Hey Brian, your daughter's hot!
Melissa Stevenson was the daughter of Brian Stevenson, she was fifteen years old with short auburn hair and green eyes that could stare into you like poisoned daggers. She was the eldest child, her only other sibling being the ten year old pest of a girl named Angie. Melissa and her sister rarely got along, but with her father's work hours long and changing constantly, the girl found herself playing caretaker to her younger sister. Feeding her dinner, making her finish homework, and finally sending her off to bed.
It was a chore, playing the role of a parent, her mother was no longer around. Back when Melissa was ten years old, her mother had decided she wasn't cut out to be a wife and mother, signing away her parental rights and leaving behind her kids like unwanted toys. Melissa held a lot of anger towards her mothers choice, feeling abandoned and put into a crappy situation.
Her dad tried very hard to give them a good life, that's why he worked so much. Deep down she knew her father meant well in his time away, but that didn't help her loneliness and lightly contemptible feeling of having to basically help raise her younger sister.
Recently they had moved to a new house, it wasn't brand new and had a few wears and tears to it, but at least it was out in the middle of some acreage. Melissa hadn't liked the city, finding the kids in her school fake and spoiled. When you had to be a miniature adult, gossiping about who the cutest boy in class was just didn't seem important when you were worried about what was in the cupboard at home to make for dinner. Girls her age just were so immature, she just didn't have time for any of the bullshit high school insisted was important.
Here she was, sitting in her new bedroom and messing around with her sketch book when a loud, shrill scream suddenly burst from her sisters room. Melissa jumped in surprise, rising from the bed to see what the hell was going on.
Her sister was hiding her black curly head underneath her pink covers, shivering in fear as Melissa turned on the light to observe her kid sisters room.
"What's wrong?" She called, not seeing anything out of the norm as she came to her sisters side, lifting off the covers and looking at Angie's scared, tear stained face.
"It came from under the bed." She cried to her rescuing sister, sniffing and snuffling.
"A spider? Be specific." Melissa insisted, wanting a straight answer. If it was a spider, she'd find the nearest shoe and squash the abomination and be done with her unwanted "mommy" duties.
"No! It was...a monster." She mumbled the last part, uncertain that her sis would believe her.
"Oh, right, sure!" Melissa tisked, standing up to leave.
"No don't leave! I don't want to sleep in this room anymore!" Whined her frightened sibling, reaching out and grabbing her sisters hand to keep her there.
"There aren't any monsters. If I sleep in your room for one night, to show you there aren't any, will you believe me then?" She caved in, wanting her little sis to be satisfied enough to go to bed. It wouldn't hurt to spend one night in Angie's room if it made a point to the worried kid.
"Fine, sleep in my room. You'll see that I'm not fibbing!" Angie spoke, hurriedly taking her pillow and rushing away from her bed and around the corner to her sisters room.
Melissa walked back to her bedroom to grab her pillow and turned out the lights for her sister before taking her annoyed self to the "monster" filled bedroom. With a toss, she threw her pillow on the bed, flipped the light switch and flopped herself onto the pink colored bed. Her eyes closed shortly after as she started to doze off, her mind unawakened until she felt something touching her...
Weakly she opened her eyes, looking down at her leg that felt funny and seeing a very peculiar blue hand apparently massaging it with some sticky substance.
"The Hell?!" She mumbled, the hand stopped and quickly disappeared underneath the bed.
Had she imagined that? To her right was a flashlight, quickly she grabbed it and used it to look at her leg. The sticky stuff was honey!
"Damn it!" She cursed, sitting up and crouching to look for her obviously pranking sister, the bed was oddly empty as she looked underneath it.
"Angie?" She called, backing up and away from the bed, her back hitting the closet door.
"Honk honk!" A strange voice said, hands coming out of nowhere and honking her boobs rudely.
"Son of a Bitch!" She grabbed both unknown arms and flung the offender over her back and onto the bed. Her flashlight focused on the perverted asshole, the sight shocking the shit out of her.
It was a blue hued, two horned, warty looking...monster! Her light was making it cry and start shrinking, shrinking down until it was only clothes. Tentatively, Melissa poked it with her flashlight, the thing took its sleeve and hit the object back defensively.
"Mind turning out the light, Babe? It's cramping my style." The oddity spoke to her, without a mouth she didn't know how it was speaking, but it was!
"The Hell are you?" She daringly asked it, keeping the light focused on the weakened thing.
"Haven't you heard of monsters under your bed? I came back for your kid sister, and imagine my surprise at finding you laying there instead! We don't usually mess with teenagers, you're all so much harder to scare..," he confided to her in an easy manner. "Now do you mind getting that light out of my face? I'll just go back under the bed and leave."
"No way! You'd just come back and scare her again. I'm gonna keep you here till Dad gets home." She informed him, wanting someone else to see this craziness that wasn't her kid sister, she didn't need to be freaking out any more.
"Oh yeah, like your Dad is gonna believe that I'm more than just dirty laundry. I'm not gonna talk when he's here you dope!" He sassed her, making her tap him hard with the light. In doing so, he took his sleeve and flung the light away, it crashed on the floor and broke with a loud thud, darkening the room.
"Shit!" She cursed, trying to feel her way towards the light switch and feeling something grab her.
"Let go!" She growled, the monster wrapping his stupidly colored arms around her and moving her closer to the bed.
"Come on, Babe, I wanna show you something." He moved the bed up so that it was on its side, surprising Melissa as he forced them both underneath and into a whole other world...
"Ever wonder what's really under your bed? Well here it is, Babe. I'm Maurice by the way, what's your name?"
"Stevenson, Melissa Stevenson." She slowly answers him, her green eyes staring in awe at the strange stairs leading all around this vast and strange place he had taken her.
"Holy shit! Are you related to Brian?" Maurice asked, looking her over as if trying to see Brian within her frame.
"He's my Dad." She easily answered him, noticing his strange behavior, his eyes holding awe and a strange bit of sadness.
"This can't be real, I gotta be dreaming." She shook her head, looking about in wonder at what her imagination had come up with. A very vivid dream this was becoming!
"Dream? Babe, this is real. Come on, I'll show you around." He looped his arm through hers and starts leading her down the long flight of stairs. "I never thought I'd be doing this with Brian's kid. This is gonna be awesome! Does he still have my vest? That jerk better still have it, it was a loan after all." He bantered on, leading her along the many steps.
"That black, 80's looking vest with the silly mini sunglasses and all the other junk on it? It's in his closet still." She told the monster, getting a look of indignation from Maurice.
"Junk? That vest is styling, man! Got me dates like you wouldn't believe!" He commented, getting a raised brow from the unconvinced teen.
"Monsters date? Get real!"
"Hey, we date! It's just a lot less smooching and a lot more scaring. Scaring kids ain't only our job, it's our passion!" He stated proudly.
"Who'd date a monster with one broken horn?" She berated him, getting a dirty look from the other.
"Watch it, Babe. So I haven't been on the scene since I broke it, that doesn't mean squat!" He huffed.
"Oh yeah, I'm sure." She shook her head, unconvinced.
Maurice lead the teenager down until they landed on solid ground. All around them were hundred upon thousands of staircases, leading to different places around the world. The blue monster took her over to an area filled with glass wares, and figurines, all sorts of easily breakable stuff.
"What's this place?" She pointed, jumping back as a random red faced monster took a bat and shattered vases in front of the two.
"Way to go dude! This, my human friend, is where you can break anything your heart desires. Got a great aunt Cindy that collects creepy porcelain dolls? Bring them here and break the shit out of them!" He laughed as he told her, picking up a cat figure made of glass and eating it, freaking out his teenage guest.
"How do you not break a tooth?!" She shook her head, watching him with amazement.
"Monster, babe. We're built pretty tough." He chuckled, moving her along past the array of glass.
"So, what's the point of all this?" She gestured to everything in general, "What's so important about scaring kids?"
Maurice shrugged, taking her towards a new stair case. "Come on, I'll show you what it's all about." He got them to the top, and opened the way. "Go on, you first." He quickly lifted her up and threw her body into the dark abyss.
Melissa found herself in a new room, it was dark but she could still make out shapes and drawings on the walls.
"Hey Babe." A voice whispered behind her, making her jump and she would have screamed if Maurice hadn't held his hand over her mouth.
"Hehe, gotcha!" He chuckled quietly, letting her go to mess around the room.
"Where are we?" She whispered to him, watching as he ate hot wheels and burped up only the tires.
"Some kid from California's room." He shrugged, finding more toys to leave chew marks on.
"Aren't you suppose to scare him? All I see you doing is ruining the kids toys." She got a look of annoyance from the blue monster.
"This is foreplay before the big scare, babe. Gotta raise a little Hell and leave a calling card, ya know?" He wiggled his brows, as Melissa rolled her eyes at him.
"So what, you scare kids just to be dicks? I mean you aren't even like the Monsters Inc guys, doing it for energy." She was starting to find this dream somewhat disappointing, this monster was in for the scare just cause, there wasn't a real purpose behind it, and that bugged Melissa.
"Watch, just watch, this is gonna be great!" He insisted, finally ready to scare the sleeping kid.
With one hand, he picked up a teddy bear and headed for the bed. Melissa watched closely as the bear...the toy starting acting funny. Creepy. It's eyes were starting to glow red, it's sewed up mouth was unraveling, exposing strange looking jagged teeth. The monster was controlling the bear, making it growl eerily. Finally, the kid opened its eyes and gave a God awful screech.
Before she knew it, Maurice had her back under the bed and through the darkness, back into his monster world.
"What'd you think of that, pretty cool, huh?" He was acting cocky, brushing back his stupid mohawk.
"Ever think of working for Hollywood?" She asked, receiving a frown.
"Adults and monsters don't mix, babe." He shook his head, leading her back down the stairs.
"Well why not?" She asked.
"They don't believe, that's why not." He huffed, hurrying faster down the wooden steps.
"So how come you know my dad? Wait, why do I care? This is just a dream anyway." She sighed, starting to walk off without the blue, lame ass monster.
"Hey, where's the fire, babe?" He kept with her, following the girl over to a place that had video games to play, classic arcade games too.
"You have Xbox 360's down here? That's surprising." She commented, sitting down in a bean bag chair and picking up a remote.
"Yeah, the newer guys brought some down. I'm still a Nintendo 64 guy." He remarked, sitting next to her and grudgingly picking up a remote himself.
"So, like are some of you monsters old. Like from the days of Abe Lincoln and stuff?" She asked, somewhat curious as her hands played the simple fighting game.
"Oh yeah. We got all sorts of time period monsters around." He clued her in, taking his controller and hitting it against the ground. "Damn Y button keeps sticking!" He complained, getting his ass kicked on the electronic game.
"So, you all kinda just, live forever?" She asked, somewhat amused as he tried in vain to fix his remote by pummeling it.
"Yep." He grunted, now biting at the stubborn Y button.
"So, how did you become one?" She asked him, having a fun time beating the guy, she never won often on games.
"You stay here when the sun rises, and you're stuck down here for good, start growing horns, wings, warts, and become a monster." He threw the controller to the ground, finally fed up with the thing. "Speaking of, we'd better get you back. Brian would kick my ass if I let his daughter turn." He chuckled, standing up from the bean bag.
Melissa didn't budge, sitting in the comfy chair and playing her game.
"Babe?" He called, noticing she wasn't listening.
"Actually, I think I'll stay a while longer. This is all a dream anyway, I mean none of this is actually real. How could it be? I'll just stay here thanks." She told him, Maurice looked at her as if she'd gone crazy.
"Uh, no you're not. You're going home." He put a hand on her, to which she brushed off.
They started pushing and pulling on one another until he had her off the floor.
"I'm serious, babe! We gotta go!" He urged, trying to drag her. She kicked at him, losing his grip and running off. Maurice tackled her to the ground, rolling in the dirt until she was pinned.
"You're not dreaming! If I don't get you back, you'll turn into something just like me!" He yelled, pulling her up and flipping her over his shoulder. He was carrying her fireman style, dealing with her punches and yelling as he started for the stairs. Her weight made it hard to run, the monster moved as fast as he was able, but as they reached the entrance the darkness turned into wood.
"Shit!" He growled, turning around and heading back down. It was Brian all over again, chasing the sun to try and reach an exit. This time, though, this kid wanted to stay. She was struggling the whole way down, too. As he touched the bottom, she hit him hard enough that he let go of her legs, letting her fall to the ground.
The girl got to her feet quickly, taking off and running like a bat out of Hell. Maurice tried keeping up, but the chick was super quick and he was tired from hauling her up those stairs.
"Brian's going to kill me!" He yelled, imaging the dudes face when his daughter wasn't in her bed. "I'm so screwed." He whined, trying once more to catch up with his best friends daughter. No way would Brian be happy with a monster for a kid, Maurice had to find her before it was too late.
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A/N: I'm writing Brian into the next part, we get some back story on his adult life, how he sees things from his point of view.