Welcome to The Night

Definitely Evil Pt. 2

"Why do we need to uglify?" Professor Manley's bald, pimpled

head and squash-colored skin face asked, Fieri visibly gaged every time she looked at it. Around her, Nevers sat at charred desks with rusty mirrors, cheerily bashing tadpoles to death in iron bowls.

Fieri was not for it.

"Why do we need to be revolting and repugnant?" Manley jowled. "Hester!"

"Because it makes us fearsome," Hester said and swigged her tadpole juice, instantly springing a rash of red pox.

"Wrong!" roared Manley. "Anadil!"

"Because it makes little boys cry," Anadil said, sprouting her own red blisters.

"Wrong! Dot!"

"Because it's easier to get ready in the morning?" Dot asked, mixing her juice with chocolate.

"Wrong and stupid!" Manley scorned. "Only once you give up the surface can you dig beneath it! Only once you relinquish vanity can you be yourself!"

Sophie crawled behind desks, and lunged for the door—the knob burnt her hand and she yelped.

"Only once you destroy who you think you are can you embrace who you truly are!" Manley said, glaring right at her.

Smoky-green ranks popped out of thin air around Fieri—"1" over

Hester, "2" over Anadil, "3" over oily, brown-skinned Ravan, "4" over

blond, pointy-eared Vex. Hort drank his draught excitedly, only to see a wee zit spurt from his chin. He smacked away a stinky "19," but the rank smacked him right back. Fieri got a "5" over her head when she had boils running up her arms to her face.

"Ugliness means you rely on intelligence," Manley leered, slinking towards Sophie. "Ugliness means you trust your soul. Ugliness means Freedom." He flung a bowl onto her desk

Sophie looked down into black tadpole juice. Some of it was still moving.

"Actually, Professor, I believe my Beautification teacher will object to my participation in this assign—"

"Three failing marks and you'll end up something uglier than me," Manley spat.

Sophie looked up. "I really don't think that's possible."

Manley turned to the class. "Who would like to help our dear Sophie taste freedom?"

"Me!"

Sophie whipped around.

"Don't worry," Hort whispered, "you'll look better this way."

Before Sophie could scream, he plunged her head into the bowl. Fieri viably cringed at the sight before turning back to her book for a way to get the boils off. Uglification might be the way to the soul but not to Fieri's, she can be pretty and be evil.

Henchmen Training took place in the Belfry, a dreary open-air cloister atop Malice tower that required a thirty-flight ascent up a staircase so narrow the students were squeezed into a single file.

"Whether you win or lose your battles depends on the competence and loyalty of your henchmen!" Castor said. "Of course, some of you will end up henchmen yourselves, with your own lives depending on the strength of your Leader. Better pay attention then, if you want to stay alive!"

"And now for your first challenge. How to train . . ." Castor stepped aside. "A Golden Goose."

"She's so pretty," Fieri said in awe looking at an elegant gold-feathered bird behind him, sleeping serenely in its nest.