Vita and the Monsters of Moorhouse

by Jillian Karger

Vita breathed a sigh of relief and hurried along behind her.

  She was doubly glad to find the hall nearly empty. Only a small group of monsters on her left played cards by candlelight. One of them was the dog-faced monster she had noticed in the Mess Hall when she’d first arrived at Moorhouse. The sight of him made Vita wish she were carrying a plate of those candied and caramel apples he’d been eating instead of this slightly gray porridge. The bug-haired woman and a boy with a white rabbit’s head who wore a pale blue suit joined him.

  Bug Hair held five cards in each hand. The rabbit-headed boy didn’t appear to be holding any. “Don’t think you can cheat just ‘cause you’re holdin’ my cards, Brunhilda,” he warned Bug Hair.

  “Hmm, funny, I didn’t hear a ‘thanks for holdin’ my cards since I don’t have any hands today,’ in there, Myeliel,” Brunhilda replied. She put both sets of cards down so she could chomp a few of the bugs from the top of her head. “I should cheat, you know. Just because o’ that.”

  Vita fought the impulse to look at Myeliel’s wrists to see if he really didn’t have any hands. Instead she focused on the music that filled the room. She had the feeling something cheerful had been playing when she’d first come in but now the record had been changed to a rock tune with aggressive drums and guitars. Gentle piano broke every so often and gave the rock tune a softer, sadder edge.

  Rosie didn’t stop until they reached the two long tables at the wide end of the Mess Hall. Two boys were seated at the right-hand table. Vita couldn’t focus on the boys much at first, though. All she could see was the gigantic robot.

  He looked like an enormous suit of silver armor. There was a blue circle at the center of his barrel-like chest and it was bordered by a series of gold rectangular buttons. The robot’s face was gold as well. Blue glowing eyes shone through the slits in the armor’s helmet. He wore a scarlet cape around his shoulders and a golden sword hung around his waist. Vita almost thought he was another monster—perhaps the third of Fironella’s gang of mechanical henchmen—but then she noticed the robot’s slight glow and transparency.

  The skinny boy who Vita had seen making the chocolate fountain sat beside the robot knight on the bench. He had watery blue eyes behind his thick glasses, which he pushed up his freckled nose every few seconds. His head was the size of one of the robot’s hands. He gave Vita a nervous but sweet smile.

  Rosie sat on the bench beside the bespectacled boy and across from another boy. He wore jeans and a plain red t-shirt. The boy crossed his dark brown arms and glared at Vita with his even darker brown eyes.

  Vita eyed the seat beside the angry boy warily but then Rosie told her to sit down already and so she did. Melina hopped up onto the tabletop and stretched her long body out on the long, otherwise empty table.

  The robot knight who sat across from Melina lifted his large hand up hesitantly. “Do you mind if I pet you?” he asked Melina. He had a rich, charming sort of voice—exactly the voice Vita would have expected a knight to have.

  She would have been nervous about letting the mighty robot touch her but Melina leaned her head up into his hand. The light of the robot’s glowing eyes softened as he patted the caterpillar and Vita knew she’d been wrong to mistake him for a monster.

  The girl’s stomach growled loud enough she worried the others might hear it. She took a quick bite of the white and grimaced. It tasted like burnt and little else and its consistency was mushy. Still, she felt less dizzy as soon as she took her first bite, so she forced half the bowl down her throat.

  “Not a fan of the Moorhouse cuisine?” Jasmine asked Vita. The fairy was still camped on Rosie’s shoulder like a parrot. “That’s shocking. Most people love the taste of old socks.”

  “Why isn’t it like it was when I first got here?” she asked. “I thought we could eat whatever we wanted.”

  “That’s when we’re working in the kitchen,” the black boy said. “And they only put us on kitchen duty when it’s a special occasion or when they want to punish us.” The boy glanced over at her and she could feel the weight of his distaste. “You getting here, I guess that must have been both. A special occasion for the monsters and a punishment for us.”

  Vita narrowed her eyes at the boy. What was his problem?

  Rosie gave him a quick glare before returning her gaze to Vita’s. “You can’t really eat the food you build anyway. I mean, you can, and it even makes you feel full for a little while, but it doesn’t really fill you up. You need food from the human world for that.”

  Vita looked down at her bowl of porridge. “And this is all they’ve got?”

  “Afraid so,” Rosie replied.

  “I prefer the brown myself,” the robot knight said. His body made a mechanical-sounding noise as he bowed his head forward. “I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, by the way, young duchess. I am Sir Rafael Arasmus Von Schloedon, but you may call me Rafe.”

  “Hi, Rafe. I’m Vita.” She looked over at the freckled boy. He stared down into his bowl of soggy-looking oatmeal and blushed when he met her gaze. Vita found something endearing in his nervousness. “And what’s your name?” she asked him.

  Jasmine flew off of Rosie’s shoulder and around the boy’s head in a circle. “Grover! Grover can help you! He knows how to make anything taste good.”

  “Can you please be careful, Jasmine?” Grover asked, straightening his glasses. “I almost dropped my spoon.”

  “Sorry about her,” Rosie apologized to Grover as Jasmine returned to her shoulder.

  “Could you really help?” Vita asked him. “I’m starving but I haven’t quite reached burnt cardboard-eating levels of desperation.”

  Grover gave her a crooked-toothed smile. “I can try,” he said quietly.

  He moved his own tray to the side and Vita slid hers over to him. He pulled a wad of Base out of the pocket of his khaki pants, placed it on the tray, and raised his hands above it with his fingers spread out. A moment later a pad of butter, a cup of milk, and a small bowl of sugar appeared. He added each liberally to Vita’s bowl and pushed it back toward her.

  Vita tried the porridge and gave Grover the best smile she could muster. It still wasn’t good by any means but was far closer to edible. “Thanks so much. Why didn’t Mazkin or anyone else tell me we needed to eat human food?”

  Rosie and Grover both shrugged. “They didn’t tell any of us when we first arrived,” Rosie said.

  “I have a theory—” Grover began.

  The boy sitting beside Vita interrupted with an annoyed groan. “No one wants to hear another one of your stupid conspiracy theories, Grove.”

  Grover shut up quickly and Vita frowned. “Actually, I’d love to hear one of your conspiracy theories,” she told him. The other boy groaned again.

  “Well,” Grover began, “I think the teachers don’t tell us so our bodies set to the same natural hunger rhythms. We get tired, go to sleep, and wake up when it makes sense for our bodies to want food. That way we tend to all get hungry at the same times and eat together more often instead of eating separately and never seeing each other.”

  “Why would the teachers want us to eat together?” Vita asked.

  “Maybe so they know we’ll all be in the same place whenever they decide to stop with the games and just eat us already,” the angry boy speculated with a wicked grin.

  “And you call me a conspiracy theorist,” Grover muttered.

  “So, have you had class yet, Vita?” Rosie asked. She tried her white, made a face, then took some Base out of the somewhat see-through orange backpack around her shoulders. She made some cubes of butter and different kinds of cheese and threw them in her bowl. She reached up to feed one of the cubes to Jasmine.

  “Um, Mazkin had me make a red rubber ball,” Vita said.

  “Oh, no, that’s not real class,” Rosie said. “Mazkin’s a headmonster. Class will be with some of the teachers.”

  “More than one?”

  “Yeah, two, probably,” Grover pitched in. “I work wi
th Faylonique and Eerla mostly, though Dotted-Line Jack and Peebles stop in a lot too.”

  “Jackie and Peebles teach us all a lot,” Rosie said. She put her already-finished porridge aside and laid her head down on the table. “I wish I were working with them today. The witch already told me she was coming by later.”

  Grover put a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. “Aw, I’m sorry, Rosie.”

  “D’you mean Fironella?” Vita asked. The doll monster was the closest approximation of a witch Vita had seen in Moorhouse thus far, but she hadn’t been there long.

  Rosie sat back up and nodded. Vita noticed her hands trembling a little. “The headmonsters do ‘inspections’ of our models sometimes. Mazkin’s fine but Fironella can be pretty … critical.”

  “She’s also incredibly terrifying,” Jasmine said matter-of-factly.

  “Horrifying,” Melina agreed. “Like a doll set out in the sun to rot or something.”

  “You’ll be fine, Rosie,” the boy beside Vita said. His dark gaze warmed now that he looked at Rosie. The little girl seemed to have that effect on people. “Your model’s great. You’ve got no reason to be worried.”

  Rosie smiled at him. “Thanks, Coyote.”

  Vita couldn’t help but laugh. “Your name’s Coyote?” she asked the boy.

  His expression soured when he glanced her way. “No. Don’t you recognize a nickname when you hear one? It’s Wile. Like the coyote. Get it?”

  “Uh, yeah,” Vita replied. “Okay.” She slurped up the last of her porridge and looked back across the table at Rosie and Grover. “Do you have any idea when my regular classes will start?”

  “Moorhouse doesn’t run on what you would call a normal schedule,” Grover said. “So it’s tough to say.”

  Vita waited a minute, hoping someone else would offer more than that, but no one did. So she rose awkwardly to her feet with her tray. “Well, I’m done. Do you guys know where I should put this?”

  “I’ll show you,” Rosie said. She hopped up and led Vita to a rectangular trashcan with a bin on top for dishes and silverware.

  While Rosie got rid of her dishes, Vita glanced back at the table. Grover and Wile were sitting pretty far apart now that the girls were gone but made no move to scoot closer together. Grover talked to Rafe while Wile just stared down at his empty bowl alone.

  Vita had Melina, Rosie had Jasmine, Grover had Rafe … who did Wile have?

  The record on the gramophone had been changed once again, this time to something with what sounded like two pianos. Vita felt a swelling in her throat as she listened—there was something so sorrowful in the tune. Somehow it seemed the pianos kept joining up, reaching for one another, but always coming apart into two distinct melodies once again. Partway through a violin began to weave through the lonely song.

  Vita wished the old gramophone were in better repair so she could hear the music better. Sad though the song was it was still one of the loveliest things she’d ever heard, even more so for its melancholy.

  In the hall she and Rosie found Peebles waiting with another monster beside Vita’s empty desk. She recognized the second monster as the long-fingered fellow who’d been tying Peebles’ shoelaces in the Mess Hall when she’d first arrived.

  He’d looked nearly human at a distance but up close his too-white face was much more unsettling. The dotted lines that ran vertically down his face reminded Vita of burns, or leeches, or something in between. In the midst of his white skin and the black lines, his pale blue eyes shone like ice. He was bald beneath his newsboy cap, it was now clear. Beyond his waist, the legs of his overalls dissolved into black mist and the monster floated in the air like a ghost.

  Rosie smiled at Peebles and the ghost boy as though they were a delightful surprise. “Jackie, I was hoping I’d see you before I had my dumb inspection.”

  The ghost boy smiled at her and patted her arm with a long-fingered hand. Rosie’s eyes widened for a moment when he touched her but then she swallowed and smiled. “You’ll ace it, Rosie-Rose, don’t you worry. You got the stools at the soda fountain to stop spinning, right?”

  She nodded. “Thanks to you.” She looked down at Peebles. “Sorry one of them knocked you against the wall before I fixed it.”

  Peebles rocked back and forth on his little frog legs. “Don’t fret yerself, Miss Rosie Gerald. It was a whole lot of fun right up until that part.” He grinned up at Vita. “So, I trust ye’ve settled in well, Miss Vita Lawrence?”

  “I guess so,” she replied. “Is it time for my first class already?”

  “Well, we do be a school,” Peebles replied. “So we like to get to the schooling bit as quick as possible.” He nodded toward the ghost monster. “This be Dotted-Line Jack. He’s my apprentice.”

  Dotted-Line Jack chuckled. “Oh, please, Peebs. I’ve taught you more about world-building than you’ll ever know.”

  “That don’t even make sense, Jack,” Peebles said. “And I got seniority.” Both monsters grinned as they ribbed each other and Vita got the sense of deep friendship between them.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Vita,” Dotted-Line Jack said. He took her hand as if to shake it and Vita recoiled, unable to help it. His touch was cold as ice. The ghost monster’s white cheeks turned pink. “I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I always forget.”

  “It’s all right,” she said with one last shiver. “It’s nice to meet you too.” She turned to Rosie. “Good luck on your inspection thing.”

  “Thanks!” the little girl replied. “You feel free to stop by mine whenever you like.”

  “Your Dream Chamber?” Vita asked. Rosie bobbed her head at her. Vita peered over at Peebles and Dotted-Line Jack. “That’s not against the rules?”

  “The students can choose for themselves whether to let the others into their Dream Chambers,” Dotted-Line Jack explained. “And Rosie-Rose’s is quite something.”

  “Thanks,” Rosie said, blushing. “You take it easy on the new girl, all right?” She looked back at Vita. “Good luck to you too.”

  “Thanks,” Vita said.

  “Bye Vita, bye Melina!” Jasmine called.

  Rosie scampered over to her own Dream Chamber, pulled a compass just like Vita’s out from under her coat to open the door, and disappeared inside.

  “Are you ready for your first class?” Dotted-Line Jack asked Vita.

  Vita was a little nervous being left alone with the two monsters, though it was comforting that Rosie seemed to like them both. She pulled out her compass and unlocked the door to her Dream Chamber.

  “Let’s do it,” she said.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  FIRST LESSON

  Pish was awake when Vita, Melina, Peebles, and Dotted-Line Jack entered the Dream Chamber. The green jay’s shiny black eyes were practically all Vita could see in the scant moonlight. It had become even darker in her and Melina’s absence.

  “Well, this darkness won’t do, will it?” Peebles’ high-pitched voice said. “Got any Base nearby, Miss Vita Lawrence?”

  “Harper’s off getting some,” Pish answered for her. After introductions between himself and Vita’s new teachers were made, Pish explained Spiral had gone exploring while Posh had finally fallen asleep. “We don’t usually stay up this late, and my brother usually does…” Pish trailed off. “We’re all a little thrown off our regular sleeping schedules, I’m afraid.”

  “That’s to be expected,” Dotted-Line Jack said. “It takes a while to settle into the rhythm of things at Moorhouse.”

  Vita wondered if the monster’s words were meant for Pish alone. She wished her compass were a clock so she could be sure what time it was.

  The door to the Supply Closet opened with a creak. Light streamed into the Dream Chamber around Harper’s dark silhouette. He put down the two barrels of Base he’d been carrying and waved a paw at Vita and the others in the distance. The gray bear took three more trips to bring eight barrels in total out of the closet.

  “Ha, I, uh, don’t think I
’ll be able to carry all of those, Harper,” Pish called. “Or any of them, really…” he added more quietly.

  The gray bear walked a few feet toward them in the trail of light the still-open closet door created. “Don’t you worry, Birdbrain,” he called back. “I wasn’t expecting you to.”

  Harper lay down on the ground and spread his arms and legs out wide. So little of the floor remained checkered that only his head, shoulders, and paws touched it while the rest of him spread onto the grassy ground of the jungle. Harper took a deep breath and his body flattened into a gargantuan bear rug, covering as much space as the parachute Vita’s day camp counselors had the children play with in the summers. Now his lower body overlapped between the jungle floor and the meadow beside it. His head, paws, and feet stuck out and seemed tiny in comparison. His left paw was only a foot or two away from Vita—she could have reached out and touched it. She noticed Harper’s paw held the leather satchel that Vita had created to hold her map and a spare reserve of Base while she had been building earlier. She must have left it in the Supply Closet.

  “I thought you might be needing this,” Harper said in his constricted, throat-flattened voice.

  Vita thanked him, took the satchel, and tied it around her waist. Then the gray bear used his right paw to tip four barrels of Base, one after the other, onto his flat belly. He lifted the right side of his body a little so the barrels would roll across his thin form toward Vita and the others.

  Vita grinned at the bear’s ingenuity. “You guys might want to get out of the way,” she warned the others. Melina scrambled onto Vita’s shoulders and the group rushed across the floor into the jungle, narrowly missing the barrels that whizzed by across the floor. They rolled to a stop only a few feet from the Dream Chamber’s entrance.

  Once Harper had moved the rest of the barrels, he popped back into his regular form and walked over to them. After Vita introduced him to her teachers and he gave gruff nods to them both, she hugged Harper around one of his legs and Melina nuzzled him. “That was brilliant, Harp!” Vita said.

  “Very creative,” Peebles agreed.