Lilith was infatuated with Cleo. The huntress had never meant a person more fabulous, independent and imperious than the mummy before. She also believed she never would after. The prejudice in their families only made the romance more exciting, and Lilith was happy imagining being co-Queen along Cleo as they would rule over their towns, and eventually the world. There was just one small roadblock in the path to sweet royal lady love; Cleo's boyfriend Deuce.
However, as Lilith watched Cleo slap the boy's face, hope rose under her leopard-skin.
"Uhh, Cleo, I think he's awake now." Frankie told her agitated friend.
She, Clawdeen, Lagoona and the smiling-like-a-cheshire-cat Lilith were standing in the empty Vampa- theatre. They had carried the numb Deuce in and laid him on a sofa used for props in theatre productions. In respect to his wish of keeping the whole 'turned into a Normie' thing underwraps they didn't alert everyone they'd found him. They did, however, alert Ghoulia and Cleo. Ghoulia kept watch over the plasma lock she invented that would kept Spectra out, as Cleo reunited with her ex-boyfriend.
"Oh, so he can feel this?" The mummy asked, nonchalantly giving one more slap to his face. Part of her was furious at him for returning, the other part was annoyed he was wearing such an unflattering hoodie out in public.
"Nice to see you too, Cleo." The sunglass wearing dude groggily said as he woke up to sore cheeks. There was an angry ghoul staring down at him; her eyes sparkled when she was extremely peeved.
"You are a disgusting excuse of a monster and I hate you!" The mummy told him, wishing she had sharp objects on her to slice him.
"Fair enough. Have a good life." He felt his hood hadn't dropped yet. 'Larry' could leave with a little dignity.
He pushed back against the chair to stand up but the mummy pushed him back down.
"I'm not done talking yet." She said slowly with a piercing glare.
Lagoona grabbed Lilith's hand with her below-luke-warm hand to drag the Normie girl out. The ghouls+ Lilith made stepping sounds, opened the door and then closed it while they stood on the inside in the shadows.
Deuce sat up and looked cool and indifferent. "Look, babe-"
"Don't you dare 'babe' me!" Cleo stood up as to tower over him better. "You disappear for a week! Abandon your house- your phone, pretty much all matters of communication and then leave me a John Scream letter! I deserve better than that, Deuce! This school, that worships you almost as well as it worships me, wept and you left nothing to them! They deserve better than that! I cannot believe you'd turn your back on us so easily! And while wearing this hideous sack!"
She is so pretty when she looks like she wants to off me, Deuce thought. "Gods, I don't miss the whinning."
How rude!That's not Deuce even on his worse days, the mummy thought. Cleo put her hands on her hips and asked him slowly, "Why are you here now?"
"The ghouls dragged me here; to the last place I'd ever want to be." Deuce told her, looking her straight in the face.
Under the mascara, anger and bandages Cleo De Nile's heart was suffocating.
"Then leave." She said and turned around to not have to look at him. As always, he did what she said. Deuce stood up to walk out the door but stopped when he heard her ask,
"Could I at least know what I did?" The mummy asked, her voice was steady but cracking around the edges.
Don't buy into it, she's just hitting her own ego. "You didn't do anything, Cleo." He admitted.
She dropped her arms and looked at Deuce, who was looking at the wall. "Then why do you hate me? Why do you hate MH? Why aren't you being...you?"
"I don't hate you, I don't hate the school. I'm ... I'm dealing with my own stuff right now."
"My Ra this is so typical. We never talk."
"We talk like every day." This isn't what I should be saying right now, Deuce thought.
"No, I talk- you listen, and while that usually works for me it's not communication."
"Cleo, there are things I just don't want you to know."
"I want to know those things." The mummy said as she walked up to him. "And I always get what I want."
The dude smirked, but it didn't last. He walked up to Cleo and bent down to match his face with hers. She anticipated an embrace, an apology on his knees or at least a smooch. Deuce did none of these things; he studied Cleo's eyes and then whispered in her ear.
"Not this time, princess." He meant those to be final words.
Cleo loosened the bandages under her sleeves; with a long strand in both hands she grabbed the back of his neck to keep him close.
"Every time."
A peck goodbye he could allow to ease their breakup but Deuce could tell she was digging for more. He knew it was stupid but the former gorgon missed kissing the beguile ghoul. He kept Cleo's hands from reaching the back of his head. He knew she was looking for the russell of snakes- a feeling he missed too but would never give them again. But her lips were plump and tasted like strawberries and he still remembered how to play with them.
The mummy thought the resistance was a romantic build up. It was working for her until she parted her lips and didn't feel a sharp forked tongue cut against her mouth.
The blue eyed girl opened her eyes and parted from him. Before Deuce could speak she grabbed his tongue and pulled it out. It was a stout little tongue, and her Deucey's tongue was long enough to touch the peek of his nose. This tongue was round at the end and his was suppose to be forked, lean and fun.
In disgust Cleo let the tongue go and pushed the boy away from her. She then screamed in an Egyptian dialect no one but her family and very devoted scholars would understand. Past the door the ghouls+ Lilith were hiding next to, a small army of Cleo's servants rushed in.
Two of them grabbed Deuce's arm. They forced him on his knees while others held funny shaped spears to his head. With one of the spear, they pushed his hoodie down to reveal his brown hair.
Cleo's lip curled and demanded a dagger. After she received a jagged one, she walked up to the liar and asked him,
"Where is my boyfriend, imposter!?"
He could see the fear, and hate, boiling in her.
"He's gone. You are never going to see him again." Deuce promised the ghoul he'd never raise a hand against- even in his own defense.
"Then you may die!" Cleo said, raising the dagger and preparing her arm to apply the necessary force.
Frankie Stein jumped between Cleo's dagger and Deuce's jugular. The mummy hadn't broken skin, but Frankie's action pissed her off more.
"Get out of the way, Frankie!"
"Cleo! It is Deuce! The guy who's heart you're the queen of!"
"This is a very nearly convincing imitation but it cannot replace my man!" Cleo found it insulting Frankie would bud into her dating life.
"Just let her do it, I really don't care." The depressed Deuce told his overly hopeful friend.
"See! My Deuce would never act so pathetic and helpless! "
"He was turned into a Normie! Anyone would have an off-day after that!"
The disbelief in Cleo's eyes was obvious, even more so when she tried to thrust the dagger again. Frankie grabbed Cleo's wrist and while Frankie's wouldn't feel pain Cleo didn't want to slice off her friend's hand.
"Oh, tell me how that happened?" The princess asked drily.
Frankie usually took Cleo's attitude in strides, but with the extra condescension Frankie's bolts were sparking. "I-I- Ohh! Ask him!"
Cleo looked around Frankie's protective stand to ask the Normie, "Excuse me, clone-boy,would you care to add to the tall tale of how my gorgeously reptilian boy-toy became the sniveling waste of garage-sale I see before me?"
"He played a game and lost everything; his powers, his self-respect and the terrifying diva he cherished most of all." The divine intervention was a secret Deuce would rather take to his grave than reveal to his ghoul.
The mocha-tan ghoul lowered her dagger. Instead of a glare of hate, she gave the boy (still in her servants' grasps) a look of distain. "I don't believe you. If Deuce was losing a game he'd invent a way to win. Some call it 'cheating', I called it 'creative point scoring'. "
Everything is so simple to this spoiled brat, Clawdeen thought. Some days she loved having Cleo as her friend, and most days it was almost too much to handle. Lagoona was ashamed of Cleo's behavior then but deep down she empthized with how this was Cleo's verison of love. Lilith did not think that deeply, she instead was biting her nail as she saw Cleo hold a dagger so expertly.
Giving up on a friend was not something Frankie could let happen. The mint-green girl looked at the sad Deuce and asked him, "Is there anyway to restart 'the game'? Anyway to call for a rematch?"
"It's lose or lose big, ghouls. Doing nothing is better than making it worse." The miserable human explained, waiting for Cleo to slice his head off.
The Egyptian Princess narrowed her eyes and made a clicking sound with her lips. She shouted a command to her servants and they released Deuce.
"You're not the boy who broke Monster High's heart or mine. If you want to die, do it yourself." Cleo said as she walked past her friends and out of the vampa-theatre. Lilith saw the beautiful lips begin to tremble; the mummy needed someone to hold her as she cried. The huntress would get there before the line started.
"Got to give the ghoul credit; she knows how to motivate." Deuce said as he stood up and flexed his arms. There were sore spots from the grips of the golden servants.
Lagoona and Clawdeen walked up to Frankie. They were all in the stage's spotlight.
"Please don't tell me that was a turn-on for you." The werewolf asked, rolling her yellow eyes as he smirked.
"If I was some skeevy dude trying to manipulate her, than that's exactly how I'd want her to handle it." Deuce said as he took his gray hoodie off.
"I suppose I'd want the same if a copy-catfish of me tried to hook Gil. I doubt he'd lay a flipper on her, but me, well..." The blonde let her imagnation bobble, smiling with Deuce the same guilty little smirk.
"Wait, wait, wait! Deuce, what's happening now?" Frankie asked, her bolts sparking. "Are you going to try to make peace with the witch?"
"No, absolutely from the bottom of my true scaly soul never. I'm going to find an alternative." Deuce told her. He then asked for her iCoffin.
As the Normie searched through her contact list, Frankie wondered how amazing it was to call monsters from different demensions. The less selfish part tried to remember that saving her friends was more important than worrying about a long-distance charge on her cell-phone-bill.
