The Last Chapter

As a youngster I read a book so terrifying I had to leave the last chapter unread.

Ho ho ho and a bottle of rum.

It was a tale about fables, myths and nursery rhymes all coming true.

A pocket full of posies.

The whole thing was building to an atrocious confrontation at a child's bedroom window.

To fetch a pale of water.

The penultimate chapter was so tense that I slammed the book shut and hid it under my bed.

Little Jackie Paper loved that dragon.

It lay there for years gathering a thick layer of dust. I heard Spiders scrabble over it leaving tiny unseen dots across it's bright red cover.

He kissed the girls and made them cry.

It festered like an untreated wound and I'm sure it grew bigger as I got older. I could feel it's bulk.

Years passed and as my toys gave way to posters of pop stars I eventually forgot about that terrible book.

Oh but what big teeth you've got.

One day my parents told me we were moving and that I had to sort my room out and fill a charity sack they'd left on my bed.

With vinegar and brown paper.

Leaving it to moving day, down came my posters and rolling them they unfurled in the bag not wanting to go. Comics, magazines, records and an old junk drawer pile. It all went in. A few spiders too growling.

Spiders!

I'd forgotten about them!

It's off to work they go.

The book!

Row row row your boat.

The red book under my bed!

Cross my heart and hope to die.

I shivered as I bent down to look for it, hidden away for a decade in the dark.

I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in.

There was hardly any light under there but I could just make out a misty hulk in the dead centre. Cobwebs were draped over it and small things scattered as I peered in.

They were neither up nor down.

Mustering all my adolescent courage I reached in, my fingers grabbing the dust-covered tome and dragged it out like a criminal.

Creatures fell off as it hit the daylight.

Dilly Dilly, I'll be your King.

I blew the dust off the covers and it filled the room, a cloud of skin, cobwebs and who knows what.

On the wall, who is the fairest of them all.

The red book throbbed in my hands. It wanted to be finished. A breeze blew through the open window and the pages flew. To the final rotten chapter.

Here comes the chopper to chop of your...

I read it. To the bitter end. It was dreadful and I hated every word. 

They couldn't put Humpty together again.

Shaking, I dropped the awful book in the charity bag and tied a big tight knot. A tear welled up in my eye.

One step, two step, I'll tickle you under there.

Leaving my room for the last time I turned at the door for one final glimpse of my old room and there at the window were all my childhood fears, foes and fiends clamouring to look at me and say ....

Goodbye old friend.