Hey! Here's chapter 2, where Katie is introduced into the story. I hope she's in character... ^^;

Enjoy!

(I don't own anything from Monsters vs. Aliens.)

--Chapter 2--

"Katie…? Katie!"

"Huh, what?" Katie jumped slightly, woken from a slight daze by her friend, Sarah. "What's wrong?" She asked, yawning softly.

"You keep dozing off," Sarah told her.

"Dozing off?" Katie looked around at the food court where she and Sarah sat, eating their lunch together. It wasn't a busy day for the mall, so they were among the few people eating there at the moment and the normally bustling mall was relatively quiet.

"Did you not get enough sleep last night?" Sarah asked.

Katie shook her head. "Not really… I had this dream…"

"Dream?" Sarah leaned in close. "What was it about?"

Katie went silent, as she remembered her dream. There was nothing unusual about it at first, she had had the same dream several times since she was a kid. She dreamt she was swimming underwater, in an ocean somewhere, chasing fish of all things. She had always wondered about it, but it never bothered her before. But, the night before, when she had the dream again there was something odd about it… toward the end, she was no longer underwater, but in a blizzard. And, strangest of all, she could almost feel the cold. And ringing in her ears was a voice… it was stern, but desperate, as if it were pleading with her. She couldn't make out the words--if she could call them words--but she could understand one thing: Whoever it was talking to her… he didn't want her to close her eyes.

Katie related her dream to Sarah. Normally, she would have just said it was nothing, but Sarah had known her since kindergarten. She had been there through every major part of her life. Her first crush, her first heartbreak, nearly getting killed by that alien probe, graduation… Ugh, even when she dumped that wimp, Cuthbert.

Sarah listened as Katie told her all about her dream, especially about the strange voice, and--no surprise to Katie--she nodded her head understandingly. "No wonder you didn't sleep well. That's got to be the weirdest dream I've ever heard."

"I know," said Katie. "I just wish I knew what it means."

Sarah thought for a moment. "Well, did you ever think about seeing a psychiatrist?"

Katie frowned. "Why would I want to see a shrink for some dream?"

"Well, people see psychiatrists for dreams all the time. You know, some dreams have secret meanings, or are suppressed memories, things like that."

Katie rolled her eyes. "Sorry, Sarah, but I'm not about to go see some quack and shell out good money to stare at inkblots. My mother's already always on me to see a psychiatrist after that alien invasion."

"Didn't Cuthbert start seeing a psychiatrist after that?" Sarah asked.

Katie scoffed. "Trust me, Cuthbert's issues go way deeper than finding that robot." Yawning again, Katie stood up and handed Sarah some money to pay for her share of lunch. "I'm gonna go home and take a nap," she said.

"You sure you don't want me to drive you?" Sarah asked. They had driven together in Sarah's car.

Katie shook her head. "Nah, it's okay. I think a walk would do me some good."

"Okay," said Sarah. She bid Katie goodbye, telling her to take care, and Katie left the mall.

---

Thankfully, she didn't live far from the mall, so Katie was able to enjoy her walk through San Francisco. She always loved to walk down the street on warm days like today, but as she walked she couldn't get her mind off of her dream. One time, when she was nine, she had asked her mother about it, to which her mother gently replied, "well, maybe it's because you like to swim so much."

That much was true, Katie did enjoy swimming… still, it just didn't add up in her head. Why would she be deep in the ocean, chasing after fish? Was she a shark in her dreams or something?

And what about last night…? What was it about that voice? Now that she thought about it, it sounded so sad, so desperate…

Don't close your eyes… Why not close her eyes? Katie sighed as she reached her apartment building. It was a modest building, not too big, but clean and affordable, made of old, brown bricks.

She went up to her small apartment and headed straight for the bedroom. She hadn't lived there long, she just moved in after graduation, but she had already grown accustomed to her new bedroom, and plopped down on the bed, ready to sleep the rest of the day away. No sooner had she laid her head on her pillow did she drift off to sleep.

But then, in just a few moments, the dream started again…

There she was, surrounded by water. Fish swam everywhere and she couldn't help but swim after them. She was quite a fast swimmer, too, though she couldn't tell why.

But then, in the blink of an eye, her surroundings changed. Once again, she found herself surrounded by snow, and, though she was dreaming, she could swear she felt the cold harshly against her skin. Why wasn't she wearing a coat or something?

Then she heard that voice again, still pleading though she couldn't understand it. All she managed to pick out were those few words, "don't you dare close those eyes…" But now, for the first time, she thought she could see the faint outline of the person talking. He was big, whoever her was, and looking down at her. Was she being held by this person?

Colder now… why was she feeling so cold? It was just a dream, wasn't it? But, dream or not, she was freezing. She tried to fight against it, but still she grew colder and colder…

"Aah…!" Katie screamed and sat up, clutching a pillow and holding it to her chest. She looked around a moment before realizing she was safe in her own bed and calmed down. "What the hell just happened?" she asked herself. People weren't supposed to feel things like cold in their dreams, were they? But even now, she felt the goose bumps running across her skin and she rubbed her arms trying to get the blood flowing.

Finally warming up, Katie took a deep, calming breath. "Maybe…" she said to herself, "maybe seeing a shrink isn't a bad idea, after all…"

---

Author's note: Sarah, Katie's friend, is named after my friend Sarah, a fellow MvA fanatic. :D