by Wesley King
“What are you reading?” she asked quietly.
“Textbook,” I murmured, turning back to the front.
What was I thinking? Never make eye contact with a bully.
“I see,” she said.
For a few minutes I just stared at the board, too nervous to open the book again. But after awhile I heard Allison whispering to Carl, and I continued reading, turning to the Great Monster Crushers section.
One thing in particular caught my eye.
To ensure that only a worthy Monster Crusher would ever discover the elevators, the Brotherhood put a spell on all the houses. Only the next Monster Crusher can live in that bedroom and discover the panel. Once they open it, they are without question the Monster Crusher, and training can begin immediately.
* Take care of my bedroom, by the way.
* It’s my bedroom now.
*Not anymore. P.S. I carved a message in the panel.
* Saw that. Maybe you could have been a little clearer? Like: if you go in here, you have to kill monsters.
I sat back in my chair, my hands shaking. Eldon was right: the spell must have been broken somehow. I flipped through the rest of The Complete Guide to Monster Crushing. It seemed each Monster Crusher had written his own story, and I found at least twenty blank pages at the back. There were blank pages scattered throughout the book, actually. I guess the future Monster Crushers were supposed to add to the tome. I tucked the book back into my backpack after math, looking around nervously to make sure no one noticed.
I really needed to talk to Eldon. I still wasn’t sure if I believed any of this, but even if it was true, I knew one thing for sure: I was definitely not the Monster Crusher.
Chapter Nine
I was so shaken by what I had read that I forgot about the possibility that my clothing choice would make me a target. But Allison and the other girls made the blue whale connection pretty fast—I saw them look at me and giggle from across the classroom as we ate lunch—but since I saw it coming it kind of bounced right off. Must have been the blubber. Better yet, Liam was wearing a red-and-blue plaid shirt that made his eyes really pop. He even looked at me. Possibly behind me. But still.
Mia, Shal, and I spent the rest of lunch hiding out in the far corner of the yard gossiping about people I didn’t even know. Not bad gossip. More like, “I think Carl was talking to Ashley today” and “Did you see Carl’s hair?” and “Carl is such a flirt.” By the way, Shal did most of the gossiping. Mia and I were just the moral support.
I still wasn’t exactly sure why Shal was unpopular. Mia was very shy and ran away from popular girls, so that made sense. But Shal was pretty and wore nice clothes and gossiped, which as far as I could tell were the basic ingredients of popular girls.
I made a mental note to ask Mia.
“I don’t know what he sees in her,” Shal said, picking grass and watching Allison talking to Carl. “I mean, yes, she’s beautiful and popular. But she’s so…evil.”
Mia was sitting cross-legged beside me. Some of the blades of grass Shal was picking were flying into her hair, but I think she was too polite to mention anything. Shal certainly didn’t notice. “I think the beautiful and popular thing helps,” Mia said.
I snorted. “Just slightly. But Carl just hasn’t had a chance to talk to you yet.”
Shal glanced at me, running a hand through her long auburn hair. “You think?”
“Of course. If he talked to you, he’d forget all about Allison.”
Shal smiled. “So not true, but thank you. What about you and Kelp?”
“What do you mean?” I asked, feeling my cheeks burning.
“Have you figured out a way to tell him you love him yet?” she asked coyly.
I sighed. “I was just going to yearn from afar for awhile. Like five to ten years. Or when I wake up and look like Allison Black instead of a beluga whale.”
Mia giggled. “Sorry,” she murmured.
“You’re gorgeous,” Shal said, waving a hand in dismissal. “Liam would be lucky to have you.”
“As his bodyguard,” I muttered. “I think I outweigh him by fifty pounds.”
“It’s not your fault he’s a twig,” Shal said.
I glanced at Liam, where he was playing his fantasy card game with Paul and Steve near a portable. Apparently, the three of them played the same game every single recess and lunch.
I thought about going up to talk to him and imagined Paul and Steve snickering that the huge new girl had a crush on their friend. Liam would get embarrassed and ignore me, and I would be reminded once again that I just wasn’t one of the pretty girls. I felt my stomach twist, and I turned away again, picking at the grass.
“Let’s talk about something else,” I muttered.
“Fine,” Shal said. “What would you name your kids—”
I laughed and threw a clump of grass at her.
—
And then came last recess. In my experience, it was often the worst one. I think kids get bored or something and decide to cause trouble. Who knows. But there I was sitting in the back corner of the yard with Shal and Mia when Allison Black and her flock of seagulls set off toward us. There were even a few boys trailing the pack. Never a good thing.
Mia Mouse was gone in a flash. She was like a ninja.
“We really need to work on that,” Shal muttered.
“What’s up, girls?” Allison said as she approached. She was wearing dark jeans and a white top that contrasted sharply with her long raven hair. Her eyelashes were plumped up with mascara, making her dark eyes seem big and mysterious. She really was unfairly beautiful. Her legs and arms were toned and muscular, and she didn’t seem to do any running or anything—not at school anyway. She seemed to just gossip and watch the boys play sports.
Carl was standing behind her, along with Tim and Mike. Oh, great. Shal was already red as a fire hydrant.
“Nothing,” Shal said quietly.
“Just hanging out with your new friend?” Allison asked, sitting down beside me. “Can I join? Unless you were making out or something.”
“Gross,” Tim said. Carl snickered.
Shal definitely noticed.
“So what are we talking about?” Allison asked, smiling cruelly at us. “Boys?”
“No,” Shal said immediately.
Too fast.
Allison turned to her. “You were, weren’t you? I thought I saw you looking over at us. You have a crush. Who is it?” She looked at the three boys with them. “One of these guys? Tim, maybe?”
“No thanks,” Tim muttered.
Allison looked taken aback. “You don’t think she’s cute?”
This was particularly cruel. Allison was like an evil genius bully.
“Yeah, don’t you?” one of the seagulls asked.
Her name was Ashley, and from what Shal told me she was second-in-command. She looked kind of like Portia Carson: blond hair, blue eyes, lots of jean skirts. She was almost pretty enough to challenge Allison, and Shal told me there was sometimes a little friction between the two.
“No,” Tim said curtly. “She’s an ugly ginger.”
Shal couldn’t hide it. Her big hazel eyes welled up with tears the second the words left his mouth. He might as well have punched her in the stomach.
“Now you made her cry,” Allison said with just the slightest knowing grin. She climbed to her feet. “Let’s leave them alone. Maybe the new girl can cheer her up. Better to be an ugly ginger than an ugly whale.”
Yep, I knew it. The group set off across the yard, laughing as they went. Other kids fled from their path.
“What a sweetheart,” I said, turning back to Shal.
Shal was already standing up. “Thanks for the help. Some friend you are,” she said sarcastically.
She hurried off toward the school, and I was left in the corner alone.
—
“What’s wrong?” my mom asked me during dinner that night.
She’d bought new plates today and
had insisted on making a nice roast to celebrate. It looked delicious, but I wasn’t very hungry. I was just picking at a small slice on my plate.
“Nothing,” I muttered.
Tom was chewing on a boiled carrot. “She’s sad.”
“Yes, I realize that,” my mom said. “But why?”
“The room all right?” Stache asked worriedly, looking up from his dinner. “Did you find more spiders?”
“I’m fine,” I said.
Stache nodded and returned to his roast. His wispy brown hair was matted against his forehead with sweat, and even his moustache looked sweaty. He was working fast though. The cupboards were installed, and he’d even slapped a coat of paint on the kitchen walls. There were still boxes piled along the counters, but it was starting to look like a normal kitchen.
“I’m sad too,” Tom said, poking around for another carrot.
My mom turned to him. “Why?”
“There’s a pile of garbage below my window. It’s a real eyesore.”
My mom sighed, and I cracked just the slightest bit of a smile. Tom was obviously trying to save me from anymore questions from my mother. When she thought something was wrong, she would keep asking until she got an answer.
Stache must have been only half-listening.
“Garbage?” he said. “I’ll check it out after dinner.”
“You do that, dear,” my mom said. “Now, Laura, are you sure you won’t—”
“Can I be excused?”
Stache looked at me in surprise. My plate wasn’t finished, which was a rarity.
“Yeah,” my mom said, sounding worried. “Sure.”
I wrapped up my plate, put it in the fridge, and headed upstairs. As I went up the stairs, I could hear Tom say to my dad, “Love the paint in here. It smells like it was perfectly applied.”
“Thanks, Tom,” my dad replied proudly.
I shook my head and closed the bedroom door behind me.
I spent the rest of the evening in my room, thinking about Shal. She didn’t talk to me the rest of the day. She didn’t even look at me. After school she just hurried off with Mia—who at least snuck me a little wave—and didn’t look back once.
I thought not having friends sucked. Losing them after a day was worse.
I’d spent most of my life giving bullies the silent treatment. You just took their insults and tried not to get angry and then cried about it in the safety of your room. Sounds kind of strange, I know. But the few times I let my temper get the best of me with Portia, it hadn’t really worked out. If I yelled at her, the rest of the school looked at me like I was a maniac. The one time I really lost it and hit her, she acted like I was a murderer, and I got detention for two weeks and a very awkward meeting with the principal and my parents.
But Shal was right. I didn’t stick up for her. And deep down I knew it was because a small part of me was happy I wasn’t the one being targeted. It was selfish, and it wasn’t what a friend was supposed to do. And when you spend your whole day fighting off fat comments, it really hurts when you get home and have to call yourself a coward.
And so I lay in my bed thinking about Shal and Mia and Allison until Tom and my parents went to bed. It was after ten when the rattling started. I slowly climbed off the bed, the issues at school instantly forgotten. I had bigger things to worry about.
Tucking the guide under my arm, I walked into the closet, my eyes on the rattling wooden panel. I crouched down, found the catch, and gently swung the panel open.
Stepping into the elevator, I carefully put the book at my feet, grabbed the lever firmly with two hands, and, against my better judgment, pulled it.
At once the floor swept away beneath me, and I plummeted through the earth like the night before, trying not to scream. Closing my eyes, I tried to count how long the descent was, and I was around forty-five seconds when white light suddenly flared across my closed eyes, and I opened them to see the lush greenery of Derwin racing toward me. The elevator slowed, and I stepped out to find Porton sitting in his rocking chair, smiling at me through that scraggly white beard.
“Welcome back.”
Chapter Ten
I hurried through the town, aware that the villagers were staring at me even more curiously than last time. They had probably assumed I was never coming back.
The streets were bustling again, and I took a closer look at the village as I walked through it, noticing ash-covered forges, small butcher shops, and even a packed tavern. The entire realm of Derwin might have been dropped a few hundred years ago on the surface and been totally normal, aside from those strange weapons sheathed to belts and thighs and the dangling yellow fangs that seemed to be a fashion statement here. I did also see a boy walking a blue lizard, which was odd.
“Is that your pet?” I asked him.
He glanced at me, grinning. “Yep. Called him Eldon.”
“Like the mean guy at the castle?”
The boy nodded. “Best Sword in the Under Earth. Eldon Rein. My father always said he could kill ten goblins without breaking a sweat, and that’s with his hands.”
I knelt down to pet the lizard, and it nuzzled my fingers. “What does your father do?”
The boy’s smile slipped away. “He was a soldier. He died last year from a goblin.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah. I’m gonna be a warrior though. I’ll make ’em pay. Say…you’re the one they’re all talking about. From the surface. You’re training to be a Monster Crusher?”
“So they tell me.”
He nodded thoughtfully, eyeing me up and down. “First girl ever. Last one from your place didn’t last long. Paul the Imp Chaser. He was nice…met him once—he knew my dad. Got killed too fast though. Was a good fighter, just had a nasty temper and a bit too much pride, my dad said. You best be real careful.”
“Thanks,” I said softly, giving the little lizard a last head rub and setting off.
I reached the arched gate to Arnwell Castle and saw that the Monster Crushers and their Swords were training again, the ring of steel echoing through the stone courtyard as they sparred or tossed weapons onto the cobblestone and scooped up new ones.
Eldon stood in the middle of the organized chaos, overseeing the training and shouting orders, and when he saw me, I’m pretty sure he sighed. He wore the same brown cloak as the night before, and the dark stubble on his cheeks was even thicker.
It looked like he hadn’t slept.
“Did you read the guide?” he asked me coolly, walking over. Some of the other warriors stopped training to watch us.
“Some of it,” I said, looking down at the book. “It’s a little…strange.”
“It will get stranger,” he replied quietly. “And you read about the spell?”
“Yeah. There’s obviously been a mistake.”
He smirked. I tried not to stare at the puckered scar that ran down his face.
“We thought the same when we saw you move in. We had…hoped that perhaps you would quickly move out again, or that fate would change slightly and have your father come through. But when you arrived in Derwin, your fate was sealed.”
He turned away and started walking through the crowd.
“As was ours.”
“So it was you. I thought so. Have you been watching my house from like the second I moved in, or what?” I asked, hurrying to catch up.
“Yes,” he said. “And we’re not alone.”
He led me to the far side of the courtyard, and I stared up at the towering castle. I noticed now that the white stones were dirtier than I had thought; there were spots of charred black near the base and even large chunks missing. But being underground it was safe from the effects of any weather at least, and the gleaming white stones still caught the light of whatever was up on the ceiling. The castle must have been thirty metres tall and twice as wide. Dark, narrow windows watched from above.
“Listen, Eldon, we really need to talk—”
“I agree.”
He raised a calloused hand, and the warriors stepped immediately in front of us, moving in almost disconcerting unison. I took a closer look at the Monster Crushers and their Swords this time. The Monster Crushers, which I had figured out were all the boys in regular clothes, were mostly in their teens or early twenties, while there was a much bigger range for Swords, who were easy to pick out because they all wore those long cloaks like Eldon. Of those, the youngest was probably fifteen or sixteen, while the oldest was a huge, barrel-chested man with deep-green eyes and endless scars running across his pale face. Most of the scars were clumped together in fives. Claws.
Of the assembled warriors—both Swords and Monster Crushers—only seven were women, but they looked like the scariest ones of the group. One in particular caught my eye; she had crimson hair that draped to the small of her back and probing blue eyes that popped from her ivory skin. All the Swords seemed muscular and grim, even beneath their cloaks, with swords and axes and bows strapped to their backs and thighs. Some wore black padded armour, while others wore just simple beige tunics and coarse wool pants beneath their cloaks.
Eldon lowered his hand. “As you all know, the Riverfield door has opened, and this…girl has emerged.”
“Laura,” I murmured.
“Laura,” he said, looking a little annoyed. “The Brotherhood’s laws are clear: whoever comes through the door is the Monster Crusher.”
I saw a ripple of discontent move through the group, and felt my skin prickle uncomfortably as they all stared at me. I’d had enough. It was time to get out of here.
“Listen,” I said, turning to Eldon. “I just came here today to give you this book back and tell you that you have the wrong girl. Clearly I am not the Monster Crusher.”
Eldon shook his head. “If only that were true. But you live in the room, you have come through the door, and you stand here now. You are to be trained, whether we want it or not. We cannot afford to ignore a new Monster Crusher, even if it’s…you.”