Tap, tap, tap

“Mummy, mummy!”, screamed Erica.

“What is it this time?”, asked Erica’s mother, entering her little girls bedroom yawning; groggy from being woken out of a deep sleep.

“There’s something outside my window”, said Erica, pointing a tremulous finger at her bedroom window, “Tapping with their finger”.

“Oh, Erica”, said her mother, “Its just the branch of a tree, that’s all honey”, and her mother drew open her curtains to show Erica that all it was was a tree branch rattling against the window pane, “Now go back to bed and get some sleep, okay!”.

“Okay, mummy”, said Erica, as her mother kissed her on the cheek and tucked her up in bed again.

“Mummy! Mummy!”, screamed Erica.

“Mummy’s coming, darling. Don’t worry”, said her mother entering her daughters bedroom again, a little irritably.

“There’s something outside my window, scratching with their fingers!”, said Erica, shaking.

Erica’s mother shrugged and sighed, “Oh, Erica! It’s just the branch of a tree scraping against the window. That’s all, honey”, said her mother and she once more drew open the curtains of Erica’s bedroom window and Erika saw that her mother was right, that it was just a branch scraping against the window, “Now go back to sleep and no more being afraid, okay?”

“Okay mummy”, said Erica, as her mother hugged and kissed her and tucked her back into bed.

Soon after, Erica went back to sleep but it was not long before she was woken again by another noise at her window, a noise like something banging the window pane.

“Its just a branch banging against the window pane”, said Erika to herself, “That’s all. Just a branch” and, instead of screaming, Erica got up and walked over to her window and drew open her curtains to prove to herself that it was only a tree branch like her mother had told her.

And, indeed, when she opened the curtains, she saw that it was just a branch but then, in the moonlight, she noticed that the branch was waving two large antennae and that it had hundreds of wriggling legs and sharp snipping mandibles like some sort of a giant stick insect.

Erica’s mother sat bolt upright when she heard the sound of shattering glass from Erica’s bedroom. “Mummy! Mummy!”, screamed her daughter.. but it was too late.