Frights, Camera, Action!

by Audu Paden

  Lord Stoker slowly turned around to face Draculaura. Across the long expanse of the throne room, he glared at her. Was she threatening him? But no, she couldn’t be. She wasn’t clever enough. “Ah. I suppose a little more preparation could not hurt,” he said.

  Draculaura grinned. “Oh, great! That will be fangtastic! Okay, let’s pick out a coronation outfit. I like pink. It’s my favorite color—what’s yours?”

  CHAPTER 9

  FRIGHT FLIGHT

  Ygor was guarding the door to Lord Stoker’s study and trying to swat away an annoying fly. He lifted his short leg and tried to execute a jujitsu move at the fly—and ended up flaof his life being confused.

  The ghouls were spying on him from around the corner.

  “Okay, how do we sneak in?” asked Clawdeen.

  “That Ygor guy’s not exactly the roundest gizmo in the gear, but he’s not leaving that door.”

  Cleo looked around at the tapestries, paintings, and suits of armor in the hallway. “There has to be a secret passage. But where?” Now if she’d been in a pyramid, she’d have known exactly where to look, but castles were, well, so modern.

  “Achoo!” A suit of armor down the hall sneezed.

  “Ghoulsundheit!” said the ghouls.

  The armor started laughing. Clawdeen growled softly. Robecca took a step backward. Cleo wondered if castles had curses like pyramids.

  A raggedy hand emerged from the armor and lifted the helmet. Two button eyes blinked in the candlelight. It was Hoodude!

  “Did ya miss me?” he said cheerfully. He tried to wave at the girls but the armor toppled over and crashed to the floor. “I’m good! I’m good!”

  Robecca rushed over to help him stand upright again. “What are you doing here?”

  “I stowed away! I just couldn’t wait a whole week to see all the royalty.”

  Clawdeen was stunned. “So you’ve been hiding in the armor this whole time?”

  “Oh no! I’ve been everywhere. This place is loaded with secret passages.” Hoodude clanked over to the wall and pulled one of the sconces. Immediately, a tunnel appeared in the wall. “See!”

  “Whoa!” said the girls all together. For someone so goofy, Hoodude certainly seemed able to figure things out! They followed him into the darkness of the passageway.

  After all kinds of twists and turns, Hoodude revealed a hidden entrance to Lord Stoker’s study—through a fake bookshelf!

  “Here we are!” he announced. “Lord Grumpypants’s study!” He shut the bookshelf behind the girls but accidentally caught himself in the lock. He tripped, ripped, reached up to steady himself, and pulled a painting off the wall. Sprawled on the floor of the study, he looked at the portrait. It showed a young vampire girl. Thick glasses covered her eyes, there were zits on her nose, and her fangs had braces on them. Still, she was smiling cheerfully.

  “That’s Elissabat.” Clawdeen recognized her. “Lord Stoker’s niece. The one Draculaura was telling us about. The one who disappeared.”

  “You sure they’re related?” questioned Cleo. “I mean, that ghoul is actually smiling.”

  The painting fascinated Robecca for some reason she couldn’t explain, and she pulled out her iCoffin to snap a photo of it. Maybe it would turn out to be a clue. She took the painting from Hoodude and placed it back on the wall, but as she did so, she noticed a dusty picture of Dracula. The famous vampire had a cape covering his face except for his eyes, which were dark and piercing.

  “Draculaura’s father!” said Robecca.

  “Whoa, lemme see!” Hoodude clambered to his feet, tripping again and knocking the picture to the ground. The picture flew across the room and landed, upside down, on the floor.

  The ghouls gasped. Stuck to the back of the frame was a letter with a wax seal.

  “Neato!” Hoodude exclaimed.

  While the ghouls were wondering what to do, he grabbed the letter, ripped the seal, and opened it. He was just about to start reading it when Clawdeen took it out of his hand.

  She settled into a chair. “Dear Count Dracula… As my father’s beast friend, I beseech you… I have discovered that I am the next heir in line to be the vampire queen. If my uncle finds out, he will use me to control all vampires to ensure our supremacy over other monsters.”

  Clawdeen lowered the letter and met the amazed expressions of the other ghouls. This was more than a clue. This was the clue, the explanation for everything. She continued reading. “I do not want to be a puppet, but Lord Stoker is too strong and I am too young and weak to stand up to him, so I must flee.”

  As Clawdeen read, all the ghouls could picture the vampire girl in the picture writing these words. She probably wrote the letter at this very desk, sealed it right where they were standing, and hid it behind the portrait. It gave them chills.

  “Since the Vampire’s Heart is the only way to find me, I must take it,” read Clawdeen. “I can only trust you, Count Dracula, to be its new guardian until another queen arises.”

  She must have used the secret passageway to escape from the study. The Vampire’s Heart would have glowed in her hands as she snuck away. “Meet me in the Fog of Doom, where the Globe meets the Tower,” finished Clawdeen, “and I will leave another note for you in the crown. Elissabat.”

  The girls could just imagine Lord Stoker’s reaction when he emerged from his coffin to find his niece gone—and the Vampire’s Heart vanished.

  “Wow,” said Clawdeen. “Major clue. But I don’t get it. Fog of Doom?”

  Robecca went over to the bookshelf, the real one, and pulled out an atlas. She opened to a map of Londoom and placed it on the desk. “Here,” she said, pointing. “But I don’t see anything about a crown.”

  “Scootch over, ghoul,” said Cleo, pushing her aside. “Crowns are my department. It’s obvious she’s talking about the Crown Jewels in the Tower of Londoom.” Cleo pointed to the Tower, clearly labeled on the map.

  Clawdeen was bursting with excitement. “C’mon, let’s show this letter to Draculaura!” The ghouls rushed back to the secret passageway. In their excitement, they left the atlas open on Lord Stoker’s desk.

  The ghouls reemerged in the hallway just in time to see Draculaura coming around the corner with Lord Stoker. They ducked into the girls’ bathroom.

  “Um, girls’ bathroom. B-R-B, Lord Stoker,” said Draculaura, who’d seen where her friends had gone.

  “Make it quick!” he ordered.

  “What did you find?” Draculaura asked the moment the door was closed behind her.

  “Who the real queen is!” Clawdeen handed Draculaura the letter.

  Robecca couldn’t keep the secret. “Elissabat!” she said.

  Draculaura leaned against the cold stones of the wall to steady herself. “My old friend? No…” How amazing was that?

  “Yes,” confirmed Cleo. “And we know where she went!”

  “Londoom!” Robecca revealed.

  This was so much for Draculaura to take in. How were they going to get to Londoom without Lord Stoker finding out?

  But Clawdeen had already thought about this. She came from an enormous litter of pups with brothers and sisters all over the world. “My older sister Clawdia is studying dramatic writing there! She knows Londoom like the back of her paw!”

  Outside in the hallway, the ghouls could hear Lord Stoker stamping his feet. “Enough of this!” he shouted through the door. “The vampbassadors await. Ygor, fetch the queen!”

  A moment later, there was a timid knock on the door to the girls’ bathroom. “My queen, Ygor is to take you to the vampbassadors.”

  The ghouls looked at each other.

  “Just a sec!” yelled Draculaura.

  Clawdeen tugged on the toilet flusher to try and cover the noise of their planning, but when she did so, another secret door in the wall opened—and there was Hoodude. He yelped with embarrassment when he realized where he was.

  Draculaura couldn’t believe her eyes. “Hoodude?”

  Hoodude la
ughed. “Hi, Draculaura!”

  Draculaura shook her head. There was no time to lose. She led her friends into the secret passageway. It was very, very dark, but Robecca’s goggles lit up to show them the way.

  “How do we get out of here?” asked Clawdeen.

  “Below the castle, there’s a dock with a boat. We can sneak out to Londoom on that!” Hoodude had thought of everything.

  Ygor was waiting outside the bathroom door. He knew he was going to get in so much trouble if he was late. But what could he do? Finally, he put his hands over his eyes and charged into the bathroom. “Ah! You are coming with Ygor!”

  With his eyes shut, he waved his arms around, trying to find the vampire girl. He hit his arm against the stalls, the sinks, the soap dispenser, but other than that… nothing. He risked a peek and opened one eye. All the stalls were empty. There was no one in the bathroom.

  “Uh-oh!” he realized. “Master will be angry.”

  He lumbered to the throne room as fast as he could. The dignitaries were checking their watches and becoming increasingly impatient.

  “Where is the queen, Stoker?”

  “The monarchy must be restored!”

  “Stoker, you didn’t lie to us, did you? Because you can be replaced.”

  Ygor whispered to Stoker, whose face became whiter and whiter.

  “Uh, just a moment,” he said to the dignitaries through gritted fangs. “The queen has had a… makeup malfunction. Please. Wait here.”

  Dragging Ygor behind him, he hurried out of the throne room to see if he could find Draculaura.

  But Draculaura and her ghoulfriends were boarding a boat to Londoom! Hoodude had led them down the dank passageway to a dock at the edge of the river. Water lapped against the pier.

  “Ta-dah!” Hoodude said triumphantly. He pointed at a small rowboat.

  “Ugh,” spat Cleo. “It’ll take us a century to get to Londoom in that old thing.”

  But Robecca had an idea. She hopped into the boat and put her feet over the edge into the water. She was wearing rocket boots after all—and there was no reason they wouldn’t work as propellers! “How about a steamship?” She smiled.

  She let loose a blast of steam and the boat sped around in a circle, sending a wave splashing up across the dock.

  “Cool!” said Clawdeen.

  “All aboard the SS Robecca!” Draculaura giggled.

  “It’s not first class, but it’ll do.” Cleo sighed.

  The ghouls clambered into the rowboat.

  “Our very own royal vampire adventure!” exclaimed Hoodude. “Oh, I’m just like Veronica von Vamp! Except I’m a boy. And not a vampire. And no one’s fighting over me.…”

  Clawdeen was hanging over the prow of the boat, the wind in her hair. “Can’t you make this thing go any faster?”

  Robecca went full throttle and the boat took off through the water, throwing Hoodude into the back of the boat.

  “Whoa!” he yelled. This was going to be some trip!

  CHAPTER 10

  WHO’S THE SCARE-EST OF THEM ALL?

  Back at Monster High, everyone was talking about vampires. Either they were talking about the coronation and what they were going to wear or they were talking about Veronica von Vamp’s boo-vie and which vampire was the hottest. It was all getting mixed up in people’s minds so that some of the ghouls had become convinced that Draculaura was the one who had to choose between Edweird and Alucard.

  The biggest question in the Creepateria was who was cuter. Howleen smoothed a pink strand of hair back into place and sighed. “Only four days until the coronation. I hope I get to meet a vampire prince like Alucard. He is monstrously hot!” She smooched a glossy fan photo.

  Toralei, who was walking by with her werecats, overheard this and hissed. “Hot? So not. The cute one is Prince Edweird, duh.” She picked up her milk carton and tipped it over the photo of Alucard.

  “Hey!” howled Howleen.

  Toralei bared her claws and teeth.

  From a nearby table, Gil and Deuce couldn’t figure out what the fuss was about. “Why are they arguing?” said Gil. “I can’t even tell those dudes apart.”

  In another corner of the Creepateria, Frankie, Lagoona, and Abbey were clustered around Ghoulia’s laptop. They were video chatting with Draculaura, who was explaining to her friends everything that had happened since they’d left for Transylvania.

  “And here’s a picture of Elissabat. Thanks for the web search, Ghoulia. In the meantime, we’re on the way to Londoom! Laters!”

  “Laters!” said Frankie, Lagoona, and Abbey, crowding into the screen.

  The image clicked off and Ghoulia shut the computer.

  Frankie was trying to take it all in. “Draculaura isn’t queen, which is bad for her, but she gets to come back to Monster High, which is good for us. I don’t know how I feel about this.”

  Ghoulia grunted.

  “I don’t think so, Ghoulia,” said Lagoona. Like all the other ghouls, she was fluent in Zombie. “It’s better if people don’t know Draculaura’s looking for the Vampire’s Heart… or Elissabat.”

  “Ohh! Y’all know I don’t like secrets,” drawled Operetta.

  The ghouls spun around to see the phantom girl leaning against the wall. She’d overheard everything they’d said!

  “Unless I’m in on them,” Operetta added. She pulled up a chair. “Whatcha got?”

  Now if only the ghouls could keep everyone else at Monster High from finding out Draculaura’s secret!

  CHAPTER 11

  WEREWOLVES OF LONDOOM

  A foghorn boomed, bells chimed, and a speedboat whirred toward the docks of Londoom. Robecca cut the power of her rocket boots and the boat glided to a perfect stop. The girls stepped out carefully, looking around. Almost the first thing they saw was a poster for the new Veronica von Vamp boo-vie.

  “Ugh!” Draculaura sighed. “We can’t seem to get away from her.”

  Hoodude, however, was thrilled to see any picture of his idol. “Ooooooh! They’re making a sequel to Vampire Majesty,” he noted.

  Robecca knew how this would upset Draculaura. “We are on a quest for real vampire royalty.”

  “Yeah,” agreed Draculaura, “not some Hauntlywood phony who doesn’t know a thing about vampire scaritage.” She smiled at Robecca, grateful for her understanding.

  But something intrigued Robecca about the poster. Even after the others had headed to the street, she was still staring at it. There was a clue there, she was sure of it, but she didn’t know what.

  “Robecca, c’mon,” Clawdeen called.

  “Oh, uh, sorry! Coming!” She took one last look at the poster and ran to join the others.

  Clawdeen texted her sister and let her know they were on their way. They had agreed to meet at the plaza in front of the Globe Theater, right by the statue of William Spooksfear. The famous playwright was holding a skull in his hand.

  “Cool statue!” noted Hoodude. “This must be the first ventriloquist act ever!”

  “That’s no dummy! That’s William Spooksfear,” said Clawdia, emerging from behind the statue. “For four hundred years, he’s been inspiring actors, directors, and writers.”

  Like her sister, Clawdia had a bountiful mane of curls. She was dressed in the height of Londoom fashion with a red couture jacket and a tight printed gold-and-black dress. The glasses she wore were the one sign that she was a writer.

  “Clawdia!” exclaimed Clawdeen, wrapping her sister in a hug. “Thanks, big sis, for helping.”

  “Sure! We Wolves are known for our loyalty,” she said. “C’mon, you’re just in time for the tour.” She led the ghouls through the fog toward the heart of the city—and the Tower of Londoom.

  There wasn’t much time to lose. Back in Transylvania, Lord Stoker had discovered the open atlas on his desk—and knew the ghouls were headed to Londoom. He ordered Ygor to find Draculaura and bring her back. There was no way he could have her flapping her fangs about the Vampire’s Heart. If s
he did, his reign of power would be over.

  At the Tower of Londoom, a pair of sleepy zombies guarded the Jewel Room. They were snoring peacefully, as were the crows resting on their shoulders. The ghouls easily slipped by them.

  “There’s the crown!” said Clawdia, pointing at a display.

  Cleo wasn’t impressed. “Where are the scarabs?”

  The other ghouls also thought it was pretty ordinary.

  “I don’t see any clues,” said Draculaura, disappointed.

  “We’re going to need to take a closer look,” Clawdeen suggested. “I have an idea, but it’s tricky.”

  Clawdeen told her sister to wake up the guards and say that she had a thorn in her paw. Meanwhile, Robecca would let out a burst of steam to cover.

  “And what do I do?” asked Hoodude.

  The girls gasped when they saw him. He had the crown on his head!

  That was the moment, of course, when the zombie guards awoke.

  “That bloke is stealing the crown jewels!” yacked one of the crows.

  The zombies groaned, coming to life.

  “Hoodude!” screamed the girls in a fit of panic.

  Zombies moaned, crows cawed, and the ghouls were screaming. They ran down a hallway in the Tower, the guards after them. The crown fell off Hoodude’s head and Clawdia caught it.

  “There’s no clue on this,” she said, examining it as she ran.

  Draculaura stopped to look at it and realized Clawdia was right. But the zombies were lurching around the corner.

  “Here you go!” said Clawdia. She tossed them the crown.

  The zombies and the crows crashed into one another in their hurry to retrieve the stolen jewels.