Hey Brian, Your Daughter's Hot!
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Tired, Brian was beyond tired, he was exhausted. Working late always seemed enjoyable and easy back when he was younger, now in his thirties, Brian found he wasn't really cut out to be up till five thirty in the morning. He'd have to get back up in a couple hours to get the kids ready for school, thankfully Melissa was around to help him wrangle his younger girl Angie in the mornings. Brian didn't know how he'd survive without his eldest daughters help, being a single parent and working full time was a real challenge, one he'd never have succeeded at without Melissa's assistance.
Brian knew that it wasn't always fair, expecting help from his teenage kid, but there were just so many things that had to be done, and so little time for one person to do them in. And he felt so exhausted all the damn time, he couldn't remember when his last day off was. They had him running ragged all the time, fixing computer problems for his companies various businesses. Reading code and kicking every computer virus's ass. He use to enjoy working with technology, now it just felt like a giant headache when he'd work on computing problems.
It paid well, and it was a job with reasonable insurance benefits, that's what kept him working there. He could provide his kids a good home, could give them a decent life by staying at his job. Brian knew that it wasn't fun for them to go about their day barely seeing him, but for now it was all he could do.
Wearily, he pulled up to their new home, he liked having some elbow room out on some acreage, but the commute to work was starting to wear on him. Brian was thankful he had a somewhat economical car to drive back and forth, it was sort of an older, beat up looking thing, but you couldn't berate it for the awesome mileage it got.
Standing beside his worn-out car, he took in a deep breath of the early morning air and looked up at the second story windows. Brian noticed his older daughters bedroom light was still on, odd, since she usually got up around six thirty to get ready for school. She should have been sleeping. Shaking his head and wondering what in the world had her up so early, Brian moved away from the car to enter their home.
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"Staircases and ladders, it's a freaking maze around here!" Melissa complained to herself, passing by people who looked like they belonged at Comic Con, the 'little monsters' of her dream world.
So far she had avoided being caught by that annoying blue one, Maurice, but now she was incredibly lost and didn't know where to go or what to do. If only she could find that arcade area again, that had been enjoyable. She sniffed the air, something tasty caught her attention, making her stomach rumble with hunger pains. Following her nose, and feeling like Toucan Sam, Melissa made her way over to a big looking tent that had rows upon rows of tables with all kinds of food!
Burgers and fries, pizza, cup cakes and brownies, potato chips, and Doritos. They had just about everything! Even every flavor of soda imaginable was on one of the tables, making her lips feel parched and her throat dry just staring at the wonderful assortment. Melissa popped open a Code Red Mountain Dew and started chugging it down the way frat house boys gulped down booze.
Once she finished the soda, she tossed the can and floated over to the food tables. Her hands quickly sought out a very thick, and heavily frosted brownie. Before she realized it, Melissa had downed five of the chocolate morsels. She was licking fudge frosting off her fingertips when a hand seized her shoulder. She was quickly turned around and forced to face a very annoyed and panic filled Maurice.
"Do you know what time it is?! Even if I tried we couldn't make it to California in time, let alone freaking Hawaii!" His eyes were huge and somewhat scary to her, Melissa stared at him with an expression that spoke the words 'And your point is?'
"You're stuck here! Are you reading me? You're gonna be one of us, and your dad's gonna kill me!" Maurice let out a goofy whimper and let go of his hold on her. His hands began rubbing his temples as his eyes clouded in thought.
"You're a dream, Maurice. I admit you're a really vivid one I'm having, but this is all going to go away soon, because eventually I have to wake up." Melissa attempted to assure her displeased looking dream companion.
"Move over." A squeaky sounding voice ordered from behind her, a forceful hand shoved her into Maurice.
He caught her, his nails lightly digging into her upper arms as he stared worriedly at her. Melissa found it odd that his nails actually somewhat hurt her, she never usually felt pain in her dreams.
"It's starting to happen." Maurice spoke in a somewhat quiet tone, he pulled her with him, moving them to a private corner within the tent.
"What are you talking about now?" She questioned him. Maurice pulled a hand mirror out of his long, blue sleeved shirt, and showed Melissa her own reflection.
At first, she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. Yet as she continued to gaze at the mirror, more color seemed to be growing throughout her face. Not a nice, rosy color you'd want to see, but a very odd purple color. Her face was turning purple. . .
Melissa looked down at her body, and gasped as she noticed her hands were already colored. Her chest, which was easy to look at since she was currently wearing a white tank top, was slowly turning the same color as her face and hands.
"What the Hell is going on?!" She growled angrily at the blue monster before her. Maurice shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.
"I tried to tell you, you're turning into a monster, babe." He spoke as if it were a normal, everyday occurrence.
"Well make it stop!" She ordered him, reaching out to grip both his shoulders with her clawed hands.
"My hands, they're like yours!" Melissa yelped at the sight, pulling her hands away from him and backing away.
"I can't stop it, I tried putting you back, but you didn't wanna go!" Maurice reminded her.
"But it was a dream! I thought this was just a dream!" Melissa feebly argued, looking down at her weirdly colored body with disbelief.
"Hey, we'll just go back when it's night again and tell your dad...Who am I kidding, your dads going to kill me when he sees you like this!" Maurice started spinning around in circles, repeating the words "What am I gonna do?" Over and over again.
Melissa hadn't felt true pain so far from the color of her skin changing, but now that all her body was purple, she felt a roller coaster of a stomach ache pulling at her guts, bringing her down to her knees in her pain. Maurice stopped spinning around to kneel beside her, asking what was wrong. Melissa started to feel a horrible heat on her back, the burning sensation causing her to cry out shrilly.
Then it happened, like two giant zits popping at the same time, things popped out of her back where the terrible burning sensation had occurred. Her balance felt strange, the objects jutting out of her back casting shadows she could see on the ground before her. Her stomach pains subsided, giving her incentive to try and stand up again.
Maurice was looking at her wide eyed, as if he were gazing at a shiny new car, his eyes goofily staring at the things she felt attached to her back.
Cautiously, her hands reached behind her first, touching something that resembled the feel of thin plastic. It reminded her of a tent flap, confusing her even more as she decided to turn her head to look at...Wings. Big, bat like wings were now attached to her body.
"Hey, you're lucky, monsters around here hardly ever grow wings." Maurice tried cheering her up, but his words landed on deaf ears. Melissa was so dumbfounded by her new appendages, that her mind was momentarily taking a huge brain fart.
"This is stupid, this can't be real, I won't believe it! I can't believe it!" She ranted to herself, her entire body shaking.
"Babe, we'll figure this out!" Maurice patted her shoulder, grabbing her attention enough to make her look at him.
"Figure what out? I'm a monster in a dream. Nothing else to it." She stubbornly spoke, making Maurice roll his eyes.
"Come on, lets go find a bean bag to wait out the day in." He began to lead her away from the food tent, noticing her body was actually moving along in a cooperative manner this time. Maurice didn't know how he'd be able to tell his best bud Brian that his daughter was a monster, but for now the best thing to do was keep her company till they figured out a game plan.
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"Angie, what are you doing in Melissa's room?" Brain noticed his daughters eyes were tired looking, maybe she had been having a nightmare.
"Melissa's in my room with the monster, Daddy! She didn't believe me, but I really saw one!" Brain had waited for the day one of his girls saw a 'monster', so far they'd been without that experience. He had to wonder if Maurice did that out of respect to their friendship, or if it was just dumb luck.
Sighing, he left his little girl in the lighted bedroom to go speak with Melissa. When he turned on the lights and plainly saw that his daughter was not in the room, his heart lurched. Sure, he had experienced traveling through the shadows with a monster, but it was nearly sunrise! He couldn't just leave Angie alone in the house while he tried looking for Melissa under the bed, but he also couldn't accept his eldest girl turning into a monster!
"Maurice, you'd better bring her back!" Brian mumbled under his breath, he had to put faith into his friend. His buddy he hadn't seen since he was a sixth grader.
"I can't leave Angie, so it's up to you, Maurice. Even if she's stuck in California, it's fine. Just don't let her turn." Brian whispered his plea before closing the bedroom door. Angie didn't need to know anything just yet. He went to Melissa's bedroom and sat on the bed next to his youngest girl.
"She's still sleeping, you should try to sleep too. Maybe, with not sleeping well last night, you girls should stay home today." Brian watched as Angie's curly black head jiggled in agreement, her eyes closing in a relaxed manner as he stayed beside her.
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Sunrise had already happened, he waited hours, expecting a phone call from his daughter. She would have tried contacting him after returning from underneath some strangers bed, she would have let him know that she was safe.
Melissa never called, and by the time noon arrived he was coming up with any excuse he could think of to keep Angie from entering her room, from figuring out her sister was gone. Brian had done two things he rarely ever did, first he called in sick with work, and then he phoned his little brother, Eric.
Brian was still somewhat close to his brother, they had shared a life changing experience together after all. No matter how much time passed between phone calls, he still had a good connection with his little bro.
Eric answered after the third ring.
"Eric, it's Brian." He could hear his brother chuckle on the other end.
"No kidding, the caller ID must still be working." Eric teased.
"Listen, remember our friend from under the bed?" Brian was worried by how silent Eric got before answering.
"Of course, still have nightmares about it." Eric confided.
"Well, Melissa is more like me than I ever imagined. She went under, Eric, and she hasn't come back." Another moment of silence from Eric.
"What do you need, Brian?" Eric asked, Brian's face flooded with relief at hearing this.
"I just need you to watch over Angie for a while. I want to go under tonight and try to sort all this mess out. Can you make it here around nightfall?" Brian heard his brother sigh before answering.
"Of course I can make it, Brian. I'll see you in a couple hours." Eric hung up shortly after, Brian let out a long, tired sigh.
"Daddy, is Uncle Eric coming over?" Angie asked, and Brian realized that his curious daughter had been slightly eavesdropping.
"Yes, Uncle Eric's coming over. Now, how about we turn on a movie?" He sidetracked her, walking with his girl towards their living room. Brian sat in his comfy green recliner as he watched Angie pick out a movie and put it in the player. His eyes started to drift closed as he vaguely listened to the gentle sound of Angie's laughter.
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Little Monsters doesn't belong to me