by Z. Fraillon
JAAA … SPEEEER!
The word formed on the page in front of Jasper. The letters were spooky and ancient-looking, but he recognised the word straight away.
‘My name! It’s my name!’
‘Good, next word!’
NAAAOOO.
The letters appeared again.
Naaaooo. Naao. Nao. Each of the words Jasper tried was crossed out on the page. He looked at them again. Now.
‘Now? I think it says now!’
‘Keep going, Jasper!’ said Hermes.
KOOOOMMM FREEE.
Koom. Kom. Com. The words were crossed out. Come?
‘I think it’s come. Come free.’
The finished words lined up neatly in Jasper’s mind: ‘JASPER. NOW. COME FREE,’ he read.
‘It wants to be free,’ said Hermes. ‘Now control it. Tell it no!’
‘No!’ shouted Jasper. And the inky words faded away on the page, until there was nothing left.
Jasper couldn’t believe it. The whispering had listened to him!
When Jasper opened his eyes, he saw Señor Hermes sipping at a mug of hot chocolate. ‘It took you a while, but with practice it will get easier.
Soon you will have the ability to understand the words within seconds.’ He popped a marshmallow into his hot chocolate. ‘Hot chocolate?’ he asked, pushing a mug towards Jasper.
Jasper drank it in one go. Neither of them said anything for a while.
‘Was that some sort of mind reading?’ Jasper asked finally. ‘I mean, because I was reading stuff in my mind.’
‘In a way,’ said Señor Hermes. ‘But you were only reading the words you already hear, in your own mind. You are learning to understand your monster side.’
My monster side. Oh yeah. Jasper sighed.
‘Having a monster side does not make you a monster. The monsterness does not have a body, or a form. It is simply the essence of a monster. Little more than a voice at this point.’ Señor Hermes looked at Jasper and smiled. ‘You are far from alone, you know. Many people have quite advanced monsterness, and still control it successfully. Why else do you think the teachers here are so scary?’ he winked.
Jasper nearly choked on his marshmallows. ‘You mean – the teachers have all been bitten?’
‘Yes, we have. I am sure you’ve noticed that Mr Golag, like most monsters, can’t stand bright lights, Von Strasser is slightly Scrambled, and Stenka loves nothing more than to frighten people,’ he said. ‘But we all have complete control of our monster side.’
Jasper looked closely at Hermes. He didn’t seem very monster-like.
There was a sharp rap on the door and Stenka marched into the room. ‘Sorry to interrupt your cosy chat,’ she sneered. ‘What is your opinion, Hermes? Do you think it is too late?’
Jasper thought he could detect a note of hope in her voice.
‘I don’t think so,’ said Hermes. ‘There are no monster characteristics other than whispering at this stage.’
‘Very well,’ said Stenka. ‘He will do.’ She yanked Jasper out of the room and marched him through the maze of corridors.
‘I have told the others your strange behaviour was a side-effect of being tagged,’ said Stenka when they reached the doors to her office. ‘They believe you have been to see the nurse. We are going to keep it that way. Understood?’
Jasper nodded. He wasn’t sure he wanted to tell Saffy and Felix about the whole ‘being a monster’ thing, anyway. They were his friends, but maybe this would change things. They were supposed to be monster-hunters, not monsters.
Jasper still had a thousand questions on his mind.
‘Questions will have to wait,’ said Stenka. ‘Because now it is time to Hunt.’
8
Stenka swiftly led Jasper, Felix and Saffy out of her office and down the hallway.
‘Are you OK?’ Felix whispered to Jasper as soon as Stenka was far enough ahead. ‘You were gone for, like, two hours. We had to wait in Stenka’s freaky office the whole time!’
‘It’s a long story,’ Jasper mumbled.
‘That was a cracker of a slap,’ said Saffy.
Jasper grimaced. ‘Tell me about it, my jaw is still aching.’
‘Well, to be fair, you were lying on the ground, twitching and squeaking like a guinea pig,’ Saffy smiled. ‘I was about to pour cold water on your head, but the slap worked.’
Jasper hoped she was joking. He’d heard the whispering ever since he started at Monstrum House, but he’d never had a fit like that.
Stenka turned on her heel. ‘Enough chitter chatter. Get a move on.’
Jasper saluted Stenka behind her back.
‘I saw that, Mr McPhee. Don’t think getting accepted to go on a Hunt will get you out of trouble,’ she growled.
Jasper sighed. He hated the way the teachers seemed to tap into his thoughts. He wondered how they did it. Were his thoughts being written down on a piece of paper in Stenka’s head?
Finally, Stenka stopped short. ‘Here we are,’ she said. They were at the bottom of a dark staircase.
‘Are you sure this is safe?’ Felix asked.
Jasper could see what Felix meant. There were big holes in the stairs where it looked like some poor kids had fallen through the rotting wood, and the banister was just a flimsy piece of twine threaded through hooks. Two carved stone monsters guarded the base of the stairs.
‘It doesn’t look like it goes anywhere,’ Saffy commented. Light shone through a window at the top of the staircase.
Stenka ignored her. She pressed the eye of one of the stone monsters, and a door appeared at the top of the rickety stairs where the window had been.
Stenka began to climb the stairs. ‘Well?
Are you coming?’ she asked. ‘This is it. Hunt Headquarters.’
At the top of the stairs, she turned to them. ‘Before you go through, I just need to tell you that where I am taking you is top-secret,’ said Stenka. ‘The very best of the best. Extremely high-tech. We have spared no expense getting this right. The Secret Service has nothing compared to what we have here.’
Jasper could feel the excitement bubbling up inside him.
‘Congratulations,’ Stenka said, ‘You are about to become monster-hunters. Are you ready?’ Stenka was beginning to sound like a game show host, but even Felix was nodding enthusiastically.
Stenka smiled and opened the door.
The room was buzzing with activity. Tables and chairs were scattered about, and older students were frantically poring over papers.
The whole place was a complete mess. There were piles of useless junk everywhere. Jasper tripped over a stack of dirty plates, got his feet tangled in some wire, trod on a tube of paint and kicked over a pile of papers.
‘This is it?’ asked Felix, less than impressed.
‘I guess so ...’ Jasper shrugged. Maybe there was another room? He couldn’t see anything that looked high-tech. ‘Although, none of the thug brigade are here,’ he added as he realised that there were no prefects around.
‘I knew it,’ muttered Saffy. ‘No expense is right.’
A sinister grin formed on Stenka’s face. ‘I can’t believe students always fall for that one. So predictable!’ she sighed, enjoying their dismay. ‘Now, down to business. Mr Mackenzie!’ she turned and barked loudly.
A stressed-looking third-year boy in a red hoodie crawled out from under a table. Jasper grinned. They knew Mac – he had helped them out in the past. His hoodie had the Hunt Captain emblem. Awesome, thought Jasper. This is actually happening.
‘Yo,’ Mac called back, as he jogged over.
Stenka raised her eyebrows. ‘Yo?’
‘Oh, ah, I mean, how can I possibly be of assistance?’ Mac smiled innocently.
‘You asked for a crew. Here you go,’ she said, and turned to walk away.
Mac looked at Jasper, Felix and Saffy. Jasper noticed that the panicked look on Mac’s face only got worse.
‘Wait!’ Mac called to Stenka.
She turned innocently. ‘Problem?’
‘They’re all Firsties!’ said Mac, pointing at Jasper and the others.
‘Hey!’ said Saffy defensively. ‘We all passed the exam.’
Mac turned to her with a look of exaggerated astonishment on his face. ‘Well then, you must be good,’ he replied.
Felix frowned. ‘I think he’s being sarcastic.’
‘It’s them or no-one,’ replied Stenka, and turned on her heel.
Mac muttered a string of obscenities under his breath as he glared at Jasper, Felix and Saffy.
‘Right then. I guess you’re in. This is where we do the initial preparation for the Hunt. Teachers come and go if needed, but mostly it’s just us. The workstation is over here,’ said Mac, nodding towards a desk overflowing with junk.
‘And I thought I was messy,’ Felix mumbled, tossing a bicycle tyre off a chair.
Jasper sifted through the debris. ‘What’s all this for?’
‘Functional Fixedness,’ Mac replied. ‘You start that class in second year. Basically it’s the Monstrum House version of making gadgets. You choose the junk, and make your own gadget to catch the monster. Cool, huh?’ Mac nodded enthusiastically as he held up a broken coathanger.
Jasper looked at Mac. ‘Cool is a monster zapper fired from your sneakers. That is a coat hanger. Not cool.’
‘Just you wait. This baby could make a wicked monster zapper,’ Mac said. He started fiddling bits of junk together.
‘And what’s with the picture of mud? Don’t tell me – it’s cool?’ Felix scoffed, pulling a picture off the whiteboard.
‘Definitely not cool,’ Mac replied. ‘And not mud either. See that green dot?’
Jasper leant over Felix’s shoulder to look.
‘That’s its eye,’ Mac said.
Saffy grabbed the photo from Felix and examined it closely. ‘This is it? This is the monster?’
Mac nodded. ‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ he boomed theatrically, ‘I have the pleasure today of introducing you to – drum roll, please – the Glibberhowl. Also known as your worst nightmare. ’
Mac pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and laid it on the table.
HUNT ASSIGNMENT: Lake of Terror
MONSTER ORDER: Screecher
MONSTER SPECIES: Glibberhowl
MONSTER WEAKNESS: Flame in the left nasal cavity
HABITAT: Marine
HUNT CAPTAIN: Eugene Mackenzie
DEPARTURE TIME: Tuesday 2.49pm
‘Eugene?’ Saffy snorted.
Mac narrowed his eyes.
‘Hang on.’ Jasper looked at Mac. ‘A marine monster? As in, lives in the water? How are we meant to get fire up its nose if it’s underwater?’
Mac gestured to the piles of junk scattered around the workstation. ‘You’re just going to have to start inventing,’ he said.
‘But we haven’t even studied Functional Fixedness yet!’ complained Saffy.
Mac pushed a book towards her. ‘The Functional Fixedness Helpful Hints Handbook,’ Saffy read aloud.
‘Knock yourself out,’ said Mac.
‘At least it’s a Screecher and not a Muncher,’ said Felix, flicking absent-mindedly through the paper spread around the workstation.
‘Well, people have died of fright before,’ Mac warned. ‘And there has only been one successful Glibberhowl Hunt in the whole history of Monstrum House. That was only after they drained the lake. And they only did that after the monster-hunters were … well, dead.’
Felix groaned. ‘Why did you have to tell us that?’
‘Try not to think about it,’ Mac said. ‘Just remember, the bigger the fright, the happier Screechers are, and the stronger they get. And a Glibberhowl is even worse. The bigger the fright, the bigger it grows. So whatever you do, don’t let it frighten you.’
Jasper glanced at Felix, who was chewing nervously on his fingernails. That’s easier said than done, he thought.
9
‘OK. Last thing.’ Mac swept the pile of paper off the desk. ‘The lake.’ He slapped a map down in front of them.
Jasper leant over the map. All the place names had been blacked out.
‘Why is the destination such a mystery?’ Saffy asked.
Mac looked at her seriously. ‘It’s a precaution. When you’re on a Hunt, it’s easy for monsters to get inside your head. Some Scramblers can read your thoughts like a newspaper. If you knew everything – like where Monstrum House is and where the Hunt is – how long do you think it’d take a monster to find you if the Hunt went wrong? The whole school would be in danger.’
Saffy gulped. ‘So that’s why, when we first came to Monstrum House, they put us into a deep sleep on the plane?’
Mac nodded. ‘It’s one of the reasons the teachers can’t come on the Hunts with us. They know too much.’
But Jasper was still thinking about what Mac had said earlier. Some Scramblers can read your thoughts like a newspaper …
‘So this is where the Glibberhowl lives?’
Felix asked, pointing to the map.
Mac nodded. ‘And this is where we will have to go to hunt it. During the day it’s a popular swimming spot, which is why it has become the perfect stalking ground for the Glibberhowl.’
Jasper thought of the lake where he used to spend holidays as a kid. He loved swimming, but there were parts of it he never went near. He always imagined the horrible things that lived way down in the dark where the sunlight couldn’t reach. It felt even worse to know now that he’d probably been right.
‘Glibberhowls are pretty rare, so we don’t know much about them,’ Mac continued quietly. ‘But we do know that the Glibberhowl lies in wait at the bottom of the lake. Waiting for some poor person to swim out too deep, or get stuck by themselves. And then it strikes. We’re not sure exactly how it attacks, because the only people who would be able to tell us are too scared to talk about it, or … dead. But we have to assume it somehow sucks you underwater.’
Saffy was beginning to squirm in her seat.
‘We also know that it especially likes stalking swimmers at dusk,’ Mac went on, ‘which is when we will be going in. I take it you can all swim well?’
Jasper and Felix both nodded.
Saffy looked away. ‘Well,’ she mumbled. ‘Technically, I can swim. But actually ...’
Jasper couldn’t believe it. He also couldn’t help rubbing it in, even though he knew he’d probably regret it later. ‘You mean little Miss Perfect, Kickboxing Champion, Best Escape Artist in the World, Speaks a Million Languages, Good at Everything, Saffron Dominguez can’t swim?’ he asked, huge grin spread across his face.
Saffy looked at him and sighed. ‘I really hoped I wouldn’t have to do this,’ she said, then sent Jasper flying across the room with a sharp kick to his thigh.
Jasper crashed into a nearby table, upending a model that another crew had been huddled around. ‘Hey!’ they yelled angrily.
Jasper apologised and meekly walked back to the workstation.
‘Rub my nose in it again and I won’t be aiming for your thigh,’ Saffy threatened.
Mac just shook his head. ‘Firsties,’ he muttered and turned to Saffy. ‘So, how did you get accepted to Monstrum House without being able to swim?’
Saffy grinned. ‘My school records said I was an exceptional swimmer,’ she replied. ‘I guess Monstrum House didn’t check.’
‘However,’ a cold voice announced from behind them, ‘you can expect an intensive regime of swimming lessons when you have finished this Hunt. We have no use for hunters who can’t be relied upon.’
Jasper turned to see Stenka standing behind them, glaring at Saffy with her arms crossed.
‘Thanks, Eugene, for bringing that to everyone’s attention,’ muttered Saffy.
Jasper imagined Saffy being thrown into a monster-infested pool and ordered to get out. By the look on Saffy’s face, she was imagining something similar.
‘And I will expect you to show us something on th
is Hunt,’ Stenka glowered. ‘Prove yourself. Student reviews have not started yet. Spring any more surprises like this on us, and you may not be offered the option of returning to Monstrum House next year.’
Saffy’s face turned steely. She was about to reply when a voice boomed over the intercom: ‘Crew 4 to Dock C. Transport ready to depart.’
Mac looked at his watch. ‘Already? OK, we’ll go over the rest when we get there. Let’s go.’
‘What, now?’ Felix asked.
‘That’s what the assignment said. Tuesday 2.49pm – or didn’t you read that bit?’ Mac sounded slightly annoyed.
‘Yeah, but I thought they meant Tuesday 2.49pm next week or month, or something,’ Felix mumbled.
Jasper had been thinking the same thing. How were they supposed to go straight into a Hunt?
‘That’s what your school lessons are for,’ Stenka replied. ‘What do you think we’ve been teaching you? You need to be able to respond to Hunt calls as soon as the Surveillance Units inform us of monster activity.’
‘We’d better hurry. It’s a quarter to,’ said Mac.
‘Enjoy,’ Stenka said. ‘And stay alert. You are all new at this, so listen to Mac, and use whatever knowledge you have. I will be keeping track of you.’
Jasper didn’t like the fact that Stenka was staring directly at him. Suddenly he was frightened. What if he heard the whispering? What if he couldn’t control it? He might put everyone in danger.
He wasn’t ready. He didn’t want to go on a Hunt. Not yet. ‘What about my, um, medicine?’ he asked Stenka quietly.
‘You will just have to make do with what the nurse gave you already,’ said Stenka.
‘Let’s go.’ Mac had shoved all the papers and junk from their workstation into a few large backpacks. Everyone hoisted a bag onto their backs. ‘Wish us luck!’ Mac called to Stenka as he jogged from the room with Jasper, Felix and Saffy in tow.
‘You’ll need it,’ Stenka said grimly.
10
Mac didn’t slow down. They ran through the hallways of Monstrum House until Mac stopped in front of an old rotting wooden door. He ripped back an ivy plant that was growing over it to reveal a sign:
