Next chappy's up, and ready to rumble! (Er...if that makes any sense, that
is...) Anyhow, thanks for the reviews so far, and I hope you enjoy this
chapter!
Chapter 2- A Very Long Journey
Randall strolled up to the sputtering car and poked his head through the open window.
"Hey, there! You must be Randall, right?" spoke a cheery voice. Randall smiled quickly.
"That's me."
"You go ahead and put your stuff in the back." Randall nodded and opened the boot of this rusty piece of machinery. Stuffing his bag alongside several others, he saw his old pen-friend, Jay, grinning at him in the mirror. Jay caught his friend looking and waved manically. Randall chuckled uneasily.
"What have I got myself into?"
He clambered into the car next to Jay, smiled unenthusiastically at the beaming monster next to him, and settled down for a VERY long journey.
******************
The thick sea-mist hovered over the ground and blinded the monsters at the dock. The air was cold, chilling, and very damp, and was filled only with the sounds of the waves. A large ship had just docked and its occupants, though few, filed off slowly, disorganised. A monster awaited them, his bright yellow eyes like searchlights on this cold September evening. As the few sailors made their way off the ship, the cargo was taken and put on dry land. The first box was dropped with a loud bang, making the waiting monster rush over to it, ready to inspect its contents.
"Get me a crowbar," he ordered one of the workers, rubbing his scaly arms with his hands, trying to warm up. His eyes constantly darted this way and that, as though he was fearful of somebody watching him. Finally, the worker's silhouette came back into view, a crowbar in his hand. The lizard- monster grabbed it from him, tired of playing the waiting game, and immediately began to prise the wooden lid of the box off. Grunting with effort, he heaved the lid off, threw it aside, and looked deep inside the container.
The lizard-monster picked up one of the canisters and, as he did so, his eyes narrowed. He glared at the worker beside him and growled.
"I said B-3250 series, not B-230 series. Are all the canisters like this?" The worker shuddered under his glare.
"Y-yes, but-"
"There are monsters out there with a lot more power than I've got, and they're much more frightening, believe me. If you don't sort this out in the next 48 hours, you're gonna be talkin' to them. Do you understand what I'm saying?" The worker shook his head vigorously.
"Because, in my opinion, I think I'm quite a nice guy." The lizard-monster put an arm around the worker. "But I'm not always nice. Oh no. You just haven't met the bad side of me yet." As he finished, he leaned into the worker's face, baring his teeth slightly. His voice was no less than a whisper. "So get it sorted." The second he let go of the worker, the smaller monster scurried away in a panic, leaving Cyrus Boggs with his own thoughts and worries.
******************
They had been sitting in the car for two hours, and in that two hours, the only noise that Randall had heard other than the faint ongoing scream of the car engine was something else that was also ongoing; Jay's annoying jabbering of all things pointless. Randall rolled his eyes and laid his head back against the rock-hard head rest.
"...and then there was this massive fight! But I'm not talking about some little rough-up, no, no. I'm talkin' this giant squabble, chairs flying an' all. And ya know what happened then?" Randall turned his head, and then eventually sat up.
"No, I don't know. And I don't want to know."
"Well, how about I tell you anyways?" Jay grinned manically once more, the large spikes on his head rising ever-so-slightly. He took a deep breath, and then continued his story. "He took him by the scruff of his neck and said..."
Randall flopped back down again. He hoped his friend, if you could call him that, wasn't always going to be like this. He certainly hadn't seemed so hyperactive in his letters; sometimes, he had been quite the opposite, even seeming intelligent on occasion. Surely Jay was a better conversationalist than this? Randall turned his attention to the scenery outside that was zooming past them.
"At least he isn't the discriminative type."
He took another quick glance back at his friend who was now waving his armoured arms in the air, trying to express the sensation of his story clearly. Randall suddenly noticed that, if he wanted to, Jay could be quite deadly. Spikes lined his arms and legs, and where there weren't spikes, there was a thick layer of bright orange skin, too tough for even a knife to cut him.
"But, then again, he's probably been discriminated himself. Randall sighed deeply. If only he could understand that I don't like having these big conversations..."
He slowly closed his eyes, trying to block out the sound of Jay's voice. When he eventually opened them again, the sun had disappeared and the night sky was filled to the brim with hundreds of stars, all burning brightly a long, long way away. Randall blinked several times, trying to rid his head of the feeling of heavy sleep, and turned towards Jay. As he yawned slightly, Jay snorted.
"So you're awake then?"
"Didn't even realise that I'd fallen asleep."
"Yeah, that happens to a lot of people. It's my stories that do it."
"What, you mean people listen to them and they get so bored that they fall asleep? Cos I can imagine that that happens a lot."
"Very funny, Randall," said Jay, not sarcastically, but not getting the point. "No, what I meant was that people are so deeply stimulated by my tales of intrigue and interest that they want to dream about it, so they fall asleep."
Randall scoffed. "Whatever."
"I know people like you. You're just jealous of my many talents."
"What, like driving?" The car was going dangerously slow; so slow that if there was anyone else there on this open of road, they'd have stopped Jay and taken his car.
"It pays to be careful."
"I'm sure it does, but I wouldn't be able to say." The conversation came to an abrupt end, and Randall took up his favourite pastime of staring out the window. Now they were passing through a sort of wasteland, the earth flat and barren, dotted with weeds blowing about in the choking wind, but Randall couldn't tell; the darkness had engulfed the car, leaving the both of them almost blind. The silence was too much for Jay, so he started up another one of his infamous conversations; it was in his nature, after all.
"Did you actually find my story...boring?"
"It would have been hard not to."
"Well, I'm sure you're not the expert at entertaining; I picked you up from an orphanage, so that must mean something."
Randall suddenly became defensive. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, your family couldn't have loved you that much; they did abandon you at an orphanage, after all." Randall froze, flabbergasted that his usually friendly companion, Jay, had suddenly turned so spiteful out of the blue.
"You don't know anything."
"But all I've done is taken what I do know, and just put two and two together."
"And made fifty billion, by the sounds of it." Randall sneered at Jay, feeling so incredibly angry yet so secretively hurt. Sure, this guy wasn't discriminative in some ways, yet, by the way this conversation was going, he was in others.
"You're just pathetic. You think you know everything about me, but you don't. No-one does." Many more words passed between the two of them without them ever saying it, but most words just slammed into the ground in the heaviness of the situation. Slowly but surely, the throbbing anger subsided. The first light that they had seen that night, which was not produced by the car, gradually got brighter. Jay dared to speak.
"Look, there's a Scream Station there. I think we'd better top up." Randall nodded once, confirming that he agreed, but didn't say anything. The car rolled into the Station surprisingly smoothly, and the two monsters got out in unison. Randall spoke for the first time since their little dispute.
"You get the Scream, and I'll get the supplies."
"Sure, buddy."
Randall pushed open the door of the small Station shop and disappeared inside, leaving Jay utterly alone. He strolled over to a box of miniature Scream Canisters and hefted one up onto a shoulder. As he did so, a bright light shone in his face, making his pale red eyes squint. A convertible drove up beside him, its roof neatly folded away. The monster that sat in the driver's seat smiled, showing off her pearly whites, and flicked back an overhanging lock of hair.
She was unusually thin, almost certainly a model, but had a sour edge about her. Jay didn't notice this; he was too busy being dumbfounded by this girl's incredible looks and beautiful, swaying, golden locks of hair...
"Look at you, muscle-monster," she said in a voice so smooth you could ice- skate on it.
"Lifting up that big, heavy canister all on your own." Jay blushed deeply, his luminous orange cheeks turning almost red.
"Well, you know..."
"I wonder what such a hunky monster would have for a name..." Jay instantly dropped the canister and almost slithered over to the side of her car.
"Jay Javino, at your service." He did another one of his priceless grins, trying with all of his might to convince this model that he was confident charisma-wise. "And what would such a..." He struggled to find a flattering word. "such a beautiful young lady, as your-"Randall grabbed Jay's thick, studded tail, being careful not to cut himself on one of his lethal spikes, and tugged, hard, in an attempt to distract his friend from his entertainment.
"In the car. Now."
"But-"Jay protested, but Randall refused to listen.
"Now." Jay waved a final goodbye reluctantly, and then got in the passenger seat leaving Randall to drive. As he got into the car, he cringed slightly under Randall's powerful glare.
"I'm gonna forget that ever happened, okay?"
Jay laughed. "Come on, you can't stop me from having a bit of fun!" Randall didn't answer; instead, he shook his head and switched on the engine. Before they set off, he paused for a second, and then got out of the car. Jay watched him, utterly puzzled. Randall meandered round the front of the car, opened the passenger door and leaned close to Jay's face, the corners of his mouth upturned slightly, but not enough for it to be a smile.
"For that, you're gonna drive."
The scenery barely changed as the small silver car chugged slowly down the straight road. Randall had fallen into a light sleep, meaning that Jay could finally relax. He drove in silence, his eyelids feeling as though they were doors letting in a draft, and that there was someone always trying to close them. Yawning loudly, Jay quickly checked on Randall. In the darkness he could just make out his companion's fronds rising and falling slightly in time with his breathing. Jay tittered innocently.
"Out like a light."
"So now would be the best time to do it," a little voice in his head spoke softly. "Just open the door and push him out. He wouldn't have a clue what's just happened to him. No-one would ever find out."
Jay slapped himself on the face, partially to keep himself awake and partially to scold himself for thinking such thoughts. Just as he had done so, he noticed something on the road. In a second he had swerved around it, now suddenly alert, and then calmly carried on with their journey, no slower than before, but ten times as weary.
This sudden movement woke Randall, and he had groggily opened his eyes to see a slightly panicked Jay at the wheel. He raised an eyebrow.
"What happened?"
"Oh, nothing my driving expertise couldn't handle." Randall rubbed some sleep from his eyes and looked straight ahead of him. He looked slightly bemused.
"Why are we stopping?" There was a silence as the car gradually slowed down, and then eventually stopped. Randall and Jay were deserted in the middle of nowhere.
Chapter 2- A Very Long Journey
Randall strolled up to the sputtering car and poked his head through the open window.
"Hey, there! You must be Randall, right?" spoke a cheery voice. Randall smiled quickly.
"That's me."
"You go ahead and put your stuff in the back." Randall nodded and opened the boot of this rusty piece of machinery. Stuffing his bag alongside several others, he saw his old pen-friend, Jay, grinning at him in the mirror. Jay caught his friend looking and waved manically. Randall chuckled uneasily.
"What have I got myself into?"
He clambered into the car next to Jay, smiled unenthusiastically at the beaming monster next to him, and settled down for a VERY long journey.
******************
The thick sea-mist hovered over the ground and blinded the monsters at the dock. The air was cold, chilling, and very damp, and was filled only with the sounds of the waves. A large ship had just docked and its occupants, though few, filed off slowly, disorganised. A monster awaited them, his bright yellow eyes like searchlights on this cold September evening. As the few sailors made their way off the ship, the cargo was taken and put on dry land. The first box was dropped with a loud bang, making the waiting monster rush over to it, ready to inspect its contents.
"Get me a crowbar," he ordered one of the workers, rubbing his scaly arms with his hands, trying to warm up. His eyes constantly darted this way and that, as though he was fearful of somebody watching him. Finally, the worker's silhouette came back into view, a crowbar in his hand. The lizard- monster grabbed it from him, tired of playing the waiting game, and immediately began to prise the wooden lid of the box off. Grunting with effort, he heaved the lid off, threw it aside, and looked deep inside the container.
The lizard-monster picked up one of the canisters and, as he did so, his eyes narrowed. He glared at the worker beside him and growled.
"I said B-3250 series, not B-230 series. Are all the canisters like this?" The worker shuddered under his glare.
"Y-yes, but-"
"There are monsters out there with a lot more power than I've got, and they're much more frightening, believe me. If you don't sort this out in the next 48 hours, you're gonna be talkin' to them. Do you understand what I'm saying?" The worker shook his head vigorously.
"Because, in my opinion, I think I'm quite a nice guy." The lizard-monster put an arm around the worker. "But I'm not always nice. Oh no. You just haven't met the bad side of me yet." As he finished, he leaned into the worker's face, baring his teeth slightly. His voice was no less than a whisper. "So get it sorted." The second he let go of the worker, the smaller monster scurried away in a panic, leaving Cyrus Boggs with his own thoughts and worries.
******************
They had been sitting in the car for two hours, and in that two hours, the only noise that Randall had heard other than the faint ongoing scream of the car engine was something else that was also ongoing; Jay's annoying jabbering of all things pointless. Randall rolled his eyes and laid his head back against the rock-hard head rest.
"...and then there was this massive fight! But I'm not talking about some little rough-up, no, no. I'm talkin' this giant squabble, chairs flying an' all. And ya know what happened then?" Randall turned his head, and then eventually sat up.
"No, I don't know. And I don't want to know."
"Well, how about I tell you anyways?" Jay grinned manically once more, the large spikes on his head rising ever-so-slightly. He took a deep breath, and then continued his story. "He took him by the scruff of his neck and said..."
Randall flopped back down again. He hoped his friend, if you could call him that, wasn't always going to be like this. He certainly hadn't seemed so hyperactive in his letters; sometimes, he had been quite the opposite, even seeming intelligent on occasion. Surely Jay was a better conversationalist than this? Randall turned his attention to the scenery outside that was zooming past them.
"At least he isn't the discriminative type."
He took another quick glance back at his friend who was now waving his armoured arms in the air, trying to express the sensation of his story clearly. Randall suddenly noticed that, if he wanted to, Jay could be quite deadly. Spikes lined his arms and legs, and where there weren't spikes, there was a thick layer of bright orange skin, too tough for even a knife to cut him.
"But, then again, he's probably been discriminated himself. Randall sighed deeply. If only he could understand that I don't like having these big conversations..."
He slowly closed his eyes, trying to block out the sound of Jay's voice. When he eventually opened them again, the sun had disappeared and the night sky was filled to the brim with hundreds of stars, all burning brightly a long, long way away. Randall blinked several times, trying to rid his head of the feeling of heavy sleep, and turned towards Jay. As he yawned slightly, Jay snorted.
"So you're awake then?"
"Didn't even realise that I'd fallen asleep."
"Yeah, that happens to a lot of people. It's my stories that do it."
"What, you mean people listen to them and they get so bored that they fall asleep? Cos I can imagine that that happens a lot."
"Very funny, Randall," said Jay, not sarcastically, but not getting the point. "No, what I meant was that people are so deeply stimulated by my tales of intrigue and interest that they want to dream about it, so they fall asleep."
Randall scoffed. "Whatever."
"I know people like you. You're just jealous of my many talents."
"What, like driving?" The car was going dangerously slow; so slow that if there was anyone else there on this open of road, they'd have stopped Jay and taken his car.
"It pays to be careful."
"I'm sure it does, but I wouldn't be able to say." The conversation came to an abrupt end, and Randall took up his favourite pastime of staring out the window. Now they were passing through a sort of wasteland, the earth flat and barren, dotted with weeds blowing about in the choking wind, but Randall couldn't tell; the darkness had engulfed the car, leaving the both of them almost blind. The silence was too much for Jay, so he started up another one of his infamous conversations; it was in his nature, after all.
"Did you actually find my story...boring?"
"It would have been hard not to."
"Well, I'm sure you're not the expert at entertaining; I picked you up from an orphanage, so that must mean something."
Randall suddenly became defensive. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Well, your family couldn't have loved you that much; they did abandon you at an orphanage, after all." Randall froze, flabbergasted that his usually friendly companion, Jay, had suddenly turned so spiteful out of the blue.
"You don't know anything."
"But all I've done is taken what I do know, and just put two and two together."
"And made fifty billion, by the sounds of it." Randall sneered at Jay, feeling so incredibly angry yet so secretively hurt. Sure, this guy wasn't discriminative in some ways, yet, by the way this conversation was going, he was in others.
"You're just pathetic. You think you know everything about me, but you don't. No-one does." Many more words passed between the two of them without them ever saying it, but most words just slammed into the ground in the heaviness of the situation. Slowly but surely, the throbbing anger subsided. The first light that they had seen that night, which was not produced by the car, gradually got brighter. Jay dared to speak.
"Look, there's a Scream Station there. I think we'd better top up." Randall nodded once, confirming that he agreed, but didn't say anything. The car rolled into the Station surprisingly smoothly, and the two monsters got out in unison. Randall spoke for the first time since their little dispute.
"You get the Scream, and I'll get the supplies."
"Sure, buddy."
Randall pushed open the door of the small Station shop and disappeared inside, leaving Jay utterly alone. He strolled over to a box of miniature Scream Canisters and hefted one up onto a shoulder. As he did so, a bright light shone in his face, making his pale red eyes squint. A convertible drove up beside him, its roof neatly folded away. The monster that sat in the driver's seat smiled, showing off her pearly whites, and flicked back an overhanging lock of hair.
She was unusually thin, almost certainly a model, but had a sour edge about her. Jay didn't notice this; he was too busy being dumbfounded by this girl's incredible looks and beautiful, swaying, golden locks of hair...
"Look at you, muscle-monster," she said in a voice so smooth you could ice- skate on it.
"Lifting up that big, heavy canister all on your own." Jay blushed deeply, his luminous orange cheeks turning almost red.
"Well, you know..."
"I wonder what such a hunky monster would have for a name..." Jay instantly dropped the canister and almost slithered over to the side of her car.
"Jay Javino, at your service." He did another one of his priceless grins, trying with all of his might to convince this model that he was confident charisma-wise. "And what would such a..." He struggled to find a flattering word. "such a beautiful young lady, as your-"Randall grabbed Jay's thick, studded tail, being careful not to cut himself on one of his lethal spikes, and tugged, hard, in an attempt to distract his friend from his entertainment.
"In the car. Now."
"But-"Jay protested, but Randall refused to listen.
"Now." Jay waved a final goodbye reluctantly, and then got in the passenger seat leaving Randall to drive. As he got into the car, he cringed slightly under Randall's powerful glare.
"I'm gonna forget that ever happened, okay?"
Jay laughed. "Come on, you can't stop me from having a bit of fun!" Randall didn't answer; instead, he shook his head and switched on the engine. Before they set off, he paused for a second, and then got out of the car. Jay watched him, utterly puzzled. Randall meandered round the front of the car, opened the passenger door and leaned close to Jay's face, the corners of his mouth upturned slightly, but not enough for it to be a smile.
"For that, you're gonna drive."
The scenery barely changed as the small silver car chugged slowly down the straight road. Randall had fallen into a light sleep, meaning that Jay could finally relax. He drove in silence, his eyelids feeling as though they were doors letting in a draft, and that there was someone always trying to close them. Yawning loudly, Jay quickly checked on Randall. In the darkness he could just make out his companion's fronds rising and falling slightly in time with his breathing. Jay tittered innocently.
"Out like a light."
"So now would be the best time to do it," a little voice in his head spoke softly. "Just open the door and push him out. He wouldn't have a clue what's just happened to him. No-one would ever find out."
Jay slapped himself on the face, partially to keep himself awake and partially to scold himself for thinking such thoughts. Just as he had done so, he noticed something on the road. In a second he had swerved around it, now suddenly alert, and then calmly carried on with their journey, no slower than before, but ten times as weary.
This sudden movement woke Randall, and he had groggily opened his eyes to see a slightly panicked Jay at the wheel. He raised an eyebrow.
"What happened?"
"Oh, nothing my driving expertise couldn't handle." Randall rubbed some sleep from his eyes and looked straight ahead of him. He looked slightly bemused.
"Why are we stopping?" There was a silence as the car gradually slowed down, and then eventually stopped. Randall and Jay were deserted in the middle of nowhere.