Chapter 7: Monsters Attack

Zach

I walked into the gym where the dance is being taken place. Of course, the dancing that everyone is doing is, well... awful, as I made my way through the high schoolers with Hannah right behind me. "Excuse me," I said. "Coming through." I continued my way through the dancing crowd. "Come on. We gotta get to the stage." I turned to see that Hannah isn't behind me anymore, so I went back to her, seeing a happy smile on her face.

"So this is what a high school dance is like," she said thrilled.

"Uh, yeah..." I looked around, grabbing her hand, pulling her through the crowd. "Usually, the dancing's..." I looked around watching everyone doing their horrible dancing. "...better. But you get the idea."

"That what they call dancing?" Hannah asked.

I shrugged. "...I'm not sure," I answered honestly.

"Zach." I looked around, hearing my name being called, until I spotted my mom.

"Mom. Mom." I went up to her.

"Zach," she said. "I was so worried. I couldn't get hold of you or Lorraine."

"I know. I know. Mom, everyone in here is in danger. We have to barricade the school..." I saw a disbelief look on my mom's face.

"Oh, no, Zach." Mom shook her head. "Not this again..."

"He's telling you the truth." Hannah stepped forward and held out her hand. "I'm Hannah," she introduced. "I live next door."

"Alright. Okay, everyone, listen up. Okay?" Me, Hannah, including everyone else saw Champ on the stage, the music dying out when he started speaking into the microphone. "Okay. Everybody, you gotta listen up..."

"Champ." I looked back to see one of the teachers. "Get down," he said.

However, Champ didn't get off that stupid stage. "I have something to say..." he struggled as everyone stared at him from the floor. "Uh... wow. Okay...um..." Sweat came to his forehead. "Uh, okay, uh..." Rolling my eyes, I walked onto the stage. "Listen to my best friend, Zach." Champ shoved the microphone into my hands, almost making me drop it. "Just... Just tell them," he told me.

I rolled my eyes again. "Thanks, Champ." I brought the microphone up to my mouth and spoke into it. "Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Um... This is going to sound insane, but..." God, I can't believe I'm doing this. "...monsters have invaded Madison."

The reaction I got was laughter. They thought I was joking!

"Guys, it's the truth. Okay?" Champ tried to defend me, only to fail miserably. "He's telling the truth. It's... He's not making this up..."

"They've blocked every road in town," I kept on trying to tell them. "They've torn down the cell towers, and we've been cut off from the rest of the world. And they could be here any second, so we need to work to..."

"Ahh!" a kid yelled out, interrupting me. "He's right." He looked out the window then back at the crowd. "It's the Boogeyman. And he's picking his nose."

Everyone burst out laughing again. I let out a heavy breath. "I'm not making..."

"Ahh!" he yelled out again, looking out the window then back at the crowd again. "There's a giant bug, and it's eating everybody's cars!"

"Uh, it's getting old, dude," another one spoke, the laughter that is now dead.

"No, seriously!" Suddenly, the wall broke apart, and the kid was picked up by the praying mantis from outside, making everyone scream when they saw it.

I turned to my friends. "They're here."

Hazel

"Hello, girly..."

I gasped, looking up to see Dr. Maniac and Purple Rage. I stepped away from them, pressing my back against the school building. "What do you want?" I asked, my voice weak and shrill.

"Slappy just wants to see you," Maniac sneered, stepping towards me.

I felt my arm do a small jerk. "Why?" I responded, my voice getting a bit bolder. "Just to freak me out?" I scooted down the wall, my eyes locked on the villains.

"Probably..." he snickered. "Have you ever noticed that you get very, well... anxious when you hear or see Slappy? Because we did."

"That's because I'm afraid of dolls and ventriloquist dummies," I confessed. "And I'm suppose to be with Stine. He's the one who's keeping me safe."

"Oh, really?" Purple Rage scoffed. "Then why are you here?"

"You made me come towards you!" I curled my hands into tight fists. "Stine is going to stop you once and for all," I declared, my eyes casting glares at them. "And so will my friends."

"Are they your friends...?" Maniac questioned me.

"I-" I paused, thinking. Are they? "I'm... I'm not sure... But I keep asking myself this, and they are friends..."

"Ha!" he laughed. "How do you know that?"

"..." I hesitated before speaking again. "Because I do know. The voice in my head keeps saying that I have no friends," I told them, walking towards them. "And I know I shouldn't listen to it..."

"Or maybe you should..." Maniac kept on sneering.

"You don't know anything about me..." I seethed.

"True... but Slappy does."

I blew a razzberry. "Yeah, right," I scoffed in disbelief. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and find Stine. I was suppose to be with him." I began to walk away, when Purple Rage grabbed me by the arm, and I flinched at the feeling of being touched. "Let go!" I cried.

"Slappy wants you," he growled, spitting into my face.

"Let go, I don't like to be touched!" I struggled to get free, but with no use as I was dragged over away from the school towards a black car, and thrown onto the ground, seeing a license plate that read Haunted on it. I sat up when the car door opened and shut.

"Hey there," Slappy greeted, grinning his creepy grin. I turned away from him, ignoring him. "Why are you not afraid?" he asked, going in front of me, lifting my chin up with his wooden finger, and I slapped it away.

"Get away from me..." I warned.

"You know... you seem to have a pretty rough childhood, am I right?" he said, ignoring my warning.

"Shut up..." I hissed. "You don't need to know anything about me."

"Oh?" He lifted up a wooden brow. "But weren't you going to tell papa?"

"How do you know that...?" I replied, standing up and getting onto my feet.

"I'm smart," he answered. "Smart enough to know that you..." He pointed at me. "...had a rough childhood. You have no friends, and papa betrayed you like he did to me. As well as your other friends."

"Those two idiots lure me out here," I protested. "And Stine didn't betray me nor my friends!"

"Are you sure?" he questioned, his eyes lingering at me.

I opened my mouth to speak, when I heard screaming from the school, and saw the giant praying mantis picking up some kid out of the school where the gym is.

Slappy laughed. "Haha! Now this is a real homecoming!" he proclaimed, taking the key out of his pocket of his tux, holding it in front of the lawn gnomes. "Take this. Invite the rest of our friends to the party," he told them. He was about to drop the key when I snatched it away from him. "Hey!" he protested. "Give that back!"

"You're not releasing anymore monsters, gremlin!" I wrapped my fingers around the key. "Stine will stop you!"

"In your dreams, girly!" He jumped, reaching for the key. "Now give me that key... or else."

"Or else, what?" I retorted. "You are not letting out anymore monsters, Slappy."

"Give me that key!" Slappy yelled, jumping for it. "You're worse then papa!"

"Really?" I said. "Then I guess I have to give this to your 'papa'."

Slappy growled, glaring his brown eyes into mine. "Give...me...that...key..." he said slowly.

"I'm not giving it to you, dummy!" I exclaimed.

"Who you calling dummy? Dummy," he snarled. "Now give me back that key! Hazel, I'm warning you. We can do this the easy way... or the hard way. Which is it?"

"I'm choosing neither," I refused. "You're not having this key, Slappy."

"Just give it to me!" he screeched. "I want revenge on papa, but you're just slowing us down! Give me that key!"

"What did he ever do to you?!" I cried, still not giving him the key.

"He locked me up in a book! Back in Chicago!" He jumped for the key again.

"Is there a reason why?" I questioned further, my fear turning into anger.

"To get revenge, but it never worked! Give me that key!"

"You're not having it!" Raising my foot, I kicked Slappy, sending him back a few feet.

Slappy grunted when he hit the ground. Then, slowly, he turned his head towards me, glaring daggers into my eyes. "You shouldn't have done that, Hazel..." Suddenly, he got up and knocked me to the ground. "Now give me that key," he ordered, trying to pry my fingers open.

"Get off me!" I cried, trying to shove him off of me. "Slappy, get off! I'm not giving it to you!" I kept a good grip on the key, using my left hand to try and push him off. "Slappy, stop it! Get off! You're not-OW!" I screamed, when I felt his wooden jaw clamped down onto my arm, near my wrist, biting down hard. "Ow! Slappy, let go!" I kept on screaming. But he bit down harder, and I can feel his upper and bottom teeth go through the sleeve of my shirt, sinking into my skin, cutting into it.

"LET GO OF ME!" Using my other hand, I transferred the key, then threw it as hard as I could. Then I grabbed the back of Slappy's tux, ripping my arm out of his mouth, heaving him right into the front of the Haunted Car, and he hit the back of his head on the license plate. I got up, staggering back, gasping, then ran towards the school building by the time the wooden devil recovered.

"Just to let you know," I heard Slappy yelling out to me. "When I bite, I marked you! And it'll be permitted except when I get sucked back into a book, which will be never!" His laugh echoed into the sky.

I ran inside the school, looking for Stine.

"Where is he?" I asked out loud, then saw the auditorium, running into it, slamming the door shut, gasping for breath.

Stine jumped from his seat. "Hazel?" He had a surprised look on his face. "I thought you were with me."

"Those two goons brought me over to Slappy," I quickly explained, holding my arm. "And Slappy bit me!" I screeched in a high, shrill voice, going over to him.

"He did what!?" he roared, getting up off his seat from the table where he had set his typewriter down. "He bit you!?"

"I'm not lying, right?" I replied. "And if I was, then I wouldn't been shaking. He even yelled out that he marked me. What the hell does that mean?!" I cried. I ran to the table, giving it a hard kick to it. "Dammit!" I cursed.

"Let me see," Stine requested.

I hesitated, then moved one of my sleeves up, showing it to him.

He looked at it, his eyes going wide. "Karru Marri Odonna Loma Molonu Karrano," he suddenly read.

"What did you just say?!" I cried out again.

"He did marked you, Hazel. Just like he said. Those words translate to You And I Are One Now," he told me.

The color drained out of my face. "...no..." I backed away. "No!" I yelled out, tears streaming down my face. "No! No! No!" I began kicking the table again. "No! No! No!" I kept on yelling

"Hazel, Hazel." I felt Stine grabbed me, pulling me away from the table, and I squirmed away at the feeling of being touched. "Relax; calm down. What else did tell you?" he asked

I looked down at the floor. "...he's says it's only permitted except when he gets suck into a book," I mumbled. "Is that true...?"

Stine let out a sigh. "I'm not sure... Slappy has never bitten anyone. Not even me. But... we'll see. For now, sit over there, while I start writing."

At least he's being honest. I wasn't so sure, either. I walked over to where Stine told me to sit. I sat down, mumbling to myself as I listen to what Stine is typing.

"The night was cold..." He paused, thinking about it for a second. "Cold was the night." I heard him took the paper out of the typewriter, placing a new one in, and began typing again.

You And I Are One Now... Those words stayed with me. Also, there's something else that I didn't tell Stine. About where Slappy says that Stine and my friends had betrayed me, just like how it happened to him...

Suddenly, we heard a crash, and people yelling. I'm guessing that Slappy had already released the rest of the monsters...

Champ

Oh, God, I can't believe I'm doing this. When I saw the monsters burst through the barricade doors, I have to find somewhere to hide. That is, until I heard voices.

"We should be helping," a voice argued, which I clearly recognized.

"We should be leaving," another voice protested, sounding like a male, until I heard two startled yelps, and saw a boy running around the corner.

"What? What? Where are you going?" the same female voice cried out. "We are so..." The voice stopped. "...through." I then heard pleading and begging, and I peered around the corner. I gasped when I saw the werewolf stalking towards Taylor. "Please, no. Please. No, please." She backed away from it, bumping into the water fountain.

I gotta do something. So, with a yell, I ran towards the werewolf, jumping on it. The werewolf barked and growled, trying to throw me off, but I held my grip, refusing to let go. It rammed me into lockers, but I didn't let go. I kept holding onto the wild dog.

Opening my mouth, I bit down on werewolf's shoulder and neck. It let out a yelping pain when it felt a burning sizzle on his fur and skin, flinging me off of him, and I landed harshly on the floor, watching the werewolf whimpering as it scampered away.

"Oh, my God." I heard high-heels clatter towards me, and saw Taylor kneeling down in front of me. "How'd you do that?" she asked amazed.

"Oh, um..." I opened my mouth. "Silver fillings," I explained. "I have a ton of cavities. When I was ten, I didn't brush my teeth for a whole year." I made a face, feeling something in my mouth. "Ugh," I said. "Werewolf hair..." I took some bits of hair out my mouth. "Oh." I felt her hug me, surprising me.

She then gazed into my eyes. "You saved my life, Chump," Taylor said.

My face glowed red. "It's actually 'Champ'," I corrected her. Then, without me realizing it, she began to kiss me, surprising me even more. When she was finished, I had a smile on my face. "I was just gonna say 'hug me again', but yeah, yeah, that works, too," I grinned as she let out a light laugh. "Come on, let's go find the others." I took her hand, and we started searching for my friends.

Hazel

I stared at the words that Slappy gave me with Stine still typing on his typewriter.

"All the monsters have converged," he typed. "The vicious vampire bats... the praying mantis... the Haunted Mask..."

"Forgetting somebody...?" I gasped when I heard another voice in the room, and so did Stine as he stopped typing.

"Slappy..." Stine breathed out, and the lights went on, and we saw him sitting at one of the row of seats. "How did you find us?" he asked.

Slappy laughed. "I know you. I created you." He then turned his head in thought. "Or is it the other way around?" he said, thinking, then looked at Stine. "I always forget. We're so similar..."

The lights went out again, and Stine looked around. "Slappy? Slappy? Slappy?" he called out as I stood up, looking around as well. "Slappy?"

"Hi." Stine let out a yelp and I let out a startled cry when we saw him on the table. Slappy bent down over the typewriter. "Everyone at the high school join forces to defeat Slappy and his monsters," he read. He stood back up. "Hmm," he mused, nodding his head slightly, before narrowing his eyebrows at the writer. "But Slappy had other ideas..." he improvised his own line.

As if Stine read his thoughts, he went up to the typewriter. "No." He placed his hands in it, and Slappy slammed the top case down. Stine let out a painful yell.

"Dad!" I heard a scream, and saw Hannah and Zach walked into the room by the time Slappy vanished, going over to us.

"Are you okay?" Zach asked.

"That dumb dummy broke my fingers," Stine groaned as Hannah slip is tie off of him, tying fingers. "I was almost finished. Only one or two pages left."

"Yeah, and earlier he bit me," I added.

Zach's eyes went wide. "He bit you!?" he exclaimed.

I nodded. "But we're not sure if it's permitted or not unless Slappy gets suck into the book," I explained. He also said that you guys betrayed me. But I didn't say that.

Zach then turned over to Stine. "Forget two pages," he said. "The end."

Stine shook his head. "It doesn't work like that."

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion, and we heard the principle speaking through the speakers that are above us. "Monsters have overwhelmed Madison High. Retreat in an orderly fashion to the storage room. I repeat, retreat in an orderly fashion to the storage room."

When the principle stopped speaking, we heard everyone screaming to the storage room.

"We'll figure this out later, alright?" Zach spoke.

Stine nodded. "Let's go. Follow me."

Hannah grabbed the papers and Zach closed the typewriter case, holding it by the handle, and we all ran out of the storage room, entering one of the hallways, and Zach held the door open.

"Come on, go!" he yelled. We all ran as plant vines of Venus fly traps burst through the lockers and the walls, jumping over them.

"Ahh!" Hannah tripped and screamed from a plant vine, the Venus fly traps snapping at her.

"Hannah. No." Zach began hitting the plants with the typewriter case, while Stine kicked it away. I, however, stomped on the vines, as we forced them out the door.

"Close it. Close it," I said, and we all slammed the door shut, panting.

And that's when I saw something that I never knew about Hannah. As she laid on the floor, the moonlight shone down on her, making her skin glow blue. Is she what I think she is? I looked at Zach by the time the light went away.

Zach reached down, grabbing her hand, helping her off the floor. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Come with me," Stine said, leading Hannah to the storage room. I then noticed Champ holding hands with a girl that I've never seen. We were about to follow Stine when he stopped us.

"Wait. Wait, she's a..."

"Yes, and I don't care," Zach told him.

We then turned to see the monsters heading towards us down the hallway. "Let's go," I said. We began running to the storage room where everybody was getting in.

"Alright." Zach got to the door as we got closer to the storage room. "Come on, come on, come on. Go, go, go. Shut it. Go!" he yelled, by the time we made it in, slamming the doors shut, with everyone holding them closed.

"Get that door! Get that door!"

"Oh God, oh God."

"Wait. Mom, mom, mom." Zach looked around, then found Gale going up to him, hugging her son. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Are you okay?" Gale returned the same manner.

"What do we do?" Champ panicked. "They're going to get through."

"I don't know! I don't know!" Zach answered over the commotion.

I looked to see Stine staring out at the buses outside. "Slappy wants me..." he said. "That's who he's after..." He turned to the others. "Listen to me, if I can lure them away with one of those buses, I know that they'll follow me and you'll all be safe."

"Then I'm coming with you," Hannah stated.

"No, I need to do this alone," he told her. "I've been running away from people for my whole life, that I created these terrible monsters..."

"Hold that door down."

"...but I'm not mad anymore," he continued. "It's my fault... not this town's... not yours."

"Then there's got to be another way." Tears brimmed into Hannah's eyes, that it made me wanna cry, too.

"Hannah, sweetheart, it's time for me to face my demons..." he reasoned with her.

Champ came up to him. "I believe in you..."

"SHUT UP!" Stine's harsh yell startled us. "I'm sorry," he apologized, lowering his voice. "I mean, shut up," he said gently.

I looked over then back at the others. "I have an idea," I said.

Everyone listened to what I had to say.