Beatrix scanned the chapter.
A few phrases caught her eye:
New Salem Preparatory Academy, often referred to as 'Monster High' … largest monster school in history … Never before has the offspring of so many monsters congregated in one place…
Supernatural scholars have observed a phenomenon related to the land on which the academy was constructed…
The chapter included a map of campus.
Apart from the number of student dorms, the school looked the same. The academic buildings, bell tower, and sports fields were in the same places, the Black Lagoon close to the perimeter fence.
Below the map, Beatrix read,
Over the centuries, numerous Death entities have claimed they cannot enter the academy… Historians speculate that collecting souls, whether from humans or monsters, is not possible on this piece of land in the Oregon mountainside…
Death appears to be powerless and shut out from the premises for reasons unknown… a deterrent, obstruction, or barrier preventing Death entities from gaining entry…
"A barrier keeping Death out? I'm confused," Beatrix said.
Ghoulia tapped a word in the textbook: Speculation.
"But assuming it's true, Reapers can't enter the school grounds at all? Then why can Grey?"
Ghoulia scribbled a note in the book's margin: Grey's a Reaper in training. Not officially part of his dad's company, Death Co. That may have provided a loophole for him.
"How do you know that?"
He hasn't gotten his Reaper robes or steed yet.
"Steed?"
Collecting souls on horseback is a tradition. Old school Reaper thing.
Beatrix snorted at the thought of Grey riding a horse around.
"He can be at the school because he's not an official Reaper yet…" Beatrix reiterated. Like my "witch-in-training" loophole that got me a job at Monster High.
It turned out Grey's situation wasn't too different from hers. Ironic, since he'd given her so much grief about it.
"Can trainee Reapers use scythes?" Beatrix asked.
Ghoulia wrote back: Trainee Reapers can sever a soul from a body and hold onto it, but they can't guide a soul to the afterlife until they become official Reapers.
Beatrix deflated.
This meant Grey could still be responsible for the dead students.
"Where would a trainee Reaper hold onto a soul?" she asked. Maybe there was a way to see if Grey was holding onto Gilda, Brocko, and Henry's souls somewhere.
To Beatrix's surprise, Ghoulia shrugged. It was rare for Ghoulia not to know something.
Maybe a capsule of some kind? the zombie guessed. Not sure. Regardless, no Reapers (official or trainee) can use scythes on school grounds. Their spirit blades don't work here.
Beatrix finished the thought. "Because of a weird mystical barrier? And that's not just an urban legend or something?"
Ghoulia groaned. The zombie was sure.
The barrier thing didn't really make sense, and Beatrix wasn't sure whether she should trust some bizarre ancient textbook, but the relief that washed over her was immense. If she was being honest, she was just looking for any excuse to count Grey out as a suspect.
He can't use his scythe on school grounds… Beatrix repeated internally. There's no way he could've killed those students.
Ghoulia tucked her pencil back behind her ear and handed the textbook to Beatrix.
"I can borrow this?" Beatrix asked.
Ghoulia's lips curled into a lopsided smile.
Beatrix thanked the zombie for helping with "Autumn's science project," the not-so-convincing lie she'd used before. Not wanting to overstay her welcome, she returned to her dorm and spent most of the afternoon in bed, rereading the passages Ghoulia had shown her.
While flipping through the book, a small folded note slipped out and landed on her lap, yellowed and torn.
Beatrix picked it up and saw a handwritten poem on it:
Plague, Famine, and War
seek to settle a score.
Monsters can't hide
when the dark horsemen ride.
Their souls will burn once more.
"What the…" Beatrix muttered.
Suddenly, she heard wings flapping near the window.
Beatrix quickly laid down, covered her face with a blanket, and pretended to nap. She wasn't in the mood to deal with Astar, especially after the morning she'd had.
The window opened and Beatrix heard Astar set Autumn back inside.
Astar started to say something, but Autumn shushed him.
"I'll see you tomorrow?" Beatrix heard Autumn whisper.
"Tomorrow can't come soon enough, Patches," Astar flirted.
"Oh, zip it," Autumn said, trying not to laugh.
Oh brother, Beatrix grimaced under the bed sheets.
Autumn lowered her voice even more. "So the school isn't sending students home early this semester because of you?"
Astar whispered back, "I'm a powerful demon with a devil dynasty behind me. The school wouldn't dare cancel the semester when a student of my caliber requested to be here."
"But it's dangerous now! Some of my classmates' parents pulled them out of school because of all the deaths. If you don't find out who's behind this soon, Beatrix and I might leave early too."
"Why would you do that?" Astar complained. "I'm here to protect you."
Autumn paused. "Protect me? You mean Bea."
"Both of you," Astar said.
There was a charged silence between Astar and Autumn.
Beatrix really wished she hadn't pretended to be asleep. Being the third wheel in this— whatever the heck this was—was a new kind of torture.
After a moment, Autumn said, "You should go. I don't want to wake up Bea."
With that, Astar flew off.
After a few more moments, Beatrix actually dozed off beneath the covers, relaxed now that Astar was gone and the issue with Grey seemed mostly resolved.
She descended into a deep sleep.
However, her dreams came to an abrupt halt.
Beatrix jolted up, covered in cold sweat.
Her dorm was enveloped in darkness.
The bedside clock read 1:03 a.m. Autumn was in bed across from her. Beatrix had slept for far too long and now had a pounding headache.
As she'd slept, the scenes of each murder had looped in her mind.
Beatrix grabbed the textbook Ghoulia had lent her and turned to the dorm window, using the moonlight to read.
She flipped to the school map.
The textbook made it clear that there was a distinction between the school and the surrounding area: the school grounds were shaded in a dark tone, the woods and mountains beyond shaded lighter.
On the map, specific spots were marked. What Beatrix hadn't noticed before was a legend at the bottom of the page explaining the symbols.
Each symbol on the map represented a monster death reported over the last two centuries.
There were a little more than two dozen dead monsters discovered around the school.
An ogre professor who taught between 1692 and 1706, found deceased in the hills.
A Monster High student, a chupacabra, who disappeared a mile away from the Black Lagoon.
And oddly, the textbook also included details of some animal deaths, like a dead fox in a cave 20 yards from the school border, and a small family of birds found on a cliffside in 1788.
There was a noticeable lack of mortality within Monster High's boundaries. Zero reported deaths within the school. Not even a single animal.
Which wouldn't seem strange if so many monsters hadn't died nearby.
The darker area of the map, which represented Monster High, ended right at the perimeter fence. Beyond the fence, the reported deaths started occurring.
Beatrix recalled that all three of this year's victims had also been outside the school.
Gilda was discovered in a tree grove beyond the perimeter.
Brocko in the distant woods on the opposite side of the campus.
Henry a few feet from the border fence.
If there really was a barrier keeping out Death, one that stopped at Monster High's perimeter like the map suggested, it would've been possible for a scythe-wielding Reaper to descend upon Gilda, Brocko, and Henry.
Even a Reaper in training like Grey.
Beatrix was desperate to return to Ghoulia's room, her unanswered questions driving her mad. But if she pressed Ghoulia about Reapers, mysterious barriers, and monster deaths, then Beatrix would basically be confessing that she thought Grey was the murderer.
She didn't want to commit to that idea. She couldn't bear it.
The night pressed in on her.
There had to be something she was missing.
Nightmare? a familiar voice sounded in Beatrix's head.
"Spectra?" Beatrix croaked, groggy from sleep.
The purple ghost emerged from the darkness, hovering at the foot of her bed.
It's been a while.