Locked In (4 page)

Jasper looked at Saffy. He wondered if she, like him, was trying not to think about the fact that things
did
seem to move in the dark.

‘Monsters wait for the darkness to come,' Von Strasser boomed. ‘You have felt them in the shadows, waiting for the moment to attack. You've felt them under the bed, waiting for you to fall into the deep sleep that makes you defenceless.'

Jasper was beginning to feel uneasy. Not quite scared, but close.

Von Strasser stopped and pointed his finger abruptly at the students. ‘You
feel
them just before they attack. An ice-cold chill runs down your spine when they are close.'

Jasper was feeling that chill as the principal spoke. And he couldn't pretend it was just the cold this time.

And then Von Strasser uncovered the cage.

The thing inside snarled, tearing at the wire bars with its horns and fangs, and flicking its long sticky tongue at the terrified students. Its nostrils flared wide, and it let out a piercing screech that shook the windows and split Jasper's eardrums.

Saffy gasped.

Jasper took a step back in horror.

No-one could say that monsters didn't exist anymore.

5

‘A Blibberwail,' said the older boy who was sitting opposite Jasper and Saffy. He wore a red hoodie with the school emblem and the words
Hunt Captain
sewn across the front. The younger kids huddled around the table, trying to hear what he was saying.

The food hall was packed with kids chatting noisily and picking at their dinner of stale bread and mouldy cheese. The new students had been assigned seats next to older kids, who wore red or blue hoodies depending on their year level.

The prefects paraded up and down, speaking quietly into their radios at regular intervals. None of the kids seemed to take much notice of them. There was no sign of teachers anywhere, but Jasper got the unpleasant feeling they were watching all the same.

‘It was a Blibberwail in that cage,' the older boy continued. ‘I'm Mac, by the way.'

‘I'm Jasper, and this is Saffy,' Jasper spoke up. The boy seemed nice – nothing like the prefects at least. It had been a very strange day and it was good to talk to someone who knew what was going on.

‘At a normal school,' Mac continued quietly, ‘you get punished with detention. You know, sitting in the library for an hour, or cleaning up the school grounds during lunch.'

Jasper thought of the masses of detentions he had been given at his old schools.

Blibberwail

‘But at Monstrum House ...' Mac paused as the head prefect came closer to their table. Mac obviously didn't want him to hear what he was saying. The prefect looked about sixteen and had a scar running down the right side of his face. He sneered and kept walking.

Mac leant in more closely. ‘At Monstrum House,' he repeated, ‘a punishment could mean getting locked in the basement for three hours in the middle of the night. With a Blibberwail.'

‘Yeah, right,' scoffed Saffy. ‘Like they could do that. There are laws against stuff like that.'

But after what they had seen of Monstrum House so far, Jasper wasn't so sure.

‘Seriously,' said Saffy, ‘this is all a wind-up, right? I mean, that ... that ...
thing
isn't really kept in the basement, is it?'

‘I've had a few punishments down there,' Mac smiled. ‘If you end up in the basement with the Blibberwail there are two things you can do. The first is to try to catch it, and keep it caught until your three hours are up. The second is to hide, and hope its three noses don't sniff you out.'

He's for real,
Jasper thought in amazement.

Mac went on. ‘I've tried both of these, and neither of them is much fun. That Blibberwail is really hard work.'

Jasper shuddered. There was no way he wanted to earn a punishment.

‘Von Strasser said something about hunting?' Jasper asked Mac.

Mac smiled again. ‘It's what we're taught to do here – how to track down and catch monsters in the outside world.
We're
the ones who protect people from being Monstered,' he said eagerly. ‘I love Hunts – but then, I
am
a hunt captain, so you might not want to take my word for it. Sometimes new kids are a bit freaked out. But you'll come to love it.' Mac seemed excited just thinking about it.

Jasper wondered how you could ever enjoy hunting something that wanted to hunt
you.

‘The other cool thing about Hunts is that they're done in teams of kids. No teachers,' Mac continued. ‘And certainly none of the thug brigade.' He gestured towards the prefects.

‘Who
are
they?' squeaked a small boy with mountains of curly blond hair. Jasper hadn't even seen him there, quivering in the next seat. The boy's green smock said
WARF.
He was so small he was easy to miss.

‘I'm Jasper,' he said, feeling sorry for the little kid.

‘Um ... Bertie,' the small boy whispered, looking down at his smock. ‘Bertie Warf.'

‘Well, Bertie Warf,' said Mac, ‘those thugs are prefects. They're not monster-hunters. They're all from the other Monstrum House – the actual military school. Those kids who didn't get on the plane with you are stuck there, saluting and drilling their way through school. In their final year, the biggest and dumbest of them will come here and join the thug brigade. But they won't go on Hunts.'

‘But they look like they'd be good at hunting. They're huge,' said Jasper, thinking they'd be much more use than weedy Bertie.

‘No way,' said Mac. ‘To be a monster-hunter, you need certain characteristics. For a start, you have to be able to think for yourself. It's not just about muscle. We were selected to come here because we have what it takes, and they don't. Anyway,' he continued, ‘they're all older than us – sixteen or seventeen, usually – and their brains are so small they can't see monsters anymore. In fact, they don't even know monsters exist.'

‘How can they be at a monster-hunting school and not know monsters exist?' scoffed Saffy.

‘The teachers make sure they don't find out,' said Mac. ‘The prefects think this is a school for serious troublemakers and that they're here to keep the kids in line. This is like their tour of duty or something. They're sent work from the other school, about war tactics and military stuff. The rest of the time they're just the teachers' guard dogs.'

No wonder they look so nasty
, Jasper thought.

‘They're not very bright,' Mac went on, ‘but you should still watch out for them. Especially that one,' he said, nodding towards the head prefect who was coming closer. ‘They can all get you into trouble, and they do work closely with the teachers.' Then he called out, ‘Isn't that right, Bruno? You lot
love
the teachers.'

The head prefect sneered. ‘Shut it, Mac. You're already on eighteen penalty points. Just two more and you're up for a punishment. Don't tempt me.'

Mac grinned, but didn't push it. ‘We get penalty points whenever we do something wrong,' he explained. ‘Twenty points and you're punished – with something like the Blibberwail.'

Mac waited until Bruno had moved further away. ‘You will all get to go on Hunts. Unless the teachers decide you don't have what it takes to hunt monsters. If you're no good, you'll be shipped back to the first Monstrum House, and we'll see you in a couple of years dressed in camo gear, and thick as two bricks.'

Jasper decided he would definitely rather be with kids like Mac than kids like Bruno.

‘What I don't get is, if this place is for real, how have they managed to keep it secret?' asked Saffy. ‘We can write home – so why doesn't someone report it?'

‘And end up in the loony bin?' Mac replied. ‘Would
you
believe a kid who said they were at a school that made them hunt monsters?'

He had a point.

The look on Saffy's face soured. ‘So, we don't even get a choice? We're just shoved in here and expected to hunt monsters even if we don't want to?'

Mac smiled. ‘Well, you
could
ask to be flown back to thug school. By the time the plane lands you'll think this was just a dream. But don't worry – this place kind of grows on you.'

6

Jasper was flying. He knew it was a dream because he was flying with a flock of turkey sandwiches, and turkey sandwiches don't usually fly. Still, it was a nice dream and he was enjoying it.

‘GET UP YOU LAZY LITTLE SLOB!' someone yelled in his ear.

He didn't think this was part of his turkey sandwich dream.

Jasper forced an eye open and groaned. He was right. This wasn't a dream. This was really happening. He was back in his bed. His cold, hard bed, in the cold, hard sleep hall. At Monstrum House.

The numbers glared on the clock next to his bed. It was 11.45pm. How could it possibly still be the
same day
? Jasper had a feeling that this was going to be a horrible end to a horrible birthday.

Three dark shapes with balaclavas masking their faces stood over Jasper's bed. In the dim light, he could just make out their camouflage suits.

‘Great. The thug brigade,' he muttered.

One of the prefects grabbed Jasper by his legs, and another grabbed hold of his arms. Someone clamped a hand over his mouth.

My head's going to get flushed down the toilet
, was all Jasper could think. He knew that some schools had stupid initiation ceremonies that the older kids forced on the new kids.
Well, come on,
thought Jasper, gritting his teeth.
Let's get it over with
.

Jasper was carried through the first-year boys' sleep hall, down the huge marble staircase, past the line of statues, and out into the dark icy night. Snow pelted against his face. A black van was waiting outside the door.

Jasper had seen enough scary movies to know that nothing good
ever
came out of being dragged out of bed and put into a van.

And this was turning out to be just like the movies, in the worst possible way.

Jasper was thrown into the back of the van and ordered not to make a sound.

The van rumbled through the night. Jasper had no idea where they were or how far they were going. His sense of direction wasn't working. The longer they drove, the more scary images shot through his brain.

Jasper could hear the prefects sniggering to each other from the front of the van. He took a deep breath. There was no way for him to escape.
Maybe they've organised a surprise birthday party,
Jasper thought hopefully. But something told him that wasn't quite what the prefects had in mind.

After what felt like hours – well, maybe half an hour, but a really long half-hour – the van screeched to a stop. Jasper was flung forward in the cabin. Then the door was wrenched open and he was marched out into the cold night.

He was standing in front of an old falling-down house. A really spooky old falling-down house. The windows were broken, cobwebs hung from the busted rafters and, from somewhere close by, a wolf howled.

It didn't help that there was a full moon and that clouds were drifting across it like something out of a ghost story. And it was freezing. Jasper wished he was wearing more than his pyjamas.

‘You didn't happen to bring my jacket, did you?' Jasper asked.

One of the prefects responded by shoving him so hard he almost fell into the snow.

‘Gee, temper, temper,' Jasper said before he could stop himself. This time, he
did
end up in the snow.

A prefect nudged the door to the house open with his foot. The door gave a creepy
creeeeak
. Jasper was wrenched to his feet and pushed down the hallway towards a dark room.

‘THIS IS A TEST!' the prefect shouted. Then he shoved Jasper inside the room, and slammed the door.

The spoooooooky house