Creeped Out

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Creeped Out Page 6

by Z. Fraillon


  ‘Mr McPhee,’ she said coolly. ‘You’re lucky we have an antidote for Octoglug goo. It’s not something we always keep on hand. You might have thought of that before shrinking your friends to the size of beetles.’

  Jasper was about to argue that he hadn’t actually shrunk them, but then he saw the way Stenka’s eyes flashed with anger.

  Jasper had watched as Stenka had administered the antidote. If his friends thought being shrunk was bad, it was nothing compared to being un-shrunk. They had grown, as they had shrunk, one bit at a time. Their tiny little bodies grew green gooey legs, then their torsos glooped out of their legs, their heads and arms slopped into place, and finally there was a POP! The gooey jelly set hard, and they were both back to normal.

  Except that they were covered in goo, and coughing up great gobs of it from their lungs. Jasper couldn’t tell if it was worse than when they had been de-morphed from being stone statues. It looked less painful, but more disgusting. Still, at least they were OK now, apart from the occasional gooey sneeze. Felix’s voice had a distinct high-pitched squeak to it, but apparently that wouldn’t last for too long.

  Jasper was pulled back to the present by Stenka’s frosty voice. ‘We take theft seriously at Monstrum House. Dog-napping from Mondrag’s kennels. Stealing an Octoglug from the sewer.’ Her eyes hardened. ‘How could you possibly think that the clues could refer to an Octoglug? Did you consider why the clues were delivered by slingshot? Did you even read the clues? Have you completely forgotten about those monsters whose weakness is their bellybutton? A simple blow to the Grubbergrind’s bellybutton would have sent it into a deep sleep!’

  Jasper vaguely remembered something Stenka had said in one of their first classes about weaknesses … but as for the slingshots, he’d just thought that was the prefects’ way of having fun. Although it looked like Felix had been right about the poem. If only they had found the right eight-legged monster.

  ‘Octoglugs don’t creep and crawl, they squelch and jump! Or didn’t you notice that?’ Stenka hissed.

  Jasper squirmed. ‘Well, now that you mention it …’ he mumbled.

  ‘Octoglugs don’t even eat people!’ Stenka continued. ’ Mr Golag is not happy. That monster was meant to clear the pipes. Since you stole it, the pipes have already blocked up. He’s put your name down on the list of students to clean the bathrooms.’

  So that was what the monster had been doing. Only at Monstrum House would teachers put monsters in the toilets to keep them clean.

  ‘And then there is the breaking and entering and vandalism,’ continued Stenka.

  Jasper remembered the letters to be incinerated, and how angry he had felt.

  ‘Yes, the letters,’ Stenka said, rolling her eyes. ‘You really must learn not to take things at face value.’ Jasper looked at his teacher in confusion. ‘What do you think would happen if parents received letters home detailing the types of things we do here, hmm?’

  Jasper shook his head. ‘But that’s not what my letters said!’ he said angrily. ‘My letters were to make my mum feel better. To make sure she wouldn’t worry! And now –’

  Stenka held up her hand to silence Jasper. ‘And your mother received every letter you wrote. We have the video evidence if you really feel the need to watch.’

  Jasper was speechless. Video evidence? There were cameras in his house?

  ‘The letters you found were from students who didn’t think about what they were writing.

  The students who would have ended up in mental institutions had they reported what really goes on here.’

  Jasper had assumed that all of their letters were destroyed.

  ‘And, for your information, all those students affected were told that their parents wouldn’t be receiving their original letters. They were encouraged to write a more, shall we say, believable version of events.’

  Jasper let his gaze drop. Perhaps it was a good thing he hadn’t been able to let the monster loose.

  ‘Principal Von Strasser asked me to remind you of his invitation to join him for apple pie. He also wanted me to give you this.’

  Stenka reached into her desk drawer and pulled out a folder marked:

  Student Intake File.

  ‘You were meant to review this earlier in the year. If you remember, Principal Von Strasser took you to the records room?’ she said, handing him the folder.

  Jasper remembered. That was just before he had tried to escape Monstrum House and ended up running head-first into a Bogglemorph. A lot had happened since then, and he had completely forgotten about the file.

  Jasper flipped the file open. A photo stared up at him. The name on the file said Scarlett Maitland. His mother’s maiden name.

  ‘Mum?’ Jasper gasped, looking up at Stenka.

  Stenka nodded. ‘Yes. Your mother attended Monstrum House. She was a talented student.’

  ‘But she … she … never said …’ Jasper could only stare numbly at the photo.

  ‘Did you not wonder why your mother soaks her feet in ice-cold water?’

  ‘I always thought she just had sore feet,’ he replied.

  His brain was firing a million messages at him. He felt completely confused. His mother? Here? At Monstrum House?

  ‘Of course, after the incident, we expected you would follow in your mother’s footsteps. But your mother was certainly not as much trouble as you are proving to be.’

  What incident? thought Jasper. But Stenka’s face was stony.

  ‘I think that’s enough information for one day,’ Stenka said, pulling the file from Jasper’s hand and slapping it back into the desk drawer. ‘And now, I think we will return to the charges of breaking and entering,’ she continued. ‘I said you could use anything from Storeroom A. I don’t recall saying anything about breaking into the kitchen and stealing supplies.’

  Jasper wondered if he could just keep quiet, but Stenka was staring at him, waiting for him to speak.

  ‘Well, to be fair,’ he began, ‘you never said not to break in and steal supplies.’

  Stenka’s face turned a deep shade of red, and Jasper wondered if it were possible for eyes to actually pop out of someone’s head.

  Stenka didn’t say anything for a moment. And then she did exactly what Jasper feared the most: she smiled. ‘Well done,’ she said.

  Wha–? Was she being sarcastic? Was she going to keep him in the basement with the Blibberwail forever?

  ‘I don’t think you quite realise what you did today. No-one has ever made it through their first Task. In the entire history of Monstrum House,’ Stenka said. ‘You’re not meant to make it through. We set you up with an impossible task so that you all start to take your monsterhunting duties seriously. The Task is intended to rank students from the most able to the least able, but we don’t expect anyone to actually complete it. It’s a remarkable achievement.’

  Jasper was confused. Did this mean she wasn’t angry?

  ‘Just imagine if no-one hunted monsters,’ Stenka said. ‘Imagine the chaos! You kids – misfits in the outside world – are the only hope. We need kids with courage, who are prepared to break rules to get things done. Like you did today. Kids who will go the whole way.’

  Jasper couldn’t believe it. She was actually congratulating him. No-one was ever going to believe this.

  ‘Of course, there is still your punishment to discuss.’

  This was more like the Stenka he knew.

  He was almost relieved. Stenka being nice was seriously unnerving.

  ‘While you did complete the Task, you broke a number of rules along the way.’ She paused.

  ‘However, given that you single-handedly captured the Grubbergrind, I think a fairly light punishment is in order.’

  Jasper nodded eagerly. A fairly light punishment sounded good to him.

  Stenka sighed. ‘According to my calculations, penalty points for all the rules you broke today add up to at least 120 points. Luckily for you, I have not had a chance to change the punishment board. T
his means for your 120 points, you will spend six nights running the penalty course. The rest of the class will be running the penalty course for six nights for failing the Task. You will join them. Dismissed.’

  Jasper nodded and quietly made his way out of Stenka’s office. He couldn’t believe he’d got off so lightly. And even though he knew six nights of running would be exhausting, Jasper had to smile.

  After all, he knew the shortcut.

  TO BE CONTINUED...

 

 

 


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