Caillou, and his parents, Doris and Boris, were having their lives changed. Their daughter Rosie (who was also Caillou's little sister) recently died of cancer.
Caillou was 12 years old now, and his sister was 10 when she died. Being twelve though didn't stop him from being a disagreeable brat.
One day, Caillou was trying to touch the hot fire from their fireplace, but his father, Boris, kept stopping him. He tried to put out the flames with a bucket of water, but he couldn't stop them completely. The only thing that saved him was when Boris grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the fire.
"BUT, DADDY! I WANNA TOUCH THE FIRE!" Caillou screamed.
"Well, you CAN'T!" Boris screamed back.
Caillou started to throw another tantrum. He threw himself on the floor, crying and pounding his fists.
"BUT...BUT...I WANT TO TOUCH THE FIRE!" He cried.
"STOP MAKING A MESS!"
"I'm SORRY!" He cried.
"SORRY'S NOT GONNA DO ANYTHING!" Boris yelled. "NOW LEAVE! I GOT SOMETHING BETTER TO DO WITH MY TIME THAN TO HOLD YOUR PARADES!"
Then, he picked up the sobbing boy and walked out the door.
Caillou didn't like it when he didn't get his way.
His mother, Doris, walked into the room looking furious.
"Caillou! Stop this racket!"
Caillou looked up at his mother, he looked surprised.
"Wh-why are you yelling at me?"
"WHAT DO YOU THINK, YOU LITTLE SOB?!" Doris screamed. "I HEAR YOU TRYING TO START A FIRE, AND YOU'RE MAKING YOUR FATHER ANGRY!"
"But...but..."
"No buts! You know better! I'm your mother, and I know you better than you know yourself! Now, go to your room!"
Caillou went up into his room and cried. It wasn't fair. All he wanted to know was what the fire felt like if he touched it. He didn't mean to make his father angry, but his mother was the one who told him not to try to touch it. Why couldn't she have been there to help him?
"It's not fair! I wanna touch the fire!" Caillou said to himself, angrily.
Suddenly, he had an idea. He could try to touch the fire while nobody was looking.
He quickly made made a drawing of himself and put it onto his bed, thinking his parents wouldn't notice him gone.
He went down into the living room and was about to touch the fireplace, until...
His father walked into the living room, carrying a broom.
"DAMN IT, KID! I'M TIRED OF YOU TRYING TO START THAT FIRE! WHY CAN'T YOU LET IT GO DOWN?!"
Caillou screamed and cried, but his father wouldn't give in.
His father took him upstairs into his room. That was when he saw the drawing of Caillou on the bed.
"Nice try." Boris said.
"I didn't mean to!" Caillou cried.
Boris shook his head and walked out of the room. Caillou had to think of another idea fast.
Caillou grabbed out a piece of paper and drew a picture of a monster. After that, he immediately turned back to his father.
"BUT DADDY!" He shouted.
"What!?" he asked, exasperated.
"I NEED HELP! PLEASE GET MOM!"
"What is it?!" Daddy said, a bit concerned.
"There's a monster under my bed! It says it wants to kill me!" Caillou yelled, trying to sound terrified.
Daddy facepalmed. "Stop making excuses."
"But it's true! It wants to kill me!"
"Well, it's not my problem. Your mother and I have work to do, and you need to stop making a fuss."
"But..."
"I don't want to hear it." Boris said before leaving.
Caillou was extremely furious now. None of his plans were working. And pretty soon, Boris would turn off the fireplace. Caillou had to think of one more plan. He would need to use his tiny brain for this one.
The plan was simple. He would hide under the bed, wait, and then run to the fireplace when nobody was looking.
"I'm not hiding." He said.
After everyone moved upstairs, Caillou bolted downstairs and into the living room.
There was the fireplace. Daddy forgot to turn it off! Now was Caillou's chance!
Caillou walked over to the fireplace, and proudly put his finger into it. But his proudness wouldn't last long...
His finger began to tingle. He yelped in pain and jumped back.
"I can't take it!" He yelled. "Make it stop!"
Caillou's parents couldn't hear him because they were upstairs.
The tingling sensation was turning his whole body into a fleshlight now. He had to do something.
He looked around, and saw the drawing of the monster.
Caillou screamed, and accidentally jumped into the fireplace. He was completely on fire now. He let out a horrifying scream, as his wails were mixed with horrible screams of melting flesh.
The fireplace exploded with power, sending bits of flaming wood into the air.
Caillou's parents sprinted into the living room. They saw him...
"CAILLOU!" Boris and Doris screamed, both long and loud.
Boris turned off the fireplace. Inside, was Caillou gasping for air. He looked completely charred. He was still alive somehow. But he was on fire.
He screamed again, as the pain was horrible. Then his screams were drowned out by yet another horrible sound.
"Auuugh!" Somebody cried.
Boris and Doris looked around. Who made that sound?
It was the drawing of the monster. It came alive. Standing on top of the destroyed remains of the fireplace, was the monster. It was hunched over, it looked bigger than before. It had a sickle for a hand and blood was streaming down from its palm.
Boris and Doris screamed at the top of their lungs. Caillou couldn't scream anymore because he lost his voice, and was already about to succumb to his injuries.
Boris grabbed a knife from the kitchen and struck the monster in the back. It didn't go through, but the monster was confused. It turned around and got hit by a flying poker from Doris. That finished it, but now their son was no longer screaming, he was dead.
"W-What have we done?" Boris said. He was on the verge of bawling. "What have we done?!"
"We had to protect him! Don't you dare start bawling!" Doris shouted. "Look, we got the monster."
That did it for Boris. He started bawling like a little girl. Doris was still on edge, and couldn't deal with all of this. She left quickly to see the sheriff.
Breathing heavily, she saw him.
"Hello, mam. How can we help you?" The sheriff asked.
Doris broke down in tears. "A-A huge monster was in our living room, a-and it killed our son!"
"Hmm, what did the monster look like?" The sheriff asked.
"It was a-a giant, with a sickle for a hand and blood running down its palm!
The sheriff laughed, thinking Doris was making a joke. But she wasn't.
"So the monster is a giant with a sickle for a hand and blood running down its palm? There's no such thing." The sheriff laughed.
Doris went nuclear. She kicked the sheriff in the face, breaking his nose. She got out of there as fast as she could.
She ran to Boris's parents' house. His parents were also Caillou's grandparents. They lived in a more rural area, with a much smaller sheriff's office. They believed her. They called the other sheriff, and he came.
They found the monster sitting on the ground in front of their house.
The monster must have teleported somehow. It was originally in the living room, and now it was in front of the house. It was still dead.
They took the monster into the backyard, and burned it. The house shook a bit from all the explosions from the fire.
A funeral was held a day later. All of Caillou's friends and relatives came. Nobody ever forgot Caillou. Even Caillou's haters missed him.
In the weeks to follow, Doris and Boris left the neighborhood to start a new life. Even though they haven't seen Caillou in almost a decade, they still never forgot him for even a minute.
THE END
