by R. L. Stine
I was still itchy from the bats. I rubbed my shoulders and the back of my neck. “I hate bats! I really do!” I exclaimed with a shudder.
“But there weren’t any bats,” Luke said, grinning at me. “It was all a fake.”
“Huh? It was not!” Clay cried angrily. “Those were bats. I could hear them — and feel them!”
“All special effects,” Luke claimed.
“It wasn’t special effects when one got tangled in my hair!” I cried. Just thinking about it gave me cold shivers.
“Special effects,” Luke repeated. “Really excellent special effects. I was almost scared, too.”
“Almost!” I cried. I walked over, grabbed him, and pretended to wring his neck. “Almost?” I heard you screaming your head off, Luke!”
He pulled out of my grasp, laughing. “I knew it wasn’t real. I was just screaming like that to scare you!”
What a liar! I really didn’t believe my brother. He was scared. He was plenty scared. I knew he was!
“They were bats, not special effects,” I insisted angrily.
“Then where did they go when the door opened?” Luke demanded. “As soon as the door opened, the bats all vanished.”
“Let’s stop talking about it,” Clay pleaded. “Let’s find your parents — okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” I agreed, glaring at Luke. “You really are nuts, you know that?” I told him.
He stuck his tongue out at me.
I wanted to punch his lights out. But I try to be a nonviolent person. So I just gave him one hard punch on the shoulder.
He howled in protest. “You’re stupid, Lizzy. You’re really stupid,” he muttered. “And you’re afraid of pretend bats!”
I ignored him and led the way down the path toward the front gate. Two people in Horror costumes appeared on the path, going the other way, chatting enthusiastically.
“Is this the way to the front gate?” I called to them.
They ignored my question and walked right past us.
“Hey!” I called to them.
But they both kept jabbering away and didn’t even seem to see or hear me.
The sun beamed down on us. The air had become hot and still, with no breeze at all.
I wiped sweat off my forehead with one hand. I could still smell the sour aroma of the Bat Barn. The odor was on my hands, on my clothes.
I saw four teenagers in bathing suits, two boys and two girls, hurrying over the grass toward a large brown pond. A sign came into view near the shore. It read: ALLIGATOR POND. FEEL FREE TO SWIM HERE.
Luke laughed. “Are those guys crazy?”
We stopped to watch them step into the water.
“Do you think there are really alligators in there?” Clay asked, biting his lower lip.
I shrugged. “Who knows? I don’t know what to think about this park!”
We continued along the path. A few minutes later, I recognized the mountain-shaped structure of the Doom Slide. The wide, circular plaza came into view. It was nearly deserted. Even the ice-cream-selling Horror had vanished from his cart.
“Where do you suppose Mom and Dad are?” I asked.
“They’ve probably been looking for us for hours, and now they’re really mad,” Luke said, frowning.
“Where are they?” Clay cried. He was starting to sound really stressed out. “We’ve got to find them.”
“Is that them?” Luke asked. He was pointing to a man and a woman in the shade of a large stone fountain.
I shielded my eyes from the sun with one hand. The woman was tall, with dark hair. The man was short and blond.
“Yes! That’s them!” I cried happily. I started running to the fountain, calling to them, “Mom! Dad!”
The boys came racing after me.
“Mom! Dad! Hey!” I shouted happily.
They both turned around, surprised expressions on their faces.
“Oh!” I cried out when I saw it wasn’t them. I stopped short, and Luke bumped right into me.
“Sorry,” I told the confused couple. “We thought you were someone else.”
The three of us hurried across the plaza. I could hear the wail of wolf howls from the Werewolf Village. The ice cream cart stood lonely and deserted near the entrance to the Doom Slide.
“Where are they?” Clay asked, whining. “I’m starting to get hungry.”
“Yeah. It’s way past lunchtime,” I agreed.
“They could be anywhere,” Luke said unhappily, kicking a pebble across the pavement. “They could be anywhere in this giant park.”
I sighed. “Let’s look for them in the shade. The sun is really getting hot.”
We headed toward the shade of the Doom Slide building. Suddenly, two green-costumed Horrors came into view. Their big yellow eyes bulged in front of their heads.
Without thinking, I went running up to them. “Have you seen our parents?” I asked breathlessly.
They stared at me in surprise. “Your parents?” one of them repeated.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “My mom has black hair. My dad is kind of short and he has blond hair.”
“Hmmmm.” The two Horrors glanced at each other.
“Mom was wearing a bright yellow sundress,” I told them.
“And Dad had a Chicago Cubs cap on his head,” Luke added.
“Oh, yeah. Right,” one of the Horrors, a woman, replied.
“You saw them?” I asked eagerly.
She nodded. “Yeah. I remember them. They left. They left about half an hour ago.”
“Huh?” I gaped at her in disbelief.
“They asked me to give you a message,” the Horror said.
“Message? What message?” I asked.
“Good-bye,” the Horror replied.
16
“You’re wrong!” I cried. “They wouldn’t leave.”
“About half an hour ago,” the Horror repeated. She shrugged her shoulders under the bulky monster costume. “I was at the gate when they left.”
“But — but —” I sputtered.
The two Horrors turned and began walking toward a small white shed at the edge of the plaza.
“Hey, wait!” I called, chasing after them. “You made a mistake. Our parents wouldn’t leave without us.”
They disappeared into the shed. The door slammed behind them.
I turned back to Luke and Clay. They stared at me blankly.
“She was wrong,” I told them. “Mom and Dad are still here. I know it.”
“Then why did she say —” Clay started, but his voice broke. I could see that he was very worried and upset. Beads of sweat ran down his pink forehead.
Luke tried to make a joke. “I guess that means we have the whole park to ourselves!” he exclaimed, forcing a smile.
“Very funny,” I replied sarcastically. “We also have no money, and we’re about three hundred miles from home.”
“We could call somebody,” Luke suggested.
“No phones,” Clay muttered. He lowered his head, shoved his hands into the pockets of his shorts, and turned away from us.
“Oh, right,” Luke remembered. “They told Dad there are no phones in the park.”
“That’s crazy,” I said heatedly. “They’re liars. The Horrors are all liars.”
“I guess that’s their job,” Luke said. “Telling us lies to scare us to death. That’s why they call it HorrorLand.”
“They should call it DumbLand,” Clay muttered bitterly.
“But it’s so cool!” Luke protested. “I love being scared out of my wits. Don’t you?” He gave Clay a hard shove.
“No,” Clay replied softly. He made no attempt to shove Luke back.
“Well, she was lying about Mom and Dad,” I insisted, gazing at the white shed. “She was just trying to scare us. Mom and Dad are still here. We just have to find them.”
“Come on, let’s go,” Luke urged. “I hope we find them soon. I’m getting really hungry.”
We wandered through the park for what seem
ed like hours. We searched through dark, mysterious woods and strange monster villages. We passed through a carnival area with dozens of scary-looking rides.
On the other side of Vampire Village, we passed a building marked Monster Zoo. It was closed. But we could hear the most terrifying grunts, howls, and moans coming from inside.
A long yellow building had a sign outside that proclaimed: GUILLOTINE MUSEUM. PLEASE HOLD ON TO YOUR HEAD. Luke wanted to go inside, but Clay and I talked him out of it.
HorrorLand was surprisingly empty. We passed several Horrors scurrying along the paths in their bright green costumes. And we saw a few families wandering around, always with crying kids.
The rides in the carnival area were all running empty. All of the food stands and restaurants were empty, too.
We walked clear across to the other end of the park. I was feeling more and more worried.
Why hadn’t we run into Mom and Dad?
Surely we should have seen them by now.
Clay had become very quiet. I could tell he was really scared. Even Luke trudged along with his shoulders slumped and his head down.
By the time we found ourselves back at the Alligator Pond, I was feeling pretty bad. I crossed the grassy shore and walked up to the edge of the brown water.
“What do you think happened to those teenagers who went swimming here?” Luke asked, staring across the pond. “Think the alligators ate them?”
“Maybe,” I replied. I wasn’t really listening to him. I was thinking about Mom and Dad.
“Hey, look!” Clay cried, pointing to the water.
I saw two long, greenish-brown logs floating toward us on top of the water. It took me a while to realize that the logs were alligators.
“Big ones!” Clay declared in a hushed whisper.
“Better step back,” I warned them.
All three of us were standing at the water’s edge. The alligators floated silently just below the surface of the still water, hardly creating a ripple.
“Mom and Dad didn’t leave without us,” I repeated for the thousandth time.
“But we searched everywhere,” Luke said quietly.
“They didn’t leave without us,” I said. “They would never leave without us. So …” I hesitated. I was thinking hard, and my thoughts were all frightening.
“So?” Clay asked eagerly.
“So if they’re not in the park,” I continued, “it means something happened to them. Something bad happened to them.”
Clay gasped. Luke narrowed his blue eyes at me. “What do you mean, Lizzy?” he asked.
“I mean maybe this place really is evil,” I said. “And maybe the Horrors or somebody did something bad to Mom and Dad.”
I stared down at the brown alligator backs gliding so smoothly, so effortlessly toward us.
“That’s crazy,” Luke muttered.
I knew it was crazy. But I had no other explanation.
“I have such a bad feeling about this park,” I told them. “A real bad feeling.”
And as I said that, I felt strong hands grab me from behind and push me into the Alligator Pond.
17
I screamed.
Then I realized I wasn’t being tossed into the water.
The hands were holding on to my shoulders.
I spun around. “Dad!” I cried.
“Lizzy!” he exclaimed, still holding on to me. “Where have you guys been?”
“We’ve searched this entire park twelve times!” Mom declared. She was standing behind us on the grass, hands pressed tensely on her waist.
“We were looking for you!’” I cried.
“They told us you left!” Luke said.
“We were kind of scared,” Clay added.
We all started talking at once. I was so happy to see them. And I could see that Luke and Clay were really happy, too.
I had imagined all sorts of terrible things happening to Mom and Dad. It wasn’t like me to let my imagination run away like that.
But HorrorLand was such a scary place. It was impossible not to have scary thoughts here.
“I want to go home,” I said.
“Did you find a phone?” Clay asked. “Did you find a car?”
Dad shook his head. “No. No phones. The guy in the monster costume didn’t lie. There are no phones in the park.”
“But the Horrors were very nice to us,” Mom broke in. “They told us not to worry about a thing.”
“They said to just come to the ticket booth when we were ready to leave,” Dad reported.
Mom ran a hand tenderly through Luke’s hair. “Did you go on any rides or anything?”
“We did a lot of scary stuff,” Luke told her.
“Very scary,” Clay added.
“I’m really hungry,” Luke said.
Dad glanced at his watch. “It’s way past lunchtime. I think we’re all hungry.”
“The restaurants and foodstands are all on the other side of the park,” Mom said.
“Can we just eat lunch and then leave?” I asked eagerly. I still had a bad feeling about the place. I wanted to get away from HorrorLand, far away.
“Your mom and I have spent all our time searching for you,” Dad said, wiping sweat off his sunburned forehead with one hand. “We haven’t had any fun at all.”
“We should all at least go on one ride together before we leave,” Mom said.
“I just want to go,” I urged. “I really do.”
“Lizzy, that’s not like you,” Mom scolded.
“She’s scared,” Luke told them. “She’s a chicken.”
“Maybe there’s a ride that will take us to the front of the park,” Dad suggested. “We could all take it, then have some lunch and leave.”
“That sounds good,” Mom said. She stared at me. “Okay with you?”
“I guess,” I told her, sighing. “It’s just that the rides here are all too scary. They aren’t any fun.”
Luke laughed. “They’re too scary for Lizzy — but not for Clay and me,” he said. “Right, Clay?”
“I was a little scared in the Bat Barn,” Clay confessed.
We headed away from the Alligator Pond, across the grassy shore to the paved walkway. A couple of costumed Horrors walked past, chattering in low voices.
A girl’s high-pitched shrieks of terror floated in the air from somewhere in the distance. The same frightening cry repeated over and over.
Wolf howls rose up in front of us. And from a speaker hidden somewhere in the trees, I heard evil laughter, a hideous cackle that repeated over and over.
“It’s like being in a horror movie,” Mom commented.
“Very clever,” Dad added, walking with a hand on my shoulder. “It’s strange that we never heard of this park.”
“They should put some ads on TV,” Mom said. “Then they’d get more people to come here.”
We passed by a tall, narrow green building with a sign in front that read: FREE FALL. THE ONLY BUNGEE JUMP WITHOUT A CORD.
“Want to try that?” Dad asked, squeezing my shoulder and grinning at me.
“I don’t think so,” I quickly replied.
Luke was way ahead of us. He turned around and walked backward, waiting for us to catch up. “Mom and Dad should try the Doom Slide,” he said, grinning. “It’s awesome!”
Had he really forgotten how terrified he was?
“I don’t think they’d like it,” I said quietly.
“Maybe we could find something that’s just a little scary,” Clay suggested.
Dad laughed. “Are you having a good time, Clay?”
Clay hesitated. “A little,” he replied finally.
“I’m having a great time!” Luke declared. The path curved along a narrow brown river. Millions of tiny white insects flitted over the surface of the water. Catching the bright sunlight, they looked like little sparkling diamonds.
A small brown boathouse came into view. Behind it, I could see slender canoes bobbing beneath a wooden dock.
“This might be fun,” Mom said, her eyes on the small boats.
“I think the river flows toward the front of the park,” Dad said. “Let’s take it!”
Luke cheered and went running to the dock.
I lingered behind the others. When I finally stepped out onto the dock, it took me a while to realize that the objects bobbing in the brown water weren’t canoes — they were coffins!
They were made of black polished wood. The lids were pulled back, revealing red satin interiors. Each coffin was big enough for one person.
I felt a cold chill run down my back. “We’re really going to climb into coffins?” I asked.
“They look comfy,” Mom said, smiling at me. “The water is flat and gentle, Lizzy. It won’t be a scary ride.”
“Me first!” Luke cried, running to the end of the wooden dock.
Two costumed Horrors appeared to help us into the coffins. “Lie back. Enjoy the ride,” one of them said.
“It will be your last,” the other Horror added with a low chuckle.
When we were all inside coffins, the Horrors untied them and gave us a hard push away from the dock.
Here I am, I thought, lying in my coffin.
Here we all are, my entire family, on our backs in our coffins.
The coffin floated gently, bobbing in the water. I stared up at the bright blue sky. Trees shimmered on both banks as I floated past.
It was so pretty, so relaxing.
Why did I think something terrible was about to happen?
18
Lying on my back, I couldn’t see the others over the coffin sides. But I could hear the splash of their coffins around mine.
“This is nice,” Mom said. “Very relaxing.”
“It’s boring!” Luke declared from up ahead of me. “Where’s the scary part?”
“It’s just a nice ride in a coffin,” Dad said. “Do you think we’re really floating? Or do you think the coffin is on some kind of track?”
“I could float like this for hours,” Mom said.
“The rides here are pretty long,” Clay told her.
“Is that a hawk up in the sky?” Dad asked. “Can everyone see it?”
Shielding my eyes from the sun with one hand, I searched the sky. Directly above, a dark shadow hovered high in the sky, a little bigger than a dot.