A/N: Couldn't go another Halloween without another update ;)
The mansion's windows were dark as the car slowed to a park. The tour bus with the others lagged behind us; they were likely still getting through the forest. I opened the car door was met with the mansion's looming, sharp features. I had no idea what to expect from our friends inside.
"Maybe they're sleeping?" Draculaura said when she poofed into vampire form. She scooted out the car and brushed off her skort. "No one would be awake at this hour."
"Just makes this a better time to catch us off guard," I said, my voice low. I stepped onto the lawn. There was no sign of forced entry.
I jogged around the mansion, and the rest of the ghouls followed. I swallowed. A herd of black motorcycles littered the backyard. Nefera hadn't sent all her vampires, but there looked to be at least twenty of them, assuming none of them doubled up. A sinking feeling in my gut told me otherwise.
"There!" Clawdeen pointed at a glass window at the edge of the mansion. It was shattered. "You'd think they have the decency to pick a lock."
"Crikey!" Lagoona crossed her arms. "That's my room! I'm lucky I wasn't in there."
Cleo gasped. "Do you think they'll rob us?"
I ignored her and followed Clawdeen, who was already making careful strides toward the back door. It took a moment for the others to follow, save Abbey who was right at my side.
"How think they made it up there?" she whispered.
"Bat form!" Draculaura said a little too loudly. She shrank when we all looked at her. "Sorry."
"And they just break window?" Abbey pursed her lips. "Cannot be that easy."
"It is," she whispered. "They might have a couple of bruises from breaking it but that's about it."
"Which means they'll be weaker for it," Clawdeen grinned, unlocking the back door. She held it open for us. "Stay close. Who knows—"
Someone screamed, and the Wolf darted up the stairwell. All but Lagoona and Abbey stumbled to follow after her, and we made out a light in the hallway.
Gigi's room. We turned in when she collided with Clawdeen, and they fell onto the floor.
Clawdeen opened her mouth to apologized when Gigi hushed her and helped her to her feet.
She trembled. "Ghouls! The Queen's monsters are here. And Whisp—We were having a conversation and then all of a sudden—"
"She vanished?" I said.
Gigi nodded. Lagoona placed her hands on her shoulders, and she eased up slightly. Gigi took a shuddering breath. "That vampire called her. If the Queen gets a hold of her power again—"
"We know," I said. "We saw it happen."
Gigi's blue eyes were round and glassy. "Where is she?"
"We don't know," Clawdeen said. Her ear twitched. "But we gotta hide. The vamps are close." She stilled, then took off in an instant the way we came.
Gigi and the other ghouls rushed to follow after her.
Cleo rolled her eyes and turned toward the steps. "I swear to Ra, I've never run this much in my unlife."
"Wait, Cleo." I heard footsteps from down the hall and grabbed her wrist without a second thought. I pulled her into the nearest room and shut the door behind us.
"What are you—"
I shushed her, and the footsteps thundered past the door. My shoulders dropped as soon as they went quiet. I slumped against the wall, remembering to breathe again.
Cleo put her hands on her hips. Moonlight trickled in through the window. "What was that for?"
I took a seat on the floor. "I want to talk to you."
She looked down at me with a raised brow. "Doesn't seem like the best time for that."
"No, I..." A glowing red dot caught my eye.
Then another, and another.
A hiss sounded from all eight of them. "I believe this isn't your room." Wydowna peeled herself from the wall and scuttled across the floor to meet us.
Cleo grimaced and stepped aside. "Well, it wasn't my idea."
I tried catching at least one of her scattered eyes. "Wydowna, do you know what's happening?"
She undid her braid with two of her arms, using another couple to prop her chin up. "Besides you waking me up?"
"The Queen's monsters. They're here to stop us."
Her eight eyes widened as her mass of red hair fell on her shoulders. She was suddenly significantly less intimidating. "What?"
"I need to talk to Cleo," I said, knowing we had no time to lose. "Our ghoulfriends went downstairs. The others that left are on their way. Can you keep a lookout for us?"
The spider ghoul winced. "I can try."
"Thank you."
Wydowna nodded and took to the walls again. She carefully opened the door and crawled up to the ceiling, gently closing it with her back leg.
Cleo shuddered and sat across from me. "Why talk to me and not the other ghouls?"
"Because you're the only one who gets it, Cleo," I said. "You're like me."
Her eyes narrowed. "Alright, I'm listening."
"I think we're focusing on all the wrong places." I shot to my feet, and she groaned.
"All the wrong places?" Skepticism took over features. "Frankie, we need to do something about my sister. What are we going to do?"
I paused, and the excitement I had only a moment ago whisked away. What were we going to do? The Queen's monsters were closing in, and she had a genie in her grasp. The hope to find a way where Nefera answered for all her crimes without causing chaos was incredibly slim. We needed more time, but we didn't have any.
This was it.
Cleo's face fell, and her features hardened with a grim resolve. She muttered, "Ra help us."
The room was silent for too long. I didn't drag Cleo in here to think of the tough reality, I brought her here to bring light to what it could be instead. One that can be made without genies or magic, but with monsters; with our friends.
I lightly hopped on the balls of my feet, feeling that energy return with an exhale. "Think about it," I prompted. "Our friends want to end this with the Queen, but what do they really want?"
Cleo looked up at me, surprised, but then she pursed her lips. She gave me a knowing smile. "Not revenge. What they want is for everything to return to normal."
I nodded and knelt in front of her. "But they also want to move forward. They think stopping the Queen will give them the lives they should have. But it won't."
Cleo huffed out a laugh. "It really won't. I've gone against Nefera plenty of times and as great as the satisfaction is, it only lasts so long. I mean, when it's all over, what's next?"
"Exactly!"
She raised an eyebrow. "What are you thinking, Frankie?"
I stood straight and held out my hand to help her up. "I think that the answer's been simpler than we thought."
-.-.-.-
Thanks to Wydowna, we made it downstairs without any trouble. My breath caught. The tour bus was parked in front of the mansion, all the lights out. Clawdeen must have heard it, and that's why she took off. I hoped they were safe.
"This way!" Wydowna hissed, and we followed her down a hallway, the walls lined with doors. The guys' bedrooms. "From what I can tell, the vamps went to the dining room," the spider ghoul said. She unlatched herself from the ceiling and landed on her feet. "We should be safe here. For now."
I nodded, and we strode down the hall. A bright light shown beneath one door at the end and Cleo gasped.
She flung open the door and rushed inside. "Deuce!"
A grunt sounded as Wydowna and I walked in after her. Deuce lay on his bed, and Cleo clung onto him like he'd disappear.
"I was worried."
"It's good to see—uh, I mean—hear, feel from you, too." He pressed a kiss to her forehead and stroked her hair. His snakes perked up when we shut the door. "Who else is with you?"
Cleo pulled away from him. "Oh, just Frankie and Wydowna." Her cyan eyes scanned the room, suddenly realizing there was more than just her and Deuce. "I see everyone's safe."
I followed her gaze. Scarah, Gigi, Clawd, Gil, and our ghoulfriends sat on the floor. Scarah's eyes were scrunched into concentration, and Heath sat beside Abbey. The light in the room came from his hair. Abbey leaned into him.
"Mostly everyone," Deuce said, fumbling for Cleo's hand. It was still the strangest thing, seeing him without sunglasses. "We haven't gotten everyone from the tour bus yet."
"They're still in there?!" I head-counted the monsters. There weren't enough of them. "We have to—"
"Relax, Frankie," Lagoona called from her spot beside Gil. "Scarah is making sure none of the Queen's monsters catch them. She's contacting Spectra and the other ghosts to help them across."
A blue glow suddenly phased into the room. "...and the whole piece was really moving, so maybe if you just stayed in hiding, my article wouldn't lose any value—"
"Thank you, Spectra." Elissabat said, her eyes already scanning the room. She frowned.
Gigi scowled. "You brought her first?"
The ghost shrugged. "She told me to."
Elissabat smoothed out her skirt. "My safety is crucial if I'm to take over."
"Put it behind you, already!" Gigi leaped to her feet. "You made the Queen feel threatened. You dragged us all into this, and now Whisp is gone."
"Me?" She spared me a sideways glance. "Place the blame where it belongs, Gigi. The Queen would've never felt threatened if it weren't for her."
Gigi raised her arms in frustration and retreated into the bathroom.
A couple of my ghoulfriends protested for my sake, and I swallowed. Jackson either told her directly, or she overheard him say how returning to our bodies ended Nefera's luck spell. The Queen wouldn't need Whisp if I hadn't taken some of her power away. I looked at Cleo, curled in Deuce's arms. She looked more vulnerable than I'd ever seen her.
I faced Elissabat head-on. "Yeah, I am to blame. I woke up to a new world in a body that wasn't mine but if you didn't have me, Nefera never would have told everyone she was the Queen." She opened her mouth, but I wasn't done. "Your plan would've never happened. Not without me."
She blinked, opening and closing her mouth as if to catch those words she lost. Her lips came together in a thin line, but she kept her poise.
A green glow suddenly phased through the wall. "...Nah dude it's all fluorescent." Porter set Holt down and gestured at the paint on his outfit.
"Seriously?" Holt asked. "You must be killer at raves."
Porter's brows furrowed. "What's that?"
His face lit up. "Dude."
A second later, Johnny phased through with what appeared to be nothing until Invisi Billy materialized on the floor in front of him.
Elissabat looked approvingly at Invisi Billy just as Johnny returned the way he came. His passive expression held a glimmer of panic; he was likely after Operetta.
Elissabat frowned at Holt and glanced at Porter. "I'm sure I asked you to bring Romulus."
The poltergeist shrugged, already making his way toward Spectra and pulling her into an embrace. "He was cooler."
She rolled her eyes. "Just get him."
Porter sent her a halfhearted salute. "Aye-aye." He took Spectra's hand and they glided away.
"I don't get why everyone's so worried," Spectra mumbled. "Dying's not so bad."
Porter winced apologetically as they phased through the wall.
The bed creaked when Cleo sat up suddenly, pensive. "Why bring them here at all?" she asked. "They're safer if they're not here. Everyone that was left behind is safe now, right?"
Scarah, her eyes once shut eyes flashed open. "Not anymore." She shot up to her feet and rushed to the door. But Invisi Billy stood in her way.
He raised his arms to hold her back. "Scarah, what's going on?"
"I glimpsed into their minds." Her expression crumpled like paper. "They suspect we're in here. We have to get out now."
She shoved past him and wrenched open the door, her boyfriend baffled as she ran into the hall.
If the rest of you care about the safety of the others, Scarah's voice echoed within my skull, loud and distressed.
Gigi poked her head out from the bathroom. By the look on the others' faces, they heard her, too.
Get out of there. Now.
Elissabat crossed her arms, Gigi's eyes were red, those with boyfriends grabbed the other's hand, and Holt clenched his fists. I exchanged looks with the ghouls, their expressions fearful yet etched with the resilience I knew them for.
Clawdeen was the first to take off while Heath and Abbey chased after her, his flame out in an instant. I ran after Gil and Lagoona, not bothering to look back at who else followed.
But I had a feeling who stayed behind. Elissabat had a hand on Invisi Billy the second he looked like he was about to take off.
Her voice boomed, "You are staying."
I was too far away to hear him protest. But he must have.
A piercing crash rattled my eardrums from behind. Glass shards swept up from behind me like pointed, twinkling teeth. There was a loud thump, and I turned around to see my friends dropping like flies. Clawdeen called my name, but a sharp pain shot into my arm, and I hit the tile hard.
The window at the end of the hall had a shattered, gaping hole in it. More objects whisked past my head, and the friends ahead of me fell, too. I couldn't even close my eyes; nothing in me moved no matter how much I tried.
Boots thundered past me, and a vampire snickered at me. She flipped me onto my face and wrenched my stiff arms behind my back. Cold metal cuffs stung my wrists. Her voice was low. "Where do you want them?"
"Living room seems like a good enough spot," a familiar voice sounded. The vampire ghoul flipped me over, and they loomed over me. The vampire ghoul and Adrian.
He grinned. "Ironic, too."
-.-.-.-
They dragged us into the living room. The room where only hours ago we'd been listening to music and dressed to the nines. Dancing. Happy.
My muscles loosened up after a few minutes, but exhaustion overtook me. I tried pulling the cuffs apart, but it only made me feel weaker. I rose to my knees, and some of Nefera's vampires stood in front of the archway leading out. I took one look at the rest of my surroundings, and my heart sank to my stomach.
My friends filled the room. Even Scarah, unparalyzed and on her knees like most of the others. Her expression was contorted in concentration, and sweat drenched her face. Operetta crouched beside her, pleading.
Twyla huddled in a corner, her head ducked beside Jane and Jinafire, the former mimicking her and the latter with her eyes closed, eerily peaceful. Gigi lay on the floor, her body shaking beside a paralyzed Iris and Wydowna, all eight of her eyes closed.
Toralei and the twins stared with horrified expressions at Romulus and the Wolf siblings beside them, who were curled up on the ground, their clothes in tatters.
Skelita, wide-eyed, was sprawled onto one of the couches set aside, apart from everyone on the floor. First, I wondered how they subdued her, but then I noticed the odd angle she lay at. Skelita only wanted to support Clawdeen. Instead, she lay there, broken.
Robecca and Rochelle soothed a sobbing Draculaura from across the room beside Gory and Bram, who nestled together, their eyes closed like this was some sort of bad dream. Abbey stood still as a statue beside a listless Honey, her makeup smeared and her party dress billowed around her. She leaned onto Lagoona's back, who exchanged choked whispers to Gil.
To my right were Heath, Holt, Viperine, and Deuce who rested on Cleo's shoulder, slowly recovering from his paralysis.
Cleo looked at me and managed a shaky smile. "So much for that great big answer, huh?"
Deuce's snakes perked up. "If that's Frankie," he whispered to his ghoulfriend, "tell her we're cool on the keeping-the-body-swap-a-secret thing. Just in case... you know."
Cleo nudged him gently and looked back at me. "I will."
By some miracle, a smile found its way onto my face. I took a breath, then another before I glanced to my left.
The ghosts were on their knees like the rest of us, their glow paler than the moonlight.
"How did they catch you?" I asked Spectra.
"Ectoplasm nets," she hissed through her teeth with an eye roll. "They used darts for the rest of you." She glanced behind her. "Except Skelita... I guess she was just easy to catch."
I frowned, then eyed her cuffs. I raised an eyebrow.
Her face crumpled, and she suddenly looked very small. "These cuffs are worse than whatever that zapping stuff the Queen's doors had in her shed." Her voice broke, "I can't phase through. I can't even float. I can't—"
Porter, just one ghost apart from her, hurried over on his knees, hushing her softly. She buried her head in his shoulder, and he kissed the top of her head and whispered in her ear.
I let them be and scanned the room again. The cuffs weakened more than our powers, it took away our energy. Cleo—a monster with no obvious innate powers—looked just as drained as I did. But when I looked around the room, I noticed how we were arranged, and my mind went back to the room in the Queen's shed. We were organized like a collection, just like the monsters in there.
The only difference was that we weren't dead.
"Look what I got!" Adrian marched into the room past the other vampires, his ice-blue eyes gleamed in the darkness. He wrenched Jackson in by his neck.
I called his name, and Adrian squeezed his neck tighter. Jackson didn't fight back; he didn't look like he had it in him. Instead of cuffs, his skin was colored in fresh bruises.
"A normie?" A vampire leaped over me and rushed toward him, fangs out. "I thought those were gone for good!"
"You better plan on sharing, Adrian," a female voice came the same way Adrian entered. "If this is the only one in the whole world—"
"No to worry, friends, I think we can make this work." He grinned at Jackson, brandishing his fangs. "We can make it last its lifetime. But on one condition."
Most of the vampires groaned, but one of the few ghouls waved him off. "Fine, whatever." She pointed a finger at his chest. "You can have it first."
"Don't." Holt, only a few feet away, strained to get onto his feet.
Heath tried to mimic his actions, his teeth clenched. Beyond them, Toralei bared her teeth at the vampires, but her green eyes shown with fear. Other monsters started to pay attention, too. Those who could, at least.
Adrian moved his hands to Jackson's shoulders, holding him steady. He smirked at Holt's attempts to get up, then his gaze turned to me. "And what does the Queen have to say about it?"
I glared at him, but tears broke through and streaked my cheeks. Every move I made left me weakened. I shuddered, and my voice clogged in my throat. "Please."
He looked unimpressed, and he sunk his fangs into Jackson's neck.
Jackson's face livened with pain, and Holt and Heath began to shout. Toralei yowled and thrashed. She collapsed from the sudden exhaustion, and Holt followed seconds later. Heath had one foot on the ground in a kneeling position, and he huffed as he strained to bring his other leg up, but to no avail.
The room went quiet except for Draculaura's sobs, which had only gotten louder. They wouldn't kill Jackson. They couldn't.
But he looked so weak already. So pale. The seconds ticked by, stinging like daggers. But then, Adrian released him.
And then the vampire's head spun. He fell to the floor, unconscious.
Jackson fell onto his back, eyes closed but with enough strength to clutch the wound with his hand. His free arm suddenly jutted outward, and he was tugged toward the exit as if by some invisible force.
I smiled in relief.
The vampires surrounding him were instantly on guard. "Another ghost?"
"Let's find out." Another vampire threw a net in Jackson's general direction, and it covered a figure that kept moving.
A dart shot out from one of the vampire's guns. The form fell, and Invisi Billy materialized on the floor.
The vampire holstered her gun. "Not a ghost. Cuff him and put him with the others." She looked to Adrian on the floor, who was already coming to. She scowled. "And put the normie over there, too. Someone got greedy."
A couple of vampires dragged Invisi Billy by his ankles and placed him beside Operetta, where Scarah crawled over to him on her knees and fell onto his chest.
Adrian grimaced and rose to his feet. "We'll see what the Queen says about that."
"You know what she said," the vampire ghoul argued back. "We leave them alive until she says otherwise."
"I'm glad at least one of you listened to me."
My blood ran cold at the voice. The sound of heels hitting the hardwood floors echoed across the walls, and the vampires parted for the Queen.
Nefera.
