Chapter Three: Even More Exposition/A Little Bit Of Foreshadowing
A/N: More original characters ahoy! :)
"Got you good that time, didn't I? Ha!" The shadow cried triumphantly. Realizing who it was, Randall shoved the smaller monster off him rudely.
"Get off!" Standing up, he slowly dusted himself off, his scales flicking back to their normal purple and blue coloration as he did so. "There's scared... And then there's surprised!" Randall protested coolly.
"And you were both!" The other monster laughed. [1]
"You're not even supposed to be here yet, kid!" Randall growled, choosing to ignore the last comment the young monster had made. Pin, or Pianissimo, as his mother called him, or simply 'Kid' to Randall, was his scare apprentice. Apprentices at BrightFright Ltd had the same duties as scare assistants did, as well as learning first-hand how exactly to scare. The apprenticeship system was necessary; since they had no training simulator room, they had to find other ways to train their scare recruits. Pin actually showed the true makings of a scarer, Randall had to admit, unlike the others that passed for scarers in the place. Not that he'd ever tell Pin that, at least not yet.
The kid was barely older than twelve; the absolute minimum to begin training as a scarer. He was a brown-furred monster with only four limbs; two digigrade legs for walking on, and two tentacles ending in what resembled mittened hands for grasping. His face was a slightly lighter shade of brown than his long fur was, and ended in a beak-like snout that contained a cluster of sharp pointy teeth. A short, tapering tail helped him keep balance. He was an enthusiastic character: so enthusiastic at times that it was all Randall could do to tell him to shut his mouth.
Plus there was the fact that Pin (who insisted he be called that because he said his real name "sounded stupid") hero-worshipped Randall. In his eyes, the lizard monster had single-handedly saved Haven from the energy crisis, and was the best scarer there ever was or ever would be. It was Pin's mission in life to become merely half as good as he thought Randall was. The fur on the top of his head that had been jelled-up to resemble Randall's own three fronds were a bit much, though, but no matter what Randall said, he wouldn't change his fur-style.
Randall, of course, had been flattered that somebody thought that highly of him, but wasn't quite sure he was a good role model. Pin knew pretty much nothing of the events leading up to his banishment; merely that Randall had once been a top scarer at Monsters Inc. He just assumed that Randall had been trapped in the human world accidentally, like a large portion of the monsters in Haven had been. Randall intended to keep him in the dark about his somewhat... shady past. [2]
Back to present; Pin was still emitting the occasional giggle, snickering from behind one tentacle. Randall merely sighed, crossing both pairs of arms, waiting patiently for Pin to stop.
After a few seconds, the younger monster did, although he still let out an occasional chuckle.
"Is there any reason you decided to grace me with your presence this early in the morning, kid?" Randall asked sarcastically.
Pin straightened at this and nodded. "I almost forgot! Look at this!" The apprentice handed the lizard monster a sheet of paper.
Randall's fronds pricked curiously as he grabbed the paper and read it; it was an advertisement flyer made from unbleached brownish paper, obviously recycled.
"Go ahead to the break room, Kid. I'll meet you there in a minute." Randall said, waving the paper at him absently as he began to read.
In bold text across the top were the words, "Someone Needs Your Help!". Underneath this ever so fascinating heading, there was the black and white picture of a small dirty monster with bedraggled fur and impossibly huge eyes, as if impeaching somebody to help him.
Randall read on. "On any given week, a total of three monsters are banished into the human world. Less than 10% of these monsters make Haven their home. Make a difference! Only you can help! Volunteer to rescue one of these poor monsters out there in the world at our center in the downtown area! After a short briefing, you will be sent out to find a given monster. If you return with your monster, you will be rewarded with a sum of 100 AAs, as well as Haven's gratitude. Volunteers are gravely needed for this task! Consider it, for it could mean the world to some mon out there." Beneath that was another black and white picture of the same monster, cleaned up and smiling, hugging a huge furry monster with claws larger than it's own hands.
Randall fought the urge to gag at the cheesiness.
At the bottom of the page, in tiny print that Randall had to squint to read were the words,
" The same sum will be given to your next of kin if you do not return from your task within a year."
"Charming." Randall snorted.
This flyer was from the same place that had sent out Jared to bring him to Haven himself. Should he sign up? It wasn't as if BrightFright really needed him desperately anymore; he could certainly afford to leave for a month or two. He was really beginning to feel cooped up anyway... An adventure would do him good, the lizard-monster supposed.
"So you gonna do it?" Pin asked hopefully. The kid had been standing there, watching him the whole time as he read the flyer.
Randall chose not to answer. He never was one to rush into anything, and he certainly wasn't going to change the habit now.
"Why are you still here?" He rolled up the flyer into a tube and playfully hit Pin on the shoulder with it. "Move! Now!"
"Ow ow ow!" The younger monster faked a grimace as he scrambled down the hallway to the break room ahead of him. "I'm not here!"
Sulley was dreaming.
James P. Sullivan, reaching out one large hand, grasped the door handle, encompassing it completely. He tentatively opened the pink-flowered white door. It creaked slowly as he did so. Slowly, the large furry monster peered into the child's room, and spotted a familiar figure.
"Boo!" Sulley smiled.
"Kitty!" It cried gleefully.
Sulley reached out his large arms, happy to see the small child again.
"Oh, Boo, I've missed you so mu-" He was interrupted by a strong blow to the head. The new CEO of Monsters Inc. was knocked backwards, out through the closet door. The solid floor of the simulator room has dissolved; Sulley clung desperately to the doorframe as it hurtled through space in the door vault.
"Look at everybody's favorite scarer now, you stupid, pathetic waste!"
But suddenly it wasn't himself clinging to the doorframe; he was standing above his own body, staring down at it through squinting green eyes. He couldn't stop himself from saying the words, stop his body from doing those things. His scaled foot stomped down onto one clawed hand. The body continued. "You've been number one for too long, Sullivan!" Sulley could feel the vehemence behind the words being spoken, the long years of emotional torment. "Now your time is up!" He leant forward and grinned in a manner that was made all the more sinister by 'his' mouth full of teeth. "And don't worry," He said, slowly putting pressure on his body's remaining hand. "I'll take good care of the kid!"
"No!" His body cried. But before he could knock himself completely off the doorframe, his head snapped backwards as the kid - Boo - leapt onto his back, pulling at his fronds. His - Randall's - body panicked. He twisted, stumbled, ran into the wall... Then changed colour repeatedly as he was beaten over the head with a baseball bat by the child hanging to his upper torso like a limpet.
Then, suddenly, he couldn't breath. He writhed instinctively, but exhaustion seemed to seep into his very bones. Coupled with the fact that his neck was nearly crimped, he soon gave up moving, completely at the mercy of... himself.
How strange.
"Looks like you're out of a job." His real body smirked as his mind, in another's body, fought to breathe.
He wasn't in control of anything. Sulley could only watch, through Randall's eyes, as his body went through with the banishment.
"Wait, please... Don't, don't, don't!" He pleaded with his body, to no avail. He gave a long drawn-out cry as he was tossed through the door. "Nooooooo!"
"Momma! 'Nother gator got in the house!" He stared in horror at the human kid, then searched franticly for a way out of the cramped trailer.
"Another gator? Gimme that shovel!" Then all he could do was scream in pain and terror as he was beaten with a shovel.
Darkness. [3]
In his own bed, in his own apartment in Monstropolis, and most importantly of all, in his own body, James P. Sullivan woke up in a cold sweat that matted down his blue and purple fur. He put his head in his clawed hands as overwhelming guilt washed over him.
The alarm clock on his bedside table flashed 2:13 am. The furred monster slowly laid himself back down on his comfortable bed, and stared at his bedroom ceiling blankly, his mind working furiously.
He didn't fall back asleep until dawn.
[1] Brother Bear reference! :D …And I'm not just quoting other sources because I'm running out of ideas… Really! shifty eyes
[2] You cannot escape... the exposition! :)
[3]Oooh... Weird mind-link neo-trippy dream sequence! Ooogelie-boogelie! waggles fingers :D
Yes, I know that chapter was quite short, and a little sub-par. Sorry; I was running low on inspiration. :( Don't worry, the next one will be better!