Monster Academy

by Catherine Banks

  Alright, she got me there.

  “Fine, let’s go,” I growled and set my hand on her arm.

  “It sounds like you’re planning on killing yourselves,” Dante said and grabbed Frances’s arm.

  “Just a bit, but don’t worry, we’ll resurrect,” Loralie said and pulled Frances out of his hold and into me. She winked at him and then we disappeared into the shadows.

  We materialized in a grassy area surrounded by trees and immediately, Bogden rushed over to Loralie. “Are you okay? Why were you gone for so long? Did something happen?”

  She swallowed hard. “I’m fine. Look, we need your help.”

  The three of us explained the situation and what we needed from him. We left out our part of the plan, though.

  He nodded. “I can do that.”

  I tossed one of the handheld radios to a tree nymph who sat in the shade of a nearby tree. “Keep that so you can hear what’s going on. Don’t freak out when they start talking about getting attacked. That’s going to be us. We’re going to let you know when we’ve cleared them out.”

  She nodded. “Got it.”

  “Let’s check the barrier on this side, since there are fewer guards around,” Frances said. “There should be more time between patrols. We'll drop Bogden off and after we leave, he can alter the barrier.”

  “Is it close enough to walk to?” Loralie asked Bogden. “I’d like to save my power if I can.”

  He looked up at the sky overhead and then slowly lowered his gaze until it was level with the horizon. “About a five-minute walk.”

  “Let’s go,” I ordered and headed in the direction he’d looked. The sooner we got this over with, the better. I wanted to make sure my family was nowhere near the academy when we enacted our plan.

  If they saw what we were planning to do, they would ground us for eternity. Or longer.

  “Stop scowling, Kiko. Everything is going to be fine,” Loralie said with a wide smile. To others, she would have appeared excited and super positive, but I saw the tension in the corners of her eyes, in the way she carried herself, in the rapid pulse on her throat. She was worried, too.

  Did she not want to worry Bogden?

  That was most likely it.

  “I know,” I said and forced my ears to perk up. “But you also know I’m a worrier.”

  “All three of you are,” Bogden said as he walked between the three of us. “You take turns acting cool and composed, but all three of you worry constantly about things.”

  “Do not!” the three of us yelled.

  He chuckled. “You totally do.”

  “You don’t understand what it’s like for us,” Frances whispered.

  “I think I understand more than you realize. My mother isn’t exactly your run of the mill creature.”

  That was true. Baba Yaga was a well-known monster who had been hunted for centuries. Humans across all of the countries knew about her.

  None of us knew what to say to that, so we finished our walk in silence. There were no humans nearby, so Bogden rushed forward to work on the barrier.

  “We’re going to go take out the magic user so they can’t change the barrier back,” Frances informed him. “Stay nearby, but stay hidden. If you need to move to another area, that’s fine, but stay close to the barrier. Our plan will only work if you keep the barrier we need intact.”

  “What is your plan?” He asked.

  Loralie fidgeted with her hands a moment and said, “I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused you this year. Stay safe.”

  “Why does it sound like you’re saying goodbye? Is this a suicide mission? You better not be sacrificing yourselves!”

  “We’ll take care of the humans,” I said. “And each other.”

  “Loralie,” Bogden yelled.

  “Bye,” she whispered, latched onto Frances and I, and shadow traveled right next to the front of the academy’s entrance, mostly hidden by the shadow of the building.

  Standing by the entrance was Darla, a witch from an unknown family who came here on a scholarship. She leaned against a pillar, looking out at the road.

  “Kill or incapacitate?” Loralie asked.

  “Incapacitate,” Frances said. “We don’t know if she is doing this by force or not.”

  She didn’t look forced to me. She was just standing by the barrier with arms crossed and kept kicking the dirt with the toe of her boot.

  “Fine,” Loralie grumbled.

  “Plan?” I asked Frances.

  “Alright, here’s what we’re going to do,” she said confidently.

  Chapter 39

  LORALIE

  I moved to the shadows right behind Darla, popped up, grabbed her, and yanked her down into the shadows with us before she could even open her mouth.

  Tsukiko smacked her on the head, knocking her out.

  We moved into the nearest building, into an empty classroom, tied her up, and left her there. We weren't sure if she was helping on her own free will or not, so we didn’t want to just kill her. We would leave the punishment up to the school.

  Step one complete.

  Tsukiko’s head whipped up as she looked out the window. “My parents are coming. They are still a ways off, but I can feel them getting close.”

  “Time for Plan Apocalypse,” I said and cracked my knuckles. “Showtime, ladies.”

  We shadow-traveled back to the spot where we had abducted Darla and fully materialized. The three of us stood side by side, facing the school and the humans.

  In the front and center was Larson, a dhampir who talked nonstop about escaping the monster world to rule over the humans. He often talked about wanting to make contracts with every human on the earth so he would end up with the largest army in the monster world to take down even Lucifer. We thought he was just talking big to try to seem cool.

  Now it all made sense. He had been helping them all along. Had he been the one telling the humans where the monster towns were?

  All of the humans raised their weapons and aimed at us.

  A woman in the front beside Larson asked, “What are you doing here? How did you get free?”

  “What did you think you were going to gain, Larson?” Tsukiko asked. “Why would you betray all of monsterkind and work with humans?”

  “You don’t understand what it’s like for the rest of us. For the low-class monsters of the world. You’ve all been handed everything you have ever wanted,” he hissed at us. He looked at the woman. “Kill them. Kill them now.”

  With a deep breath, I reached down into the ground, searching with my powers as Death, pulling and pulling bone after bone towards us. It was lucky that there were a few cemeteries nearby.

  Tsukiko shifted into her half-shift form and unsheathed her claws.

  Frances closed her eyes and whispered her favorite poem to center herself.

  “Freeze!” a human yelled. “Whatever you’re doing...stop.”

  “Just kill them!” Larson screamed.

  “Stand down,” the woman ordered us. “We don’t want to hurt any of you.”

  Once I had enough bones gathered beneath the ground I stood on, I whispered, “Ready.”

  Frances set a hand on Tsukiko’s and my shoulder, and whispered, “Apocalypse.”

  All three of us linked together spiritually and magically. The cores of our magic weaved together to create one power being.

  The bones I had dug up shot up out of the ground, surrounding us, and formed a giant wolven-raven mutant creature of bones and shadows.

  The humans opened fire, but it was too late. The magical shield was already erected to give our creature enough time to fully form around us.

  Within its rib cage, we stood together, side by side, and ready to move. I would control replacement of bones if needed, Tsukiko would pilot the creature on fighting instinct, and Frances would strategize and give Tsukiko instructions as needed.

  Inside of our creature, we were one.

  “What the—” the woman gasped and ba
cked up.

  “Do not let them escape,” Frances said in an otherworldly voice. “Kill them all.”

  Tsukiko howled her pleasure and began attacking the nearest humans with our bone claws and the beak that tore through skin like butter.

  We couldn’t hold this shape for long, so we had to kill them all, as fast as we could.

  “Come out humans!” I roared. “Come out and face the reaper.”

  Ten. Twenty. Thirty humans dead.

  Tsukiko took them out without prejudice.

  We couldn’t fit into the buildings to attack the humans inside.

  “Pull them out with our tentacles,” Frances ordered.

  With concentration, I turned some of the feathers along our back into tentacles, lengthened and thickened them, and sent them into the buildings, dragging the screaming humans out one or two at a time.

  As soon as they came out, Tsukiko ended their lives.

  “You wanted to see what monsters were like?” Frances asked, her voice projected from our monster. “This is what we are like when hunted. We will destroy every last human who threatens us.”

  The click of a weapon to our left drew my attention, but we didn’t turn fast enough to stop the human from firing a rocket.

  It slammed into our creature’s flank, knocking us to the side and causing us to slam into the wall.

  A hole had been torn and I worked to patch it up with more bones and more feathers and fur and shadows.

  Once patched, we killed the human and tossed the weapon out of the barrier so no other could use it against us.

  More and more humans came from the buildings, like ants from an anthill.

  Some threw grenades while others continued to shoot at us.

  Frances’s serene face grew furious.

  Now was when the real fun started for me.

  With a roar, Frances released her control, fully submitting to the wildness inside of her, and allowed our creature free rein to attack.

  The sun set and the voices of our family members yelled at us outside of the barrier.

  We turned and looked up at the window of the headmistress’s office. We would free the teachers to help in case our form gave out before we finished.

  A human stood, holding Headmistress Gonzalez by the hair, a knife pressed to her throat. “Stop now, or I kill her,” the human threatened.

  “Let us in!” Kenta bellowed outside of the barrier in full warrior mode, drool hanging from his snarling snout.

  “Not until we have destroyed them. They mean to kill you. We won’t allow the humans to kill our family and friends. We will slaughter every last one first,” our creature said. No longer were we separate. Now, we were completely joined as one.

  “Let us in!” Albus yelled.

  Baba Yaga stepped forward and placed her hand on the barrier. “My son is controlling this. That little twerp. It's going to take me a second to break this.”

  “Last warning,” the human holding the headmistress threatened.

  With careful movements, we sent a tentacle up the side of the wall, hidden thanks to the shadows of the night. Just as it reached the windowsill, we used a bone shard to become the tip and thrust it up into the human’s head.

  We were merging more.

  Quickly. We had to finish this quickly.

  If we didn’t separate into...

  Who were we before we were us?

  Headmistress Gonzalez shoved the dead human out the window.

  “Girls, you need to separate,” a female voice said from the other side of the barrier.

  Turning, we faced the monsters outside the barrier. They were all powerful and looked very angry.

  Enemies?

  “You would fight us?” we asked.

  “Separate,” the large, snarling wolfman said.

  We snarled and the feathers on our back bristled and shook in anger. “We do not take orders from you. Or anyone.” Our tentacles danced in the air above us, waiting to be used against anyone else who opposed us.

  Young monsters started coming out of the buildings, their eyes fixed on us.

  Yes.

  Fear us.

  Examine us.

  Worship us.

  The barrier disappeared and the monsters charged in.

  The wolfman tried to grab our neck, but we dodged and sent him flying across the yard with a tentacle.

  With concentration, we added bone spikes to all of our tentacles.

  A dark man with shadow powers and a huge scythe swung at us.

  We easily deflected the blade and hit him with the back of our claw, making him stumble back into some of the other monsters.

  A black-winged man, beautiful and terrifying, appeared between the monsters and us. He looked up at us and smiled. “Magnificent.”

  “They won’t separate,” one of the female monsters said.

  “We will not be defeated!” we roared. “We take orders from no one!”

  The black-winged man’s eyes narrowed, and he flared his wings out. “You will separate and you will take orders from me, children. I am Lucifer, your ruler, and I will not allow insubordination. Now, separate!”

  We snarled. “No.”

  His eyes turned wholly black, a strange dark light emitted from him, and his fury became palpable.

  We tensed, waiting for his attack, but it did not come.

  With a deep sigh, he relaxed, folded his wings in, and said, “You need to learn your limits, girls.” With a single jump, he smacked us on the back of our head with the side of his hand, and that one hit knocked us unconscious.

  Chapter 40

  LORALIE

  Lucifer stayed until we woke up, then gathered Frances, Tsukiko, and I into a small room used for scolding monsters who broke the rules.

  Our family had tried to come, but he had ordered them to stay out.

  The three of us fidgeted in the really uncomfortable chairs as he continued to stare at us in silence. It had been four minutes already and he hadn’t said a word.

  I kept opening my mouth to say something, but Frances squeezed my hand each time to keep me silent. I hated tense silence.

  After another minute, he leaned back, set his hands in his lap, and said, “You three have a very interesting bond.”

  We waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. Were the long silences meant to be torture for me? Did he know I hated this?

  “We know it isn’t normal for monsters to have a bond like this,” Frances said. “We did not intentionally create the bond.”

  “It just sort of…happened,” Tsukiko said.

  “Are we in trouble?” I blurted. “We saved everyone with minimal damage to the school, so I don’t understand why we are in trouble.”

  His lip twitched. “You did save everyone. You also attacked your family because of how much you merged. Although, you should have been able to recognize your family members with your combined memories. Did you merge with another monster, too?”

  “We only attacked them because they attacked us,” I countered.

  Normally, we had no memory of our time in that form, but we remembered everything this time. Frances couldn’t figure out why it was different and it was seriously bothering her.

  “Did you merge with another monster, too?” he asked again, his face serious.

  “Sort of,” Frances whispered. “We don’t really know what happened, but ever since the summer, we have been more drawn to someone. Someone different for each of us. I'm not sure if that's what has caused our merging to be different this time. We have tried to ignore the draw, but…”

  His lip twitched as he fought back a smile. “I see. Do they know?”

  “No,” I said with a sigh. “We know things wouldn’t work with them, so we have been trying to push them away.” Not very successfully.

  “Not that that’s been possible,” Tsukiko growled.

  “Why wouldn’t it work?” Lucifer asked.

  My cheeks warmed, and I saw the other two blush as well.

>   “It’s different for each of us,” I whispered.

  He put his elbows on the table and leaned his chin on his fists. “I’ve got all the time in the world, girls. Tell me all about it.”

  We took turns explaining our situations and our stances. Once we started going, it all tumbled out.

  Had he used magic on us? Or was it because he was just naturally easy to talk to?

  Once we finished, he leaned back, tilted his head to look up at the ceiling, and burst into laughter so loud it made Tsukiko cringe.

  He laughed until tears came from his eyes and he had to wipe them away. “I’m sorry, girls. I’m not laughing at you. Well, sort of. I’m more laughing at this situation. This is all stuff I hadn’t expected to happen anytime this millennia.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “You understand the witches have Selene, who is the three lunar witches combined into one being?”

  We nodded.

  “You three are like that, but sort of reversed. You are the three monsters who can combine to form a new monster.”

  “What is this monster?” Tsukiko asked.

  “I call it Cerberus, named after the Greek mythology about a three headed dog, but it tells us a new name it wants to be called each time it is reincarnated,” he said. “Normally, it is created with three monsters of the same type, but your strong connection is likely the cause for you being chosen.”

  “What does this have to do with the males?” Tsukiko asked.

  “I’m getting there,” he said, but his tone was playful still. “Cerberus and the three who combined to make him needed a conduit because of how powerful they were. So, they latched onto the nearest, most compatible mates who could help them distribute the magic easily and were capable of protecting them from those who wished to destroy them.”

  “Come again?” I wheezed.

  He smiled. “Your magic chose them.”

  “What if we don’t want them?” Frances asked.

  His smile softened. “Your fears are understood, but they will diminish over time.”

  This was insane.

  “So, the three of us are powerful monsters who can combine to become Cerberus and because we are so powerful, we needed additional conduits. We latched onto the ones who were nearest us and who could help channel the power and protect us?” Frances asked.