Monsterville

by Sarah S. Reida

  “Come on, come on,” I muttered to myself. Like I hadn’t read that stupid card a zillion times.

  But sprinkle moisture on the ground

  And life will grant another round.

  “Water!” I croaked. “Adam, we need water!”

  “Are you crazy? This isn’t the time!”

  “That’s how you get the sandman! Water! Tell me you have some left over!”

  “It’s in my backpack. What do I do with it?”

  “Just dump it on the ground,” I wheezed. My lungs were collapsing. Sand crept up past my shoulders and I raised my chin.

  “Blue!” Adam shouted. “Can you unzip my backpack? Bottom zipper. But wait until I tell you to.”

  “Okay!”

  “He’s gonna have to let go of the rope,” Adam warned me. “You ready?”

  I squeaked.

  “I’ll hold on tight,” Adam promised. “Go, Blue!”

  Instantly I was sucked farther into the ground. I gulped a mouthful of air right before gritty sand filled my nostrils. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying not to breathe.

  The lack of oxygen was making me light-headed. Black spots danced in front of my eyes, and I clenched my fist, pinching the fleshy part of my palm to stay conscious. My lungs burned and the ankle the sandman gripped felt like it was being ripped off.

  Then it was over.

  One second the hand was pulling me down and the next second it was … gone. I thought I heard a roar from somewhere down below, but that could have been my imagination. The bad guy always bellows when he’s defeated in the movies. That way, the audience knows to expect a sequel.

  When I cried out in relief, my mouth filled with sand. I tried to spit it out but my tongue was too dry.

  “Lissa!” someone shouted from above me. “Lissa!” The voice was garbled and sounded far away, like it was coming through a tunnel.

  I clutched the rope as my body was pulled upward. Everything hurt. I felt like Augustus Gloop from Willy Wonka (either version) who drinks from Mr. Wonka’s chocolate pond and gets punished. The image of that kid pressed up against that plastic tube like an oversized hamster always made me laugh. Not anymore.

  My hand clutching the rope broke through the sand, and Adam and Blue cheered. “Got her!” Adam crowed.

  I stretched my other hand and felt air. Two strong hands gripped my wrists and pulled, and my head and shoulders burst from the sand. I shook my head. Sand stuck in my eyes and man, it burned.

  “Hold on.” Adam’s teeth were clenched as he wrapped his arms around me. In one long movement, he wrenched my entire body free. I scrambled away on all fours and collapsed, gulping in air.

  My head was swimming. For a second, I thought I’d throw up, and then the fatigue hit me. I’d been running on adrenaline for so long that I’d forgotten how late it was. I dropped my head, wanting so badly to curl up in the sand and go to sleep.

  SCENE THREE:

  FIVE HOURS LEFT

  I glanced at Adam and Blue. They lay like beached whales, their chests rising and falling in unison.

  “Is everyone okay?” Adam wheezed.

  Blue and I grunted. I couldn’t talk yet. My right foot dug into the warm sand. I’d lost my sneaker and sock in the ordeal. “I’m o—” I began, moving my leg.

  “Owww!” It felt tender, almost like it was still being squeezed. I angrily wiped tears away. Haylie was still waiting for us.

  “You okay?” Adam sat up, resting his arms on his knees.

  “Yeah. Just give me a second.”

  “You’re a terrible liar.” He reached into his backpack’s front pocket and pulled something out, tossing it to me. “Here.”

  “What is this?” It felt like a bunch of tiny pebbles in a sealed paper envelope.

  “An ice pack. Just bang it against the ground.”

  I followed his instructions and then placed my hand in the center. “It’s cold!”

  “Right. It’s an ice pack.” Adam grinned. “Wait a second.” His smile dimmed. “Where’s your flashlight?”

  I winced and pointed to the ground. “Down there.” The quicksand had swallowed it. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay, Lissa,” Blue piped up. “You had to save yourself.”

  “I guess.” I wished I’d thought to throw the flashlight. Then maybe we’d still have it.

  I pressed the ice pack against the bruises blooming on my left leg, gritting my teeth against the cold. My skin was super sensitive, but gradually the cold started to feel good.

  I gave myself thirty seconds with the ice pack and then climbed to my feet, shaking sand from my clothes. The open blisters on my hands were burning and throbbing, and I felt off-balance without my right sneaker. I looked down at my watch. “It’s one thirty! Only five hours left! We have to keep going.”

  “Five minutes won’t kill us. If we recharge, we’ll move faster.” Adam groped for his flashlight, which had rolled a few feet away. Blue was still holding his.

  “I guess you’re right,” I grumbled, gingerly lowering onto the ground. My head throbbed and I lay back, pressing my temples and willing the pain to go away. I needed to stay focused.

  “Adam?” Blue asked hopefully. “Did you bring food?”

  “Trail mix, apples, and Fruit Roll-Ups. Preference?”

  “Fruit Roll-Up, please.”

  “Stat.” I struggled into a sitting position. “Our hero deserves quick service.”

  “Hero?” Blue tugged on his ear, his face turning pink. “What did I do?”

  “You saved me. If you hadn’t been so fast with that water, I might be halfway to the core of the earth by now.”

  “Yeah. And you managed not to chug our weapon,” Adam joked.

  That was a good point. Given Blue’s history, I was lucky he hadn’t pulled that water from Adam’s backpack and suddenly remembered how thirsty he was.

  “I can control myself,” Blue said, taking the strawberry Fruit Roll-Up Adam held out to him. He tossed it into his mouth and swallowed it whole. “When it matters.”

  “Fair enough,” Adam said, leaning to hand me a Fruit Roll-Up. It was apricot, which isn’t my favorite flavor, but I choked most of it down anyway. I needed plenty of energy for whatever lay ahead. I stood up and tossed the rest of the snack and the wrapper on the ground.

  Adam stooped to pick up my trash. He held it out to me. “Don’t litter. Not even here. That’s a rule of exploring nature. Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course we should respect Monsterville. It’s been super nice to us.” I stuffed the balled-up garbage in my pocket and took off my other sneaker. “I’m looking forward to walking around with bare feet. That’s really safe,” I scoffed.

  Adam reached into his backpack again, pulling out a small plastic box and a rolled-up pair of black socks. He tossed the socks to me. “Here, these are super durable. Not quite shoes, but better than nothing.”

  “What else do you have in there?” I asked, craning my head. “Seriously. This is getting ridiculous.”

  “Just survival basics.” Adam popped open the box and took out a small plastic tube of ointment. “Here, hold out your hands,” he said to Blue, but Blue shook his head.

  “No, you guys use it. My skin’s tougher than yours. See?” He stretched out his hands, and they weren’t all blistered and bleeding like Adam’s and mine. Just dirty.

  Adam bandaged our hands—expertly, of course—and I fumbled to pull on my new socks. They were thick with padding on the bottom. Adam was right. Shoes would have been better, but these weren’t bad. Like mittens for feet.

  “Okay.” I closed my eyes, picturing the Monsterville board. “After the sandman is the … mummy.”

  “Mummy? Like pharaohs, and pyramids, and Egypt?” Adam zipped his backpack of tricks and stood up.

  “Exactly. Crypts, and basements, and enclosed spaces.”

  “What did the cards say about mummies?” Adam asked. “We should figure that out befo
re we go any farther.”

  I pictured the game card. This one came easily.

  A relic of the ancient past

  Odd measures make a mummy last

  But all those things which keep it so

  Will be the key to make it go.

  “Huh?” Adam asked, frowning. “Go? Go where? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I dunno. What’s used to preserve mummies? Formaldehyde and bandages?”

  Adam patted his backpack. “I have Band-Aids. But those don’t really strike me as lethal.”

  “Mummies like the dark,” Blue piped up. “Does that help?”

  I shrugged, taking Adam’s flashlight when he held it out to me. “I have no idea. Let’s just keep going, okay? And watch out for mummies.”

  SCENE FOUR:

  FOUR HOURS AND FORTY-FIVE MINUTES LEFT

  It was still hot, and my skin itched. I hoped we would stumble upon a nice little oasis with a clear pond, but I wasn’t counting on it. Plus, I knew I probably shouldn’t consume anything I found here. If I came across a little DRINK ME bottle like the one Alice chugged in Alice in Wonderland, I’d be lucky if all it did was shrink me.

  As we raced along the path, it turned from loose sand to hard, flat stones. I gripped Adam’s flashlight, paranoid that I’d drop it. I’d already messed up enough tonight.

  The path twisted to the right, and I stopped, my heart thumping.

  Blue bumped into my back.

  “Sorry,” I said. “I just remembered something.”

  “What?”

  “The tagline of the game! ‘A monster around every corner.’ We just turned a corner.” I shined the flashlight ahead, but the beam cut through black nothing.

  Adam glanced around nervously. “So the mummy’s gonna show up now?”

  “Soon.”

  We’d only gone about thirty more steps before a huge stone wall blocked our way.

  “What is this?” I played the flashlight over the wall, trying to find where it ended. I couldn’t.

  “Should we try walking around it?” Adam asked doubtfully.

  I shook my head. “I think we have to stay on the path.”

  Stepping forward, I felt around the wall’s surface. It was made of large, square blocks about three feet wide and two feet high. Whoever had stacked them had done an incredible job—the blocks were perfectly even.

  “This is a pyramid!” I exclaimed, remembering the cute little cartoon pyramids on the Monsterville board. “The mummy’s gotta be in the pyramid. But how do we get in?”

  Adam rubbed his hand over his jaw. “Isn’t that a question for our monster expert?”

  I was stumped. Mummy movies have never been my thing, and Aunt Lucy’s journal hadn’t mentioned mummies. “Maybe there’s a secret password or something?”

  “Too bad we don’t have the script.”

  “Or, maybe this is like Goonies. Remember when they were going after the treasure, and they kept setting off all those booby traps?”

  “Never seen it.” Adam moved farther from the wall. “Shouldn’t we be trying not to set off booby traps, though?”

  “Maybe that’s the wrong example. Maybe this is more like in Batman Begins, where Bruce Wayne played a few notes on a piano to open a secret passage.” I shined my light over the stones again. “There’s always a sign…. There! This one’s a different color.” I glanced back at Blue and Adam. “You guys ready?” They both nodded.

  I tapped on the stone. Nothing happened.

  I tapped harder. Zilch.

  Adam stepped forward. “Allow me.”

  “Sure.”

  Adam backed up, made a running leap, and rammed his shoulder against the pyramid. It didn’t budge. I had a sinking feeling this wasn’t the right way to get inside.

  “Check the ground,” I said. “Maybe there’s a lever or a string—something to push or pull to make a door appear.”

  Blue crouched down, rubbing his hands along the sand. He squealed. “I found something!” He brushed sand away from a long length of wire embedded in the ground. “Look!”

  “Go for it, Blue,” I said, squinting at my watch. Two thirty.

  Blue gripped the wire with both hands, straining to lift it. It rose an inch before Blue let it go, snapping it against the sand. He cocked his head. “Listen!”

  A scraping sound came from inside the pyramid.

  “Get back!” Adam yelled, pushing us out of the way. A second later, a stone drawbridge dropped down, crashing where we’d stood just seconds before. We coughed in the dust.

  “Ladies first.” Adam gestured to the opening. Gingerly, I stepped onto the drawbridge and peeked inside the pyramid.

  “I can see the path!” Torches mounted on the walls lit the way down a long tunnel, casting strange shadows on the ground. I could hear something dripping far away.

  We crowded together in the entrance. I put the hood of my jacket up. The pyramid was cold and damp. Cavelike. I peered down the tunnel. “Okay, guys. I don’t know mummies, but I know rules for places like this. No splitting up to explore different tunnels. No one’s allowed to go off alone. No touching anything we shouldn’t. Got it?”

  Blue and Adam nodded.

  “Actually”—I handed Adam the flashlight and grabbed Adam’s and Blue’s hands—“I don’t care how stupid this looks. I’m not taking any chances.”

  Over the sound of my pounding heart, I heard our ragged breathing and the crackling of the torches. No dragging footsteps, no moans.

  We were toast if something came after us now. I imagined mummies emerging from a dark doorway, forcing us to retreat … only to face more mummies and a dead end. My pulse quickened, and I forced myself to breath evenly. In, out, in, out.

  “I hope this leads back outside.” Adam’s voice echoed eerily off the walls. His hand was sweaty against mine.

  “It’ll lead somewhere,” I responded quietly.

  The tunnel branched into three passageways: one to the left, one to the right, and one straight ahead. I couldn’t see farther than three feet down any of them.

  “Which one?” Adam asked.

  Blue stood up straight, aiming his flashlight. “I’ll go look to see which one’s the best.”

  “No, no, no!” I shook my head. “Didn’t you hear me? No splitting up.”

  “Oh.” Blue squinted. “Well, how about straight? That one might be the shortest.”

  “Good thinking! And since Aunt Lucy drew the path in Monsterville as a straight line, it’s probably the right path.” I squeezed Blue’s hand. “Way to go.” He flushed with pride.

  “We should conserve battery power.” Adam handed me his flashlight and grabbed a wall torch, dislodging a cascade of red embers. They danced in the air before turning to gray ash.

  The middle tunnel sloped as it approached the center of the pyramid. My stomach twisted. What if this was the wrong path? What if we couldn’t find our way out?

  “The hall’s getting smaller,” Adam muttered.

  I felt above my head and touched the ceiling. Twenty feet later, we had to duck to keep going. Soon we were crawling. I went first, gripping the flashlight in my left hand. The hard floor hurt my knees.

  I raised my hand to block a bright glare. “What is that?” The tunnel opened to a large room. Climbing to my feet, I stretched my legs, then gaped.

  Gold and jewels filled the room—tables and tables piled high with riches I never dreamed I’d see in real life.

  Bars and bars of gold were stacked on a wooden table in the center of the room. It sagged under the weight. Strings of jewels—jade and diamonds and emeralds—glittered from where they were scattered on another table. Mounds of old coins covered a third table, a rusted balance scale perched atop one of the piles. The left side of the scale rested against the table, weighed down by rubies.

  “Did we die?” Adam asked finally, after we’d stared at the room for a full minute.

  “I don’t think so.” I glanced down. A beautiful multicolored rug
decorated the floor, edged by gold tassels. I shook my head to clear it. “This has to be a trap. A distraction.”

  “It sure is a good one,” Adam said, approaching the table with the gold bars. He picked one up with both hands. “Wow, this is heavy.”

  “Don’t touch anything! It might set off a booby trap.” I stared at the rubies on the scale. They couldn’t weigh more than an ounce each. For a split second—despite every instinct screaming it was a trap—I imagined pocketing one. I could finance my first movie.

  I forced my eyes from the rubies. “This isn’t real! None of this is. Where would monsters get gold and jewels? They have to be an illusion. Fake, like the stars.”

  Blue reached toward the jewels glittering on a table. “Shiny …”

  I gently slapped his hand. “No, Blue. We have to keep going.”

  On the opposite side of the room, a doorway led to another tunnel. “Come on. This way.”

  “Aww, man,” Adam protested, but he followed me.

  I took one last look at the riches before heading toward the tunnel, trying to permanently imprint the sight in my mind. I’d never see anything like that again.

  This tunnel was shorter. We had only walked about fifty steps before it opened up into another room with a bare, uneven floor coated with dust. Shelves lined the walls, holding jars containing murky substances. I went to get a closer look and then wished I hadn’t. The jars held pickled brains and organs, bloated and discolored from the chemicals they floated in.

  Blue saw them, too. His fingers met mine and I grasped his hand, leading him back into the tunnel and shielding him with my body.

  It reminded me of all the times I’d held Haylie’s hand—taking her across the street, guiding her to the counter at Starbucks, walking her into the shallow end of the pool. I always felt needed, protecting my little sister like that. If only I’d protected her tonight, none of us would be in this mess. I forced myself to breathe evenly.

  If we got out of this, I’d never miss the chance to hold Haylie’s hand again. I’d walk her to school until she was eighteen years old, ignoring her while she complained about how much I was embarrassing her.