“Is there something wrong with the Mummy Mocha machine?” he continued. “I thought mine tasted a little burnt this morning.”
“No, no, it has nothing to do with the Mummy Mochas,” Draculaura assured him.
“Yeah, Mr. D.,” Clawdeen added. “They’re delicious, as always!”
“A new monster sent us a video message,” Draculaura explained. “So we were doing a little research before we rescue her.”
“Mr. D., did you know that Normies have blogs about us?” Clawdeen asked. “They write about every spooky, scary thing that happens and post it on their Internet!”
Dracula chuckled. “I’m not surprised,” he replied. “Normies can be funny like that. On the one hand, they’re so terrified of us that they forced us into hiding during the great monster Fright Flight. But on the other hand, they seem to genuinely appreciate—even enjoy—spooky things. If they’d give us a chance, I think they might find that monsters and Normies have more in common than they think.”
“But that’s a pretty big if,” Cleo pointed out.
“I know,” Dracula said. “Maybe someday, though. Now, tell me about this blog.”
“We were reading about the Boogey Mansion,” Draculaura began.
Dracula raised his eyebrows. “The Boogey Mansion!” he exclaimed. “That’s right down the Hill.”
“Have you ever been there?” Draculaura asked eagerly.
“No,” Dracula replied, shaking his head. “The Boogey Man lives there. He’s quite famous in the Normie World, you know. Humans blame him for every spooky thing that happens to them. It’s ironic, when you think about it.”
“What do you mean, Mr. D.?” asked Lagoona.
“The Boogey Man is famous among Normies— but among monsters, he’s practically a stranger,” Dracula explained. “Even before the great monster Fright Flight, the Boogey Man kept to himself. I always invited him to my fangtastic parties back in the day, but he never came to a single one. I suspect he was too shy to attend.”
“So what happened to him?” Draculaura said, trying not to laugh at the idea of her dad throwing fangtastic parties.
“I can’t say for certain,” her father replied. “It was rumored that after the great monster Fright Flight, he slipped into the shadows of the monster community. He always did prefer to be alone. I assume he still lives in the Boogey Mansion, but to be honest I haven’t thought about him in decades.”
“The Boogey Mansion looked totally deserted until we got inside,” Frankie said. “Then we saw these glowing eyes in the shadows—”
“That’s when we decided we’d better go back to Monster High and come up with a plan,” added Clawdeen.
Dracula looked surprised and worried. “Ghouls, you went inside the Boogey Mansion? You shouldn’t go off into unknown places like that! It could be very dangerous.”
“Oh, Dad! Look, they’re fine” Draculaura said, trying to calm her anxious father. “Plus, Twyla asked for our help!”
“And we only went a little inside,” Frankie admitted. “The door swung right open when we knocked.”
“That’s probably one of his tricks to scare the Normies,” Dracula said. “Listen, ghouls, I want you to be more careful. And remember that the Boogey Man values his privacy. If you go back to the Boogey Mansion to see Twyla, I hope you’ll all be extra polite. After all, the Boogey Man is very shy. And I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if his daughter is too.”
“But, Dad,” Draculaura began, “Twyla contacted us. She’s the one who wants to come to Monster High. Don’t you think we have a duty to help a ghoulfriend in need?”
“Of course,” Dracula said. “I’m just saying that this isn’t going to be your average monster rescue.”
“Well to be fair, none of them are,” Frankie pointed out.
“Maybe both the Boogeys just need a friend—Twyla and her dad,” Draculaura said thoughtfully. “And maybe Monster High can be the place where they find one!”
“I know!” Cleo announced. “Why don’t we throw Twyla a huge party when she gets here? It’ll be golden!”
Dracula held up his hands. “Slow down, ghouls,” he said. “Remember that not all monsters are alike. Some love big parties, and some definitely do not.”
“I guess the truth is that none of us know what the Boogeys like,” Frankie said thoughtfully.
“Well, there’s one way to find out,” Draculaura replied as she stood up. “Let’s go to the Boogey Mansion and ask them!”
Dracula loudly cleared his throat.
“Politely, of course,” Draculaura added quickly. “We’ll be on our very best behavior, Dad; I promise.”
“There’s just one thing,” Frankie spoke up.
Everyone turned to look at her.
“If all five of us go, that’s a pretty big crowd,” she said. “We might be kind of overwhelming—especially if the Boogeys are quiet and shy.”
“Good point,” Draculaura replied. “I hadn’t really thought of that.”
“I can staying behind,” Lagoona offered. “Actually, I’d appreciate the chance to settle in a little and get acquainted with the pool.”
“I’ll stay too,” Cleo said. “We can get Twyla’s room all ready for her!”
“Fangtastic idea, ghouls,” Draculaura said. “What better way to help Twyla feel at home from the moment she arrives!”
CHAPTER 5
Draculaura held up the Skullette. “Ready, ghouls?” she asked. “I think we should still use the Monster Mapalogue to reach Twyla… just in case there’s another sticky situation and we need to get home fast!”
“Sounds good!” responded Clawdeen as she and Frankie reached out to touch it.
“Twyla… Exsto… monstrum,” Draculaura said.
Whoosh!
Draculaura stood up, blinking in the bright sun. She shielded her eyes with her hand. “So that’s the Boogey Mansion,” she said. “All that time I was lonely for a monster friend like me… and Twyla was living right down the Hill.”
“It’s kind of sad when you put it like that,” Clawdeen replied.
“Especially when you think that maybe Twyla is just as lonely as I was,” Draculaura said. “But that all ends today. By this time tomorrow, Twyla will have a ton of new ghoulfriends and a whole new life!”
“So what are we waiting for?” asked Frankie. “Let’s go!”
Frankie led the way to the Boogey Mansion’s front door. “It’s this one,” she murmured to Draculaura. “Do you want to knock?”
“I’d be happy to do the honors,” Draculaura joked. She reached out and knocked—not too loudly and not too softly—on the heavy wooden door.
To the ghouls’ surprise, it creaked open as though someone had been watching for them.
Or perhaps waiting for them.
“That’s a good sign!” Draculaura whispered. “The Boogeys can’t be too shy if they’re inviting us in like this.”
The ghouls stepped into the dim, gloomy entryway.
“Hello?” Draculaura called. “It’s the Monster High Student Outreach Committee! Is Twyla here?”
SLAM!
The three ghouls jumped as the door closed behind them with a bone-shattering bang. Then, one by one, each lock on the door bolted as if turned by unseen hands.
“That would definitely scare me—if I was a Normie,” Clawdeen joked.
“I wonder how they did it,” Frankie mused. “Maybe they’re wired to a remote app?”
“I’m sure Twyla will tell you all about it when we meet her,” Draculaura replied. “Come on!”
But the ghouls had only taken a few steps forward when swoosh! A sticky net of webs plunged from the ceiling, covering them from head to toe!
Frankie and Clawdeen screamed in surprise, but Draculaura kept her cool. “Don’t panic, ghouls,” she said. “It’s just a giant spiderweb. Stay still, and I’ll get you out of here in no time.”
“This better not mess up my hair,” Clawdeen said with a shudder.
“I
t totes won’t,” Draculaura assured her. “Webby’s webs are the same type! Look—all you have to do is roll it between your hands…”
Frankie and Clawdeen watched closely as Draculaura grabbed a chunk of web and rolled it back and forth in her hands. Amazingly, the sticky strands of web stuck to one another instead of to the ghouls.
“Cool trick, Draculaura,” Frankie said. “How’d you figure that out?”
Draculaura laughed. “When you have a pet spider, you get used to dealing with cobwebs. You should see the monstrous webs Webby leaves for me most mornings. Trust me, they’re worse than this!” she told her ghoulfriends.
At last, the ghouls were free of the webs. They took a few more steps down the hall.
“I have to hand it to the Boogeys,” Frankie said. “If I was a Normie, I’d be screaming my head off as I raced away from Monster Hill.”
“If I was a Normie,” Clawdeen spoke up, “I’d already be back in Normie Town—and hiding under my bed!”
The ghoulfriends giggled. Suddenly, the sound of eerie, off-key piano music filled the air. The ghouls froze.
“Is that Twyla?” Draculaura whispered. “Does she play the piano?”
“Maybe?” Frankie guessed. None of the ghouls said what they were thinking: If that was Twyla on the piano, she could definitely use some lessons.
“If Twyla’s into music, she’ll love Monster High’s music room,” Clawdeen said. “Come on, it sounds like the piano is this way.”
Frankie and Draculaura followed Clawdeen down the hallway. She stopped outside a door that was painted all black, just like the walls. In fact, without the tarnished brass doorknob, it would’ve been invisible.
Draculaura pressed her ear against the door, listened for a moment, and nodded her head. “The piano is definitely in here,” she reported. Then she tapped quietly on the door.
Just like the other doors had, it creaked open—all on its own.
There was an ornate, dusty grand piano in the center of the room. Apart from that, though, the room was empty.
So who was playing the piano?
Draculaura’s face scrunched up in confusion. It just didn’t make sense. If Twyla wasn’t playing the piano… then who was?
Suddenly, with a ferocious growl, a large jet-black cat leaped out from inside the piano and skittered across the keys, creating the same deadful cacophony the ghouls had heard in the hallway. Then the cat dashed past the ghouls and out of the room, hissing all the while.
“A piano-playing cat!” Draculaura said with a laugh. “Now that is one fangtastic pet!”
“I really appreciate the attention to detail in here,” Frankie said, nodding approvingly. “Twyla and her dad thought of everything!”
“Be sure to tell them that when we find them,” Draculaura said.
“If we find them,” Clawdeen spoke up.
“What do you mean?” asked Draculaura.
“I’m not quite sure,” Clawdeen admitted. “But… Twyla and her dad must know we’re here. They opened the door and everything. But they haven’t come out to say hello. Doesn’t that seem a little, well… weird?”
The other ghouls were quiet for a moment.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Frankie finally said. “But look at the other side: They haven’t asked us to leave.”
“True,” Clawdeen said.
Draculaura raised a finger to her lips. “Shh,” she whispered. “Did you hear that?”
An eerie sound drifted through the creaky house.
“What is that?” Frankie whispered back.
“It sounded like… a voice,” Draculaura said. “I think—I think it might be Twyla!” The ghouls hurried out of the piano room and made their way to the end of the dark corridor, where they found three staircases.
“Up or down?” asked Frankie.
“I don’t know. I can’t tell where the voice is coming from,” said Clawdeen. “I guess we could split up?”
“No way!” Draculaura exclaimed.
The other ghouls looked at her.
“I mean, I’m not scared,” she quickly added. “I just worry that it will be hard to find each other again if we get separated. Remember, I don’t even have my phone.”
“Oh, of course—I almost forgot about that,” Clawdeen replied. “Let’s try the staircase in the middle, then.”
At the top of the stairs, the ghouls found four more staircases. They craned their necks to look up—and saw five more.
“At every floor, there are more staircases,” Frankie said. “So weird. Where do you think they all lead?”
“I don’t have a clue,” Draculaura said. “Maybe each one of the towers and turrets has its own private staircase?”
“I’ve never been anywhere quite like the Boogey Mansion,” Clawdeen said. “No wonder the Normies are so scared of it.”
The ghouls followed the voice as they passed through a room that had floor-to-ceiling windows on every wall—but even though it was broad daylight outside, an eerie, moonless night was visible through the windows. Draculaura hardly had a chance to figure out why the windows were so strange before they were in the next room. What she saw there took her breath away.
The room was small, barely larger than a broom closet, but it gleamed with an otherworldly golden light. Scattered throughout the room were several golden boxes, each a different size and shape with a different inscription carved into its surface. And that unusual light?
It was radiating from inside the boxes.
Draculaura had never seen anything like it before.
One of the boxes was awkwardly crammed into a corner of the room. There was an odd noise, like a shuffling sound—
“I think I just heard the voice!” Frankie exclaimed. “I think I heard Twyla!”
“I didn’t hear anything,” Clawdeen replied.
“The sound came from over there,” Frankie added.
“You think Twyla’s in that box?” Clawdeen asked incredulously.
“No—I mean, I don’t think so,” Frankie said. “But maybe she’s behind it!”
Suddenly, the box rattled. The three ghouls jumped in surprise!
They all looked at one another, worried. Even if Twyla had reached out to them, maybe they’d scared her off by coming to the Boogey Mansion.
“Twyla?” Frankie asked. “Is that you? My name is Frankie Stein, and I’m from Monster High. We don’t want to scare you. We heard your message, and we’d just like to offer you a place at the school, if you still want to come!”
There was no response.
Frankie took a few steps forward. “Would you like to come check it out?” she asked as she approached the box. “You could—”
“Take a tour!” Draculaura spoke up. “You don’t have to decide right away. Just take a look and see what you think! I promise, Monster High has something for everyone!”
The girls waited expectantly, but there was no response.
Draculaura turned to Frankie and Clawdeen. “Are you ghouls cold?” she asked, shivering as she rubbed her arms.
“Yeah, and not only that, but I think it’s actually getting colder in here,” Frankie replied. Her breath made little puffs in the air when she spoke. “See that? I couldn’t see my breath when we first came into the room, and now I totally can.”
“I wouldn’t mind a quick trip back to the Great Barrier Reef so we can warm up,” Clawdeen joked. “Or even the deserts of Egypt!”
Just then, the box shuddered, almost as if someone—or something—was trapped inside it.
A confused frown crossed Frankie’s face. As the bolts in her neck started flashing, Draculaura could practically see the questions forming in Frankie’s brain. Frankie took a couple more steps forward. Then, to everyone’s surprise, she accidentally stumbled and bumped into the box. The lid fell off—
And that’s when everything exploded!
A parade of ghosts burst out of the box, howling and moaning as they careened through the room. Their open mouths were wide, gaping ho
les that seemed to grow bigger… and bigger…
For half a second, Draculaura thought she was going to scream. Then she realized something. The ghosts weren’t real ghosts—they were just another boogey prank to scare the Normies!
“Very convincing,” Frankie said as she watched the ghosts zoom around the room inquisitively. “An ingenious use of gauze and lights. How do you think they fly?”
“I don’t know—but if I was a Normie, I think I would’ve passed out from fright!” Draculaura said.
“Now all we have to do is figure out how to get them back in the box,” Clawdeen pointed out.
Frankie grimaced. “I think that’s going to be easier said than done.”
CHAPTER 6
And this,” Cleo said, pausing for dramatic effect, “is Monster High’s art studio!”
“It’s incredible!” Lagoona marveled. “We don’t have a lot of art supplies under the sea. I don’t even know where to begin!”
“I’m guessing watercolors will be your thing, but don’t worry, ghoul,” Cleo assured her. “I’ll give you the grand tour! After all, this is the best place to start planning for Twyla’s creeptastic new room. When we’re done, she’s going to feel right at home!”
“I am really looking forward to taking an art class here,” Lagoona said after she and Cleo had explored every shelf, cupboard, nook, and cranny of the art studio. “But I have a question. How does fanging out in the art studio help us get Twyla’s room ready?”
“Inspiration, of course!” Cleo announced. She yanked a bolt of shimmery golden fabric from the shelf and draped it around her shoulders like a glamorous shawl. “We can use these supplies to create inspiration boards for Twyla’s dream room. It’s easy—just take one of these corkboards and add anything to it that inspires you.”
“Like these?” Lagoona asked, holding up a long strand of sparkly seafoam-green beads.
“Exactly,” Cleo said as she flashed Lagoona a grin. “When we get done, Twyla’s room is going to be worthy of royalty!”
The ghoulfriends worked on their inspiration boards for more than an hour, concentrating so intently that the art studio was silent except for the sounds of Tash’s new album playing on Cleo’s iCoffin.
Monster High: Monster Rescue: Track Down Twyla! Page 3
