by JL Bryan
“Thanks.”
Carter froze when he saw Tricia walk out of the gate. She had a glowing smile. He looked her over quickly, trying to find something to say about her hand-painted dress, her sandals, the plastic spider on her toe ring.
“Now or never,” Jared whispered, nudging him forward.
Carter tried to look calm as he approached her. He’d spoken to her before, of course, but not about very much. They’d been seated next to each other during math class spring semester, and his crush on her had really begun in that last month of school. He had mainly asked to borrow her pencil, and once he’d said he liked the horse she’d been drawing in her notebook. She was really good at drawing.
“Hi, Tricia,” he said, and she gave him a startled look.
“Carter?” She glanced from him to Jared, looking wary as though she expected some kind of ambush.
“I like your...spider ring.” He pointed at her foot. “It’s cool.”
“Thanks.” She glanced at the plastic toe ring. “So, do you need to borrow a pencil?”
Jared laughed behind him, and Carter felt himself blush.
“Not right now,” Carter said, hoping he didn’t look as nervous as he felt. “Have you been drawing a lot this summer?”
“Not too much. I’m more into making bracelets and necklaces.” She pointed to an arrangement of little plastic skulls and black cats around her neck. Half a dozen bracelets clacked together on her wrist, decorated with beads, seashells, and plastic butterflies.
“Those are cool,” Carter said.
“Thanks.”
There was an awkward pause where they didn’t quite look at each other.
“I was just wondering if you want to ride the...” Carter glanced up and named the first ride he saw. “The Ferris wheel?”
“Nah, it’s kind of boring. I was going to do the Brain-Scrambler next.” She looked up at him with her pale green eyes, and he was mesmerized for a moment. She wasn’t one of the girls who wore a lot of makeup or tried to dress sexy like the high school girls, but she was certainly pretty to him. Mostly, she was mysterious and different.
Jared gave him a not-so-subtle poke in the back, reminding him to keep talking.
“Do you want to ride the Brain-Scrambler together?” Carter asked.
“Okay.” She looked between Carter and Jared. “But I have to sit on the inside so you guys don’t crush me.”
“Yeah, of course.”
The three of them walked toward Space City. Carter glanced at Jared, who mouthed the word “Score!” and pumped a fist. Carter wanted to smack him—Tricia could easily have seen Jared do that.
Carter flailed around for something to talk about.
“It sucks we have to start school next week,” he said to Tricia.
“I hate school,” she said. “Everybody’s so stuck-up.”
“I know!” Carter agreed. Aside from Jared, he didn’t have any close friends, though he’d lived in Conch City all his life. “Do you know who you have for homeroom?”
“Mrs. Periwell.”
“That’s too bad.”
“Why? Is she mean?”
“I don’t know. I was just...I have Mrs. Hawthorne. So we won’t be in the same...” Carter shrugged, wondering if Tricia would think he was weird for wanting to be in the same homeroom with her.
Tricia just gave him a small smile.
They stood in line for Professor Atomic’s Brain-Scrambler, a ride covered by a weathered, dirty white dome. An eight-foot statue stood by the entrance ahead—“Professor Atomic” himself, with white-painted glasses and an oversized brain, holding a giant flask in which green glowing fluid slowly burbled like a lava lamp.
“I think that’s so sad.” Tricia pointed at the Professor Atomic statue.
“Why?”
“If you look close, all his paint is peeling and flaking. They don’t take care of him. A lot of stuff in this park is kind of old like that.”
“I guess you’re right. It hasn’t really changed since I was a little kid. No new rides or anything.”
“It’s like this whole Space City part,” Tricia said. “When they built it in the 1960’s or 1970’s, everybody thought going into space was a big deal. Who thinks about it anymore?”
“Space is boring,” Jared said. “We had to watch the whole moon landing in Mr. Teague’s science class. I feel asleep. Why didn’t they do it in color?”
“They didn’t have color back then,” Carter said.
“They had color, just not on TV,” Tricia said.
“I meant that. I know the whole world wasn’t black and white.”
“But what if it was?” Tricia gave another small smile. “No colors at all. Wouldn’t that be crazy?”
Carter wasn’t sure how to respond to that, but fortunately they were ushered into the dome with the next batch of riders. They crossed through a short corridor painted with atoms, goofy alien critters, and test tubes full of colored liquids, and now that Tricia had pointed it out, he couldn’t help noticing how faded and flaking those old murals looked.
Inside the dome, the Brain-Scrambler was a pretty normal scrambler or twist-style ride, with three clusters of spinning suspended cars. Funhouse mirrors lined the interior of the dome, stretching and distorting the images of the passengers.
Jared did Carter the unspoken favor of sitting on the outside edge of the car, while Carter sat in the middle and Tricia sat on the inside. This would matter a great deal when it began to spin.
The little cars filled up with riders, safety bars descended, and the ride operator checked them over quickly before leaving the room and entering the control booth.
The lights went out, leaving them in darkness and silence, aside from a few whispering voices.
“I love this ride so much,” Tricia whispered beside Carter.
The Scrambler began to move through the darkness, slowly spinning them as it picked up speed.
“Intergalactic” by Beastie Boys blasted over the ride’s sound system.
As the ride accelerated, colored lights began to strobe—eyeblink flickers of red, blue, and green that lasted only long enough for Carter to see other riders rushing toward them, or to catch distorted images of himself, Tricia, and Jared flying toward him from the funhouse mirrors on the walls.
Plumes of dry ice fog jetted from the walls, filling the place with cold white smoke, a refreshing break from the summer heat outside.
Carter clung to the safety bar, not out of fear but to try and avoid crushing Jared beside him as the centrifugal force of the ride shoved him sideways. It wasn’t much use, though.
On his other side, Tricia pressed against him, letting out a whoop as she raised her arms in the air, apparently not minding at all as her side and her leg pressed tight against Carter. This was probably the reason Jared had mouthed “Score!” when she picked this ride.
Carter, having never even kissed a girl, couldn’t believe his luck as the girl he liked was crammed against him. He could feel every place where her warm body touched his.
When the ride finally slowed to a stop, he felt a tinge of sadness. It could have gone on forever, as far as he was concerned.
“That was awesome!” Jared proclaimed as the safety bar lifted. He hopped down to his feet. “What’s next?”
“The Swingin’ Scalawag?” Carter suggested. He couldn’t help thinking that if they went over to the water-themed area, they might end up in on a boat in the dark, watery tunnels of Jungle Land, and maybe Tricia would grab onto him when the python dropped from the ceiling or the saber-toothed tiger leaped out from around a tight curve.
“Or the Dark Mansion,” Jared suggested, which wasn’t a bad idea, either, with its pop-up ghosts and groaning zombies.
“Inferno Mountain.” She gave Carter one of her small, mysterious smiles as she said it. “It’s my favorite one in the whole park.”
Carter felt his insides turn cold, and he tried to think of some way to get out of it as they exited the Brain-S
crambler dome.
Night had fully fallen now and the park had truly come to life, a chaos of glowing neon colors and clashing music from every direction—old-time calliopes, the steel guitars of country music, the loud drums of classic rock, digital beats pulsing from the UFO Spinner ride and the red-rock caverns of the Mad Martian Arcade and Laser Tag Arena.
“Inferno Mountain sounds cool to me,” Jared said, with an evil smile at Carter.
Carter looked up at the two-story devil face high above, with the steep black tracks like an incredibly long tongue between its open jaws. Little red lights glowed at the center of its vertical black pupils, and the interior of its mouth flashed red as it laughed: “Ahhh-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ahhh-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” A storm of deep-seated childhood fears roiled inside him, and his guts turned to water.
“Let’s hurry!” Tricia said. “The line’s getting long.”
The three of them walked past the howls and screams of Dark Mansion and approached the line for Inferno Mountain, which threaded back and forth through a red pitchfork fence that looked like a prison—once he stepped inside, there would be no escape. Carter’s legs turned rubbery, and cold sweat rose on his back, despite the hot August night.
“You two have fun. I gotta take a piss.” Jared clapped Carter on the shoulder and winked before walking off. Jared probably thought he was doing Carter a favor, leaving him alone with Tricia, and that would have been true if they’d been lining up for Jungle Land or any other ride in the park. In this case, though, it only made Carter feel frightened and helpless.
Tricia smiled up at Carter, and he forced himself to smile back as they got in line. The speakers in the roof above the waiting area played “Devil Inside” by INXS.
“This ride gives me the worst nightmares,” she said. “But I love it so much.”
“Me, too.” The first part, anyway, he thought. “Ever since I was little.”
“Oh, did you ride it as a little kid, too?”
“No...” He didn’t want to admit that he’d lived in Conch City all his life but never worked up the nerve to ride Inferno Mountain. He decided to change the subject. “I’m glad I ran into you.” As if I didn’t stalk you all the way here.
“Me, too.” Her new grin was warmer than the shy little smiles she’d been giving him. “I always thought you were nice.”
Carter’s heart skipped at that. “You, too. You’re really...” Don’t call her pretty, Jared said inside his mind. “You’re really cool.”
“Nobody’s called me ‘cool’ before. You should hear the stuff Kelly Maples and her friends call me. They think I’m a freak. I’m just trying to mind my own business, I don’t know why they always bully me.”
“Because they’re stupid. I’m glad you’re not like them. I’m glad you’re who you are.” Carter didn’t know if he sounded like a toolbag, but it was the truth.
She looked away from him, smiling and blushing. As they advanced in line, she whispered, “Want to hold hands?”
“Yeah.” He barely managed to get the word out—his brain and mouth were suddenly not working together very well. He wiped his clammy hand on his jeans before taking hers.
“Who dares face the devil?” the recorded voice boomed out above them as a trainload of six black cars climbed up into his open fanged mouth. The devil swallowed all twelve riders, and their screams echoed back a moment later.
“You’re shaking,” Tricia whispered.
“I’m not,” he whispered back, though he was trembling all over. He was terrified of getting on the ride, and his head was swimming with the recognition that he was finally making friends with Tricia—the cross-currents of fear and hope collided to make him more nervous, excited, and uneasy than he’d ever felt.
“Let’s ride in the front car,” Tricia suggested when they reached the head of the line. “It’s the scariest.”
“Okay,” Carter whispered, though he was not feeling okay with it at all.
The red pitchfork gate at the base of the fake mountain opened. The little black train with its dozen riders rolled out of a cave and around a tight curve into the station. As it braked, some of the passengers were laughing, but one young couple looked pale and terrified, and two kids younger than Carter were crying. He shuddered as he watched them climb out onto the wooden exit platform across the tracks.
“Come on!” Tricia jogged forward and hopped into the front car. She buckled her seatbelt and looked up at him expectantly.
“Welcome to my playground! Ahh-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” The red bulbs at the center of the devil’s eyes flashed down at Carter.
Carter felt himself crumple. He couldn’t make his feet take the three last steps toward the car. He froze where he was, staring helplessly at Tricia. There was no way his fear would let him ride Inferno Mountain.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Hurry up, kid,” said the ride operator, dressed in blue coveralls with glittering gold stars and a matching cap.
The train was fully loaded except for the seat next to Tricia. A few other passengers shouted at him to get onboard already.
“Carter?” Tricia asked, her eyes widening in concern. “Are you okay? You look sick all of a sudden.”
“You getting on or not?” the ride operator barked.
“I can’t,” Carter whispered. He took a step back. “I’m sorry, Tricia, I...”
“Next in line!” The operator waved forward a guy who looked about fifteen or sixteen, in a Seminoles cap.
“Hell, yeah!” the guy said as he elbowed past Carter and dropped into the seat next to Tricia. He was too old to be interested in Tricia, but his leering smile indicated that he might be, anyway. Carter felt a pang of jealousy, but not enough to overwhelm his fear.
“What’s up, girl?” the teenage boy asked Tricia with a smirk.
Tricia cast Carter a wide-eyed startled look, and he felt horrible for abandoning her to take the dark, scary ride in the company of a strange older boy. He opened his mouth, but couldn’t think of anything to say. He’d let his own fear defeat him.
The train lurched forward, out from under the roof of the loading platform, and curved up onto the steep hill toward the devil’s waiting mouth. Tricia turned away from him.
Carter trudged back out to the pavement in front of the ride.
“Hey, where’s your girlfriend?” Jared stood up from a bench where he’d been waiting.
“Uh...” Carter looked up the steep hill as the train clacked slowly toward the devil’s jaws. In the lead car, the teenage boy in the Seminoles cap slid his arm around Tricia’s shoulders. Carter couldn’t see her face, but she didn’t slap the guy or push him off—either she didn’t mind or she was too afraid to reject him. Neither possibility made him feel good.
“Oh, no, you wussed out!” Jared said.
“I...couldn’t do it. I almost did it.”
“You ditched her?” Jared shook his head. “You blew it, man.”
“I don’t...do you think?”
“Yeah, I think. She wanted to go on the scariest ride with you. She would’ve jumped all over you, man. Then you could head to Jungle Land for some French kissing. Or French fingers, maybe.”
“I don’t even know what that means.”
“You won’t find out tonight, either,” Jared replied.
“Ahh-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!” the devil crowed, eyes flashing as the black train climbed up into the devil’s wide, waiting mouth.
“Shut up!” Carter shouted at the devil’s face.
Then the world shuddered and broke open beneath his feet.
Carter staggered and fell as a chorus of high-pitched screams went up across the park. The first wave went silent as quickly as it had begun, but was quickly followed by a second, louder wave.
He crashed to the ground, scraping his arm and chin on the edge of a widening fissure in the concrete below. When he looked up, he couldn’t believe what he saw.
Living in Florida, he had naturally heard of sinkholes big enough t
o swallow a house, but his mind didn’t instantly make the connection. The word “sinkhole” itself sounded much too tame to describe what was happening. It felt more like an earthquake shaking the entire park.
On the other side of the midway, a gigantic black hole had opened in the earth and swallowed the entire carousel, leaving no trace of it behind.
The hole grew rapidly, cracking and breaking the pavement around it, and more tourists tumbled inside, screaming. Some of the people were trying to get away from the growing hole, but others in the crowd were pushing them back toward it—parents and grandparents shouting and shoving their way to the suddenly empty place where children had been gently circling on painted horses only a moment before.
“What the hell?” asked Jared, who’d toppled to the ground beside him. Carter just watched the spreading destruction, unable to move, feeling terrified.
The Ferris wheel tilted sharply toward the open chasm as its foundation cracked beneath it. The passengers screamed while the great hole widened beneath them. The sound of wrenching metal screeched through the park as an edge of the Ferris wheel struck the lip of the sinkhole. It slammed to a halt, leaning perilously to one side, leaving its riders trapped and screaming above the sinkhole.
On the other side of the sinkhole, the central spindle of the swing ride toppled, bringing down riders from thirty feet in the air. Some of the riders slammed into the pavement around the sinkhole, while the spindle and the rest of the riders fell directly into it.
Carter saw one college-age guy lying twisted on the pavement, still buckled into his swing, groaning for a moment before the chains of his swing pulled taut. Then the guy was scraped backwards across the ground and vanished over the edge of the sinkhole as the central spindle dragged him down.
Fresh screams rose from the riders trapped on the Ferris wheel as they watched the sinkhole slurp down the swing ride and all its passengers.
Carter wondered how deep the hole had to be if it could swallow a merry-go-round and still have room for the swing ride, too. He wondered if it would spread and swallow everything.
The entire park shuddered, as though it were balanced on the back of some great, heaving underground beast. Slabs of blacktop cracked and buckled upward at steep angles, turning the pavement into a jagged moonscape.