Glowing Eyes in the Dark

I am a grown woman. I have a child of my own. I know that there is nothing lurking in the night.

However, I question this when a glance into my bedroom reveals glowing blue eyes staring at me. Small, but definitely glowing, and blue, not my black cat’s yellow eyes. And is that…blue light coming out of its mouth?

It??

No, no. More like…yeah, like THIS. Only blue.

Here’s the thing. Yeah, there’s a light switch by my door, but I have a ceiling fan too, and I sleep with it on. So when I go in each evening I have to flip the switch on, then walk into the middle of the room in the dark and flail my arm around until I hit the chain for the light and turn it on. I wasn’t doing that last night with those unblinking eyes staring at me.

My mind quickly ran through a list of possible weapons. My sword? In the room with the eyes. The broom? Too long. Try to swing it in the hallway–I wasn’t going in that room!–and I’d just get it stuck, leaving myself with no defense from the glowing blue ichor of its fanged mouth.

Spray bottle?

It’s not a cat. And the spray bottle’s not filled with holy water.

What could it be? Ice cat? In Tucson in June? Not likely. Hellhound? No. Blue seems wrong for any kind of demon, actually, but what do I know?

Is it a kitsune? THE GRIM??

Two steps behind me–stove. Frying pan. Okay, now I’m armed. But it’s still in my room.

Go ahead and judge. How many movies have you seen where the first victim spent a minute too long trying to find a “rational” explanation for the glowing eyes?

As I stared, thinking fast, my eyes began to pick out a shape behind the lights. And I realized what I was seeing was this.

The demonic beast was none of the above–it was just a cheesy light-up sword I bought at the fair years ago.

And the moral of this story? I can terrify myself with a cheesy plastic sword. Those childhood fears never go away, they just get informed by our later education. This explains some of the appeal of paranormal romance (did you see my story?) and probably means I should go write some.

…wait, who/what turned the sword on?