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missathlete31 · 1 year ago

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Monsters Inc

Summary: A monster is down the hall and little Jake Seresin knows it's coming for him

Because why not go for the hurt on a Sunday morning 😬

Big warnings on this one for references to Child Abuse, mentally and physically Abusive Parents and just all around angst.

Im a big subscriber to the Hangman had horrible parents and that’s why he is the way he is so that’s where this came from. Sorry it’s dark,

Like very, very dark

There’s a monster screaming across the hall from Jake Seresin’s bedroom. He may only be six years old but Jake knows; he’s seen it, he’s run from it, heck one time he even tried to swing back at it, but it always beats him down.

Tonight, the monster roars, cursing and threatening as Jake lays in his bed just a few rooms away.

The sound of glass breaking vibrates all the way down the hallway and Jake clutches the blankets tighter in his little fists. He knows it doesn’t matter, if the monster wants him he knows exactly where he is hidden. Jake’s green eyes can’t help scanning his bedroom anyway, locking onto a baseball bat in the corner. It would be so easy to just get up and grab it, make a stand, defend his kingdom like the knights do in the picture books he likes to read. But Jake’s not a knight, and he doesn’t have a kingdom, just a small little room at the end of the hall where monsters visit when he’s not good.

It seems like lately he’s never good.

The monster’s getting closer now. It’s grotesque feet echoing down the corridor with each new step. It’s claws sharpened and ready, scratching along the walls all the way down to Jake’s bedroom. Jake takes his blanket and throws it over his head now, in hopes that it will muffle the sound so maybe he can fall asleep. Monsters usually leave him alone if he’s asleep. Jake squeezes his eyes forcefully, but sleep won’t come. It’s too late. The monster is on its way.

The monster is in Daddy tonight. He took him after dinner, when Daddy went to his special cabinet that holds the unique bottles where monsters hide in. Jake’s not allowed to touch those bottles, but he did once when he was five. Instead of seeing the monster in himself, he watched as the monster took his Mommy and Daddy and they both taught him a lesson. Monster Mommy smacked his butt until he cried while Monster Daddy poured one of the bottles down his throat until he choked and threw up. They yanked him by the hair and threw him outside with the animals, in soiled clothes and with a red bottom. Jake didn’t see anyone again until the next morning when Monster Mommy was back to being real Mommy and she brought him in to take a bath. She even let him use some of her expensive bubble mix. Jake loves when he gets a bubble bath, he splashes and plays and gives himself a bubble beard. Real Mommy always laughs, every time.

Sometimes when the monster jumps into his Mommy it hurts even more. It’s hits aren’t as hard as when the monster is in Daddy but Jake is always more confused after. Because Monster Mommy doesn’t stay around as long as Monster Daddy. Monster Mommy leaves him with red marks and sore spots but then real Mommy comes back and tries to make them better. One time Monster Mommy pushed him so hard he fell back into the metal gate. Jake didn’t remember the push very much but he remembered when real Mommy had cried after. She held him in her arms and cried and cried. Jake didn’t know what to do so he just sat there, in his Mommy’s arms until she released him and told him to go back to his playing. Monster Mommy didn’t come back for a long time after that, but she did eventually and that time there were no tears; or at least no tears from her (Jake’s had come later when he couldn’t sit down in a chair for a whole day without wincing).

The monster is outside his door now. Jake knows it’s Monster Daddy. He can tell from the growls and the snarls. Jake doesn’t know if Monster Mommy is around tonight but he doesn’t hear real Mommy either. He hopes she didn’t leave him like she does sometimes. When she watches her husband get taken over by the vile creature and merely shrugs. Her bedroom door is probably locked again, throwing her son to the wolves.

His grandma told him once that his Daddy wasn’t always like this, didn’t always have the monster inside. She said he was funny, always making jokes, and sweet; he had the sweetest smile, she had said. She called him ‘personable’ and Jake wishes he knew what personable means but he guesses it’s something good, something special, something his Daddy stopped being around the time he found those monsters in bottles. The same time that those creatures taught him that living with his son was more bearable when he let the monsters take over and how to use his belt to teach lessons in the welts left on his son’s skin. When Jake asks his grandma what happened to Daddy she said life. Jake doesn’t know what life is either, but he wishes it would stop making his Daddy go looking for monsters.

Sometimes Jake sees what his real Daddy could be. He sees it on the rare good days when his Daddy ruffles his blonde hair playfully as they sit down for breakfast in the morning. He sees it when Jake gets a hit in T-Ball and his Daddy lets him sit inside the truck instead of in the bed in the back.

He sees it most when they are out in town and away from the ranch. Daddy gets to see friends and shake hands. His Daddy’s smile is never bigger than when he’s shaking hands. Jake practices sometimes, late at night or when he knows he is alone. He hopes that when the day comes and his Daddy tries to shake his hand that his Daddy’s smile is the brightest it’s ever been.

Jake thinks that handshakes keep the monster away.

The monster caught him one time practicing out by the cows’ pasture. It got super mad at first and said something about Jake mocking it. Jake didn’t know what mocking meant so when he asked, he got a slap to the cheek for lip. The monster gripped his wrist painfully tight until something made a snapping sound and Jake howled. He wasn’t supposed to make noise, especially when he was outside so the monster hit him in the mouth once more, the familiar taste of blood getting swallowed down his throat like he was taught (spitting blood on the ground and making a mess meant another lesson needed to be learned). Jake kept quiet but the monster wasn’t finished, grabbing his hand once more but not like how Jake thought handshakes went. It yanked and yanked, pulling his arm towards the monster’s gigantic self. It was excruciating and rough and Jake got himself flung to the dirt when his arm gave up from the pressure on his shoulder. The monster leered over Jake and he thought that it was finally it; the monster was going to eat him like it did his parents, but then like magic, the monster stopped!

Jake knows it was the handshake.

Mr. Harris, their neighbor, saw it too. He had been walking the path between their two ranches and saw Jake and Monster Daddy. He called over when Jake was on the ground with the monster. The monster walked over to Mr. Harris and they shook hands and suddenly real Daddy was back! Daddy told Mr. Harris how Jake had been fooling around (which he didn’t remember doing but he guessed he was if that’s what Daddy said), and how he had gotten hurt. Mr. Harris offered to carry Jake back to his ranch since it was closer but Daddy disagreed, said home was better. Then he scooped Jake up into his arms like he used to when he was a baby, before the monster took over, and walked him all the way back to their house. It was the best! Mr. Harris even watched, that’s how great it was.

When they arrived back to the ranch, Mr. Harris sat with Jake while Daddy went to get the doctor. Mommy made some coffee and the biscuits that Jake loved so much but wasn’t allowed to eat normally. Luckily on that day because Mr. Harris had insisted, Jake got to have half of one. He was so happy; he didn’t even care if it ended up that the doctor told him his wrist was broken and his shoulder had to be “relocated” (Jake hadn’t realized it had disappeared but luckily the doctor found it pretty fast.).

Mr. Harris must have realized it was a great day as well because he didn’t seem to want to leave. He stayed for dinner and then helped Daddy get Jake to bed. Before Jake closed his eyes, the old man gripped his good shoulder and smiled sadly at him, told him to take care. His Daddy showed him out of Jake’s bedroom and Jake felt his eyes close pretty soon after.

No monster visited that night or the rest of the week.

A police officer did visit though, and asked Jake how he had hurt his arm. Mommy and Daddy had sat next to him while he had to explain that he was playing around outside and not listening just like Daddy told him to say. The police officer wrote some stuff down, asked his parents some questions and took a look around the house. Jake showed him his baseball bat and the man smiled when Jake told him about the day he got a hit and his Daddy was so happy. Before he knew it the police officer was nodding to both his parents and heading out the door.

When the police car pulled away from the dirt driveway, Jake saw Mr. Harris watching from the fence. He tried to wave but the man didn’t respond. It was the last time Jake ever saw Mr. Harris. The next day there was a bad fire in the kitchen of their farm house. Mr. and Mrs. Harris lost everything according to Jake’s Mommy and the couple was forced to go live with their daughter two towns over. Jake missed them.

His bedroom door opens. The monster is in his room.

After the police officer’s visit and the Harris’s move away, Monster Mommy and Monster Daddy beat Jake until he fell asleep right there in the living room. When he woke up he was still there and he crawled himself like a baby all the way to his bedroom carpet where he stayed for a few more hours. He didn’t have to go to school for the next week but he also couldn’t seem to do much on his own because everything seemed to hurt. Real Mommy had to spoon feed him because it was hard to lift his head. Real Daddy carried him to the bathroom and held him up because his legs didn’t work like they used to. When he returned to school the teacher asked about his absences and Jake told her what his Daddy told him, he got hurt on the ranch. She never asked about any of his injuries again.

The monster is over him now. He can hear it’s heavy panting, smell the bitter breath through his blanket. The monster uses a paw to rip his sheet away and Jake takes a risk and opens his eyes. It’s dark but he can make out the monster’s shape in the blackness. It looks just like real Daddy but he knows there is only one way to be sure. “Daddy?” he calls and he waits. Seconds, minutes, hours, the silence stretches on. Jake thinks maybe the monster is gone, left in the hallway. He thinks that maybe his Daddy actually returned to him and is here to tuck him back to sleep and press a kiss to his forehead like he used to. He thinks all these happy thoughts until a fist knocks his head aside, sends him sprawling off the bed and onto the floor.

Jake shuts his eyes and prepares himself for the attack.

It’s only the monster there with him tonight. His Daddy is gone.