Creeped Out (2 page)

Mental manipulation was how the teachers trained the monsters that were used in student tests. It didn't work on all monsters, and it didn't always work as planned, but Jasper figured that being able to influence a monster into not eating him would be a definite advantage.

‘Watch,' said Mr Golag. He pointed to a large sack hanging from the roof. ‘Inside that sack,' he continued quietly, ‘is a Cranklesucker.'

Mr Golag untied the sack and carried it gently to the front of the class. He smiled and lay the sack fondly by his feet.

Cool,
Jasper thought, as a forked claw silently reached out of the opening in the sack.

‘Cranklesuckers belong to the Muncher order of monsters,' said Mr Golag.

OK, maybe not quite so cool,
thought Jasper. He wasn't so sure he liked being in the same room as a Muncher. Even a trained one.

A look of concentration came over Mr Golag's face, and then he whistled a command. There was a moment of tense silence, and then the sack opened wide. The Cranklesucker scuttled out of the sack and skidded around the students before coming and sitting obediently at Mr Golag's feet.

Jasper didn't think the Cranklesucker seemed too bad, for a monster. It looked like some sort of bat-dog. Well, a warped bat-dog, with venomous lumpy spines and big fangs.

‘A Cranklesucker is a bit like a leech in monster form,' Mr Golag announced. ‘It may not look so dangerous, but in the wild, this little beauty will latch onto your nose and suck you dry of blood in four minutes and twenty-eight seconds.'

Jasper felt himself move back in his chair. The monster had turned around and seemed to be eyeballing the students one by one.

Probably working out which of us is the juiciest,
Jasper thought.

‘But don't Munchers
eat
people?' asked Saffy, apparently not worried that there was a bloodsucking killer in the room. ‘Is it still a Muncher if it sucks your blood?'

‘Munchers don't always eat whole people,' said Mr Golag. ‘Many of them just eat parts of people. And your blood is a part of you.'

‘Oh, that's much better,' muttered Felix.

‘In fact, Cranklesuckers don't even use their teeth to attack. They use their lips for suction. But don't worry,' Mr Golag continued. ‘I have this Cranklesucker so perfectly trained that he won't even think about the delicious, saltysweet young blood in the room. At least, not while I keep focused on exactly what I want him to do.'

Mr Golag went quiet again. Jasper got the feeling that his teacher knew just a bit too much about how young blood might taste. It wasn't a comforting thought.

Mr Golag must have noticed the way Jasper was looking at him. ‘Ahem. It's all about getting into the right frame of mind,' he explained. ‘You must
think
like the creature you are manipulating.'

Then Mr Golag whistled once again, and this time the monster scurried up his leg and around his back, before perching happily on his head. Mr Golag smiled, and looked around the class as though expecting applause.

‘There. So simple. Just focus.' Mr Golag gestured back at the flies in their glass jars. ‘Focus, and
think
like a fly.'

Jasper was still trying to work out exactly how a fly might think, when he felt Mr Golag's hairy, knobbly hand on his shoulder.

‘Good. First
think
, then
do
!' he whispered in Jasper's ear.

Jasper looked at the fly. He imagined he
was
the fly, swooping towards the top of the glass. He thought about the sensation of taking off into the air.

‘Yes!' Mr Golag cheered as Jasper's fly took off inside the glass. Jasper was sure it had been a fluke, but he wasn't about to say so.

Mr Golag thumped Jasper's shoulder in encouragement, before heaving his way back to the front of the classroom.

Jasper tested his fly again, imagining how it would feel to circle around the glass, and then land on his head. Sure enough, the fly flew three perfect circles around the glass, then settled into a perfect fly headstand.

Awesome,
Jasper thought. He grinned and started fantasising about the pranks he'd play if he could control something – even a fly.

Jasper glanced up at Mr Golag. The teacher was rummaging around in the sack, mumbling as he did so. The Cranklesucker had moved onto Mr Golag's shoulder and was bobbing happily up and down, humming to itself.

Jasper lifted the glass away from the fly. But rather than buzzing off, the fly stayed on the desk, looking at him.

Jasper stared closely at the fly. He imagined his legs pushing off from the table top, zooming up into the air, his wings buzzing merrily as he made his way towards Saffy who was sitting three desks away.

Watch out, Saffy, here I come,
Jasper thought.

Jasper couldn't believe it. The fly did exactly as he had thought. It headed directly for Saffy, took a left turn at her desk, and shot straight up her nose.

‘Urgh!' Saffy yelled.

She jumped from her desk, knocking her own glass to the floor as she flung her arms around. She sneezed violently, sending Jasper's fly spinning out of control across the room. She sneezed again and stumbled backwards, toppling more jars to the floor.

Mr Golag was moving towards Saffy when he tripped over a power cord that had been covered by the Cranklesucker's sack. The lamps in the room all went out and there was a sickening thud as Mr Golag's head smashed against the corner of a chair. He wobbled to his feet again, but didn't get far.

‘I ...' he muttered, then collapsed in a crumpled heap on the floor.

Uh-oh
, thought Jasper.

No-one moved. Except the Cranklesucker.

It jumped from Mr Golag's shoulder onto the desk. Jasper could just make out its black rubbery lips in the darkness.

The Cranklesucker lifted its front feet off the desk, surveying the students. Jasper felt as though he was caught in a scene from some nature documentary – and he wasn't the lion. Then the room went cold.

‘I guess Mr Golag's not so focused now,' Jasper whispered.

‘Someone get the lights!' Jasper heard Felix call from the front of the room.

The Cranklesucker tilted its head towards Felix. And then it pounced.

Felix's scream was instantly muffled as the Cranklesucker suctioned onto his nose. Jasper leapt from his seat and tried to grab the monster from behind, but its lumpy spines made it hard to get a hold of.

Someone had managed to plug the cord for the lamps back in, but it didn't help. The Cranklesucker was latched onto Felix and getting bigger, its body swelling with blood.

Felix was out cold and his skin had turned blue. All that could be heard was the horrible sucking of the monster. There wasn't much time left.

‘Wake up Mr Golag,' cried Saffy, slapping the teacher in the face.

He didn't respond.

‘We need water,' yelled Saffy, and ran out of the classroom.

3

Ten minutes later, Jasper was standing in front of Mr Golag's desk. He was in shock. He still couldn't believe that he had gotten Felix Monstered,
again
.

It was lucky that Saffy had managed to get a jug of cold water and throw it over Mr Golag – the Cranklesucker only managed one minute and ten seconds worth of suction before Mr Golag was conscious enough to take back control.

Felix had been rushed to the hospital wing for an emergency blood transfusion.

Jasper was trying very hard not to think about the punishment Mr Golag was going to dish out. But he knew that whatever it was, he deserved it.
More
than deserved it.

Mr Golag sat silently. He hadn't said anything for ten minutes. He kept tugging at the bandage wrapped around his head and sighing.

‘Do you think the fly
enjoyed
its journey up Ms Dominguez's nose?' Mr Golag asked finally.

Jasper shook his head. He hadn't exactly been thinking about the fly.

‘Exactly,' Mr Golag replied. ‘You must
always
think about your subjects. If you are going to manipulate someone's mind, you must
always
do it from the highest moral ground. Otherwise you are no better than the creatures we are training you to catch.'

Jasper couldn't bring himself to reply.

I'm sorry
didn't seem to cover it. He wondered how he was going to make it up to Felix.

‘I am so very disappointed in you,' Mr Golag said sadly, shaking his head. ‘Dismissed.'

Jasper froze. He had been expecting some serious penalty points. But Mr Golag simply looked towards the door.

Slowly, Jasper turned and left the classroom. It was weird – he hadn't been punished, but he wished that he had. The guilt he was feeling was far worse than any punishment.

‘Oi!' came a deep voice.

Jasper stopped.
Oh, great
, he thought.
The
thug brigade
.

A prefect stood blocking the doorway, his black camouflage and slicked-back hair marking him out from the other students in their coloured hoodies and tracksuit pants.

‘You should be in class,' the prefect snarled.

‘Thanks, Bruno. That's where I'm
trying
to go,' said Jasper.

Jasper had already had a few run-ins with Bruno, the head prefect.

Prefects at Monstrum House had the authority to dish out punishments, and they liked to make life as painful as possible for everyone.

They were different from the other students. They didn't go to monster-hunting classes or sleep in the sleep halls, or eat meals at the same time as everyone else. In fact, they didn't even know monsters existed. But Jasper wasn't sure whether this was because they were too old to see them or too dumb to realise what was really going on at Monstum House.

‘You're already on fourteen penalty points, aren't you, McPhee?' Bruno snarled. Jasper didn't answer. One thing the prefects did know was exactly how many penalty points each student was on. ‘Well, I reckon an extra six for being out of class should do it.'

Jasper shrugged.

‘Which brings you up to, hmmm, let me see ...' Bruno pretended to be working it out as he wrote something down on a card. ‘Oh no, twenty penalty points. Looks like you've got yourself a punishment. Enjoy.'

Bruno slapped Jasper in the face with a red card before strutting down the corridor.

Jasper looked down at the card. There was the school emblem, Bruno's ugly signature, and the words:

Jasper stifled a groan. Once you reached twenty penalty points, that was it – punishment time. The punishment changed each day, and was written up by Stenka on the punishment board, as if it was a special at a restaurant.
This
day just keeps getting better,
Jasper thought.

He scuffed his way to the board. The words were neatly written in chalk. He let out a sigh of relief. Jasper had run the penalty course before, so at least he knew what to expect. It could have been worse. Much worse. Stenka must be in a good mood today.