LUNA

LuNa

Meg is the murderer

Meg has one of Luna’s mum’s teeth

Meg was one of the wolves

Meg

INTRODUCTION/ PROLOGUE

Gazing up at the sunlit ceiling of her miserable, mismatched bedroom, Luna recited in her mind her perspective of the day exactly three years ago, when she chased her mother, who was riding a bright yellow tricycle with one broken wheel around the whole, colourful neighbourhood. They would keep playing for hours non stop like children at a candy store. Apart from that, the only other memories of her mother was when she was standing at the weathered, oak door of her mother’s hospital, staring up into the starless night. Her mother had deep scars and scratches all over her pale, reckless face, and she would sit up gloomily in her hospital dorm. She had bloodthirsty, knife-like fangs that shot out of her un-brushed gums like volcanoes.Though, for some odd reason one of her bottom ones had been removed. Bushes of silky grey fur coated her arms and legs and Luna knew her mother was trapped between those old, blood curdling walls of doom for the rest of her life. (It wasn’t really her life anymore, she was a wolf’s body now.) But still, Luna could just make out a slight smile spreading across her mother’s cheeks the moment she walked in.

Her mother died three years ago, and Luna hasn’t been the same since.

When Luna had finally come back to her senses, she sat up, put on her favourite sneakers and stormed out of her bedroom, and down the steep stairs (stepping over a few well-fed hairy spiders on the way down.)

She skidded on her cheap, miniscule scooter that her dad had bought her years before, as fast as a lightning strike. She knew she looked like a giant freak compared to the scooter, but she knew it was all she had to get around on. Rummaging through her torn pockets for the object she admired most, her grandmother's sacred ring.

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Chapter 1 : ZONKO’S

The icy cold breeze ripped through her lungs as she carelessly rode through the black and white streets of doom and despair, twirling the ring round in her flexible fingers, dusting off a thick jacket of dust from the pitch black stone perched on the ring. She began to sneeze wildly from all the dust, but shakily kept riding.

‘Turn Time... Turn Time... Magic... Ministry… Go back…’ A ghostly voice would continuously whisper in her ear. The words would get stuck in her head for hours, as she would become more curious by the day, determined to find out what this group of words meant.

The hours stretched into centuries until finally, Luna reached her destination. This was her happy place. It was the place she called home. It was ZONKO’s CASTLE. It’s a bit hard to call ‘home’ if you’ve never been inside, but Luna just felt a real strong connection with the building.

“To some, it looks like an unattractive, hideous remainder of a slug’s guts,” said an unknown voice coming from the towering, spine-chilling, enormous tree trunks. “But to others, not so much.”

It reminded Luna of the day she mistakenly found this magical castle that was hidden like a fortress behind enormous spiky vines that launched graciously into the clouds. Surprisingly, Luna hadn’t discovered this castle until only a few years ago. Before that, she wandered through this suburban street totally oblivious to it.

Luna was not the cleverest human on earth, but what she did know was that whatever was living inside this castle would not want to be awoken nor disturbed.

The closer she got, the louder the mysterious howling and snorting became. When she had finally found the courage to set foot on the muddy ‘WELCOME’ doormat, that now said ‘WE COME’ since a very hungry dog who ate literally anything and everything had the ‘L’ ripped into shreds and drenched his dribble.

“Ha! I don’t think the ‘L’ ever needed such a flawless shower Walter!” Luna whispered to his ear, though knowing that the chance of the dog hearing her was zero percent. Just like Walter, the elderly woman, Meg, who had owned the dog since it was a miniscule puppy, were both alarmingly deaf. They had each tried on the most high-quality hearing aids ever invented, even the dog, Walter, had received hearing aids that fit perfectly in his waxy eardrums but, it wasn’t a big surprise that not a single invention was near working.

Anyway, back to the main subject.

As Luna trod up the stairs, she could hear the vibrating rings of Walter’s leash bell as the dog lashed at the fabric letter ‘L’, shaking his head like a lion ripping at its prey.

Luna was petrified of the thought of her, clinging onto the ancient doorknob with her sweaty palms and turning it a little, to find...

Quickly erasing the daydream (or nightmare) from her mind, not enthusiastic to hear what would occur to her next in this claustrophobic dream of hers, Luna hesitated, then twisted the doorknob open as slow as a sloth to find a blinding, purple light soar through the air from indoors, filling the atmosphere around Luna with strength and bravery.

For a moment, Luna thought she was on top of the world. That she could accomplish anything she put her mind to. A wide, snake-like grin spread from ear to ear as she started jumping. The problem was, she couldn't stop herself! It was like her body had suddenly transformed into a robot being controlled by a remote control. The wooden deck shook violently as if there was a thunderstorm nearby, and she was standing right in front of it.

“ST-STOP LUNA!” She shouted at herself. Though, the words stayed stuck like superglue to her tongue and she realised her tongue had stupidly rolled itself to the back of her throat just like a party whistle.

She stood there like a twig, so still she nearly blended in with the wall behind her. Luna was transfixed. All she could think of was to squeal like a toddler and hope someone will hear her demands and come to save her. But, all this really did was make her look odder due to the fact that her tongue was broken. Also, not like she knew anyone who would be out roaming around at the darkest time of night.

Emerald chains were rapidly forming from all angles, grabbing at her arms, legs, and head like heavy anchors. They pulled her down to the mossy, slimy deck and she made out the sound of someone stomping up through the prickly, long, fresh vines that she kneeled down at, helplessly groaning and breathing heavily. She couldn't believe that she had previously waltzed through these vines so gracefully and calmly.

Instantaneously, the world around her turned a bloody shade of red, and at the same moment, she heard a ‘crack’ and the earthly features around her had gone back to normal.

Chapter 2: WALDO

A tall, intelligent-looking and shabbily dressed man had moved into the glow of a streetlamp and was clearly visible for the first time. When you first glanced at him, his appearance wouldn’t have inspired much confidence. His cloak was patched in spots and frayed at the cuffs. He wore a tattered tweet suit that was missing a button. His once-upon-a-time white shirt was stained with ink and what looked like canned beans, and his tie (this was perhaps the strangest of all) was knotted not once but TWICE, as if he’d forgotten whether he’d tied it or not. His grey hair poked out from under his pointed hat, and his bushy eyebrows rose from his forehead like sharp, snowy mountain peaks, peeking over a pair of bent turtle-shell glasses that were patched with heaps of sticky tape. All in all, he looked like a clown that had gotten dressed in the midst of a whirlwind and, thinking he looked a bit TOO presentable, had thrown himself down a flight of stairs as he hobble-danced towards Luna.

It was when you looked in his pale, blue eyes that nearly all your initial impressions of him changed.

His eyes were reflecting no light from the full moon. The moon had been shaded with a high barrier of snow, and somehow still shone brightly in the snow muffled night. In his eyes was a look of such wisdom that you forgot entirely about the fact that his tie was knotted twice over, and that there were food stains on his shirt.

Luna became drenched in a heavy feeling of humor, disgust and displeasure as she laughed hysterically at his odd-looking outfit.

“Good day miss!” He said excitedly.

“It’s night time…” Luna said with a face of horror.

“Mr-” Luna uttered shyly after a few short minutes of ear-splitting giggling coming from the man’s mouth. Though suddenly, his joyful grin flipped upside-down.

She felt the world around her pause for a second again. Even the crystal-like snowflakes seemed to hover in mid-air around her.

The man’s old, wrinkly face looked irritated by his greeting from the 12 year old girl. His eyebrows had straightened up like a stretched out caterpillar and he had a more displeased expression on his face.

“I would rather you call me Professor” he grunted in a grumbled, impatient tone.’ “Professor Waldo”

“Oh- uh, ok PROFESSOR Waldo” she replied foolishly. “I’ve got a question for you.”

“Mhm.. he muttered. ‘Go on.”

“So how come- EUGH!” Luna was interrupted for the second time. The elderly man started dawdling while picking at his two front teeth (his ONLY teeth).

“Oh yeah sorry, do you have by any chance a pair of spare socks I can borrow? The alligator in my backyard chewed on my favourite pink ones. Oh, you have NO idea how disgusting his poop turned out to be-”

Even more irritated than before, Luna held up her shivering hand in the man’s face and said “Please stop. I really don’t want to hear it.”

“Alright child, he chuckled. I enjoy a laugh. Please go on.”

Her voice was low and steady now. Her pale green eyes had narrowed as she stared into Sir Waldo’s soul. She needed a good answer, and FAST.

“Sir, this house has been visible to me for about three years now, before that it looked like an abandoned zoo shelter. I was wondering if you would know… Why?”

“My dear child, he whispered into Luna’s ear. The only reason you and a short number of others can see this castle is because the place has sensed that you have experienced extreme DESPAIR and DEPRESS-”

The man’s grumbly voice made Luna slightly jump. Her insides were wriggling in their spots with curiosity.

“W-what do you mean by despair and depression? She questioned not letting him finish his sentence. How would YOU know when someone has that?”

“I don't,” He said, now getting pretty annoyed by Luna’s terrible knowledge of his magical, misterious world. This castle does.

“Soooo the castle’s alive then? She snapped.”

“Only partly. I think you're stressing about this too much. You're obviously not listening to what I said a couple seconds ago.”

And with a flick of an odd looking, carved stick, he had vanished and materialized into the winter breeze.

The sun was nearly up and she hadn't gotten a chance to close her eyes. Awaiting her was a full school day of concentration and fury and all her dad would know was that she had oddly left for school early.

Chapter 3: THE FINGERNAIL

Grabbing her scooter, Luna zoomed as fast as possible through the swarming crowds of early school students. Realising the door of her house was locked, she decided she shouldn't even bother trying to ring the doorbell; her dad wouldn't wake up even if you put a loud band of trumpets to his ear. So instead of inviting a band or two over to her embarrassing, messy house, she clumsily left without her schoolbag. How would she get through the school day without it? She had no idea.

“What’s the point of going to dumb old school anyway?” Luna thought to herself as she waltzed through the streets of SongBird, the suburb she lived in. “You know what? I’m not going.” she said, rolling her eyes to the back or her head like a petrifying villain. “I AM GOING TO FIND THAT WALDO MAN!” She shouted hysterically, her voice echoing through the whole town.

“Please don’t shout in my ear!” Shouted the elderly woman passing by in her wheelchair. Sheepishly, she jumped out, waddled towards Luna and stabbed her in the ankle with her gruesome, uneven fingernail. “OUCHHH! I thought you needed a wheelchair!” Luna spluttered over the woman’s un-earthly cackles of joy. But the lady had already disappeared in the blink of an eye, and her cackling faded away. It was like she was a translucent, hollow ghost from another universe.

She reached out with her skinny arm to retrieve a finely knitted, blue dog leash that the woman must have accidentally forgotten about and left behind. It was solid (unlike the owner of the leash). Printed on this leash was the name ‘Walter’ in a gold, fancy font. A string of blue wool had been pulled out by what looked like very sharp fangs, and had been lazily tucked back in, and a damaged, scratched bell was tied on to the side. As if Luna needed any more information, an odd looking hearing aid sat perched right next to it.

“Wait a minute… MEG!?” She cried, even louder this time. How come she told me to stop shouting, if she’s ‘deaf’? Luna wondered. Could she hear me this whole time?

All the colour in Luna’s face was drained rapidly and abruptly at the thought that Meg was really absolutely NORMAL, and not the slightest bit deaf.

“HOW did I not realise? She thought. That’s why none of her hearing aids worked! She never needed them! But… WHY did she want to hide the fact that she has perfectly fine working ears?”

‘Turn Time... Turn Time... Magic... Ministry… Go baaaack… Now…’ She heard again. This time, it sounded like… WALDO.

Chapter 4: Meg’s Secret

These Mysterious words had become stuck like glue in her curious mind now.

‘Turn Time... Turn Time... Magic... Ministry… Go back…’

Each time it would get louder, as if whoever it was was getting closer to her ear by a metre each time. Luna tried hard to ignore it, but after a while it got so loud she thought it was all she’d dream of that night. She hesitated, then turned on a ninety degree angle, directing her to ZONKOS.