Previously: After sneaking away from Dad and Dean, Sam meets a girl who might know something about the purple people eater. She takes him to her basement and even though Sam knows bad things hide in basements he decides to follow her down.
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The basement is actually quite nice. It's carpeted and has brightly painted walls. There's a big orange and brown plaid couch in the middle of the room, facing a TV with a Nintendo and a VCR. One wall is full of shelves of books, board games and video cassettes. As far as basement go, Sam's seen much, much worse.
"Fuzzy!" Emily calls in a high voice when she reached the bottom of the stairs, like she is calling to a pet cat.
Sam looks around the room anxiously, his right hand clutching the knife in his pocket, but nothing happens.
"Fuzzy, come out," she calls again. She walks to the overstuffed orange and brown couch and squats down to look underneath it.
"Here he is!" she says happily.
A small, bright purple ball rolls out from under the couch, then stands on two scrawny stick-legs and gives itself a little shake. It's about the size of a golf ball and looks soft to the touch. Sam thinks it might be a baby chick, except it has no beak or wings, only one beady black eye in the center of the purple ball. The girl scoops it up and cuddles it to her cheek.
"Isn't he cute?" Emily asks.
Sam eyes the purple creature skeptically. "I guess. What is it?"
"I dunno. I found him." She scratches it with her fingertips and it makes a purring sound and rises into the scratch. "He helps me."
Sam frowns, trying to figure this out. It is purple and it does have one eye. But if it is the purple people eater it is way smaller then he thought it would be. How could a little furry ball help Emily? And how could it hurt grown-ups like Sean's parents? Plus, it doesn't have a horn and it doesn't look like it can fly.
"Fuzzy, will you help Sam too?" Emily asks the little fluffy ball. It does another little shake, like it is answering her, and she snuggles it up to her cheek again, then holds it out towards Sam. "Do you want to pet him?"
Sam wrinkles his nose and shakes his head. He does not want to pet it. "No thank you."
"Are you sure? If you pet him and tell him your problems, he makes them go away," she tells Sam.
"Like he helped your friend Sean?" Sam guesses.
"Yeah, like Sean. His Dad would hurt him but not anymore. Right Fuzzy?"
Sam's stomach does an excited flip. He did find the monster, all by himself!
But the little purple fuzzball doesn't look very dangerous sitting on Emily's small palm and purring like a kitten. "How did that stop Sean's Dad?" Sam asks doubtfully.
Emily shrugs. "I think it's some kind of magic. Just pet him and you can see it. He'll help you."
It occurs to Sam suddenly that he has no idea what to do next. Kill it? How? He's a little afraid that touching it will make it try to kill Dad. He could probably just step on it, but he doubts Emily wouldn't let him try. Sam decides it is time to find Dad and Dean, now that he's proved that he can help too.
"I don't need help like that," Sam tells Emily. "I just need to get back to McDonald's."
"Oh." Emily's face falls.
"I really need to go," Sam says, and he takes a few steps backwards toward the basement stairs. "My brother's going to be really worried."
"Okay," she says, obviously disappointed. "You won't tell anybody about Fuzzy, right?"
"No."
Emily's blue eyes grow round and serious. "You can't tell anybody, Sam. They'll take him away."
In her hands, the little purple ball shutters, then puffs up suddenly, doubling in size like a blowfish.
Suddenly Sam wants to be gone, now. "I won't," Sam promises, still backing away.
"I need him," she says. Her voice sounds strange and desperate, and the small purple ball doubles again and again in her arms, and starts to change shape. The stick-legs lengthen and plump, and it sprouts thick purple arms and a fuzzy round head. It is too big for Emily to hold. It leaps from her arms on the floor, landing on all fours like a cat.
As he backs rapidly towards the stairs and away from the monster, it occurs to Sam that it Fuzzy is starting to look like a Muppet. A purple Grover, he thinks numbly.
"Promise me," Emily says. She looks angry now, and dangerous. Her eyes are wild.
"I promise, I swear I won't." Sam backs up the first few basement stairs quickly but awkwardly. He doesn't want to turn his back on that thing. Dad always says, don't turn your back on anything with teeth.
The monster is still growing, but also moving now, purposeful strides on fuzzy purple legs, stalking right towards Sam. Row of razor-sharp teeth burst from its mouth and Sam scrambles backwards up a few more steps, half falling.
"You're lying Sam, it knows," Emily snarls. "You can't tell. They'll take him away."
"Emily," Sam pleads. "Tell it to stop."
"I can't stop him. It's too late. You can't hurt us, Sam."
The monster is as tall as Sam now, and it's single black eye is focused on Sam's face like a laser. It crawls up the first few stairs on its stubby arms and legs, gnashing its teeth hungrily.
Well he came down to earth and he lit in a tree
I said Mr. Purple People Eater, don't eat me
I heard him say in a voice so gruff
I wouldn't eat you cuz you're so tough
Will Sam end up monster chow? Or is he safe because he isn't purple? I would love to hear what you think of the story so far!