Free Wail of the Banshee by Tommy Donbavand Page B

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