Mary carefully opened the door to see Carol standing there stunned and silent. Her hiccups cured.

"One problem down, three to go," said Mary.

The girls plowed through the door and saw a wonderful tea set prepared for three, carefully laid out on a small circular mahogany table. Three overstuffed chairs surrounded the table in what appeared to be a lovely Victorian drawing room.

Long, flowery curtains decorated the windows overlooking a darkly wooded area. Next to the windows were floor to ceiling bookcases filled with books. At the other end of the room was a simple outside door.

Kay was very disappointed, "No... no... no... no bones? No slime? No Gerald? This isn't right. This isn't a proper monster den!"

"It's gotta be a trap! Don't anybody move!" cried Mary.

"What? What's going on?" asked Olivia.

"Oli, open your eyes" said Kay.

"No... no don't!" cried Mary.

Too late... Oli opened her eyes and saw the tea set.

"How wonderful. It must be time for tea."

Olivia had always been a sucker for a pretty tea setting, and this was one of the prettiest she had ever seen. In fact, playing tea party was just about her favorite thing to do. She'd had many tea sets of her own, but they always seemed to disappear. She could never figure that out.

The others, of course, had carefully hidden them away in the attic, hoping Olivia would finally outgrow the "tea-set-thing" as they called it. They were tired of always having to stop for tea at the beginning of an adventure, in the middle of an adventure, at the end of an adventure, after the adventure... they were all tea-ed out.

"Oh, no. The monster must know our weaknesses," said Mary, and with that she ran for one of the chairs, followed closely by Kay and Carol. After a brief moment of musical chairs, Mary and Kay landed safely. Poor Carol was left out in the cold.

"Ladies..." said Olivia. In unison, they all pulled off their backpacks and pulled out their gowns.

A young lady is prepared for any occasion, they thought.

They pulled on the gowns over their clothes.

Jackson Parish was not a wealthy parish by any means, but Missy Hyde always liked to make sure her girls had something special.

Not that she loved to sew, in fact, she hated it, but she did love to see the looks on the girls faces when she made them a new ball gown.

Every year they got a new one, and not just for special occasions. There really weren't many special occasions in Jackson Parish. There were none, in fact. It was hands down the dullest place to live on the face of this earth.

These were play gowns, for playing dress up, or to wear when you find yourself in a situation that required a pretty dress, like the situation they were in now.

Besides, who really needed an excuse, right? After they all were finished zipping each other up, they sat down gently and...

"You may serve now, Caroline." Olivia said sweetly to Carol.

"Yes, mum." Carol answered. She was quite used to this routine.

"Hmmm... Curiouser and Curiouser," said Mary "The monster is smarter than I thought. Refined... tasteful... with a penchant for tea and biscuits."

"Pen-what?" said Carol.

"Look it up," snapped Kay.

Suddenly, Mary was struck by an idea.

"That's it," she cried.

"That's what?" said Kay.

"We'll look it up!. There can't be many monsters like this. Missy Hyde says you can find anything in books. We'll just look it up and it should tell us everything we need to know."

"Look it up where?" asked Olivia.

"There," and Mary pointed to the rows and rows of books which lined the huge bookcases.

"But Mary, there must be thousands of books up there," said Kay.

"Oh, come on, how hard can it be?" answered Mary; and with that she crossed over to the bookshelf.

A short time later, the room had changed from a neat and tidy drawing room, to what looked more like a monster's den. There were books everywhere except where they were supposed to be. The tea and biscuits were no more. What remained were a million tiny crumbs that covered the floor like a carpet.

Mary looked through a book, while the rest of the girls were slumped on the chairs.

"The scared of boys part I can understand," muttered Kay, "but you lost me on the shellfish."

"I found it!" screamed Mary.

The others crowded around and peered over Mary's shoulder at the book in her hand.

"Habitat: drawing rooms," read Mary.

"Ohhhhh" the others replied.

"Eating habits:..." continued Mary, "tea, biscuits, and human flesh."

"Eeewwwhhhh"

Carol burped loudly, "'scuse me."

"Only known natural enemy..." Mary continued.

"What?!?" they said all at once.

"Dust." Mary finished matter-of-factly.

"Aaahhhhh."

"Now all we have to do is lay a trap," said Mary.

"Trap!" said a scared Olivia, "Trap?! Who said anything about a trap?"

"Where are we going to get enough dust?" asked Kay.

"Are you kidding? The way Missy Hyde cleans?" answered Mary.

They all had to agree. Missy Hyde was very good at what they called the Readers-Digest-abridged-version-of-house-cleaning."

Suddenly, the doorknob to the exterior door turned noisily. The girls were frozen in terror. The doorknob stopped, jiggled back and forth. The door was locked. Whew!

"It's the Monster!" screamed Kay.

"Oh, come on, this'll be a breeze. It can't be that smart if it locks itself out of its own drawing room," said Mary, "Let's get a good look at this thing."

She crossed to the door.

"Mary!... No!" the others screamed.

Mary swung the door open to see Miss Ida, the church matron, dressed for tea. Perched on her head was a a hat with two plastic daisies sticking straight up. Her usually stern, wrinkled face was wide-eyed and shocked to see the girls and the room a wreck.

Behind Miss Ida, the girls caught a glimpse of the plantation house across a distant expanse of lawn.

Without stopping to think, Mary slammed the door shut in Miss Ida's face.

"Miss Ida!" screamed Kay.

"We're gonna die! We're gonna die!" screamed Olivia.

"Hic-up!" screamed Carol.

"I'd much... hic... rather face a monster... hic... than Miss Ida," said Carol.

"No! Don't you see! Miss Ida is the monster! It must have taken over her body," cried Mary.

"Oh come on," said Kay, "Miss Ida is Miss Ida, and this is her weekly tea with the Jackson Parish Ladies Anti-Gun and Violence Club. And we've been caught. She's probably on her way now to get her gun."

"We're gonna die! We're gonna die!", wailed Olivia.

"No! No! No! She is the monster! She's a doppelgänger!" cried Mary.

"Doppel-what?" asked Carol.

"Shape changer," said Kay.

"Matron by day, monster by night," explained Mary.

They all shuddered. Suddenly a large shadow fell over the window. It looked like a large head, with two tentacles sticking up, and then the shadow had its arms raised with long bony fingers. They heard, "hmgraf sfeij jaumnrjd...."

Kay screamed.

"Run away! Run away!" shouted Olivia.

They headed for the hidden passageway door, but were stopped by Missy Hyde's voice echoing down the hidden passageway.

"Girls!" Missy Hyde shouted, "This room's a disaster... Girls? I know you're here somewhere. I know you can hear me. Girls!?"

They slammed the door shut.

"I think we'll have better chances with the monster!" cried Kay.

"Right," they all agreed.

They scrambled to the other door. Mary grabbed Carol like a shield.

"Ready or not!" shouted Mary.