Wail of the Banshee

by Tommy Donbavand

  Contents

  Chapter One: The Wail

  Chapter Two: The Trio

  Chapter Three: The Banshee

  Chapter Four: The Diagnosis

  Chapter Five: The Book

  Chapter Six: The Hive

  Chapter Seven: The Griffins

  Chapter Eight: The Tree

  Chapter Nine: The Tooth

  Chapter One

  “AAAYYYOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW!”

  I woke with a start, my eyes snapping open. The noise was a cross between a scream and the siren of an ambulance – and it made my bones sting.

  I lay still for a moment, blinking. My eyes itched, as though I’d been trying to win a staring contest. I had a headache, too. It was light outside, but I was lying on my bed, fully clothed. I must have fallen asleep doing my homework or someth—

  I froze. This wasn’t my room. I was lying on my own bed, with my own duvet cover and pillows – but this wasn’t my room! Where was I?

  My bedroom – my real bedroom – was small. The smallest room in the house, in fact. That’s why Mum always insisted I kept it tidy, as I only needed to leave a handful of games and a pair of trainers lying around and it was a mess. But this room was anything but small. Pale, flecked wallpaper covered walls that stretched up towards a distant ceiling – and there was enough room for my whole family to have moved their beds in here. It might help cover up the disgusting orange carpet, if they did.

  I sat up and spotted what looked like a suit bag hanging over the end of the bed. It was purple, and had the initials G.H.O.U.L. printed on the back. I realized I was wearing a wristband in the same colour and with the same letters on it. What had happened to me? Had I been in some sort of accident? Was this a hospital?

  No – don’t be stupid, I told myself. I know they keep saying on the news that hospitals are short of beds, but they don’t move your own bed with you to give you somewhere to sleep. And, even if they did, they wouldn’t have brought all my books and CDs as well. Plus, my pet iguana, Steve, was curled up asleep in his glass tank on my desk. They wouldn’t allow pets in a hospital, no matter how ill you were.

  I was about to shout for my mum when it occurred to me that, wherever I was, she might not necessarily be here with me. Neither might my dad, or my sister, Susie. In fact, I had no idea what was waiting for me outside this unfamiliar room. Thankfully, I had a way of finding out without physically going out there.

  I climbed out of bed and crossed over to the door. Then I closed my eyes and allowed the inner me to take another step forward. It felt like I was stepping out of a warm shower and into the cold air. I glanced back and saw my body standing rigid behind me – and there was the silver rope that connected me to it. Good – I was able to Walk in this strange place, just like normal.

  With my next step I melted through the door. My dad once asked me what it feels like to pass through solid objects. I suppose it’s a bit like running against a strong wind for a split second – only the wind is made of wood or bricks.

  I found myself on a long landing with several other doors leading off it, all of them covered in the same peeling paint as the one I had just Walked through. The carpet out here was no improvement on the orange disaster in my room: this place must have been decorated when green swirls were all the rage.

  And there, along the wall, were the pictures my dad had painted of sailing ships – just like they would be on our own landing at home. Was this some kind of joke? I half expected a wacky TV presenter to jump out and say this was all a hidden-camera prank.

  Wary of what I might find on the other side, I Walked through the next door along, making sure I only went as far as the rope would let me. It varies from Walk to Walk. Sometimes the rope stretches for as long as I want but, on other occasions, it stays short and I can’t move further than a few metres. Today, I was pleased to discover I had plenty of room to manoeuvre.

  I found my parents lying on their bed, asleep. At least, I hoped they were asleep. “Mum! Dad!” I raced over and tried to wake them. But they were out cold. I almost pressed my hand to my dad’s chest to check if his heart was still beating – but quickly reminded myself how unpleasant it was to pass through another person and settled for checking their breathing instead. They were alive – and like me they were both wearing purple wristbands to match the suit bags at the end of the bed.

  Susie was in the next room along, also deeply asleep. She wasn’t going to like the décor of her new room any more than I liked mine – seven-year-old girls can be pretty fussy when it comes to snot-green wallpaper. But, at least she was safe. I breathed a sigh of relief. Not that the inner me could actually sigh, of course. But it made me feel better.

  “AAAYYYOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW!”

  There was that noise again! It made me jump and I spun round, almost catching the silver rope on the banisters. A moment of panic flashed through my mind but thankfully the rope wasn’t damaged. Slowly, I began to reel it back inside myself and Walked through my new bedroom door and into my body.

  There was that usual moment of dizziness I get when I Rejoin. It’s like I’ve just woken up in the middle of a dream and for a few seconds I’m not sure what’s real and what’s not. But that quickly passed and I resolved to find out more about where I was and what was going on.

  “AAAYYYOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW!”

  The noise seemed to be coming from outside, and I dashed to the window to peer round the curtains (yellow with green stripes!). The street outside was filled with weirdly shaped houses. Some had turrets and towers, while others were squat and covered with cobwebs. The lampposts were as tall and twisted as the trees they stood beside, and the pavements were old and cracked.

  Then I saw some movement. There were people out there. Three kids of about my age, by the look of it. Maybe they could help me to wake up my family. I yanked open the door and ran down the stairs to ask them where on earth I was.

  Chapter Two

  As I dashed down the unfamiliar staircase, I discovered that the rest of the house was decorated in pretty much the same way as the bedrooms. Purple and white swirls on the wallpaper downstairs and a front door that appeared to be made of bubbled glass. Whoever lived here had hideous taste. My dad would have a fit about the colour clashes when he woke up.

  I opened the bubbly door and stepped out into a front garden. A path led to a gate and I made my way along it, trying to spot the children I’d seen from the upstairs window. They were hanging around outside the house next door, and I could just about make them out through the bushes.

  One of them – a girl, I think – appeared to be completely wrapped in bandages. Maybe this was some kind of bizarre hospital, and she’d been in a terrible accident. She didn’t seem to be in any pain, though. One of her friends, meanwhile, didn’t look very well at all: his skin was so pale he looked like he’d seen a ghost and he had black rings around his eyes. Oh – and he was wearing a vampire cape. Things were getting weirder and weirder.

  I couldn’t quite see the other boy yet, although from what I’d spotted through the window, he seemed to be dressed like me in jeans and a T-shirt.

  “Hello!”

  And there he was, peering over the garden gate at me!

  “Er … hi,” I replied, suddenly embarrassed to be caught spying on the group.

  He glanced at the purple band around my wrist which, for some reason, made me feel self-conscious.

  “You must be new here,” the boy said.

  I pushed my hands into my pockets partly to hide the wristband, and partly because they were starting to tremble. “I’m not really sure where ‘here’ is, to be honest,” I admitte
d.

  The boy grinned. “Yeah, I was like that when I arrived, too!” He thrust his arm out over the garden gate. “I’m Luke,” he said.

  I shook his hand, hoping he wouldn’t notice that I was shaking. “I’m Jamie.”

  “Welcome to Scream Street!”

  Before I could ask what he meant, I heard the girl call out, “Who are you talking to?” And then she and the other boy joined Luke to look over the gate at me.

  “This is Jamie,” said Luke.

  “Cool!” said the boy dressed as a vampire. “Another kid! I don’t suppose you have any brothers or sisters, do you?”

  “Er … a sister,” I found myself replying – although why I was giving away personal details to a total stranger, I had no idea. “She’s seven. But she’s asleep upstairs. So are my mum and dad. I’m really worried. None of them will wake up.”

  “They will,” Luke reassured me. “For some people it takes a while for it to wear off. I was the last to wake up in my family.”

  “See!” said the bandaged girl, punching the vampire in the arm. “I told you I saw Movers in the square last night, didn’t I?”

  “All right!” the boy grunted, rubbing his arm. “There’s no need to beat me up about it!” He turned to me and grinned. I took an involuntary step backwards. He had fangs!

  “So,” he said. “What are you?”

  I looked from one face to another. They were all looking back at me eager to hear my answer – whatever that was supposed to be. “I-I don’t know what you mean,” I admitted.

  “Well, are you a werewolf, or a shapeshifter?”

  “Or a demon!” suggested the girl, excitedly.

  I took another step backwards along the path. “Look,” I said, trying not to let my voice crack. “I don’t know who you are, or what’s going on here. I just woke up in a strange room, and my family are all unconscious, and now you’re asking me weird questions about whether I’m a werewolf or a demon. I just want to go home.”

  “You are home,” said the vampire. “You live here now.”

  “No, I don’t,” I protested. “I live in a little village, out in the middle of nowhere. My mum hates it because she doesn’t drive, and she has to rely on my dad to take us shopping when he gets home from work. We’re going to move, though. There’s a new estate going to be built, and we’re moving there.”

  By now, I was backed up against the bubbled glass front door of the strange house. I didn’t know whether to run back inside, or to pinch my arm and try to wake myself up from this nightmare. Luke opened the gate and walked up the path towards me.

  “It’s OK,” he said kindly. “I was exactly the same when I first arrived – I had no idea why I was here. I had a wristband just like the one you’re wearing, and I bet there was a purple bag at the end of your bed, too.”

  “How do you know that?” I asked, amazed.

  Luke sat on the doorstep and gestured for me to sit beside him. “Because I was moved here by G.H.O.U.L. as well.”

  I twisted the wristband around to show the letters printed on it in grey ink. “What does it stand for?”

  “Government Housing of Unusual Life-forms,” said the girl, jogging up the path and sitting cross-legged on the lawn. “I’m Cleo, by the way.”

  I shook her hand, feeling the roughness of the bandages which criss-crossed her palm. “Are you OK,” I asked. “Did you get hit by a car or something?”

  The vampire joined us and lay down on the grass beside Cleo. “No such luck!” he grinned. “She always dresses like that!”

  “This,” said Cleo, ignoring him, “is Resus. He’s a vampire – or, at least he wishes he was. I’m a mummy.”

  “A vampire and a mummy?” I repeated, the words feeling very strange in my mouth.

  “Yep,” said Luke. “And I’m a werewolf.”

  I almost laughed. Vampires and werewolves and mummies were all make-believe! But then, I’d have said the same thing about Walkers a few years back, too.

  Luke smiled again. “I think we’ve got some explaining to do!”

  Chapter Three

  Over the next ten minutes, Luke, Resus and Cleo told me things that turned my world upside down. Vampires, werewolves and mummies were all real – as well as witches, goblins, fairies and several other weird sounding creatures that I’d never even heard of.

  The government, who felt it was unsafe to let such unusual people live among the public – or Normals, as Resus called them – sent them to live in communities such as this one. Luke explained that I was now in Scream Street, and that my family had probably had some strange visitors last night.

  “Yes!” I cried as the memory came flooding back. “There were these men in purple jumpsuits! They started carrying our stuff out to a big van.” I shuddered at the thought. “But, they had no faces!”

  “I know,” said Luke. “Just skin – no eyes, nose, ears or mouth. It’s to stop them from ever giving away the true location of Scream Street – even accidentally.”

  “They’re called the Movers,” Cleo told me. “They live over at number 5 – and they’re quite nice, once you get to know them.”

  “Movers,” I repeated, my head whirling with all this new information.

  “It will all seem a bit strange at first,” said Luke. “My mum and dad were terrified when we were first moved here.”

  Resus snorted back a laugh. “You can say that again! Your dad nearly wet himself when you all came round to my house for dinner! He couldn’t even look at my parents’ fangs!”

  I frowned. “A werewolf couldn’t look at a vampire’s fangs?”

  “Oh, Luke’s dad isn’t a werewolf like him and his mum,” explained Cleo. “He’s a Normal – the odd one out in the family.”

  “That’s like me,” I said excitedly. “I’m the only one in my family that can do what I do!”

  “You still haven’t told us what that is,” said Resus.

  I smiled – perhaps for the first time since I’d woken up. “I’m a—”

  “AAAYYYOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW!”

  There was that wailing sound again! It was even louder outside, and it felt as though someone was inside my head, scratching at my brain with their fingernails.

  “What is that?!” I asked.

  “Not what,” said Cleo, her hands still clamped over her bandaged ears, “who.”

  “It’s Favel,” said Luke. “She lives next door to you. She’s a banshee.”

  “Does she always make that noise?” I asked incredulously. I couldn’t imagine having to listen to that every half hour.

  “Thankfully, no,” Resus told me. “She’s only been wailing like that since yesterday evening.”

  “One night is long enough,” commented Cleo. “My dad hasn’t slept a wink, even though he padded his sarcophagus with cotton wool!”

  “We were about to go and see what the problem was when we saw you,” said Luke. “Do you want to come with us?”

  I glanced back at my new home. “I don’t know,” I said. “If my mum and dad or sister wake up and can’t find me…”

  “Let’s leave them a note to say you’ve popped next door to meet the neighbours,” suggested Cleo. She turned to Resus. “Got anything to write with?”

  “Coming right up!” declared the vampire. He reached into his cloak and produced a notepad and pen, which he handed to me.

  It’s funny to admit, but I felt quite excited as I scribbled the note to my parents, knowing I was about to go with a werewolf, a mummy and a vampire to meet a real banshee. Of course, I didn’t explain everything the trio had told me about our new lives here in Scream Street – that could wait until I was back – but I assured them that we were all safe, and that everything was going to be OK.

  Luke, Resus and Cleo came into the house with me and waited in the hallway while I ran upstairs to check on my fam
ily. They were all still fast asleep – so I left the note beside my mum and dad’s bed and crept away.

  “No offence,” said Resus as I came back down the stairs, “but whoever decorated this house needs new glasses.”

  “It’s a bit grim, isn’t it?” I smiled.

  “That’s not fair!” protested Cleo. “Isaiah used to live here!”

  “Isaiah?” asked Luke.

  Cleo nodded. “Isaiah the cyclops,” she said. “It was before you moved here. He had really poor eyesight, and had to wear that thick monocle that Mr Crudley made out of the bottom of a jam jar.”

  “That’s right!” said Resus, remembering. “Everyone used to call him ‘two eyes’! It really annoyed him.”

  “Well, my dad’s pretty artistic,” I said. “I’m sure he’ll sort the place out in no time.”

  “AAAYYYOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW!”

  As one, we flinched and covered our ears, waiting for the wail to end. “We can discuss makeovers once we’ve dealt with Favel,” said Luke with a grimace. “Come on…”

  Once we were out on the street, I was able to get a good look at my new house. It was like something out of a horror movie – all twisted and misshapen, with fading paintwork, missing roof tiles and a crooked chimney. Next door was no better – rotting shutters covered the windows, and the varnish was flaking off the front door. Luke knocked, but there was no answer. He knocked again.

  “Favel’s gran is as deaf as a post,” Resus reminded him. “We could knock all day and she wouldn’t hear us. I say we just go in.”

  Cleo tried the door. It was unlocked. The cries grew louder as we followed her into the hallway and up the stairs. We could see Favel, or I guess it was her, in one of the rooms, squirming around on a bed and crying out in pain.

  I stopped and stared. Standing over the young banshee was a human skeleton...

  Chapter Four

  “That’s Dr Skully,” whispered Cleo, pointing to the skeleton. “He spent forty years standing in the corner of a university laboratory learning all about medicine, so he helps us out whenever anyone gets ill. He knows loads of other stuff, too – he’s really clever.”