November 11.

It had been a sunny Veteran's Day. The evening was crisp, brisk and refreshing. The leaves whispered sweet tickling hymns.

All was well in the Greens' house. Not a soul stirred.

Except for the happy-go-lucky two-year-old of the house, Boo, who played merrily with her best friends in the world.

Monsters.

"Alright, Sul, I think it's time we head back," Mike said, standing up from the coloring books on the floor.

"Yeah, you're probably right." Sulley got to his feet.

"Kitty?" Boo said from her drawings. She ran to Sulley, hugging him.

"I'm sorry, Boo. But we've gotta go. We'll be back tomorrow night, I promise."

She held his hand, squeezing it one last time.

"See ya around, kiddo," Mike said, winking at Boo.

She giggled.

Mike was headed for the door when Sulley stopped him, putting his arm between them.

"Do you smell that?" he said, sniffing the air.

"Smell what, this room? It's so sickeningly sweet. You know we oughta get her a de-freshener for in here."

"No Mike, it's not that." Sulley sniffed. "Smoke."

"Smoke?"

"Kitty?" Boo said, tugging at him.

"Sh sh sh shhh." He looked down at her, putting his finger to his lips.

"Shhhh." she replied.

"Do you hear that?" he said, listening to the growing, almost deafening crackling in the air.

Sulley and Mike looked at Boo's door from her room.

Smoke seeped in from underneath.

"Mike?" Sulley looked down at his one-eyed friend, who stared back at him.

The roof collapsed around them, flames roaring.

"Sulley! We have to go! Now!" Mike screamed over the fire.

"No Mikey! Not until Boo's safe!"

"Well, grab her and let's get out of here!"

"We can't do that, Mike! If her door burns down, we won't be able to return her!"

"You mean just leave her here?"

"Not until she's safe! I'll put her outside the window!"

"Well hurry! Before the entire room catches fire!"

"Come on Boo!" Sully plucked her from the ground, desperately trying to find a path to her window through the fallen wood and fire.

"It's getting hot in here! Sul! Hurry!"

"You go through, I'll catch up!"

"No way! Not until you're back here beside me!"

Sulley clutched Boo to his heart, storming through the blaze and debris.

The window sill was piled with burning wood and inflation, its white silk curtains instantly consumed by the fire like hair above a candle. Holding Boo back even tighter, he desperately tried to kick the flames away.

Finally clearing enough away, he fumbled to unlock and open the window with only one hand.

But he would dare not put Boo down.

Not until she was safe.

The window finally propped open, he began to slip Boo through when more burning ceiling and support beams collapsed on top of him. The window fell shut.

"KITTY!" Boo's wail was faint, drowned out by the roar of the fire.

"Sulley!" Mike screamed over the roar of the fire. He leaped in after his friend. "Hot hot hot hot hot hot hot!" he squealed as he dug through the burning wood.

Finally spotting Sulley's charred tail through the red storm, Mike grabbed onto it and began dragging him out. More cross beams fell on top of the pile, making Sulley even harder to pull.

"Mike!" Sulley coughed from the smoke.

"I'm trying, I'm trying!" He pushed the beams off and finally managed to pull Sulley out from under the collapsed roof, all his fur singed off.

The walls around them were aflame, rapidly working their way from both sides to the white pink flowered closet door.

When Sulley was on his feet again, he looked back at the pile of wood he had just been dragged out of, still burning around the window sill.

"BOO!" he screamed, about to charge back into the flames. But something yanked him to a stop. Sulley was unable to move. He looked over his shoulder.

Mike was gripped his tail, his heels planted to the hardwood floor. Tears streamed from his single eye.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Sulley yanked at his tail, fighting in a tug of war with Mikey. "BOO IS STILL OUT THERE!"

More flame-engulfed wood collapsed around them, the pile now up to Sulley's neck.

Mike wrenched back. "Sulley, she's gone!" he sobbed, still clinging to Sulley's tail. "She's gone, Sul! She's gone!"

"No, no!" Sulley clawed at the air in denial. "NO!"

The door was now entirely covered with flames. Mike turned the doorknob, instantly burning his hand on the melting brass.

But through the sudden shot of pain in his arm, he managed to keep his grip on Sulley's tail.

Mike fell through the door into the door station, his weight carrying Sulley down with him.

"BOOOOOO!" Sulley screamed as he fell back into the door.

As the door slammed shut, it cracked, split, and then burst into brittle shrapnel.

The fire devoured the house.

Drawings curled and blew away into ashes. Toys charred, their plastic melting and running away like tears.

The room sizzled and snapped, mumbled and hissed, enveloped in the sound of silence.

Until--

"KITTY!" Boo screamed.

The window had fallen on her, her top half sticking into the house, her legs dangling outside. Though the window was not heavy enough to crush her, it pinned her to the windowsill, trapping her under its weight.

Boo sobbed and screamed in terror, hot tears running down her red face. Her tiny hands grabbed at the window frame pressed against her chest. "KIIIITTYYYY!" Oh, what was that word?

"Heh, HELP!" Boo's screech was like that of a dying animal.

Only crackling and snapping was given to her as a response.

Her eyes widened, tears still streaming.

Boo quieted her crying.

"Kitty?" she whimpered to the emptiness.

She was alone.

She pressed her hands against the sill and the window frame, pushing the glass up with every fiber of her might. She wiggled herself out from under the weight of the window.

She slipped out, and fell down, tumbling on the ground.

She rolled onto her stomach, and pushed her knees in, wobbling as she got to her feet.

She stood feet from her window, staring at her burning house, smoke rising in the air, fire engulfing the roof.

"Kitty?" she asked one last time.

Mary was alone.

Even by the time the firemen found her outside, even by the time the paramedics comforted her on a gurney in the ambulance, even by the time she was in the hospital surrounded by doctors and nurses attending to her around the clock, checking for any possible damage to her chest or to her lungs, it was too late.

Something had died in Mary's heart that day.

The light in her eyes never came back.