Devoured

by Amanda Marrone

  “Did I miss anything important?”

  “Not much,” Ryan says. “She went over the different areas of the park. Unless you get food or gift shop assignments, we’ll be trained on three attractions to start with and can put in for new assignments after a few weeks.”

  “Do you think that girl will be able to get me the boat job?” Samantha asks.

  “Ari?” I nod. “Yeah, she said she’d do it.”

  Samantha beams, and I can’t help thinking she’d be perfect to take over Miss Patty’s job when she retires.

  “Okay,” Miss Patty booms through her microphone. “Before you get your assignment packets, there are just a few last pieces of business.

  “Character actors should report to Ye Olde Costume Shoppe at one to meet with our very own Henrietta Stupin, who is back for her fifteenth year playing our very own Mother Goose!”

  Miss Patty puts a hand above her eyes and scans the crowd. She stops and points to what looks like a one-hundred-and-ten-year-old woman. “Henrietta, can you give all our team members a wave?”

  Henrietta gives a halfhearted wave, and everyone claps, though I’m not sure walking around in a park with a stuffed goose for fifteen years is anything to celebrate.

  Miss Patty winks at Henrietta. “Isn’t she just adorable? We’re so lucky to have her back, and maybe some of you will be like Henrietta and make Land of Enchantment your forever home too!”

  Henrietta smiles thinly, and maybe I’m wrong, but she doesn’t look terribly excited about having Land of Enchantment as her forever home. Who can blame her? I certainly wouldn’t want to try to entertain kids who probably know more about Pokémon than Mother Goose.

  “Okay, before you get your packets, my dear ol’ hubby, aka, Mr. Land of Enchantment himself, would like to say a few words. Let’s give a great big enchanted cheer to show him how excited we are to get this season started! Who’s got the magic?”

  “Who’s got the magic,” I say halfheartedly, turning my head to save my eardrum from being shattered by Samantha’s enthusiastic replies.

  “Who’s got the smile?” Patty claps her hands and everyone joins in.

  For every person rolling his or her eyes, there are five or more who seem to be enjoying this as much as Samantha. What is wrong with these people? I wonder. Then again, I should’ve expected this. You’d have to be crazy like Samantha—or desperate like me—to work here. Who knows, maybe Samantha will find a kindred spirit among the losers cheering their heads off.

  “Who’s got the vision to go the extra mile? Land of Enchantment, that’s our name—happily ever afters, that’s our game! Go team! Go! And let’s give a big ol’ hand for Mr. Roy!”

  I notice Ryan clapping just as hard as Samantha and hope he’s just being polite.

  Mr. Roy walks up to the podium and dabs his eyes with a bright pink hankie. He looks out at us with his hands clasped at his chest.

  “This is what it’s all about. Your enthusiasm, your caring about dreams, and your desire to transform lives. My family has been running this park since 1934, and who would’ve guessed we’d come this far and make so many people happy? But we can’t do it without you and your dedication to happily ever afters, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart!”

  We clap some more and Samantha sticks her fingers in her mouth and whistles.

  “I ask only one thing of you,” Mr. Roy continues. “Let your smile light the way for a family in need of cheer and give them the chance to escape the harsh realities of life. Thank you, one and all, for being a part of my enchanted family.”

  Mr. Roy bows his head and dabs his eyes again to wild applause. I find myself clapping along, wondering if Luke will be the key to my happily ever after. My stomach turns nervously. Ari said almost the same thing about Luke last night. But I’m talking about Remy not romance. Still, I shiver thinking about how wonderful it feels being with him, even if it is just about Remy.

  God, why do I feel guilty just thinking about Luke Amador? I reach out and take Ryan’s hand to ground myself in reality. He leans in and kisses my cheek.

  “Hey, what are you doing tonight?” he whispers as he wraps his arms around me.

  “Um, Nicki’s coming over.”

  He nuzzles the back of my neck. “I was hoping I could come over.”

  Guilt wells up in me. “I really can’t blow her off, but at least we’re still on for tomorrow, right?” I hate that I’m lying to him, but seeing as I can’t explain why Luke will also be there, I really don’t have a choice.

  “Yup, I made us dinner reservations at the White Mountain Hotel.” He grins expectantly, and I feel guiltier than ever.

  On our first date we hiked the White Horse Ledges and had lunch on a cliff overlooking the hotel. I told him I’d heard how great the restaurant was and wanted to go there someday. And he remembered.

  “I thought I should take you someplace special for our one-month anniversary.”

  I pull away from him. “That’s tomorrow?”

  He looks hurt. “Yeah, I thought girls kept track of those things.”

  “Ha, yeah, well, there’s just been so much going on. I can’t wait, though!”

  “Me too,” he says, taking me in his arms again.

  “Hey!” Samantha says. “Didn’t you read the no-PDA rule in the employee manual?”

  I turn and kiss Ryan hard on the lips. “Guess I missed that one, but thanks for the heads-up!”

  Miss Patty takes the microphone from Mr. Roy and stands behind the row of boxes on a table near the front of the café. “Your schedules are here in alphabetical order, so come on up, and then let’s get to work!”

  Samantha races ahead and I say a silent thank-you to Ari for pulling strings behind the scene so Samantha will be on one side of the park and Ryan and I will be on the other!

  “So now that you’ve all had a chance to try out the operations board on this ride,” says Kevin, our level-four enchanted instructor, “I need to emphasize again that accidents can happen if you access this or any other ride without following the marked safety paths. Stay on the paths! This is one of the oldest rides in the park, and not following procedures can result in serious injuries, including loss of limb, and even fatalities.”

  Ryan and I exchange looks. Hansel and Gretel’s has just gotten a heck of a lot scarier.

  “So, any questions?” Kevin asks.

  Sarah Franklin, who goes to school with us, raises her hand. “Is it too late to switch to food services?” she asks, looking very pale. Given that she fell in one of the log flume boats while practicing using a squeegee to wipe the water off the seats, and pinched her fingers while closing a safety bar on the Gingerbread Coaster, this warning of death and dismemberment is apparently a deal breaker.

  Kevin flips some papers on his clipboard, pulls out a red card, writes her name, and then signs his at the bottom. “Take this to Miss Patty. It’s the equivalent of a panic button—just give it to her and she’ll see to it that you’re reassigned.”

  Sarah snatches the card and scurries down the path.

  “Anyone else not feeling up to this?” Kevin asks.

  I look around at the seven other people left in our group and we all shake our heads.

  “Good! So let’s do a run through.” Kevin looks at our name tags. “Izzy, why don’t you take the control board at the Witch’s oven? Hayden, you take the exit board. Izzy, don’t forget you have to push the alert button once each car dips under the oven. Hayden, when you see the light flash, you’ll know you have a car to unload in one minute, so be ready. Seamus, you load passengers. The rest of you can take a ride, and then we’ll switch.”

  “After you,” Ryan says as we walk to the entrance.

  We wind our way through the queue, and Seamus picks up the microphone.

  “Welcome-to-the-haunted-forest-please-read-the-safety-precautions-and-note-this-ride-may-be-too-intense-for-children-under-the-age-of-ten,” he says rapidly in an Irish accent.

  “Seamus,” Kevi
n calls out. “Slow it down, and it’s under the age of five!”

  “Oh, sorry,” Seamus says into the microphone. “Under the age of five.”

  I push through the turnstile, and Seamus lowers the mic and smiles. “Please-keep-your-hands-and-feet-in-the-car—”

  “Slower!” Kevin barks.

  “And remain seated at all times. If the ride should come to an unexpected stop, uh, please stay in your car until an enchanted team member can assist you.”

  I get in the cupcake-shaped car and Ryan slides in next to me. Seamus pushes the safety bar down on our laps, bites his lip, and looks around as if not sure what to do next.

  “Release the brake,” Ryan whispers to him.

  “Oh, thanks!” Seamus steps on the brake release, and then pushes a button on the starter board. “Enjoy the ride.”

  The cupcake car jerks forward, and we inch slowly toward a door painted like the inside of an old cottage. The door opens and a menacing voice calls out from above. “Take them into the forest and leave them there!”

  The car winds its way through trees covered with hanging moss. Owls flap their wings and hoot as their red eyes blink. A tree branch cracks and drops dangerously close to our heads. I duck down and snuggle in closer to Ryan. A wolf springs out at us, howling, and I scream.

  “I don’t think that wolf was working last time I was in here,” I say, trying to laugh.

  Ryan puts an arm around me. “Yeah, I don’t remember that.”

  A trio of vultures sitting in a tree screeches at us, jerks their heads around, and follows us as the car turns sharply around a boulder. A cloud of bats dips down from the ceiling and circle overhead.

  “There’s the gingerbread cottage,” Ryan says as the car rounds another corner.

  “Good!” I say. I think I liked this ride a lot better when most of the animatronics were broken.

  An old hag with a long, crooked nose stands to the side of the door, beckoning to us. “Come in for some tasty treats, kiddies,” she says over and over again. I remember how much I hate the next part. The inside of the witch’s house is at all sorts of crazy angles, with the floor tilting up toward the giant flaming oven.

  The front door opens and the car zigzags wildly around the kitchen table laden with oversize cakes and cookies, and then past a large cage with a Hansel robot shaking the bars as he calls out for his sister. We head toward the oven, fake flames spitting and crackling, and then the witch slides across our path and the car jerks to a stop.

  “Into the oven with you!” the witch’s tinny voice shrieks, her red eyes flashing just like the owls’, but then Gretel slides toward the witch, and the car moves forward. The oven door opens and I hear Izzy call out to us.

  “In ya go, guys!” she says, imitating the witch’s voice.

  I turn my head and see Izzy wave to us from her hiding spot behind the pantry loaded with more fake cookies and treats. The witch skates on her track into the oven, which lifts up into the air, exposing the sharp incline the car will go down. My screams echo along with the witch’s as the car dips sharply.

  Ryan laughs and squeezes me tighter. Hot air is pumped over us as red strobe lights flash along the “fire”-covered walls. The car streaks down until we come to the door at the back of the oven. It opens and we’re in a forest scene again, only this time the mood is cheerier. Bluebirds chirp on branches and flutter their mechanical wings, fawns drinking from a babbling brook lift their heads as we roll by, and gentle Bavarian music fills the air.

  Hansel and Gretel skate on a path along the back wall like they’re racing home for a happy reunion with their father, who is waiting on the front porch of their rickety cottage.

  I can’t help thinking Nicki was right. This is a really messed-up ride.

  “Well, we didn’t get cooked at least,” Ryan says. He picks up my hand and kisses it.

  I lean my head on his shoulder, thinking this is the last time I plan on taking a spin in the old cupcake cars. Suddenly Remy appears—standing directly in our path, shaking her head.

  “Don’t come back here, Meggy,” she says.

  The car goes right through her and I’m hit with a blast of cold air.

  “Whoa,” Ryan says, shivering. “Did you feel that?”

  I turn around in the car and see Remy staring after us. “This is a bad place!” she screams. “Bad! She’s here—right under here. They’re gonna get her too. She’s gonna die!”

  “Who?” I whisper.

  “What?” Ryan says.

  “Help her!” Remy cries.

  The car bursts through the last door, and Remy’s screams echo after us. Hayden’s eyes lock onto mine. The car comes to a halt, and Kevin comes running over. “Hayden! You didn’t hit the brake lock!” he yells.

  Hayden quickly pushes down the lock and shakes his head “Sorry! It’s Megan, she looked—”

  “I don’t care what she looks like!” Kevin barks. “When the car comes to a stop, you lock the brake until it’s time to send it to the loading dock!”

  Hayden turns bright red. “Sorry.”

  “We can’t afford even one mistake, do you hear me? Do you think you can get a grip or do you need a red card too? I hear the custodial crew loves having new recruits handle the urinal cake replacements.”

  “I can do this,” he says quietly.

  Ryan and I hop out of the car, and Hayden can’t stop stealing glances at me. Is it that obvious something is wrong with me?

  A beep comes from the exit panel. Hayden stands at attention, and I’m pretty sure he won’t forget the lock this time.

  “Jeez!” Casey Winters says as her car comes to a halt at the exit. She jumps out, looking wildly around. “Some idiot was yelling, ‘She’s gonna die,’ in there! It totally freaked me out!”

  Oh my God, she heard Remy!

  She glares at us, but we all shake our heads.

  “She’s nuts!” Tyler Michaels says as he slides out of the same car. He rolls his eyes. “I sure as hell didn’t hear anything.”

  “Hey!” Kevin yells. “Watch the language! You’ll get fired in a heartbeat if anyone hears you talking like that once we’re open.”

  Tyler scowls. “Sorry.”

  Izzy walks out of the staff entrance and looks quizzically at all of us. “Everything okay?”

  Casey shakes her head. “Was that you yelling in the ride?”

  Izzy nods. “I called out as you passed by.”

  “No!” Casey says. “The ‘she’s gonna die’ crap?”

  Izzy’s eyes pop. “I didn’t say anything like that, I swear.”

  Casey’s lip trembles. “Well, I don’t care what anyone says, I heard it, and I’m not going in there again! I want one of those red cards.” She holds out her hand to Kevin.

  Kevin rubs his eyes for a second and then pulls a card off his clipboard and starts writing on it. “I don’t know why they keep this ride—there’s something about it that gets to people,” he says as he gives it to her. “I have to transfer at least five kids a year out of this one.”

  As Casey walks away, she looks back over her shoulder one more time, and then quickens her pace. Nothing like a little Remy fun to make a creepy ride even creepier.

  Kevin exhales loudly. “I fucking hate training day,” he mutters.

  Tyler lets out a snort. “Nice talk from a level four,” he says under his breath.

  “Okay, people!” Kevin says, clapping his hands and smiling like that will clear away the pall hanging in the air. I half expect him to start up the Land of Enchantment cheer. “Do you think we can finish this up so we can go home?”

  We all nod, but everyone looks a little nervous now.

  “Great! Megan, you take the oven; Ryan, you’ll do the exit; and Tyler, you load. Let’s hustle!”

  I so don’t want to go back in there. But it’s only Remy; no need to be more afraid than usual. Well, except for the “she’s gonna die” part.

  “You okay, babe?” Ryan asks, and I realize I’m just starin
g at the staff passageway into the ride. “Do you want to switch with me?”

  I shake my head. “Um, no, I’m good. Casey got me a little spooked, that’s all. It’s just a ride though, right?”

  “Yeah.” Ryan takes a quick look around. Kevin is explaining something to Tyler, and he leans in and kisses me. “Are you sure?”

  I nod.

  “Okay, see you in a few.”

  I hope so. And I hope Remy was just talking about the girl she already showed me and not … I shake my head. I don’t even want to think about the possibilities.

  TEN

  I duck through the passageway under the STAFF ONLY sign and drag my hand along the dark walls. A few dim bulbs every few feet light the way, and I keep my eyes on the glow tape lining the path. The walkway opens up a bit onto the Haunted Forest. The wolf jumps out to my right and I suck in my breath. It howls frantically and I wrinkle my nose. Who the hell designed this ride? No doubt the same nuts who made those mirrors.

  Just keep going, get to the cottage, check in two cars, and then get out of here.

  I walk up the steps and hear the witch’s voice punctuated by the sound of Remy crying.

  Fabulous.

  The path narrows and I start climbing the stairs to reach the control panel.

  “Meggy,” she whines.

  I look up and see Remy at the top of the metal stairs.

  “Go away, Remy!”

  “Meggy, she’s gonna die.”

  “Who is gonna die?”

  Remy’s face crumples. “Where’s Daddy?”

  “God, I don’t have time for this!” I walk right through her, shivering in the wake of cold air around her.

  I march up to the control board and hit the speaker button. “All set,” I say, my voice higher than normal.

  I ignore Remy and look around the witch’s house. The jarring angles and too-bright candy-colored pinks and purples make my head spin. I look at the Hansel robot shaking his bars and fumble for my inhaler. I exhale and put it to my lips, but Seamus’s car enters the house before I can use it. I wait until the witch slides out and push the button to alert Ryan.

  Seamus is clutching the safety bar, and I remember he’s one of the exchange students, so he’s never been on any of the rides here. “Watch out, the track’s gonna drop!” I call out, trying to keep my mind off of Remy’s nonstop rant.