Monster party I
Jess pulled into the school parking lot.
Climbing out of her car, she walked over to join her friends, hanging around the edge of the school building. At least if she hung around with them today, she was less likely to be cornered by Mrs. McGowan. She still had art class this morning, so that'd be one problem she had to deal with. Jess was torn out of her thoughts as one of the other girls saw her.
'Jess! Look at this!' She held up a home-made flyer.
'Monster Party?' Jess chuckled as she took the flyer to have a proper look at it. Someone had gone to great pains to draw Vince, Howard, and Frank in their monster forms. They looked nothing like the real boys. 'It isn't even Halloween. What are we having this for?'
'Did you see the news this morning?' one of the boys asked. 'It's all over town. These three monsters saved the plunder at Pirate's Park. They're trying to work out if they're real monsters or just guys in costumes or what, but one of them actually hauled a damaged boat out of the water – by himself! No regular guy could do that!'
Jess chose not to mention the fact that she had been there, and that she had witnessed Frank dragging that ship out of the water by himself. It had to be impossibly heavy and yet he'd had no trouble. 'So…we're having a monster party? Cool! Dress up or what?'
'Dealer's choice!' Sam, one of the other guys, threw his hands up. 'You can dress up or you can just show up!'
Jess laughed. 'All right, all right.' She grinned. 'I think I'll just come as a witch.'
'All right!' Eileen cheered next to her. 'The Monster Party is on!'
Jess grinned. 'Okay. I'll be back. I'm gonna go chuck my book bag in my locker.'
:[
'Would you look at this?' Vince remarked with a laugh, holding up one of the flyers that'd been hung up all over the school.
'Is that meant to be us?' Howard asked, leaning in for a better look.
'I think so.' Vince turned it back around and looked at it again. 'Anyway, looks like they're throwing a party because of what happened at Pirate Park.'
Frank looked alarmed. 'Does this mean we're-a famous?'
'In a way,' Vince said. 'The Drak Pack are famous, but nobody knows who we are.'
'Oh, that's good,' Frank said. 'I'd get nervous, that many people watching me.'
Howard barked out a laugh. 'Vince sure wouldn't.'
Vince smirked and looked at the poster. It wasn't too bad, he supposed. They had made themselves scarce quite fast after Frankie had dragged the ship back to shore. People hadn't gotten that good of a look at them. Although, most people seemed confused on what Howler was. And nobody used the proper term for what Frankie was.
'Careful, you almost look proud of something.'
Vince spun around, startled.
Jess Brenton was walking past them.
'What would I be proud of?' Vince demanded.
'I have no idea,' Jess said, not breaking stride. 'That's just what you look like.'
'Hey,' Howard said as they watched her go. 'Is it my imagination or…was she less hostile?'
No…No, Vince had noticed that.
Her tone, for once, had completely lacked the usual vitriol.
:[
Violet McGowan stormed through the school and into her office.
She was fortunate. The art office she shared with four other teachers was empty. She grabbed the phone and dialled. This was one of those times the amount of time it took to transfer the call all the way up to Alex's office was frustrating. True, this silly thing wasn't going to happen before the end of the school day, but nevertheless she felt a sense of urgency.
It was the implication behind the blasted thing that bothered her.
The phone call connected and she quickly told Alex what was going on.
'You need to calm down, Vi,' he said. 'You don't throw a fuss when those kids throw their Halloween parties.'
'Yes, but that's Halloween!' Violet argued. 'This party is in response to what those three monsters did at Pirate's Park. They're honouring them as damned heroes, of all things!'
Alex laughed. 'No, they're not. They're dumb teenagers. You ought to know that kids take any excuse to party they can. That's all this is. Take a deep breath, have a cup of tea, and relax a little. I'll see you on the next meeting.' He hung up.
Violet looked at the phone. 'Oh. Really helpful, Alex.'
Putting down the phone, she grabbed her teaching apparatus and headed to her classroom. The bell rang as she left the office and she soon stood in front of her class, instructing them on the latest project. She cringed as she walked around the room and noticed just how many of the kids had picked monsters for their subjects.
This really is getting bad.
Violet quietly moved around Jessica's table.
'…so I figure this ought to be good for a costume!' she was saying to her friends, turning her sketchpad around.
'What happened to your pointy hat?' Bianca asked.
Jessica huffed. 'Pointy hats are so last century.'
She couldn't seriously be thinking of…? 'Miss Brenton?'
Jess turned and looked at her, the friendliness inexplicably melting out of her expression. 'Yes, ma'am?'
The other girls at the table looked at her. Violet didn't see, across the room, Vincent James and Howard Bane turn in their chairs and look over. She didn't see Frank Herbert lift his head in response to the movements of his friends. All she noticed was that she had the attention of girls she didn't want overhearing this sort of thing.
So Mrs. McGowan said, 'I'll want to talk to you after class.'
Jessica frowned. 'All right.'
Violet moved on. The rest of the class seemed to tick by slowly before the bell for recess rang. Every other student packed up and walked out. Jess packed up too, but she moved around and leaned on the edge of the table, saying something to her friends as she did so. They filed out with the others, but Violet noticed they hung close to the door.
Violet kept her voice down. 'You're not going to attend that party tonight, are you?'
'And why not?' Jess asked.
'It's glorifying a pack of monsters!' Violet snapped. 'What did I tell you about monsters?'
'And what do you classify witches as?' Jessica asked.
Violet shook her head. 'Where did you get the idea that witches were monsters? Witches and warlocks are just people who, throughout history, were misunderstood by the general public.'
Jess gave her a hard look. 'And yet, we're still a staple of horror movies. Haven't you ever seen The Witches of Eastwick? Or the Halloween movies?'
'Of course I've seen them,' Violet said. 'All they do is go to show that witches are still greatly misunderstood by people. It's the only reason we need to keep our powers secret.'
'And yet the same message is sent through movies like Night of the Living Dead, The Exorcist, and Rana,' Jess said. 'I don't know what your problem is, but it's just a harmless little party.'
She turned on her heel.
'I forbid you from going!' Violet barked.
Jess scoffed and walked straight out.
:[
'Can you believe that?'
'Yeah! Who does she think she is?'
Vince leaned on the side of the lockers with Frank and Howard as they watched Jess and her friends walk out of the art wing. It didn't escape his notice that Jess glanced at them as she walked past. It made thoughts spin around in Vince's head. Clearly, Mrs. McGowan had been the one training her…but had Jess smelt something rotten in the training?
Was their art teacher a member of the Helsing Society?
'Well?' Frank asked anxiously.
'Apparently, Ms. McGowan tried to forbid Jess from going to the party this weekend,' Howard said. 'Seems really offended at a party all about us for some reason.'
Blood sprayed.
A woman snarled and then…screamed.
Vince forced the memories back. 'There was also some talk on both of them both being witches.'
'So that's where Jess's been getting her training?' Frank asked.
'I'd say so,' Howard said. 'I'd almost be reassured about that but…'
Vince shook his head. 'I'm not dead sure that's a good thing.'
:[
Alex Pryce hadn't been worried about this silly little party.
It was just a phase. The kids would do it once and then they'd forget all about this "Drak Pack". That was what he firmly believed. People no longer believed in monsters. It was just a bit of fun to them. But…this was an entirely different matter. Jessica Brenton was a recruitee. She knew that monsters were real.
It was unacceptable that she would be so cavalier about it.
Pryce stopped at a door and slid a key card into the access panel.
The door slid open and Pryce stepped into a dark room.
He pulled on a rope, and a cage was uncovered.
Something growled from inside the cage.
:[
Frank almost laughed when they stepped into the park.
The party was in full-swing when the three of them walked in. Someone had gotten a large set of speakers, and plugged them in somewhere. Monster Mash was playing through the speakers. None of the three had bothered to put on any costumes. Howard looked around as he noticed they were in something of a minority.
'Hey,' he said. 'Should've put costumes on.'
'No,' Vince said. 'We'd look too much like…well, us.' He sniffed and turned his head. Then he chuckled. 'How appropriate.'
Frank and Howard followed his gaze.
'Hey!' Howard chuckled too. 'Look, Jess's dressed up as a witch.'
It wasn't the classical kind of witch. Sure, she was wearing a black dress that went down to just past her knees, but she was also wearing knee-high high-heeled boots and a hood instead of a pointy hat. Still…it was kind of funny. Even if he wasn't sure about her, he could still appreciate the humour in her choice.
The witch is dressed up as a witch.
Jess turned and headed over to the table, with an armful of plastic cups. She passed by them and threw the cups in the bin that'd been set up next to the table.
'What?' she asked, glancing at them. 'No costumes?'
'We're not the costume type,' Howard said.
'Oh, well, to each their own.' Jess turned and ran back to her friends.
Vince frowned after her.
'You still don't trust her, Vince?' Frank asked.
'Her entire attitude's changed,' Vince said, 'and there's no reason for it.'
:[
As Jess joined her friends, dancing to the music, she pondered over it.
The work with her grandmother's ghost had become a nightly ritual. She was only allowed to come back in order to train Jess. Once that was done, Jess wouldn't be able to summon her anymore. And she was learning far more, far better. And, she'd found, now that she understood what Vincent James was…she wasn't so distasteful of him.
Life had dealt him a difficult hand, and he was a teenaged boy.
He wasn't like her old boyfriend. Vince had never seriously dated, because he was part vampire. He flirted, fallen into bed with a girl or two, but never went further than that. And people had one-night-stands all the time. People flirted all the time. But, she also knew, that he had gained no such insights about her.
The only right thing Ms. McGowan had said was that untrained witches were dangerous.
And then Vince had to worry about who trained her. Given his life experiences, it made perfect sense for him to be wary and suspicious of her while he lacked those answers. At the same time, she couldn't just give them to him. He only transformed for emergencies. And the Helsing Society was watching her very closely. It sent a chill down Jess's spine, and she knew it disturbed her grandmother as well.
But her mother was too concerned with her own problems.
The only one who could do something about it was too preoccupied to do so.
So…her grandmother had taught her how to defend herself and how to fight back when the final confrontation would inevitably come.
Because Jess had never been under any illusions.
She glanced over at the three boys, wandering through the crowd.
I'm as much a monster as they are.
:[
Howard suddenly stopped.
He sniffed the air. Vince and Frank noticed after taking only a few steps without him. They stopped and turned back to look at him. Howard sniffed again. The smell was familiar to his nose. But it was flavoured with another scent that was far more unfamiliar to him. And it took him a moment to place it.
'What's wrong, Howard?' Frank asked.
Howard stepped over to them and kept his voice low. 'Werewolf.'
