Aphelia

You're lying in bed, tucked firmly under the covers, but you can't quite sleep just yet, despite the late hour. Today was - technically still is - your birthday, and now you can officially count yourself an 'adult', leaving your childhood firmly behind. But truth be told, you don't really feel any different. You turn over, hearing the familiar and oddly comforting creak of your bed as you do. Now there's a sign of adulthood: You vaguely recall being terrified - like all children - of that gap under your bed, that yawning, dark abyss of shadow and gloom, where monsters dwell. Or so you once believed. A laughable notion now, but that's at least one sign you're truly all grown up. With a faint smile, your eyes drift closed, and you feel consciousness slipping.

And so you don't see the shadows, snaking out from under your bed in thin, black tendrils. Slowly creeping upward and under your blanket, winding around your wrists and ankles with infinite patience. And then they pull taut. Shadows becoming physical, powerful strands, tentacles that move with strength and intent, tying you down. Your eyes fly open, seeing nothing but the darkness of your room, and then a light winking into being - an eye, massive and glowing, hovering over you. Beneath the eye, a horizontal crescent of gleaming, sharp teeth opens in a wide grin. The eye's glow illuminates the creature's body, humanoid, but much bigger than any human you've seen - and very decidedly female, voluptuous and naked - looming over you, the skin black as pitch and glistening. A long, sinuous, black tongue winds out of its mouth and slowly licks its lips. "Happy birthday..." the creature speaks in a low, whispery voice. "I hope this form meets with your approval. Consider it my present to you. A present that will make it much easier for me to take MY present from you..."