Chapter One: Hybrid Enrolled
It was a fairly normal day at the Scare School, if one could rightly call ANY day at the Scare School normal. First period had ended, and all the creatures were herding themselves to their next class, books in hand. (Or tentacle, wing, talon, or fin, as the case may be.) A lone creature girl stood alone in one of the hallways, only vaguely aware that the bell signaling the end of first had just rung. She was studying her surroundings intently, particularly the framed picture of a menacing former student, a small, furry monster with sharp teeth, glowing eyes, and sharp spikes growing along its spine.
The walls were red brick, yet they looked remarkably like red paint from a distance. The floor was tile, patterned with alternating white and purple. The windows were large, and the light that streamed from them highlighted the lime green stripes of her hair. The tall ceiling was apparently something she was already used to, as she did nothing more than glance upward for the briefest moment. She could hear the students swarming towards the hallway she now occupied, but the sound was only heard in the back of her mind by some unconscious portion of her brain. She walked slowly along the length of the wall, taking in all the details. The design and the way the structure was built meant more to her than the decorations and coloring; anyone can decorate, but not everyone can built a stable structure to last the centuries the Scare School was required to serve.
"Hey! Who're you? You don't go to our school!" A male voice shouted at her. She sighed inwardly at having been interrupted, but knew she would have plenty of time later to check things out. And besides, she told herself, the interruption had been unavoidable.
"Not yet; why?" She asked casually, staring straight into the violet eyes of the rival creature. He seemed taken aback at her response. Did he really expect her to be afraid? Her? She almost laughed at the notion, but remained cool and collected outwardly.
"Who are you?" He repeated uncertainly. He appeared to be struggling with a difficult decision... Whether or not she was friend or foe, and whether or not he should treat her as such. Granted, both forms of treatment were likely the same.
"Hey. You must be new here," Another voice cut in, and she looked over to see a pair of light blue eyes, filled with warmth and welcome. His entire body was more or less transparent: A ghost. With him was another creature girl, with deep blue hair, greenish skin, and purple eyes, darker than the more hostile male that had first called her attention from her contemplations. She wore a hot pink T-shirt with a daisy flower in the center, and appeared to have a second, dark brown shirt underneath. Her sneakers were black with white rubber underneath and the purple sleeves of her pants hovered just above them, threatening to show her ankle. A zombie. With her was a boy wrapped from head to toe in bandages, excluding the eyes, part of the nose, and his mouth. On his head was a black beanie with a gold pendant in the center. He wore a gold beetle medallion around his neck, and blue-and-goldenrod shorts: A mummy, clearly. All this the new girl discerned at a glance.
Looking back at the first male, she noticed a black and red cape, white shirt, a belt, black-and-white sneakers, and black sweatpants with a silver chain adorning the right pocket. His skin was pale, his fangs sharp, and his black hair sported two twin white stripes toward the front. Another vampire, she noted to herself. And probably a pretty mean one, at that... Typical.
"Yeah, I was just looking around, checking everything out, giving myself a tour. You've got a nice school, actually," She addressed the ghost, whom she had heard enough about to assume was the notoriously friendly Casper. This was done to the annoyance of the other vampire, whom she had also heard about: Thatch.
"Um... Thank you?" The reply was grateful, but undecided. The zombie and mummy seemed to be sizing her up. She could almost imagine what they were both thinking... Who's she? Is she going to be as bad as Thatch? She smiled at the three, flashing them her own smaller, but even sharper fangs. Yes, she was yet another blood sucker at the famous creature school, an ordinary vampire. Or at least, she appeared that way at a glance. Her blood red eyes watched the students curiously. Others were looking at her as well, but they continued on their way. They had places to be, classes to get to. No one wanted to be tardy, but these four had gone out of their way to stop and investigate.
"So, what's your name? Why are you here?" Asked the zombie.
"Why do you think? I'm going to be enrolled here. Or maybe I should say, I'm already enrolled here, I'm just not supposed to know it. My uncle said we were just looking around, but I'm smarter than that. He's been trying to get me to go here for quite awhile. Now that he thinks he's tricked me here, he won't let me leave,"
"Who's your uncle?" The mummy questioned eagerly.
"Uncle K, of course," She answered, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. She beamed at the other creatures' confused faces. "I was only going to stay for a few days, but I knew enough to pack everything I'd need to stay on for the rest of the school year. Not that it was very hard, but still..." She shrugged.
"Great! You seem nice enough, maybe you could hang out with us. I'm Casper..." He gestured to himself, and she nodded, mostly to herself because she had already known. "...This is Mantha..." He pointed to the zombie. "...And that's Ra," He finished his introduction with the mummy. Each of his friends waved as he said their names.
"And I'm Thatch. You still haven't answered my question. Who are you?" The vampire announced himself with flourish. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
"My name's Ashia. Ashia Marie Kyrier,"
"Okay then. Welcome to Scare School, Ashia!" Casper smiled happily at having met a new potential friend, but Thatch seemed unimpressed and annoyed. He wasn't used to being ignored, especially by a girl, a female vampire no less! Why wasn't she clamoring for his attention?
"Thanks. By the way, there's going to be an announcement soon, so don't worry about being late for class,"
"How do you know that?" Ra asked.
"You'll see," She said with a grin, knowing the answer would only make him all the more curious.
"Why won't you tell us?" Mantha stared at her suspiciously. She merely shrugged once more.
"You'll see," She repeated cheerfully. Suddenly, just as she realized they were the only ones left in the hallway, a loud voice boomed from out of nowhere,
"Ashia? Ashia Marie Kyrier!" Everyone else cringed at the familiar tone, but Ashia stood firm, scowling in the direction of the voice. A bulky green ghost flew around the corner, frowning at the vampire girl. The leader of the Underworld himself! Kibosh!
"What?" She expressed her annoyance and frustration clearly and openly, not in the timid way most creatures did whenever Kibosh was around. They all stared at her with a mixture of shock, horror, admiration, and awe.
"Where were you? You're supposed to be getting ready for the announcement!"
"Well, you said I should check out the school, I'm only doing what I was told!" Ashia retorted with a huff. Kibosh bristled with anger. Taking a deep breath to control himself, he went on to say,
"Ashia, I thought we already went over this..."
"I tried, but YOU wouldn't listen!" The girl's fists clenched at her sides with rage. The adult ghost sighed.
"Ashia..."
"NO! It isn't FAIR, Uncle Kibosh!"
"UNCLE Kibosh?" All four fellow students exclaimed in unison. They were paid a fleeting glance, and then nothing.
"I've told you before, neither of us has a choice!"
"You always have a choice! Maybe the second isn't much of one, but there's always a choice!" She argued.
"Precisely, the second choice in this situation just isn't reasonable!"
"THEN MAKE IT REASONABLE, YOU'RE KING OF THE UNDERWORLD!"
"Ashia!"
"WHAT?" Her voice did not lower to anything less than a shout, despite her uncle's disapproving stare. "WHAT? So, I'm actually expected to LIKE this? To AGREE with all of it? NO!"
"Oh, come on! What happened to my sweet little niece?"
"She died," Ashia stated simply, eyes half-lidded in an unimpressed expression.
"But WHY? Why can't we get along anymore? Why do we have to fight so constantly? It seems like you don't even want to look at me anymore!"
"That's... Because... I, HATE YOU, UNCLE KIBOSH!" With that, Ashia spun on her heel and disappeared through the wall. That's right... Through the wall. Kibosh sighed again, rubbing his transparent temple as though he now had a headache. Who knew? Maybe he did.
"What am I going to do with her?" He muttered. "She knows I have no choice, but she just won't listen!"
"Kibosh, sir? What exactly is it you don't have a choice about?" Casper asked. Kibosh stared at him silently for a moment.
"You'll see. For now, be ready for the announcement," And the Leader of the Underworld disappeared through the floor, leaving a very confused ghost, mummy, zombie, and vampire behind him.
~~~~Minutes Later~~~~
All the students of the Scare School were present for the announcement, and the ones who hadn't passed Ashia in the hallway earlier were watching her and studying her, discussing in low voices (that she could hear anyways) who she was and what she was doing there. Ashia herself remained impassive and bored as she looked around her, playing her own little game with herself. She scanned the crowd of students, trying to catch someone's eye. Whenever she succeeded, they would blush and look away quickly, just another piece of evidence that told her they were talking about her. It was something she was used to, and the game at least gave her something to do. The hall was by far more interesting than this.
"Students of the Scare School, please welcome, Kibosh! Ruler of the Underworld," The Headmasters, Alder and Dash, said into the microphone. The brothers were a two-headed creature with grey skin who, she decided, apparently only had one brain between the two of them. They argued frequently, from what she had seen, but always stopped when her uncle was within hearing distance. She remembered him telling her he kept them around for entertainment purposes as well as for the school itself. She could definitely see why!
"As some of you already know, I am here today to introduce a very special new addition to your school. She is already enrolled, and will be starting her classes immediately," The ghost seemed a little disappointed when his niece did not seem in the least surprised, but then again, he supposed he should have known. "Everyone, please welcome my niece, Ashia Marie Kyrier!" With a roll of her eyes, Ashia stepped forward as she had been previously instructed.
"My name is Ashia, and I am the 3-way hybrid," There was a collective gasp among the students.
"But wait, don't you mean A 3-way hybrid?" Casper's voice rang.
"No, I'm sure there are others with three separate genes, but they would be Tri-brids, Triple Hybrids, not 3-way hybrids. You see, my father was a vampire, but my mother was a werewolf-ghost hybrid. And it's through my father that I'm related to this big fat jerk," She jerked her thumb in Kibosh's direction, causing everyone to gasp again.
"Can you fly? When you're not a bat, I mean," Someone yelled.
"Yes," She answered with a smile. "I can also go through walls and cause objects and occasionally other people to go through walls, too. And Uncle K here taught me how to control lightning,"
"If you're part werewolf, what happens on a full moon?" Mantha inquired thoughtfully. Ashia shook her head sadly.
"The polar opposite of what you would expect. You'll just have to wait and see," Kibosh put a hand on his niece's shoulder (She tried to shake him off, but to no avail.) and added,
"If you see anyone, anyone, wearing her amulet, creature or not, DO NOT ATTACK. That's an order. Do you all understand? Ashia, show them your amulet," The vampire hesitated, then did what she was told, and reached into her pocket to reveal a strong, grey cord sporting a black onyx medallion. In the center of this medallion a diamond shaped hole stood surrounded by eight sapphires cut in diamond shapes and set into the onyx pointing outwards facing each direction, north, south, east, west, north-east, north-west, south-east, and south-west. The medallion itself was around the size of her hand, if not smaller, so it wasn't terribly big, but it still stood out against her pale skin and an emerald green shirt.
What the students of the Scare School saw standing before them was a rather pretty vampire with bright, blood red eyes and unusually small, sharper fangs, of which there were many, though four were considerable longer than the others, two on top and two on bottom. Her hair was long and straight, and was striped, alternating between a dark, almost black purple and an almost neon lime green. Her shirt was emerald green, as previously mentioned, and she wore light, slightly worn blue jeans. She had silver and emerald colored sneakers. Her cape was the usual red and black, styled much like Thatch's. In fact, it seemed only vampires could ever tell the difference between different types of capes, just like only girls ever seem able to tell apart their bras.
"You see this? She will always have it on her person, so if she shows it to you, whether it looks like her or not, IT IS. Do NOT TOUCH her. Of course, you should be able to recognize her as a general rule; this mainly applies to the night of a full moon and about a week after. The moonlight still coursed through her long after the full moon has waned. Be forewarned,"
"So, she goes crazy for a week instead of a night and half a day?" Thatch confirmed.
"No," Ashia stated firmly. "I stay in control. I do NOT go crazy! But I'm still affected...Still affected by an inborn, inbred curse..." She stared off into space, seeing nothing, and her hand clenched around the amulet. She absentmindedly slipped the cord around her neck and continued to clutch the amulet as if for reassurance.
"By the way, Ashia is part of an arranged marriage, so you would be wise to keep your hands off her. Since it's obvious you already knew you would be staying here, I assume you have everything you need?" Kibosh checked. Ashia nodded.
"Always," She said with a sly grin, patting her pocket. No one was really sure what she meant, but they had to believe from her tone of voice that somehow, she knew something they didn't. She wasn't lying. She had everything with her, always, and she kept it in her pocket apparently, impossible as it seemed.
"Well, then, I guess I'll just be leaving," Suddenly the ruler of the Underworld didn't seem so sure of himself. But he left anyways. For a moment, everyone just stared at Ashia, waiting for her to do something. She blinked back at them for several seconds before shrugging, and suddenly disappearing, the way ghosts do so often. Of course, seeing a vampire do the same was a little shocking. But considering this was Kibosh's niece, as far as they knew, she could do anything!
~~~~Later~~~~
Ashia glanced down at her schedule, and her heart skipped a beat. Science! Hallelujah! She beamed happily, folded the paper into quarters, and tucked it away in her pocket. Looking up, she spotted yet another student she had heard much about... And admired. Unfortunately, her blissful peace was interrupted, yet again, by a certain vampire she was beginning to really dislike. An arm slid around her shoulders and she turned her head to find herself face to face with none other than Thatch himself. He smirked. She rolled her eyes and ducked away. Thatch frowned. That wasn't normal! He tried again. This time she froze and growled,
"Remove your arm from my shoulder before I remove it from your body," He hastily backed off, and she quickly turned into a bat and flew towards the science room... And the student she so admired.
"Hey!" She called. The werewolf turned his head, and she landed, a vampire again, beside him. "You're Wolfie, right? The one that did the moonlight experiment?"
"U-um, yes. Why?"
"I LOVED THAT! I've heard so much about it, about you, I'm just glad I'm not the only one!"
"Only one what?" Wolfie asked, confused.
"The only one who experiments with moonlight!" She grinned. "Of course, I've never gotten that close to catching it before. Are you planning on retrying the experiment?"
"Not really; it caused a lot of problems,"
"But you can't quit! You're the only one who's ever managed to catch it, even if it was temporary! And besides, I think I know what went wrong," As soon as she said this, Wolfie's ears perked up.
"Really? What?"
"Moonlight is pretty much unlimited, right? And it's pretty powerful..." He nodded, obviously thinking of that one day every month when he had to sit... Alone... In the corner. "Well, obviously the moonlight overflowed..."
"But I used an infinity box! And infinity mirrors!"
"Yes, but there's an infinity of moonlight, too!" She pointed out, and he blinked.
"Yeah, I guess you're right..."
"Anyway, your project didn't have a timer, did it? It didn't just collect a certain amount and then shut off?"
"I never thought of that! If it was timed, the infinity box wouldn't BE trying to collect an infinity of moonlight! And it would never overflow!"
"Exactly! I guess when moonlight affects you, you tend to care more about that sort of thing, most people just don't understand," Ashia frowned sadly, and Wolfie nodded understandingly. Casper was kind enough to try and understand, but he was a ghost, and like everybody else, moonlight, unless concentrated like in his experiment, couldn't force its way into his system. That, and it wasn't like Casper HAD any blood for the moonlight to seep into...
"So you'd rather talk to losers like him than me, huh?" Snapped Thatch angrily. Ashia bared her fangs at him menacingly. "You can't scare me! I'M the one who does the scaring around here!"
"The only person YOU could ever scare is yourself!" She retorted. "Besides, you're right... I would MUCH rather talk to Wolfie than you! Granted, I would talk to rock before I bothered striking a conversation with YOU, but that's beside the point,"
"Grrrrr... I can make the afterlife miserable for you, you know!"
"And I can make yours even worse," She replied. "After all, I AM Kibosh's niece, and some of the same power HE has runs through my veins," She then flashed him a brilliant, cheerful smile and said, "Have a nice day, moron!" Tugging a stunned Wolfie towards the classroom with her, she left the other vampire gaping after her in disbelief.
"B-but... But... NOBODY talks to Thatch that way!" Wolfie stammered.
"Heh. But I'M the 3-way hybrid! I'm different, to say the least!" She glanced down at her amulet and added quietly, "In more ways than one," Curious, but feeling it wouldn't be a good idea to press further, Wolfie walked away to find a seat, and Ashia eagerly snapped herself up one in the front, with as much energy as a little kid standing in front of the ice-cream truck with five dollars in hand. Gradually, the rest of the class joined them, including Thatch, who glared at Ashia but said nothing. When the teacher entered, Wolfie couldn't see Ashia's face, but had a pretty good idea what it looked like, because what he could see was the way she sat bolt upright. He chuckled quietly. She sure was enthusiastic about science!
"Ah, Ashia, pleasure to have you in my class. I am Professor Thirddegree Burns, and today, we will be entering the world of audio, and sound, the different noises that can be made to scare, and the reason, that they cause fleshies, to be frightened..."
"It sounds like it'll all be rubbish, but still... Heh. I love the teacher's accent! Thirddegree Buuuuuuurns..." Ashia thought to herself. The teacher was a red-scaled dragon, with a well-rounded, but nonetheless arrowhead, tail with glasses and a white sweat shirt. Tendrils of smoke curled toward the ceiling from his nostrils, and he spoke with an accent, which she liked immediately. Then again, he DID teach Science, she couldn't really NOT like him.
Her classmates appeared bored, but Ashia listened with ever-growing interest. She knew the information wasn't entirely correct, but that only served to amuse her. She jotted down her favorite parts of the lecture, and asked occasional questions. She knew she didn't really have to raise her hand to talk, but she did so anyway out of respect for the other students. (She also despised being treated special for her family line.) After class, she approached the teacher with a wide smile and gleaming eyes.
"Professor Burns, sir?"
"You may call me Burns. What is it?"
"I have something I think might interest you, if you have time,"
"Time? For the niece of Kibosh himself?" Scoffed the dragon incredulously. "But of course!" Frowning slightly, but still excited, she reached into her pocket...
Wolfie quickened his pace to bring him beside Casper in the hallway. Thatch was still angry about Ashia's behavior, and because it was Wolfie she had actually bothered to talk to, there was a high chance he would blame him for her actions.
"So, saw you talking to the new girl. What's she like? As nice as she seemed before?" Mantha asked.
"I don't know. She seemed nice enough to me, but not to Thatch," The brown werewolf glanced back nervously at the vampire, who glared straight back, before turning back to his friends.
"Good for her," The zombie girl nodded approvingly. Several moments later, Ashia herself materialized out of thin air in front of them. They all jumped, but Wolfie leapt nearly three feet in the air.
"Oops, sorry," She giggled. "Didn't mean to startle you..."
"I-it's okay,"
"No, really, I just... Forget sometimes, that not everyone is used to me popping up like that," She smiled warmly at all of them.
"Hi, Ashia. How did you like Science class? Professor Burns can be a little... Off sometimes, but..."
"I know, it's funny really, fleshies know more about our world and the way it works than we do! By the way, my friend's call me Ash. That is, if I had more than one,"
"You only have one friend? I don't believe you," Ra crossed his arms and frowned at her. She shrugged and fell into step beside them.
"I almost never leave the mansion. I got tired of people only wanting to be my friend because of Uncle K, and my looks. In fact, my only friend is... Oh, never mind. Look out, trouble's coming!"
"First you talk to him, then you walk with them? Just who do think you are?" Thatch fumed. "I've heard of playing hard to get, but this is ridiculous!"
"Shut up, Thatch!"
"I don't have to, can't you see? I'M in charge here!"
"Oh, bite me!" Ashia retorted, vanishing from sight. A moment later, Thatch was whacked in the back of the head by some invisible being. Ashia's laughter filled the hallway, but she remained invisible until reaching her next class... History.
The teacher in this class was a woman's head in a glass ball, and she showed the same respect for Ashia as Mr. Burns. Her hair was wavy and silver, her voice kind and considerate. Like Professor Burns, she liked the teacher immediately.
Unfortunately, history wasn't a very exciting class for her, particularly since she had once run out of things to do and books to read, and had gone through the historical ones in her mansion's library. No, really; she had an actual librarian, too! A very good one, who knew her favorite genres well and could tell what mood she was in just by the book she dropped on the counter.
"...And so, swamp creatures have found swamps and marshes in the Underworld to be far safer and agreeable than those among the fleshies, who drove them back using previously unknown and, clearly, unfair methods. If you turn your textbooks to page 122, you will find..." The teacher, Heady, continued. Sighing inwardly, Ashia couldn't help but think,
"Like the teacher, not so hot on the subject..."
But of course, she was enrolled now. Too late to back out and change her mind, go home and tinker around with a bit with science, fetching books to help herself from Rozale. (Her librarian.) No, as an enrolled student, she would just have to put up with it. But Ashia smiled as she thought of Casper, Mantha, Ra, and Wolfie. Things were going to change. Because now, she had 4 more of something very important, that many other people took for granted...
Friends.
(I LIVE! Heh. Sorry, it's just I've been inactive for what? A year, now? *Sigh* Well, I finally managed to type something up! Can I get a round of applause? No? Fine, be that way... *Grumbles*
Actually, I've got a lot typed. I just haven't been posting, except for my Fictionpress story, Daughters of Dreams. This story will be the first of a short series. I have the skeleton for the series in my head, but not the details, so I guess I get to join you readers for the ride! No glaring, be nice...
And please don't flame, either. If you review, not only will I try to return the favor, but you will get this cookie! - (::) REVIEW! XD)