Terror of the Nightwatchman

by Tommy Donbavand

  “My mother’s blood still flows through my veins,” smiled Ursula. “I shall be delighted to accept her relic to aid your quest.”

  Resus handed Luke the bottle of blood. “Fancy meeting Nelly Twist’s daughter,” he beamed. “Every cloud has a silver lining, eh?”

  “It certainly does!” growled a deep voice, and a sweaty hand yanked the vial away before Luke could take it. The boys spun round to see who had spoken.

  It was Sir Otto Sneer.

  Chapter Five

  The Tower

  Luke leapt over a fallen branch and began to chase Sir Otto Sneer through the lush undergrowth, Resus just behind. “Something did follow us through the Hex Hatch,” he wheezed. “It just wasn’t a raven.”

  Despite his bulk, Sir Otto was pulling ahead. Smoke poured from the cigar in his mouth and trailed behind him like steam from a train.

  Suddenly, Luke caught his foot on a tree root and crashed to the ground, taking Resus down with him. By the time they had untangled themselves, Scream Street’s landlord was out of sight.

  Luke cursed and kicked the tree that had tripped him up. “We’ve lost it!” he puffed, catching his breath. “The vial of witch’s blood has gone!”

  “Well, it’s not exactly gone,” said Resus. “We know who’s got it.”

  “Yes, but how are we supposed to get it back?” snapped Luke.

  “Sneer’s bound to hide it somewhere in Scream Street,” countered Resus. “We’ll just have to search for it after we’ve rescued Cleo.”

  Reluctantly, Luke agreed and the boys returned to the witches’ camp. By the time they arrived back, most of the children were curled up around the fire, asleep. Ursula looked up as they approached.

  “We have to rescue Cleo,” said Luke. “How long will it take us to get to wherever the Nightwatchman keeps his victims?”

  “No time at all,” Ursula assured him. “Look…” She led them to the edge of the clearing and parted the leaves to reveal a vast, black tower just a few metres away. The building rose up, high above the tallest trees, jagged shards of metal jutting out from the top.

  “That’s impossible,” protested Luke. “We climbed a tree and looked out over the jungle. We never saw a tower. There’s no way we could have missed that!”

  “It doesn’t appear until after we’ve made camp,” explained Ursula, “and then it’s always right behind us, no matter how far we’ve travelled. Each night we walk for miles, and the next morning – there’s the tower.”

  “But that means… That means the tower is following you!” spluttered Resus.

  “Yes,” said Ursula. “Which is another reason the children sleep during the day. My powers can protect them while the sun’s up, but when darkness falls, the Nightwatchman’s magic is much stronger than mine.”

  “You are rescuing the children, aren’t you?” asked Resus. “From inside the tower…”

  “Not quickly enough,” replied Ursula fervently. “For every child I save, he takes two from their beds. It’s a losing battle – but I can’t give up.”

  Luke stared up at the imposing structure. “So you think Cleo’s inside there, right now?”

  Ursula nodded. “Yes, if the Nightwatchman took her.”

  “Then we’re going in.”

  Ursula and Spider led the boys around the base of the tower. Luke put his hands out and touched the rough stonework, but then quickly pulled them away again. “It has the same effect as the blood,” he said with a shiver. “You feel like life isn’t worth living.”

  “Don’t let the feeling overwhelm you, or he’ll win,” urged Ursula, staring intently at him. “You have to remember that life is worth living.”

  “Yeah,” agreed Resus, “but it’s worth living a long way away from here!”

  “There it is, Miss Ursula,” announced Spider, pointing to a small metal grid set in the wall near the top of the tower.

  Luke squinted up to try to get a better view. “What is that?” he asked.

  “A ventilation grille,” replied Ursula. “And our only way inside.”

  Resus laughed. “Now I know everyone’s mad,” he said. “Even if we manage to get up there, we’ll have to be chopped into little pieces and posted through – it’s tiny!”

  “That’s how we get in every time we rescue another child, and so far the Nightwatchman hasn’t realized how we’re doing it,” Ursula assured him.

  Resus peered up at the metal hatch. “You get in up there?”

  “Spider can climb the tower,” the witch explained. Then she raised her hand to show black sparks fizzing around her fingers. “And I do have one or two tricks up my sleeve!”

  “Why do I not like the sound of where this is going?” groaned Resus.

  “I can cast a spell to miniaturize you both,” said Ursula. “Once Spider is level with the ventilation shaft, he’ll simply slip you inside.”

  “Miniaturize us?” exclaimed Resus. “What are we supposed to do when we get inside? Bite the Nightwatchman on the toe?”

  “The spell is temporary,” Ursula assured him, “designed to wear off after a short while. When you’re ready to come back out, use this…” She handed Luke a magic wand with a black star on the end. “It’s pre-loaded with a single spell – and it will shrink you and your friend just long enough to allow you all to escape. I’ll make sure Spider is waiting for you on the other side.”

  “OK,” said Luke, tucking the wand under his arm. “Let’s do it!” He stood beside Resus as Ursula began to mutter a spell over them.

  Luke’s mind swam and a bizarre feeling began to wash over him. It felt a bit like the start of one of his transformations, only without the sensation of rage. Ursula and Spider were suddenly growing – no, it was he and Resus who were shrinking! The boys became smaller and smaller until they had to stand on tiptoe to see over the blades of grass. The wand Luke was clutching had shrunk with them.

  “Everything had better grow back to its proper size or Cleo’s gonna be in even more trouble when I get hold of her,” squeaked Resus. “I sound like a chipmunk!”

  Luke laughed, and discovered that his own voice was no better. “It’s only for a short time,” he said.

  “Don’t say short!” peeped Resus.

  Spider bent down to collect the tiny boys in his hands. “Aww…” he grinned. “They looks so cute!”

  Resus glared up at the massive ogre face that filled his vision. “Well, you don’t!” he responded. “When was the last time you blew your nose?”

  Ursula smiled at Luke and Resus. “Now listen,” she said, “neither of you will be able to break the Nightwatchman’s sleeping spell – only your friend has the power to do that. She’ll have to try to find the strength inside herself.”

  “She’s strong,” Luke assured the witch.

  “You’d better hurry, Spider,” Ursula instructed. “They don’t have long before the spell wears off.”

  “Yes, Miss Ursula,” said the ogre, tucking the boys into his pocket. He stepped back from the tower, shouted “Power of a monkey!” and began to wave his arms around once more.

  “Here he goes,” muttered Resus, watching the fake transformation from the viewpoint of Spider’s chest. “The Amazing Spider-Fraud!”

  Luke nudged his friend. “So he’s a little unusual…”

  “Don’t say little, either!”

  When Spider’s gyrations were over, the ogre spat on his hands and clamped them to the stonework of the tower. “Ooh! Ooh! Aah! Aah!” he yelled, chimp-like, then began to climb.

  “How’s he doing that?” asked Luke.

  “Ogre spit,” replied Resus. “Strongest natural glue in the world. Just about the only thing it doesn’t stick to permanently is the ogre itself.”

  Luke watched as Spider dragged his first hand away from the wall, the thick saliva stretching out until finally it snapped. “This could take a while,” he said.

  “It would be a lot quicker if he didn’t keep pausing to scratch his armpits and pretend to eat
bananas,” added Resus.

  Steadily, Spider climbed hand over hand until the boys were level with the ventilation shaft. “OK, little fellas,” the ogre huffed, clinging on tightly.

  Resus cupped his hands and gave the tiny figure of Luke a lift up to the edge of the grille. Luke reached down to pull his friend up after him.

  “May the powers of the animals go with you, my darlings,” smiled Spider as he began to slide back down to the ground.

  Resus leant through the grille to watch him go. “I think we’ve got more chance than you on that one,” he peeped. Ducking back into the shaft, he followed Luke into the gloom.

  The ventilation tunnel was old and dirty. Stale air wafted around them as the boys climbed over piles of dust the size of sand dunes, heading deeper into the tower. The tunnel sloped steadily downwards, and a dim light could be seen glowing at the far end. The boys hurried towards it.

  Eventually they reached a second grille. Peering through, they found themselves overlooking a large dormitory. Dozens of rusted metal bedsteads stood in rows on the bare floorboards, and strapped to each was a sleeping child.

  “It looks like it’s going to take us a while to find Cleo,” Resus gulped.

  Click!

  Luke frowned at Resus. “What did you do that for?”

  “Do what?”

  “Make that funny clicking noise.”

  “I didn’t,” said Resus.

  Click!

  “There! You did it again!” insisted Luke.

  “That wasn’t me!”

  “Then who was it?”

  Click!

  The boys slowly turned and looked back where they had come from. Crawling towards them was a very large beetle.

  Chapter Six

  The Dormitory

  The beetle was racing towards Luke and Resus, razor-sharp pincers snapping angrily like the jaws of a shark. To the boys in their current size, it was as big as a dog.

  “We’ve got to get out of here!” yelled Resus.

  Luke peered through the grille at the dormitory far below. “How?” he demanded. “If we jump, we’ll be flattened!”

  “And if we stay, we’ll be dinner!”

  Suddenly, Luke spotted something fine and silky dangling from the ceiling, just the other side of the grille. An old cobweb. “There!” he shouted. “Now!”

  Luke and Resus squeezed through the bars, took a flying leap into the room and managed to grab onto the strand of web just as the beetle crashed into the metal grille behind them. They swung out across the room, Luke still clutching the wand.

  Resus glanced back at the furious beetle as it hissed and snapped at them. “We did it!” he cried. “We escaped!”

  Then the cobweb snapped.

  The boys fell, tumbling through the air for what seemed an age before landing on something rough, white and scratchy. They lay still, trying to catch their breath.

  “I’m never listening to your crazy ideas ever again,” grunted Resus.

  “It was only my crazy idea that stopped us from being sliced and diced by beetle-saurus back there!” hissed Luke. “Now quit your whining and start thinking of a way to get down from here. We need to hide until the spell wears off.”

  Resus stuck his tongue out behind Luke’s back. “When I’m normal size again,” he said, looking around him to try to get his bearings, “I’m going to stamp on every beetle I—”

  He froze, a look of astonishment on his face.

  “What?” asked Luke.

  Resus gestured from the long stretch of stomach bandage they were standing on to the gigantic sleeping mummy’s face at the other end of the bed.

  “I think we’ve found Cleo.”

  Ten minutes later, Luke and Resus were returning to their natural size. They had unwound a portion of bandage from Cleo’s arm and used it to climb to the floor, where they hid under the bed until the miniaturization spell began to wear off.

  When the bizarre growing feeling finally abated, they slid out from beneath the rusting metal frame. Luke had just slipped the wand into the back pocket of his jeans when a series of screams echoed around the dormitory.

  First a young zombie in the bed nearest the door began to thrash about and screech in terror, then a skeleton took up the cry, followed by the troll next to him. The scream appeared to be travelling around the room.

  “They’re having the same nightmare!” exclaimed Luke. “The dream is passing from one kid to the next!”

  “Then let’s get Cleo out of here before it reaches her!” cried Resus, shaking the mummy’s shoulder. “Come on, Cleo. Wakey, wakey, rise and shine!”

  But the mummy remained sound asleep – and the moving nightmare was now just a few beds away. “It’s not working,” said Resus. “I can’t wake her up!”

  Luke looked on as the dream reached Cleo and she too began to scream, straining against the straps that bound her to the bed frame. Her eyes snapped open for a moment and stared directly at her friends, but she didn’t seem to see them.

  Luke picked up her hand and squeezed it tightly. “It’s OK,” he whispered. “Resus and I are here!” Suddenly, the bog monster in the next bed began to writhe around in fear, and the nightmare left Cleo just as quickly as it had arrived. The mummy slumped back against the rusty springs, her bandages soaked with sweat.

  “Well, if that didn’t wake her, nothing will,” sighed Resus.

  “Ursula said we won’t be able to break the sleeping spell ourselves,” Luke reminded him, lowering the mummy’s hand gently back onto the bed. “Only Cleo has the power to do that.”

  “The problem is – how do we tell her that?”

  “I think I might know,” said Luke, spotting two empty beds at the far end of the dormitory. He grabbed Resus’s arm and led him towards them. “Do you ever have those dreams where you literally scare yourself awake?”

  “All the time,” the vampire replied. “Last week I dreamt that I had bunk beds and Sir Otto had moved in with me. I woke up wrestling my pillow.”

  Luke nodded. “It was something inside the dream that woke you,” he said, lying down on one of the free beds. “I reckon the only chance we have of getting Cleo out of here is to wake her from the inside.”

  Resus stared as Luke stuffed a grotty, ragged pillow under his head. “Wait – you want us to go inside a nightmare and rescue Cleo that way?”

  Luke began to fasten the straps across his chest. “Think about it,” he said. “That must be how Ursula’s doing it. Besides, this is Cleo. We’ve been through some terrifying stuff together – I’m sure we can cope with her bad dreams.”

  “What about that moving nightmare?” demanded Resus. “The one that’s just had everyone screaming like a banshee with its finger trapped in a coffin?”

  Luke tightened the buckle of his strap. “We’ll just have to hope we get out before it comes back again.”

  “Except that when it does, we’ll be trapped!” countered Resus. “Why have you strapped yourself to the bed anyway?”

  “If the Nightwatchman comes around, he might become suspicious if two of his captives are untied,” explained Luke.

  “The Nightwatchman?” Resus spluttered. “This gets worse by the second!”

  “Don’t worry, we probably won’t see him,” said Luke. “Now, get into bed.”

  Grumbling, Resus lay down on the bed next to Luke and pulled his own straps across his chest. “I remember when the most exciting thing that ever happened to me was when I accidentally bit through a toothbrush with my fangs.”

  “You’ll never get to sleep if you keep talking…”

  Resus gazed up at the peeling paint above him and shifted his back to avoid the sharp springs of the bed frame. “Yeah, ’cos that’s the only thing stopping me from dropping off,” he muttered. But he obediently closed his eyes and tried to relax.

  Luke was surprised at how quickly he began to feel drowsy. Whether it was the effect of the sleeping spell he guessed lay over the room or the fact that he’d been woken
up so early by Kian, his eyelids soon began to feel heavy.

  “How are you doing?” he called quietly to Resus – but the vampire was already asleep, snoring softly.

  Luke smiled and allowed the tiredness to wash over him …

  … then jumped at the sound of music. It was a tinkling tune, the kind played by his mum’s jewellery box at home. Luke sat up to discover that he was no longer strapped to his bed.

  Swinging his feet to the floor, he reached over and shook Resus awake. The vampire opened his eyes and blinked. “What’s happening?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” replied Luke, “but we seem to be alone. Everyone else has gone!”

  Resus sat up and looked around the now deserted dormitory. “How long have we been asleep?” he said. “I didn’t manage to get inside Cleo’s dream. Did you?”

  Luke shook his head. “Well, it was worth a try.”

  “So, what do we do now?” Resus demanded in frustration. “It’s not like we can just…” He paused and ran his tongue over his gums. “Hang on…”

  “What?” asked Luke.

  Resus gripped hold of a sharp tooth and pulled. “My fangs,” he breathed. “They’re not fake any more. They’re real!”

  A crooning voice could be heard over the music. Following the sound, Luke looked up at the ventilation shaft to see the beetle, now dressed in a top hat and tails, singing along. The insect winked at him.

  “We’ve done it!” exclaimed Luke. “We’ve fallen asleep, and we’re dreaming!”

  In a flash of black smoke, Resus transformed into a bat and flapped up into the air. “What makes you say that?” he joked excitedly.

  Grinning, Luke grabbed his friend and pulled him down from the ceiling, where he changed back to vampire form. “Now we just have to find Cleo.”

  “Where do we start?”

  Luke gestured towards a nearby door. “Follow the music!”

  The staircase was old and rotten, but Luke discovered that he could repair it just by staring at each step in turn. This dreaming lark wasn’t so bad after all!

  Before long, the boys arrived at an identical dormitory on the floor below. However, here the beds had been pushed back against the walls and a table in the middle of the room had been set out with teacups and cakes. Seated around the table were a handful of ragdolls … and Cleo.