Locked In

by Z. Fraillon

  How does he know all this? wondered Jasper. Surely it wasn’t written in any school reports. Had they been watching him?

  ‘Hmm, yes,’ Von Strasser said, but Jasper wasn’t sure if he was answering his unasked question, or just agreeing with himself.

  ‘Your test results suggest that your disruptive behaviour was usually due to boredom, which is good. Your brain may have averted the initial shrinking process.’

  Jasper tried to work out which test Von Strasser was talking about.

  ‘Yes, I think with the right guidance, the right challenges, you might just make it,’ continued the principal. ‘But you will need to remain focused. Which is why I wanted to show you this. Ah ha!’

  Von Strasser clapped as he found the folder he was looking for. It was thick and tied up with string. He blew a layer of dust off the folder, and Jasper could just make out the words etched across the front:

  Student Intake File

  Jasper reached out towards the file when the room suddenly erupted in noise. A loud siren wailed in Jasper’s ear as the painting above his head began to flash madly. The horse reared up in alarm, and Von Strasser smacked his head against the roof. Jasper backed away from the horse’s flying hooves just in time.

  ‘Whoa,’ Von Strasser spoke soothingly to the horse.

  A note popped out beneath the picture frame, which Von Strasser quickly grabbed and started reading.

  ‘Unbelievable, a Bog – ’ Von Strasser stopped when he noticed Jasper still huddled in the corner of the room. ‘Oh yes. Right.’ He looked down at the folder in his hands. ‘Well, no time for that now. Here,’ he said, and shoved the dusty folder and note at Jasper. ‘If you wouldn’t mind taking these to Stenka. She will inform you of all that is required. I have ... something I must deal with rather urgently.’

  Von Strasser looked even more out of his mind than usual. ‘And the note. Give her the note immediately,’ he repeated, nudging the horse backwards through the door. ‘A Bogglemorph,’ he muttered to himself, ‘One thing we don’t need is more bloomin’ statues. They’ll all be in danger ...’ Von Strasser continued to ramble as he trotted down the corridor.

  Jasper stood in the office, staring at the folder and note in his hands. He wondered what sort of emergency could send Von Strasser into such a flap. Of course, there was an easy way to find out.

  Jasper chewed indecisively on his bottom lip. He didn’t want to get in trouble. But then, Von Strasser had said they would all be in danger. Jasper checked to make sure no-one was coming down the corridor before quickly unfolding the note.

  RED ALERT

  RED ALERT

  BOGGLEMORPH DETECTED ON PREMISES

  NO DESCRIPTION AVAILABLE

  ONE STUDENT CHANGED

  INITIATE EMERGENCY PROCEEDINGS IMMEDIATELY

  Footsteps clipped down the corridor and Jasper quickly folded up the note again. He stepped into the hallway and almost knocked Stenka off her feet. She looked at him suspiciously. ‘What have we here?’ she hissed.

  Jasper tried not to look guilty. ‘Principal Von Strasser asked me to deliver this folder and note to you,’ he replied steadily. ‘I was just on my way to find you now.’

  ‘Well, it looks like you found me.’ Stenka held her hand out, and Jasper almost threw the note and folder into them.

  ‘Principal Von Strasser said you’d tell me what I needed to know,’ he said.

  Stenka read the note. ‘Now is not the time,’ she said curtly. ‘I’ll show you out.’

  Jasper let out a long breath, and followed her down the corridor.

  13

  ‘A red alert? That’s not good.’ Mac looked at the group gathered around their table in the food hall.

  Jasper knew Mac would be able to tell them what was going on.

  ‘And a Bogglemorph – again! You’d think they’d have learnt from last time.’

  Mac shook his head, a worried expression on his face. He sighed. ‘Bogglemorphs are one of the hardest monsters to catch,’ Mac explained. ‘They’re in the Morpher order. But like your teacher has probably told you, Morphers can change form so they don’t look like monsters. They might look like a dog, a cat, a girl, a man – whatever.’

  Jasper thought of the Morpher order that Stenka had described in Species Studies. Felix looked even more freaked out than usual.

  ‘You might have spoken to the Bogglemorph today,’ Mac paused, deep in thought. ‘But although they look normal, there are ways to identify a Bogglemorph – no matter what form they take.’

  The others all leant in close.

  Mac started to look excited. ‘Firstly, they always have blond hair.’

  ‘That’s not much help, is it?’ said Felix. ‘I mean, half the kids at school have blond hair.’

  The three blond-haired kids sitting at their table looked embarrassed as everyone stared at them. Bertie, the small, weedy kid who had sat near Jasper on the first night, was trying to flatten his curls into something less obvious.

  What does a Bogglemorph look like?

  ‘But that’s not all,’ Mac continued. ‘Like all monsters in the Morpher order, if you look really closely, a single hair – in the very middle of their head – is pink. Also, Bogglemorphs always have six toes. On their left foot.’

  ‘So, how can you catch them?’ asked Saffy.

  ‘The only way to catch a Bogglemorph is to force it back into its natural form,’ Mac said, his voice dropping to a whisper as a prefect slunk past, eyeing them suspiciously.

  ‘Natural form?’ Jasper asked.

  ‘In their natural form,’ explained Mac, ‘Bogglemorphs look like a sort of fanged, legless sheep with the trunk of an elephant. Without being able to change shape, they wouldn’t be able to survive. It’s pretty tricky to move around with no legs and a sheep’s body.’

  ‘Well?’ said Saffy impatiently, ‘How do you force them back, then?’

  ‘Whipped cream,’ Mac replied, as if it were obvious. ‘It’s their only known weakness. As soon as a Bogglemorph comes into contact with whipped cream – POP! They’re forced back to being slug-sheep with big noses.’

  Suddenly Jasper remembered the box of whipped cream in the records office. Everything was starting to make sense.

  ‘But you have to be careful. They have a retractable spike in their sixth toe. You’d never see the attack coming, but get too close and, well, it only takes one spike, and you’re changed.’

  Jasper leant forward in his seat eagerly. ‘That’s what the note said. One student changed.’

  Mac looked at him and nodded. ‘I s’pose it could be worse. Bogglemorphs don’t change you into half-monsters like some Morpher monsters. Bogglemorphs change you into statues. You’re still alive, but you can’t move. You’re locked inside your body.’

  Jasper didn’t like the sound of this. He thought of the statues in the hallway. All of them kids. All of them looking shocked.

  LEST WE FORGET.

  ‘The statues – they were actual kids?’ Jasper asked, his voice breaking slightly as he said it.

  Mac nodded again. ‘They are actual kids.’

  Felix had begun to hyperventilate beside Jasper. He reached for his asthma puffer.

  ‘But once you’ve been changed – that’s it,’ said Mac. ‘Unless of course the monster who morphed you is caught. Then the DNA from their one pink hair is used to reverse the morphing process. But it’s catching the Bogglemorph that’s the problem.’

  Jasper found that he had stopped breathing. He was hanging on Mac’s every word. This was like something out of a horror story. He forced himself to take a deep breath.

  ‘Last time, the Bogglemorph was never caught. The teachers did everything they could to catch it. They tried mental manipulation. They even sprayed us all with whipped cream. But the monster was already gone, leaving nothing but a pile of stone kids around the place.’

  Felix had turned almost blue. He was making a strange wheezing sound as he sucked madly on his asthma puffer.

&nbs
p; ‘What’s mental manipulation?’ asked Saffy.

  ‘It’s a bit like mind control for monsters,’ said Mac. ‘You’ll learn it soon. Anyway, if it’s the same Bogglemorph this time, there might be hope for the statues after all.’

  ‘This place is crazy,’ breathed Saffy.

  ‘The last Bogglemorph attacks were in my first year,’ said Mac, getting up from the table. ‘Seeing your friends getting changed into statues one by one, and just waiting for your turn, is not a nice way to start at a new school. Watch your backs,’ he added as he walked away.

  Saffy turned to Jasper and Felix. ‘That’s it. I’ve had enough. Monsters on the loose, teachers that use mind control? I’m out of here.’

  Jasper looked at Saffy. She was serious. ‘Have you got some sort of plan to tell us about, or is this where we call you Houdini?’ he asked.

  ‘Watch and learn,’ she replied.

  14

  Saffy pointed to the map spread out on the dusty floor of the empty classroom. ‘There’s not much cover on this side of the fence, but there’s a whole forest once we get through. It will be much harder for them to track us once we’re out.’

  Jasper examined Saffy’s map, impressed. She had plotted all the same points as he had done mentally – and then some. ‘This is awesome,’ he said.

  Saffy grinned. ‘My whole life, my parents have been more interested in making money than in me. They travelled for work and sent me to boarding schools. So I made it a challenge. No matter which school my parents dumped me in – I got out. Trust me, we can do this.’

  ‘Come on, guys,’ Felix murmured nervously. ‘You can’t be serious. Don’t you think it’s kind of – risky?’

  Jasper nudged him. ‘Hey, just think what your brothers will say if we pull this off.’

  ‘If? You mean when,’ Saffy corrected.

  Felix didn’t seem convinced. ‘If I go back home, they’ll make life hell for me anyway.’

  ‘Come on,’ said Jasper. ‘They can’t be worse than the thug brigade, monsters, and Stenka.’

  ‘I guess you’ve got a point,’ said Felix. ‘But you’re not actually serious, right?’

  Saffy glared at him.

  Jasper wondered what his mum would think about him escaping. Would she be glad to see him, or disappointed that he hadn’t stuck it out this time? He remembered how she’d told him to be careful when she’d dropped him off at school. Well, he’d be more use to her if he escaped than as a garden gnome. He wasn’t sticking around to be Monstered.

  Saffy’s map

  ‘The sooner the better,’ Jasper told Saffy.

  ‘The only thing is CCTV,’ Saffy muttered, more to herself than to the boys.

  Jasper laughed. ‘Are you serious? Have you seen this place? We’re living in the Dark Ages here! I doubt they even know what television is, let alone security cameras.’

  Saffy didn’t look so sure, but they hadn’t seen any cameras in the corners, only cobwebs.

  ‘And one of you will have to get your hands on some bolt cutters or something,’ she ordered. ‘The gates will be locked.’

  Saffy had a determined, excited look about her. Jasper was tempted to wind her up, but decided against it. Girls could be unpredictable.

  ‘I’ll sort that,’ he said. ‘And the cream.’

  Felix and Saffy both looked at him.

  ‘Just in case,’ he added.

  Felix reached for his asthma puffer again.

  ‘Don’t worry, we won’t need to use it,’ Jasper said.

  ‘OK. Felix, I’ll leave you to sort out a diversion,’ Saffy ordered.

  Felix was too busy sucking on his asthma puffer to answer.

  ‘See you at midnight. At Light Tower 4.’ And with that, Saffy folded the map neatly and left.

  All afternoon, Jasper was excited about their plans. He remembered Stenka sneering that there was no escape from the school. But they’d show her.

  He charged down the corridor with his workbooks piled high in his arms. As he spun around the corner, he crashed straight into one of the prefects. It was Bruno’s second-in-charge, Craig. He was even bigger than Bruno, but Jasper caught him off balance and they were both knocked to the ground.

  ‘Sorry, sorry – oh, man ... I’m really sorry,’ Jasper said as sincerely as he could manage.

  Craig glowered as he grabbed his two-way radio from where it had fallen. ‘You will be,’ he snarled.

  The alarm on Jasper’s watch beeped. Jasper quickly switched it off and was on his feet in seconds. He pulled on his tracksuit over his pyjamas. Felix lay sleeping a few beds away.

  Jasper reached out a hand and softly shook Felix awake. Felix’s arm shot up and, without quite knowing how, Jasper found himself lying on the floor.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Jasper hissed.

  ‘Oh. It’s you,’ Felix said sleepily. He gave Jasper a hand up.

  ‘If we meet the Bogglemorph, you can do your Karate Kid thing while I run,’ Jasper muttered, rubbing the back of his head where a lump was already growing.

  Felix looked at Jasper. ‘What do you mean, “meet the Bogglemorph”? You weren’t serious about doing a runner, were you? I thought you guys were just messing about,’ he whispered.

  ‘But we have a plan!’ Jasper grinned.

  Felix shook his head. ‘A helicopter waiting outside to fly us home is a plan. Cutting through a fence and running into a forest is just stupid. And anyway, no-one knows where this place is! Not even my brothers – and they were all here for three years! We could be on top of a mountain, on an island, in some weird underground, snowy, dungeon-world ...’

  Jasper shrugged. ‘Up to you, but I’m out of here.’ He swung his backpack onto his shoulders and headed out of the sleep hall.

  He hadn’t even reached the door before Felix caught up with him.

  15

  It was exactly midnight. Something yowled in the distance. Jasper could feel a buzz of excitement tingling its way through his body. He could already taste freedom. He could smell it. The boys could just make out Saffy’s shadowy figure under Light Tower 4. Jasper motioned for Felix to be quiet as he crept up behind Saffy.

  ‘RAAAR!’ he growled in her ear as he grabbed her shoulders. Jasper felt something thump painfully into his stomach, and found himself splayed in the snow.

  Light Tower 4

  ‘What the –?’ Jasper gasped as Saffy stood over him, her hands on her hips.

  ‘Oh, it’s you,’ she said.

  ‘Of course it’s me! And what was that?’

  Saffy sniffed. ‘Kickboxing.’

  Jasper was stunned. ‘Am I the only one here who doesn’t have some secret fighting skill?’ he muttered as he pulled himself up.

  Saffy and Felix glanced at each other.

  ‘If you want to play stupid jokes and sneak up on people, I suggest you don’t do it in the middle of the night when a monster is on the – ’

  ‘Pssst.’

  Saffy stopped mid-sentence. They all stood frozen to the spot.

  ‘Don’t attack,’ the voice hissed from the shadows.

  ‘Who’s there?’ Felix asked suspiciously.

  A small figure emerged from the darkness.

  It was Bertie, the small kid who sat near them in the food hall. ‘I’m coming too,’ he said bravely. ‘That is – if you’ll let me?’

  Saffy pulled Felix and Jasper aside. ‘There’s no way he’s coming,’ she hissed. ‘He’s too much of a risk. I’ve got a plan and he’s not part of it.’

  ‘Come on, Saffy. He’s just trying to get out of here, like us,’ said Jasper.

  They both turned to look at Felix. ‘Safety in numbers?’ Felix suggested.

  Saffy looked exasperated. ‘All right. Two against one. But he’d better pull his weight.’

  They turned to face Bertie. Jasper had never seen anyone look so miserable – or scared.

  ‘Sure, come with us,’ Jasper said. ‘You might need this.’ He reached into his bag and pulled out spray cans fu
ll of whipped cream. It had taken him over an hour to find his way back to the records office – and even longer to find his way back. There was definitely something strange about those corridors.

  Jasper handed a can to everyone. ‘There are more in my bag,’ he said. ‘We’re not taking any chances.’

  Bertie’s hand shook uncontrollably when Jasper offered him the can.

  ‘I’ll hold yours,’ Jasper said,stuffing it into the pocket of his hoodie. He wondered how old Bertie was – he barely looked older than eight or nine. It was hard to imagine that he had any good monster-hunting skills.

  Saffy turned back and looked out over the field. ‘OK, time to get going,’ she said, throwing the boy a rather uncertain look.

  ‘Did you get the bolt cutters?’ she asked Jasper.

  ‘Nope,’ he replied.

  Saffy glared at him. She looked as though she was about to fire another kick his way.

  ‘But,’ he added quickly, ‘I have something much better.’ Jasper reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring of keys.

  Even Felix stopped looking anxious long enough to be impressed. ‘Where did you get those?’ he asked.

  Jasper thought back to his run-in with Craig. It had been worth the punishment of cleaning the prefects’ toilet block with a toothbrush.

  ‘I may not be able to knock someone out, but I do know how to pick pockets,’ he grinned.

  Saffy beamed. ‘I’m almost sorry I kicked you before.’

  The searchlights scanned the snowy field.

  ‘It’s nearly time,’ whispered Saffy.

  They waited until the two beams had crossed in front of them.

  ‘NOW!’ she ordered and sprinted towards the fence.

  Jasper’s feet pounded through the snow. They reached the fence and dropped into the snow, a second before the searchlights swept behind them.

  ‘The gate is down there,’ Jasper pointed.

  A black-clad figure marched along the fence line on either side of the gate.

  ‘A thug,’ Saffy whispered. ‘I thought so. Guard duty.’ She peered into the darkness. ‘And is that a guard dog?’