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“I’m telling you, there’s a monster under there!” Aiden Insisted for about the tenth time that night. Their parents were at a Halloween party, meaning Dan was left to babysit, and Aiden had gotten out of bed at least three times, claiming there was a monster under there.
“And I’m telling you monsters aren’t real,” Dan said for the millionth time that night barely looking up from the horror game he was playing. Not only had his parents uprooted his entire life, choosing to move away almost two months into term, they’d left him on babysitting duty so he couldn’t even sit in his room in the dark listening to music and being mad at them. No, instead he was trying to look over Aiden’s head to kill the zombie that was coming towards him.
“Dan! Please, I’m scared,” Aiden insisted, his voice wobbling, and since he wasn’t completely heartless, Dan sighed and put the controller down.
“I’ll tell you what. The monster’s under your bed, right?” he asked, and Aiden nodded.
“You sleep in my room, and I’ll stay in your room and catch the monster,” Dan told him, and he could see the relief wash over his little brother’s face, followed by cold determination.
“We have to set a trap,” Aiden said, nodding seriously.
“We… What?”
“Monsters can’t be out when the lights on, we can use that,” Aiden continued, dragging Dan towards the kitchen.
And that was how Dan found himself laying in Aiden’s entirely too small bed, an elaborate trap rigged up around him.
“When he jumps up, hit the switch and the lights will turn on. He can’t be in the light really long, so just get him to agree to go away, and then hit the switch again,” Aiden explained, and Dan nodded, coming to the realization that his brother was way smarter than he’d been at ten years old.
“Okay, got it. Now come on, into bed, or Mum and Dad won’t let you go trick or treating,” Dan replied, putting the switch down.
“I can’t move, the monster’s glued me to the floor,” Aiden said, holding his arms up.
“Alright, hop on.” Dan turned around, squatting onto the floor and Aiden hopped up onto his back. He ran down the hall to his bedroom, and dropped Aiden down on the bed, who laughed delightedly.
“Okay, I’m serious now. Time for bed,” Dan told him, again.
“I’m already sleeping,” Aiden said, laying down and closing his eyes. This lasted for about a second before he sat back up again. “Hey, Dan?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks for doing this for me,” Aiden told him, and Dan would never admit this, but he’d pretend to trap a hundred monsters for that kid.
“Anytime. Good night,” he said, turning off the light.
“Good night.”
Dan had been laying in Aiden’s bed for about an hour now, and he couldn’t sleep at all. Obviously, there wasn’t a monster in there, that would be ridiculous. Still, something was making him feel uneasy. Maybe he just needed a drink. He was about to get up to get a glass of water when the bed started shaking.
“Boo! Wait, you’re not Aiden.”
“What the fuck!” Dan shouted, sitting up. There was a… Guy? Creature? Sitting at the end of the bed- everything about him was blue, from his scaly skin, to the eyes curiously peering at Dan, who was trying very, very hard not to faint.
“I’m dreaming. This is just a nightmare. Fucking Nightcrawler isn’t actually in my bed right now,” Dan muttered to himself, looking around frantically. Where the hell was that switch?
“Of course Nightcrawler isn’t here, the x-men aren’t real,” the creature said, looking confused.
“I’ve lost my fucking mind,” Dan said, finally finding the switch.
“No! Please don’t turn the light on,” the creature begged, and he looked so scared, Dan hesitated.
“Who are you, what do you want, and why is my brother so scared of you?” Dan asked, holding the switch up threateningly.
“I’m Phil- I don’t really know how to answer those last two questions, this is just my job,” the creature- Phil explained, holding his legs up to his chest.
“It’s… Your job? Like you do this for a living?” Dan asked, putting the switch down. Whatever this guy was, he seemed pretty harmless. Actually, it seemed like he didn’t want to be there at all.
“Yeah. We each get assigned a child and we’re supposed to scare them. I’m not very good at it though, Aiden is my third reassignment,” Phil explained.
“You get assigned children to… Like Monsters Inc?”
“Kind of? We don’t need screams. But we’re monsters- if we’re not doing monster things, we stop existing.”
“Well, if it makes you feel better, my brother is completely terrified of you,” Dan told him, shrugging. He had no idea why he was trying to be comforting, Phil just looked so dejected about the whole thing.
“Really?” Phil asked, looking up at him hopefully.
“Yeah, why do you think I’m here trying to trap you?”
“That’s great! Well, I’m sorry about your brother, but I really needed this one to work out. Maybe everyone will be a little nicer once they find out I've actually scared someone."
“They aren’t… Nice to you where you come from?”
“I mean, some of the others are okay. But no one wants to be friends with a monster that’s not scary,” Phil explained, looking down sadly.
“Oh. Well… I’ll be your friend. I guess,” Dan offered, after a minute. He didn't know what it was about Phil that made him instantly want to fix whatever was making him sad.
“Really?” Phil asked excitedly.
“It wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen tonight. I’m Dan.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
“Dan, 17 years old, older brother, potential threat,” Phil recited.
“I’m sorry, what?” Dan asked, confused. He was about as threatening as a teletubby.
“We have to watch out for older siblings. You’re more likely to believe the child, and unlike parents, you can see us,” Phil explained, and Dan nodded, because sure, why not? Apparently there was a whole monster community keeping tabs on him in case he decided to wage war on them or something.
“Well, since we’re friends now, do you wanna see something cool? I’ve never had a friend before,” Phil continued, completely oblivious to the huge crisis Dan was having right now.
“Do I have to?”
“No, but I’m here until morning. So I could wake Aiden up, or we could-”
“Okay fine, let’s go. The last thing I need is Aiden still being up when my parents get home,” Dan said, standing up.
“Take my hand,” Phil instructed. Once they were standing next to each other, Dan noticed that they were about the same height, which either meant monsters were of way more average height than he thought, or he really was freakishly tall. He also noticed Phil had a tail, because you know, of course he did.
“Why?” Dan asked, but he obliged anyway. This was either a very, very vivid dream, or he’d completely lost his mind. Either way, nothing to do but go for it.
“So I can bring you into our world. Ready?” Phil asked, bending down to the floor, pulling, Dan down with him.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Phil crawled down under the bed, and then took Dan’s hand again. The next thing he knew, Dan was falling.
“Fun, right?” Phil asked as they continued to plummet to God knows where. Dan, who was putting all of his energy into not screaming, stayed silent. Finally, after it felt like they’d been falling for ages, they landed on a mattress in what looked pretty much like a regular town.
“So, this is your world? I was picturing more Halloweentown,” Dan said, standing up, and looking around.
“You watch a lot of movies,” Phil observed, climbing down of the mattress. Dan shrugged, following suit.
“You’re the one catching all my references,” he pointed out. Phil took his hand again, and started walking.
“That’s where everyone plays Monster Ball,” he said, gesturing to what looked like a baseball field. “I’m actually banned from playing. Too many injuries.”
“Yours or others?” Dan asked, and Phil shrugged.
“Both,” he said after a minute, which made Dan laugh. He realized Phil was staring at him intently, and he felt his face start to heat up.
“What?”
“Nothing. I like your laugh. I don’t get to hear laughter a lot,” Phil admitted, looking down, and for someone reason that made Dan really said. He squeezed Phil’s hand in an attempt to be comforting, but that just alerted him to the fact they were holding hands again.
“Uh, Phil?”
“Hmm?” Phil asked distractedly.
“Why are we holding hands now?”
“Oh.. Yeah, I thought it’d be easier to stay together this way. Do you mind?”
“Uh, no, I guess not,” Dan said, and he really needed to get out more. He felt twelve years old again- holding hands with someone didn’t mean anything. It probably meant even less to monsters, and even if it didn’t, why would he want it to mean something?
“Are you okay? Your heart rate’s gone up,” Phil asked, looking over at him.
“You can hear my heartbeat. Of course you can.”
“It helps to know if someone’s scared. Not all kids scream.”
“Right. Of course. How long have you been doing this anyway?” Dan asked as they walked.
“Not long. I’m only a hundred and eighteen,” Phil told him, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Right. Only,” Dan replied, nodding slowly. This was shaping up to be the weirdest night of his life. He was in some sort of alternate dimension, with no way to get home, at the mercy of (an admittedly sweet and endearing), but still. A monster.
“Okay! This way,” Phil said, dragging him along.
“Where exactly are we going?” Dan wondered when they got to a ladder.
“This is where I live- well, it’s where I got banished to. Between the monster ball, and the whole not being scary thing, the others don’t really want to be around me,” Phil explained, starting to climb.
“Exactly how high up does this go?” Dan asked, after it felt like they’d been climbing forever.
“Just a few more steps,” Phil told him, and before long, they were coming up on what was basically just a room. There was a bed, and a huge window, and a huge pile of plushies in the corner.
“You just. Stay up here, by yourself?” Dan asked, looking around. This was depressing as fuck.
“Well, yeah. It’s not much, but this is what I wanted to show you,” Phil answered, walking towards the window. Dan followed him, and looked out at the most incredible view. There were ladders everywhere, stretching up into an almost velvet blue sky. There were fairy lights everywhere, connecting all kinds of different sized buildings.
“So this is where all the monsters live?” Dan asked, still looking out at the view in awe.
“Yup. Those ladders go up to every human child’s bedroom in the entire world,” Phil told him, looking out the window too.
“Wow. This place is insane. How come we haven’t seen anyone?”
“Everyone’s out scaring.”
“Oh. So, what do you wanna do?”
“I didn’t really have a plan beyond this. It’s just nice to have someone to talk to,” Phil admitted, looking over at him. Dan thought about his new school where he didn’t know anyone, and ate lunch alone in the library.
“Come home with me,” he said, before he could think better of it.
“What?”
“Well, you don’t have any friends, I don’t either. But I do have lots of video games.”
“Really, you want to spend more time with me? On purpose?” Phil asked, and he sounded so surprised, Dan had to laugh.
“Yeah. I mean, you have to promise to leave Aiden alone. But other than that, I don’t see why we can’t hangout.”
“Okay,” Phil agreed, and it took Dan a second to realize he was actually glowing.
“Sorry. It happens when I’m happy,” Phil explained sheepishly.
“You’re literally adorable. You’re a Disney character- no wonder you can’t scare anyone,” Dan answered laughing. Phil tried briefly to look offended, but ended up bursting into laughter too.
“Shut up.”
And with that, Dan let Phil lead him back up the ladder to Aiden’s bedroom. It was a little awkward at first, standing in his little brother’s bedroom with a monster he’d barely known for a few hours, but then Phil went to pick up one of Aiden’s toys from the window sill, tripped on a different toy and fell down. Dan laughed, and the tension dissipated.
“Come on, I’ll teach you how to play this game called Overcooked,” Dan told him leading him into the living room.
As it turned out, Phil was a really fast learner. And aside from some bickering while they figured out how everything worked, the two of them made a really good team. They played several more rounds, Dan making fun of Phil whenever he forgot how to do something, or messed something up.
“Oh no,” Phil said suddenly, putting his controller down.
“It’s fine, just throw that plate out, we’ve still got time,” Dan said, but Phil didn’t move.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
“The sun. It’s rising,” Phil told him, looking worried. Smoke was already starting to radiate off of him, and this living room had a lot of windows.
“Oh! Well, let’s get you back then, before you… Melt?” Dan asked, standing up.
“Something like that, yeah.”
They managed to make it to the bedroom with minimal sun exposure, and Dan found himself feeling an expected sense of loss.
“Will you be back tomorrow night?” he asked, looking down. This night had been the most fun he’d had since moving to this awful town, and he kind of didn’t want it to end.
“Of course,” Phil told him, and then he was gone, leaving Dan feeling completely, and utterly alone.
Phil did come back the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that. Dan eventually convinced Aiden he’d gotten rid of the monster, and Aiden returned to sleeping in his own room. Dan took his video game system out of the living room and hooked it up in the bedroom, so that when the sun started to come up in the morning, he could just close the blinds and it wouldn’t affect Phil too much. They hung out, playing video games or watching movies or tv every night. Phil was obsessed with anything about American High School, especially Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As it turned out, there was no concept of high school in his universe, and he thought it was fascinating. Dan was also pretty sure he had a thing for Buffy, but he just let him have it.
Phil was a fascinating person to be around- Dan had to double his candy and snack supply, because he ate almost all of it every time he visited. He didn’t mind at all though. He started to look forward to when Phil would arrive, sitting on the floor next to his bed waiting for him. He also started to notice little things, like how tactile Phil was- he was always finding ways into Dan’s space, holding his hand while they walked, shoving him when he beat him at Mario Kart, resting his head on his shoulder while they watched movies. But once again, Dan didn’t mind at all.
“So, do monsters feel human emotions?” Dan asked one night. They were laying on his bed, after marathoning an anime Dan insisted Phil had to see if they were going to keep being friends.
“Like what?” Phil wondered, looking over at him.
“You know, like anger, or hunger, or…” Dan trailed off, looking up at the ceiling. “Nevermind. I don’t know why I asked.”
“We feel everything humans do. Not guilt, usually. That’d make it hard to be, well, us, but other than that, we feel everything."
“Everything?” Dan asked, his voice suddenly small. Phil nodded, reaching up to push Dan’s hair out of his face.
“Everything,” he repeated, and for a while, they just lay there, staring at each other. There was so much Dan wanted to ask, wanted to say, but he didn’t even know where to start. They were so close, Dan could see that Phil’s eyes were slit, like a cat’s, and there were flecks of green and gold in them.
“I’m really glad I met you,” Phil told him seriously, and it felt like the had slowed to a stop- nothing else existed except them, and this moment.
“I’m really glad I met you too,” Dan replied, and then, once he couldn’t take it anymore, he did maybe the most insane thing he’d ever done, and leaned in.
“Is this okay?” he whispered, once their faces were barely inches apart.
“Monsters also feel impatience, you know,” Phil whispered back.
“What?” Dan started to ask, but Phil kissed him, cutting him off. It was soft and perfect, and Phil’s hands felt cold on his face, and he wanted to keep doing this forever.
“You were taking too long,” Phil said softly, pulling away.
“Then why’d you stop so soon?” Dan asked, and Phil laughed.
“You’re glowing again,” Dan pointed out, smiling at him fondly.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he said, and then they were kissing again.
All too soon, the sun started to come up, and they had to say goodbye.
“You could always come with me, you know,” Phil told him, pulling on one of Dan’s hoodies. He’d taken to leaving with an item of Dan’s clothing whenever he had to go back home.
“Now I have to come back,” he’d say, but Dan knew he just liked to feel close when he was away.
“I can’t. I have to be here. For my brother, and my parents. Plus, I do still have to go to school,” Dan pointed out, sitting up.
“Okay. Well, I’ll see you tomorrow then?”
“You’d better.”
And then, after a quick kiss goodbye, Phil was gone.
After that, everything was pretty much perfect. Dan was always exhausted during the day, but it was worth it for all the time he got to spend with Phil at night. Unfortunately, things couldn't stay this great forever.
“Something bad is happening,” Phil said one night, pacing the length of Dan’s bedroom.
“You mean, you being here still fully clothed?” Dan asked, watching him.
“I’m serious. Look at my hands,” Phil said, stopping, and holding them up.
“They’re… Not blue. What’s going on?” Dan replied, growing worried.
“I didn’t want to tell you. I thought maybe it was a just a myth, and I didn’t want to stop seeing you. I don’t want to stop seeing you, I just…” Phil trailed off, looking down.
“What? What is it, you’re scaring me,” Dan asked frantically, standing up.
“That’s just it. I’m not. I’m not scaring anyone,” Phil explained dejectedly. Dan vaguely remembered Phil saying something about this the night they met- having to do monster things, or he’d cease to exist.
“There’s gotta be something we can do, another way… Let’s go,” Dan said, bending down in front of the bed.
“Dan? I don’t want to go back, I just want to stay here with you as long as I can,” Phil replied, but Dan shook his head vehemently.
“Well, I don’t want my boyfriend to suddenly stop existing. There’s gotta be someone who can help.”
“Boyfriend?” Phil asked softly, starting to glow.
“Not the time.”
“Right. Sorry. Well there’s only one person who could help,” Phil said, bending down next to him.
“Let’s go then.”
They made the descent down into Phil’s world, and Dan immediately jumped up off the mattress and started walking, dragging Phil along with him.
“We’re going the wrong way,” Phil pointed out after a minute.
“Right, sorry. You lead.”
Phil lead him to what was basically a castle in the center of all of the other buildings.
“This is where the Boss lives,” Phil explained, as they walked in. A few bored looking guards looked up at them as they passed, but didn’t stop them. They finally came to a throne room, where an actual dragon was sitting. Upon seeing them, a huge puff of red smoke appeared, and then there was a woman standing in front of them, still completely red. Dan was going to faint.
“I’m so sorry to bother you, Boss, but we need your help,” Phil said, and she laughed. Loudly.
“And why should I spare you for being completely incompetent and alerting a human to our existence?” she asked cooly, once she calmed down.
“Please, Ms. Boss… Person. Please don’t take Phil from me. He’s my best friend,” Dan pleaded, and she turned her green, cat-like eyes on him.
“How sweet. You’ve got a pet,” she said to Phil, eyeing Dan up and down with calculating disinterest.
“Is there anything we can do?” Phil asked desperately, and she waved a hand dismissively.
“Oh, calm down. You’re not going to cease to exist, that’s just something I tell everyone to keep this place running. If you truly want to be with this human, you can stay in the human world. You will eventually turn human, but it’s going to be a long and painful process. I don’t actually care what you do, but you can never return here. Now go.”
They nodded, and turned to go on their way. Once they were in the hallway, Dan pulled Phil to the side.
“Is this what you want?” he asked, searching his face urgently.
“I want to be with you,” Phil said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“I know. But you can’t make this decision like that. Do you really want to go through this transformation, and never be able to return home? Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?”
“I have a new home now. And besides, I never fit in here anyway,” Phil told him, and Dan nodded.
“Okay. Okay then, let’s go home,” he said starting to walk, when he felt a tug on his wrist. He turned to ask Phil what was wrong when he pulled Dan into him and kissed him deeply.
“Thank you. For everything,” he told him seriously, and if he was a monster, Dan probably would’ve started glowing.
“Of course. Now let’s go home.”