# Hideaway

By: TheDragonBoy

## Content

“Oof, what a day,” Noah muttered. Barging into his own, empty room, he tossed his bookbag onto the floor, turned and flopped straight down onto his bed. The young boy had been expecting the soft, cool embrace of his comfy sheets. What he hadn’t been expecting were the strange scratching and grumbling noises that suddenly seemed to spring from beneath him.

He quickly sat up, realizing he could feel something bumping up against the underside of the mattress. Startled and confused, he rolled onto his stomach and bent down over the edge, lowering his head to peek below.

“Ahhhhhhh!!”

Noah recoiled back, faster than if he had been struck, pulling himself into a tight ball. He heard a renewed series of grunts and scratches. Feeling more bumps in his mattress, he quickly retreated to the far edge of his bed, up against the wall. As the bumps visually progressed toward the opening on the opposite side, the frightened boy saw a single clawed limb emerge onto the floor, scraping lightly against the wood as it pulled itself into the open.

He thought to make a dash for the door, but couldn’t bring himself to risk getting any closer, not while this whatever-it-was was pulling itself further out from under his bed with every thump of his pounding heart. Within a few seconds, a sizable creature had emerged: long, dark green and scaly, with a thick neck, a lengthy tail, and four stout legs. It looked like some kind of alligator, or a huge lizard. It shook itself as it came into the open, before turning around to look at the boy cowering on the bed.

Its eyes immediately caught Noah’s attention. He had expected a feral, wild gaze, but something about it seemed more intelligent- and sad, maybe even scared. Sure, the rest of the thing still freaked him out, but the eyes did just enough to keep him from screaming again. It turned around and sniffed in his direction. He pressed himself hard against the wall, now breathing quite heavily.

“…A- are… you… h-hide- hide… me?”

Now Noah stopped breathing all together.

Did that thing just… TALK!?

It continued to stare at him. Noah, dumbfounded, just stared back.

Okay. I must have totally lost it- like, all the way gone. A monster just crawled out from under my bed and TALKED to me? What part of that sentence sounds sane? Am I dreaming? Is this some wacky nightmare!?

“Y-you… h-h-hi-de… me?” The words were slow and broken, forced and mispronounced. It clearly wasn’t having an easy time trying to speak- and Noah had had an easier time understanding Stitch on TV- but they were still clearly words.

“Hide you?” he repeated nervously.

The thing nodded eagerly a few times, clearly indicating it had been understood.

“Were- were you hiding under my bed?”

Again, it nodded; its big, strangely pleading eyes still locked onto his.

Noah started to relax just a bit, by which I mean he no longer had his tailbone pressed so hard against his wall that it might leave a bruise. He was still far from calm, but intrigue was starting to take hold now.

“Why?” he asked, suspicious if only from his fear.

“…M-mean… men… fo-ollow… me,” came the reply. “…L-loud… ‘S-arry’.”

Mean, loud, scary men? To be fair, this thing does seem like something people would be trying to catch. Maybe for good reason.

“Wanna… free… Hide… me?”

A monster crawls out from under my bed, talks to me, and asks me to help it hide? What kind of messed up nightmare is this?

Though even as he thought those thoughts, his eyes continued to insist on how real the thing actually was- its angular, scaly hide, muscular limbs and stiff, expressive ears.

“You want me… to help you hide?”

It nodded for a third time.

Well what the heck was he supposed to say to that? What was anyone supposed to say to that? What the heck even was this thing!?

“Noah?!”

The boy flinched as he heard his mother’s voice calling his name, the sound of her footsteps quickly approaching against the hardwood of the hallway.

The creature snapped its head around to look at the closed door behind him and then dove frantically back underneath the bed. It made it about halfway under, but its bulky form made for a rather tight fit. It struggled to stuff itself back into its hiding spot as the footsteps grew louder.

Noah, nearly as panicked, made a split-second decision.

“Hold still!” he ordered in a harsh whisper, flinging his blanket off onto the floor. The creature’s hind legs and tail went limp as the cloth settled over them, one corner still sloppily resting up on the edge of the bed.

The door opened.

“Noah, are you alright? I heard you screaming.”

“Sorry,” the boy replied with an awkward smile, still not fully having caught his breath. “I saw a spider on my blanket.”

His mother looked at her son pressed up against the wall, and then at the discarded linen that had been hastily shoved away.

“It just surprised me, that’s all,” he explained. “Don’t worry, I think I got it.”

“Oh. Okay then,” she replied, not seeing anything out of the ordinary. “Well, don’t leave your blanket on the floor, it’s dirty.”

“Okay mom.”

She closed the door behind her with a click and her footsteps gradually receded. As they did, Noah slowly crept toward the far edge of his bed and peered over at his blanket- and the seemingly random, inconspicuous bumps on its surface.

For a moment, he hoped that maybe he had just lost his mind and there wasn’t anything under there after all. He bravely lowered a foot down onto the floor and slowly stepped off his mattress. Bending down, he grabbed hold of the fabric and braced himself. Squeezing his eyes shut, he whipped his arms back toward his bed.

Never wanting to see an empty floor more in his life, he reluctantly opened his eyes again.

“…Is… safe?”

Noah took a shaky, calming breath. The legs and tail were still there. He stared, still not quite over his disbelief.

“…Safe … out?” the monster under his bed repeated.

“Yeah,” Noah muttered, afraid to lie to a talking monster. The creature’s rear began to wiggle as it wormed its way backwards, prompting the boy to quickly take a few steps back himself. When it emerged, it shook itself once again, a few dust bunnies falling from its scaly skin, and then turned toward him.

This time though it seemed to be smiling, a clearly joyous expression, if not a bit unsettling. A forest of large, sharp teeth could be seen, just peaking over its parted lips.

“No-ah… help hide me!” it said happily.

The scaly beast plodded toward him with surprising speed, catching the boy like a deer in the headlights. It plowed into him, knocking him to the ground, and before he knew it, it had walked over him, its legs on either side, completely eclipsing his body with its own. He looked up just in time to see its reptilian face part and its broad tongue come sliding out from within its shadowed maw.

For a bone chilling moment he felt complete and utter terror… and then he couldn’t help but start to laugh.

*slurp* *slurp* *slurp*

“Ha- haha- hahahaha! Cut it out. Hahaha! Alright, enough.”

He felt the tongue recede, leaving its thick drool behind. Noah looked up with a smile on his face. The creature looked down, still smiling as well.

Well whatever this thing is, it does seem pretty friendly, he thought. He glanced down toward the rest of his body and saw how the creature loomed over him, with just an inch or so between them, their bellies nearly touching as they breathed. Suddenly he felt a bit uncomfortable again.

“Could you, um, get off of me?” Noah asked.

Promptly, the green beast took a number of steps back, leaving the boy free to sit up.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been so scared after all, he thought, doing just that. Wiping an arm across his face, he peered curiously at the unbelievable sight before him.

“Where did you come from?” he asked, more to the open air than anything else. Even so the creature seemed to take it as a direct question. It contorted its face in various ways, seemingly having a hard time working out an answer.

“O-oter… pl-ace.”

‘Other place’? Not very helpful…

“What are you?”

It scrunched up its face again, thinking hard, but seemed utterly defeated when it turned its gaze back to him.

Maybe those questions are a little too ‘deep’, Noah figured. It tried to say my name a second ago though, so maybe…

“What’s your name?”

Its expression shifted again, a bit more relaxed this time. This one seemed a bit more answerable. It thought visibly again, trying to work out the right sounds.

“I… am… ‘Hony’… ‘Honr-’ ‘Honrey’-”

“Henry?” Noah interjected.

“‘Honrey’” it repeated, trying its best to pronounce things correctly.

“Hi Henry, I’m Noah.”

…

Ah, weekends were a glorious thing. And this one couldn’t have been better timed. With his new friend Henry having shown up on a Friday night, Noah had had two whole days to play, free from teachers and classes. And his trusting mother had been none the wiser- he usually spent the weekend playing games in his room anyway, and as it turned out, Henry could be quite stealthy when he needed to be.

In addition to playing around, they had actually been talking quite a lot. Once Noah had gotten over the fear, his curiosity had started pelting him with question after question, most of which he passed straight on to his new scaly friend. Henry wasn’t the easiest guy- thing- to carry a conversation with, but despite his basic understanding of grammar and his difficulty pronouncing certain sounds, Noah was discovering him to be surprisingly smart- smart enough to open doors and use light switches at least.

Not only that, but the boy was starting to piece together a bit of his new friend’s history. Henry had spent a while- months probably- in the ‘other place’, before the ‘mean men’ had chased him out. He had even had another friend there, someone named ‘Leslie’… or ‘Lily’, ‘Lola’- it was honestly hard to tell since he usually pronounced it closer to ‘Lullie’. Either way, she had apparently kept him company while he was living there, helped keep him hidden and even helped teach him English- though he had already known some before.

He seemed reluctant to talk about that though, and a bit sad too. It made sense- having been forced to leave it all behind, he must really miss it. But that just made Noah even more determined to make his new home the best it could be. Which leads us right up to Sunday night.

As fun as Noah’s room was, ‘the best home ever’ did not consist of having to stay locked up in one room forever. That, and he knew all the food he kept sneaking in to feed Henry had to come out at some point, and he really didn’t want to have to hide, explain or clean up a Henry-sized turd. So the two had plotted to sneak out after dark- well past his bedtime, when his mother was asleep and no one would be outside to see them. A time that would arrive right about…

*click*

Noah opened the door to his room and peered out into the hallway. It was dark, really dark. Somehow he had never really stopped to think how difficult it would be to actually make it out of the house without turning on the lights and blowing their cover. He felt Henry’s muzzle poke up next to him, sniffing at the newly exposed passage.

“It’s too dark,” the boy whispered. “I can’t see.”

Henry nodded and then started pushing past. Confused and a bit startled, Noah stepped back, letting his friend nudge the door open wider as his bulky form passed through. Just when he started to get the idea he was being left behind, Henry stopped, completely cloaked in shadow except for the end of his tail, which he brought up and dangled in front of Noah’s face. The boy was puzzled for a moment but then smiled.

“Good thinking,” he whispered, reaching out and taking a gentle hold. The tail’s tip curled gently around his palm, gripping him in return.

With a light tug, Noah was led from his room, closing the door behind them and sealing them into darkness. With nothing but the pull of his new friend’s guidance and the memory of his home’s layout, he followed the creature through the- thankfully stairless- house. They went as quietly as they could, step by step, until Noah suddenly felt Henry’s grip pull away and disappear.

… *click*… *click*

A dim light reached Noah’s eyes as his front door opened before him, towed by Henry’s tail. Sparsely placed streetlights helped illuminate the houses and the numerous trees that dotted the road. There wasn’t another soul in sight.

“Nice job, Henry. Come on, I know just where to take you,” Noah whispered excitedly, rushing out so quickly that he had to double back when he remembered to close the door. And then they were off into the night, free as birds. Noah had the perfect destination in mind: a big park, just a couple blocks away. It would be easy to find, even in the dark, and there would be plenty of room for Henry to explore and stretch out after being cooped up for so long.

Speaking of the big guy, despite his size Noah quickly realized how easily he could blend into the night. As they ran eagerly through the quiet streets, the boy frequently lost track of him, only to suddenly find him popping up in an unexpected place when they passed under the next streetlight.

“It should be just around this block,” he announced quietly, rounding one of the town’s larger buildings. Not three steps later, he was startled by a sudden call- nearly a thunderclap in the otherwise silent night.

“Hey kid! Are you supposed to be out this late?”

Noah froze.

Oh no! he thought, realizing he’d been spotted. His first instinct was to run, but then came a second thought. What if they see Henry!? He turned around and looked back to where he thought his friend had been standing, only to find empty shadows.

“Hello?” called the stranger again. He heard the man approaching even from two lampposts away.

Without much else he could do, Noah defaulted back to his first instinct: he ran. Rounding the building again and heading back the way they’d come, Noah dashed, hoping he could lose his pursuer on more familiar streets. Three houses down, he spared a glance back, aiming to gauge how much of a lead he had, but he found the road behind him empty.

Noah let his run peter out into a walk and then came to a stop. Over the sound of his breathing, he listened for approaching footsteps or the stranger’s voice.

Silence.

Did he just let me go?

He looked around a bit more. Henry hadn’t popped up again yet. Surely he must have seen Noah run away though; must have heard the stranger shout. Maybe he had found a hiding spot?

Or what if the stranger found him!?

Noah turned around and started walking quickly back up the street. He kept his eyes peeled for anything, not knowing who he’d run into first.

“Henry?” he whispered.

…

“Henry?”

A light gust blew past him as he approached the building on the corner again. Over the wind he thought he heard something- a small scuffle perhaps, or a scrape. Just a leaf against the ground maybe? As he approached the cross street, he peered both ways. First in the direction he had gone with Henry. Nothing. Then in the direction the man had been.

He felt a bit of relief when he made out, not the form of the stranger, but that of his new friend- faintly illuminated by the outer edge of a streetlight’s halo.

“There you are,” Noah said, smiling, but still quiet in case the stranger was still nearby. “Come on, the park’s this way.”

Henry didn’t approach, in fact he didn’t even turn to face the boy, just kept stood with his back turned, his tail swishing idly in the dark.

“Henry?” Noah called quietly, taking a few steps closer. He could see the creature moving around a bit, but couldn’t really make out what he was doing, not until he had gotten just about next to him.

Only then did he manage to see the pair of legs, sticking out from Henry’s jaws.

Noah froze again. Just like when he had first seen Henry, he stared, thinking surely he must be mistaken- he must be seeing things- he must be dreaming- he must be crazy.

Then he heard it. A faint, almost inaudible little *gulp*. He saw Henry’s belly twitch, and the legs slid further inside.

Noah took a sharp breath, and then stopped breathing. He heard his heart begin to pulse in his ears.

*bu-bum* … *bu-bum*

*gulp*

*bu-bum* *bu-bum*

*gulp*

*bu-bum* *bu-bum* *bu-bum*

*gulp*

*bu-bum* *bu-bum* *bu-bum* *bu-bum*

*gulp*

The feet were gone.

Henry finally turned toward Noah.

It seemed content, happy even. And despite its completely innocuous expression, he couldn’t help but feel the terror strike through his bones as he met its gaze.

“No-ah… o’ay?”

No, he was not okay. Once again he was a deer in the headlights. What could he do? Scream? No one would be able to help him now. Run? With the way Henry moved he wouldn’t have a chance. But then he knew either action would be pointless anyway, because there was still that look on the creature’s face. He still watched the boy with that friendly gaze- once mildly unsettling for some reason, now terrifying and clear. He didn’t seem to be having so much as a second thought about what he’d just done, but neither was there an ounce of threat or malice to be seen.

Noah had nothing he needed to run from; but yet he did, didn’t he?

“I… full… Wanna sl-eep now?” Henry asked.

Noah twitched slightly, but otherwise didn’t respond. He continued to stare, deathly silent as the night.

“No-ah?”

“Y-Yeah… let’s go home,” he managed to whisper.

Henry gave him a curious glance, but then seemed to discard it and started off at an easy pace back toward their house.

…

It was early Monday afternoon, but Noah was still at home. He had told his mother he was sick. He had told Henry he was sick. Neither had taken much convincing; with the way he was feeling it might have even been true.

Henry had spent most of the day napping and was only just starting to wake up. Noah had been staying in his bed, definitely not asleep. Both had been almost silent, until now.

Henry lifted his head as he heard his friend’s feet descend onto the floor. Lying in the middle of the room, he watched the boy walk past him, heading for the door.

“No-ah… le-eave?”

“I just gotta use the bathroom,” he replied.

Noah twisted the handle and walked out into the hall. With a dead-blank expression, he went to the kitchen and stopped in front of the white landline they had mounted on the wall. He hesitated for a moment, his heart quickening, but then he reached out and picked up the receiver.

He dialed the digits, one by one, listening to the familiar tones made by his mom’s number. The phone rang… and rang… and rang… and then he was greeted by his mother’s voice, only to recognize it as her voicemail recording. He sniffled, his first tear falling from his cheek.

*beep*

“Mom,” he said, his voice finally betraying his emotions, “you have to get help. Th- there’s a monster in my room. H- he’s big, a-and scary, and he eats people. I was trying to hide him, but he- he scares me, I don’t want- I don’t- want to-”

“No-ah?”

The boy gasped and dropped the phone. It knocked against the wall, dangling by its cord as he turned around.

There was Henry, standing in the middle of the hall, looking right at him.

“You… say… mon-ster? … You … as’… for… mean… hu-mens? You…”

Henry took a step forward. Noah plastered himself against the wall, knocking the phone again. There was a sadness in the creature’s eyes. A sadness that began to churn and tumble, slowly changing.

“‘He-elp… hi-de’ you… said… ‘Fr-iend’… you said.”

In the admittedly short time that they’d known each other, Noah had never seen Henry angry, not until now. Pupils narrowing, head down, ears up, teeth bared. But even still, behind it all, a glint of sorrow in his eye.

“Like … ‘Lullie’…” he added.

Noah leapt to one side, an adrenaline-fueled, flight-or-fight response landing firmly on the former.

Henry lunged with a roar. His clawed paws came down on the backs of Noah’s legs, knocking him to the ground.

Noah clawed against the floor with his hands as hard as he could, trying to drag himself free. The front door was just a few feet ahead- so close yet so far. He kept his eyes locked on it, refusing to look back… until he felt something hot and wet press against his calves.

He turned his head around, and laid his eyes on the most terrifying thing he would ever see: his own legs disappearing into the throat of the huge, green lizard.

*gulp*

“No!! Henry!! No!!”

*gulp*

The gullet sucked him in closer. With the imposing jaws gaping wide, Noah could no longer see Henry’s eyes, there was only his maw now, rising to claim him.

*gulp*

Panting, he tried to pull himself out, tried to find something to grab hold of, but he was in the middle of the floor- nothing was within reach.

*gulp*

The hot flesh slid up over his waist, the rows of pointed teeth grazing harmlessly over his clothes. The feeling of them made him look down again, which only served to further spur his panic.

“Stop!! I’ll hide you!! I’ll do whatever you want!!”

*gulp*

He could feel the heat penetrating the entire lower half of his body. As his own pulse increased to a deafening thump, he could start to feel Henry’s as well, beating around him, powering the body he was about to enter- that was about to consume him.

*gulp*

*bu-bum* *bu-bum* *bu-bum* *bu-bum*

*gulp*

Noah’s arms forced uselessly out in front of him, he felt the opening of Henry’s throat press against his shoulders. The boy’s world now framed by white pointed teeth and red ridged flesh, he took one last look at his old home.

“Henry…”

*gulp* *squelch*

…

‘Henry’, Noah had said. It was a little different than what she used to say.

‘You are hungry,’ she used to tell him. She hadn’t meant it as a name at first, but it had stuck. It was the first thing he had ever really been called.

She hadn’t meant it as a bad thing at first either, but one day that changed too. One day she decided ‘hungry’ was bad, and she called for the mean men. Betrayal, just like Noah.

He never understood why his friends always seemed to change their minds. It hurt every time. Were all humans like that, he wondered?

…

“Eeeeeep!” Jackie squealed.

It had been a normal day- if a long one. But she’d come home to find, of all things, a giant lizard in her walk-in closet! Falling backwards and shuffling away, she stared with wide eyes at the green behemoth.

The creature opened its eyes and raised its head. It looked at her with a sad gaze, sad enough that it caught her off guard.

“Y-you… h-hide… me?”

Originally Published: 14-Mar-2020