Monster Factory

Chapter 2

My name is Milo Jenkins. I'm thirteen, live here at the Wychwood Academy and I hunt monsters.

Also, I'm not a big fan of goblins. If you've never seen one, picture a slimy, jellyfish rat that's as big as a fifth grader and loves eating anything that's not locked down. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach when I saw the shredded candy wrappers. I think I knew where they came from, but I was hoping I was wrong.

I slipped out of bed, and Floyd followed me, looking puzzled.

The closet door was left open, as usual, with a pair of my gym shorts and one nasty smelling sneaker jamming the door open. I ripped the closet door wide open and peered inside.

"NOOOOOOO!"

It felt like my heart was breaking. Inside the closet on the mound of clothes were the remains of my enchanted Halloween bag. I fell to my knees and cradled the shredded bag in my hands. Tiny teeth marks had ripped through the lining, tearing it completely to shreds. I'd gotten it after capturing a witch who'd been on the loose in Toronto, Canada. Pale blue with a shiny silver fringe, it was smaller than a pillowcase and had been spellbound to never get full or heavy, no matter how much candy I dropped into it. But now it was gone. All my Nutty Buddy's, all my Twisty Goos, everything.

All gone.

The temperature in my bedroom dropped sharply, and Floyd barked. He did that whenever a ghost came into my bedroom, even though I'd told him a thousand times, "It's just Ruby, Floyd."

Ruby Sinclair was a ghost and had been my assigned partner and best friend at the MOM since before I could remember. Every monster hunter got a ghost partner because there was no better way of getting secret intelligence than from someone no one else could see or hear. It was a perfect system, most of the time.

Today she was dressed from head to toe in a black ninja outfit and mask, complete with a pair of gleaming silver swords crisscrossing her back. She somersaulted through the bedroom door and over to me, landing in a fierce attack pose, right fist cocked back, ready to strike.

"Uh, why are you dressed like that?" I asked her.

She scanned the room, including the closet overflowing with dirty clothes, and wrinkled her nose. She lowered her fist.

"I thought I heard a girl scream in here."

"Seriously? It sounded like a girl?"

"I'm gonna say it sounded like a nine-year-old, at most. A nine-year-old girl."

"That was me," I told her.

"Oh."

Ruby did a little shake, and her ninja costume and swords vanished, replaced by a pale summer dress and cowboy boots. She looked about fourteen with fire engine red hair, pale skin and a pair of fierce green eyes.

"So what were you screaming about? This closet has looked like this since you moved in."

"You're hilarious, Ruby."

I held out the shredded piece of blue cloth that used to be my Halloween bag.

"What is that?" she asked. "That's not your underwear is it?"

"Look at the teeth marks," I said.

"You have teeth marks in your underwear?"

"No! Just look."

She did, from a distance.

"Okay, and?" she asked finally.

"Don't you get it? Look at those teeth marks! A goblin ate all my Halloween candy."

"Are you serious?" she said. "The dean is gonna freak. That's why you're not supposed to have food in your dorm, Milo."

"He's not gonna freak, and I'll tell you why."

I tossed the shredded Halloween bag on a pile of dirty clothes and bundled it all up into my arms.

"Why is that?"

I tossed the armful of clothes into my room and even Floyd scurried away. I really had to do some laundry, and soon.

"Because I'm gonna catch the greasy little guy."

I grabbed a piece of chalk from my desk by the bed and sketched out a containment spell on my closet floor. It was a simple rune consisting of a symbol that looked like a single open eye. It was the first spell they taught you here, and it was the most useful.

"We don't have time for this," Ruby said. "That's why I was coming to get you. The dean wants to see us."

"About what?"

I went to my desk and pulled out the bottom drawer, removing it completely. I flipped the drawer over, and there it was. My holdout candy stash. It used to be much bigger, but it had been a rough week, and I had dipped into it pretty regularly. The last chocolate bar was the Peanut Butter Chocolate Explosion, my favorite. I had been saving it for a special occasion, but this would have to do.

Not only was it delicious, but it was said to be made by fast-fingered elves that were like candy making ninjas. All I knew was that by unwrapping the candy, I had rung the dinner bell to any goblins within sniffing distance to Wychwood.

"I don't know. The message just said to go and get you and report to his office."

I peeled away the gold wrapper and instantly my room was filled with the sweet aroma of peanut butter chocolatey goodness. My mouth watered. Even Floyd lifted his head and pawed at me to give him some. Floyd was different from other dogs. I think he was part garbage disposal. He could eat anything. I broke off a piece of the bar and tossed it to him. He snapped it out of the air and swallowed it in one bite. A second later, he was pawing me again.

"Come on, boy, gotta save some for the slimy gobby!"

"Milo, I'm serious," Ruby said. "We have to go."

"This won't take long," I told her.

She shook her head and stared at the digital clock.

"Five minutes and then I'm going without you."

I tied the piece of chocolate to the string that was attached to the closet light fixture. When I was done, the tasty little morsel dangled a good two feet above the closet floor.

I pushed past the clothes hanging on the rod and piled the rest of the dirty clothes on the floor on top of me to both hide me from sight and mask my scent.

"It stinks in here," Ruby said. "I mean, I'm dead, and the smell of your gym socks are making my stomach sick."

I tried to ignore her and the rancid smell of my dirty laundry. This better work, I thought, because I was pretty sure I was going to smell like a laundry hamper for the rest of the day.

Now all I had to do was wait.

"Milo, seriously, we have to ..."

Ruby's voice went quiet as green slime rose through the cracks of my closet floor.