To the Guest who brought up "Y'all"; Yes, I understand y'all means you all (wouldn't do well in the south if I didn't, haha). I've heard some folk use y'all when talking to one person before, especially with thicker accents, so I figured it'd be alright to use. But thanks for mentioning it, anyways. And actually, I'm from West Tennessee! Thanks for the review.

The two weren't sure what they would say to their father. So after Mercy raided the kitchen to offer everything to Randall (for she did not know what he liked) she and Anne sat on the floor of the living room to discuss their situation. The ideas weren't exactly flowing.

"So." Clapped Mercy. "We gotta monster chillin' in a cage behind the house, eating up all our food. And Daddy comes home at five."

"That's innnn," Anne counted off on her fingers. "three and a half hours!"

The older sister nodded, leaning against the couch which was on the furthermost wall of the room. "What do we do?" She asked, mostly to herself. The room was silent.

"Could jus' tell him." Suggested Anne with a shrug, expression unsure.

"He'd wanna call animal control."

"Nuh-uh," Anne objected "not if we showed him he talked!"

Mercy ran her fingers through her hair. "We don't know that, Anne. 'Sides, I know you just wanna brag that you weren't lying about the monsters when you was a kid."

"Hey, you know you wanna brag too!"

There was another awkward silence.

"I wanna keep'em." Stated Anne bluntly.

"Keep'em?"

"Like, we could hide him, and he could be our secret friend who we go on adventures with'n stuff."

Mercy gave a loud hearty laugh. "You read too much, sister."

Undecided on what to do about their dad, Anne brought up letting him out of the cage. But the trouble with that was he had already proven to be violent. If they were unable to release him, then they would end up confessing to their father about the monster one way or another. So, they went out back to see if he had finally eaten and to let him in on their thoughts.

The cage was empty.

"Oh God, oh God!" Mercy began to panic. Maybe Randall really could bust out of the cage! But the lock was still latched firmly and the bars were perfectly uniform. A couple of bones lay scattered about the cage, obviously from the left over fried chicken that had been with the rest of the offered foods. He hadn't touched anything else. "Where the hell'd he go?"

Anne looked just as scared as Mercy. She walked up to the cage unsure, her flip flops smacking the soles of her feet as she went. She stared. "Hey." She tried, nudging the cage with her foot. "Heeeey."

"What the heck are ya doin'?" Mercy asked.

Anne looked back at her."I was thinkin', that we done seen him disappear once."

"Clever girl!"

The sisters both started and 'eep'ed, Anne turned her head back to look at the empty cage. Then from thin air, purple and blue scales seemed to fabricate. Randall's big eyes squinted up at her, and a low grumble came from him like a purring cat. "I was going to say 'boo' but you ruined it by figuring it out." Scaring was in his nature. How could he resist?

Anne crossed her arms and puffed up her cheeks. She stamped a foot and turned her head off to the side.

Mercy ignored her sister's attitude and came over. "Alright. Here's the deal, mister monster. Our Daddy comes home in a couple of hours." She squatted down, then let herself rest in the dirt. She didn't care that her shorts would get filthy. "Say we let you outta there. Say that some spell of generosity comes outta me, 'n I unlock the cage, yeah? You'd need to behave. 'N so far, all you done is threaten us and look pissed off."

Randall crossed all four of his arms. His body was curled in around the cage somewhat like a snake, albeit less flexible. "Wouldn't you be pissed if you were hit over the head and kidnapped? Shoved into a cage, having no idea where you where?"

"Ha. I guess you're right." She smirked.

"An' if we let you out, you gotta stay with us! You jus' gotta!" Anne commented, having forgotten her anger. She now looked determined. Something cool had happened to this backwater family of three; she didn't want to just give it up and act like it never happened! No, she wanted to interact.

Randall chuckled darkly and shook his head. "Sure." He lied. "Your food didn't kill me yet, so why not?" To be honest, he still wanted to try and find a way back home. He knew he was an outlaw now. But it was still his home. Right? For some reason, he was starting to have trouble convincing himself going back was the best course of action.

Mercy bore into Randall's eyes, searching for the truth. Her face was set, and her mind whirring. "Alright. S'not like we can force you'ta stay if you run out on us." She stood up and started off to the house, as she had laid the key down in her room when she had changed clothes earlier. "Jus' don't feel right to keep you locked up like a prisoner."

Anne clapped and squealed. She wiggled where she stood and waited for her sister to come back out. Soon Mercy was at the cage again with key in hand, putting it into the thick lock and giving a firm twist. As soon as she took the lock off and unlatched the door, Randall burst through and made Mercy fall back into the dirt onto her back, as well as knocking plates out of the way.

"Ow! Warn me next time, huh?" She hissed, standing up on wobbly legs and dusting off her back and bottom.

"Hahaha!" Randall laughed in a jolly manner, climbing up the wall of the house. He easily dodged the old tools hanging from it.

"Where'ya going, Randall?" Asked Anne in awe, watching him as he went all the way up to the little black roof.

He moved around the roof until the front of the house was just a few steps forward and below. Looking out towards the distance, he finally was able to get a hold of his location. Beyond the long gravel drive way leading up to the house was the road. And on the other side of the road was a rickety looking trailer, with obvious trash littering the yard even from this distance. Following the road to the right was another little house with a prospering garden of colors in front. There were no more houses near by that he could see.

Randall turned around and climbed down to the side wall of the house, making his way to the back again. He lept onto the ground and stood back up, quickly towering over the two humans. He took delight in sizing them up. Especially the little talkative one- who he learned was called Anne by listening to them speak. "There aren't many other humans around here." He noted out loud

"Nope!" Anne replied happily, cleaning out the scraps and uneaten foods from the cage.

Mercy held her hands on her hips. Randall was easily taller than her, but she wouldn't allow that to intimidate her. "Nah, just the Barrow's over in their trailer and a little old couple who are looking after their nephew for the summer. We're not real close with neither of'em."

"Eeeyup." Anne agreed, simply.

Randall glanced around, fiddling with his hands out of habit. "I'll be back later." He said, and vanished.

Both Mercy and Anne perked up; Anne nearly dropped the plates she was holding (which took some thinking to get through the bars without opening the cage- along with the food) and pouted. "Don't leave!" She whined pathetically, shoulders sagging. But Randall was already gone- around the front, following the gravel, and towards the road.

Mercy sighed and tried to force back a smile. She picked up the lock and placed the key in her pocket, then started back for the front. "Come on, Anne, lets get the plates clean 'for Daddy gets home."

He still wasn't dead yet. The human food had yet to stop his heart or cripple him into a mess on the ground. Even if humans in general weren't truly deadly to the touch, he still had suspicions about their foods on a monster's body. But he was still moving, still breathing. Still able to snap his teeth and disappear. All he had eaten were a couple of meat sticks, still stuck to the bone of their animal. They had been fairly good, too, despite Mercy having mentioned they were left overs.

He didn't intend to be staying with the girls permanently, however if the food wasn't going to kill him there was no reason why he couldn't use the house as a hide out for a while (and get fed, naturally). But right now, he had other things to do.

Randall was on the other side of the road. He was poking around in invisibility, taking in information; looking for something helpful to his cause. Yes, he finally decided, it was worth getting back to the monsters' world. For revenge.

The trailer he'd seen while on top of the girls' house was familiar up close. Even though it had been the middle of the night before, he easily recognized it now in full light. That was the place he had came to the human world from. Where he got the first bruises lumped onto his poor aching noggin. He decided he did not want to try and get inside again. At least not now, without planning.

He avoided the yard and crept on over to the other house; the one Mercy mentioned was harboring a child for the summer. It didn't sound promising since it was not the child's permanent home, but he was curious either way.

I feel this is a bit short- even if it's about the same length as the other chapters. Not the most eventful, but getting there! Thank you to those who have read this far into it.