The Monster in the Closet (a Loka Story)

Chapter 1: Sleep Observation 
 
“Mommy, how is the doctor going to stop the monster from coming out of the closet?” The blonde blue eyed boy asks.

“Stevie, how many times do I have to tell you? That the monster is in your head. The doctor is going to help you overcome these night terrors of yours.” Says his blonde headed mother. 

“Ma'am.” You say. “If Stevie here had night terrors, he wouldn’t have remembered what he claimed to have seen. If anything, he’s most likely having dream anxiety.” You turn your rolling chair in the direction of Stevie. “Stevie, can I ask you some questions?” 

“No!” He imminently says

“Stevie!” His mother berates him. “Answer Dr. Shomoe’s questions.” 

“Okay, mom.” He moans. 

“First question Stevie, why don’t you think I can help you with your monster?” 

“You're a Doctor, how can you fight the monster? 

“Stevie, no monsters have been documented to live in kid’s closets like yours. It’s a figment of your imagination. Your most likely remember the monster from your nightmares & re-imagining that monster when you wake up. Nightmares can have long-lasting effects on people even after they wake up.” 

Stevie is getting frustrated. “Doctor! The monster is not a nightmare! He actually comes out of the closet every night & scares me!”

“Calm down Stevie.” You say reassuringly. “If a monster was really in your closet, we would have found it already. Have you showed your mom your closet?” 

“Yes.” 

“Has she found your monster living in there?”

“No.” 
 
“Then how could the monster be scaring you if he’s not in there?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he comes in the house & then hides in my closet when I sleep.” He says with uncertainty. 

“Stevie, if a monster was in your closet, wouldn’t it have hurt you by now? Has this monster scratched you? Or tried to eat you? Has it given you any physical harm?” 

“No. He just comes in my room & scares me.” 

“What would be the monster’s motives for scaring you, Stevie?” 

“What are a motives?” He asks.

“Motives are why someone does something, Stevie. For example, I am motivated to be a doctor to help people with their sleeping problems. So, What would be the monster’s motive to scare you?”

“his motive is to scare me” 

“But, why does he scare you?”

“I don’t know, doctor. Maybe he doesn’t like me.” 

You pull a drawing that Stevie made of the monster & show it to him. The monster looks a lot like a black dragon with curled horns. It also has red glowing eyes too. “Stevie, Have you seen any scary movies lately that could be making you imagine a monster like this?” 

“Mommy doesn’t show me scary movies. I mostly watch How to Train your Dragon.” 

“Are there any monsters like this in How to Train your Dragon, Stevie?”

“No.”

Okay, your highly doubt that. “Are you sure you didn’t imagine your monster from seeing How to Train your Dragons?” 

“No.” 

You put the picture away & write down what you have learned so far. “What about school? Do you have kids picking on you Stevie?”

“No doc, I have lots of friends in school.” 

“Lots of friends huh? No one dislikes you in your classes?” 

“I had this problem with this one kid a while ago, but we made up & we're friends now.”

“Really now.” You genuinely say. “It’s good to hear that you made up with the kid. That’s very mature of you, Stevie.”

“Thank you, Doc.” 

 You get up from your chair, take out a DVD from its case & put it into the DVD reader that is connected to the tv in the room. “Mrs. O'Brian, I want you & your son to take a look at this video.” you turn on the tv, raise the volume & play the movie (the video in question [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gECGYl5C50] is being played). Stevie & Mrs. O’Brian are watching it. The video they are watching is giving them an introduction to sleep observation. Explaining to them what electrodes are & why they need to be hooked up to the patient to have a full analysis of their sleep disorder & other factoids on sleep observation. Once the video is over, you take out a security camera & some electrodes. “Here at the university, we have our own sleep observational rooms to study people with sleeping problems. But, I can also bring my equipment to people's houses to observe their sleeping behavior as well. Some patients can only sleep in their own beds, so we give them that option if they don’t think they will sleep well at our observation rooms. I think it would be better for your son if we set up my equipment in his room for a few days so we can get the best analysis of his sleep patterns.”

“Those things look scary. Mommy, I don’t want those things on me.” Stevie says with fright.
“Stevie.” You say. “The electrodes are put on with a glue. They won’t hurt at all. Here, let me show you.” You grab the adhesive for the electrodes off your desk, apply it on the electrode & your face. “See Stevie, painless. Nothing to worry about.” You pull off the electrode & grab a cleaning wipe to clean off the adhesive that is still on your face. “So Mrs. O’Brian, are you interested in my suggestion or would you rather have him observed here at the university?”

Mrs. O’Brian is pondering her choices. Her son looks at her, pleading her not to have him under sleep observation. “Dr. Shomoe, I want you to have my son’s sleep study done at my house. It would be better for him to be at home instead of here.” 

“No, mommy I don’t want the things on muh face!” Steve yells.

“Stevie that’s enough out of you!” Mrs. O’Brian barks. “You & I both know that you have been getting lousy sleep because of this supposed monster. You keep running into my room & waking me up & you keep on falling asleep in your classes. Stevie you're a mess & you need help with your sleep. End of story.” Stevie is absolutely quiet after his mother’s scolding.

“Ma'am, there’s no need for harshness. Your son is probably just agitated from the lack of sleep he is getting. It’s a common symptom of sleep deprivation. I suggest you put him to bed earlier so he can get some more sleep. Is tomorrow a good day to come in & install my equipment?” You ask. 

“Yes, tomorrow is fine. I work at home anyway & Stevie will be at school so twelve o’clock would be the best time to come by.” 

I’ll come by tomorrow at twelve with my assistant to install my equipment.” You hand her your card. “Call me if your plans change, okay.”

“Okay.” She replies

Mrs. O’Brian & her son walk out of your office & you deal with her son’s paperwork at your desk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 You & your female assistant are driving your work truck to Mrs. O’Brian’s home to install your sleep monitoring equipment. Your brunette haired assistant’s name is Jane Silberberg. She’s the first undergraduate you’ve ever had under your wing since you started at the University of San Diego. Jane is just getting a doctorate as a sleep clinician. She does enjoy her field, but she just wants a good-paying job from what she tells you. 

 That being said, You graduated from high school at the age of 16 to become a sleeping specialist because you have a sleeping disorder. The sleeping disorders that the genetic lottery has dealt you are insomnia & restless legs syndrome. It’s a miracle that you were able to pass all your grades with the lack of sleep you get all the time. You hope to find a cure for your sleeping disorders with the research you conduct on the side of your clinician job at the university. So far you don’t got the magic cure you're hoping the pharmacist will pump out because of your research. You’ve study pharmacology on the side so you can give your partners better drug suggestions for future subscriptions that they concoct. You so desperately hope to find better sleep by some form of pharmacological intervention. 

 Your truck stops in Mrs. O’Brian’s driveway. You & Jane get out of the truck & take your equipment out of the trunk. Jane rings the doorbell for you since you're caring the heavier equipment. Mrs. O’Brian opens the door. “Oh, hello Dr. Shomoe.” She turns her head to Jane. “& what’s your name ma’am?” 

“My name is Jane. I’m an undergrad who is working with Dr. Shomoe. He really has a knack for this kind of thing ma’am. You truly have an expert helping your son here.” Jane says with assurance. 

“Well, now I feel even more confident in hiring your expertise doctor.” Mrs. O’Brian waves both of you in. “Please come in. I show you where Stevie’s room is.”

Jane & you follow Mrs. O’Brian up the stairs & into Stevie’s room. She opens the door for the two of you. “This is his room. Set up what you have to use for his treatment. Do you want me to bring you two any water?” She asks.

“No thanks I’m fine. How about you Jane?” 

“No thanks. I’m fine as well.” Jane says. 

“If you two need anything just ask.” She walks downstairs. 

 You put the box of supplies on Stevie’s bed & Jane is setting up the latter for you so you can mount the sleeping camera on the wall opposite to his bed. Stevie’s bed is leaning up on the wall with the window. His closet is to the left of his bed. The supposed monster supposedly comes out of there & scares him in the corner where his bed is. You take a look at his closet for his “monster” for shits & giggles. As expected you find nothing. “Hey, Jane? You wanna check the closet for monsters?” You say smiling.

“Is the black, red eyed dragon in there Joe?” She asked sarcastically.

“Of course it’s in there Jane, it’s all of the clothing that is stacked in there. It magically shape-shifts into some monster & just scares the kid without actually harming him for some reason.” You close the closet & walk towards Jane. “You know, if I was some monster, I would probably have eaten him already & then go after the next kid in the neighborhood. Why would a monster just scare & run? It makes no sense.” 

“Maybe that’s what the monster is actually doing.” 

“Seriously? & how would it benefit from just scaring the kid?” 

“What if the monster is a psychic vampire.” 
 
 “What is that suppose to be?” You ask curiously. 

“Well, it’s a person or being that essentially feeds off of a person’s mental energy or even their life force. Basically what I am trying to say is that this monster literally feeds off of Stevie’s mental energy. His fright, in particular, maybe Stevie is producing a certain negative energy that it likes to feed off of.”

You laugh at what she says. “That sounds pretty pseudo-scientific Jane. Have you been reading the wrong materials for your doctorates or something? Cause last time I checked they don’t have doctorates for parapsychology.” 

She laughs at what she says too. “I’m only kidding Joe. I don’t believe in chakras & that other voodoo bullshit.” 

You grab your screw gun, a level, drywall anchors & climb up the ladder to set up the camera. “You know Jane, I’ve been thinking.” You say as you draw out the lines that the drywall anchors will be screwed into. “This is the tenth young patient I have had to deal with this particular issue in the Clairemont area.” 

“Okay, so how is that number significant in any way?” 


“I’m not finished yet.” You say as you drill in the drywall anchors. “My other co-workers have reported that eighty thousand other kids have been reported by their parents of waking up in the middle of the night with nightmare anxiety & claiming to see a monster in the Clairemont area.” You finish drilling the anchors & reach your hand out to Jane. “Jane, hand me the screw & the camera please.” 

Jane grabs the camera & screws & hands them to you. “John, all sorts of kids have nightmare issues & claim to see monsters. So what if eighty thousand in the area are reporting monsters.” She asks.

You hold the camera in place & begin screwing in the first screw. “So what? That’s about twenty-five percent of the thirty-three thousand or so kids that live in the area. & what’s even weirder is that four hundred kids reported seeing the same monster Stevie has been being stalked by.” 

“What?” Jane says shocked. “That’s about five percent of the kids that live in the local area?” 

“Yeah I know & it gets weirder. I called some other doctors in some other areas in Cali & their patients have also reported seeing the same monster.” You finished setting up the camera & climb down off the latter. “The weirdness doesn’t stop there. I also asked other sleep doctors in different states on whether their patients have seen this monster & they confirmed to me that they have.” 

“Wow, what a weird coincidence.” 

You grab the wires for the camera & climb up the latter to plug them into the camera. “The coincidences don’t stop there. I also asked these doctors if they have seen the other nine monsters that the kids I’ve been treating reported & they confirmed that their patients have also reported seeing those monsters too.” You get down the latter again. “& coincidentally again, the five percent of kids that have reported the monster that Stevie’s been dealing with are two miles apart from each other in all of the areas that the monster has been reported in. Plus, the other nine monsters sighting that these kids have reported are also about two miles away from each other.” 

“Again Joe, what a weird coincidence.” 

“I don’t have enough data to conclusively prove this conclusion. It’s just a rough draft of what I was able to find.” 

Jane looks at you as if you are crazy.“Joe, do you think monsters are actually stalking these kids?” She asks. 

“No of course not. A lot of people claim to see monsters, aliens, bigfoot & all of those dumb cryptids all the time. I think this is some kind of groupthink or crowd hysteria. It’s like when people claimed to see the Jersey Devil. When one person reported it, other people started to see it too. I think these kids are telling each other about their experiences with these monsters & then start seeing monsters themselves.” 

She’s laughing as your long-winded explanation. “Sure Joe. Sure.” Jane says mockingly. 

“Jane I can’t help that I notice patterns like this. After all, correlation does not mean causation.” You open up the door for Jane. “Were done here for now Jane. Let me get you some food & head back home to take a quick nap before we come back here to study Stevie’s sleep patterns.” 

“Okay” She walks out the room before you do. 

You & Jane head to a diner in town to get a quick bite & you drop her off to her house before you head back to your house to try to get some sleep. With all of the sleeping meds, you take you only manage to get 4 hours of sleep instead of getting the 8 hours of sleep that you wanted before having to get back to Mrs. O’Brian’s house. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stevie is whingeing & fidgeting with you as you apply the electrodes to his face. You tell him that you’ll get him a chocolate bar tomorrow if he cooperates with you. He starts to work with you better when you promise him that. “There, all done.” You say to him as you finish putting the electrodes on him. “Now Stevie.” You say as your tucking him in. “I put this button right next to your bed.” You pick up the button to show him. “If you need to use the bathroom, want a glass of water or need us for any reason, just press that button. Okay.” 

“Okay, Doc.” Stevie says. 

You & Jane leave the room again to go to your observation station that the both of you set up downstairs in Mrs. O’Brian’s living room while Mrs. O’Brian stays with Stevie to read him a bedtime story. Stevie took 2 hours to properly sleep. Probably due to the stuff that was on his face. Jane had to go into his room numerous times to fix the electrodes that were on him. Once he was asleep, his sleep patterns were normal the 2 hours. 

But, at 2:27 A.M, something freaky happened. While your drinking a monster & looking at Stevie’s sleep pattern data, you notice something in the camera feed. A furry looking person with horns is standing right next to Stevie’s bed & is staring at him as he sleeps. You rub your eyes & take a look at the monster you just drank to make sure it hasn’t expired. Is this sugary garbage making you hallucinate? The furry thing is now opening & closing the door repeatedly for some reason. It’s not making too much noise & you know that because the camera also has a built-in microphone. The furry thing is being really quiet about its weird obsession with opening & closing his closet door. “Jane!” You whisper loudly “Jane, get over here quickly!” You point her to the camera feed. “Do you see what I’m seeing?” 

“Yeah, some furry broke into Stevie’s room & is now opening & closing Stevie’s door like some kind of retard.” 

“Wait! Your right. It does look like one of those furry weirdos. What the hell is he doing in his room?” 

“How much have you read into these types of people, Joe?” She asks.

“I just know that there cringe & they walk around in mascot costumes.” 

“Joe, furries are notoriously known for their weird sexual deviancy. That guy might be sneaking into his room & molesting Stevie when he is sleeping. We got to do something right now Joe.” She says with panic.

You find a wooden bat on the floor & grab it. “I’ll handle him, Jane. Give me a minute.” You quietly run up the stairs with the bat to Stevie’s bedroom. Once your at his door, you slowly & cautiously open his door & peak in to see the intruder still opening & closing the closet door. Whatever it is, it looks nervous but hasn’t noticed you yet. The black & white camera didn’t give you the best look at your intruder. It was covered in green fur, had yellow strips, a tail, black claws on its hands & feet, 2 black horns, had ginger-colored hair & was wearing a t-shirt & a pair of shorts. That’s a pretty realistic furry costume. The whole monster get up is really convincing. You stealthy walk towards it, readying your bat to strike. Once you get close enough, you raise the bat above your head & strike down on its head. You hear a little yelp come out of it once you strike it, but not loud enough to wake up Stevie. It spins towards you & falls face-first into your chest. You manage to catch who this is before they fell to the ground. He or she’s out cold. As they lay unconscious in your arms, you're trying to look for a zipper on the “costume”. You are even trying to look for wear the mask comes off its face but can’t find it. As your examining the thing more & more, your beginning to think it’s no costume. You even open its mouth to see if it looks fake. The mouth has saliva, sharp teeth, is breathing & has bad breath. After enough touching & feeling for a zipper on the “costume”, you come to the uncomfortable conclusion that you are dealing with an actual monster & you just knocked it out. You look at the camera & wave at it. Letting Jane know you want her up here. You drag out the monster out of Stevie’s room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 2: Hectic car ride

You continue to drag the monster that you just KO’d out of Stevie’s bedroom. Once you dragged it into the hallway, Jane comes up the stairs & assist you in dragging the monster down the stairs. 

“I see you knock out our peeping furry here, Joe.” She whispers to you.

“Help me bring it out to the truck Jane. I want you to take a closer look at it.” You whisper back.

“Joe, Shouldn’t we call the police? After all, we just caught a pedo.” 
 
 “It’s no pedo Jane, it’s the discovery of the decade.” 

Jane opens the door for the two of you & continues to help carry the monster to your truck. You get the clicker for the truck, unlock it & open up the door to the back seat of your truck. Both you & Jane throw the monster in the back seat. 

“Jane, take a closer look at the “furry” & try to look for a zipper or something while I grab some zip ties from the back of my truck.” 

“Zip Ties? Joe, what the fuck do you need zip ties for? Are we kidnapping this person?” She asks with alarm. 

“Jane, examine the quote on quote furry, now. It’s not a person. Look closely.” You say with annoyance as you dig around your truck for zip ties. Once you got your zip ties, you run back to Jane. She looks like she’s seen a monster & you mean that literally of course because of course, she saw a fucking monster. 

“Joe, where’s the zipper on this thing? JOE, WHERE’S THE FUCKING ZIPPER?!!!” She yells as she hysterically gropes around the monster for a “zipper”. 
 
 You slap Jane’s hands away from the monster. “Jane, stop touching the green fur-ball! You’re not gonna find a zipper. I already checked.” 

“So, is that thing… Is that thing the monster that has been harassing Stevie?” 

“Yes, I assume so. But it doesn’t look like the black dragon that Stevie described.” 

“Do you think it shape-shifts?”

“I don’t know, Jane. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. but I think I want to wake up Walter Bischoff about this. He’ll have a good take on this. Jane, get in the front seat. I need to tie it up.” You say showing off the jar of zip ties in your hand. Jane sits in the front of the car as you turn the monster on it’s back & zip tie it’s arms & legs together while also zip-tying its tail to its leg. 

 After you finish tying up your cryptic catch, you start up your truck & drive out off Mrs. O'Brian’s driveway. As your on the road, you pull out your phone to call Walter. After several voice messages later you stop calling him. But that’s not gonna stop you from going to his house anyway. 

“Joe, shouldn’t one of us stay to watch Stevie’s sleep patterns?”

“Jane, why do we still have to do that now? Isn’t it obvious that the monster was the reason for his sleeping problems. We effectively cured him & scored ourselves a new species in the process. This is gonna make us famous. Why do you think I’m driving us to Walter’s place right now? He’s the biologist. He’ll help us identify it & whatnot. & maybe he’ll use its DNA to make some pretty nifty GMOs in the process.” 

 Five minutes later, you & Jane arrive in front of Walter’s house. Once you park in front of his house, you immediately jump out of your car & run to the front door of Walter’s house. You continuously ring Walter’s doorbell & bang on his door to get him to come to the door. Hollering his name in the process. After enough annoyance, Walter opens the door, wearing a white shirt & gym shorts. He has the most pissed off look you’ve ever seen on his face. He punches you in the gut, hard & right in the diaphragm too. You're now on your knees, holding your gut in pain as you tear up a little from the pain & gasp for air.

“JOE, YOU FUCKIN RETARD! IT’S THREE O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING & YOUR WAKING ME UP FOR GAWD KNOWS WHAT STUPID SHIT! DAMN IT, MAN, I CAN’T EVEN TALK STRAIGHT RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I’M SO TIRED & MAD FROM YOUR IDIOCY! GET THE HELL OFF MY PROPERTY BEFORE I CALL THE COPS!” He yells at you. 

 Walter tries to shut the door on you but you move your body in the way of his door. Getting a face full of door in the process. “Owww… Walter.” You say. “I got something to show you in the back of my car.” 

“I DON’T CARE YOU MORON!” He says as he continues to slam the door on you. “GET OFF MY PROPERTY! NOW!” He yells again. 

The door hits you again. “AAHHH! Walter, I got a new species in my truck & I’ll-” You get hit by the door again. “Fuck! & I’ll give you the two hundred bucks that’s in my wallet if you let me show you the creature.” He hits you with the door again & holds the door against you.

“That last slam was for good measure, you bozo. Now, you’ll give me two-hundred if I see your “creature” right?” 

“Yeah, yeah.” You respond with pain

“If this is a nothing burger, I’m taking your two-hundred & calling the cops on your ass. You got that, Joe! Walter says threateningly. 

“Yeah, I got that, Walter. & trust me. You won’t be disappointed.” 

 Walter moves the door off of you. You walk over with him to your truck & open the back seat where the monster lays unconscious & tied up. Walter crosses his arms. He doesn’t look amused.

“What is this? Sum sick furfaggot fetish you're trying to get me into or something, Joe?” He snarls. “Give me the two-hundred bucks now you degenerate & I’m calling the coppers!” He pulls out his phone to call the cops. 

“WAIT! Walt, humor me, man, how about you examine it & judge for yourself. This is no joke.” 

“Yeah Walter,” Jane says from the front seat. “The thing was harassing our patient every night. & Joe managed to knock it out single-handedly.”

Walter puts his phone in his pockets & moans. “Okay, fine. But I’m gonna need more light though.”

 You turn on your cell phone flashlight & shine it on the monster. “Walter.” You say with seriousness. “At first we thought it was one of those mascot wearers molesting our patient, but we could not find a zipper on it or any other indication of a costume. This thing breaths, has bad breath, makes drool, has body odor & all of the other things living organisms produce. It’s legit.” 

 Walter turns the monster on it’s back & feels around, examining it. He feels under its shirt. “Well, for one thing, this creature is a female.” 

“Wait, how do you know that?” You ask. 

“Joe, it has tits.” 

“Really? That monster looks flat as a board.”

Walter pulls up the shirt & you see really small breasts. “Jesus, she’s flat as a board.” You say.

“Yeah, I know. I’m just shocked you two didn’t realize that after groping this thing for a zipper or whatever. Her species is probably K selected or she has K selected characteristic for her species.” (Don’t know what R/K Selection is? Here’s a good video on it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvCTVXyPyNQ )Walter says as he covers the shirt over its breast. He starts to feel around its groin. Walter pulls down its shorts & panties to take a closer look at its genitalia. His fingers spread its vaginal lips. “Well, Joe I’m pretty convinced now that this creature is legit. No way you can fake genitalia like that.” He’s playing around with it & examining it more closely. “Joe, get the light closer,” Walter asks. You move the light closer to the monster’s groin so Walt can have a better look. 

“Ewww,” Jane says in disgust. “Why the fuck are you two molesting the thing?” 

“If you must know, it’s because its vagina looks very similar to a human vagina. Hell, it’s body looks very human-like. But it has fur, a tail & a shark-like head with ears & horns. Even though this creature has no relation to humans in any way. It managed to evolve human-like characteristics. This right here is a prime example of convergent evolution.” Walter says ecstatically as he pulls up the monster’s shorts over its crouch & stops his examination. 

Walter turns towards Joe. “What are you two gonna do with this specimen?” He asks.

“I was planning on studying it with my assistant. But I also was hoping you can be part of my study here too, Walter. That’s why I came to you here so late. & again, sorry to wake you up.” 

“That’s in the past, Joe. But if you expect me to work with you, I gonna still need that two-hundred for the stir you caused me this morning.” He says sternly as he has his hand out expecting you to cough up the dough you promised. 

“Oh damn it, Walt.” You huff as you reach in your wallet for the two-hundred you owe him. The money is in his hands & the transaction is complete. “Walter, I want to bring this monster back to my place for now. Do you want to ride back with us? Keep in mind that you’ll be in the back with the monster.” 

“Do you have any sedatives?”

“No, sorry. If it wakes up you’ll probably have to hold it down. Are you okay with that?” 

He takes a look at the monster as you ask him that. Walter doesn’t look that worried honestly. “Yeah, I don’t mind. I don’t think a four-foot bondaged green furball is going to do much damage to me.” Walter says confidently. 

“Oh, Walt,” Jane says from the front window of the truck. She throws a hand sanitizer bottle at his face. “CLEAN YOUR FUCKING HANDS YOU PERVERT!” She yells. “Wash that alien pussy juice off your nasty hands right now!” 

Walter bends down, picks up the hand sanitizer & proceeds to use it. “Fine, lady. Jesus, do you scream rape when your gynecologist checks on your saggy vag!”

“YOU MOTHER FUCKER!!!” Jane shouts as she throws a leftover soda container at Walt. However, she did not anticipate Walter’s unusual fast reflexes for someone whos so tired & cranky. Walt just dodged it. 

“YOU STUPID BITCH!” Walter yells back.

“That does it!” Jane is about to go full bitch mode on Walt. She opens the truck door with force & runs over to Walt to slap him senseless. Walter is very blunt with people & tends to not give a fuck. Even with women. No fucks given. 

“Whoa, whoa! Take it easy you two.” You say as you get in-between the two of them to break up their fight. 

“Jane, cool it. Get back in the car & Walt, shut up & get in the back of the truck with the monster.” 
 
 They both give each other a sour look & walk to their seat in the car. Jane sitting in the front with you while Walter sits behind Jane. Both of them, sulking & having their arms crossed. You get yourself into the front seat & drive away from Walter’s house. You’re all sitting in silence until Walter asks you more questions about the monster. 

“So, Joe… Did you find it in the clothing it is wearing?”

“Yeah, of course. Why?” 

“What was it doing when you two first found it?” 

“It was staring at our patient & then began to open & close the closet door in the patient's room obsessively.” 
 
“Has the monster been unconscious this entire time, right?” 

“Yeah of course. I hit it in the back of the head with a bat.” 

“& how long has it been since you knocked it out?”

“About thirty or so minutes I think.”

“Joe, you fucking retard! You’re a sleep doctor. You should know that most knockouts have the person unconscious for a few minutes or less. Any longer than three minutes usually means that they have received serious brain damage.”

You smash your head against the steering wheel as you drive. How could you forget that? You probably forgot that because of the lack of sleep you had. “DAMN IT!” You yell. “I really screwed the pooch!” 

“Yeah, you fucked up. You put your monster in a comatose state. Way to go.” 

 Walter uses the flashlight on his phone to check on the monster. He opens one of the monster’s eyes to check for pupil stimuli response. Its eye is yellow with a big black pupil in the middle of it. The pupil is not responding to the light stimuli from Walt’s phone. “I’m not getting any pupil response, Joe.” He says with panic. & right when he checks the other eye for stimuli response, its other eye opens up. Its eyes now dilated & turning into slits. The monster yells loudly from Walter’s touching. Startled, Walter leans back on his side of the car. Using his legs & feet as a shield against the tied up monster. “Holy shit, it woke up!”

“Walter, hold it down. I don’t want to get mauled by a monster.” Jane says looking back.

The monster is struggling in its zip-tie restraints & screaming. “SOMEONE HELP ME! HELP!” The monster yells.

Walter now looks amazed by the screaming creature. “Sweet Jesus. It speaks English. Joe, you score us an intelligent alien that can speak our language.” 

“Don’t touch me, you toxic human!” The monster snaps at Walter. “Your toxins & germs will kill me.” It tries to curl up on its side of the car. Trying to get away from any physical contact from Walter.

“Good job, Walter. You exposed it to your germs. It’s probably now gonna die from a common cold or something.” You say. 

“Your one to talk, Joe.” Walter blurts out. “You & Jane exposed it to pathogens too by dragging it to your truck.” 

“Oh no!” The monster says. “I’m gonna die from human germs!” 

“Don’t worry fuzzy,” Walt says. “Me & Joe are doctors & she is a nurse.” 

“I AM A DOCTOR YOU BASTARD!” Jane yells back at Walter. 

“Soon you will be. But not yet, honey. So, fuzzy. Me, Joe & the almost doctor can treat you if you have any serious bugs that you may have come in contact from us. But honestly, I don’t think you’ll get our germs. It’s pretty hard for germs to cross to another species. You have to have constant long term exposure for that to happen.” 

“So what if I don’t get yah nasty germs. I still got your human poisons all over me. I need to get back to my world & have a monster doctor cure me.” It starts crying & digging its horns into the back seat leather. “Let me go home. Let me go home. Please!” 

“Joe,” Jane says to Joe. “It’s digging its horns into your backseat.” 

“Yeah.” Walt chimes in. “it’s doing a number on the leather seat, Joe.” 

You bang your hand repeatedly on the steering wheel. “Da fuck, Walter! I asked you to restrain it!” 

“Joe, If It says I have toxins that could kill her, I don’t want to do more damage then we already have.” 

You bang your fist against the steering wheel again. “Well, that’s just fucking great. It’s ripping up my seats with its horns & we may have poisoned it. That’s just frickin fantastic.” You mumble in anger. 

“Stop referring to me as an IT!” The monster yells out. “I’m a she, a person, &… A… Gulp… A virgin… Wahhh, I’m gonna die a virgin!” She starts sobbing manically again.

“Walt! Make it. No! I meant her. Make her stop crying.” You say.

“What do you want me to do, Joe? Read it a bedtime story. Sing it a lullaby? If we had sedatives, I would have sedated it already.” Walter responds with annoyance. 

The monster starts kicking Walter even with both of her ankles still tied up. “I’M A SHE! NOT AN IT! YOU JERK!” The monster yells at Walter.

Walter starts kicking back at the monster. “Well at least I’ve fucked someone before, you virgin it!” 

“You arrogant human! How has someone with your toxic personality ever had sex with anyone.” She yells as she kicks him some more. 

Now both Walt & the monster are kicking each other in the back of the seat like a bunch of siblings who are fighting over who crossed their side of the car seat. This is immature, even for Walter’s standards. 

“Walter!” Jane howlers. “What happened to not spreading your toxins to the monster?” 

“Well, that was before IT started to kick me.” He responds as he deliverers another kick to the monster.

“STOP CALLING ME IT! YOU BIG JERK!” The monster says & she gives Walter another retaliatory kick.

“Jane do something. I got another few miles to go before we get back to my house.” You say pleading to Jane.

“Walter! Monster, stop kicking each other now!” she screams at Walter & the monster. 

A few seconds after she told them to stop. The monster starts convulsing & yelling in pain. “OH, MY HEAD! IT REALLY HURTS!” The monster says as it screeches in pain. Thirty seconds of screaming & convulsing later, the monster faints. 

“Walter! Did you just kill her? Jane asks Walter with gloom.

“I don’t think my kicking could have caused this. Joe, I think either the concussion may have created serious head trauma or our human toxins may have caused it to seize up & may have cause those headaches it was complaining about. The toxins it referred to us about early, maybe killing it right now as we speak. Joe, floor it! It may need serious medical attention.” 

You floor it & drive over the speed limit to your house. After about three minutes of over the speed limit driving, you, your associates, & the monster arrive at your house. Once you park in your driveway, you tell Jane & Walt to grab a pair of gloves from the trunk, carry the monster to your spare bedroom as you go ahead of them to look for your adrenaline, smelling salts, stethoscope, respirator & defibrillator that you have laying around in your house. As you're rummaging through your medicines & supplies in your office, you hear Walter & Jane bitching at each other as they carry the monster to your spare bedroom. Once you got everything, you run to your spare bedroom. You see Walter checking the monster’s pulse & from the looks of it. He’s having a hard time finding the monster’s pulse. It must be all of that fur that she has. 

“Is her fur making it difficult to get an accurate pulse?” 

“Yeah,” Walter responds. “Come on over here, use that stethoscope already.” 

 He waves you over to the unconscious monster. He lifts off her shirt for you so you can press your stethoscope against her chest. As you use your stethoscope, you don’t notice any abnormal heart rate. You’re beginning to think she freaked herself out. She may be experiencing the nocebo effect. You take out your smelling salts, break it & put it in front of her nose. “I don’t think she’s getting poisoned. I think it’s all in her head. Jane, can I have those Tic-Tacs you were sucking on earlier?” You ask. 

Jane pulls the Tic-Tacs out of her purse & hands them to you. After a few seconds of the smelling salts being near her nasal cavities, she comes too. She jumps out of bed with a loud gasp. Startled by you & your associates' presence, She screams again & huddles against the wall where the bed leans on. The monster starts hacking. 

“Couggh! Cough! Get away from me yo- COFF! You toxic humans!” She coughs out. 

You show her the Tic-Tacs & shake them in front of her. “Listen here.” You say. “I got medicine that can get rid of the human toxins in your system. & after taking it, you’ll be immune to any type of human toxins that your body may come in contact with. So, what do you say lady?”

The monster has her restrained hands out in front of you, wanting you to give her your “medicine”. “Please, I don’t want to die!” She pleads with watering eyes. “Please! Please! PLEASE! Give me the medicine!” 

You pour a bunch of the Tic-Tacs into her hands & she gobbles them up in an instant. After she loudly gulps them down, she lays in the bed panting with relief. 

“You said your head was hurting in the car. Do you want us to get you some ice?” You ask.

“Yes, please. It still feels very sore.” She moans. 

“Jane, get her some ice & a bottle of water as well. You can find it in the refrigerator.” 

Jane walks out of the room to get what you asked for. 

“Now, that I have helped remove the human toxins in your system, can I ask a few questions about you?” 

She sits up in the bed with nervousness. The monster takes a moment to collect her thoughts. “What do you want to know?” 

“Well, how about your name? My name is Dr. Joe Shomoe. What about yours?” 

“My name is Loka Iscennah. I build doors...” 

One of your brows raises when hearing that. Build doors? You thought she was scaring your patient. Is she lying to you about the scaring & saying that she builds doors as an excuse? “You build doors, huh? What kind of doors?” 

“Well… I can’t tell you what kind of doors I make. You’re a human after all. It’s confidential to your kind.” 

“If you’re not gonna answer my question Loka, then I’m gonna accuse you of lying.” You say sternly. “So, let me ask another question. Why are you scarring my patient?” 

“Seriously, doctor, if you are one. I build doors & maintain them. That’s my job.” 

“Then why did I find you in my patient’s bedroom? Were you admiring the craftsmanship of his closet door? Or maybe you were trying to scare him?” You say accusingly.

“Doctor, when I was opening & closing that child’s door, I wasn’t trying to scare the child, I was trying to get out of the room.” 

“How does going into the closet get you out of his room, Loka? Last time I checked, I didn’t see a monster world when I opened up his closet. Are you coming into his room to scare him through his window or through some form of teleportation technology?”

“I don’t scare kids!” Loka says in frustration. “I failed the scarer test in my university years. I dropped out of scaring & went into door building & maintenance. It’s a lot more interesting honestly. You have to learn a lot more about the kids so the scarers can scare them at the right time.” 

“So you monsters are scaring kids like my patient. Why are you scaring them in the middle of the night for anyway? Does your kind feed off of their mental energy like a bunch of psychic vampires or something? Or does you’re kind get some kind of sadistic kick out of making human kids sleep-deprived?” 

“Again, I don’t scare them! & what the heck is a psychic vampire?” 

“Hey! I wasn’t the one trespassing into a sleep-deprived kid's bedroom here. I think it obvious that you don’t ask the questions. I do. Now, why are you & the other monsters scaring human kids like my patients & how did you get into my patient's room?” 

Loka starts sobbing again.“If I told you, I don’t think I can ever return to my world. They probably banish me to your world if I came back & told them that I opened my big mouth about monsters to the humans.” 

Okay, now you are starting to feel bad about being the bad cop in this interrogation. Jane comes back with the ice & water & hands it to you. You sit next to Loka on the bed & lean towards her with the ice pack. “May I put this on your head?” You ask her. 

“Sniff…Please. My head still hurts.” She pleads. 

You put it on her head. A coo of relief escapes Loka’s mouth. “I’m sorry I’m asking these questions, Loka. But, if you cooperate with us more, maybe we can help you get back to your home. Wherever that is.” 

A glimmer of hope shines off of Loka’s eyes. “You can really bring me back home, doctor?” 

“Well, I honestly don’t know for sure, yet. If we can get some more info from you Loka, then maybe me & my associates can use the information that you give us to find you a way back home.” 

 Loka ponders on your promise of returning her to her home. Again, you don’t know enough about how she even got in Stevie’s room to begin with. But if you can get knowledge, tech, or DNA from her that would be a win for you, Walter & Jane in your opinion. However, if she can provide you with enough information about how she got into Stevie’s room, then maybe you can get her back to her world. 

“Even if I do tell you about why we monsters scare kids or how I got here. I don’t think my people will accept me again. I’ll still be trapped here.” She sobs again. 

“Well, how do you know that they won’t accept you back if you don’t try?” 

“It’s all protocol with them. They probably think I’m a bio-hazard or something.” 

“How about this, maybe me & my associates can offer your kind something they don’t have?” 

“Again, I think they will dispose of any kind of offering as a bio-hazard.” 

“Well, how do you know that?” 
 
 “Because they have containment breaches at Monster’s Inc all the time. The CDA will just destroy it in some containment protocol. Heck, they probably might keep me in isolation or something if I come back.” 

“What if we come with you as human ambassadors? Were not kids, I bet something interesting came come from a first contact.” 

“First contact? What do you mean by that?” 

“Well, do you monsters have any space alien movies?”

“What are those?” She asks with bewilderment.

“Wait, Really? Have your kind ever gone to outer space?” 

“What’s so interesting about outer space?” 

“It’s interesting because you can travel to a place that no one else can ever physically go to without a space ship. Loka, have your kind never envisioned beings on other worlds before?”
 
 “No, why would we? Every monster knows life only exists in Xibalba & in the human world. Everything else outside of those worlds is lifeless & barren.” 

“Hmmm is that so.” You say with surprise. “What is Zee-ba-ba by the way?”

“It’s the monster world!” She says with offense. “& it’s pronounced Zi-Bal-ba!”

“Sorry, Loka. The name is honestly a tongue twister. Our world’s name is really not that hard to pronounce.” 

“What is your world’s name may I ask?”

“Our planet is called Earth.”

Loka starts laughing. “Why do your kind name your planet after dirt?”

 “I don’t know. That’s what it’s always been called.” 
 
“Well, doctor! Our world’s named by the monster god, Kukulkan. The all-powerful feathered snake monster god named our world & has given monster kind the responsibility to scare human younglings to please our scary feathered lord! Or what some monsters say. I’m not the biggest believer in Kukulkan honestly.” 

“I don’t even want to try to even pronounce that.” You say with embarrassment. “Loka, we’re getting off-topic. Let’s start over. You never have seen anything with space aliens?”

“Nope!”

“Well… This is gonna be a lot harder to explain to you then. Well, the idea of a first contact is when one group of people meets a new group of people. AKA, beings that are not human. We would talk about our people's relations, ambitions & needs. It would be an exchange of cultures & ideas. A negotiation. & maybe through these negotiations, humans & these hypothetical beings could exchange resources & technologies & better ourselves in the process.” 

“What would you want from us monsters?” 

“I don’t know. Maybe you have resources that can cure our diseases or have technologies that can revolutionize our world. Maybe humanity can offer something to your kind that can benefit them."

"That sounds interesting." She remarks. 

 How about this, Loka? I’ll tell you what I mean if you tell me more about yourself & your kind. I’ll even cut your restraints off if you work with me here. I really don’t want to hurt you Loka, but you got to give me a reason to trust you just as much as I got to give you a reason to trust you. So, what do you say?”

 She thinks about your offer again. Loka looks very conflicted about all of this. But, you can tell from her mannerism that she’s starting to trust you more. You get a knife out of your pocket & offer to cut her restraints if she works with you. “I’ll make you some food too, Loka. I bet you’ll feel more comfortable if you had some food while you talk to us about yourself. I’ll even tell you all about my doctorates if you want too.” You put the knife under her restraints. “So, do we have a deal?” You ask again.

“Yes, Dr. Joe. It’s a deal.” She says with little confidence.

 You cut her restraints off with your knife as carefully as possible & hand her the ice pack & water bottle. Loka takes big gulps from her water as she rests the ice pack on her head. She finishes her water in an instant & hands you the empty bottle. You get up & offer your hand to her. “Here, take my hand, Loka. I show you to my kitchen.” You say. She takes your hand with caution & follows you & your associates to your kitchen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 3: Not Stevie’s Monster

 A few steps out of your guest room later, you offer her a chair to your kitchen table while you & your associates make themselves comfortable around the table. You make sure that you & Jane have a seat near Loka because Walter will probably make her feel really nervous. After all, she already had a kerfuffle with Walter in the car ride. You don’t want to bring back any bad vibes. As much as you & your associates are excited to continue to talk to a real monster, Loka is shaking in her seat & fiddling with her thumbs. You get up from your seat to feel Loka’s forehead to see if she is burning up. She’s probably nervous, but your also a doctor & have to make sure she didn’t get sick from something you may have exposed her to. “Do you feel sick, Loka?” You ask. 

“No, I’m just scared.” 

You take your hand off her forehead. “Relax Loka. I promise me & my associates won’t hurt you. You have my word. Now, can I ask what you may want to eat this morning?” 

Loka looks into your eyes. All you see in her eyes is anxiety & mistrust. She then starts mumbling to her self & you can’t make out anything she is saying. “How about this Loka.” You respond. “From your physiology, I would assume you are carnivorous, but teeth can be deceiving. After all, humans have herbivore like teeth. But in reality, Humans evolved these teeth for chewing through meat & other fruits & grains. I have some fish I can cook up for you if you want that. Or I can cook you some eggs & bacon. Maybe if you want to experiment, I can cook you some french toast with some nice sweet syrup.” Loka is just quiet to your suggestions. She is just staring down at your feet now. “How about this, Loka.” You take out your cell phone out of your pocket. “I’ll show you your options.” You search up cooked salmon since that’s the fish you have in your fridge. You show her the seasoned fish. “look, this is the fish I can cook up for you if you want it. Or…” You type up eggs & bacon & show her the other food option. “You can have the classic eggs & bacon combo. I can make the eggs any way you want them.” Then you type up french toast & show her her last choice. “Or you can have some french toast with some nice maple syrup. So which breakfast choice do you want?” 

Loka is thinking about her options. “I want the fish & some of those eggs you showed me.” 

“Do you want the eggs over easy like in the picture or scrambled?”

“Over easy, please.” 

“Okay I can cook both of them if you want.” You turn around & face Walter & Jane. “Jane, Walter? I assume you guys want some coffee & do you also want me to make you some breakfast as well?” 

“A definite yes on that coffee, Joe.” Jane says. “& I want some eggs as well & could you also cook some bacon with that too?” 

“Yeah sure. & what about you, Walter?” 

“I’ll have what the nurse is having” Walter says.

“SCREW YOU! YOU JERK OFF!” Jane yells to Walter as he laughs at her. 

As your about to walk to your fridge, Loka grabs you by your shirt & wave you over to her. “Come closer.” She says quietly. “I want to tell you something.” You bend down to her so your in ear shot to her. “Jane scares me.” Loka whispers to you. 

“Oh don’t worry about her.” you rub her head. “She’s nice once you get to know her. Now let me make us some food. Okay, Loka.”

“Okay, doc.” Loka replies. 

 Twenty minutes of cooking later, you finish cooking up everyone’s food. During those twenty minutes, Jane & Walter were trying to have some casual conversations with Loka. They don’t get any success in sparking a conversation with Loka. Loka just sits in her seat quietly. Filled with nervousness & is shaking as she hugs her own tail in fear of Walter & Jane. Jane may have her bitch moments, but she’s nothing to be afraid of. & Walter is smart, but he’s a total sperg. She seems to only want to talk to you. You put down every ones food on the table & grab some coffee for you & your associates. You take your seat & take a nice big gulp of your coffee. After all, you feel like shit for not having good sleep. Loka is just staring at her food. Examining it. She even pokes it a few times with her finger. 

“What’s wrong, Loka?” You ask as you eat your own eggs & bacon. “You think the food is poisoned or something?” 

“No, it’s just different from what I usually eat is all.” 

“Don’t let my fish go to waste, lady. I paid good money for that.” 

“Okay, doc. I’ll try some.” She picks it up with her hands & takes gerbil like nibbles of the salmon. Once she gets a good taste of it, her eyes open up wide with predatory slits. Loka gobbles up the Salmon in one bite. She then lifts up her plate & slurps up the three over easy eggs you made for her. She chews up the eggs as she savors the runny yolk that bleeds out of them. In another big gulp, the eggs are gone. Loka licks her maw & fingers with satisfaction. “The breakfast tasted really good, doc.” She says to you with a smile. 

Your startled by her voracious appetite. “Ahhh… Your welcome Loka.” You say calmly.

 Jane looks disgusted as hell with what she just saw & Walter looks pretty entertained by all of it. “Fuck, Joe.” He says. “I should have recorded that with my cellphone. Loka, can you do that again for us?” Loka, looks really perturbed by that request. 

“Walt! She isn’t some animal to watch for your amusement. If anything, Joe, you should show Loka some table etiquette.” Jane says. 

“What? Table etiquette? I was just eating breakfast.” Loka says with offense. 

“Loka, fish & eggs aren’t finger food.” You pick up her fork & show it to her. “You eat the food with a fork.” You show her how you eat the eggs with your fork. “You eat it just like that.” 

“Why would you waste perfectly good metal just to eat food?” Loka responds. “Us monster would be using that metal for actual things. Not for eating.” 

“But loka.” Jane chimes in. “When you eat your food with a fork. It is a lot less messy. You wouldn’t get any of that fish juice on your hands & it’s just more civilized.” 

“Gawd. You humans are weird. Licking the juices off your fingers is one of the best parts of eating any meal.” Loka replies to Jane.

“Look, finger licking is good & all, but most humans don’t… Uhh. Eat so… loudly & improperly.” 

“Maybe your just a bunch of pompous humans!”

“I AM NOT POMPOUS!” Jane yells with offense.

“Are too!” 

“ARE NOT!” 

“Are too!” Loka sticks out her tongue mockingly to Jane. Jane growls in response to Loka’s immaturity. 

“Jane!” Walter interjects. “Stop enforcing human things to Loka. After all she is an alien to our culture. & besides. I am not really offended by how Loka eats. It may be a little primal in all honestly. But, if she wants to eat like that, its not gonna hurt me or you. So what’s the big fucking whop?” 

“IT’S FUCKING GROSS THAT’S WHY!” Jane yells furiously at Walter. 

“Jane, cool it! Your scaring Loka.” You tell Jane. 

 Jane takes a deep breath & lays her hand on her face. “Sorry, Loka. I lost my cool.” 

“Well I’m not sorry pompous Jane!” She sticks her tongue out to Jane again. Jane’s right eyebrow twitches with anger. 

“Loka.” You say with disapproval & crossed arms. “That’s not very nice. Jane said she was sorry.” 

“Okay doc. Okay. I’m sorry for calling your a pompous human Jane.” 

Jane rollers her eyes at Loka’s half baked apology. “Oy vey.” She huffs. 

 After that outburst, everyone in the room is silent. You & your associates awkwardly eat & stare at Loka. Loka looks really board now as she holds her head up with her left arm. She hits the pointed end of her fork with a fist so it will do a flip in the air like an acrobat. The flipped forks flies into the middle off the table. Startling you, Jane & Walter.

“Jane. Please don’t play with the silverware like that.” You tell her. 

“Sorry. I’m just bored, Doc.”

“How about this, Loka. How about we talk about how you got into Stevie’s room?” 

Loka gets uncomfortable with that question. “Okay, Doc. I’ll tell you. I read the child’s profile. You know, your patient. His profile said he was really easy to scare & I wanted to prove to my friend that I could scare him if I wanted to. But when I was in his room, I just froze up & choked. I got so afraid of the child in that instant. So after a few embarrassing minutes of staring over the child later, I tried to get back to my world through the kids closet. But the connection to my world was severed somehow & I couldn’t get back. That’s what happened, Doc.” 

“So you were trying to scare my patient. Why did you lie to me about that, Loka?” 

“I’m sorry, Doc. I was afraid you would hurt me more. What I told you was true. I didn’t scare your patient, I build doors, I failed scaring, I don’t feed off of fear & I came into his room through his closet. All of that was true. I was just being dishonest about my reason for being there. That’s all.” 

“Well, that’s understandable after all. I did hit you in the head with a bat & I tied you up. But you have to understand, Loka. When we first saw you, we didn’t know what you would do if you weren’t tied up. For all I know, you would have mauled me or something. That was all done out of caution. Not out of malice.” 

“I understand, Doc. We monsters though would have been way worse if one of you have came through to our side. I could not even imagine with the CDA would have done in that scenario.” Loka says with dread.

“Maybe we can arrange a visit to your world that won’t have us messed up in any bad way from these CDA people you keep on talking about. Who are they anyway?” You ask.

“CDA stands for Child Detection Agency. Anything that comes from your world must be destroyed & anything any monster may have come in contact with from your world must go through decontamination. It’s a pretty gnarly procedure. I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.” 

“The name sounds a like like the CDC.” Walter adds.”

“Yeah, it does honest.” You remark in agreement. “Loka, can you explain more thoroughly how you used Stevie’s closet to get to our world?” 

“We use an energy source called scream to make a portal to our world to yours. The negative energy of scream stabilizes the portal & prevents it from collapsing on itself.”

“Interesting,” Walter injects. “Your kind have discovered negative matter?” 

“Yes. It’s actually a lot more common than people think it is. We get our scream from the kids we scare. That’s why monsters scare kids. Monsters depend on scream to power everything.” Loka says with pride. 

As much as Loka is boastful about monsters achievements in energy, you, Jane & especially Walter looks stupefied. “HOW!” Walter moans as he slams his hand against his forehead with a loud smack. “How in the holy shit do you get energy from scaring kids? Let alone a theoretical exotic matter like negative matter from scaring kids?! Joe! I call fucking bullshit! We have been testing for exotic matter in large particle accelerators for decades & she tells us we can get these exotic particles from scaring kids?! Come on!” 

“That is really dumb?” Jane comments. “I bet they kidnap kids, plug them into the monster matrix & turn them into batteries.” Jane says mockingly. 

 Both Jane & Walter are laughing hysterically at what Loka had told them while you keep a straight face. Loka looks demoralized by their remarks. Honestly you find the story pretty absurd too. But, she looks absolutely serious with everything she told you. Loka looks to you for approval. “Joe, you believe me don’t you?” She pleads. You think hard about how to respond. You’re in agreement with Walter & Jane’s take on Loka’s story, but you just met Loka & your don’t want you & your associates to give her a bad first impression of humanity. 

“Loka,” you say with sincerity. “I’ll be honest with you, I find what you say hard to believe too. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t prove to us that you’re right though.” 

“But Joe, How can I prove it to you. I don’t have any of the tools or the equipment to make a door. With out those things, I can’t go back home. Sniff... I can’t prove it at all.” Loka starts sobbing in her hands with frustration. 

You move closer to Loka & put an arm around her shoulders. “Loka, please don’t cry. I know a scientist who will listen to what you have to say. In fact, I would say he’s even smarter that all of us combined. Maybe you can work with him to build a door way back to your world.” 

“Sniff… Really?” Loka says as she looks up to you. 

“Yes really.” You tell her with reassurance.

Walter slams his fist against the table. “Oh, damn it, Joe! I do not want Hans in our business! That smug fucker will steal all of our findings if we let him join! Besides, I just think she’s lying to us.” Walter rants angrily. 

“Well Walt, If Hans can’t go off of anything Loka has to tell him, then I think we’ll know if she is lying or not. Also, who else here is able to figure this doorway portal thing out? We’re experts in biology, not physics & R&D. That’s Hans’ expertise.” 

“God fucking damn it! Loka, isn’t there an alternative power source we could cook up ourselves to make your portal work?” Walter asks with irritation.

“No, it can only work with scream. That’s what everything is powered with. There’s no alternative to scream. It’s the only power source in existence.” 

Walter looks even more stupefied than before. “What? Monsters don’t have other energy alternatives?”

“Why do I always got to repeat myself. Scream is the only form of energy in existence! I thought you humans were suppose to smart.” Loka says with aggravation.

“Yeah, Loka of course we are smart. But humans have more than just one energy source you know. That’s why I’m puzzled. Your a species that can travel between worlds, yet you only use one source of energy & no other. Hell, from what you were telling us earlier, it sounds like you monsters don’t even have a space program.” 
“You humans really have other energy sources? I find that hard to believe.” 

“How is that hard to believe?!” Walter blurts out. “Joe just cooked you food on his electrical stove, the lights are on, & we drove you here in an automobile. We never even heard of scream before you even came here. So how else are we powering all of our electronics? HMMM? 

“You don’t get scream from your children?” 

“No, Loka,” Jane breaks in. “That would be child abuse. That’s illegal.” 

“A better question would be why doesn’t your kind harvest scream from your kids?” Walter asks

“Well, you can get scream from monsters, but it’s doesn’t produce enough energy. From what I learned in Monster U, not even one hundred monster could fill up on canister of scream like one child could. Monsters are a bad energy source for scream extraction.” 

“Alright, alright. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. Human children produce a very powerful energy source. Okay. But, why go the extra mile to travel to our world to get this energy? Your kind risk exposure to us. & I wouldn’t be shocked if one of you kind has already been sent to Area 51 or some other black site that the government goons don’t want you to know about. Why not make an alternative energy in your world? Why take such a big risk?” 

Loka looks stumped with Walter’s questions. She sits there in silence just trying to think of a response. “I’m not sure, Walter. I’m not sure.” Loka sits in her chair just pondering on what Walter asked. 

 Walter presents a very good argument. Why have the monsters been traveling to our world for their only fuel source? For a group of monsters who are capable of a form of faster than light travel, how have they not stumble upon different energy sources? Why haven’t they achieve interstellar travel? How did they even manage to discover us? & most importantly, how have they managed to acquire their energy source to achieve their faster than light travel without human children in the first place? The way she boasted about the monster race’s achievements sound incredibly ignorant. Just her earlier remark about everything outside our worlds being dead just drips & oozes with naivety. Hasn’t her species every come up with a Drake equation or a Fermi paradox theory of their own? Loka just acts like all of the big questions have already been answered & you shouldn’t care if there are more questions that need to be answered. Hopefully, you & your associates can make her question her reality more. She seems to really need to examine her own ideas & verify if they hold up or not. 

“Walter,” Loka asks. “If humans don’t use scream, then what kind of energy sources do you humans use?” 

“That’s a good question, Loka. We use fossil fuels, natural gases, hydroelectric energy, wind power, solar power, geothermal energy, hydrogen energy & my personal preference nuclear energy.” Walter answers.

Loka looks fascinated with what Walter told her. “Wow, Walter. I didn’t realize that there were some many different types of energy. Can you teach me how to make some these?” 

“We can give you resources on this stuff, but I don’t know how to build any of these things myself. But… Maybe you can ask… Hans about it.” Walter mumbles out. 

“Walter, “you interrupt. “How about you talk to Loka more about alternative fuel sources & such. I wanted to get some things for my office. Um, you know to show Loka.”  

“Sure thing, Joe.” Walter responds as he give you a thumbs up & a goofy smile.

You get out of your seat & move closer to Loka. “Loka, will you be alright without me for a few minutes?” You ask quietly to her.

“I’ll be fine, Joe. I just curious about your energy sources. Maybe, I can bring back this knowledge to my people.” 

“Glad to hear that, Loka.” You pat her on the back & walk to your office to get some of your patient’s files. Your patient Stevie for instance is getting frequented by a different monster other than Loka & you want to know who this monster is. You are also gathering other files on patients you have that are also being scared by other monsters that Loka may know. Once you got all of the patient files you need, you head back to your kitchen to find Jane & Walter arguing with each other. Again. You were expecting Loka to be scared of the two of them because of this. But instead, she looks annoyed as hell about it. She is scoffing over their petty bickering. 

“SOLAR & WIND ENERGY SUCK!” Walter yells 

“NOOOO! NUCLEAR SUCKS! I DON’T WANT ANOTHER CHERNOBYL YOU DUMBASS!” Jane yells back at Walter. 

 Oh, gawd. Why? Why of all things are they arguing over this? I can understand if Walter pissed off Jane, but you honestly thing that Jane let herself get offended by Walter this time. But, then again. This is also Walter we are talking about. He probably said something blunt & didn’t give a shit about what Jane thought about it. You walk up to the table & slam your files against the table with a hard slap. It shuts them up immediately. You take a seat & give Jane & Walter a stern look. The embarrassed look on their faces is priceless. “Now that I’m back, lets drop any petty quarrels & get back to business.” You say. You open Stevie’s file & take out the drawing that Stevie drew of his monster. “So, Loka. I gather some files on my patients & I wanted to show you some of the drawings that they made of their monsters so you can identify them for us.” You show her Stevie’s drawing of his monster. “The patient’s room that we found you in, this is his the monster that normally scares him. Do you know who this is, Loka?” 

“That looks a lot like Jennette. She’s my roommate at my apartment.” 

“Is this picture. Errrr. Actuate to her depictions?” 

“For a crude kids drawing, I guess so. Only difference is she isn’t really a big monster. Jennette is about the five feet tall. Also, as much as she’s my friend & all, I don’t think she’s that scary. She’s cute, I honestly feel that I am more scary looking than she is.” 

“But Loka, “Walter interrupts. “You look adorable. A monster like you looks to cute to be scary.” Walter compliments. 

“I’M NOT CUTE!!! I SCARY!!! RAWR!!! She yells as she gives off the most adorable roar you have ever heard. Her roar is like one of those videos with a baby lion trying to roar like a grown up lion. Walter is not phased by her scare. But instead looks like he’s filled with tenderness & affection. Loka, looks very self-conscious about her scaring now. “Was I even scary, Walter?” She asked with embarrassment. 

“You were absolutely wholesome.” Walter responds. 

“No wonder why I didn’t pass the scaring course.” Loka sulks. 

“Whats wrong with being cute, Loka?” You ask. 

“Monsters are suppose to be scary, not cute, doc. It’s just embarrassing to be cute in the monster world. No one can take you seriously.” 

“Well, sorry to break it to you, Loka. But, humans don’t tend to take cute things seriously too.” Walter comments.

“Oh great! I’m a joke here too.” Loka pouts. 

“Being cute isn’t a bad thing, Loka, “You tell her. “Cuteness in girls can be a virtue for many humans, especially for men.” 

“Yeah,” Walter adds. “Men do like cute girls. Scary girls can be a real turn off for the majority of men.” 

“awe, how nice. Are you two hitting on me?” Loka teases.

You & Walter both blush red as Jane chuckles at the two of you. “Ah Loka, I was just complimenting you. Don’t make it too personal.” You say.

“Yeah!” Walter hollers out. “I’m not really into monsters. Sorry nothing personal, Loka. I'm into human women.” 

Loka waves you two off with a smile on her face. “Oh, don’t worry guys. I was just joking. Or was I?” She says as she waggles her eyebrows at you. 

“Loka,” you say inpatients as you rub your fingers against your temples. “Lets get back to it. I want to show you some more patients of mine.” 

 For the next hour, you go over the monsters that your patients are being scared by. You managed to get a lot of information about the monsters. They apparently all work in one facility called Monster Incorporated & scare as many kids as they can while they are on the clock. Loka’s friend Jennette is not only her roommate but also her partner at the company. Loka & her friend went to the same university, graduated together & both got jobs at the company. She makes doors part time at her job but her full time job is assisting Jennette with her scaring shifts. Loka went into detail on how she help’s out her friend. She gets doors for her, changes & replaces scream canisters & also gathers intel on the kids Jennette scares. As much as you have detailed medical records of your patients, Loka and other monsters in her position have gather so much more data on your patients it would make the NSA drool with envy. 

 Another thing you found interesting was how long monsters have been scaring humans for. They have been apparently scaring humans for all of our recorded history. You & Walter asked Loka how they haven’t reached any other technological advances or alternative energy sources throughout all that time? Loka responds by saying that monsters have already discovered everything & there aren’t any new discoveries to be discovered. She also essentially said that their world has always looked like a cleaner version of our 21st century world. her remarks make you & your associates think that her kind have been going through some artificially forced technological stagnation for the past few thousand years or so since discovering our world. Their culture or their leaders sound like they are holding back the monsters technological pursuits of higher advancement. You wonder if some kind of cataclysm in their past has caused them to never advanced past 21st century technology.       
 & Apparently, your patient Stevie scares really easily. In fact, she has observed him even being afraid of his own shadow. He has even told his mom of encounters of shadow people. Loka says that that’s not any monster she knows of & no monster that she knows of can become a shadow being. You have heard of this phenomenon before, but waved it off as sleep paralysis or pareidolia (If you want to know more about the shadow people watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84J7YYbT9vI).  But what was most frightening about what she said about them is that the monsters have a protocol if they detect one before entering a child’s room. Monsters will not go into a child’s room until the shadow person leaves. & if the shadow person has multiple sightings at the site, they shred the door. She says that if a monster goes into a kids room with a shadow person present, the shadow person can actually enter their world. They can be removed by the CDA, but it’s really difficult. The shadow people apparently can kill humans & monsters alike. & usually if one of them comes through a door, causalities usually occur. You & your associates are skeptical of these entities. But, then again, you do have a fluffy monster in your kitchen right now. Loka probable is telling you the truth. She seems serious enough about what she says. 

 After your hour talk with Loka, you want Jane & Walter gone for the rest of the day so you can catch up on some more sleep. But as you & Loka walk Jane & Walter out your door, Walter stops you. 
“Joe, can the three of us talk privately outside for a sec?” Walter then notices Loka behind you. “Without Loka?”

“Sure. Sure.” You respond to Walter. Your turn to Loka & tell her to wait on the couch in your living room. You tell her that you need to talk about personal matters with Walter & Jane. She complies with your request & sits on your couch. You close your front door & walk up to Walter & Jane. “Okay, Walt. I assume you want to know what we do next?”

“Yeah, I like to know what I’m allowed to do in all of this? I want to get some blood, fluid & tissue samples from Loka. I want to understand her ins & outs Joe. I don’t want to traumatize her in any way. I just want to under her biology.” 

“I’ll figure something out with that, Walter. But for now, I don’t want to make her feel uncomfortable with needles & piss cups. Maybe she’ll let you take some of her fur for an analysis. But for now, just make sure your observations won’t bring her any distress, okay.” 

“Okay. Joe, I get yah. Baby steps. Gotcha!” Walt says as he points his fingers at you in a uncool manner. 

“Joe, what about our patients? We still have check ups on them & we are still giving sleep observation to Stevie. Are we ditching all of that now for Loka?” Jane asks.

“Oh damn,” you smack your face in this realization. You completely forgot because of your lack of sleep. “Thanks for reminding me, Jane. I want to continue to see our patients. Especially Stevie. We can observe the monsters scaring him. & if Hans wants to help us build Loka’s door way, maybe he can build some kind of instrument to detect the scream extraction process. Or maybe, we could even extract scream from Stevie ourselves through these observations.” 

“But, Joe? Isn’t that unethical? We are allowing a kid to be mentally scared by an actual monster. Shouldn’t we stop the monster from scaring him? After all, me & you are sleep doctors. It’s in our job description to help people sleep.” 

 Jane has gotcha there. She’s right, everything your doing right now is incredibly unethical. But, by stopping a few monster from scaring a few kids isn’t going to stop the problem. You need to somehow establish negotiations with the monsters & offer an alternative energy source so they stop giving kids night terrors. You hate to say it, but Stevie has to take one for the team. The human team that is. 

“Look Jane. You’re right. It is unethical. But, just stopping a few monsters from scaring kids isn’t gonna make them stop scaring kids. Loka did say that scream is their only energy source. They aren’t gonna stop anytime soon. Just stopping them from scaring kids is probably going to make it a lot harder to come in contact with them. We need to be tactful about this. We have to find a way to butter up the monsters to the negotiation table. Getting in their way right now won’t get us there.” 

“I still don’t feel comfortable about this. I know I have told you I do this job for the money, but I don’t want to remembered in the history books as a mad scientist like Wendell Johnson or Antonio Moniz.” 

“Jane, we are not running the monster study. Uh. Scratch that, we are running a monster study on actually monsters, but we’re not abusing kids like Wendell Johnson was & we’re not inventing the lobotomy either. Monsters have been doing this to kids for a long time & Loka said that scream extraction does not have any side effects on humans or monsters.” 

“How do you know, Joe? She’s probably looking out for her own kind. Why would they care if they are hurting kids or not? Humans are not their people. Why would they have any interest in our kids safety? They probably view the kids as livestock to get their precious scream energy thing from.” 

“Jane has a point there, Joe,”  Walter remarks. “How do we even know that scream extraction is even safe. Maybe even Loka & the other monsters that she works with don’t even know of it’s dangers.” 

“Yeah, Joe! & the monsters don’t even extract scream from their own kind. What makes you so sure that it’s safe?”

“Loka said that Monsters don’t produce enough scream energy to make their energy consumption sustainable,” you sternly say. “If scream from monsters was just as good as human scream, then why would they go through all of the trouble of making teleportation technology just to get scream from our kids? Wasting that much energy to get energy from our kids is a huge power commitment & a risk to their own kind. If their kind’s scream energy was sufficient, then they would have no need to come to our world for scream now would they?” 

That response right there silenced Jane & Walter. Now they are just thinking of a response to your argument. 

 “You may have a point about the scream energy from kids being for powerful, but my point about scream extraction having possible side effects still stand, Joe. Are you going to let Stevie & your other patients be guinea pigs in your experiment?” 

“Jane, monsters have been doing this for a long time now. We have always as sleep doctors been letting them scare kids. It’s just now that we know that the kids were telling the truth & not making up nonsense. We are just simply observing a process that has been occurring under our noses throughout all of recorded human history. & again, Jane! If we are in any meaningful way going to stop this, we have to make first contact with the monsters.” 

Jane stays quiet for a bit after your annoyed response. “Uh, Walter didn’t drive here on his own. Do I have to drive him back? She asks with regret. 

“Yeah, I thought that was obvious.” You respond.

“Uh, fine. Walter get in my car I’ll drive you back to your house.” 

 Jane & Walter get in her car & she drives off of your property. You walk back into your house & head to your living room where Loka waits for you. You grab a few of your old PS3 games, a controller, a TV remote & place it next to Loka on the couch as you sit near her. “Loka, I wanted to get some rest right now. I’ve been up all night & didn’t get good sleep yesterday. But, I don’t want you to be bored while you wait for me to get up. Ah, so, I got you some of my old video games for you to play so you can keep yourself entertained.” 

 Loka just gives you a sour look. “You aren’t gonna hang out with me for a bit?” 

“Look, Loka. We’ve been talking for a long time now & I can usually get really bad sleep. I’ll do something with you later after I get some rest, Okay.” 

“Okay, doc.” She says sadly. 

You get up from your seat & open up the cabinet to your movie collection. If video games aren’t your thing, I also got a lot of movies here that you can watch & I got snacks in the pantry over there in the kitchen.” You point her to the pantry. “Now, before I get some sleep. Let me show you how you can play games & watch movies off of my PS3.” 
 You give her a few minutes, tutoring her on your PS3 console & also show her how she can play Netflix & your other streaming services that you own. After your showed her to to tinker with the gaming console, she decided she wanted to play your copy of Skyrim out of all of the games that you own. You get her some water & some chips & head to your room.

 Once your in your room, you take some of your new sleeping pills that you made with the pharmacological company that you work with. The pills act like trazodone, but you don’t have to eat anything before taking them & they don’t give you nausea. You take some melatonin for good measure. & before you go dozing off, you walk out of your room to use the bathroom & brush your teeth. After your hygiene & piss stop are taken care of, you go to your bed to try to get some sleep. 

 Every time you try to sleep, you have issues with getting comfortable. You are also moving when you are in your bed. You especially move your legs way to much no thanks to your restless legs. Also, you tend to get too hot as well. At some point during your sleep struggle, you will take off one of two blankets you use off of you & then feel cold & wrap the blanket around yourself again. Your temperature management & your constant moving around your bed is a constant repeating cycle of sleeplessness that you struggle with all the time. After about 30 or so minutes of this repetition, you always have sudden urge to empty your bladder. At this point, you’ll get out of your room & head to your bathroom again. 

 After you use it, you take a quick peak at Loka. She’s focusing on her game, but she takes a look at you & pauses her game.”I thought you were sleeping?” She asked.

“I was trying to, but I just have to use the bathroom.” You tell her. 

“Okay, have a nice nap, doc.” Loka turns back to the TV & continues to play her game. 

 You walk back to your room to try to sleep again to only to continue your monotonous repetition of sleeplessness. After about an hour of this, you go back to the bathroom for like the forth time. You again take a peak at Loka & she just looks back at you with bewilderment. She doesn’t understand why you haven’t fallen asleep yet. You wave her a goodbye & walk back to your room. Once you wrap yourself under the covers of your bed, you hear your door creak open. You lean yourself up & see Loka in front of your bed. She has her hands behind her back with nervousness. “Loka, I’m trying to sleep. Please, just play Skyrim or watch something.” You moan out. 

“Um, I’m kind of tired myself too. Can I sleep with you, Joe?” She asks

 You don’t feel comfortable about this at all. She is after all an alien foreigner in your home & the subject of your observation. Fraternizing like that with a new sapient species that humanity just met gives you bad vibes. In your opinion, having her sleep with you would be in bad taste. “Loka, I don’t think that’s really appropriate.”

“Why not,” She asks with offense. “Do you not like me or something?” 

“No, No, It’s not like that, Loka. I like you & all, but we just met & in all honesty I am studying you. It’s not really professional on my part to be sleeping with, with… Uh, a new sentient species I just met. It just will look bad on my documentation.” You say awkwardly. 

 Loka crawls on your bed & gets under your sheets. She lays on the side of her head so her horns won’t puncture your sheets. Loka faces you as she wraps you in a hug. “Whats so inappropriate about two friends sleeping together?” She teases. 

You try to move out of Loka’s hug, but she makes sure to not let go. She laughs at your struggling. “What wrong, doc? Are hugs toxic for humans?” 

“No, Humans hug people all the time. It’s just kind ah awkward when you get hugged by someone you just met.”

“Well, Joe. I want to get to know you better.” She says as her hug grip tightens. 

“I... Ah… I don’t think you really would like sleeping with me Loka. I tend to move around a lot when I sleep & I also have a lot of problems sleeping.” 

“I thought you were a sleep doctor, Joe. I would think you would have that magically sleeping potion that would give any sleepless guy a good nights rest. Why are you having issues sleeping?” 

“Well, Loka… I identify sleeping disorders & per-scribe medication to those that need it. I make my own medications with the pharmacological company I work with, but for some people. You know, like people like me, even the best medication doesn’t always work the best. If I didn’t have this these meds, I would have far more worse sleep that I already have.” 

 Loka pets your head & then tightens her grip again. “Maybe doctor Joe needs doctor Loka to help him fall asleep.” She seductively teases. 

“No! No! No!” You yell out as you struggle in her hug. “I think doctor joke. NO, I meant Joe needs to get to sleep on his own.” You say in embarrassment.

“Doctor Loka won’t leave a sleepless needy patient until they have taken their daily prescription of hugs & cuddles.”  She says as she hugs & cuddles you more. 

“Loka! I don’t think thi-” She puts her finger over your lips & gentle shushes you. 

“Shush now, my sleepy patient. I’m treating you with cuddles & hugs now. Just relax & fall asleep under your doctor’s cuddles now. Shush.” She whispers lovingly to you. 

“Loka?” 

“Shush.” 

Loka plea-”

“Shush.” 

“Please let me ask you a question?” 

“Okay my patient. What’s your question?” She asks as she pets your head again.

“Why are you doing this for me? I hit you over the head with a bat & basically kid napped you? Why are you being so kind to me?” You ask.

“I was already stuck here when I got into Stevie’s room. But, when you hit me in the head, you were only doing it out of protection of Stevie. I understand that. If it wasn’t you, I probably would have been in way worse hands. & you promised that you will help me get back home & show me your ways of energy & science. I want to come back to my people with the solution to the monster energy crisis. You & your friends are going to make me so much more to my people. We are going to change things for the better, Joe. & I am glad to have been hit in the head by you.” She genuinely says to you as she kisses you on the forehead. “Now, shush, Joe. Lets sleep on it.”  

 Loka embraces you & you hug her back in return. You feel more relaxed under her cuddles & begin to doze off. Your dreams are occupied by the cuddle monster that is cuddling with you right now. An unconscious smile is on your face as you are sleep cuddling with Loka. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 4: Loka Day 1

You wake up out of your bed not feeling like shit for once in your sleep-deprived life. Having Loka sleep with you helped you a lot. At first, you felt really uncomfortable with her lulling you to sleep. But in the end, you needed it. The first thing you realized when you woke up was Loka not sleeping with you. Then, the second thing you noticed this morning gave you an unsettling feeling in your gut. You smelt smoke in your house. You bolt out of your bed with the gym shorts you slept in & open your bedroom door. Your hallway is all smokey. Oh crap! Did she burn & ditch your house? You look up to the smoke detector in your hallway to see why it didn’t go off to find that it has been completely ripped off of the wall & smashed into pieces on the floor. “LOKA! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!” You yell out in anger. 

“Joe, it’s nothing to worry about. I ummmm… Just cooking you breakfast...” She says with nervousness from the smoke-filled kitchen.

You run over to your kitchen to see another smoke detector smashed on the floor. Your grinding your teeth in aggravation over this. Once you make it to the kitchen, you see Loka standing on one of your chairs while she is trying to put out the fire coming off of the cooking pan with her own hands. How has she not erupt in flames yet? She looks back at you in horror once she notices you in the kitchen. “Joe!” She pleads to you. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I got this! I GOT THIS! Please let me fix this!” 

You reach under your kitchen counter & open the cabinet to retrieve your fire extinguisher. Pulling out the pin, you aim your extinguisher at the flaming pan Loka is stupidly trying to put out with her own hands & spray out the fire retardant. The fire retardant extinguishes the fire & covers Loka in white foam. You grab the hot pan off of the stovetop & throw it in the sink with the water running on it. Then, you run over to the kitchen window, open it & then run over to the living room to open up those windows as well since your kitchen connects to your living room. After you opened up enough windows for ventilation, you walk back into the kitchen & confront Loka with the most inhospitable look of disapproval & anger on your face. You stand over Loka with your arms crossed & a hostile scowl looking down at her with displeasure. Loka looks really upset about all of this. 

"Let me see your hands, lady!" You blurt out sternly.

Tears well up in her eyes & she shows you the palms of her hands. “Sniff. Don't hit me, Joe. I just wanted to make you some breakfast as a... Sniff... As a... Sniff... As a thank you.” She falls to the floor & brings her legs into her chest to cry in a fetal position. Okay, now you feel bad. But her attempt to thank you could have burned your house down. You lean down & move her so she is sitting on the floor & has her back leaning against one of your kitchen cabinets. You move her hair away from her eyes & hold her. 

“Shhh.” You whisper to her. “Calm down, Loka. Calm down. I’m not gonna hurt yah. Let me see your hands." She shows you her hands again & you examine them for burns. Her fur & the palms of her hands looked fine. She was swatting at the fire with her own hands, how does she not have burns? "Loka, your hands, they don't have burns on them. &... & your fur is not even scorched at all." You say with befuddlement.

"I'm... Sniff... Fireproof, doc. I... Sniff... Can't be burned." She moans out sadly.

"Shh. Look Loka, I was just angry you broke my fire alarms & smoked up the house. Shhh.” You rub her back to comfort her. “I'm just glad the fire didn't burn yah. If you wanted to make me something, you could have woke me up & I would have gladly helped you with your cooking” You tell her with reassurance. 

Loka rubs the tears out of her eyes but ends up getting the flame retardant in her eyes. Which makes her cry even more. You pick her up & walk her to your bathroom. “Loka, let's get you washed up. You got a lot of foam & ash in your fur. & I also want to wash out your eyes. I don’t want that extinguisher foam to make you go blind.” You open up the bathroom, put the toilet seat down & have her sit down on it. After you seat her, you open up the bathroom closet to get her a face towel & soak some water into it through the sink. Once it is damp enough, you wipe the ash & foam off of her face. “Close your eyes for me, Loka.” She closes her eyes & you wipe away any gunk that may have come in contact with her eyes. You put your right arm around Loka & grab her left hand to lift her up again. “Come, Loka, I want to bring you to the sink to properly clean out your eyes with the faucet water.” As you are moving her closer to the sink, you realize you can’t angle her head right in the sink to wash her eyes out properly. Her horns & head get in the way to much to get a good angle. So, you turn her towards your bathtub & run water through the showerhead. You get the water to a nice warm temperature & try to lean Loka under the showerhead. 

“I don’t want to get my shirt all wet!” She whines. 

“Loka work with me here. I don’t want those chemicals messing up your eyes.”

“Let me take off my shirt then.” 

“Nope, not happening.” You blurt out with panic. You absolutely do not want to see her exposed. She is not wearing a bra. & you know that because of Walter’s fondling from earlier. “Why do you care if your shirt is wet or not? You are already covered in foam, grease & ash.” 
 
 “I don’t like my shirt feeling all soggy & wet.” She tries to take it off & you force the shirt back on her. “What’s the big deal, Doc. I thought you see this kind of thing from your patients all the time?” She yells out at you with annoyance.

“Again, I’m not that kind of doctor. I’m a sleep doctor! Keep your shirt on.” 

“No, Joe! It’s all nasty & dirty. I don’t want to wear it if it’s wet too.” She pulls off her shirt despite your hesitation. She has her bare chest exposed to you. Her breasts are small & her nipples can be seen as well. “God, Joe were all adults here. Calm down.” You gently grab her by her face & bring her eyes under the showerhead. “Keep your eyes open for me, Loka. We have to wash em out.” You remind her. As you’re keeping her eyes under the water, she keeps on closing them & you have to keep reminding her to keep them open. To make her more comfortable as well, you put your left arm around her back & hold her by her left shoulder as you rinse her eyes out. After a few minutes of having her eyes wash out by the running water, you turn off the water. Loka’s head & upper body are soaking wet. She looks miserable. You fetch her a towel from your bathroom closet & hand it to her. She takes it & just stands there in total demoralization. This is making you feel sad now. 

“How about this, Loka. How about I wash your clothing for you & I’ll run you a warm bath. Just hop in & wash yourself up with the soap & shampoo over there while I cook us some food. Does that sound good to you?” You offer her. 

“Yeah, that sounds like a plan.” She says downheartedly. 

You turn the water on & have the bathwater running. “Do you want me to fill up the water or do you just want to take a shower?” 

“Yeah, fill up the water for me, please.” 

You push the plug down on the tub to allow the warm water to fill up & then get up to leave the bathroom. “Loka, once I’m outside of the bathroom give me your clo-”

“Here’s my clothes, doc.” She interrupts you with her clothes being offered to you in her hands while she is fully nude right in front of you. You cover your face to be modest & take the clothes right out of her hands. You’re blushing & you turn yourself to face the door. “You could have just given me the clothes once I was out of the bathroom.” You remark as you leave & close the bathroom door behind you. You knock three times on the door & remind her to turn the water off after she is done. 

After being indecently exposed by Loka, you head to your laundry room, throw her clothes in the washer machine & start it up to begin the wash cycle. You head back to your room to check on your phone. It’s almost two o’clock in the afternoon. Jane & Walter have left you a bunch of text messages. You look at Jane’s messages first since she is your assistant after all. The first message you respond to is her complaining about having to drive Walter back home. You ask if he acted out in the car & she tells you he was quiet the whole car trip. God, she’s mad at Walter even if he doesn’t do anything. The next message from her is about Stevie. From what his mom said about him, he got a very good amount of sleep from our observation despite having all of the electrodes glued to his face, but his mom got annoyed that we weren’t at the house when she woke up. Jane made an excuse to her saying that we had to deal with another patient who was having breathing problems from a recalled sleep medication or something like that. She bought the lie & has scheduled another session with us. You tell Jane that you want her to go there on her own this time so you can observe Loka. Jane was annoyed at first, but you reminded her that she has to observe Stevie’s real monster while you’re busy Loka. She felt import after you told her that & she gloated to you in text messages about how she is going to document the next monster. 

Next, you took a look at Walter’s messages. He said he managed to interest Hans in Loka. Despite Walter not liking Hans, he managed to swallow his pride & get him on board. Apparently, Walt took pictures & recorded Loka during your meal when you were in your office getting files & when you weren’t looking. He showed them to Hans & sarcastically mentioned the teleportation technology that Loka got to our world here by & he immediately wanted to see Loka for himself. Hans wants to see her as soon as possible & says he’ll make time for this whenever. You go through your phone to look for Hans’
 number & text him that you want to meet him with Loka, Jane & Walter in his lab at the university at five today. Hans texts back in secs & accepts the time. You follow this by texting Jane & Walter the time you all plan on meeting Hans. 

Once you get that all out of the way, you take a quick knock at the bathroom door. “Loka, are you doing okay in there?” 

“Joe, uhhh… Could help me with something in here? Pretty please.” 

“Sure, let me come in.” You come in to see Loka’s body submerged under the bubbly water as her head sticks out from the water surface. She has her eyes closed & looks pretty content in her warm bubble bath. Her eyes open once she sensed that you’ve come into the room. Loka emerges from the foamy water to expose you to her small breasts again. You hold your hand in front of your face out of modesty again. Loka giggles at your modesty. 

“Joe, can you look at me. I want to ask you something?” She asks coyly.

“You can ask me without me needing to stare.” You respond as you continue to block your view of Loka’s nudity.

“Okay, doc. Fine.” She covers her breasts with her hands & arms. “I covered myself for your virgin eyes, doc. Can you look at me now? I still want to ask a favor from you.” 

You put your hand down & give Loka eye to eye contact. “What do you need?” 
 
 “Can you help me scrub my back with your shampoo. I usually have a brush on a stick to scrub my back with, but since I am trapped in your world for the foreseeable future, I’m gonna need some help cleaning up my back here. Can you lather my back & help wash out my fur for me?” She asks with a glimmer in her eyes. 

Your cheeks turn red with embarrassment from her request. “How about you just let the soapy water clean out your back this time instead of me. I’ll buy you a brush at some point so you can properly clean your back later. Umm… Okay?” 

Loka leans out of the tub with her hands together to beg for you to scrub her back. “Please, doc. Please. Can you scrub my back for me.” Her eyes lit up in anticipation. 

“I got to cook us some food though...” 

“Please, pretty, pretty please, doctor Joe.” 

This is all making you feel very funny. You shouldn’t be feeling like this for an alien monster you just met & knocked out this morning. This feels wrong, but your heart says this feels right. Why do you feel enamored with this girl of all of the girls you have ever met? & why is she coming on to you this hard? She did say she was a virgin when she was kicking Walter in the car before. Does she feel like she has to have anyone at this point because she doesn’t think she’ll get back home again? If so, are you willing to even make that kind of relationship with her? As you’re pondering in deep thought about all of this, you sheepishly say sure & she gleefully hands you the shampoo & turns her back to you so you can apply the foamy cleanser. You squeeze out a big glob of shampoo into your hand & apply it on Loka’s back & rub it in with both hands. She breaths out loudly as you scrub the shampoo into her green fur. 

“Ah, that’s nice. Can you get my shoulders too, Doc?” You lather her shoulders with some more shampoo & move your scrubbing to her shoulders. She takes a deep breath & exhales. She is enjoying this too much. Her left hands stops covering her left bosom & reaches down into the water. A lewd moan comes out of Loka soon afterwards. Probably pleasuring herself from all of this. What is wrong with you right now? Why are you feeding into this? This isn’t a good idea you tell yourself. But, again. Something else in you wants this. 

“Mmm… Joe, can you get my. Ah. My lower, lower back for me?” She lifts her ass out of the water with her tail all the way up revealing her sphincter & her slit to you. “Pretty, please?” She moans out to you. 

She’s not even the same species as you! Get out now! Your conscious yells out to you. “Nope! I got to cook the food!” You blurt out as you make a quick escape from the bathroom & making sure you shut the door hard behind you as you run out. As you retreat into the kitchen, you’re left thinking about what you got yourself into with keeping Loka here. Your conscious is telling you that it is unethical to be fraternizing sexually with a newly discovered alien race & if you were to pursue a relationship like that, it could taint your career. You bang your head hard & tell yourself to get a grip. She’s not human & you shouldn’t have that kind of attraction to her. & again, why does Loka have these feelings towards you? Does she not like other monsters or something? Wait! Did she get to your world to find a human lay…? No. No… No way… Did she? You’re not sure. But, it might not be that far fetched either. 

Clearing your mind, you dispel all lewd thoughts of Loka as you prepare her & yourself some eggs & bacon. After a few minutes of cooking, you hear Loka walking into the kitchen with towels covering her body & head. She sniffs the air & you hear a sigh of bliss from her as she inhales the smell of the bacon. “Joe… Um, are my clothes ready? She asks shyly. 
 
 You keep your eyes on the food fearing she is going to pull a quick flash of her nudity on you again. “It should be done washing by now, but I still have to put the clothing in the dryer though. Um… Just dry yourself in the guest room & I’ll give you my bathrobe in a little bit. Okay.” 
 
 “But, you’re taller than me, doc. Won’t it be too big on me?”

“I’ll make it fit. Don’t worry. Just dry yourself while I finish up here. I’ll make sure to put your clothing in the dryer once I’m done here.”

She walks to the guest room once you tell her this. But right before she walks too far away from you she turns to face you. “Do you have a hairdryer anywhere?” She asks. 

“Yeah, it’s in the bathroom closet. You can keep it in the guest room for yourself if you want.” 

“Thanks, Doc.” She walks to the bathroom to acquire the hairdryer & then walks to her guest room. 

A few minutes later you finish cooking & set everything up on the table. Once you get the table all ready, you run to your laundry room to throw Loka’s clothing into the dryer & get it going. You walk back to your room to get your bathrobe. With the bathrobe in hand, you walk over to the guest room & knock on the door. 
 
 “Loka, I got the bathrobe for you. Open up & get it.” 

Fast-paced footsteps can be heard from the other side of the door as she rushes over to the door. She opens the door fully nude again with an ecstatic look on her face. Your free hand covers your eyes to stop you from gawking. “Can you put it on for me, Doc.” She says excitedly. 

You throw the bathrobe at her & shut her door. Nope, you are having none of this seduction nonsense. She needs to know your boundaries. “I think you can put it on yourself, little lady.” You tell her sternly through the door. 

A grumpy moan can be heard from the other side of the door. She’s not happy with what you just did there. You did reject her advances after all. Loka opens up the door with your bathing robe’s hem going all the way down to her feet & the sleeves of your robe being too long. You can’t even see her hands. She has noodle sleeves for arms now. She looks annoyed by how big it is on her. “I look dumb in this thing!” 

“Well, I think it’s pretty funny honestly.” You laugh out. 

Loka gets all flustered with your teasing. “You’re a meanie!”

“Aw, don’t take it to hard, Loka. Here let me help you with your sleeves.” You reach out for her sleeves & fold them up so her hands can stick out of them. “There, is that better.”

“I guess so.” She grumbles

You walk back to the kitchen & wave Loka over to follow you. Loka & you take your seats on the table. She sees the bacon & eggs you made for her & goes to town on them. Like before, she scarfs it down voraciously & devours it in secs. She sees the orange juice you poured for her & takes a cautious sip. Her eyes lite up from the delicious juices & chugs it down greedily. After all of her gorging, she lets out a loud satisfied burp. “That was tasty, Joe.” Damn, you haven’t even finished eating the piece of bacon that you just started to chew on. You finish the piece of bacon in your hand within a few bites.

“Loka, can I asked you a question?”

“Yes, I can answer one of the many questions that you & your friends keep asking me. Shoot, what do you want to know.” She leans into the table to ready herself with your question. 

“Ah… Did you really come here to just scare a kid? Or was it for something else? Or maybe someone else? Um...” That someone else you’re asserting is a human boyfriend. You’re at a point here that you think she came here in hopes to score a human boyfriend. 

“What do you mean by someone else? Are you assuming something about me?!” She points her finger at you in response to your assertion.

“Uh, yeah I am. Maybe if I mmmmmmm OHHHH!… Moan a little in a bubble bath, you’ll get a good idea of what I am talking about.” You moan some more in imitation of her. 

Loka’s face is reddening from embarrassment. “Ummm… But… Joe, that’s what all monsters, uh, do with each other… Where ah… Very flirtatious bunch of people...” She lies.

“Sure, sure. I’ll make sure that goes into my documentation.” You say with a heavy amount of sarcasm. “I’m just gonna cut to the chase & ask the question. Did you come to our world to find a human boyfriend?” 

She starts laughing hard to your question. “Wait, seriously? You think I came here for a boyfriend?” 

“Well, you have been pretty eager to show me your boobs & junk all day so how can I not assume that?” You eat a little bit more of your food in nervousness. 

“I’ll be honest with you, Joe. I do really like you. & I mean a lot. I never met a caring guy like you before. But before I met you, I actually thought coming in contact with a human would kill me. But ever since you gave me that antidote to human toxins, I can be with you & your friends
 without dying. & I never thought I would have such a great time with humans. Especially you, doc.” She blows you a kiss & you rub your eyes in response to her flirtation. 

You take a deep breath & exhale. “You know that medicine,” You sign with quotation marks. “Was a placebo.” 

Loka looks confused with what you said. “A placebo? What’s that?” 

“It means it wasn’t real medicine. It was candy. Breath mints to be exact.” 

“Wait!” Loka says with panic. “You didn’t cure me.” She starts to hyperventilate & squirm in her seat. You get out of your seat & hold her by her shoulders. She’s fighting against you now. “Get away, please!” She cries out. 

“Calm down, Loka. This is all in your head. If human toxins were going to kill you it would have already done it. Just take a deep breath & relax. Shhh. Calm down for me, lady.” You tell her comfortingly. You massage her shoulders & she loosens up in your grip. She melts under your massage & calmly breaths in & out. 

“So, you think I’m fine then, doc?” 

“Yeah, I think you're fine. You’ll be surprised what the mind can do to our own bodies if it believes it’s in real danger. Even if it’s imagined danger.” 

Loka just takes your shoulder rubbing in & relaxes in your grasps. She looks up to you with her eyes glimmering in the light. “I… I think I’m in love with you, Joe.” She tells you bluntly.

 In response, you stop needing her shoulders, walk back to your seat to groan in your hands. You then look Loka sternly in the eyes. “Loka, this isn’t appropriate. We’re not even the same species. How do you think that kind of relationship can even work between us?” 

“There are all different types of monsters that become couples in my world. Scaly & harry monsters will be a couple, short & big monsters date each other. Many of them will even marry each other & have families together. We are all so different but all so compatible. How can we not have what they have?”

“I’m a human & your a monster that’s why. Different species that mate that are too genetically different can’t have babies. & the ones that can have babies have a very close evolutionary lineage. But usually, those cross-species offspring have medical problems. Loka, I don’t even know where your kind belongs on the evolutionary tree of life. & just from observing your own physiology, I know that your kind evolved completely differently from humans.” 

“How do you know if you don’t try it?”

God, she didn’t even listen to anything you just said. She probably has no idea what you are even talking about. “Did you even listen to what I just said?” 

“Yes, I did. I heard big mumbo jumbo words & excuses from you for why you don’t want to be my boyfriend.” She tells you with sass.

Your getting annoyed now. You would figure her species would have some sort of grasp on evolution or she is just uneducated on the topic. “You’re not listening, Loka. Do you even know what evolution is?”

“Is it some big mumbo jumbo word you’re pulling out of your butt!” 

“NO! It’s a proven observation in the field of science. It’s when an organism changes to another organism over time through mutations & other environmental adaptations. When you got an organism that evolved vastly differently from another organism they usually can’t have babies or if they are similar enough to each other, they can have babies. But, the babies will have health problems or infertility because their parents are too genetically distant from each other. This is known as outgroup depression. It always will lead to genetic deficiencies. Do you understand what I am telling you now?” (Outgroup Depression https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outbreeding_depression#Examples)

Loka has her arms crossed & looks annoyed with you. “I guess I understand what you are talking about. But, can’t we still be a thing even if we can’t have babies?”

“But Loka, isn’t that the whole point of dating? To see if your boyfriend or girlfriend is a good match for you so you can get married & start a family & have kids with them? Don’t you want those things? We could hypothetically get married, but we would never be able to have kids. Wouldn’t you feel very empty if you couldn’t have kids with me? I know most human women would. Wouldn’t you feel the same?” 

Loka looks deep in thought about what you said to her. She’s probably contemplating whether a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship with you is worth it. A look of internal struggle can be expressed on her face. She doesn’t want to accept the reality of what you just told her. However, she looks like she’s taking your position very seriously. Like any woman, they have a biological instinctual desire to have children. Her infatuation with you is obvious, but if it doesn’t mean kids is it really worth it? This is probably what is going through her head right now. She starts to sob in her hands. “But… But… What if I can never go back to my world? Am I expected to live a loveless life without someone to call my one… Sniff… My one & only… Am I going to be a virgin forever & not get married & not have kids, Joe?...Sniff… Huh?” 

You move your chair closer to Loka & bring her to hug so she has a shoulder to cry on. “We'll get you back, Loka. I promise you that.” 
 
 “WELL WHAT IF YOU CAN’T, JOE?” She screams out to you in tears. “WHAT IF YOU CAN’T!”
 
 “If we can’t, Loka, I’ll promise to protect you from anyone who may want to bring any harm to you. You have my word on that. As a friend.”

“But, I want to be more than friends with you, Joe… Sniff… I want more…” 

You hold her tighter in your hug & comfort her in her time of sorrow. After she cries herself out for a few minutes, you ask if she wants to watch something with you before you head out to meet Hans. 

“What scares adult humans?” She asks.

“Are you referring to a horror movie?” 

“No, I just asking in general.” 

“If you want to know what scares adults like myself. Then maybe you should watch a horror movie.” 

“Maybe I can take some cues from these movies for when I try to scare Walter the next time he comes over.” She laughs.

“Maybe there’s something you can learn from them. We have an hour & forty-five minutes or so to kill before we have to leave to meet Hans. Do you want to watch one before we leave?” 

“Sure. I’m in.” Loka hugs you tightly in response to this. 

Loka walks to you to the couch & you & her take a seat. You go through your Amazon Prime & select the first Alien film for her. You go back to the kitchen to make some popcorn & bring it back to her. When you offer her the popcorn, she likes the smell of it but is not sure if she will like it. She takes a piece & likes it. Then she throws it into her mouth & chews. Her eyes become slits & she starts scarfing down the popcorn all wildly. She manages to finish it really quickly. “Mmmm. That was good, Joe. Could you make another?” You say yes & run over to the kitchen to make another batch. You & Loka spent the rest of the time watching the movie before you & her went off to meet Hans Hansen. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 5: In Which We Meet Dr. Hansen

Loka was scared shitless when watching Alien. You would think a monster like her who gloats about how scary she & her kind are would eat a scary movie like Alien for breakfast. & honestly, you’ve seen scarier movies than Alien. It’s really not that scary. The scene with the chest-burster freaked her out the most. She was holding you tight after that scene alone. You & her couldn’t finish the movie because you & her have to meet Hans at his lab. So you stopped the movie right around the point where they found out Ash was an android. You get up, but Loka refused to let go of you. She was shaking with fear with you in her grasp. You pick her up & bridal carry her to your room. Her arms are hugging you tight as you carry her. You set her down on your bed & tell her to stay put as you go into your closet to get her a hoodie. “I don’t want anyone at the university getting startled by you so I’m gonna give you my hoodie & a face scarf to cover your up face alright.” 

“Okay.” She says with fright. 

You get your hoodie & your scarf & hand it over to Loka. She’s still shivering with fear. You take a seat next to her on your bed & put your arm around her back to comfort her. “Loka, don’t be scared. It’s just a movie. I thought monsters like you like scary things?” 

“I have never seen a monster that scary before. Do you have those things lurking around in your world somewhere? Am… Am I gonna get one of those things inside me? I don’t want one of those things to rip through my belly?” She hugs you harder in response to what she just said. 

“Calm down, Loka. That alien is made up. It doesn’t exist. You don’t have to worry about any face-hugger impregnating you. Don’t worry. That won’t happen to you. I promise.” 

“It’s really not real?” 

“Yes, in fact, the alien was made by some famous artist. It’s all for show. Nothing real.” 

“Thank god.” She says with relief as she hugs you even tighter,

“Loka, can you put the hoodie on for me now?” You ask.

She stops hugging you & puts it on. Like before with your bathrobe, it’s too big on her. The sleeves are too long & the hem of the hoodie goes all the way down to her thighs. She’s also having issues putting the hood on her head because of her horns. You held her head in place & put the hood on her head with force so you can poke horn holes through the hoodie for her. “I know it’s too big on you, but I promise me & Jane will buy you clothing that fits. I don’t want you to just suffer in my baggy clothing while you are living with me. You don’t have to put on the scarf right now. But, let us get a move on shall we.” You take her by the hand, you take your phone off of your cabinet, grab your keys & wallet, walk out of the house & get her & you seated in your truck. Right before you get your seat-belt on, you get Loka’s seat-belt on to make sure she’s safe inside your truck.

“I know how to put on a seat-belt.” She tells you with aggravation.

“I wasn’t sure honestly. Do you monsters have cars & seat-belts?” 

“Yeah, we do. If a cop caught me driving without a seat-belt I would get fined.” 

“Humans would get fined too for that. I guess those laws are universal for monsters & humans.” You start your car’s ignition & drive out of your driveway. The car trip is pretty quiet. You notice that Loka still looks very tense during the car ride. The movie is still probably giving her the creeps. “Loka?” You ask. “You said before that you have never seen a monster that scary before?” 

“Yeah, I have never seen a monster do that before. That’s absolutely horrifying. It’s just so vile & barbaric. Is that how you humans view monsters?” 

“Uh, yeah. The common trope is that they are vicious killing machines. Sometimes you’ll get the trope where they are misunderstood & they are people like us, but usually, it’s the other one.” 

“Was that how you viewed me when you first saw me, Joe?”

“Actually, we thought you were a furry when we first saw you.” 

“What’s that?” 

“Ahh… You don’t want to know. But, can I ask? How do you scare kids? Do you just jump scare them?” 

“Jump scare? What is that suppose to be?” 

“Well, uh a jump scare is an overused form of scaring in horror films where the person or monster that is doing the scaring just startles the person when they least expect it. It can scare people, but it’s only really scary the first time people see it usually. Jump scares can get pretty lame though. Too many horror movies have em these days. They never build up the fear.” 

“Hmm. Now that you mention it, Joe. I think that’s all the monsters do. No wonder why kids are getting less & less scared every year.” 

“Kids these days are probably more desensitized to these kinds of things now because of ultra-violent video games & movies that their parents let them watch. Some kids can’t handle those things, but once they get older, they usually grow out of it.” 

“Yeah, maybe we need to scare kids like how you humans scare adults through horror movies.” 

“Maybe Loka. But I want your kind to look for another way to power your gizmos. We can offer that to your kind, we just need to make first contact with them, you know. & Hans can definitely help you with that. He’s the smartest person I know.” 

After five minutes, You make it to the university. Loka puts the scarf around her face & walks with you through the university. “This is a nice campus. This really reminds me of my time at Monsters University.” She tells you.

“Just remember, Loka. Let's walk through & not interact with anyone else. I don’t want people to know what you are. It’ll make a scene.” 

Right as your about to walk into the building with Hans’ lab, you & Loka get stopped by a group of three who have fake tails hanging behind their backsides. They look like a bunch of weirdos. The girl of the group has a bunch of piercings on her nose & lips & has rainbow dyed hair while the two boys have those ear piercing that gives their earlobes a big hole in them. God, these are some unpleasant people. “Can I help you three?” You ask.

“Yeah, we really like your friend’s fursona. Do you have a fursona too?” The weird girl asks.

The fuck is a fursona? “I ah, don’t know what that even is. I’m just a professor trying to get my niece through. She likes playing dress-up & stuff. Don’t mind us.” You try to get through them while holding Loka’s hand, but the weird girl stops you again. 

“Wait, can me & your friend at least share out Tumblrs & Furaffinity accounts?” 

“No! Where busy & she definitely does not have any of those!” You say with annoyance. You march right through them with Loka right behind you holding your hand. Once you get out of ear shot of them you huff out weirdos & continue walking with Loka.

“Were those people friends of yours?” Loka asks.

“No, they were just some freaks, just ignore them.” 

You & Loka get to the elevator & once you & her step foot in it, you press the button for the basement. Hans works with a lot of things that would be better kept in a basement rather than just any other part of this building. He works with all sorts of exotic materials. If anyone has a good chance of rebuilding Loka’s portal tech it’s him. Right before your about to close the door, Walter stops the door from closing with his arm. “Joe, wait for us.” He says.

Right behind Walter is Jane, they both step into the elevator with you & Loka. You close the door & you all ride the elevator together. Once the elevator reaches the basement, you, Loka & your associates are met with a hallway that has a locked door that says, “No entry beyond this point, hazardous materials, authorized personal only.” 

“Is this going to be dangerous?” Loka asks with fright in her voice. 

“There’s nothing to worry about, Loka.” Walters says. “Hans works with a lot of experimental materials. So he has to get us through himself if he wants us to see his lab.” 

You message Hans that you & everyone else has arrived. Then you see a man running from the other side of the locked door & swipes his key card to unlock the door. It’s Hans. “Hello, Hello, please follow me to my place of operations.” He says to all of you.

The four of you follow Hans to his lab. He gets his key card out again to open up his lab. Once you step foot in there, you are greeted by a big white room with a bunch of gizmos everywhere & a room that has a heavily shielded door that has a radioactive warning sign on it. A big white suit with a helmet stands next to it with a big pack with a hose attached to it. The pack kind of reminds you of a futuristic leaf blower or the proton pack from Ghostbusters. The suit is strange though. You’ve never seen a hazard suit like it before. It even looks armored & has what looks like exoskeletal attachments on each leg. Must be some DARPA project he is working on or something. 

Hans walks up to Loka & lowers himself to talk to her. “This must be the alien you were telling me about Walter.” He reaches out for her hood & scarf. “May I remove these obstructions? I want to get a better look at you.” He asks Loka. Loka nods yes in response. “Marvelous.” He replies. He pulls down the hood & removes the scarf from her face. “Can you smile for me, please.” Loka smiles awkwardly at Hans. “Wow, you have some sharp teeth there. May I ask what is your name again. My name is Hans Hansen by the way.” His hand reaches out for a handshake. 

Loka grabs his hand & shakes it. “My name is Loka Iscennah, Doc. I heard you can help me get back to my world.” 

 Hans releases his hand from the handshake. “I’ll be honest with you here, Loka. I do work with a lot of experimental materials & could probably build a nuclear reactor in my garage if I wanted to. But teleportation is something I have never worked with before.” 

“So you can’t help me get home then?” Loka says with distraught. 

“I didn’t say that. But I need to know what I am working with so I can get a proper idea on how we can build a teleportation device. You told Walter & Joe about the portal doors you work with. But, I need you to show me how it works & how it’s built. From there, I could gather the materials & help you build a new gateway back to your world. If you aren’t sure about building this portal teleportation device you claim to know about, then there is only so little I can help you with at that point.” 

“Okay, I understand, Doc. What do you want to know first?” 

 Loka & Hans talked for two hours about scream & the portal doors the monsters go through. Hans was writing a ton of notes during the whole thing & was drawing schematics for the portal the entire conversation. She was telling him about how scream creates negative energy to create & stabilize the bridge to our world to hers. Hans didn’t question anything she said. He took everything to heart. You, Walter & Jane had skepticism about scream being able to create portals to worlds. So why is he not questioning anything Loka is telling him? You wonder if he knows more than he is letting on. Walter asked a few skeptical questions to Hans about scream & Hans told him he wouldn’t get what they are doing & he should just focus on his field of expertise. This pissed off Walter but Hans shut him up by out braining him. Hans was way too smart to be challenged on these kinds of things. Walter is smart, but he is not as smart as Hans though. But Walter did have good points about the scream energy source. How would it even be able to stabilize a portal at all? Hans pretty much outwitted Walt with his high verbal IQ, gave him a vague answer & again just told him he’s not smart enough to understand it. He is definitely not telling us something. But you doubt he will tell you what he knows right now. 

 Hans wanted to first acquire the scream energy source before building the doorway. He said we need to first understand & experiment with the energy source at play before he & Loka can make a portal of any kind. He understood that we need to scare a kid in order to obtain the energy source. You told him you already have an idea on getting the energy source. Stevie, your sleep patient would be the perfect candidate for the scream extraction. You also said you want to study the effects of the scream extraction process in action. Hans agreed. He wants to bring over some equipment to Stevie’s house to observe how the energy is extracted as well. “I’m going to bring some expensive instruments of mine over to your patient’s house today.” He tells you. “We need to see how the energy gets transferred over to their side. Once we get a good idea on how that’s done, I’ll be able to make a prototype for our own scream extraction. Now, you did say that you & your assistant were going to go over your patient's house today to sleep observe him again, correct?” 

“I wasn’t going to go today, Hans. I wanted Walter & Jane to go do the observing while I watch Loka.” 

“How about I take Walter’s place. After all, you don’t want too many cooks in the kitchen, right?” Hans says.

“No! Joe, I wanted to see Stevie’s monster in action.” Walter whines.

“But, Walter, you don’t know how to use my equipment & even if you did you wouldn’t know what you would be looking for. It’s just not part of your job description. Sorry, nothing personal.”

“You smug fuck!” Walter bursts out. 

You hold Walter back. “Calm down, Walt. You’ll get your chance to observe too. How about this, do you want to watch Loka with me today?” 

Walter breaths out a sigh of annoyance. “Sure, Joe. But on one condition.” 

“& what will that be?” You ask. 

“Can I show Loka my lab too?”
 
 You take a minute to think about this. You don’t want Walter scaring her with needles. He is most likely going to try to get a few samples from her. She will probably freak out if he asks that. Loka’s still a little tense after watching Alien after all. But this was coming regardless. & you’re kinda curious about her DNA & her biology too. Maybe it would be best to get some of Loka’s examinations out of the way today. “Sure, why not. Just be considerate of Loka, okay.” 

“Don’t worry, I’ll be considerate.”

 Jane is going to stay with Hans so they can get his equipment over to Stevie’s house while you, Walter & Loka will walk over to the biology building on campus & take a look at Walter’s lab. You all get over there in a few minutes & Walter lets you & Loka in with his key card. After climbing a flight of stairs, you, Loka & Walter get to the second floor & are let into Walter’s lab by Walter. Once you & Loka step inside, Walter turns on the lights to brighten up the darkroom. All of the typical equipment is seen in his lab. A microscope, centrifuges, shakers, petri-dishes, a thermalcycler, autoclaves, a gene gun & other genetic engineering tools. “What do you think, Loka?” Walter asks with pride.
 
 “It looks pretty impressive, Walter. But, I’m not really sure what I should think though. I don’t really know what all of this is & I don’t really know what you do with all of it.” 

“I am a biologist & a genetic engineer. I make better crops & animals by editing their own genetics. I also know a lot about molecular biology too. I know how proteins work, how RNA works & I know how DNA works on the molecular scale. This is my profession.” 

“That sounds pretty cool, but how will this help me in any way get back home?” 

 Walter looks a little defeated with her response. I guess he wanted Loka to appreciate his brains. However, she’s right, how will genetic engineering get her back home? Walter sighs. “It’s not about getting you home. It’s about the application of genetic engineering. Do monsters manipulate crops to make them yield more fruit or grains where you come from?” 

“Honestly, Walt, a lot of the things you guys are telling me are pretty new to me. I don’t even know what genetic engineering even is?” 

You & Walter look at each other in astonishment & then look back at Loka. Monsters don’t know what genetic engineering is? Loka has told you & Walter that her world is just a cleaner version of our twenty-first century’s first world. So how do they not have genetic engineering? You’re really convinced that her kind are suppressing certain tech. “Walter, how about you explain to Loka what genetic engineering is.” You tell Walter. 

“Sure. Sure, I’ll be glad too.” Walter says with bewilderment. “Just a quick question though, Loka. Have you ever seen a movie where a evil monster scientist creates a creature in his lab or anything like that?” 

Loka looked confused with the question. “I’ve never seen a movie like that before. Sounds kind of weird. No monster I ever heard of has created a creature in some laboratory somewhere with the stuff you have. I wouldn’t see any point to it.” 

Walter looks really dumbstruck by this. “Well, Loka, do you know what genetics are? Or know What DNA is?” 

“I know what genetics & DNA are, but I never heard of genetic engineering before though. What is it?” 

“Well, genetic engineering is when you change the DNA of an organism to make a new organism. We use it to improve our crops & animals. Like making corn that can survive droughts for instance is something we can do now. We do it by mixing the genes of desert plants with the corn.” 

Loka turns around in place to take a quick look around at all of the tools & machines in Walter’s lab & then turns back to him. “Why do you need all of this equipment to make new crops. Can’t you just cross-pollinate the desert plant with this corn plant you keep talking about?” 

“Loka, you can’t just do that with species that are genetically distant from each other. It’s not possible unless they are genetically similar to one another.” 

“Why not though? Monsters do that all the time to our plants. In fact, our crops have to be sterilized all the time because they can cross-breed with any other plant. Don’t give me that evolution, genetic distance bunk that Joe was giving me before.”

Walter looks really puzzled now. How can a different plant species just cross-pollinate with any other plant species like that? Can all of the monster plants reproduce with each other? “Loka, first things first. Evolution is not bunk. & secondly, did you just say that all of your plants can cross-pollinate with each other?” 

“Yeah, they do. The flowers we even breed are sterilized so they won’t make new plants in our gardens. Sometimes you can get some good combinations from the hybridization. But most of the time, you just these weird-looking plant hybrids that are an eyesore to look at.” 

“What about your animals, can they be hybridized with each other to make new animals?” 

“It can happen, but usually they stick with there own kind. Usually, that only happens when an animal species is dying out. They’ll just breed with any other animal at that point & those animals will make a hybrid.”

 Interesting, even the animals can breed with other genetically different animals. Why bother with genetic engineering if every organism in your ecosystem is biologically capable of reproducing with each other. Their mutation rate must be high too. & what's even more interesting is that an endangered organism will just end up getting their genetics assimilated into another organisms genetic linage. Evolutionary failures won’t die out, they’ll just get assimilated into a more fit species. 

 You then notice Walter is deep in thought & looks very worried about the conclusions he is making in his head. He turns to Loka. “Loka, can you give me a few minutes to talk to Joe out?” He says with worry.

“Sure, sure. I don’t mind.” 

 Walter walks to the door & waves you over. You follow him out of the lab. “You look like your about to sweat bullets.” You say. “What are worried about?” 

“She was talking about how all of the organisms on her planet are able to hybridize with each other. It got me thinking about their molecular makeup. Do you know what molecular chirality is?” 

“Yeah, I do. In nature, you got left-handed molecules & right-handed molecules. I know this because I work with drugs on my free time for sleep medications. I can’t create right-handed chemical compounds for my drugs or they wouldn’t do anything.” 

“Exactly, Joe. But, Loka is an alien. We as humans need left-handed amino acids & right-handed sugars. If she needs right-handed amino acids & left-handed sugars, then she is not gonna be able to survive in our world for long.” 

 Oh fuck, Walter hit the nail on the head. If her molecular makeup is completely different from all life on this planet, she will literally starve to death. Even if she eats the food you give her, her body won’t be able to absorb any of the nutrients because the sugars & the amino acids are not compatible with her amino acids & sugars. 

“Joe, if her amino acids & sugars are the exact opposite to ours, she’s in big trouble. She’ll still be able to drink water, but any food we feed her will literally just pass through her & will offer no nutritional value to her system. If this is true, Joe, she’s gonna starve to death here. I need to do testing on her, ASAP!” He yells out at you. 
 
(Chirality explained https://www.famousscientists.org/two-centuries-of-right-and-left-handed-molecules/ & https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGRw8VlilSY & https://www.smithsonianmag.com/space/must-all-molecules-life-be-left-handed-or-right-handed-180959956/ )

“Okay, Walt. Well, do your testing. But should we explain this to Loka or should we not tell her?” 

“I would tell her, Joe.” Walter says without any hesitation. “If I was stuck on a planet with food that didn’t have the same chirality as mine I would want to know why I am starving even though I’m eating the planets food.”

“I don’t think most people would like to think about something like that, Walt.” 

“If you’re gonna be a pussy about, then I will tell her.” 

“If you’re going to be like that then fine, Walter. I’ll tell her.” Right as Walter is about to open the door, you stop him again. “What if the testing confirms what we are thinking, what then?” 

“We’ll either have to speed up the portal building or find a way for her to get nutrition in some form. There are some bacteria that can break down right-handed amino acids & left-handed sugars. Maybe I can produce a bacteria or algae that can create a byproduct that produces those amino acids & sugars that her body will need. It would be like how we genetically modified bacteria to produce human insulin. But in this case, the bacteria or algae will be producing chirality compatible nutrients.” 

 God, you hope Walter will find that her molecular chirality is compatible with ours. You don’t want to reduce Loka to eating chirality insulin juice for the rest of her time her or worse. If she can’t leave our world, she’ll be eating that lab-made crap for the rest of her life. You wonder if she would still want to live if she can’t eat real food anymore. Walter opens the door & you & him reluctantly walk back into the lab to inform Loka of the possible bad news. She’s not gonna respond well to the theory or the testing. Dear God, help me… 
 
To be continued in Chapter 6: The Ultimate Test To Prove Compatible Molecular Chirality