I am having such a horrible time writing at the moment, things may be updated a little slower than usual. Sorry.
Anne knew kids. Being that Anne was 12, she still went to Elementary school. She shared a school with classes full of children just old enough to be scared. By the morning she was ready to peek through one of her year books to search for kids she recognized from around the school. Anne could not think of names off of the top of her head, naturally. However she knew the faces and names of bed wetters and thumb suckers when she saw them.
So, she made a list, and prepared to wake up her sister in excitement. It was a Monday so their father had left for work; the three had the house to themselves. Grinning madly she creaked open her door and looked down the hall. A step into the short corridor, and there came a 'knock-knock.' It took half a minute of confusion and thinking to realize it was the front door.
Anne knew it was not a good idea to open the door to strangers without Mercy or their dad. But she was curious. She left the list behind in her room and hastily made her way to the living room. The front door had a diamond shaped window near the top, so standing on her tippy-toes she was able to just barely peek outside.
'Knock-knock.'
She knew that face. Yes- that was none other than the face of the young man next door. The one who lived with his mother in the trailer; who had helped in abusing poor dogs for a long time. Anne felt uneasy. The Barrows never spoke to them, except to complain for whatever reason. She opened the door slowly and gave a fake smile up at the man, though her eyes looked quizzical. "Um, hello." It made it even more awkward that she was in her pajamas, so she hid slightly behind the door.
"Howdy. Yer pa home?" The man asked. He was scrawny with large arms. A messy tuft of black hair covered his head, poking out in all directions. Anne thought it looked greasy, as if he hadn't showered for a while. There was stumble poking out on his chin, which looked uncomfortable. He was wearing a white wife beater which was covered in brown stains- much like coffee stains. Anne recalled his name was Jacob. Jacob Borrow.
"Nah, he went ta work. My sis is home, though. She's sleepin'." Anne replied slowly, scratching her messy head.
Jacob nodded, taking a moment to look off. He shifted his weight and hooked his thumbs through his blue jean pants. "Well you need ta tell'em that we done seen a gator, n'to be lookin' out fer it." His eyes showed a suspicion, which he concealed in his voice.
Anne almost laughed at how preposterous it sounded. "A gator? This far from the swamp?"
He narrowed his eyes. "You callin' me a liar little girl?"
She was completely straight faced. "Ah, no Mr. Barrow. I just ain't never seen no gator that far 'way from water is all. Mean, they come up on land, but not this far." She rambled.
Jacob nodded slowly. "Well ain't the first we done saw, neither. Reckon it's the same one, only last we saw I didn't get ta teach'em a lesson cause he was too quick. But first time I saw it, nearly killed it!" He said in pride, swelling. He was the sort who found sport in dangerous animals.
"Oh. Okay." Anne replied dumbly. They stood there in silence for a minute before he decided he was done there.
"Well ma just wanted ya to know. I didn't wanna tell ya, so that's why didn't say nothin' day or so ago when we done saw'em. Reckon I'll be goin' now. You watch out for it, cause gators eat little kids like you for breakfast!" He laughed evilly, clapped, then headed back down their drive way towards his home.
Anne rolled her eyes, sneered, and shut the door, locking it behind her. An alligator- this close to their small neighborhood? Impossible. She shook her head and smiled lightly, then went to wake her sister.
This was Anne's little mission. She had found the monster, and now she wanted to be a bigger part of his life. After all the monster hunts that had failed in years passed, she had finally succeeded. And now she was helping the monster to leave. Not that she wanted him to; but she wanted his affection. For some reason she found herself looking up to him. He would be proud of her if she did a good job. So after having breakfast (pancakes and bacon) Mercy and Randall were ready to execute what Anne had cooked up in the early hours she had woken up to.
"So," Anne had said, handing them her list as they all ate. "all we gotta do is show up at their door step, n'ask to come in!"
"Anne, they may not wanna let us in." Mercy had retorted grimly.
"Yeah, but outta the twelve kids I listed don't ya think some of them will? Just say I know'em from school, n'they'll let us in!"
Mercy had taken a moment of thought before shrugging and saying. "I'll have ta look up their last names in th'White Pages. Get their addresses."
"This better work." Grumbled Randall, who had already eaten about six strips of bacon.
Both Randall and Mercy had to admit- it seemed too easy. But Anne was right; surely out of the twelve children listed they'd be able to get inside on a couple accounts just by claiming friendship to the child. Mercy was to pose herself as a distraction to the adults, while Anne and Randall got at the kid. Anne could speak to the child and (hopefully) get them to another room or the outdoors. That way Randall could poke about the room.
The first three tries had been successful, in the form of convincing the parents to allow them inside. Randall did not think them worthy of staying the night at, though. The fourth child had a mother clever enough to actually ask the child if they knew the girl. So, they had the door shut in their faces with a fake "Sorry."
Now they were staring at the steps leading up to a large wooden door. The wooden door, in turn, lead inside a two story white house. It looked rather rich. Anne allowed her mouth to drop open when Mercy pulled up in the drive.
"Alright, everybody out. You know what we gotta do. Let's hope they let us in." Mercy said.
The truck was unloaded of passengers. Mercy fixed her hair before she closed the truck's door and went up the steps with the others. Randall made himself invisible and Mercy rang the door bell. The chime sounded more like the 'dong dong' of an old clock, though. When nobody came to the door, she rang again. When it finally opened, the three (or, visibly, two) were greeted by a little girl the age of- well, a girl who had just started the first grade according to Anne. She seemed short for her age, however, and had long blonde hair. She was wearing a short blue dress and a mismatching pink tutu.
"Hello!" Mercy said sweetly. "Where are your parents?" She looked over the girl's head into the house.
"They went to th'store!" She squeaked in her childish voice, smiling dumbly and staring up at Mercy.
"Oh? They just left you alone?" Mercy asked, astonished. She hadn't expected such a thing- especially from a family living in such wealth for their town.
The little girl nodded. "Uh-huh. Mommy said 'don't you answer the door for no one!'"
Anne rose her eyebrow but continued to keep quiet. "Huh, that's funny." Mercy said humorously. "Because you did open the door, didn't you?"
The blonde child looked confused for a moment, then scared as she realized her mistake. "Ahh! Oops!" She tried to close the door but Mercy easily kept it held open with a hand.
"Well, it'll be our lil' secret. My sister knows you!" Mercy pointed at the girl. "She knows you from school. She says y'take a teddy bear to class."
The child stopped trying to force the door shut and looked at Anne. "Your sister?"
"Yes, can we come in? She has trouble makin' friends you see."
Anne bent over slightly. "I know your name, you're Elizabeth right?"
She nodded. "Yes, I'm Elizabeth, but why come here?" She asked.
"Cause I wanna be your friend."
The child smiled. "You come and play?"
Anne smiled back and nodded at her, straightening back up. The poor kid would have been dead by now had it been anyone but them.
To think the parents just left her there alone frightened Mercy. She had half a mind to stay home with the kid until the parents returned, however she knew if the parents caught them in the house then they might be reported to the police. How were they to know that Mercy and Anne didn't show up to try something funny or steal their stuff? So, as much as Mercy wanted, she understood that they would need to be quick. Poor kid.
Elizabeth took Anne's wrist and tried to drag her inside. Anne allowed herself to be led upstairs and up to the child's room.
"I feel bad for her." Mercy said quietly as she walked in the house and silently shut the door behind her, once Randall had stepped inside and appeared.
"Why?" He asked, eying the upstairs. He wanted to go to her room.
"Irresponsible parents. Reminds me so much of mom. Th'child knows no better." Mercy sighed and shook her head. There was a tinge of sadness in her eyes, but she gave a smile towards the purple lizard in spite of it. "Let's go find Anne."
Randall frowned; he never realized how strong Mercy must be on the inside. He almost didn't want to think about what she meant about her mother. He decided it was not the time to inquire about this at the moment, and disappeared to follow her up the stairs in search of the younger girl.
They found Anne sitting on the floor of a big pink room, having dolls and toys shoved at her. The little girl was rambling something off about each one as she handed them to Anne. Explaining in baby words her personal universe. Anne looked up at, giving an awkward grin towards Mercy as she leaned on the door frame. Almost asking for help.
"Elizabeth, do ya have anything ta eat? I think Anne is hungry." Mercy tried, hoping the girl would fall for it.
Elizabeth looked over at Mercy as if she hadn't noticed her standing there. "Oh! Sammich!" She said happily. "Come on, we go to kitchen. I can make peanut butter jelly on my own." She pulled on Anne as she did at the door before, and they moved awkwardly down the top floor hall, back down the stairs, and into the kitchen. They left Mercy behind at the door frame where she stood but Elizabeth didn't seem to notice or care.
Randall fabricated himself once more after the child was gone. He scampered into the pink room. It was filled with large stuffed animals and doll houses. The kid was spoiled rotten! She even had her own personal TV which was hooked up to a game system of sorts. Randall was looking around for anything interesting. "There's gotta be something." He growled. "I'm so tired of this."
Mercy sighed and laughed internally at him. She glanced at a clock (which looked somewhat like a flower) on the wall. It was almost noon."Sorry. I'm going to be sad when you go."
Without turning towards her he involuntarily smiled. Which, of course, he quickly made vanish as he began poking about the kids things. He pulled open a drawer from a little desk. It was full of colored pencils and construction paper. There were packs of markers and crayons, and there was even tape and safety scissors. Spoiled indeed.
"Hey." He said softly, as if not wanting to be truly heard. He began to look through stacks of paper upon her desk. "Thanks for this. Really." He glanced at paper by paper, and when finding nothing useful would toss them lazily back onto the desk.
"Oh no, really, don't worry 'bout it. Anne was so excited when she finally found a'monster. Always talkin' about Bigfoot, and swamp apes, and UFOs." Mercy laughed. "She's happy ta help, and so am I."
Randall frowned at the papers. He had looked through about twenty little doodles, and was now out of paper. Nothing on (or in) the desk had been of any use. He looked around the room frantically, as if it were on fire, until he spotted a little book on a table beside the child's large made up bed.
"There anything I can do? Ain't no parents to distract." Mercy shrugged, taking a few steps into the room.
"Ahhh, I don't know. " Randall brushed her off as he was now busy with the little book. The book was thick and had a the face of kitten on the cover. It was closed by a strap with a magnet at the end, which stuck to the cover but easily opened up. It was a diary! "You can look through that drawer." He motioned with one of his bottom hands towards the drawer on the table, while flipping through the book with his top hands.
"Alright!" Mercy waltzed towards the table and opened the drawer. There were a few pencils inside and a couple of old coins, but nothing more. "Ain't nothin' in here."
"Mmm." Randall nodded, distracted. He couldn't read the chicken scratch of the diary. The girl was keen on doodling images, however, so he kept looking. He seemed shocked when he flipped past something familiar. His teeth bared, he fingered his way back to the offending sketch. Jack pot.
On the page was a big fat green circle with stick arms and legs. In the middle a big (almost scary) eye and nubby, sharp horns protruding from the head. He was smiling. In the corner was another face, with messy blonde hair and a smile to match the green blob. "Wazowski!"
Night couldn't have come any sooner, Randall decided after hours of laying in wait. The sisters had long since left the rich house, and eventually the child's parents had returned. He figured it would be simpler for him to stay put in the child's room. Even if Randall was invisible and oh-so-careful, he did not want to risk bumping anything or being run into accidentally. So he ended up (in boredom) crawling under the kid's bed and falling asleep. He did not want to be tripped over, so this was a good idea in his opinion.
He had quickly stirred into consciousness when the parents went to tuck little Elizabeth into her bed. He heard them kiss her good night then leave the room. The girl tossed a little and whispered to what Randall imagined must have been a teddy bear, before she finally fell silent. He crawled out from under the bed, keeping to his invisibility, and looked down at the sleeping child. What he wouldn't give to violently wake her with a growl. It was his instinct, but he ignored it. Mercy's disapproval would kill him.
He sat and stared at the closet door, both sets of arms crossed. Soon, Randall found his mind wandering to what had happened after he discovered the green one eyed monster's picture.
Randall had explained the situation to the sisters. Well- moreover giving instruction to Mercy, who relayed to Anne. He would be staying the night at Elizabeth's house. In turn the sisters would go home and wait for tomorrow. There had been slight protest from Mercy, on the account she seemed somewhat upset. As if she hadn't expected to find any evidence of a door he could return through.
"Thank you." He'd said to Mercy as she frowned deeply at him. "Thank you, so much Mercy. I'm going to get to go back because of you and Anne." As a prisoner. . . no, shut up!
The brunette uncrossed her arms and trotted to him quickly, almost squeezing the daylights out of him in a bear hug. He hadn't imagined her to strong! "Listen, if- if you can't get back, or if you- you wanna stay longer, meet us in the park. Tomorrow at noon- at the swings like last time." She pulled back to look up at him. "Okay, mister monster? Don't you forget!"
He softened at her sad gaze. "I won't forget. Park, swings, noon." Then, he had done something he wouldn't have expected of himself when he first arrived to their world. He put all four of his scrawny arms around her body, pulled her in, and hugged her back. He even had allowed himself to pull one of his hands carefully through her soft long hair. Then, he gave her the order to leave the house, and she went downstairs sadly to collect her sister.
He thought he could hear Anne sniffling loudly on her walk to the truck. Randall sighed and prepared for the wait he would endure.
Shook from the memory he snapped his big green orbs to the door knob of the girls closet. It wiggled gently, then the door opened with a soft 'click.' Randall grinned, almost purring, when he saw the round green monster waltz into the room as if he didn't care about being heard.
Sorry for all the line breaks. Things are really about to start speeding up. ;] Thanks for reading.