Chapter 3 - Frankie Stein
No one had seen Lagoona in a few days. It was scary. Maddi, Shouti, and Medusa wouldn't say anything about her. When asked if they knew where she was, they would only shrug and smile. It seemed to me that Lagoona was a lost cause.
It had been a few days after she originally disappeared when Maddi came over the intercom and told us to come to the front office. No one was there when we entered the room. Shouti wasn't even at the desk. A few minutes later, Lagoona came into the room, looking very unhappy.
"Lagoona!" Draculaura ran over to her. The fish did not look grateful for the hug.
"Where were you?" Cleo asked, acting like she couldn't care less. And she probably didn't.
"I don't wanna talk about it." she replied hotly. She walked over and sat on a cushiony armchair.
"Okay then." I mumbled, looking down at the floor.
And then Shouti, Maddi, and Medusa walked in with two boys.
"Everyone," Medusa announced, sweeping her arms in a grand gesture. "This is Holt Hyde and Jackson Jekyll."
One boy seemed to be human. But this high school was called Monster High for a reason. I knew there had to be something about him. They wouldn't just let some human enroll here… Hmm…
"We'd like for you to take them back to the dorms and make friends with them. Be nice, guys." Shouti said, a fake smile plastered to her face.
"Back to the dorms. New students are going to be coming in a lot now." Medusa said.
"Get to know them. Make friends." Maddi said, looking at all of us nicely, like she actually cared about every single one of us. "Someone will be bungie jumping from Terror Cliff later today. Preferably before lunch, since we don't really want to see anyone puking."
I groaned. Were they seriously going to continue with that? Could they do this to us? I spoke up. "Can you really make us do that?"
Medusa looked taken aback for a second. Then she composed herself and nodded at Shouti, who nodded right back. "Frankie, sweetheart, when your parents signed the contract that allowed you to come here, they agreed that you were under our control. We can make you do whatever we want, and if you refuse us, well… Just don't refuse us, honey. Mm'kay?"
"But it's not right." I continued. I did not want to bungie jump off of Terror Cliff. They could do whatever they wanted to me, but I would not back down. We were monsters, too. It wasn't right for them to treat us like this. "I refuse to jump off of Terror Cliff." I put my foot down firm. Everyone else behind me looked scared, either for themselves or for me. I didn't care either way. Jackson and Holt looked amused. They had only just arrived. They had no idea how maddening this place was. Yet. They would. Apparently, we were the property of Monster High.
"Frankie," Medusa spoke up. "I would like for you to follow me." She opened the door and waited for me to follow. I didn't look back at everyone else, who were all probably awestruck. I just held my head up high and walked out into the hallway with Medusa. "Honey. Sweetheart." she began, looking at me sternly. I could tell she was still trying to be gentle. "I'm going to give you one more chance. Please rethink your actions, realize they were wrong, and go and apologize to Shouti. Make it clear you realize you were wrong and do not encourage the other students. Okay?"
"No. I'm not the one in the wrong. You guys are wrong. I won't give in to this." I said, making sure she understood that I was not one to succumb to pressure.
"Stay here." she said, opening the door back up and gesturing for someone to come out to the hall. She stepped back and Deuce walked out, looking at the tiled purple floor. "Frankie. Please." Medusa begged. "Stop this."
"No, Medusa. There is nothing you could do to me that would make me stop." I said, standing my ground. I don't know why I wanted to get myself hurt or into trouble. But I knew in my heart space that what they were doing to us was wrong. I wouldn't let them go without criticism. Maybe one day they'd understand they weren't right."
"Then I guess you'll have to spend an entire day in the haunted section of the catacombs." she said, giving me one last window to break. I wouldn't. I made myself stand tall. She peeped open and eye and realized I wasn't breaking. She lifted her sunglasses and my heart raced. She rubbed the bridge of her nose and put her sunglasses back into place. I was beginning to wonder why Deuce was here when she said, "Frankie Stein, I sentence you to punishment of the worst kind. You will be terrified and tortured with horror, unable to move an inch. Deuce." she said, gesturing to me.
"Sorry, Frankie." he mumbled, not really seeming to be too sorry. He lifted his sunglasses and my heart raced. This time, it wasn't a false alarm. I saw his green eyes, a brilliant colored green. They were so, so green. The snakes on his head hissed and one of his eyebrows raised a little. I looked into those eyes as everything went green, the same color green as his eyes, and then everything was dark.
Next thing I knew, I was standing in the catacombs. The haunted part of the catacombs, like Medusa had said. I could see now and I could move my eyes, ever so slightly. There wasn't anything. I could hear water dripping from somewhere off in the catacombs. A small noise, like the padding of four feet. I heard what sounded to me like a moan. And a little orb of light started coming toward me from one of the tunnels. I heard another moan, and I knew the light was making the sound. I tried to move, to run away, but I couldn't. Deuce had stoned me. Great day. The form was coming closer.
At this point, it was so close to me that I could see the silhouette of the ghost. It was a girl, she looked about sixteen. She had a gaunt, and haunting face, with enviable cheekbones. Her eyes were big and a pretty shade of violet. She wore a light green eyeshadow and her eyelashes were long. She was very skinny, her skin a pale white, like paper. She wore a long flowing skirt, a tank top with chains on it, and her shoes had heels of metal balls, the kind that were supposed to weight someone to a certain spot. She was a haunting beauty.
She came toward me and smiled. She waggled her thin fingers. My eyes must have been frightened, like my brain, because she said in a voice that was faint, soft, and pretty, " I won't hurt you."
"How do I know you're telling the truth?" I asked, my voice slightly muffled by the stone that was enclosing me.
"You don't. And you never will. You'll just have to trust me." she said, her head tilting a little to the side.
"But-"
"Have I ever done anything or said anything to give you reason not to trust me?" she asked, smiling slyly.
"No, but I don't know you." I said.
"So? What if I could get you out of the stone?" she asked, her eyelashes fluttering as she blinked. Her straight purple hair swished as she floated above the ground.
"I still wouldn't trust you." I said, wondering what she wanted with me.
"But I saved you. Why wouldn't you trust me?" she asked, obviously trying to confuse me. I could feel my neck bolts sparking.
"Still. That wouldn't mean I trusted you. I'd be grateful to you, but I wouldn't know you well enough to put trust in you." I said, believing this would be the end of the conversation.
"Well. Be that way then." she said, her face dropping from the lovely smile it once wore. She looked sad now. Rejected. She seemed to be a tortured beauty.
"Wait." I said, catching onto something I hadn't before. She turned and looked at me, her eyes brimming with translucent tears. "When you said you could pull me out of this stone, did you mean that? Or was it just theoretical? Because if you could, that would be great." I said, smiling at her.
"I mean, it isn't blue metal…" she said, putting her hand on her chin. What did blue metal have to do with this? She saw my confused look. "Oh. It's ghost rules." she said, seeming to write it off with a flick of her wrist. "We can float through any material except blue metal. It's a darn shame, too." she said, her lower lip sticking out a little.
"So you can get me out?" I asked, trying to guide her back to the point of why I'd called her back.
"I guess so. I can try…" she said, still seeming to be thinking hard. I was beginning to pick up that this ghost wasn't a really smart ghost. She smiled at me and floated a little closer. "Yeah, I'll try." she said, decided. She smiled and showed her pearly white teeth. She reached down and grabbed my stone hands, entwining her fingers with my fingers inside of the stone. She nodded, thinking to herself about something. She pulled hard and I felt awful. It was horrible. I'd never do it again. But she saved me. She successfully pulled me out of the stone.
"Thank you." I said, when my feet were on the ground. I looked back behind me and admired the stone statue of myself. It looked amazing and accurate. Of course, my facial expression looked dreamy and frightening at the same time, and my body was a little contorted.
"You're welcome." she said, starting to float off into the pitch black tunnels.
"Wait." I said, once again calling her back to me. She floated back, not impatient at all. She looked quite content, yet still haunted and sad. It brought a twinge to my heart. I said, "What's your name?"
"Oh." she said, smiling drunkenly. I had the feeling that she just had the personality of a bubble head. "My name is Spectra Vondergeist." she said, holding her hand out to me. I tried taking it, but my hand went right through hers. "Whoops. Sorry." Her hand became solid and I shook it.
"My name's Frankie Stein." I smiled at her and she smiled at me.
"Cool." she said, her hand becoming like air again. She turned and her hair went right through me as it swished. A shiver went through me even though it was humid in the catacombs.
"So," I said, skipping and catching up with her. She knew these tunnels, I hoped, and she might could lead me to where I needed to be. "what happened to you?" In the monster world, asking someone obviously dead their cause of death wasn't rude. Humans would think it would be, but it's not. Some people, like Deuce, are born monsters. They didn't die and never will unless someone purposely vanquishes them under the right circumstances.
"Oh. It's a long story." she said, her face becoming sad again. I wanted to feel bad about making her recount the story, but I was really interested. Curiosity killed the cat, they say. So what? At least you'd die knowing what you'd not known before.
"Tell me." I said, gently nudging her figuratively.
"Okay. Follow me." she said, smiling back at me as she floated inches ahead. I had no idea where she was taking me and why she needed to take me there to tell me her story.
I walked, she floated, through the tunnels. Twists and turns. I was able to keep up with her perfectly fine because she stayed slow for me. And when she finally stopped it was pitch black dark. Like we'd reached a dead end. I knew because the sounds made there echoed around us, like we were in a circular room. She clapped her hands that weren't there, and they made a clapping sound that echoed. A few fire's lit around the room and I could see that we were in a circular dead end. There were two tunnel ways leading out of the room and the room went up for a long way. So long I couldn't see the end. But there was light. So it came out somewhere normal. Hopefully.
"What about your story?" I asked, as we'd been traveling here for ten minutes.
"Oh yeah." Oh great. Did she lead me here for nothing? Had she seriously forgotten? Great day. Again.
"Did you forget?" I asked. "Are we here for nothing?"
"No. I knew where I was leading you, but I forgot why." she said, shrugging. "Now I know." Then she said a little louder, for reasons unknown to me at the moment, "I'm going to tell you the story of my death right now, Frankie." she said, lifting her head up to the light at the top of the room.
"Do you want me to come down there, Spectra?" a voice asked from high above. It was gruff and raspy and sounded flat and not interested.
"If you want." Spectra said, floating in front of me. When we'd been standing there waiting for her to come down for a little while, Spectra said, "Lucy, come down here." There was a loud groan and a dark shadow started floating down. The girl scared me. She had jet black hair, pale skin, dark makeup all over her face, she wore dark clothes, and she looked mean. And sad. Tortured. Just like Spectra.
"So how did you die?" I asked, trying to get this show on the road.
"Lucy killed me." she said, gesturing to the dark ghost and smiling like we weren't talking about her death.
"What? Why?" I asked. This story seemed interesting…
(Hey, ghouls and mansters, it's CharicloArganthoneCupid here and I just wanted to tell you that the story about Spectra's death and Lucy's death will not be told in this fanfic. I will be posting another fanfic just for their stories and their pasts. I think those are interesting things. So look for those and continue reading. Otherwise, you may never know their stories. Thnx. :P)
After Spectra and Lucy told me their fates, I asked, "So, would you mind taking me to the exit?"
"Which one?" Lucy asked, rolling her eyes. She was now sitting in the shadows, the only reason I knew where she was being her aura, which was dark and shadowy. Now I knew why. I felt sorry for these two, and I couldn't decide who I should feel most for. I guess it depends on opinion…
"The one leading to Monster High." I said, trying not to let my face betray me. It was an easy to answer question that should've been obvious, but Lucy was freaky and I really didn't want to get on her bad side.
"I want to go to school." Spectra sighed wistfully.
"We can't." Lucy said flatly, point blank.
"I know. Maybe some day. If the curse placed on us was lifted and we could leave the catacombs." Spectra floated down to where her face and my face were equal in height. She whispered into my ear, "It gets pretty lonely down here with just Lucy." I'm pretty sure that even though her whisper was nothing more than a barely audible breeze, Lucy had heard. And I'm pretty sure she didn't care about Spectra's opinion on loneliness.
"Yeah, right." Lucy said, floating up to where she had been. It was a crack in the wall that most have been considered her room. Spectra had one, too. Their existences must have been lonely. I mean, things down here were bleak and cold. It had to be depressing, even for a ghost.
"Can you take me back to the school?" I asked, ready to show up completely free of the stone Deuce had trapped me inside of.
"Oh, yeah." Spectra said, tapping the side of her head like she should've known. "Follow me." she said, reminding me of how she'd said it a while ago.
"Bye, Spectra." Lucy said from her hole in the wall room.
"Bye, Lucy." Spectra called back, waving at someone who couldn't see her at this point. And I think she knew that, but waving seemed to be a standard thing to do, even for her.
"So you guys are friends now?" I asked, clearing up the one question that hadn't been answered by their stories.
"I guess. No hard feelings, pretty much. Lucy doesn't care about much and what she did care about, she can't touch anymore." she said, her expression indecipherable.
"But she killed you. How can you two be completely normal now?" I asked, still not being able to comprehend.
"She's dead now, too. We're even. I may not have killed her, would never dream of it, but it's like there's nothing I can take from her and there's nothing she can take from me. We're finished." She shrugged.
"Still. If I had been killed by my so-called best friend, I would never forgive her. Especially for reasons such as hers." I said, recalling Lucy's explanation.
"Nah. Lucy is very self conscious and just vulnerable. She needed to be sure about her place in the world and the relationship. I would've stolen what she loved, but she killed me and she was confident that no one else could take her love away."
"Whatever. I'll never get it." I said, giving up trying to understand.
"Here we are." she said, as we came upon a door leading to a stairwell. I started to walk up, but then I stopped. She wasn't coming with. "Why aren't you coming?" I asked, stopping on the third step.
"I thought I was the air headed one." she said, smiling the smile I'd always associate with her now. "The curse. I can't leave the catacombs."
"Oh, yeah. I wish you could." I said, turning around and climbing another step before stopping again. I turned back around. "Spectra, I'll find a way to break the curse and get you and Lucy enrolled in the school." I said, determined to keep the promise.
"Don't try too hard. Believe me, it isn't easy finding a way around the rules." she said, once again getting that haunted look on her face. Now I knew why.
"I will. I'll try super hard. And you'll see the light of day again. Alright?" She still looked pretty doubtful. I didn't blame her. I felt extremely doubtful, too. "Alright? I won't give up you."
"I believe you." she said. "I know you'll try. I know you won't give up. If the reason why you were here in the first place has anything to show about your character, then I believe you. I trust you. Do you trust me now?"
I thought for a second. Seriously. And then I said, "Yes. I do. I trust you. So trust me. I'll break you out of this stone." I said, smiling at her. I hoped I could get her and Lucy and out of here.
"Thank you, Frankie. Thank you so much." she said, and she faded into thin air.
I walked up the staircase and soon, I saw the sunlight coming through the outside door. I'd probably have a lot to deal with before I could get to sleep tonight.