Monsters' Dilemma

Ever since she was little, Anna has had strange behaviour. While most children her age feared the dark, she found comfort in it. Anna never asked her parents to check under her bed, inside the closet, or even the corners of her room. Her parents found her fascination with the dark rather odd.

Each night, Anna would eagerly wait for her parents to say goodnight and switch off the lights. Once they had shut the door and walked away, she would peek under the bed and smile. “Hello, Mr. Monster! It’s playtime!”

The new monster under her bed dreaded her behaviour. For three weeks he had tried to do his job and scare her, but each night was a failure. It had been the same for the monster before him. Anna was the problem child for all of monsterkind. “She’s bound to drive many of us bankrupt,” he thought. He quit less than a week later.

Two days later, he was replaced by another monster, but like him, she also quit before a full month passed. The monster hated how Anna would ask her to play hide and seek, and even force her to have tea parties with her in the middle of the night. She wouldn’t sleep until it was three in the morning. “This child is not normal,” the monster thought. She needed to switch to a different department.

The Head of the Monster Organisation’s Child Scare Division grew frustrated with the repeated resignations and summoned Lestair, the scariest monster working under him. He ordered Lestair to scare Anna without fail, saying he would give him a bonus if he managed to do it before a month passed. Lestair chuckled and thought nothing of the challenge.

“How difficult could it be to scare a four-year-old?” He disappeared with a wide grin.

Lestair lasted longer than most, but he, too, returned unable to scare Anna. Three harrowing months had passed, but the little girl showed no signs of fear, not even for a brief moment. Upon Lestair’s return, the Head Monster, Teroth himself, decided to leave for the Human Realm. He was granted special permission by the Monster Council as he was forbidden from entering the Human Realm nearly five years ago for what was deemed a violation of their rules.

Teroth appeared in Anna’s house when her parents had just tucked her in. As he watched from the corner of the hallway, Teroth froze the moment he saw Anna’s mother turning away from the door with her husband. “It couldn’t be…” He felt his heart begin to pace as a knot formed in his throat. The time gap added up, but was it true?

Teroth materialised inside Anna’s room next, only to find her out of bed and greeting him with a wide smile. Teroth didn’t know what to say. He couldn’t even move a muscle. Was this girl truly his daughter? It couldn’t be. It was at this moment that Anna finally broke the silence.

“You’re my dad, aren’t you?”

Teroth’s eyes widened. “What? How do you—”

“I know Mom met Jason a year after I was born. They were friends in school before.”

The evidence before Teroth supported his suspicions. Anna was indeed his daughter. Tears welled in his eyes as he knelt before her. She ran up to hug him.

“I’m sorry I was never around,” Teroth said, holding Anna’s face. “Meeting your mother was mere happenstance while I was on a secret mission. When the Monster Council found out about your mom and me five years ago, they prohibited me from returning until now.”

“It’s okay, Dad. I’m not angry at you.” Anna’s smile grew even more radiant. “I’m just glad I finally got to meet you.”