The Tooth Witch

The sun sank below the horizon as streaks of rose pink and plum and crimson faded into a dark indigo. Even in Towerston City, where skyscrapers blocked out the view of the sky, you could still see a sliver of the majestic sunset. It was simply too amazing to be missed.

The city birds slept soundly in their nests high up in the scarce trees. Lights were turned off in some apartments, but most of Towerston’s lights remained on. A distant plane rumbled overhead. 

Gradually, the sky grew darker and darker, and neon lights on shop signs flickered off. A long way from Towerston, the hoot of an owl could still be heard.

When the sky was at its darkest and all of Towerston was silent, faraway grey clouds parted to reveal the eerily glowing full moon, shedding light on the sleeping city.

In one certain apartment, on the fifth floor, a little boy was snuggled in between blankets, snoring loudly. His bedroom window was open a sliver, so that only the tiniest of bugs could get in, but a soft, quiet breeze blew it wide open. The now strong wind rattled the blinds, making the little boy’s eyes open.

“Wha–?” He sat up in bed, wincing at the gusts of wind that hit his face. He got out of bed, shut the window and snuggled into his comfy, cosy blankets again. There were no more noises for now, but the little boy didn’t realise that someone was in the room with him. 

As he slept, a wrinkled, wart-covered, gnarled hand no bigger than half a thumb shot out of the darkness and snatched the baby tooth under the boy’s pillow. Then thirteen writhing slugs appeared out of nowhere, and settled down to eat the boy’s letter to his tooth fairy. 

All the activity under the boy’s pillow woke him up. He thought that something was terribly, terribly wrong, and he lifted his puffy pillow to find thirteen alive slugs chewing up his letter! The little boy was so scared, he opened his mouth to scream–

Somewhere in the room, the same hand clicked its fingers just as the boy started to scream. Only a high-pitched squeak came out of his mouth instead.

The boy tried to speak but all he said was “Squeak! Squeak!” He started to shiver and sweat profusely. The boy would be forever haunted by the glimpse of a tooth witch cackling at him in the dark…