Anjulina Cornacchia: Attack of the Banshees

I awoke on a bed so comfy, it felt like I was lying on a cloud! ‘What happened? Where was I?’ I thought to myself as I sat up. I noticed the walls were a mixture of clouds and glass. Dream Land! How’d I get here?

When Linda noticed I was awake she rushed over to my bed.

“How long have I been out?” I asked.

“Well, since last night, so about 12 or so hours. How are you feeling?”

“Ugh, my head hurts.”

“Well you had quite a fall.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t succeed. I am so sorry.” I started crying and apologized repeatedly.

“But you did succeed Anjulina.” Linda informed me.

“How? I saw them break out of my spell!” Aunt Julie walked in the room and started explaining what had happened.

“Yes...” Aunt Julie started. They broke the barrier but your spell caused them to be sucked back in. You underestimated your powers Anjulina.” She laughed.

“Really?! Oh that is amazing!” I was so happy that I had saved Dypim Trefad, that I almost forgot about the people who were apart of it all and helped me!

““How’s Taylor?” I asked. “Brooke? What about our parents?”

“They are all fine.” Aunt Julie smiled. “Brooke is right outside actually. The rest are in the other part of the hospital resting.”

That is when I remembered. Oh what have I done? “Desmond risked his life for everyone else’s!” A tear ran down my cheek and I closed my eyes. I felt a finger wipe the tear away.

“You didn’t think you could get rid of me that easy did you?” the voice said with a laugh.

I opened my eyes. I couldn’t believe it!

“Desmond?! How did you?! Where did you?! Oh my God! I thought you were...” He leaned in and kissed me.

“I wasn’t dead. Now that I can finally be with you, it’s going to take a lot more than just an army of Banshees and a couple of explosions to kill me.” I kissed him again. This worked out so perfectly!

Brooke walked in and rolled her eyes. Although I don’t think I was supposed to see that.

“Oh good you’re okay!” She exclaimed. But something wasn’t quite right in her voice.

“Yeah, are you okay?” I asked her.

“Oh, I couldn’t be better!” She smiled. “Hey, I’m going to go back to Mystic Forest to talk with Peaches and let him know! I kind of miss that little fellow!” A few seconds later she was out the door and on her way.

While talking with Linda and all of the rulers who showed up there, I found out that I was now taking over as Queen of Dypim Trefad! Everything was going great!

“Oh Anjulina, where is your necklace?” Linda asked me.

I felt around my neck for it. Panic started rising in me but then I remembered. “It fell off in the maze but Brooke has it! I guess I’ll just get it from her when she comes back.”

“There is someone here to see you Anjulina.” Aunt Julie told me then she stepped aside.

“MARAH! how are you alive? What is going on?!” I was ecstatic!

“Well, Linda helped me hang on to the bridge when it broke. She then allowed me to stay at the palace while I recovered from a few injuries I received from falling.” I gave her a big hug.

Everything was falling in to place. That is, until Dan the Toucan showed up an hour later.

He was all out of breath when he reached us. “Peaches! It’s Peaches! He is dead!”

“What?!” We all screamed.

“What happened?! Do you know who did it?!” I yelled.

“His heart was ripped out...so apparently it was a Banshee. Your sister heard the kind of screech Banshees give out before they kill. She then could’ve swore she saw Brooke running away from that area.

“...You don’t think...” Desmond said slowly.

“Oh my God, the Forbidden Mountains! It must’ve been a banshee who was posing as Pete! When I left Brooke alone for a few minutes she must’ve been turned in to one! That’s why she was acting weird! This is all my fault!”

“But why would she help destroy the village?” Desmond asked.

“Well Karen thinks Brooke is on her way to your world to recruit more banshees.” Dan mentioned.

“That’s why! She wanted to be ruler of her own army! She must’ve left the village after Desmond told her to go flirt with the guards. She must’ve left before I put the spell up!”

Obviously I knew after I was done saving this alternate world there would always be some kind of danger around every corner; but I thought the Banshee problem was over. I looked at my friends and gave a nod. It seems we wouldn’t be going home just quite yet. Obviously this world needs us and with all the friends we made throughout our Banshee mission, it should be even easier to get rid of just one little banshee.

“Hey Anj, do you think she knows how to turn others in to banshees yet?” Marah questioned.

“Oh … that completely slipped my mind. I guess we don’t have just one banshee to hunt down. Who knows where she’s been or how many she’s already turned.”

“Well, an experienced banshee would have turned hundreds, maybe even thousands by now...” Taya’s voice trailed off.

“Oh great.” How could I defeat thousands more?

“But...” Taya continued. “Considering she is new, she most likely hasn’t changed quite as many. You’ll still have quite the task ahead of you but it’s quite possible it won’t be as daunting as this task was.”

“Well that’s a relief.” Taylor sighed.

“Still.” Sabrina spoke up. “We need to be on the look out of any suspicious activity. Anything that seems out of the ordinary. Like you said, when you were in the Forbidden Mountains, that banshee fooled you in to believing it was Pete. The way they can transform themselves makes this even more difficult.”

For a few minutes we all sat there in silence until it was interrupted by a blood curdling scream. That scream was followed by another scream which was followed by another. Soon we could barely hear each other talk.

“She’s recruiting.” Linda said quietly. “There’s not telling how much time we have until these lands are filled to the brim with banshees. We need all the help we can get. Anjulina, it’s up to you to gather every friend you’ve made here. We need to make an army. Every time a new banshee is born it seems as if they evolve some how and get stronger. We need to devise a plan.”

Thankfully I met many friends along this way that I know would be willing to help. The only thing is some had families, could I really expect them to put their life on the line for the land with the chance of never seeing their families again? How loyal could one be to their land if it meant losing their life or their family losing their lives?

Luckily, not only did our new friends agree to help us form an army, so did their families. They told me “We’re either in this together or we get destroyed together.” I guess that does make sense. Here we were, nearly 500 of us. There was no telling how many banshees we would be going up against or where we should even start. All we knew was we took our first step in coming together, all the lands together. If we didn’t control this now, our actual world would pay the price.

“We need to move swiftly.” I told everyone. “Remember, Brooke knows where the passage to our world is. There’s no telling the destruction her and her army could cause not only in these lands but the our home lands as well.”

I knew now that my journey was only beginning.