldn’t always hold things correctly, but the sound rang through the house and their parents had gotten angry.
Morgan lied and said he broke the plate. He was punished for that.
It was better than his little brother getting hit.
When Morgan returned to his room that night to sleep, he woke up in the middle of the night to see the full form (or lack thereof) of the monster that lived under his bed. It was standing next to the bed, and Morgan felt the full force of its gaze.
The form reached out, and it dripped on Morgan’s forehead.
Morgan passed out.
When he woke, the monster was gone, and his body didn’t hurt as much as it did the night before.
Morgan didn’t bring up the monster under his bed to his parents again, no matter how terrified he was of it.
Morgan continued to see the monster. It’s form was always different, always changing, but those eyes stayed.
One night, Morgan awoke to someone pressing a cloth against his mouth and nose, muffling the screams that rose up.
“Stay still,” The villain spoke, pressing a knife up to Morgan’s neck. “Your parents will pay good money to have you back.”
Morgan struggled, and the knife just barely cut into his throat before the weight of both the cloth and the knife were completely gone.
Morgan heard the villain scream. And then there was a series of snapping and squelching noises as the villain’s screams quickly disappeared into the night.
Morgan didn’t look until all the sounds stopped. And when he did, there was the monster. Eyes yellow. And its mouth stained with blood.
“Thank you,” Morgan whispered. His voice came out shaky, afraid, terrified, but he could not deny the fact that the monster had just saved his life.
The monster slipped back under the bed without a word.
Morgan started to talk out loud in his room, as if he were talking to someone. He’d talk about anything, from school to his feelings to something funny Chad or Diego said.
Morgan spoke to the air when he got his power, bitterly discussing how he was now relegated to ‘sidekick material.’
Morgan felt a claw go through his hair that night. It was gentle, much more so than almost any other touch Morgan had felt over the past few years, and Morgan fell right back asleep at the careful caress.
Morgan continued to alleviate his worries to the room. Or, well, to the monster. But the monster was never under the bed when Morgan checked, so Morgan didn’t actually know if the monster heard him. Or if it was even capable of hearing him.
Morgan still saw it though. Always on bad nights. Ones where Morgan got hurt, physically or emotionally, and so the monster became a source of comfort to Morgan.
One night, Diego had lied about going to the library to study when she had instead gone out to hang out with friends. Morgan claimed it was his idea, and so he was punished.
Morgan went to bed that night. He woke, and the monster’s talon was on his shoulder.
Morgan looked up, and there were the monster’s eyes. It was hard to notice before, but Morgan realized the monster was of similar height to him. He couldn’t comprehend why that might’ve been important at the moment.
“What’s your name?” Morgan asked, his voice quiet.
The monster stilled, and its eyes flickered from side to side until it finally spoke.
“A-lex,” The monster answered, its voice slicing through the shadow of its form. The voice was scratchy, terrible, as if it had just now created a voice box to live in its throat.
“Alex,” Morgan confirmed. “I’m Morgan.”
Morgan fell back asleep.
After that, Morgan made a point to talk to ‘Alex’ instead of to a nameless entity.
And then Morgan went off to college. He had a roommate by the name of Barnaby, and they bonded over their shared love of machines and puzzles.
Morgan did worry about Alex. Getting away from his family meant fewer bad days, and that also meant that Morgan’s visages of Alex were also less often. Morgan even became afraid that Alex could only live under his bed at home.
That fear was alleviated when a terrified Barnaby dragged Morgan over to a private area that wasn’t anywhere close to their dorm room.
“M-Morgan, you’re going to thunk, you’re going to t-t-think I’m crazy,” Barnaby sputtered out. “But, but, but, but, but I saw something, maybe someone? In our room last night, it, it, I don’t know w-what, what it was, but, but, it was like, some kind of? Shadow? Maybe? It-It was dripping all over the floors but, but nothing stained I don’t know but it looked at, at me! And it had eyes like, like a snake’s!”
“Oh thank god,” Morgan sighed.
“What-What do you mean thank god?” Barnaby was shaking. “T-T-T-That was the most t-t-terrifying thing of my life!”
“Oh, I was terrified when I first saw them too, but they’ve only ever helped me. Their name is Alex,” Morgan explained.
“Okay, okay, yeah, okay, it, it has a name. Alex. Okay,” Barnaby rambled. “Is, is it like a power or something?”
“Maybe? Probably?” Morgan shrugged. “I can’t really control them.”
“I can’t really control Kotetsu either,” Barnaby pointed out. “He takes suggestions, but he has a mind of his own.”
Barnaby reached down to pet Kotetsu, and Kotetsu wagged happily.
After that conversation, Morgan tried to keep a closer eye out for Alex. But he never saw them.
At least not until Morgan was twelve energy drinks into a project that was due the next morning, and Alex dripped over the screen Morgan was staring at.
“I swear to god if you don’t get off my computer I’ll-”
A finger touched Morgan’s forehead, and Morgan passed out.
When he woke up, he found that an email had been sent to his professor asking for an extension on the project, which the professor had accepted. Morgan knew he didn’t send that.
Morgan was thankful for it though, as he managed to easily finish the project after his forced rest and got full credit on it.
“Just because it worked out doesn’t mean I’m not still mad at you,” Morgan spoke to the room.
Morgan saw Alex more often when he was stressed out. And Morgan began to notice Alex settling into a form that was a bit more human. Bits and pieces still shifted about, but it was smaller things. The nose, the mouth, the tail.
The eyes were always the same.
Morgan started to date. There was a lot of experimentation, and a lot of mistakes.
One of his boyfriends had hit him. His name was Andy, and they had been dating for about a month, and Morgan was feeling good about the relationship.
At least until Morgan fucked up. He was at Andy’s place and was making some food for the two of them, and he dropped a plate. A shot of fear went through him and tried to clean it up before Andy noticed, but Morgan couldn’t hide how loud the sound was.
And, like Morgan’s parents, Andy hit him.
And yet Morgan still stayed the night. He’d already told Barnaby he wouldn’t be back at the dorm tonight, and it felt awkward to change plans.
So Morgan slept with Andy beside him. When he opened his eyes, he saw Andy being dragged off of the bed by black, inky hands.
Morgan did not lean over the bed to see what was happening. He heard Andy’s screams, and he heard how those screams were quickly cut off.
There were a series of gross noises, and then Alex stood up. There was red staining their hands and their mouth.
Morgan went back to sleep. He didn’t say a word to the police or anyone else.
When Morgan was asked about Andy, he said they broke up since Andy had to go elsewhere. It was true enough.
And then Barnaby asked Morgan out. Morgan accepted, and it was a good relationship. They went on adventures, solved puzzles, and, when Morgan dropped a plate, Barnaby asked him if he was okay and then helped him clean up the shards.
Then Morgan and Barnaby got into a fight. It was an argument about nothing, but Morgan was still upset.
“You’re not allowed to hurt him, Alex,” Morgan said towards the underside of his bed. “No matter how mad I am at him.”
Morgan didn’t see Alex, but he heard them. It was just a huff, but it still surprised Morgan, given how rarely Alex made any noise.
“I’ll take that as you promising not to hurt him.”
Morgan and Baranaby eventually broke up, deciding they were better off as friends since they wanted different things out of a long-term relationship.
When Morgan’s family kept talking about him being Chad’s sidekick, Morgan left. He dropped out of college, and he was homeless for a good period of time.
Morgan wondered about Alex. Where did Alex go when Morgan had no bed to sleep on?
Morgan found out when he was sleeping on some steps, and someone came up to Morgan with the intention of harming him.
Morgan blinked his eyes open to see Alex standing in front of him once again. Their form was even more humanoid, to the point where it looked as if Alex had added clothing to their visage.
Morgan closed his eyes, knowing what Alex was going to do. Alex ate, and then they shifted their form to rest in Morgan’s shadow.
Morgan found solace in knowing that Alex was always with him.
Morgan survived mostly by stealing odds and ends. He gained a reputation as a small-town villain. Well, if he was going to be a villain, he might as well embrace it.
He stole from credit unions, rewiring keypads and making robots to annoy people. He eventually got enough money to buy an apartment complex and started renting out the place, charging a high enough price to make a decent profit, and it cemented his role as a D-tier villain.
And he got a bed again.
It might be a little silly, but Morgan added a mattress to go underneath his bed along with some pillows and blankets.
One day, Morgan looked under the bed and found a rat plush that he did not put there. Nonetheless, he left it there and decided not to embarrass Alex by bringing it up.
“I’m not letting you kill any of my nemeses,” Morgan announced. “They’re my foes to fight, so they’re off limits. And also I’d be bored without them.”
“I can still kill those who hurt you though, right?” A voice spoke. It was a little cracked and rough, but Morgan recognized the voice as Alex’s.
“As long as they aren’t a nemesis,” Morgan agreed. “I guess you have to eat something.”
Alex didn’t say anything else. Morgan just assumed it took a lot out of them to speak.
Morgan got kidnapped, a group of vigilantes grabbing him off the street to blindfold him and tie him up.
Morgan heard screaming, and then squelching and crunching. A few splatters fell across his face, and he tried not to think about how it was probably blood.
And then the blindfold was carefully lifted off of him.
Morgan blinked, getting used to the lighting of the room, and he saw a human dressed sharply in a suit with blood on the corner of their mouth.
But the person’s eyes were yellow with black slits.
“Alex?”
The person nodded.
“I didn’t know you had a human form,” Morgan commented, deciding that was the most important thing to address.
“It took time,” Alex said, their voice still a bit rough, but it seemed like they were getting better at speaking.
“Do you have to eat humans?” Morgan opted to ask. “Like for substance?”
“Not for substance,” Alex answered. “For power.”
“Oh.”
Morgan let Alex bring them back to his apartment. He let Alex fuss over him, letting them check over him for injuries before finally running their hands through Morgan’s hair.
“Why be under the bed?” Morgan questioned.
Alex tilted their head slightly, briefly stopping the motion of running their hand through Morgan’s hair.
“Like,” Morgan attempted to explain. “You can just…stay up here. With me.”
Alex froze at the suggestion.
“I…don’t know,” Alex spoke.
“I mean, you can think about it,” Morgan responded. “Is it just that you need to be under my bed? I could get, like, a bunk bed and sleep on the top bunk.”
“I’d like that,” Alex admitted, and then Morgan fell asleep.
Morgan got a bunk bed and moved the mattress he placed under the bed to the lower bunk. He made sure that the rat plush was safe and sound during the move.
After that, Morgan saw Alex more often, even when he wasn’t hurt or upset. It didn’t actually change Morgan’s life too much except now he got to watch movies and play video games with Alex.
And now, sometimes, Alex would respond to the things that Morgan rambled at them.
“Hey, so where do you go when you’re not under my bed?” Morgan asked. “And not walking around in this form.”
“I hide in your shadow,” Alex answered. Their voice had become a lot clearer and less rough over time.
“...Does that mean you saw me get beat up by that group of vigilantes last week?”
“I did more than just see it,” Alex said.
“You ate them didn’t you.”
Alex grinned, and Morgan had the thought that he shouldn’t think that bloodthirsty smile was as beautiful as he thought it was.
“I did.”
Ignoring his stomach fluttering, Morgan sighed.
“At this point you should just debut as a villain.”
“Maybe.”
About a month later, Morgan was watching Alex kill heroes on live TV.
“Do more powerful individuals give you more power?” Morgan asked.
“Yes,” Alex responded.
“Does that mean you’re going to stop eating anyone who hurts me?”
“I didn’t say that,” Alex said. “I was assigned to protect you, and that’s a contract I must keep.”
“What do you mean you were assigned to protect me?” Morgan frowned. “I didn’t ask you to.”
“Well,” Alex suddenly had a small flush on their face. “Technically now it’s my own decision.”
“What.”
“It’s,” Alex thought for a moment. “Do you know what I am?”
“Other than the monster under my bed?”
“That’s what humans would consider me,” Alex said. “But I’d say we’re closer to guardian angels. As we grow up, we’re assigned to a kid our age, and we’re told to protect them. Usually it’s because the Oracle says they’re going to be important somehow.”
“I’m important?”
“Of course you are,” Alex immediately responded. “And not just because the Oracle said so.”
“Oh.”
Something about that statement made the heat rise to Morgan’s cheeks.
“But anyway. The assignment and protection is enforced through a contract, but that contract kind of stops being valid once the assignment is an adult.”
“Alex.”
“Yes?”
“I’m 28. Are you telling me that you willingly stayed with me for ten years after you had to?”
“I-” Alex’s face went red. “When you put it like that-”
“Why?”
“Because I…” Alex scrambled to find some sort of explanation. “I don’t know how to say it.”
Morgan frowned, but he inevitably accepted it.
“I guess I won’t push it for now. So. Wanna play Mario kart?”
“I’m going to destroy you.”
“Try actually beating me for once before saying that.”
Eventually, Morgan got comfortable with Alex being around. Alex gained more power through villainous acts, and, soon enough, Alex became the one and only S-Tier villain.
And Morgan fell a little bit in love with Alex.
“M-Morgan, you, you won’t get away with t-this!” Barnaby was stuck in one of Morgan’s death traps.
“I think you’ll find I already have!” Morgan shouted. “I have stolen all the guacamole in Capital City! It will be so annoying to everyone who asks for extra guac only to be told that the restaurant is out!”
“T-That’s - return the guac you stole!” Barnaby demanded.
“No, I’m keeping it all to myself to build the largest taco in the world,” Morgan declared.
“W-W-ouldn’t you also need t-the, need like, a huge t-t-t-t-tort-tilla?”
“Yes. And I’ve kidnapped a chef to make it for me.”
“Y-You know how to cook t-t-though. And you’re good at it.”
“Dog Boy. I’m a villain. I’m not going to cook a giant tortilla when I can force someone else to do it for me.”
“For the last t-time, it’s Saint Bernard!”
“You can cook?” Suddenly Alex was right there
“Fuck! Alex! Don’t surprise me like that!” Morgan yelled. “And of course I can cook.”
“But you only eat cup noodles.”
Barnaby looked slightly alarmed at that knowledge.
“M-Morgan, if you need help with e-eating, I can always help out.”
“Oh, so you’re more worried about my eating habits than Alex just appearing out of nowhere.”
“I have p-priorities.”
“You’re my arch-nemesis! You shouldn’t be worrying about my health,” Morgan complained. “Especially when the one and only S-Tier villain is here!”
“I-It’s Alex, right?” Barnaby asked. Alex nodded. “You’re the monster who lives under M-Morgan’s bed.”
“Morgan says I can’t eat you. I think I’m starting to see why.”
“You can’t eat him because he’s my arch-nemesis!” Morgan argued. “And you ruined my villainous monologue!”
“You were doing a villainous monologue?”
“Yes!” Morgan shouted. “I was just about to turn on the death trap!”
“I thought you didn’t want to kill him?”
“I don’t!”
“But you said he was in a death trap.”
“Nobody dies in a death trap. It just keeps the hero trapped until I can do my villainous monologue and escape!”
And then Morgan had handcuffs on.
“Y-You’re under arrest,” Barnaby said. “F-For stealing. And I-I’m going to return all the guac you stole.”
“Stupid Dog Boy,” Morgan muttered.
“You want me to help you break out of jail?” Alex asked.
“You know what? Sure. Why not?”
“I-I’m not going to be able to s-stop them, am I?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
Alex began becoming more and more well-known, and Morgan stopped thinking of Alex as the monster under his bed and instead as his roommate and friend.
And then Morgan’s feelings for Alex grew and grew until he got sick of just keeping those feelings in a bottle.
“Do you want to go out on a date?” Morgan finally said.
“A date?”
“Yes. With me. Romantically. If you’d like?”
“Oh. Um. Yeah. I think. I think I’d like that,” Alex agreed.
“Cool,” Morgan grinned.
It was just another chapter in Morgan’s life.