Characters Mattel
Clawdeen Wolf's exclusive design studio, a place only a claw full of monsters had been allowed in
The werewolf had kept in touch with as many of her high school friends as she could.
She was present during Lagoona& Gil's first hatching- Ghoulia's graduation from Undead-Med School, and gave Abbey a ride to the airport when she 'had to go to work'. (Abbey and Heath have secret jobs, some suspect as spies- still not an official couple). Frankie went all over the less-than-urban world, helping bridge monsters together in friendship, right after she 'took a break' from Stanfear. Draculaura was still at Monster High, making new friends and enjoying her immortality as a teenager. Jinafire got into designing weapons and Skelita was designing costumes on Clawedway.
The friend Clawdeen lost, missed, got back in touch with through her brother's stainless-steal friendship with Deuce was Cleo. The two ghouls dove into careers faster than anyone else. They mutually shifted each other's friendship around- out of mind, not out of heart. When reunited, Cleo was right in her pointy ear.
"Dear Ra! She got my measurements wrong!" Cleo screeched, struggling to close the material around her waist.
Clawdeen knew her assistant was careful with every dot of detail. She also knew Cleo De Nile would never grow out of commanding people.
The two ghouls were in Clawdeen's studio and as a bit of fun, they tried on some 'unreleased' designs. Not the real dresses for the models, exact imitations to be worn for an hour or two.
Cleo was in room with six full-body mirrors, examining her figure from every angle.
"Edna doesn't get anything wrong." Clawdeen assured her friend.
The werewolf felt familiar annoyance; Cleo had an impressive knowledge/ appreciation of historical and modern fashion but she could still be a brat.
"Well she did this time! It won't close! I have been the same waist-size since I was fifteen! I'm not Skelita but this is Not enough!" The mummy complained.
Knowing Edna was too good to insult with a double-check, Clawdeen took the measuring tape from around her neck. The she-Wolf walked up to wrap it around the fuming Cleo.
With a smirk, Clawdeen put a claw to the lines her tape fell on. "Numbers don't lie, Cleo."
The mummy could not believe it. She took the tape out of Clawdeen's furry fingers to see for herself. It was the widest she's ever seen herself.
"Oh my Ra…" Cleo whispered, then proclaimed, "Deuce made me fat!"
Clawdeen rolled her bright yellow eyes- "Yeah, he force fed you into gaining two whole pounds."
Cleo began ripping off the dress she hated. "Every other night he asks 'try this carb', 'try that carb', and damn him if they aren't good! AH! This is unbelievable! You'd think constantly having sex would burn the calories but instead I just got me more hungry! God, I've been craving the most ridiculous things lately and it's his fault!"
With her preference of work, and ghouls, over mensters, Clawdeen never had to worry about 'being late'. However, she had enough sisters to see things as they changed and grew and turned into puppies.
"Oh my ghoul." Clawdeen put a paw to her lips.
"Oh Ra, I look worse without the layers, don't I? I'll have to buy drapes to cover my hugeness." Cleo said in self-pity.
"No, Cleo, you're going to be a Mummy." (Cleo raised an eyebrow) "Like a daddy, but a Mummy!" Clawdeen grew very excited.
The she-wolf watched her friend's blue eyes rise in understanding. Cleo felt the hug from Clawdeen but she didn't care. The shriek that came from the golden-wrapped ghoul broke all the windows in the 76-story building.
Cleo/Deuce's apartment
Sitting on the stool near the kitchen counter Cleo remembered buying Deuce baking tools to make him happy. Since finding out he put a bun in her oven, she wanted to burn their shared home down. She heard the door closed and waited for her boyfriend to enter the kitchen.
"Cleo, I can't believe I'm the last to know. I wish we had planned sooner but Mother Nature is just to fast for mere monsters to keep up with. So, I booked us tickets this morning and we'll be in the Himalayas in nine hours!" Deuce told her as he held up her skis and his snowboard.
"Biggest avalanche of the century! It started a week ago but the news says it's still going! If we survive, we go bikini shopping while we're near the Parasitic." The snakes on his head were wickedly excited.
Cleo pouted then flatly told him- "I'm pregnant."
"Good one, babe. That's the only thing that would stop this once-in-a-life-time trip dead in it's tracks!" The Gorgon told her, hyped for the adventure he'd hit before he hit thrity.
In her perfectly manicured teal fingernails was a picture of an embryo hooked onto a uterus wall. Through his shades, Deuce began to see that she was serious.
"Is that real? I mean, doctors aren't perfect, they can get stuff mixed up and-"
"Ghoulia gave me the test." Cleo bluntly told him then watched the Gorgon drop their sporting equipment.
Hunched over, Deuce walked towards the counter to hold his girlfriend's hands. Cleo felt him tremble but watched his upper lip stay stiff.
"What do we do now?" He asked.
"That depends on how you answer my two questions." Cleo gently told her waiting boyfriend.
"Do you think I'd make a good mother?" Her bright blue eyes begged for honesty.
"Yeah, definitely, I can't think of anyone better who can tell people what to do- my own mother included." Said the gorgon bracing the worst.
"Second and final; are you ready to become the monster that is my father?" Cleo rubbed his funny square thumbs.
Deuce hung his head because he couldn't be strong and honest with her at the same time then. "No, I'm really not, I like my soul where it is."
His ex-princess gave a tiny smile. "Okay, then I see no reason to let this little mistake get worse."
"You mean that?" He didn't want to let on how relieved he was yet.
"Yes, from the absolute bottom of my heart and soul, I do mean that." The mummy smiled wider.
The Gorgon raised his shoulders. "Oh thank Zeus! You scared me for a minute! I was beginning to imagine carpools and foam-corners!"
"I was imagining gaining maybe forty pounds! Can you see me shopping for Moo-moos?" Cleo began laughing at the hideousness she planned to avoid.
"No, I can't, Cleo you are so gorgeous just the way you are-"
"Oh stop," which really meant keep going.
"I like us exactly how we are now, no one extra." Deuce leaned over to hug his ghoul, who was very happy to have a boyfriend who would agree with her about almost everything.
In traffic
Motorcycles were dangerous and juvenile, especially when tricked out by vampires. Deuce's bike, First Bloody, was heading towards the clinic Delete Button. Even a bike that could go along the sides of buildings had traffic of the air.
Traffic was a logical reason to be held back. The illogical truth was Cleo saw a sign that said 'Shoe Sale' in the trendy neighborhood near the Clinic she and Deuce were heading to.
"Five pairs and then we're done." She promised as he parked to the side.
The bike stuck horizontally to the building's side. Deuce jumped off first then helped Cleo off. She barely felt any wider, but for some reason she felt heavier. There was more inside of Cleo, not just new organs since her revival but also the possibility of a new person who'd be as beautiful and generous as she was.
The Gorgon decided not to dwell on little feelings like that because seeing Cleo step away on five-inch heels to waste money on herself made her look happy. At the end of the day, that was what really mattered.
In the store, Cleo had no second thoughts about going to the clinic. She promised herself she's be more careful in the future because she'd just gotten back together with her old sweetheart. The mummy wanted to make sure they still fit together for sure before she chained him down with devoting his life to one person forever, plus a child.
The diamond-trimmed ghoul liked her career, liked her freedom traveling and not having to explain herself to anyone who hadn't already spent years loving her. She did not have any desire to become a Mummy Mother.
And then she saw the baby shoes. They were tiny stilettos, bright yellow with soft-blue bows made from ribbons.
The six-thousand (or so)year old Mummy's heart burst and she felt her hand touch her belt.
Deuce was reading the weather reports in Mongolia when Cleo dropped the shoes on his phone screen.
He looked up to see her bawled fists cover her mouth. Her face was extremely serious as she said,
"I'm buying these, Deuce." Before Deuce could respond she said, "I'm buying these whether you want me to or not."
"Cleo, this is a really big and permeant decision. I just want us to stay cool and happy and not hate each other over it." The gorgon resisted the urge to hug her shaking body.
"I hate you half the time already, because I love you more than anyone else in history." The ghoul (eyeing the line for the cash-register) told her scaly baby-daddy.
"Swear to Ra?" The monster with the hissing green snakes asked.
The mummy didn't enjoy being probed. "Fine, yes, I'm not saying it again. Now stone those skinny mules so I can get our baby her first shoes!"
…
"I am pregnant!" Cleo de Nile yelled across her family's table.
It was an intimate dinner between her father, sister and boyfriend. The topic of conversation was how six years after high school gravuation Cleo would got back together with Deuce. And right after her husband of three years had passed away with a "Do Not Reincarnate" policy.
Nefera, her older sister, found it hilariously scandalous. Ramese, her father, was far from pleased and his weak cover of passive aggressive- almost sarcastic- attempt at acceptance had fallen away in less than two hours.
Deuce happily returned the sarcasm, especially during that shots at his cooking. He was also the genius who thought he and Cleo should make peace. After the Mummy Princess relinquished her crown to marry her now deceased husband, Cleo hadn't spoken to her family.
She had made her own wealth and connections; Chester (the hubby) helped her climb as the CEQ (Chief Executive Queen) of the Mattered Toy Co. Cleo was proud of her independence and self-achieved title. It seemed unnecessary to talk to her family, especially after they snubbed Chester's funeral. But fate worked well because Deuce catered the event; the two monsters reconnected a respectful year post-Chester's burial.
The second year had barely started before Cleo's discovery of a little Gorgon growing inside of her. If Deuce, and her closest ghoulfriends, hadn't encouraged her, Cleo would have never planned to yell at her father ever again.
Nefera cattishly to said, "Gross."
The Gorgon resisted the urge to stone her because his concern was more towards the ex-pharaoh's reaction.
Ramese kept his cool indifference. It was freakishly un-similar to his daughters.
"Are you certain, my child?" he asked nonchalantly.
Cleo was standing to the right side of her father's table. She walked over to Deuce's chair, which was at least ten feet down from the Mummies.
"I've gained exactly eleven pounds in four months, my temper is close to homicidal, and I've never hated Deuce at any time more in my unlife."
The sunglass wearing man raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Cleo put a hand on his shoulder and then said,
"And I plan to spend the rest of my afterlife with him and our beautiful bastard."
Deuce smiled at his impenitruble girlfriend.
"I have my own family now, Daddy, so anything cruel or supercilious you have to say, you may write it on my-"
Ramese raised a wrapped hand, "May I say one thing before you leave my home forever?"
Cleo bite her tongue but heard patient hisses from Deuce. They, and an excited Nefera, waited.
The old monster had his servants pull back his chair so he could stand, with the help of his cane.
"This is greatest news I've ever heard." The Mummy told his family+ Deuce, who were shocked beyond belief.
"Seriously?" Nefera and Deuce asked simultaneously.
"The most prominent fear of my afterlife was that the De Nile line would wither away into ancient history. Never, in my most desperate moments would I have imagined choosing that (he points to Deuce) as the father of my grandchildren, but as I stand he before you that is my most minuscule concern because I am elated to have heard this incredible information."
Choosing indifference over hatred, Deuce felt a battle won. Cleo was close to tears but refused to let her hormones control her.
Ignoring the jealousy in her stomach, Nefera crossed her arms and said, "Yeah, this is great. One question though; will the kid be hatched before or after pushed through little sister's المهبل?"
Seven daggers were held up against Nefera' throat in less than a minute.
"Nefera, we do not scorn Isis's gifts under this roof. Go to your room." Ramese demanded, Nefera huffed but walked out with her nose in the air- (and the seven guards circling her all the way to her room).
"Best dinner I've ever had here." Deuce whispered, holding onto Cleo's hand.
The Mummy heard him but her attention went to her father.
"Daddy I am truly and wholly (nausea struck)…joining to finish that sentence when I return." Cleo said before covering her mouth and running toward a servant with a bucket.
The two creatures were alone. Deuce braced himself for whatever may come out of Ramese's eternally wrapped mouth. Before then, he could at least get his two-cents in.
"Thank you," Deuce told him, "For supporting her this time."
Ramese sat down and told the Gorgon, "You will never be a worthy suitor to my daughter."
"Yes, sir, I know. But I've already proven too difficult to assassinate." Deuce reminded the powerful old monster.
"I've been told that fourteen times before, boy." Ramese raised a golden goblet.
No one saw him alter his bandages or drink stain them. Deuce wondered if it was for show; whether the six-thousand-year-old monster still had thirsts to quench or not.
The former Pharaoh put his goblet on a servant's tray. "It was not my future heir's choice to be born as they will be, so I shall forgive them of that. Also, despite the fact that you are Cleo's chosen partner, I will do everything in my power to see my grandchildren raised properly."
Considering this was the only grandfather his kid was going to get, Deuce smiled and said, "That's exactly what I was hoping for, sir."
...
"You drive a hard bargain but I'm going to have to say no." Deuce said on iCoffin to the television informant. "Yeah, I was the dude in the video eating nachos while volcano-boarding but now is not a good time for me to go on a TV show about stealing dragon eggs and outrunning their mothers through a mine-field maze."
The gorgon's phone is grabbed out of his hand.
"He'll get back to you after he takes his anti-wetblanket meds." Cleo says before hanging up the iCoffin. "Since when do you turn down idiotic death-defying stunts? You love doing those!" The mummy asked her boyfriend.
Deuce tilted his head so that his sunglasses faced the restaurant's ceiling. "Hmm, when exactly? Wow, I can't put my finger on exactly when."
As he leans his arms on the restaurant table, one of Deuce's fingers finds itself on Cleo's stomach. He didn't have to travel far because the 9-month-size belly poked upwards, thanks to the extra pillows for the royal monster's comfort.
"Wait, I think I remember now!" Deuce sarcastically told his girlfriend.
Cleo pushes away his hand. "We are not letting this thing rob us of our youth! I gave up my VIP (Very Important Princess) front row seat of the spring line! That hurt! I am not letting you feel my regret and shame!"
"Please tell me you're not going to show this much resentment to our kid when she gets here." Deuce asked as the waiter took away Cleo's fourth finished plate.
"I've already signed her up for singing lessons with Operetta, tennis lessons with Howlbert Wolf and Ghoulia's 3rd clone is willing to tutor her in anything else. There's no time in between all of that and my return to the thron- chairwoman position to have left over resentment." Cleo tells him as she gently grabs his hand.
"I know you're going to be the most dedicated daddy on the planet, but before then you should get crazy fun out of your system." The princess smiles as she hands her boyfriend his phone back.
….
Television set, live broadcast
"ARE YOU READY TO DIE TRYING!? A common statement because this series has nothing to do with that old game-show from the early twenty-teens."
The audience laughs. The toad-faced announcer smiles and walks in front of the ten contestants.
A plant monster guy put his green, thorny hand to the side of his mouth to whisper to the gorgon guy who stood to his right.
Thorn- "See that guy next to the purple chick?"
Deuce looks around the lizard-monster to see a charred figured with two yellow eyes squinting.
"That guy's a returning contestant."
The snake-haired young man smiled. "This is going to be fun."
Deuce then hears his phone beep. He takes it out nonchalantly. He reads the message and his snakes wiggled spastically.
"Buddy, put the phone up before it starts." Thorn suggested, through his leaves he saw the gorgon become very hectic.
"Dude, my girlfriend's going into labor!" The excited gorgon hugged the plant-monster then started walking around the other contestants. "I'm out, good luck!"
"What kind of soon-to-be-father even considers entering a life-threatening-game-show?" Thorn asked.
Deuce shrugged happily- "The prize money would've been a good start for the college fund."
The gorgon was almost at the door when the spotlight lands on him.
"No No No, #7, you signed the waver, you have to-"
The stone statue Host was silenced, leading the producer to say to the closest cameramonster- "Follow that green-guy, it's good for ratings."
In a taxi, Deuce is sitting with a camera-Cat-guy.
"So, what's the story?" Garfield asks with his handheld camera in Deuce's face.
The gorgon pushes the camera away to happily tell him. "Didn't plan this, but psyched that it's happening."
Through his sunglasses, the snake-eyes see the cars are backed to back.
"Right, so is this premature or really late?" Garfield asks as he rides on the back of a rented bicycle.
"It's about time, actually. My babe's been huge for a while now. She's at ten months." Deuce says as he pedals.
The gorgon recieved a ticket for biking on a street. Complaining would've wasted time and stoning the officer would've lead to unnecessary paperwork. After the gargoyle in blue left, the rent-a-glider store was in better view.
"Wow, and you entered the game show for money?" The tabby-man asked over the scaly shoulder.
The hospital was four blocks away and in view. The tabby with the camera held onto the gorgon's neck with three paws. The remaining paw held his camera.
Deuce gripped the handle of the glider. "No, we're really well-off. We've both got great jobs and Cleo's family royally supportive."
In the St Lilith Maternity Ward
Ghoulia, Holt and Abbey sit in the waiting room. They see Deuce walking towards them with a camera-cat behind him.
"How much did I miss?" The gorgon asked his long-time friends.
The little blue zombie was about to tell him gently before the blue man-child Holt shrieked- "Everything!"
The sparking blue yeti pushed Hyde aside to explain to the disappointed gorgon.
"Was no fuss. Baby in and out in blink." The drooping snakes Abbey saw pulled at her pity-strings. "News that is good is Holt recorded all of happenings while you were out hooping and hollering on the tv show."
Holt pulled up his iCoffin 16, while striking a rock-star pose. It was times like these people could see the neck tattoo Hyde got; Jackson's colleagues accepted tattoos but Jackson still didn't fully accept Hyde.
"Can I get a copy of that?" The tabby asked as he poked around Deuce to watch the video.
The video showed Cleo, Jackson and Heath sitting in the Gorgon-De Nile living room; they were preparing to watch tv. Heath was narrating as he held the iCoffin up to his nacho-filled mouth. Cleo begins to say she's in pain, Jackson helps her off the couch. They said they're going to the hospital and Heath whined that he'd rather watch tv. He wen because he didn't want to be left alone.
In Jackson's car, the bespectacled psychologist is behind the wheel. Cleo is shrieking, Heath finds this annoying; they argue then Heath tries to drone her out with the radio. Hyde comes in and bitch-slaps Heath for being rude to a pregnant woman.
The screen is blurred as the phone is dropped during the clinically insane monster's drive through, and over, traffic. Leading both Cleo and Heath to scream.
The video then cuts to inside the hospital. Hyde recites a ballad about the beauty of childbirth. He's wearing scrubs, as is Heath who's cradling his broken hand.
Despite the brace on his hand, Heath has a glowing look on his face. He says to the video that holding the Mummy's hand during the process then cracking open of the egg's shell was…
"The most magical moment of my unlife." Heath said in real life as the video ended. "The way she snuggled up to my chest when I held her was the most magnificent feeling. Better than sex."
To ease his jealousy, Deuce reminded himself that Heath and Abbey were incapable of conceiving children together. They were working on the adoption route, but first they had to clean up their arrest records. Also his daughter had cold-blood so feeling the warmth of the fire-element was good for her.
Abbey got on her phone to tell the other ghouls the good news. Holt sat in a waiting room chair, eating rascaryberry yogurt and laughing about it for some unknown reason.
"How's the Mummy?" Deuce asked the starry-eyed Heath as they walked towards the window to view the monstrous children.
"She's the most beautiful, purest, wonderfulest ghoul on the planet; of course she's awesome." Heath told the new father. Abbey smiled at her man's happy disillusions.
"That's great but I intended that question towards Cleo." The gorgon said as he looked for his baby in the sea of faces behind the maternity window.
Ghoulia moaned, translating to 'She's fine. And she has yet to hold the baby either'. The information cheered Deuce up a bit; it was one parental thing he'd get to do and before Cleo.
Garfield held his camera up again. "Great, I can interview her before the big moment- set it up catch her expression as the little reptile is brought in and-"
"For your own safety, don't go in ms De Nile's room until she says it's okay. She's taking this time right now to fix her makeup." Ghoulia continued to moan.
In Cleo's hospital room
The mummy princess was puckering her bright red lips. It was the last step to the face painting. The monster used her 8x11 inch size compact-mirror to check around the edges.
"Nice." She heard her baby-daddy say as he walked into the room.
"First time ever that she sees me, I want to make a good first impression." Cleo told him, her heart warmed at the small, round bundle in his arms. The child was wrapped in gold linens, like she was.
Though unlike her mummy, the child was not scheduled to be mummified until after she hit puberty. That was years from then. At the moment the bundle was tiny and precious and hissing because she missed her mummy's warmth.
"Oh my Ra, give her! Give her! Give her!" Cleo giddily commanded with open arms.
The gorgon placed the bundle in encircled arms then sat on the side of her bed. The child was quiet, with the exception of a few hisses from the three tiny snakes curled on her head.
She had her mother's nose, cheek-structure, full lips and, under the small purple sunglasses, small pink diamond-shaped birthmark under her right eye. There was also a shining confidence coming from the little monster.
For the first time ever, Cleo De Nile considered she wasn't the center of the universe.
"Ooh, my sweet little Cleo…" Cleo said as she felt the baby snake curl around her finger.
"Yeah no, Cleo the Second is the title to a bad sequel. She deserves to start her own legacy." Deuce told his baby-mama.
"You also shot down naming her after my mother-"
"We're not naming her anything I can't pronounce, or sounds like a disease."
Cleo pouted because he was being difficult. But she was in a very frothy mood so she said, "We have a week to decide, then Sebou and whatever other weird thing your family has planned."
"Deal. Until then let's just look at how cute and perfect she is." Deuce suggested as he put a hand on Cleo's back and stared at his daughter.
Their unnamed baby wiggled her forked tongue at them. They both went 'aww'.
"That's fine by me." The mummy said, thanking Ra the baby was worth getting fat for.
A tiny part of her was still resentful that Lagoona was going to have two guppies but never got fat. Gil didn't take it was well but at least he had a wife willing to put up with his extra whiney months of mpreg.