Monster War

by Dean Lorey

  Henry extended his right hand and opened a small portal back to Earth. As he and the woman leaped through, Theodore wondered how long they had been trapped in the maze. Present-day Earth might seem as strange to them as the Nether—it surely would be for Sir Thomas.

  The woman turned back to Violet. “Aren’t you three coming?”

  Violet shook her head. “Thanks, but we have business with the Hag Queen.”

  “You’re crazy,” Henry said, laughing. “She’s a boss of the Nether! If you stay, she’ll kill you surely.”

  “Nonsense!” Sir Thomas roared. “I will slay her utterly! She will soon taste the steel of my war mace!”

  Theodore rolled his eyes. “Look, seriously. We really don’t need you here - you or your big mace. So why don’t you just take off?”

  “Nay! If there is blood to be spilt, I will spill it!”

  And that was when the Hag Queen swooped down next to Theodore on her strong, leathery wings. “You again! I invited you to come and stay with me, child - not to kill all my lovely Gorgons…”

  “Ha!” Sir Thomas shouted. “It was not the boy! I killed them, witch - just as I will now kill you!”

  Theodore groaned. “Oh, will you please shut up? I told you twenty times - you had nothing to do with killing the Gorgons!”

  “So then it was you, child,” the Hag cackled. “This time, memories are not the only thing I will take from you…”

  “Last chance,” Henry said from the other side of the portal. “Come on - jump through. You’ll be safe here.”

  Violet waved them off. “Go on. We’ll be fine.”

  “Suit yourself.”

  Henry closed the portal, locking the rest of them in the Gorgon Maze with the Hag Queen. Violet turned to her. “I’m sorry about your Gorgons, but I have something very important to talk to you about. It’s about my friend Theodore.”

  The monster glared back and there was no kindness or pity in her eyes. “I really don’t care,” she said, and then attacked.

  Charlie Benjamin leaped out of the Reduction Room and into the hallway beyond as the crowd of Banishers and Nethermancers closed in on Brooke.

  “Stay away from her,” he said, brandishing the Sword of Sacrifice in front of him.

  “Or what?” replied a Nethermancer with bright red hair - Charlie vaguely remembered that the Headmaster had once referred to him as Coogan. “You’ll take a swing at us with your shiny new sword?”

  “If I have to.”

  He stepped in front of Brooke, shielding her from the approaching crowd.

  “Be careful,” Coogan sneered. “If you touch her, you might catch what she’s got and I don’t think green is your colour.” Everyone laughed.

  “Why are you doing this?” Charlie asked, truly mystified. “There are monsters and Golems out there - horrible things - tearing our world apart. And look at you - instead of protecting people, you’re in here, trying to hurt us. We’re not the enemy.”

  “Could’ve fooled me,” a gruff Banisher said, his bald head shining slickly with sweat. “You got us into this miserable situation, Benjamin - you and your friends. And before justice could be dispensed, the frog - I mean the girl - dumped the Director into the Nether to save your sorry hide.”

  Charlie turned to Brooke. “You did that for me?”

  She shrugged. “Someone had to. He was about to hit you with a sledgehammer. Since you were still a statue at the time, it seemed, well - unsporting.”

  “It was necessary,” the bald Banisher said, “to make sure you couldn’t do anything else to put this Division - and this world - in further danger. Now you can either come with us the easy way…or the hard.”

  Charlie sighed dramatically. “Why does everyone always give us that choice? Hey, Brooke - have we ever taken the easy way?”

  She shook her head. “Nope. We’ve pretty much always been ‘hard way’ types.”

  They shared a smile then - warm and genuine - and, for just a moment, Brooke completely forgot what had happened to her, what she looked like now.

  “Oh, my God, Brooke, is that you?” a voice cried out.

  She turned to see Geoff at the rear of the crowd, dressed in his clean, new Facilitator’s uniform. The handsome boy’s eyes went wide with astonishment and he laughed shrilly.

  “Ugh - it is you! You’re disgusting! I told you not to go off with your bozo friends and now just look at you!” He jokingly elbowed a Banisher beside him. “Can you believe I actually kissed that thing?” Then he stuck his finger down his throat and made a gagging sound.

  Charlie glanced at Brooke. “You want to handle this?”

  “Love to.”

  Purple fire crackled across her and, moments later, she snapped open a large portal into the ocean of the 4th Ring. Cold, fetid water rushed through in a geyser, blasting the crowd backwards.

  Yes! Charlie thought as he and Brooke were swept away along with the others. A wetwash! Way to go!

  The raging water raced through the many hallways of the Nightmare Division, threatening to swamp the whole facility in a rising flood.

  “Wow, that was some portal!” Charlie shouted as they careened past door after door like passengers on a lunatic flume ride. “All the way to the 4th Ring!”

  Brooke nodded. “Yeah! For some reason, Nethermancy has got a whole lot easier since…well, since I started looking like this.” She gestured to her misshapen face.

  “Maybe that’s because you stopped worrying about looking pretty all the time and started thinking about what’s important.”

  “You mean like blasting Geoff in the face with freezing ocean water?”

  Charlie nodded gleefully. “Did you see his expression? Priceless!”

  “Well, he had it coming - they all did.”

  And that was when they saw the fin.

  It sliced towards them through the water with astonishing speed. As it neared, the creature it belonged to lifted its black head above the surface, revealing row after row of razor-sharp teeth. Its eyes were silvery slits that reflected everything around them like mirrors.

  “It’s a Shredder-Shark!” Brooke shouted. “I must have opened the portal near a school of them!”

  “A school? Wait a minute - you mean they come in packs?”

  Brooke nodded. “If there’s one in here - there’s probably twenty.”

  Those silvery eyes widened as the creature approached and Charlie could see himself reflected in them, grotesquely stretched and wavy, as if he’d looked into a trick mirror. Suddenly, the Shredder-Shark’s lower jaw unhinged and dropped further than Charlie had imagined possible, creating a deadly maw ringed with those terrible teeth. It began to scoop up everything in its path.

  “Swim!” Charlie shouted. “As fast as you can and don’t look back!”

  But it was too late.

  The Shredder-Shark was on top of them and those razor teeth seemed to fill the world. As the raging water carried Charlie and Brooke into the large, circular hub of the Nightmare Division, he raised his sword and chopped off the monster’s snout. It began to bleed profusely into the dark ocean water.

  “Uh-oh,” Brooke said.

  “What? Did you see my sword strike? It was awesome!”

  “There’s blood in the water!”

  “So?”

  “So haven’t you ever heard of a ‘feeding frenzy’?”

  And that was when several huge Shredder-Sharks raced into the massive hub of the Division and attacked the Shark that Charlie had wounded. The ocean around them churned violently as the massive beasts flipped and lunged while devouring their crippled prey.

  “What are we going to do?” Brooke screamed as one of the giant beasts crashed down next to her, its silvery eyes glinting menacingly, white teeth flashing.

  “Close the first portal and open another!” Charlie shouted back as he speared a Shredder-Shark through the head with his glowing sword. “Do it now!”

  “OK! Where to?”

  “I don’t know! To Theodo
re and Violet, wherever they are!”

  As Charlie swung his sword, lopping off the tail of another Shredder-Shark, Brooke closed her first portal. The blast of ocean water stopped flowing as if turned off by a tap. Then, with another wave of her hand, she opened up a new portal…

  …into the Gorgon Maze.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN THE RETURN OF A BEAUTIFUL LADY

  As Violet fought the Hag Queen, she soon realised one very important thing - they weren’t going to make it.

  The Hag’s talons were as long and sharp as swords - it was like squaring off against ten enemies instead of one - and the wind from her flapping wings made it hard to even stand, much less fight. With a sinking feeling, Violet realised that her prowess against the Gorgons had left her disastrously overconfident against this most cunning boss of the Nether.

  “Out of the way, girl!” Sir Thomas shouted. “I can’t swing my weapon with you standing between me and the beastie!”

  Theodore stared at the man in disbelief. “Would you stop whining and start fighting? Or just hand over your stupid mace and let me take a whack at her!”

  Theodore reached for Sir Thomas’s weapon.

  “Unhand the mace, boy!” Sir Thomas roared. “Never touch the weapon of a knight of England, unless ye desire to lose an arm in the process! Many is the time that I wielded this glorious instrument against a mighty foe who—”

  Brooke’s portal snapped open.

  As the Hag Queen dived down at Violet with her razor claws outstretched, a jet of water blasted through the newly opened portal, knocking the monster backwards in a violent tumble of wings and teeth. An instant later, Charlie, Brooke and a giant Shredder-Shark rocketed through the gateway and into the maze.

  “Close it, Brooke!” Charlie shouted, struggling to his feet. “Close the portal!”

  Brooke did so with a quick wave of her hand, shutting off the flow of water. The giant Shredder-Shark flipped and snapped on the slick maze floor, gasping for air, knocking aside Gorgon heads like footballs.

  Sir Thomas stared at the monster in amazement. “Great steaming piles of partridge poo! It’s a Land Shark!”

  “A what?” Theodore shouted. “It’s not a Land Shark, you moron! It’s some kind of shark from the Nether that just happens to be on land!”

  “It’s a - crooooak! - Shredder-Shark,” Brooke said. “And there’s an interesting story behind how it got here.”

  “You think?” Violet snapped, leaping to avoid the monster’s teeth as it slid towards her like a runaway truck. “Can we swap stories about it after we kill it?”

  “Stand aside,” Sir Thomas yelled, raising his mace, “and I will slay the abomination for you! It will soon know the steel sting of my weapon! I will send it back to the shadows from whence it came, to the dark recesses of the night-time of its birth, to the—”

  As Sir Thomas jabbered on, Charlie turned to Theodore. “Who is this guy?”

  Theodore shrugged. “His name is Sir Thomas and he won’t shut up. He’s been talking about that stupid mace for ages and I have yet to see him use it.”

  “Uh, guys!” Violet yelled from down the hallway. “Little help with the giant shark, please!”

  Charlie ran towards her and, with one nimble leap, landed on the creature’s back and drove his sword into its brain, silencing it for ever.

  “Thanks,” Violet said with a smile.

  “And thanks for killing the Gorgons and saving my life - I’m guessing that was you and not Sir Talks-A-Lot.”

  “Good guess.”

  With a cackle, the Hag Queen flapped her wings, spraying everyone with droplets of water as she rose a few metres in the air. “Well, if it isn’t my old friend, Charlie Benjamin. I should have known that this would involve you eventually. Wherever you go, boy, trouble follows.”

  “It’s nice to see you again, Miss,” Charlie replied with a deep bow.

  “Miss! How delightful! Miss, he calls me…”

  “But I will not miss!” Sir Thomas roared, walking towards her. “My mace is incapable of missing!”

  “Go away, strange man,” the Hag said. “And take your silly mace with you.”

  “This silly mace will crush you utterly, you unclean creature of filth!”

  “Don’t you dare talk to her like that!” Charlie said. “I won’t stand for it.”

  “What did you say to me, boy? Do you dare to defend this impure thing?”

  “How can you call something so beautiful a ‘thing’? I mean, just look at her - she’s gorgeous.”

  The Hag cackled girlishly. “Oh, please - attractive maybe, but gorgeous…?”

  “I just say what I see. Never before have I been so mesmerised by beauty.”

  “What’s he doing?” Theodore whispered to Violet.

  She frowned. “Not sure…”

  Sir Thomas walked up to Charlie, dumbstruck. “Do you have a fever, lad? Are you mentally unsound? ‘Mesmerised by beauty?’ The only thing beautiful about this beast will be the manner of her death, which I will soon deliver!”

  “Quiet!” Charlie commanded. “I will not have you insult this lady.”

  “Lady!” the Hag screeched and Charlie thought it was possible that she may have actually blushed. “I’m a lady now, am I?”

  “The fairest of them all…”

  “Preposterous!” Sir Thomas was so red with fury that it looked like his head was about to pop off. “She is a repulsive, repugnant witch fit only to be spat upon and then hit in the head with a mace!”

  “I warned you,” Charlie said, then opened up a portal beneath Sir Thomas and dropped him through to Earth. The knight only fell a few metres before landing on the sand in front of the Nightmare Academy - but he screamed as if he had fallen a mile. With a quick flip of the hand, Charlie closed the portal, then turned back to the Hag. “I’m so sorry he troubled you, dear lady. His words were unconscionable.”

  The Hag screeched with laughter. “Oh, go on, you charmer! You don’t mean any of it…”

  “On the contrary - where others see a monster, I see a vision of loveliness.”

  The Hag’s wide, bloodshot eyes fluttered in surprise. “Really?”

  Charlie could tell that she was actually starting to believe his flattery. He nodded. “Of course…Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and I am currently beholding a beauty brighter than even the brightest star.”

  “That’s pushing it a little,” Theodore grumbled. Violet stomped on his toe.

  The Hag Queen fluttered towards Charlie on her mighty wings. She pulled stringy hair from her face, dislodging several beetles and worms. “As beautiful as I am - and as charming and kind as I am known to be - there is still the question of the girl who killed all my precious Gorgons. I know she is your friend, but she will have to pay dearly for her infamy. Don’t you agree?”

  “I would if she did it to harm you. But instead, she did it to celebrate you.”

  “She what?”

  “Yeah, she what?” Theodore echoed.

  Charlie whispered to the Hag: “The Gorgons have been talking. They claim that their beauty surpasses even yours. But surely you know that - you, of course, know everything that happens in the Nether.”

  “Indeed, I do,” she replied - although it was clear from the tone in her voice that this was news to her.

  “Which is why,” Charlie continued, “I asked Violet to get rid of the boastful beasts - there is only one great beauty in this mansion and that great beauty is you.”

  The Hag sighed happily. “Truer words have never been spoken.” Reluctantly, she turned to Violet. “I suppose I owe you thanks, girl.”

  “Don’t mention it,” Violet said. “Trust me - it was my pleasure.”

  “As I’m sure you also know,” Charlie continued, “there has been whispering from your Ladies-in-Hating. They envy your loveliness and there is word that they plan to kill you so that you are no longer the most gorgeous thing in the Nether.”

  The Hag Queen was clearly shocked by the revel
ation. “Jealousy! Sheer jealousy!”

  “Can you blame them? I mean, just look at yourself.”

  “Without vomiting,” Theodore added. This time Brooke stomped on his foot.

  “Yes,” the Hag Queen said, eyeing her reflection in the crystal wall of the maze. “It’s not really their fault, is it? It must be so difficult to see me all the time and feel so hideous in comparison. I really should have more compassion for the homely creatures.”

  “You are as wise as you are kind,” Charlie said. “However, my friends and I will gladly destroy every one of your ladies, if you wish. We certainly don’t want you to be troubled by them, even for a moment.”

  “How wonderful you are, offering to slaughter them for little old me! You make a delicate flower like myself want to weep with happiness.”

  “So shall we get rid of them for you? As you know, the Sword of Sacrifice is mine now.” Charlie held up the brightly glowing sword. “It wouldn’t be any bother.”

  The Hag Queen quickly drew back, eyeing the Ancient Weapon with fear. “I…I wouldn’t ask you to sully the blade of that wondrous artefact. Never fear - I will take care of my ladies myself. And if there’s anything I can ever do for you, you have but to ask.”

  Charlie took a calming breath. OK, he thought. Here we go - let’s see if this works…

  “Well, since you’re offering, there is one incredibly small thing.” He gestured to Theodore. “He and I used to be friends - best friends in fact - until you removed all memories of our friendship from his brain.”

  “Indeed, I did! And delicious memories they were too! Delightful! Delectable, even!”

  “I can imagine. But here’s the thing - he has now also lost the memories of the many times he and I spent walking under the stars, talking about your great beauty and wishing we could gaze upon it.”

  The Hag sighed wistfully. “That is a shame…”

  “Many months ago, you took my friend Rex’s memories…and then you gave them back.”

  “The cowboy!” the Hag gasped, her eyes glittering with delight. “Oh, how I miss his visits…”

  Charlie nodded. “He talks about you all the time. And it would be so great if you could return Theodore’s memories to him, so that we could all talk about you - about how you’re the most beautiful creature that has ever walked or flown or crawled through this world or any other.”