Hi all!

After several days of stress I finally finished my new chapter a few minutes ago. I`ve lost count on how many times I`ve changed it, but I think I`m somewhat pleased with the way it looks now… Please tell me if I`m right or not!

I feel like I keep repeating myself, but once again; I am stunned by all the reviews I receive on this story! Seriously, I never would have guessed! I didn`t even think anyone would read it, but this whole experience have been nothing but a pleasant surprise so far! Thank you!

A special thanks to Reflected Darkness, writer of Randall Boggs - under the darkness, for giving my story such great mention in one`s own!

This chapter is a little darker than the previous one, but I really like its mood; reminds me of the dark, Norwegian winters, which will be upon us in a couple of months. I love the winter! And the autumn, too; as you probably have guessed from username... :P

But anyway, I`m not gonna bore with more thoughts now; please enjoy the new chapter, number 9!

Chapter 9: Fragile

The weekend had seemed to last longer than usual; even though Sulley and Mike hadn`t done much more than they normally did.

On Friday evening, they had been at the cinema to watch an action movie; it hadn`t been any good, and afterwards Mike had accused Sulley for talking him into seeing it and waste his money – although the film had been Mike`s idea all along. Eventually they had picked up a pizza and headed back home; Mike had talked about his plans for the next date with Celia all the way, and he had continued talking for the rest of the evening.

On Saturday, both of the two monsters had slept in; they had breakfast at noon. The day had been very cold, with the ground covered in a thin blanket of snow, so they had decided they wanted to stay indoors all day. They had spent a little time cleaning the apartment, but then Mike had told Sulley that cleaning was not a good way to spend a Saturday. So then they had played a board game instead (which had led to an argument about the dices, which caused them to put it away again right away), followed by a brave attempt to bake mucus-buns. They didn`t turn out too good; they were eatable, but that had been it. In the evening, they had ordered another pizza and watched a talk-show on TV.

On Sunday, Mike and Sulley had decided to step outside to get some fresh air. They had gone for a walk in the park, where they had fed the pigeons the mucus-buns from yesterday, bought hot chocolate from a stand, and watched some kids ice-skate on a pond.

After a while it had started to snow quite heavily, which had caused the friends to head back home. It had snowed all the time while they were walking, and it hadn`t stopped after they`d gotten inside. During the evening, it had started to blow as well, and when the two friends sat down with their dinner (another pizza), there was a raging blizzard outside.

Randall had been on Sulley`s mind the entire weekend. The blue monster had been thinking about him ever since he had left him on Friday afternoon, and was wondering how he was doing; had he been eating?

Sulley was determined to visit Randall again after work on Monday; the lizard clearly needed someone to look after him right now, and Sulley had noticed that during his last visit there, the purple monster had seemed maybe a little less hostile than he had done for the previous two. Sure, he hadn`t seemed happy about Sulley coming over, but the blue monster figured Randall might needed some time to warm up a bit; and then maybe he would accept Sulley`s apology for banishing him, and allow Sulley to talk to him about his tragic past. One could always hope..?

It was still snowing when Sulley and Mike woke up on Monday morning. Apparently, it had been doing so all night, since the thin blanket from yesterday had grown into a thick rug. The radio told them the schools were closed, and although Mike hoped the factory would be too, Sulley dragged him along to work – it was even more important to collect energy in the winter.

After a walk that had taken around ten minutes longer than usual, the best friends arrived at the factory and entered through the main door; it seemed quiet. Clearly, the snow had delayed other workers, too.

Sulley and Mike entered the locker room together, but then they went in different directions; Sulley headed for his office and Mike for the laugh floor – both of them somewhat ready for the new day;

"You know, as CEO it`s actually your choice to close down the business for a day and grant the workers a snow day..!" Mikes last words to Sulley for the morning echoed through the halls of the factory.

The best friends didn`t see each other again until it was time for lunch in the cafeteria; Mike got them a table with Terry, Terri, Art, Squishy and George. For Mike and Sulley, lunch at work was the most important meal of the day; since none of them were fond of (or good at) cooking, dinner at home often consisted of take out-food or a simple sandwich.

"It`s quiz-night at The Horned Fish tonight, anyone who wants to put together a team?" Terri looked at the group around the table with anticipation as he ate his hot eyeball-soup;

"We need to be six; and as usual, they count bodies, not heads…" He looked at Terry, who turned his head with a sigh.

"I`m in!" George smiled. "That`s perfect, we`re six monsters here! We can go there together directly from work!" He made gestures with his hands as he spoke, which caused him to tip his soup-bowl into his own lap.

"I`ll come, too -" Art said, tossing George a box of napkins from his side of the table. "It`s an excellent night for a quiz, the moon`s in my ascendant. We`ll probably win!" The napkin-box hit George in the head.

"Quiz-night sounds good for me and Sulley too. Right, Sul?" Mike looked over at Sulley; the CEO was halfway under the table to pick up the napkin-box, while he desperately tried to come up with an excuse for not spending the evening with his friends;

"Ummmm… Actually…" he got back up and looked at the smiling faces at the table; "There`s something I have to do – or check - tonight."

The smiles decreased as he spoke.

"What is it that you have to check?" Mike looked at Sulley with wonder written all over his face.

"It`s just… something".

"You haven`t told me you`ve laid plans for tonight..! Since when do we keep secrets from each other? We live together!"

Sulley felt a growing feeling of discomfort as he noticed how everybody else at the table fell silent, watching him and Mike;

"It`s… Not a secret, but… I haven`t told you yet".

"So what it is? What are you going to do tonight?"

"I… Can`t tell you". He lowered his voice; "Not here".

Mike glared at Sulley without saying another word; he didn`t like it when his best friend kept something from him.

"…does this mean there`s not gonna be a quiz-team?" Terri was the first one to break the awkward silence that had taken over the table.

"Apparently not"; Mike looked at Sulley with an accusing expression, and Sulley`s answer was to look down in his own lap and mumble that he was sorry; although he doubted anyone heard it.

"We can call Don..!" Squishy`s interruption was a welcoming break to the rather tense atmosphere that had occurred at the table.

Don Carlton had retired from Monsters Inc. a couple of years ago, but his friends still kept in touch with him; especially Squishy, since Don happened to be married to his mum.

"Hey, that`s a good idea", Terri replied. "He`s old, he knows stuff we don`t know!"

"Stuff you don`t know", Terry shot in with a new sigh, looking at his twin.

Eventually, the group agreed on calling Don and put together a team for the quiz. Mike kept his eye on Sulley, who tried to avoid contact with it.

As they left the cafeteria when the lunch-break was over, Mike hurried outside with the rest of the group, leaving Sulley no chance to talk to him. The blue monster felt terrible; he didn`t want to go behind Mike`s back any longer, and decided he had to tell him everything about the whole situation with Randall – the sooner the better.

Monsters Inc.`s CEO left work an hour early. There wasn`t anything left to do for the day, so he chose to call it an early night; besides, his thoughts had been elsewhere all day long, and he couldn`t rest until he knew how his ex-co-worker was doing.

Sulley stamped in snow at knee-height all the way from the factory to Randall`s apartment; the streets had been cleared, but the pavements clearly wasn`t that high up on the city council's list of priorities. At least the snowing had stopped, and the decreasing clouds on the sky revealed the rising moon. Its light fell on the snow on the ground, and caused it to sparkle; it wasn`t every day Monstropolis looked this beautiful.

However, Sulley was too busy hurrying to notice the beauty in the scenery around him; he was eager to find out how Randall was doing after the weekend, and didn`t want to lose a minute. As he reached the lizard`s building, Sulley noticed that his pulse was rising; he figured it had to be because of his struggling with getting through the snow.

Randall`s apartment was dark and quiet; not a single light was on, and the curtains covered all the windows, shutting the moonlight and the beautiful, sparkling snow outside. It took Sulley`s eyes a couple of minutes to get used to the lack of light as their owner entered the apartment from the well-lit hallway on the opposite side of the door.

Sulley stepped inside the living room, turned on some lights and opened the curtains - and noticed that Randall wasn`t on the couch tonight; and neither were his bed-sheets. Was that a good sign? Sulley couldn`t tell, but he got a bad feeling.

He went into the kitchen, still no sign of Randall. He opened the fridge, and his worries grew; the microwave dinners hadn`t been touched.

With a fear that Randall had starved to death during the weekend, Sulley hurried into the lizard`s bedroom; and found the habitant still in bed, covered up in both his usual sheets as well as two extra blankets.

For a second, Sulley wondered whether the other part was still alive or not; he lay so still. The blue monster carefully reached out his hand, ready to poke the sleeping one to check, when the lizard suddenly rolled over. Sulley was startled yet relieved, and his instincts caused him to pull his arm back from underneath Randall immediately, causing the lizard to wake up;

Randall stretched, yawned and gazed at his guest with eyes that were barely open and still full of sleep – as well as confusion; "I guess there`s no escaping you, is there, Sullivan..?"

Sulley was frightened. Something was seriously wrong here, Randall should have been a lot angrier; he had just woken up with his rival`s hand in his bed, tucked underneath him. Sulley figured the other was probably drowsy from the lack of food, but could that really change someone like this?

He looked at the other monster for a long time. Randall glared back at him, and not a word was spoken. It made Sulley even more scared; the normal Randall would probably have chosen this as a good moment to tell him to get out.

Just like yesterday, Sulley was the one to break the silence. He had a hard time finding something useful to say, and landed on the only thing he thought made sense;

"Why haven`t you been eating..?"

"Not in the mood…" Randall closed his eyes again.

"Randall, you have to eat". Sulley placed his hand on Randall`s shoulder, and was surprised that Randall didn`t pull it away. He shook the other carefully to wake him up properly.

"I told you, I`m not in the mood". Randall opened his eyes again, and his voice regained its familiar, grumpy tone. But he didn`t pull Sulley`s hand away.

Sulley paused and took a closer look at the thin creature on the bed; he looked, if possible, even worse than he had done before the weekend. He placed his other hand on the lizard too, and forced him up in a sitting position. That finally caused Randall to pull away from his visitor`s touch, but he remained in the seated position as he listened to what Sulley had to say;

"Listen, Randall, there`s a word for what you`re experiencing right now; you`re depressed".

"Am not". Randall didn`t even bother to lift his gaze.

"Are too. You sleep all day, you don`t eat and you seem to have lost the will to live".

"Have not".

Randall`s monotone answers only caused Sulley to be more sure in his case; the lizard had caught a depression. He sat down on the bed as he continued;

"If you had the will to live Randall, you would have been out there living your life right now..!"

"This is my life right now, Sullivan. It`s what I do; I sleep. I have nothing better to do".

"This is nothing to live for..!"

"So I have nothing to live for, then…"

Randall`s words sent shivers down Sulley`s spine; did he just say he had nothing to live for?

"You have a lot to live for, Randall. You have -" Sulley desperately tried to find something that could convince Randall he had a reason to stay alive; "…you have a great sister and a wonderful nephew".

No response. Clearly Sophie had meant what she had said about Randall not being close to them anymore. Sulley bit his lip as he went over to the window and opened the curtains, trying to come up with something else Randall could live for; it was surprisingly hard to think of something.

Outside, the moon was up, and its light fell on Randall`s face. He squinted as Sulley finally found something; "…you have friends".

"No, I don`t". Randall`s contribution to the conversation surprised Sulley. Not just the fact that he actually talked now, but what he had said; Sulley had already guessed that Randall didn`t have too many friends, but he never thought he would admit it. At least not to him.

"You have friends, Randall..!" Sulley went back across the room and faced the other again, whose answer was to turn away. The hairy monster sat back down on the bed beside him and said, in his calmest, most comforting voice; "You have me".

"You`re not my friend." Randall spoke to the wall.

"Well, I must admit, I`ve never watched us as particularly close, but… I`ve never disliked you, either..! Until - Well, you know when…But when we were working together, I did consider you to be my friend – of some sort..!"

Randall didn`t turn around. He stared at the wall as he tried to recall something in the back of his head, something he had heard Sulley tell Sophie when they had been over last week, when they didn`t know he was there; "I don`t hate him". Sulley had told his sister that he didn`t hate him. And he had said it with such compassion and truth to his voice, and although Randall had been shaking with anger when he heard it, he had believed him. And he sort of believed him now.

"Do you hear me, Randall?" Sulley`s voice pulled Randall back to the moment. "I`m your friend. You have a friend. And you have a sister and a nephew; you have a lot to live for!"

Randall didn`t know what to say. He didn`t know whether he wanted Sullivan as a friend. He didn`t know what to do. Luckily, he didn`t have to think about it; Sulley pulled him off the bed and started talking again;

"And you`re going to start living again right now, we`re going outside for a walk! You need some fresh air; it will increase your appetite! Come on, get up!"

He pulled Randall to his feet, and the purple monster felt dizzy as he stood up properly for the first time in a while; the room spun so much that he had to reach out a hand to lean on Sullivan for a moment, even though it was like poison to his pride.

Within half an hour, Sulley and Randall were out in the streets of Monstropolis. Snow had started to fall again, but much more gentle and graceful now; the moon could still be glimpsed behind the clouds, but Sulley guessed it wouldn`t take too long before it would be covered up. He walked at normal speed, but had to slow down constantly, as the other was falling behind; he wasn`t exactly in the shape of his life…

They fought their way through the snow through street after street without running into anyone; it didn`t surprise Sulley - who else would be out on a night like this? They walked through the empty park. Randall fell behind, Sulley waited; not a word was spoken for a long time.

"When did you get back here, Randall..?" As Sulley had stopped to wait for Randall to catch up for what felt like the hundredth time, he thought it was time to break the silence.

"When you were at my place with Sophie, I had only been there for a day." Randall stopped next to Sulley to catch his breath, eyes on his feet.

"So you`ve been back for less than a week, then..!"

"I would have come sooner if I could. The human world is no place for a monster; you should know better than anyone that a monster can`t stay there for too long… Right..?" Randall looked directly at Sulley for the first time that day.

The blue monster let out a gentle laugh; "Yeah, you`re right… You`re absolutely right..!"

A new period of silence fell between the two as they started walking again. There was no need to talk. But after a while, Randall surprised the other with another break from the silence;

"The first thing I remember after being thrown through the door is waking up in a swamp with aches all over my body… I couldn`t even stand up".

Sulley looked at Randall; he could hardly believe it. Was he going to tell him what happened? He had been waiting for this for days..!

"Then I spent a month or so staring at closet doors at night, waiting for scarers to enter through them…"

"But the factory was closed down in that period…" Sulley couldn`t help but interfere.

"So I figured. I eventually got back here by slump; it was this one night when I planned to…" Randall stopped talking for a while, afraid to reveal his original plan to Sullivan; "To…to drown myself…" A little cough came out as a pathetic attempt to hide the statement; "However, just as I walked by a house, I saw Sanderson…"

Sulley felt another chill travel down his spine; Randall had planned to kill himself?

"…and he left the door open just long enough for me to enter… so in a way… I guess you can say Sanderson saved my life that night… That pathetic fool, he finally did something right, and he probably doesn`t even know about it…"

Randall looked down at his feet again and stopped, regretting the fact that he had allowed himself to be carried away and tell Sullivan about what happened. He shouldn`t have done that.

Sulley stopped too, but he didn`t look at Randall. And when he spoke, he looked in another direction;

"I never should have thrown you through that door…"

"I don`t blame ya. I tried to kill you. If it was me, I would have thrown you through; even if you hadn`t tried to kill me..!"

Sulley turned to face Randall again; "I wish I could have talked to you earlier; before things turned out bad for you".

For a moment, Randall and Sulley were face to face. It was snowing heavier now. The lizard looked away quickly, and continued to stare at his own feet as he spoke again; "I want to go home now".

"Sure…"

They turned around and headed back for Randall`s apartment, whit the snow falling all around them.

What do you think? I had this song on my mind while writing the last scene, Når himmelen faller ned (When the sky`s falling down). It has such a sad yet beautiful touch to it, and it really inspired the chapter.

I think my next one will be ready in the middle of next week – I`ll try my best, but I have a lot to do for the coming days. Please stayed tuned, it`s coming:) Promise!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!