Page 75 of A Mastery of Monsters

The next three weeks are lost to a haze of both preparing for and taking exams. It’s that time of the year when everything goes faster because the days are shorter.

Everyone is rushing toward the end of cramming information into their brains and wishing for the winter break.

I listen to my peers make plans to go home and become the subject of their family’s attention as they reflect on their first semester.

Me, I don’t want the semester to end.

I kept my promise to Virgil. I’m still keeping it.

And he’s spent the time pretending that his isn’t running out.

Studying just as hard as me and Corey, pulling all-nighters to get his essays done, and sometimes, avoiding everyone altogether.

Those days, Corey will text me about scratching and growling coming from his room.

And this Saturday, after the final exam, the initiation will happen without us. Bachelor titles will be handed out, and other monsters will be saved.

But not Virgil.

He only has until the end of the year. That’s the deadline for monsters who participated in this year’s candidacy but didn’t reach the final stage of monstrosity.

It’s meant to give them the opportunity to be approached by a senior Master, which won’t be the case for Virgil.

After all, that was why he needed me. And that’s assuming he can hold out until then.

Anyone who shows too many symptoms or turns is taken underground immediately.

I flop onto my bed face down. I’m one of the lucky people who had my last exam this afternoon on the Monday.

This is the part where I’m supposed to feel relieved.

Where I pack up my stuff and go to Bailey’s place, ready for rest and relaxation.

Maybe she’ll cook some of that macaroni pie she gave Dad when he was sick.

And Jules will come home, and Mom will be there too, and she’ll make her famous jerk chicken.

Mia’s already organizing a holiday meal for anyone not leaving the tiny house community during the break.

We’ll have some sort of New Year’s gathering too.

I could invite Virgil, and Corey, and Margot, and Isaac.

I’d even try to invite Riley, though I haven’t heard from her.

We’d go into the next semester together.

In reality, Virgil will be sent to the Pen to live out the rest of his life in the dark.

Only given a respite during training sessions for the next batch of candidates.

And Jules… I don’t know. He hasn’t resurfaced.

And no matter how long I turn it over in my head, there’s no way to know for sure who he meant.

But I’m still here because I want to be. I want to keep trying to help Jules. And I want to stay with Virgil. Not just for them, for me too.

I make a sad attempt to clean up my room and uncover the box of pictures that Bailey brought me. I drag it over to my bed, pulling out the albums and flipping through them.

I frown at one of Mom and a guy. He looks South Asian and has dark curly hair that reaches his shoulders, which he’s tucked behind his ears.

Mom’s beaming and holding on to him. I squint.

He looks like someone…. Who does he look like?

I pull the photo out and flip it over. It just has the year, 2000, and a bunch of hearts.

Maybe an old boyfriend? I find more photos of the two of them, but also some of the two of them with Dad.

I take a picture and send it to him. Who’s this?

Dad answers back with an eye rolling Memoji. He’s updated his to be bald now because he really is that cheesy.

Not an answer , I text back.

He was your mom’s best friend but clearly in love with her.

I admit that I was jealous for a bit. But then they had a falling out when we finished school.

I think he was upset about us getting married.

Though she still sent him the odd invite.

To baby showers and birthdays, but he never showed. Carl something? Carlton?

I can’t believe Dad is acting like he’s not still jealous with that Memoji choice. Or with his “can’t even be bothered to remember this man’s name” performance.

Though that doesn’t answer the question of why the guy looks familiar.

There’s frenzied knocking at my door. I jump off the bed and go to it, and when I pull it open, Corey walks in and starts saying a bunch of things very quickly.

I raise my hands. “Stop. Restart. Slower.”

She takes a deep breath and holds up a book—leather-bound in an older style but shiny. “It’s a copy! It’s a fake, yes, but it’s an accurate copy.”

“Um…”

“It took forever , but Henry was able to let me take a look at some of the journals Adam has access to, and it was the same style of writing and cadence. I figured there was something more there, so Henry gave me the funds to pay off the guy who ghosted me and he cracked. Apparently, he was supposed to repair the original. The person who requested the repair paid a lot , and that made him think it was valuable. He photocopied all the pages, and then copied them by hand to make a fake! But the information is correct, so Henry can use it! Well, except for a few pages that were too mangled to copy. That’s what the repair was for, fire damage. Someone did a poor job storing it.”

“Who dropped it off?”

“He doesn’t know. They left it in his mailbox, and for pickup he put it back in the mailbox, and they grabbed it later. And they used a fake name, too.”

“If it’s so valuable, why did they give it to this random guy to repair?”

“He’s not random! He’s pretty reputable for Kingston.

That’s why I was so shook that he stopped texting me like that.

It’s surprising that he copied it at all, but I think he’s somewhat aware of society people.

He said this wasn’t the first Dr. Weiss journal he’d seen.

But because of how much the person offered to rush the job, I think he saw an opportunity.

He did also say business had been slow lately.

” She rolls her eyes and says in a mocking tone, “No one reads anymore!”

I laugh. “And what did Henry think?”

Corey collapses onto my desk chair. “Yeah, um, well… I kind of spat out the same story I told you, and then I yelled at him and left. So… he didn’t get to say anything.”

“You did what ?!” I drag her chair close to the bed. “Details!”

“I told him what you and Virgil said. That I was happy to help him with this, but that I shouldn’t have to prove myself to get involved in making change.

I know he didn’t say I needed to do this, that I put it on myself, but he encouraged it.

He made it seem like a condition without explicitly saying so.

Which I know now was unfair. And then when I got to the end, I realized that I was shouting.

” She drags her hands down her face. “Oh my God, I yelled at him.”

“I honestly think not enough people yell at him.” She glares at me and then catches herself and balks. But I just laugh again. “It’s called standing up for yourself. And it’s amazing that you’re doing it.”

“And now I have to finish my essays.” She sighs and leans back in the chair. “I got caught up in this journal stuff, so I’m behind.” She looks at me with wide eyes, slapping her palms together. “Can you please proofread my essays? Just to see if they make sense to you? Pleeeeeeeeeeeease?”

The absolute last thing I want to do is more schoolwork.

She pulls out the pout. I groan. I haven’t built up Virgil’s immunity to it. “Fine.”

“Yay! You’re the best!”

“You have to feed me, though.”

“Deal!”

We walk together to McIntosh Castle while Corey talks about some of the things in the journals.

It all pretty much goes over my head. It’s Dr. Weiss waxing poetic about the place of the Learners’ Society in the world and preparing for the apocalypse.

More about the warning signs of the spontaneous births.

Things we already know, but I guess it’s interesting to find that this particular journal was the source of that information.

We open the door to distant booms and smashing sounds.

Me and Corey look at each other. She’s about to call out when I put a hand to my lips, and she falls quiet. I reach back, patting the knife on my belt before creeping forward. We pad up the stairs. I keep my body tense.

Once we get to the upper floor landing, it’s obvious that the sounds are coming from Virgil’s room. I reach for the knob and twist it the slightest bit, but it’s locked.

Corey waves me away. I step back and she jumps, shoving at the door with the heel of her right foot. It swings open. She grins. “And that wasn’t even the metal le—” The words die in her throat as we get a good look inside the room.

It’s carnage.

Bookcases are overturned, and their contents strewn around the room.

Ripped pages fly through the air. There are chairs on their sides, one with a broken leg.

The mirror that was leaning against the wall is shattered, splinters radiating out from the middle, with pieces lying on the floor and reflecting the boy in the center of the room.

Virgil pants, his chest heaving, his mouth overcrowded by teeth, his lips bloodied, and tear tracks on his face. He stares at me and Corey, his eyes darting.

He brings shaking hands to his face. “They won’t go back in.” His words are muffled by the teeth, and his fingers are cut up too.

I move forward and pull his hands away from his mouth, getting blood on my hands. “Just breathe, remember? Like Henry said.” The only advice the professor gave was to try to keep Virgil calm. Knowing that eventually, it would get to be too much. Our goal is to get him to the end of the year.

“I don’t want to go,” he chokes out.

I shake my head. “It’s fine. They’ll go back in. Just brea—”

He stumbles away from me. “I’m so fucking tired of holding everything in!

” he screams. “I don’t want to go! This isn’t my fault!

” He grips his hands into fists. “I don’t want to go like this.

They treated me like shit my entire life, and I never fucking once got to make them pay for it.

Not those assholes who came here to ‘assess’ me when I was a kid, not those people who glared at me in meetings and lectures, and not even Caden, who actively tried to kill you!

None of them! And now I have to go underground, and they get to keep going?

” He shakes his head. “No. Fuck that. Fuck them.”

He opens his fists and there, sprouting from his nails, are black claws. “Go get someone,” I say, glancing at Corey.

“But…,” she says, staring at Virgil. “But…”

“Go. Please.”

Corey starts to tear up. “I can’t just leave him.”

“I’m here. He’s not alone. Find someone who can help.”

She bites her lip before nodding finally. “It’s going to be okay,” she says to Virgil, who laughs in response. It comes from somewhere deeper in his throat. Rough and raw. She turns and rushes down the stairs.

“I can’t calm down,” Virgil says. “I won’t. Not this time.”

“Fine,” I say. “They don’t deserve your restraint. They never did.”

Virgil’s eyes widen a fraction.

“You’re too good for all of them. That’s your problem. You’re just… too good. So be mad. Be angry. Smash things. Go tear them apart. It’s what they deserve.”

Virgil hunches over and screams again, clenching his fists until they rip into his skin. It hurts to hear it. Not just in my ears. It tears through my entire body, drawing shakes, and making my eyes water. He drops to his knees and huddles into a ball.

A hand lands on my shoulder, and I jump, whipping around. Bernie smiles at me, his breathing heavy and face pale, like he ran. “I’ll talk to him. Just give me a bit, okay?”

He puts his hand on Virgil’s back, whispering too low for me to hear.

“We should eat,” Corey says, tugging at my arm. I didn’t even realize she’d come back too.

The last thing I want to do is leave Virgil.

I guess I know how she felt now.

And for the same reason she did, I go with Corey down into the kitchen and eat in silence while we leave Bernie alone with him.

It feels like hours later when Bernie comes back down the stairs. Me and Corey both jump up from the kitchen stools. “He’s sleeping. He’s okay. He’s back to normal.”

I grip the edge of the counter to keep myself steady. Henry said even juvenile monsters can handle some pretty severe symptoms. But I’d never seen Virgil with actual physical things like fangs and claws before. “What did you say to him?” I ask.

“Just spoke. Told him stories about his parents. Not that I knew them well. They were Henry’s friends, but I knew enough.

Told him things about Davy. Just anything.

” He wrings his hands. “I know how it goes, so I have some practice. But… I don’t know if he’ll make it to winter break, much less the end of the year. ”

I swallow. It’s not what any of us want to hear.

Bernie says, “I would give him some space right now. Wait until the morning to talk to him. I’m going to head home.”

Corey walks Bernie out while I stare at my empty plate, grains of rice stuck to the white porcelain.

Me and Corey try to get through the rest of the evening. I read over her essays which are, as far as I can tell, perfect. Though she still makes some additions. I stay up until the eleven o’clock deadline when she submits them.

I’ll be sleeping in the guest room, as usual. I lie there, attempting to rest. At midnight, I give up and leave the room. I tell myself to get water, but instead I end up back at Virgil’s door. I press my ear against it, hoping to hear soft breathing or snores.

When there’s nothing, I turn the knob. It gives immediately. Corey broke the lock when she kicked it open.

I stare at Virgil’s bed.

Virgil’s bed where Virgil is supposed to be.

Instead, the sheets are tossed aside, and the bed is empty.