I.
"Just me…"
Darcel sat on the white and pink floral daybed beside her window, watching as the sun was finally disappearing behind her house in a deep red that petered away from the dark blue of twilight. She unlatched the old seal and threw the heavy metal frame up to let in the cool air as she pranced around in her sweaty clothes, her small feet twirling around.
"Just me… living so comfortably. Oh, just me and nobody to tell me no…" the girl tried to pirouette on the old wood floor. "No Mom and no Frank. Just me… oh God please," Darcel fell to the ground with a thud, sighing gently, "Oh please. Just me," she whispered now.
"Bravo. Bravo." A strange man spoke, Darcel turned as he clapped sarcastically.
"I… I…" What appeared to be a lime green Cyclops appraised her interestedly.
"Should I get tickets for the next show or is this a one-time performance?"
She screamed. The monster put his hands up and talked to her in a dismissive voice. But when the first object was thrown the monster clearly got the message and scrambled to get to higher ground, Darcel scanned the room and came across the ball bat lying by her bags.
"Now, now, now look. You've gotta remember me!" He tried reasoning.
The girl stood posed with the bat in front of her, shaking. "Who are you?"
"Kid! You're joking? Tell me you're-," the end of the bat prodded him in the chest.
"I'm not joking."
"Kid, sport… It's me! Mike, remember?"
Darcel eyed him with her head turned suspiciously. "I don't know…" she eased off a bit.
"Wow," 'Mike' laughed nervously, backing up. "You really don't remember me, do you?"
She faced him fully and lowered her bat. "What do you want?"
"Ah, boy, where ta start. Okay," the monster began, pacing around as he explained, "You are the only one I can turn to because the city where I come from has been taken over by a dictator named Randall who returned to Monstropolis - my city, you know," he added to a bewildered Darcel, "So, anyway, me and the love of my life Cecilia have been hiding out in
a sort of make-shift underground cover and my friend entrusted me with your door almost ten years ago before he went to a high-security prison for visiting you one final time. Sully is his name, for the record. Now Randall's got a hideous though elaborate plan to steal all human moms who are expecting kids so that they can be trained from birth to be nothing but
scared so my world will have an everlasting power supply but now it's in shambles, and-,"
He froze up with his eyes wide on Darcel, who was equally mortified.
"I came to you," Mike fought to not become emotional, "Because you're my only link to this world. And, and Sully's." he clenched his fingers. "The fact is, monsters need moms."
The girl inclined her head, saying dryly. "You need your mommy?"
"No! Boo." She dropped her bat at that and scrambled across the floor on her rearend.
"What?" Darcel's mouth went agape. "What did you call me?"
Mike approached her as shadows fell and night permeated all light.
"Boo. Okay. That's what Sully called you."
"No," She shook her head in the dark. "Poo is what my father Kenny called me."
" 'Poo?' " the monster laughed. "You mean Kitty, kid."
Darcel decided fast then. "You need to get out," she pushed him towards the window, his skin was as thick as the apple it looked like. "Mom'll be home soon, and if she sees you…"
"My point exactly!" He clutched at her wrists to try and force her back. "Listen Boo, if my world goes through with it's plan than you're Mom is first on the list. Randall managed to abduct you once." his finger was in her face and she swiped it aside at the word 'abduct'.
Mike let his arms fall to his sides, breathing hard. "And he'll do it again." he admitted.
A moment passed. "You need to go."
"Bu-,"
"Now." She ordered.
"Doll face?" Her mother knocked on her door.
"Mom." Darcel's face fell.
"Yeah, see." Mike gestured in the shadows. "Your Mom's a prime target, Randall's-,"
"Quick hide!" Her brown eyes grew frenzied in worry as she tried seeing him.
"No, better yet, I think I'll hop out the door and return to the one working door in…"
Darcel shoved him and her oval rug under the bed, stuffing him in as the door to her room opened and the light switch flicked on. Her mother, rounded in tight curves, waited there.
"Is there a reason you're making a ruckus in here?"
'Is there a reason you're dating a twenty-four-year old wannabe father?' "No." She said.
"All right, Darcel, you want some chicken dumplings? Frank's cooking."
" 'Darcel?' " A voice repeated from under her bed.
The girl shot the voice a look. "Uh, no Mom. I don't think I'm all that hungry right now."
"All right, baby doll." the forty-three-year-old woman smiled tentatively. "Love you."
"Love you too."
She closed the door but kept it slightly ajar.
"OK." Mike snuck around the bed post. "Now we can really talk."
"Don't." A hockey stick appeared under his nonexistent nose. "Make me use this."
"Hey, kid. I'll have you know that… wah!" The stick came down hard and batted Mike right out the window so what he tumbled across the shaggy lawn. "I. Was. On. Ice. An. Hockey-,"
The monster hit the garbage can with enough force so that it toppled down on him. When Darcel saw the helmet and skate board fall out, she quickly shoved the window down and locked it into place before yanking on the blinds and skirting the musty orange curtains on the oversized metal hanger closed. Unsettled, the girl plunged onto her bed and buried her face in her Shrek pillow. Mike? Sully? Boo? Her pillow case felt wet to the touch. Kitty? Kitty.
"My father." Mike had it wrong, Kitty was Kenny and this Randall had him imprisoned.
Darcel pulled the pillow closer against her chest, feeling her heart quicken at the pet name.
Kitty. That was what she had called him.
The girl dried her eyes off and fell into a restless sleep.
To be continued…
~ Lavenderpaw ~
