by Z. Fraillon
Felix brushed frantically at Jasper’s shoulders and Saffy hurtled any spiders that came too close out of the way. Boris sprayed the others with his dog drool, which worked surprisingly well.
‘OK, a new plan would be good,’ said Jasper.
Boris was inspecting a bloody sword next to a realistic-looking severed head. ‘Cool,’ he murmured.
‘Mental manipulation,’ Saffy said, turning to Jasper. ‘What did you learn in your tutorial today? It was some sort of Mental Manipulation, wasn’t it? That’s what you’re good at.’
Jasper thought back to his lesson with Mr Z. It seemed so long ago. ‘Nothing of use. I barely had any time,’ Jasper answered.
‘You must have learnt something,’ Saffy huffed. ‘I invented a walkie-talkie, Felix learnt everything about the Skrinkerscreech, and you learnt … what?’
‘I didn’t really learn anything,’ said Jasper. All Mr Z had said was that Jasper had found his tune. Mr Z hadn’t taught him how to make people forget. And even if he had, how would that help?
Unless we could forget our fears, Jasper thought uncertainly. But what if something goes wrong?What if we forget where we’re going or what we’re doing in here?
Jasper saw some small, blank faces growing in the walls around them. They looked at Saffy.
‘Oh no,’ said Saffy. Her face turning pale, she grabbed Jasper’s arm. ‘Please Jasp, try,’ she pleaded.
Saffy never pleaded.
‘Saffy …’ a voice called softly through the room.
Saffy’s eyes grew wide. She grabbed her earplugs and was about to shove them into her ears when Jasper snatched them out of her hands.
‘I’ll try,’ he said and tossed the earplugs to Boris. ‘Boris, put these in. Just in case this doesn’t work and we end up forgetting why we’re here. Whatever happens, lead us to the queen. When we get there, stop me whistling. Got it?’
Boris nodded.
Jasper really hoped this would work. Boris was pretty tough. And besides, the Trail of Terror had been set up for Class 2B. Jasper was betting that if Boris wasn’t in their class, his fear wouldn’t be in here.
Meanwhile, dolls had started popping out of the walls. They floated through the air towards Saffy. ‘Why did you hurt me, Saffy?’ asked a Barbie doll with a melted face in a sing-song voice. The dolls surrounded Saffy and pulled at her hair and clothes. She swatted at them, screaming.
Jasper began whistling the Sesame Street song. He wished his tune was something cooler. But he closed his eyes and kept whistling, imagining Mr Z in his beach chair with a drink in his hand.
Saffy stopped screaming and Jasper opened his eyes, still whistling his tune. The dolls were poised in front of her, but Saffy didn’t seem so frightened anymore. She looked curiously at the mangled dolls, as though they were an exhibit in a museum.
Boris shoved everyone into a line. ‘Link up,’ he said. Jasper, Felix and Saffy held hands and followed Boris.
More fears popped out from the walls. Witches’ faces, dead people, moths, birds, cockroaches, a rabid-looking monkey, brussels sprouts. But it was more like a being on a ghost train than the Trail of Terror.
Jasper kept whistling. Even when Saffy started laughing at a few of the fears – and really, a pile of cheese was a strange fear – he didn’t stop. He’d almost forgotten why he was whistling in the first place, but he knew he had to keep on going.
They turned one last corner. Boris removed his earplugs and put his hand over Jasper’s mouth.
A lush green screechwort nest rose up in front of them. A soft, gentle humming was coming from deep inside.
A majestic monster was sitting there, on top of twenty-three colourful eggs bundled in the nest.
They had found the queen.
16
‘Cripes,’ Felix gasped.
Jasper, Saffy and Boris stood with their mouths hanging open. Jasper had never thought he would find a monster beautiful, but the queen was amazing. Her body shimmered, and almost seemed to glow. Her wings whirred softly and she blinked at Jasper with soft, doe-like eyes.
The queen’s wings fluttered gently above her eggs, as if she was caressing them.
‘The eggs,’ said Jasper. But he wasn’t sure anymore why he had wanted them. He was completely mesmerised by the queen.
The queen still hummed softly. She didn’t seem to notice them standing in front of her. Jasper sighed, then leapt onto the nest, clambering over the screechwort towards the queen. Jasper listened to the humming. He closed his eyes and felt completely at peace.
She’s beautiful, thought Jasper. But something told him this was wasn’t quite right.
The whispering burst into his head.
JAAA ... SPEER! DAAN ... GEERR ... USSSS!
MON ... STEERSS ... BEWAARE!
Jasper read the words as they scrawled themselves on his mental pad.
Dangerous! Monsters beware!
His eyes flew open. He turned to look at the queen again and screamed.
The queen rose up in her nest. She wasn’t beautiful anymore. She was hideous. And absolutely terrifying. Huge, fanged mandibles protruded from her face. Her eyes were red, and her skin rippled with anger.
The queen sprang from the nest. Her gentle humming had turned into a horrible screech.
She flew towards Jasper with such force that he fell back, cracking his head on the floor. He rolled out of the way, just as she pounced down with her nippers gnashing. She might not have had a stinger, but the queen certainly wasn’t harmless.
Felix and Saffy were staring at the nest in a kind of awe. Felix was even swaying back and forth. Boris was still looking adoringly at the queen. But the queen was focused on Jasper.
Jasper got gingerly to his feet. ‘OK. Definitely not beautiful.’
Jasper had a bit of dog drool left in the flask on his belt. He only had one shot at this.
The queen flew up into the air again, shrieking, then darted down towards Jasper. He loosened the flask from his belt and held it behind his back until the very last moment.
When the queen was almost on top of him, Jasper smashed the drool onto her head with all his strength, then dived out of the way.
The queen froze, and fell to the floor with a loud thump.
Jasper let himself breathe again. He was drenched in what he seriously hoped was sweat.
‘Wha–?’ Felix mumbled, turning towards Jasper.
‘What happened?’ Saffy asked, rubbing her eyes. ‘Where did she go? She was so beautiful ...’
He pointed to the queen.
‘Eeew,’ Saffy replied. Even Boris shuddered.
‘Um, sorry, mate,’ Felix added.
‘Yeah, good one though,’ Saffy grinned.
‘No worries, I’ll just leave the eggs to you lot,’ Jasper replied.
‘Oh yeah, the eggs.’ Felix looked up at the nest. ‘Any ideas?’
But Saffy was already busy tearing down the room’s tatty old curtains and pulling it into a makeshift sack for the eggs.
Boris looked into the nest. ‘None have been cracked yet. That’s good, right?’
‘Definitely good,’ Felix answered.
Boris carefully handed the eggs down from the nest. ‘They’re freezing cold!’ he said, surprised.
‘Yeah, they’re monster eggs,’ said Felix. ‘That’s what they’re like.’
Together they counted out twenty-three eggs into the sack.
Felix tied a knot tightly around the sack. ‘We did it! We actually did it!’ he said, clapping his hands.
Jasper slumped to the floor. He felt as if he could sleep for a year. He closed his eyes and sighed happily. We did it.
Boris hauled Jasper to his feet. ‘No time to rest! We still have five more drones to freeze, and all the students to save, remember? They’re either covered in hives or paralysed by fear. Come on, let’s get some more dog drool from the Species Studies classroom and freeze the rest of them.’ Boris thumped Jasper fondly on the back, as Jasper groaned.
&nbs
p; 17
Jasper sat in the food hall, picking at a piece of stale bread. He didn’t think he’d ever felt so exhausted. By the time they’d finished freezing the last of the monsters, he could have dropped on the spot. Every muscle in his body ached, and his head throbbed as though someone had whacked him with a cricket bat.
Felix scraped mould off his cheese and Saffy was staring vaguely into space. Only Boris still seemed to have some energy left. He was jigging excitedly up and down in his seat.
The food hall was eerily quiet. Most of the students were recovering in the school hospital, and the teachers were busy airing out the assembly hall and removing the frozen Skrinkerscreech from the hallways.
The only people in the food hall were the Whispered kids, who’d spent the last hour gathered around Felix, Jasper, Saffy and Boris, wanting all the details.
‘I can’t believe I missed out on the action,’ said Mac. ‘I wish I’d been there. But listen, Jasper. You’d better watch out for Señor Hermes. You really got him riled by running off like that.’
Jasper buried his head in his hands. Obviously the fact he’d saved the school from monsters hadn’t impressed Hermes.
Jasper wasn’t sure what he’d say to Señor Hermes. It wouldn’t be long before the teachers had finished getting rid of the monsters and seeing to all the other students – and then they would come to the food hall.
‘Heads up!’ Mac called from the doorway.
Jasper froze. Señor Hermes was storming down the corridor towards the food hall.
‘McPhee!’ Hermes called out. ‘Is McPhee in there?’
Saffy looked at Jasper. ‘I would run if I – ’
‘DOMINGUEZ!’ yelled Master Poon, suddenly towering over them in his full camouflage. ‘I’m going to give you five seconds to hand back my cancel cards, and then I’ll get angry,’ Master Poon warned.
Saffy reached into the pocket of her hoodie. ‘Here!’ she said, handing a pack of cards to Master Poon. Jasper’s jaw dropped.
‘You mean, you didn’t earn them? You stole them?’ Felix gasped.
‘I prefer to think of it as unburdening Master Poon’s pocket of his – awrrfff!’ the rest of Saffy’s excuse was muffled as Master Poon lifted her up by her hoodie.
‘You could have given us some!’ Jasper said.
‘McPHEE!’ Señor Hermes marched across the food hall, his eyes locked onto Jasper.
I’m never getting out of this one, thought Jasper.
A pack of prefects burst into the food hall. ‘Oi! Boris!’ one of them snarled. ‘We need a word with you. Come outside and have a chat.’
Felix looked from the prefects to Master Poon, to Hermes, and back to the prefects, and started backing away towards the door. ‘Maybe I’ll just, er … leave, now.’
But his exit was blocked by an old man on horseback.
‘Ah, here you are, my young monster-hunters!’ Von Strasser’s voice rang through the food hall. Everyone turned to face him as he trotted in on his horse.
‘Well done, you four. Well done, indeed,’ Von Strasser beamed. Jasper sighed in relief. ‘You eight-handedly saved the entire school population from the swarm of Skrinkerscreech, and prevented the hatchlings from feeding on the screechwort. I am most pleased by your success.’
Jasper glanced quickly at Señor Hermes to check his reaction. Hermes still didn’t seem pleased. Jasper decided this was his chance.
‘Um, sir, I wondered if we could talk to you about something?’ Jasper edged slightly away from Hermes.
Von Strasser looked expectantly at Jasper.
‘Why, of course. Ask away, Mr McPhee.’
‘Ah, could we talk to you in private?’ Jasper said.
‘Yes, of course.’ Von Strasser appeared to only just notice that Master Poon had Saffy dangling in the air. ‘When Master Poon has finished his demonstration of weightlessness as a relaxation technique,’ he added courteously.
Master Poon dropped Saffy and deftly counted his cards. ‘Missing three. That’s six penalty points you should have had. Another twenty-six should do for taking the cards.’
Saffy nodded meekly.
‘And if you ever disobey me again,’ Señor Hermes glared at Jasper, ‘I’ll show you a monster side that’s out of control.’
Jasper gulped. ‘Yes, sir.’
The circle of prefects had grown tighter like a pack of hungry wolves. They were waiting for Von Strasser to leave.
‘Come, then!’ Von Strasser called and clicked his horse forward.
‘Can Boris come too?’ Jasper added quickly.
‘Of course,’ said Von Strasser.
‘It’s about Boris,’ Jasper began, when they were all outside the food hall, away from the teachers and prefects.
Von Strasser nodded. ‘Already done. It’s what I came to tell you, in fact,’ he winked. ‘Welcome to Monstrum House, Boris.’ Von Strasser held his arms wide in welcome. ‘I have already switched your enrolment details. You’ve more than proven your ability to think outside the square, and shown that you know when to follow your gut rather than orders. And, of course, your bravery and strength will be useful as a monster-hunter.’
Boris blinked.
‘Well?’ Saffy asked impatiently. ‘Do you want to hunt monsters or not?’
Boris’s smile was all the answer they needed.
‘Good, good, a new recruit. Excellent. Just what we need. Of course, you should be a year behind these three,’ said Von Strasser looking closely at Boris. ‘But you seem to have learnt quite a bit already. And I think with some extra tutorials, you’ll be able to start as a second-year student, given your age and experience.’
Boris grinned even wider. ‘That would be awesome, sir.’
Jasper thumped Boris on the back. Felix hugged him, and Saffy grinned.
It was going to be a great year at Monstrum House.