Series 2000- Return to Horroland

by R. L. Stine

  “Why not?” Clay demanded. “We’re so close. Let’s just say we’re going for a walk or something.”

  I peered out at the Horror. He stood stiffly in his little booth, his eyes sweeping back and forth over the front of the park.

  “Luke is right,” I told Clay. “Maybe the Horrors never leave HorrorLand. We don’t know for sure if they do or not. If we try to walk out, we’ll be caught for sure.”

  All three of us watched the gate guard.

  “So close …,” Luke murmured. “We’re so close to escaping.” He raised his eyes. “Can we climb the fence?”

  “Too tall,” Clay replied. “And maybe it’s electrified.”

  “I have an idea,” I told them. I took a deep breath. “Wait here.”

  I took another deep breath and walked up to the ticket booth. The Horror turned slowly to me. He appeared old, his green face drawn and wrinkled. One of the horns on top of his head was cracked. His tail dragged on the ground.

  “How is it going?” he rasped. “Did they catch those three kids?”

  I nodded. “Yes. I heard they caught them,” I told him. “They sent me over so you could take a break.”

  He squinted at me. “So early?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t mind. Go take your rest. It’s quiet out here today.”

  He stared at me some more through his watery eyes.

  Did he believe me? Would he leave the gate?

  Yes! He shoved a ticket puncher and a few other items into a leather bag. Then he gave me a little wave and shuffled off in the direction of the office.

  I waited, holding my breath, until he disappeared into the building. Then I waved frantically for the boys to join me.

  I didn’t need to wave. They were already running full speed across the front plaza.

  Seconds later, we burst through the gate—and kept running. Across the gravel parking lot, nearly empty now. Then under the big billboard at the front of the park and onto the road.

  “We’re out!” Luke cried gleefully, pumping his fists in the air. “We’re safe!” He pulled off his mask and did a little dance.

  Clay and I didn’t celebrate with him. “How will we get home?” Clay asked me in a tiny voice. He tugged off his mask. Sweat poured down his forehead, onto his glasses.

  “Uh … we’ll find a phone,” I told him. “And we’ll call my mom and dad. There’s got to be a house or a store or something on this road.”

  We trotted along the side of the road. The sun had started to lower itself behind the trees. Long blue shadows stretched over us. The air grew cooler.

  I didn’t hear the van until it pulled up beside us.

  I cried out, startled, as the driver’s door swung open.

  We’re caught! I thought.

  Derek Strange climbed out from behind the wheel. I was never so glad to see anyone in my life!

  “You’re okay!” he cried happily. He grabbed both of my hands and squeezed them.

  Luke and Clay cheered and jumped up and down happily.

  Margo came running around the side of the van. “We were so worried!” she cried. “How did you escape?”

  “It wasn’t easy!” I exclaimed.

  “Every Horror in the park came after us,” Luke told them.

  “Thank goodness you’re okay!” Derek sighed. “They spotted our cameras and threw us out of the park. We searched for another way to get back in. But we couldn’t find one.”

  “We were so worried,” Margo repeated, shaking her head. “Quick—get in the van. Let’s get away from this horrible place. As far away as we can.”

  That sounded good to me. We all piled back into the van.

  “You kids are amazing!” Derek declared. “How did you ever get away? I want to hear the whole story.”

  He put the van in gear, and we took off.

  I settled back in the seat, still feeling shaky, my heart still racing. I took a deep breath and watched the trees pass by outside the van window.

  Whoa … wait …

  Something wrong here …

  Derek turned the van around and lowered his foot on the gas pedal. The van shot forward. The trees blurred past.

  The HorrorLand sign came into view.

  “Stop!” I shrieked. “What are you doing? Why are you driving us back to HorrorLand?”

  We drove under the sign, into the parking lot.

  “Let us out!” I screamed. “Let us out—now!”

  I grabbed the door handle and tugged it hard. But Derek had locked the doors.

  He screeched to a stop at the front gate. Out the window, I saw dozens of Horrors running eagerly toward us. They surrounded the van. Through the closed window, I could hear their excited, happy chattering.

  Derek unlocked the doors. He and Margo climbed out.

  “What are we going to do?” Luke wailed.

  I didn’t have time to answer.

  Horrors slid open the door. Green hands grabbed for us.

  No way to fight them off. All three of us were dragged from the van.

  Luke tried to kick his way free. He swung both fists. But two other Horrors moved quickly to hold Luke down.

  Clay uttered a terrified moan and shook his head sadly as the Horrors led us away.

  I turned back—and saw a Horror handing a thick green stack of something to Derek and Margo. Money?

  Yes.

  The Horrors were paying the Stranges.

  The Stranges had been working for them all along.

  “Why?” I called back to them, my voice breaking with fear. “Why did you do this to us?”

  Derek ignored me. He was busy counting the money.

  Margo turned, her expression cold. “You saw too much, Lizzy,” she replied. “Last summer, the first time you came to HorrorLand, the three of you saw too much. And you were willing to tell the world about it.”

  “Which-what do you mean?” I stammered.

  “You were willing to go on TV and expose HorrorLand,” Margo explained. “The Horrors can’t allow that. If you had said no to Derek and me, we would have left you alone. But now …”

  “Now what?” I cried.

  Margo frowned. “Now you can never leave.”

  The Horrors started to drag us away again.

  “But we won’t tell anyone!” Luke called to the Stranges. “We’ll keep quiet! Promise!”

  “Yes. Let us go, and we won’t say a word!” I cried.

  “Too late,” Derek said. He stuffed the wad of bills into his jacket pocket. Then he motioned to Margo. They climbed back into the van. A few seconds later, it roared away.

  “Ow!” I cried out as a Horror’s clawed hand tightened around my shoulder. “Where are you taking us?” I demanded shakily.

  He pointed to a tall mountain, rising darkly at the back of the park. “We’re taking you to a new attraction up at the top,” he rasped. “It’s called the Final Leap.”

  “And … what are we going to do there?” I asked.

  “Three guesses,” he replied.

  I struggled to think clearly. But my panic made my brain whir.

  Everything seemed to be speeded up, as if we were all moving in fast-forward. The Horrors, the park, Luke and Clay—they were all a blur to me. Sights and sounds that didn’t add up to anything, that didn’t make sense.

  I kept taking deep breaths and holding them, trying to slow my pounding heart, trying to focus my eyes, focus my thoughts.

  I kept watching for a chance to escape. I saw that Luke and Clay were tensed, also watching for their chance.

  But a dozen Horrors guarded us closely. No way to break away. No way to run.

  They shoved us into a little monorail train car. It was tiny—room for five or six at the most. But the Horrors all jammed in with us.

  The car creaked and groaned as it twisted and curved up the steep mountain. At one point, it jerked hard, and we were all crushed against one wall of the car.

  “Please, let us out,” I tried begging one more time. “We promise w
e won’t tell anyone about HorrorLand. We’ll sign a paper. We’ll do whatever you want.”

  The Horrors ignored me.

  The little train car jerked to a hard stop. The doors slid open. They shoved us out.

  “Whoa.” I uttered a frightened cry as I gazed around.

  We stood on a narrow cliff that jutted out from the mountainside. And down below … down below …

  I shut my eyes. I shouldn’t have looked down.

  It had to be a mile drop, straight down. And at the bottom, I saw dark, jagged rocks, sharp points reaching up like spikes.

  “Welcome to the Final Leap,” a Horror said cheerfully. “This is our most thrilling attraction. It’s the most exciting free-fall ride in the world. The sad thing is, it lasts only a few seconds.”

  “Oh, please …,” Luke whispered. He had his eyes shut tight. He grabbed my hand.

  “You … you’re not really going to make us jump —are you?” Clay asked in a whisper. All the color had faded from his face. I could see his legs trembling.

  “Take your time,” a Horror replied.

  “Shut your eyes. It makes it easier,” another Horror chimed in.

  “Maybe you should hold hands and all jump at once,” the first Horror said.

  “Scream your heads off,” another Horror added. “Don’t worry about it. We’re far away from everyone else. No one will hear you.”

  The Horrors backed up, leaving us on the edge of the cliff. I gazed down again at the jagged, dark rocks so far below.

  I swallowed hard. My mouth felt as dry as cotton.

  “We won’t do it,” I told them. “You can wait all day. We won’t jump.”

  “No problem,” a Horror replied. The others stepped out of the way as he moved to a bright yellow lever that jutted out from a metal control panel.

  He grabbed the lever with both hands and shoved it down.

  I heard a rumbling sound.

  The cliff trembled beneath our feet.

  And then it started to slide—slide into the mountainside.

  It’s going to slide out from under us, I realized.

  We aren’t going to survive. We really are going to fall.

  I grabbed the boys’ hands and held on tightly.

  Below us, the cliff floor slid rapidly. We had no room … nowhere to stand …

  “Sorry …,” I whispered. “Good-bye, Luke. Good-bye, Clay. Good-bye.”

  I held on tightly to the boys’ hands. And shut my eyes.

  The cliff rumbled and slid … slid …

  Only a few feet of cliff floor left.

  The wind whipped around us.

  My legs started to give away.

  I held my breath. Prepared to fall.

  I heard voices behind me.

  I turned in time to see a Horror push the yellow lever back up.

  The cliff floor rumbled to a stop.

  The three of us stood right on the edge. The front of my shoes hung over the side.

  Three new Horrors had joined the others. “You are wanted down below,” one of the new ones said. “Leave the prisoners to us.”

  The first group of Horrors nodded. They jammed into the monorail car and a few seconds later rumbled away.

  Out on the narrow cliff, I didn’t have room to turn around. But I glanced over my shoulder at the new group of Horrors. “Are you rescuing us?” I called. “We don’t have to jump?”

  The Horror leader narrowed his yellow eyes at us. “We have our own plans for you,” he growled.

  The three Horrors stepped forward. They grabbed us and tugged us off the narrow cliff ledge.

  “Let’s go. Quickly,” the leader growled.

  We made our way, lurching and stumbling, down the steep mountain, following the curve of the monorail tracks.

  “What are you going to do to us?” Luke demanded. “Where are you taking us?”

  “Don’t speak,” the Horror rasped. He gave Luke a hard shove in the back.

  The sun had set. A gray mist had settled over the park. The air felt cold and damp.

  I shivered.

  At the bottom of the mountain, the Horrors forced us along a hidden pathway. It led to a tall fence at the back of the park. A sign over a narrow opening read: EMPLOYEES ONLY. NO EXIT.

  “Hurry,” the Horror ordered.

  They shoved us through the narrow opening. We stumbled into a dark, empty lot. A black van was parked near the fence, the motor running.

  “Where are you taking us?” I cried. “We won’t tell anyone anything. We swear!”

  “Quiet!” the leader barked.

  They slid open the side door and forced us inside. We squeezed onto the backseat. They slammed the door shut and climbed in the front.

  “Please—” I begged. “Please—”

  The three Horrors pulled off their masks. Two young men and a blond-haired woman smiled at us. “You’re okay now,” the woman said. “You’re safe.”

  “You—you’re rescuing us?” I cried.

  They nodded.

  “Those Horrors are real monsters,” the man behind the wheel said solemnly. “They’re evil creatures. They’ve built this whole park to torture humans.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Torturing humans is a sport to them. In fact, it’s their most popular sport,” he replied. “But thanks to you three, they will be exposed. The Stranges have been arrested. And HorrorLand will be shut down forever.”

  “But—who are you?” I demanded.

  “We’re from a TV show,” the woman replied, brushing back her hair. “Maybe you’ve seen it. It’s called Weird Copy. We report on all the weird things going on in the world.”

  “We’ve been watching you kids the whole time,” the man added. “We got it all on film. This is going to make a terrific TV show.”

  He turned to the front and put the van in gear. We roared off down the road.

  “Thank you!” Luke cried happily. “Thank you for saving us!”

  “Are you going to take us home now?” Clay asked eagerly.

  “Well … we’ve got one more stop,” the woman replied.

  “Huh? One more stop?” I asked.

  She nodded. “The story isn’t quite finished. We need to add a few more exciting moments.”

  “Whoa,” I murmured. “Exciting moments? What do you mean?”

  “You’ll see …,” she replied, turning her face to the window.

  We rode in silence. A short while later, the van pulled into a big, crowded parking lot.

  And I let out a scream as I stared up at a huge blue-and-green neon sign:

  WELCOME TO TERRORVILLE.

  About R.l. Stine

  R.l. Stine is the most popular author in America. He is the creator of the Goosebumps, Give Yourself Goosebumps, Fear Street, and Ghosts of Fear Street series, among other popular books. He has written over 250 scary novels for kids. Bob lives in New York City with his wife, Jane, teenage son, Matt, and dog, Nadine.

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