Wail of the Banshee (4 page)

“You’re a zombie!” I gasped.

“Hey!” beamed the man. “There’s a new dude in town!” He threw a diseased arm around my shoulders. “Welcome to Casa Doug, hombre. But be careful with the z-word, bro – we prefer the term ‘differently deceased’ these days.” He ripped the cork from the bottle of spinal fluid with his broken teeth and downed a couple of large gulps.

“We need your help, Doug,” said Cleo.

“No problemo, little lady! Ask and you shall receive!”

“We want to know where we can find anti-honey.”

A smile spread over Doug’s rotting features and, for a split-second, I could see hundreds of tiny white maggots squirming beneath his skin.

“You’ve come to the right place, little dudes!” smiled Doug. “Come and meet my zom-bees!”

We stood at one end
of Doug’s back garden, staring across at a battered wooden crate. A loud, angry buzzing sound came from inside and, every now and then, a plump black and green striped insect would fly out, circle the crate, then disappear back inside.

“What are those things?” asked Resus.

“Say what you see, dude,” said Doug, taking another swig from the bottle.

“Well, they look like bees – but they’re the wrong colour.”

“Don’t judge by what’s on the outside man,” said the zombie. “Inside, they’re just as dead as you and me. Well, me anyway.”

“I get it!” exclaimed Luke. “Dead bees – they’re zom-bees!”

“Aww,” said Cleo as another one buzzed past us. “They’re cute!” She took a step towards the hive, but Doug quickly stopped her. “Look, but don’t touch, my bandaged beauty,” he warned. “One sting from a zom-bee and you’ll find yourself on the slow train to nowheresville!”

“You mean they’re deadly?” asked Resus.

“In a way,” the zombie replied. “Your body may crumble, but your mind will stay as sharp as a tack. Trust me, dude – it’s a totally bogus way to go.”

“That would explain why anti-honey is used in making Calm Balm,” I said. “It must be powerful stuff.”

“It sure is,” agreed Doug. “But I’m not sure how you’ll get any. Those little buzzers will sting anyone who goes within a corpse’s length of their hive.”

“Then we can’t help Favel,” sighed Cleo.

“Actually, maybe we can,” I ventured. “I could distract the bees while you guys get some honey.”

“No,” said Luke, firmly. “You’ve only just arrived here. We’re not having you getting injured – or worse.”

“It’s OK,” I assured him. “I’m a Walker.”

“Aren’t we all?” said Resus. “I used to have a bike, but a gremlin ate through the front tyre, and Everwell’s doesn’t sell puncture repair kits…”

“No, I mean I’m a Walker – a kind of living ghost,” I explained. “I can leave my body for short lengths of time and, as long as I stay connected to it, can climb back in again.”

“That’s incredible!” exclaimed Cleo, and I blushed at the compliment.

“It sure is,” agreed Resus. “Imagine the people we’ll be able to scare with that!”

“We’re not here to scare anyone,” said Luke. “This is about helping Favel.” He turned to me. “Are you sure you can lure the zom-bees away from the hive?”

“I can try.”

“And you won’t get hurt?”

“Once the inner me is out there, there’s nothing physical for them to sting.”

“OK,” he said. “Let’s give it a go.”

Doug downed the last of the spinal fluid. “I’ll leave you dudes to your fun,” he said. “Play safe!” Then he flung himself onto the ground and began to dig with his hands. A moment later, he had disappeared beneath the lawn.

Resus pulled an empty jam jar and a spoon from his cape. “Here’s something to keep the honey in.”

I took a deep breath. “OK,” I said. “Here goes…” I closed my eyes and allowed my inner self to Walk forwards. I felt the air chill, and knew that I was outside my body again.

“Wow!” said Cleo. “That’s amazing!”

I looked over at the trio, who were all staring at me, open-mouthed. “You can see me? My family have never been able to see me when I’m Walking.”

“It must be something to do with being in Scream Street,” said Luke. I saw his gaze flick back to my unmoving body. “Is that the connection you were talking about?”

I nodded. “It connects the inner me to the outer me in some way. I don’t really know how it works – just that I can only go as far as the rope will let me.”

“Do you think it will reach to the zom-bee’s hive?” asked Resus.

“Only one way to find out!” I grinned. Then I began to Walk.

The zom-bees were nothing like normal bees, who are always busy at their different tasks. I heard a lone buzz off to my left as I approached the hive – and then they all swarmed on me at once!

There must have been thousands of them, all flying angrily at me, furious at the intrusion. Close up I could see that their green and black fur was torn and ragged, and their wings were ripped and puckered with holes. Meanwhile their stings, which looked like rusty needles, were being aimed at me. Thankfully, I couldn’t feel anything as they deposited their poison into my inner self – it was a bit like a doctor trying to give a flu jab to a cloud.

I looked over to where the others were busy at the hive. Luke had lifted the rotting lid, and Cleo was spooning drops of dark green honey into the jar that Resus held out. Despite the fact that my stomach was at the other end of the garden, I actually felt a bit sick at the sight of the stuff. It looked like diseased snot!

Cleo looked up from the hive. “Look out!” she called. And she was right to be worried. The zom-bees were starting to realize that their stings weren’t working on my ghostly form. Then Luke, Resus and Cleo cried out in alarm as a final creature buzzed up, out of the hive. The queen zom-bee!

She was massive, easily twice the size of the others, and her beating wings sounded like the revving engine of a motorbike as she flew over to inspect me. She paused for a moment in front of my ghostly face, anti-honey dripping from her antennae – and then she buzzed right inside me. It felt as though my whole inner self was shaking with her rage.

“Have you got enough?” I yelled, beginning to feel dizzy.

“Yes!” cried Luke. “Let’s go!”

As he, Resus and Cleo ran for the garden gate, I allowed my silver rope to pull me away from the queen zom-bee and back inside my body. Seconds later, I joined my new friends on the pavement outside. We all sank to the ground, panting.

“It worked!” said Cleo triumphantly, examining the gloopy anti-honey inside the jar.

“Just as well, really,” grinned Resus. “We didn’t have a plan bee!”

“This,” announced Luke,
“is Twinkle.”

This time, I really did stare. When Cleo had said that she knew a fairy who might own a griffin, I’d expected something like the tiny creatures my sister watched in cartoons.

Instead, standing before us now at over six feet tall, was a large, hairy man covered in tattoos. He wore a pink tutu and a sparkling tiara, and wings that were no bigger than his ears stuck out from the middle of his back.

“What do you lot want?” he grunted.

“Cleo thinks you might own a griffin,” said Resus.

Twinkle sniffed. “Ownin’ griffins is against the law.”

“We know that,” said Cleo. “But I just thought…”

“Well, you fought wrong, dintcha!”

Luke sighed. “Never mind then. Sorry to bother you, Twinkle.”

“Ain’t no bovver. I like visitors.”

We turned to leave the strange fairy’s house, when another agonized wail rang out across the street.

“AAAYYYOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWW!”

“Wot is that?” demanded Twinkle, clamping his hands over his ears. “It’s been goin’ on all mornin’!”

“It’s Favel,” Resus explained. “She’s got a bad tooth, and we’re trying to get some griffin sweat so that Dr Skully can take it out.”

Twinkle paused, his eyes and lips moving as he thought this through. “You mean if you get some griffin sweat, that noise will stop?”

“Yep,” said Cleo. “We’re collecting ingredients to make an anaesthetic, and griffin sweat is one of them.”

The fairy glanced around to make sure no one else was within earshot. “Follow me!” he said in a whisper.

Twinkle led us to a room at the back of his house where we discovered two of the most amazing animals I have ever seen. Each had the body of a lion, with powerful paws and sharp talons, but the head of an eagle. Golden feathers merged with thick, orange fur – and each of the beasts had a pair of wings folded over its strong back.

“They are beautiful!” sighed Cleo as one of the griffins padded over to her and rubbed its beak against the back of her hand. “And so docile.”

“And illegal!” added Resus.

“I trusts you not to tell anyone,” grunted the fairy.

“We won’t,” Luke promised. “We just need to know how to get their sweat…”

“This is not quite what I had in mind!” Luke exclaimed as Resus swooped past him on the back of one of the griffins and gave a whoop.

Luke sat on the back of the other one and the pair soared through the air over a deserted side street. The creatures’ wings beat strongly, and the boys were forced to cling on tightly to the griffins’ manes – a task made even harder by the fact that each of them held a long lance.

“Griffin jousting?” I said to myself incredulously – and for the third time. But it still didn’t sound right. “Are you sure this is the only way to make them sweat?”

Luke and Resus looked like medieval knights lining up to do battle for a princess’s hand in marriage – only flying on mystical creatures, and with a few drops of perspiration as the prize.

“’S’right,” said Twinkle. “Griffins need some serious exercise if you wants ‘em to sweat.”

“But why do Resus and Luke have to try and knock each other off?” I asked him.

Twinkle shrugged. “Wouldn’t be joustin’ otherwise, would it?”

So, there was nothing that Cleo and I could do but watch as the griffins took up their positions at each end of the street. The boys gripped the handles of their lances tightly – Luke’s was striped yellow and blue, while Resus’s was a deep, blood red.

Then they were off!

The griffins flew towards each other at top speed, covering the distance between them in seconds. The points of the lances wobbled as Luke and Resus approached one another … and then they struck! Luke clipped Resus on the shoulder, almost throwing him off balance – but the vampire curled his fingers around his griffin’s mane and managed to hang on. Meanwhile, Resus had knocked one of Luke’s trainers off, and it landed right in front of Cleo and me, causing the mummy to yelp.

We looked back up just in time to see the griffins charging towards each other for a second time – and now both Luke and Resus were holding their lances more firmly, both frowning in concentration. My heart was in my mouth. How were they going to get out of this?

They hit each other at the exact same moment, each unseating their rival and tumbling from the back of their beast.

Cleo buried her face in my shoulder as the pair plummeted towards the ground … only to be caught, one in each hand, by Twinkle.

“I didn’t hear the splat!” said Cleo, her face muffled by my jumper. “Where was the splat?”

“There wasn’t a splat!” I cried, as Twinkle lowered Resus and Luke gently to the ground. “But I’m not sure which one of them won?”