Prologue
Far away, on the west side of west Africa, something was running. It was running from men with guns, men with nets, and men with determination. It broke through the deep jungles, and ran out onto the beach. The men were shouting, ‘Get it!’ and, ‘it can’t get away!’ The thing laughed as guns belched fire around him. It would get away, like it always did.
Just then, a net hit the thing, and it rolled to the ground. The net was flat on top of it.
‘Amateurs,’ the creature rasped as it took a deep breath and plunged under the sand. It dug its way through the sand, until its lungs started to burn. But it wouldn’t die. It couldn’t die.
Finally, it reached the sea, and burst out. It dove into the waves. One step, two steps, three steps, and it was submerged in the tide. It let the water drag him away.
3 months later, the thing climbed out on an unfamiliar shore. A sign proclaimed, Melbourne Beach! in big letters. So, it was in Australia. It could conquer the world starting with Australia just as well as Africa. It walked up the shore. The people had no idea what he would do. It cackled. Now, to find a human host.
Chapter 1
Banktown Avenue was a cosy, rundown sort of place. There was a park filled with trees nearby, and the houses all had circular windows in their attics, but other than that, the houses were all different. This was how the people in Banktown Avenue liked it. the Avenue was dusty and well ridden on, by people in big cars going on business trips, who just happened to ride through, and kids on skateboards who threw rocks through the windows of number 8 Banktown Avenue, which was said to be haunted, and smelled like lemons. The rest of the Avenue smelled like eucalyptus. But aside from all the weirdness, Banktown Avenue was pretty quiet…in most of the houses.
Number 4 Banktown Avenue was different to all the rest. Not because it was weird, no, all the houses were weird to some extent. Number 3 Banktown Avenue even had a large chicken farm in the front yard complete with miniature pond, playground, and gym, while number 1’s house was shaped like a large 1, and had net traps in the front of it. No, number 4 was weird because of the girl who lived there. The girl, whose favourite hobby, was playing with daggers and swords.
Leena Tavin stared out of the circular attic window, taking careful aim with her dagger. Leena was a tall 12-year-old girl with dark red hair, and sharp dark brown eyes. she wore a belt hung with daggers around her waist, and her hair was in a messy ponytail. Her face was pale. It was the holidays, and Leena had decided to spend the time throwing daggers at their ewe tree. She was a great shot.
As she went down to pick up the 4 daggers she had thrown, Leena saw her best friend, Bill Drake, coming out of number 5 Banktown Avenue, holding a large donut covered with black icing.
Bill’s house was peculiar, because it had 3 chimneys. Leena had once asked why the house had 3 chimneys, but Bill had just said, ‘it’s for some good reasons,’ and gave no further explanations. Leena suspected it was so that the explosions continually issuing from Bill’s room (which all the chimneys connected to) would let out the smoke. Bill said he was going to invent something useful one day, and Leena believed him. He had a great mind. He just got distracted by food often.
Bill had large glasses, with purple frames, and with tape all over the arms. He had curly brown hair, and was short for his age, which was 13. He usually wore overalls over his black jeans, and bought donuts online with the computer he made out of a kit. His face was kind, and slightly pudgy. When he wasn’t eating, he was thinking, and when he wasn’t thinking, he was making. So far, he had made a robotic toy for cats, which ran around while his pet cat, Fluffles, chased it.
‘Ey Leena,’ Bill said, his mouth full of donut. He quickly swallowed all the donut, and licked his lips. ‘Why are you throwing daggers now? It’s a holiday! You should be, I dunno, relaxing at a beach in Hawaii, not throwing daggers in a dangerous sort of way?’ Bill never got why Leena loved weapons so much.
‘This is all I can do,’ Leena said. ‘I don’t like reading, or inventing, or eating, or sleeping, and we’re not going on a holiday, so this is what I do. You’ll thank me when someone tries to kill us, and I stop them.’
‘Alright,’ Bill said. He knew there was no point arguing with Leena. ‘Hey, did you notice, there’s a new guy. His van is over there. I think he’s moving into number 8. Leena looked over, and saw a large moving truck with Barry’s Best Dog Food spray-painted on the side. Then, she saw the man.
Chapter 2
The man was old. Like, he was old old! His skin was wrinklier than the wrinkliest wrinkly elephant’s hide you’d ever seen. His eyes were green, and just seemed to project wisdom and…well other things old guys emanate. He was wearing a worn white baseball cap, a pink, purple, and red plaided shirt, white pants, different coloured sneakers, one black, the other white, and blue fingerless gloves. On his right finger, there was a strange ring. It seemed to be gold, but it had a dark red gem set in the top. There were intricate patterns all over the gold part. He yawned, and his false teeth glinted in the light, brown and black. He brought out a walking stick.
‘Hey kids!’ the man said. ‘Is this Banktown street?’
‘Yeah,’ Leena said, flipping a dagger. ‘What of it?’
‘Have a donut.’ The man said, bringing out a giant box of donuts and throwing one at them. Bill caught it, and looked down.
‘Strawberry icing! Awesome!’ he said, biting down on the donut, an expression of ecstasy on his face as he ate it in 2 bites. The man threw the donuts over his head, and they landed on the dusty Avenue, exploding in colours, and colouring everything in icing. The man didn’t seem to care that he had wasted all his donuts. Bill looked on in an expression on horror on his face now, at the way the man had wasted the donuts. He then walked to the house, dragging a suitcase behind him.
‘He…wasted all those donuts!’ Bill cried out, kneeling in front of the rainbow-coloured dusty road, and holding his hands together as if in prayer. ‘May you rest in peace.’
The next few days, Mr Evans was seen all around the place. He was talking with the neighbours for a few minutes, then moving off again. He was seen dusting the avenue with a broom. The neighbours thought he was just a bit mental (which wasn’t actually really strange. Number 2 had a demented cat, dog, and pig.). He was also seen mowing his lawn with a scythe, and there were loud bangs coming from his house, as well as the occasional strange orange light coming from the windows, but Bill did the exact same things all the time, so the neighbours didn’t worry.
One day, Leena opened her eyes, and yawned. She picked up her daggers, went down the stairs, grabbed a bread roll, and walked out of the door. Leena walked across the street, and knocked on the door of Bill’s house. Bill answered the door.
‘You’re just in time for my invention!’ Bill said. He dragged Leena up 3 flights of stairs, and they went into Bill’s room. Bill’s room was a comfy, rundown room, if you ignored the scorch marks on almost every available surface. There was a blast furnace right in the centre of the room which all the chimneys were connected to, and a cupboard on the side. A slightly burned red bed sat in a corner, with a bedside table sitting right next to it, covered in bits and bobs.
Bill ran to the centre of the room, and picked up a weird contraption thing.
‘I think I’ve finally got it made,’ he said excitedly. ‘A contraption that can fry eggs!’ he brought a frying pan out, and put it on the thing. He then pressed a button, and put an egg in a slot. The machine lit a fire underneath the pan, and rolled the egg on the pan. The egg smashed, leaving shell all over the pan. A claw picked the egg shell pieces out. Some egg white dripped into the egg fryer. The machine stopped, and made a sputtering sound.
‘Duck!’ Bill yelled, and they both ran into the cupboard, Bill grabbing Fluffles, the fluffy white cat. There was a loud explosion. Bill peered around the door, grabbed his water bottle, and poured water on the fire. It fizzled, and went out.
‘Phew,’ Bill said. ‘Well, that’s definitely a failure.’
‘Yup,’ Leena said.
‘Well,’ Bill said, ‘what about that Mr Evans?’
‘Mr Evans?’ Leena said. ‘Is that the name of the guy we saw with the Barry’s best dog food truck?’
‘Yeah,’ Bill said. ‘My mum invited him over for dinner last night. He was really nervous. It was as if he had never really been around people before. In the end he left early.’
‘Weird,’ Leena said. ‘Anyway, can you help me erect the target board? I’ve just finished painting it.’
‘Alright,’ Bill said. ‘Let me just…’ he grabbed a box of donuts that had miraculously survived the egg fryer’s explosion, and pulled one out, along with some cat food for Fluffles. Then, they went outside.
Leena went inside her house and grabbed the target board. She rolled it down the steps, being careful not to make any noise. Her mum and dad were still sleeping. Leena brought the target board, and saw Bill waiting with a bottle of his home-made super glue, and Fluffles in his arms. The super-glue was made with a combination of different super-glues, and hardened in a minute after being squirted out. Leena took the bottle from Bill.
‘Hold this up for me, will you?’ she said. Bill lifted the circular board up, and Leena glued the back of it to the tree. They both crept up the stairs, and up into Leena’s room. Bill settled himself down on a bean bag, while Leena opened the window, and stared down at the target board. She took careful aim, and threw. It thunked into the target board. Just then, Mr Evans came out of his house. Leena threw another dagger. It thudded next to the first one. Mr Evans walked over to Leena’s house, and stared up at the window.
‘Hey!’ he called up. ‘What are you doing? You could kill yourself with those things!’ Leena leant out of the window.
‘I’ve done this before Mr Evans!’ she shouted back. ‘Don’t worry!’ just then, a bird landed on the window sill. Fluffles leapt for the window, and knocked Leena’s hand. The dagger slipped, and fell directly into Mr Evans’s leg!
‘Oh my!’ Leena exclaimed. She ran down the stairs, with Bill who had seen it as well.
‘Are you all right, Mr Evans?’ she asked.
‘Yes, quite all right,’ he said, inspecting the wound with interest. He pulled the dagger out of his leg. ‘I’ll be fine.’
‘Aren’t you hurt?’ Bill asked, worriedly.
‘Hurt?’ the Mr Evans asked. ‘Oh yeah, hurt!’ he hurriedly made a few pained noises, and clutched at his leg.
‘Well,’ he said, ‘I’ll be off then.’ Then, he walked off with an obviously fake limp.
‘What was that about?’ Bill asked.
‘I have no idea,’ Leena said. She knew that there was something strange about that man. And she was going to find out what it was.
Chapter 3
‘What,’ Bill asked for the 50th time, ‘are we doing here again?’
‘Gathering critical info on the suspect,’ Leena said.
‘And why,’ Bill said, ‘does that involve my binoculars?’ It was 8:00, and the two friends were crouching underneath Mr Evans’ window, and Leena was staring through the window with Bill’s binoculars. The curtains were opened, and Leena could see a dusty living room, and an even dustier staircase, with the dustiest coat on the dustiest coat hanger she had ever seen. The smell of lemons wafted out as usual, and there was a cornflake packet on the table. But Leena noticed something else.
‘There’s a large painting on the wall!’ she whisper-exclaimed, ignoring Bills grumbles of, ‘You could have just asked for the binoculars,’ ‘it…it has a picture of a…of a…what is that? Oh my!’ Leena stared. ‘That looks like an…an…an alien! And it’s dated the first epoch of the third century! What does that mean?’
‘Who cares?’ Bill said, as his stomach gurgled. ‘Say, do you want to go and get a donut? Or 10?’
‘This painting could be a clue!’ Leena said.
‘My stomach is giving me a clue,’ Bill said, as his belly gave another gurgle. ‘It says that I want a donut.’
‘Be quiet about your…Oh!’ Leena dived for cover behind a bush, dragging Bill with her. She peeked over the windowsill again. ‘Mr Evans has come back in!’ Mr Evans walked into the living room, and sat on the chair, letting out a large puff of dust. He poured some cornflakes for himself, and began eating. 2 hours later, Bill had gone and got some donuts, and was busy devouring the lot, and Leena was beginning to doze off, when she was jolted awake by the noise of a scraping chair. Mr Evans had gotten up, and was walking out of the door!
‘Come on!’ Leena hissed to Bill, but Bill was finishing his 4th donut and wouldn’t move an inch.
‘Oo u ithut e,’ he said through a mouthful of blueberry icing. Leena stood up, and crouched behind the bush as Mr Evans came out of his house. He stretched, yawned, and walked off. Leena followed him.
Mr Evans walked down the street, past the chickens in sunglasses having a pool party, past the big number 1 of a house, and walked straight across the corresponding road. He walked into the park, and soon swept into the forest. Leena crept behind him, holding her dagger just in case. Soon, Mr Evans reached the centre of the forest. He sat, and took a deep breath in.
‘Soon,’ he said, but his voice wasn’t his voice. It was rasping, low, and menacing. ‘Soon, I will conquer the world. I will destroy this pitiful place once and for all. I can wait. I have waited 1000 years, and I can wait. I must wait for 1 more day. Then, my power will be fully charged, and I can strike. The whole world will soon know the name of Viggo Armagno, destroyer of worlds, conqueror of cities, enslaver of galaxies.’ As he spoke, he slowly grew bigger. He unhunched, flexing his shoulder blades, and two huge ragged bat wings sprouted out. He became blacker, and his eyes burned a fiery red. Horns grew from the top of his head, and claws on his fingers. His eyes turned a burning red, and as he smiled, two sharp teeth stuck out of his mouth. A tail shot out from behind him, and it waved around. He laughed, and his voice had become a whip of burning hatred.
‘The whole world will soon know the name, of Viggo Armagno, the immortal demon.’
‘Wait,’ Bill said, ‘so Mr Evans, the peaceful, cuts-his-lawn-with-scythes-and-sweeps-the-road-guy, is an immortal demon alien, intent on destroying the world, and all we know?’
‘Yup,’ Leena said flatly.
‘On a Wednesday?’ Bill asked.
‘Yeah,’ Leena said.
‘Great!’ Bill said happily. ‘I won’t have to mow the lawn!’
‘What?’ Leena exclaimed. ‘The end that Mr Wilkins has being proclaiming is nigh is nigh, and you’re thinking about lawn mowing?’ (Mr Wilkins was a street tramp who lived in a tree in the park, and had been telling anyone who passed that ‘the end is nigh!’)
‘Yes?’ Bill said, but it was more of a question. Seeing the look on Leena’s face, he stuttered, ‘no, I mean no! We should call the police.’
‘Say what?’ Leena asked incredulously. ‘Call the police? Shouldn’t we, I dunno, call the Prime Minister instead?’
‘Nah,’ Bill said, waving away the question, ‘he’s probably busy. And besides, the police can tell him if they think it’s serious.’
‘It is serious!’ Leena yelled.
‘But who’s going to believe a couple of kids?’ Bill said. Leena stopped.
They were currently situated in the middle of the chicken farm, feeding the chickens for money. Mr Digory had told them that if even one chicken looked underfed, then he was personally going to go up to each of their houses, take back the money, and throw them out of a third story window. As there were about 1000 chickens in the chicken farm, Bill and Leena just had to grab a chicken feed bag each, and spin around with it, flinging chicken feed everywhere. Having finished feeding the chickens, they had each grabbed a chair, a lettuce, bacon, peanut butter, and onion sandwich (which Mr Digory had kindly brought out for lunch) and plopped down on it with their favourite chickens (Terrison and Vigbun (Mr Digory liked exotic sounding names)) while Mr Digory inspected the chickens.
‘You’re right,’ Leena said slowly, ‘no one will listen to a couple of kids. Bill, I need you to get your impression book out.’
‘Not that old thing,’ groaned Bill. ‘You know I’m terrible at impressions!’
‘Well, this is an excellent way to practice then,’ Leena grinned. And they both picked up the chickens, placed them on the ground, and walked out of the front yard onto the road.
Chapter 4
‘Hello? This is Sergeant Larry speaking,’ said a voice on the other end of the telephone that Bill was holding.
‘Hello,’ Bill said in a way to deep voice. Leena winced. ‘This is Mr Drake speaking.’
‘Who?’ Sergeant Larry asked. ‘Oh, Mr Drake. What seems to be troubling you? Is it about that bank robbery that happened a few days ago? Have you caught the criminal?’
‘No,’ Bill said, still in that overly deep voice, ‘this is about something new. Something more serious.’
‘Something more serious than half the bank being robbed?’ Sergeant Larry exclaimed incredulously. ‘You have to be joking.’
‘No,’ Bill said, ‘I’m not.’
‘Then what is it?’ asked Sergeant Larry asked.
‘Australia,’ said Bill in a very serious voice, ‘is about to be attacked by an immortal demon, by the name of Viggo Armagno, code name Mr Evans.’ There was a long silence. Then, Sergeant Larry began to laugh.
‘You seriously think that I would believe something like that?’ he chortled.
‘I don’t know if your kids set you up for this, but it’s not funny.’ For someone who said something wasn’t funny though, he was laughing pretty hard. ‘You’re wasting valuable police time. Immortal demon indeed.’ He hung up, leaving the kids in silence.
‘Well,’ Bill said, ‘that didn’t go too well.’
‘Nope,’ Leena said. There was more silence.
‘Maybe…’ Bill said hesitantly, ‘maybe I could try make something? You know, to fight him?’
‘It’s no use,’ Leena said heavily. ‘Unless you can make a fire-proof, bite-proof, claw-proof, evil-demon-magic-proof, horn-proof, wing proof net-cage-prison, I don’t really think we have a chance. We’re all going to die, because of some stupid police officer who stupidly didn’t listen to us, and stupidly doomed the world as a result.’
‘At least we have donuts,’ Bill said quietly. Leena stared at him in disbelief.
‘Donuts?’ she asked, her voice slowly growing hysterical, ‘donuts? The world is going to end! I haven’t even lived half my life yet! I haven’t made it to Europe, I haven’t been in a life-threatening situation, the universe is doomed, and the bright side is having donuts? Donuts don’t matter as much as the world! Donuts aren’t everything! You can’t make a house with donuts! You can’t fight a demon with donuts! All you can do is eat donuts, and eating isn’t going to help anything!’ Her voice had rose to a shriek.
‘CAN YOU JUST STAY ON THE SUBJECT FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE, BILL?’
‘Sorry!’ Bill said, holding his hands up. ‘But seriously, if we’re going to die, I’d rather die with a full stomach.’
This was so outrageous that Leena had to laugh. She laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and laughed. Tears rolled down her face as she laughed. Finally, she stopped, her face shining with mirth.
‘That,’ she giggled, ‘is the most stupid thing I have ever heard!’
‘Glad to be of use,’ Bill muttered.
‘Well, since the adults are too stupid to help,’ Leena said, wiping tears of laughter from her face, ‘we’ll have to take matters in our own hands. First, we need to sneak into Viggo’s house. It’s Tuesday, so we should have enough time to do this and prepare. Bill, can you design an easily transportable weapon for this in about,’ Leena checked her watch, ‘3 hours? If your parents ask you what you’re doing, say it’s for a science project. Then, tell them that you’re going over to my house for a sleepover. I’ll bring snacks, and we can get into Viggo’s house, and, well, try to stop him. And if we die, at least then the adults will take us seriously.’
‘If we die!?!?’ Bill said hysterically. ‘If we die!?!? I don’t want to die!’
‘Just make a weapon!’ Leena said loudly. ‘Don’t argue!’
‘Okay, okay,’ Bill said shakily, ‘okay. I can do this. Alright.’
‘Then let’s get to it!’ Leena said.
Chapter 5
Bill brought out his tool box, and stared down at it, along with a box full of bits and bobs.
‘Weapon, easily transportable,’ he muttered to himself as he stared through the box. ‘Alright.’ He took out a couple pieces of metal, walked to the blast furnace in the centre of the room.
Soon, Leena was handing Bill things he asked for, like tools, nails, more metal, and obviously, donuts. There were soon the familiar sounds of explosions coming from the furnace, as Bill worked his considerably unpredictable magic on the metal. He shaped, banged, bended, cracked, and exploded the material. Fluffles curled around his feet, purring. Leena ate a sandwich. Bill roasted his in the furnace. Finally, Bill brought something out. His face was black with ash and smoke, and a little wisp of fire was curling from his hair. Leena put it out for him.
‘Well,’ Bill said, ‘I’ve made a club.’ He held up a sort of club-shaped piece of melded metal, with metal spikes sticking out from it.
‘Alright,’ Leena said. By this time, it was about 5:00 in the afternoon.
‘Okay,’ Leena said. ‘I’ll go and tell my dad and mum that I’m staying at your house for a sleepover. That way, we’ll be able to sneak out.’
Leena dashed out the door, and into the slowly setting sun. She paused to feel the sun on her face, and then ran across the road and into her house.
‘Mum, Dad,’ she yelled running into the kitchen and rummaging around for some snacks in the larder, ‘I’m going to Bill’s house for a sleepover!’
‘Alright,’ Leena’s dad yelled back. ‘Make sure you don’t eat too many of the boy’s donuts. You might get sick.’
‘Sure!’ Leena yelled. ‘I’ll take my own snacks!’ And she ran out again.
She arrived in Bill’s house just in time to see him walking out of his room, club in one hand. He ran down the stairs, tripped, and fell in a heap at Leena’s feet.
‘We going?’ he asked, pushing his glasses more firmly up his nose.
‘Yeah,’ Leena said. ‘Now pick up that club and get a move on. We don’t have all day.’ Bill stood up. Then, they walked out of the house. Little did they know what they were going to end up doing that day.
They crept up to Viggo’s house, and hid underneath the large bushes in front of the house. They stared through the window, and saw Viggo climb down into the basement.
‘Let’s go in,’ Leena said. They ran up the front stairs, and tried the doorknob.
‘Locked!’ Leena groaned.
‘Don’t worry,’ Bill said. ‘I learned how to pick locks on YouTube.’ He brought out 2 hairpins, and twiddled it in the lock for a bit. The lock clicked, and the door swung open. The two friends snuck down the stairs after Viggo. They stared down. The scene was one of the strangest they had ever seen. Viggo, in demon form, was floating in mid-air. There were hundreds of little models of humans all over the ground. Some of them were ripped up completely.
Viggo stared down at a still intact dummy, and shouted. He pointed at it, and it was slowly torn apart. Then he bellowed, and launched fire at it. It exploded, and he laughed. Suddenly, he turned into human form.
‘You can’t do this!’ he gasped, and Leena had a sudden feeling that this was the real Mr Evans. ‘I can fight! I will fight you!’ All of a sudden, Viggo came out again.
‘You know I will win,’ he growled, punching himself in the stomach. ‘The world is going to be doomed, and you will be the cause of it. How does that make you feel, Gregory, Fido, Evans?’
‘Gregory Fido Evans?’ Bill said incredulously. ‘Who named him?’
‘Isn’t better than Bill Scranton Drake,’ Leena said. Bill fell silent.
‘I can warn them!’ Gregory Fido Evans coughed. ‘I’ll warn them of you! I won’t let you win!’
‘AAAAAAUUUUUUHHHHHHGGGGGG!!!!!!’ Viggo yelled, and he turned back into a demon. ‘You know that I am more powerful than you! Can you just give up? I will not tolerate such insolence!’ He slammed himself against the wall, and grunted. ‘Just get back in your mind were you belong!’
It seemed Mr Evans had lost the fight. Viggo sighed, and turned around to blow up more dummies.
Chapter 6
‘I can’t believe Mr Evans is being possessed!’ Bill said, pulling his curly brown hair in agitation. ‘I mean, now we think about it, it seems obvious! All his strange behaviour with…well everything!’
‘We’ll have to warn the others about this,’ Leena said. ‘They have to know!’
‘Okay,’ Bill said, ‘I’ll gather my parents, and you’ll gather yours. We’ll round up the entire neighbourhood, and discuss battle.’ Surprised by Bill’s sudden seriousness, Leena paused.
Come on, come on!’ Bill urged. ‘Let’s go!’
The two friends ran from the avenue and each to their own houses.
‘Dad,’ Leena panted, ‘I’m going to tell you something that you probably won’t believe. I only ask you to attempt to believe me.’
‘Okay,’ Leena’s dad said, ‘I’ll try to believe you. What are you going to tell me that’s so unbelievable?’
‘So,’ Leena said, ‘you know that Mr Evans?’
‘Yeah?’ her dad said.
‘Well, me and Billy thought he was suspicious, so we went and spied on his house…’ Leena said in a rush.
‘You spied on his house?’ Leena’s dad exclaimed.
‘Yeah, but we found things out!’ Leena said.
‘Oh yeah?’ Leena’s dad asked with eyebrows raised.
‘Yeah!’ Leena said loudly. ‘We found out that Mr Evans…’ she paused for effect, ‘has been possessed by a demon, intent on destroying or conquering the world as we know it.’ She stopped. Mr Tavin was standing there with his mouth open.
‘Are you sure?’ Mr Tavin asked. ‘are you quite sure of this?’
‘Why would I lie?’ Leena asked back.
‘Good point,’ Leena’s dad said. ‘Alright, what do you want me to do?’
‘Get mum, and round up all the neighbours,’ Leena said. ‘Then, discuss battle plans.’
‘Okay,’ Leena’s dad said, ‘let’s do this!’
Leena ran out with her dad and mum to find that Bill had already convinced his parents to come out, and they had rounded up more than half of the neighbours, all of which were grumbling about the late hour.
‘Hey Leena,’ Bill whispered, ‘I think you should be the one who tells the crowd about Mr Evans.’
‘Okay,’ Leena whispered back. ‘Okay. Yo, neighbours,’ She said in a louder voice, ‘we have a problem!’
‘Right we do,’ grumbled Mr Plander, who lived in number 6, ‘I can’t tend my bromeliads!’
‘This problem is much more serious than plants!’ Leena said.
‘More important than my bromeliads?’ Mr Plander exclaimed in outrage. ‘More important than my bromeliads? My bromeliads are the most important things in the world! More important than food! More important than life! More important than…’
‘Oh be quiet about your bromeliads!’ Mrs Wanda. ‘Now, if any of my paintings get destroyed, then that would be $100,000,000 wasted! Much more than a few plants.’
‘Few plants? A few plants!?!’ Mr Plander said. ‘I’ll give you a few plants, along with a piece of my mind!’
‘EVERYONE SHUT UP RIGHT NOW!!!!’ Bill bellowed so loud, everyone instantly obeyed. ‘LISTEN TO WHAT LEENA IS GOING TO SAY!’ There was a silence so deep that you could probably hear a pin drop. Leena coughed, and began again.
‘Well, me and Bill thought that Mr Evans seemed suspicious, so we went to spy on him,’ Leena said. ‘Then, we found out something. We found out that Mr Evans…was possessed by an immortal demon.’ There was another silence.
Suddenly, Miss Nix shrieked, ‘We’re all going to die!’ She waved her hands around in a crazed panic. Her cat and dog hissed and howled.
‘We shall mass to battle!’ Mr Digory cried. ‘My chickens will be able to fight beside us! Mr Wanda, do you have any chicken sized armour?’
‘Maybe,’ Mr Wanda said, ‘but I won’t give it to you unless you don’t damage it. It’s dwarf armour.’
‘Protect my bromeliads!’ Mr Plander yelled.
‘Protect my house!’ Mrs Terry yelled over him.
‘We’re doomed,’ Miss Canter sighed. ‘Just doomed I tell you. I shall bake no more!’
‘We’ll make some real lava grenades!’ Mr Arden said. ‘We’ll collect lava, and burn down the sucker’s house!’
‘We can’t do that!’ Leena yelled. ‘Mr Evans is being possessed. We need to get the demon out of him before it gets it’s full power!’
‘Let’s make a plan before we attack,’ Bill said. ‘We’ll need one for the fight ahead.’
Chapter 7
The army of neighbours stood in front of number 8 Banktown Avenue. The chickens were in the throng, all in little pieces of armour, all ready to fight, all, well all pecking nonchalantly at the ground. Mr Digory was squatting on the ground and whispering instructions to the chickens.
Mr and Mrs Terry sat behind their large red Ferrari, and pressed buttons. Everyone knew that they had made adjustments to the Ferrari ever since they had put the sign up in front of their house with making adjustments to the Ferrari on it.
Miss Nix was hiding behind her cat, which was hiding behind her dog, which was hiding behind the pig, which was eating a ham sandwich.
Leena had armed her mum, dad, Bill, and his mum and dad, with daggers, and armed herself with one too. Bill refused the dagger and instead carried the club he had made for them.
Mr Plander begrudgingly armed himself and Miss Canter with bromeliad whips, and was muttering under his breath about evil neighbours who took his plants.
Mr Wanda was wearing a suit of armour, and was holding the arm of a sculpture of Pliny the younger, while his wife was heaving a Viking shield and axe around the place.
Mr and Mrs Arden were both holding buckets of lava, and grinning evilly, every so often “accidentally” slopping lava near, ‘those blasted chickens!’ They were ready for battle.
‘Alright troops,’ Leena said, standing in front of the door to Mr Evan’s house, ‘It’s time for battle.’ She walked up to the door, and kicked it. It didn’t budge.
‘You could just ring the doorbell,’ Bill pointed out.
‘Oh yeah,’ Leena said. She rang the doorbell.
There was a long silence. A chicken clucked, and then silence fell again. Mr Plander coughed. The concrete sizzled as more lava slopped out of the buckets Mr and Mrs Arden were holding. Then, the door slowly creaked open.
‘Hello?’ Mr Evans asked. ‘Oh, my neighbours! How good of you to stop by! Do you want some tea? Oh.’ He had finally noticed the armed chickens, the weapons, the lava.
‘We know your secret, Mr Evans,’ Leena said. ‘You can fight it.’
Suddenly, Mr Evans yelled in pain. Viggo came out, and the yell of pain became a roar of anger.
‘You dare oppose me?’ Viggo roared. ‘I shall teach you a lesson you will never forget! You will rue the day you met me!’ He swiped with his hand, and the neighbours were flung into the air. Mr Digory yelled a battle cry, and flung a chicken at Viggo. Viggo swiped it out of the air before it had even touched him. The chicken fell to the ground, dead.
‘Natinus! No!’ Mr Digory cried. Thunder cracked in the sky. Lighting came down with booms of sound. The sky turned dark as a coming thunderstorm covered the sun. Cold rain poured down from the heavens as Viggo attacked and the neighbours fought back. Mr Plander shouted in anger as Viggo trampled his precious bromeliads, and wrapped his arm with his whip, while Miss Canter did the same with the demon’s other arm. Viggo roared in anger and swung his arms up, sending Mr Plander and Miss Canter flying. They landed in the ewe tree, Mr Plander hanging by his foot, Miss Canter by her arms. The chickens flew at Viggo, while Leena tried to distract him by cutting small cuts in his arms and legs. These seemed to do no damage. He simply growled, and threw out his arms, flinging the chickens away. The Ferrari charged, spitting what seemed to be ice cream, but Viggo slammed his wings into it, and it went flying.
Suddenly, Mr Evans seemed to come out of Viggo’s face.
‘The ring!’ He gasped, ‘get the…’ but Viggo burst out again before Mr Evans could say any more. Leena realised that though Mr Evans’ clothes had disappeared, the ring with the intricate carvings and the dark red gem had not. With a roar, Viggo flew at Bill, and grabbed him. Bill reached for the ring, but Viggo threw him across the avenue. He landed against the chicken house, and slid down.
‘Bill!’ Leena cried. She ran straight for Viggo, but he raised his arm, and Leena was captured in an invisible grip. Viggo brought Leena closer, smiling widely.
‘You’ve lost,’ he said. ‘Just admit it. You will die like the others that tried to fight against me!’
Leena struggled, but she was slowly dragged toward Viggo. Then, Mr Evans came up again.
‘Get the ring!’ He choked. Viggo’s grip let go of Leena, and she ran toward Mr Evans. She grabbed the ring just as Viggo came out again. She pulled.
‘No!!!!!’ Viggo yelled. The ring came off. Viggo seemed to be sucked from Mr Evans’ body. Leena saw what seemed to be his ghost floating in the air. The ghost that was Viggo was sucked into the ring. The rain stopped. The clouds cleared. The stars came out. Mr Evans slumped onto the ground. The neighbours stared up at the sky, awed at the beauty. Mr Plander and Miss Canter finally fell from the tree. Bill stood unsteadily from the ground. The chickens clucked and fluffed up their feathers. They had won.
Epilogue
Leena and Bill stood together on the steps of number 4 Banktown Avenue. It had been 2 days since the battle had taken place. The ring had been taken away into a safe. The neighbours had all gotten interviews, the prime minister had visited Leena’s house, and they had all gotten presents.
Mr Plander got a shipment of exotic plants. Leena got a bunch of weapons. Her parents got a new veranda chair, and a giant TV. Mr Terry and Mrs Terry got a new car, this one a monster truck. Miss Nix got a new house (Miss Nix was so frazzled that she had moved away, with cat, dog, and pig.) Bill got some more bits and bobs to add to his collection, as well as some tools. His parents got some new ear plugs. Mr Digory got an extension to his chicken farm, a cinema. Miss Canter got some cook books. Mr and Mrs Wanda got another ancient artefact to add to their ancient artefact collection. Mr and Mrs Arden got more lava.
Leena sighed, and leant back on their new veranda chair. I
‘Well, I hope we never have any other adventures,’ Bill said. ‘This one was too big.’
‘Yeah,’ Leena said. Suddenly, they saw a moving van. It seemed to be moving into the newly vacated number 2.
‘A new neighbour?’ Bill groaned. ‘Please tell me that this neighbour will be a nice old normal lady, with an obsession with food.’ A man stepped out of the van. He was dressed in a black cloak, a black shirt, black pants, black gloves, and black shoes. His eyes were red, and staring. His face was lean and haggard, and seemed to have seen many ages, many times. He was holding a long staff in one hand, and a suitcase in the other. And his hair was blacker than the night.
‘Oh, bother!’ Bill said.
