"All right!"
Mr. Rotter's voice echoed through the detention room.
The zombie teacher stood at the front of the classroom with his usual stack of papers tucked beneath one arm.
Nobody looked particularly interested.
Nobody looked particularly awake.
Nobody looked particularly alive.
Which, admittedly, was saying something at Monster High.
Mr. Rotter adjusted his glasses.
"Welcome to detention!"
Nobody answered.
The classroom was packed.
Far more packed than it normally would have been.
Frankie sat near the front.
Clawdeen sat beside Draculaura.
Deuce sat behind them.
Cleo occupied her usual space with the posture of someone personally offended by the concept of detention.
Toralei slouched in her chair.
Ghoulia scribbled quietly in a notebook.
Lagoona and Gil sat together.
Manny occupied nearly an entire row by himself by laying down.
And Heath—
Heath sat in the back corner.
Silent.
Still.
Staring at nothing.
Mr. Rotter continued.
"Here are the rules!"
A few students groaned.
"No talking, laughing, smiling, or breathing!"
Nobody reacted.
"Well, okay, maybe a little bit of breathing."
Still nothing.
"And no gum!"
He pointed dramatically.
"Any questions?"
Silence.
"Wonderful."
Mr. Rotter smiled.
"I'll be grading papers."
He sat down.
The room immediately fell quiet.
Not because of detention.
Not because of Mr. Rotter.
Well not just because of him.
Because everybody was exhausted.
Because everybody was worried.
Because two seats were empty.
And everybody knew it.
Frankie glanced toward the back of the room.
Toward Heath.
He hadn't said more than three words since arriving.
That wasn't normal.
Nothing about Heath was quiet.
The silence coming from him felt wrong.
Dangerous.
Like a storm cloud pretending not to be a storm cloud.
Draculaura noticed too.
"You think he's okay?" she whispered.
"No," Frankie whispered back.
"Me neither."
Clawdeen looked over her shoulder.
Heath hadn't moved.
Hadn't spoken.
Hadn't even complained about detention.
That alone was alarming.
Normally Heath would have been on his third joke by now.
His fifth complaint.
His second attempt to get thrown out.
Instead—
Nothing.
Just staring.
Just thinking.
Just hurting.
Deuce quietly leaned back in his chair.
"He's been like that all morning."
Frankie nodded.
"I know."
Nobody knew what to do about it.
Because they were all hurting too.
They were just handling it differently.
Some worried.
Some got quiet.
Some got angry.
Some pretended everything was fine.
Heath looked like he was doing all four at once.
The minutes dragged.
Slowly.
Painfully.
Nobody wanted to be there.
Nobody wanted to be anywhere.
Not until they found Holt.
Not until they found Jackie.
Eventually Manny broke the silence.
"Y'know."
Several students immediately looked up.
That tone never led anywhere good.
Manny leaned back in his chair.
Crossing his arms.
"I still don't get why everybody's freaking out so much."
Nobody answered.
Bad sign.
Manny kept going.
"It's not like anybody's heard from Jackie in forever anyway."
Heath's eyes shifted.
Barely.
Almost unnoticeably.
Manny didn't notice.
"Guy disappears every five minutes."
Still nobody spoke.
Toralei frowned.
Even she looked uncomfortable.
Manny shrugged.
"What?"
No response.
"Maybe he's just still hiding somewhere on the Normie side of town."
Clawdeen immediately looked annoyed.
"Manny."
"What?"
"Shut up."
"I'm just saying."
"No."
Draculaura crossed her arms.
"You're not."
Manny rolled his eyes.
"Come on."
Nobody laughed.
Nobody agreed.
That should've been enough.
Should've.
Instead Manny kept talking.
"Seriously."
He shrugged.
"Dude has spent first of ouf the month hiding behind Hyde anyway."
The room went still.
Frankie's eyes widened slightly.
Deuce froze.
Clawdeen immediately looked toward Heath.
Because she'd heard it.
The shift.
The tiny change.
The sound of someone reaching the end of something.
Manny wasn't paying attention.
"Let's be real."
The minotaur laughed.
"Without Hyde, Jackie would've spent the entire year eating lunch alone."
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Manny smirked.
"He probably—"
His sentence never finished.
The chair exploded backward.
Everybody jumped.
The sound echoed through the room.
Heath was standing.
His desk had nearly toppled over behind him.
The room froze.
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
For a moment—
Nobody even spoke.
Because Heath's flames had changed.
Purple.
Not red.
Not orange.
Purple.
The fire burned around his head like a living thing.
Violent.
Unstable.
Wrong.
Manny finally noticed.
"...Dude?"
Heath took one step forward.
Then another.
Then another.
Each step faster.
Harder.
His hands clenched.
His entire body shaking.
Not from fear.
Not anymore.
"Say that shit again."
The words came out low.
Dangerously low.
Manny blinked.
"What?"
"Say."
Another step.
"That."
Another.
"Again."
The room collectively stopped breathing.
Manny stood.
More confused than scared.
"Heath—"
"He spent the year hiding behind Holt?"
A laugh escaped Heath.
A terrible laugh.
Sharp.
Broken.
Wrong.
"You think that's what happened? I know you're a minotaur but how do you come up with this bullshit?"
"Heath, calm down—"
"Calm down?"
Another laugh.
Louder this time.
His purple flames surged.
"He thinks Jackie hid behind Holt."
Manny looked uncertain now.
"Maybe sit down—"
"He thinks Jackie needed Holt."
The room felt smaller.
Everybody could feel it.
The pressure.
The rage.
The grief.
Months of things Heath had never said.
Never admitted.
Never confronted.
All boiling over at once.
"Heath," Frankie said carefully.
No response.
"Heath."
Nothing.
The fire around him flickered violently.
Then Manny made a mistake.
A huge mistake.
He shrugged.
"What?"
The minotaur rolled his eyes.
"It's true."
That was it.
The breaking point.
The final straw.
The last crack in the dam.
Heath moved.
Fast.
Far faster than anybody expected.
Manny barely had time to react before Heath slammed into him.
The desk overturned.
Both boys crashed into the floor.
The classroom erupted.
"Heath!"
"HEATH!"
"STOP!"
Manny tried to push him away.
Too late.
A month of frustration.
Fear.
Guilt.
Exhaustion.
Anger.
All came pouring out at once.
Heath wasn't fighting because of the insult.
Not really.
He was fighting because Holt was in jail.
Because Jackie was missing.
Because he hadn't slept in about two days now.
Because he was scared.
Because he didn't know what else to do.
The struggle lasted only moments before Deuce and Clawd lunged forward.
Together.
Pulling Heath backward.
Dragging him away.
Manny stumbled against a desk.
His fur around his upper body now singed black.
Several students backed away.
Nobody had ever seen Heath like this.
Ever.
Not once.
"Heath!"
Clawd grabbed both shoulders.
"STOP!"
"LET ME GO!"
Purple flames burst upward.
"HEATH!"
"LET ME FUCKING GO!"
His voice cracked.
The room fell silent.
Because suddenly—
He wasn't yelling at Manny anymore.
He was yelling at the universe.
At himself.
At everything.
"YOU DON'T FUCKING GET IT!"
Nobody spoke.
Nobody moved.
"You don't get it!"
His chest heaved.
Purple fire flickering around him.
Wild.
Unstable.
"I spent my whole life copying somebody!"
The room froze.
Completely.
Heath laughed again.
A broken sound.
"Whole life..."
Nobody interrupted.
Nobody dared.
"I copied every cool manster I ever met."
His voice shook.
"Clawd."
Clawd blinked.
"What?"
"You."
He pointed.
"You were cool."
Clawdeen stared.
Clawd looked stunned.
"You had confidence."
Heath laughed.
"So I copied you."
Silence.
"Then Deuce."
Deuce looked startled.
"What?"
"You had the sunglasses."
Another laugh.
"You had the attitude."
Heath shook his head.
"So I copied you."
Deuce didn't know what to say.
Nobody did.
"And then Holt."
The room went silent again.
Even quieter than before.
Because now everybody knew where this was going.
"Holt."
His voice cracked.
"Holt didn't care what anybody thought."
The fire flickered.
"He just walked into a room and owned it."
A smile appeared.
Small.
Painful.
"He made everybody laugh."
Another crack in his voice.
"He made everything seem easy. He got all the ghouls."
The smile vanished.
"So I copied him too."
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Because Heath was crying now.
Purple fire dripping from his eyes.
Running down his face.
Burning out before it reached the floor.
And somehow that looked even worse than normal tears.
"I copied everybody."
His shoulders shook.
"Just so somebody would like me."
Silence.
"Just so some ghouls would give me their numbers."
Another bitter laugh.
"That's really pathetic, isn't it?"
Nobody disagreed.
Not because it was pathetic.
Because nobody wanted to interrupt.
Not now.
Then Heath looked down.
His expression changing.
Becoming smaller.
Sadder.
"I never apologized."
Frankie frowned.
"For what?"
Heath looked away.
"For the first day of school."
Several students blinked.
"Jackie."
Oh.
The realization hit immediately.
Everyone remembered.
Jackie eating alone.
Jackie staying quiet.
Jackie keeping his head down.
Trying not to attract attention.
And failing simply for not being a monster.
Heath swallowed.
"I stonewalled him."
The confession came out quietly.
"I ignored him."
His voice broke.
"Acted like he wasn't there."
Nobody said anything.
Because they remembered.
And because Heath was right.
"It wasn't me who gave him a place to sit."
He looked at Deuce.
"It was you."
Deuce froze.
He remembered that too.
The cafeteria.
The empty table.
The nervous human boy.
The simple invitation.
Sit here.
That's all it had been.
One sentence.
One gesture.
One act of kindness.
And apparently Heath had never forgotten it.
Deuce looked down.
"Heath..."
"I should have been the one to do that, we're family and I never even said sorry."
The words came out as a whisper.
"I never fixed it."
The room was silent.
Absolutely silent.
Then Heath looked up.
And suddenly—
Something changed.
The sadness didn't vanish.
The fear didn't vanish.
The grief didn't vanish.
But underneath it—
Something hardened.
A decision.
A choice.
A purpose.
Purple flames erupted again.
Stronger.
Brighter.
"I'm done with this shit."
Everybody stared.
"What?"
Heath wiped his eyes.
"I'm done copying everybody."
Another step toward the door.
"I'm done waiting."
Another.
"I'm done sitting around."
Mr. Rotter finally stood.
Concern written all over his face.
"Heath."
"No."
"Heath—"
"Shut the actual fuck up."
The fire elemental shook his head.
"I'm finally gonna do something for myself."
The room watched.
Nobody trying to stop him yet.
Not because they agreed.
Because they could see this wasn't about detention anymore.
This wasn't about school.
This wasn't about rules.
This was about family.
"Heath..."
Frankie's voice trembled.
He looked at her.
Then at everyone else.
Clawd.
Draculaura.
Deuce.
Clawdeen.
Lagoona.
Gil.
Ghoulia.
Even Toralei.
And finally—
Manny.
The minotaur looked guilty now.
Actually guilty.
But it was too late.
The damage was already done.
"Heath," Clawd said softly.
"What are you doing?"
The answer came immediately.
Without hesitation.
Without doubt.
"I'm finding Jackie."
Silence.
Then—
"I'm busting Holt out."
Several jaws dropped.
Mr. Rotter nearly choked.
"WHAT?"
Heath pointed toward the door.
Purple flames blazing.
"They're my brothers."
Nobody spoke.
"They need me."
Another step.
"And for once—"
His voice steadied.
Strong.
Certain.
"—I'm gonna be my own manster."
Then he turned.
And ran.
The classroom door slammed open.
Then shut.
BANG.
Silence.
Complete silence.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
Nobody even seemed to breathe.
Because Heath Burns had just run out of detention.
Run out of school.
Run toward a jail.
Run toward a missing person.
Run toward a disaster.
And judging by the look in his eyes—
Nothing on earth was going to stop him...