A/N: Hey guys... been a while... I want to start off with some story news. We're nearing the end and I want to let you all know now that there will be an epilogue chapter and after it I will upload another "chapter" that will basically be a bunch of deleted scenes and such. Just wanted to make that clear now so you know what to expect.

Aside from that, I've been laying out these last few chapters and the epilogue for a while now, even though they're not complete enough to post. Except for this one, of course, lol. I'm posting this way later than I expected. Law school is on the horizon and to say I'm freaking out is an understatement. And stress is so draining. Everyone says I'll do well but I'm mostly afraid of losing all the time I had to read or write or draw. But that's what it takes. I do want to have all these chapters ready to go before I start next month so I can upload periodically but we'll see.

I want to finish off by saying thank you, thank you, thank you to all who've followed, favorited, and reviewed Wrecked. (And the guests leaving reviews? You're superstars.) All your reviews and PMs really brighten my day beyond belief. Sometimes I want to respond but I tend to be kinda shy, even online, so I hope you all know you're amazing. Thanks for everything.

Enjoy!


Earlier that night...

Valentine wasn't in the mood for celebration. His body ached in an armchair brimming with pillows. His languid eyes watched dust dance in the air. The Queen's sitting room was white and embellished with gold from wall to wall. Valentine couldn't help but notice how Nefera's two-piece dress matched the room or all the empty seats around her.

Across from him, Nefera called a servant to uncork her bottle of champagne. She adjusted her crown and smirked at Valentine as the drink was poured. Then she shooed the little servant his way. Despite Valentine's improved condition, what he needed was life-giving blood, not alcohol.

Nefera took a small sip of her glass and the servant, a dainty doe-eyed vampire too "delicate" for the law enforcement unit, handed Valentine a champagne flute. It wasn't until Nefera first revealed herself as the Queen that he noticed the Egyptian details amidst the palace, like this servant's bunched up white robes. He took the glass and shot her a scowl as she left.

"To our success." Nefera raised her glass.

Valentine halfheartedly mimicked the gesture. He itched to do anything else. But after the televised reveal, the Queen insisted he remained here... bored. He eyed the bubbles in his drink for a minute before taking a swig. Then another for sanity's sake.

Nefera's loud sigh interrupted his thoughts, and she curled her legs beneath herself atop the loveseat. "Seriously, Valentine, there's no need to be bothered about not joining the rest of the vampires. Who else would I celebrate with?"

His mind flashed to all those times he'd seen the Queen yapping at her corpse flower. "I have a few ideas..." He sipped his drink.

The champagne flute clinked on the glass tabletop when Nefera set it down. Every sound—every word spoken—seemed too loud. She narrowed her eyes. "I was hoping this could wait but your energy is..." she gritted her teeth, "...lacking."

"Because, your majesty, I'm not doing anything. I may not be able to deal with the most physical tasks, but I have a silver tongue going for me. Why are you wasting my time?"

She waved him off. "You're not like the others, sure, but you're even more valuable than you think. Exactly why I need you here." She glared at him. "Now, play nice and finish this bottle with me. Then we'll see what you can do."

Valentine downed his drink and poured himself another until it threatened to spill past the brim. He raised his glass. "As you wish, darling."

-.-.-.-

Sometimes, Valentine hated the Queen. Not an ounce of kindness came from her. As Frankie, she was terse, off-putting, and cold. As Nefera, she was boisterous and rude. But nothing made him hate her more than this.

She ran a perfectly manicured finger along the rim of the golden lantern and looked up at him. "Any questions?"

He didn't look her in the eyes. His lips curled. "Why the hell do you have that?"

"Because I needed her." There was a mad edge to her voice.

All this time, she knew Whisp was alive. All this time, she knew as he stumbled about like a grief-stricken idiot. The vampire grit his teeth. "She's not here, is she?"

She grinned and wagged a finger at him. "I knew I was right to put you in charge."

"How long did you know she was missing?"

"I didn't." She faced away from him. "I thought she was in the lantern... There must have been a reason she wouldn't see you. Wasn't it safer if she was just dead?"

"No!" Years without his friend and she was always closer than he realized. He could have brought her back to him. But even then, she chose not to return when he called. Whisp let him believe that she died. He glared at Nefera.

They both disappointed him.

Valentine steadied himself. She had a reason to bring out the genie's lantern. If Whisp wasn't here, she was with the rebels. She could've been with them this whole time.

He inhaled through his teeth. "When do you want me to summon her?"


Now...

I stared at the space where Nefera vanished with Valentine and Whisp. The room was silent and still for the briefest, unnerving moment. Then it erupted.

"You let them get away!" Toralei stormed over to Clawdeen.

"Me?" She scoffed. "I'm not the one who barged in without thinking."

"That was an accident!"

"Oh, yeah?" Cleo joined the two. "Try using your brain before you think for once."

The werecat laughed. "That's rich, coming from you."

"I am not that kind of mummy!"

"Hear that everyone?" Operetta raised her voice. "She's not that kind of mummy. It's a hoot having ya back, Cleo. We really needed someone thinkin' about themselves during this. Oh, wait, no. We didn't."

"There's more than I expected," Sirena whispered to Bonita. "I thought most of them were dead."

"We won't get anywhere with this talk." Lagoona joined the fray. "Remember why we came here."

"You shouldn't have gotten in the way," Howleen growled.

"In way of what?" Abbey's presence was chillier than usual. "More chaos?"

"Howleen's right," Elissabat's slight frame hardly measured against the Yeti ghoul. "We were making progress, and if we had found them on our own then—"

Draculaura placed a hand on her shoulder. "Elissabat, please listen to us. We—"

"Listen to you?" She recoiled. "You've had plenty of monsters on your side for years and what have you done? Nothing."

Both groups lit up the room with their voices. Mansion and city monsters like Romulus, Invisi Billy, Operetta, the Wolf sisters, and even the hybrids sided with Elissabat on this one.

My eyes swept across them. Most of Elissabat's monsters were here and some I recognized from the camp. Viperine and Honey weren't too much of a surprise, but others were. Hesitant yet persevering Iris and shy Jane Boolittle. Among them were the ones I've always known. My friends. This foreign, matured group of the monsters. It felt like only yesterday I passed them by in the halls of Monster High. It nearly was. Now, they looked just as clueless and headstrong as I felt, bristling and arguing.

This was their everything. Five years of survival; of hiding. Five years of desire to bite back at the world that broke them. Only weeks here, and I had enough. A nagging feeling dug into me. The body-swap, the Queen...

There had to be more than this. There had to.

I rubbed my temples, and a sharp spark of electricity made me jump. I looked at my hands. Electricity rippled from my neck bolts and met my fingertips. It latched onto my torso; my legs.

The electricity swept across the floor, and everyone jolted into surprised compliance.

I ignored their annoyed expressions and waved. "Now that I have everyone's attention, am I the only one who heard Whisp trying to warn us?"

Most gazes fell to the ground.

"Thought so. We don't have a second to lose."

"She's right." Rochelle stepped out from her group, Robecca at her side. "Surely, everybody has noticed the lack of law enforcement members around the palace."

It was almost funny to watch as realization dawned on the group, but I instead felt an unfamiliar prick of irritation. "We have to go back to the mansion."

Bonita raised her hand, but Toralei swatted it away and crossed her arms. "No offense, Frankie, but you have no right to call the shots."

"Call the shots?" I repeated.

None of them looked my way, even my ghoulfriends.

Cleo shook her head. "That's nonsense! It looks to me that Frankie's the only one with any sense here. Our friends could be in danger!"

Elissabat approached her with deliberate steps. "Cleo, whose idea was it to come here?"

"Frankie, obviously—" She stopped herself, and became uncharacteristically quiet.

Elissabat raised her chin and turned on her heel.

She nearly strode out the door when Robecca spoke. "We may have lost the Queen tonight, but Frankie's right. If Whisp was warning us, we can't risk the safety of our friends."

Romulus spoke, "We had the Queen right where we wanted her. We have to find her."

Clawdeen scoffed. "Someplace we can't find them? Good luck."

Robecca ignored them and shot me a look, her bronze eyes like daggers. "We can't leave any more of us behind."

I met her gaze. "No, we can't."

"Actually," Avea raised her hand. "We'll stay behind. In case they come back."

I nodded, my eyes trained on the opened door. Everyone's eyes bore onto my back as I walked through them. Footsteps sounded behind me, but I couldn't bear to smile.

I was sick of wasting time.

Our goal was the same: stop the Queen. Despite being high on our list of priorities, maybe it was time we realigned them. I didn't have five years of hardships like the others, but something felt off ever since I met them. Their anger toward the Queen, their aimlessness in this fresh world that stung them like a wound. They avoided everything that brought them pain.

I've been on plenty of adventures that led to me and the ghouls being like heroes on a mission. But these monsters weren't the heroes. They were the mission. My mission.

And I was on my own.

Jackson caught up with me, hands still on that clunky book of his. "Hey." He caught his breath. "There's something you should know."

I raised an eyebrow and looked up at him as we walked. "What?" I looked over my shoulder. "Why me?"

He shrugged. "I trust you. Every plan we've had in the past worked out when you were around to lead the charge."

I smiled at that, and his expression turned serious.

"The Qu—Nefera used an amulet and charm to change the world. The amulet succeeded since it separated the normie and human worlds. Nothing can change that."

I winced. Bad news came at me from all sides tonight. We turned the corner and he pulled me aside. A few monsters passed ahead of us, but not enough to lose them.

He lowered his voice. "The charm, the one that made her lucky, shouldn't be working anymore."

"What? How?"

Jackson took a step back. "The body swap. That charm directly affected her body, and it stops working as soon as the curse breaks."

"But Cleo is awake, too. Shouldn't the normie world come back?"

He shook his head. "She was forced out of her curse. According to what I've read, your curse was meant to break naturally. There's no telling how long it would take, but it did. Your amnesia's been gone for weeks now. Which means—"

"Nefera lost her luck when I gained my memories." I huffed out a laugh. Nefera's confidence got the best of her when she told me, and it led to her downfall. This meant we had an actual fighting chance, but it also meant that Elissabat's plans were fair game.

More monsters passed us by, and I looked at Jackson. "Why didn't you say anything sooner?"

He ran a hand through his cropped hair. "The chapter on it was pretty long..."

I shook my head and placed a hand on his arm. "Thanks."

He smiled. Then he cleared his throat. "But now that she has Whisp, she's probably figured it out by now."

"Figured what out?" Toralei slinked around the corner with a sly grin across her lips. "Something you wanna share?"

Jackson cracked open the book. "See, I read that—"

"Yawn." Toralei wrinkled her nose. "Come on, you're holding everyone back."

We followed her and I whispered to Jackson, who looked unfazed that she blew him off. "You don't want to tell her?"

"I'll tell everyone later. I wanted her off my back for now."

Toralei's ear twitched, but she didn't look back.

I pursed my lips. "Jackson, I never thought you to be interested in something like this."

"Like what?"

I gestured at the book. "Historical stuff about magical idols and curses and stuff. You were more sciencey in high school. More... forward-thinking." I knew it wasn't accurate, but luckily Jackson understood. Thanks to his curiosity, he connected the dots to the changes in the world with none of my input. Not to mention what he discovered now.

"I'm still into that." He paused. "Well, not much anymore since we don't have enough resources for it. I'd love to do more with chemistry, but the last time I did anything like that..." Jackson's eyes darted ahead for a moment too long; his eyes locked onto something or someone. He shook his head and his voice dropped, "We're all stuck in the past one way or another."

He focused on following the others. The night air greeted us with a slight chill, the sky black and starless, save for only two I could make out. The ghouls headed one direction while Elissabat's group went another.

I left Jackson and joined my ghoulfriends; we walked through the gardens to get off the palace grounds and out of the city.

Where Elissabat's group walked slowly yet deliberately, they moved quickly with slumped shoulders. For a moment, I felt as if we were in high school, out on some adventure that had gotten the better of us once again. We would make things right, like always.

But that was then. I couldn't shake what Jackson had said. This new world felt like a strange dream for so long, and I thought the others felt the same way, too, sometimes, despite their years in it.

Jackson was right. Every one of us was stuck in the past.

Cleo trudged behind me, stumbling on the heels she refused to remove. She and I... we had an excuse. This was new to us, but we adapted. Maybe it was time we shared that mentality with the others.

My breath caught. For the first time in a long time, Cleo and I were on the same page. We had to be.

She saw me and smiled. "Don't you worry, Frankie, we'll finish this."

I smiled back and linked arms with her.

We so were.