CHAPTER 10

Music from the Stars

Deep in the catacombs of Monster High, Ghoulia was using all her smarts to try to save the world. She pulled up screens of numbers, studied maps, and clicked through equation after equation, trying to find a solution.

Abbey shook her head. “Comet path is unstable?”

Ghoulia zoomed in on the comet. She typed in a series of numbers and a line stretched from the comet—right to Boo York.

“The comet will crash into Boo York City at midnight?” Abbey’s eyes widened.

Ghoulia groaned.

But that’s where our friends are! Ghoulia realized.

Both ghouls looked at the screen. There had to be a way to stop the comet—but could they do it before midnight? Ghoulia’s hands flew across the keyboard.

Abbey watched, impressed. “What is that you are doing? You’re hacking into satellite system to investigate? Very clever!”

The screen began beeping as a satellite slowly deviated from its orbit—and headed toward the comet. Its signal beam was flashing.

In Boo York, the ghouls had no idea what danger they were in. They were happy to be tourists. Draculaura was checking off the sites they’d visited in her guidebook. “Okay, so far we’ve seen Ptolemy Tower, Times Scare, and the Vampire State Building. I say next we hit the Monster of Liberty before the gala tonight.”

They were standing on a crowded street near a pizza shop. A small werewolf boy dropped a quarter into a mechanical comet and hopped on to ride it back and forth like a horse. An actor dressed up like a gigantic pizza was handing out flyers. “Get your creeparoni pizza here!”

At the sound of the actor’s voice, the ghouls recognized who was inside the pizza costume. It was Luna.

“Hey ghouls!” she exclaimed, recognizing them at the same time.

“Luna?” Frankie asked.

“Something about you looks different,” noted Clawdeen. “Don’t tell me. Haircut?”

“Ha, very funny.” Luna laughed. “Yeah, I know I look silly, but, hey, technically I’m now a working actor in Boo York City.”

The ghouls were just about to tell her about the brunch fiasco when they were distracted by a pulsing buzz. Elle Eedee, the robot DJ, was spinning down the street in a kind of trance, emitting all kinds of electronic sounds and static.

“Losing signal… searching again… changing frequency,” muttered Elle, oblivious to the world around her. She pulsed and buzzed and whirred in a daze.

What no one on Earth knew was that deep inside the comet an alarm had gone off. A signal from the satellite had activated something… or someone. A sleeping figure in what looked like the cockpit of a spaceship began to emit ethereal musical notes.

All Ghoulia and Abbey could hear was static and buzzing. Ghoulia pressed a button on her computer screen, and the feedback stopped.

Frankie took Elle by the shoulders and shook her. “Are you okay? What’s happening?”

Elle blinked her eyes, confused. “I don’t know. It was like… a song in my head. It was faint and unclear, like a bad transmission from somewhere.” She blinked again. “Is that ghoul dressed like a pizza?”

“Is that really important?” asked Luna.

Elle paced back and forth, upset by the weird buzzing feeling in her head. “I’ve got to figure out what it means. The sound is still inside of me.” She waved her hands to make her holographic turntables appear and tried to re-create the pulsing, whirring sound, but she couldn’t.

Back at Monster High, Ghoulia wasn’t having any luck, either. The comet wasn’t slowing down! It was still headed right for Boo York. It would still strike at midnight. What else could she do? There had to be something. There just had to be.