Creeped Out (7 page)

‘Good morning, gentlemen, young lady.' Principal Von Strasser loomed above the students. He was sitting on his huge grey horse, with a purple cape tied around his head in a sort of makeshift headdress. If he'd been carrying presents, he would have looked like one of the three wise men from a Christmas nativity scene. The horse snorted steam into the icy air, and pawed at the ground.

‘Busy morning?' Von Strasser enquired.

‘Ah, yes. Quite.' Saffy replied. ‘We're on our first Task. You know how it is,' she added, as though she was talking to an old friend rather than the principal of Monstrum House.

Von Strasser was rarely seen. Sometimes he took a class – but Jasper, Felix and Saffy hadn't spoken with him since their first days at Monstrum House. Occasionally they would see him watching from a window – the silhouette of his plumed hat and cape impossible to mistake – but other than that, it was as if he wasn't really there.

‘I was thinking of having a spot of lunch myself,' Von Strasser said. ‘Perhaps some pizza – followed up by a chocolate bar or two.' He looked at Felix. ‘You seem to have a bit of something on your lip there, Mr Brown.'

Felix turned a deep red and wiped the chocolate from his face.

‘The oven makes a lovely pizza – usually.' Von Strasser looked directly at Jasper. ‘but today it smelt a little unusual.'

Jasper could feel his cheeks flush. And then he remembered the letters. He refused to feel guilty – not after what the school had done. ‘I'm sure it will taste great,' Jasper replied steadily.

Von Strasser nodded slightly. ‘Well, my door is always open. Feel free to drop in for tea and a chat, any of you. I always think it's best to get things off your chest – saves stewing apples. Unless of course you are cooking an apple pie. Then you
need
stewed apples.' Von Strasser looked thoughtful. He was seriously weird.

Saffy nodded. ‘We'll keep that in mind.'

Von Strasser suddenly looked surprised to find himself in the forest talking to students. ‘OK, well, cheerio,' he chirped, reaching down to give Woof a pat on the head, before prancing away on his horse.

‘Do you reckon he really is nuts?' Jasper asked once the horse had disappeared from sight.

Felix shrugged. ‘I don't know. He certainly seems to know what we've been up to – but then, what was all that about stewed apples?'

Saffy was too busy laughing to answer.

‘At least he didn't say anything about us dognapping Woof,' Felix said, patting the dog.

‘Right,' Saffy said, composing herself. ‘Task time,' she ordered. ‘Jasp – here's where you reveal your amazing plan for getting us down to the sewers.'

‘Right,' said Jasper. ‘Well, the thing is – I reckon that Woof and I, er, understand each other …' he trailed off, looking sheepish.

Jasper couldn't help but notice that Felix and Saffy looked rather sceptical.

‘That's your plan?' said Saffy. ‘Talk to a dog?'

‘Woof,' Jasper said, ignoring Saffy and looking the dog in the eye, ‘We need to get underground – into the sewers. We're looking for the toilet monster.' Jasper gingerly opened the bottle of toilet water he had saved, and let Woof have a sniff.

Saffy groaned. ‘Is
that
why you've been carrying toilet water around? I can't believe –'

But Saffy didn't get to finish her sentence. Woof growled and sniffed the ground. He paused, one paw held in the air as he sniffed the wind, then raced into the forest.

Jasper smiled and charged after him. He could hear Saffy and Felix close behind him
.
Good boy, Woof
, Jasper thought proudly.

Chasing a dog at top-speed through the undergrowth of an icy, snow-covered forest was hard going. Jasper could feel his feet slipping and Felix was wheezing loudly. Jasper hoped he had his asthma puffer with him.

After ten minutes of solid running, Woof stopped. Jasper, Felix and Saffy were all bent over with their hands on their knees, desperately trying to catch their breath.

‘This place is seriously spooky,' Felix wheezed, as he pulled out his asthma puffer and sucked deeply. ‘Monsters that eat you, teachers who know what you're thinking, prefects who terrorise you, and a dog that understands English.'

13

Jasper looked around him. They were standing in front of a fence with a sign that said:
EXTREME
DANGER – RAPID FLOODING – DO NOT ENTER
. It was a part of the forest that none of them had seen before.

‘We can't go down there,' said Felix pointing to the sign. ‘Look.'

‘Rapid flooding?' scoffed Saffy. ‘There's not a cloud in sight.'

She was right. For once, the sun was out. The air was cold and crisp, and the snow lay on the ground, glinting white in the sunlight.

‘Let's do it.' Jasper pulled a set of bolt cutters out from his pack.

‘Where did you find those?' Felix asked in amazement.

‘I thought they might come in handy,' Jasper replied, cutting through the wire. ‘You wait here fella,' Jasper said to Woof with a pat.

On the other side of the fence was a deep, dark ditch. It had a pipe leading underground. ‘That must be the stormwater pipe,' Jasper said. ‘Now our only trouble is going to be finding the pipe that leads to the sewers.'

‘I might be able to help with that,' Felix said, taking his turn at looking smug. He pulled a blueprint for the underground pipe network out of his pocket. ‘It was stuck on the wall of the storeroom. ‘Well,' he shrugged, ‘Stenka did say we could take
anything
.' He grinned and Jasper clapped him on the back.

‘Cool,' said Saffy approvingly.

‘So why are we standing out here looking at the pipe?' Jasper said, pulling apart the wire on the fence, and clambering through. Saffy followed him, but Felix kept staring at the sign.

‘Because it says
extreme
danger,' he called.

Saffy and Jasper just smiled. ‘Come on, you know you'll miss us. And you'll be all alone out here … ' Saffy called back.

Felix took a deep breath and followed the others towards the pipe.

When Jasper thought of what was lurking somewhere in these pipes, he felt a familiar buzz mixed with an inkling of fear.

It was dark and wet in the stormwater drain.

And it really stank. Jasper's feet were soaked with stuff he didn't want to think about. He wished they had thought of gumboots.

As Felix had the blueprints, he led the way through the maze of pipes, his torch flashing off the walls around them. Rats scuttled near their feet, screeching if anyone came too close.

‘I hate rats!' Felix moaned, sloshing through the water, trying not to step on any. Jasper crept up behind him and squeaked loudly in his ear, making Felix drop his torch into the water.

‘Uh-oh,' said Jasper, rescuing the torch from the stinky water. He tried it, but it was dead.

‘Good one, Jasper,' said Saffy. ‘Now it's even harder to see what's coming. Here, Felix, have mine.'

The further in they went, the worse the smell became.

‘That pipe there –' Felix shone the torch down a pipe that lead back towards the school. He looked at the blueprints. ‘I'm pretty sure that's the one that leads to the sewerage system. It smells bad enough.'

They all had their faces covered with their sleeves. It didn't do any good.

Jasper tried to build a mental image of the school grounds and the pipes they had passed so far.

Hang on … Pipes!
Jasper had an idea. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it before.

He stopped walking. The others stopped too, Felix nervously shining his torch along the walls. ‘You know all this water has to go somewhere,' said Jasper.

The others looked at him blankly.

‘Well, obviously,' said Saffy.

‘I mean, somewhere
outside the school
,' Jasper replied.

‘Ooh!' said Saffy as she realised what Jasper was getting at.

Suddenly Jasper didn't care about letting the Grubbergrind loose. It seemed silly to even catch a stupid monster, when they could all escape Monstrum House, right now.

‘What?' said Felix.

‘We could always just – well – you know,
keep
going
,' said Jasper. The thought of freedom raced through his head. He couldn't stop grinning.

Felix shone the torch in Jasper's face. ‘Are you serious?'

Jasper shielded his eyes from the torch beam. ‘We have twenty-four hours. They won't notice we're missing for the whole time we are meant to be on the Task, and by then we'll be long gone.'

Saffy was nodding. ‘It's brilliant!'

‘No more monsters!' Felix realised.

‘No more teachers!' Saffy added.

‘No more punishments!' Saffy and Felix said at the same time.

‘Although … ' Felix trailed off. Jasper wondered if he was thinking about their rather painful escape attempt earlier in the year, when Felix and Saffy had been morphed into stone statues by a Bogglemorph.

‘Come on, Felix,' Saffy said, ‘it's not like you're safe from monsters if you stay at school. And besides, if we run into anything, Jasper can take it on this time. And then, once we're out of here, hunting monsters won't be your problem anymore!'

‘Let's do it,' Jasper said.

Felix sighed and shrugged. ‘OK,' he said.

Jasper thought it wouldn't take long to get past the school boundary going along the pipes. Then they could climb up a manhole, and into freedom. Relief flooded his body.

Jasper wasn't exactly sure what was outside the Monstrum House school grounds. They could be anywhere, really. But he didn't care. He didn't care about any of it anymore.

They kept walking along the drain. Shadows flashed in and out of the torch beams. Their footsteps echoed along the pipes as they splashed through the drain.

‘Freedom – here we come!' Saffy called, her voice bouncing off the walls.

Suddenly, Jasper heard it again. That same hissing whisper.
Kuuumm
…
Jassssppeeer
… it whispered
. Naaah
…
kuuum
…. Jasper felt his guts clench into a tight ball.

‘Did either of you hear that?' he asked.

‘Hear what?' said Felix.

‘All I can hear is victory calling,' Saffy replied happily, splashing her way past Jasper.

Jasper tried to shake the feeling of dread away, but it stuck. Something was talking to him, and he didn't know what.

14

Jasper, Felix and Saffy continued along the tunnel. It seemed to be growing darker. Maybe their torches were running out of batteries?

‘Shhh,' said Felix. ‘I can hear something.'

‘The whispering, yeah?' asked Jasper.

‘No, it's more like a squelching.'

They all stopped to listen, but the sound was gone. Felix shrugged and checked the blueprint again. ‘This way,' he said, bravely taking the lead. He turned around the corner into another pipe. Saffy and Jasper followed close behind.