The next morning, Monster High didn't feel like a school anymore.
It felt like a rumor.
The kind that spreads too fast.
Too quietly.
Too eagerly.
Jackson Jeckyll walked through the front gates with his hood pulled low and his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his sweatshirt. Around him, the usual chaos of Monster High churned on—harpies arguing near the stairs, zombie students drifting half-awake toward first period, someone screaming because Heath Burns had apparently reheated fish in the microwave again—but underneath all of it was something tighter.
A tension in the air.
Students whispered in corners and stopped when teachers walked past.
Groups exchanged strange gestures.
Nods.
Signals.
Little looks that lasted half a second too long.
Everywhere Jackson looked, it felt like monsters were dividing themselves into sides.
And every single side made him feel trapped.
"You're staring again," Holt muttered in the back of his mind.
"I'm observing."
"You're spiraling."
Jackson frowned but didn't answer.
Because honestly?
Holt wasn't wrong.
Again.
The closer Halloween got, the more everything felt unstable.
Not just the school.
Not just the students.
Them.
Their body.
Their mind.
Their reflections.
Sometimes Jackson caught mirrors lagging behind his movements. Sometimes Holt's laugh crackled out too close to the surface even when Jackson was fully in control. Sometimes their thoughts tangled together until Jackson couldn't tell which emotions were his and which belonged to Holt.
And lately—
Neither of them wanted to think too hard about why.
They turned down the main hallway toward the Creepiteria.
A group of werewolves stood nearby talking loudly.
"…I'm telling you, normies always do this around Halloween."
"Seriously. They pretend they're cool with us until it matters."
"At least monsters know who they are."
Jackson's shoulders tightened automatically.
Not because they noticed him.
Because they didn't.
That somehow felt worse.
Nobody looked at Jackson and saw what he actually was.
They just saw harmless little Jackie Jeckyll.
The quiet human boy at Monster High.
The exception.
The safe one.
The "good one."
Holt's voice lowered slightly.
You know what the messed-up part is?
Jackson already knew.
"They think they're being nice."
Yeah.
That was the problem.
Nobody at Monster High ever said:
"Humans are all terrible."
Not around Jackson.
Instead they smiled awkwardly and said things like:
"Well, not you, Jackie."
"You're different."
"You're basically one of us anyway."
Like that was supposed to make him feel better.
Like being "accepted" only conditionally wasn't still rejection.
Like he was supposed to be grateful.
And Holt—
Holt got the opposite.
Monsters liked Holt.
Too much sometimes.
DJ Hyde.
Cool.
Loud.
Wild.
"Monster enough."
Jackson hated that too.
Because every time Holt was accepted, Jackson felt erased a little more.
And every time Jackson was accepted, Holt felt like something dirty being tolerated in secret.
Neither of them ever said it directly.
But they both felt it.
The pressure to choose.
Human or monster.
Normal or dangerous.
Us or them.
As if being both automatically made you suspicious to everyone.
Frankie's voice snapped Jackson out of his thoughts.
"Guys, I'm really worried."
Jackson slowed slightly near the Creepiteria entrance.
Frankie stood with Draculaura, Clawd, Abbey, and Lagoona near the vending machines. Her bolts sparked nervously while she twisted her hands together.
"My speech yesterday totally backfired," Frankie continued. "And now I'm afraid some of the students are going to do something crazy."
Clawd frowned. "Why do you say that?"
"I dunno. It just feels like everybody's acting all strange and secretive."
"Hm." Abbey adjusted her scarf calmly. "Personally, had not noticed anything out of ordinary."
The exact second she said it, two vampire students brushed fingers against their foreheads before disappearing down a side hallway together.
A zombie coughed twice into his sleeve.
A gargoyle student tapped a locker three times.
Abbey blinked.
"What?"
Draculaura stared at her.
"Oh! I got something on my face? Did I get it?"
"No," Lagoona said slowly.
"I don't understand. What are you—"
Then Abbey froze.
"Oh."
"The signal for secret meeting," Draculaura whispered dramatically.
"Shh!"
"Right. On the DL," Clawd added.
"Gotcha, brah!"
Heath immediately walked into a locker.
"Ow."
Even Jackson smiled a little at that.
Very little.
Abbey folded her arms. "Yep. Everything looks same to me."
Frankie still looked uneasy.
"We should go see what they're up to."
Draculaura nodded immediately. "Definitely."
"Somebody's planning something," Clawd said. "I can feel it."
Jackson should've kept walking.
Honestly?
He wanted to.
But something heavy settled in his chest instead.
Because if students were gathering secretly to talk about humans—
About normies—
Then he already knew how those conversations were probably going.
And somehow he still couldn't stop himself from following.
The catacombs beneath Monster High stretched endlessly underground like veins beneath the school.
Cold stone.
Flickering lanterns.
Echoing footsteps.
The deeper they went, the quieter everyone became.
Jackson stayed near the back of the group.
Partly because he didn't want attention.
Partly because he suddenly felt horribly aware of himself.
Of his heartbeat.
Of his breathing.
Of the fact that if anyone here really knew what he was—
What they were—
Things could change very quickly.
You know what I hate? Holt muttered.
"What?"
That we even gotta think like this.
Jackson swallowed hard.
Because he understood exactly what Holt meant.
Humans thought monsters were dangerous.
Monsters thought humans were cruel.
And people like them?
People stuck between both?
They didn't belong anywhere.
Too human for monsters.
Too monster for humans.
Everywhere they went, somebody would eventually decide they were the wrong kind of thing.
Jackson hated it.
Holt hated it.
And neither of them wanted the other half they'd been stuck with.
Jackson didn't want claws under his skin and fire in his veins and reflections that moved wrong.
Holt didn't want weakness. Fear. Hiding. Passing.
Sometimes they both thought the same ugly thing at once:
Things would be easier if they were just one thing.
Just human.
Or just monster.
Anything except this.
They turned the final corner into one of the larger underground chambers.
And immediately found a crowd waiting.
Dozens of students packed shoulder-to-shoulder beneath the hanging lanterns.
Werewolves.
Vampires.
Sea monsters.
Gorgons.
Zombies.
All gathered around Cleo de Nile, who stood elevated on a broken crate like she'd been born to lead angry mobs.
Which, honestly, she probably believed.
"…and you're all just going to sit here sniveling and afraid after they disrespected you like that?" Cleo demanded.
The crowd erupted instantly.
"No way!"
"Over my undead body!"
"They think they're so much better than us!"
Jackson stiffened.
Because there it was again.
That line.
That division.
Us.
Them.
Exactly!" Cleo shouted. "That's why we've got to get them back!"
The crowd cheered louder.
"And it's got to be something so epic, so legendary, so de Nile, that they'll put us in the monster history books!"
"Yeah!"
"Let's get 'em!"
"We gotta fight fire with fire!"
Students around Jackson shouted excitedly over each other.
A werewolf slammed his fist into his palm.
A mummy hissed angrily.
Someone near the back yelled, "Normies think they own everything!"
Another snapped back, "They only like us when we stay hidden!"
Jackson's stomach twisted violently.
Because suddenly it didn't sound like school drama anymore.
It sounded older.
Meaner.
Like every ugly thing people ever said about groups they were taught to fear.
And the worst part?
Nobody here thought they were being cruel.
They thought they were protecting themselves.
That was what scared him most.
Toralei stepped forward with a grin sharp as broken glass.
"Hey," she purred, "I know a sublimely shrouded entrance to New Salem through the catacombs."
The room exploded.
"Sweet!"
"They'll never see us coming!"
"They really barked up the wrong tree messin' with us!"
"Yeah!" another student shouted. "Let's show those normies what happens when you mess with Monster High!"
The cheering became deafening.
Jackson suddenly felt like he couldn't breathe properly.
Not because he was scared of humans.
Not because he was scared of monsters.
Because he was terrified of what happened when people decided fear made them righteous.
Holt went quiet for a moment.
Then softly:
Jackie…
"Yeah?"
…I don't wanna be like them.
Jackson blinked slightly.
"What do you mean?"
Either side.
The answer came immediately.
Too immediately.
I don't wanna spend my life proving I'm "one of the good ones" to monsters. And I don't wanna turn into somebody who hates humans just because they're humans either.
Jackson looked at the crowd again.
At Cleo rallying everyone higher.
At students feeding off each other's anger.
At monsters talking about humans the same way humans in those old Halloween films talked about monsters.
And for the first time—
He realized Holt sounded scared too.
Not loud scared.
Not dramatic scared.
Real scared.
"We need to stay out of sight," Jackson whispered.
Yeah.
Holt's voice lowered further.
Especially you.
Jackson flinched slightly.
Because they both knew why.
If the monsters found out what they really were, Jackson would become "the human."
If the humans found out, Holt would become "the monster."
And neither side would care enough to understand the rest.