"I never knew Cupid was your cousin!" Frankie said as the Vampa- theater mirror reflected the windy city of Fearcago.
"I never felt need to mention it and asked her not to." The human Deuce said, staring at the open dimension.
"Lot of secrets in you, Larry." Clawdeen said as the three ghouls walked after their human friend.
Lagoona, Frankie, Clawdeen and Deuce/Larry walked through the mirror in the drama department.
The floppy brown hair on his head blew in the wind. The grease from the hair follicles slid into Deuce's mundane eyes. "I have my reasons. "
Back at Monster High
Guilt needled Ghoulia as she walked past her third period class. She had done all the assigned homework, the extra credit and even wrote up the creature's itinerary. The zombie still felt it affected her straight A image badly by skipping.
The bespectacled ghoul nearly forgot about such worries as she watched her beast friend cry. Cleo was in front of a bathroom mirror as she let her tears drop to the sink. Ghoulia would've hugged her but the leopard-dressed Lilith invaded her space.
"There, there, Cleo, there are more bats in the cave." Lilith said, stroking at the Mummy's baby soft arms.
The huntress saw Ghoulia fold her arms in the mirror. Their met eyes but said nothing.
"I miss him." The wrapped ghoul said as she wiped away the wetness on her eye. "I wanted to see him again so badly I jumped on the first replica they picked off the streets. What would my ancestors say?!"
Lilith hugged into the ghoul's shoulder-short hair. "Oh Cleo, that big heart needs to be put in a safer place."
Cleo didn't hear or sense Lilith smelling her hair. Ghoulia's monotone, factual moan she did hear.
"Ghoulia is right, as usual." Cleo pushed Lilith aside so she could bend down into her purse. She pulled out a makeup-remover pad and a mascara brush. "My heartache can be contained for the good of the people. The real dilemma is what new big bad is lurking in Monster High this time?"
The princess handed Lilith the makeup-remover brush. The marttiini-carrying human girl knew Cleo was accustomed to being served; Cleo didn't know how much Lilith enjoyed the task compared to her other ghoulfriends.
"Making a normie-clone of a perfectly handsome monster is madness!" Cleo turned to Ghoulia with extra command in her eyes. "Gather the ghouls because this is a a serious emergency!"
Ghoulia took out her iCoffin but moaned her worry and concerns.
"Tell Bloodgood? Why in Ra's name would we waste our time? We have to find where they took Deuce! And find out what 'they' even are!"
In preparation to hunt monsters Lilith had learned Zombie; but she kept that to herself. "I don't what said, but Cleo, dear, I am a master tracker so you can count on me to do anything for you."
A snarky comment came out of Ghoulia after that. Lilith's smile froze as she acted like she didn't understand every word.
Cleo's lovely smirk was a good distraction. "Ghoulia, that's not very nice."
The three females were unaware of the ghostly presence that stalked them. They should know better; secrets are the tombstones to their graves and they turn me into the worst sort of graverobber, Spectra thought as she hovered in the bathroom corner. She phased through the wall as she typed 'The Big Warning' to her hundreds of ever-faithful blog-followers.
The post every monster read from the Ghostly Gossip was this: "Gorgon is first victim in the Normization process!"
Q2W345DRFTGHUJIJUHGR4EW32DRFTYHUJU5REW323EFTGYHUJYTREWSUJTRESXCFVGBHTRSCDCT
"Deuce? Well shoot me n my good eye! Good to see you, bro!" A sleek haired cyclopes said as he stood up from his desk.
The ghouls followed the plain-looking Deuce into a business building. The ride up the elevator took half a minute to go up sixty floors. Lagoona was surprised that the security and secretaries allowed them to walk through. Clawdeen asked about this and Deuce's explanation was the Cupid call was a connection to closer relative.
Deuce held out a hand to shake. "Nice seeing you again."
The suit-wearing monster stared at the hand then laughed. "Strangers shake hands, come here little brother." The T-Rolex-wearing monster gave a bone-crushing hug.
"I missed you too, Pal." The comment was almost sincere; Deuce had horrible envy for his brother's single hazel eye.
"Little dude, you started a harlem faster than I did." The cyclopse was slightly taller than his younger brother. His hair was a sandy blonde instead of the brown Deuce had, along with tanner skinner but the two young men shared the same chin.
The new information about Deuce was overloading Frankie. She wanted to cheer at how much family her first-ever-guy friend had. The mint-green ghoul did a small hop in small, and then chewed on her smile. Clawdeen watched her beastie hold in her questions; she smiled and nudged Frankie's arm.
Without his snakes to hiss for him, Deuce lightly slapped his brother's cheek. "Ladies, this is my brother who was tragically named Pal. Pal, meet Lagoona, Frankie and Clawdeen."
Lagoona and Frankie gave polite 'Hellos'. Clawdeen smiled and nodded, she was not too impressed with Pal's sense of humor.
"Yeah, I'm the lucky one. I bet Deuce never told you his full name." Pal said as he rubbed the normie's greasy head.
"No but we're working on that." Lagoona said. "For example, Deuce hasn't told us why we're here and how it will help...his situation."
Pal dropping the smiling; he looked closer at Deuce's head. "I just noticed what was different about you, baby bro."
Never the sharpest nail in the coffin, Deuce thought. "You know who-"
"Stop right there." Pal let go of the normal hair and leaned against his huge black desk. "Why do you have to be the rebel? It's so easy to just comply to his demands."
"Not really, bro."
"I did and look what he gave me! A great job, a sweet suite, a car that'll blow your mind! I'm living the dream, little-half-bro." Pal pressed a button on his chair; out from the side popped a cup holder. He tried to grin at Deuce's stiff bottom lip.
"Good for you, Pal, but I'm not about that life. I just need some help to undo the damage on me." Deuce said, hoping there was family he could count on.
Pal took out his deluxe iCoffin. "Are you sure a car ride can't change your mind? I could push back everything to do it right now."
"Maybe later, right now I need you to make some calls to some…'people' and help me fix this." Deuce pointed to his head.
The discomfort in Pal's wide figure was obvious. The twenty-something-year-old monster gave a cheesy grin to the teenagers as he put his iCoffin to his ear. "Cynthia, cancel my two o'clock, bring me my laptop and pick me up a latte, doll."
The charity of his single-eyed brother made Deuce feel better about his world. He believed a real manster would sacrifice for family and a better one would sacrifice for strangers. Deuce and Pal were more strangers than family and that made the unspecial boy feel especially lucky.
"Dude, I-"
Pal held up a hand to stop him. "No thanks, Gorgon, I've done nothing for you yet."
Clawdeen wanted to like Pal because he was Deuce's brother but she didn't trust his eye. The she-wolf wanted to help her friends but she couldn't judge what was best for the situation because Deuce was barely giving any real info out.
There was a knock on the door. Pal stood up from his desk to crack the door open, he stuck his ear to the crack but did not reveal what the monster on the other side looked like. Pal nodded his head then gave another corny grin to his guests.
"Excuse me, this won't take longer than a minute." Pal said, blinking at his normie half brother's sunglasses.
Though waiting was not what he wanted to do, Deuce said, "Take your time."
"Charmed meeting you ghouls." Pal said before leaving his door shut.
Deuce exhaled and ran this fingers through his hair. It agitated him that the hair was unresponsive. He put his hands in his pockets instead.
"Your brother seems….trim." Frankie threw out as she looked around his office. It was square and grey and very clean. The mint-green ghoul had never been in an office before so she assumed they all lacked spark and color.
The window view showed the borderline of different states Frankie found that incredible but it was still second to Deuce's uniquely different brother.
"Trim, yeah." Lagoona tried to assist. "A bit smug too, but the bloke seems to have done well for himself. What do you think he's going to do?"
"He's close to…this situation. He might be able to get in touch with people I can't contact directly." The human said as he stared at his reflection in the window.
Frankie wanted to say Deuce didn't need to be so ashamed of being a normie. She wished she could find the right words to get his attention to that fact.
"Deuce, can we expect you to tell us what's going on anytime soon?" Lagoona asked as she adjusted herself on the tough leather chair.
I do owe my friends the truth, Deuce thought. "It's for the best that you know as little as possible."
The werewolf was not happy with this answer. "If you don't trust us then why did we tag along?"
"Because you came anyway. You ghouls can take care of yourselves but I'm telling you now you can leave at anytime."
"We're not leaving." The black& white haired girl stated. After Frankie's words, Clawdeen heard a rumble in Pal's desk. She sniffed the air, but her nose picked up nothing that could be labeled peculiar for a monster's personal office.
"I know." Deuce stopped staring at what he thought was ugly and turned to what he knew was beautiful all around. "Thanks." He said to Frankie, Lagoona and the suspicious Clawdeen. Her eyes darted around the room with her nose wrinkling.
"Who is 'He-who-must-not-be-named'?" Clawdeen asked, she studied his eyebrows and mouth as he clenched up. She read his resistance well enough despite the distracting scent of mustard and pickles growing.
"Someone I really don't trust." Deuce didn't hear a faint rumble in the desk, but the pants-wearing ghoul did.
Clawdeen bared her fangs. "But you trust Pal? He seems more inclined to help the other guy than you." She walked closer to him, slightly crouching her shoulders.
"It's a long-shot but the dude is family. That should be at least in tie with his Pegasus-stallion of a car." Deuce explained as his thumb pointed to vehicle's photo on the desk.
The auburn-haired ghoul had pulled her hair back. It was flat on her head then bloomed in curls around her shoulders. From her pointed ears hung six gold earring; they jingled as she wiggled them for better reception.
"You're being a bit nosey, luv." Lagoona said to her furry friend.
Pushing the chair to the side, Clawdeen was near the strongest stench of onions, pickles and a sort of meat that smelled sour and unpleasant. I'm calling it now; Pal is not a friend, the fierce ghoul thought as she stared at the drawers in the desk.
"I smell something rotten." She heard rumbles in the drawer. Maybe a grunt? She asked herself as she pulled the drawer open. It had a very weak lock.
"Clawdeen-" Deuce considered stopping her but without his eyes he knew he was weaker than her pinky.
The mint-green girl stood up and was about to ask Clawdeen to stop but she stopped herself. Her bright blue friend stayed sitting but asked, "What did you find, luv?"
"A burger." The ghoul stared down at sesame seed bun. It sat still but her instincts didn't trust it.
Missing the tingles from feeding his little dudes, Deuce asked the ghouls; "I like the idea. Anyone else a little hungry?"
Clawdeen's eyes did not leave the burger. She felt urge to say 'I told you so', as the burger lifted its top bun to reveal two olives in its crevasse; two angry eyes glaring at her. It hissed, she growled back: it spit mustard towards her eyes.
She moved her head, faster than a normal doggie, and responded with a rougher growl. The burger spit a larger amount of mustard at her a second time, hitting the inside of her nose.
The whimpering werewolf rubbed at her nose as the others watched the burger climbed out the drawer with its bacon legs. They barely kept their eyes on the burger as it scurried under the chairs.
"What a rude little snack!" Frankie said as she walked up to Clawdeen. Her beastie was tearing up at the edges.
"This mustard! It's burning my nostrils!" She said as she tried to sniff and blow the stuff out.
"Should we catch it?" Lagoona wondered where they would go to replace Pal's lunch.
The sea creature watched Deuce raise his eyebrows and speak through his teeth." Lagoona, stay calm."
"Whatcha mean?" Her question was answered by a huff of onions and wheat bread. What she couldn't see, but the others had full views of, was a six-foot tall burger puffing like a bull.
Around the edges, mustard and ketchup dripped, past its toothpick tusks. There were pickles in the middle of it's olive eyes, inhales and exhaling almost like a snout.
The blonde sat still, her green eyes larger than normal against her flat nose. She heard ketchup drip into her seashell-decorated braid.
"It might be more scared of us than we are of it." Frankie suggested.
The burger squealed at Lagoona's head, saucing her hair like it was spaghetti. The webbed ghoul slid off her chair, under the desk and stood beside Frankie and Clawdeen.
"Ideas are welcomed, gils." She saw the burger's front bacon-legs scratch the floor; ready to pounce.
Clawdeen spit on Pal's desk. "I got this."
As the burger pounced, Clawdeen slid her rear on the table, spinning her thighs to reach her pumps to kick in the burger's left tusk.
The ghouls watched this before Deuce grabbed their arms and pulled them towards the window. The three kept their backs to the glass as they watched Clawdeen's claws tear at the bread.
"We should help!" Frankie said when they hit the wall of the other side of the office.
"The sandwich picked the fight, I feel no pity for it." Deuce told his well-intentioned friend.
"Yobbo with fries? No thank you." Lagoona said as she tried to ring the ketchup and oils from her hair.
Frankie was about to tell her fin-friend she looked very cute with pink highlights when Deuce's shouted 'No!' interrupted her words.
Fear, guilt and shame went into his stomach like sunken rocks as he watched Clawdeen's legs get swallowed by the burger. Fear that the sandwich would go after the rest of them, guilt that the world lost such a brave ghoul and shame that he was only a human. A helpless, useless human he thought.
The snorts from the burger came out like victorious chuckles. On its behind, there was a curl of lettuce not unlike a tail. Frankie noticed this before the creature turned around and sniffed in the direction from where she knew her Scar perfume (that she got from Scaris) attracted its attention. The three teens watched it ready to charge them; they then saw it vibrate. It shook uncontrollably and squealed in agony. The bacon legs could not keep it stand. The squeals grew sharper, more painful to hear.
Lagoona had her webbed hands on her fins as she watched the creature drag itself on the floor. It was as if there was a itch it could not scratch. She noticed around its 'face' there were bulges coming from the inside; frequent and repeating like punches.
Five byzantium-painted claws pushed through the what-bread-face. A rip from that poke expanded until it was wide enough for Clawdeen to pus her head out. In her fangs hung slabs of meat.
The burger stopped moving as Clawdeen walked out of her soggy, pickle-wreaking vore-prison.
She dropped the meat on the floor and walked up to her friends. They saw her cold, distant eyes grow warmer with familiarity. She huffed and puffed then asked Frankie, "Can I borrow your mirror?"
The ghoul blinked then dug into her side jacket pocket. She handed the pentagon shaped compact-mirror to her sauce dripping smelling friend.
Clawdeen grimaced as she saw her reflection. "In the name of the moon, I will punish those who do this to my hair!"
