Frankie takes her friend’s hand. Draculaura touches the Skullette pendant around her neck. They take a breath. And then—

Plop. Plop.

“What the…?”

“Seriously, what is that plopping sound?” says Draculaura.

“Let’s just ignore it.”

They hold hands again, touch the Skullette, look at the map, and together say, “Exsto monstrum principal of Shadow High—”

And they fall. But not out of Monster High and into Shadow High. Just onto their butts. On their bedroom floor. Not transported. They were knocked down by nothing.

“What just—”

“Did that—”

Their door swings open. Clawdeen pushes her voluminous brown hair out of her eyes.

“Ghouls, did you feel that?” says Clawdeen. “I think we just had an earthquake! I’m gonna go check on my little brothers.”

And she bounds off just as quickly as she entered.

“That was—” Frankie starts.

“Creepy,” Draculaura finishes.

They stand up, brush themselves off, and shrug. They aren’t hurt. So they try it again. Hands held. Skullette touched. Deep breaths. As they speak, the plopping sounds return.¹⁸

18 Honestly. My parents can be so weird sometimes.

“Exsto monstrum”—plop, plop—“principal”—PLOP—“of Shadow”—plopplopplopplopplop—“High!”

Almost before the words come out of their mouths, another tremor rolls beneath their feet. The stones of Monster High groan, the wood floor begins to buckle, the books on the shelves burst off like popping corn. And most ominously, the mirror on the wall cracks in two. Now Frankie is shivering for real. Two earthquakes in a row? That can’t be a coincidence—

“Whoa!” exclaims Draculaura.

“What?” says Frankie.

“Look!”

“Look at what?”

“Whoa! Look! Whoa!”

Draculaura finally points at the map. Frankie gasps.