Chapter Text
On a lone hill stood a vast building, stone walls starkly contrasting with clear blue skies, tall towers and interconnecting bridges casting early morning shadows. A wide staircase led to double doors opening into the belly of the beast, the landing framed by support columns of a balcony above. On either side of the pathway extending from the twisted iron gates to the foot of the stairs were mildly overgrown lawns dotted with off-white gravestones. And everywhere you looked, a variety of monsters streamed by, getting ready for their first day of school. Only one student was rooted in place, wide eyes hungrily taking in the sights and sounds that surrounded them, having never seen anything quite like this institution.
Understandable, considering the fact that they were seven days old.
Frankie’s nerves tingled with anxiety, or maybe with excess electricity, as they slowly stepped forward. They could do this. They might not have much, or any, experience with socializing, but Dad had said to treat others the way you would want to be treated. It shouldn't be too difficult, right?
Two buses rumbled past them, shuttling students who lived far from the school, nothing differentiating them from the ones that had driven by before. Hoping to acquaint themself with some of their classmates, Frankie hurried forward, reaching the buses just in time to see the doors open with a hiss. The one on their left revealed a gore-geous vampire, and the one to their right opened to show a muscular werewolf with a snaggle tooth.
“Hello,” Frankie said as more students emerged from the vehicles. “I’m pleased to meet you. My name’s Frankie.”
“Romulus,” said the werewolf. “Nice to meet you.”
“Gory,” came the bored sigh from the vampire. “And I’m afraid I can’t say the same.”
“You look familiar,” Romulus sneered. “You’re a member of the court, aren’t you? You’d think a noble like you would’ve been raised to have better manners. Or just any manners. Like, at all.”
“Or maybe,” Gory raised an elegant eyebrow. “I simply don’t waste my time on common rabble such as yourself.”
“You vampires are all the same,” Romulus growled. “Elitist wannabe tyrants.”
“Better than impoverished trash,” Gory shot back. “Now stop wasting my time with your yapping. Down, dog.”
Jeers emerged from the gathering of vampires behind her, and enraged muttering rose up from the small crowd of werewolves behind Romulus.
“You know what, guys?” he turned around. “We’re better than this. Let’s leave petty squabbles to those who don’t know the meaning of basic decency.”
“Scaredy-cats,” Gory taunted as the werewolves entered the school, and Romulus raised a middle finger in response.
“Was all that necessary?” Frankie asked.
“What are you still doing here?” Gory said.
- - - - - - -
A schoolwide assembly was an odd way to start the year, at least in Frankie’s opinion. They watched as a woman with prominent cheekbones took the stage and began to speak, voice matching the one that had announced the assembly over the speakers, so presumably she was the headmistress.
"Welcome, students, the new and the old," Headmistress Bloodgood smiled. "It's wonderful to see you. You must be wondering what this is all about. I believe the representative from the Department of Interspecies Relations will explain the goings-on better than me."
A large man with tangled blond hair stepped onto the stage, taking the microphone offered by Bloodgood. The spider sitting next to Frankie rasped "Is that a freaking Normie?"
"Hello," the rough-looking man said with a surprisingly smooth voice. "I am Van Hellscream. It's a pleasure to meet you all. My reason for being here is to oversee the integration of two schools, which had to close due to lack of enrollment, into Monster High. I'm here to make sure everything goes well, and report back to my superiors about the success of this venture."
"Now," he adjusted his jacket. "This may be a tad difficult, unfortunately, because of an old historical feud. The schools that shut down are the all vampire Belfry Prep, and the werewolf Crescent Moon High. I believe I do not need to explain the possible tension that might arise from such an arrangement."
Frankie frowned. What did he mean by that?
"But I am hopeful that we can overcome centuries of wrongs and celebrate our differences, which is why, in about a month’s time, we’ll be hosting a dance in honor of what will hopefully be a peaceful integration. I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you." With a bow, he walked off the stage, returning the mic to Bloodgood on the way.
"There you have it," she said. "I want to be clear about one thing; bigotry will not be tolerated. I expect you to be cordial to your peers, at the very least."
A nearby vampire muttered "That's a non-issue. These monsters are hardly my peers."
Frankie knew they were missing something. All sixteen years of basic information that had been wired into their brain didn't have an answer to the hostility that was settling over the student body like a miasma.
"Oh, three more things. One; returning students, I expect you to treat your new classmates well," Bloodgood gave the crowd a hard look. "Two; any fights will be punished by at least a week of detention, as well as parental involvement. And three;"
Frankie bit their lip.
"SKRM tryouts will be held in December. Have a good day."
- - - - - - -
It was time for the second period, aka Frankie’s first class ever. They had wandered around after the assembly, searching for the lab while the remainder of the first period passed. They found it a minute before the bell rang, and sat at a table for another five before anyone showed up.
Eventually, a haughty mummy entered the room, followed by a groaning zombie.
"I told you, Ghoulia," the mummy said. "If we don't sit next to each other at the start of the year, I won't have anyone to do the work for me."
Ghoulia rolled her eyes.
"Don't worry," the mummy continued. "I won't be a bother. You anyway prefer to work alone. After all, what lab partner could match your brains?"
A blush tinged Ghoulia's cheeks as she waved off the compliment.
"Hi!" Frankie bounced in their seat.
"Oh," the mummy noticed them for the first time. "I haven't seen you before. You must be a freshman. I'm Cleo DeNile, I'm very well known here, and I'm afraid you are in the wrong place."
"Actually," Frankie rubbed their arm, "I'm in your year. I'm just new."
"Hm," Cleo looked them up and down. "Are you any good at fearleading?"
"Well, as the child of Frankenstein's monster, I've been alive for all of a week at this point, so I don't know."
Cleo sniffed and shifted her gaze to her iCoffin, having lost interest in Frankie. Over the next few minutes, the rest of the class trickled in, all choosing to sit with friends, leaving Frankie alone. When Gory and her little gang arrived, they laughed while gesturing at them, making them slide down in their seat and hide behind their black-and-white hair.
"Don't mind them," someone said, slipping into the seat next to Frankie. "They have nothing better to do with their life."
Looking up, Frankie met the green eyes of their classmate, and felt the embers of their earlier hope to make friends flare.
"I'm Lagoona," the freckled teen introduced herself. "and I'd love to be your lab partner this year."
Frankie beamed.
- - - - - - -
Lagoona had invited Frankie to sit with her and her friends at breakfast, an offer that was eagerly accepted. After Mr. Hack dismissed them, Lagoona took them by the arm, and they fell into step next to two of their classmates, one short and pigtailed, the other lanky with fangtastic curls.
“Hey, girls,” Lagoona greeted them. “As you probably know from roll call, this is Frankie. They're new here.”
“Hi,” the first said with a unique accent. “I’m totes stoked to meet you! I’m Draculaura.”
Frankie could practically hear the smile emoji tagged on at the end of the sentence.
“And I’m Clawdeen,” the other said, looking at them curiously. “How’d you know ‘Goona?”
“Um,” Frankie smiled. “We’re lab partners?”
“Yep,” Lagoona confirmed, giving Frankie’s shoulder a little squeeze. “Class with them was a blast. We bonded right before it started over some people who almost out-diva Cleo.”
“DeNile?” Frankie squeaked.
Draculaura giggled. “Sorry,” she said. “It’s just that she seems so intimidating at first- but she’s really nice, I promise.”
“Yeah,” Clawdeen agreed as they approached the buffet and began to prepare trays of food. “She sometimes even deigns to sit with us at lunch.”
“Don't be rude,” Draculaura admonished. “She’s only snobby on the outside.”
Lagoona snorted.
At Draculaura’s raised eyebrow she explained “She’s self-assured and confident on the inside as well. You make it sound like she’s secretly shy.”
“Oh, no. Cleo is Cleo. But she determines worth regardless of class and money, no matter what it may seem like at first glance.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Frankie said as they sat at a table that was already occupied by someone who resembled Clawdeen
“Hi,” they greeted him. “I’m Frankie.”
He looked up from his iCoffin “Clawd. I'm in the other tenth grade class. I see my sister and my girlfriend have already decided to adopt you.”
Clawdeen rolled her eyes as Draculaura ducked her head bashfully and kissed Clawd on the cheek.
- - - - - - -
Van Hellscream pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling an oncoming headache. As much as he appreciated the opportunity, this addition to his job was mildly insulting. As the only human in the Department, he always got the worst jobs. And nobody else wanted to deal with the clusterfuck that was the wolf-vamp feud. Why, the most recent incident had been only two days ago…
“It's such a shame,” he sighed.
“What is, sir?” a curious student, who was also on the way to the creepateria, asked.
“Oh,” he grimaced. “I was just thinking about that unfortunate hate crime in Boo York. I’m sure you saw the news, miss…?”
“Howleen Wolf,” she said, frowning.
“I’ll do my best to remember that,” he said as she took her iCoffin out of her bag and typed something into the search bar.
They entered the creepateria, and Van Hellscream watched as Howleen quickly approached a table of Crescent Moon High students, shuffling her feet and tugging on a stray blond curl. One of the wolves indicated that Howleen should sit next to him, and despite the reddening of her cheeks, she seemed focused as she showed those seated around her something on her phone. Something that caused many of them to scowl and shoot glares at the Belfry prep table.
Van Hellscream really hated his job.
- - - - - - -
“Whatcha lookin’ at, bro?” Clawdeen asked.
“Howleen probably sent you a link to the article too,” he said. “I would ignore it if I were you. It’s ten percent fact, ninety percent anti-vampire propaganda. I think she missed the ‘don't believe everything you read online’ talk.”
“Um,” Frankie licked their lips. “What exactly is up with all that anyway?”
Before anyone could answer, a loud crash reverberated through the creepateria. All eyes turned to a table in the center of the room, where Cleo and Ghoulia were situated. Next to it stood Gory, a food tray upturned at her feet.
“You should watch who you cross, mummy,” she growled.
“Really?” Cleo looked skeptical. “Should I be wary of someone who doesn’t know how to politely request a seat at my table?”
Ghoulia sighed and resumed typing on her laptop.
“As if I would share with you,” Gory scoffed. “This is my table now. Scooch.”
“Is your swollen ego supposed to be intimidating?” Cleo said, smiling slightly. “Because all I see is the bastard daughter of Lord Fangtell’s nephew. Your family is hardly considered successful next to dynasties such as mine. So unless you would like to be sued by the DeNile lawyer, I suggest you find a new place to remedy the lack of attention you got as a child.”
The silence was broken by a bark of laughter, causing Gory to whirl around.
“Do you have something to add, Romulus?” she flared.
“Just appreciating how badly you got burned,” he replied. “I hope you didn’t forget to apply your sunscreen this morning, princess.”
“What did you say, you mongrel-”
Splat .
A sunny-side-up had soared through the air and landed in Gory’s hair, gooey yolk dripping onto her glasses. A young werewolf in a denim jacket with a gray hood stood with her arm outstretched.
“You wanna finish that sentence?” she snarled.
“You. Utter. Bitch.” Gory bared her fangs. “Figuratively and literally.”
Romulus stood as well, hands held up.
“Howleen,” he attempted to de-escalate the situation. “We’re above this…”
“That’s what you said this morning too,” Gory taunted. “Just admit you're a coward with a tail between his legs. At least it gives the appearance that you have something substantial down there.”
“You wish I was that easy to goad,” Romulus smirked. “That eager to get me out of my pants?”
Frankie ducked as a container of cottage cheese was launched from the vampire table, flying over their head and splattering its contents on the werewolves’ breakfasts. They followed Lagoona and the rest in vacating the table to get out of the splash zone. The tables that had been flanking them on both sides began screaming obscenities while throwing rolls and eggs at each other.
“What a waste of perfectly good food,” Lagoona said, wiping a smear of yogurt off her cheek, where she’d been grazed during their tactical retreat.
“I’m gonna kill Howleen,” Clawdeen muttered, Clawd nodding at her words.
Frankie kept quiet, realizing that their question wasn't going to be answered any time soon, and decided to just ask the internet what the hell was going on between the two species. They scrolled through various articles chronicling terrorist attacks and gang wars, ignoring the screeches and a dramatic gasp from Cleo with an accompanying monologue about jam stains on her leggings. They only looked up when the creepateria doors slammed open.
“ENOUGH!” Headmistress Bloodgood bellowed, causing only a momentary lapse in the food fight, but it became clear that the students had no intentions of stopping.
The headmistress raised her detached head up high and threatened everyone with suspension, on the first day of school no less. Frankie didn't think that was supposed to be happening already.
- - - - - - -
Detention.
Unbelievable.
Gory stared at her desk, doing her best to ignore the lowlifes around her. All of the students who had participated in the food fight had been punished with a week of detention, trapping her in the same room as that upstart Romulus, who dared suggest that a vampire of her status would stoop so low as to lust after a werewolf of all monsters. Not to mention his pathetic guard dog, who had an obvious puppy crush on him and kept trying to appear intimidating. Gory couldn't stand freshmen.
Mr. Hack snored, breaking the silence. Several vampires scoffed and some of the wolves snorted. Gory rolled her eyes, suppressing a laugh.
“Of course an all-monster school would have a subpar staff,” she said.
“Of course you have a stick up your ass,” Howleen snapped, then subsided when Romulus put a hand on her shoulder.
“Shouldn't you just appreciate the fact that we’re practically unsupervised?” he said, laughing slightly.
Gory turned her head away with a sniff, unwilling to admit that he had a point. Instead she retrieved her iCoffin from the depths of her bag, resolutely ignoring the rest of the room's occupants until Mr. Hack’s alarm woke him up in order to dismiss them.
- - - - - - -
Frankie bounced on their feet, glad that Lagoona’s friends didn’t think it was odd that they'd joined in on their Maul outing, even after the sea-monster had to ditch them when something came up at the last minute. Ghoulia walked out of the Coffin Bean and distributed a variety of coffee, having gotten everyone their drinks at Cleo’s bidding.
“Thanks, Ghoul',” Draculaura smiled shakily.
The Wolf siblings exchanged a look. Frankie debated if they should bring up a topic of conversation or let the heavy quiet linger. They wanted their first social outing to be enjoyable, but they wanted to respect whatever was running through their classmates’ heads. They decided that if nothing was said in the following sixty seconds, they'd bring up Catty Noir’s new hit single “Love is Like a Storm Tonight”. Right before their mental countdown ended, Cleo cleared her throat.
Everyone swung their heads in her direction.
Cleo took a loud sip of her latte, eyebrows raised in a challenge.
“I’m worried about Howleen,” Clawd admitted.
“Well, I’m pissed at her,” his sister said.
“I didn’t expect my first day of school to be like this,” Frankie looked down at their cappuccino.
“You’d think they’d have something better to do than revive a centuries long feud,” Draculaura whispered.
Ghoulia’s fingers twitched, and she grunted, exasperated.
“And I’m annoyed at Gory.”
Frankie looked away from Cleo, but not before the drama queen caught sight of their expression.
“What?” she said. “We’re sharing. And that’s how the current drama is affecting my personal life. It’s not my fault you lot are all so sensitive.”
“Speaking of personal life,” Clawdeen cut off Frankie’s offended splutter. “Bro, how do you think they’ll react to you and Draculaura?”
“They don't have to know,” Draculaura suggested.
“We shouldn’t need to hide,” Clawd scowled. “Let them judge. They’re all shitheads anyway.”
“We’ll support you guys if they say anything,” Frankie declared.
Cleo and Ghoulia nodded in agreement, though they all knew it wasn’t that easy to deal with prejudice.
“Thanks guys,” Draculaura pulled the three of them and her boyfriend into a group hug.
Over Ghoulia’s head, Frankie saw Clawdeen bite her lip. Her yellow eyes met Frankie’s and she grimaced.
“It will be okay,” Frankie said, their gaze locked with Clawdeen’s.
Their first lie left a bitter taste on their tongue.
- - - - - - -
Mr. Hack always slept until his alarm sounded, Romulus had noted. On the fifth day of detention, he waited for the teacher to doze off, then stood and left the classroom, ignoring his childhood friend’s little sister hissing that it was too risky. Howleen seemed nice enough, but she was drowning in a vamp obsession. Unlike Romulus, who had a proportionate and healthy dislike of those assholes.
Romulus’s initial plan had been to stretch his legs, but he bumped into someone on his walk. After three days of mutual animosity, it was weird to see Gory away from both of their friend groups.
Before his brain caught up with his mouth, he said “Can we not today?”
Gory tilted her head.
“Look,” he rubbed his forehead. “I just want some peace and quiet. Can we categorize the shouting matches as a group event?”
“I suppose that’s reasonable, seeing as I was seeking solitude as well.”
He hadn’t expected her to agree that quickly.
“I guess you’re a coward without your pack, huh?”
Of course she couldn’t resist flinging a parting jibe over her shoulder.
- - - - - - -
On day six of detention, no doubt emboldened by her earlier success in not getting caught, everybody tiptoed out the door the moment the teacher closed his eyes, leaving Gory with a napping Mr. Hack, and Romulus.
An earlier clash with the DeNile girl had taken the wind out of Gory’s sails, and had given her a newfound resolution to avoid the mummy. She’d refused to admit that she’d been bested by a non-vampire to her Belfry Prep associates, instead claiming that such trivial things were beneath her notice. As a result of the previous altercation, she just didn’t have the energy to deal with the werewolf’s snide comments. But after several minutes, it became clear that he was content to stick to their one-on-one truce from yesterday.
Bored, Gory lay her head on her desk, trying and failing to fall asleep. Eventually, her fidgeting must have caught Romulus’s attention, because he dragged his chair over and placed a sheet of paper in front of her.
“Tic-tac-toe?” he asked.
“Are you being serious right now?” she said.
“I’m bored,” he shrugged. “And you seemed too down to come up with creative insults.”
Gory briefly buried her face in her hands.
“Freaking fine .”
- - - - - - -
Of course Bloodgood had stayed behind to do paperwork, and had run into the students who’d ditched detention. They were all sentenced to serve the last day of detention with the headmistress instead, leaving the two rivals alone with Mr. Hack, who inevitably nodded off.
“Look,” Romulus whispered at Gory across the room. “I don’t want any permanent marks on my record, and I'm sure you and your lackeys don’t want to be labeled as racist troublemakers for every future employer to see.”
“What’s your point?” she said.
“We agree to leave each other alone, and drag our friends along with us. Then we can pursue our highschool education in peace.”
Gory hummed noncommittally.
“So, a non-aggression pact,” she nodded slowly. “It would certainly make the next few years less insufferable. I still can’t stand you, though.”
“Noted and reciprocated. Now all that’s left is convincing our classmates,” Romulus forced a smile.
Gory thunked her head on her desk.
- - - - - - -
Van Hellscream had not expected the vampire-werewolf conflict to die down less than two weeks into the school year. True, it was more a mutual neutrality than blossoming friendships, but still. The past two weeks had been far too quiet for his liking, considering the guests who’d be arriving for the dance the following night.
If the Department of Interspecies Relations thought that werewolves and vampires could never be at peace, then he’d finally have something to back up his claims. He’d finally have a case to make about monsters’ inherent xenophobia and their irrational holding of ancient grudges, and he would finally get permission from human government officials ‘in the know’ to do what was necessary.
But in order for that to happen, this little social experiment had to fail, and fast. Despite the neutrality, the tension between the two groups of students was palpable, so it wouldn’t take much to tip them over the edge. However, his time was limited, and the pesky brother-sister duo who were close to Dracula’s daughter were a liability. But they had a weakness he could exploit.
“Mr. Hellscream?” a concerned voice asked him. “Are you alright? Can I help?”
Van Hellscream smiled behind his crocodile tears.
“Oh, that’s sweet of you, but there’s not much to be done about a dead sister,” he shrugged. “It’s just-, her birthday… it's today. She might’ve still been here to celebrate if it wasn’t for that vampire…”
“Oh,” Howleen was silent for a moment. “I’m sorry. Do you want to talk about her?”
“I would love to,” he said. “But I was actually just heading towards her grave in the catacombs. It breaks my heart that I'm the only one who ever visits her.”
“In that case,” she raised her chin. “You can tell me about her on the way.”
- - - - - - -
“Where is she?” Clawdeen grabbed Gory by the lapels of her jacket. “Where. Is. She.”
“Who, your imaginary girlfriend?” Gory smirked.
Clawdeen dug her nails into the vamp’s shoulders, ruining the manicure she had gotten for the dance that night.
“Where’s my sister?” she snapped.
“How should I know?” Gory pried Clawdeen’s fingers from her jacket. “Probably stalking Romulus.”
“She’s been missing since yesterday,” Clawdeen hissed. “You’ve had it out for her since the beginning!”
“Well, clearly you’re not going to believe me, no matter what I say,” Gory said, walking away. “I see no point in continuing this conversation.”
Growls and grumbles could be heard from the many occupants of the creepateria. Mr. Rotter appraised them apprehensively, no doubt bracing himself for a repeat of the first school day’s incident. Clawdeen stomped over to her table.
“You don’t really think Gory did it, do you?” Draculaura was asking Clawd .
“Who else would have?” Clawdeen said.
“For all you know she’s just sulking in some corner, or she ran away from home,” Draculaura slammed her hands down, rattling their trays. “you're jumping to conclusions!”
“Howleen and Gory can’t stand each other, everyone knows that!” her boyfriend shot back.
“Howleen was always the instigator, you know that !”
“You’re just bitter that she doesn’t like you.”
“You're excusing her blatant discrimination now?” Draculaura pushed her chair back and got on her feet.
“I’m upset because my girlfriend is too close-minded to consider the possibility that her own kind could do anything wrong!”
“How dare you!” Draculaura screeched. “You’re pointing fingers with no evidence to back you up! And ‘my own kind’?” she lowered her voice. “Guess I'll always be a vampire first, and a person second, to you.”
“That’s not fair,” Clawd said.
“Until you get your head out of your ass, don’t bother looking for me,” the vampire choked out, a single tear sliding down her cheek, and she speed-walked away to sit with her cousin.
- - - - - - -
Lagoona put a sympathetic hand on Frankie’s shoulder, who was fixated on where Draculaura was getting back rubs from an awkwardly grimacing Thad.
As far as she could tell, her friend hadn’t touched a single bite of her vegetarian lunch.
“I've been here less than a month,” the other teen muttered. “The hell?”
“Welcome to highschool drama,” Lagoona said, arms spread. “Though this is a tad extreme compared to the norm.”
“We can fix this, right?”
“Who’s we?”
Frankie’s eyes darted around the room, lingering on Cleo scrolling through her phone and muttering about pre-fall collections, before writing her out.
“Clawd, Clawdeen, and Draculaura?” they squeaked.
“Good luck convincing them, mate.”
They grew determined.
“Watch me.”
They walked to the table shared by Clawd and Clawdeen, leaving Lagoona trailing in their wake.
“So,” they said, purposefully blunt. “Are you going to keep moping or are you coming with me to look for Howleen?”
“Excuse me?” Clawdeen growled.
Frankie ignored her.
“Well, I’m looking for her,” they said. “You can come if you want.”
They took Lagoona’s elbow and led her away, sputtering siblings scrambling after them seconds later, and they approached another table.
“Why are we here?” Clawd asked.
“Yeah, why are you here?” Draculaura’s cousin asked.
“We’re going to find Howleen,” Frankie said to Draculaura “Thought I'd invite you.”
“Wait, what?” Clawdeen was taken aback. “Is that the best idea?”
Draculaura clenched her fists.
“Just try and stop me,” she said.
With Lagoona and Draculaura to their right, and the Wolf siblings to their left, Frankie marched out of the creepateria. They hurried everyone along, giving no time to squabble, so the werewolves and the vampire awkwardly avoided eye contact instead of speaking to each other.
“Wait!” Clawd held up a hand. “Do you smell that?”
“No,” Frankie, Lagoona and Draculaura chorused, voices equally exasperated.
“It’s Howleen’s perfume!” Clawdeen answered. “C’mon, this way!”
They sprinted through hallways and down staircases, straight into the catacombs via the main school-approved entrance. Turning corners and jumping gaps, the group kept a steady pace until the Wolfs skidded to a halt, only for everyone else to slam into their backs as they were confronted by Van Hellscream.
“This part of the catacombs is off-limits,” he said, voice rumbling. “Especially to students.”
“My sister is down there,” Clawdeen growled. “Let. us. Through.”
“Not happening,” he said, looming, large frame filling the doorway.
“Why the hell not?” Clawd snapped.
“That information is classified.”
“Classified, my ass,” Clawdeen snarled.
“What are you hiding, you cu-”
“Lagoona!” Draculaura covered the sea monster’s mouth. “You aren’t under the sea right now.”
“Regardless of crass language and unoriginal insults,” Van Hellscream said. “You shall not pass.”
“We weren’t asking.” Frankie darted forward, giving the suspicious man an electric shock that threw him back and locked his muscles into place.
“That won’t hold for long,” they said. “Hurry!”
The five of them ran, following Howleen’s trail, until they reached a row of cells.
“Howleen!” Clawd reached his sister first. “Are you okay?”
The sound of a pistol cocking echoed through the cellblock.
“No!”
Draculaura leapt in front of Howleen, who looked on in shock as a spray of blood spurted out of the vampire’s shoulder.
“Ugh!” Draculaura winced, digging her finger into her wound, fishing for something. “Pure. Silver. Bullets.”
“I wasn’t expecting this many scapegoats,” Van Hellscream said. “But I can make this work.”
Clawd scooped up Draculaura.
“Run!” Lagoona yelled.
They took off towards the school, gunshots ringing out behind them.
Fortunately, the strength of a human, even one as fit as Van Hellscream, was not comparable to the teens’ supernatural speed, and they were soon out of his range as they fled the catacombs.
- - - - - - -
In the entrance hall, Bloodgood forced a grin at the department officials who had come to monitor the night’s dance.
Where on earth was her damn co-worker?
“Hm,” one said. “That’s interesting.”
What appeared to be the entirety of the student body was gathered on the staircases and balconies, watching as two groups of monsters screamed at each other.
“Gory and Romulus!” Bloodgood yelled in vain.
The two figureheads didn’t seem to hear her over the cries of their crowd.
And just when she thought that things couldn’t get any worse, a werewolf rushed into the room, carrying a bleeding vampire.
Everyone quieted at once.
“What on earth-” the second official hissed.
“It’s a trick!” yelled Howleen, who had followed at her brother’s heels alongside three more sophomores. “It was the human , trying to pit us against each other!”
She spat ‘human’ contemptuously.
Van Hellscream entered the hall, panting and waving a gun in the air.
“He has silver bullets!” Frankie warned.
So that’s where Bloodgood’s co-worker was.
Then her students, who all apparently possessed not a modicum of self-preservation, jumped into action. Romulus dived low and sunk his fangs into the man’s leg as Gory grappled with him for the gun. Van Hellscream buckled, injury making him unable to bear his weight, and Bloodgood stepped in front of her students after Gory wrenched the gun from Hellscream’s hand.
And she. Punched. That. Mother. Fucker.
His face snapped to the side from the force of her blow, and he slumped, unconscious, to the floor.
- - - - - - -
The dance was unfortunately pretty tame by Cleo’s standards.
Well, it was school sanctioned.
The creepateria’s usual lighting was on, limp streamers and deflating balloons were taped to the walls, and all the refreshments looked soggy.
At least she’d convinced Ghoulia to spike the punch.
She looked at her iCoffin, desperately trying to block out the heartfelt conversation taking place behind her.
“I was worried,” Clawd was admitting to his girlfriend, much to Cleo’s chagrin (and slight relief). “But I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”
“I was too defensive,” Draculaura said quietly. “Because of all the recent passive-aggressive bullshit, I was tired of people not looking further than my fangs.”
“How’d you do that?” Lagoona whispered to her new friend, stupefied. “It usually takes these blokes at least a week to get to the communication stage after a fight.”
“I simply made it clear that I wasn't allowing any crap while we were searching,” Frankie answered. “And their fight wasn’t that serious. Fragile emotional states and instinctive defensiveness make for a bad combination, but at least it can blow over quickly.”
Cleo saw that her zombie friend had completed her objective, speed-walked away from her sappy friends, and nearly tripped over three chatting freshmen.
It was no wonder why, as the three were practically invisible, the first always overshadowed by her older sister, the second one dressed in the vampire-favored black-and-red, and the third quite literally fading into shadows.
Cleo sniffed as she straightened from her embarrassing yet graceful stumble, and went off in search of alcohol.