A Monstrous Mistake

Chapter 7: Caught in the Act

"This is going to take forever." Luca muttered as he kept climbing the doors after Alberto. They must have been searching for an hour. Still no pink door with star stickers. 

"We'll find it, we just have to keep looking." Alberto looked determined, but Luca didn't know if his friend truly felt that way or was just being stubborn. He knew that he could be both. 

They kept searching in silence. Luca had almost given up when Alberto laughed. "It's here! Come on, I think this is it!" 

Luca got his second wind and climbed the doors as fast as he could (which still wasn't very fast, given his cautious nature). By the time he got to Alberto's door, he saw his friend frowning. 

"I was wrong. This isn't the right door." 

Luca gave it a closer look. It was the same shade of bright pink as Francesca's closet door, but there weren't any star stickers. Luca tried not to feel frustrated. 

"I'm sorry." He looked up. Alberto was looking at the floor (which was a good several kilos beneath them), an unreadable expression on his face.

"For what?"

"I'm the one who suggested that we trap the monster in Francesca's room. I'm the one that got us stuck here. We'd just gotten back together and...and I messed everything up."

"Don't say that. You just wanted to help Francesca. Because you're a good friend. Better than me."

"What? You're a good friend; you're my best friend! Why would you say that."

"Because--Because I left you." Luca's guilt resurfaced, and he struggled to choke back tears. "I told you that I wasn't going to leave you behind, and then I left you for nine months just so I could go to school. I left you alone. Again." 

"Luca." He lifted his head, a tear sliding involuntarily down his cheek, to look at Alberto. "Do you remember what I told you my life was like before I met you? I spent all my time alone, looking for garbage that humans dropped. Then you came along. Now I'm with Massimo all of the time, and your parents have me over for dinner three times a week. Because of you, I have more people caring about me than I ever did. Because of you, I'm not alone anymore."

Luca sniffed. "Thanks, Alberto."

"No problem. Andiamo, let's find the right door." He jumped onto the next door, and kept climbing up. Luca wiped the tears from his eyes and leapt after him. He didn't see that a security camera had been watching them.

It was around the time that Mike and Sulley began making their way to the warehouse that Alberto finally found it. It was hanging at the front of a row, nearly three meters away from them. Alberto began leaping from door to door, urging his best friend to follow.

Luca took a minute more than his friend, being a little less bold. Though they'd been searching for a while, he wasn't any less comfortable being up so high. He was gasping by the time he reached Alberto, who'd already gotten to Francesca's door.

"Okay," Alberto said once his friend had caught his breath, "all we have to do is scream, then the door will turn on."

"Wait," Luca said as his friend drew a breath to scream. "Shouldn't we say something to Mike and Sulley first? I mean, they helped us a lot."

"I'm sorry, but we don't have time. Besides, Massimo and Giulia are probably freaking out by now." 

Luca hadn't even thought about that. Despite his guilt at not at least leaving a note for the two monsters, he new that Alberto was right.

"Okay, let's do this." He was drawing in a breath to scream when an alarm went off, followed by a message from the intercom directing CDA personnel to the warehouse. 

"What's a CDA?" Alberto asked Luca, panic obvious on his voice. 

"I don't know, and I don't think I want to know! Let's scream and get out of here!"

They both screamed as loud as they could, staring at the little light above the door. But it didn't turn on. 

"Luca," Alberto said, his voice shaking with terror, "I don't think we count as human."

"There they are!" The boys looked down at over a dozen creatures in yellow rubbery suits. They were standing on a catwalk directly below them. One was working the controls, trying to get the conveyor belt to pick up the door they were on. 

"Alberto," Luca whispered, terrified but trying not to show it, "I need you to follow my lead." His best friend nodded. 

"Stay right where you are," a yellow-suited monster (a CDA?) called up to them. "We're going to bring you down."

Luca took a deep breath, eyeing the doors below him. "Take me, GRAVITY!" 

He dropped from Francesca's door and landed on one further below. He took a breath to steady his nerves. He heard a loud banging noise, and turned to see that Alberto had jumped after him. 

"You're insane!" He yelled to Luca, a touch of admiration in his voice.

"Learned it from you!" 

The boys kept leaping from door to door, ignoring the CDA monsters' demands for them to stop. Finally, when he reached a door close enough, he jumped onto the catwalk, with his best friend right behind him. 

"Alberto, run!" He started charging down the catwalk, keeping his eyes locked on the entrance to the factory. If they made it, then maybe they could find a place to hide until they could get back into the warehouse later and get back to Francesca's door...

As he was planning, a giant green monster (the one from the bathroom!) burst through the door. He was grinning, and his eyes were full of malice. Luca turned around so quickly that he almost fell over, and was about to yell for Alberto to do the same thing when he heard a shriek. 

Alberto had stopped the second he'd seen the big green monster, allowing him to be grabbed by a CDA. As he struggled, his water pack had broken and fallen off. In less than a minute he was dry, and his human form was revealed. 

Luca was about to run and help his friend when he was grabbed by his water pack and hoisted into the air. 

"Esteemed CDA agents," the monster said as he held Luca in the air, "I believe that these are yours?" He then pulled the water pack off of his back, and watched with disgusted fascination as Luca turned human. Then he casually tossed Luca to the CDA agents.