Sullivan practically kicked the double doors down.

When he stepped into the dark room, the first thing he saw was the orange light at the opposite end of the room.

There, lying curled up on the floor, against the wall, below the strung cuffs and chains, was the human girl.

Oh no.

He charged through the darkness. "Are you alright?" he called to her.

She lifted her head up, hazily searching the darkness. "Hello?"

Sullivan skidded out of the shadows and fell to his knees beside her. "Hey, hey, look at me. Look at me kid," he urgently spat out, unsure of what to do. "It's going to be okay, kid. It's going to be oh--"

"Ki... Kitty?" She stared wide eyed at him from the concrete.

He stopped, his heart dropping to the pit of his stomach. "What?"

"Are you Kitty?" she whispered, her throat hoarse with phlegm.

He was overwhelmed with tears, his heart skidding. He sucked in a breath. No, it's not Boo. It was never Boo. Boo is--

"Kitty?"

He froze.

"Kitty? Are you Kitty?"

Sulley looked deep into her earthy brown and sky pink eyes.

It is her.

It IS her!

"Boo!" He wept with joy, taking the limp girl up in his arms. He hugged her so tight, he might have squeezed the life out of her.

He never wanted to her let go.

"Hello there...?" her voice scratched.

He set her back down. "But how?! You're, you're—"

He followed her eyes as they fell over his shoulder.

She screamed.

Thud.

* * *

I sat up on the floor, my head drooping, helpless to do anything but shiver and watch as my captor cuffed the unconscious blue monster to the chains I had been previously trapped in.

Kitty.

I was quite surprised at myself. Why hadn't it clicked with me before when I saw him from the man hole?

He was exactly as the drawing had entailed. Blue, hairy, purple spots...

Though I was not expecting the hug.

Or the bawling.

Or the--

What the heck had happened?

The purple lizard got on a step ladder and replaced the dying orange bulb with a pearly white new one, adding another ten feet to my vision and giving me a new clarity in my mind.

But even with this new vision, I was incapable of fleeing from the room and escaping.

My wrists and ankles had been duct taped together.

And even if not, I was too weak to move.

I was too weak to run.

My cold blooded captor's chains had done his dirty work.

I coughed, feeling like wet concrete had been laid on top of my chest.

Forget pain. Pain is nothing. Pain is only pain. But I cannot describe how incredibly disgusting and uncomfortable I felt. I'd been walking around in my pajamas for the past two, three days, surrounded by strangers, my clothes soaked with sweat. I was hot and sticky, yet at the same time numb, chilled to the bone. My teeth were chattering, my legs were shaking, my knees were knocking...

Forget being stretched like a star and pulled apart. No showers for days is the real torture here.

Only after the purple lizard disappeared into the darkness with the step ladder did the blue creature, Kitty, wake up.

"Boo," he whispered. He looked at the cuffs on his wrist, and struggled against them. "Who did this?" He looked down at the duct tape wrapped around my wrists and ankles. "Who did this to you? Who?!"

And ugh, soooo dramatic. My reptilian captor appeared from thin air on cue.

"Who else, Sullivan?"

"Sullivan?" I asked, wiping my dripping forehead with the back of my tied hands. My ears rang.

"Randall!" Sullivan exploded with fury, fighting the cuffs with every limb. "It's you!"

"How has life been, Sullivan?"

"We banished you!"

"Exactly." Randall exploded with rage. "For TEN YEARS!"

Randall walked up to Sullivan and slapped his face.

Sullivan tried to clamp down on Randall's hand like a snapping, rabid dog, barely missing his fingers.

"Ten years, Sullivan!" Randall turned away. "Ten years I was left to rot with the humans, living off the land like a wild animal!"

He circled around me. "Luckily, snot nose over here—"

"Hey!"

"—isn't the only one who figured out how to get back here."

Randall glared at Sullivan. "For months I camped in a stupid kid's bedroom, waiting for that closet door to one day open from the other side." He towered over me. "After that, it was just a matter of planning and perfecting revenge."

"Cliche much?" I chimed in.

"Don't you dare touch her!" Sullivan growled and snarled, snapping his fangs, still fighting against his cuffs like a deranged animal.

"Oh, I didn't even plan you!" He held my chin up. I shuddered with fever, and creepiness. "You were icing on the cake!" He let go of my chin, letting me cough, hacking up more phlegm. He looked back up at Sullivan, rubbing two of his fingers together in disgust from touching me. "You see, Sullivan, the only dilemma that there's been for me for the last three years is how, exactly, to lure you down here."

"Son of a biscuit," I uttered, in awe of the brilliance of his plan.

Hey, I can appreciate elaborate and well executed schemes.

He grabbed my hair, yanking my head up. "Thanks to blisters over here--"

Blisters?

I looked down at myself.

He was right. Red scabbing blisters crawled up and all over my body.

That's not part of pneumonia...

Is it?

"--I was able to set up the perfect trap." He pulled my head up by my hair, and then threw me down. "Thanks for the screaming."

I groaned in pain.

"How dare you," Sullivan seethed.

"Oh, but the fun hasn't even begun--" Screeching and metal collapsing ran in the air.

"Stupid engine," he muttered to himself, turning away to find the problem.

Now alone in the light with the blue creature, I ached with guilt.

Why?

Why did I have to give in?

Why did I have to scream.

Why did I make him come down here.

Now we're both trapped in this.

Never get help. Never ever get—

"Who is he?" I asked, coughing. "Why is he doing this? And who, who are you? Kitty? Sullivan or whatever. Wait, so who's Mike Wazowski?"

Sullivan stared back at me, flabbergasted. "You don't remember?"

"Uh, nope. No I don't." I coughed, heaving for breath. "I don't remember anything. Nothing at all. That's the entire reason I'm here." I looked up at him. "Please. Please tell me. What happened? To me? Why is he torturing us? And on top of that, why are monsters afraid of humans? And..."

My eyes closed.

"Why, why did you leave me?"

Sullivan caught his breath at my last words.

He exhaled. "Well, uh..."

I leaned forward in anticipation.

I was ready to hear everything.

Everything.

* * *

"Ok, let me get this straight," I said, processing everything I had just heard. "So thirteen years ago, I was kidnapped for my screams that would produce energy, and you and Mike Wazowski rescued me and returned me to my closet, destroying Randall in the process."

"Basically."

"And monsters are afraid of human children because apparently they're toxic."

"That's a myth people still believe."

"And since my time with you, your company has developed a way to harvest human laughter for energy as an alternative to scare power."

"Yup. Because of your laughter, we had been able to activate all doors in the warehouse, which in turn opened our eyes to new possibilities."

"Ok, calm down. You're not some freakishly chipper pamphlet for your company to lure in unsuspecting interns. I can see dead through that. You have obviously been working too hard for too long for you to answer so robotically."

He didn't answer me.

I continued. "But thank you. That's weird, like, really weird, milking children for their laughter like lactating cows, but at least now that's clear in my mind. But..."

My fists curled. I glared up at him.

"But what I don't understand is why after all these years, only now when I'm driven to madness trying to find you—to find answers-- do you come back in my life." I struggled to keep my voice from cracking.

"I know. I know."

"Why? Why did you walk out of my life like that? And so early on? Never hearing from you again? Leaving me alone in this world to fend for myself? Didn't you care? Didn't you care about me? Why didn't you ever come back?"

"Boo--"

"Don't you know what kind of pain has been in my life since you've been gone?"

"Boo--"

"Why?" I leaned back, shaking. "Why did you abandon me?"

"Boo." Sullivan winced. "We thought you were dead."

I pulled away, baffled by his words. "Why would you think that?" I whispered.

He looked up at me from his chains, his eyes red and glistening. "Because we lost you in the fire."