Wail of the Banshee (2 page)

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 admitted.

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!”

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 family. 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...