When Alex started thinking…

How unravelling an outside belief made him happy

Alex, a sweet little innocent kid is playing catch with his ball by throwing it against this new cupboard his mother recently got for the new house.

He didn’t really have many friends in this new neighbourhood and all his good friends lived afar, so he usually kept himself busy with such little games.

He continued playing as bedtime got close.

His father Jack gets home late after finishing all the extra work that his moron boss had dumped on him. After having a sumptuous dinner with his wife, he asks her to go check on Alex before going to sleep.

It’s Friday night, and Jack wants to relax a little by opening a bottle of beer and watching a movie.

Marie checks on Alex and asks him to keep the noise of the ball down and go to sleep after a while, but he continues playing while reciting his favourite song.

His father, though a little bit irritated by the noise of the ball hitting the cupboard, ignores the sound and focuses on the movie.

Alex couldn’t catch the ball and it hits the glass water bottle which falls and makes a huge sound! Alex starts crying.

“Alex, Alex!”, shouts Marie, as she rushes to pick him up and take him as far as possible from the glass. A little tipsy after the beer, Jack shouts at Alex for being so careless and forbids him from playing with the ball ever again.

Frightened and shocked, Alex goes to bed.

He doesn’t touch the ball for the next couple of days until he couldn’t help but throw the ball towards the cupboard. He decides to keep the ball away as soon as he hears his father come home.

This continues for another couple of days until Jack comes home a bit early and hears Alex playing with the ball.

He realises that he was too harsh with him the last time and thinks of apologising to him. But he also wants his son to not play when it was bedtime.

So he thinks of a plan…

He goes to Alex, apologises to him and says, “ This cupboard you see Alex, it’s not a normal cupboard your mother brought. A scary monster lives inside of it, and he complained to me that your playing with the ball is disturbing him. Now, during the day the monster goes to work, so you can play. But he gets back at 10:00 PM, and after that, if he gets disturbed by your playing, he will get out of this cupboard in the dark, while you’re asleep, and take you with him to a very scary monster place. Now do you want to go there?”.

These were one of the most terrifying words anyone had ever said to Alex. He got so scared that he dropped the ball in his hand and apologised to his father and promised never to play after 10.

Jack left, but this was just the beginning of the terror that he was just been convinced of.

Alex couldn’t sleep properly that night, he kept staring at the cupboard, visualising all sorts of gruesome monster images that his little mind had accumulated from all the tv shows, movies, comic books, advertisements etc.

The fact that he might have angered the monster and that it might come for him if he sleeps just couldn’t let him sleep.

He fell asleep, woke up while having a nightmare and checked his surroundings, making sure he was still in his room and not at some scary monster place.

He talked about this with his closest friend Matthew at school.

Matthew who was from a more religious family told Alex about this place called Hell. He had heard about this place from his parents and also from this religious place that they go to regularly.

Matthew’s description of hell sounded a lot like that scary monster place which Alex’s dad told him about. Now that Matthew had also confirmed its existence, the belief got even more STRONG.

The urge to play with the ball totally stopped now, be it day or night. He shifted his bed a little away from the cupboard.

As bedtime drew closer, he started getting anxious, then he remembered Matthew telling him to pray to this God, who might help him with this monster. Matthew had also told him that this all-powerful God was the reason behind everything that happens and that this God created everything in this Universe.

Alex thought to himself, “Why did this god create the Monster in the first place? What good could come out of it?”.

He prayed and felt a bit of relief as his mind was convinced that this God might help him. This belief made his nervous system calm down a little and he fell asleep.

The next day Alex told Matthew that this God really helped him last night, and he was able to sleep a little better.

The next night, somehow a mouse got inside the cupboard.

As usual, Alex prayed and went to sleep. He was awakened by a cluttering sound coming from the cupboard. He got terrified! He couldn’t understand why the monster would want to come outside when he hadn’t even played with the ball since the last week.

He started praying, but the sound wouldn’t stop. He wondered if this God is asleep right now.

This had to stop. He had had enough…

He summoned all the courage he had… literally all… and pulled the blanket off his cold terrified shivering body. He had never felt this scared in his massive lifetime of 7 years!

He took his water bottle in one hand, just to hit the monster if it attacks.

His cold feet touched the floor and he begin the long dark walk towards the monster’s abode.

It felt like a mile!

Sweating all over, he continued his long march, his heart throbbing as he marched each step forward.

Finally, he was standing in front of the cupboard. The sound hadn’t stopped.

Every voice inside his head was saying him to go back to bed, but he was determined… HE HAD HAD ENOUGH!

He raised his trembling arm, moving it towards the cupboard. He kept holding the handle of the door for some time, summoning the courage…

It was time…

“AAAAAAAAAA…” He shouted while he flung the door open with all the force he had in his shivering anxious body.

The mouse jumped on his feet and ran under his bed.

Alex didn’t move for some time. His heart was still throbbing fast but was getting calmer as time went by. His trembling stopped, and he sat down with his back against the cupboard. He started thinking…

“Why did Dad lie? Why did he tell me that there was a monster here? Why did God not answer my prayer today? I know this cute little mouse is not a monster… Matthew said that God does everything for a reason and that he always listens… Why did he not listen? What could be the reason behind all of this?”

Thinking about all of this, he realised everything was just a lie… There was no monster, because he had never seen one, and the one time the monster knocked from the other side, it was just a mouse.

He went to sleep, more calmer, more happier. He didn’t pray this time, because he knew the monster was not real, he had made sure of that.

The next day he told Matthew about what happened last night, but Matthew explained to him that God does not answer prayers every time because he has to look after others too.

Alex was not convinced but didn’t bother to debate. The break got over and they went to the class.

Alex was never this excited to go home and play catch with his ball now!

He picked up the ball and threw it at the cupboard… again… and again…

This was the happiest he had ever been.

Moral of the story: Question every new BELIEF that you dump on yourself.

This was my first-ever attempt at writing short fiction, do let me know if you liked it! Feel free to share too :)