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If you want to hide something at Monster High, you go to the catacombs. The chambers ancient and endless have held secrets both malicious and benign for centuries. Underneath the light of the torches, promises have been broken and kept. It is safe haven for the living, dead, and everything in between. Catacombs have long been a place of rest and respite. No gravestones have ever been found beneath Monster High yet a few choice structures unveiled themselves during the school's existence.
The most well known location is the Pit of Horror, where teenage monsters have tossed away their hopes and dreams for generations. When puberty lasts for decades, one adapts a flair for the dramatic. The desperate need for change and progress can only be achieved by discarding the past as frequently as possible. True horror is watching your friends grow old while you remain the same. Incidentally, the pit is a favored hangout among the vampire students from Belfry Prep.
Then there was the roller maze which had brought back a healthy spirit of competition. Casketball was all well and good but it helped to have a bit of variety for sporting events. Roller derby was far more effective at relieving hormonal aggression. The sport is dominated primarily by ghouls. Gender roles are smashed with the same fury as rival teams. The only other athletic team available for ghouls is the swim team which tends to favor aquatic monsters over all others. Robecca Steam and Lagoona Blue are the captains of their respective teams and while they may be cordial it is a tense relationship. Robecca is strategy and physicality. Lagoona is grace and performance. Swim meets and roller derby events are banned from occurring on the same day.
A few of the chambers can be considered privately owned. You find it, you own it. Skullete keys can be found in the strangest places, holding the ability to unlock unknown. To have a secret lair deep beneath the school has its advantages. Both Victor Frankenstein and Hexiciah Steam created labs deep within the tunnels. The locations are known only by scientists' descendants. A legacy of ingenuity and madness for the children they created. Steam and Frankenstein were the only humans allowed within the walls of Monster High. Steam was part machine, not monster. His daughter was built to bridge the gap between worlds. When he disappeared into the catacombs, he left behind a deactivated teenage girl and a half finished map. Robecca refuses to stop searching for him. Frankenstein knew too much about his own future. He knew his granddaughter would have his eyes. She would die because of his foolishness. She was resurrected through the adoration of his peers. Frankenstein had seen the best and worst of the monster world and chose to adopt it as his own. He might have lost his humanity in the progress.
Jackson Jekyll is the first human to be admitted to Monster High in two centuries. The reasons for this is known only to the Board of Deaducation. Dr. Henry Jekyll never set foot into a Mad Science class. Headmistress Bloodgood was pleasantly surprised to discover Holt Hyde wandering around in a confused state one afternoon. Human-monster hybrids were unheard of and generally frowned upon as abominations. Hybrids of different monster species are a lesser evil. When Neighthan Rotter and his friends appeared on campus, the parent teacher association was less than pleased.
The only other privately owned chamber is the opera house and adjacent recording studio. There are rows upon rows of cobwebbed covered seats and dusty balconies. On the stage sits a lonely organ, its keys yellowed with age. The story behind the musical sanctuary is known by a select few. Once upon a time a lonely phantom fell in love with a human. He was a gifted student with an unfortunate birthmark. She was a beautiful debutante from New Salem. They met one fateful day in the catacombs. Like Alice she had fallen into a strange wonderland filled with strange creatures. Like Alice she returned home believing that it had all been a dream.
For the phantom it had been a beautiful nightmare. A chance to play Romeo opposite her Juliet. He channeled the love of a woman he could never have and would never see again into his music. He wrote arias, duets, and symphonies to drown out the wailing of his heart. Eventually, he found a ghoul who shared both his passion for the arts and the name of his forsaken beloved. She understood his artistic ability but not his obsession. An unspoken clause of their relationship was that he never talked about his school days. Talk of Monster High always turned to the his first love. It shouldn't have mattered. She was Wendy who had aimed for the second star to the right and flown to close to the sun. The phantom was Peter Pan. His human love was long dead by the time he set off for Scaris.
When his daughter was born, she howled in the night air unlike anything he ever heard before. When his daughter was disfigured, he gave her mask and a violin. His talent and birth mark were genetic. His wife was displeased. Scarisian society was too strict and elitist. Divorce was swift and inevitable. The phantom took his child, the wife took his money. Father and daughter soon found themselves living on a houseboat in New Goreleans. At least the bayou had good acoustics.
Operetta grew to be as lovely and talented as he hoped. She was a spirited young ghoul, quick to argue and jump to conclusions. A tomboy who constantly tracked mud into the house. Most of Operetta's friends were the local boys, the other ghouls gave her a wide berth. There were rumors that his precious daughter catcalled other ghouls right alongside those swamp ruffians. The phantom denied them wholeheartedly. No one ever heard of ghouls loving ghouls. New Goreleans got a bit too hot and the small family moved back to the phantom's hometown. He had accepted a position teaching keyboard classes at his alma mater. On her first day at Monster High, the phantom gifted his offspring with the key to his abandoned theatre. It would serve her well. He silently hoped that she would fall in love with a manster and be spared years spent pining for what could never be. A nice boyfriend would put an end to those rumors.
Operetta did fall in love with someone from the world of monsters and shadows and secrets. A ghoul with skin the cover of lily pads floating in the bayou. She had empty white eyes that reminded Operetta of the full moon on a starry night. Scarah was a banshee whose shrieks could peel the paint off a wall. Together they sung in perfect harmony. Only in the catacombs were the couple able to use their hypnotic gifts to full effect. Their melodies often echoed off the walls and were faintly heard in the classrooms above. They sing love songs, power ballads, and of course operas.
Everyone knew about them. Well, almost. Operetta's father was still rather clueless about matters of the heart. No one says anything out loud. In a world where vampires date werewolves and a boy can be half man, half monster, the idea of two ghouls dating is just too weird to comprehend. Operetta and Scarah are just friends. Really, really close friends who never let the other out of sight. They have secret slumber parties were they explore the history of music and the pleasures of their bodies. Scarah traces the patterns of her ghoulfriends scars with care, sending thoughts of affection telepathically. As Lay in bed together, tangled in limbs and blankets, Operetta sings for her.
You are my sunshine
My only sunshine
You make me happy
When skies are grey
Before Operetta, Scarah stuck to herself. It was a lonely existence but not one without explanation. The other ghouls were convinced that at any moment the banshee would pronounce their deaths. Silly children. They still had centuries to go before Mr. D'eath called them into his office for a final appointment. So far the only thing she could pronounce was how foolishly superstitious they all were. Frankie Stein was one of the few people to treat Scarah as an equal and not a pariah. Frankie had a knack for seeing people's true potential, no doubt a side effect of having too different eyes. Scarah still found herself mostly communicating with her telepathic abilities during school hours. Thankfully, Operetta preferred the sound of her shrill voice. It reminded her of nails on a chalkboard and the screams of the dying. Simply lovely/
Scarah also helped alleviate Operetta's constant writer's block. Her father disapproved of her rockabilly sensibilities. Too many years in New Goreleans and not enough summers in Scaris, he claimed. The phantom loved his daughter more than anything in the world but there were some aspects he disliked. Hours of her childhood was devoted to studying Moanzart and Shriekman on the piano. Instead of studying the 'proper' sheet, Operetta instead blasted hours of Skeleton Jaundice on her radio. She couldn't memorize the notes of Moanzart's Requiem Mass, she was too busy singing Piano Manster. Being pulled in two different directions musically left her feeling constantly conflicted. Luckily Scarah was only a phone call away.
You never know, dear,
How much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away
Operetta loved Scarah like an alligator loved a swamp. She wanted them to live happily ever after as the greatest singing duo that Monster High has ever seen. Music and lyrics. The wailing banshee and the cackling phantom. Scarah would sing on the stage of the Palais Ensanglanté. Operetta stares into those beautiful pearls on an emerald background and sees a shared future.
The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping
I dreamt I held you in my arms
When I awoke, dear, I was mistaken
So I hung my head, and I cried
Operetta reminded Scarah of a four leaf clover. Rare and valuable. Her girlfriend was faithful to a fault. Whenever a manster looked Operetta's way, she pulled Scarah into a deep, passionate kiss. They've been sent to detention at least twice for “distracting the class with excessive displays of romantic fervor” as Mr. Hackington so eloquently put it. Cleo and Deuce got the same treatment, so Scarah tried not to take it personally. Scarah was glad that Operetta's putting so much thought into their future. Studying at Monster High might last actual centuries but everyone has to grow up eventually. She took shifts at the Coffin Bean to create a small emergency fund. When the pitchforks and torches came out, Scarah wanted to be able to grab her soulmate and run. Operetta's dad won't believe that Scarah's tutoring her in Home Ick forever.
For the moment, all that mattered was movie dates and moonlit picnics. They made good grades, had good friends, and practically lived in their ecret opera house. Weekends were spent listening to music curled up on Operetta's bed. Sometimes Frankie dragged them on an adventure that shook the monster world at its core. New students showed up every other month and some of them could actually carry a tune. Bad jokes, impromptu jam sessions, and swamp water smoothies defined them. Graduation was still a long way off. After the cap and gown nonsense was over they could get down to wedding vows and a Scaris honeymoon.