Murkey Dismal is the first in a series of stories aimed at 5-7 year olds. The stories are about a group of faeries, each unaware that others exist and all with issues!. Murkey Dismal is 500 years old with anger management problems, he was once a young happy go lucky faerie who loved being around and helping human beings, particularly with their romantic affairs. He has become jaded and disapointed with humans and what he believes to be a deteriorisation of society. Mainly though he is angry and frustrated that there is little respect for the land and its little people. He blames humans for the destruction of his race and is determined to cause as much havoc as possible. He lives in an innner city area where his neighbours believe him to be a sad, grumpy, dirty, old man..



CHAPTER 1

Mum! Oh my God! Muuuuummmm! Shrieked Ella, “quick come here, look!” Mum ran into the living room still holding a half peeled carrot and knife. “What is it?” “Look”, Ella pointed at the television. There on the screen as clear as day they saw a mashed up, overturned car with a pair of brightly coloured high heels poking out from underneath. “It’s Ms Jones”, Ella spluttered, “she was wearing those ridiculous shoes today”. A news reporter encircled by a gaggle of curious onlookers was talking excitedly, “freak winds, appearing seemingly from out of nowhere hurled the car 10 metres into the air, the local school teacher didn’t stand a chance. More strangely, however, is that nothing else was affected by this wind, I am now handing you over to the newsroom where Andy is discussing the phenomenon with Professor Smartyalec. The television picture changed, two very important looking men were discussing in great detail the scientific reasons behind the windy phenomenon.






In another living room not very far away, a weird looking little man with a head of long, dirty, matted, reddish hair, and dirty raggedy clothes got up out of his dirty, worn armchair and threw a carton of sour milk at the television, “Blahdy, blahdy blah! What do you know mister I’m so smart and clever that every morning when I get up and look at myself in the mirror I’m just so amazed at how much I know.” His cat ran and started to lap up the milk. “Pah!” the man shouted slamming the rickety old front door of his run down basement flat behind him.

“What you starin’ at you stupid old boot!” the weird little man shouted over the road at an old woman, who had been cleaning her front steps and was trying desperately to avoid catching his eye. She shuffled quickly through her front door without looking back. “Hmphh! Nice weather we’re havin’ for the time of year.” He sneered.









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CHAPTER 2

Murkey Dismal shuffled out of the street on which he lived and onto an over-grown dirt track. The dirt track was filled with empty drink cans and various other bits of mindlessly disguarded rubbish which had been left to accumulate. MD kicked at the rubbish muttering something incomprehensible as he went. After a minute or so of kicking and muttering MD looked up and noticed a small group of girls chattering and walking towards him. When they noticed him Ella and her friends quickly grouped together tightly and began to giggle nervously. As they got closer MD began to get angrier and the girls began to giggle more uncontrollably. Suddenly MD screeched so loud that the birds sitting on nearby fences flew off into the distance, “Kidsssss………!” Before anyone could take a breath, the sky had darkened and a fierce wind blew in from nowhere. All the surrounding rubbish was whipped up into a mini tornado, flew up into the air and then came crashing down. The girls ran and ran and did not stop until they reached the end of the dirt tack and onto the attached estate. When they finally turned to look the sky had brightened again, but they all heard what sounded like several empty drinks cans hitting gravel.

“Did you see that?” Ella whispered, the other two girls nodded. “He did that!” the other two nodded again. Almost immediately the silence was broken and the three began talking in fast excited high pitched voices. “All this strange weather, it’s obvious innit?” “ Of course, how come no one’s worked it out before?” “The wheelie bins.” “The raining frogs”. “The raining old shoes, that was a weird one!” Ms Jones! Sophie reflected. “And his cat…have you noticed how he talks to that scrawny old cat?” “Yeah but how does he do it? He can’t be controlling the weather.” “Yeah but we saw didn’t we?” “ I dunno, what did we see? “He’s mad he is”.

“Mum, you know that weird old man who lives in Sydney street ?” Ella ventured after tea during a repeated episode of Doctor Who. “Yes sweetie, oh please tell me you haven’t been winding him up! Last time he went charging around to Mrs. Peters house after their Jimi had been calling him names, she couldn’t speak properly for days, she said it had been as if a golf ball had been lodged in her throat.” “Maybe it had” Ella said thoughtfully. “What dear?” her mother replied focusing her attention back on the television screen. Ella told her mother what had happened on their way back from the skateboard park that afternoon. “He’s very odd but I don’t really think he can control the weather,” her mother replied. “But what about all the strange weather mum? Hailstones in August! And all these strong winds, and Ms. Jones how could a tornado have thrown up that car this morning? And how come it only happens here.” Ella spoke excitedly. “Something to do with with laylines, that’s what the scientists were saying on the telly this morning, he’s just a grumpy old man, sad really.” They continued watching Doctor Who. Ella sat staring at the screen, she did not agree with her mother.




CHAPTER 3



Due to the death of Ms Jones the following day school was cancelled. Although she knew she should be sad, Ella could not help feeling a little excited at the thought of a day off and, she reasoned she had never really liked her teacher much anyway. Her mother however was less enthusiastic. “You’ll have to go and stay with Sophie today I really can’t afford to take another day off work.” After a quick phone call Ella found herself sitting in Sophies bedroom discussing their theory about MD and the mysterious weather. “You read too much Harry Potter you do!” Sophie laughed pulling out her mobile phone, she started playing one of the pre loaded games, beep, beep beeeeep beeeep!! “No seriously,” Ella replied, “that wind yesterday it really spooked me, it came just as he screamed. How can it be just a coincidence?” “Dunno”, Sophie shrugged. “Come with me, I want to go and see if anything strange is going on at his house,” Ella begged. “Dam! I can’t win this game.” “Sophie!” “What!” “Will you come with me?” “Where? Oh yeah OK, It’ll be something to do I suppose, l’ll phone Amy and see if she wants to come.”



Twenty minutes later the three girls were heading towards Sydney street . “What’ll we do when we get there?” Amy asked. “Dunno” replied Sophie. “Ask detective inspector Ella Brown over here”. “We could knock on the door, pretending to be girl guides or something, you know doing jobs for money. “ Ella suggested animatedly. “Or just sit and watch his flat, see if he comes out.” “Eww! I’m not doing any jobs for him, imagine what’s in that flat.” Amy grimaced. “Eww!!” The three agreed.



As they turned into Sydney Street it quickly became evident which was Murkey Dismal’s home. A swarm of flies were buzzing over the stairs of a downstairs flat at the far end of the street. Instinctively the three crossed onto the other side of the road. They edged nearer. The street was somewhat darker than others of a similar type in the area, it felt colder and less alive, there was nobody out on the street and several of the houses had boards in the windows and metal on the doors. “Are you sure about this?” Amy whispered, “I don’t like it.” “Don’t be daft, we’re not doing anything wrong, we’re just walking along the street,” Ella replied trying to control the slight shake in her voice. “Come on then”, Sophie spoke with authority. “Lets investigate, there’s something not right here, I’m going to find out what!” “Yeah come on”, Ella agreed striding more confidently towards the flies and the stairs.



Crossing the road where the flies were Amy noticed that the rickety door at the bottom of the stairs was slightly ajar. There were strange noises coming from inside the flat, crashing and what sounded like the flapping of wings. Suddenly a huge fat pigeon flew out of the front window, over their heads and up and away into the sky. “Come on, let’s look, “ Sophie said, starting to slowly make her way down the steep stairs that led directly to the open front door. “You’ve got to be kidding!” Amy gasped, “No way!” “Come on,” Ella replied making her way down after Sophie. And with that the three girls found themselves on the ever so wrong side of Murkey Dismal’s front door.











CHAPTER FOUR



Peering nervously into the darkened hallway, the girls felt a sudden gush of wind that shook up layers of dust and cobwebs that whirled around them and with an almighty crash slammed the front door firmly shut behind them. “Wot are you doin ere then?” Murkey Dimal shuffled forward out of the darkness glaring at them through brilliant green, slits of eyes. The girls moved backwards until their backs were right up against the door. “You come for a chat then? Don’t look like that! Your faces will stick if the wind changes”, he sneered at the terrified expressions on each of the girls faces. With that he twirled his fingers in the air and a mini whirlwind took effect pushing them upwards at the door and pulling their faces taunt. As they fell back down to the ground Ella reached behind her, undid the latch and quickly pushed the door open. “Quick she yelled grabbing hold of Amy’s hand who she was certain would be too terrified to react on her own. The three made it up the stairs and onto the street. “Wot, you not stain for cake!” Murkey Dismal shouted up after them slamming the door angrily.



Out on the street, Sophie started shouting “I’m phoning the police, who does he think he is, horrible little man!” “We did break into his house,” Amy reasoned. “Yeah well,” at that moment a dark cloud appeared directly above their heads and a burst of heavy rain poured down. Sophie looked at her mobile phone, “no signal”, she muttered. “Lets get out of here, it’s creepy”, Amy suggested hopefully. As they began to walk away Ella stumbled over a cat that was winding it’s way around and through her legs. Ella looked down at the cat and was immediately startled by it’s startling green eyes, not unsimilar to those of the scary little man they had just faced she thought. The cat looked straight at her, “he’s not bad, he’s lonely and unhappy, people are mean to him, so he hit’s back.” “Sorry, Ella gasped, did you just speak to me?” “Blimey Ella’s completely lost the plot, “ Sophie snorted, “what’s the matter kitty? You’re making a lot of noise, aren’t you.” “can’t you understand what he’s saying”, Ella gasped. “Yeah, I speak perfect cat!” Sophie laughed “Too much Harry Potter, I’ve told you before.” Ella looked down at the cat again shaking her head. ”Please don’t phone the police, they’ll try and take me away again.” Ella gazed into the cats dazzling green eyes and nodded. The cat ran off back in the direction of the grubby little flat. Ella stared after him in stunned silence. “Come on Ella,” Amy called “Let’s get outta here.” “That’s his cat,” Ella whispered watching the cat head down the stairs, “he spoke to me. “This is creeping me out, lets go, please!” Amy said. “Good grief!” Sophie responded

CHAPTER FIVE



That night Ella could not sleep, she lay in her bed gazing through uncovered windows out at the dark night going over the events of the past couple of days. The terrible fear that she had felt inside Murkey Dismals flat was pushed aside by her complete amazement at having been able to perfectly understand the talking cat. “Why me and not the other two?” she kept going over and over in her mind. None of it made any sense in Ellas mind and before she knew it she had drifted into a restless sleep full of confused images and feelings, she tossed and turned, waking up with a jolt when she felt what she dreamed to be spiders crawling over her face. She jumped out of bed, her heart racing and her hands waving around her face. “Calm down, it’s OK, “ a voice spoke out of the darkness. “What?! Who’s there?” Ella whispered, by now in a completely terrified state. “It’s me, of course.” Ella looked up and there sitting on the window sill was the cat from earlier in the day. “Oh, please tell me I’m asleep and this is a dream, “ Ella stifled a cry not wanting to wake the rest of the house and involve them in her nightmare. “Don’t worry I can’t hurt you, I’m a cat! Anyway I think you can help me, I don’t want to hurt you.”