Scares, Trails, and Romantic Monster Tales

The Scare

After I explained the plan to Randall, we set out to follow Alex and Pearl. Normally, I wouldn't scare Alex and Pearl during Halloween. Alex and I would scare Pearl, but that's different. It felt wrong doing this to them, but this was Randall's future on the line. If there was any hope that this little bet would help him not only get back into the top fraternity on his college campus, but maybe this would help him be less of a jerk when he's older. This was the only thing I could do to help Randy, but that didn't mean I couldn't try to give my old friends a head's up.

So, when Randall wasn't looking, I snuck off to text Pearl what was about to happen. When I was far enough away and when Randall was out of view, I turned back into a human, pulled out my cell phone, and started texting Pearl. Was this risky? Yes. Was it necessary? Also yes.

"They are gonna kill me for this." I muttered as I started a text conversation.

'Hey, you and Alex are still going out to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery for Halloween, right?' I sent in a text.

'Yeah, Y?" Pearl responded.

'I need a favor for you guys,' I briefly texted back. 'Friend of mine is trying to win a bet, and we need you two for guinea pigs.'

'Y?' Pearl sent a confused emoji.

'You'll see.' I texted. 'Just go to the cemetery, but don't text me when you get there.'

'UR crazy, girl.' Pearl highlighted my text with a laughing emoji. 'But K. C U there.'

'Good.' I then texted. 'Also, please don't be mad at what's about to happen.'

'Y?' Pearl responded. 'Frankie, UR scaring me.'

'Think of it as a little activity for me as Guardian.' I rolled my eyes as I sent in a final response. 'Now, stop texting and get to the cemetery with Alex.'

Pearl sent another confused emoji. 'K.'

I took a breath of exhaustion before putting my phone back into my pocket. Look, I love Pearl like a sister, but sometimes she can wear me out. Especially when I can't really go through with explaining my Guardian activities with her, I only hope she'll be able to forgive me when all is said and done.

I then gave my surroundings a look over to make sure I was still alone. When I was, I turned back into my monster form and got ready to help Randall scare Alex and Pearl. I only hope he hadn't left without me, or worse turned invisible and followed me to see what I was up to.

"Frankie," Randall's voice caught my attention. "You back here?"

Good. He didn't do either one of those options and went looking for me instead. I followed the sound of his voice and saw him looking around some trees to see where I ran off too, but the moment he saw me coming back up a leafy hill, he started making his way towards me. Remember, this was Randall after getting beaten by Sulley in the Scare Games, you'd think he wouldn't care about me, but he did! I knew there was still some good left in him!

"Hey, you good?" Randy asked me.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just had to, um," I thought of a quick cover up. "Get a thorn out from my paw."

"You sure?"

"Yeah." I nodded before leading the way. "Now, c'mon!. They're heading for a human cemetery."

"Who goes to a cemetery at night?" Randy asked.

I didn't really want to answer him, but the truth is that Alex, Pearl, and I used to go to Sleepy Hollow every year to not only celebrate Halloween, but to also visit the grave of Alex's abuelo: Papá Miguel. Papá Miguel was a kind old man who used to be the owner of what would later become my dad's shop. He absolutely loved Halloween and pranks, and was even one of the few members of Alex's family who was still supportive of and accepted Alex after his transition. Papá Miguel felt like a grandfather to both Pearl and I -especially considering my dad doesn't really talk about his father that much, so it hurt us too when he passed.