Chapter Text
Boo wiped off the tears that were dripping from her nose and stuffed the last of her clothes into her backpack. She hated that she cried when she was angry. She could hear her aunt and uncle fussing in the living room about who’s job it was to pack up the attic, since the movers refused to do it. Shoving her journal into the bag, she reminded herself that this was the last time she would have to listen to them arguing.
Closing her bedroom door, she moved to the closet. Normally Kittie turned the door off when he left. But when he came to see her a month ago, he had forgotten to turn it off. He had made her promise, the first time he took her back to the monster world, that she would only go with him. Never alone. But this was an emergency.
The voices in the living room rose to a fevered pitch and started to move towards her room.
“I can’t believe you said that to me!”
“You mean the truth, or the truth you didn’t want to hear?”
“I mean the part where you swore last week that it was the last time you were going to smoke, and then lied to my face when I found a pack hidden in the back of the cabinet!”
“Those are Charlotte’s!”
“I cannot believe you!”
Boo opened the door to the closet as the door to her bedroom slammed open. She turned as her aunt screamed in horror at her first view of the monster world through the closet door.
Boo panicked. The number one rule, Kittie always said, was that no one could find out about the monster world, or him.
“You have to be careful Boo. If anyone finds out, we could all be in danger.”
Kittie’s words reverberated through her head as she watched her aunt and uncle run toward her. In a split-second decision she turned and ran through the door, charging into the monster world. Banging it shut behind her, she turned and jumped up, smashing the active light and disengaging the door.
“Charlotte!”
Her aunt’s scream was cut off abruptly, leaving only the sound of every monster on the laugh floor turning to stare at her.
“Uhm, hi?”
She waved at the room, turning awkwardly toward the exit. She had been here before of course, but only with Kittie, and usually at night. He and Mike had introduced her to a few of their friends, but for the most part he had kept her from other monsters. It was just safer for everyone that way. She looked at the time board at the end of the room. It was 6 am here. Kittie would still be at his apartment.
“Hey! What are you doing? You can’t be in here!”
Turning, Boo ran from the laugh floor and down the stairs. She could hear the security team chasing after her, but she had always been fast. She pushed out of the front doors and onto the street in the early morning light. It took her a second to find her bearings, but after a moment she recognized where she was and turned north towards Kittie’s apartment.
The pavement flew under her feet as she ran. She caught a few questioning glances as the early morning commuters pushed to the edge of the sidewalk to let her by. Boo tried not to look at them as she ran. Kittie’s words rang in her head. “You have to be careful Boo.” She was in so much trouble.
Finally, she reached the apartment. Banging up the stairs, she stopped at the doorway. How was she supposed to explain this? She couldn’t come up with an explanation that was reasonable or acceptable. She reached for the handle, but the door opened before she could turn the knob.
“Boo?”
She looked up into Kittie’s face and tried to come up with a convincing smile.
“Hi.”
“What are you doing here? Get inside!”
Kittie pulled her inside and shut the door, looking around outside. Boo shuffled her feet as she looked into the apartment. Kittie ran his hand over his face. She could feel the anger radiating off of him as he knelt down to her eye level.
“Why are you here? What have I told you about coming here without me?”
“I just, I mean, I needed to, I just couldn’t-“
“You couldn’t what?”
“I couldn’t leave.”
Tears started to well up in Boo’s eyes, and Kittie became a fuzzy outline of blue and purple. He reached out and pulled her to himself.
“Hey, everything’s gonna be ok.”
He pushed her back and looked her over, checking for any visible signs of the emergency that had brought her to his door. Seeing none, he asked,
“Are you ok? Tell me what happened.”
Boo pushed past him and into the living room, taking her seat on her favorite purple chair. Curling up, she couldn’t quite make her eyes meet his. Crouching down he met her gaze.
“Boo honey, you gotta tell me what’s going on. Are you ok?”
Sniffling, the story started to pour out of her almost involuntarily.
“I just can’t leave with them. I can’t do it. After mom and dad… left. I hate it. The house is full of them. And their stuff. And the smoke from their cigarettes. And all of their lies. And arguments. I hate it. I can’t breathe in my own house anymore.”
Sulley pulled Boo to himself as she started to cry.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“When you come are the only good times. I didn’t want to let them have those parts too. You’re mine. Not theirs.”
“I’m always here for you honey. That’s never changing. But you still haven’t answered my question. What’s going on?”
Taking a shuttering breath, Boo sat up and looked at Sully.
“We’re moving.”
“Moving?”
“Yeah. To a one-bedroom apartment in the city. They lost the house, so they’re downsizing.”
“To a one bedroom?”
“Yeah. With one closet.”
Sully looked down at Boo, suddenly understanding the situation.
“And you figured I wouldn’t be able to come to see you anymore. So you decided to come see me.”
Silence filled the room for a few moments. Boo sniffled, trying to find the right words. Finally, the simplest one seemed easiest.
“No.”
“What do you mean?”
“I didn’t come just to see you. I came to stay.”
Sully stood up suddenly, all the gentleness gone from his movements. He started to pace up and down the room.
“No.”
“But it-“
“No! That’s it. End of discussion.”
“You can’t make me go back there!”
“I can and I have to. Charlotte, you can’t stay here.”
Boo quieted down, sobered by the use of her real name.
“You never call me Charlotte.”
“Well, you’ve never made a mistake quite this big before!”
Boo stood, her blood rising to a boil. Stalking to the other side of the room she turned on her heel sharply to stare him down, angry tears starting to roll off of her nose.
“You can’t send me back.”
Sully moved towards her, reaching out to hold her again.
“I have to honey. You can’t just disappear from your world without a trace. People will come looking. And they can’t find us. You could put the entire monster world in danger.”
Boo stiffened, remembering her aunt’s scream as she looked through her closet door.
“Actually Kittie, I think I did something bad.”
Sully laughed cynically and moved back to the purple armchair.
“Just add it to the pile of mistakes made today. What did you do?”
“Well… when I came here, I was kinda in a hurry. And I opened the door, and my aunt saw it.”
“Saw what?”
“The laugh floor.”
“What?!?”
Sully stood quickly, knocking the chair over in the process. Rushing toward the door, he pulled Boo with him.
“Come on. We’ve got to get you back to the human world as soon as possible. If they’ve seen something… come on!”
“Well, that’s the other thing.”
Sully looked down, a look of dread on his face.
“What now?”
“I kinda broke the door.”
“Charlotte!”