Tap tap tap. A groan came from Mercy's bed. Tap tap tap tap tap! The teen woke with a start, groggily shifting in her soft blankets. She sat up, then slumped back down and closed her eyes again.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
She lept back up in bed flinging off her covers in the process, then turned a messy head to investigate the loud noise outside her window, which was on the far wall opposite of her bed to her left. Randall's scaled face appeared in the glass and Mercy gasped, knocking her head back against the wood of her bed. "Shhhh-" she caught herself before she cursed. She had almost forgot that Randall had slinked off after they released him that day.
Mercy clambered out of her bed and shuffled over to her window, nearly hitting her toe on the table at her bed side. It took a minute in the dark, but she slid open the window for him eventually. This time, she remembered to move away from the opening before he decided to burst through. Which he did, of course. "Could'a just used the door, stupid lizard." She grumbled, rubbing sleep from her eyes and moving back to her bed.
"It was locked." He replied, as if it was an obvious answer. It should have been, being that Mercy was the one to lock it before everyone settled into their rooms.
She switched her lamp on and the room was illuminated. "Close the window, will'ya?"
Randall glared but complied. He looked around her room warily, as he had never stepped foot into a human's room who was older than nine, at the most. Teenagers were supposed to be unscareible, along with adults.
"What? You act like you never been in a girls bedroom before." Mercy said from her bed where she sat at the edge, legs crossed. Her hair was a big poof ball, and stray strands stuck out everywhere.
"That's dumb, of course I have. But they were little girls." Randall said. He had a question on his mind but was somewhat reluctant to ask it. Instead he took to taking a book off of a bookshelf and flipping through it. 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' It looked sort of lengthy to him. He wondered what humans wrote about.
"Little girls?" Mercy asked, propping herself up by her arms.
"Yeah, that's what we do. Scare kids." He placed the book back and looked at her. "I told you before, remember?"
Mercy thought a moment, but then it came back to her. "I thought you were just trying to scare us when you said you went in childrens' rooms!"
Randall grinned his trademark toothy grin and laughed. "It was my job." He said, lifting his chest and head. "I was the best scarer there, too! No one could out scare Randall Boggs!" What she didn't know wouldn't hurt her; he'd truthfully been second best to Sullivan.
The human looked slightly shocked to imagine that children endured such things simply for the monsters' pleasure. "What sorta place even does that? Pays you to freak out lil' kids."
He rolled his eyes. "It's not like we didn't have a reason. It's how we power our cities and homes. If we sometimes made a contest out of it, so what?" He shrugged defensively, as if this 'contest' hadn't made him highly aggressive to the point he put lives at risk. Human and monster lives.
Mercy rose an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "That sounds soooo believable."
"Well I'm not asking you to believe it. I don't care what you believe." He snapped back. Then he added "I was still the best scarer, though." Followed by another toothy grin.
Then a thought occurred to Mercy. Randall had began to make his way to her shut door before her voice cut him off. "Why are you here? You're not scaring any little kids, obviously."
Randall's hand hoovered over the door knob. He hesitated, then twisted to look at her with an expressionless face, tail twitching at the tip. "That's really none of your business."
Mercy had shifted her position to continue facing him. She crossed her arms and lowered her head- if she wore glasses she would have been looking up from under them. "As long as ya stand in this house, it is!"
"Hmph." Randall sneered. He opened the door and did his vanishing trick. Mercy could hear the light pitter-patter of him moving down the hall; his four feet moving carefully and quickly over the carpet. She made a face, getting up to go look around the door frame. She whispered, not wanting to make noise. "Where do ya think you're goin'?" But he didn't reply.
She sighed. If he was going to leave he could have gone back out of the window. She shut the door back and just as soon as she got up into her bed, there was a light knock at the door. She was slightly aggravated, getting up for what felt the millionth time tonight. The door cracked before she got to it.
"Sweetie, you awake?" Came the low voice of her father.
She walked the few steps distance between she and the door and opened it to greet him. "Yeah, sorry, I woke up. Couldn't go back to sleep so ah- I was just reading."
"Out loud?" He asked. He was a tall man, standing over her. His hair was mousy brown and messy from tossing and turning in his sleep, and he was wearing sweat pants but missing a top, exposing his chest. He scratched it sleepily.
"Out loud?" Mercy parroted.
"Yeah, I thought I heard talkin'."
"Oh! Sorry, was I too loud?" She asked, scrunching up her face in exaggeration.
"Nah, was just makin' sure. Can't be too careful, could'a been someone done broke in."
Mercy smiled and laughed gently. "You're always so paranoid. You would'a heard the window shatter, or the door bust open."
He nodded and smiled sheepishly back down at her. "Ah well, g'night sweetie."
"Night Daddy." He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and then shuffled back to his room. Sometimes he didn't sleep very well- not since their mother left them. Mercy didn't like to think about her much.
She shut the door for a second time and yawned. Walking to her bed she finally decided it was a good idea to check her clock, which sat beside her lamp on the table. She glanced over at the bright blue digital numbers which read- "One in the morning? Aggggh." Now, she really was awake.
The door opened and shut swiftly, allowing entrance to what looked like a floating bag of chips that had been torn open and ripped half way down the side. Mercy nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden noise and shock of seeing nothing but floating chips enter, until she remembered Randall had exited invisible.
"Knock next time you douche!" She said, keeping a lower voice to not disturb her father again. She had placed a hand on her heart, which was beating so fast she felt it would leap out any second.
He reappeared and sat down in the middle of the room then stuck a hand down into the bag, greedily shoving a fistful of greasy chips into his wide mouth. "These aren't bad," He said with his mouthful. "but I accidentally spilled most of them in your kitchen trying to open the bag!"
"You have horrid manners!" She accused, looking appalled. She flung her legs over the far end of the bed and glared at him so hard, that if looks could kill he'd certainly have been dead by now.
"Ha," Randall laughed, wiping crumbs from his face. "like you're any better. Hey, I was going to ask you earlier, what's the deal with the family in the trailer?" It was as good a time as any to bring them up.
"Oh, you mean the Barrow's?" She asked.
"If those are the humans in the trailer." He replied smartly.
Mercy tapped her pointer on her lips and looked up at the ceiling. "Well. Where do I start with them. They're trailer trash, ta say the least." She shrugged. "They been in trouble fer animal abuse in th'past. Not feeding their dogs. Used to have'a lot of them dogs, too. Daddy didn't want us getting involved with them, but I guess the other neighbors called up someone cause the dogs was takin' away."
"Hm." Randall acknowledged, consuming what was left of the chips. He licked the salt off his fingers with his forked tongue. "Got kids?"
The human shrugged again. "Think they gotta toddler or somethin'. Maybe a year old? I'unno, I see a lil' girl in the yard sometimes. Then there's a boy, but he's actually about twenty. Still living with mommy! Don't see how all three of'em can live in a tiny thing like that. Must share rooms. "
Randall nodded then stood up and walked over. He held out the empty chip bag by his thumb and first finger, then dropped it onto her bed. "Here." He said.
Mercy frowned at him. "If you're gonna be eatin' all our snacks you best be cleanin' up after yourself. Like in the kitchen, for example? Don't think I'm gonna be th'one to go and clean that mess up."
The monster bared his teeth and lifted his chin condescendingly. Much like a teenager getting an attitude with their parents. "So what if I don't?"
"Randall Boggs, if'n you don't listen to me I have half'a mind to beat you over the head again n'put you right back in that little cage!"
He looked astonished. "You wouldn't dare!" Though there was a tone of pain in his voice. His head had enough bruises already, and the girl looked awful serious.
She glared up at him, stone faced. "Randall." She said threateningly.
He glanced around as if nervous and unable to look her in the eyes. To think he- a monster – could let himself be frightened by a mere teenager. Then again, the entire monster world had been deathly scared of children. But this was different. "Tch, fine." He finally agreed, head lowering almost down to her level (he was about a head higher than her). "I'll be right back." He grumbled in aggravation.
"Good boy." Mercy praised, smiling proudly. She just commanded a 12 foot long lizard from another dimension to go clean up a mess of chips upon the floor; she felt powerful. "Oh! And throw away the bag while you're there, too."
"Whatever you say, your highness." He said sarcastically, snatching the bag from the bed. He went invisible then opened her door and moved to obey the orders.
After wards was the matter of sleeping arrangements. He had made it clear he was not going to sleep outside. And being that Mercy seemed set on trying to go back to bed, there was a question that needed to be answered once he had returned (after assuring her he didn't just sweep the chips into his hand then dumb them on the counter).
"Bed, or floor? I have extra blankets you can borrow in my closest." Mercy said, moving from her bed to retrieve the blankets.
"I'm not sharing a bed with you!" He snapped, flattening his fronds like a cat flattens its ears.
She pulled a fuzzy blue blanket from the closest, and then a pink one after. They were identical in size and material, if only for the color. "S'not like we'd be sharing a friggin' pillow. You'd sleep at the end'a the bed." She brought the blankets and laid them onto the floor, opposite of the side with the table. "Kinda like a dog!"
He growled.
"Hey now, dogs with an attitude get put outside!"
"I'm not a dog!"
Mercy rolled her eyes, a hand on her hip. She gestured towards the blankets on the floor. "Well? You want the floor then?"
"What part of 'not sharing a bed' don't you understand?"
Mercy rose her hands up, palms showing. "Fine, fine. So mean. Hey but, when I think about it, ya should probably sleep in the closet anyway. So nobody walks in on a great big monster snoozin' beside my bed. I mean- well, so Daddy won't."
Randall nodded. "Fine." He went to scrape up the covers and went to the closet.
"Ya'might need to move some stuff outta the way." Mercy noted, climbing into her soft bed.
"That's where we come out of, you know."
She gave him a puzzled look. "Huh?"
"The closets. Monsters come out of the closets." The little space was big enough for two humans to sleep in, if they cleared the floor enough. He swept away clothes that had been tossed onto the ground and threw shoes to the sides. Then he plopped down both blankets and carved out a little nest with all four of his hands.
"Oh. Well, I could'a guessed that. Closets and under beds."
Randall shook his head. "No, just the closets." He smiled to himself when he realized how fitting it was for him to be sleeping in one. It was a shame Mercy was too old to be scared anymore. He would have had a one way ticket back home; where he could exact revenge upon his rival for all that he'd done.
"Close the door. G'night, mister monster."
"Don't call me mister monster." He grumbled before clambering into the blanket nest and complied. It was dark even without Mercy turning off the light beyond the door.
"No." She replied, slipping under the covers and turning off her lamp. It was hard to sleep.
Today was lazy; if it hadn't been for Mercy's younger sister the teen would have slept well into the afternoon. Being that Mercy had to deal with Randall waking her in the night, she could have done so with ease. Their father had already gone to work and left the two to their own summer devices. It was a Wednesday, and their father had work off on Saturday and Sunday. But today he was gone; and Mercy had opened her drowsy eyes to what her dreaming mind believed was an earthquake.
"Mercy. Mercy! Get up." Anne shook her sleeping sister vigorously. The older jumped in shock and squinted unadjusted eyes up at Anne, scrunching her face. She covered her eyes with the back of her hand and rolled over. "It's twelve thirty. Randall made a'mess in the kitchen. Won't listen ta me, go tell'em we ain't got no chicken."
Mercy groaned and slipped a leg out from under the covers of her warm bed. Her foot hit the ground and she stopped a second, as if she feel asleep again. A moment later she tossed the covers off of her sleeping form and squirmed up onto her two feet. "Le's get'em." She mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
The girls made their way down the hall and stepped into their joined living room and kitchen. One half of the room was carpeted (not without stains)- with a couch, chair, and small TV set. The other had tile flooring, counters with a sink, a refrigerator, dishwasher, and a small table with three chairs in the center. Everything that was once in the refrigerator littered the counters and table. There was a jar of spilled grape jelly on the floor, too. The refrigerator door was wide open. Mercy grimaced.
"I told ya." Anne said. "He wouldn't listen ta me!"
Mercy scratched her mess of a head and placed a hand on her hip. She looked around til she found a somewhat guilty looking Randall who was half way into tearing up their pantry, too. He shrugged. "What?" He asked innocently, though his face betray him. It was obvious he knew he wasn't allowed to do what he'd done. Like a puppy who knows he's not supposed to chew, but chews his masters slippers anyways then slinks off with his tail between his legs to hide.
"You done done it, now." Mercy warned, stomping toward a door off to the side in the living room that lead to a little laundry room.
Anne looked worried. "Don't go n'hurt him! Jus' wanted some breakfast!" She tried to defend, as if she wasn't the one who woke Mercy up to tattle in the first place.
"I ain't gonna hurt him." Mercy called, emerged with a broom in hand. "Get!" She said, marching over. "Y'all done get!"
Randall rose his four hands up defensively, cornered where he stood. He either had to back up into the partially empty pantry or try and slip past the advancing human girl. "I-I-I-" he stammered. "roar?"
"Nope!" Mercy took the bristly end of the old used up broom and bopped him on the head with it- over and over and over. It didn't exactly hurt but was extremely uncomfortable. Some of the bristles did happen to sting when they poked at his scales, though. He flattened his fronds the best he could in an effort to make himself smaller, then vanished and crawled around the attacking girl. He made for the couch, where he climbed over and hide around the other side, still invisible.
Anne was frowning off to the side, arms crossed. "You should'a listened ta me, Randall! Now you gotta pay with th'broom!"
Mercy glared around at the room, walking into the living room where she heard him run to. "I know you're in here, Randall. Ya either come out n'clean this mess up or you get right outta this house til we let ya'back in!"
When the monster didn't reply and the door didn't open, Mercy said "Anne, go check the other rooms." Anne nodded and went down the hall.
"Now come on out," Mercy said much more softly. "if you come out now maybe we'll help ya clean up. And maybe- just maybe- I'll make you somethin' to eat. And I won't hit you."
There was a short pause of silence. Then the squash purple head of the toothy monster popped up over the back of the couch, looking wary. "Will you give me some of that meat you gave me before? The little girl called chicken?"
"There you are!" Bop!
Randall fell backwards off the couch. "Ahh! You said you wouldn't-"
"I lied!"
Anne came running back to see what the commotion was. "Oh hey, there'e is!" She pointed. He picked himself up and disappeared once more. "Oh, never mind."
Mercy grinned. This was sort of fun. Then her broom was forcefully tugged away from her- and despite her best efforts she was unable to reach out for it as it was quickly broken in half in mid air. The pieces were tossed to the side and the monster reappeared for a second time, inches away from Mercy's face. He was barring his teeth in his usual show of defiance. Anne looked horrified but was quiet.
"You don't scare me." Mercy stated calmly, face set. "Because I know you won't do shit."
Randall's hands on the top set were lifted, as if he were ready to grab the human girl's neck and break her like a tooth pick. His fists clenched and unclenched and he snarled- but he didn't actually touch her.
Mercy grinned. "See?"
He dropped his arms and glared down at her. Then she carefully lifted a hand and stroked under his chin with two fingers, like you would a cat. "Gooood boy!" Embarrassed and feeling humiliated he moved his head away and backed up, prompting an air of smugness from Mercy.
"Well," Anne let out a breath as if she'd been holding it this whole time, then clapped her hands. "now that you done gone and broke our only broom n'we got that settled, we need to be cleanin' this up. Right, Mercy?"
"Yeah." She agreed. Finally settled down, the three set about putting back foods that weren't ruined or nibbled on and getting the sticky out of the floor from the jelly. Randall had certainly learned his place.
Hope you guys had a good 4th of July, to those in the U.S.A.. I went swimming with some friends at a lake, and when it got dark they had a fireworks show. Anyways- I'm trying to put forth some character development. The next chapter may not come for two or three days since I haven't actually started on the 6th chapter yet. Usually I have some or all of the next chapter typed out before posting the most recently finished one. So, that's why it may be longer before an update.
Thanks for reading.