The Storm Twins Conquer Monster High

Chapter 7: Into the Catacombs we go

Chapter 7: Into the Catacombs we go.

    On Heather's longest portal day, she and Demi met up. The Twins had a long photoshoot and wouldn't be back until very late that night. Most importantly, Heather had heard a lot from Demi about the Monster High Catacombs.
    Apparently, it had a secret, abandoned section that Demi had been wanting to find, and she needed someone to accompany her. Heather also wanted to see the view of Monster High and its Catacombs at night, as that sounded beautiful to her and would make for some great creepy photos.
    After getting fully charged, heavy duty, flashlights and a blood sample to hide Heather's human scent, they locked and blocked the doors to the Shadow High attic and entered the portal together.
    As they went through the halls, they stopped at one of the vending machines and each got a bottle of water and some other snack with a monstery-sounding name. "I love how there are weird monster puns for everything here. Its so cool.", Heather told Demi.
    Demi nodded. "That is just the norm here, ghoul.", she said.
    They then put everything into Heather's snakeskin backpack and headed out into the cool night air outside the school. From outside, the school looked like a mideval castle with colorful windows, and had the most beautiful clock tower Heather had ever seen. She couldn't help but admire the architecture as she quickly snapped a few pictures.
    The graveyard and the entrance to the Catacombs was also beautiful, like something straight out of a horror film.
    The button to open up the Catacombs was well hidden on a stone statue in the middle of the graveyard, as Demi had personally gotten the information from Clawdeen, so she knew that it could be trusted.
    "You really love it here, don't you?", Demi asked, as Heather was smiling and taking pictures of the graveyard.
    "This world is a horror fan's paradise, Demi. Or should I say Elissabat? If I were a monster, I would never leave here.", Heather gushed.
    "Well, I didn't have a choice to leave. It was being rebooted in 2016 and if I didn't leave, I would have had my whole mind reset or had been poofed out of existence. You have no idea the level of destruction that the Mattel gods are capable of."
    Heather nodded grimly, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to remind you of that."
    "Its okay, you didn't mean to. Now be prepared for a lot of walking.", Demi told her as she pressed the button and the ground beneath them opened up to a stone staircase going downwards, into the darkness.
    They then pulled out the flashlights and began to walk downwards and through the stone space, Heather's stileto heeled ankle boots making faint taping noises that echoed through the long corridors.
    Demi was ignoring Heather's excited squeals that happened every time they found any kind of bone or cobweb while listening to HER Draculaura's voice in her head. And she had learned something about Heather during the walk: that she watched way too many horror movies for her own good.
    After a long time of walking, Draculaura's voice guided Elissabat over to an abandoned corridor with fallen debree. The stonework looked more ancient than the corridors that came before it.
    "I think we found it!", Demi explained, shining her light down the ancient corridor. It looked dusty and abandoned.
    "We should go in. Its so perfectly creepy!", Heather said excitedly, her voice echoing.
Demi shushed Heather and nodded. They then began to walk through it despite how tired their legs were getting.
    At the end of the corridor they found a dark room with fallen debree in it and a tarnished mirror covered with dust at the back wall.
Demi nearly sobbed as silent tears began to make their way down her cheeks. "This was the mirror that C.A. Cupid used to transfer to Ever After High all those decades ago. What is it doing all abandoned like this?"
    "What is Ever After High? Is that another dimension?", Heather asked gently, sensing a deep sadness in Demi's voice.
    Demi nodded. "Back before the Tragedy of the Reboot of 2016, it was Monster High's sister school. Similar to how Monster High's students are the children of monsters, Ever After High's students were the children of fairytale characters. It, and its whole dimension was canceled and terminated by the Mattel gods around the time of the 2016 reboot. Just poofed out of existence along with everyone in it. It was the first warning of what was to come."
    Demi sat down on a broken piece of stone and began to sob, the dark, repressed memories flooding into her mind. Heather sat down next to her and gently put her hand on her cold, lifeless, shoulder letting Elissabat know that even though, Heather could never possibly fully comprehend her loss, as she had never experienced it, she was there for her.
    "I still remember the day that C.A. Cupid, daughter of Cupid, transferred to Ever After High. She had these beautiful wings made of bone and used to have a talk radio show where she gave ghouls and mansters advice about their love life. Her love arrows even caused a whole mess of events at Draculaura's Sweet 1600 birthday party back in the day. But ever since she went through that mirror and transferred to Ever After High, she was never or heard from by any Monster High students ever again.", Demi spoke through her tears.
    "Astronova get pictures of her from Apple White and Raven Queen from that dimension before it disappeared, and C.A. Cupid seemed happy there, apparently, and had the appearance of an angel.", Demi continued, her voice trembling with emotion.
    "And then suddenly, that dimension just disappeared and the mirror portal used to get there stopped working, despite having more than enough monster energy. It was a tragic day, knowing that C.A. Cupid and her friends were just gone without a trace like that, as if they had never existed.", Demi said, carefully removing something from her eyes and puting them in a contact lens case from her purse.
    "I'm sorry to dump all this emotional baggage on you like this. I'm a vampire. I should be stronger than this, but here I am crying like a baby over short, recent, historical events.", Demi fixed Heather with her now pink, bloodshot eyes.
    To Demi's surprise, Heather hugged her tightly, as if trying to make her feel better.
    "Demi, I don't know if anyone has told you this, but I'm sorry for your loss. And the trauma that you had to go through as a result of the Mattel gods actions isn't fair. You are not weak for crying or being emotionally affected by that. Sometimes its okay to cry.", Heather said, letting Demi cry onto her shoulder as she hugged her lifeless, cold, vampire body.
    After allowing Demi to cry for a bit, they exchanged understanding looks at each other before pulling out the food they had gotten from the vending machine earlier and recovering their energy from all that walking.
    Just before they left, Demi put her hand on the mirror and felt it pulsating with monster energy. She also heard, HER Draculaura's voice, as clear as if she was right next to her whisper, "I missed you. Its time to come home, Elissabat." Yet, its surface remaind blank and no portal formed.
    As Demi and Heather left the room and went back through the corridors the way they came, Demi decided to tell Heather what had happened when she touched the mirror. She told her what happened but then questioned, "But why didn't the portal work? The energy was there. Her presence was there. If she wants me home again so badly, why did it fail?"
    Heather made eye contact with Demi and said, "Whenever people summon stuff through mirrors in horror films, they always have to do the ritual alone, with nobody else in the room or even house in some cases. Maybe the portal to your original dimension is weird like that."
    Demi then said, "You're a genius, Heather! Maybe for the portal to work, I have to go alone, and not bring anyone with me. Thank you!"
    Heather just shruged. "There is no need to thank me. Really. That is just basic horror movie logic."
    "Maybe Draculaura may know something about the midnight ritual to activate the portal! She is at the top of her class and knows witchcraft after all. Maybe she'll know some obscure information about the mirror portal system!", Demi said.
    "Maybe you should ask her. Just be subtle about it though. We don't need her or anyone else at this school suspecting you of going into and asking about an area that is literally off limits according to Monster High's school rules.", Heather continued.
    They then got out of the Catacombs and back into the school just before the doors were locked for the night. They then made their way up to the Monster High attic and went back through the portal and removed the crystals from it as soon as they could. If Heather ended up sleeping in the next morning from all that walking, she only had herself to blame.