Monster Versus Mortal

By Rhys-Jordan Griffith-Fyffe

Fourteen-year-old Vanessa Simons is just like any other girl her agewell, almost. Despite her thin body and long blonde hair, Vanessa has a few characteristics that set her apart like pale skin, giant fangs, amazingly fast speed, and an insatiable craving for human blood. After her parents recognize Vanessas growing inability to hide her vampire identity from her classmates, they enroll her at Monstero Academy, a special school that teaches monsters how to hone their abilities.

After Vanessa enters the school through a portal and meets new friends, Pete and Jen, they tell her she is the chosen hero to defeat the evil principal of the school and save all the monsters from a terrible fate. In order to stop the principal from imprisoning and killing the monsters, Vanessa must collect the three powerful stonesor so she thinks. Unfortunately she is about to discover that not everyone is who they appear to be.

In this exciting tale, a teen vampire embarks on a dangerous quest to fulfill her destiny where only time will tell if she will have the courage to face her enemies and save the monstersbefore it is too late for them all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jan 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781491757376

Rhys-Jordan Griffith-Fyffe

Rhys-Jordan Griffith-Fyffe is a teenager diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. He has aspired to be an author ever since he wrote his first story in the first grade. Rhys-Jordan lives in Mississauga, Ontario, with his parents and sister, where he enjoys playing video games and, of course, writing stories.

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

My name is Vanessa Simons. I’m just like any other girl. I have long blonde hair and a fit, thin body shape. I like girly things like makeup and the color pink, but I have a few characteristics that set me apart from other girls, things like cold, pale skin, huge fangs, amazingly fast speed, and the ability to glide (with minor limitations). I can’t see my reflection in the mirror, and the most unusual thing about me is that I crave human blood.

When I was young, going to school was nice and easy because no one could notice my differences. Just like everyone else, I’m going through changes now that I’m in my teenage years. When I was younger, my differences were not only non-apparent but also practically non-existent. My skin never used to be cold and pale, I never used to have huge fangs, and I never used to crave blood. But now that I’m 14 years old, it’s getting difficult to hide these new attributes.

If you haven’t already guessed, I’m a vampire. I wasn’t bitten by a vampire or vampire bat; I’m a birth vampire. My parents, Samantha and Daniel Simons, are also vampires. Unlike me, my parents were bitten. A vampire bat bit my mom, and a vampire known as Drake bit my dad. My mom doesn’t like to talk too much about how she became a vampire, but my dad told me that this is how it happened: When my mom was about my age, she was on a field trip to an old, abandoned cave. Now, don’t get me wrong, she enjoyed this trip, but there were a lot of bats in this cave. My mom doesn’t like bats. Everyone told her that the bats wouldn’t harm her, but she didn’t believe them. Then, one bat—a vampire bat, to be exact—decided it needed some blood and went straight for my mother. It injected its fangs into my mother. I’m guessing that it hurt, but I’m not really sure.

My dad, as I said before, was bitten by a vampire known as Drake. No one knows what Drake looks like because he does his work in complete solitude. I don’t know too much about how my father turned into a vampire, either, but what I think happened is this: My father was going into college when he was bitten by Drake. My dad didn’t know what hit him. He learned of his newfound power when he violently drank the blood of everyone in the college.

***

It was nighttime as I stood in the middle of my room. My room was dimly lit and had only one window. The walls were painted black, and there was nothing else in the room except a closet, security cameras mounted on the wall, and a digital clock on the floor next to my coffin. However, my coffin was not to sleep in but to relax in. Sometimes I wished that I could just fall asleep, but, as a vampire, I don’t ever need to sleep.

I looked over at my coffin and sighed. It was black in color. I would have liked to have a purple coffin with some kind of floral pattern, but I got mine from a graveyard and black was the best I could find. I slowly made my way to the coffin and lay down in it. I closed my eyes and pretended to fall asleep.

Vanessa! my mother called. I didn’t feel like getting up, so I pretended not to hear her. Don’t ignore me, Vanessa. I know that you can hear me.

Knowing that I had to come down, I replied, Okay, I know, Mom.

I got out of my coffin and left my room. I was now in a narrow hallway leading to a squeaky wooden staircase. The only thing in the hallway was a mirror hanging from the wall. It baffled me. Why would we need a mirror when no one in this house was able to see his or her reflection in it? I proceeded down the wooden staircase. Each step squeaked. When I got down the stairs, I saw my parents sitting in the kitchen at a round beige table. The dimly lit kitchen, an octagonal room with drawers and cabinets, held no appliances. Appliances were unnecessary because we didn’t eat food; we drank blood.

My mom looked a little bit like me, with long blonde hair and pale skin. One of the things that set us apart, however, was my mom’s long, crooked nose. She was a very fit person and, luckily, had the power to hide her fangs.

My dad had black hair, pale skin and a moustache. He wore glasses and was very muscular. Like me, my dad could not hide his fangs.

Vanessa, your father and I have something to tell you, my mother said.

Judging from the serious tone of her voice, I sensed that something bad was coming. I replied with caution. Yes, Mom?

We both noticed that it’s been hard for you to keep your identity a secret at school.

Mom, please don’t punish me!

Why would we punish you? my father said. I had the same problem when I was younger. So your mother and I are going to enrol you in a monster school.

Really? I replied. Finally I could go to a school where I wouldn’t have to hide my identity. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! I said.

Now, Vanessa, here is an information letter on the school, my dad said as he handed me a pink sheet of paper.

I grabbed the letter from his hands and ran to my room without speaking another word. I went back to lying in my coffin, holding the letter above my head so that I could read it. It said the following:

Monstero Academy information letter

Monstero Academy is a school for many different kinds of monsters, such as zombies, mummies, werewolves, all kinds of Mews, witches, wizards, vampires and more.

That was all I needed to read. Finally, a school where everyone was a monster, just like me! I threw the letter on the floor next to my coffin. It did occur to me that it might have contained important information that I should’ve read, but I didn’t feel like reading any more.

Suddenly, I started to get a bit hungry. For a vampire, hunger works a lot differently. Blood rushes to your head and your fingernails turn red, instead of your stomach growling. So I slowly got out of my coffin and called down to my mom. Mom, I’m going out for dinner!

Be back by ten, she replied.

I looked at the clock; it was 9:00 p.m. That gave me an hour for dinner. I grabbed a black cloak from my closet and put it on. I then made my way over to the window and opened it. Just outside the window was a neighboring house. I jumped out the window and glided over to the neighbor’s roof. I usually used the front door to exit the house, but I used the window when getting food because I could glide to the rooftops, from where it was easier to see my prey. Vampires can only glide when they are at an altitude that exceeds their own height.

The surrounding houses looked similar to my own, with light brown bricks and dark red rooftops. I began to run across the rooftops and felt the wind flowing through my hair. I was looking for the right person to feed off of. This is very hard to do, though, when running at two hundred miles per hour. I glanced over just enough so that I could catch sight of some people. I stopped running for a minute, seeing that I was now in a busy city street. I saw a man in a black-and-white tuxedo getting out of a taxi and paying the driver.

The man looked like he was in his twenties. His skin color was white. He had freckles, a black messy moustache and a huge mole on his nose.

Without anyone’s noticing, I grabbed him and pulled him into a dark alleyway. The man looked at me, confused. He eventually built up enough confidence to talk to me. Now, listen, I say, listen right here, little lady. Now, I don’t appreciate you dragging me into this here dark alleyway, so you best apologize to me or I’m calling in the cops.

I looked the man straight in the eye, exposing my naked bright red eye. He was paralyzed in fear. I find that blood tastes best when the prey is terrified. Most vampires think it best to drink blood from someone’s neck, but I prefer to drink from a person’s wrist. So I grabbed his wrist, located the vein, and, before he could speak again, started to drink his blood.

Vampires’ process for drinking blood really bores me. It’s always the same thing. When a vampire sinks his or her fangs into a victim, the fangs pierce a little hole in the victim’s vein. Then, the vampire draws his or hers fangs out just a little