INTO

CHAPTER SEVEN

"It all started a long time ago. Long long ago before any of us were even born," Mr. Crook began. "Humans and monsters lived together, peacefully and harmoniously. We all respected each other and lived by the rules. Everything was going just fine until, a monster fell in love with a human. Or if you'd prefer it, a human fell in love with a monster. The point is, they fell in love with each other."

Gwen turned to look at Adam. The whole drama started with love.

"Then they decided to get married," Mr. Crooks continued, earning different looks and sounds of surprise. "Crazy, right? But it happened. We and the humans always interacted well but you can say there was a balance. We knew what shouldn't be done and that included falling in love or getting married to them."

"But surprisingly, their union was accepted despite it being totally bizarre! Both heads of the humans and monsters thought it wasn't going to be a bad idea and perhaps, it would help maintain peace and help understand each other better," he narrated with glee. "But of course, when you give a mouse a cookie, it's going to want a glass of milk. Truly it made us closer and deepen our bond but it was only for a short while. More monsters fell in love with humans and more humans fell in love with monsters. And before we knew it, balance was lost. Rules were ignored. Vampires fell in love with werewolves, goblins fell in love with hybrids, just name it- you can call it a love mess and people who weren't supposed to mingle with each other all fell in love and wanted to together forever."

He paused to laugh then continued. "There wasn't much the heads could do to stop them. They apparently couldn't stop them from falling in love so everyone just fell in love and married who they wanted to."

"That's not enough reason to hate humans!" Gwen blurted out, everyone turning heads in her direction. "I mean-"

"Oh, enthusiastic?" Mr. Crooks smiled at her. "Nice, I like that. But Kwen, I wasn't done with my story."

Kwen. "Right."

"As I was saying," he resumed his story. "Humans broke the bond first. Marybeth, the first human to fall in love with a monster was tricked. Her fellow humans deceived her, messed with her brain and made her turn her back against us! It was like she was possessed and at the end, a war broke out."

"The war lasted for a long time and after it ended, humans won and got rid of the monsters they could. However, what they forgot was that we are immortal creatures and only does temporarily, going into a new world every single time."

"Was it that easy to defeat you guys," Gwen couldn't contain her curiosity. "I mean- us. Aren't we stronger than humans?"

"Betrayal kills faster than you can imagine," he replied. "They had brainwashed one of us to be on their side. Being a former trusted member of us, she made things easier."

There were 'hmmms', 'ahhhs' and sighs coming from every corner of the classroom.

"But," Mr. Crooks said, gaining their attention again. "During the war, some monsters fled to the human world to join the humans and live like normal humans. When the king found out, he was furious! Basically the whole town was furious as a result, a curse was placed on them. "For every single monster that falls in love with a human, it awakens one of us either from this world or another dimension of us to the human world. And i don't need to tell you what that means, do I? The monster emerges to kill that human."

"You know what that means," a mischievous smirk made its way to his face. "Thanks to the curse, we're going to be getting our revenge on humans eternally. Forever."

Gwen and Tina exchanged nervous glances, feeling goosebumps crawl towards their skin. Little wonder Bernard insisted on them keeping their actual identities hidden. Humans were bad news here.

"How about Drezpires?" someone in the class asked. "What's up with them?"

"Oh, Drezpires," he replied. "Like some of you, my cousin's also a Drezpire, but it's simple. Drezpires are descendants of the most stubborn monsters. Their ancestors fell in love and got married to every single creature that existed, including humans thus, creating them, the strongest of us all."

"The reason they're the strongest of us all is simple. They have mixed blood and genes in them. They're like hybrids but the strongest variants of hybrids you can ever imagine. Fascinating, right?"

"Yeah," Gwen muttered, watching Adam and Miranda. They both seemed lost in thoughts. Must be nice. Being in a world where they felt like the most superior being of all time.

"What are you, Mr. Crooks?" Tina asked.

"Me? I'm a werewolf."

"That's cool!"

"Says a Drezpire," he chuckled. "Sure."

"That's all for today," Mr. Crooks finally said, grabbing books no one noticed were on the table all along. "But remember to spread love! If any of you meets a human one day, give them a warm hug."

"The only warmth they'll be getting is from the fire cause I'll literally roast them alive if I have to," a voice said, Gwen literally jumping.

"Alex," Mr. Crooks dropped his books. "Spread love. You don't have to kill any human. It's not like you'll ever see one anyways."

"Really?" the Alex dude continued. "Is there really no way to meet humans? Can't we go to their world or have them come to ours?"

"Nope," he replied. "That's totally not possible. After the war, our world's were both seprated totally. No one could go in or out. You can say wherever anyone finds himself in is where he's going to be living the rest of their lives. Stuck."

They had no idea how to feel on hearing that. Glad that Mr. Crooks seemed to be able to assure them humans could never make their way to their world or terrified because they were probably stuck?

It wasn't just Gwen and Tina that felt the shivers down their spines. Miranda and Adam too. Neither of them had any intention on spending the rest of their immortal lives in Movillster. They had chosen to live as humans and wanted to do just that. In the human world.

"And that's a wrap," he finally said. "End of class. You're all dismissed."

He left the class, an uproar coming to life the moment he did. Gwen, Miranda, Adam and Tina all remained in their seats, not getting up like the rest of the kids.

Gwen exhaled, getting up. She walked over to Miranda's seat which was closest to her and spoke up. "Um, let's go?"

"What?"

"Let's go," Gwen repeated, positive Miranda heard her the first time.

"Where?" she asked. "Why are you even talking to me?"

"Because there's no one else I can talk to?" Gwen rolled her eyes. "Look, this is really uncomfortable for me too but I don't really have much of a choice, okay?"

"Fine," Miranda got up. "Adam, Tina, let's go."

They both awkwardly got up to walk to Miranda's seat. "Yeah?"

"Let's go," she repeated as they got together. "I think it's lunch break. I don't know if they're going to have a cafeteria like at school but they'll definitely have somewhere they sit and eat stuff."

They all got up and left the classroom, side by side and managed to find the supposed cafeteria. The meals looked oddly looked similar to the ones back in their world but just to be safer, they ended up picking just fruits instead. After picking their fruits, they headed to an empty round table and sat around it.

"This is really...weird," Adam said, taking a bite of his apple, few seconds after getting seated.

"Yeah the apple feels juicer than usual."

Adam shook his head. "Not that. I meant this. All of this. I don't sit at the cafeteria at school and I know you both would never sit on the same table too."

"Oh you're right, that," Gwen confirmed, taking a bite out of her apple too. "Mhm, this thing is really juicy."

"And i," it was Tina's turn to speak. "I'm sitting here with Gwen. And all of you guys!"

"Aw, Timid Tina," Miranda's face screamed sarcasm. "That's so great!"

Gwen smirked as she took another bite of her Adam. "We really can never predict the future."

"Yeah, you're right," Miranda nodded. "Who knows? The whole school would probably find out you're human and let's say in a few hours, you'll be dead."

Gwen dropped her apple. "Is this all really fun to you?"

"Yup," Miranda said, popping the 'p'. "I've not felt this entertained in a very long time actually."

"Miranda," Adam spoke up. "I'm going to pretend what happened at home didn't but you do know you could have put us all in real danger, right?"

"Yeah, I knew."

Adam looked done. "Anyways, don't do anything stupid this time cause you wouldn't be putting just Gwen into trouble but every single one of us. And in case you've forgotten, that includes you."

"You can't tell me what to do," Miranda's face lacked emotions. "I'll do whatever I want to whenever I want to. Absolutely whatever. It's my choice."

"Miranda," Adam let out an exhale, obviously tired. "Why are you being like this?"

"What do you mean?" she resorted to playing dumb. "You're the one who fell in love, cousin. Why should I be bothered?"

"I know and I'm sorry but-"

"You know what," Miranda got up. "Let's end this. Right here and right now."

"Miranda."

She pulled the chair she was previously sitting on out, leaning on the table and stood on it.

"Everyone!" she yelled, getting the attention she wanted. "I have something to say!"

"Miranda what the hell are you doing?"

"I have something to say to everyone!" she continued in an even louder voice.

Gwen could feel herself literally shaking. She stared at Miranda, feeling tears make their way into her eyes. She couldn't. She just couldn't. "Miranda, stop it."

"Miranda, what the hell is wrong with you?!" Adam got up as fast as he could, grabbing her by the arm.

"You want to know? Fine," she yanked her arm from his grip and let out a sardonic laughter. "Fine, I'll let you know. And I'll let the rest of the school know too."

"Miranda, please-"

"So everyone, it's simple," she paused to laugh a little. "Me and the rest of the 'Caesars'."

"We-"