Scary Monsters
@dysphoria-sweatshirt @30spiders @sweatersexual @angrylittlesliceofpizza @writer652
Part 1/? - Rocco’s Closet
Part 2/? - School for Monsters
Part 3/? - The Waternoose Family
Part 4/? - The Terrifying Humans
Part 5/? - Hiding Places
Part 6/? - Nobody’s Fault
Part 7/? - Edge of Disaster
Part 8/? - Caged Monsters
Part 9/? - The Journey Home
Part 10/? - Portorosso
Part 11/? - A New Family
Faustina Visconti was in her early forties, with a tower of bottle-blonde hair and a fondness for bright-coloured dresses and deep red lipstick that made many of the more conservative types in Portorosso look askance at her. Giulia had always found her polite but rather condescending, as if she believed Giulia to be only six or seven years old.
Today was no different, as the woman opened the door and smiled down at her guest. “Why, thank you, Giulia,” she said, taking the box of fish from her. “Have they found your little monster friends yet?”
“Yes, Signora Visconti,” Giulia replied. “They're just fine.” Hopefully, she could finish this interaction quickly, before Harry had time to do anything.
“Oh, that's a relief,” said Signora Visconti.
“Yes, it is,” Giulia nodded. “But I've got lots to do today so I can't really stay and chat. I'll...”
It was too late, however. Harry had heard the woman's voice, and abandoned Ercole to his Vespa. He scuttled up next to Giulia and looked at Faustina hopefully.
“Are you Ercole's mom?” he asked.
Giulia held her breath. How would Signora Visconti react? Would she scream, like several others had done? What would Harry do if she did? Would he finally realize he didn't belong here and needed to go home, like Luca and Alberto said?
“Oh, my goodness!” Faustina exclaimed. “What kind of monster are you?”
She was clearly startled, but she did not use the word monster in a pejorative way. As when she'd referred to Luca and Alberto a moment ago, she seemed to use it the way sea monsters used land monster as an alternative word for human, as a way of describing something that was clearly a person but not like themselves.
“This is Harry Waternoose,” said Giulia, trying not to sigh. “He's the kind of monster that hides in little kids' closets.”
“He is?” asked Faustina with a frown. “When Ercole was little he thought he had a monster in his closet, but he grew out of that.”
“I never had a closet,” said Giulia. “Although one of my friends at school used to think he had a monster under his bed. Are there monsters under beds, too?” she asked Harry.
“Of course not,” he replied, “don't be silly.” Harry directed a sharp-toothed smile at Faustina. “I came here with Luca and Alberto. Alberto told me his dad was terrible, so he found a human to be his new dad. My Dad said he'll never be proud of me, so I decided I also needed new parents. Do you want another son?”
“We... we never considered it,” Faustina admitted. “How old are you, Harry?”
“Eleven,” the little monster replied. “I'm in the sixth grade.”
Faustina nodded. “What do you eat?” she asked.
“Candy,” Harry said immediately.
“He seems to eat whatever we eat,” Giulia said, not about to let Harry get away with that.
Ercole had made sure his Vespa was safe, and now came up the path to see what was going on.
“Giulia said you're the people in town with the most money,” Harry said, “so I figure you can afford to take in another child.” He did his best to look adorable. Giulia was not convinced.
“Oh... I don't know,” said Faustina. “I'd have to talk to Aristide.”
Giulia's mouth fell open. She wasn't actually considering it, was she?
“Could you please?” asked Harry. “I've been staying with Signor Marcovaldo, but they don't have much room and I don't like to be in the way.”
“I will,” Faustina promised. “Ercole, what would you think of having a little brother?”
“You can't be serious, Mamma!” Ercole protested.
“I always did want a big family, but life has a way of intervening,” Faustina said. “He's a rather cute little fellow, isn't he?”
Harry beamed.
“He's not cute,” said Ercole, disgusted. “He's just a bug.”
“Well, bugs need mothers, too,” said Faustina. “Thank you again, Giulia, and Harry, so nice to have met you! Perhaps you could join us for supper tonight, and we can get to know you.”
“I'd love to!” Harry chirped.
Giulia couldn't believe what she was hearing. “Aren't you having guests?” she asked, pointed to the fish she'd just delivered.
“We've got some people coming in from Milano tomorrow,” Faustina told her, “these are lunch with them. Harry is welcome to come tonight.”
Giulia knew she should just be polite, but she couldn't resist poking at the situation like a loose tooth. “I thought you didn't like sea monsters,” she said. Ercole himself certainly didn't, and his parents had always seemed like they considered sea monsters to be sort of less people than they were... although they did tend to treat everybody else in town the same way.
“They're our neighbours, we're supposed to be polite to them now,” Faustina said firmly. “Anyway, this little fellow isn't quite so... fishy... as the rest. Not so slimy.”
Sea monsters were not slimy. Giulia bristled, but Harry beamed.
“You must be joking!” Ercole protested. “Mamma, look at him, we cannot have him at our table! He looks like an entree! Can you even sit in a chair?” he asked Harry, looking dubiously at his many legs.
“We'll find him some cushions or something,” Faustina decided.
Giulia shook her head. “Come on, Harry, we'll let them argue,” she said. “Let's go see if the boys have gotten anything done.”
Harry fell into step beside her, looking smug. “I was starting to think it was gonna be hard to find a new family. What with everybody here being scared of me, including you.”
“Ercole's not scared of you,” Giulia pointed out. “He just doesn't like you.”
“I think his Mom likes me better than him already,” said Harry.
“That's not hard. Even I like you better than him.”
On their way back over the hill, Giulia counted up the extra money she'd made. It was less than she'd hoped – quite a few people had been in too much of a hurry to escape Harry and hadn't given her a tip. She was pondering how she might earn some more when they spotted Luca and Alberto.
The boys were sitting on the porch of the house belonging to the two old sea monster women, Pinuccia and Concetta Aragosta. They were not working. They were drinking lemonade and eating cookies, and Alberto was stroking one of the women's pet cats.
“Working hard, huh, ragazzi?” Giulia called out to them.
“Hey! We're taking a break!” Alberto informed her.
“They said we should have some lunch, and then we can finish weeding the garden,” Luca explained.
“We'll be able to work even harder after we've had a rest,” Alberto agreed.
Concetta Aragosta opened the door and waved to Giulia. “Won't you join us, dear?”
Giulia hopped the low stone wall and headed in. Harry scurried after her, and she wondered if the women would cry out. Scares weren't supposed to be good for older people were they? What if one of them had a heart attack? Fortunately, however, they didn't seem startled at all.
“This must be your friend from that other world,” Concetta observed. “Enrico, wasn't it?”
“Call me Harry,” the monster boy said. Concetta offered her plate of treats, and Harry stuffed a pizzocato in his mouth. “Guess who's going to have dinner with the Visconti family tonight?” he said as he chewed.
“What?” asked Alberto, spitting crumbs – his mouth, too, was full. “Really?”
“Ercole's Mom thinks he's cute,” said Giulia. She took a cooking for herself.
“Lemonade?” asked Concetta.
Giulia nodded, and made a point of swallowing before she spoke aloud. “Si, grazie.”
“Me, too!” said Harry.
Alberto swallowed his mouthful. “What does Ercole think of this? Or has he met him yet?”
“They've met,” said Giulia.
“He's no problem,” said Harry firmly. He found a padded basket that had been set out for the cats, tipped a sleeping animal out of it, and settled down inside. The orange cat made a startled noise and looked around, not sure what had just happened to it. It turned in a circle, then seemed to forget the whole thing and sat down to wash its face.
“You must not have met him for very long,” said Luca dubiously.
“I can handle him.” Harry was confident.
-
Back at the Pescheria that evening, the kids counted up the money they'd earned. It was enough for two children's tickets, or one adult. If all three were going, they would need more,
“You really want to go on the train, Mom?” Luca tried. “I thought you didn't like things that moved.”
Daniela had never been on a train. She'd ridden in a car exactly once and had felt ill the whole time, but apparently she could not be budged. “I've talked it over with Helena,” she said, “and we've both agreed that you're not going back there without a grownup. She has things to do, so I have volunteered.”
Luca nodded glumly. “Then we're gonna need more money.”
“Maybe we need to check out some of the shipwrecks,” Alberto suggested. “There might be something down there we could still sell.” Most possible salvage had been cleaned out by him and his father over the past ten years, but they couldn't have found everything.
“Or we just need to do another day of work,” sighed Giulia.
Luca shook his head. “The longer it takes, the more likely something awful happens to Louise and the others.”
A clattering on the stairs made them raise their heads. Harry was not built for human-sized stairs, and the ones in the house above the Pescheria were particular steep. He'd nearly slipped, and had finally settled on descending them backwards. The kids watched as he made his way down step by step, and then strutted up to them. Helen had put his sailor suit through the laundry, so it was now clean and white and newly-pressed.
“I'm off to dinner with the Visconti family!” he said cheerfully.
“Good luck with that,” said Alberto.
“Thank you,” Harry replied, smug. He headed out. “I'll be back later, unless they decide to keep me.”
The door closed behind him.
“He's really serious about this,” Daniela observed.
“He is,” agreed Luca, grimacing. “What if they do keep him?”
“They won't,” said Alberto.
“They might,” Giulia warned. “I told you, Ercole's mom thought he was cute, and he was very polite to her. He might pull it off.”
Alberto shrugged. “Then let them have him. He and Ercole deserve each other.”
“That's a really bad idea,” said Luca. “He's not gonna be so cute anymore when he gets older. What if he grows up to be huge and venomous like his dad? He won't fit through doors.”
“I told him about Ercole's reign of terror and he didn't sound like he was worried about it at all,” Giulia said. “He kept saying he would have this town in the palm of hand.”
The boys considered that. Ercole had been bad enough. The idea of somebody taking up a similar type of bullying, while that someone also had sharp teeth and many legs and might grow to be seven or eight feet tall... that didn't bear thinking about.
“There's no way,” Alberto decided. “Once they actually get to know him, they'll realize he's kind of a jerk, and after the way Ercole turned out they won't want another one of those.”
“And he won't want anybody else adopting him because he thinks we're all peasants,” said Giulia with a scowl.
Luca could only hope they were right.
Daniela had other concerns. “How are you going to get into this museum?” she asked, and nodded across the table at Giulia's mother. “Helena said it wasn't open.”
“Not to the public,” said Helena, “but they're doing restoration work, so people are going in and out all the time. The security guards know me,” she added. “Like I said, I've been in there working on the frescoes before. They'd probably let me in.”
“What about the rest of us?” asked Luca.
“Daniela can come with me if I say she's my assistant, but I don't know about you.” Helena pursed her lips, thinking about it. “They won't want children running around.”
“Unless we're there for school!” Luca suggested. “What if we tell them we're doing a school project on the history of the building?”
“It's summer,” Giulia protested.
“But we go back in a couple of months,” said Luca. “I heard some of the older kids get assigned summer projects. Maybe they'll believe we did, too!”
“That might work, but not if it's a surprise,” Helena decided. “I'd have to give them some warning. And now are we going to get Harry in? They probably won't let me take the pram.”
“Do you have something you bring supplies in?” Giulia asked. “Maybe we can hide him in a cart or something.”
“Then there's the question of staying in,” Helena went on. “You'll need to be there at night, because you said when it's night here it's daytime in the monster world. They like to get everybody out by sunset, and they patrol the place at night so they won't have squatters.”
“We'll have to be very careful,” said Luca.
As well as insisting that she accompany the kids, Daniela was also firm about Luca coming back to the house in the bay to have dinner with his family. He grudgingly did so, but afterwards hurried right up onto the land again to talk to his friends. He looked very worried when he did.
“Mom keeps trying to talk me out of it,” he said miserably, sitting in the treehouse between Alberto and Giulia. “She keeps saying that what happened to Louise and Curtis and Sullivan isn't our responsibility, and it's Louise's fault for dragging us out of Rocco's closet in the first place.” He leaned on his knees, face in his hands. “And maybe she's right, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to help! They wouldn't be in all this trouble if Harry hadn't slammed the door on them!”
“We could just sneak away without her,” Alberto suggested.
“No way. She'd be so mad,” said Luca. “She'd send me to the Deep, or at least never let me go back to school again.” He sighed heavily. “Where's Harry? Is he still at Ercole's?”
“I guess so,” said Giulia with a shrug. He was taking an awfully long time about it, wasn't he?
“I wonder how dinner went.” Alberto snickered as he pictured it. “Him and Ercole probably fought the whole time. They're too much the same to get along.”
That was when the door in the yard below them opened, and Massimo leaned out of it to look up at them. “Bambini,” he said, “Signora Marsigliese says you have a telephone call.”
“What? All of us?” asked Albert, startled. The only time anyone ever asked for him on the telephone was when Luca and Giulia called from school.
“Yes,” said Massimo.
The kids exchanged some confused looks, then climbed down the ladder to meet Signora Marsigliese, who was at the front door. “It's your friend the crab,” she told them. “He wants to speak to you.”
Confused, the kids trooped across the piazza to the grocery shop, where the nearest telephone was. All sorts of possibilities were running through Luca's mind. Maybe Harry was hurt or in some other trouble and needed them to come rescue him. Maybe Ercole or even his father had tried to harm him. Whatever it was, Luca was pretty sure it would make this situation worse.
Signora Marsigliese handed him the phone receiver, and he put it to his ear and said, “hello?”
“Hi!” said Harry. “I'm calling to tell you they're keeping me. I told you they would! Ercole and his Dad are a little scared of me, but that's okay because it means I'll get my way.”
“Really?” asked Luca. That was better than Harry being lost or hurt, but still made for an awful feeling in the pit of Luca's stomach. They couldn't just let this happen... could they?
“Yep! Mrs. Visconti says I'm a nice young man, and Mr. Visconti says he can't deny her anything and it's not the weirdest pet he's seen!” Harry sounded very proud of himself. “And Ercole complained a lot, but it's not his house!”
“What about your own Mom and Dad?” Luca tried. “I mean... you're really never gonna see them again?”
“Nope!” said Harry. “Tell them I've found better parents in the human world – and make sure you tell my Dad that they're gonna be proud of me!”
Luca had his doubts about that. “Uh... okay,” he said. “If you change your mind, let us know. It's gonna take another day for us to earn enough money for that train trip, so if you...”
“I won't,” said Harry, and then his voie became muffled and Luca heard him call, “hey! New Mom! They need some money for the train – can we give them some?”
They couldn't hear Faustina Visconti's reply, but a moment later Harry spoke again.
“Yeah, my new Mom will hire you to pick some grapes tomorrow morning,” Harry said.
That made Luca stop and think for a moment. He knew that Alberto had done chores for the Visconti family before, and they paid very well because they wanted to continue being thought of as 'the rich people' even if that wasn't strictly true. Surely picking grapes for Signora Visconti would get them enough money plus a little extra.
“What's going on?” asked Alberto.
“Harry says Signora Visconti will pay us to pick grapes,” said Luca.
“Oh,” said Alberto, weighing up the pros and cons. The Viscontis did pay well, but then, Ercole was always around to be a pain. “Is it worth it, though?”
“Yes,” Luca insisted. “We need to rescue Louise and Curtis!”
Alberto made a terrible face, and looked at Giulia for a third opinion.
“We have to do it,” she said. “Harry doesn't belong here. We need to get him to go back to his world and we're not going to convince him over the phone. We'll have to go see him anyway, so we might as well earn some money.”
Alberto groaned.
Luca uncovered the mouthpiece of the telephone. “Okay,” he said, “we'll be there first thing tomorrow morning.”
“I'll tell my new Mom!” said Harry cheerfully. “Good night! Or... how do you say it here? Bwana naughty!”
“Good night, Harry,” sighed Luca.
-
The next morning, bright and early, Luca headed back to land. He and his friends put on work clothes, then headed over the hill to the Visconti vineyards. None of them were very enthusiastic about it. Alberto grumbled to himself the whole way, and Giulia knocked on the back door of the big house, where she'd delivered her fish yesterday, as if expecting bad news. They were worried it would be Harry himself who answered, but instead it was Faustina, with a smile on her face.
“Oh, Harry's little friends!” she said brightly. “He told me you'd stop by today. I'm going to have you bring in some of the Bosco that have ripened early. You'll want to be careful not to bruise them.”
“Yes, Signora Visconti,” Giulia replied, polite. Luca nodded. Alberto just grunted.
“Follow me!” said Faustina.
She led them up to the section of the vineyard where they'd be working, on an east-facing hillside to catch the rising sun, and provided them with baskets and clippers. All three kids had picked grapes before, and knew the proper way to do it – cut down the whole bunch and lay them carefully in the basket so as not to damage the delicate flesh. Alberto had once tried to eat a few, but had found them so sickly sweet he'd had to spit them out. When she'd finished laughing at him, Giulia had explained that wine grapes had much more sugar than food grapes, to help the juice ferment.
Faustina left them to their work, and for a little while it was quite pleasant. The shadows cast by the vines on the trellises kept them cool, as did the nice morning breeze, and they were far enough from the house that neither Ercole nor Harry could watch them. Of course, that would not keep.
Harry was the first to arrive. He was carrying a big pillow and a glass of lemonade, and wearing a pair of sunglasses that he was having trouble keeping in place because he had neither a nose nor ears. Without any sort of greeting, he shook his pillow a bit to fluff it up, then sat down on it and sipped his lemonade through a straw.
The kids continued to work, waiting for Harry to say something, but he remained silent except for the slurping sounds as he drank. He seemed content to watch and know that they were working and he was not, which in his mind was apparently how the world was supposed to be.
“You're not gonna make your new parents proud by just sitting there,” Alberto said eventually.
“I'm supervising,” said Harry. “I'm making sure you're not slacking off. I wouldn't want my new Mom to pay you for doing nothing.”
“What happens when you get bored?” asked Giulia.
“I have a magazine.” Harry held it up.
“Can you even read it?” asked Alberto. He still found reading difficult, although he'd gotten much better at it with the incentive of understanding Luca's letters from school.
“Of course I can,” said Harry. He opened it and pretended to examine the pages, perhaps unaware that it was upside-down.
Giulia rolled her eyes and moved closer to the boys. “How are we gonna convince him?” she whispered.
“I have an idea,” said Alberto. He stopped and stretched before resuming his grape-picking. “Man,” he said, “now I wish I'd taken one of those eyeball pops! I guess if you're staying here, I'll never get another chance.”
“You're right,” Luca joined in. “They had some really strange food in the other world, Giulia, like the three-eyed fish.”
“He mentioned the three-eyed fish,” Giulia said, nodding.
“Some of them have four or five eyes,” said Harry. “The four-eyed ones are always the most delicious.”
“There aren't any four-eyed fish here,” Luca said, “only the two-eyed ones.”
“What a shame,” said Alberto.
They glanced over at Harry. He was watching them over the top of his magazine.
“You really want to live here where you'll never have a four-eyed fish for dinner again?” Alberto asked.
Harry pushed his sunglasses back into place. “You just want to get rid of me,” he accused.
Giulia decided to try honesty. “You don't belong here, Harry. There are no other people like you in this world. Sooner or later you're going to want to go back.”
“They don't,” said Harry, pointing to the boys.
“We are back, though,” said Luca. “I live with my family underwater during the summer, remember? And even if Alberto lives most of the time with humans, there are still lots of sea monsters around here so if he has a problem the humans can't help him with, there's somebody nearby who does. What if you get hurt or sick, and the doctor doesn't know what to do about it?”
“I'll be fine,” Harry insisted. “I'd rather have a Dad who'll be proud of me.”
“Has Signor Visconti said he'll be proud of you?” asked Alberto. He'd only met Aristide Visconti a couple of times, and he'd always seemed to be arguing with Ercole, not proud of him.
“He bragged about how his other son won the Portorosso Cup race five times,” said Harry. “I can do that, no problem.”
“He only won because he cheated!” Alberto protested.
“And you'd need a team to do that, because you can't ride a bike,” Giulia said, bristling.
“I'll figure it out,” Harry vowed.
The conversation was cut off then, as Faustina Visconti arrived with a picnic basket. “How's everybody doing?” she asked. “Oh, looks like you've made wonderful progress! And you're so gentle with them, that's lovely.”
“I've been supervising,” said Harry. “I'm making sure they do it right.”
The other kids glared at him.
Faustina set down her basket and began unfolding a blanket. “I've made you some lunch. Why don't we all take a bit of a break? Ercole!” she called over her shoulder.
“I'm coming, Mamma!” came Ercole's voice.
He arrived a moment later with a second basket, and helped his mother to lay out a torta di verde with stuffed artichokes, fresh bread, and fruit from the garden. Luca, Alberto, and Giulia came and sat down while Faustina passed out food and offered each child a very small glass of wine.
“This is what we make from the grapes you're picking,” she said proudly. “Our Bosco.”
Alberto and Luca sipped it carefully, to be polite. Neither of the boys particularly liked wine, finding it tasted quite sharp even when the humans promised it would be sweet. Giulia tried it and smiled. Harry and Ercole both swirled and sniffed it in the way they'd seen adults do, trying to appear refined. Giulia was about to say something to tease Harry about this, but Harry himself spoke first.
“Are we billing them for this?” he asked.
“Billing them?” Faustina echoed, confused.
“Yes. At the factory, if employees don't bring their own lunch, they have to get it from the cafeteria,” Harry explained. “We take it off their paycheques.”
“Don't be silly,” said Faustina. “We want them to come back and work for us again sometime, don't we? We're going to be welcoming. It's not as if we can't afford it. Would you children like some soda pop?”
“Yes, please!” said Luca and Alberto eagerly. They liked that much better than wine.
Faustina pulled out the bottles and opened them, while Harry sat there, looking surprised but thoughtful.
They finished up with tangerines for dessert, and then Faustina directed Harry and Ercole to help her bring the grapes already picked back to the house. Harry, with his low-slung, wide-set body, was able to heft one and carry it along mere inches above the ground, which Faustina told him was very good. He grinned toothily at the other kids before scuttling away.
“Ercole, try to be very careful, could you?” she asked. She took one basket in each arm, balancing them on her hips, and followed Harry.
Ercole was in the middle of lifting one, but he didn't straighten up. Instead, he waited until his mother and new adoptive brother had vanished between the vines before putting the basket down and gesturing for Luca, Alberto, and Giulia to come closer.
“You have to get rid of him,” he ordered them.
“Why should we?” asked Alberto, who had strong feelings about Harry returning to his own world, but possibly even stronger ones about Ercole suffering inconvenience.
“Because Mamma treats him like one of her precious Bologneses!” said Ercole, referring to the two small dogs Faustina doted upon. “It makes me sick. And they let him sleep in my room. I woke up in the middle of last night and he was three centimetres from my face! I screamed, and he laughed at me!”
Giulia snickered.
Ercole glared at her. “Besides, he's already planning to enter the race this year, and neither of us need more competition.”
“You don't have to worry about it, because you're too old to enter,” Giulia pointed out.
“We agree he needs to go back,” Luca put in, before an argument could develop. “He's going to grow up to be really big and he'll probably bully everybody, but what are we supposed to do? We already tried to talk him out of it, but he doesn't want to go back.”
“Then you have to make him,” Ercole insisted. “How do you get back to that monster world?”
“We've got a plan,” said Alberto.
“We're going back to Genova tonight, we hope,” said Luca. “We can do it from there.”
“Good,” said Ercole. “The last train leaves late, like nine o'clock, right? So after we go to bed, I will let you into the house, and you can grab him and take him with you.”
“Like... kidnap him?” Giulia was startled.
“Yes,” said Ercole. “But you'll have to gag him first or he'll yell, like he did when one of the employee's children put a spider down his back.” He snorted. “I don't know why he shoudl be afraid of spiders. He's more likely to be mistaken for one. Mamma scolded the other child terribly.” He scowled. “She used to do that when people were nasty to me.”
“Ohhh,” said Giulia. She grinned. “You want to be the baby again.”
“I am not a baby!” huffed Ercole.
“Yeah, but you're your Mom's baby!” Alberto said.
Ercole pouted. “She used to say I always would be. Then she got the dogs. And now this.”
Giulia nodded – although she couldn't help but wonder what Ercole had done to try to get rid of the dogs when they'd first arrived. There must have been something. “Okay, ragazzi,” she said to her friends. “We'll come back after dark with the pram, and tie him up and put him in that.”
“We should probably trap him in a net,” said Alberto. “That way it'll tangle up all his legs and we won't have to do them one by one.” He knew from unpleasant experience that escaping from a fishing net was harder than it looked.
“We've got lots of nets,” said Giulia. “All right – we'll come get him tonight after bedtime.” She offered Ercole a hand.
He took it as if it were a dead fish, and gave it one quick shake. “I hate having to make a deal with you,” he said, “but I must think about my own future.”
“Don't worry, we don't like making a deal with you either,” said Alberto.
“But we've got a lot of people to think about,” Luca agreed.
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