Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Xxx

It was a quiet morning. A few scarers—excuse me—laughers were entering the tall, mighty factory ready to start the day. Some were carrying props while others were already dressed up in silly costumes. It was just another ordinary day of making kids laugh.

A lot of monsters were still getting used to this new change. Some thought that it was abysmal to change centuries upon centuries of tradition and legends, but energy levels were through the roof, so no one was really complaining.

The only other thing that shocked them other than the switch from screams to laughter, was that the change itself, the fact that more monsters had jobs making kids laugh than scream, was all because of a little girl. A sweet innocent little girl. It was because of her curiosity, that she managed to find her way into their world and cause a bunch of ruckus.

The city of Monstropolis was then saved by the now famed duo of James P. Sullivan and Mike Wazowski. Otherwise known as Sulley and Mike. They managed to thwart the evil plans of the greedy miser, Mr. Waternoose, the Monsters Incorporated CEO, and the devious and sneaky Randall Boggs. They had a plan to kidnap as many children as they could and use a machine that they built called The Scream Extractor to literally suck the screams from the kids. But the two best friends managed to save the day in the end and returned the human child, that they now called “Boo”, home safely. Then it was over. Waternoose was arrested however, Boggs was nowhere to be seen. Both Mike and Sulley claimed that they were clueless to the lizard monster’s location, but claimed that he would no longer be an issue. It wasn’t long after that Sulley was made the new CEO of Monsters Incorporated and they discovered that laugh energy was ten times as effective as scream energy, it took a few months, but eventually the company switched over entirely. Energy was finally going up and putting other scare companies, Fear Co. to name one, out of business. The monsters all hated to admit it, but they were actually happier with laugh energy than with scream energy.

It was now about a year and a half since those events occurred. The company was knee deep in success and Mike and Sulley’s worst enemies were gone. Mike had even fixed the door so that he and Sulley could see Boo anytime that they wanted. All was perfect, nothing could go wrong.

Xxx

“Sulley! Sulley wake up!” Mike yelled, trying to wake up his friend. Sulley was still sound asleep in his bed not wanting to get up.

“Five more minutes Mike.” Sulley groaned turning over in his bed,

“No buddy, get up! You’ve got a company to run!” Mike pushed his best friend off of the side of the bed and the large blue monster landed with a hard thud which shook the room and made Mike almost lose his balance.

“What?! What?! I’m up! I’m up!” Sulley yelled springing up startled from the fall. “Time for work buddy!” Mike yelled excitedly grabbing his hand, Sulley stood up and Mike began to drag him out of the room. “There’s kids that we need to make laugh!” Mike said still excited, they entered the dining room and sat down at the table where Mike already had two bowls filled with cereal. “Chocolate Screams” to be exact.

The entire monster world was still getting used to the whole “Changing from screams to laughs” thing. Even though it was almost two years later, people were still having trouble adjusting. But it was worth it so the city could have power, and the fact that they still had Boo made them happy as well. Ever since Mike put her door back together they would visit her every few nights when her parents were asleep and sometimes even during the day when her parents weren’t around.

“Come on big guy we’ve got another big day ahead of us!” Mike said hustling Sulley out the door, they walked down the street to Mike’s car and they both climbed in.

They pulled on their seatbelts. “Mike are sure you can see above the steering wheel?” Sulley asked his best friend,

“What are you talking about of course I can see-.” Mike said, he was cut off when he realized that he couldn’t see above the steering wheel at all. Then he remembered the reason he bought this specific car in the first place. He reached over and pulled a pump lever that was on the right side of his seat and pumped it and it raised his car seat until he could see above the steering wheel so he could drive.

“Seat height adjustment, very nice.” Sulley complimented,

“I know.” Mike said proudly, “Now let’s go make little kids laugh.” He then shifted the gears into drive and put his foot on the pedal and off they went.

Xxx

After about five minutes they arrived at the newly converted factory. It has changed within the past few years or so. However, the only difference was the children and the monsters were both having fun with their jobs. The kids didn’t have to be scared anymore, they could just laugh at the monsters. The monsters felt like they didn’t have to do something so serious anymore. Finally they were able to loosen up and have fun with their job and actually enjoy what they were doing. As it turns out, Making kids laugh was more fun to the monsters than scaring them.

Two female monsters approached the large factory with its peaceful morning charm still intact.
"Here we are, this is the place." One of them was a ghost with long silvery white hair floating on her back. Her eyes a warm hazel and her face pale like a porcelain doll. Her clothes were a pink tank top, a jean jacket, and short jean capris with dark blue flats.

"This is Monsters Incorporated? We came all the way from Transylvania for this?!" The other one complained, her skin was pale as well but not as pale as the ghost's. She had black hair that went down to her shoulders and her eyes were a blood red. She had tiny fangs sticking out of her mouth. It was obvious she was a vampire. She was clad in a Black tank top and leather jacket with leather pants and boots to match.

"Hey, it was your idea for us to go out on our own! It was your idea to leave Transylvania! It was YOUR idea to move to a different city full of different monsters! So I don't wanna hear your complaining anymore, Valentine!" The ghost girl scolded,

"Okay. Sorry, Maggie." The young vampire apologized, "I just hope that this whole trip from Transylvania was worth it. It was a pretty expensive trip for our parents to pay for along with our apartment. If this job doesn't work out, they'll be pissed."

"It'll be fine. You wanted your vampire abilities to be worth something and I wanted my ghost abilities to be worth something. Now's our chance." The ghost girl encouraged, she took the young vampire's' hand. "Let's go."

Xxx

Both Mike and Sulley walked in through the glass doors. The main lobby was still the same as it was before. Monsters were walking around getting ready to go do their jobs and Sulley was amazed at how many new recruits they have gotten since they switched to laughter. Just a few years ago they were terrifying children for Waternoose’s sick purposes. But now, with Sulley as the new CEO, everything has been running smoothly and the city’s power levels were through the roof. While Sulley was admiring how much things have changed Mike only had his one eye on one thing. Celia.

She was over at the receptionist desk typing on the computer. When she saw the two monsters walk up to her, her face displayed a huge smile.

"Googlie Bear!" Celia chimed happily,

"Schmoopsie Poo!" Mike chimed back, she reached over the desk and pulled Mike into a kiss. When they broke apart Mike said, "Today's a special day you know."

"Oh? and why is that?" Celia asked,

"Today is the five year anniversary of when we first met!" Mike said sighing from being in love,

"Oh Googlie Bear!" Celia squealed, she grabbed Mike and kissed him again. Sulley could not bear the sight of all of this romance junk so he looked away. Mike and Sulley then began to walk away.

“Okay, I’ll pick you up after quitting time so we can get an early start.” Mike said,

“Okay Googlie Bear, just make sure Sulley Wulley doesn’t let any kids in again.” She giggled, her snakes squeaked in amusement as well.

Sulley just chuckled and gave her a wave and said, “Don’t worry, the only human that we see is Boo and we don’t let her in much.”

“Ok, that’s good.” Celia said, she leaned over the desk and waved goodbye to the two monsters. “I’ll see you later, sweetie!” She called out to Mike,

The little green eyeball waved back to his beloved until he turned to talk to his buddy again.

“You know where I’m taking her this time?” Mike asked,

“No, where?” Sulley asked,

“I’m taking her to the movies tonight and then a romantic picnic in the park.” replied the little green monster,

“Ooh, very nice.” Sulley said,

“Yeah, and this time, I will not let anything ruin it-Yagh!” Mike screamed, for he saw before him the horrible ugly face of Roz.

“Good morning Wazowski. Sullivan.” She said in her natural bored voice,

“Good morning, Roz. How’s the laugh floor doing this morning?” Sulley asked,

“Pretty good.” She replied looking over the day’s progress on her clipboard.

"Oh yes, Sullivan? One more thing." Roz said boredly,

"Yes?" Sulley said now composed.

"You have two new employees who have applied to work here." Roz explained.

Suddenly two females came out from behind Roz. One was a young ghost, the other was a young vampire. Mike and Sulley just gawked at the two monsters. They had heard the rumors of the "Other type" of monsters that existed besides them. The ones that were like Dracula or the Werewolf or the Boogie Man. Ones that were not mutated like they were. Ones that looked sort of human. Minus the vampire fangs and the ghostly features, they looked like actual people.

"Hi, I'm Magdalena." The ghost said, holding out her hand with a smile. Sulley hesitantly took her hand and shook it trying to be polite as possible. He was surprised when he took her hand and shook it. From what he heard, ghosts' could usually go straight through things. But her hand was as real and plain as day. Then the vampire stepped forward and shook Sulley's hand.

"What's up? I'm Valentine. My parents own one of the most profitable blood banks in all of Transylvania." The young vampire smiled, showing her fangs. Seeing those fangs made Mike step back a few feet.

After a moment of taking this all in, Sulley cleared his throat and spoke up.

"Nice to meet you ladies. I am James P. Sullivan, CEO of Monsters Incorporated." Then he gestured to Mike. "And this is my best friend Mike Wazowski, he's the top laugher here at Monsters Inc." "Hi there!" Mike said, cheerfully.

"Wait, Top Laugher?" Valentine said confused, "We came here for Scaring jobs."

"Oh I guess you all missed the memo back in Transylvania. A few years ago we converted to laugh energy." Sulley explained.

"Oh." Both female monsters said, together.

"But we can still try to get you each a job." Sulley said, with a smile.

"Fair enough." Valentine said, folding her arms.

"Alright then, meet me in my office and we can discuss your qualities.” He gestured towards one of the hallways and he started walking away. Both monster girls followed.

They went down the hall and up a few flights of stairs. It wasn’t long before the three of them finally reached the office. It was a little cramped for Sulley due to his size, but it wasn’t all that bad. He gestured for them to have a seat in the chairs in front of them. They sat down.

Sulley tapped a stack of papers on the desk to straighten them out before speaking. “Okay, so the two of you are looking to apply here at Monsters Incorporated…” He said,

Maggie nodded. “Yes.” She said shyly,

“Okay. Names?” Sulley asked them,

“Valentine Bourignon.” Valentine said,

“Magdalena Frost.” Maggie answered as well,

Sulley jotted that information down. “Very good. Okay, so you two are from…?”

“We’re from Transylvania…” Valentine replied,

“Okay. Ages?” Sulley continued,

“28.” Maggie answered,

“228.” Valentine told him,

Sulley was taken aback a bit by Valentine’s age. Then he remembered that she was a vampire. They were immortal.

He wrote that down and continued on with the questions. “Alright then. So uh, you guys said that you were interested in working close to the action. Am I right?”

“Yes, we would like that very much,” Magdalena nodded, she then handed Sulley a piece of paper. “Here’s my resume.”

Valentine then handed him hers as well. “And here’s mine…”

Sulley looked over both resumes carefully. He was actually quite impressed. Both girls had a good set of skills and talents. He then pulled out a list of positions that they had open that would match their skills. After a few minutes of looking, he saw only two openings.

He looked back up at them. “Miss Valentine...you will be working with Roz in the back office. Miss Magdalena-."

"Please, just Maggie is alright Mr. Sullivan." Maggie assured him with a wave of her hand,

"Oh, Mr. Sullivan is my dad. Just call me Sulley." Sulley assured her back, "You will be working with Celia at the receptionist desk." Sulley finished cheerfully.
"Well we were hoping for jobs that were more on the Scare⏤Laugh Floor." Valentine explained. “Even if you guys switched over to laugh energy, I think some of our skills still meet those standards.”

"Well we would offer you two assistant jobs but I'm afraid that those positions are already filled. I'm sorry." Sulley said apologetically,

"No no, that's fine." Maggie assured him again.

"Okay then." Sulley said brightening up. "If you need anything, just let me know."

"Okay, thank you, Sulley." Maggie smiled,

“Yeah, thanks, Sulley.” Valentine beamed,

Xxx

"Welcome to the team!" Celia said, shaking Maggie’s hand almost obnoxiously.

The pretty ghost politely snatched her hand back from her. "Glad to be here." Maggie said, laughing awkwardly,

“This seems like it’s going to be a pretty cool job, Mags.” Valentine told her leaning against the desk,

"Here, let me show you the ropes." Celia said, showing her the many machines and new forms of technology that rested on and beneath the large desk.

Just then, Roz slithered past Valentine grabbing her arm and dragging her along with her. "Come with me." Roz said in her bored scratchy voice.

The rest of the week was rough for Maggie and Valentine! Maggie had to listen to her new co-worker bending her ear talking about certain jobs she had to do and about her own personal life in general.

"So, like, Michael said we were going on the roller coaster. It was really scary, and when we got off Michael completely tossed his cookies." Celia explained.

"Wow, that's some story, Celia." Maggie said, trying not to sound rude.

Meanwhile, Roz was giving Valentine a hard time with her job.

"So, I just give the assistants their paperwork? That's it?" Valentine asked, Roz had her face hidden behind a newspaper trying her best to avoid eye-contact with the young vampire.

"Only if they've turned it in the night before." Roz said, not even looking up from her paper.

"Ugh." Valentine grumbled to herself while slipping the monster assistant known as Waxford a file for his partner.

Both female monsters were finally relieved when Friday came. When they got back to their apartment, they were tired. They stepped into the small, two-bedroom apartment looking like they were ready to collapse. Maggie walked over to the phone and picked up the receiver and dialed her mom's number while Valentine went to the bathroom to take a shower. After a few rings, her mom finally picked up.

"Hi honey, how are things in Monstropolis?" Her mother asked cheerfully,

"It's okay, mom. Our jobs are okay." Maggie explained,

"That's good. Just remember that if you ever need to, just come home." Her mother told her.

“Don’t worry, mom. Val and I are going to be alright. We even met some nice new people already.” Maggie assured her,

“Oh sweetie, your father and I are so proud of you. Make sure you remember to floss.” Her mother said,
“Ugh, okay mom. I’m not a child.” Maggie groaned in embarrassment.

“And remember to call every few days.”

"Yeah mom, okay, love you, bye." Maggie said, finally hanging up. She heard Valentine close her bedroom door and then Maggie went to take her shower and go to bed. As she slipped under the nice cold covers, she began to forget all of the stress from the workday she had. Valentine floated on her mattress and dreamed sweet dreams of blood and hunting down animals. As they both drifted off to sleep. They both hoped that this decision that they made would better their lives and make them both happier to live.

But they didn't know what was in store for them.

Chapter Text

Xxx

It was late Sunday night at Monsters Incorporated. A lot of monsters had spent the day and evening going through the doors and doing their usual comedic routines. Even though most of the monsters worked during the week, some of them also volunteered to work on the weekends as well as the night shifts so that they would never run short of power. Some employees, including Sulley, thought this was a little overkill, but the monsters who volunteered seemed happy to do it and it was better safe than sorry.

A couple of the monsters working this night came out of their doors. The echoing of their kids’ laughs echoed through the Laugh Floor along with all the others. It was a very nice sound to hear.

They all smiled up at the scoreboard. Their numbers had gone up a bit.

“Wow! Look at those sweet numbers! We’re doing great!” One of them exclaimed, this monster was tall and chubby with bright green fur, three eyes, and a short stubby tail. In his hand he held a pie that was smashed up for the rest of it was on his face.

“Yeah! We’ll have the all time laugh record any day now!” Another monster said excitedly, this one was about Mike’s height except he had fiery red skin with three long tails and spikes going down his back kind of like Sulley. He was bearing some funny masks.

The third monster turned to them. He looked a lot like a giant slug like Roz only his skin was a light blue and had three horns on his head. He carried a boombox. “Guys, there’s no way we could ever get the all time laugh record. Don’t you remember who holds it right now?” He told them,

The two other monsters had blank stares.

The slug monster sighed. “Mike Wazowski holds the record.”

“Oh.” They both said together,

“So?” The furry monster said confused,

“And there’s no way we’d ever beat him. He’s a natural!” He exclaimed,

“Yeah, that's true. But hey, one can dream, right?” The little monster shrugged,

Right on cue, their new doors showed up. They got ready to do their routines once again. The giant slug monster went and opened his door. The moment he opened the door however, something felt...wrong...He ignored it and performed his act where he played rap music from his boombox and he tried to breakdance. The joke was that he couldn’t do it with no feet. But as he was making the kid laugh, the weird feeling wouldn’t go away. He had the oddest feeling that he was being watched.

He finished his act leaving the kid in stitches. His worries had ceased a little. But as he closed the door, he felt a cold draft waft by him. He was taken aback by it but shook it off. He headed back to his station to check up with his assistant on his progress. It was about a half hour before dawn. The night shift was pretty much over.

“Alright people, all doors are to be returned. NO EXCEPTIONS.” The speaker for the Laugh Floor announced. All the doors were then lifted up and sent back. The Laughers and their assistants proceeded to gather up their things and head out of the Laugh Floor.

The speaker for the Laugh Floor was the last to leave. Just as she was leaving however, she swore that she saw a moving shadow out of the corner of her eye.

The lady monster blinked and the shadow was gone. She shrugged it off. “Eh, I must be tired.” She grumbled as she left,

Xxx

Sulley walked into the building the next morning and saw everything was going smoothly. He then looked around wondering where Mike was. The little green eyeball was not at home that morning when he woke up. He remembered that he went out with Celia the night before. He joked with Sulley telling him to not "wait up" for him. Sulley just laughed.

"Hm. Now where did that little green friend of mine go?" Sulley asked himself.

He continued further into the lobby and his eyes panned around the large crowded room hoping that he would find his little eyeball of a friend. He looked over at the receptionist desk where Maggie was working with Celia and Valentine was there giving Celia paperwork.

He walked over. “Hey guys, have you seen Mike around? It’s not like him to miss work.” Sulley asked,

“Sorry Sulley, I haven’t.” Maggie frowned shaking her head and shrugging.

“Nope. Sorry big guy.” Valentine said, folding her arms and leaning against the desk.

“I believe that last time I saw Googlie Wooglie was last night, when he dropped me off at home.” Celia explained, suddenly, they heard someone breathing heavily. That’s when they all saw Mike run up to them wearing a worried expression.

“Mike, where were you?” Sulley asked wide-eyed,

“Yeah.” Maggie added on.

Celia was the first to notice Mike’s look of fear. “Googlie Bear, are you alright?”

“Yeah, what’s wrong with you man, you look like you've seen a ghost.” Valentine commented, which earned her a dirty look from Maggie. “No offense, Maggie.” She said ashamed,

“Non taken.” Maggie said, still slightly offended.

Mike was still panting and wheezing and he had his hands resting on his knee caps while he was struggling to catch his breath. Finally he spoke.

“I-I was in the locker room, okay? I wanted to get an earlier start today. So I was going through my locker trying to gather my things and then...” He trailed off.

Sulley motioned for him to continue. “Go on, Mike…”

“And-and I had the weirdest feeling that someone else was around even though I was the only one in there…”

Sulley, Celia, Maggie, and Valentine all looked at each other and then back at their friend.

“Michael, are you sure that you weren’t just imagining things?” Celia asked her boyfriend,

“I thought I was at first, but then I swear I saw a shadow run across the ceiling!” Mike exclaimed,

The large blue behemoth just smiled warmly and tried to calm his shaking friend.

“Mike, come on, I’m sure that it was all in your head. There’s no one that’s going to hurt us. Both Waternoose and Randall are gone.”

"Wait a minute, hold the phone," Valentine said, cutting in, “Who's Randall?" Both she and Maggie knew who Mr. Waternoose was. People in the factory still talked about him and when they questioned them about who he was, they explained the whole story to them. But they had never once heard of anyone named Randall.

"He was Mike's old college roomie. They were best friends at first but they sadly grew apart because of popularity and became rivals." Sulley explained. "Then years later the three of us met again here when he first applied for a job."

"Then a few years ago because of him, Sulley let in a human girl and she caused us a whole lot of trouble." Mike continued on.

"Aren't human children supposed to be toxic? We were taught that back in Transylvania as well." Maggie explained,

"We thought so too. But then we discovered that human children aren't toxic after all, but still kept the rumor around to keep the company in business." Mike explained.

"But...what happened to Randall?" Maggie asked,

"Well, the reason he had her door out in the first place was because he was trying to use her for a machine that the old CEO made him build. Luckily we managed to save Boo, that's what we called the human girl, and banished Randall to the human world." Mike finished.

When the two monsters were finished telling their tale, Maggie and Valentine had their eyes wide and their jaws dropped. Even Celia was in shock too. She heard the story and she knew what Randall tried to do but she never heard about what happened to him.

"But..if his boss told him to build the machine, then doesn't that make him innocent?" Maggie asked,

"No it doesn't." Mike answered, "He built the machine with his own four hands. He went along with it." Mike explained.

"What if he had no choice?" Maggie asked him, "What if Waternoose or whatever his name is threatened to fire him if he didn't comply. If that's the case then Waternoose should be taking the fall."

"She's got a point." Valentine agreed, pointing to Maggie.

Mike looked up at his best friend. Sulley shrugged down at him. "They're right."

"Sulley...you can't be serious..." Mike said, in complete shock. "He tried to murder us!"

"But it's true, Mike. He was probably tricked by Waternoose into building the machine and Waternoose intended for Randall to take the blame and he was wrongfully banished and he could possibly be dead and it's all our fault!"

Mike just stood there speechless. He couldn't believe that Sulley was actually siding with their MORTAL ENEMY!!!

"Fine! Maybe he is innocent! I don't know! But I still don’t forgive him." Mike grumbled, folding his arms, “Ah well, I guess it doesn’t matter. We banished him and we haven’t heard from him since. So we’re safe, and Boo’s safe too. That’s all that matters.”

Little did they know, that someone or something was watching from the shadows of one of the corridors.

But their conversation was interrupted by the sound of the bell.

“Oh man, I gotta go! There are kids that I need to amuse.” Mike said, and with that he left.

“Yeah, see you later.” Valentine said walking off as well. After that, Sulley left too and both Maggie and Celia got to work. The shadow watching them from the corridor ran down the way to the Laugh Floor. They knew that it was best to stay hidden in the shadows for their appearance would most likely arouse panic. They passed by the pickup office where he saw Valentine giving out paperwork and being very nice to the assistants. On the wall next to the office window, there was a poster hung up. Not just any poster…

...A wanted poster…

A familiar purple scaled face was plastered onto it. The words above the picture said: “WANTED, DEAD OR ALIVE”. Below it said the convict’s name. “Randall Boggs”. Then the crimes that he was charged with were written beneath that. The creature felt a sickening feeling come up in their stomach and just continued on. When they reach the Laugh Floor, they proceeded to look around. The being’s eyes looked all around the room until they caught sight of one particular monster.

Mike.

Mike was now with his assistant at his station about to head into another door.

‘He’s scaring on the Scare Floor now?’ The figure thought to themselves,

The unknown figure just continued to watch Mike along with the rest of the Laughers do their jobs. While they observed, they realized that something was not right. The Scare Floor seemed...brighter, and the monsters looked sort of..different. Some of them were in costume, others were bearing props. The moment that he heard laughs ring throughout the room, it all suddenly came together.

“What!? They’re making kids LAUGH now!?” He whispered in disbelief, he then shook his head sighing. “You miss a few years and everything changes…”

The figure continued to watch everyone for a bit. But after awhile, he was snapped out of his thoughts when he saw another familiar figure walk into the Laugh Floor.

He was in disbelief once again. ‘...Sullivan?’

Sulley walked over to Mike’s station. After a few minutes, Mike came out of his door, the kid in the room was laughing really hard from his stand-up routine. The energy levels filled up the canister attached to his door. His assistant took away the canister and summoned the next door. They both looked up at scoreboard. Mike’s numbers went up incredibly.

Mike high-fived his assistant and then noticed his buddy standing there smiling.

“Oh! Hey, Sul!” He said walking over to him, he looked a lot happier.

“Hey Mike. You feeling better?” Sulley asked him,

“Oh yeah, a lot better. I think entertaining a few kids was just what the doctor ordered.” He replied, “I think I was just being silly earlier. I mean, I don’t think Randall could ever come back, right?”

“Yeah.” Sulley smiled,

The figure was taken aback. “...They’re talking about me…?”

“Yeah! Like Randall would ever be smart enough to find a way back here!” Mike joked, he then proceeded to laugh.

Sulley thought that his buddy was taking it a tad too far, but decided to laugh uncomfortably anyway.

Randall snarled. “They wanna make fun of me!? They don’t know who they’re dealing with!” Before anyone could notice, the invisible lizard monster went back down the corridor and reentered the lobby. He stayed blended in with the light blue walls so that he wouldn’t be seen. His eyes then noticed an unfamiliar figure working at the receptionist’s desk. It was Maggie. He noticed her and someone else like her talking to Mike and Sulley earlier. This baffled him. He had never seen this girl around before, especially not doing Celia’s job. The only explanation he could think of was that she was new. But there was also something else about her. He squinted trying to get a better picture. She was obviously not like the other monsters, that other female monster from earlier looked like that too.

“Wait a minute...she’s a ghost?” He thought in amazement, he wondered if she was one of those types of “old school monsters’ that he had always heard about. He had never seen one up close, well, now was his chance. He made a dashing leap off the wall and went to the other side of the room and allowed his eyes to be visible but only briefly.

Maggie was now on a phone call for Celia while she was in the bathroom.

Randall just observed her. She mostly had a human-like appearance, the only real difference was that she was almost see through.

Monsters like her and her friend were of an “unknown quantity” here. Some were okay with them and thought they were just like them despite their different features. While others despised them, and thought that they were just as disgusting and vile as humans.

Randall himself was never quite sure what he thought of them, nor did he really care. He was just really curious to see an “old school monster” up close. But besides that, he didn’t really want anything more to do with her.

The lizard monster then looked up at the clock and noticed that the lunch whistle was going to blow in a few minutes. He knew it would be best to leave the factory before all the monsters would come out so he wouldn’t risk getting caught.

“Yeah, yeah. Well, I’m sorry to tell you that Mr. Crinkclaw is no longer with us…” She told the monster on the phone. “No, he transferred over to Laugh Industries. No sir, it’s Scream Industries, but they changed the name...uh huh...mhm...yeah…Well if you want, I can give you his new office phone number. Okay it’s--.” It was then that she looked up and saw bright green eyes looking at her from across the room. Her hazel eyes widened and she immediately froze. The eyes just continued to stare at her intensely. Maggie could only stare right back at him terrified. They were the only monsters in the lobby besides those two goofy janitors, Smitty and Needleman, but they were too busy working while Needleman was once again ranting about his mom and how she sent him to his room.

Maggie continued to gawk at the “floating” eyes. She then blinked and just like that, they were gone.

She completely forgot that she was on a phone call. The monster on the other end of the line was asking her if she was still there. She snapped out of it and continued the phone call.

“Huh!? Oh-Oh! Er--yeah, I’m-I’m still here.” She said to the one calling, the lovely ghost struggled so desperately to shake off that odd experience and just go back to doing her job. She looked up the phone number that she was looking for and gave it to the one calling. She hung up the phone and tried to process what had happened. Was she crazy or did she see a pair of bright green eyes floating in mid-air? Maggie wasn’t sure if she was imagining things, or she was just tired. All she wanted was to just get back to work.

Maggie was extremely relieved when Celia finally came back.

“I’m back! Thanks for covering for me.” She thanked Maggie gratefully,

“Yeah, no problem.” Maggie replied nervously, she still couldn’t get the image of those floating eyes out of her head. She decided to not say anything about it.

Xxx

Randall managed to slip out of the factory before anyone else noticed him. He wandered the streets using the walls of buildings as camouflage. Once his place came into view, he felt a wave of relief wash over him. He climbed the brick wall to his window and slipped it open before slithering through. Once he was inside, he closed the window behind him and pulled down the blinds. Randall then looked around.

His apartment was a complete mess. There were crumbs all over the living room floor, the sink was filled with dirty dishes including old mugs of coffee that never got washed out, there was a bad stench in the air, and both the kitchen table and counters were littered with newspapers and magazines that were way out of date with opened boxes of takeout food that had long since gone bad.

He wasn’t at all appalled by the condition of his apartment. He had left it that way. The day the kid got out, he headed to work that morning thinking that he would come home and clean the after he tested the Scream Extractor on the kid. But then the kid got loose, and instead, he spent the whole night out searching for her. The very next day he was banished. He only assumed that after his disappearance, his apartment was condemned and locked up. He was lucky to get back in there. He was actually surprised that someone else hadn’t already moved in. But then again, seeing the current state of the apartment might have been a large contributing factor.

The lizard monster began to walk around the place feeling slightly uncomfortable of his surroundings. It really wasn’t all that bad, a little cleaning and it would be good as new.

“Well, it’s not perfect...but it’s home…” He said to himself, it actually felt good to be home again. After spending a few years in the swamp, he was glad to finally have a roof over his head and an actual bed to sleep in. It sure beat sleeping on the ground and out in the cold and rain.

Randall decided to get to work and started fixing up the place. As he cleaned, however, he couldn’t help but let his mind wander to Mike and Sullivan.

He was still pretty upset at them for what they did. First they were beating him down everyday work by constantly one-upping him at scaring, then Sullivan let that kid out bringing a whole bunch of chaos along with it, then Sullivan destroyed the machine that he had spent two years painstakingly building for Waternoose’s evil greedy motives without even a second thought. Then that kid beat him over the head with a baseball bat, and then they banished him to the human world where they left him to beaten over the head with a shovel by a crazy Cajun woman.

During his time in the human world Randall’s hatred for them had mellowed a bit. He no longer wanted revenge on them for what they did, but that didn’t mean that he was ready to forgive them. As far as he was concerned, he wanted nothing more to do with them. The thing that ticked him off most was that they destroyed the only way to revolutionize the scaring industry and in the end they still came out on top. Now Sullivan was the CEO and Wazowski was the top Laugher.

That was another thing that bothered him. The fact that the monsters were now making kids laugh. To Randall, it just seemed...wrong.

Monsters were born to scare. It had been that way for centuries, maybe for even millennia, and to see that all change from making them scream to making them laugh just felt so unethical and strange. The lizard monster could not believe that everyone at Monsters Incorporated was okay with this. That they were alright with going out there and making themselves look like fools.

“They’d better not expect me to take that job,” Randall snarled as he wiped down the countertops, “Unlike some monsters, I have my dignity to uphold!”

He then gazed at his reflection in the newly washed counter. He didn’t look too different since he was banished. The only real difference was the long scar that ran down the right side of his face. It started right above his eye and stopped under his jaw. He knew what it was from. It was from that night that he was hit with the shovel. That crazy woman hit him over the head THREE times, and once on the leg. Thankfully both his leg and the gash in his head healed, but the scar remained. Randall hated it, for it served as a reminder of that night. Plus it made him look hideous.

“Well, I guess I still have my personality.” He sulked,

Randall couldn’t help but hope that eventually he would be accepted into society again, if anybody even wanted him that is. He decided that if he was going to live in this world again, then he would have to prove to everyone that he’s changed. It wasn’t going to be easy, but he was willing to at least give it a shot.

...After all, what did he have to lose...?