Anjulina Cornacchia: Attack of the Banshees

I met up with my friends Brooke and Marah over at Taylor’s house. The last weekend of summer was near and we wanted to plan something big; something that would at least put us on the “charts” of popularity. Sure, we all were well known and had a fair amount of friends. But we were all basically loners all the same. After next weekend, that was going to change.

We grabbed a bunch of junk food and headed up to Tay’s room.

“I have GREAT news you guys!” Taylor couldn’t hold her excitement in. “My parents said we could throw a party at the cabin in the woods!”

“But we aren’t allowed in there, remember?” Brooke asked.

“Not the Unknown Forest, the small patch of woods behind my house. Normally my brother would stay there so he had a little ‘freedom’ from the parentals. But he is gone to college!”

“Won’t they check up on us?” Marah asked

“That’s the beauty of it; they’ll be at the camp ground until Monday.” Now even though that was only 15 minutes away from Taylor’s house, it was a huge thing for us.

“What’s the catch?” Marah suspiciously asked.

“What do you mean?”

“What parent in their right mind would let a bunch of teenagers, no matter how responsible…” I shot a look at Brooke. “Or irresponsible, have a party with no adult supervision?” It as a reasonable question I asked.

“HEY!” Brooke exclaimed.

“Sorry Bee but remember what happened last time?” I asked her.

“That wasn’t my fault! How was I supposed to know it was the chief of police’s house that I was partying at?”

“What about the broken table?” Taylor pointed out.

“I wanted to dance and I wanted everyone to see me. It’s not my fault no one told me the table was on wheels, let alone that it was an antique!” she defended her self.

“Well that’s the thing.” Taylor began. “They told me I could have the party… as long as Brooke wasn’t there.”

“WHAT?!” Brooke yelled

“Calm down.” Tay said to Bee. “I only agreed so we could use the place. You’ll just have to arrive a little bit after they leave. Oh and don’t get so trashed!”

“Ugh, FINE! I’ll limit myself to fifteen.”

“BROOKE!”

“Okay, okay seven!” Brooke compromised.

For the next few days we were busy getting everything set up. We had decorations, our guest list, music, even a disco ball! The only thing left to do was buy drinks and snacks.

’Party time’ was only a day away now! We tried doing things to make Friday end faster so we could get to our party. We went to the library, but quickly got bored of that. We went to the arcade twice, threw rocks in the river, went to the mall, visited the pet store and saw a movie!

“Today must almost be over by now.” Brooke gave a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness because I was beginning to think it’d never end!”

“Um… Brooke?” I slowly said. “It’s only 4 o’clock.”

“ARE YOU SERIOUS?! I am going to go crazy! There is nothing else to do in this stupid village!”

“How about we get some ice cream? We can take the long way, passing the bank and go to Water Side.” Taylor suggested.

“You do know how far away that is, right?” Marah asked

“If we took that way instead of the 20 minute shortcut then it’d be approximately an hour or so. It’s a good way to waste time.” She was right, so we continued to take the long way around town.

When we got near the arcade we stopped. There was a crowd in the parking lot to Water Side. There were about six or seven guys surrounding this girl who was sitting at a picnic table. She was a 16 year old girl with golden blonde hair, blue eyes, and just a hint of freckles on her fair skin. She looked like she had an average build and stood at about five foot seven.

“Who’s that?” Brooke asked.

“Her name is Megin Jeross. She just moved here a couple days ago.” Taylor told us. “She lives alone in the apartment building across the road from me.”

“She’s really pretty!” Marah exclaimed. We all instantly envied her. Messina likes to play the ‘name game’. If you have a family member who’s important to society, then you are auDesmondatically popular. If you come from a wealthy family, that determines if you are popular, too. As well as what you look like.

Our village is just like any city, we have the rich, middle and poor class. The rich live in huge houses next to the river. The middle class have average houses and the poor live in complexes. The kids in our school are ranked like this:

· 75% “Normals/Average”

· 14% “Popular”

· 8% “Stuck-up Popular”

· 2% “Jocks”

· 1% “Dirt Bags”

Sure, there were more of us “normal” kids. But somehow the stuck-up popular crowd always ruled everything.

Anyways, all of the guys were drooling over this Megin chick. Let me tell you, she was loving every second of it!

She caught us staring and waved. Not wanting to be rude we waved back.

“She bugs me. I don’t know what it is about her, she just makes me feel uneasy.” Marah said to us.

“Hey there’s Dave!” I said. This was Brooke’s ‘potential boyfriend’. She liked him, he loved her, but she didn’t want anything serious. She can be fickle at times. I could see the rage in her eyes when she saw him flirting with Megin though.

“Seriously? Oh no he didn’t!” Brooke remarked and immediately called his phone. We watched as he picked up his phone and walked away from Megin.

“Hello?”

“Hey Dave! What are you doing?”

“Oh, not too much, just getting some ice cream.”

“I see, hey I was wondering if the offer to date was still on the table? You know I have been thinking a lot about it and I think we have a real shot.” We knew she was lying through her teeth. But we’ve all been there, right? A guy that likes you wants to date you, but you don’t like him enough to date him. Then you see him with another girl and think that you don’t want her to have him because that means his mind isn’t on you anymore. So even though you know it won’t last, you ask him out because it’s better that he is with you than with her. You know what I’m talking about? Never mind, I think it’s just a ‘Brooke thing’.

“Uh, oh wow, let me get back to you on that.” Dave stuttered,

“Don’t take too long.” Brooke warned him. Once off the phone he immediately walked back to Megin and started flirting.

“I’m not going to get a call back am I?”

“Nope.” We all replied.

“C’mon, let’s just get our ice cream and go back to the cabin.” Taylor suggested. By the time we go to the cabin, of course taking the long way there, it was 6:30.

“Uh oh.” I said aloud. Taylor came over to me.

“What do you mean uh oh?”

“Look at who’s on the list…”

…12. Mark M.

13. Desmondmy W.

14. Niki G.

15. Dan M.

16. Dave H.

17. Clarisa P.

18. Braeona C.

19. Wil N.

“Better show Brooke.” I said and brought the list over to her. We were curious as to how she would react. She could be pretty unpredictable. But I think she surprised us all.

“Good!” She told us. “I have the hottest outfit ever that I just bought yesterday. I’ll show him that I’m the better choice than that THING! I mean it’s not like she’ll be there, it’s invite only!” We rolled our eyes at her. We hate it when she’s shallow like this!

We still had a full 24 hours until the party. We added a few last minute things to the decorations then we all went home to get some sleep.

The following afternoon, around 3:30, Marah and I met at Taylor’s house. Her mom wanted to go over the rules and such before they left.

“Now, make sure there is not too much noise.” Taylor’s mom, Callie, began. “ I know the cabin is in the middle of the woods but sound does travel. Oh and only the ‘of age’ people can drink. Got it?” We agreed. It wasn’t that big of a deal because in our village, the legal drinking age was sixteen.

“Oh and two more things I want you girls to remember.” Callie continued. “Make sure nothing gets broken and under no circumstances is anyone allowed to go in the Forbidden Forest. Do I make myself clear?”

Of course she had to point that out, when we were younger we tried sneaking in to the forest to see what we were to be afraid of in there. Needless to say we got in big trouble.

“Don’t worry about a thing mom.” Taylor assured her. “Nothing bad will happen.” Taylor made sure her parents didn’t forget anything so they wouldn’t be back until Monday.

Around 5 o’clock Brooke pushed open the cabin door. “Finally! Let’s get this party started!”

The first few guests arrived around 7:15 and the party was going great! By 8:30 there were over 70 guests! Which believe me, was a lot. The average party in our village had about 35-40 guests. By the rate we were going we’d definitely be on the popularity charts!

Around 9 Brooke started becoming restless. “Where is he?” She kept looking from the clock to the door.

“Maybe he forgot.” Brooke’s friend Michelle said. Brooke shot her a look. Michelle never was the brightest.

“Why don’t you text him?” Brittanie suggested.

“Never thought of it, ha-ha thanks!”

Text Message To: Dave <3 (9:13 pm)

“Hey where are ya? Party started over an hour ago.”

A couple minutes went by before she got a reply.

Text Message From: Dave <3 (9:18 pm)

“Be there soon.”

By 9:30 Dave was walking through the door.

“Hey it’s about…” Brooke stopped mid sentence when she saw Megin following behind him. Bee pulled him aside. “What is she doing here?”

“Megin doesn’t really know anyone in the town yet…”

“Except for the guys…” Bee mumbled.

“So I figured this was a good chance for her to get to know everyone.” He told Brooke.

“Yeah, great idea!” Brooke sarcastically stated. She tried sounding enthused but it was hard for her. Dave and Megin continued to go get something to drink.

“Hey guys come here!” Brooke rounded us up on the back porch. “Let’s take advantage of her being here. Let’s go over to her apartment and do some snooping. Maybe we can find some dirt on her.”

At first we thought her jealousy was getting the better of her. Then again, we all wanted to know what Megin’s story was. Something just didn’t add up with her.

“Great idea but how do we get in without a key?” I asked.

“Taylor, you go introduce yourself. Be as nice as possible. Ask her how she likes our village, where she’s from, stuff like that. Then ask if you can hang her coat and purse up for her.” You could always tell when Marah was on a mission to do something. She was very good at being the leader.

“Why do I have to do it?” Taylor argued back.

“Well, it’s your party and you want to be a good host right?” I asked.

“Not to her.” Taylor said bluntly. “But I will do it.” We watched as Taylor walked over to Megin.

“She’s getting her to laugh, that’s a good sign!” I said. Taylor gestured toward Megin’s coat, which Megin handed to her. Then Taylor tried helping her off with her undercoat. But when it started slipping off of her shoulders, she pulled away. When her coat slipped, I saw something greenish gray on her.

“Did you guys see that?” I asked Brooke and Marah.

“Yes I know, she has the same damn dress on as me! Where the hell does she come off running this town and MY potential boyfriend?!” Brooke went off in to a rant. I ignored her.

“No…when Taylor went to take her undercoat, it slipped off her shoulder.” I began.

“Okay and your point?” Brooke impatiently asked while watching Dave’s every move.

“I could’ve sworn her shoulder was like a greenish gray color! It looked kind of scaly too!”

“I think you’re seeing things Anj.” Marah said. “But if you did see that it’s probably just a skin disorder.” Marah was right. I mean, what I saw didn’t look human. But it’d be impossible for her to be something other than human, wouldn’t it? It gave me a weird feeling seeing that. All my life I knew there was something more to this world. Almost like there was a secret everyone else besides me knew. I would get that feeling time to time but it would only last a few seconds. This time, it wasn’t going away.

“Anjulina! Earth to Anjulina!” Brooke tried to yell quietly.

“Huh? What?”

“C’mon, now’s our chance.” Marah said.

For a moment I forgot where I was. I felt disoriented for some reason. But I ignored the feeling and followed my friends to Megin’s apartment.

Her place, from the looks of it, was an ordinary studio apartment. Everything was neat and orderly.

“She has almost 30 books! She doesn’t seem like the type who likes to read.” Marah told us.

“You mean the type that knows how to read.” Brooke commented.

We began snooping around. We didn’t know what we were looking for, we just had a feeling she was hiding something. No one was that perfect and no one in their right mind would move to our village. We haven’t had anyone move here in over 50 years! At least that’s what my parents told me. Then I started thinking about it.

“Taylor!” She looked up at me startled. “You said she moved here a couple days ago?”

“Yeah, last Tuesday why?”

“I didn’t see any plane. The last plane to come here was a week from yesterday.”

“So?” The three of them said.

“Do I have to spell it out for you? How did she get here?” I finally caught their attention. “Nothing about her makes sense. How did she get here? Why is she alone? Why didn’t she want to take her under coat off?”

Just then her computer started lighting up. She had 3 new emails. We clicked on the first one.

(EMAIL #1) Subject: OPERATION 94013-BDR 27-08-09 (15:30:33 pm)

“Megin, this is Nighe. Tell me how your progression is going with the operation 94013-BDR. I want a fully detailed update.”

(EMAIL #2) Subject: RETURN 27-08-09 (15:34:33 pm)

“Megin, this is Luner. We need you back promptly. You have to wait until the 29th. In case you didn’t know that is 2 days from this message. Don’t worry about the ‘D’ right yet. Just focus on the ‘R’. You know what to do.”

(EMAIL #3) Subject: MOON 27-08-09 (15:35:36 pm)

“Megin, Maev here. Look, if you are going to do the 2nd part of BDR, you need to do it tonight. Tonight by 11pm-their time. There is a full moon there. WE TRUST YOU WILL CARRY OUT THE MISSION. Email back when the task is completed if you have yet to return. Be sure no one follows you and watch out for the alliance.

Take care. Oh and by the way, have you noticed the time change? They display time differently because we have 36 hours in a day while they only have 24. Also, because we are in a different time change, they are 3 days ahead, just thought I’d mention that.”

Taylor looked out the window just in time. “Hey guys! Someone is coming! Look!” Dave was walking across the road to the apartment. They started running out of the apartment.

“Anj come on!” Marah yelled.

“Wait! I just want to print these real quick!”

“Don’t forget to exit out of them!” the three of them ran out of the apartment and hid in the maintenance closet down the hall.

Text Message From: Bee (10:02 pm)

“He’s coming up the stairs!”

Of course when you are in a hurry nothing goes right. The last page was printing as the door lock turned. I grabbed the papers and as I was running to the closet I tripped over a book sticking out from under her bed. I grabbed it and ran in to the closet. I left the door cracked a little bit so I could see what he was doing.

As Dave was walking slowly through the apartment, I skimmed through the book. It was Megin’s journal! There were diagrams of creatures coming out when the moon appears. It looked as if it didn’t have to be a full moon, just as long as there was a moon. I looked up as Dave was slowly walking over to the computer. My heart sank; I forgot to exit out of the emails!

He tried calling someone on the phone but he must’ve not had a signal because he ran out of the apartment.

Shortly after that, Taylor came in to get me. “Hurry up Anj! He’s probably going to call Megin; we have got to get out of here!” Instead of going right back to the party, we went to Taylor’s house. I debated whether to show them the journal or not. But since it looked like it had to deal with non-human things, I thought it best not to show them. People are sometimes closed minded when it comes to things such as mythical creatures and the ‘impossible’ things. I would show them when I felt the time was right. For now, I just put it in my purse and tried to forget about it.

“Okay let’s see the emails!” Marah said. I laid them out on the coffee table in order. “How is it possible for the time to be 15:30:36 pm? There are only 24 hours in a day.”

“It says right here in the third email.” Taylor pointed at it and began. “They are in a different time change, which probably means time zone. There are 36 hours in a day for them. They are 3 days behind us too!”

“I don’t know of any country that is 3 days behind. I didn’t think it was possible.” Marah was really puzzled, and that doesn’t happen often.

“Look at this, 940130-BDR, what do you think that means?” Bee asked.

“Not sure but I have a feeling we have to get back to the party.” I told them. “Look, whoever Maev is, she said the ‘R’ part was to be done by 11 pm our time, tonight!” We looked at the clock and it was already 10:45 pm! Taylor hid the emails in her room and we ran to the cabin.

We could see the cabin; it wasn’t but 100 feet away when it struck 11. By the time we got there it was almost 11:02. We figured if anything was going to happen, it hadn’t happened yet because nothing ever actually happens at the exact time it’s supposed to.

As soon as we walked through the door there was a screech like noise coming from upstairs. No one else at the party looked concerned, as if we were the only ones who heard it.

We ran up there and looked in every room until we heard a big thud come from the attic. We pulled the ladder from the ceiling and started up it. Once at the top we tried the lights but of course they wouldn’t come on.

“Hello? Is someone up here?” Marah asked.

“Don’t do that!” Taylor whispered sharply at her.

“Do what?”

“You never ask that question during a situation like this! Don’t you ever watch scary movies?”

“Sounds like you watch too many of them!” Marah said back.

“Look, it’s probably just a couple fooling around up here.” Brooke suggested. “ Better not be Megin and Dave!” she crossed her arms.

“What’s that over there?” I pointed next to the window. The moonlight shined in just enough to glimmer over something golden. As we walked closer, the ladder came back up and the door latch slammed shut.

“Guess there’s no turning back now.” Taylor said. As we moved closer we saw it was a body.

“That’s Michelle!” Brooke exclaimed. Her chest had a hole where her heart was supposed to be. Before we could work up a good cry we heard another screech downstairs.

Taylor ran over to the door. “The latch is stuck!” We all tried helping her but it was no use.

“Now what do we do?” I asked.

We thought for a minute. “Let’s climb out the window! We can shimmy down the roof. I’ve done it before, it’s easy. I had to do it numerous times. As a kid my brother would play tricks on me and lock me in the attic.” Taylor told us.

“Maybe easy for you!” I said. “You have long legs!”

As we made our way back to the window, we noticed Michelle’s body was gone!

“Where did…” was all any of us could think to say. We decided to worry about it later and we continued on to the roof.

Once we shimmied down to the balcony on the second story, Taylor tried the door. But of course it HAD to be locked!

“That’s strange.” Taylor said. “We never lock that door. Guess we have to keep going. There is some roof below the balcony that covers the side porch. From the balcony to the roof I‘d say it‘s about…” Taylor glanced down. “About 10 or so feet. The distance from that roof to the porch is about 12 feet looking down. All in all we will only be dropping about 16 feet or so. Well, 20 for Anj.” she joked.

“Great. You know that extra few feet could do a lot of damage!” I told her.

“Oh you will be fine. We will go first just in case we need to catch you.”

“Are you saying you think I’m going to fall?” I started getting nervous.

“No.” Taylor sighed. “I am saying just in case.” After Brooke was on the porch, I was about to drop from the balcony to the roof when I slipped!

Luckily my purse strap caught on a nail poking out from the balcony. Before I could catch it the journal slipped out of my purse and landed on the porch.

“Guys! Get that book!” At this point I didn’t care if they saw what the book was. I mean I would rather have them pick the book up than someone else like, oh say Megin! Plus, I was a little preoccupied at the moment to care if they saw what was in it!

“Hang on Anj! We’ll run up to the balcony and pull you in!” Taylor yelled to me.

“You know, why didn’t just one of us drop and then run up to the balcony to let the rest of us in, in the first place?!” I yelled. Of course none of us thought of that. We never think of simple solutions like that. Brooke and Marah followed after Taylor.

While I was dangling there waiting for my friends to run upstairs and pull me up, I heard whispering. I couldn’t tell if they were a man or a woman. The first voice was calm and soothing. It told me to not give up because my destiny was too great. The other voice was pretty disturbing. It was an old raspy voice telling me to let go. It said no one would miss me and that it was my destiny to die at this very moment. At first I figured they were my “shoulder angels”. But when I thought about it, my shoulder angel’s voices weren’t that vivid. It was like I could feel their warm breath on my ear as they whispered.

Of course I was going to listen to the first voice, there was no doubt about that. While waiting for Taylor, I could feel the strap of my purse slipping. Only, it felt like something was pulling it, opposed to it just slipping on its own.

Just as my purse gave way, Taylor grabbed for it. “Just in time!” She said. “Told you, you wouldn’t get hurt!” We both laughed.

“Yeah you’re lucky!” I jokingly warned her. She started to pull me up.

“Grab my hand!” My fingertips were just barely touching hers when the purse strap broke! It looked as if someone took scissors and cut it. The broken strap was not frayed. It was a simple straight line where the breakage happened.

I was falling head first and I couldn’t turn myself around. My life flashed before my eyes. Everything I’ve done and everything I wanted to do. My hopes and my dreams were getting dimmer which each inch I fell. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the pain. I could hear Taylor, Brooke and Marah screaming as they helplessly watched me fall. There was nothing anyone could do. This was the end.