It had taken years of slaving away for James P. "Sulley" Sullivan to get to this point, but he was finally back in this tiny little room again, even though it was at a price. But it was almost worth the white door with pink flowers on it that haunted his dreams.
He'd done it. He'd fixed it. Boo's door was fixed.
The now rather old monster stood in front of the door in the weak streams of light, knowing he had to be quick, but also knowing he wouldn't. He was too old for quick now and ever since Mike packed up and left to marry Celia and live the life he did before he passed peacefully, he had noticed a decline in most of his senses without him there.
Age just took the rest of them.
He couldn't see really well now, leading to many a time when he almost snapped the door in half because he couldn't fit a missing piece into it's proper place. He supposed that even if he wanted to snap the door in half, it wouldn't work. Most of his strength had abated the longer he lived, just like his body.
His fur was still blue in places and purple in others, but with the years, they had become faded shades of themselves, pastel versions of their once bright colours with bits of gray strewn in between. It reflected his personality up to this point, it was vibrant once, in his younger days. Not so much now that he was on his deathbed.
He'd found out months ago, ironically it was just after Celia passed away only 5 years after Mike did. Cancer. The big C. A human decide that existed in the monster world. Did you know monsters could have human illnesses? Well, they can.
It was in his lungs, clogging them up thanks to years of scarring from scaring children. It was delayed in development, but now Sulley was old, his immune system was down and he'd let his health go south after Mike passed away, it was fast. Fast and claiming.
However, he had to do this. He had to see Boo once more before he left.
Readying himself, his thumb, knuckled like the rest of his hand from years of wear and tear from both being a scarer and being chairman (his retirement party was something to remember, there would probably never be a repeat of it.), lowered down onto the activation button. Seeing that big red button above the door light up calmed his nerves slightly, but he knew they wouldn't fully abate till he went in.
Opening the door and shuffling in however, he was confused. It was Boo's door...but this wasn't Boo's room.
The room was practically the same, but the walls were now a bright yellow, no longer pink and white in stripes with hearts. It was still covered in drawings, there were toys still everyone on the floor and glowing stars still on the ceiling, so may be Sulley wasn't off as he thought. The bed had changed too, it wasn't white anymore, but a dark brown, rainbow covers adorning it with a bundled shape asleep under them. Had they changed the room after him and Mike had been here? They must have.
Watching the bay window carefully, Sulley maneuvered as best as his slow body could in the darkness, managing to avoid most of the toys except for a rocking horse his tail hit, but luckily it wasn't loud and he breathed a sigh of relief or at least, the best he could. He finally reached the bed after a while, bracing himself as he pulled back the blankets.
There was a girl in the bed...but it wasn't Boo. It wasn't Boo at all. This little girl was blonde, hair in little pigtails as she slept like Boo's, but...they were blonde. She also had a different face shape and was slightly smaller than Boo was. He'd fixed the wrong door. All this time and he'd fixed the wrong door.
He felt betrayed. Angry, upset, sad.
Shaking, Sulley turned away from the little girl, letting the blanket was has holding fell gently back on top of her as he shook, making his way back towards the door without any regard for the objects around him, his vision completely lost now crowded in tears. It would be his undoing.
He didn't see the doll at his feet till he was already falling backwards, hitting the floor hard before he felt a sharp blow of pain in his chest when he slumped himself against a stack of drawers.
Something was wrong.
His hand reached up and pulled away from his lips, noticing blood staining it as he brought it back down, chest heaving. Something had broken. He was bleeding and it was choking him.
However, the terror he felt only escalated tenfold when he started to fade, knowing he wouldn't be able to get back to the closet, only to turn to his left and find giant brown eyes staring back at him.
The girl was awake.
She didn't scream, if she did he hadn't heard her. She was just gaping at him, shaking in her bed and wearing a red bodysuit with slightly lighter colored flowers. Before he could even open his mouth to try and and reassure her she was okay, she bolted, leaping up out of bed and running out the door, a light turning on down the hall.
Grown ups!
Sulley panicked, trying to force himself to move, but the pain in his chest was intense and the more he struggled to move, the more it hurt and the more black consumed his vision. It didn't matter anyway, the girl was back soon enough, a woman in hand.
He couldn't really see the woman well, but he noticed her clothes. Pink. Her hair. Dark. Her eyes...her eyes were wide, crying, hand having been in the child's grasp now on her mouth. But he knew those eyes, even covered over by glasses. Boo.
Boo raced to him, falling on top of him as his vision began to blur. He felt something wiping at his lips, but he knew it wasn't going to help. There was a distant sounding voice calling him, shaking him.
"Kitty? Kitty! Kitty!?"
He forced his eyes open and turned them to the side, seeing her looking at him, his giant paw on her face. He smiled at her. "H-H-Hey Boo."
Her smile was so bright, it almost blinded him fully, but she was shaking. She knew he wouldn't be here for long. She turned away from him to beckon the little girl forward, who shyly stepped towards her before joining her fully.
"Riley, this is Sulley. He was my imaginary friend when I was your age, like Bing Bong." Boo explained slowly to the little girl, who looked between him and her as she talked. "I asked if he'd come visit you for your birthday tomorrow."
Sulley nodded, smiling at Riley as she looked at him with wide eyes. "I-I-It's true, I-I-I give the best b-b-birthday hugs."
After looking between them for a few minutes, Riley shyly made her way to Sulley and he used all his remaining strength to hug her tightly when she came to him, body burying itself into his fur. Turning to look up at Boo when what vision he had left, he smiled at her crying face, which made her cry more.
She didn't want Riley to see her cry.
Reaching up to place his paw back on her face, he wiped away her tears, looking at her. "I-I-I wanna see...I wanna see that smile again."
She smiled at him, eyes bright. His final wish came true. It made his chest feel lighter than ever, if it was heavy now and he was almost gone.
As Riley let go and stepped away, he took one last look at Boo and her, drinking them in. "M-M-Make her laugh. Every day."
"Every day." She agreed, nodding at him fast and holding onto Riley who was cuddled into chest.
"Every day…" Sulley murmured slowly as his eyes finally closed and he breathed out. He didn't feel anything.
Everything had finally gone black.