The Broken Leg of Doom Read online

  I could tell that Maisie was a bit annoyed at Jodi and that Jodi was feeling really guilty so that’s when I tried to change the subject a bit and asked Maisie about the headphones. And that’s when Maisie smiled and passed them to me and I put them on for a second and heard loads of WHALE SOUNDS.

  That’s when Maisie told us that one of the nurses had given them to her and that they had loads of sounds on them that you could choose from like

  whales, especially humpback whales, so I knew that must have been what calmed her down and stopped her from screaming.

  Maisie told us to try the headphones out so I put them back on and pressed the RAINFOREST SOUNDS button but it wasn’t very relaxing and it was actually a bit STRESSFUL because it started with just one monkey but then after a minute there were LOADS of monkeys and they were all screaming.

  So I took the headphones off and that’s when I heard a voice right behind me say, “I can’t believe it.”

  And I gasped and turned around and saw that Seb was standing there again.

  I was just about to tell him off a bit for sneaking up on people because it was really getting on my nerves now but then I saw the look on his face. And the look on Jodi’s face. And Zach’s face. But Maisie didn’t have a look on her face because her eyes were shut and her head was slumped to the side because she’d fainted.

  And that’s when I knew that I must have missed something when I was listening to all the monkeys. And that it must have been something

  And then Zach said, “Are you sure?”

  And Seb nodded his head and said, “I’m sure. It went in there.”

  And then he pointed to Maisie’s cast.

  I had

  what had gone inside Maisie’s cast and I thought it must have been a FLY or something because there wasn’t much space at all between her leg and the cast.

  But then Jodi said, “I don’t believe you.”

  And Seb said, “Well, you’d BETTER. Because this is REAL. I saw it with my own EYES.”

  And I couldn’t believe that everyone knew what it was that had gone inside Maisie’s leg cast except for me or that I hadn’t asked yet but it was one of those situations where everything goes really fast and it feels much faster than real life.

  And that’s when I eventually managed to say, “What? What went inside?! I had the monkeys in my ears!”

  And that’s when Seb put his hand on my shoulder and said,

  But then Jodi stood up and said that it was time for Seb to go and that he was talking NONSENSE and that curses didn’t even EXIST.

  And that’s when Maisie’s eyes

  and she sat up and started yelling, “My leg! Something’s happening. My LEG!!!”

  And Seb looked at us and said, “See. I told you.”

  The next morning felt like the LONGEST morning EVER.

  I couldn’t concentrate on ANYTHING our teacher, Miss Jones, was saying because I kept thinking about Maisie being in the hospital without us and her broken leg and the CURSE that had sneaked into her CAST and was making her leg all ITCHY. And it didn’t help that Jodi kept asking me what time it was every thirty seconds and asking me if I was SURE my watch wasn’t broken.

  Then at lunchtime the dinner ladies served Maisie’s

  pink custard with ice cream, and that’s when Jodi actually THREW her tray on to the floor and shouted,

  Because Jodi gets really UPSET and ANGRY sometimes and she gets told off a LOT about it.

  So I picked up the tray and put it back on top of the other trays. And I was glad that it was empty and that the dinner ladies hadn’t seen Jodi throw it because they would have gone

  They already don’t like us because they know we hate loads of their food (especially the shepherd’s pie) and they don’t like that we started a PETITION about getting it BANNED and they also don’t like that it got LOADS of signatures and that some of the signatures were from TEACHERS.

  So anyway, I grabbed Jodi’s arm and pulled her out of the dining hall before she had a full-blown Jodi Tantrum because we’d already been sent to the head teacher’s office that week and I didn’t want to get sent back. (I don’t have time to explain why just now but it had to do with starting our own hairdresser’s in the playground at break and Jodi giving Gary Petrie a MOHICAN.)

  So I pulled Jodi along the bottom corridor and all the way to The Den (which is a secret room under the stairs that lead up the boys’ toilets that only we know about).

  Me and Jodi sat on one of the upturned buckets we use as chairs and Zach locked the door behind us because we have the only key.

  And as soon as the door was locked Jodi said, “I don’t think I’ll be able to COPE if Maisie has a broken leg AND a curse!”

  Jodi was obviously feeling really upset and GUILTY so that’s when I knew that I was going to have to be in charge of the

  and that it was going to be up to ME to start a PLAN about Maisie’s LEG CURSE.

  So I sat down and pulled up the floorboard and took out the MINI WHITE BOARD we accidentally stole and the GOOD PENS because that’s where we keep everything so if anyone ever finds our den they won’t find all our secret plans.

  And then I said, “OK. What do we know about the curse so far?”

  And Zach said that we knew that there was a

  at the hospital and that it had gone inside Maisie’s cast.

  So I wrote:

  And then I didn’t write any more because we didn’t know anything else.

  So that’s when Jodi said that we should come to her house for tea and use her mum’s laptop to do RESEARCH.

  And then she went a bit quiet and I looked and saw that she was staring at the bucket Maisie usually sits on.

  So that’s when I put the white board down and stood up and said, “OK. Let’s DO this!”

  And Zach and Jodi both gave me a bit of a weird look because they didn’t realise what I was doing.

  So that’s when I stuck my arm out in front of me and said, “If we can deal with demons and vampire rats then we can deal with a curse. We can save Maisie. I KNOW we can… LET’S DO THIS!”

  And then Zach jumped up and put his hand on top of my hand said, “Let’s do this.”

  And I said, “Sorry, Zach. I didn’t hear that. What did you saaay??”

  Even though I obviously HAD heard him and I just wanted him to say it LOUDER so that Jodi would get up and focus on the INVESTIGATION and stop being sad and start being more Jodi-like.

  And Zach smiled a bit and said, “LET’S DO THIS!”

  And then Jodi stood up and slapped her hand on top of ours and yelled, “LET’S DO THIS!”

  After school, me and Zach went to Jodi’s house for our tea and to do research before going to visit Maisie in the hospital that evening.

  But when we arrived, Jodi opened the door and said, “We’re leaving. My mum says we can have tea at the hospital.”

  I didn’t really want to eat HOSPITAL FOOD plus Jodi had said earlier that her mum was making CHICKEN SURPRISE for tea which I LOVE because the surprise is that she hides CHEESE and PEPPERONI inside the chicken breast and it’s DELICIOUS and I didn’t think they’d have anything like that at the hospital. But I didn’t say anything because Jodi obviously wanted to go and she already had her coat on.

  Then when we arrived at the hospital Jodi did a huge sigh of RELIEF and said, “Thank goodness we’re here!”

  And that’s when I noticed that Jodi was clutching something TIGHT in her hand. So I asked her what it was and she looked at the back of her mum’s head and then gave me the WIDE EYES which I knew meant she’d tell us once we were inside and her mum couldn’t hear.

  So we got out of the car and followed Jodi’s mum into the hospital. And when we walked into the main entrance I saw that there was ANOTHER display about BANDAGES and a banner thing that said THE HISTORY OF THE BANDAGE.

  And I was just about to ask what all the BANDAGE STUFF was about when I saw a CREEPY STATUE THING with bits of OLD BANDAGES hanging off it and I GASPED.


  I looked to see if Jodi and Zach had noticed the CREEPY STATUE but they hadn’t because they had gone ahead of me and they were walking into the café.

  And that’s when I forgot all about the creepy statue because I thought we were having dinner with Maisie in the ward not at a café by ourselves! So I rushed over and that’s when Jodi explained that we weren’t allowed to visit the ward until 6pm and that we were having our dinner in the café first.

  So I asked Jodi why we couldn’t have just had dinner at her house before we came since we weren’t even allowed to go to the ward yet.

  And that’s when Jodi’s eyes went WIDE again and she said, “We need to be ON SITE in case something happens.”

  And then she grabbed a tray and put a banana and an egg sandwich on it and that’s when I knew that there was something SERIOUSLY WRONG because Jodi HATES eggs.

  So we all sat down and Jodi unpeeled her banana and started eating it and I couldn’t take my eyes off her because she was eating it REALLY weirdly and really FAST. And I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d seen Jodi eat a banana!

  So I waited until Jodi’s mum went to the toilet and then I said, “OK. What’s going ON?!”

  And that’s when Jodi’s eyes went wide and she took the rolled-up piece of paper that she’d been clutching out of her coat pocket and said, “I need to show you something. We have a problem.

  And Zach did a gulp.

  I felt a bit dizzy after reading the piece of paper.

  I looked at Zach to see how he was feeling because I had read it first and then handed it to him. And then I’d drunk Jodi’s mum’s cup of tea to try to calm down because I was

  a bit and my mum ALWAYS has a cup of tea when she’s stressed about something. Like when she has a work DEADLINE or when the CREDIT CARD BILL comes or every time Gran and Granddad arrive half an hour early for dinner and Mum hasn’t even put the potatoes on yet.

  So anyway, I looked at Zach and he was STARING at the piece of paper and his left EYE was TWITCHING a bit. And I wasn’t surprised at all about the staring OR the TWITCHING because Jodi had a NEW list of information about CURSES. And it was BAD. And that’s when I realised why Jodi had been acting so strangely.

  Then Jodi said, “I asked my mum about curses as soon as I got home because I remembered that she used to watch this programme about them and it had MUMMIES in it.”

  And that’s when Zach’s eyes almost POPPED out of his head because Zach is TERRIFIED of mummies and he actually locked himself in the toilet when the Year 6s did a MUSICAL about ANCIENT EGYPT and he refused to come out until it was over.

  So anyway, Jodi took a really deep breath and then she got a SERIOUS LOOK on her face and said, “If Seb’s right about there being a curse on WARD 13 and it HAS gone into Maisie’s leg cast then we have to do something

  Then she opened her eyes even WIDER than they already were and said, “And there’s ZERO time to WASTE.”

  And she was RIGHT because the list said:

  So that’s when I asked Jodi about the CURSED BUS thing and she said that her mum told her that she used to get a bus to college every Tuesday when she was learning to be a hairdresser and that EVERY SINGLE TUESDAY the bus broke down and she’d have to walk the rest of the way to college and that the bus was obviously

  Then Zach said, “Maybe it wasn’t the bus that was cursed. Maybe it was someone ON the bus that was cursed.”

  And Jodi spun her head round to face Zach and said, “Are you trying to say that my mum’s cursed or something?! Because she’s NOT!”

  And I got a shock because Jodi didn’t say it very nicely and it was a bit of an

  But then Jodi told Zach that she was sorry and that she was just really worried about Maisie in case it was a MUMMY’S CURSE.

  And that’s when I remembered all the displays about BANDAGES and the WEIRD STATUE THING that had been wrapped in BANDAGES and I GASPED and said, “It is!

  And Jodi and Zach stared at me.

  So that’s when I took a DEEP BREATH and explained about the displays and the statue and that the hospital must have something to do with ANCIENT MUMMIES and that maybe they STUDIED them here hundreds of years ago or something and accidentally set a mummy’s curse LOOSE.

  Zach put his head in his hands and I knew that it was because he didn’t want the MUMMY THING to be true. So I looked at Jodi and she put both of her hands FLAT on the table and STARED at me with WIDE EYES and said, “If there’s a mummy’s curse still in the hospital then there might still be an actual MUMMY.”

  And that’s when Zach yelled, “WHAT?! NO WAY! I CAN’T DEAL WITH THIS!!!”

  But then Jodi’s mum came back from the toilet and asked Zach why he was shouting. But Zach didn’t answer because he was obviously in SHOCK and Jodi’s mum didn’t even notice because she was too busy looking inside the little teapot and trying to figure out what had happened to all her tea.

  My head was absolutely SPINNING and it was because Jodi had just said that there might be an actual ancient MUMMY in the hospital! And because Zach was bouncing both his legs up and down with STRESS. And Jodi was STARING into the air like she was

  and eating her egg sandwich even though she HATES eggs.

  And then all of a sudden there was an announcement and it said:

  And I GASPED.

  And Jodi dropped her egg sandwich on the floor.

  Because that was

  Before I could even BLINK, Jodi had VAULTED over the café barrier and was running FULL SPEED across the hospital.

  Jodi’s mum grabbed her bag and told us to leave our food and started running after her and YELLING at her to SLOW DOWN. But Jodi DIDN’T slow down.

  So me and Zach ran after them both but we couldn’t keep up because Jodi is SUPER FAST and so is her mum!

  That’s when Zach grabbed my arm and said, “LIFT!”

  And I looked and saw that there were people getting into the lift and that the doors were still open. So we RAN as fast as we could towards the lift and it was TOTALLY STRESSFUL because just as we were getting close the doors started to CLOSE.

  So I waved my hands in the air and shouted,

  But the people in the lift weren’t paying attention and the doors just kept on closing.

  And then all of a sudden, Zach started running faster than I have EVER seen him run. And it was like watching someone in the OLYMPICS or something!

  And then he jumped up in the air and kicked his LEG out into a HIGH KICK and flew towards the lift and stuck his foot inside just as the doors were closing!

  And I actually SCREAMED when he did it because I was SURE that he was going to end up in Ward 13 in the bed next to Maisie with a CRUSHED FOOT! But he didn’t. Because the doors froze where they were and then started to open again!

  That’s when Zach jumped up off the floor and he had a HUGE smile on his face and he said, “IT WORKED!”

  And I burst out LAUGHING because it HAD worked and also because I think I was in a bit of SHOCK because I thought I’d just watched my best friend get his FOOT CRUSHED.

  So we ran into the lift and we were totally out of breath and everyone was STARING at us with their mouths wide open because they probably thought we were MARTIAL ARTS EXPERTS or something.

  I smiled at everyone to try to be polite while Zach reached up and pressed FLOOR 6 because that’s what floor Ward 13 is on. But no one really smiled back which was a bit rude but I knew that it was probably because we’d given them a FRIGHT.

  Then when we got to Floor 6 I said thanks to everyone in the lift even though they hadn’t kept the door open or pressed the button for us because it felt like the right thing to do.

  Then suddenly Zach yelled, “THERE!” and pointed and I saw Jodi’s ponytail disappear around the corner at the bottom of the corridor.

  So we RAN after her and when we got to the end the big door was still open so we didn’t have to buzz the buzzer and we just ran in.

  And to be honest with you I hadn’t really known WHAT to
expect when we arrived because of the URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT.

  But I definitely didn’t expect

  It was CHAOS. All the nurses and doctors were running around and there was loads of SCREAMING and SHOUTING. And everyone was SOAKING WET because the SPRINKLERS were on FULL BLAST.

  Me and Zach stood there with our mouths WIDE OPEN and I knew for a FACT that my mouth was wide open because I could TASTE the sprinkler water.

  Then all of a sudden someone was standing in front of us with their hood up.

  At first I thought it was Jodi because I couldn’t see very well because the normal ward lights weren’t on and there was a weird, dull red light instead, like we were in a SUBMARINE or something.

  I looked at Zach but I couldn’t really see his face EITHER because his hair was SOAKED and it was hanging down over his nose.

  And then all of a sudden the HOODED FIGURE grabbed our hands and I just KNEW that it wasn’t Jodi because that’s not what Jodi’s hands FEEL like!

  I was literally about to scream the WHOLE HOSPITAL down when I saw that the hooded figure was wearing massive DOG SLIPPERS.

  That’s when I yelled, “Seb?! What’s going ON?!”

  And Seb said, “Follow me if you want to LIVE.”