The human boy opened the garage door wider with one hand and waved them inside like he was inviting neighbors over for a barbecue instead of accidentally sheltering a group of terrified monster teenagers hiding from the police.
"Come on in!" he said brightly. "Welcome to the party!"
The bass from inside rattled the driveway hard enough to vibrate the garbage cans.
Colored lights flashed through the windows.
Someone inside screamed with laughter.
Another voice shouted, "CHAD YOU ATE THE CANDLE AGAIN!"
Abbey stared at the house.
Then back at the street.
Then at the distant glow of police lights several blocks away.
"Police will not look for us at party," she declared.
Draculaura blinked. "That's actually… kinda genius."
"Or incredibly stupid," Clawd muttered.
"Sometimes those same thing," Abbey replied with a shrug.
Honestly?
Fair.
Frankie looked nervous enough for sparks to start threatening her sleeves again.
"I don't know…"
"Frankie," Heath interrupted, smoke curling anxiously from his mouth, "the cops are literally hunting us."
"…Good point."
The human boy grinned wider.
"Oh! Okay!"
"Sure!" Heath added immediately.
"Okay," Draculaura sighed.
"Why not?" Clawd muttered.
Abbey cracked her knuckles.
"Mmm. You asked for it."
And just like that—
Monster High's most emotionally exhausted fleshmen stepped directly into a human Halloween party.
---
The second they entered—
Noise hit them like a truck.
Music blasted from huge speakers.
Orange and purple lights strobed across crowded walls.
Humans packed the living room shoulder-to-shoulder in costumes ranging from "vampire" to "confusingly shirtless pirate."
A fake skeleton hung from the ceiling fan.
Plastic spiders covered the walls.
Fog rolled across the floor from a cheap machine in the corner.
And for one horrifying second—
Every monster froze.
Not because the decorations were scary.
Because they weren't.
They were familiar.
Too familiar.
A human girl in skull makeup ran past laughing.
Another guy wore fake werewolf claws.
Somebody dressed as a mummy tripped over a beanbag chair and faceplanted into the snack table.
The monsters just stood there silently.
Watching.
Passing.
Trying desperately to look human enough not to be noticed.
Trying not to breathe wrong.
Trying not to stand out.
Trying not to look afraid.
"Kiiller costumes, guys!" one human boy shouted over the music.
Draculaura physically flinched at the word killer.
"Those are so lifelike!"
"Cool!"
"Wow!"
Abbey stared blankly as a girl complimented her actual fangs.
"Is nice," Abbey answered automatically.
The girl laughed.
"Oh my gosh, she's so committed to the accent too."
Abbey's eye twitched slightly.
"Cool," Heath said weakly, trying not to ignite from stress.
Frankie leaned closer to Clawd.
"Uh, ghouls," she whispered, "what exactly is going on here?"
The human boy pointed excitedly toward the living room.
"Check it out!"
The monsters followed his gesture.
And immediately stopped cold.
Draculaura's eyes widened.
"Oh. My. Ra."
The entire living room looked like a miniature haunted museum.
Fake monster heads decorated shelves.
Rubber bats hung upside down from the ceiling.
Plastic bones lined the walls.
Candy body parts filled bowls on tables.
A fake zombie torso stuck halfway out of the couch cushions.
And above the fireplace—
Mounted like hunting trophies—
Hung decorative monster masks.
Werewolves.
Vampires.
Sea monsters.
Mummies.
Laughing caricatures of creatures just like them.
Cleo's face darkened instantly.
"What kind of house of horrors is this?"
Her voice came out sharp enough to cut glass.
"Ghosts and skeletons strung up on the wall like trophies?"
Clawd looked up.
Then blinked.
"…Pretty sure those are gummy body parts."
"My father was so right about these people," Cleo hissed.
"Cleo," Frankie whispered nervously, "inside voice."
"Chill," Clawd muttered. "They're candy. Just decoration."
"Like in Hall of Halloween," Abbey added thoughtfully.
She poked a bowl of candy eyeballs.
"Not as good as old stuff… but not bad neither."
Draculaura looked around uncertainly.
The humans weren't acting hateful.
Or violent.
Or cruel.
Most weren't even paying attention to them.
They were just dancing.
Laughing.
Existing.
But still—
The decorations made something uncomfortable crawl beneath her skin.
Because these humans could pretend to be monsters for fun.
Take the costume off whenever they wanted.
Meanwhile real monsters had spent the entire night terrified of being seen.
Passing.
Hiding.
Trying to survive.
A human could wear fangs for one night and be called cool.
A real vampire showed hers and suddenly people grabbed torches.
The unfairness of it sat heavy in her chest.
"They're clearly celebrating attacking our school," Cleo snapped.
"No they're not," Frankie argued quietly.
"They literally hanging monster body parts on walls!"
"They're gummy candies!"
"Symbolic gummy candies!"
Heath immediately pointed at a bowl.
"Can I eat those symbolic gummy candies?"
"No," several people answered simultaneously.
Too late.
He already had three.
---
Across the room, Manny cracked his knuckles angrily.
"This is perfect."
Toralei smirked beside him.
"The perfect opportunity to get back at the normies."
A human boy suddenly appeared holding a giant bowl.
"Punch?"
The monsters collectively froze.
Manny narrowed his eyes.
"Is that a threat?"
The boy blinked.
"…What?"
"Oh, you mean the drink," Draculaura sighed.
"Yeah," the human answered slowly.
Clawd grabbed Manny's shoulder before the minotaur could escalate into another international incident.
"Real tough, Manny."
Toralei rolled her eyes dramatically.
"Come on. Let's go get even."
"You realize you are saying that while standing in somebody's living room," Frankie whispered.
Toralei ignored her completely.
---
Near the kitchen, a different human girl approached the group curiously.
She had dark eyeliner, ripped tights, and the exhausted expression of somebody who absolutely did not want to be at this party.
"Whoa," she said. "Sick costumes."
Draculaura smiled nervously.
"You guys must really love Halloween."
"Yeah! Totally!" Heath said immediately.
Then panicked halfway through the sentence.
"What… creature—"
Everybody stared at him.
"…Person," Heath corrected quickly.
"What creature person doesn't?"
Smooth.
Real smooth.
The girl tilted her head.
"I don't even recognize you guys."
Frankie's smile became visibly strained.
"Um… that's because we're…"
Nobody answered.
Complete silence.
Ghoulia groaned awkwardly.
Abbey blinked.
Heath looked seconds away from combusting.
Then Draculaura blurted:
"Exchange students!"
Everybody turned toward her.
"Yeah!" she continued desperately. "That's it!"
Abbey immediately caught on.
"We from totally different world."
The human girl laughed.
"Honestly? I buy it."
Draculaura nearly collapsed from relief.
Then Clawd pointed carefully.
"Uh… how come you're not dressed up?"
The girl shrugged.
"Clair. And this kinda stuff isn't really my thing."
She glanced around the party unimpressed.
"I'm only here because my friend Chad made me come."
"Understandable," Frankie muttered.
Clair walked toward the music speaker.
"Ugh. And if I'm gonna be forced to be here…"
She plugged in her phone.
"…I'm at least changing the music."
The terrible techno abruptly cut out.
A much better rock song started playing instead.
Heath gasped dramatically.
"Oh thank flame."
"Seriously," Clawd muttered. "Whoever made that playlist should be arrested."
Frankie leaned closer nervously.
"That was too close."
Draculaura nodded immediately.
"We have to get out of here."
---
"Come on," Heath argued. "Clair seemed nice."
"That how they fool you," Abbey warned.
"Yeah!" Manny agreed instantly. "If I was human, I'd totally lure monsters in with kindness first."
Clawd stared at him.
"That is not helping your argument."
"Don't forget what they did to us," Toralei snapped.
"And what we came here to do."
"Revenge," Manny growled.
Frankie crossed her arms.
"One of us already did that, remember?"
Everybody went quiet.
Because somebody had vandalized the school before they ever arrived.
And nobody knew who.
Which somehow made everything scarier.
Because it meant somebody else wanted this conflict too.
Somebody else wanted monsters and humans at each other's throats.
And right now?
That was working terrifyingly well.
---
Nearby, humans danced without noticing the tension spreading through the monsters.
Or maybe they noticed and mistook it for costume commitment.
Passing again.
Pretending.
Surviving.
Draculaura looked around the room slowly.
At fake fangs.
Fake claws.
Fake monster makeup.
Humans pretending to be creatures they feared in real life.
Humans loving monsters—
As long as they stayed costumes.
As long as they stayed fake.
As long as they could remove the mask afterward and go back to being accepted.
Clawd noticed her expression.
"You okay?"
Draculaura hesitated.
"…Do you ever think it's weird?"
"What?"
"That humans can pretend to be us for fun."
Clawd followed her gaze around the party.
Then his smile faded slightly too.
"…Yeah."
Frankie looked down at the stitches on her arms.
"They like the idea of monsters more than actual monsters."
Nobody really had a response to that.
Because deep down—
Every single one of them knew exactly what she meant.
---
The music pounded through the house hard enough to shake the windows.
Humans laughed.
Danced.
Spilled drinks on each other.
Completely unaware that half the room was balancing on the edge of panic.
Frankie watched a human girl with green face paint and neck bolts stumble past carrying chips.
The girl grinned at her.
"Oh my gosh, your stitches look SO real."
Frankie smiled weakly.
"Uh… thanks."
The girl wandered away again without another thought.
Frankie's smile slowly faded.
"She didn't even look twice," she whispered.
Clawd leaned against the wall beside her. "Isn't that good?"
"I… don't know."
And honestly?
Neither did he.
Because for the first time all night, nobody here was staring at them with fear.
But they also weren't seeing them at all.
Not really.
Just costumes.
Just masks.
Just something fun to wear for a night.
Abbey stood near the snack table chewing thoughtfully on something bright orange and probably radioactive.
"Humans very strange," she decided.
"You are just figuring that out now?" Heath asked.
Abbey pointed toward two humans arguing passionately over whether vampires could eat garlic bread.
"One dressed as zombie. Other dressed as skeleton. Neither actual undead."
"…Fair."
Across the room, Cleo still looked furious.
Every fake monster decoration seemed to make her angrier.
"They mock us," she muttered.
"No," Draculaura said quietly. "I think… they like us."
Cleo stared at her.
"That supposed to make this better?"
Draculaura looked around the crowded room again.
Humans wearing monster masks.
Monster shirts.
Fake fangs.
Dancing to songs about creatures they claimed to fear.
"It's just…" Draculaura twisted one pigtail nervously. "Maybe they only hate us when they know we're real."
Nobody answered immediately.
Because that hit way too hard.
Nearby, Heath accidentally inhaled spicy chips too fast and coughed smoke straight into the air.
Three humans cheered.
"DUDE! THAT EFFECT IS AWESOME!"
Heath blinked.
"…Thanks?"
Clawd buried his face in his hands.
"We are absolutely going to fucking die tonight."
And then Heath's smoke became blue fire...