The World Below (ON BREAK)

Chapter 12

Stacy's house

Once Stacy's parents were done with their excruciating lecture, they announced she was grounded and sent her to her room. She made it clear she disliked this proposition by swearing and stomping to her room, and proceeding to slam the door.

She threw herself on the bed and sighed. Her parents would never understand.

Stacy heard a knock at her window. Sitting up, she saw Tanner's face looking through. He hadn't abandoned her! She went over to the window and opened it enough to not attract her parent's attention.

"Tanner, what are you doing here?" she hissed.

"Busting you out. Help me open the window."

She did, and once out, gave him her biggest hug. He returned the hug, and then broke away just as quickly.

"Like you probably heard, there's something you need to see."

He led her away from the house and to the sidewalk.

She asked, "Is this about Simon and Connor?"

"No, but they are there. There's someone else. I think he's a monster."

She thought for a moment. If this monster didn't have a Switch but wasn't attracting attention, what was he? Stacy knew next to nothing about mythology, so she would have to ask Jessie.

Once they arrived at central park, she took immediate notice of a boy wearing a sweatshirt with the hood up, and he kept trying to keep it close to his head. He looked entirely human, not monstrous in any way. Did it have to do with his ears?

Stacy was still so new to the monster world.

Tanner said, "That's him. The guy with the hoodie. He's acting suspicious."

He was right. No one else was around to notice, but he certainly wasn't acting normal.

Tanner started walking over to the suspicious guy. She tried to grab him to stop him but missed. The suspicious guy saw him coming and looked up sharply, keeping his hands pressed to the sides of his head.

"Who're you?" he asked.

Stacy walked around to the back of the bench, shook her head, and mimed her hand going across her throat, the universal end it sign. Tanner being Tanner, he didn't listen.

"I just wanted to say hello. Also, I noticed you covering your ears. I know this may be an odd question, but would you happen to be a monster?"

Stacy sighed, him having already asked the most intrusive question possible.

The boy's green eyes went wide. He said very quietly, "How did you know?"

That surprised both her and Tanner. Neither had expected him to admit it.

Tanner spoke up. "Well, you were covering your ears even though your hood was up and there was next to no noise out here, besides the honking of those metal things."

"Cars," Stacy whispered into his ear.

"Right, cars. The honking of cars. So I just chalked it up to intuition."

The boy gave him a strange look. "How do you not know what a car is?" he asked.

Tanner looked down sheepishly. "Because I'm a monster too."

The boy's expression softened. "My name's Caspian. You?"

"I'm Tanner, and this is my friend Stacy."

"Cool. So what are you, anyway?" The question was directed at Tanner.

"Oh! I'm, uh, a Naga. What about you?"

He tilted his head. "What's a Naga?"

"It means that I have the lower half of a snake. I'm just disguising myself with this." He pulled out the switch.

Caspian said, "Ah. Got it. Well, I'm a cervitaur. It's like a centaur, but instead of a horse, it's deer. I'm just in human form right now to not attract attention. I don't need the button thing you have, I can do it on my own. Everything looks human except my ears." He pulled back his hood and revealed furry deer ears in place of normal human ears.

Tanner wasn't disturbed in the least. He saw this all the time, apparently.

Caspian spoke again. "Say, I don't know many people like me, other than other cervitaurs. Could you show me, y'know, your snake half?"

Stacy looked at Tanner, and he looked back. "Um, well, not here. People could be watching."

Caspian was insistent. "No, people won't see. And if they do, we'll just tell them we're cosplayers."

It was night, and besides, Simon and Connor were running and flying around without attracting more attention than a stray dog and a pigeon do. Stacy nodded her head, and Tanner pulled out his switch. Caspian stood, looking a bit stiff. "Sorry if I walk a bit strange, being in human form is really uncomfortable for me. I'll be right back."

He walked behind a tree and, when he came out the other side, his legs had been replaced by the torso of a deer, four long thin legs supporting a furry body. A few less notable traits had been obtained as well: he also now had a few white spots on his cheeks as well as two small horns just poking out from his hair.

He saw Tanner looking.

"Your turn," he said.

Tanner fumbled for his Switch, but before pressing it, he said, "I should go get Simon and Connor. They don't know what I am yet."

He then turned and walked over to what from a distance looked like a very big brown dog chasing a pigeon, and shouted their names.

"Simon! Connor! I don't think I've told you what I am yet, so follow me over here. I'm about to use the Switch, to show this other guy. You wanna see?"

Simon switched back to human form and Connor nodded, then whispered to Simon.

"He says sure, why not. We'll come."

Tanner turned around with the vampire and werewolf in tow, striding as quickly as possible because he didn't yet know how to run. Once back with Caspian and Stacy, he took a deep breath and pushed the switch.