Thalassa Waters

Thalassa dumped all of the recycling paper into the paper shredder in the photocopy room. "C'mon, you stupid piece of junk," she muttered, jabbing her finger at the buttons. Of course, Monster High's only paper shredder was malfunctioning. She'd have to tell Professor Creeper then, but God, that woman was just as scary as she was back when Thalassa was a student. She was surprised that Carrie Creeper had let her become a teacher assistant in her Grave Year anyways.

Thalassa left the photocopy room, leaving a post-it note that the paper shredder was broken for its next unlucky user. She passed by several students who were early risers, which shocked her since Thalassa was sleep-deprived, and held her files closer to her chest. Someone murmured 'hello's and there were a few 'good morning, Miss Waters.' That did sound a bit foreign to Thalassa's ears, being called by her formal last name.

"Paper shredder broken again?" Vilkas asked, waiting by his locker like usual. His hair was messy as usual, despite the fact that Thalssa kept telling him to comb it. Werewolf antics, she supposed.

They walked together to Professor Creeper's classroom. She hadn't seen him at detention yesterday, though Thalassa assumed he just skipped it as he normally did. "Our school really needs to fix it, it's exhausting," she said.

He shrugged. "Just punch it a few times, that's what I do when it acts up."

"Full moon last night?" Thalassa inquired. She hadn't seen him during Halloween evening, he tended to lean away from crowds and vanish for a few hours until Thalassa found him again. Annoying? Very much so.

Suddenly, Professor Creeper appeared in front of them, like a bat. Thalassa yelped, startled, and dropped all of her papers. "Oh my Ghoul, I'm so gravely sorry about that, Professor Creeper. You frightened me and—"

The tall Zombie looked down on her, her steel gaze stopping Thalassa's train of thought. Don't mess with the strictest teacher at Monster High, she gulped. Thalassa chose to shut her mouth, stooping to the tiled floor to gather her files. From the corner of her eye, she watched Vilkas and Professor Creeper have a glare-off.

Well, it seems like Vilkas chose death today. Thalassa winced at the bad choice of words.

"Aren't you going to help her?" Vilkas asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Likewise, Mr. Wagner."

He grumbled as Thalassa stood up again. "Good morning, Professor. Uhm, the paper shredder isn't working again. I-I can try again at lunch later today though." Although Thalassa was Professor Creeper's TA, she was deathly afraid of the Zombie woman. She was made of different body parts stitched together, giving her an uncanny look. She was strict too, many students intended to dislike her.

"Don't bother," Creeper said, crossing her arms. "There's an assembly today, hosted by the humans." She sniffled at the human part, as if she wasn't composed of many human bodies. "They're here to discuss Lovella Cherish's passing."

Thalassa's blood ran cold as she swallowed hard, trying to forget about Lovella. She gave the papers to Professor Creeper and grabbed Vilkas' arm. "We better get going then, thanks so much!" Before either could say goodbye, Thalassa breezed past Professor Creeper and dragged Vilkas away.

"What was that about?" he questioned, eyeing her carefully. Thalassa's head pounded as her heart fluttered rapidly, unable to forget last night. She quickened her pace, walking around Monster High's hallways until she was sure they'd hit a dead end. Stop overthinking it, she thought. No, don't think at all, stupid! "Thalassa? Earth to Thalassa? Water to Thalassa!"

Thalassa finally stopped, catching her breath. Whenever she tried to speak, her mouth ran dry and it felt like her speech was blurring. Her head ached with painful memories and guilt, images of Lovella in the watery depths of her mind. "This is going to be awful, I'll lose my job and be sent back home where my parents are going to bitch about my mistakes for the rest of my life," she muttered, terrified.

"Dial it back for a second."

Thalassa slumped her shoulders. "God, I was the one who was supposed to look after the students in detention, but I failed at that single simple task. Because of that, Lovella ended up dead. Bloodgood is going to fire me, I just know it." Her stomach pooled with remorse. I should have just stayed in the classroom with the students, Thalassa thought miserably. "And Lovella... Oh, she didn't deserve to die. I'm at my wit's end."

"It's not really your fault," Vilkas said, as if it was beyond him. He glanced out the window and Thalassa suddenly realized where they were. Outside of them was the Courtyard, closed off with bright yellow crime tape. And it's all your fault, Thalassa was going to be sick.

"If anything, the kids were to blame, they're foolish and reckless to have tricked you and then run off anyways. I mean, yeah, you fell for the classic 'locker-grab' but you're Thalassa. You can't even stand up to a baby." Fine, point proven. Vilkas, one, and Thalassa, zero.

She sighed. "Vik, come on, it's not that black-and-white."

"Just trying to say if anything, it's someone else's fault. I mean, who possibly believes a nineteen-year-old can look after a noisy and rough class?" He shrugged casually. Thalassa knew he was only trying to make her feel better, but damn it, it only made her feel worse.

"I just feel awful for what happened," she replied, resuming her regular walking pace. Vilkas fell into step with her, matching Thalassa's stride. "Maybe it's the guilt gnawing at me. Maybe it'll pass?" She doubted that.

Vilkas glanced at her. "I mean, it can't possibly be that bad, can it?"

✦⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆♱⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺ ✦

Somnus Grimm

It was that bad, apparently.

Somni sat at the back of the auditorium, yawning as he watched Headless Headmistress Bloodgood get on stage, a microphone in her hand. Somni had only heard of Lovella's death today; he was already asleep when the Cherub had fallen off the roof of Monster High. At least, that's what he heard, words and rumours spread like a wildfire at their school.

Somni rubbed his temples, hoping he wouldn't fall asleep mid-way through Bloodgood's talk. From the corner of his eye, he spotted a familiar blonde-hair girl make her way up the stands. She pushed past a few people, her angel wings accidentally whacking someone in the face. Somni laughed, he couldn't help it, it was amusing to see. "You've got a stick up your ass by the way," Evangeline Castiel said the second she made her way over to Somni.

"I could say the same."

She sat down next to him, crossing her arms. Evangeline clearly had higher standards for people around her. "They were out of seats." Ah, so that explained why Evangeline graced him with her presence, otherwise she'd never be caught dead hanging around a demon. Angels and Demons, Heaven and Hell, enemies and rivals, all that good stuff. Personally, Somni thought it pretty damn ironic.

"Your halo's crooked today, doesn't seem so heavenly now, does it?"

Evangeline tilted her head slightly, glaring. "And it seems as if you've forgotten your pitchfork today."

"Please, everyone knows the only Demon in Hell who actually wields a pitchfork is my older brother, Dante." Each of Somni's brothers were one of the Deadly Sins, so Dante was Wrath. Born for the throne, Somni guessed. As the Demon of Sloth, he got the short end of the stick, but he preferred to observe the mortal realm anyways. Humans were so funny, they were always afraid of death like it wasn't a daily thing that occurred. Plus, Somnus was invincible to 'Go to Hell' jokes.

Up on the stage, Headmistress Bloodgood cleared her throat and held the microphone close to her pale lips. "Good morning, Monster High," she greeted, "today is the day we grieve the loss of our beloved Lovella Cherish. To my understanding, she had fallen from the roof of our school last night."

"Did she jump?" Somni asked quietly to be discreet, though some people did turn their heads.

"God, you just have to jump to the darkest conclusion, aren't you?"

"It's a fair question, and to be honest, it isn't the darkest conclusion, there are worse, Evie."

"Don't call me that," she snapped, focusing back on Bloodgood. Well, cheers to another snooze-fest, Somni thought, trying to get comfortable as the headmistress droned on. But before he could shut his eyes, he spotted something that shocked him.

A human detective.

"Holy hell," he muttered, leaning forward. From afar, he couldn't see much of the man's face. Though, he was fair-skinned and had tawny-coloured hair, brandishing a wool coat. Bloodgood hesitantly handed over the mic to him.

"Welcome to the stage, Detective Johnston, who will be overseeing Lovella's case."

Gasps and words of disbelief echoed in the auditorium. Somni didn't hold grudges against humans, even if many of them populated Hell, but he could hardly believe it either. He never thought Bloodgood out of all people would let a Normie patrol a case as serious as Lovella's death.

"Good morning," Detective Johnston greeted curtly. "I know there's a lot of tension in the air, but we'll try our best to lessen it once we find Lovella's suicide note." Suicide? Many students stood up, protesting and demanding an apology. One thing was painstakingly clear.

Lovella's death was anything but natural.

"What the fuck," Evangeline swore as Bloodgood and Johnston backed away from the stage, silently arguing. Not very saintly, Somni would have said, but he decided it wasn't the best time to bicker. Eventually, Johnston stormed off while Headmistress Bloodgood huffed.

"We'll be right back," Bloodgood said sweetly as if she wasn't going to tear off the Normie's head the minute she got off-stage. Rumours and gossip travelled throughout the auditorium as Bloodgood ran off into the shadows. Somni glanced at Evangeline, who was staring at a particular someone in the crowd of Monster High students.

The only human transfer; Abel Van Helsing.

"You think he did it?" Somni asked.

She scowled, but didn't deny it. "That boy acts like he doesn't have a clue on what's happening around him, but it's all a facade, I just know it. He may be as anxious as a rat and a worrywart, but there's something wrong with him. I can feel it." Evangeline's stare shifted into a glare. "It's all an act to survive here, isn't it?"

Somni had to agree with Evangeline for once on that one. Abel was the descendant of one of the deadliest and most famous monster hunters in the world. He was a Van Helsing for crying aloud. If he wasn't behind her death, he didn't know who was.

It was just the matter of finding out who killed Lovella Cherish.

A/N: Reminder for opinions! Also, please go into A LOT of detail with your oc's  love interest. Like dynamics you want, quotes, scene requests, meet-cutes, and how they confess, etc! On Lovella's life, or past life, just be really detail-oriented with LI's opinions! Sidenote: Thalassa and Vilkas are so cute, just had to point that out lmao.