Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Chapter 1: a monstrous departure

The bedroom was shrouded in total darkness, which was perfectly understandable, since it was the middle of the night, as was the fact that the child inside was sleeping soundly.

In fact, he was so sound asleep that he didn't notice that the door of the large wardrobe had opened slightly, allowing two vaguely shaped beings to tiptoe inside.

However, suddenly, the footsteps on the creaking floor had the effect of waking up the sleeping child, who, instinctively, sat up, pulling the covers up to his eyes, while the silhouettes of two monsters appeared out of nowhere. they stood imposingly in the darkness and…

“Double T, I told you we'd scare him that way!” a female voice protested in annoyance, immediately eliminating the atmosphere of terror in the room, so much so that the boy in pajamas with donuts drawn on them, astonished, turned on the light from the lamp on the bedside table, illuminating in a istant the room full of posters of tightrope walkers and two monsters: a female monster, certainly the one who had just spoken, who had a particular shape, with orange and red fur and two large blue eyes, while the other was male and was tall, large, purple in color, with long and impressive horn.

“Sorry, Val, it's force of habit... you know, as a former Scarer and King Scream…” the purple monster apologized, while the hairy one stopped him: “Yes, yes, but enough talking, Double T! The child is awake!”

After saying those words, Val turned to the little boy and said, with a big smile: “Nice to meet you, you're Larry, right? Six years old, lover of sweet things like donut and balancing acts, right?”

"Yes..." the little one nodded, a little surprised by that strange situation.

Even though he was only four years old, he found it decidedly strange to be faced with two monsters who appeared out of nowhere who not only knew his name, but were also aware of how old he was and what he liked!

It certainly wasn't something that happened every day… or nights, in this case.

“Good, Larry! Today is your lucky day!” Val continued, with a big smile “You are about to witness an incredible performance by me thanks to the help of my assistant Tylor Tuskmon!”

"Assistant? But aren't I your jokester partner?” the purple monster pointed out, while the orange one said, calmly: “It's just for show, Double T! In shows, an assistant is always needed! Smitty and Needleman told me!”

“The orderlies?”

“Yes, Needleman also advised me on what to say when the assistant intrudes on the conversation: 'Shut up! I'm the one talking! You're just a model!”

Larry laughed amusedly at both of their words.

Even though the situation was still very strange, almost bordering on the absurd, he had to admit that it was very funny.

“Anyway, Larry, have you noticed that my friend's horns are incredibly large? Sometimes I wonder how he manages to walk through a door without crashing into it at least once! And to think that his fingers are so small..." Val continued, while Tylor let out a sigh of resignation: "Val, please…"
“Sorry…so, I was saying that since his horns are so big, I'm going to try to fit these donuts into his horns now…ready?” continued the orange monster, taking some donuts from a package in his hand and then taking aim and throwing them... only for them to land straight in Tylor's face and body, completely missing the horns, making Larry burst out laughing loudly.

"Hey!" Tylor protested, while Val apologised, embarrassed: "Sorry... never had a good aim... once, during a volleyball match in elementary school, I hit the teacher in the face! They haven't let me play since then."

At that point, the two monsters turned towards Larry who was still laughing amusedly and greeted him: “Bye, bye, Larry! Thanks for your laughs and see you next time!”

Once out of the closet, the two monsters found themselves in a large hall full of monsters of all sizes and colors.

“Great job, Double T! A laugh-can filled and only with the first laugh!” the orange monster complimented, observing the cylinder connected to the door from which they had just exited fill under the gaze of a small dark gray hairy monster with small horns and sharp teeth, while the purple one with the long horns, commented, trying to remove the remains of the donuts from the body: “Great… please help me get these donuts off me before the next shift or we will make the child laugh by just having me lean out the door! Come on… two more days and then we're off... no work and, most importantly, no Duncan for a week..."

"So, ready for the super awesome and unforgettable MIFT vacation?"

"Sure, Val... you've been talking about it for a year... so, where have you decided to take us?"

"Oh, you'll love it, Double T, even if you don't know it yet... it's a little mountain town called Terror Town!"

"But I know it very well!"

"Really?"

"Sure, I used to go there every year for winter vacation... I have to admit, it's a wonderful idea to go there... you know, the mountains are beautiful this time of year... I'm surprised you chose such a quiet and isolated place for our annual vacation... I thought you'd take us, as usual, to a haunted castle or some mysterious creature sighting site..."

"Exactly."

"Huh?"

“Oh, come on… don’t tell me you’ve never heard of the legend of Raymond Crimson Cloak who lives hidden in Terror Mountain!”

“Val, I've spent I don't know how many winters up there, and I can assure you there's nothing abnormal up there! It's just another urban legend!”

“Instead, I'm sure there's something paranormal and mysterious up there… and this week I'll prove it! I already have my entire paranormal hunting arsenal ready, and Fritz and the others are ready to help me too!” Val declared proudly, before asking with a smile: “Oh, since you seem to know the area, could you tell me what hotels there are in the area? I've organized everything for our vacation, but not where we'll be staying…”

“Yes, mom… yes, I packed the socks… mom, Sulley and I are only going to Las Scaregas for a week, not to Terror Mountain!” the small green monster with a round shape, with one large single eye with a green iris, blurted out, exasperated, at the person who was on the other end of the yellow receiver, under the amused gaze of the large, thick, blue-haired monster with lilac polka dots with two blue eyes who was holding in his hands a frame containing a childish drawing of a large blue monster holding what looked like a little girl by the hand.

“Of course I'm sure, mom! Next Saturday in Las Scaregas there is the Creepes championship final, do you think I can miss it?! However, Las Scaregas is a big, bright, comfortable, safe city… we're not about to go to a jungle, so relax! We'll only be gone for a week, a week, understand?! Seven days! We leave at nine tonight by train... no, you and dad don't need to accompany us! We are grown up, vaccinated and I also have a new car... the twentieth or thirtieth, I don't remember... so, you can rest assured! No, mom, just me and Sulley will go as I've already explained to you a million times, maybe more than less... no, Celia won't come with us... MUM, I'LL DECIDE WHEN TO ASK HER TO MARRY ME! I know you want a grandchild, mum, believe me I know... but this is a personal and confidential matter, okay? Mom, you know she doesn't like baseball and then there's always something to do in the Laugh Floor... so, as I was saying, we will leave at nine in the evening by train and travel for three hours, then, we will arrive around midnight… no, I don't need the torch, mom! And not even a spotlight! Mom, it's impossible for us to miss the stop, it's the terminal! Yes, I swear! You can look at the ticket if you don't believe me! You don't even have to worry about my sleep-wake rhythm! As soon as we arrive, we'll take a taxi and go straight to the hotel, and then go straight to sleep! As for dinner, we will eat something at the station bar or on the train... MOM, I ASSURE YOU THAT I DON'T NEED YOUR SUPER PACKED LUNCH! I don't care if it's healthier and safer than what they serve at fast food restaurants, that's what I decided! So, I'm leaving tonight, I'll stay in Las Scaregas for a week to have fun, then on Saturday I'll watch the match at the stadium and on Sunday I'll go home, I promise! Okay, okay, okay... if it's so important to you, I'll call you often, I promise... but now, please, let me work, thanks! It's my last day at work before the holidays and I have a lot of things to do! HI!" concluded the little Cyclops, closing the call in a hurry, and then sinking into his desk chair, muttering: "Oh, finally... three hours of calling... I was starting to not be able to take it anymore..."

“Come on, Mike… your parents just hope that everything goes well and that you don't miss anything… Las Scaregas isn't near to Monstropolis…” the blue furry monster pointed out, while his friend replied, annoyed: “ Sulley, you know exactly what my parents are like! For them, going shopping at the store across the street is a threat to my safety! I can't tell you what a Herculean effort I had to make when I was eighteen to convince them to let me go to college on my own! They are anxious licensed conspirators! If I think I'll have to call him every night next week just to keep him from having a panic attack... ah, I'll watch TV!"

Mike took the remote control and pressed a button, while the image of two pinkish monsters appeared on the screen of the television placed in front of the desk, one male with gray hair, a small horn and fin-shaped moustaches, while the another was female with blond hair, one green eye, with glasses with a single lens and a horn in front.

Both were elegantly dressed and had the curious distinction of being united in the same centipede body.

“Good morning, Monstropolis! Welcome to ‘I Scream’…” the female side of the curious monster began, while the male side added: “U Scream!”

“The news debate show where we take on the issues of the day.”

“Head to head. I’m Jack.”

“I’m Jill. Today’s topic concerns a monster whose legendary exploits have been on everyone's lips in recent years: the famous thief of scare memorabilia known as The Collector!”

"Exactly! In fact, for a few years now, a thief has been wandering around with a real collecting obsession for the Scarers: first unobtainable scare cards stolen from antique shops, personal objects stolen from other collectors... last year this funny guy even stole the scream-cap that belonged to the famous Scarer Conrad Schmidt from room A113 at Monsters University! Maybe he would have even stolen the one with which Dean Abigail Hardscrabble broke the scare record if it hadn't been destroyed years ago..."

“Jack, do you know anything about the identity of this scoundrel?”

“If it was known, don't you think the police would have already arrested him, Jill?”

“Don't be funny, Jack! I know too that his identity is unknown, so much so that it was the police who called him The Collector! But if I remember correctly, we have an image of him…"

"Certainly." Jack nodded, as a grainy black and white image of a tall, skinny monster appeared on the screen, in front of a painting of a scary monster, but due to the darkness, you couldn't see or understand anything else about the monster, not even how many arms he had.

“This was taken a few months ago, while he was stealing paintings of famous Scarers from the Monstropolis Fear Museum. The photo is grainy because it was taken from a security camera and our thief is damn fast..." Jack continued, while his feminine extremity commented with a dreamy and flirtatious air: "A mysterious thief whose only thing we have on his account is a grainy photo... a nostalgic of the Scream Era... I can already imagine him... young, tall, beautiful... capable of breaking the hearts of all the monsters females of Mostropolis just with his appreciable dark knight charm…”

“I, on the other hand, cannot stand monsters who steal the public heritage of museums! When The Collector stole the Rookie Card of Abigail Hardscrabble from the Smellsonian last year, I didn't sleep all night!”

“And I can confirm it, given that that night I couldn't sleep because he was moving so much… usually it happens because he snores!”

“I don't snore!”

“Yes, of course… lucky you're not engaged, Jack… even if it's more than natural… not everyone can be as fascinating and mysterious as The Collector…”
“Jill, we don't know anything about this guy… it could be a female monster.”

“Oh, don't talk nonsense, Jack! Such a thing is not possible! But I can't blame you too much either, since the intelligence has all gone to my side!”

“Hey, Jill…!”

“The Collector's first theft dates back to about five years ago with the theft of a collection of Scare Cards kept in the bank belonging to Mrs. Marilyn…”

“Oh, I really hope they catch that criminal soon! Someone like that deserves to be thrown in prison for the rest of his days, plus throwing the key down the toilet!” Mike suddenly blurted out, with a furious look, while Sulley tried to reassure him: "Don't worry, Mike, they'll catch him sooner or later..."

“I really hope so, otherwise, I'll go look for it myself!”

“Sorry, Mike… but why is it so important to you that they capture him?”

“Did you hear what that cheap thief steals?”

“Of course, famous and rare Scare memorabilia…”

“Exactly… and even though I am a famous Jokester who has appeared in 24 magazines, 85 commercials and soon I will also get a veteran Laugh Card, no one even tries to steal my things! Damn, they even did an interview with me! Who does this guy think he is?!”

“A Scream Era nostalgic?”

“Why hasn't he tried to steal our Scarer Team of the Year Rookie Card yet?!”

“Maybe because we went from Scarers to Jokesters? And let's not forget that it is only because of us that the energy of scream has been replaced with that of laugh..."

“Ah, never mind… I know who that guy is anyway!”

"Really? And who is it?"

“But it's obvious, Sulley… it's Randall!”

"What?! And why would he steal scare memorabilia?”

“Maybe to get revenge due to the fact that, with the advent of the energy of laugh, the Scarers are no longer of any use… or maybe he was paid to do it, what do I know…”

“In that case, don't you think our things would be the first he would steal if he really was The Collector?”

“Well… he must have understood that the only way to bother me is to not take my things! And this is just the first step towards his revenge!”

“Mike, we haven't heard from him in at least six years, even though he's back in the Monster World… don't you think he's given up on his revenge plans by now?”

“Yeah, right… he'll be there waiting like a hawk, waiting for the best opportunity to pounce on us and take us out! But I'm here, ready to wait for him! If he comes across me, I'll give him a thumbs up, Sulley! My things are worth as much as that ridiculous junk of the Scarers, in fact, more! I'll show you what happens when you screw Mike Wazowski!” the little green monster blurted out angrily, turning off the television in annoyance, while his friend let out a sigh of resignation.

Just then there was a knock on the door and, immediately, Mike jumped, agitated: “Oh, no! Roze is here! Surely she will have come to get me to approve the paperwork once and for all before letting me leave for the holidays!”

“Wait… you postponed the approval of the paperwork again?!” asked the furry friend, while the Cyclops hurriedly hid under the desk, begging him in a low voice: "If it's her, tell her I'm not here!"

“But Mike… what if she asks me where did you end up?”

“Make up that I left early, that I went to the bar… whatever! If she finds me, she certainly won't let me leave before I've finished approving past, present and future practices and with everything I have to approve, I risk spending my holidays stuck in here!"

“Okay, okay… don't worry…” Sulley reassured him, before turning towards the door and saying: “Come in.”

“Surprise!!!" exclaimed a small group of peculiar-looking monsters, triumphantly entering the office with a big smile.

"Guys!" Sulley and Mike exclaimed at the same time, even though the one-eyed green monster, in an attempt to jump up, hit his head against the furniture, making him scream in pain.

“But Mike… what are you doing under the desk?!” asked, astonished, a small pink monster with five eyes and a tuft of brown hair hidden under a green cap, identical in color to that of the sweater he was wearing, while another with a very strange curved purple shape, all hairy and with only two eyes, he exclaimed, “So you live there now, Mike?”

“I categorically doubt it, Art.” declared, annoyed, a head of a curious yellow two-headed monster, with only one eye each, with four arms with tentacles that fit into the long green sweater he was wearing, which had the particularity of having two horns, unlike the another who had only one, who scolded him: “Come on, Terry, don't be so rude.”

“Hey guys, you're all right! Everything okay in the Laugh Floor?" Sulley greeted them, and an elderly monster with two tentacles for arms, glasses for eyes, a small horn for a nose, and a mustache and hair on the sides of his shaved head shaped like fins, wearing a green T-shirt, stepped forward with a big smile and explained, "Of course! Although it's still a little weird making kids laugh after scaring them for years..."

"Well, it seems like, despite the change, you're all still doing well..."

"Oh, yeah... even though I'm getting older... anyway, the ones who had the most success with the transaction were Terry and Terri. From being famous Scarers, they became famous Jesters!" the glasses-wearing monster revealed with a smile, pointing to the two-headed monster, whose head, which had been named Terry, muttered sarcastically, "Too much... we can't even leave the house without someone wanting to take a picture or an autograph!"

“It's the price of fame, Terry... and besides, I don't mind the fact that, despite everything, we're still famous and appreciated..." the other head reminded him, as Terry blurted out: "Well, I wish people would appreciate our privacy and let us rest for once, Terri! Everywhere we go, there's always some die-hard fan bothering us! Nowadays, even just going to get the mail has become a Herculean task!"

“Come on, Terry… the fact that we're so important despite being ridiculed and undervalued for years is something fantastic, isn't it?”

“It would be even more fantastic if I could just walk around the house in my pajamas without fear of someone taking my picture and then selling it to some celebrity magazine!”

“Anyway, we've come to invite you to the annual Oozma Kappa reunion we're having next weekend. Will you be there?” the bespectacled monster asked hopefully, and Sulley, embarrassed, admitted, “Thanks, guys… that's very kind of you… but unfortunately, we'll be out of town on vacation right then…”

“Oh, too bad… well, have fun,” said the bespectacled monster, while the pink five-eyed monster appeared behind him, startling both him and Mike, who was curious: “Where are you going, James?”

“Las Scaregas. We'll tour the city, try the local specialties…” Sulley began, but was interrupted by Mike, proudly holding up two tickets: “…And we're going to watch the baseball championship with the Creepes!”

“Cool! When will it be?” asked the other head of the two-headed monster, the one with only one horn. Mike replied with a triumphant smile, placing the tickets on his desk: “Saturday afternoon, the day before we leave for home.”

“We, on the other hand, will be at the Screaming Flower Festival in Terror Town that very day,” asked the other head, Terry, with the little green monster asking, astonished, “What is that?”

“It’s an annual festival where not only plants and flowers are celebrated, but also their meaning. Plus, there’s a competition for the most beautiful and special flower,” explained the oldest monster of the group, with Sulley saying, surprised, “Really? I’ve never heard of that…”

“Well, it's not really very well known... we only found out because Don has a friend who lives in Terror Town..." the five-eyed monster admitted, pointing to the monster with glasses and tentacles, who added, "Yes, we met through a correspondence program we both joined several years ago... his name is Colin Moon and he owns a Bed and Breakfast in Terror Town called The Lucky Rabbit. He's a very kind and friendly guy and it's always a pleasure to chat with him, even if it's just through correspondence... and one of the topics of our conversation was this festival."

"Yes... so we decided to go to this year's edition, especially since Charlie is going!" Art exclaimed proudly, while Sulley nodded: "Oh, great... and who's Charlie?"

“His plant,” Terry replied curtly, while his twin protested, “Terry, come on! A little gentleness, for heaven’s sake! It even has a name!”

“Gentleness?! Not even a flamethrower would be enough for that thing, Terri!”

“But you said it could win the race!”

“I said it would definitely leave its mark! When I think back on that… that vegetable gives me the shivers! I absolutely don’t want to know where Art found it, especially since, I bet you anything, it was illegal too!”

While the Siamese twins argued, Don continued, “We’re all leaving for Terror Town on Friday afternoon. Colin was kind enough to let us stay at his B&B for our reunion.”

“We’ll leave to return to Mostropolis on Sunday afternoon by train. Maybe we’ll meet at the station!” added the little five-eyed monster, suddenly butting in again, and Sulley said, “That would be fantastic, Squishy! Anyway, you guys have a full and exciting program too… I envy you a little… seriously, if we hadn't already planned this vacation to Las Scaregas, we would have come with you.”

“Yeah… well, maybe next year.”

“Yeah…”

“Well, guys, it was nice seeing you and hearing your plans for next week… but now Sulley and I have to get ready for Las Scaregas! I'll send you a postcard, I promise!”

“Bye, Mike! Bye, Sulley! Happy holidays! See you in a week!” the small group greeted them with big smiles as they walked out the door.

Once they closed the door, Sulley turned to his friend and asked, “Listen, Mike… what if we went to the Oozma Kappa reunion next year?”

“We'll see… we always have a lot of things to do…”

“Mike, you say it every year… after we helped them organize their first college party, we never even got together for a memorial dinner! They're our brothers… we've had so many experiences together, fun and not so fun… they've always been there for us and helped us… and we've also learned a lot from them…”

“Oh, all right… next year we’ll try to go to their reunion… but now, let me look at the list of things I’ll need in Las Scaregas again!” Mike blurted out, picking up a list and starting to mark the folders inside, reading: “So… train ticket? Got it. Creepes cap? Got it and already on my head. The great Stubby Lizzardo book? Got it. My two lucky boxing gloves? Got it. Sugar packets? Got it. Little Mikey? Got it. Game tickets? Got it. Alright, I think I’m ready!”

“Sorry, Mike… but shouldn’t we check out other things like specialties and monuments to visit in Las Scaregas?”

“Oh, don’t worry, Sulley… there’s time, there’s time… when we get there, we’ll definitely find something to do…”

“Basically, the only thing you care about in Las Scaregas is the Creepes game.”

“Exactly! And now, if you allow me, I'm going to… YAAAARGHHHH!!!!” Mike shrieked as he opened the office door and found himself faced with the figure of a hideous female monster with green skin, a snail-shaped lower half, two pairs of three-fingered arms, two half-closed eyes, and a shock of pink hair.

“Wazowski, you didn't approve the paperwork. No vacation for you until you approve it first.” the female monster declared, in a calm tone that still managed to radiate exasperation and fury from every pore, while the little cyclops monster stammered, “Y-yeah… I was a little suspicious, Roze… he was just about to start doing it…”

“Really?”
“Yes, you see, I… I intend to get this worry over with today, so tonight I'm a free monster and can have fun in Las Scaregas, without having to worry about a thing!”

“I'm almost touched, Wazowski…” “Thank you, thank you… why don't you go get me the paperwork to approve? So I can get started…” “Very well, Wazowski… here you go,” Roze declared, calmly dragging a red cart packed with paperwork into the office, much to Mike's horror, before adding, “All yours. If you start now, you might even make the nine o'clock train.”

“Do I have to approve all this paperwork?!” the little green monster asked, alarmed, while the other said, “The big one is at the entrance waiting just for you.”

Mike was silent for a moment, then asked Roze in a weak, yet slightly nervous, voice, “Are you really, really sure you’re not Roz?”

“We’re completely different, as I’ve explained to you at least a million times… if I were really my sister, I would have reported you by now,” was Roze’s curt reply.

“Quick, quick, Sulley! There’s less than five minutes until the train leaves!” Mike yelled, running and jumping like a cricket, despite carrying a huge backpack stuffed to the brim with stuff. He earned shocked looks from the various monsters present, with Sulley struggling to keep up.

“Which platform are we supposed to go to?” Sulley asked, tiredly, while the little cyclops monster replied, still running: “The 9th! Quick, quick! Oh, let it be there, let it be there…”

However, when he spotted the last platform of the train station, Mike exclaimed elatedly: “Yes, I’m safe! It’s still there! Quick, let’s move, Sulley! One last push! Only a minute to nine!”

Mike was the first to board, then whirled around to make sure Sulley had made it as well, although Sulley, however, was slightly behind.

“Sulley…” the green monster implored, while the other said: “I’m almost there, Mike…”

Just as a whistle blew, Sulley dived for the open door of the train and climbed inside, just as the doors slammed shut.

“We made it… for a moment I thought it was the end…” Sulley commented breathlessly as the train slowly began to move.

“Me too… it’s all Roze’s fault and her damn paperwork! She wouldn’t let us go anywhere until I approved all the paperwork…” Mike muttered, catching his breath, his friend pointing out, “Maybe this wouldn’t have happened if you’d approved the paperwork in time…”
“Yeah… well… now we’re on the train to Las Scaregas and a week of relaxation awaits us, away from work, paperwork, and, most of all, Roze! And let’s not forget the Creepes game! Come on, let’s go find our seats…” Mike shrugged, standing up and entering a compartment, followed by Sulley. “Ah… Las Scaregas, we’re coming!” exclaimed the little cyclop, sitting down on a seat, while the blue one, after taking a look around, pointed out: “Mike… am I wrong or is there no one in this compartment except us two?”

“So?”

“Don’t you find it a little strange that on a train to Las Scaregas there is no one in a compartment?”

“Sulley, we just left, of course there's no one here... and now, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a nap... those damned practices of Roze's have literally killed me..." Mike yawned, before falling fast asleep in his seat, while Sulley, on the other hand, continued to look around, slightly doubtful.

Suddenly, he realized that there were, indeed, a couple of monsters in the compartment, but they were sitting in the corner of their seats, alone, staring out the window and minding their own business... but they looked decidedly strange and disturbing... almost sinister!

Suddenly, a large green monster turned toward him, glaring at him with such fury that he spun around, realizing everyone was glaring at him.

Okay, you get the idea... no more curious glances here and there.

After long minutes of pretending to stare at the window, the other passengers went back to staring out their windows, muttering, lost in their own thoughts, effectively ignoring both him and Mike.

Sulley also wanted to look out the window, mostly to have something to do, since Mike was too sleepy to talk, but it was so dark he couldn't see a thing!

The trip was so boring... and he was so tired... and it was so dark... maybe he could close his eyes and relax for a minute…

“Hey, sleepyheads, wake up! We’ve reached the end of the line! Get off your seats! We have to put this beauty away, and we can’t if you’re here snoring!” a rude male voice snapped at the two sleeping monsters.

Slowly, the two opened their eyes—two for the tall, fat, hairy blue monster and one for the small, green ball-shaped monster—dead tired, looking around with a confused expression.

Indeed, the train was stopped, and aside from the disturbingly small monster resembling a disturbingly whitish frog with bushy eyebrows and a big mustache, as well as small, curved horns and a toothpick between its pointed teeth, none of their questionable traveling companions were there…

“What time is it?” Mike muttered, while the monster muttered: “It’s half past midnight, dude.”

“What?! Oh dear, I slept the whole trip… actually, I’ve been asleep for a while now…”

“Well, it’s long past wake-up time around here! So, get up and get down once and for all!” the little monster snapped, jerking his thumb toward the door, then heading for it, blurting, “Look at this… even sleepyheads have to put up with it…”

“Hey, listen to this..." Mike began to protest, but stopped when the little monster stormed out, slamming the compartment door.

He continued angrily: "The railroad company will hear me! Treating Mike Wazowski like this! How audacious! Oh, if only I knew his name..."

"Mike, forget it. We're here to have fun, not to argue." Sulley immediately interrupted him, while Mike muttered, grabbing his things, "Okay, okay... but don't think it's over, Sulley! After the Creepes game, I'm going to call the railroad company and demand an apology, compliments, and a free forty-year season ticket with first-class service and a buffet for their terrible service! I'm going to give them a good telling off, a long telling off! What kind of employees they have!"

“Come on, forget it… now that we’ve arrived, let’s enjoy the unique and irreplaceable atmosphere of Las Scaregas!” the furry monster declared, opening the door, but stopping short as soon as he saw the outside of the train. The atmosphere was indeed unique and irreplaceable, but not in the way Sulley had expected or even imagined.

The station consisted of a single platform and was small, dirty, dilapidated, deserted, and, except for two lanterns, completely shrouded in darkness.

“Strange... I looked at the photos of the Las Scaregas station, but I could have sworn it looked a little different..." Mike stammered nervously, already hiding behind Sulley. "Maybe they set it up like this for a horror movie... and they did a great job... this place is creepy..."

"Excuse me, sir!" said the hairy monster, noticing the monster who had woken them earlier leap from the engineer's cabin. "Has the station always looked like this?"

“Of course! It's been like this for over fifty years, but it looks good, don't you think?” commented the little mustachioed monster, with Mike, still behind Sulley, muttering, “Yeah, sure… really wonderful… well, the only thing that matters to me is watching the Creepes game, to hell with everything else!”

“You want to watch something here? Ha ha ha ha… good luck, buddy! Even if there was a TV or even a half-functioning radio, no one would ever give it to you, not for all the gold in the world! They're too valuable! Where do you think you are, Las Scaregas?”

“Why? This isn't Las Scaregas?”

“Of course not, dude! This is Dirty Hole! The most infamous town in all of Monster World! A den of derelicts, wanted men, lunatics, and so on!”

“Dirty Hole?! Are you kidding me?! How did we end up here?!”

“Taking the train, right?”

“Y-yeah, but… the one on Platform 9 was supposed to be the train for…”

“Um… Mike…” Sulley suddenly and nervously interrupted, turning the little cyclops monster around, noticing that he was holding a train ticket in his hand. “I looked at the tickets and… well… actually, according to what was written… the platform was supposed to be Platform 6…”

For a moment, Mike remained in shocked silence, before shouting so loudly it could be heard throughout the small station and undoubtedly nearby: “WHAT?! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?!”

“I’m afraid you were in such a rush and read the ticket backwards…” Sulley tried to explain, but was interrupted by yet another desperate scream from Mike: “ARE YOU JOKING?! ARE YOU TELLING ME WE CAME ON THE WRONG TRAIN AND ENDED UP WHO KNOWS WHERE?! OH, SHIT… WHAT THE HELL DO WE DO NOW?! I HAVE LESS THAN SIX DAYS TO GET TO LAS SCAREGAS!!!!!”

“Mike, calm down… we’ll just have to catch the next train… once we get there, we’ll find the stop that will get us closest to Las Scaregas and we’ll get there in time for the game.” his friend tried to calm him down, but the engineer interrupted, chuckling, clearly amused: “Yeah, right… you’re in trouble, buddy! The train to and from Mostropolis here, the only one there is, only runs once a month.”

“Once a month?! Are you kidding?! Why?!” Mike protested, and the mustachioed monster calmly replied: “Very simple, tennis ball: because usually no one ever comes here. You only come to this hole when you have nowhere else to go and you don't want to be found. People here don't know who you are and don't care. The best place to disappear. Here, it's as if you cease to exist. It's a world unto itself, where there are its own rules, new individuals, and you're detached from the Monster World!”

“Besides the train, is there a way back to the real world?”

“Sure! Cross the swamp surrounding Dirty Hole and you'll come to a town, I think… if you get there at all. The swamp can be even more… evanescent than Dirty Hole! Anyone who goes in there never comes out again, guaranteed! It vanishes completely! In fact, there's a rumor going around that there's a huge, terrifying creature with a powerful roar in there, and on full moon nights, just like tonight, it prowls around looking for unsuspecting prey to eat… well, good luck, you two… you're going to need it! Ha ha ha ha…” the monster cackled hoarsely, turning and walking away into the mist, disappearing shortly after, as if it had never existed, leaving the two monsters on the dock completely alone in the silence of the night.

“And now, Mike? What do we do?” Sulley asked, looking at Mike, and the other, after a moment of stunned silence, quickly regained his composure and declared, with a sudden confident tone, “You think so? We can get across that swamp and get to Las Scaregas before the game starts!”

“But did you hear what that monster said… anyone who goes in there is like they never come out again… not to mention that mysterious creature!”

“Sulley, please… those are old country fantasies, like that guy who hates laughter we have in the basement of Monsters Inc., Karloff the Skrieker! They're all nonsense, believe me!”

“And those scratches we found there that I absolutely didn't do, how do you explain them?”

“I… well… listen, Sulley: I have to get to Las Scaregas in time to see that blessed game, and it's not going to be a stupid swamp filled to the brim with water and mud or some stupid urban legend that's going to stop me! Let's go! The sooner we get out of here, the sooner I can get to Las Scaregas and think of this as just an unexpected and unwelcome interlude!” Mike declared forcefully, marching out of the station, followed closely by Sulley.

However, once outside, Mike couldn't help but notice how dark and creepy the place was, with only a couple of obviously creepy-looking monsters nearby. They turned slightly to check on the newcomers, partly because it was late at night and the fog had just lifted between the reeds and dry shrubs in the middle of the water, creating an even more chilling effect than the one depicted at the station.

Mike glanced at the marshy landscape before him, then asked nervously, "Hey, I mean... we're not supposed to go in there, are we?"

"You're the one who said you weren't afraid of crossing a swamp just to watch the game…"

“Yes, but I didn't imagine it would be such a place… gloomy and disturbing… It's okay that we're monsters, but there's a limit to everything!” “So, what do you want to do? Just give up?” “Are you crazy?! I have no intention of spending a month in this damned dump, cut off from the entire world, and most importantly, missing the Creepes game! A swamp won't stop me, I assure you! I'll walk out of here with my head held high and get back to Las Scaregas in time for the finals!” “So, you'll have to go in there… but if you're scared…” “Me? Scared? Mph! You'd love that, Sulley! A swamp won't stop the great Mike Wazowski from missing the baseball championship, with the Creepes no less! We Creepes fans aren't afraid of the risks of the ford!” the little green monster did, with grit and boldness, taking off his enormous backpack and entering the murky water of the swamp, while Sulley said to him, only then noticing a sign near the shore: “Watch out for alligators, Mike.”

"Alligators? Which... YEEEEWWWW!!!!!" Mike exclaimed, before jumping into the air with something stuck to his butt.

"Help!!!" Mike said, starting to hop, while Sulley reassured him, looking at what was biting him: "Don't worry, Mike... it's just a baby alligator."

"Ouch! He may be a baby, but his fangs are already too developed! Ouch!" Mike exclaimed, as he waded back to shore, waving his arms, still holding the little green alligator, with sharp stegosaurus scales down his back to his tail and four eyes stuck to his butt. Judging by his amused smirk and mean expression, the little alligator was having a blast, unlike Mike.

“You little monster… now I’m going to…!” Mike hissed angrily, stopping short as he yanked the puppy by the tail and pulled it off his butt, giving it a glare of pure hatred and even shaking his fist, though the puppy wasn’t scared at all; in fact, he challenged him with an amused grin.

“Stop! Leave that puppy alone! Don’t bother the animals!” scolded a tall, skinny monster with tentacles and snail-like eyes who, judging by his jacket, must have been an animal control officer. Mike retorted, annoyed, “But he was the one who bothered me!”

Despite his protests, as soon as the monster was in front of Mike, he pulled out a clipboard and declared, annoyed, “You’re in violation! You owe me a hundred dollars!”

“No way! Get your little darling back!” the little cyclop monster snapped, annoyed, throwing the puppy at him, who immediately bit the other monster's rear end. The monster began screaming as he ran away like hell: “Aaaah! I'm your friend! Ungrateful!”

Once he was gone, Sulley turned to Mike and said, “I say we shouldn't walk in there.”

“So, should I give up the game?! Absolutely not! I'll give Roze and her sister a ride instead!” the little green monster snapped angrily, and his friend quickly explained, “I just meant that, if we want to avoid any more problems with the alligators, maybe we should get a boat.”

“Great idea, Sulley. But where do we find it?”

“Let's ask those guys over there… but make sure they don't know our true identities. That way, we don't let anyone get any weird ideas…”

“Pfui! I'm not afraid of anyone!”

“Excuse me…” Sulley said, approaching a small group of sinister-looking monsters, who turned to look at him darkly. “Where can we find a boat?”

“And what do you need one for?” asked a monster resembling a lime-green dinosaur, complete with a toothpick in its mouth, posing as the leader. Sulley explained with a nervous smile, “We’d like to cross the swamp.”

Immediately, the local monsters widened their eyes and opened their mouths slightly, staring at them as if they were crazy, and that was probably exactly what they really thought.

“You want to enter the swamp? Are you crazy? Aren’t you afraid of… vanishing?” asked the leader of the small gang, removing the toothpick from his mouth and looking at them seriously, and Mike replied arrogantly, “Of course not! I’m not afraid of anything or anyone! They just have to try to make me vanish!”

The little dinosaur stared at him in silence, then guessed: “You’re new around here, right?”

“Is it that noticeable?” Sulley asked, and the other chuckled: “It sure is! You better calm down before you go talk to Johnson!”

“And who is he?”

“Let’s say the boss of Dirty Hole… and the only one who owns a boat around here.”

“Well, then we’ll ask him to borrow it!”

“Johnson doesn’t lend his stuff… you either buy it for at least a billion or it’s nothing.”

“A billion?! Are you kidding me?! I’m the vice president of Monsters Inc., I don’t have to pay that much for a boat!” Mike immediately shouted, while Sulley immediately tried to calm him down: “Calm down, Mike… remember? It’s not worth making a spectacle out here…”

"If you want to find him, go to the 'Mad Monster' pub downtown... it's open all night. If he's not there, his men are definitely there," the villager added, and immediately, the little green monster marched off down the path that led to the village, blurting out, "Perfect! That guy better give me the boat for free, or at least for a reasonable price, or he'll hear me!"

"Mike, it's no good bragging about the leader of this community... he might get offended and make us pay," Sulley pointed out, catching up with him, but Mike, with an arrogant, tough look, blurted out, "Who, that? Ah! Small stuff, Sulley! The real danger around here is the baby alligators!"

The door creaked open, and the two monsters leaned out slightly, peeking inside the pub: it was very small, lit by red lights, with only a few tables on which were monsters of all ages, sizes, and colors, with music playing from an old jukebox.

A little nervous, the big, hairy blue monster and the little, one-eyed green monster with the enormous backpack entered the bar and headed to the bar, where a large, orange, female bear-like monster with shaggy fur, two brown eyes, large curved horns, and a red and black plaid shirt was wiping a mug with a handkerchief.

“Wrong train, darlings?” the owner giggled when the two were in front of her, and the hairy monster exclaimed, surprised, “How do you know?”

“Hmph… I’ve been running this place for years, young man… I’ve seen a lot of people set foot in here… and you two look too goody-goody to want to live in a dump like this and be forgotten!” the bartender revealed, setting her mug on the table, then said: “For the record, I’m Regina, owner of the ‘Mad Monster’. If you’re looking for a place to stay for the next month, I have a couple of rooms available… just give me a hand with the pub. You, big guy, can easily be a bouncer, and as for you, little guy… you could be a waiter, you look like the kind of guy who could talk for hours without stopping, thus fooling the customers into ordering more!”

“Hey, listen to this…!” Mike began, interrupted by Sulley: “Thank you for the offer, ma’am, but…”

“Ma’am? Oh! I told you you weren’t right for this place… I’ve been running this forgotten shack for twenty years, and this is the first time ever anyone’s made me feel important by calling me ma’am! Just call me Regina, like everyone else here.” Regina laughed, amused, then prepared two mugs of strangely colored water and placed them on the table, declaring with a broad smile: “Here, it’s on the house! Think of it as a welcome-to-town gift!”

Mike silently observed the brown liquid, then blurted out in disgust: “Disgusting… it looks like a mix of dirty and swamp water!”

“Mike…” Sulley whispered with an embarrassed smile, but the orange monster burst out laughing, amused. “Ha ha ha ha! You’re a sincere person, aren’t you? You remind me of an old friend of mine… he was always damn sincere, even in a place like this, that’s why I liked him! Every time he came here, he’d say my water was getting crappier and crappier, and yet, strangely enough, he’d drink it all!”

Mike was silent for a moment, then took a sip of his drink, though he almost immediately began spitting and coughing: “But it really is crappy!”

“Ha ha ha ha! He told me the same thing when he tried it for the first time! Maybe you and that friend of mine would have gotten along… of course, if I’d gotten out of his ordeal alive!” Regina commented, increasingly amused, while Sulley’s attention was drawn to a frame on the counter, right next to the bartender, who began to look at it curiously.

There was a photo of a small family of monsters: a rather skinny female with a sweet and kind expression, with violet skin, three green eyes, long straight dark purple hair, a long snake's tail, four pairs of arms, wearing a curious pyramid-shaped necklace and a deep red top that she held in her arms, with maternal sweetness, a small bundle with a small, white furry monster with long rabbit ears and two wings like, absurd as it may seem, those of a bird, next to a large and fat male monster, with a wolf's muzzle, with two large fangs that went downwards, with two red eyes, long tied black hair, two thin curved horns, two hands that looked like two large bear paws and gray fur, whose body was wrapped in a large red shawl and wearing a large, very damaged cowboy hat on its head that was smiling and stretching out a claw towards the little monster, who stretched out its two arms towards the monster.

“Nice family, isn't it?” Regina asked with a sweet smile, then added, pointing to the adult female monster: “This is Naira. She was the waitress at the pub for several years. Her mother was called Nahimana and was some kind of old witch, shaman, seer, healer, and so on, who lived isolated in the heart of the swamp, but she wasn't all that bad... she was also a fan of divination and often enjoyed predicting the future of others by reading tea leaves or tarot cards and other devilry…”

"Of course, there had to be a crazy old lady obsessed with magic and other such nonsense in a place like this... fortune-telling with tea leaves... how absurd... there's nothing more ridiculous than divination! It's such a confusing thing... more like a guess, if you really want to know my opinion!" Mike interjected sarcastically, while Regina giggled: "Then you're lucky, boy, not to have known her… she took it damn seriously! Once she even threw her staff at the head of a monster who dared to mock her while she was telling fortunes with runes, thinking she was playing with pieces of wood! When she was sixteen, her daughter Naira went to what we call the Real World to look for work and was gone for several years until one day she returned to this place with the man who would become her monster. Since they needed money, I took her on as a waitress. A lovely, kind girl with a passion for flowers and their properties… she deserved much better than living in this dump, indeed… The other one is Noah, my old friend I mentioned before and the monster she returned to the Dirty Hole with her. A colossal, sulky guy like no other who occasionally passed by… He was intimidating at first, but as soon as you got to know him better and, more importantly, if he liked you, you saw the best in him… I don't know how they met in the Real World, and I was careful not to ask. Their story caused a bit of a stir, partly because you don't see many furry monster marrying reptilian monster around here, and partly because of other issues... but imagine if a stubborn man like Noah would let someone else tell him what to do! It's just a shame that, shortly after the birth of their only daughter, Naira died... needless to say, her death devastated Noah…"

As Regina told the couple's story, Sulley stared intently at the male monster, whom Regina said was called Noah...

As absurd as it seemed, that monster seemed very familiar to him... but that wasn't possible... well, after all, if people came to Dirty Hole to be forgotten, there was a chance they'd seen him somewhere before... but where?

Certainly not at 'The Most Wanted'... someone this big and intimidating would be easy to remember, and he doubted he'd ever met that monster... or did he?

After all, the feeling of knowing him was nipping at his head incessantly, worse than a hammer!

“You know, she kind of looks like both of them…” the bartender admitted in a calm, even tone, causing Sulley to jump up and ask aloud, “What?”

“Physically, she looks a bit like Noah, even though she has blue fur and a different face… but, on the contrary, her kind, calm personality is very similar to Naira’s… funny… for that other one, it was the opposite!”

“What other one?”

“Well, you see…” Regina began, stopping when she heard the deafening roar of a motorcycle outside her bar, then muttered, exasperated, “Oh, goodness me… they’re here!”

“Who?” Sulley asked, surprised, as Regina quickly hid the framed photo under the counter, warning, “Keep your head down and don’t say a word, okay? Even if they torment you, just let them. Ignore them, okay?”

Just then, the pub door slammed open and two monsters entered the place: one was skinny, with tentacles, gray skin, a single eye with a brown iris and two thin, curved horns, with two large rodent-like teeth protruding from its mouth and a red handkerchief around its neck. The other was a large, red monster with only two pairs of arms and legs, two blue eyes, a set of small horns on its head that made it look like it had a crew cut, and two fangs protruding from its mouth.

"Ah... this place is getting more and more boring... nothing ever happens..." muttered the giant red monster, while the gray one nudged him, saying mischievously, while pointing to Sulley and Mike, still sitting at the bar: "You're wrong, Benedict... new entertainment today!"

The big red monster looked in the direction his friend was pointing and, as soon as he saw the two monsters, he sneered: "Where the hell did those two come from?! They look too good for this place!"

"They must have been stupid enough to get on the wrong train, I bet!"

"They sure do look like giant idiots, Gideon... especially the one-eyed green dwarf!"

"Hey!" Mike began, deeply offended, while Sulley reminded him in a low voice with an embarrassed smile: "Ignore them, ignore them..."

Benedict and Gideon approached Mike and Sulley and, after quickly glancing at the duo, the former commented: "They certainly don't look like criminals, these guys…"

“Yeah… for once, fresh meat!” Gideon chuckled, taking Mike’s mug and downing it in one gulp, belching loudly right in front of Mike’s furious face.

“Hey, listen!” the little green monster blurted out in exasperation, while the amused gray one asked, “What, newbie?”

“Look, I consider myself a very polite and patient person… but I don’t like it when people, especially a complete stranger in a ridiculous hoodlum outfit and with textbook rudeness, take my glass and drink it without asking permission or thanking me!” Mike declared defiantly, while Sulley tried to calm him down: “Mike… come on, calm down, nothing happened… forget it… and besides, you didn’t even like it…”

“Apologize right now, you rude boy!” the green Cyclops angrily shouted back at Gideon, who taunted him, amused: “What are you going to do to me, you little bloke? Call Mommy? Oooh… boo… Mommy, the ugly, bad monster drank my drink… boo… Daddy, could you beat him up for me? Boo…”

During the teasing, Mike’s expression grew increasingly furious until finally, enraged, he grabbed Sulley’s mug and, bluntly, dumped the contents on Gideon’s head.

Immediately, the pub fell silent, while everyone present, including Regina and Benedict, watched the scene, shocked.

“Since you like drinking so much, here you go! It’s on the house!” Mike taunted, angrily slamming his mug on the counter, ignoring Sulley's pleading with an embarrassed smile. "Mike... didn't we agree not to make a spectacle and, above all, to ignore the teasing?"

"You just signed your own death warrant, you tennis ball..." the octopus monster hissed, his expression so angry it made Mike realize he'd just gotten himself into serious trouble.

“Um… well… I…” the little monster stammered nervously, as Gideon’s friend Benedict angrily approached Mike, fists threatening, “This nice little dwarf obviously wants his features changed… or, quite simply, his big black eye!”

“Hey, don’t threaten Mike!” Sulley protested, blocking the big red monster’s path, to which the other replied, annoyed, “Apparently someone here wants a monument to the heroes… I’ll be happy to oblige!”

Benedict tried to punch Sulley, but the giant, hairy monster promptly ducked, sending the other crashing across the bar and into a couple of bottles, judging by the noise.

“Hey, don’t destroy my place, you idiots!” Regina protested, as the rest of the customers rushed out of the pub, both to avoid getting involved in the brawl and, above all, to take advantage of the chaotic situation to avoid paying. Indeed, a small monster first drank the entire contents of his mug before following the others out.

“You want to be smart, eh, you big guy? Then take this!” Benedict yelled, starting to throw everything he could get his paws on from the other side of the bar at the poor furry monster: mugs, bottles, and even the photograph of Noah and Naira.

Luckily, Sulley overturned a nearby table, creating a sort of shield against Benedict’s bullets.

Meanwhile, Gideon grabbed a nearby pool cue and hissed angrily, "All right, pool ball... you want to play hard? I'll be happy to oblige!"

The monster made to hit the little green monster in the head, but Mike, instinctively, grabbed a pool cue of his own and parried Gideon's with it, as if it were some kind of sword.

"Ah-ha!" Mike exclaimed elatedly, while Gideon commented, "Oh... we love swashbuckling movies, huh?"

"Pirate movies, to be precise."

"Actually, you're perfect for the role... you only have one eye and scurvy... all you need is a hook and a peg leg!"

"Hey, listen! I'm not sick!"

"I could have sworn I was, judging by how green you are... you don't eat much fruit, do you?"

“Who are you, my doctor?! He's already pestering me all day to follow what he claims is a healthy, balanced diet… yesterday he even threatened to drag me to a dietitian if I don't stop eating what he calls junk food full of fat, sugar, and everything else that's only bad for me!”

“Ah… I never thought I'd say something like that, but I feel sorry for that poor doctor of yours! Be careful, dude!”

The gray octopus monster began swinging his stick like a sword, but Mike promptly blocked it, though that didn't stop the stick from hitting a hunting trophy on the ceiling, knocking it brutally onto the counter, sending the pretzels spilling everywhere.

“What the hell did I just say?!” Regina screamed, quickly grabbing the cash register and tip jar, then ducking behind an overturned table to protect herself from all the commotion.

“What the hell is going on here?!” a male voice suddenly exclaimed in an angry tone, opening the door with a thud.

Immediately, their clashing stopped, and everyone turned toward the door to see who had just arrived.

Standing in the doorway was a gigantic monster, even larger and more imposing than Benedict, with thick green fur, two large curved horns, two dark eyes that gave off a cold, evil, and dangerous look, a mouth full of disturbing fangs, and a large, round red nose.

“Oh, great… there’s no limit to the worst…” Regina muttered, covering her eyes with one hand, while Benedict and Gideon quickly abandoned Mike and Sulley and joined the newcomer, saying nervously, “Boss, thank goodness he’s here! There’s been pandemonium here!”

“I noticed, you idiots! I knew something was up after seeing all the customers from the pub running out and hearing all the racket you were making in here! What the hell happened?!” the furry green monster snapped, and immediately his two accomplices revealed Mike and Sulley: “It’s those newcomers’ fault, boss! They had the audacity to stand up to us! Especially the one-eyed runt!”

“Hey!” Mike protested resentfully, while the gang leader, after taking a look at the two newcomers, asked annoyedly, “You clueless bunch! Did you let those two stand up to you?!”

“Excuse us, boss…” the two monsters muttered, mortified, while the newcomer approached them, prepared a fist, and commented, “Ah… as usual, it’s up to me to restore the pride and dignity of our gang! Step aside, you scumbags, and watch these two newcomers straighten up!”

However, the gigantic monster stopped when he stepped on what looked like a piece of paper.

“What the hell…?” the monster asked, looking down and discovering a photo of Noah and Naira under his foot. Sulley noticed, with surprise, that Regina had turned pale and was wearing a terrified expression.

Obviously, it wasn't a good thing for that guy to see the photo…

The leader of the two thugs, meanwhile, grabbed the photo in his claws and asked, in a threatening hiss: “Okay, listen carefully if you have any, people, because I have little patience and, therefore, I won't repeat myself twice… Whose photo is this? Who does it belong to?”

“It’s mine!” Sulley declared suddenly, to everyone’s amazement, jumping to his feet.

“Sulley, what…?!” Mike began, stunned, while the furry green monster stared at him curiously, repeating calmly, “Yours?”

“Yes, exactly!” Sulley declared, approaching the monster, who was slightly taller than him, taking the photo from the leader of the thugs, then said, “I… I was a co-worker of Noah’s! After he left, I tried to track him down, but to no avail… until one day I found this photo! It took me forever to figure out where it came from… and when I did, I took the first train to Dirty Hole with my friend Mike!”

The furry monster remained silent for a moment, which worried Sulley, as he feared the guy wouldn't believe him and would test him by asking about Noah's job, something he was completely unaware of. Then he gave a sadistic smile and said, in a tone so honeyed it was disturbing: "Really? What a coincidence... the three of us have known him very well ever since he moved here... We can easily tell you everything that happened to him, can't we, guys?"

“Of course we do… in fact, why don’t you go straight to his scarred friend? Or his abomination of a daughter? I’m sure they’re both dying to tell you what happened to him… if you can even find them!” Gideon laughed raucously, before his boss continued: “Did you know that your dear colleague had the audacity to take up with the young monster I had chosen as my future bride and even have a daughter with her? She should have been my wife because she was the most beautiful in these parts, and I even had to settle for that because she was a reptilian monster… and do you know what he had the nerve to do? He asked her if she wanted to marry me, and when she said no, he told me there was no point in arguing, since she had already made up her mind and that, therefore, I had to respect it!”

“Yeah… and when you tried to confront him, he even punched you in response, sending you flying across the room and crashing through the wall!” Gideon laughed, amused, but his boss didn't like the joke at all, glaring at him and hissing, “Gideon… need I remind you it's almost dinner time for someone?”

Immediately, the gray monster stopped laughing and began to tremble, visibly nervous, while his boss continued implacably, “Anyway, I'm telling you that in the end that dandy got what he deserved… I can't understand what Naira saw in someone like him… she was definitely crazy like her mother… after all, an old wreck is still an old wreck! He'll never get better!”

“Hey, listen, sir!” Mike interjected, approaching the big green monster defiantly. “Allow me to disagree… even a wreck can be fixed if you know where to look.”

“Oh… interesting… and who are you? A talent hunter?” the other commented, unimpressed, and Mike proudly declared, pointing with his thumb: “Sort of… for your information, I’m Mike Wazowski!”

“Never heard of that before!”

“Really? Weird… I had a feeling this place was a little remote, but not that much… never even heard of the Joksters?”

“Look, you slob… I don’t know who you think you are, but I’ve never met a more ridiculous guy than you… and if such a ridiculous profession actually existed, I’d consider it the most useless and ridiculous thing in the world… just like the people who practice it!”

“At least I don’t walk around with such a ridiculous and obvious fake nose!”

Once again, Mike’s words had the effect of chilling the entire room, with the furry green monster hissing angrily, “Fake nose?”

"It's definitely fake! I'd try to be more discreet with something like that, you know, as a Jester I'm used to dealing with fake noses... and yours is clearly fake! It's not even attached properly, look!" Mike declared proudly, taking the big red nose in his hands and starting to tug at it forcefully, under the shocked gaze of the two men of the hairy monster and Regina.

"Mike..." said Sulley, while his friend snapped, annoyed: "Not now, Sulley! This stupid nose is attached better than expected... they must have put some glue on it or something... but I'll take it off, you'll see!"

Suddenly, something grabbed Mike by his thin arms, and the little green monster found himself staring into the furious eyes of your furry friend. Your furry friend hissed angrily, “You know, scraggly, I know I’m not the most patient guy… but if there’s one thing that definitely makes me lose my temper… it’s when someone insults my nose!”

“Wait… are you saying that thing is real?!” Mike exclaimed, shocked, while the other blurted out, “Of course it’s real! Do you think I’d walk around with that thing on my face if I had no other choice?!”

“Well… the world is full of eccentrics…”

“Sure… but I’m Beau Johnson, the leader of this shitty community, so I have to have some decency, especially in a place where the worst criminals in the Monster World gather!”

“Wait… are you Johnson?!”

“That’s right! Were you looking for me, microbe?”

“Well… yeah… we heard you had a boat we could use to cross the swamp… but I guess after that, that deal fell through…”

“You’re right, billiard ball,” Johnson hissed, then added, amused, “On the other hand, I have some dear friends who would be thrilled to have you for breakfast…”

“Why do I have this strange feeling that I, on the contrary, won’t be at all thrilled to meet them?” Mike commented, as Sulley suddenly shouted, drawing the attention of everyone present: “Hey, Johnson! Before I meet your friends, I have someone else I’d love to introduce to you!”

The furry green monster looked in Sulley’s direction and saw with horror that he had effortlessly lifted a table and thrown it at him.

Johnson immediately let go of Mike and ran away, narrowly avoiding a collision.

“Sulley, there’s a back door over there! Quick, let’s get out of there!” Mike yelled, running away as fast as he could, while Johnson furiously shouted at Gideon and Benedict, “Don’t just stand there, you idiots! Stop them!”

“Now, boss!” the two monsters shouted, but almost immediately they slipped on the liquor that Benedict had spilled in an attempt to hit Sulley, which smeared all over the floor and slammed noisily against the wall.

“Incompetents!!!” their leader screamed furiously, while Regina, who had been hiding behind the table with her crate, leaned out and shouted, “I’ll take care of this, Johnson!”

The bartender leapt and tackled Sulley, who had started running toward the door, blocking him and declaring angrily, “I got you, you damned punk! This is going to teach you how to destroy my place!”

“But… Regina…” Sulley stammered nervously, before being interrupted by Regina herself, who whispered, “Tug yourself free and get to the back door. My personal speedboat is hidden under Pier 13. It’s big enough for both of us. Grab the photo of Noah and Naira, join your friend, and escape in the speedboat into the swamp.”

“Thank you, Regina!” Sulley thanked her sincerely and quietly, before doing as the female monster had ordered, causing her to scream, “You ugly…!”

Sulley came out the back door and, seeing Mike waiting for him, yelled, “Mike, Pier 13! Now!”

The two monsters began running along the pier until they reached it, which overlooked a lush, thick bush.

“Now what?” Mike asked, annoyed, and Sulley began moving the bushes aside, finding, within seconds, a small motorboat.

“Got it!” exclaimed the hairy monster, while the small one got behind the wheel and tried to turn the key: “Damn… it’s pretty rusty…”

“There they are! Let’s not let them get away!” A threatening voice sounded in the distance, and Sulley nervously pleaded with his friend, “Mike…”

“I’m almost there, just a second…” said the little monster, and just then, the key turned fully and they sped off into the swamp, with Mike cheering, over the moon: “We did it! What a team, what champions! No one can stop us! Creepes final, we’re coming!”

Chapter Text

Chapter 2: Old and new acquitances

“Val, I hope you have a good reason for making me come here at two in the morning… and waking up the entire neighborhood with the ringing of the phone! I swear, my angry neighbors were scarier than the power of laughter and screaming combined! And I don't blame them for that.” yawned the long-horned purple monster, while the orange-furred, hunched-over monster declared, “Of course I had a good reason! We have an emergency, Double T! And a super serious one!”

“Val, I just said I was worried about this… there was no need to wake everyone up in the middle of the night, have them come here to the MIFT station and call this emergency meeting…” apologized, slightly embarrassed, the monster with five brown eyes, one of which was squinting, resembling a furry green squid with blue tentacles, while Val declared, in a firm tone: “Emergencies always arise from the little things, Roger! Remember when Johnny Worthington almost blew up all of Monstropolis?! It all started with faulty containers!”

"Supposedly defective containers. My babies are never defective," a three-eyed, blue female monster with crab legs, a robe, and a helmet on her head clarified, slightly resentfully. Val continued to look at Roger: "See? At the slightest hint of an emergency, we must intervene immediately! That's why I called this meeting!"

The orange monster climbed onto a swivel chair with a megaphone in hand and declared: "Okay, everyone! Listen up! We have an emergency! It's still insignificant and not entirely understandable right now, but a small ember can quickly become a fire, so..."

"Val, could you tell us exactly what happened?" Tylor butted in, wanting his friend to just get over it so they could go back to sleep. Val found herself saying, “Listen, I went back to work last night because, while I was packing, I realized I’d forgotten my lucky pillow here, and I can never sleep without it…”

“Val, why do you bring your lucky pillow to work?”

“To take a nap, right? Anyway, when I got here, I saw Roger desperately trying to call someone, and after some hesitation, he finally confessed the problem to me spontaneously…”

“You kept asking him what had happened, and when he refused, you took him around town at breakneck speed on the scooter, refusing to even let him get off the scooter until he told you what it was?”

“Yes,” Val admitted, as Roger hesitantly revealed: “Well… you know Sulley and Mike left for Las Scaregas a few hours ago, right?”

“Sure…” Tyler nodded, and Roger said: “You see… Sulley and Mike told me they'd call me when they got to Las Scaregas… but it's well past midnight, and I haven't even gotten a quick text from them…”

“Do you understand now? This is terribly serious! We have to find them! We can't go anywhere until they turn up! Oh, I don't even dare imagine what happened… they could have been kidnapped for ransom, to undergo atrocious experiments, out of revenge…” Val began, anxious and paranoid, and Tylor, with a sigh, pointed out: “Or they could have arrived in the city dead tired and gone straight to sleep as soon as they got to the hotel, forgetting the call. You'll see, they'll wake up tomorrow morning, remember the missed call, and make it as soon as possible.”

“You say so?” asked the female monster, and her friend nodded: “Of course… come on, they're just in Las Scaregas, not in some creepy swamp full of mosquitoes!”

“Ouch! Another mosquito! Damn… how did we end up in this damn place?!” Mike blurted out, while Sulley, slowly rowing the boat, reminded him with absolute calm: “We took the wrong train, ended up in a town where the only means of transportation only runs once a month, and then you had the brilliant idea of ​​arguing with the local boss, forcing us to run away into the swamp.”

“It’s not my fault… that nose was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen in my life… anyone would have immediately thought it was fake! It would have looked much better on a Christmas tree than on that guy’s face!”

“Which is why he took it so personally, and if he catches you, I don’t want to think about what he’ll do to you.”

“Will it happen to me?! And you, excuse me?! We're pals! If one falls, we all fall together!”

“I didn't insult Johnson's nose and try to remove it because I thought it was fake…”

“Details, details… anyway, we have to find a way out of this swamp… couldn't you go a little faster?”

“How? You're out of fuel for the speedboat!”

“I didn't realize the 'Hyper Speed' button would make the fuel burn even faster!”

“Well, now you know… the problem is, we're on a speedboat with no power left. It'll take us forever to get out of this swamp…”

“We'll find a solution, you'll see, Sulley… I have to find it, I can't miss the Creepes game!”

“Because that's all you care about, right?”

“Sure, why?”

Sulley simply sighed, rolling his eyes, but when he looked down, he noticed something large and black in the distance, near the shore, half-hidden by drooping trees and a light fog.

“Hey, Mike… look over there!” the blue monster said, pointing at the shape, and when Mike saw it, he jumped: “Oh, my goodness… what is that thing?!”

“It looks like an abandoned boat…”

“Urgh… of all the things in this dump, that’s definitely the creepiest!”

“What do you say? Are we staying there for the night?”

“What?! Oh, no, Sulley! That’s enough! You’re not going to drag me into an old boat in the middle of the swamp that’s about to sink at any moment! I’m staying here!”

“Ah, very good, Mike… I’m sure the puppy’s relatives from before will be happy to meet you.”

After a moment of silence, Mike turned to his friend and said, “Well… actually, I’m a little tired… I think sleeping in the dry is much better than sleeping outside… maybe it won’t be so bad after all… after all, any place is as good as any for a bit of rest…”

“Do you really want to go to a place like this?”

“I don't think we have much choice, Sulley... and besides, things couldn't get any worse!”

“Actually, you're right…”

“Great! Then let's go in there and get a good night's sleep until sunrise! Then we'll head to the nearest town and take the first bus to Las Scaregas so we can see the Creepes game!”

“Aren't you worried Johnson and his men might catch up with us? I understand that monster wants to party with you…”

“Ah, I'm not afraid of Johnson and his gang of idiots! They're just a bunch of harmless thugs, Sulley… they bark a lot, but they don't bite at all! I could defeat them all with my eyes closed!”

“All right… if you think so…”

Soon, the two monsters arrived near the large, moonlit boat, anchored near the shore, so old, rusty, decrepit, dark, and eerie that, by comparison, the old Dirty Hole station seemed new and fresh.

“You know, Sulley… I’ve been thinking about it a little… this place feels a lot creepier now that we’re close, rather than when we were so far away… maybe it would be a good idea to… I don’t know… it feels like spending the night on something less saggy… like a tree branch, for example…” Mike stammered nervously, and Sulley calmly reminded him, “Mike, maybe I wasn’t a genius in school, and I’ll be the first to admit it… but I’m afraid a branch can’t support my weight…”

“Damn, that’s true… and besides, if we stay out in the open, we risk some unwanted guest finding us… well, then we’ll just have to get in there… let’s hope there aren’t any unwanted guests in there…”

With a leap, Sulley grabbed the railing of the boat, since there was no dock to climb onto, and, with a few quick movements, climbed up onto it.

“Hey, wait for me! I’m not a gymnast like you!” Mike snorted, leaping to grab his friend’s furry blue tail, which also helped him climb onto the boat.

“Well, Mike… now that we’re on board, what do we do?” Sulley asked, and the little green monster replied, as he freed himself of his enormous backpack and threw it on the ground: “What questions? Let’s find a good enough place in here to rest! Although I still think it would have been better to sleep on that branch…”

“We can always sleep on the deck.”

“Hmm… you know, that’s not such a bad idea… but I need some blankets… ten or eleven will be fine… and then, I’ll need at least five pillows, a stove, a radio… do you think there could be a television in here too?”

“Mike…”

“Okay, okay, I’ll let it go… but can I at least have those blankets and something to eat in here?”

“If there’s anything, although I very much doubt it, it’ll certainly be below deck.”

“Of course, more than natural, Sulley… by the way, where is it?”

“There.” was the giant, furry monster’s calm reply, pointing to some stairs leading down into the dark, damp, and cold heart of the boat, whose unsettling appearance made Mike swallow hard.

“Do we really have to go in there?”

“Mike, if we want to get some rest before sunrise, we don’t have much choice.”

“Sure, sure… anyway, I hope it comes soon! I’ve been in some old dumps before, but this really gives me a weird feeling…” Mike snorted, nervously following Sulley toward the creaking stairs that led into the dark heart of the ship.

While the little green monster looked around, nervous as hell, Sulley glanced around, noticing how run-down the place looked: the plaster was falling apart, there were lots of cobwebs, and the porthole glass was shattered.

It was clear no one had repaired it in a while… and yet…

“Listen, Mike… don’t you think there’s something strange here? I mean… looking at the outside, I expected it to be much dirtier and messier inside… even the floors aren’t dusty, and there aren’t any shards of glass, despite the windows being shattered!” Sulley noted in surprise, running his finger over a small wooden window, a thin streak of gray dust clinging to his finger. Mike muttered, “All I need is some blankets in this place… and maybe even something to eat… poor me… I’m starving…”

As Mike finished descending the steps, Sulley looked around suspiciously.

He was beginning to think it would be safer to stay off the boat…

“Ah, listen, Sulley…” Mike said just then, getting the furry monster’s attention. “Maybe if we split up, we could find what we need quickly…”

“You know, Mike, that’s a great idea…”

“Perfect! Then you go find food and blankets, while I guard the stairs! Don’t take too long.”

“But Mike…”

“I’ll wait here, Sulley. Good luck,” the little monster thanked him, hurrying back, leaving Sulley alone.

With a sigh, the furry monster ventured into the deep, dark heart of the boat.

He had to admit, maybe it was the late hour or the location, but that place seemed truly unsettling to him… he hoped to find what he was looking for quickly, and then leave quickly!

Suddenly, he found himself, surprisingly, in front of a wall with only one door.

The furry monster looked around, but there were no other doors or places he could go, and since there was nothing on the floor, he had no choice but to go in there if he wanted to have a chance of finding what he was looking for, even if he wasn't thrilled about it.

Sulley slowly approached the wooden door and examined it carefully: it looked rather old and quite worn… he didn't know how old that door was, but it sure looked every inch of it!

Timidly, he reached out with a large, furry hand to the handle and pushed it, slowly opening the door, which creaked in a way that made your skin crawl.

It was a rather small and dark room, a sort of storage room, yet filled with miscellaneous objects, such as books, cans, drooler cooler cans, snack wrappers, sheets of paper, clothes, and even a lantern, scattered throughout the room without the slightest hint of order.

It looked like a human child's room, and he knew it from experience…

Suddenly, he noticed a pile of blankets at the back of the room, all piled up, and he sighed with relief.

At least he had found the blankets… definitely a good step forward!

Hesitantly, mostly because of the small space, the enormous monster entered the room, trying not to step on anything, but he didn't notice a couple of Drooler Cooler cans under his huge foot, which caused him to slide heavily to the floor, making a hellish racket.

Sulley raised his head slightly and saw, with surprise and dismay, that the mass of blankets had just begun to move slowly and, then, a small figure under them, sat up, while the blankets slipped from his body, revealing a small female monster in the shape of a white rabbit, with very long rabbit ears, no horns, with the wings of a white dove, wearing a sleeveless dark blue dress, very long blond hair with a tuft that covered his right eye, while the left side was held up by a silver crescent-shaped hair clip.

The little girl tiredly rubbed her visible eye with the back of her five-fingered hand, muttering with a yawn, then picked up a flashlight nearby and turned it on, clearly sleepy. “Hello, Uncle Reyawnndi… what was that noise? It woke me up… is everything okay?”

However, as soon as she fully opened her small, uncovered eye with its blue iris and saw the large, furry blue monster illuminated by the flashlight, she immediately made an expression of utter fear and began screaming, in an incredibly loud, high-pitched voice, terrified, and began throwing old cans at poor Sulley.

“Oh, goodness… I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you…” Sulley apologized immediately, standing up and taking a step back, trying to dodge the cans, not noticing a large book behind him, which caused him to slip and fly out the door with a thud, landing straight into a large box filled with paint cans and spray cans.

Meanwhile, the little monster's shriek had even been heard by Mike, still on guard at the stairs, who asked, slightly nervously, "Sulley... is everything okay there? I'll come and check..."

At that precise moment, a loud thud was heard upstairs, followed by a pained curse.

"Sulley... I heard a strange noise upstairs... I'll go and check for a moment... I'll be right back, I assure you..." said the little green monster, running like a madman upstairs to see what was happening, but suddenly he collided with something that was hurtling down the stairs at full speed, causing them both to fall to the ground with a thud.

“Ouch, that’s a big deal…” Mike muttered, then looked up to find himself faced with a purple monster resembling a giant, two-eyed lizard, with a scar on the right eye. It was wearing a dark brown, sleeveless vest with four holes in it—the monster in question had four arms, the first pair of which were wrapped in bandages. It also had a green pouch strapped to its waist, and on its head was a large, old-looking, and decidedly worn, cowboy hat, from which three fronds protruded, so long they reached over and slightly covered one side of his face.

Despite the new clothing, it hadn’t taken Mike long to recognize the monster… and judging by the other monster’s shocked and annoyed expression, unfortunately he had recognized it too…

“WAZOWSKI?!” the purple monster shrieked, while Mike, with an embarrassed smile, said, “Ah… hi, Randall… it sure is a small world… long time since we saw each other… huh… is that scar on your eye new?”

In response, the purple monster, grimacing in pure rage, attempted to hit the little green monster on the head with an old-fashioned red wrench, which Mike managed to avoid thanks to his quick reflexes. He then leaped to the stairs and ran up them at breakneck speed, while the other monster hurried after him, yelling, “Just wait till I catch you, Wazowski… and I’ll make you regret ever getting in my way again!!!”

Meanwhile, a little further away, unaware of what was happening to Mike, Sulley reemerged from the paint box, completely covered in tempera paint and so many colors that they had practically covered his blue fur and lilac polka dots.

He hadn't read his horoscope that morning, but evidently it couldn't have been much...

He looked up and noticed the silhouette of the little monster he had woken and scared earlier, watching him silently with a look of fear mixed with curiosity, leaning slightly out of the half-open door. But as soon as she realized she had been discovered, the little girl jumped and started to close the door.

"Wait! I didn't mean to scare you..." Sulley apologized again, trying to get out of the box, but lost his balance and fell heavily to the floor on his chest. However, when he looked up, he realized that the little girl had stopped and was still staring at him silently from behind the door, no doubt ready to catch any strange movement or behavior from him, so she could quickly close the door… well, at least that was a start…

“Listen, little one… I imagine you had a real scare earlier… oh, who am I kidding? You sure had a real scare… being woken up in the middle of the night by a sudden, loud noise and finding a complete stranger in your room, as if I were back scaring children… anyone would have been scared to death! Anyway, I want you to know that wasn't my intention… I didn't know anyone was in that room, or even that this boat was inhabited… I'm sorry, seriously,” Sulley apologized, genuinely sorry, even lowering his gaze.

The little monster remained silent for a few seconds, staring at the furry monster with her visible eye, truly deep and intense, before asking, in a nervous, faint voice: “Do you know where my uncle is?”

“Oh, no, I’m sorry… I haven’t seen any other monsters besides you… you’re the first one I’ve seen since my friend Mike and I entered the swamp…” Sulley admitted, slightly incredulous at the question, and the little girl revealed, lowering her gaze nervously, “Really? Well… it’s the same for me too…”

“Really?”

“Yes, well… you’re the first monster from outside I’ve seen since I got back here… and you’re so different from my uncle…”

“Oh, I don’t doubt it… listen, why were there all those paints in that box?”

“For the drawings.”

“The drawings?”

“Yes… sometimes my uncle manages to find some paper, and if he doesn't use it to teach me how to write, read, or count, he makes me draw whatever comes to mind with those paints… he even made me his own brushes using only branches and herbs!”

“Do you like drawing?”

“A little…”

“And what do you like?”

“I like stories full of adventure and magic! Both the ones my uncle tells me and the ones we make up when we play together!”

“And do you play together often?”

“At least an hour a day… and when we don't play, we're always together! As long as I have him with me, I'm not afraid of anything!”

“Wow, little one… you’re lucky to have the best uncle in the world…”

“Yes, he absolutely is the best! He can do everything: cook, clean, build tons of things, he’s super strong, super smart, knows so many things… he’s even trying to fix our boat’s engine so it can run… and all by himself!” the little monster revealed with a big smile, while Sulley noticed, surprised, that before, she’d used a low, almost feeble voice, as if she didn’t want to be overheard, but as soon as she started talking about her uncle’s skills and talents, she’d transformed: she’d gained much more confidence, volume, and fluency in speaking.

Evidently, uncle and niece must have been very close and loved each other very much if the mere mention of him was enough for the little girl to feel comfortable in conversation...

"I'm glad you have such a special uncle..." Sulley smiled at her, while the little monster smiled tenderly, showing off her crooked teeth and the two front teeth slightly larger than the others, with the left one slightly further back than the right. "By the way, my name is James P. Sullivan... but you can call me Sulley. And you're..."

"Luna."

"Oh... so that's your name? It's very cute."

"Thank you."

"So, nice to meet you, Luna," Sulley said, holding out his gigantic hand to the little monster, who watched her in complete silence, as if unsure of how she should behave.

Finally, albeit very shyly, she approached the furry monster and gently shook his hand, saying, with a smile: "Nice to meet you, Mr. Sulley."

"There's no point in hiding from me, Wazowski... I know this place like the back of my hand, and when I find you, I'll reduce you to a mass of green gelatin in a minute at most, I promise you!" shrieked the purple monster in the enormous, battered cowboy hat, ferociously swinging the large wrench in his hand. The green monster, watching him, terrified, from the top of the small boat, had to bite his tongue to keep from commenting that he had no doubts about it at all...

When he saw the monster turn a corner of the boat and disappear from his sight, Mike let out a deep sigh of relief, convinced the coast was clear. But as soon as he turned, he saw his pursuer glaring at him, one pair of arms entwined with the tool protruding, the other resting on its side, while a thin, blood-curdling hiss escaped his lips, making him flinch in fear.

“I found you, Wazowski.” the monster hissed, his gaze already predicting a slow, painful death. Mike broke out in a cold sweat and looked around for a way out. He finally noticed the end of the rope sticking out from behind a crate. The one-eyed monster immediately grabbed it and shouted, climbing onto the railing with a victorious grin, “Ah! Try and catch me now, Randall!”

“If I were you, I wouldn’t do that, Wazowski…” Randall replied calmly, while the other replied arrogantly, “Yeah, sure, right… just watch me slip right under your nose… sure, if you had one.”

As Randall narrowed his eyes, furious, Mike continued: “Prepare yourselves for the most extraordinary and thrilling flight in history, gentlemen! The great Mike Wazowski will reach the shore with an extraordinary flight of… how far is the shore from here?”

“Two meters,” the purple monster revealed, leaning back and with the first pair of arms on the railing, as if wanting to better enjoy the spectacle, and the green monster asked, astonished, then nervously looked at the mass of black water below him: “Two meters?!”

“You’re the one who asked… for the record, the water there is very deep and full of leeches just waiting to drain you.”

“That's great news…”

“So I can grab you and give you the boot? I'm dying to beat you to a pulp with my wrench…”

“Of course not! A two-meter drop won't stop me! Nothing and no one can scare or stop Mike Wazowski! Just watch!” Mike shrieked, before turning and saying, in a faint voice, “Oh, I've always dreamed of doing this…”

He rocked gently, then leaped forward and screamed, under Randall’s gaze: “TO THE INFINITY AND BEYOND!”

Randall remained frozen in his seat, watching Mike dive, immediately followed by a loud splash into the water below.

Only then did he calmly walk to the railing and, leaning over it, watched with an amused smile as Mike emerged from the water, soaked to the ground, reaching the shore, covered in leeches and still holding the rope.

“Hey, Wazowski! Great flight, my compliments! You were absolutely right… you managed to make it two meters… from the railing to the water!” Randall chuckled, while Mike, starting to remove the leeches from himself, glared at him. “Next time, though, make sure the rope is tied somewhere.”

“Hey… you’re laughing, Randall, but meanwhile, I’m here and you’re still on the boat! Ha-ha!” Mike laughed, and in response, the monster calmly moved away from the railing.

“See? You don’t have the courage to come after me, Randall! So much criticism, and then you don’t even try to dive in! You’re just a coward who’s afraid to challenge me, Lizard Boy!” Mike taunted, but as soon as he finished speaking, Randall suddenly appeared, leaping from the railing. As Mike watched in shock, the monster grabbed a nearby branch, swung from it, and then threw itself onto the shore, landing softly right next to Mike, who simply stared at it, shocked.

"Oh, damn, I screwed up! I couldn't land on one foot anymore... where did I go wrong? And yet the old man could..." Randall muttered angrily, as Mike tried to tiptoe away, adding with a nervous smile, "Well, good luck, Randall... In the meantime, while you try to figure out what the problem is, I'll step aside for a moment... personal questions..."

"Oh, Wazowski... who were you referring to just now when you said 'Lizard Boy?" Randall stopped him with a calm, cold tone, turning toward the green monster and pointing the wrench at him, causing him to stop immediately. Then he stammered with an embarrassed smile, "Oh, that... I... um... I was just practicing lines for the new play I'm putting on with my theater group! It's called 'You're Just a Coward Afraid to Challenge Me, Lizard Boy'... we're still working on the lines... if you can think of one, I assure you I could consider it and include it in the show…"

“What a coincidence, I just have one ready… it says, ‘Prepare yourself for a slow and painful death, Funny Boy!’” was Randall’s reply, as he gave a devious smile and cracked the fist of his second pair, making an unsettling sound.

“Good joke, my compliments… I’ll let you know when we put on the show, bye!!!” Mike shouted, before running full speed through the reeds, while the purple monster gave chase again, screeching angrily, “Get back here right now, you stupid tennis ball!!!”

At the same moment, Luna peeked out from the trapdoor leading to the upper deck of the boat. Turning to Sulley, who was behind her, she reassured him with a sweet smile: “Don't worry, Mr. Sulley, my uncle knows every corner of the swamp… he'll be in the cockpit trying to fix the boat… you'll see, he'll help you get out of here quickly and without too much trouble.”

“Oh, thank goodness… listen, aren't you afraid of living in such an isolated and scary place?”

“Not at all! In fact, I really love living here! And besides, the Bayou isn't a scary place at all, but beautiful! It's full of life, animals, plants, and colors! My grandma once told me that the swamp is like my papa... it's seemingly wild and threatening, but, deep down, it's wonderful and welcoming of diversity, allowing very different creatures, beings you wouldn't even expect to be there, to live in harmony... you just have to get to know it better, accept it for what it is, and learn to appreciate it. Only then can it be fully known.”

“Wow… I have to admit, that's a very profound and wise speech for such a young girl… by the way, how old are you?”

“Six. Anyway, the speech wasn't mine, but my grandma's… she loved giving these speeches and taught me a lot… before she left…”

“Left?”

“A few months before my papa died, one night she took a canoe and said she was leaving on a long journey and that we couldn't go with her because our time hadn't come yet and that it was too soon for us, while she had stayed here far too long… and that we shouldn't worry about her, because my mama, my grandpa and my other grandma were waiting for her and that she would be fine. She started paddling, vanishing within minutes into the fog and darkness… and that was the last time we saw her.”

“I'm sorry…”

“Yes… at first, I was really saddened by her departure… sure, she told me she'd leave one day, but I guess you're never fully prepared for something like that… and when I think back to her, or mama or papa, I get really sad…” Luna sighed with great sadness in her voice, her expression heavy and full of pain, as if she were about to burst into tears, while Sulley felt terrible for having reminded such a young girl of such unpleasant memories.

However, noticing the monster's discomfort, Luna quickly said, with a sweet smile to reassure him: “But I still have my uncle. And as long as I have him by my side, I can face anything, even the scariest and saddest things!”

“So, I’m happy for you, Luna,” the furry monster smiled sweetly at her, while the little monster, after giggling for a moment, headed toward the cockpit and, turning one last time to Sulley, said, “Wait here for me a moment, please. My uncle is very suspicious if you’re not part of the family… it’s best if you let him know first that we have guests on board.”

After saying those words, Luna headed toward the cockpit, while Sulley, yawning widely, headed toward the dock.

He couldn’t wait to go to sleep, especially since it was very late…

Suddenly, he heard screams, both of fear and anger, coming from the shore… and, strangely, one of them sounded like Mike’s voice… Mike!!!

Immediately, the furry blue monster rushed to the railing and strained his eyes, hoping to find his friend and figure out what had happened to him.

Suddenly, a tall, slender figure appeared from among the reeds, wearing a large, battered cowboy hat and holding a large, old wrench that definitely wasn't Mike's. For a moment, Sulley feared they were Johnson's men... strange... he didn't think one of them would be wearing such a battered hat and carrying a wrench as a weapon... but as soon as he took a closer look, the monster couldn't help but despair, since the guy on the shore was known to be even worse than Johnson and his gang... there was really no limit to the worst!

Suddenly, the purple lizard-like monster whirled around towards the boat, but saw no one, as Sulley had had the quick reflexes to crouch behind some wooden crates. However, when he leaned slightly from one of the crates, he noticed the monster marching towards the boat, much to Sulley's despair.

Frankly, he wasn't worried about himself, but about Luna... he knew from experience how dangerous that monster could be, and he had no intention of putting that sweet little monster in danger!

She'd already been through too much in just six years to be threatened by a dangerous, wanted monster!

Unexpectedly, just as the monster had set foot on the wooden walkway, a loud thud was heard coming from the forest and, turning in that direction, both monsters saw Mike emerge with a branch in his hand and mutter: “Stupid branches… they might even make them stronger…”

“Ah, there you are, Wazowski!” the purple monster in the hat immediately shrieked, putting the wrench in his mouth and starting to run on all fours toward him, while the green monster began to run again through the reeds, thus causing the two to move away from the boat.

“Listen, Mr. Sulley…” Luna’s voice suddenly said, startling Sulley. When the big, furry blue monster turned around, he saw the little monster slowly advancing and saying, slightly nervously, “My uncle wasn’t in the cockpit… it’s not like him to leave without telling me… I wouldn’t want anything to have happened to him…”

“Listen, Luna… I know this may seem sudden and strange… almost dangerous… but we have to get out of here… now!” Sulley interrupted, and Luna, alarmed, asked, “Why? What’s going on?”

“I just saw a very dangerous monster nearby!”

“What?! Really?!”

“Yes… it’s a wanted criminal who I know from experience is very evil.”

“Oh, dear… you think he hurt my uncle?! Where is he?!”

“I don’t know… I haven’t seen any other monsters around here…”

“I can't lose my uncle too! He's the last person I have left of my family! If I lose him too, it's the end! He... he's my whole world... and I can't lose him! What if he needs me?! What if his life is in danger?! What if he's captured?! What will he do to my uncle?! I don't dare think about it... I... I can't abandon him! I have to find him and make sure he's okay... now!” shrieked the little monster, visibly scared, anxious, and upset, clutching a silver cloth bag with a crescent moon and blue stars drawn on it, tied to a string that formed a sort of purse. Sulley, in response, placed his large, furry hand on her little blond head, making the little monster look up at him in amazement.

“I promise we won't go anywhere until we find your uncle and make sure he's okay,” Sulley promised solemnly, and Luna immediately smiled and asked, “Really?”

“Yes, it's a promise,” Sulley nodded, holding out his pinky to the little monster. She immediately grabbed it with her own pinky and happily revealed, “The pinky promise! I know it! I made it with my uncle once!”

“Really? And what did you promise each other?”

“That we'd always be together!”

“And now I promise I'll help you keep it, Luna… and I'll start by finding your uncle.”

As soon as the two monsters untied their pinkies, the little monster hugged Sulley tightly and said, with a big smile, “Thank you, Mr. Sulley! That really means a lot to me…”

“I have no doubt, Luna…” the big, furry blue monster nodded, stroking her little blond head, then said, “But, in order to save him, I need to know what he looks like…”

“No problem! I'll draw you a picture so you'll recognize him as soon as you see him!” the little monster reassured him with a smile, grabbing a nearby sheet of paper and a blue pencil, then lying on her stomach on the floor of the boat and quickly drawing something. Once she was done, she stood up and exclaimed with a big smile, “There, that's him!”

Sulley remained silent, staring at the drawing of what looked like a large, shapeless, blue, dotted centipede with a wide grin, a scepter in his hand, and a huge disk on its head filled with small, pointed horns, surrounded by hearts—no doubt Luna's personal addition.

To be honest, she didn't look much like the little author, but then again, monster genetics worked in a peculiar way… she'd certainly never seen it before…

At that point, Sulley lifted Luna and placed her on his shoulder, saying, "Great work! With this drawing, it shouldn't be too hard to find him… but if you see him before me, let me know right away."

"Of course!" the little monster exulted, while Sulley put his index finger in front of his mouth and whispered, "Now, though, we have to be absolutely quiet. We can't risk that dangerous criminal noticing us."

As soon as Luna nodded determinedly, Sulley stepped down from the gangplank with the little monster still on his shoulders, trying to be as silent as possible, and walked through the reeds, looking in all directions, aiming to locate Luna's uncle, a slightly desperate undertaking, since the darkness of the night and the fog didn't make the search any easier... he just hoped to find that monster before Randall discovered their presence in the area... he couldn't help but be terrified at the thought that Randall was spying on them and monitoring their movements, just waiting for the right moment to jump on them both and finish them off…

Just then, a noise was heard behind a tree, and when the furry blue monster leaned out, he couldn't help but jump with anxiety and uneasiness: Randall was there, holding Mike up by the foot with a devious smile of victory, ready to strike him with the wrench.

It was definitely the end... Mike was already in his grasp, and if they made even the slightest noise, Randall would spot them and kill them all, including little Luna... only a miracle could save them…

“Hey, is there anyone there?” Luna asked, calmly climbing off Sulley’s back and starting to approach the two monsters. She was quickly grabbed by Sulley, who, concerned for her safety, dragged her back to the hiding place, saying, “We better get out of here before he sees us… let’s go look for your uncle somewhere else…”

“Why?” the little monster asked, surprised, and the other replied nervously, “Because that monster isn’t very nice to others…”

Confused, Luna leaned forward slightly and, after a quick glance at the monster, looked back at Sulley and said, “But… that’s my uncle Randy over there…”

“What?! Really?! Are you telling me… he’s your uncle?!” was the other's shocked reply, pointing to the purple monster, and the little monster nodded: “Yes, exactly… but didn't you recognize him? Yes, that's true, in my drawing he's blue while he's purple, but I always have that one on hand, since it's my favorite color, and I didn't have time to look for the right color… but otherwise he's exactly the same, right?”

Sulley didn't have the heart to tell the little monster that, by leaving out the wrong color, the drawing she'd done of Randall was completely different from the original monster, so much so that she didn't even recognize him at first!

Evidently, Luna wasn't very good at drawing…

“Any last words before I break all four of your limbs and turn you into food for alligators and leeches, Wazowski?” Randall angrily asked the monster he was holding captive, who replied, with a nervous smile, “Can't you think again, Randall? I'm still young to die, I still have my whole life ahead of me… I still have to find a way to get rid of Roze once and for all, manage to commit to Celia, but, most of all… I MUST WATCH THE CREEPERS BASEBALL FINAL NEXT WEEK!!!!”

“The world is cruel, Wazowski… and I can tell you that from experience,” Randall commented with a grimace, as Sulley turned to Luna, asking her worriedly, “Excuse me, Luna… could you ask your uncle to spare my friend, please?”

However, when she turned to the little monster, she noticed with surprise that Luna was looking with an absorbed and worried expression in another direction, before whispering, alarmed: “Oh, no…”

Just then, a large monster appeared from the reeds and grabbed Randall by the neck, shouting euphorically, "Gotcha!"

Due to the sudden capture, Randall lost his grip on the wrench and Mike, who rolled for a bit before being grabbed by the leg by another monster. The monster remarked with an amused grin, "Big catch tonight! I didn't think we'd see each other again so soon, one-eyed man..."

"Oh, no... you're 'The Mad Monster'... Johnson's men!" Mike exclaimed in terror as he gazed at the gray, octopus-like monster holding him captive. The other monster replied with an evil grin, "That's right, you slob! You know, our boss wasn't at all happy about what happened at the pub... he specifically said he wanted you alive by dawn, even if it meant ending up in some alligators' stomach!"

“But you didn’t have to go to all this trouble… if you wanted to meet me, you could have just called Monsters, Inc. and my assistant Cameron would have set up an appointment… believe me, he’s the best at this… sure, he doesn’t talk much and he’s quite tall, but otherwise he’s excellent, I assure you…” Mike stammered nervously, while the other sneered: “Oh, I don’t doubt it… but our boss prefers to interact directly with the people he values ​​and not through intermediaries, you understand?”

“Hey, Gideon… this guy is way too nervous, worse than a leech… I can barely keep him still!” snapped the gray monster’s companion, who, as soon as he took a look at the prisoner, exclaimed in surprise: “What the hell… that’s Randall!”

“What?! You mean that little scarred traitor?!”

“What other purple lizard-looking monsters do you know, Benedict?”

“Well, I couldn't see him very well in this dark… besides, there's this huge old cowboy hat covering his face like…”

“Wait a minute… is that Noah's hat?”

“Huh?! Really?!”

“Oh, I’d recognize that disgusting hat anywhere! I’m surprised anyone would still wear it, in such a tattered state…” Gideon commented, casting a disgusted glance at Randall’s oversized cowboy hat, then looked at the purple monster and revealed, with a wicked smile, “What a coincidence, Randall, you’re here… it’s been at least three years since we’ve seen each other… You know, Johnson’s dying to see you again? He’ll be so happy when we bring you to him… and this time, Noah won’t save your skin.”

“Listen, Gideon… shouldn’t we go look for the furry beast too? He’s definitely not far away, since his little friend is here…”

“Oh, forget it, Benedict… the boss isn't particularly interested, unlike the monocle…”

“And besides, he seemed pretty clueless… without him, he won't even know left from right!”

“Hmph… he hasn't a chance of getting by!”

“Unless he meets Noah's daughter and she can scare off an alligator with her looks!”

“Ha ha ha ha! Good one! Hey, Randall, how old is Noah's brat now? Four? Or five?”

“Or she could have inherited her father's legendary roar!”

“Oh, I'd absolutely love to see that! Would she do Rawwrr? Or Rawr? What do you think, Randall? Did she at least manage to get the roar? Or was she a complete failure for her father?” Gideon laughed, while Randall narrowed his eyes angrily and glared at him.

"And when we first saw her with her father? How much did we laugh that time? We almost died laughing, didn't we?" Gideon continued, amused, even nudging Benedict. Benedict added, "Oh, yeah... and then when we found out Noah's secret three years ago, it was even more hilarious, wasn't it?"

"Oh, yeah, absolutely... and we only owe it to you, Randall. Without you, we never would have found out about Noah's 'great' past..."

"And his 'great' crash! Ha ha ha... after that tumble, nothing has gone right for him, huh?"

"Now, enough wasting time... let's get them to the boat! The boss will be dying to see them again..." Gideon interrupted, heading toward the reeds, with Mike, still held upside down, who began to protest, terrified: "Hey, hey, wait a minute... can't we talk about this calmly in a month? This is supposed to be my week off... I have to watch the Creepes final!!!"

"What a drag!" Gideon blurted out, exasperated, walking into the depths of the swamp, followed by Benedict, who was still holding Randall captive.

As soon as they were gone, Luna climbed off Sulley's back and headed toward the small plain, picking up the wrench that had fallen to the ground and clutching it tightly, yet fearfully.

“Oh, dear… oh, dear… what do I do now? Those guys took my uncle! What will they do to him?! Those guys are even worse than alligators or that monster they want roaming the swamp! My uncle always says I shouldn't travel alone in the swamp… but… but he's in danger now… I… I have to save him!” the little monster immediately cried out, her tone anxious and desperate, and Sulley immediately reassured her, approaching her: “Sure, but you're not going alone! I promised you I'd get your uncle back, and that's what I intend to do!”

“Really? Would he?” Luna asked, giving a shy, sweet smile as she looked at the big, furry monster with a hopeful look, and Sulley nodded decisively: “Of course! We just need to find a boat and go to Johnson’s lair…”

“Oh, that's easy!”

“Really?”

“Sure, come with me!” exclaimed the little monster, taking Sulley by his free hand—or rather, his finger, since the monster's hand was much larger than her own tiny hand—and leading him to a thick bush near the shore. Lifting the leaves and branches, she revealed a small wooden canoe.

“Unbelievable…” Sulley commented, as the little girl revealed, with a smile, “It belonged to my grandma. Uncle Randy and I always use it when we travel to the swamp, and I think I know where they’ll take him!”

“Really?! Then let’s go right away!”

“Sulley… help!!! Oh, great… I hate boating… I get seasick… I’m going to throw up…” Mike shrieked desperately, while Randall, poking him lightly with a finger, annoyedly informed him: “Hey… if you throw up on me… I’LL KILL YOU, RIGHT?!?!”

“Stop making that racket, you two! Are you trying to wake up the whole swamp?!” Benedict snapped, annoyed, glaring at them, then muttered: “Look at this…”

“Oh, it’s the end… I’m going to miss the Creepes game, I’m sure of it… unless Sulley finds me… but will he be able to find me? What if he panics and doesn’t know what to do? I wonder what happened to him…” Mike complained desperately, while Randall commented sarcastically: “Are you afraid for Sullivan? Ah… that’s a grown-up monster who always knows how to handle himself, he certainly doesn’t need a nanny! He’s not some sensitive and delicate little six-year-old monster that I left completely alone on a boat and who is sure to panic completely when she wakes up and isn’t anywhere to be found!!! Oh, it’s all your fault, Wazowski… you couldn’t have just let me beat you to a pulp, no, you should have run away as fast as you can, attracting the attention of Johnson’s men! Couldn’t you have just stayed put?!”

“Hey, we can still do this… the situation isn't that dire yet…”

“Oh, really? And what could be worse than finding myself wrapped up in your arms like a parcel?!”

Before leaving for their lair, Benedict and Gideon, to prevent Randall from escaping using his invisibility power, had thought it a good idea to tie the two of them together with a rope, as if they were a poorly made and hideous gift, complete with a bow at the end—a feat that, needless to say, wasn't much appreciated by the two prisoners.

“Okay, things are pretty dire…” Mike admitted, while Randall sarcastically commented, “Yes, to put it mildly!”

“Anyway, I’m sure I can find the perfect solution to get out of here…”

“You? Ah! Then we’re screwed.”

“Very funny, Randall… and I thought there was nothing worse than being your college roommate… listen, do you know Beau Johnson well?”

“Let’s just say our paths crossed disastrously for both of us three years ago…”

“And tell me, what does he do to his prisoners? Does he go hard on them?”

“Well, he’ll definitely give me a very slow and painful death… but he should go easy on you and give you a quick one, since I’m the one he hates the most of us… of course, unless you insulted his nose.”

Noticing out of the corner of his eye the look of nervousness and pure horror that immediately appeared on Mike's face, Randall guessed, “...Which is exactly what you did, right?”

“It’s not my fault! That stupid nose looked so fake…” Mike defended himself, as the purple monster rolled his eyes. “And here I thought it was me and the old man who were impulsive…”

“Please, Randall… tell me what he’s going to do to me!”

“Oh, it’s very simple: he’ll give you a very slow and painful death, and me a quick and painless one.”

“You think this is the right way, Luna?” Sulley asked, pushing the boat with his oar, while Luna, intent on studying an old map with the aid of a flashlight, nodded: “Yes. My uncle taught me to use this detailed map of the swamp, in case of need… he always told me to avoid this spot, but given the situation, I think we’ll have to go there…”

“Hey, what’s that spot in the distance?” Sulley suddenly asked, pointing somewhere in the distance. She immediately jumped and asked, slightly nervously, “W-what spot, Mr. Sulley?”

“That one, in front of us… I can’t see it very well in the dark…” Sulley explained, and Luna immediately nodded, giving a slightly nervous and frightened smile as she laced her fingers together. “Sure… I understand… I-I’ll shine a light on it right away, don’t worry…”

After saying those words, the little monster covered her eyes with one hand and, trembling, pointed the beam of light in front of her.

Sulley looked in the direction of the beam and exclaimed, surprised: “But that’s a sign!”

“Really? And… is there something ugly and disturbing taped to it?”

“No, just some red writing.”

Slowly, Luna opened a small gap between her fingers and glanced at the illuminated sign, realizing it was real, instantly relaxing.

Sulley maneuvered the boat closer to the sign and, with the help of Luna's flashlight, read: "Johnson's Leir. If you donn't whant enny troumble, liave immediattely!’… And I thought I was the one who wasn't cut out for school..."

"Actually, I think there are a few spelling mistakes... Mr. Sulley, do you think they brought my uncle here?" Luna interjected, anxiously clutching the wrench and her little cloth bag, and the big, hairy monster nodded: "Yes. I'll pull the boat over now and then we'll get going... remember, Luna... absolute silence from now on. These are very dangerous people."

“Mh-mh!” the little monster nodded, signaling her to zip her mouth shut, and Sulley smiled as he gently grabbed her and slung her over his shoulders: “Good girl.”

The two then walked along the shore in complete silence until they spotted a huge, ruined mansion near a harbor. Moving under the reeds, the two headed toward the back of the house, so as not to get caught, but they found no back door.

“This was definitely not what we needed… it seems the only way in is through the front door, which, obviously, we have to rule out right away… so, how do we get in?” Sulley wondered worriedly before Luna gently tapped his shoulder to get his attention. As soon as the large monster turned to look at him, the little girl smiled and pointed to something above him: some open windows on the second floor.

“You’re amazing, Luna!” Sulley exclaimed enthusiastically, the little monster smiling sheepishly and rubbing her head. “Now, hold on tight. Make sure you hold on tight!”

Immediately, Luna squeezed him incredibly hard, making Sulley instinctively wince in pain.

He wouldn’t have said it, but the little girl had a very strong grip.

Well, at least he wouldn’t risk falling…

Trying not to suffocate, Sulley began to calmly and decisively climb the wall of the villa until he reached the open window, then slipped inside the house, finding himself in a large, dusty room full of broken objects.

Immediately, Luna closed her eyes in fear and hugged Sulley even tighter, hiding her face in the monster's thick fur. The monster, imagining she was terrified, patted her gently to reassure her, whispering with determination: "Don't worry. Everything will be fine... I won't let anyone hurt you... and we'll save your uncle, you'll see."

In response, the little monster looked up at him and then whispered a simple, "Thanks... please be careful. I hear someone downstairs."

After giving her a nod, the furry monster, obviously taking great care not to make any noise, left the room and, after looking around, noticed a light coming from the bottom of a staircase leading downstairs, which he slowly approached.

The two monsters crouched down and began to observe the scene below between the metal grates with apprehension and nervousness, watching with horror as the large, green-furred monster sat in an old, once-luxurious purple armchair, reading the newspaper.

Just then, the door to the room opened and Gideon and Benedict appeared with amused smiles, holding up Mike, who was tied to something covered by a purple sheet, and announcing, "Hey, boss! Look who we brought you!"

“Well done! Great job, guys! I've been waiting so long for this!” Johnson sneered, tossing the newspaper aside, as the gray monster added, “And we're not done yet, boss! We have a little surprise for you… something we stumbled upon in the swamp, but I'm sure you'll love it…”

With that, Benedict lifted the sheet, revealing Randall and shouted, “Look who's back from the dead, boss!”

“Save the sarcasm, Benedict,” the purple monster snapped, annoyed, as Johnson smiled, approaching the two: “Look… Kris Kringle came way early this year… what a lovely surprise, Randall… it's been three years since we've seen each other… that is, since Noah died, right?”

As Randall narrowed his eyes, Johnson continued, leaning close to him: “You know, I couldn't wait to get my hands on you... I didn't like your little prank last time... because of you, I lost a deal worth billions!”

“Me?! Ah! The deal was that if we gave it to you, you'd leave us alone once and for all, but as soon as you had it, you tried to kill us and that was that! You didn't keep your promise, so I had every right to take it back!”

“Well, since we're on the subject, how about you give it to me, Randall? If you give it to me now, I might even give you a pretty quick death…”

“You’ve already fooled me once, Johnson… it won’t work a second time. And anyway, there’s no point in looking for it, because it’s not here. It’s somewhere you’ll never find it… where it’s being used in the most appropriate and useful way! Even Noah would agree with me!”

“We’ll see about that, Randall… search him!” Johnson ordered, as Gideon revealed, holding up a piece of paper folded in four: “We already did, boss… we looked everywhere for it, but we couldn’t find it anywhere! The only thing he seemed to care about was this folded piece of paper we found in his fanny pack.”

“You better give it back to me right now! Give it back to me! If I’m going to die, I want it with me!” Randall shrieked, visibly upset, while Johnson chuckled, with Gideon stuffing Randall’s note into his jacket pocket. “Really? That’s a good reason to keep it, then… as for that thing, we’ll deal with it later, just like the big hairy beast…”

“I’m warning you, Johnson… if you touch so much as a hair on her head, I’ll come back as a ghost and make your life hell!”

“Yes, if you’re capable… anyway, I have something more important to worry about right now: how do I destroy these two nice guys?”

“Forgiveness is the best revenge…” Mike suggested nervously, while Johnson, ignoring him, suggested: “Boiling pitch? No, that’s too expensive… pirate plank? No… I like it, but I want something quick and easy for me and slow and painful for you…”

“Hey, wait a minute… you want to kill us together?!” Randall asked, shocked at the thought of dying with Mike rather than the thought of dying slowly and painfully, and Johnson nodded, amused: “Exactly! And they say I’m not a generous person…”

“Look, if you want to kill us, you’re free to do so, but at least spare us from dying together! Do me this favor… the last thing I want is to die with this treacherous monocle! Anything but that!” Randall blurted out, disgusted, while Mike protested: “Hey, I can hear you!”

"Good, because that's exactly what I want! The one and only time we were forced to share a small space was agonizing for me! I could never sleep! If it wasn't for your stupid studies, it was for you talking in your sleep!"

"I don't talk in my sleep, Randall!"

"Go tell that to that pony, Wazowski!"

"Stop this old married-couple whining! Benedict, hook them! Gideon, open the trap door and get the meat to lure our friends!" Johnson snapped, annoyed, as his men immediately got to work.

“Hey… what are you going to do with us?” Mike stammered, before Gideon kicked open a large trapdoor and threw large chunks of meat inside, which immediately caused disturbing noises to erupt from within.

“Oh-ho…” Mike immediately said, terrified, before stammering in fear: “What’s that? Wait, wait, wait… come on… oh-oh… no, no… come on… hey, hey! Something's moving down there! I don't like big, creepy things moving in the dark of a well… no, come on… Johnson…”

At that precise moment, undefined masses pounced on the meat and Johnson, with an amused smile, pointed at them and declared: “Those are Bayou alligators, you little fellow... they're very fond of meat…”

“Really? What kind of meat do they eat to get so big?” Mike asked curiously, and Johnson, with an amused grin, replied: "Oh, you'll find out soon enough…"

After saying those mysterious words, the monster moved away from the two prisoners and Mike, surprised, asked him: “Come on, where we going? We’ll talk, we’ll have a latte! Come on… we can talk about this…”

In response, the furry monster pulled a nearby lever, and both Mike and Randall slowly rose from the ground.

"Hey, since when can I fly?" Mike asked, before realizing that he and Randall had been placed on the hook of a crane, which was slowly and inexorably leading them toward the well “Wait, wait, wait! No, no, no! Oh-ho! No, come on… Kyaaaah!!!”

“Enough!!! Untie my hands right now!!! At least a couple!!!” Randall started screaming in turn, and Benedict sarcastically asked him, “And what do you want to do, huh? Run away in every sense of the word?”

“No, I just want to cover my ears!” the purple monster revealed, exasperated, as Mike continued to scream: “Help! Help! Help, help! HELP!!!!”

Just then, a large black figure fell in front of the window, making a loud noise that immediately made the trio of criminals turn around.

“What the…?” Johnson said, stunned, turning toward the window, followed by his accomplices, while Benedict proposed, trembling: “It can’t be Noah’s ghost, can it?!”

“Don’t be silly! That junkman is keeping Naira company in the underworld… and even if it really is him, it means I’ll make him disappear once and for all, indestructible or not!” Johnson snapped angrily, stopping the two monsters’ slow descent into the well, then speeding toward the exit. “Benedict, you come with me! Gideon, you make sure these two don’t escape or get killed before I can enjoy the show… and for goodness’ sake, someone shut up that green plug!!!”

Indeed, Mike, not realizing they'd stopped, continued to scream in fear until Randall touched him with a finger, getting his attention. He then pointed out, annoyed, "Stop screaming, Wazowski! Can't you see we're stopped and Johnson's gone?!"

"Oh, that's right..." Mike admitted, slightly embarrassed, before whispering to Gideon, since he was the only one in the room: “Psst! Hey, hey! Do you like cars? I got a really new nice car… if you let me go, I’ll… give you… a ride in the car… please…”

“What do you think I am?! If I did something like that, the boss would kill me, and, above all, I'm not that desperate!” Gideon replied, annoyed, while Randall repeated sarcastically: “I’ll give you a ride in the car? Really, Wazowski?”

“It was an idea,” Mike defended himself, and just then, what looked like a large brick flew from the upstairs railing and hit the ceiling, narrowly missing the chandelier, before plummeting down, hitting Gideon squarely in the head, knocking him unconscious.

“What happened?” the little green monster asked, stunned, while his fellow sufferer retorted, “Do I look like a fortune teller to you, Wazowski?”

“Is everything okay, Mike?” a male voice suddenly asked, as the face of a hairy monster appeared from the second-floor railing.

Seeing it, Randall rolled his eyes and growled, “Hmph… I should have known he was around… wherever Wazowski is, Sullivan is guaranteed to be there too! Absolutely inseparable…”

“Sulley, please, get me out of here before Johnson and that other guy come back and make me breakfast for a bunch of hungry alligators!” Mike begged immediately and nervously, while Randall commented, “Over the top… to those beasts, you’d be more of a snack than anything else.”

“Anyway, great job taking down that thug, Sulley! Perfect aim!” the little one-eyed monster complimented him, while his friend admitted sheepishly, while working on the levers to bring the two dangling monsters back to safety, “Actually, the plan was to hit the wall near the door so he’d come out to investigate… only I missed a little.”

“Ah, now I remember why I never let you pitch softball…” Mike remembered as he was carried to the ground beside the well.

“And, of course, Sullivan couldn’t resist the temptation to play the hero and save his best friend! It’s just a shame they tied him to his worst enemy, me, and therefore he’ll be forced to free him in turn… the world is truly cruel…” the scarred purple monster continued sarcastically, as Sulley grabbed the rope the two monsters were tied to, breaking it with a simple tug.

As soon as he was free, Randall roughly kicked Mike away and blurted out, annoyed, “Oh, finally free from this torture!”

Immediately, he walked over to Gideon, who was still unconscious, and took the paper back. He quickly opened it, though his back completely covered the contents of the drawing. After a sigh of relief, he whispered, “Oh, thank goodness… it’s okay… it’s not ruined…”

“Hey, Randall… I know we have a less than idyllic past…” Sulley began, while Mike muttered under his breath, before Sulley’s large hand covered his mouth. “Yes, to put it mildly!”

“...But could you at least… try… to be nice… that would make it easier for us to be nice to you…” concluded the hairy monster, while his shocked cyclops friend lowered his friend's enormous hand with his little hands, protesting: “Be nice to him?! Are you crazy, Sulley?! Something must have happened to you while I was gone. I'm here, you drank that horrible putrid water! Or you hit your head somewhere! I can't leave you alone for a moment… have you forgotten that Lizard…?”

As Mike was interrupted again by Sulley's other hand over his mouth, Randall declared annoyedly, heading for the door after putting the folded paper back in his pouch: "I don't need your pity or compassion, Sullivan! I'm sure he only saved me because I hoped I was in your debt... well, I have bad news for you, Sullivan! As much as I'm a monster at repaying debts and favors, there are some people I'd never repay even if they saved my life a thousand times over! In fact, if it weren't for the fact that I'm in a hurry to get home on personal business, I'd certainly take advantage of this opportunity to kill you both and then throw you in the ditch!"

“Ah, Randall… about that…” Sulley tried to warn him, but Randall, calmly ignoring him, began to muse: “Urgh… the old man is going to roll over in his grave when he finds out I left her alone! I’ve been gone for over an hour… what if Luna woke up and didn’t find me? Oh, dear… I don’t even want to think about how worried she was… what if she got off the boat to look for me? Or, worse yet, what if something happened to her? I have to get home right away, but I also lost my wrench! First rule of the Bayou: never go around unarmed! Ah… but where am I supposed to find a weapons here?!”

“Well, I don't know that, but I know for a fact that I won't let you leave here! Not as long as my boss is here!” Gideon blurted out at that moment, getting up and heading towards the trio with a stick, but suddenly something stopped him and, annoyed, he turned around, muttering, “What the hell…?”

Holding him by a tentacle was none other than little Luna, who was glaring at him with a determined, angry expression.

Before Sulley could do anything, Gideon jumped up and started screaming, pure terror in his voice: “KYYYYAAAAHHHH!!! THE TOXIC KID!!!! HELP!!! STAY AWAY FROM ME, IN FACT, LET ME GO!!! I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE IN EXTREME SUFFERING!!! SOMEONE GIVE ME SOME DISINFECTANT, SOME BICARBONATE... ANYTHING!!!!!!”

“What the hell…?” Mike commented, stunned, as the monster, freeing himself from Luna’s grip, began running full speed toward the door, under the incredulous gaze of most of the people present.

Once he was out, the monster in the big hat turned to the little monster, who, with an embarrassed smile, said, while handing him the red wrench: “Hi, Uncle Randy…”

“Sullivan…” Randall hissed in response, taking the tool, then turned threateningly toward the giant, hairy monster with one pair of arms crossed and the other at his sides: “What’s my Luna doing here?”

“There…” Sulley stammered, as Luna explained, grinning, “Mr. Sulley promised me he’d help me save you, Uncle Randy… he was really good, you know? He brought us here in our boat without any hesitation or fear… then, he climbed up to the second-story window, threw an old closet full of woodworms out the window to scare those criminals away, and…”

“I knew you were an idiot, Sullivan, but this is absolutely the dumbest idea you could have come up with! Walking into a Bayou den of criminals with a little six-year-old monster is a stupid idea in itself… but the fact that the little monster in question is the daughter of the monster Johnson hated most in the entire Bayou, and the female monster he’d had his eye on, makes it even stupider… NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THAT SHE’S MY NIECE TOO!!!!” Randall began to rant, while Mike interrupted him, shocked: “Sorry, Randall… since when do you have a niece?”

“For three years… and by the way, don't interfere, Wazowski!” Randall informed him, then continued angrily: “Who knows what could have happened to her, slimehead! She could have gotten hurt, hurt herself, risked her life, and you…!”

“Don't worry, Uncle Randy… I still have my mojo bag, and you know that as long as I carry it with me, nothing will happen to me!” Luna interjected with a smile, holding up the little white cloth bag with a crescent moon and blue stars drawn on it, while her uncle, with an exasperated expression, said: “Luna, this isn't the time. And you know, you're in for a good scolding for what you did!”

“Yes, Uncle Randy, sorry… but could you at least help them, even just a little? After all, Mr. Sulley saved you…” the little monster apologized, embarrassed, lowering her gaze, while Mike stepped in, shocked: “What?! Help us?! Are you kidding?! The last thing I want is for him to help me!”

“Would you rather end up eaten by a bunch of hungry alligators?” Sulley pointed out, and Mike, after giving an embarrassed smile, turned to Randall and asked, “Can you give us a minute?”

“No way.” was Randall’s annoyed reply, while Luna, tugging on his vest, asked: “Excuse me, Uncle Randy… but why did that man say I’m toxic? What did he mean? Am I dangerous?”

“Absolutely not! That guy was just a nonsense idiot! He was trying to make a joke, albeit a very tasteless one!”

“Actually, it didn’t seem like he was joking to me…”

“Listen carefully, Luna: you absolutely must not believe anything people like him spout! It’s pure nonsense, I assure you! Anyone who tells you you’re a junkie is just an idiot, and as such, I shouldn’t listen to them at all, okay?”

“Anyway!”

“Great! Anyway, do you hear Johnson and his buddy over here?”

“Let’s see…” said Luna, walking over to the window and placing her hand on one long ear, as Mike headed to the other side of the room with Sulley, saying: “Good, keep it up… while you do your thing, Sulley and I do our thing!”

As soon as they were far enough away, Mike hissed at his friend, “Sulley, I want nothing to do with that guy!”

“Come on, Mike…” Sulley tried to reason with him, but the other replied: “Oh, no, pal… You can ask me almost anything, but not that! Let me just list all the things he’s done: he dropped dolls on us during that other nice guy Johnny’s bad prank, I’ve lost count of how many times he’s scared me in the locker room, he was the indirect cause of the spectacular failure of the Harryhausen date with Celia, he threatened me into bringing Boo back to his door, he accidentally kidnapped me from Boo’s room, he tried to use that damned scream-vacuum machine of his on me, He threw us both into the Human World without a second thought in a freezing cold place that turned me into a living popsicle, he almost got us killed by making us fall into the void when we were at the door warehouse, he stole our laughter energy to give it to FearCo., he stole a lot of items, including my lucky glove and the sugar packets, he made the press believe that we had a leak in the canisters, he vandalized the Laughter Department right when there was a live TV broadcast, he framed one of our jesters to make sure we fired him so he could work at FearCo., he caused a blackout that affected the entire city, he almost blew up the entire Mostropolis with that reckless idea of ​​​​mixing laughter energy with that of screaming, even thwarting those who tried to stop him... and he even tried to bribe a MERC official several times during an inspection!”

“Mike, you did the last thing!”

“Stay on point, Sulley, stay on point. And the point is, we mustn't let our guard down around him, not even for a second! He's a criminal and he's definitely out for our life! Maybe he's spying on us with hidden cameras! In fact, I'm sure he put one in that big, wide-eyed puppet my mother gave me! I always feel like that thing is following me with its eyes…"

“Why would he put one in there?”

“How do I know? Do you see that? I can't understand what's going on in his head! All the more reason not to trust him! He's definitely waiting for the right moment to pounce on us and get his revenge!”

“Mike, he seems busy enough with his niece already to…”

“I don't want anything to do with him, okay?!”

“Mike, he's the only one who knows his way around the swamp…”

“So?”

“So, if we move haphazardly, we risk getting lost and eaten by some predator… or, worse, ending up right in Johnson's hands! Either way, you'd only be watching the Creepes game in the afterlife!”

Hearing this, Mike grimaced and commented, “You play dirty, Sulley.”

“I learned from the best,” the big hairy monster laughed, and Mike, turning, muttered, “Okay, Randall… for this time we'll let you help…”

However, the monster stopped and remained motionless, seeing that Randall and Luna were no longer in the room and that the door was open.

“Hey, I say! Wait!!!” Mike screamed, starting to run like mad out of the mansion. Luckily, he found the two monsters nearby, who had already crossed a swamp. Randall turned to them and protested, “Don't scream so loud, Wazowski! Do you want Johnson to catch us all?!”

In response, Mike continued straight ahead, speeding into the swamp, trying to catch up with the duo on the other side of the bank.

"What the hell are you doing, Wazowski? Whatever you're doing is a terrible idea!" Randall muttered, looking at Mike impassively. "Don't you know that in the Bayou...?"

"Yurgh!" Mike suddenly exclaimed, his eyes widening and grimacing in pain, while Randall, rolling his eyes, sarcastically commented, "I didn't say anything."

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!!!! It's him again!!! I recognize him by his fangs!!!" Mike howled in pain, starting to jump in all directions under the gaze of everyone, due to the powerful bite of the small alligator, who kept nipping at his rear, grinning in amusement.

"Don't scream, Wazowski, or Johnson and his men will find us!" Randall pointed this out in exasperation, but Mike, still holding the alligator, responded by pressing himself against a tree and screaming, "I wish I could see you in my place!!! Help me, quick!!! Get off me!!!"

“I’m coming, Mike!” Sulley reassured him, rushing to his friend’s aid, starting to tug on the animal’s tail, aiming to pry it away from Mike’s rump, but the animal remained firmly in place, its amused smile still intact.

“Poor him… will it hurt that much?” Luna asked, slightly worried, watching the spectacle from the shore, holding Randall’s hand. Randall, in response, blurted out, “Who cares!”

“Shouldn't you be doing something, Uncle Randy?” the little monster then asked, turning to look at her uncle, who, after a moment of silence, admitted, “You're absolutely right, Luna… come on, little guy! Don't let go! Give that one-eyed green beach ball a hard time!”

Luna rolled her eyes in response, grimacing in exasperation, since what Randall was doing wasn't exactly what she'd intended.

Finally, after minutes of trying, Sulley managed to pry the alligator away from Mike. As soon as he was free, Mike looked furious, shaking a fist at the reptile while massaging his rear end with his free hand. He threatened, "That's enough! I'll make a fancy suitcase out of it and give it to Celia!"

"Come on, Mike... it's just a puppy... I'm going to put it in the water now so it won't bother you anymore," his friend said, but the puppy began to struggle and Sulley lost his grip. The animal took advantage of this by lunging at Mike and biting him again, this time on the arm, causing him to yelp in pain again.

“He bit him again…” Luna commented calmly, while Randall, who, judging by his expression, was thoroughly enjoying Mike's misfortunes, nodded: “Yeah… he seems pretty fond of the monocle…”

“Maybe this time you should really help him.”

“Absolutely not! If I were that puppy, I'd give him even more! He deserves it, Lenghty Ears, and you can't even imagine how much!”

Finally, the puppy let go and, once in the water, swam away at full speed like a torpedo, while Mike shrieked furiously, even brandishing a stick: “Give me a sword, a rifle, a cannon!!! Oh… if I see that again…!”

“Stop playing with the local fauna, Wazowski! We don’t have time to waste! If you don’t hurry, I’m off with Luna again… and I assure you, the temptation is very strong!” Randall snapped, exasperated, signaling for him to join him and his companion immediately.

Sensing that they had to obey or else it would end badly, the two monsters joined the other two aboard the small canoe, which then, vigorously pushed by Randall, began to rush forward into the fog and darkness, quickly vanishing from sight.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3: The dangers of the swamp

Despite living there for years, Beau Johnson absolutely hated the Bayou and its surroundings.

It was squalid, disgusting, smelly, and revolting... if only he'd had enough money to leave that dump once and for all, he'd do it now!

The only thing he enjoyed was tormenting the residents of Dirty Hole, which had earned him the role of undeclared leader... but other than that, there was nothing else!

He simply couldn't understand how crazy people like Noah and his mother-in-law could even appreciate a dump like that!

Well, he'd have the chance to leave soon... once he'd thrown out the trash and recovered that little gold mine, he'd live the high life on a tropical island!

Who would have thought that Noah, the monster he hated most in the Bayou, was the closet door that would make his dreams of wealth come true?

Of course, first he had to find that slimy little traitor Randall and that ridiculous, poorly executed caricature of a monster of a Noah's daughter... but it was only a matter of time!

Just then, the big monster missed a stone and stumbled after hitting it head-on, finding himself in the mud with a look of pure rage on his face.

“Let me see if I understand correctly… you’re telling me that you two took the wrong train, ended up in the Dirty Hole, of all places, making Johnson your enemies in the process, ending up at our house during the escape, scaring Luna half to death, and nearly making me the gastronomic memory of a pack of hungry alligators… JUST BECAUSE WAZOWSKI COULDN’T TAKE CARE OF HIS PAPERWORK AGAIN?!” the purple reptile-like monster asked angrily as he rowed, glaring at the little green monster, who, with a grimace of pure terror, admitted in a low voice, “To put it very simply… yes.”

“Incompetent!”

“Hey, Roze made me take care of this! She won't let go of me, she's always on my back… she seems convinced I can't be trusted!”

“I wonder why… and now, because of you, Johnson found out we're back! We'll have to leave again!” Randall blurted out, while his niece looked at him in silence, then asked, “And where are we going, Uncle Randy?”

“I have no idea, Lengthy Ears…” Randall admitted, while Mike repeated, with an amused smile, “Lengthy Ears?”

“Mike… this isn't the time…” Sulley tried to silence him, while Randall asked him annoyed, also shooting him a glare of pure hatred, “That's right, Wazowski… why, do you have something to say?”

“Oh, no, nothing… it's just that once you name something, you're bound to be fond of it!” Mike declared, amused, as Sulley continued: “Mike…”

“Grunt…” Randall said, glaring at him, while the little monster continued to tease him with an amused smile, even poking him in the stomach with his index finger to properly tease him: “You can’t believe it… you, who calls everyone by their last name, give a little monster a nickname… admit it, you’re absolutely smitten with her! And believe me… I know what I’m talking about!”

“Why did this happen to you too?” Luna asked him, annoyed, glaring at him, and Mike immediately jumped and stammered nervously, “Well… well, I…”

Then, noticing that Randall was staring at him with an amused smile, he retorted, “Look, I had an emergency, okay? There was that little girl, and I didn’t know what to do… Suppose someone said, ‘Hey, Mike, I’m going to steal that thing from you’… how was I supposed to know if they were talking about a stapler or Snore?”

“Snore?”

“Well… it was impossible not to call her that… she slept the whole time, snoring in that adorable way…”

“You’re absolutely smitten.”

“Yeah, that’s not so funny… I’m lucky he slept the whole time…”

“You must have bored her with your relentless chatter.”

“But I…!” Mike snapped, jumping to his feet, causing the boat to rock terribly, but Randall barely managed to keep it upright.

Once he’d regained the boat’s balance, Randall turned to Mike and hissed at the little monster, “You better not try that again, Wazowski! This boat isn’t sturdy enough to support the weight of three full-grown monsters, one of them anything but lightweight, and a little six-year-old monster! If we’re not careful, we’ll all end up in the water, and plenty of alligators will eat us without further ado!”

“No, thanks. I've already had a go at those beasts…” Mike muttered, while Sulley, looking around, mused: “Maybe if we lightened the boat a little, we should be able to make it safer…”

“Of course! How did I not think of that before?!” the little green monster exclaimed, before looking at Luna and asking, with a victorious smile, “You have wings, right, little girl?”

“Yes, so?” the little monster asked, looking at him in surprise, and Mike exulted: “Ah-ha! Perfect! While the three of us stay on the boat, you’ll fly after us! I’m a genius!”

“Um… unfortunately… there’s a problem with that…”

“Come on, let’s go… and what’s the problem? You have wings, right?”

“Yes, but…” Luna admitted nervously, opening and spreading her white bird wings, which made Mike blurt out, “What kind of wings are those?! I’ve never seen anything like that in my life, and I’ve seen winged monsters… they usually have bat-like wings!”

“Hey, I inherited them from my grandma! She had similar wings too! And, above all, even if they're unusual, they're still my wings!”

“Well, the important thing is that you can fly…”

“Um… actually… I…” Luna stammered nervously, before being picked up by Mike, who continued, as he approached the edge of the boat: “Come on, come on, don't be shy… that will significantly reduce our weight… even if you don't fly perfectly, I assure you I won't comment… I'll just think them.”

“You’re going to fly?!” Randall suddenly repeated, even startled, then turned to Mike and said, “Hey, I mean… you’re not going to…?!”

“One, two, and three! Problem solved!” Mike cheered, throwing the little monster into the air and out of the boat. But Luna, instead of flying as Mike had planned, landed directly in a clump of shrubs near the shore, shrieking in terror, and disappeared from the sight of the three monsters. Mike and Sulley watched in shock, while Randall, on the other hand, looked shocked and agitated.

“I don’t think your plan worked very well, Mike…” Sulley commented, while Randall, furious, revealed, climbing out of the boat: “And how the hell could it have worked if Luna can’t fly yet?!”

“Huh?! Are you serious?” the little green monster exclaimed, shocked, while the purple one nodded: “Of course I am serious! Do you think I would joke about something like that?!”

“But… she’s six years old, right? Little flying monsters at six have been flying for a while now…”

“Not Luna! And if anything happened to her because of you, I promise you I’ll make you regret it!” Randall informed him with an ominous hiss, before rushing towards the shore, beginning to search through the reeds and brambles, saying, this time in an apprehensive and worried voice: “Luna? Are you here? Are you okay? You didn’t get caught in the thorns, did you? Come on, Lenghty Ears, tell me something, anything…”

“I’m here, Uncle Randy,” a thin, female voice suddenly said, as a small, long-eared monster emerged from a nearby bush of reeds, her hair disheveled and ruffled.

Randall immediately approached her and picked her up, picking her up, asking in a gentle, concerned tone as he returned to the boat: “Are you okay, Lenghty Ears? You’re not hurt, are you?”

“Not at all, Uncle Randy!” the little monster reassured him, while Mike stared at the two monsters in shock, even pointing at them, while his friend simply shrugged.

“You know, as long as I have my Mojo Bag, nothing can happen to me!” the little monster added with a smile, while Sullivan asked, slightly curious, not noticing Randall’s withering glare: “Your bag… what?”

“My Mojo Bag! It's a magical amulet that's supposed to protect me!” Luna revealed, holding up the silver bag with a crescent moon and blue stars attached with string like a purse. Mike, skeptical, asked, “And how would a cloth bag protect you?”

“First of all, you need to gather ingredients like herbs, flowers, sand… but also small objects that are of great value and importance to the recipient. Then, you need to follow a rather important and delicate ritual, but luckily I had the help of the most powerful and best witch in the entire Bayou…”

“Oh, please… don't tell me you really believed that! Everyone knows it's all nonsense made up just to impress fools! That powerful and charismatic witch of yours was nothing more than an old impostor who only spouted nonsense to fool poor fools!”

“Sorry…” Luna hissed suddenly in a cold, cutting tone, while Randall hit his forehead with an exasperated and annoyed expression. “That old impostor who only spoke nonsense to fool poor fools was my grandma.”

“Oh… really?” Mike asked embarrassedly, while Sulley glared at him. “You really are a weird family…”

In response, Luna kicked him in the leg, and as the green cyclops winced in pain, the little monster angrily said, “I hope that baby alligator bites you again! You deserve it, and you don't know how much!”

Just then, Randall stopped the boat and, quickly disembarking with Luna, declared, “We're here.”

“Where? There's nothing here!” Mike protested, and Randall replied, annoyed, “Our boat is nearby, you idiot. We can't get in with a raft.”

“Okay, I get it… no need to insult…” muttered the green monster, trying to get off the boat, but almost immediately slipped and fell into the water, immediately screaming in fear: “Help! I’m drowning! I can already see my whole life flashing before my enormous eyeball!”

“Um… Mr. Mike…” Luna began immediately, but Mike calmly ignored her as he continued to scream hysterically: “Help!!! Someone help me!!! I won't last long!!!”

“Mr. Mike!” the little monster shouted to get his attention, and this time, Mike heard her, as he stopped and said, “Huh?”

“The water there is only three inches deep. It's practically a puddle.”

“Oh… yeah… huh…”

“How are you? Everything okay?”

“Yes. I'm fine, at least I think so… well, then let's get to this boat…” the green monster began immediately, but the purple one cut him off immediately: “Where do you think you're going, Wazowski?”

“On the boat so we can get as far away as possible, right?”

“Then you wouldn't get very far… the engine is currently out of order.”

“Then why did you bring us here?”

“Because I'm almost there, fixing it once and for all…” Randall began before Sulley interrupted: “Oh, yeah, that's true! Luna told me…”

“Glad to hear that…” Randall hissed through gritted teeth, though the grimace on his face suggested otherwise. “Anyway, I have to do a few last things to finally get it fixed, and I need someone to keep watch while I finish fixing that stupid engine!”

“And what does that have to do with me?”

“Simple, Wazowski: I just volunteered you and Sullivan to keep watch around here! You don't think Johnson's going to let us go after all the mess you've made? If you want to suddenly find him standing there while I'm working, then come along.”

“No, thanks. I'll stay on guard.”

“Good. Be sure to let me know if you see Johnson and his gang around… we'll let you know when the boat is ready,” Randall urged, before taking Luna by the hand and rushing away from the area.

As she and Randall walked away, the little monster turned to the two monsters and waved to Sulley, who immediately returned the wave, though he became more hesitant when he saw Randall give him a look that was murderous, to put it mildly.

Seeing the hairy monster's hesitation and not noticing Randall's gaze, Luna looked at him doubtfully, shifting her head slightly in surprise. But as soon as she noticed Mike waving at her with a small smile, no doubt because he had finally gotten rid of them both, the little monster grimaced in annoyance, then stuck her tongue out at the green monster.

“Well, Mike… we just have to wait…” Sulley commented, while Mike blurted out with a grimace of pure rage: “Hey, Sulley, did you see that?! That little girl stuck her tongue out at me! How dare she do that to me?! I’m a big shot! Well, I shouldn’t expect much from her education, considering she lives with Randall!”

“Sure, but I remind you, you insulted her grandmother to her face, calling her a charlatan… and you didn’t even apologize.”

“Oh, please… don’t tell me you actually believe that nonsense! Sulley, since the dawn of time, magic hasn’t existed, and that old monster was just a fraud!” Mike declared arrogantly, before an angry female shriek declared, “Magic exists, you nasty bastard! And my grandma wasn’t a fraud, she was a real witch! And if she were still alive, she’d teach you a lesson, you stupid one-eyed green carpet!!!”

“Wow, Luna sure has some pretty good hearing…” Sulley commented, stunned, while Mike, with a grimace of pure rage, hissed, “Oh, how I can’t stand her… she’s just like her charming uncle, who, even though he’s changed his look, is still as kind and helpful as ever! No wonder those two are related!”

While Mike complained about the two swamp monsters, Sulley, thinking of Randall, couldn’t help but notice that it was true: his look had definitely changed… he was very sloppy and unkempt… he never imagined finding Randall looking like this… but then again, he never imagined finding Randall caring for a little orphaned monster… he’d never even seen him with a kid on ‘Mini Monsters Day!

What the hell had happened during those six years?!

“You’ve been looking for it for over three hours and you still haven’t found it?!” shrieked the elegantly dressed female monster with short, fish-finned blond hair and four eyes, hysterically, while her interlocutor, a one-eyed green monster, nodded embarrassedly: “I really don’t know how to apologize, Miss Prickle… we’ve searched everywhere, but there’s no sign of that piece of paper…”

“Watch your words, it’s not just any piece of paper… it’s the original patent of Alistair Clawbottom, the founder of Scare Master! The one that officially authorized the creation of other factories outside of Monsters, Inc., thus diminishing their monopoly! An object like that is worth a fortune, and if it doesn’t turn up, I’m ruined! If Clawbottom finds out I let it be stolen after all the effort I put into convincing him to lend it to me for this film… how the hell could a patent on a boat disappear?!” the woman continued to complain, while another female monster with thick black fur, sitting on a chair across the room, complained harshly: “This is no good, Nellie! I wonder where the hell the production team got that from… you need more blush here, on my cheekbones!”

“I’m so sorry, Miss Cindy… I’m still a little freaked out by all that fiery chili pepper they put in the soup…” apologized the blue, polka-dotted female monster with her black, fin-shaped bob hair, mostly covered by a large red and black baseball cap, as she hurriedly fixed her makeup.

“Oh, that damn chili pepper… look at this mess! My eyes are still red, and to make matters worse, it’s long past my beauty sleep… when we have to shoot again tomorrow, I’m going to look like a hag!” snapped Miss Cindy, staring angrily at herself in the mirror.

The makeup artist had to bite her tongue to keep from telling her that, in fact, she looked much better than usual in that outfit!

Even though she was known for her fiery and incendiary nature, she couldn't let it slip... not now that things were going so well!

"Urgh... if I find out who the hell put that crap in that soup, I'll make them pay! If only I could find out where it is..." the actress complained, while the makeup artist, who had her back to her since she was looking for more blush, gave a quick, amused smile.

The poor fool had no idea that the person responsible for sabotaging the dinner with the incendiary chili pepper was none other than her, her makeup artist, and that she was right in front of her!

It had been a truly brilliant plan, she had to admit... getting hired by the crew as a makeup artist, smuggling in the burglary tools, well-hidden in a fake musical instrument, taking advantage of the presence of a jazz band on the boat, using the incendiary chili pepper powder hidden inside a fake compact, which she then poured entirely into the soup planned for dinner that evening, taking advantage of a distraction from the cooks with the help of a makeup brush!

It had been truly hilarious to see everyone present, especially that obnoxious Miss Cindy, start screaming and causing total chaos as soon as the soup tureens were opened, but unfortunately she had to get to work immediately, so she had grabbed the fake instrument, rushed to the producer's room, and, in a few moves, cracked the safe and stole the precious patent, which she had carefully hidden inside a fake spray can. The fake instrument was then thrown out the porthole, landing among the reeds.

After that, all she had to do was go back to the salon and pretend she, too, had been a victim of that chili powder!

No one would ever suspect a makeup artist, and once they reached the port, it wouldn't take much for her to escape from that boat and vanish into thin air... oh, yes... what a brilliant plan...

"Nellie, are we going to wear that blush?! We still have to apply eyeshadow and nail polish!"

The only flaw in that brilliant plan was having to silently endure Miss Cindy's long wails.

“It's taking a while…” Sulley commented, while Mike angrily blurted out, “Well, get a move on! The mosquitoes are killing me!”

Just then, a rumbling sound was heard in the distance, and Sulley, surprised, wondered, “What's that noise?”

“Isn't it obvious, Sulley? It's a boat leaving… oh, damn it!!!” Mike shrieked, jumping to his feet and running through the reeds, followed by the big, furry monster.

When they finally reached the other shore, they watched in horror as the old boat set sail, with Luna leaning on the railing and watching them in silence, the wind blowing her long blond hair, while Randall, with a super mocking smile, waved cheerfully at them, before rudely throwing Mike's backpack, which had been forgotten on board, at them, continuing to pilot the boat as far away as possible, until they vanished from sight completely.

“I can't believe it… did you see this?! They just dumped us here so unceremoniously once they fixed that damned boat! Oh, if they ever show up again…” Mike protested, scandalized, while Sulley said, gathering their bags: “Now how are we going to get out of the swamp? Luna told me Randall was the only one who knew how to get out of this place.”

“Oh, Sulley… you don't seriously believe that little girl, do you?! She's crazy, I tell you! She believes in things that don't exist!”

“Mike, you have no right to criticize her just for believing in things you think don't exist.”

“You're only saying that because you adore children, both human and monster. As soon as you see one, your little heart melts! I just don't understand how you put up with her… that little rascal is as bitter as her uncle!”

“Mike, Luna is not a little rascal at all, nor is she all that bitter… she’s a very sweet little girl, and maybe you’d know that too if you weren’t constantly criticizing her grandmother and her lifestyle!”

“Yeah, sure… anyway, whatever the girl says, I don't see much difficulty getting out of this mess of putrid water and mud…”

“The fact remains that Randall knew how to get out of here…”

“Oh, come on… I bet I could perfectly find my way out of this shithole, no matter what the little girl says! Just watch…” Mike declared proudly, then looked around and commented, “Okay, where are we?”

“Mike…”

“Found it! Now I'm going to climb up that branch and from there I can see how far it is to the nearest town! Let's hope he has a working means of transportation to Las Scaregas…” Mike muttered, starting to climb a nearby tree, more determined than ever to get out of there, while his friend reminded him, alarmed, “Mike, you don't know how to climb trees!”

“Sulley, you sound like my mother! I’m more than capable of climbing! Sure, there was that episode… and that one… and maybe even a third… I mean, it’s true that I got stuck on a branch and my parents had to call the fire department, but that happened when I was eight, so I’m sure I still have these problems! Now I’m going up there and finding the right direction to get out of this mess!”

Clumsily and slowly, the little green monster began to climb the nearest tree, more determined than ever to solve this situation once and for all, and finally, after a few slips and clumsy attempts at climbing, he managed to reach the top.

“Ah-ha! Here we go, Sulley! I see some lights down there, and they look like a city! We're safe! Now, all I have to do is get down from here…” Mike cheered, then lowered his head and grimaced in fear, stammering, “But… I didn't realize I'd gone… glom… so high…”

A few seconds later, the little one-eyed monster began to scream in terror: “SULLEY!!!! I CAN'T GET DOWN!!!! I JUST REMEMBERED I'M AFRAID OF GREAT HEIGHTS!!!!!! DO SOMETHING!!!! CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT, THE PARAMEDICS, WHATEVER YOU WANT… JUST LET ME GET DOWN FROM HERE!!!!!”

“Hold on, Mike! I'm coming to get you!” Sulley reassured him, starting to climb, but his weight, in response, made the tree lean terribly.

“Sulley, this is worse than before! Get down now before you do any damage!” protested the one-eyed monster, while his friend nervously tried to say, “But Mike…”

“Sulley, didn’t you hear me? Let go. Now.”

“Whatever…” commented the hairy monster, letting go, causing the tree to return to its place and simultaneously sending Mike flying, who, after a moment, began to plummet, landing straight into a lagoon full of water and mud.

“Are you kidding?! I’ve had enough of diving into these swamps, I want an Olympic-sized pool in a five-star hotel, complete with a hot tub!” Mike protested, then headed for shore. “I’m serious, Sulley… when we finally get to Las Scaregas, I’m going to be holed up in the hotel spa until the Creepes game! Thanks to this air, these mosquitoes, and, most of all, this putrid, muddy water, I’m a walking disaster! Who the hell said this kind of environment is good for the body?!”

“Look who just fell from the sky like shrimp dip…” commented an amused male voice, making Mike suddenly freeze. Turning around, the monster found confirmation of his worst suspicions: from a bush of reeds had appeared none other than Beau Johnson, a victorious smile on his face that boded ill for Mike…

“Guys, come quickly! I found the funny one-eyed guy!” Johnson immediately called, but, seeing no one behind him, the hairy monster with the red nose looked around, commenting: “Hey… where did my men go?! They were behind me…”

“Ah-ha… as soon as they saw me, your henchmen ran away in fear!” Mike boasted arrogantly, but he immediately lost it as Johnson approached him with a fierce, victorious smile and declared: “Better… this way, I’ll take all the credit for your annihilation! Be careful, man! After tonight, you’ll be nobody… I’ll reduce you to a state where not even your mother will be able to recognize you!”

As he said these words, Johnson tried to punch the one-eyed monster, but Mike ducked and dodged, and the blow hit the tree behind him, leaving a disturbing, deep hole in the bark.

“Oh, dear… but this guy took his vitamins, he’s worse than Rambo!” Mike muttered in terror, observing the result of Johnson’s punch, before casting a cold, determined look at the furry monster, declaring: “I’ll stop you with my famous cold, magnetic gaze!”

“I’ll give you that magnetic gaze, you toad in my boots!” Johnson declared, setting off in pursuit, with Mike noting, in a faint voice, as he ran away from the furry monster: “No way… he’s a crude, superficial, and insensitive individual.”

“Hold on, Mike! I’m coming to save you!” Sulley suddenly shouted, peeking out from behind some reeds, but his friend reassured him in an agitated voice as he climbed a tree whose branch stretched toward the water: “Don’t worry, Sulley! I’ve got him now!”

“Ha ha ha, you’re out of luck, toad… you’re in my power now!” Johnson exulted, climbing onto the branch, thus preventing any chance of escape for the poor green monster, who, terrified, looked down at the putrid swamp below him and wondered: “Urgh… who is worse? Him or the alligators?”

“I’ll shatter your bones into pieces so small they’ll look like toothpicks…” Johnson informed him with a sadistic smirk, approaching Mike with terrifying calm. Mike, with a nervous smile, put his hands in front of him and suggested: “Let’s talk about this calmly…”

Just then, the combined weight of Mike and Johnson broke the branch and it fell noisily into the swamp, along with the two monsters. Sulley, concerned, shouted, "Mike, are you okay?!"

At that same moment, Johnson rose from the swamp, while Mike, on the other hand, shrank, barely protruding from the water. The larger monster, with a fierce expression and a threatening fist raised, hissed, "Goodbye, toad... I won't miss you!"

“No!!!” Sulley screamed, running toward the duo, trying to prevent Johnson from hurting poor Mike. Just then, Sulley winced in pain, letting out a “Yurgh…”

Immediately afterward, the furry monster ran away at full speed, screaming, “Ouch! Help! Mercy! I give up! Enough!!!”

After a moment of confusion on Mike's part, he smiled in victory and commented, “I'm just awful…”

“Wow… Mike… you were great! I don't know how, but you managed to defeat Johnson!” Sulley congratulated him, approaching the shore, with Mike emerging with a proud, triumphant smile, boasting, “Did you have any doubts, Sulley? It was child's play… I had the match in my hands from the start, I dragged it out just to keep the match interesting!”

“Anyway, now that we've gotten rid of him, can you take us to the nearest town?”

“Certainly, Sulley! Come on, follow me! You'll see, I'll have you out of this dump in no time!”

“Val, this phone stakeout is ridiculous… it’s only five in the morning, they’re not going to call!” sighed the purple monster with the imposing horns, looking at his companion, a warm-colored monster with a curious shape, who shushed him: “Shut up, Double T! They might call now! I can’t lose my concentration!”

“Hey, College Boy! Are we going to be late? Then don’t be surprised if you don’t do many numbers at work…” chuckled a small green monster with four eyes held up by antennae covered by four small blue helmets and bat-like wings nearby, earning an exasperated look from the big purple monster, who added: “Duncan, don’t you have other people to torment?”

“Oh, don't mind me, College Boy… I'm just a humble future MIFT general supervisor making sure you're not planning some underhanded power play to oust me!”

“Have a good day, too, Duncan…” was Tylor's calm, tired reply, watching the little monster turn a corner, fly away, and vanish from sight. He then muttered in exasperation, “Same old paranoid… well, come on, Tylor… you're leaving for vacation tomorrow…”

“Oh, by the way… where will our base of operations be for the search for Raymond Crimson Mantle?”

“At The Lucky Rabbit, the only B&B in town. It's small, quiet, and, most importantly, the owner is a nice guy… he's always been very kind to me and my family… even my grandmother can tolerate him…”

“Woh, woh, woh! Hold on, College Boy… is your grandmother close to someone?!” Duncan asked, alarmed, rushing in front of the long-horned monster, who, confused, confessed: “Well, saying they’re close is a bit of a stretch, Duncan… let’s just say they know each other…”

“When?! How?! Who?! Where?! And most importantly… why?!”

“Well, since we used to go on holiday to the mountains in Terror Town every year, we got to know each other…”

“Who is this owner, College Boy?! What’s his name?!”

“If I remember correctly, his name is Colin Moon…”

“Colin Moon, huh? So that’s the name of my rival for the heart of the beautiful Virginia… but if he expects me to sit quietly by and not fight, he’s sorely mistaken… Roto, come! We must prepare for the attack! We will annihilate this scoundrel who dared to set his sights on my lovely Virginia!” Duncan declared, walking away with a small, pink, one-eyed furry ball with small horns.

For a moment, the three monsters remained silent, staring down the corridor, until the five-eyed monster asked, “Oh… so Duncan has turned to organ trafficking?”

“No, Roger… even though I didn’t understand a thing about that paranoid talk, as usual, I doubt Duncan has turned to organ trafficking…” Tylor reassured him with a sigh, and Roger, with a smile, exulted: “Oh, thank goodness… you know, I’m too attached to my two hearts to even consider separating… anyway, this place, Terror Town, is it nice?”

“Oh, yes, it's a very nice place… it's located at the top of Terror Mountain, surrounded by peace and nature… sure, the town is a bit isolated, and the people… well…”

“Are they angry at the adorable, not-at-all-scary monsters?”

“On the contrary! They're all… well, let's just say that, despite the name of the place, they have very little in common with the concept of 'scary'… besides, my grandmother is who she is, and since she can't hold her tongue and is quite traditional in her views, she doesn't have many friends in Terror Town… in fact, I think Mr. Moon is the only one in town who tolerates her…”

“Never mind! I can't wait to go there tomorrow and try to find Raymond Crimson Mantle!” Roger cheered, before Val looked shocked and yelled, “Oh, no… I got distracted! What if Mike and Sulley had called just now and I hadn't heard them?!”

“Val, relax… none of this happened…”

The sky had begun to take on warm, vivid colors, while the sun slowly peeked over the horizon, illuminating the small town not far from the enormous, ominous swamp.

Suddenly, two monsters emerged from the reeds: a large, fat one with mostly blue fur, dotted with various colors, and a small, one-eyed monster wearing a baseball cap and carrying a huge backpack. Covered in mud, though some green could be seen beneath, he was slowly making his way with the help of a large stick.

“We're finally here… I couldn't take it anymore… couldn't they have built an elevator, a paved road, anything that would allow me to get to this place easily, quickly, and, above all, comfortably?!” the little monster complained, while his friend tried to console him: “Come on, Mike… the important thing is that we got out of the swamp, right?”

“I'll only feel at peace once we reach Las Scaregas, Sulley! Oh, the game is getting closer and closer, ever more inexorably and relentlessly…”

“But Mike, there's only six days left until the game!”

“Too few!”

“Listen, first, let's find a means of transportation to get to our destination… shouldn't be too difficult…”

“Hey, there's a bus stop over there!” Mike cheered, pointing to a distant spot, which would have required him to acquire X-ray vision to reach Las Scaregas, and the two monsters headed there.

“Hey, we’re in luck! Bus 231 goes directly to Las Scaregas!” Sulley noted, pointing to a giant chart filled with names and numbers, and Mike asked excitedly, “Wonderful… when does it leave?”

“According to the chart… in an hour.”

“In an hour?! That long?!”

“Come on, Mike, an hour goes by so fast… and this is one of the first buses of the day!”

“And what do we do in an hour, Sulley?”

“Well, we can call Roger and reassure him that we’re okay…”

“Oh, damn, that’s right! We told him we’d call when we got there… well, better tell him we’re okay before he kicks up a fuss trying to locate us!”

“If you're interested, there's a pay phone over there.”

“Great! While I go make the call, you go to the cafe nearby and get something to eat. I'm starving…”

“Okay, Mike… I'll see you back here as soon as we're done.”

“See you later…”

As soon as he finished saying goodbye to his friend, Sulley entered the diner and immediately noticed that there were several people at the counter taking orders, and he couldn't help but sigh.

“Yes, I assure you, Roger, everything's fine... it's just that last night when we arrived, we were too tired to call you... we didn't want to worry you... sure, I'm happy to hear that you and the others are leaving for vacation, have fun... yes, good, tell Celia I'm fine... you're doing me a big favor...” Mike nodded, hoping the call would end as soon as possible since, on principle, he hated long phone calls... they reminded him too much of his parents'...

The little monster glanced out of the booth absentmindedly, aiming to find Sulley and breakfast, but suddenly, he gasped in shock, his heart skipping a beat.

Nearby was an all-too-familiar monster with thick green fur and a red nose, along with two other familiar monsters who stopped right in front of the phone booth.

“Okay, Mike, then I'll tell him! Have fun in Las Scaregas!” Roger chirped, while Mike begged him, “No, wait, Roger!”

But it was too late, as the monster had already hung up.

The little green monster broke out in a cold sweat, squeezing one eye shut, waiting for Johnson to force open the door and tear him to pieces…

“Damn beast… my behind still hurts… I feel like I attacked that damned alligator again!” the furry monster muttered unexpectedly and angrily, while Benedict clarified: “Come on, boss… it was just a puppy…”

“Ah! You're only saying that because that thing didn't bite you! In my opinion, alligator traps hurt less than that animal's bite! And to think I almost killed that toad... a few seconds later, not even a single bone would have been left! Unfortunately, that beast thought it was the perfect time to bite me! And you weren't there to help me!” the red-nosed monster declared, furious, while Benedict explained: “Sorry, boss... we got distracted for a moment and got lost in the swamp! You know how sneaky that place is... at least we found you to free you from that beast...”

“Yeah, yeah... you know, I don't think that reptile's going to be happy in the next few days... we sold him to a pet shop! He'll spend the rest of his days chewing the bars of his cage!” Gideon chuckled at the memory, as Johnson continued, “Forget about the easy-biting baby alligator… we absolutely have to locate Randall!”

“But didn't you want to find the one-eyed dwarf first and kill him?”

“Of course… but Randall has that damned Scare Card of Noah's! That card is worth a fortune and it has to be mine! Absolutely! I don't intend to give it up, not after having it right in front of me after three years!”

“And how do you intend to proceed, boss? He knows Randall is far too stubborn… he'll never give it up. Plus, that was Noah's, and even the alligators know how close those two were… rather than give it to us, he'd smash it into a thousand pieces.”

“The trick, Benedict, is to make him an offer he can't refuse…”

“What do you mean?”

“Noah’s brat, you idiot! If we take her hostage, Randall will give us anything we want to get her back… including Noah’s Scare Card!”

“What?! I won’t touch that one even if I’m dead! I value my life and I don’t want to lose it by touching a toxic brat!” Gideon immediately shrieked in terror, and Johnson, grimacing in anger, hissed, “For the hundredth time, neither she nor her good-for-nothing father are toxics! They’re perfectly harmless monsters, and I don’t want to miss out on the chance to become filthy rich because of stupid peasant superstitions!”

“But…”

“I want that Scare Card, okay? And if that means risking death from toxic addiction, then I’m fine with that! Besides, the brat can’t be that toxic if Randall is still in perfect health after living with her and her father for so long… in fact, that idiot is more likely to get himself killed trying to protect the brat than from her toxicity!”

“Yeah, you’re right… actually, I’ve never seen anyone be so affectionate and protective of a more ridiculous-looking monster than that one!” Benedict laughed, while Gideon added, “And the best part is, they’re not even related! What he finds so important in someone like that is a complete mystery!”

“Spending so much time with Noah’s mother-in-law, his brain must have gone up in smoke!” Benedict laughed, while his boss banged his fist on the phone booth window, angrily demanding, “Hey, is it still taking too long in there?! I have an important call to make!”

“H-hold on… I-I have a couple more calls to make…” Mike stammered, dialing a number in a hurry, partly relieved that, due to the gigantic backpack he was carrying, the trio of criminals hadn’t recognized him, but also fully aware that as soon as he turned around, they would recognize him and tear him to pieces.

“I don't understand, boss... but who should we call?” Benedict asked, while Beau replied, “The Collector, right?! I'll let him know we finally got that damn card back and that he'd better put up a nice sum for it! He's not going to pass it up... everyone knows that Rookie Card is worth a fortune... plus, it's the first one ever made, so its value will be sky-high!”

“Monsters, Inc., what do you want?” a male voice asked from the other end of the payphone, and Mike immediately whispered, hoping the three monsters on the other side of the glass wouldn't recognize him: “Hi, Otis, could you put me through to Celia?”

“Oh, hi, Mike. How's it going in Las Scaregas? Having a good time?”

“Yes, very much... Is Celia there?”

“I'll see if she's available. I'll be right back.”

“Please, hurry…”

“But boss… we still haven't gotten that Scare Card back,” Benedict was pointing out, and Johnson nodded, smiling wickedly. “Sure, but that guy doesn't know that detail…”

“Boss, I think it's a bad idea to joke with that guy… he didn't take it too well that we lost that card three years ago… he said if we ever played a prank like that on him again, he'd send the police after us!”

“But this time we have a lead…”

“I'm sorry, Mike… but Celia's too busy right now and can't answer your phone. But she said she'll call you later,” Otis said suddenly, resuming the phone conversation, and Mike immediately begged him: “No, no, no! Tell her I'll call her back later!”

“All right… oh, three phones are ringing… so see you next Monday, Mr. Wazowski!”

“No, wait, Otis…” said the little monster, but it was too late, as the receptionist had already hung up.

“What?” Gideon asked, and Johnson replied, “The green carpet said he had to go to Las Scaregas to watch the Creepes game on Saturday, right?”

“Yeah, he was very explicit about that.”

“Well, then we'll be there too! We'll find him and his furry friend and get them to tell us where those two pests are hiding! After all, they must be great friends if they wanted to save Randall… anyway, we're off to that town as soon as this idiot gets off the phone!” Beau growled, glaring at the phone booth, and Mike, trying to disguise his voice again, stammered nervously, “Wait a minute, wait a minute…”

Mike began drumming his nails against his teeth, nervously.

If he kept bombarding Monsters, Inc. with calls, someone might get suspicious and discover that he wasn't really in Las Scaregas and that he was in a lot of trouble... he had to find someone who would answer his questions without asking too many questions and who could talk uninterrupted for hours... but who could...?

Suddenly, his giant eye widened and he began dialing a number quickly, hoping they were home.

If some crazy person had told him one day that he would be the one to call them, he would surely have thought he was crazy... but he was so desperate that he would have done anything crazy!

"Hello?" asked a male voice that sounded a lot like his, and Mike, with a nervous smile, asked, "Dad?"

“Michael?!” he exclaimed, his voice completely shocked, then asked, agitated and even making a slight commotion on the other end of the line: “Are you okay?! Where are you?! Give me the name of the city and the address of where you are, and I'll be right there!”

“What?! No, no, no! Stop right there, Dad! I'm fine, I'm perfectly fine! I'm absolutely not in danger of dying, I swear! I don't need you to come… nothing's happening, I assure you…”

“Yes, you are, you're in the worst trouble you've ever been in in your life, otherwise you never would have bothered calling us!”

“Hey, don't overdo it, Dad! We talk on the phone a lot…”

“Yes, because it's your mother and I who bother to find out what our only son is up to! If it were up to you, you'd never even call us to wish us a happy birthday!”

“Um… well… oh, come on, Dad, don't overdo it…”

“Michael Wazowski, when was the last time you called us?”

“Um… well… three years ago?”

“It was twenty-eight years ago, when the police arrested you at sixteen for causing trouble with a local gang!”

“I already told you, Dad! It wasn't my fault, it was those thugs'! They started making fun of me, saying I'd never become a Scarer, and they even stole my book! I had to teach them a lesson!”

“Yeah… in fact, the police arrested you and you had to call us to get you out of there just because you'd run out of books to study and the station had no more! I remember everything that happened very well, since it was the first and only time you called so far! Now, I want to know what happened and where you are, Michael… and I want to know now!”

“Um… I'm out and about… but I'm fine, I assure you… and, more importantly, is Mom there?”

“Don't change the subject, Michael Wazowski!”

“Look, Dad, I just want to know what happened to Mom, since she hasn't tried to steal the phone, yelled at me, or anything like that yet…”

“Your mom's at aerobics class, like every Monday morning.”

“AT AEROBICS CLASS?!?! ARE YOU JOKING?!?!”

“Do I look like a comedian to you?”

“Since when did Mom go to aerobics class?!”

“For ten years… and maybe you would have known it a long time ago if you deigned to take an interest in our private lives once in a while!”

“Come on, Dad… the way you put it, I sound like an ungrateful son who doesn't care about what his parents do and who thinks of nothing but himself, so much so that he only calls them because he can't help it!”

“Maybe because that's exactly what I think of you! Now tell me where the hell you are and I'll be there as soon as I can!”

“I told you I don't need help, Dad! I'm a responsible monster who doesn't get into trouble, me!”

“Really? Do we want to talk about the time you sneaked into the human world when you were six, only to repeat that stunt years later that got you kicked out of college? Or how you hid a little human girl in your apartment, alarming the entire Monster World in the process?!”

“Urgh… look, just because I’ve had a… complicated… past, and also because I don’t call you too often, doesn’t mean I’m in trouble again this time…”

“So why would you call if, as you say, everything’s going great?”

“Because… um… I wanted to know if there was a baseball player you were interested in! You know, since I’m watching the game on Saturday, I might be able to get another famous player’s autograph… and maybe I could get another one for you, what do you think? Who’s your favorite player, Dad?”

“My favorite baseball player? That's a tough question, Michael... SINCE I CAN'T STAND BASEBALL!!!!!”

“Huh?!?! Since when haven't you liked baseball?!”

“Always! Sometimes, I think you only like it because I don't… and for your information, I'll be busy watching TV on Saturday watching something I like that I know for a fact you don't like!”

“And that's…?”

“Find out for yourself, since you love guessing so much!”

“A little help?”

“Number 95! And mind you, I was very generous!”

As Mike pondered that strange number, he heard a strange noise behind him and, turning slightly, saw a multitude of car tires bouncing nearby, sending all the monsters, including Johnson and his men, running for their lives near the cabin.

“What the hell was that noise, Michael?!” Mr. Wazowski demanded angrily, while his son said, trying to end the call, “The subway train bell, Dad… it’s a brand new model they’re testing right here in Las Scaregas! Listen, it’s coming soon, so I really have to say hello, Dad! This was a really interesting call, seriously… unfortunately, I’ll be busy wandering around downtown for a bit and I don’t have my cell phone with me, plus there are some service and connection issues all over the city, so don’t bother—I mean, don’t bother calling me…”

“Michael Wazowski, if you don’t call me back by this evening, I’m calling the police… AND LOOK WHAT I’M SERIOUS!!!!”

“Yes, of course… I’ll try to call you as soon as I can, Dad, bye!” Mike concluded, slamming the receiver down, while, on the other end, his father moved the receiver slightly from his ear and hissed, with a furious expression: “New subway siren…”

Meanwhile, Mike, taking advantage of the fact that Johnson and his henchmen had run away like everyone else, slipped out of the booth and whispered nervously, looking all around: "Sulley, where are you?"

"I'm here, Mike!" came a male voice, causing the green monster to immediately turn around. He exclaimed: "Oh, Sulley... you'll never believe what just happened to me! I called my parents and my dad..."

"Later, Mike! We need to get out of here as soon as possible!"

"Yeah, great idea... Johnson and his guys are in the area!"

"I know! When I didn't see you at the meeting point, I went to see what was happening and saw them in front of the phone booth, so I broke the rope holding the tires of a nearby repair shop to create a diversion!"

“You won't believe this, Sulley! Those three are going to the Creepes game so they can find us and get us to confess where the Lizard Boy and his niece are hiding, since they think we're great friends! Incredible, right?”

“Then they'll be looking for us in vain, since we won't be there…”

“Are you kidding?! Why shouldn't we go to the Creepes game?!”

“But Mike, didn't you just say Johnson and his monsters will be there to ambush us?”

“Sure, but you're absolutely wrong if you think that'll keep me away from the game! I'll go to Las Scaregas to watch it, if it's the last thing I do!”

“That is, if Johnson doesn't catch you first…”

“Right… and what can we do now?”

“The only thing we can do…” Sulley declared, pointing behind him, and as soon as Mike looked over, he saw a rather old bus at the end of the road with the license plate A113, with several monsters climbing on it.

“Is this a joke, Sulley? Please tell me this is a joke… that bus isn’t going to Las Scaregas!” the little cyclops monster pointed out annoyed, and his friend replied, “What other choice do we have, Mike? It’s the only bus leaving at the moment… if you want to wait for the right one, Beau and his gang will find you faster.”

“Urgh…” Mike muttered, grimacing, then sighed in resignation and said, “And let’s go on that bus… but at the first stop, I’ll get off and go to Las Scaregas!”

The two monsters ran like mad towards the bus, trying to catch it before the last passenger boarded.

“There they are!!! It's them!!! They're heading for the bus stop!!! Let's get them, boys! We can't let them get away! Especially the short one!!!” a fearsome male voice shouted from behind them, and turning around, the two friends found Beau Johnson and his men speeding toward them.

“Oh, no… there they are!!!” Mike stammered, agitated, starting to run full speed toward the bus, followed by Sulley, not realizing that his bulky backpack had hit a barrel full of soapy water, spilling it onto the sidewalk and sending the three criminals flying.

“You'll pay for this, you damn toad!!! Just wait until I get my hands on you and I'll pulverize you!!!” he screamed, furious, trying to get back to his feet, staggering just like Gideon and Benedict, even though they kept falling to the ground.

At the same time, Sulley and Mike quickly managed to board the bus just in time, since the door slammed shut as soon as they got on, and the driver started the bus.

"We're safe..." muttered the little monster, breathing a small sigh of relief as he watched the trio of criminals recede further and further from view through the glass door.

“Hey, you two,” the driver suddenly said, sounding bored as he stopped at a red light. “Get your seats. This isn’t an amusement park. The rules are clear: no standing.”

“Yeah, sure, sorry…” Sulley apologized embarrassedly, starting to look for a seat with Mike, trying not to cause too much trouble for the passengers due to his size and Mike’s large luggage. But almost immediately, they realized there was a problem: almost all the seats were full.

“Urgh… great…” Mike muttered, annoyed, trying to calm him down: “Come on, Mike… look, there are two free seats over there!”

“If I were you, I wouldn't do that…” a monster sitting next to them revealed, and Sulley immediately asked, surprised, “Why?”

“There's a guy sitting over there with his daughter… he doesn't want anyone around, and to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if no one wanted to sit next to him and the little girl! I've never seen stranger people in my life, and to be honest… a real crazy duo, I tell you! I've never seen two monsters like that, I assure you! Especially the little girl! I never imagined a monster like that could exist… it's shocking! I'd really like to know where those guys came from…” the monster commented softly, pointing with his thumb to the back of the bus. Leaning slightly in that direction, Sulley noticed four seats pushed together and a monster sitting on them, reading a huge, open newspaper that protruded slightly from behind the second-to-last seat.

To him, he seemed like a perfectly normal monster...

"Oh, great... we'll have to sit next to two crazy people... and I've already had my share of crazy people with the Lizard Boy and his niece..." Mike muttered, while his friend begged him, in a weak voice and an embarrassed smile: "Mike..."

"All right, let's go sit down, come on..." was all the little monster said, trying to reach his seat, bumping into several passengers with his enormous backpack in the process, earning several annoyed comments: "Hey! Be careful!"

"Excuse me..." Mike muttered, trying to cause as little trouble as possible for the passengers, until, finally, he and Sulley managed to spot a monster wearing a long brown autumn coat with only two arms sitting in the last couple of seats completely hidden behind a large newspaper.

Suddenly, the bus slammed on its brakes, and Mike found himself catapulted forward, landing hard against that guy.

"Oh, damn, that was a shock... what kind of brakes do they have on this thing?!" Mike complained, rubbing his face, while a female voice said, shocked, "Mr. Mike?!"

Immediately, the little green monster turned in the direction of the voice and saw, to his dismay, a small monster resembling a winged white rabbit wearing a blue dress and a yellow and green baseball cap with a green S, the ends of which resembled a snake's face, and a yellow I overlapping them, a cap he recognized.

But if she was there... that meant...

Nervous, Mike looked up and saw his worst fears come true: he had stumbled upon Randall, who was staring at him with a furious expression.

"Rand...!!!" Mike was about to scream, but the monster promptly hit him over the head with the newspaper, hissing, "Shut up, you idiot! If you expose me in front of all these people, I'll kill you, okay?!"

“Yes… I understand…” Mike stammered, terrified, as Sulley hurriedly joined them, surprised to find himself in front of Randall and Luna.

“Randall?! Luna?!” the furry monster exclaimed, astonished, while Luna greeted him with a sweet smile, not noticing the furious grimace her uncle made: “Hello, Mr. Sulley.”

“What the hell are you two doing here?! This isn’t the bus that goes to Las Scaregas! And I’m absolutely certain of that, considering I checked the bus timetable three times!” Randall blurted out, annoyed, while his niece added: “Yes, and you even asked the driver when we got on.”

“I know damn well this bus isn't going to Las Scaregas! Believe me, if I hadn't been forced to get on it, I never would have set foot on it!” Mike assured them, annoyed, but Randall immediately became suspicious and asked, “What do you mean, 'forced?”

“Well… Johnson and his men were in town… and to escape them, we were forced to get on the first bus out…”

“Or rather, ours! My usual luck… at least they didn't see you get on here, right?”

“Well… maybe they caught a glimpse of us…”

“Urgh… you idiots! He can't wait to get his hands on me and at least tear me to pieces, and you two are leading him towards my second hideout! I swear, if we weren't on a bus full of people, I would have torn you to pieces!”

“Hey, you two in the back! Would you like to sit down for good?! We’re about to hit the highway, and you have to sit down!” the driver blurted out at that very moment, and Sulley immediately apologized, embarrassed: “Sure, sorry!”

The big, furry monster sat down next to Randall, but due to his bulk, he accidentally crushed the other three monsters, who were much smaller, more compact, and lighter.

“Hey!” Luna immediately protested, while Mike yelled, “The other side, Sulley! The other one! The one by the window! You're squashing us!”

“Don't scream, Mr. Mike! It's next to my ears!” the little monster protested, covering her long, bunny ears, while Randall, in turn, yelled, “Ouch! Wazowski, that's my hand!”

“What are you talking about?! I'm not stepping on your hand!”

“The other hand, you idiot! The one under the trench!!!”

“Sorry…” Sulley stammered, trying to turn around to move away, only to land his tail in Randall’s face. Randall lowered it and screamed angrily, even hitting him to make him move away more quickly: “Get out of my way, Sullivan!!!”

“Ouch! I’ll try, but I’m afraid I’m stuck…” the furry monster apologized, embarrassed, while the purple monster hissed angrily, “Oh, what a mess…”

Grimacing, Randall moved his arms toward the seats, avoiding crushing Luna, before giving Sulley a hard kick, which managed to unblock him and send him crashing into the other seat near the window, allowing Mike to move over and sit in the free seat, the one next to Randall.

“Did you have to sit here?” the purple monster hissed angrily, and the green monster pointed out, annoyed, “Those are the only free seats!”

“And to think I thought I’d gotten rid of you once and for all in the swamp! Let’s get this straight: if you get caught, I’ll send you straight to hell!” Randall muttered, before glancing at the newspaper he was reading earlier and grimacing in anger at the sight of it all torn and ruined from the commotion that had broken out. “Great… the first newspaper I’ve bought in a year and it’s already ready to be thrown away… since I met you I’ve had nothing but one bad luck after another!”

“Anyway… where are you and Luna planning to go?” Sulley asked, trying to ease the all-too-palpable tension, and Randall hissed, “It’s none of your business, Sullivan!”

“We’re going to Scary Beach. Uncle Randy has a house there,” Luna revealed with a smile, while Mike, very skeptically, said, “Are you sure about that, kiddo?”

“Yeah, we lived there for two years to hide from Johnson! Plus, Uncle Randy lived there for a while before he met my dad!” the little monster snapped, glaring at him. Mike then noticed the logo on the baseball cap on his head and said, “Excuse me, but is that… a Scream Ind. cap, the energy harvesting company?”

“Yes, exactly! Do you know her?” Luna asked, smiling, and Mike, in response, laughed, amused: “Of course I know… it’s the company with the highest number of incompetents in the entire Monster World! And they have the audacity to think they’re better than us! You know, kiddo, we work at Monsters Inc., the best, oldest, and most famous energy-harvesting company in the entire Monster World, and fortunately, we have nothing to do with those idiots! Those idiots who work there think they’re better than us, but in reality, they absolutely suck! They have no idea what the concept of innovation is! Sure, that company was famous for a few years, but it’s been a while since it’s lost its shine, and looking at what they have, I’m not surprised at all! Their Scarers were nothing but poor knockoffs of ours, not to mention the ones they consider Joksters and all that! Seriously, kiddo, if I were you, I’d choose a different hat…”

“Just so you know, leech brain, my parents worked at Scream Ind. for years, back when it was still known as the Scream Agency and the energy-gathering building was nothing more than an abandoned, decaying old building! Besides, the Scream Agency was the only one to hire my parents and give my father a chance, so I’m absolutely loyal to them! We’re scream, we’re special! And know that my parents weren’t duds or fakes… and, most importantly, no one, whoever they are, insults my parents!!!” Luna screamed furiously, while Randall immediately tried to calm her down, his voice nervous: “Come on, Luna… you know what happens when you raise your voice too much…”

“Mike, will you stop insulting Luna’s family?” Sulley asked him, annoyed, and Mike, embarrassed, replied: “And who would have thought that she was the daughter of two Scream Ind. Employees?”

“Hey, you guys! Will you guys stop making all this noise?! Or I'll drop you all at the first gas station!” the driver warned them again, furious, and at the threat, the four calmed down, with Luna even muttering an embarrassed, “Sorry…”

“Oh, great… an hour of my poor vacation wasted on a ride on a beat-up bus headed far away from Las Scaregas next to two guys I can barely stand…” Mike commented quietly, and, hearing him, Randall informed him, annoyed: “An hour? That's a three-hour express, you idiot!”

“Oh…” was all Mike managed to say before sinking into his seat.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4: Luna’s secret

The various passengers on the large bus began to file out of the vehicle in an orderly fashion as soon as the doors opened.

All in all, the trip had gone well... sure, there had been a fair bit of traffic on the highway, which had significantly lengthened the journey... not to mention the beginning, when those four weirdos at the back of the bus had started yelling and arguing with each other!

"Is that all the luggage, Wazowski?" was asking, sarcastically, one of those so-called monsters, a strange guy wearing a long brown trench and a very ruined cowboy hat, which completely covered his face and body, so much so that only two legs and two thin arms with only three fingers each could be seen, holding by the hand a small monster of an even stranger appearance, namely a winged bunny with long blond hair, wearing a dark blue dress and a green and yellow baseball cap, while a green monster covered in dried mud, spherical in shape, wearing a baseball cap, this time blue, and with a huge backpack on its shoulders, replied: “Yes, that's all.”

“What is this? A move?”

“Very funny… I don’t travel without my little comforts.”

“Little comforts, sure… I’d call them little useless things!”

“Hey, look, you and the girl also have big backpacks full of stuff! In fact, you even have water bottles slung over your shoulder!”

“Sure, but, unlike you, we took stuff we actually needed, not stupid things! I bet you didn’t even get an umbrella, unlike us!”

“And what the hell do I need an umbrella for?”

“Try to guess… well, good luck!” the purple monster declared, amused, starting to walk away with Luna, still holding her hand, but was joined by the fourth member of the group, a large, furry, colorful monster, who asked, “Wait just a second, Randall. Do you think Johnson knows we’re here?”

“Definitely, if he saw you take the bus. He probably just had to ask which bus had just left to know where you were headed… and since it was a direct, non-stop bus, he probably already knew where you ended up.”

“So, he’s already on his way to Scary Beach?”

“Of course, unless he took the train ahead of us and is lurking outside the hotels to intercept you. Either way, good luck! Let me know if you manage to get caught outside of this town, so Luna and I can wander the streets!”

“What a lovely prospect…” Mike muttered, terrified, as Sulley once again stood in front of the duo, begging them, “Wait just a second…”

“What else is there?”

“Could we stay with you, at least for a little while?”

“Have you lost your mind?! First of all, I don't like you two at all! And, above all, why the hell would I welcome you into my home?!”

“If Johnson knows we're here, it won't take him long to locate us once we start looking for a hotel… we just need to throw him off our trail for a day, just one day… and since you're a wanted criminal who's been hiding and disappearing for six years at both the CDA and the MERC, you're practically the expert on disappearing!”

“I don't know if I should take what you just said as a compliment or an insult…” Randall stated, annoyed, glaring at Sulley, while Mike added, with a nervous smile, “Come on, please, Randy…”

“Here's some valuable information for you, Wazowski… don't call me Randy if you care about your bones, okay?! Luna's the only one in the entire Monster World who can call me that!” the monster with the big hat interrupted him angrily, and the little green monster stammered: “Whatever… anyway, I wanted to tell you that… since we’ve now… laid the hatchet on a piece of furniture, maybe you could give us a little help… you know… collaboration between old roommates and colleagues, eh? What do you think?”

In response, Randall smirked and declared, amused, “I’m thinking of a two-letter word that starts with ‘n’… a little hint: that word is ‘No.”

“How cute…” muttered the green cyclops monster, while Luna couldn’t help but giggle, amused, while Sulley proposed, “Look, just hide us for a day… then I solemnly promise you’ll never see us again!”

“Really?”

“Yes, tomorrow morning we’ll take the first train to Las Scaregas and be gone from your and Luna’s lives forever! Johnson is planning on going to Las Scaregas and doesn’t even suspect you two are here, so we’ll rid you of his presence too! Look, you won’t even have to walk us to the station!”

Randall stood there in silence for a long minute, watching him, until he finally said, annoyed, before passing Sulley and walking away: "If that's the case, then fine! But don't mess me up anymore and disappear once and for all tomorrow morning, okay? I don't want to lose another hideout because of you!"

"Hey, wait for us!" Mike snapped, following the two monsters with Sulley, who, however, took the opportunity to also take a look around.

Scary Beach seemed to be a bustling town, bustling with people, most of them undoubtedly in good standing, a drastic change from Dirty Hole... yet, out of the corner of his eye, the big, hairy monster noticed something he hadn't noticed before...

In fact, he noticed that on more than one occasion, people were pointing in their direction and chuckling quietly, amused.

“Um… Mike… is it just me, or is everyone laughing at us?” Sulley pointed out, and Mike, rolling his big eye, replied annoyed: “Sulley, I’m covered in mud from head to toe, while your fur is so covered in various colors of paint that you can’t even tell the original color! It’s only natural that we make everyone laugh when we look like this!”

“I thought you liked being a comedian…”

“Yes, but in front of children, not complete strangers who don’t even know who I am!”

Sulley simply sighed and continued on his way, since it was clear that Randall had no intention of waiting for them… and yet, despite his friend's logical explanation, the big hairy monster still felt that something wasn't right: in fact, it seemed to him that the giggling monsters weren't looking at him or Mike… but if they weren't the ones making people laugh, then what…?

“Hey, you two! Get a move on?! I don't have time to waste!” Randall ordered annoyedly at that moment, turning to look at them. Despite himself, Sullivan found himself obeying, mostly to avoid further anger and to convince him to abandon them once and for all.

Finally, the small group reached a small house on the outskirts of town that, judging by its condition, must have seen better days.

Randall's first move was to try to open the front door, but it wouldn't budge, causing him to growl furiously: “Oh, great… it's jammed again!”

At that point, Randall turned to the two monsters behind him and ordered bluntly, pointing to the right side of the house: "This way."

After saying this, Randall jumped into the thick bushes surrounding the house, then took Luna's hand as soon as she approached, helping her down, saying also: "Be careful not to hurt yourself when you jump, Lengthy Ears."

Seeing what had happened, the two monsters looked at each other for a moment, then sighed in resignation.

If that was the case, they had better adapt.

Randall led them to the back of the house, which was full of trash and wild branches that repeatedly hit poor Mike, where there was another door. He tried to enter there too, but that door was also blocked.

“Wait here,” the monster declared, before turning the corner, knocking over a few broken things, and disappearing from the trio’s sight.

A few seconds later, there was the sound of glass shattering, followed by the enigmatic sounds of something being noisily moved around, even knocking it over, until finally, Randall opened the door and declared, “All right, you may come in.”

Once inside, the two monsters noticed that the place was dirty, old, run-down, and dusty.

Sure, they weren’t expecting a five-star hotel, especially Mike, but not one less than a star either.

“You two really want to live in a place like this?” Sulley commented, astonished, while Randall, glaring at him, hissed back, “Sorry we don’t live in a gorgeous, super-expensive apartment, chock-full of the latest conveniences, Sullivan… you know, being a highly sought-after criminal, my income isn’t exactly regular…”

“No, I certainly didn’t mean that… it’s just that…”

“Do me a favor: shut up!” the purple monster snapped, pushing aside a worn rug and raising a perfectly camouflaged trapdoor in the floor, revealing a dark corridor leading down into the darkness.

Wasting no time, Randall and Luna descended the steps, followed by Mike and Sulley.

Once they arrived, Randall pulled the chain of a ceiling lamp, and after a moment's hesitation, the light illuminated the entire room.

It was a rather large, cluttered room, filled with objects, including several trunks, an old-fashioned television, a refrigerator, cardboard boxes, and a large, furry blue sofa, as well as two small doors.

"What the hell is this?" Mike asked, astonished, while Randall, with a snort, explained, "This is our house, Wazowski."

“Wow… I have to admit, I wasn't expecting it to be this… so… it has a certain style, doesn't it?” Mike commented, surprised, while, at the same time, Luna began opening the various trunks, as if looking for something very important, finding a large old-fashioned camera, then taking a picture, though she then put the camera down and started searching through the trunks again.

“Where did you find all this stuff?” Sulley asked, surprised, while the purple monster replied: “Most of it in my grandmother's attic, in landfills, or at various flea markets I've visited throughout my squalid life. And for the record, I had to save up a lot to be able to buy them…”

“And how come they're all here? I thought your stuff was confiscated…”

“You think so, Sullivan? I got it back, right? Luckily, the CDA people didn't expect me to be able to return the day after my exile, and I took advantage of the opportunity to get my things back before they took them away… and, of course, no one would imagine that there's this apartment hidden in the basement of an abandoned beach house…” Randall revealed, while Luna, after opening yet another trunk, smiled joyfully and began pulling out a load of old, bulky volumes.

“But how did you find this place? I understand it's quite far from Monstropolis…” Sulley pointed out, and Randall replied apathetically: “Johnny recommended it to me. His father had a friend who owned this house and spent the summer here once. Then the friend had some problems and completely forgot he owned this place. It was a little dirty, but at least it was quite big, so there was room for both my stuff and that of the owner, who had forgotten it. I spent the first few months of my return moving all my things here without arousing anyone's suspicions… I had just finished when Johnny contacted me because he needed my help with something very important…”

“Yes… to sabotage our company!” Mike blurted out, putting down his backpack and starting to search for something inside, while Sulley tried to contain him: “Mike…”

“Okay, okay… listen, where does that door lead?” asked the green cyclops monster, while, simultaneously, Luna finished grabbing books from the trunk and, trying to lift them—albeit with obvious difficulty, since the little monster was quite small and the books were quite large and heavy—headed over to the blue sofa and, after placing them on it, headed for her backpack, which she had placed on the floor.

“It’s none of your business, Wazowski!” Randall declared, annoyed, as his niece pulled a large, colorful storybook and a stuffed white rabbit with four arms from her backpack. She then walked over to the couch and sat down on it, along with the two items she’d taken from her backpack. She then opened the storybook and began reading.

“And that other one over there?” Mike asked, pointing to the other door, and Randall immediately replied, “That one’s off limits too! In fact, of the two of them, that’s the one you shouldn’t even think about, let alone go near!”

“Okay, we get it…” the green monster muttered, annoyed, and began to look around, while Randall took off his coat, thus freeing his hidden tail and returning to lean on his second pair of legs, muttering, while massaging the back legs, which until then had supported his weight: “Urgh… it’s always torture walking on only one pair of legs when you’re a four-legged monster…”

“Are you okay, Uncle Randy?” Luna asked immediately, looking up from the book she was reading, and her uncle, with a painful smile, reassured her: “Don't worry, Lengthy Ears… in a few minutes my legs won't hurt anymore.”

“Hey, a phone!” Mike exclaimed, noticing, just then, an old-fashioned telephone, but before he could grab the receiver, Randall brutally hit his hand with the wrench, adding: “Yeah, and woe betide you if you touch it. If you call the police, Luna and I will run away and then make your life hell, do you understand?”

“I don't want to call the police! I just want to stop my dad from calling the police and all the other law enforcement agencies!”

“What have you done this time?”

“I didn't do anything at all! That paranoid guy thinks I'm in trouble… and all because, for once, I called him!”

“Actually, if I were in his shoes, I'd be worried too…”

“Are you getting involved too?! Sure, it's true that I only called him to buy time and prevent Johnson and his henchmen from finding out and tearing me to pieces, but…”

“So it's true that you're in trouble…” Luna commented dryly, glaring at him, and Mike retorted: “Girl, I've already had a go at people today who consider me an ungrateful son… and my dad even had the nerve to yell at me when I tried to calm him down by promising him a baseball player's autograph, because, apparently, he doesn't like him at all!”

“Don't you even know what your dad likes?!” the little monster blurted out, with anger mixed with disbelief, and Mike challenged her: “Why, do you know what yours likes?”

“Of course! Mine liked carving wooden figurines, grapes were his favorite fruit, he adored classic novels and playing the guitar, he had a fondness for the city of Putridis, his favorite restaurant was Da nonna Mostrina pizzeria, and his favorite sports were football and basketball,” Luna listed, with the utmost calm and pedanticness. In response, after making a shocked face, Mike replied, picking up the receiver: “Okay… listen, I need to make that damned call… now!”

As he was dialing, however, he heard Luna say behind him: “Look, Uncle Randy, a stuffed animal! Can I play with it? So Rabbie would have a friend…”

Immediately, the green monster, having a terrible suspicion, turned around and found his suspicions confirmed.

“Hey, hands off little Mickey, okay?! He’s off limits!” the green monster snapped, taking the doll from Luna, then going back to dialing, while the little monster muttered, “Always so nice, you…”

After a few rings, a male voice came on the other end, asking, annoyed, “Michael, is that you?!”

“Yes, Dad, relax! I’m fine, so please don’t call the police or anything like that, okay?”

“First, tell me where you are!”

“In Las Scaregas, like I told you before!”

“Really? Then why did I get a call from a hotel in Las Scaregas an hour ago asking where you were, since you never showed up?!”

“Urgh… please tell me Mom didn’t hear that…”

“Luckily, your mother was at the water aerobics class, and I was careful not to tell her!”

“What?! The water aerobics class?! Seriously?!”

“Maybe you don't know this, Michael, but your mother and I have a life between phone calls! Haven't you ever noticed that your mother always calls you on Sunday mornings at nine o'clock sharp unless it's a holiday?!”

“Now that you mention it, yes… and where is she now?”

“At the gardening class, but don't change the subject! I want to know where the hell you are, what happened… and don't you dare lie to me again, Michael… or I'll tell your mother everything!”

“Aaargh!!! No, if Mom finds out, she'll make a mess! She'll call the police, the fire department, the National Guard, the press… it would be super embarrassing to see her crying and crying in front of the cameras!” Mike complained, then muttered, “Okay, I give up… you see… Sulley and I took the wrong train, we ended up in a little town in the middle of the swamp that no one has ever forgotten, and the local leader… let's just say he didn't like me very much.”

“You talked too much and tactlessly about a subject that was a sore point for him without knowing it, making him really angry, didn't you?”

“Urgh… next time I see Beau Johnson, I'm going to take a picture of that damn nose of his, and I'm going to see if people won't admit it afterwards that it looks fake!”

“And where have you gone now?”

“In a town called Scary Beach… but Sulley and I are fine, I assure you, we're trying to get to Las Scaregas…” Mike revealed to him, while Randall, in a low voice, warned him annoyed: “Cut. You're abusing an illegal line.”

“I’m trying!” Mike blurted out under his breath, then said to his father, “Listen, Dad, if anyone here wants to go to Las Scaregas, it’s me! Tomorrow I’m taking the first train to that city, and I promise you, I won’t be moving from there until the end of the vacation… but please, don’t tell Mom!!!”

“And don’t you play any more pranks like that on me!” Mr. Wazowski snapped, annoyed, before hanging up, while his son muttered, “Paranoid…”

“You’re finally done…” Randall blurted out, picking up the receiver, and, just then, Sulley said, “Ah, Randall…”

“What’s up, Sullivan? Do you want to call your daddy too to reassure him?”

“Well, no… almost… if it’s true that the hotel called our numbers, they must have called my mother… maybe I should call her, to reassure her…”

“Okay… but hurry!”

Sulley immediately dialed a phone number and, when she heard the receiver pick up, said, “Hello, Mom? Is that you?”

“James?” a female voice asked doubtfully, before screaming, so loud it could be heard throughout the room, causing Randall to immediately cover his niece’s ears with one set of arms, while angrily covering his own with the other: “WHERE THE HELL DID YOU GO?! I JUST RECEIVED A CALL FROM A HOTEL IN LAS SCAREGAS AND THEY TOLD ME YOU NEVER SHOWED UP DESPITE YOUR RESERVATION!!!”

“Yeah, you see, Mom… the thing is, Mike and I took the wrong train last night and ended up a bit far from Las Scaregas… but luckily, we met an old friend from college who’s willing to help us,” Sulley reassured her, before Randall, after stopping to cover Luna’s ears, hit him pretty hard with his tail, grimacing furiously.

“And who is this old friend? A member of Oozma Kappa?” Sulley’s mother asked suspiciously, while her son said, “Well, no… actually, he was in ROR…”

“That fraternity I always told you to stay away from? Am I wrong, or was the president of the fraternity at the time arrested six years ago for sabotaging your company?”

“Yeah, but… this monster’s a nice guy, Mom… think about it, he takes care of his six-year-old niece and…”

“Huh? He takes care of his six-year-old niece?”

“Yes, you see… his… brother and his wife died a few years ago, leaving their daughter alone… and he’s been taking care of her ever since.”

“Oh, goodness, I had no idea… poor dear… losing his brother and having to take care of his niece all by himself… he must have had a really tough time…”

“Yes, but they’re doing fine…”

“Oh, I’m so glad you’re with such a responsible and mature individual, Jamie… I feel more at peace knowing you’re in the company of this monster than with that arrogant, vain, and insufferable friend of yours!”

“Mom…”

“All right, I have to go now… please, James Patrick Sullivan… don’t play any more pranks like that on me! You’ve already given up when you were a kid!”

“Sure, Mom, sorry…”

“Well, say hello to that friend of yours and his niece for me… and if that chatterbox Michael Wazowski is eavesdropping on our calls again, tell him to jump in the lake!”

“Still the same nice girl, your mother…” Mike muttered, annoyed, as Randall added, “An old friend from college, Sullivan? Really?”

“Well… after all, we met in college, right?”

“Tsk…” was Randall’s response, before checking the fridge and saying, “I’m going grocery shopping. Sullivan, you come with me. Wazowski, you stay here with Luna.”

“What?!” the two friends exclaimed, surprised, and Randall promptly responded, starting to roughly push the big, hairy monster: “I need someone to be a lookout, and Sullivan is perfect for that. We’ll be back as soon as possible… and be careful, Wazowski… don’t leave Luna’s side. If I find out something happened to her, I swear I’ll make you regret it.”

“Hey, Uncle Randy! Look what I found in this book!” Luna suddenly exclaimed, showing a rectangular piece of paper tucked between the pages of a book she was reading, but the monster, grabbing his raincoat, said, “Tell me about it later, Luna. I really have to go now. See you later.”

As soon as the two monsters left, Mike and Luna stood there in silence, looking up at the stairs, then looked at each other simultaneously, in silence.

“So, you… how do you pass the time, little girl?” Mike asked, rather nervously, and Luna replied, “I like to read.”

“Really? You know I used to do that when I was your age, too?”

“Really?”

“Oh, yeah… I spent my days studying tomes and books on scarers, the best scare techniques, the origins of children’s fears… not to mention tomes on math, science, physics…”

“Um… I guess that’s not exactly what I like to read…”

“And what do you like to read? History books? Monstrous society? I hope you don’t read art history books!”

“I read fairy tales, myths, and books full of adventure, magic, humor, and stuff like that.”

“What?! Do books like that exist?!”

Luna’s response was an apathetic, slightly annoyed look.

“Lunch break!” the female voice of the department manager called out at that very moment, and immediately, all the monsters stopped coming in and out of the various doors, heading toward the factory cafeteria.

Suddenly, two monsters—a male with purple skin and large horns and a female with a curious, furry yellow body—noticed three monsters in the distance: a fat one with a proboscis nose and a single blue eye, a blue female crab with three eyes, and a cheerful, furry blue squid with five eyes and a ukulele.

“Hey, guys!” the orange monster greeted them cheerfully, bounding over to the trio. Immediately, the monster with the funny nose turned to her and said cheerfully, “Hi, Val! Shift over, huh?”

“Just for a little while. How are you guys doing?”

“Great! Sure, there are only three of us doing the job, but I'd say we're doing pretty well…”

“Three? What do you mean, Fritz?” Tylor interrupted, astonished, and the one-eyed monster revealed, “You didn’t hear? Duncan took a week off.”

“What?! Duncan?! Are we talking about the same monster?!” the long-horned purple monster asked, astonished, knowing all too well Duncan’s obsession with work, undoubtedly aimed at convincing Fritz he was worthy of the role of MIFT supervisor, and even the thought of him taking time off was mind-blowing.

“Of course. He called me this morning asking for a week off, and I was more than happy to grant it. Poor guy, he had a lot of vacation time left over, but he never wanted to take a well-deserved vacation… I’m glad he finally heeded my warnings and took that vacation.” Fritz rejoiced, while Tylor sarcastically commented, “Yes, of course…”

Of course, he didn’t even remotely believe that Duncan had taken that week off just because Fritz had told him to… surely, there was a hidden agenda to that story, but, for the moment, he couldn’t figure out what it was…

“The old, battered taxi rolled slowly along the cobblestone mountain road, while I, the great detective Duncan P. Anderson, gazed out the window at the wild, gray landscape… but despite the beauty and allure of the mountains, I couldn't allow myself to be distracted from my mission: to uncover the hidden secrets of the mysterious and enigmatic Mr. Moon. Rumor had it that he owned a humble B&B located in the village of Terror Town, an isolated place not marked on national maps, but my super-detective instinct told me that something shady was hidden behind the figure of this mysterious individual… that of a hardened suitor of poor, defenseless old ladies and then deceived them, like the shadiest fortune hunter… even poor Virginia, graceful as a butterfly, was in danger of falling into the trap of this sinister spider, but luckily, I, his guardian angel, had undertaken this difficult and dangerous journey to delve into the dark and secret meanders of this mysterious acquaintance of Virginia's and..." he was extolling the little green monster in a trench coat and a hat over his eyes, before being rudely interrupted by a monster sitting in the driver's seat: "Hey, you nutcase, are you going to get out?! We've been here for a quarter of an hour!"

"Hey, you interrupted my wonderful monologue!"

“I don't give a damn about your crazy nonsense! Either you get out of my cab and pay, or I'll raise the price! And between you and me, that monologue was the stupidest thing I've ever heard!”

“Hmph… laymen don't understand the depth and subtlety of our monologues, Roto…” Duncan muttered, getting out of the cab with his large suitcase, then walking over to the driver's side and handing him the money, while the driver commented annoyedly, “I've picked up a lot of crazy people in my life, but you sure beat them all!”

With those words out of the way, the taxi drove off, leaving the town and heading away.

Alone, Duncan, with Roto on one shoulder and hauling the large, heavy trunk with one hand, spoke again: “The separation from the friends and family left behind in Monstropolis had been painful, especially for my poor mother, who, before I left, had told me on the phone, ‘And don’t come back!’ But being a detective was also this… work above all else. A detective’s life was a terrible one… always on the move for work, heedless of the heaviest rain or the coldest snowfall, avoiding the closest and warmest bonds… and yet, the thought of the refreshing warmth of love and friendship thrills us and we long for it with all our souls, but…”

“Hey, you idiot, watch where you’re going! I almost ran you over with my pickup!” a curious-looking monster yelled furiously, leaning out of the window of his van, but the green monster ignored him, continuing unperturbed to walk and talk.

“The town seemed quiet, a mountain village like so many others, monsters walking the streets… but my instinct told me that behind that quiet, rustic facade, something was hiding… a dark secret, well-kept by the inhabitants of this place… and that this mysterious and dangerous Mr. Moon was involved in it… maybe even in charge! Of course, now it all made sense, perfect sense… this Moon was the powerful crime boss of the surrounding area, perhaps even of the entire mountain! Completely immersed in terrible and shady dealings that would make all the terrible crimes I've dealt with during my long career pale in comparison... I absolutely had to stop him, for the sake of my beloved Virginia! But things had to be done carefully and calmly, otherwise I would alarm my man... removing piece by piece the foundations of his dominion, that was the right strategy... but first, I had to locate his lair! Suddenly, I noticed the entrance to a narrow, seedy tavern where the smell of smoke stung my four sensitive eyes, and suddenly I understood! This was the perfect place to gather information on this Moon! I would enter and blend in with the people inside…" Duncan babbled, entering a small establishment and ordering rather hastily, after sitting down at the bar, leaning an arm on it and turning his back to the monster behind it. “A nice glass of vintage whiskey, honey… the nice, aged kind.”

“Hey, buddy, I don’t know what the hell you’re thinking, but you’ve got the wrong address, and a bad one at that! This is a bar! And we don’t sell alcohol!” the hairy female monster behind the bar pointed out annoyed, causing Duncan to turn around and ask, “So what drinks do you sell?”

“The standard soft drinks you can find in any bar: water, coffee, fruit juices, drooler coolers…”

“I'll have a coffee. Black and thick as the darkness I've been forced to wander through for time immemorial… bitter as my life so far… thick as…”

“The simple, banal word 'coffee' would have been enough, you know?” the waitress interrupted, exasperated, starting to prepare the drink, while Duncan continued: “I'd already noticed a couple of interesting things since my arrival: Prohibition was still deeply rooted, a clear indication of the country's high crime rate, and they were very suspicious of foreigners, another sign that someone had to take charge… and that someone, obviously, was me!”

“Here's your coffee,” the barista said, just then, placing the cup in front of the green monster. Duncan said, “Great… listen, I have a request…”

“Yes?”

“I'm Detective Duncan P. Anderson, and I'd like to know everything you know about a certain Mr. Moon, owner of a B&B called The Lucky Rabbit!”

“Colin? And why would you be investigating him?”

“This is confidential information, sweetie.”

“Well, my information about Mr. Moon is confidential too… drink your coffee, pay, and go.”

“Wait! Can I at least know where The Lucky Rabbit is?”

“Straight ahead, then turn right at the first stop sign. You can't miss it.”

As soon as Duncan left the tavern, he continued speaking: “The tavern owner had gone cold turkey as soon as I mentioned Mr. Moon… there were two possibilities: either she feared the name Moon or she was in his service. Of course… in fact, everyone in town seemed to be in the pay of this criminal, as well as subconsciously fearing him… however, she had given me the information I was looking for: the location of this criminal's lair! And, indeed, after a few minutes' walk, with the sun blazing on my head and the icy mountain chill in my bones, I reached my destination. This Moon must have been doing well, since the house was beautiful and large… this was definitive proof that this Moon was the boss of the local underworld! A final moment of silence before I defiantly braved the danger, and then I entered the beast's lair!”

Duncan pushed open the door and found himself in a small, clean, and deserted hall. Suddenly, his attention was drawn to a room at the end of the corridor, where a curious monster was sitting in an armchair, intent on reading the newspaper, next to a small wooden table with a glass on it. It looked like a large, and above all, fat, white-furred rabbit with three ice-blue eyes. Judging by the wrinkles on its face, it must have been quite elderly. It was wearing an elegant black jacket over a red shirt.

“There he was… the monster I was looking for… Colin Moon… the shady criminal who had dared to steal my Virginia’s heart with his false air of being a wealthy tycoon… he was there, intent on reading a newspaper, convinced that no one would discover his misdeeds, despite his pitch-black soul being evident… I decided to go on the offensive, since in these situations the attack is the best defense, and I approached him, ready to study him carefully…” declared the monster, approaching the man reading the newspaper, and then said, with false courtesy, with Roto growling on his shoulder: “Good evening, sir… I am Duncan P. Anderson, traveling salesman.”

“Hello…” said the old man, surprised by the apparition. “Did you come to enjoy the fresh, healthy air of Terror Town? Several scientists have described it as a true health cure-all… indeed, it's one of the things we're absolutely proud of, in addition to the nature trails, the picturesque streets, the historic shops…”

“Yes, yes, yes… it's all very beautiful and fascinating, Mr. Moon, but I came here for something completely different…”

“Huh?”

“I can't reveal much to you right now, Mr. Moon, but you'll understand everything when you receive a little surprise from me…”

“Moon?! Wait, if you're referring to the owner of this B&B, it's not me.”

“What?! Then who are you?!”

“Edward Wentworth, Mayor of Terror Town. Nice to meet you, Mr. Anderson, and I apologize for this little inconvenience, but I always come here to relax a bit during my work breaks, since the town hall is nearby… usually, no one ever comes here on vacation, except for some teenager hoping to find Raymond Crimson Cloak…”

“So where’s Colin Moon?!”

“I’m here,” declared a male voice from behind the green monster, and turning around, Duncan saw an old monster also resembling a rabbit, this time with black fur, four arms, two small horns in front of long rabbit ears, and four small blue eyes behind a large pair of thick, double-lensed glasses. He was wearing a simple blue sweater that covered all four arms.

“Sorry I wasn’t at the reception, but I had to take care of some things…” Mr. Moon admitted with a sweet smile, heading toward the front desk, followed by Duncan and Mayor Wentworth. “So, would you like a room, Mr.…?”

“Duncan P. Anderson,” declared the green monster, and Wentworth added, “He’s a traveling salesman. Think of how lucky you are, Colin… to be able to travel the world, see new places, meet new people, and have new experiences… It must be really nice to be able to travel for work…”

“Well, yes… so, Mr. Anderson, how long would you like to occupy the room and for how many people?” Mr. Moon asked, writing something in the large ledger, while Duncan declared, “I’m alone. As for the length of my stay, I intend to start with a week… of course, if the place turns out to be enchanting, I might even extend my vacation…”

“Then you absolutely must see our Screaming Flower Festival! It’s this Saturday and there will be lots of stalls selling flower-related items and the like, plus a competition for the best flower! Maybe we’ll have more visitors this year… I always hope the television will come and do a report, but it never happens… maybe that’s the problem with the lack of visitors…” Wentworth mused, while Duncan continued: “I heard about this place from an acquaintance of mine… Virginia Tuskmon.”

“Huh? Bernard’s mother?” Mr. Moon asked, surprised, and Wentworth asked, “Who is she?”

“The mother of a longtime client of mine. He comes here every year with his wife… I’m surprised his mother would talk to anyone from Terror Town… I was convinced she hated him to death.”

“Ah… so you know that poor woman very well, don’t you?” Duncan immediately pressed, and Mr. Moon, stunned, asked, “Excuse me?”

“Oh… you know exactly what I mean, Moon… you…” Duncan began, but was interrupted by the front door swinging open abruptly. Another rabbit monster, younger than the other two, appeared in the doorway. He had an annoyed expression, gray and white fur, and a policeman’s uniform. He had two brown arms and one eye, while the other side of his face was covered by a tuft of fur, just below a patch of white fur.

As soon as the newcomer saw Duncan, he grimaced angrily and asked him bluntly, approaching him: “Are you the nice guy who just arrived in town?”

“Sure… and who are you?” asked the monster in the raincoat, and the other replied, annoyed: “I ask the questions here, four-eyes!”

“Come on, Ned, don’t be aggressive with him… he just got here, like you said…” the mayor tried to reassure him, while the other replied angrily: “And that didn’t stop him from making himself noticed! Frank said he almost ran over him, because he crossed the street on a red light and without even looking, Angie said that he started babbling nonsense when he walked into her bar, as if he thought he was in a bad thriller, Betsie said that he sat in a cab for fifteen minutes and then got into an argument with the driver… not to mention all the calls we’ve had at headquarters in the last five minutes that have been swamping our lines, claiming there was a mafia hitman with a pink furball on his shoulder who was walking around talking to himself!”

After that outburst, Ned glared at Duncan and asked him rudely, “Who are you or what the hell are you doing here?”

“I’m Duncan P. Anderson, and I’m on vacation… so I decided to come here and enjoy the Screaming Flower Festival, since I’m a huge flower lover…” Duncan declared, feigning innocence, and the policeman retorted, moving so close that the monster began to fret: “In next week?!”

“Better to be safe, right?” Duncan stammered with an agitated smile, and Ned headed for the exit, though first he pointed his finger at him and warned him, annoyed: “I don’t know what the hell you’re up to, four-eyes, but I’m keeping an eye on you! If I hear so much as one more complaint about you, I’ll throw you in jail!”

As soon as Ned angrily closed the B&B door, Wentworth hastened to apologize: “I apologize for Ned’s behavior… he’s a good guy and an excellent policeman, but, unfortunately, life hasn’t been very kind to him… that’s why he’s always too wary of monsters from outside…”

“I’ve noticed…” Duncan stammered, as Mr. Moon handed him a key and a brochure, informing him with a sweet smile: “Here’s your room key, Mr. Anderson. Breakfast is in the living room from six to nine. This brochure contains a map of the town and the best hiking trails in the area. Anyway, if you need any information, please don’t hesitate to ask me.”

“I have them printed at the printer on the outskirts. It’s important for tourists to know every nook and cranny of the area. That way, we can avoid unpleasant incidents.” the mayor added proudly, while Duncan, starting to push his trunk toward the stairs, said, “Thank you so much, gentlemen… they’ll be very useful to me…”

“Don’t you want a hand carrying the luggage?” Mr. Moon asked, slightly worried, but the green monster replied, “I’ll do it myself, I’ll do it myself… I want to study the place thoroughly…”

“Come on, walk a little faster…” said the short green monster, holding the hand of a small rabbit-like monster, who replied, annoyed, “I’m walking as fast as I can!”

“Well, we have to get to the train station and back before your uncle notices we’re out!”

“Aren’t you afraid of Johnson and his gang?”

“Who, those? A bunch of weaklings! I’m much more worried about your uncle!”

Luna’s response was a raised eyebrow, a sign she didn’t believe him.

“Come on, I just have to check when the first train to Las Scaregas is and I’m good to go, I swear!” Mike declared, while Luna pointed out, calmly and in a smug tone, “You know that if they’re here, Johnson and his guys are most likely watching the train station waiting for any of us to show up, right?”

Hearing those words, Mike grimaced nervously.

Indeed, what the girl had said was true... not to mention that Beau Johnson was actually looking for her specifically to force Randall to give him something... with her anything but ordinary appearance, Johnson would certainly have had little trouble finding her, and if he had laid his hands on her, Randall would surely have killed him!

The only solution was to leave her somewhere for a few minutes, while he went to the train station to check the next day's departures, since he was close to his seat... but where could he leave her for at least ten minutes?!

Suddenly, he noticed a bookstore across the street and, with a little smile, asked Luna, “Hey, little girl… if I’m not mistaken, you like books, right?”

“Of course! I love them!” the little monster admitted excitedly, as Mike led her toward the store, saying, “Perfect, then you stay there for a few minutes, read all the books that interest you, while I, if you’ll allow me, go to the station for a moment. Then I’ll come pick you up, I assure you.”

“I don’t think my uncle would be too keen on this plan of yours, Mr. Mike…”

“Oh, it won’t take long… you read and don’t follow anyone but me, okay?”

“Okay…”

Mike stood still, watching the little monster hesitantly cross the street and open the bookstore door, turning one last time to look at Mike, who motioned for her to enter, and Luna obeyed.

Once the door was closed, the little monster took a deep breath to relax, then looked around, immediately fascinated by the sight before her: an impressive number of shelves packed with books of all sizes and colors.

After a moment of admiration, Luna approached one shelf and began, fascinated, to pick up some books.

“Hey, little girl. The children's books are over there. The ones you're taking are about magic, witchcraft, and the occult,” warned the bookseller, who looked like an old brown snail with glasses and a white bob. The little monster nodded calmly. “I know. It's on that sign there. But I like those subjects.”

“Really?”

“Of course! My grandma was a witch, you know?”

“Huh?!”

“Yes, she taught me everything she knew about magic, the spirit world, and the swamp, since, as her granddaughter, I have witch blood in my veins!”

“Really… fascinating…” was all the bookseller could say, while Luna, with a sweet smile, thanked her. “Thank you.”

After grabbing a bunch of rather large volumes, the little monster looked around and, after finding an armchair, sat down with some difficulty, then began to read calmly, unaware that the bookseller was staring at her in silence, still shocked by the strange speeches of such a small monster.

Meanwhile, Mike was running at full speed through the streets of the town until he reached the train station, where, after checking for any furry green monsters with red noses, he slipped inside and, careful not to be seen by anyone, approached the timetable and, after a quick search, found the information he was looking for and couldn't help but rejoice.

Now all he had to do was leave the station, pick up the little girl, and…

“Look, sir, I already told you… no monsters like the ones you described have ever shown up at the station.” A male voice declared just then, nearby, while an all-too-familiar voice muttered, “How is that possible?! I know they arrived here at least two hours ago, and I know they’re too keen to get to Las Scaregas… are you absolutely sure they’ve never shown up?”

Pale as a sheet, Mike bent down and slowly approached the waiting room chairs and, to his horror, saw Beau Johnson and his two men talking to a station official.

“Yes, I can assure you. I’ve never seen the monsters you describe.” The official nodded, while Johnson continued, “Okay, have you by any chance noticed a little monster of about six years old who looks like a winged rabbit?”

“Huh?! Does such a monster really exist?” the monster immediately asked, as Mike tried to head for the exit—obviously, under the row of chairs in the waiting room—only to stop a few meters from the end and grimace in disgust when he placed his hand on a stick of gum underneath them.

“Yes, I know it seems impossible, but it really exists…” Johnson admitted, as Mike tried to remove the disgusting thing from his hand. “So, have you seen it or not?”

“If I’d already seen a monster like that, I wouldn’t be surprised, would I?” the station official pointed out, as Mike finally freed himself from the gum and immediately resumed his run toward the exit, noting with relief that it was not far away.

If only Johnson hadn't turned around in that moment...

"Look, you shouldn't mess with me... I could be a very dangerous guy..." Johnson retorted. At the same time, hearing a noise behind him, Gideon turned, but all he saw was the station's glass door swinging back and forth.

Meanwhile, nearby, Mike, having just left the train station, had broken into a run through the city streets, only to stop abruptly when, as he entered a small, dark alley, Randall suddenly appeared out of nowhere, looking truly furious.

“Where’s Luna?! Where did you leave my niece alone?!” the purple monster immediately shouted, furious, as Sulley poked his head out of an alley, also looking rather annoyed.

“I-in a bookstore not far from the train station…” Mike revealed nervously, as Randall once again disappeared into thin air, though he had time to hiss furiously: “I can’t even leave a little six-year-old monster with you for a few hours…”

Meanwhile, in the bookstore, Luna continued to calmly read her large volumes, while the bookseller continued to stare at her in disbelief.

“Listen… aren’t those books too big for you?” the female monster suddenly asked, but the little monster calmly revealed, “Oh, no, that’s fine with me… in fact, the bigger they are, the better! That way I have more pages to read…”

“How old are you?”

"Six."

"And you can read already?"

"Sure... but if there's a difficult word I don't understand, I ask my uncle for help. He's really good at these things, you know?"

"And your parents?"

"Oh... they died a while ago."

"Oh, dear, I'm sorry..."

"Yes... that's why I live with my uncle."

"And where is he now?"

"I think he went grocery shopping... that's usually why he leaves me home alone."

"He leaves you home alone?!"

"Yes, and when he does, I'm absolutely not allowed to touch any electrical appliances, the camping stove, or anything like that... so until he gets back, I can read in peace or reenact stories I like with my toys."

"And school?"

"School? What is it?"

"You know, it's a place where you learn things like reading, multiplication tables, writing, drawing…"

“Oh, but I don't need it… my uncle teaches me all that stuff. He's really good at teaching… too bad I'm really bad at math… the four and eight multiplication tables are absolutely impossible for me! How I envy anyone who's good at that subject…”

“But… doesn't your uncle work?”

“Oh, no… sure, he worked for a while as a cook at a diner in the Inside Chaos neighborhood when we first moved here, but…”

“Inside Chaos?! It's the most infamous and dangerous area of ​​the city!”

“Really? Weird… yet when he went to work and took me with him, nothing ever happened… sure, there were those hateful neighborhood bullies who bothered me and often made fun of me, but aside from that… however, now that I think about it more, one day I heard strange noises coming from outside the kitchen, namely bangs and screams… that time my uncle put me in a cupboard and told me absolutely not to come out of there until I heard the magic word… I admit that at that time I was really scared and that I was clutching my Mojo bag tightly, but then, when my uncle pulled me out of there, he told me that some idiots had planned a stupid prank to scare the hell out of everyone, but that, in the end, he had managed to teach them a lesson… now that I think about it, from that time onwards, he never took me to the diner again and started leaving me home alone…”

The bookseller was shocked for a minute, then asked timidly, “And… does your uncle still work at that diner?”

“No. Unfortunately, the owner decided to close it down.” was Luna’s calm reply, and the bookseller asked, “Oh… and that happened recently?”

“No, last year.”

“What?! He found another job, right?”

“Well, my uncle said something about disappearing for a while, so we went back to living in the swamp… he rarely came out, only at night, and he never told me anything about what he did, so I don’t know what he does for a living… and when he came back, he was always full of stuff, food, and money… I imagine now that we’re back living here, he’ll start doing the same thing again,” the little monster confessed candidly, while the bookseller, standing up slightly, said with a smile, “I understand… listen, little one… I have to make a phone call…”

“Okay…”

“Please don’t go far.”

“Okay,” said the little monster, watching the bookseller enter a door behind the counter, then calmly return to reading her book.

“Luna!” a breathless male voice the little monster knew all too well called out suddenly, and, looking up, the little girl saw a pair of eyes and a row of sharp teeth appear out of nowhere.

“Hi, Uncle Randy! How was your shopping?” the little monster asked calmly, then felt a gentle grip on her wrist as the eyes and teeth vanished and the male voice resumed: “It went well, but now we have to go, Lenghty Ears… and quickly!”

“But the bookseller told me to wait for her here…” Luna tried to explain, as she got off the armchair, but her uncle interrupted her, starting to pull her towards the exit: “Don’t worry, I’ll apologize to her for you later… but, for now, we have to go home, quickly!”

Once outside, Randall began to run quickly, while his niece tried to keep up, albeit with some difficulty, until, finally, the two reached the alley where Mike and Sulley were, where Randall reappeared in plain view.

“Did everything go okay?” the furry monster immediately asked, while the purple one, glaring at him, hissed, “Yes, despite you two! I don't think Johnson and his henchmen saw us, either in the bookstore or on the street!”

“How do you know those three are around?” Mike asked, curious, while Randall pointed out with a fiery look, “Otherwise, why else were you running like a madman in a completely different direction from where you dropped Luna off and from our house?”

“Right…” Mike admitted, as Randall put on his trench and hat, hidden behind a garbage can, and put them back on, hiding his tail and second pair of legs in the process.

Once he'd finished getting himself ready, he took his niece's hand again and walked at full speed down the narrow, dark alley, followed by the two monsters, reaching a suburban street filled with other unsavory monsters.

However, as Sulley noticed almost immediately, once again, everyone was looking at them with amused expressions, even grinning not so subtly, and when one of them pointed to a spot in front of him and Mike, the hairy monster realized they weren't the ones amusing the crowd.

But if it wasn't them, then who…

“Hey, look! There’s the Easter Bunny!” a monster shrieked in amusement from across the street, pointing at Luna, causing the group to instantly freeze. The little monster jumped and winced, then hid behind Randall. Randall, with a furious grimace, turned to the monster in question, glaring at him, even biting his lip, as if he were about to give him a good talking to. He then quickly continued on his way, dragging Luna away from him, who, meanwhile, lowered her baseball cap, as if to hide her face, even though her long bunny ears were definitely sticking out.

“Hey, listen! Aren't you ashamed of mocking a little six-year-old monster like that?!” Sulley immediately protested, glaring at the monster who had dared to publicly mock Luna, and approaching him too. The monster, with a mischievous smile, showing all his pointed teeth, asked, in an obvious mocking tone: “Excuse me… that thing is supposed to be yours? Tell me, what the hell did you do to create such a freak of nature? A work accident involving nuclear materials?”

“WHAT?!?!” Randall's voice shrieked angrily, immediately turning around, still holding Luna's hand, and rejoining his two traveling companions and the boastful monster. He then angrily declared, pointing at Sulley, “This damned, flea-bitten, nosy carpetbagger isn't her father, you idiot!!!”

“And who are you, you tall guy? Her fairy godmother?”

“I'm her uncle, you fool!”

“Actually, you…” Mike clarified, and Randall immediately shrieked, annoyed: “Don't get in the way, Wazowski!!!”

“Wait a minute…” the monster suddenly said. “But you're supposed to be a reptilian monster!”

“So what?”

"A reptilian monster who's the uncle of a hairy monster? Sure, that's a poorly executed parody of a hairy monster, but that would be too much even for someone like her…"

“Her mother was a reptilian monster.”

“So she’s half reptilian monster, too? No wonder she’s such a mess…”

“Hey, cut it out! She’s just a little girl!” Sulley interrupted, and Randall, glaring at him, hissed angrily through his teeth, “Sullivan, stay out of my way!”

“Look, buddy, I’ll be honest… she’s anything but a monster. Even that little one-eyed green monster is scarier than her! How the hell something like her even existed is a complete mystery…”

“If you really want to know, her idiot grandfather looked just like her, just like the rest of the people in his stupid town!”

“Ha ha ha! A town of rabbit monsters… man, I feel sick laughing just thinking about it… listen, uncle, why don't you call the brat's parents instead of making a fool of yourself and tell them they're supposed to defend their daughter?”

“Because her parents are both long dead, idiot!”

“Really? Didn't they actually run away after such a mess came out?”

Before Sulley could say anything, Randall, furious as ever, grabbed the guy by the collar and started screaming, “You didn't know them! Neither of them would have ever abandoned her! NO ONE! They both didn't care about her looks, they loved her for who she was… if they hadn't died, she would never have left her! NEVER!!!”

“Yes, of course, keep dreaming… surely, they said so much to make themselves look good in the eyes of others… personally, I would be ashamed to have a daughter like that… in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if her own parents were deeply ashamed of having had such a freak show! She’s not scary, she’s adorable!”

“You…” Randall hissed, but before he could do anything to the monster who had dared to so cruelly discredit Luna, he heard a sob behind him and, turning around, immediately followed by Sulley and Mike, saw the little monster with a sad and hurt expression.

“Apologize to her… now!!!” the purple monster immediately ordered, while the other replied sarcastically: “Otherwise, what happens?”

“Well, I warned you…” Randall muttered, before letting go and violently covering his ears, under the surprised gaze of Mike and Sulley, who didn’t understand what the hell was going on, but they immediately understood as soon as Luna started crying her eyes out, desperate: in fact, the sound of the little monster’s crying was so powerful and piercing that it forced everyone present to quickly cover their ears and shatter all the nearby glass into a thousand pieces!

“Randall, make her stop or turn it down!!! She’s bursting my eardrums!!!” Mike screamed, while Randall, in response, obviously after covering his ears with earmuffs, grabbed his niece’s hand, declaring, as he dragged his still-crying niece away: “She can’t do anything about it! It’s something she inherited from her father and she can’t control it, especially when she’s crying so hard! The only thing we can do right now is get out of here, fast!”

The four monsters quickly moved away from the street where the pandemonium had broken out, and fortunately, as time passed, Luna began to calm down slightly, so much so that, by the time they finally reached the house, she had stopped crying at full volume, even if she was still sobbing.

Seeing her so broken, trying to wipe away her tears with one hand while holding her adoptive uncle's hand with the other, Sulley couldn't help but feel bad for her.

Sure, he realized Luna might not look like a conventional monster... but teasing her so cruelly about something she absolutely couldn't do anything about, considering she was only six years old, was just too much!

Once they got down to the hideout, Randall began checking the pre-cooked food supplies in complete silence, sitting on the couch, while Luna lay down on the couch, silently, right next to him, then looked at her reflection in a small mirror and began trying to make a scary expression and let out a small roar, with little success, while the purple monster tried to console her by gently stroking her hair with one hand.

Seeing that she couldn't be even remotely scary, the little monster sighed and took a Scare Card from inside a book with the image of two monsters, a large and fat gray hairy monster with bizarre curved horns, a wolf-shaped face, with short strands of black hair, except for a tuft on the forehead that had been colored red, a bushy tail, hands with four long claws and red eyes, wearing a black long-sleeved shirt, knuckles resting on his hips and a challenging smile. Next to him was a reptilian monster with the most timid and calm expression, lilac in color and the body of a snake, a cap and short-sleeved shirt both green, four arms with four fingers each, long straight dark purple hair tied in a braid and three green eyes, starting to delicately trace the contours of both of their faces, and then saying, in a sad tone: "We’re scream, we’re special…"

“Listen, little girl… if I were you, I wouldn't think too much about what that monster said…” Mike said to her suddenly and unexpectedly, leaning over the armrest of the sofa. As soon as he had Luna's attention, he continued: “That guy’s a jerk! He’s all wrong!”

Luna remained silent for a second, looking at him, tired and sad, and then declared, in a resigned tone: “You’re right. He’s a jerk… but I’m not so sure he’s wrong…”

After saying that, the little monster looked wistfully at the Scare Card again, and, examining it more closely, Mike exclaimed, stunned, pointing at it: “Hey, that… is the Rookie Card of Noah ‘Indestructible’ Blair, the famous Scarer from Scream Inc., and his assistant! It’s worth a fortune!”

“Are you trying to insult them both, too, Mr. Mike? Because, I warn you, I’m not in the mood…” Luna muttered disconsolately, but the green monster shook his head, scandalized: “Are you kidding?! In principle, I have nothing against the Scarer Assistants, you know, I was one for several years… As for Noah ‘Indestructible’ Blair, he was the only Scarer not from Monsters, Inc. that I liked!”

"Really?" Luna asked in surprise, even Randall turning to look at him, and Mike admitted, “Sure… you know, he was the only Scarer at Scream Industries. Decent, and the only one who, frankly, actually made his company number one for several years, growing a small agency into a sprawling global operation, surpassing the Scarers at Monsters, Inc., FearCo, and Scare Master at just 23 years old! Everywhere he went, he was always the center of attention, not just because of his imposing size, but because of his thick, dark gray fur and even a shock of hair dyed red! He was the first Scarer to become super important and famous, despite having no ties to any prominent Scarer families and without even having attended Monsters University! I was thirteen when it happened… sure, I wish I could have been the first famous Scarer with no connections… but at least someone was able to prove… To those pumped-up fools who thought even a nobody could become great! Oh, he really showed it to those arrogant, self-confident scarers who thought they were someone just because they belonged to a rich family of…”

“Okay, Mike, that’s enough! I think Luna gets the point…” Sulley interrupted him, rather abruptly, as Mike continued: “Sure, I’d have preferred to be the one to do something like that… but that’s okay. To each his own, right? Anyway, he was a good Scarer, even if not on the level of ‘Frightening’ Frank McCay, my favorite Scarer…”

“For me, he's my favorite Scarer. In fact, he's the best Scarer ever! Before then, the Scream Agency only hired reptile monsters, as no other company would hire them due to the strong prejudice against them. But his skills and the fact that he fully understood the discomfort of reptile monsters got him hired, and from that moment on, the Scream Agency also welcomed furry monsters! In a way, he changed things... plus, his Scaring technique was exceptional! Before making his appearance and obtaining the scream, he would create psychological pressure with strange and disturbing noises! Even though his menacing appearance would have been enough to scare the hell out of children, he preferred to exploit the subconscious fear of things that cannot be deciphered and seen, thus generating an even greater fear effect! His scares knew how to combine menacing appearance and intelligence, a truly rare quality! Very few Scarers exploited this element... that's why I admire him so much! One A Scarer who, even though he had the ability, didn't just use the easy way out of a roar, but used his intelligence to create truly exceptional scares! He's my favorite Scarer, along with Uncle Randy!”

"You sure know a thing or two, kid... I never expected to find such a young fan so knowledgeable about Noah 'Indestructible' Blair... You know, ever since the Scarecrows were replaced by the Joksters, no one's interested in the Scarecrows' history anymore, especially one that old... Nowadays, if you mentioned him to an average monster, they'd surely respond with, 'Who is he?’. Only insiders know him anymore... I'm surprised you know him, and more importantly, that you're a fan despite him being from another era... Why do you like him so much?"

"Well, you know... first of all, the fact that he and mama started from scratch to become the top team at the Scream Agency, without the slightest connection, always remaining humble and kind to the outcast monsters, makes him fundamentally exceptional... and then, above all, because..." the little monster revealed, looking excited and smiling hugely, while Mike, stunned, interrupted her: "Huh? Wait... your mother worked with him?"

“Of course! she's here in the Scare Card, see?” Luna nodded, pointing to the purple female monster with the snake's body, astonishing Mike who exclaimed, “What?! Your mother was Noah 'Indestructible' Blair's assistant?!”

“Yeah, that's how they met…”

“I can't believe it… did you know your mother was a living legend among us Scary Assistants?! She was the first assistant ever to appear in a Scare Card as 'Rookie of the Year,' thus giving us assistants more prominence… plus, she was so talented and skilled… record for most cylinder changes, Assistant of the Year for several years in a row… her records and accolades are still intact! It's every Scary Assistant and Jokster's dream to beat them! I, too, dreamed of beating them when I was a Scarer Assistant, but I never managed it for some obscure reason… she and her Scarer were one of the most famous couples in the Scarers world…”

“I know, Uncle Randy told me all about them… they were both only sixteen, but they wanted to make their way with perseverance and honesty in the world of Scarers, so as to make their dreams come true, even though they were far from their childhood homes and their families for the first time, in a big city… they both got hired by the Scream Agency and ended up being paired up! And they've been inseparable ever since!” Luna said, excited, and Mike chuckled, amused: “Hmph… the way you talk about his relationship with your mother, little girl… it seems like Noah 'Indestructible' Blair is your father!”

“Indeed, he is.”

For a few seconds, there was dead silence in the basement before Mike started shouting, shocked: “WHAT?!?! Y-you’re also the daughter of Noah ‘Indestructible’ Blair?!”

“Exactly.” the little monster nodded, and the cyclops monster stammered: “Crazy… are you serious?”

“Of course! I knew my papa, what do you think?!” Luna retorted with an annoyed grimace, while Randall supported her: “Look, she’s serious, Wazowski… in fact, it’s only thanks to me that Luna knows his past… if it were up to the Old Man, she would never have known her father was a famous Scarer!”

“But… wasn’t Noah ‘Indestructible’ Blair from the other side?” Mike asked, stunned, and Luna, confused, repeated: “Other side? Papa came from outside the Bayou! He didn’t belong to any side!”

“Just ignore it, Luna!” Randall snorted, annoyed, glaring at Mike, since he had perfectly understood what the green cyclops was referring to. Sulley took the photo Regina had given him and, after carefully examining the two monsters in the photo, exclaimed: “That’s why I felt like I’d seen this monster before… without his iconic red quiff, I didn’t even recognize him… Years ago, he was very famous, but suddenly, right when we were expelled from Monsters University, Noah ‘Indestructible’ Blair suddenly retired and disappeared from circulation just like his assistant… He quit his job, left Monstropolis, and was never heard from again! Now, almost no one remembers them anymore…”

“Yeah… he retired…” Randall hissed angrily, glaring at Sulley, while the furry monster added, continuing to look at the photo: “Damn, he sure is quite a bit in this photo.” changed since he was the Scarer, except for the red tuft… if you hadn't told me who he was, I never would have recognized him…”

“Oh… don't tell me… you wouldn't recognize a talented, intelligent Scarer, one who works so hard and manages to get what he wants through hard work alone, not by cheating or relying on the help of some rich relative, even if he walked past you with a fluorescent sign! Now you're not the only monster whose father is a legendary Scarer, Sullivan… so you better put your horns down, if you can! Luna's father is a thousand times better than yours!”

“I know… believe me, I know…” Sulley replied, looking away sadly, while Mike continued incredulously: “Wait… did your parents get together after your dad stepped down as Scarer?”

“Yes, approximately…” Luna nodded, while the little cyclops monster pointed out, astonished: “But that was over twenty years ago… and you’re only six years old! That seems like a bit of a long time to be waiting to have a child…”

“They had their reasons for waiting! And you better mind your own business, Wazowski! Luna’s parents aren’t historical figures whose lives you have to study to pass a stupid, pointless exam!” Randall promptly informed him, ferociously pointing the wrench at him, instantly silencing him. He then threw two cans of baked beans at him and rudely revealed, “Here. That’s your and Sullivan’s dinner. Make do with that.”

“How cute… well, let’s eat!” the little monster muttered, throwing himself onto the blue couch, but Randall promptly grabbed him and dumped him rather rudely on the floor.

“Hey, Randall… listen… where can Mike and I sleep for tonight?” Sulley timidly intervened, and Randall immediately got down from the sofa with his newspaper and, as soon as he reached a corner, on the far side of the sofa, he opened it and put it on the floor, then pointed at it angrily, making everything clear without the need for words.

“Yes, well… in my work I often deal with little monsters who belong to the most bizarre families in the most disparate situations… but the story of that little monster was too absurd and alarming not to have me turn to the authorities!” declared the female snail-like monster, while her interlocutor, who was transcribing everything the other had just finished telling, recapped, with absolute calm: “So, the little girl entered the bookshop completely alone?”

“Yes… she must have been between six and eight years old.”

“Ah-ha… but, she didn't seem scared or nervous?”

“At first, yes, a little, but as soon as she saw the books, she immediately calmed down. It was as if she were perfectly comfortable alone, among books rather than with people!”

“And she didn't seem tense even when she was talking about her uncle?”

“On the contrary! She seemed to consider him the perfect parenting model!”

“Hmm… interesting…”

“I left her alone in that chair there for a few minutes so I could call social services and let them know about the situation, but when I came back, she was gone!”

“I see…”

“What do you think of the situation?”

“I’m just a social worker, ma’am… but it seems that the little girl, despite everything, lives in a safe and healthy environment. She probably just left the house for a moment to visit the bookstore without telling her uncle, like some kind of childish prank… However, I can’t ignore the fact that she doesn’t go to school and that her uncle doesn’t work, not to mention the fact that the records don’t show the adoption was legal. Therefore, I will immediately contact both of them to assess the situation from all angles and take the necessary measures… The only thing I can hope for is that the situation can still be saved,” declared the female monster with the glasses and bizarre hairstyle, as she slowly headed towards the bookstore exit.