It was a perfectly normal day at Monsters Incorporated, Scare Floor F. All the scarers were busy barging into doors, scaring energy out of the mouths of children. Scream canisters were being filled left and right. The repeated clanging of full canisters were especially loud from Sullivan's station, as his assistant-cum-friend Mike placed canister after canister of pure scream energy into carts, ready for the citizens of Monstropolis to use.
Sully strolled out of yet another door, humming a cheerful tone as Mike shut out the screaming coming from behind the door. Although he had just started work as a Scarer for all of two weeks, he was already at 2nd place on the leaderboard, following closely behind Randall Boggs, the current Scare Leader.
Mike grabbed the last file for the day and scanned through it. A Scare Assistant needed to keep a close eye out for any detail about the child that could possibly aid in adding just that extra length of screaming.
"Alright, big guy, last door for the day." Mike slipped out the card from the file and swiped it through the reader.
"Lay it on me, Mikey. What do I need to know?"
"Well, let's see here…" Mike pored through the particulars. "Geez, Sully, you got a easy one. This kid's afraid of almost everything! Her file's fifty pages long!"
"Woah. What year?" The doors led the monsters to kids from a variety of different eras, ranging from Ancient Greek to Medieval.
"1839. She's 15 too, practically an adult. You'll be able to get some serious energy out of her." Both monsters remembered that time where they scared 5 adults and overloaded about 100 scream canisters in university.
"Alright. Let's get this over with."
The door slid across the guardrail to their station, before gentling lowering itself snugly into it. As power surged into it, a small beep could be heard, signifying the door was active. The door was a sight to behold, covered in beautiful paintings. The swirl of colours was absolutely stunning. Sully had seen doodles on doors before, but the paintings on this one was particularly stunning. They were obviously painted by someone with skills. Maybe the kid's parents hired a interior designer or something.
Sully gently turned the knob, creeping in quietly. He would never get used to the sensation he always got from going through a door. The idea that he was traversing time and space by simply walking through a door was amazing, for lack of a better word.
The room he found himself in was circular, something rather unusual. Most rooms were cubical. Sully squinted into the darkness, looking for the kid's bed. Seeing one, he crept slowly, his mind deciding what scare to use. Perhaps, the 'Hissy Le Snake'? Or the 'Boogeyman Bellow"? The 'Waternoose Jumping Around' seemed like a viable option. It was a all rounder, catering to kids with any fear.
'Alright, Sully old boy, you can do this… Just bend your knees, then arms lifted up…' Sully pep talked himself. He grabbed the blanket and pulled it away, primed and ready to let out a good bellow. The kid wouldn't know what hit her.
He was surprised to find the bed empty. The company's door planning system usually accounted for when the kid wasn't in bed. Turning around, he was about to leave when suddenly, a frying pan came out of nowhere and smacked him right on his face. He went down in a heap with a loud crash.
His eyes slowly opened, his eyes squinting from the sudden burst of brightness. Trying to get up, he found himself tied to a chair with…was that hair? Yes, it was. Sully was tied to a chair with long blonde hair. Suddenly, from the darkness, a voice stuttered:
"Struggling…struggling is pointless…"
"Who is this?" Sully bellowed, his voice echoing around the room. There was a squeal of fear, then the voice spoke up.
"I know why you are here, and you, you don't scare me."
As it spoke, the source of the voice slowly stepped out of the shadows.
She was a petite teenager, wearing a simple purple peasant dress. Her trembling hands aimed a frying pan at him. Her face was dominated by two huge green eyes. Her skin was fair, fairer than any other human Sully had ever seen. But the most strangest feature was her hair, for it was golden-blonde and stretched out further than the longest snake monster in Monstropolis. As Sully's eyes followed the length of the hair, he realized the hair was what was entrapping him. Wait, did she say she knew why Sully was here? Did she know about Monsters Incorporated?
"What do you know?" Sully asked. How much did she know? No human should find out about the monster world. As Dean Hardscrabble had said very well: "..alerting his parents, revealing the monster world and destroying everything that we know. And we can't have that, can we?"
"I know you're here to scare me…"
Oh boy. She knew all right. Sully was so going to be fired for…
"…into giving up my hair."
"What?"
"You're here for my hair, just like all the other people coming out of my closet." The voice accused, holding the frying pan closer to Sully's face. Now he was really confused. Why on earth would anyone want her hair? And why did she called the monsters 'people'? They looked nothing like humans! Did this girl live under a rock her whole life?
"I…I don't understand."
"Don't lie. You and all the others always come out the closet door, creeping to me while I was sleeping and tried to cut off my hair. Too bad for you, I am a light sleeper." The girl smiled smugly at Sully, who was totally bewildered at this point.
"Kid. Look, look here. I don't know who you are, I don't know where I am, I don't want your hair. All I came here to do was scare you." Sully reasoned. Maybe being honest was the best way to get out of here. Then when he gets back to the Scare Floor, he could just get the clean up crew to shred this door. That way, everyone wins. Or so he thought.
"Scare me?" The girl lowered her frying pan. "Why would you come here to scare me?"
Alright, time to let the kitty out of the bag.
"I'm from the future, where we use children's screams to power our world. We use doors and travel back in time to kids' bedrooms to scare them into screaming. I know it sounds unbelievable but it's true." Sully explained.
"Why can't you just use your own kids?"
God, did she really think Sully was a human?
"I'm not a human. I'm a monster." Sully tried again. "Can't you tell the difference between a man and a monster?"
The girl looked down at the floor, shaking her leg slowly.
"I wouldn't know, I've never been outside the tower before." The girl admitted. This surprised Sully.
"Why?" was all he could say.
"My hair, it's magical. It can heal people. My mother said that when I was young, people wanted my hair for themselves, they tried to cut it. But once it gets cut…" The girl pushed aside her hair, revealing a brown lock of hair.
"…it loses its powers. That's why my mother keeps me in this tower, she said a gift like mine, it deserved to be protected. That's why when you came in here, I thought you were someone trying to cut my hair."
"I can see why you whacked me with a frying pan and tied me up then. But, I assure you, I don't want your hair. Just let me go, and I promise I'll never come back."
The girl squinted at him, trying to make out his inner thoughts.
"… And when I promise something, I never break it."
The girl thought for a moment, before forcefully pulling her hair, spinning Sully around, unravelling the hair, leaving Sully in a heap on the floor.
"Listen kid…"
"Rapunzel."
"Sullivan. Listen, I have to make it look like your door is dead so…"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Like, you're not scared of monsters anymore, so I have to make it look like that and get your door shredded, so there's no more monsters coming through."
"Ok."
Sully got up and took a deep breath. Suddenly, without warning, he ran, screaming, through the door. The last thing he heard as the door closed behind him was a small 'goodbye'.
"Sully? What happened?"
"The kid, the kid almost touched me. She was this close to me!" Sully shrieked, trying to act afraid.
"Sully, the kid had a million fears. How on earth did you screw it up?" Mike sighed. "Okay, fine. I guess everyone has their bad days."
Turning to the clean up crew, he directed them to Rapunzel's door. As Sully watched the door being decimated into a million pieces, he mumbled under his breath, "Goodbye, Rapunzel."
My first true one-shot crossover! How did you guys like it? I will be uploading one-shots regularly now. Please give reviews on how I can do better. When I feel I'm good enough, I WILL return to 'Eternity'. Let me reiterate again, I'm not ditching it. I am trying to improve my skills first. Till next time.
PC
The next one-shot: 'A Different Sort of Eternity'.
Post in your reviews what you think it will be about! The winner, if there is one, will get a mention in the story and on my profile! (This will be a thing I'm doing for all my one shots.)
