Drawlloween 14

Today's prompt is Beast...

This  would have gone better with Monster Under the Bed, however I didn't  know what to do exactly and also thought a Patreon Prompt would be  really fun here. Sooo...

Wowthisistoogood!

"Also  one final idea id want is a creature from the underside attempting to  take a child (violently) to get under the bed in a attempt to bring her  to that hellish nightmare of a dimension."


So back to the  Underside, that vile dimension of childish delights and nightmarish  things that squirm and bite... This is known as a Bed Bug. Sometimes  called an Undercrawler or a Snootlebootle by some, and as a Dimension  Worm by those in the Dreamlands.


Though when one worries  about bed bugs, they think of the small disgusting creatures that  inhabit dirty beds, or beds unfortunate to have accidentally become a  home from some external source. However when children of old would wish  for others to "Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite". They were  decidedly not speaking of the ones most people are used to. Bed Bugs are  a horrible, massive creature with an octopus like body, with each of  it's tentacles tipped with a retractable needle like barb that emerges  from the tip of the wiggly appendage. From there the Octopus head would  be, extends a heaving, slimy caterpillar like body with small nubby  limbs, and it extends into a trunk like mouth that contracts and  stretches like a trunk combined with a leech, two slug like eyes  extending from stalks along it's frame. In it's mouth extends a long  tongue also similar to a leech. Bed Bugs are generally as large as a  human man, and can grow to be as large as a car, van, or even a  schoolbus in the right circumstances.


Bed Bugs will sniff  around with their amazing sense of smell, and can track down children by  scent in the realm they're in, however they can sense restless sleep or  insomnia through the dimensions, this why people say to sleep tight, as  if you do not sleep soundly, they may be able to smell you. They can  feel where dimensional boundaries are weak in certain areas, and there  they wait attempting to burst free. It may take time and children may  hear sounds of growling, sniffling and crawling within their closet or  under their bed for several nights before it's able to break free and  attack in the night. They slither silently and move with a nimble yet  unwieldy gait despite their brutish personalities.

Bed  Bugs are beings that exist not only in the Underside, but drifting  through the Dreamlands, and in the Ethereal plane as they exist solely  as hungry, interdimensional insects. However they have come to call the  underside home more often than anything due to their target often being  younger people. Bed bugs will impale creatures with their spear like  appendages, and inject them with a toxin known in the dreamlands as  Dreadwake and in the Underside as Wakey Juice. This  toxin causes a  creature to suffer a burning sensation through their body, and their  body continues sleep, or even begins to enter Rem Sleep, however the  target's eyes open and they are afflicted by sleep paralysis. At this  point the Bed Bug extends it's snoot, and ejects it's secondary mouth to  bite into a creature's head and suck the creature partly into the  mouth. When it does so the creature's waking paralysis dreams are  experienced as hallucinations and the Bed Bug consumes the thoughts,  energy, life-force, and imagination from the creature as they tend to  panic badly, drifting in and out of consciousness. As it drains the  energy from the target they grow more and more weak as their body begins  to shrivel up like a husk, leaving just their eyes darting about  forever, lost in a dream and granted a cruel immortality, unable to die  and unable to move.

Bed  Bugs are able to immediately shift to the ethereal plane, or the Ghost  Zone as the kids call it, and often times will feed on a creature where  it attacks them unless other creatures attempt to interfere in which  case it may shift to the ghost zone. Many children have gone missing  without a trace because of this. They may also simply slither back  through the rift it tore open and back into the Underside. Bed Bugs are  fed upon by Dimensional Shamblers often, with the strange creatures  being able to mangle and tear apart a bed bug. In the Underside, Bed  bugs often live in underground dens or caves near areas where  dimensional travel is possible, and they move where they feel the  universal boundaries weakening, often migrating and hiding in damp and  wet areas near where the barriers are weak, or hiding in sewers,  basements, cellars, and similar areas, usually after eating the children  that occupied such locations. Those eaten by a bed bug are afflicted  with an unfortunate end, as they are literally kept alive forever by the  toxins and left in a painful hallucination for all time. Only through  burning the body can the soul be set free. But those left alone for  eternity in a Bed bug den will sit for an eternity in their own  nightmares.

Other monsters  scavenge the bodies of those afflicted by Bed Bugs and use them to  create Heartless. A form of zombie like creature drained of it's emotion  and life that seek out strong ideas and charisma in others and kill  them with the hopes of becoming normal if they do. Only through very  specific methods can these be employed, but are famously used by the  ruler of the Underside known as the Nevermind.

A  Bed Bug is a dangerous foe and is of moderate skill for children to  defeat in a group. They may set up traps with beds and use another child  as bait to lure one in to it's doom. If children are able to hunt a Bed  Bug, often times settlements will be able to sleep better with the  knowledge that it is gone. They are able to take teeth from the Bed Bug  to make weapons, and sometimes use them or the stingers as weapons as  well, with the tentacles being preserved and transformed into whip like  weapons. Their eyes are quite powerful, and through tinkering can be  transformed into binoculars, a spyglass, or a telescope. This scope  allows one to see into the ethereal plane and at a great distance in the  dark. In addition the flesh can be used along with some of it's organs  to be able to make outfits that allow the wearer to go to the ghost zone  and back, and some kids even believe that one could create a weapon or  device from one of their organs that allows them to go back to their  dimension. They can use toxins found within the Bed Bug to bring an end  to the endless Nightmare of their Wakey Juice, and Mix Masters and Kid  Doctors can distill parts from the Wakey Juice to use as an energy drink  to keep children awake for long periods and give them energy, though it  can cause hallucinations, become addictive, transform them into a  Heartless if used enough, or send them into the eternal nightmare. As  such it's important to check the quality of the Wakey Juice you drink as  it may prevent you from ever sleeping well again, attracting more Bed  Bugs to you....