Tommy Donbavand

Shiver of the Phantom – Chapter 1

To celebrate the publication of Flame of the Dragon – the 13th and final book in the Scream Street series – Tommy Donbavand has written a brand new Scream Street story! Shiver of the Phantom will be released in 13 separate parts on 13 separate blogs between 19th October and Halloween itself!

Check out the first chapter – now live on the Scream Street website – below, then visit the blogs listed each day to find out what happens next.

What a scream!

—

Shiver of the Phantom

by Tommy Donbavand

Chapter One

The Game

The zombies lurched forward as a group, their eyes vacant and skin blistered. Blood dripped down their faces from where they had already feasted, but they remained hungry. They had tasted human flesh, and they wanted more. One of the creatures shuffled ahead of the pack. “Brains!” it moaned through broken teeth and quivering, burst lips. “Brains!”

Resus Negative hefted his weapon – a sturdy cricket bat – and swung it round as hard as he could. There was a sickening CRACK as wood connected with bone and the zombie’s skull burst open, spraying green and grey gunk over its fellow undead. They didn’t appear to notice and continued their assault, arms outstretched as they trampled over their fallen comrade. “Brains! BRAINS!”

Resus hit the pause button, freezing the zombie horde in its tracks. “This is the best game ever!” he exclaimed, reaching for his glass of milk on the bedside table. “Why didn’t you tell me about this one before?”

Luke Watson was lying on his bed, flicking through an old computer games magazine. “I dunno.” He shrugged. “After I met Doug and the other zombies here in Scream Street, I didn’t think it was a good idea to play a game where you have to smash their cousins’ heads in.”

“Well, I think it’s brilliant,” said Resus, downing his milk and resuming the game. He switched weapons from the cricket bat to a sword, and sliced the next attacking zombie’s head clean off its shoulders.

“It’s disgusting, if you ask me,” muttered Cleo Farr. The mummy was hunched up in an old armchair in the corner of the room, scribbling into a notebook. “It’s not the zombies’ fault they’re hungry, is it? They didn’t ask to get a taste for human flesh.”

Resus exchanged a weary glance with Luke. “It’s just a game.” He sighed. “No one’s really getting hurt, Cleo. And since when did you care what happened to— Aargh!”

The vampire dropped the controller and leapt back as one of the zombies in the game suddenly reached through the screen with diseased fingers and tried to grab his throat.

“BRAINS!”

The undead arm – somehow extending out of the TV screen and into the room – was joined by another as the digital zombies shuffled closer to the screen.

“What’s going on?” cried Luke, grabbing the lamp from beside his bed and smashing it down as hard as he could onto the outstretched hands. He heard bones break as one of the zombies’ wrists snapped.

“This is insane!” yelled Resus, climbing up onto the bed – just as the head of a World War II US soldier stretched up from the pages of Luke’s magazine beside him.

With a crinkling sound, a rifle pushed its way out of the page beside the GI and turned to point straight at Resus.

“What did you just call me?” snarled the soldier.

—

To read Chapter Two, visit Wondrous Reads tomorrow!