Morag could do nothing more than let out a strangulated eep!, her mouth held rigid by the spell.
When the fireworks had ended, Luke announced: “Please welcome the Incredible Negative!”
To great applause, Resus swung down from a nearby tree on a length of vine. He scooped up three large, round peaches from the ground and began to juggle, taking a bite from each as they passed his mouth until nothing was left but the hard pits in the centre. Then, finally, he popped them into his mouth and spat them out at Cleo, who was sitting near by.
Cleo wobbled into the makeshift circus ring and chased after Resus, tripping, falling and somersaulting as she went. The children clapped their hands and laughed gleefully at the clown.
A roar echoed across the clearing. Luke looked up to see the Nightwatchman on top of the tower, writhing around in anguish. For a brief moment, the children’s laughter faltered.
“Keep going!” Luke urged. Resus winked at the audience and raced for the tree again, Cleo in hot pursuit. Digging his fake vampire nails into the bark, Resus deftly climbed out of Cleo’s path and she smacked comically into the thick trunk. The audience burst into laughter, and this time giggles could be heard from inside the tower as well.
“It’s working!” Luke hissed to his friends. “Morag is transmitting everything we do directly into the dreams of the kids in the tower!”
Keeping up the pretence of being angry, Cleo folded her arms grumpily and went to sit down. Resus quickly unclipped his false fangs and tossed them onto the ground where she was about to sit. She yelped in pain as they bit into her bottom and jumped up, running in circles. The children laughed even louder.
“STOP IT!” screamed an agonized voice. The Nightwatchman was clearly in pain.
“OK, Ursula – you’re next!”
The beautiful witch took to the stage and produced a bouquet of flowers for Cleo’s clown, who made her exit. Next Ursula clicked her fingers and six pure white doves appeared in the air above her.
Morag’s eyes were now wide with terror, and up on the tower the Nightwatchman was screaming and clutching at his pounding head.
Cleo joined Luke at the edge of the clearing. “Well?” she asked.
Luke grinned. “It’s only a matter of time now,” he said. “Just look at their happy faces – and listen to those laughs coming from the tower. Nothing can go wrong!”
He had barely finished speaking when a ragged, dirty figure staggered into the circus ring, his clothes torn and his face scratched, clutching a small vial of blood.
It was Sir Otto Sneer.
“Another clown!” shouted Addie in excitement.
“I’ve walked for hours,” wheezed Scream Street’s landlord, barely able to stand. “And I can’t find that blasted Hex Hatch anywhere!” The audience, thinking this was part of the act, laughed and pointed.
“Be quiet, you freaks!” roared Sir Otto.
“No, it is you who should be silent,” commanded Ursula, pointing a trembling finger at the landlord. “Or I shall reveal your terrible secret!”
Sir Otto was taken aback. His cheeks paled and he began absentmindedly to stroke the white silk scarf around his neck. “Terrible … secret…?” he breathed hoarsely.
“What’s up with him?” hissed Resus.
Luke shrugged. “I dunno, but he looks as though he’s going to faint!”
The landlord clamped his teeth down on his cigar and struggled to regain his composure. “You’re talking nonsense, you stupid woman!” he said quickly. Snatching a magic wand from Ursula’s pile of props and holding the sparkling star over his head, he bellowed, “I know what to do. I’ll magic myself back home!”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you…” began Luke, but it was too late. Sir Otto Sneer had cast the only spell inside the wand – and was starting to shrink.
“What’s going on?” he squeaked. “What have you done?”
The effect was instant. The children in the audience roared with laughter, and from the doorway Resus had cut in the side of the tower, the zombie stumbled out, tears of mirth running down his green, decaying face.
“That’s the kid you untied!” exclaimed Cleo.
Luke nodded. “And hopefully he will have helped someone else out of their bed…” Just then, another child emerged from the tower – a skeleton this time, also giggling. Other children streamed out into the daylight after them, all still laughing at the wonderful dream they’d just woken from.
At the top of the now deserted tower, the Nightwatchman howled out a final, agonized scream. Then he and the tower both exploded into clouds of whispery shadow, which quickly evaporated in the bright sunlight.
“It worked!” cried Cleo. The tower, the Nightwatchman – and even Morag – had gone.
“Never mind that!” shrieked a tiny voice. “Somebody help me!”
Spider bent down to scoop up Sir Otto. “I thinks I’d better gives this little cherub to you,” he said, handing the squirming figure to Resus.
The vampire took hold of the miniature landlord and peered down at him. “Oh my, Grandma,” he teased. “What a tiny, little everything you’ve got!” Sir Otto was still shouting insults as Resus tucked him away inside his cape.
Luke picked up the vial of witch’s blood from where Sir Otto had dropped it and stared into its sparkling contents. “Well, that was a stroke of luck,” he grinned. “Now we just have to hope that giving this back to Ursula will work.”
“I doubt it,” said the witch, coming over to join them. “It’s not my blood, is it?”
Luke looked horrified. “But … but you said you had the same blood in your veins as your mum…”
Ursula shrugged, but there was a twinkle in her eye. “It’s more or less the same – but if you want to be sure that returning the relic will have the desired effect, there’s really only one person you should be talking to…”
The witch reached up and pulled a single hair from her head. Muttering a spell under her breath, she tossed the hair into the campfire. The flames erupted, giving off a shower of blue sparks and causing Luke, Resus and Cleo to shield their eyes. When they looked back, a figure was standing in the blaze.
“Nelly Twist!” gasped Cleo.
“The very same,” smiled the older witch. “And it’s good to see you all again. But seeing as contacting me in this way goes against all the rules, I assume my daughter must have a very good reason for summoning me here…”
Luke held out the vial of blood. “We have to return this to you,” he said. “It served its purpose, but now it will do more good if you would take it back.”
Nelly Twist paused to consider this. “If you’re sure,” she said after a while, “so be it.” She took the bottle from Luke and blew a kiss to her daughter. Then, in a roar of fire, both she and the vial vanished.
Luke smiled. Although they couldn’t see it, he was confident that the blue section of the doorway in Scream Street had just disappeared in a shower of sparks, as the red part had done when they’d returned the vampire’s fang.
“Now,” said Ursula, “I’ve got a lot of children to return to their homes – with Spider’s help, of course.”
“When we get back to Scream Street, I’ll ask Zeal Chillchase to open some official Hex Hatches for you,” said Luke. “They’re much easier to find and everyone will be home before they know it.”
Ursula hugged Luke tightly and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you!” she beamed. “As soon as you arrived I had a feeling you’d be the one to help.” Luke blushed as Resus pulled a sickly kissy face over the witch’s shoulder.
As Ursula hurried away to spread the news, Cleo turned to her friends. “Well, I suppose I should thank you two bumblers for rescuing me!”
“And every other kid in that tower,” added Resus.
“Yeah, I guess…” Cleo grinned. “So, what do you think? Should we return the next relic? The mummy’s heart?”
“Could be quite an adventure,” said Resus.
Luke
put an arm around each of his friends and smiled. “Go on, then,” he said. “If it turns out anything like this one, it should be a bit of a laugh!”
Tommy Donbavand was born and brought up in Liverpool and has worked at numerous careers that have included clown, actor, theatre producer, children’s entertainer, drama teacher, storyteller and writer. His non-fiction books for children and their parents, Boredom Busters and Quick Fixes for Bored Kids, have helped him to become a regular guest on radio stations around the UK and he also writes for a number of magazines, including Creative Steps and Scholastic’s Junior Education.
Tommy sees his comedy-horror series Scream Street as what might have resulted had Stephen King been the author of Scooby Doo. “Writing Scream Street is fangtastic fun,” he says. “I just have to be careful not to scare myself too much!” Tommy had so much fun writing the first Scream Street books that he decided to set Luke, Resus and Cleo another quest so he’d have an excuse to write some more.
You can find out more about Tommy and his books at his website: www.tommydonbavand.com
Other Scream Street titles
1: Fang of the Vampire
2: Blood of the Witch
3: Heart of the Mummy
4: Flesh of the Zombie
5: Skull of the Skeleton
6: Claw of the Werewolf
7: Invasion of the Normals
8: Attack of the Trolls
10: Rampage of the Goblins
Coming soon!
11: Hunger of the Yeti
For Aoife Donbavand,
magical and enchanting
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are
either the product of the author’s imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
First published 2010 by Walker Books Ltd
87 Vauxhall Walk, London SE11 5HJ
Text © 2010 Tommy Donbavand
Illustrations © 2010 Cartoon Saloon Ltd
The right of Tommy Donbavand to be identified
as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted
or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, taping and
recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record
for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-4063-3250-6 (ePub)
ISBN 978-1-4063-3251-3 (e-PDF)
www.walker.co.uk
Terror of the Nightwatchman Page 6
