Frankie Stein.

I knew her.

My hands tied, I clumsily rose to my feet. I didn't know what to do, so I stood there staring at her and she stared back, sitting with one leg crossed over the other atop her throne.

Queen Frankie wore a lot of makeup, and I could tell she was hiding her stitches with it. She wore dark teal lipstick and something was off about her eyes... Shouldn't one be green and the other blue? At least that's what I thought, but the Queen had two blue eyes. Then I noticed a glint in her left eye. She wore a colored contact.

The only things that seemed right about Frankie were her neck bolts. They were exposed but gold instead of... What was it? Silver. I wondered why she changed herself so much... Something about her told me that she was the kind of ghoul to be herself and not change for anyone or anything.

It felt like ages before Frankie spoke again, her voice booming, "Bow."

I bowed, my bound hands straining when I did. I looked back up at the Queen, a look of contempt on her face.

She focused on something beside me. "Is this what you found by the mountain?" she asked.

"Yes," the voice of my abductor sounded. "Patrolled there as asked, your majesty." I turned around and saw him, a dark-haired vampire in a simple dark uniform. He looked familiar, but I couldn't think of a name. He certainly seemed strong enough to capture me.

"Good," the Queen replied. "I don't usually send the vampires to patrol, but I had Neighthan busy with something else." She turned to look at someone to her right; I hadn't even noticed him. A hybrid monster stood at the Queen's throne, also dressed in a simple dark uniform. He had gray skin, blue eyes, and long tri-colored hair and tail. Pointy gray ears and a blue horn poked from atop his head. This was Neighthan. He looked familiar, but the name did nothing for me. Seeing him surely had an impact on me, though, because I recognized him right when I saw him. Weird.

Neighthan smiled at Frankie and reached out for her hand, but she raised it and he pulled back. Neighthan didn't even bother to look at me and just stared at Frankie with a far off look in his eyes. It was clear that he was in love with her, and the Queen seemed to be using that to her advantage. That alone told me enough about the kind of monster Frankie was: cruel and selfish. How could anyone love someone like that?

"What would you like me to do with her?" the vampire asked.

Frankie had a look of malice in her eyes as she grinned down at me from her golden throne. "Cleo, Cleo, Cleo..."

She knew me, too. The Queen opened her mouth, ready to sentence me to whatever horror she had in mind until the doors flung open.

"Frankie, do you need me to—Cleo?!" an astonished voice burst.

I craned my neck to see a thick-haired werewolf ghoul in a short, purple animal-patterned dress and heeled gold boots. Clawdeen Wolf. I recognized her from the dream I first woke from.

An abrupt hug from the werewolf broke me out of my thoughts. I felt like I couldn't breathe. She pulled back after a minute, wide-eyed. "I thought you died! When the school fell—"

"Clawdeen," Frankie snapped from her throne. The Wolf released me and wiped her tears before facing the Queen. "You're dismissed. Interrupt me at another time," she quipped.

Letting out a reluctant grunt, Clawdeen left the room and shut the doors without question. It didn't seem right for her to act that way, and I was puzzled until I remembered I had much bigger problems at hand.

"I want all of you to leave the room," the Queen commanded.

The vampire spoke up, unease in his voice, "Your majesty—"

"I can handle her, Valentine," she said while having Neighthan guide her down from her throne until she stood directly in front of me. "You may leave now."

Neighthan ushered Valentine out of the room and the large doors opened and closed again, leaving me alone with the Queen. She stood taller than me on extremely high gold heels.

"It must be strange seeing all this," she said.

"Seeing what?"

"Me."

"I guess... But I don't really know much of what hap—" I cringed as pain seared my head—another strange, new phenomenon I lacked answers for.

The Queen nodded sympathetically, but she didn't seem to be paying me any attention. "You must be uncomfortable. It's because your mind isn't used to the body yet. Have you fainted yet?" She sighed like she was remembering an embarrassing memory. "It gets better eventually."

"What are you talking about?"

She scoffed. "Have you even looked at yourself these past five years?" Then her expression grew serious. "How long has it been since you've awoken?"

How did she know about that? "I woke up this morning," I confessed.

"I thought you were in an eternal slumber like Cleo. We preserved your body anyway."

Wait. "But... I'm Cleo."

The Queen sighed deeply. "It must've been the magical energy that rendered you unconscious for so long... You must've gotten hit with the amnesia curse." She said it as if it explained everything.

I stared at her blankly, and she let out an exasperated sigh. "Do you seriously not realize you're not in control of your own body right now?" she jeered. "I'm not even in control of mine! That bitch is stuck in it!"

The Queen waved her arms around in frustration until her wrist stitches got loose and one of her hands flew across the room. She let out another exasperated sigh.

"My Ra, I hate this body." Then she looked at me. "I guess it could be worse." The Queen looked me up and down, disdain radiating off her. Then she smiled maliciously at me. "If only you could have your body back, then you'd be the one dealing with loose stitches."

Just like that, it hit me—"I'm Frankie Stein."

Images began to flood my mind. Memories. Flashes of meeting new monsters and walking the halls of Monster High, dating and friendship drama, going on adventures, helping other monsters... It was clear now.

I am Frankie Stein.

From when I first opened my eyes to the world once I was stitched together by my parents, to when I first started attending Monster High—it was all there and more. But I still had no idea how the world became this way. I must've fallen asleep before it happened.

"Ding ding ding!" the Queen—the ghoul in my body—drawled sarcastically. If I was Frankie and Cleo was asleep then the Queen must be,

"Nefera."

"Ooh we do have a winner, don't we?"

I knew Nefera was mean but this? I couldn't believe she had it in her. All she did was ridicule Cleo; she wasn't this bad. "What happened to you?"

Her face—my face—became grim, and she avoided my gaze. "One choice can cause..." She looked back at me. "A lot can happen in five years."

"This is insane! What made you selfish enough to take over the world?" Another thought came to me. "How did you get the normies to agree to this?"

"Let's just say I wanted things to go my way for once," she said with a grin. "And the normies? About five years ago, when this wasn't a reality and Monster High..." She drifted off for a moment, and a sad looked came across her—my—face. I felt sorry for her for only a second until she grinned again, all hints of vulnerability gone. "There was a spell that separated the monster realm and the human realm. Back when it was first cast five years ago, it was just a small bubble on the Earth—about the size of a town—and the spell was still active. Now it's not. There shouldn't be any normies here, but I know for certain that there aren't enough left to go against us monsters. You see, the spell spanned the entire Earth with normies living on a completely different plane of existence. A parallel universe, if you will. So I can do what I want without pesky normie interference."

"And this led to you ruling the world?"

"My real control is here, in the city. But that doesn't mean that other countries don't agree with me for the most part."

"And Clawdeen... She trusts you?" I couldn't believe a friend of mine would so willingly follow such a cold-hearted ghoul.

The Queen nodded. "So do many of your other friends. They all seemed so eager to stand by your side. I have vampires as law enforcers. I believe you already know of Valentine?" Nefera giggled at my silence, using my voice, my body for all of this: to turn the world into her own personal paradise. Which reminded me...

"Neighthan... You're using him."

She laughed at this. "He's so pathetic! Every now and then he'll talk about the first day he saw you and how it was love at first sight!" she laughed again. I grimaced. I pitied Neighthan. "I also have his other hybrid friends working for me as well as Andy Beast, who isn't completely useless." My hands clenched into fists behind my back. Those were my friends.

The Queen strutted back to her throne. "You see, Frankie," she said, sitting down, "the only thing remotely good about your body is that anyone will trust you. And don't even get me started on guys. Do you realize how many of them have fallen for you? It's priceless!" She cackled on her throne as if she thought this was some sort of game. What happened to her?

"How..."

"Built a city. I didn't even bother with walls because one: no one will oppose me, and two: no one in the city leaves because everything they could ever want is right here. I own a city with no complaints. That is how everyone trusts me. How the world trusts me." She smiled victoriously. "I may have done things my way, but I'm not a tyrant."

I wanted to say something back, to prove to her that what she had done was wrong, but I was drawing a blank. Nevertheless, I kept the focus on her. "You built a city in less than five years?"

"I have my resources."

Silence passed between us.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Oh, I was waiting for you to ask!" the Queen burst out. "Not only because I can relate to the body-switching but also because—Guards!" She pressed a button and called out into the intercom near her throne. Soon after, two burly monsters walked in and grabbed my arms. "You're no longer a threat." She beamed. "You know where to go," she told the guards. "Take her away."

Adding to my persistent headache, a bag was hauled over my field of vision. A malevolent grin on my face being the last thing I saw before I was dragged away.