Chapter 34: The Shadow Monster
"What level of Math would she be at? Should it just be Biology right now… Physics is way too advanced… And what English should it be? Should I do Shakespeare?" Mia mutters to herself.
"What are you doing Mia?" Georgie asks, coming to the kitchen table with his crayons and colouring book. He jumps on a chair and plants himself across the table from her.
"Just making a list of what books to buy for my tutoring job," she says. "Now the real work begins."
She looks up at her cousin as he dumps his box of crayons all over the table, letting them roll wherever they please and making a big mess. She has to move her plate with the half-eaten toast to avoid the avalanche of Crayola colours.
"Hey, didn't Uncle Zack put a desk in your room? Why aren't you colouring there?"
"Because it's next to my closet and that's where the monster is," Georgie explains, looking for a fresh page to start colouring. He then grabs his blue crayon and starts to scribble.
"Georgie, I had Uncle Zack check the walls. It was probably just a squirrel that you were hearing."
"But what about the lights?" he asks.
"The squirrel might have been chewing on the wires," Mia shrugs. She's with her Aunt Sharon at this point, Georgie needs to stop being afraid of the monsters in his closet. He's been coming into her room in the middle of the night with his blanket and pillow and sleeping down next to her bed. Maybe her lights are comforting to him because she sometimes forgets to unplug them when she's up late reading.
"No, that's how you tell the monsters are there. It makes the lights go crazy. It eats the light."
"Georgie…" Mia says firmly, giving him a look of annoyance.
The tiny kid looks down, insulted and ashamed, distracting himself with his colouring.
He begins colouring more aggressively, venting his frustrations at the fact that no adult will believe his stories. Mia can see tears forming in his eyes and he wipes his nose once to hide it.
"Hey buddy," she says, trying to hide the guilt of having to be hard on him. She slides an extra piece of white paper over to him. "How about you draw us a picture of the monster so we know what it looks like, and we can keep an eye out for it? And maybe when you draw him, you won't feel as scared anymore."
His eyes light up eagerly and he takes the paper to start drawing the monster.
"It has long arms like this…" he mutters to himself as he uses his black and brown crayons.
Mia goes back to her list of books and thinks about how much money she has. Hopefully, it's enough, but if she'll have to sacrifice one subject, it'd probably be Geography… plus there's always the library.
Bill walks into the kitchen and goes for the fridge. Pulling out a can of Coke, he opens it and turns to his cousin and brother, both involved in their own things.
"W-What's going on here?" he asks, walking over.
"Mia told me to draw a picture of the monster in my closet, so I'm not so scared anymore."
Bill and Mia exchange looks of acknowledgement that this was a good idea. As much as they loved Georgie, he had to stop coming into their rooms at night, interrupting their sleep.
He leans over to see what his brother's drawn so far. It's a large black and brown form with long and thin arms, legs, and fingers. He's working on the head, but it seems a lot smaller than the rest of the body, but that could just be that Georgie didn't know about body proportions yet.
He plunks himself at the head of the table, between his two relatives and continues sipping his soda.
"And w-hat are your doing?"
"Trying to find out which Shakespeare play to focus on for tutoring… what are you guys studying right now?"
"N-No idea. I think the t-teacher said we were looking at Twelfth Night later."
"That's a good one… kid-friendly enough but I want to get her really hooked on English. Twelfth Night is funny, but she might not get the humour. She's been homeschooled for a long time, so she hasn't had the exposure to the Bard as you have."
"H-Honestly, I don't think anyone gets the h-humour," Bill admits. "It's kind of boring."
"It's only because it's written in Old English and that's hard for a lot of people," Mia mutters. "Especially teenagers."
Personally, she liked Shakespeare a lot. Their grandmother had a big book of the plays and even when the teen would protest, she would say to her granddaughter "You need to have some culture in your life Amelia Alexis, one way or another." When it rained and the power went out, her grandparents would build a fire and light some candles. Grandma would take the book down and let Mia pick the play. Then all three of them would divide the parts and act out the scenes, even though most of the time she and her grandpa had no idea what they were saying. Marion Walters, however, had been an English major when she married Zeke Walters and taught at the local college of their town. The two had moved to Milwaukee a few years after they got married and she continued teaching. They then both moved to the farm, giving up their careers in the city before having and raising their family. This did not mean that Grandma Mary let her children and now grandchildren grow up without a strong interest in literacy and the English language. Both her daughters could quote the famous parts of novels and now Mia was going to be teaching it, the woman should be very proud.
"Half of these plays are either too violent, like Macbeth or Hamlet or King Lear, or have too much history like Richard III or Julius Cesar. The Merchant of Venice and Othello deal with bias and racism… not ideal for the age group… Midsummer Night's Dream is better but still complicated. The donkey head might be funny, but…"
"W-Who knew it would take so long to just p-pick one p-play," Bill jokes.
She nods in agreement before circling her final two choices. "Guess it's between Twelfth Night and The Tempest then," Mia decides.
"What's a Tem-pest?" Georgie asks.
"It's a fancy word for storm," his cousin replies. "It's a pretty good story. Lots of magical elements in it and a decent ending. It's one of my favourites."
"Do you think she'll like it?" Bill asks.
"I hope so."
"What's her n-name again?"
"Jane. Jane Hopper, she's the police chief's daughter."
Jane… Jane… Bill ponders in his head. Wasn't she that girl that they'd met when they first moved in?
"Now it's just a matter of paying for the books…"
"Done!" Georgie announces, startling the other two people at the table.
He holds up his picture to show them. The crude drawing of a six-year-old cannot mask what was unknowingly a real creature and is extremely dangerous. George Denbrough had drawn two very tall figures with black/brown bodies, long spindly limbs and fingers and tiny heads.
"I had to draw two because I've seen him two ways…" the young kid explains. "I think this is his mouth and when it's closed, he has no face. No eyes. When he opens his mouth, it looks like a fan, and it's all red inside with teeth. He's so tall that he hits the top of the closet when he stands up…"
Georgie carries on with his explanation, but Bill and Mia are unable to respond to what they're seeing. Either their brother/cousin has an intense imagination, or he's been watching re-runs of John Carpenter's The Thing unsupervised. It looks like something from a horror movie and is also extremely unlikely to exist. How could something that big be living in a six-year-old's closet?
They shake off their shock and just zone out whatever else he says. It wasn't real, couldn't be real, but Aunt Sharon had to see this as soon as possible.
"I call him the Shadow Monster because that's where he hides."
"D-Does he look scary now?" Bill stammers, trying to finish what Mia had started.
"He's still really scary looking," Georgie admits.
"But how could something that tall live in your closet?" Mia asks.
"I don't know, but I know that if I keep quiet, he doesn't bother me."
Just then, Sharon comes into the kitchen after being in the backyard doing some yard work and cleaning up for the winter season.
"What are you three up to?" she asks, going to the sink to clean her hands.
"Making a list of books I need to buy," Mia answers. "I just don't know if I have enough money."
She bites her lip, not wanting to ask her aunt or uncle, but now that she has a job, she could pay them back easily. She winces and decides there's no harm in asking.
"I was wondering if I could borrow some money. I promise I'll pay it back and if I can't I'll do extra chores to make up for it."
Sharon dries her hands and mulls it over in her mind.
"How much do you need?"
"I only have 30 dollars left from the money I brought and I still need to get my Mom to help me make my new bank account. I just might need another 30. I promise I will pay you back, Aunt Sharon."
"Let me talk it over with Uncle Zack, but I think that would be okay."
Mia races over and hugs her aunt tightly, fighting off tears.
"Thank you," she says. "Thank you so much."
"It's my pleasure, as long as it's for your job and nothing else."
"It will be I promise," she says.
"Mommy, look!" Georgie calls out, holding up his paper. "I drew the monster in my closet."
The colour drains from Sharon's face as she looks at the strange creature her son has drawn. It disturbs her that this is what her son is dreaming about. Where could he have possibly seen such a thing? Comic Books? TV? Movies?
She swallows and goes to take the picture. "I… I see,"
"His name is Shadow Monster. Mia said it was a good idea for me to draw out what's scaring me."
"Well, it certainly is… unusual and scary. Have you seen this somewhere honey? Like on TV?"
"No in my closet," he says exasperatedly. "I told you already."
"O-kay, sweetie, well at least we know what you saw."
"And if we don't get rid of him, he's going to eat us!"
…
"Excuse me, do you have a used copy of The Tempest?" Mia asks the guy at the front desk of Waldenbooks.
After the mood turned uncomfortable with the dive into Georgie's psyche, Mia received the extra money she needed and left the house to head to the mall. She took the shuttle bus up there and went straight to the bookstore. The sheer size of Starcourt and the amount of noise was overwhelming at first, but she soldiered on and found her destination. It was exciting to see the place and watch all the people trudging through, a place where normal teenagers hang out, but the young girl from Wisconsin had to get ready for her job.
"Check the bargain bin," he answers, pointing to a basket in the corner.
To save as much money, Mia's trying to buy some things second-hand, but for a few of the books, she is going to have to buy new ones no matter what. So far, she has enough to cover everything. She just hopes that a discounted Shakespeare book will keep a little cash in her wallet.
Sadly, that is not the case, and she might have to buy a new copy.
When she places all the books on the counter, the charge is more than what she has and Mia begrudgingly has to put The Tempest back.
"You could go to the library," the clerk at the front desk suggests. "They usually have older books that you can buy second-hand and they're pretty cheap."
The girl smiles in relief.
"Thank you."
Mia hurries out of the store, hoping to catch the shuttle and head down to the library.
However, when trying to run to get in line, she's not looking where she's going. Her shopping bag gets snagged on a parking sign out front. While trying to pry it free, she uses too much strength causing her bag to rip, the supplies to litter the pavement and for her to stumble into someone.
"Oh God, I'm sorry," Mia says to the person before turning and immediately leaning down to pick up what she's dropped and fast. "I'm so sorry."
"Where's the fire?" the stranger asks.
"Trying to catch the bus," she explains, frantically gathering everything.
The person leans down to help her pick up her books. They don't make eye contact until he hands her some of the books.
The two look up at one another and gasp in surprise. They both let out a laugh and smile in recognition.
"Hello again," Steve says.
"Hi… oh God… I can't be this much of a klutz. How is it I walk into the same person twice like this?"
"No idea."
"Maybe the universe is trying to tell us something?" she says, trying to organize her books in her arms as she now had to carry them.
"Us?" Steve smirks, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh god… I'm sorry… I'm sorry," she says, laughing awkwardly and turning fuchsia in the face. "I don't know why I said that."
"It's fine," he says, smiling. He looks at the books that he helped pick up. "Middle School Math? Level 5 Science?" He reads the titles aloud. "I thought you were a senior."
"I am, I uh I just got my first job tutoring a younger student and I had to grab the basics for lessons."
"Well, congratulations… on the job I mean."
"Thank you," she says looking down at her shoes and blushing further. She pulls a loose lock of hair behind her ear.
"It's Mia Rogers? Right?"
"That's me, and you're Steve Harrington. The kind of guy you'd meet in the hallway." Mia looks down, embarrassed by her dorky banter while bringing up things from their first conversation.
"Sure, and you're the kind of girl someone would meet in Wisconsin," he says, still smiling.
The girl was cute, especially when she was embarrassed.
There's a long pause between them.
"So, are you going in to work?" Mia asks, remembering that he'd mentioned working at Starcourt before.
Steve zips his coat up completely to conceal the awful sailor outfit he was forced to wear for his minimum-wage job. Fortunately, his hat was shoved in his pocket and while his shorts were showing, they could pass for athletic shorts.
"Oh yeah, have to work the afternoon shift," he says, biting his lip.
"Well, I should come to visit you sometime," she smirks at him, blushing even harder.
"Uh…"
Suddenly, the bus pulls up.
"Oh shoot, I have to go. Nice meeting you again," she calls behind her as hurries to get in line.
"Yeah… nice to see you again," he says, waving.
He stands and watches until the bus pulls off. He looks for her in the windows as it passes and sees her face. She smiles and waves at him before the shuttle continues on.
He hoped to see her again.
A/N: Sorry if this seems like a really mundane chapter, have to get the extra details put in and build the relationships further. More to come.