Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters from Monster High, Ever After High, Disney Descendants, DC Super Hero Girls, and Project MC2 worlds which are trademarked by Mattel, Guru Studio, Disney, Dreamworks Animation's AwesomenessTV and MGA respectively. All characters are created and owned by Mattel, Disney and MGA and I do not claim any ownership over them or their story and it is not purported or believed to be part of the original story canon. This story is for entertainment only.

Episode 24:

The Old Notes

-Frankie-

Earlier in the evening on the same day, Frankie inhaled slowly as she tip-toed along the inclined hallway of the second floor.

Farrah flitted around corners and whispered reassurances in her ear, "LT Walker isn't in her office this time."

"Fly high and stay out of sight," Frankie nodded as she pressed against the wall and palmed the door open.

She peered into the dimly lit room. The office was lined wall to wall with books of various shapes and sizes. Frankie slipped inside, careful to avoid knocking over the precariously lain bookstacks. She drew near the dark oakwood desk and gently nudged the large brown leatherback swivel chair to the side. She rifled through various drawers but when she found nothing of interest she turned and scanned the room.

A photo frame above a shelf in the corner caught her attention. As she drew near she had to squint to peer up at the pictures. Several individual portraits were set in rows and columns, the faces were familiar. She pressed against the cabinet and stood on tip-toe to get a better view. Her eyes widened, "That's us!"

She scanned each picture, "Its all of us. When were these…?"

She staggered backwards as her bolt's sparks. She clenched her chest as her erratic circuit caused the muscles there to spasm. She closed her eyes and counted to calm herself. When ease did not come, she sank to the floor and counted once more.

"Its just a picture Frankie, come on, get it together, Cleo needs us to find the knowing face."

Frankie let out a deep breath as she opened her eyes. When she lifted her head, she spotted a peculiar object on the shelf. It was a large box with what appeared to be a three lens. She picked it up, "Brownie Senior Six-20? What are you?"

She turned it over and noticed a picture stuck to its bottom. She carefully peeled it off and glanced at the photo album it rested upon, "How many people have been here?"

She set the camera aside and opened the photo album, flipping through what had to be years of black and white pictures. She spotted the place where the photo belonged and frowned at the raised picture below it. She slid the picture out and gasped as a metal ring fell to the floor.

Her entire body tensed as she listened for a change in the silence. After a while she relaxed and picked up the ring. It was thin but it was comprised of three bands. One band had letters, the other had numbers and there was a section in the middle that allowed her to twist a square that isolated a number above a letter. She pocketed the ring and flipped over the picture of a ghostly girl. Written on the back was the familiar zombie scrawl in Losbreken.

She smiled as she pocketed the picture and placed everything else back on the shelf. A commotion outside the door caught her ear and she stood still as she waited.

"Frankie hide! She came out of nowhere," Farrah whispered over comms.

Frankie grimaced as the door knob turned. She dove under the desk and hugged her knees.

Boots clomped into the room as LT Walker grunted under the heavy weight of a knapsack she dragged. She hefted it onto the desk and sighed, "Electricity makes a sound you know."

Frankie furrowed her brow as she stared at LT Walker's boots.

"If you're that worried about next week's test I could tutor you Private Stein, no need to steal the answers."

Frankie's eyes widened as she crawled out from under the desk, "Oh, um, ehehe, yeah. I'll make an appointment; you seem pretty busy."

Walker placed her hand on the desk and leaned her weight upon it, "Mm hmm. You are aware that sophomores are only authorized use of first floor facilities?"

"Ah, well, we're helping with the scavenger hunt."

Walker cracked a smile, "The junior-senior treasure hunt?"

"Yeah…oh," Frankie lowered her head.

Walker laughed, "Well I suppose the rules don't explicitly say no sophomores, so I will let it slide for now. Tell me, whose team are you helping?"

"Petra's."

"Ah the De Nile, yes, it all makes sense." She pushed away from the desk and ushered Frankie towards the door, "In the meanwhile, I highly recommend you assist Petra's team on the ground floor."

Frankie smiled as she exited, "Of course, you are so right, thank you."

Walker closed the door and Frankie let out a sigh of relief. As she glanced around the hall for Farrah a burst of indigo shimmer filled the air and out stepped Evie and Faybelle.

They hustled down the hall shaking off ice. Evie ripped ice out of her hair and chucked it as she quick stepped past.

Frankie screeched as it burrowed into her shoulder.

Evie cast a glance over her shoulder, her eyes searching, as she and Faybelle rounded a corner out of sight.

Farrah hovered over her injury, "That was rather rude."

Frankie grimaced, "Yeah, but I don't think she saw me. Let's meet back up with Cleo."

"Why would she even have something like this?"

Frankie staggered down the hall as she clutched her arm, "This type of cold comes from Abbey, though that just makes it more of a mystery."

They entered the chess clubroom and were escorted back to the hall of memories by Porter.

Once inside Crecha ran over to her, "Oh my ghoul, Frankie what happened!"

"Ah, that's kind of tender," Frankie winced as Crecha tugged at the ice, "I don't know why but Evie threw it-"

"She did what," Crecha hissed through clenched teeth.

Blondie twirled her hair with her finger at the table, "That is so typically Evie, she's been tripping all year."

Crecha snapped her fingers in Porter's direction, "I've got an evil queen to deal with."

Cleo rose from the table and jogged over, "Only a queen can deal with a belligerent royal."

"Fine," Porter rolled his eyes as he dragged them both out of the hall of memories.

Frankie sat at the table and winced as the stinging ice both burned and numbed her arm. Ghoulia gazed up from the notes and groaned. Frankie smiled as she dug into her pocket, "I'll be fine, it just needs to melt enough so I can pull it out. Here, I found a note on the back of a picture."

She deposited both the ring and picture in Ghoulia's open palm. Ghoulia tilted her head as a soft hiss left her throat.

Frankie's eyes widened, "A decoder ring? Neat."

Ghoulia flipped over the picture with a groan. Frankie gasped, "Yeah? I assumed it was younger than the picture but wow, less than ten years old? I wonder what it was used for?"

Petra scoffed, "Does it matter?"

Ghoulia tossed her hair over her shoulder as she glared.

Petra shrugged as she continued to file her nails, "Hurry up and translate the note."

Apple waved a piece of paper in front of her face, "I get that the notes are important but where are we going to find steam pipelines made of copper?"

Deuce shrugged as he rested his face in his palm, "These lists always have the most random stuff. If LT Walker wasn't so chill, I swear I'd think she's trying to prank us."

Glimmer sighed as she gazed at her list, "I don't even know what a centrifugal governor is, much less where to find it."

The door to the hall of memories open and Crecha, Cleo, Billy and Robecca entered.

Crecha took one look at Frankie and growled, "Dammit Billy, you made me forget what I went out there for."

Billy shrugged as he sat at the table, his hands invisible, "Whatever, did you have any luck Frankie?"

Ghoulia slid the translation page over and all peered over it.

Farrah grumbled, "There has to be some type of pattern to this."

Frankie read in a clear loud voice, "Lirienne left without a Trace. She died in search of the face. If she'd searched not to find, oh pain and regret. She would have seen the George Margetts."

Petra hummed thoughtfully, "George Margetts sounds like a brand name."

"Which makes it seem connected to this one," Glimmer nodded, "The smile on my face is all gone cold, I can't feel my hands, I'm drowning in gold. Here I rest behind a locked rock door, I'm first of the pieces of the four."

Apple added, "Maybe the knowing face is something gold with George Margetts face on it and that's why its behind a locked door."

Blondie rolled her eyes, "The only locked rock door around here is the treasury and there's 300 years' worth of loot down there. If we don't know what it is it would be dumb to search around there because we'd never find it before graduating. Besides, I feel like these are supposed to go in a certain order to make sense. Like this one here." She tapped it with her finger, "The raven wants to fly through this door, the minute it tocks nevermore, this is the third of the four."

She threw her hands up, "It sounds like a sequence."

Robecca nodded, "Its plausible, I would also postulate that it was written by a ghost, judging by the use of language."

Billy nodded, "Yeah, but is also sounds clock related."

"We didn't have a chance to really examine the grandfather clock in the library," Robecca gazed at him, "Which by the way have you mentioned your hands to Farrah?"

Billy made his cut and bleeding hands visible for all to see, "Hey Farrah-"

"Oh my goodness, what happened?"

Frankie gazed at his scales, "Did you have a run-in with Abbey too?"

Billy nodded, "Yeah, she's in the infirmary right now."

Frankie's eyes widened, "What! What happened?"

"Evie… she cast the spell that-"

"Oh, how did I know it was Evie!" Blondie threw her hands up.

Frankie furrowed her brow as others badmouthed their classmates. Why is everyone like this?