Trapped in the Circus of Fear

by R. L. Stine

  You have to do something!

  Desperately, you reach into your backpack. Do you have anything that might work to fight the lion tamer?

  What do you have with you?

  If you have a camera, maybe the flash will blind him. Take Bostini’s picture on PAGE 100.

  If you have talcum powder, throw it in his face on PAGE 25.

  If you don’t have either of these, turn to PAGE 119.

  Janos backs fearfully away from the pendant.

  “Go,” Mistress Barbarous commands. “This is none of your business.”

  “Okay,” Janos agrees, giving a little nod in your direction. “What’s your rush? I’m going. I’m going.”

  Suddenly you realize something. He’s trying to give you a signal. Trying to tell you that now is your chance to escape!

  Barbarous’s back is turned. She’s watching Janos. He’s leaving very slowly.

  He backs out of the sideshow. One slow step at a time …

  Thanks, Janos! you think as you climb out of the jar.

  While Barbarous is still watching him leave, you run out the other way. You’re covered in the disgusting glop, but you don’t stop to try to wipe it off.

  You race as fast as you can!

  Run to freedom on PAGE 55.

  “Aaahhh!” you scream as the lion knocks you to the ground.

  For an instant, your heart stops.

  I’m in for it, you think. This is the end!

  Baku’s razor-sharp teeth graze your throat.

  But in the next instant, you hear something. A soft note. From the violin. The gypsy is playing a soothing song.

  The giant lion rolls off you instantly. And he drops into a deep sleep!

  It’s amazing. You can’t believe your eyes. The ferocious beast is now curled up like a napping kitten.

  “Baku! Wake up!” Mistress Barbarous shouts. “Wake up!”

  But it’s no use. She wheels around to face the kindly gypsy. “Ramon! You’ll be sorry you did that! And I’ll make the kid here sorry, too!”

  She reaches for a cord that she’s wearing around her neck.

  Turn to PAGE 34.

  Mistress Barbarous takes a step closer to you.

  You want to dart away as fast as you can. Away from the dangerous ringmistress.

  But which way? She’s blocking the exit.

  You have only two other choices. You see the flap that you and Mr. Peepers raced through earlier. It leads into the big tent. Maybe the clowns will be gone by now! And maybe you can find Richie. Then you two could escape together.

  You also notice a sign pointing to another flap. It reads SIDESHOW. Hmmm. There might be a way out through there.

  But the very idea of a sideshow makes your skin crawl. The freaky exhibits would probably be extra-disgusting in a crazy circus like this one.

  “Now come over here!” Mistress Barbarous demands as she draws nearer.

  “Hurry,” Mr. Peepers squeals. “Which way are you going to run?”

  If you race into the sideshow, turn to PAGE 116.

  If you run into the big tent, say good-bye to Mr. Peepers now. Then race to PAGE 56.

  You dart to the left.

  “Aaaahhhhhhh!” you scream, watching the huge clown flip in the air. WHAM! He hits the ground right where you were standing a second ago.

  Phew. You’re safe!

  Or are you?

  “Run!” Mr. Peepers urges you. “Get out of here before he kills you!”

  You glance at the huge clown on the ground.

  His elastic arms have begun to stretch out again! Toward your throat!

  You scramble to your feet and take off.

  “And watch out for Mistress Barbarous,” the pudgy clown calls after you. “She and her whole family. They’re bad. They do things….”

  His voice trails off behind you as you dash back to the big tent. Toward the exit. It seems like the best place to run.

  The only problem is: The last time you were under the big top, a maniac knife thrower was trying to kill you!

  Is he still there?

  Find out on PAGE 56.

  Mistress Barbarous’s eyes are terrifying pools of glowing purple fire. She glances at your cotton-candy wrapped hands and laughs.

  “Candy Hands!” she declares with delight.

  In the next instant, she shoots a bolt of purple light out of her eyes.

  As the bolt hits, you feel a strange charge of energy. A tremendous shock.

  Your try to wriggle your fingers. You can’t even feel them!

  You stare down at your hands.

  Instead of fingers, five tufts of cotton candy spring from each palm.

  Horror fills you.

  “Nooooooo!” you cry.

  Your hands are pretty sticky, but turn to PAGE 88 anyway.

  Danny tells you the real, human names of the rest of the sideshow freaks, and you use the pendant and mirror to change them back into kids. At last there’s only one left.

  “What’s that kid’s name?” you ask Danny as you point at the Bucket of Human Slobber.

  It’s a hideous-looking bucket of milky slime with two eyes floating on top of the liquid. And red hair.

  “I don’t know,” Danny moans. “He just arrived today.”

  “Richie?” you cry, your eyes opening wide.

  In answer, the two floating eyeballs blink at you frantically.

  “Richie Fieldston, be yourself!” you command, using the pendant’s power.

  In a flash, the Bucket of Human Slobber changes into the red-haired kid you came to the circus with.

  “Yuck!” Richie says, shaking off the last drops of slobber.

  “Yeah!” all the other circus kids cry.

  “What now?” Merrill Thornbush, who used to be the Girl with Five Tongues, asks you.

  “Now we do what we came here to do! We put on a show!” you announce.

  Show time starts on PAGE 18.

  You turn around slowly — and see two large mammals with manes.

  One of them is a lion.

  The other is Mistress Barbarous! Her black hair swirls around her just like a mane.

  The lion stares at you and licks his chops.

  Mistress Barbarous glares at you with a look of pure hate in her eyes.

  They both look as if they want to rip you to shreds!

  “Baku, kill!” Mistress Barbarous commands the huge lion.

  The deadly beast leaps at you. Paws outstretched. Teeth bared. Claws slashing the air.

  Turn to PAGE 79.

  Luckily the huge gray thing with the trunk outside the tent isn’t an elephant. It’s a car! A newspaper reporter’s car!

  “Help!” you scream. “Get me out of here!”

  “What’s up, kid?” the newspaper reporter asks.

  “This place is a nightmare!” you shout. “Get me out of here, and I’ll give you a great story!”

  The reporter drives you straight to the newspaper office. You tell him all about the horrible circus. You show him the photos of the Lizard Boy and the other sideshow creatures.

  “Wow,” the reporter says. “This is a front-page story!”

  You’re so glad you’re safe and that the newspaper staff believe your story. You were worried that they’d laugh at you.

  No one laughs at you … until the paper comes out the next day. Then your whole town has a good chuckle at your expense.

  You didn’t give your story to a real newspaper. You gave it to one of those cheap supermarket tabloids.

  The headline reads: KID FINDS LIZARD TWIN AT THE CIRCUS!

  It shows a photo of you right next to a shot of the Lizard Boy.

  Let’s just call you Lizardo from now on. Everyone else does!

  THE END

  The knife-tipped bow seems to have a mind of its own!

  It lunges and leaps for you while the gypsy plays the music. And Ramon can’t stop playing!

  You dodge frantically out of the blade’s way. Mistress Barbarous stands o
n the other side of the tent, still holding the pendant and the mirror. She taps her foot to the music.

  “Dance, circus kid!” she commands. She shoots bolts from her purple eyes at you.

  Instantly, you begin to dance. You can’t help it.

  A deadly, dangerous dance!

  Keep dancing on PAGE 98.

  There’s a fifty-fifty chance that you can dodge the huge falling clown.

  It all depends on which way you move.

  To the right? Or left?

  Flip a coin.

  If it comes up heads, jump to the right on PAGE 106.

  If it’s tails, dodge left on PAGE 81.

  Mistress Barbarous laughs an evil laugh.

  “Please change my hands back!” you beg her. “Please!”

  “Hey! I want my cotton candy!” Mr. Peepers demands. He jumps up and takes a huge chomp out of your left pinky.

  Instantly, the cotton candy grows back. It’s magic!

  A moment later, Richie walks in. His face is miserable. And he’s hiding his own hands behind his back.

  “What happened to you?” you ask him with a gulp.

  He pulls his hands out to show you. He’s got five sticks of butter instead of fingers!

  “Butterfingers,” he says glumly. “For the popcorn machine.”

  “You two will work here, in the food tent,” Mistress Barbarous decides. “You’ll be our special attractions to get kids to buy more candy and popcorn. What a brilliant idea!”

  You’ll never be able to leave the circus now. But at least you’ll get free cotton candy for the rest of your life!

  THE END

  Your head whips around. It’s a police officer!

  “Oh, thank goodness!” you exclaim. You’re so glad to see him! “Thank goodness you found me! The lady who runs this circus is nuts. She’s trying to put me in a jar of something. And she’s got this poster, and —”

  The police officer pulls out a pair of handcuffs.

  “Hold it right there,” he orders. He cuffs you and drags you toward the front of the circus. “I don’t want to hear bad talk about the ring-mistress, understand? She may be crazy, but she’s my boss. Besides —”

  You glance down and notice something. This guy is wearing clown shoes! He’s a clown cop!

  “I like crazy things! Crazy, wacky things!” he says in a silly voice. He pulls out a rubber horn and starts honking it like mad.

  “Hey, boss! I found this kid trying to escape,” the clown cop tells Mistress Barbarous as he shoves you toward her.

  She narrows her eyes at you.

  Now you’re in big trouble. Try to get out of it on PAGE 53.

  You glance up. What you see is so scary you almost let go of the rope in horror.

  Susan has changed into a giant black snake!

  “Hide your pet snake!” Sara screams from above you. “Whenever my sister sees a snake she changes into one!”

  “Hiss!” The evil Susan slinks down toward you.

  Quickly you grab Peppy and stuff him into your pocket. You sway, dangling by one arm.

  Phew! It works! Susan changes from a snake back into a trapeze artist.

  But your hand is so tired. You can’t hold on any longer!

  You let go — and drop.

  “Ahhhhhh!” you scream.

  Fall to PAGE 109.

  You decide to keep bouncing. Higher … higher …

  You throw your whole body into the next bounce.

  Your arms circle around like windmills. Your legs push hard as they hit the trampoline.

  It works. You sail into the air. Up … up …

  Yes! You’ve bounced high enough to reach the trapeze swing!

  You grip it with your hands. Then you somersault to a sitting position.

  THWAP! Another knife sails by, underneath you.

  “Ha!” you taunt the knife thrower. “You can’t reach me! I’m too high!”

  You laugh as Morton hurls one knife after another at you. They all fall short of the target.

  But we have news for you.

  You laughed too soon.

  Stop laughing on PAGE 111.

  “What’s wrong?” you ask. You gaze at the picture — and flinch. Oh, no!

  Bostini’s eyes are closed. And his mouth looks weird.

  What made you think you could take a good picture of a freak like Bostini? That’s what he wanted, a good picture of himself.

  “I look awful!” he shouts.

  And he starts to cry! You can’t believe it. He’s just a big baby!

  This is my chance to escape! you think.

  You dart for the exit to the sideshow. As you run, you turn and take a few more photographs of the sideshow exhibits.

  Why not? If you get out of there alive, you’ll want to tell people what you’ve seen. No one will believe you unless you have proof.

  FLASH. FLASH. FLASH.

  You snap the pictures, then run for the exit.

  The minute you dash through the tent flap, though, you come face to face with something huge. Something gray. Something with a trunk.

  Go on to PAGE 85.

  The instant Mistress Barbarous shoots that strange purple glare at you, you feel your body begin to change.

  Slowly, painfully, you double over. Then you double over again. And again!

  “Noooo!” you scream when you realize what’s happening.

  You aren’t just going to be shot out of a cannon.

  You’re going to become a cannonball!

  Your whole body is rolling itself up! Before you know it, you are a ball-shaped human being who can’t walk or talk.

  In fact, you can’t do anything except fly out of a cannon at thirty miles per hour.

  But it’s better than life in a jar.

  Actually, flying through the air is fun! You like the applause from the audience. On some nights you really enjoy yourself. You have a ball!

  In fact, you are a ball!

  THE END

  You leap out of the way of the speeding clown car.

  The car screeches to a halt. The doors fly open, and circus clowns start pouring out.

  A skinny clown with a rainbow wig pushes Richie facedown and puts a giant clown shoe on his back.

  “Help me!” Richie shouts.

  You step over to try to help him, but you freeze in your tracks.

  A huge clown with a green face and a hideous, glaring smile is stalking toward you. His teeth are horrible. They’re black.

  His arms are outstretched. Reaching for you. As if he wants to grab you by the throat.

  He’s too far away to reach me, you think.

  But it doesn’t matter.

  Because his arms suddenly start to stretch and grow!

  The arms grow skinnier and skinnier as they lengthen.

  “Nooooo!” you scream.

  The long arms reach you!

  Then the clown’s white-gloved hands close around your throat.

  Finish screaming on PAGE 51.

  You brought a mirror along with you. And suddenly you have a plan.

  Quickly, you pull the mirror out of your pocket and flash it at Mistress Barbarous.

  “A mirror?” you shout, taunting her. “You want a mirror? Well, I have one! Come and get it.”

  Her eyes gleam when she sees it. She seems desperate.

  “Hey!” she shouts, turning her horse toward you. “Give that to me, you little brat! I need it now!”

  “No way!” you cry, backing away.

  Barbarous gallops straight toward you. She leans down, trying to grab the mirror out of your hands. The magic pendant dangles from her fist.

  You let Barbarous get close. Very close.

  Then you snatch the pendant from her fist.

  WHACK! It swings into the mirror — and the mirror shatters.

  “No!” Barbarous cries. “What have you done? Noooooooo!”

  Turn to PAGE 120.

  You clutch at the sleeves of Geyorg’s costume. Holding on for dear life.


  Then he starts shaking his long arms!

  He’s trying to shake you off!

  You’ll plunge to the ground!

  Below, the lions are watching and circling.

  They’re waiting for you to drop into their midst. A tasty little snack!

  You scan the floor, looking for some way out.

  There’s a trampoline right below you. If you let go of the clown, you might survive the fall.

  But once you stop bouncing — will you survive the lion attack?

  That depends …

  Did you bring the bullwhip with you?

  If you have the bullwhip, turn to PAGE 125.

  If you don’t have the bullwhip, turn to PAGE 74.

  “Forget it,” you tell the pudgy clown. “I’m not putting my hands in there. It might hurt!”

  “But I want cotton candy!” Mr. Peepers screams. “Cheater! Cheater! Cheater!”

  Wow, you think. This guy acts as if he’s already had enough sugar for one day.

  But you promised. So you’ve got to keep your word.

  Quickly you glance around the tent. You spot some pinwheels. You grab one, rip the top off, and use the stick to catch the airy spun sugar in the cotton candy machine. When you’ve scooped up a big wad of it, you hand it to the clown.

  “Yummy! Thank you!” Mr. Peepers coos.

  “Okay, whatever,” you mutter.

  You scratch your head. Now what?

  You have two things to do — find Richie and escape from the circus. But first, you want to go and pick up your backpack. You left it in the main tent under the big top.

  You just pray that the knife thrower isn’t still waiting in there!

  Hurry to the big tent on PAGE 56.

  No matter how hard you try, you can’t stop dancing.

  Stay calm, you try to tell yourself. That’s what you learned in circus camp. And think! What can you do?