what time is it?” Robecca cried while splayed out beneath a small pile of debris, her copper eyelids fighting to stay open after hours of hard work trying to break through the barrier.
“Robecca! Stop asking what time it is and help us!” Venus snapped.
“It’s six fifteen AM,” Cy whispered to Robecca after checking that Venus wasn’t listening.
“My fingers have so many splinters in them, they look like cacti. Not to mention I think I pulled a root,” Venus lamented.
“We’re almost through, chéries,” Rochelle encouraged the others as she stifled a yawn.
“Almost through is not through,” Venus grumbled as she blew strands of pink hair off her forehead.
“Plants are très grognons, or grouchy as you say in Fanglish, when they don’t get enough sleep,” Rochelle muttered to Cy. “Quel dommage. What a shame, for us that is.…”
“I heard that,” Venus grunted as she yanked at a piece of wood, which triggered a strange creaking noise.
“Errr… err…”
“What is that?” Cy asked.
“An animal? You know how normies love to have exotic pets. Maybe one got loose and wound up down here!” Robecca rambled.
“That seems highly unlikely, although it’s true that normies like to have odd pets. I once read an article about a man who kept a tiger in his one-bedroom apartment in Boo York,” Rochelle stated as Venus pulled at another piece of wood in the wall.
“It’s not an animal; it’s the wood,” Venus explained, seconds before the wall started to crumble, piece by piece.
“Bravo! Venus! Bravo!” Rochelle cried excitedly.
“Good golly, Miss Molly, you sure are strong,” Robecca remarked.
“What can I tell you? My vines are tougher than they look,” Venus responded proudly.
“Yikes! It’s pretty dark in there,” Robecca said as she followed Cy into the near pitch-black tunnel.
“Luckily for you, you are traveling with a gargoyle. And as you know, gargoyles come prepared,” Rochelle said as she pulled out a flashlight.
“And we’re sure this is the right tunnel? This is the one that leads to the normie town?” Cy asked the others.
“That’s what Mr. Mummy said.…” Venus trailed off as she looked anxiously around the space. “I hope he knows what he’s talking about.”
The foursome walked through the murky and musty-smelling corridor for what felt like hours. Though it was, in fact, only forty-seven minutes.
“Ouch!” Venus screeched as she bumped into one of the many discarded chairs and sconces littered across the floor of the tunnel.
“Regardez! I see something! Slivers of light up above!” Rochelle called out.
“It’s a manhole,” Cy assessed as the foursome stood looking up at the splinters of light.
“A what?” Robecca asked.
“You know, those metal things in the streets that lead to sewers and other stuff below cities. In this case, a catacombs tunnel,” Cy replied.
“How are we going to do this? Are we all just walking into normieville? Or should only one of us go?” Venus asked the others.
“One monster might sneak through town unnoticed, but four? I doubt it. But it must be noted that it’s far more dangerous for whoever goes alone. For even though the normies are not actually threatening to wall us in, they aren’t used to us. The sight of a monster popping up in town might frighten some of them,” Rochelle hypothesized.
“Why?” Venus asked. “And don’t say because you’re a boy. Because ghouls are just as strong as boys.”
“It has nothing to do with the fact that I am a boy. You guys are a trio, I don’t think you could function without one another.”
“That is so sweet!” Robecca gushed as she started to steam up.
“And highly codependent,” Rochelle interjected.
“Please know, Cy, we need you too,” Robecca finished.
“Thanks.”
“It’s almost seven thirty AM. If you are going to do this, you should go now, before the streets become crowded,” Rochelle advised.
“You need to find the mayor’s office,” Venus said, and then paused. “Once there, figure out a way inside so that you can convince him to make a video stating that the normies have no intention of walling us in,” Venus instructed.
“I have a bad feeling about this! What if the mayor is afraid of monsters and throws Cy in jail? Then we really will have to reach out to ASOME for help!” Robecca squealed.
“It is true that the normie/monster relationship has a long and difficult history. There have been pockets of trouble as well as friendship over the years,” Rochelle responded.
“Well, here’s to hoping we’re in a pocket of friendship,” Cy said unsurely as he pulled up one of the abandoned chairs from the tunnel and climbed atop it.
Light flooded into the damp space as Cy pushed the manhole to the side and then slowly pulled himself to the street.
“Bonne chance! Good luck!” Rochelle wished the boy.
“Stay safe!” Robecca called out as Cy pushed the manhole back in place and disappeared into normieville.
“My vines are so tense I think they might snap in half,” Venus commented as the trio sat in the faint light of the tunnel.
“Jeez Louise! How long has he been gone? An hour? Two? He’s probably in normie jail by now!”
“Becs, Cy’s been gone eight minutes,” Venus replied. “And please stop talking about jail. It’s hardly helping the mood.”
“Then what should we talk about? The mayor? What do we know about him? Is he nice? Is he young? Is he old? Does he like karaoke? Monsters with one eye?” Robecca babbled.
“We don’t know anything about him except that he is not threatening to wall us in,” said Rochelle.
“But what if we’re wrong? What if everything Miss Flapper said is true? They’ll kidnap Cy just like they did Wydowna and Headmistress Bloodgood!” Robecca squawked.
“Venus, s’il ghoul plaît, help me hold Robecca’s hands. Our ghoulfriend needs to calm down.”
Minutes passed like hours and hours passed like days as Robecca, Rochelle, and Venus waited for Cy to return to the tunnel. He had been gone two hours and thirteen minutes, which was exactly thirteen minutes longer than either Venus or Rochelle had anticipated.
“There’s no way the normies are really planning to wall us in, right?” Robecca questioned her friends.
“For the last time, no,” Venus replied, albeit with a slightly shaky voice.
“Are you sure about that? Because you don’t sound that sure.”
“Robecca, Venus is as sure as I am, which I place at approximately seventy-eight percent.”
“What? Why only seventy-eight percent?!” Robecca yelped.
“I came into this tunnel at a hundred percent, but there is something about sitting in the dark that has eroded my ability to think clearly,” Rochelle confessed.
“I know! It’s like some kind of terrible torture. It’s worse than watching an aluminum can get thrown into the trash,” Venus seconded.
“What’s that?” Robecca yelped. “Is that a siren? An ambulance? The police? The MIA, the Monster Intelligence Agency?”
“I don’t hear anything. So either you’re imagining something or I’m going deaf,” Venus replied.
“Both of you stop talking! I have come to believe that conversing of any kind is highly detrimental to our mental health,” Rochelle instructed the others as the sound of the manhole scratching against the pavement echoed through the tunnel.
“Cy’s back!” Robecca said with relief, before gasping. “Unless of course he caved under normie questioning and it’s actually the police coming to arrest us for trespassing!”
“Trespassing! An arrest record! Those are not terms gargoyles want to hear,” Rochelle cried, before a bright light flooded the tunnel, suddenly blinding the trio. The intense burst of sunlight left the ghouls seeing spots of color even after Cy closed the manhole cover behind him.
“These dots of light I’m seeing are beautiful, but not as beautiful as seeing Cy again!” Robecca exclaimed.
“Sorry, ghouls, I should have warned you to close your eyes,” Cy apologized.
“We’re just glad to see you,” said Venus as the foursome started on their way back through the tunnel toward Monster High. “Now tell us what happened!”
“Mayor Mazin is a really nice guy, and smart too,” Cy reflected.
“Is that why you spent so much time with him?” Venus persisted.
“I spent most of the time trying to find the mayor’s office. You have to remember that walking around a normie town with a big eye in the middle of your forehead without being noticed is not easy. Even with the hood of my sweatshirt pulled down over half my face I couldn’t ask for directions, so I just had to keep wandering until I found the office.”
“And what happened when you found the office? You simply walked in and said, ‘Boo-jour, I am a monster and I must talk to the mayor’?” Rochelle inquired.
“Hardly,” Cy replied with a chuckle. “The mayor’s secretary looked about as friendly as Superintendent Petra after spending time with Miss Sue Nami.”
“So how did you get to the mayor?” Robecca chimed in.
“I climbed up a tree in front of the building and then I jumped from there to the roof—”
“Jeepers! Who knew Cy was a spider ghoul?” Robecca remarked excitedly.
“Then I almost crashed to the ground as I attempted to lower myself onto the mayor’s balcony from the roof. But eventually I climbed through the window and introduced myself,” Cy continued.
“How did he respond? A monster climbing through his window unannounced? That could be pretty jarring,” Venus supposed.
“Surprisingly well. It turns out his parents once sent him to a monster and normie camp in upstate Boo York, so he’s more comfortable around creatures than the average normie.”
“What are they like? I’ve never been around any normies,” Robecca admitted.
“They seemed fine, except, well…”
“What?” Robecca inquired.
“They’re really boring dressers. I’ve never seen so much khaki and beige in my life. It’s like they’re afraid of color or something.”
“While I am amused by their fashion limitations, I must ask you, did you get the video?” Rochelle cut to the chase.
“Yes, I did,” Cy replied confidently, clearly proud of what he had accomplished.
“YEAH!!” Robecca squealed.
“Merci boo-coup!”
“Okay, that does it, we’re no longer a trio. We are now officially a quartet,” Venus said while patting Cy on the arm.
“Thanks, ghouls!” Cy replied, his face locked in a permanent smile.