“Noted,” Cleo replied, eyeing the elaborate candlesticks. “I bet Twyla would choose those over any other lamp we could find for her.”
“I’m going to start making a list,” Lagoona said. “There’s so much fintastic inspiration in here. I don’t want to forget a single thing!”
“Let’s see if we can find our friends,” Cleo said as she and Lagoona continued down the hall. “Plus, this place is positively radiant. I have to admit, I’m impressed. The Boogey Mansion is full of scary-cool stuff.”
“I wonder where Twyla’s room is,” Lagoona replied.
“Who knows? This place has so many different floors,” Cleo replied, pointing out the many staircases. “I know if I could choose any room, I’d want one of the towers.”
“I’m into all those turrets,” Lagoona said. “They have those cool wrap-around balconies, and they’re so high up! I bet you feel like you’re surfing at the very top of a tsunami when you stand up there.”
Cleo’s eyes sparkled. “Or at the top of your very own palatial pyramid, being fanned by a thousand palm leaves.” She paused for a moment, reveling in her dream. “Want to find out?” she finally asked.
“Do you think we should?” Lagoona whispered back.
“Why not?” Cleo replied. Then she grabbed Lagoona’s hand, and the two ghouls started running toward the nearest staircase. It spiraled around and around as it rose through the Boogey Mansion, leaving them both dizzy by the time they reached the top floor.
“Whoa-oh-oh!” Lagoona exclaimed. “It’s a good thing I’m not afraid of heights.”
“Ghoul, I’ve seen you on your surfboard,” Cleo replied. “You’re not afraid of anything!”
“Well,” Lagoona said, “I am a little nervous about what’s behind that door over there. This is the Boogey Mansion, after all.”
Cleo tossed her hair over her shoulder. “I’m not worried,” she announced. “All the boogey pranks are designed to scare Normies. We’re going to be just fine. Come on, let’s check it out. If that door leads to one of those turret balconies, I bet the view will be golden!”
But when Cleo and Lagoona opened the door, they realized they hadn’t reached one of the turrets after all. Instead they found themselves in an octagonal room; each wall was lined with shelves from floor to ceiling. Tall, rickety ladders placed periodically throughout the room lead up to the highest shelves. Each shelf was cluttered with dozens—no, hundreds—of unusual bottles and vials made out of carved crystal.
That wasn’t the most remarkable part, though. The bottles were filled with a strange, glowing substance that cast a faint yet unmistakable light throughout the room.
“Wow,” Lagoona breathed.
“My thoughts exactly,” Cleo replied. “What do you think is in all those bottles?”
“I have no idea,” Lagoona replied. “The way they glow makes me think of moonlight on the ocean, or even stardust—but I’m sure that’s not what it is.”
“I really want to know!” Cleo exclaimed.
“And I really want to find our ghoulfriends,” Lagoona said, glancing over her shoulder. “Do you think it’s odd that we haven’t seen them yet?”
“Not really,” Cleo replied, her eyes fixated on the strange bottles. “This place is massive. We could probably explore it for days without running into them.”
“Days? I think that would be trespassing,” Lagoona said with a laugh. “Come on, let’s focus on finding our ghoulfriends.”
Lagoona ducked back into the hallway and started calling for her ghoulfriends. “Draculaura! Clawdeen! Frankie!”
Frankie-ee-ee-ee.
Lagoona’s voice echoed down the long, winding corridor.
“Ghouls!” she tried again. “Where are you?”
You-ooh-ooh-ooh.
“You know, Cleo, they might not have come up this high,” she said. “Maybe we should look for them downstairs.”
When Cleo didn’t answer her, Lagoona turned around. “Cleo?” she asked. But Lagoona was the only one in the hallway. She’d been so preoccupied with the search for Draculaura, Frankie, and Clawdeen that she hadn’t even noticed Cleo had stayed behind.
Lagoona hurried back into the room with the glowing bottles. The last thing she wanted to do was get separated from Cleo and find herself all alone in the mysterious Boogey Mansion.
“Come on, Cleo,” Lagoona said. “We’ve got to find our ghoulfriends and get out of here.”
“I will,” Cleo said. “I just want to take an itty-bitty peek inside one of these bottles first—for research!”
Lagoona looked worried. “I’m not sure you should do that,” she replied.
“I’m not going to break anything,” Cleo assured her. “I’m just curious, that’s all.”
“I really don’t—” Lagoona tried to stop Cleo again.
“Ghoul, you really worry too much!” Cleo said brightly. She waved the crystal bottle in the air so that its contents shook back and forth. “It’s some kind of sand, totally harmless. I should know, after all. I’ve spent my entire life surrounded by sand. Now, if only I could figure out what’s making it glow…”
Cleo put the bottle back, and then she scanned the shelves until she found another container that shone with an unusual red gleam. “This one looks good,” she announced. Then Cleo lifted it off the shelf and started to unscrew the crystal stopper. “Ugh! It’s—sealed—so—tight,” she said.
“Please be careful!” Lagoona urged her. She couldn’t shake the feeling those bottles should stay exactly the way they were… including their tightly sealed caps.
Three floors down, Frankie froze.
“What?” Clawdeen whispered urgently. “Did you see something?”
Frankie shook her head. “No, but I think I heard something,” she replied. “It sounded like somebody was calling my name.”
“I bet it’s Draculaura!” Clawdeen exclaimed. “Let’s go find her!”
“I’m pretty sure it was coming from upstairs,” Frankie said. “Come on!”
The ghouls took the stairs two at a time.
“Hurry!” Frankie urged. “If Draculaura’s on the move, looking for us, we don’t want to lose her!”
“I wish she had her phone so we could just text her to stay put,” Clawdeen replied.
“The sooner we find her, the sooner we can go back to Monster High,” Frankie assured her. By that time, the two ghouls had reached the top of the stairs. They stared down a long, narrow corridor that was lined with dozens of doors, each leading to—what? Another unusual room? Another spooky boogey prank? Another staircase leading who-knows-where?
There was only one way to find out.
Frankie and Clawdeen flung open the first door at the top of the stairs. “Draculaura!” they yelled at the same time. “Are you in here?”
Lagoona and Cleo were so startled by the sudden interruption that they both jumped.
“Ghouls! You startled m—!” Lagoona started to say. But before she could finish her sentence, Cleo cried out.
“Oh no!” she bawled in dismay.
The other three ghouls spun around to look at her—and what they saw made them go numb with shock. The glittering red sand from the crystal bottle had spilled all over Cleo’s hands and feet, and it was immediately obvious that it was not harmless.
“Make it stop! Make it stop!” Cleo shrieked.
But there was nothing the other ghouls could do.
They watched, dumbstruck, as Cleo began to transform. In seconds, she was completely unrecognizable. Gone was the glamorous mummy, and in her place stood a oozing gooey monster.
“How did this happen?” Cleo groaned. “This is so not my style!”
“It must be Boogey Sand!” Frankie exclaimed.
“What in the world is Boogey Sand?” Cleo demanded.
“Scientifically, I can’t exactly answer that question,” Frankie began. “No one can, you see, because the effective ingredient is top secret, and—”
“Frankie!” C
leo shrieked, waving her wobbly, globby arms in the air. “Nobody cares right now! Just tell me how to become myself again!”
Clink.
Clank.
Crash!
Cleo wasn’t used to moving around in gooey-monster form. Every movement was slower, clunkier, and harder to control. She couldn’t help knocking into the bottles of enchanted Boogey Sand—
Bottles that clinked and clanked as they bumped into one another—
And then crashed as they plunged to the floor, scattering Boogey Sand all over Clawdeen and Lagoona!
CHAPTER 8
Cleo!” Lagoona and Clawdeen cried at the same time.
“What have you done?” Clawdeen yelled in despair.
“Sorry! I’m sorry!” Cleo shrieked. She tried to hurry over to her ghoulfriends, but every time she moved, she knocked another bottle of Boogey Sand to the ground.
“Stop! Don’t move!” Frankie ordered her.
But it was too late. The damage was done.
“I feel… funny…” Clawdeen said.
She was already starting to flicker.
The ghouls watched in shock as Clawdeen’s arms and legs started to fade. It was as though they were looking at her through a silvery curtain of mist. Then, to everyone’s astonishment, Clawdeen’s feet peeled away from the floor…
And she started to hover in midair!
“At least we know what the silver Boogey Sand does now,” Clawdeen said. Her voice sounded faraway, as if she were speaking to them from the bottom of a well. “It turns you into a ghost!”
“That’s what I was trying to say!” Frankie said. “Boogey Sand is scary-cool. It can transform you into a totally different kind of monster.”
“Oh yeah, really cool,” Clawdeen replied as she floated toward the ceiling. “Can anyone tell me how to get down?”
“I bet it’s like swimming,” Lagoona spoke up.
The other ghouls turned to look at her—and got yet another shock. Their favorite sea monster had transformed into a grainy, gritty sand monster!
“What?” Lagoona asked, keeping her cool as always. Then she looked down at her sandy self. “Oh. This? Yeah, it’s definitely not ideal. But honestly, it’s not the first time I’ve been covered with sand from head to toe.”
“Ghoul, I wish I could be as chill as you,” said Clawdeen from above.
“Air currents can’t be that different from water currents,” Lagoona called back. “See if you can swim through them!”
“I guess it can’t hurt to try,” replied Clawdeen. Her ghostly arms sliced through the air as she started to kick her feet. “Hey! Look! I think it’s working!”
The other ghouls cheered; well, they tried to cheer. When Lagoona clapped, she sent sand flying through the air. Cleo’s hands stuck together when she tried to clap, and as she struggled to pull them apart, she sent three more bottles of Boogey Sand crashing to the ground. Frankie leaped out of the way just in time!
“Cleo, don’t move!” Frankie, Clawdeen, and Lagoona yelled at the same time.
Cleo started to pout. “It’s not my fault!” she protested. “You try being some sticky, clumsy gooey monster and see how easy it is!”
“Actually—” Clawdeen started to say before Frankie interrupted.
“Ghouls, ghouls, ghouls,” Frankie said loudly, holding up her hands. She knew she had to keep everyone calm before it got any worse. “We’re all in this together, remember? Blaming each other isn’t going to help anything, and it’s definitely not going to help me figure out how to transform you back into your regular selves.”
“So you can help us?” Lagoona asked hopefully.
“Of course I can,” Frankie replied, sounding more confident than she actually felt. “The Boogey Man isn’t a bad monster. He’s really just trying to keep Normies out of his house and his life. I have a feeling that there’s something in this room that will turn you all back into your usual monster selves. But until I can figure out what that is… nobody move!”
“We won’t,” Lagoona promised. “You can count on uh-ah-ah-achoo!”
When Lagoona sneezed, she kicked up a cloud of Boogey Sand that swirled through the air. Luckily, Frankie’s reflexes were on high alert. She dodged the Boogey Sand in the nick of time—but in her rush, she almost knocked over another bottle! Clawdeen put her newfound flying skills to good use as she swooped through the air and caught the wobbling bottle of Boogey Sand just before it tumbled to the floor.
“On second thought,” Frankie said, “I think I’ll go into the howlway to think this one through. Last thing we need is for me to turn into a swamp monster right now.”
“Good idea,” Clawdeen said. “At this point, it’s much safer out there than it is in here.”
“Be right back, ghouls,” Frankie promised. “And in the meantime, stay still!”
Frankie slipped through the heavy door and breathed a sigh of relief when it closed behind her. The quiet emptiness of the hallway was a relief after all the chaos of the Boogey Sand room.
“I have to hand it to you, Boogey Man,” Frankie said aloud. “Your pranks are genius. They get trickier and tougher the farther we go into your house… but that’s not an accident, is it? It’s all part of your master plan to keep everybody else out. I have a feeling that every single thing you’ve done is completely and totally intentional.”
Frankie’s eyes told her that she was completely alone in the narrow, twisting hallway, but for some reason, her heart said someone was listening.
“Which is actually making me feel worse and worse,” Frankie continued. “We only heard part of Twyla’s video message, but it sounded like she really wanted to come to Monster High. Maybe we were wrong, though. Maybe we misunderstood. Maybe we shouldn’t have come at all.” Frankie paused for a moment, hoping someone really was listening. She hoped they’d respond. “Anyway, we’re trying to get out of your cobwebs. We’re just a little lost. But we’ll get out of here as soon as we can. I promise.”
Just then, something moved at the end of the hallway. For half a second, Frankie thought she saw a flash of purple and mint green—but just as quickly, it was gone.
With silent steps, Frankie rushed down the hall. “Twyla?” she asked in a low voice. “Is that you?”
There was no answer and no sign of anyone. Frankie started to wonder if she’d just imagined it. Whether or not Twyla had appeared at the end of the hallway, it didn’t matter right now. Frankie had to get back to her ghoulfriends. She had to figure out how to undo the effects of the Boogey Sand.
Frankie took one last glance over her shoulder as she hurried back to the room at the end of the hall. Inside, she found her ghoulfriends standing completely motionless. Except for Clawdeen, of course. She was clinging to the edge of a shelf, trying to keep herself from floating any higher.
“At last! You’re back!” Cleo exclaimed. “Please tell me you have a plan, Frankie. I can’t bear to spend one more minute like this!”
“I’m, um, working on it,” Frankie said, frantically scanned the shelves, looking for something—anything—that might help her reverse the effects of the Boogey Sand.
“Tell me honestly,” Clawdeen began. “How worried should we be right now? Like, just a little worried? Or full-on freak-out worried?”
“How about somewhere in the middle?” Frankie said, only slightly distracted by her search.
This was the wrong thing to say.
“Frankie!” Cleo shrieked. “I thought you said you could fix this!”
“I did! I mean—I will! I mean—I’m trying!” Frankie replied. “Please, Cleo, don’t move—”
But Cleo had already started pacing back and forth—or she was trying to pace, anyway. Her blobby, globby form made it impossible for her to move without bumping into more bottles of Boogey Sand. When a vial filled with sparkly hot-pink Sand broke, Frankie noticed something.
It was labeled on the bottom.
And the label read VAMPIRE.
“That’s it!”
Frankie yelled in excitement. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of it before?”
“Think of what?” Clawdeen asked. She was so distracted by Frankie’s discovery that she forgot to hold on to the shelf. As she started drifting up to the ceiling, Lagoona had to make a flying leap to grab Clawdeen’s ghostly foot and drag her back down again—scattering more Boogey Sand across the room.
“Each and every one of these bottles is labeled,” Frankie explained. “All we have to do is find the right Boogey Sand, and we can transform you back! Werewolf Sand for Clawdeen… sea monster Sand for Lagoona… and mummy Sand for Cleo.”
Cleo narrowed her gooey-monster eyes. “That almost sounds too easy,” she said suspiciously. “Are you sure it will work?”
“No,” Frankie replied with total honesty. “But it’s the best idea I have right now. We might as well try it.”
The ghouls began searching the shelves for the bottles of Boogey Sand that would solve all their problems. Thanks to ghost-Clawdeen’s flying skills, she was even able to check the shelves near the ceiling.
Suddenly, a booming howl filled the air. “Cleo! It’s your lucky day!” Clawdeen called out. “I found the mummy Boogey Sand!”
“You want me to go first?” Cleo asked. “Oh no. No way! What if adding a different kind of Boogey Sand only makes things worse?”
Clawdeen plucked the bottle of golden Boogey Sand from the shelf and fluttered down from the ceiling. “There’s only one way to find out,” she announced.
Then Clawdeen uncorked the bottle and poured the entire thing over Cleo’s gooey head!
Cleo shrieked!
It was already done, though. As the glittery Sand settled over Cleo, Frankie realized that she was holding her breath. If this doesn’t work, I don’t know what we’ll try next, she worried.
Zing! Zing! Zing!
There was a sudden series of flashes so bright that Frankie, Clawdeen, and Lagoona had to shield their eyes.
“Ow!” Clawdeen complained as she rubbed her eyes. “That was worse than staring at the sun!”
“I can’t see anything!” added Lagoona. “Cleo, are you okay?”
“Ghouls, I’m better than okay!” Cleo announced gleefully. “I’m me!”
Monster High: Monster Rescue: Track Down Twyla! Page 5
