Sucked Under by Z. Fraillon Page B

over Felix’s ear. He couldn’t shake the feeling that if he kept going, something horrible was going to happen, but he forced his arms to pump the plunger up and down until … SCHLOP! He’d sucked a purple wormy thing right out of Felix’s ear.
    And then Jasper knew exactly was happening.
    They had been Monstered.

    Felix and Jasper lay panting on the floor of the room.
    Felix flicked the torchlight onto the large jar in his hand. ‘Skankbamboozlers,’ Felix muttered in disgust.
    Two hairy, purple, worm-like monsters with horribly human faces peered out at them. They wagged their tails back and forth and laughed madly at the two boys.
    â€˜Those! Inside our brains – ugh!’ Felix shivered.
    â€˜We should have known,’ Jasper replied.
    â€˜Sore eyes, fuzzy head, confusion. Do you think we failed?’
    Felix shrugged. ‘We were Scrambled good.’
    He gave the jar a vicious shake.
    â€˜ They must have got in through the headphones,’ Jasper added. He knew his class teacher Stenka wouldn’t let them live this down in a hurry. ‘We didn’t even wear our earplugs or nosepegs to block the inlets to the brain.’ Jasper pulled the unused plugs and pegs from his hunt belt with a hopeless expression.
    â€˜But Sir Tavish said it was a test on Morphers!’

    Felix glared at the Skankbamboozlers again. ‘And what’s with the lights?’ he murmured as he made a shadow bunny jump across the beam of the torch.
    Usually, as soon as the test was finished, the lights would come on, the door would unlock, and a voice would come over the intercom telling you to ‘ proceed to the exit’. But so far … nothing.
    Felix froze, his shadow bunny caught in mid-hop. ‘Unless of course, the monsters have teamed up. Like Sir Tavish was going on about.’
    Felix was staring at something directly behind Jasper.
    Suddenly the lights not coming on made sense. The test wasn’t over.
    â€˜The Morpher – it’s behind me, isn’t it?’ Jasper whispered.
    Felix gulped.
    Jasper turned around very slowly.
    Four dark blue slits had appeared on the wall and were looking right at them.
    â€˜Eyes!’ whispered Felix.
    The walls of the room began to breathe . The paint turned from grey to a dark, moist red.
    Jasper felt the torch fall from his fingertips and hit the ground – which had turned into a soft mound of muscle.
    There wasn’t a monster in the room.
    The monster was the room.
    Jasper’s body suddenly buzzed with excitement. He gritted his teeth and charged. A long rope of muscle shot towards him. It whipped around his body and snatched him up into the air. The muscle tightened around his chest. He could hardly breathe.

    Felix pulled hard on Jasper’s legs, trying to free him. ‘What’s its weakness?’ he screamed desperately.
    Every single monster, no matter how nasty and horrible, had a weakness. And knowing it was a monster-hunter’s best weapon.
    â€˜I was hoping you’d tell me!’ gasped Jasper. He racked his brain, desperately trying to think which monster could morph into a room.
    The monster tightened its grip around Jasper’s chest. His ribcage was being crushed. It hurt so much that his eyes welled up with tears. He hoped Felix couldn’t see the fat tear he felt rolling down his cheek.
    The tear splatted softly onto the floor. Suddenly, the monster-room began to shake, as if an earthquake had hit. The walls and floor of the monster-room quickly hardened, and bits of the roof began to rain down on top of Jasper and Felix.
    A strange wail came from deep inside the monster-room. The shaking stopped. There was complete silence.
    Jasper’s torch lay on the floor nearby, its beam shining on the Skankbamboozlers, which were cackling in their jar on the cracked floor.
    The muscle binding Jasper shook once more, then broke and crumbled to dust. Jasper crashed down to the