Chapter Eleven
Clarissa, sick of searching for Fungus, finally decided to check the Laugh Floor Fungus was assigned to. When she got there, the burgundy monster was sending an oak door back to the vault.
"Hey, Fungus!" she hollered. "We don't have all night! Let's get this show on the road!"
Fungus gulped and signed some paperwork. "Okay," he whimpered, not looking forward to his task. "Let's go."
Backward-kneed Fungus led the female lizard down a maze of hallways. It took him twenty minutes to rake up the courage to ask her what she was up to.
"Um, Clarissa," Fungus asked timidly, "Why do you need to use Randall's lab? I'm just curious." His heart was beating rapidly. He hoped he hadn't just blown everything by asking too bluntly.
"You can't tell a soul if I tell you," she said. "If you tell anyone, I'll kill you."
Fungus nodded. The death threat didn't mean much to him, considering that Randall used to threaten to shove him in the door shredder daily.
The baneful lizard-woman grinned a nasty, evil grin. She would tell.
What Fungus knew but Clarissa didn't was that Clarissa's twin brother was listening to the conversation. Randall clung to a wall around a corner behind Fungus and Clarissa under camouflage, hoping to find out why his cheating, lying sister wanted to use the hidden lab he had built a year before to house the Scream Extractor.
Clarissa began by explaining her and Randall's competitive past. Fungus was hearing it for the first time, but if you haven't read about it, go back to chapter nine. Randall's version is better anyhow. But soon she reached a point after the both of them had been to separate colleges and began looking for jobs.
"I don't know why I picked reporting school," Clarissa said. "I hate cameras. Besides, who ever heard of a scarer with a reporter's education? Anyhow, after I graduated, I came to this branch of Scareco to get a scarer job. That guy who interviewed me, Waternoose was his name, said I was the best he'd seen, and that he would try to work me out of having to go through training. I was thrilled. I was going to be a scarer! But instead of getting an acceptance letter, I got a rejection letter. Why, you ask? Because my stupid brother went for an interview after me, and snatched the position out from under my feet. Within two days he was at the second-to- top scarer slot." She snapped. She finished with an angry snarl. "All the credit for being the pride of the family went from me to him. It was as if all my accomplishment had never taken place."
Randall, still behind the corner, was shocked. He had never known that Clarissa had interviewed for a job at Monsters, Inc., much less that she had almost been hired before he showed up.
"I stopped talking to him. He flaunted his position in my face. I was so mad. You know, he acted as if he didn't know that I had nearly gotten his job."
Well, I didn't know, Randall thought to himself.
"One day, he said his boss had given him a secret assignment that would revolutionize the scaring industry. He flaunted it in my face repeatedly. But, by the time he disappeared, I knew enough about his project to think about using it for my own purposes. I'm going to get you to help me rebuild the machine he and you built. Then I'm going to take Sullivan when he gets back, hook him up to it, and get him to transfer control of the company to me. I'm going to turn it back to scaring, so I can get higher prices for the power and make a bigger profit. If anyone stands in my way, I'll just use the Scream Extractor on them. Then, if all goes well, I can start overtaking other power factories around here, and become the most powerful monster in the world. No pun intended."
Randall lost it. He was furious beyond compare. Using the machine he built for her nasty purposes, and putting Sulley, his newfound friend onto it, and dragging Fungus into her plans. it was too much. He blew his cover and bolted out into the open.
**************************************************************************** **********
Sulley and Mike were supposed to wait by Celia's desk for Randall to tun on the lobby lights, signaling for them to call the police and have Clarissa arrested. But they didn't wait. They were concerned that Clarissa might do something to Randall or Fungus, or worse, both, and that no one would signal for them to call the police. So they followed.
The heard everything Clarissa said. When Clarissa mentioned hooking Sulley up to the Scream Extractor, Mike tried to run up to her, no doubt wanting to tell her off for even thinking about doing that to his best friend. Sulley held him back.
"Lemme at her!" he whispered furiously. "Lemme rip her fronds out!"
"Shhh!" Sulley shushed Mike, hearing something else. It was Randall.
**************************************************************************** ********
Randall revealed himself and launched out from behind the corner. "Clarissa!!" he yelled irately, "You've gone too far! This is enough! Your cheating at every competition we entered was enough! My building the Scream Extractor was enough! But this- this is too much! You can't do this Clarissa! I won't let you!"
"You won't let me? You won't let me?" she hissed, her voice full of hatred. "You, who threatened my continual champion's title, you, who wanted more than anything to be better than the best when you couldn't match it, you, who swiped my dreams out from under my feet, dare to stop me from accomplishing my calling? Let me tell you something, brother. I won't let you stop me!" She finished her speech at a yell, and pulled a knife from a fold in her skin, a feature she had that her brother didn't.
She took the knife and screeched. Time seemed to go in slow motion. Clarissa came at Randall and plunged the knife into his side, between his left upper arms. An excruciating pain shot through him there, and he crumpled toward the wound as she pulled the knife out. Randall's green eyes went out of focus. Clarissa's smug, evil smirk was the last thing he saw before he blacked out.
I'm not going to tell you what's going to happen. There will be more, I promise, but that's all I'm saying.
Clarissa, sick of searching for Fungus, finally decided to check the Laugh Floor Fungus was assigned to. When she got there, the burgundy monster was sending an oak door back to the vault.
"Hey, Fungus!" she hollered. "We don't have all night! Let's get this show on the road!"
Fungus gulped and signed some paperwork. "Okay," he whimpered, not looking forward to his task. "Let's go."
Backward-kneed Fungus led the female lizard down a maze of hallways. It took him twenty minutes to rake up the courage to ask her what she was up to.
"Um, Clarissa," Fungus asked timidly, "Why do you need to use Randall's lab? I'm just curious." His heart was beating rapidly. He hoped he hadn't just blown everything by asking too bluntly.
"You can't tell a soul if I tell you," she said. "If you tell anyone, I'll kill you."
Fungus nodded. The death threat didn't mean much to him, considering that Randall used to threaten to shove him in the door shredder daily.
The baneful lizard-woman grinned a nasty, evil grin. She would tell.
What Fungus knew but Clarissa didn't was that Clarissa's twin brother was listening to the conversation. Randall clung to a wall around a corner behind Fungus and Clarissa under camouflage, hoping to find out why his cheating, lying sister wanted to use the hidden lab he had built a year before to house the Scream Extractor.
Clarissa began by explaining her and Randall's competitive past. Fungus was hearing it for the first time, but if you haven't read about it, go back to chapter nine. Randall's version is better anyhow. But soon she reached a point after the both of them had been to separate colleges and began looking for jobs.
"I don't know why I picked reporting school," Clarissa said. "I hate cameras. Besides, who ever heard of a scarer with a reporter's education? Anyhow, after I graduated, I came to this branch of Scareco to get a scarer job. That guy who interviewed me, Waternoose was his name, said I was the best he'd seen, and that he would try to work me out of having to go through training. I was thrilled. I was going to be a scarer! But instead of getting an acceptance letter, I got a rejection letter. Why, you ask? Because my stupid brother went for an interview after me, and snatched the position out from under my feet. Within two days he was at the second-to- top scarer slot." She snapped. She finished with an angry snarl. "All the credit for being the pride of the family went from me to him. It was as if all my accomplishment had never taken place."
Randall, still behind the corner, was shocked. He had never known that Clarissa had interviewed for a job at Monsters, Inc., much less that she had almost been hired before he showed up.
"I stopped talking to him. He flaunted his position in my face. I was so mad. You know, he acted as if he didn't know that I had nearly gotten his job."
Well, I didn't know, Randall thought to himself.
"One day, he said his boss had given him a secret assignment that would revolutionize the scaring industry. He flaunted it in my face repeatedly. But, by the time he disappeared, I knew enough about his project to think about using it for my own purposes. I'm going to get you to help me rebuild the machine he and you built. Then I'm going to take Sullivan when he gets back, hook him up to it, and get him to transfer control of the company to me. I'm going to turn it back to scaring, so I can get higher prices for the power and make a bigger profit. If anyone stands in my way, I'll just use the Scream Extractor on them. Then, if all goes well, I can start overtaking other power factories around here, and become the most powerful monster in the world. No pun intended."
Randall lost it. He was furious beyond compare. Using the machine he built for her nasty purposes, and putting Sulley, his newfound friend onto it, and dragging Fungus into her plans. it was too much. He blew his cover and bolted out into the open.
**************************************************************************** **********
Sulley and Mike were supposed to wait by Celia's desk for Randall to tun on the lobby lights, signaling for them to call the police and have Clarissa arrested. But they didn't wait. They were concerned that Clarissa might do something to Randall or Fungus, or worse, both, and that no one would signal for them to call the police. So they followed.
The heard everything Clarissa said. When Clarissa mentioned hooking Sulley up to the Scream Extractor, Mike tried to run up to her, no doubt wanting to tell her off for even thinking about doing that to his best friend. Sulley held him back.
"Lemme at her!" he whispered furiously. "Lemme rip her fronds out!"
"Shhh!" Sulley shushed Mike, hearing something else. It was Randall.
**************************************************************************** ********
Randall revealed himself and launched out from behind the corner. "Clarissa!!" he yelled irately, "You've gone too far! This is enough! Your cheating at every competition we entered was enough! My building the Scream Extractor was enough! But this- this is too much! You can't do this Clarissa! I won't let you!"
"You won't let me? You won't let me?" she hissed, her voice full of hatred. "You, who threatened my continual champion's title, you, who wanted more than anything to be better than the best when you couldn't match it, you, who swiped my dreams out from under my feet, dare to stop me from accomplishing my calling? Let me tell you something, brother. I won't let you stop me!" She finished her speech at a yell, and pulled a knife from a fold in her skin, a feature she had that her brother didn't.
She took the knife and screeched. Time seemed to go in slow motion. Clarissa came at Randall and plunged the knife into his side, between his left upper arms. An excruciating pain shot through him there, and he crumpled toward the wound as she pulled the knife out. Randall's green eyes went out of focus. Clarissa's smug, evil smirk was the last thing he saw before he blacked out.
I'm not going to tell you what's going to happen. There will be more, I promise, but that's all I'm saying.