I could not force down the corners of my grin. I was too eager about the monster, as well as all the other unique monsters that we would have the honor of meeting and learning from. I, of course, was the only one within our group - the only human inside the beautiful mall - who could not and would not shut it about the real monster, even when Skipper asked and Alice demanded me to. It was the most thrilling time of my entire life. More than when my folks were given the keys to this mall, one key for the front and back doors and one key for each shop, which is a lot of keys, considering the enormousness of the mall. A thrill was what my life desperately needed.

Unfortunately, said thrill lasted for only a short while. I was so blinded by my fascination towards the monsters and my deep desire to be close with them that I did not consider the consequences. Or should I say, those guys. Not the monsters whom we would meet now, including familiar faces.

Despite my friends assuming that the foul monster was actually a human dressed as...well, a monster, to play a prank on us as if we were famous mystery solvers, they followed my lead without questioning him further. Had I not been trying to restrain myself from doing a joyous somersault, I would have asked why they are obeying a human. My likely guess is that they were afraid that the "human" was a threat, like along the lines of a psycho.

What would convince them that this male monster was the real deal? I should ask him to return the favor since that we did what he said without complaining or trying to start something with him.

We all were unrolling our sleeping bags and unpacking in a spacious area of the bookshop. Bright yellow lights in the ceiling were spilling out into the shop. On us and our stuff. The books. The wooden shelves and tables. It was a bummer that we were forced to change locations. If we still wanted to stay while the monsters shopped. I did not mind, though, and neither did the group. I love wandering the bookstore almost as much as the mall. If I got the urge to read a scary book about monsters, like Forlot, I could just snatch one off the wooden shelf in a monster section and return it to the shelf when I either finished it or lost interest in it without paying it.

I prefer bookshops over libraries. If I had spite towards libraries, the spite would be directed at bookstores too. Bookstores and libraries are pretty much the same. But the huge difference is why I always shop at bookstores. The books are new or in great condition, so they do not have much germs on them. At used bookstores, most of their books are in pretty good condition. They will have the nasty germs, but you may study the yellowish pages before purchasing the books and use wipes to clean the front and back covers. If you really want to keep a book because of how fascinating it is - must be a Forlot book - you may happily buy it and reread it as many times as your heart desires without worrying about a deadline.

I made a whole paragraph surrounding books. I should be discussing our interactions with the monsters.

The monster whom we had spoken with strode towards the store and pushed open the wooden doors. He stood in front of them as he crossed his muscular arms. "Um, are you humans settling in good?"

I responded first. "Yep. We will settle in real good once we start introducing ourselves to the other monsters."

He glanced left and right outside this store. "The crowd will be rushing in momentarily."

"So...why are you the only supposed monster here right now?" Sam questioned.

"'Supposed monster'? You kids do not think that I am a legitimate monster? How rude."

I put my hands on my chest. "I—"

Alice pointed at me. "Carly here is somehow convinced that you are a monster."

His bright eyes studied me for an intense hour, when it was just seconds. His gaze returned to my friends. "She knows what I am. But you other kids do not?"

"You are a human," Alyssa confessed what the majority of the group was thinking. "But we are unsure just how dangerous you are, which is exactly why we obeyed and moved."

"Every human here except Carly believes that I am only a dangerous human. I may be dangerous...but do I look human to you? Are your eyeballs working correctly?"

Alice growled and dug in her pocket. "I am sooo done. I am calling the hospital so the police can deal with you."

Alyssa grabbed Alice's free hand and spoke just above a whisper. "What if he has a weapon? A knife or a gun? If it is a gun, he will shoot you. He might shoot you in the head or the heart. You do not want to be discarded into an early grave with a bullet deep in your flesh."

"Who needs weapons when you are an actual monster? Weapons are child's play," the monster said.

Alice unveiled the phone and jerked her hand free from Alyssa's hold. "I am calling whether he is insane or not. I knew that I should not have agreed to come."

He slowly shook his head. "Your police will be helpless. Everyone shopping here tonight - including yours truly - is a full-fledged monster. Humans never scare us."

I rushed towards Alice and used both hands to grab her phone.

"Hey!"

"Please do not call the hospital. If you seriously want to leave, leave. Gather your things and return home. I just thought that this would be a neat experience."

"You call a human in a costume neat?"

"They are here!" the monster announced.