Jerome

Jerome returned to his bedroom, completely ignoring Mr.   he barged in which was very unlike him. He didn't miss the expression on Mr. Edward's face; utter confusion.

"Did something happen, sir?" He asked hesitantly.

Jerome muttered a muffled no before banging the door with a thunderous thud that most certainly caused an avalanche on Mount Everest.

He hurried back to his luxuriant, enormous bed before plopping on it. Jerome was once again grateful for its size but wondered why it wasn't huge enough to swallow his troubles. And by troubles, he meant his parents.

The idea had already begun to ruminate in his mind as he visualised his bed coming to life and chasing his parents around their mansion before swallowing them whole. He could already hear their terrified screams echoing in the bed's stomach.

Now if only he could make it come alive...

He wiped the few tears from his eyes and fished out his phone, scrolling through his  contacts (or pretending to since he didn't know that many people), before calling the first one he saw.

Christa picked up on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Quick. I need a spell to make a bed come alive and eat my parents."

"What?"

"A spell. Come on Christy. Hurry up."

"A spell to make a bed eat your parents."

"Yes," Jerry rolled his eyes. He was super duper close to throwing his phone across the room. "You've studied the occult. You know how it works."

"I did for fun. And that was when I was 12. There's nothing about making beds sentient."

"So that's a no."

"Yep, buuut..." Jerry could practically see Christa twirling her blonde hair. "I could hook you up with this witch I know."

Jerry begun to beam in joy. "Really?"

"Yeah," Jerry heard a slurping sound at the other end. She was definitely eating a blueberry popsicle. Her favourite snack.

"Tell me where she lives."

"Ok but grab a piece of paper because you need to write it. There are a lot of directions to where she lives."

Jerry scampered out of bed and scouted for the nearest notebook he could find. At the corner of his room lay a red notebook. He waddled for it before returning to his bed with a pen on his other hand. "I'm ready."

"So... you're gonna wanna turn right from your house on Street 31 and go straight to a cab. Tell them you wanna go to cuckooland."

"Cuckooo land..."He wrote the instructions as fast as he could manage. "Then what?"

"When you reach Cuckooland, turn left and take the highway to dreamtown..."

"...dreamtown..." he fiddled with his pen as he wrote it, "where next?"

"Then take a right. That'll lead you to a road with a sign on its right side. Normally, it reads "Iamadumbbaboon". That's literally the next town you should head towards."

"...dumbbaboon..." Jerry scratched his head. "These are weird places you're mentioning. Have you been to these places?"

"Nope but chances are you'll have a likelier opportunity to visit them. Maybe you've already been to them." He could hear her snickering, but maybe he was imagining things.

"Doubt it. Now where to next?"

"You'll take a right after reaching that town then another left then another right then you'll finally end up in Crazytown. That's where she lives."

Jerry jotted that down before looking at his final product. Slowly, he began to realise....

He clenched his phone. "You blabbering idiot! I'll get you for that!"

"No you won't," she said in a cheery tone. "Besides what's all this about? What have your parents done this time?"

"They're homeschooling me again," Jerry clenched his jaw.

"After you just turned eighteen? But I thought they promised you otherwise..."

"Well their promises are worth a trip to Crazytown. That's why I need my bed to swallow them. So I can stop being homeschooled."

"Jerry," Christa sounded resigned, "We've tried nearly everything. Our parents are just indestructible."

"Well atleast your parents are allowing you to go to college. And have a boyfriend. How's Rory doing?"

"He's doing great. He just took me out on a date yesterday at Waterloo Park. It was amazing. We ate cotton candy, rode a rollercoaster twice though I'm never doing that again after watching Final Destination-you should go watch it its only five movies I think- and-oh sorry I know this isn't the time to brag about this."

"No no it's ok," Jerry sighed, "Actually its not. When will I get this chance? I've never been in a relationship. I'll never eat cotton candy or go on a roller coaster with someone. I'll just grow old, getting homeschooled at 50 with no one here to comfort me but Mr. Edwards who probably will have died and left me nothing but this huge bed which I want nothing more than to come alive and eat my parents who by then will still be here restricting and monitoring my every action..."

"Jerry," Christa reminded, "The pillow."

She was referring to Jenkins. Jerry's stress pillow. He was about to demonstrate why it was so important. It was lying on the left side of his bed. He picked it up and buried his face in it before letting out a terrible scream that should have shook the entire house.

After a couple of minutes, he was still screaming in it.

"Remember to breathe." Christa guided him.

Jerry lifted his head. "What should I do?"

"You could always escape."

"Been there. Tried that. Got the T-shirt that says failed 50 times."

"I mean when your tutor arrives."

Jerry narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Christa lowered her voice to such a low degree that Jerry thought the spirits in his room wouldn't have heard her. "I didn't realise this until further research, but you know those high tech security systems in your house?"

"Yeah how could I not? They've foiled my escape plans more than I could count."

"Well you're parents always disable them whenever a new guest arrive at your house."

"But that doesn't make any sense. Won't that encourage people to steal in our house?"

"I don't know why but they do. So here's what you're going to do..."

"Sneak out when the tutor arrives. Great. Easy peasy." Jerry said with thinly-veiled impatience.

"And use the front gate. It's easier that way. When is the tutor coming?"

"Next week."

"Great. How do they look like?"

"I don't know," Jerry paused as an image of a gnarly eel-monster surfaced in his mind. "Probably an eldritch abomination."

Christa broke into a fit of giggles. "Or an alien from outer space. Seriously, who agrees to tutor an eighteen year old."

"Probably an ugly leech with no life." Jerry joined her in her long train of cackles."

"Anyways, catch you later. When you escape, meet me at Waterloo park. I'll be waiting for you then."

"It's a deal."

Jerry hang up and started jumping in joy. His freedom was within his beautiful hands...

If all played well next week...

Author's note:
Lol this sounds so unhinged the more I write it.

Anyways, vote and comment if you like it.
And tell me your favourite part.