“Can we talk about this later?” Venus mumbled as she turned over in bed.
Feeling impatient, Rochelle walked over to Venus, pulled back her eye mask, and stared the sleepy ghoul in the eye.
“Venus, I have an idea about how to find Wydowna, but we must act quickly or the trail will disappear!” Rochelle explained animatedly.
“Let’s do it! We need to find her! And not just because she deserves to be found but because she could really help us with this secret group ASOME,” Robecca said as she jumped out of bed, much to the chagrin of the perennially sour-faced Penny.
“Merci boo-coup, Robecca. At least someone is responding appropriately this morning,” Rochelle said, before shooting Venus an icy stare.
“So what’s the plan, Stan?” Robecca asked, and then paused to clarify, “And yes, I know your name is not actually Stan.”
“No, it is not, although I do have a very close friend in Scaris named Stan. He’s president of the Student League of Rules and Regulations,” Rochelle said proudly. “I must admit I’ve always been quite jealous of his position.”
“Gargoyles and their rules… I just don’t get it,” Venus mumbled under her breath.
“Now then, back to Wydowna. Do you remember the scary tale about the brother and sister who left a trail of bread crumbs in the forest so that they could find their way back?” Rochelle asked her friends.
“Why are we talking about scary tales at six AM?” Venus huffed.
“Because what if Wydowna did that with her webbing? What if she left silky strands behind so that we could find where they are keeping her?” Rochelle suggested, her eyes gleaming with excitement.
Venus instantly bolted up in bed and threw back her gauze sheets.
“We need to move quickly. The more time that passes, the more likely the strands are to either blow away or disintegrate,” Venus responded seriously.
“But how do we know Wydowna is still somewhere on campus?” Robecca asked.
“We don’t. They could have taken her anywhere. But considering how quickly she disappeared, I’m guessing she’s somewhere close by, maybe even the same place where they’re keeping Headmistress Bloodgood,” Venus hypothesized as she pulled clothes on over her pajamas.
“While I agree that time is of the essence, surely there is enough time for us to properly change and brush our teeth,” Rochelle asserted as she shook her head at Venus. “You know what the Gargoyle Code of Ethics says.…”
“No, but we’re pretty sure you’re going to tell us,” Robecca offered with a smile.
Once they were washed up and changed, the trio tiptoed along the dormitory corridor, past the webbed curtain, and down the creaky rot-iron staircase into the main hall. From there they quickly exited the building and headed straight to the backfield.
“Okay, so Wydowna was about here the last time we saw her,” Venus said while standing in the center of the lawn.
“And the vampires were headed up to school,” Rochelle interjected.
“Which means they probably followed the main path,” Robecca added as she started across the field.
“I don’t see any strands yet,” Venus mumbled while keeping her eyes trained on the ground, “although considering how many monsters stormed across the field after her, that’s hardly a surprise.”
Robecca, Rochelle, and Venus moved slowly across the lawn and up the path, scavenging for even the faintest sliver of webbing. But alas, they didn’t find any.
“We mustn’t lose hope yet. They might not have grabbed Wydowna until she was inside the main hall,” Robecca reassured the others.
After a quick stop back in their room, the trio began their indoor search in the Mad and Deranged Scientist Laboratory, then moved on to the Study Howl, Libury, and catacombs. However, the only strands they came across were covered in dust.
“S’il ghoul plaît, Venus! Do not let Chewy eat that harmonica,” Rochelle warned her friend, and then continued scanning the music room for spider webs.
“Chewy! No instruments! What did I tell you? You could only come if you didn’t eat anything… or anyone,” Venus reprimanded her plant playfully.
“I still do not understand why you two insisted on going back to the Chamber of Gore and Lore to get the pets,” Rochelle said as she shook her head.
“Gee whiz, Rochelle, pets like to be included. I mean, just look at Roux, she’s super happy to be here,” Robecca replied.
“Yeah, but Roux is always happy. She even smiles when Chewy mistakes her for a piece of roast beast,” Venus remarked.
“Speaking of food, we might as well head to the Creepateria now for breakfast. Évidemment, my idea was a failure,” Rochelle stated solemnly as she led the way down the hall.
After they sat down at a table, she continued, “Je suis très désolée, ghoulfriends. I got you up early for nothing, absolument rien.”
“Jeepers, Rochelle, you have nothing to apologize for. It was a very good idea, and as my father always used to say, you never know until you try.”
“Merci boo-coup, Robecca,” Rochelle replied, and then grabbed hold of her left leg. “Stop it, Chewy!”
“What do you mean? Chewy’s over here,” Venus explained from across the table.
“Then it must have been Penny!”
“No, Penny’s sitting on my lap,” Robecca replied as the penguin whirred happily.
“Roux?” Rochelle wondered aloud, before spotting her pet griffin nearby. “No, she’s over there running in circles, which means that it wasn’t one of the pets who bit my leg.”
Rochelle then slowly peered beneath the table and gasped.
“Vhat is the matter with you ghouls? Putting your feet all over us vhile ve are sleeping! Vhat, vere you raised in a barn?” the ghouls’ dormmate Rose Van Sangre grunted groggily.
“A barn? Gargoyles do not live in barns. Don’t you remember learning about gargoyles’ natural habitats in class? If not, I suggest a summer revision. And, for your information, even animals in barns are raised not to bite one another.”
“Vhy do they never let us sleep?” Blanche moaned dramatically while rolling her eyes.
“Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you two insist on sleeping in public,” Robecca pointed out.
“You know vhat? I’m going zo go zo zhe town hall meeting and demand zey pass a sleep anyvhere law!” Blanche raved as she banged her pale fist against the underside of the table.
“What town hall meeting?” Venus interrupted.
“Zhe one zo zalk about how zo handle the normie problem. Or haven’t zou heard? Zey’re trying to vall us in.”
as soon as Miss Sue Nami and Mr. D’eath arrived at the Creepateria for breakfast, Robecca, Rochelle, and Venus confirmed with them what the Van Sangre sisters had claimed. There was, in fact, a town hall meeting planned for the following day to address the “normie situation.” Scariff Fred and Superintendent Petra had organized the event to review Salem’s options and to put the word out about Wydowna’s disappearance.
“I can’t wait to hear what these so-called options are,” Venus replied to Miss Sue Nami and Mr. D’eath sarcastically.
“Non-adult entity, you will not be hearing any such thing. Scariff Fred and Superintendent Petra have limited attendance to adults only,” Miss Sue Nami snapped.
“That makes sense to me. After all, this is a pretty adult issue. It’s the end of life as we know it, not that I technically have a life since I’m dead,” Mr. D’eath moaned, and then wandered off without so much as a wave good-bye.
“We need to find him another date,” Rochelle mused thoughtfully about their guidance counselor.
“Miss Sue Nami, we need to be at that meeting,” Venus implored the acting headmistress.
“Listen up, non-adult entity, and listen up good, because I don’t like to repeat myself, especially when I’m hungry,” she stated firmly, before breaking into her infamous body shake, sending water flying every which way.
“I must say I
am most grateful for my water-resistant skin at this moment,” Rochelle said as she watched the droplets roll right off her arm.
“Does anyone have a napkin? As you know, I’m absolutely terrified of rust, so I like to dry myself off immediately,” Robecca said as she surveyed the many water spots on her arms and legs.
“Here you go, chérie,” Rochelle said as she handed her friend a Scaremès scarf.
“Ghouls? Let’s at least try to stay on track here,” Venus blustered at her friends, and then turned back to Miss Sue Nami.
“There is no way I can allow you three non-adult entities to attend. While I trust you all implicitly and I recognize how much you have done to protect Monster High, my current relationship with Superintendent Petra is too precarious to take any chances. If she found out that I let you three in, she’d throw me to the curb.”
“To the curb? Why the curb?” Rochelle inquired genuinely.
“It’s just a saying, Rochelle. She means Superintendent Petra would fire her,” Robecca explained as she continued to dab the wet spots on her arms.
“Well, we certainly cannot allow that to happen. We’ve already lost one headmistress, we’re not about to lose another!” Rochelle proclaimed steadfastly.
“With tough times we all need to make sacrifices. Do you think I wanted to cancel Career Day? No, but I had to…” Miss Sue Nami trailed off as she focused on a passing monster. “Hey, non-adult werewolf? Yeah, I’m talking to you. Eating while walking is against the rules. So sit down. And brush your fur while you’re at it. You look like something a werecat coughed up.”
And with that the damp dame stomped off, knocking over both a chair and a pumpkin head in the process.
“I don’t care what Miss Sue Nami said, we’re not missing that meeting. It’s too important,” Venus whispered conspiratorially to Robecca and Rochelle.
“But it is against the rules!” Rochelle countered.
“Haven’t you ever heard that some rules are meant to be broken?” Venus quipped.
“Yes, of course I have. It’s called anarchy, chaos, lawlessness—” Rochelle pontificated.
“Pistons and pinecones, Rochelle! We aren’t starting a revolution! We’re just trying to help our school, and the monsters of Salem,” Robecca explained simply.
“D’accord, okay, since this act could possibly help the greater good, I suppose I could make an exception. But that still doesn’t change the fact that we are endangering Madame Sue Nami’s position. And who knows what could happen with Superintendent Petra in charge?” Rochelle said, shaking her head, “C’est trop dangereux! It’s just too dangerous to risk it!”
“We’re going to have to risk it,” Venus stated assuredly.
“I have never been very fond of that term ‘risk it.’ Gargoyles are notoriously risk averse.”
“Look, I’m not trying to be a thorn in your side, but we don’t have the luxury of missing this meeting. We’re the only ones working to expose the truth!” Venus explained.
“She’s right. Scariff Fred and Superintendent Petra wholeheartedly believe that the normies are doing this. It seems almost everyone does,” Robecca said as steam billowed out of her small copper-plated ears.
“Very well. We will just have to be as discreet as possible. Do everything in our power to avoid detection. Voler sous le radar, fly under the radar,” Rochelle acquiesced.
“Maybe we should disguise ourselves? You know, with wigs and masks and stuff. It will be like a secret mission and a costume party in one!” Robecca suggested as her eyes widened with excitement.
“I don’t think we have time to create believable costumes. It’s well known in Scaris that a poor costume is worse than no costume at all.”
“Maybe you’re right. Plus, I didn’t do so well that time we dressed up as werewolves at the Dance of the Delightfully Dead,” Robecca remembered.
“No costumes. We’ll just have to figure out another way into the meeting,” Venus said as she fiddled with her vines.
After a long day of classes, including Ms. Kindergrubber’s lesson on how to make frozen yowlgurt, the trio headed to the Arts and Bats room for a Frightingale Society meeting.
Seated smack-dab in the middle of the room, the trio were surprised by just how dire the mood at Monster High had become. Long gone were the toothy smiles, bright eyes, and flowing hair, having been replaced with furrowed brows, frowns, and limp locks. Without faith in the future, the students of Monster High had fallen into a state of hopelessness, and it showed.
The copresidents of the Frightingale Society, Draculaura and Frankie, stood as they always did at the front of the room to address their fellow club members.
“A lot has changed at Monster High. We no longer have Headmistress Bloodgood to watch over us. We no longer have the freedom to play outside or walk to school alone,” Draculaura said as she fidgeted with one of her pink-and-black pigtails. “But that doesn’t mean we should just give up and stop going to our classes—”
“And we understand that it’s super hard to find the motivation to do homework when you feel like the future is darker than a blackout. But we must continue to care about our education. We must continue to learn.… It’s who we are,” Frankie said halfheartedly as though she were trying to convince herself as much as the others.
“Mates, I get what you’re saying. I really do. But it’s harder than catching a wave in Clawaii to study with this riptide of normies messing with our heads,” Lagoona stated forlornly.
“If we let them change who we are, how we live, or our faith in the future, then they’ve already won,” Frankie responded.
“Ghouls, Toralei is going to say something now,” Toralei announced to the room as she stood up, pulling Cleo along with her.
“Did she just announce herself in the third person?” Robecca whispered to Venus.
“Are you surprised?” Venus said while shaking her head.
“Monsters are, like, totally claw-some,” Toralei stated as though this were some kind of revelation, “so we need to be über strong and protect ourselves from outsiders, whether it’s the normies or that thing from the attic.”
“Wydowna is not a thing,” Frankie corrected Toralei. “She’s a spider ghoul.”
“Eww! What is that? Do you have fleas?” Cleo suddenly screeched as she pointed at a small black thing on Toralei’s arm.
“Has your brain been mummified or are you just blind? It’s a piece of lint!” Toralei screamed.
“Ghouls, I simply cannot believe what I am hearing. C’est incroyable,” Rochelle said as she stood up, paused to adjust the Scaremès scarf tied in her hair, and then continued. “It’s not right! As a matter of fact, it’s absolutely horrible!”
“This is, like, super weird, but I actually agree with the garg,” Toralei drawled as she lifted her eyebrows to convey her surprise.
“First of all, no one shortens ‘gargoyle’ to ‘garg,’ as it does not sound very agreeable. And as for the other thing, I was actually referring to you, Toralei,” Rochelle informed the werecat.
“Me? What about me? How furrociously fabulous I am?”
“No, I was referring to what you said about Wydowna.”
“Why must you say that clawful name in my presence? Just hearing it makes me feel like a vampire with a tan, if you know what I mean,” Toralei expounded nonsensically.
“I am afraid I most definitely do not know what you mean,” Rochelle shot back in her usual literal manner.
“Hearing her name is wrong, just like a vampire having a tan is wrong. And just so you know, I think it’s super creepy that you are defending a ghoul who broke into our school and eavesdropped on us,” Toralei snapped.
“First of all, vampires are incapable of tanning. They only have two options, extremely pale or extremely burned. Second of all, your intense dislike of Wydowna for having camped out in the attic is irrational,” Rochelle replied calmly.
“I guess it’s true what they say about gargs. They really do have rocks
for brains,” Toralei remarked to Cleo, and then twitched her ears.
“That is categorically false—”
“Ghouls, let’s not fight with each other, there’s enough going on as it is,” Frankie interrupted Rochelle.
“What are we going to do? What’s going to happen to us?” Cleo whimpered to no one in particular, resting her furrowed brow in her hands.
“Don’t fret, Cleo, not all is lost. Scariff Fred is holding a town hall meeting tomorrow at the Crier’s Club to try and find a solution,” Draculaura said in an attempt to comfort the angst-ridden mummy.
Rochelle, Robecca, and Venus all looked at one another. Now they knew where the meeting was going to be held!
today’s the day. The town hall meeting starts at five PM,” Venus said as she gave Chewy his morning shower with the watering can.
“While I do not enjoy breaking the rules, I am very eager to sneak into this meeting. We need a lead. Something to help us find Wydowna and Headmistress Bloodgood. Something to show Salem that the normies are not the threat, that ASOME is the threat… not that we know who they are…” Rochelle muttered as she made her bed.
“We had better eat a big breakfast,” Robecca suggested as she walked toward the door. “My father always said that an empty stomach leads to an empty brain.”
Just as Robecca, Rochelle, and Venus exited their dorm room to head down to the Creepateria for breakfast, Jinafire Long appeared before them.
“Zăo ān. Good morning, ghouls,” the green-and-black-haired dragon said as her long gold tail flitted back and forth.
“Good morning, Jinafire,” Robecca responded. “Is everything okay? You look a little fired up—no pun intended.”
“While I am in complete control of my fire breath, things are most definitely not okay, as you say.”
“What is it, Jinafire? Has something happened? Remember, I’m a gargoyle, I’m very good in times of trouble,” Rochelle said as she reached out and patted the dragon ghoul’s gold arm.
“There is an old Fanghai proverb: In order to protect others, you must first protect yourself.”