She had to reach in front of one of the heads to grab it, but she made herself do it. Then she turned around and raised it up. She wouldn’t go down without a fight. She thought of her parents, and her sister, and all her bunkmates.
Good-bye, she said to them all, even Natalie and Jenna, who had been so mean to her.
She trembled all over as she shook the wrench at him.
“Don’t you come near me!”
He took another step toward her.
“You are in such big trouble.”
“Chelsea!” It was Belle! Belle was calling her name!
He took another step toward her.
“Belle! Help! Help me!” Chelsea cried, but she had finally pushed her voice past its limits. The words came out in a hoarse whispered. But she didn’t give up.
“It’s Cropsy! Call the police!” she rasped.
“I’ve already called the police,” Cropsy said. “They’re on their way.”
chapter SEVENTEEN
“Chelsea!” Belle yelled again. “Can you hear us?”
Nat cried out, “Belle! Jenna! Look!”
About twenty feet past the hole, there was a slope. Belle and Jenna came up behind Nat.
“Maybe we can get to Chelsea that way,” Nat said.
“Okay, follow me,” Belle said, taking the lead, “but not too close.”
Nat sandwiched herself between Jenna and Belle. They down the incline until they came to a thick wall f trees. Belle handed the flashlight to Nat, d up, grabbed hold of one of the branches as if she were going to do a chin-up, and pulled down hard. “Here, we’ll help,” Jenna said. She came up beside lle, who wasn’t much taller than she was, and started yanking on the same branch.
It broke and crashed to the ground.
“Hey, I see something,” Nat said. She aimed her flashlight through the space they had made.
It was the word DANGER written in black.
Belle broke off another branch. Jenna helped. Then Belle doubled up and rammed herself against the danger sign.
There was a cracking sound. She did it again. Another cracking sound.
“Please,” she said to Nat, reaching for the flashlight. She slammed the end of it against the wood, and a piece broke off. She had a peephole now, and she peered into it.
“Oh my God,” she said. Then she raised her voice and shouted, “Chelsea! We’re coming!”
“Come on, girls,” she said to Jenna and Nat. “Hurry!”
With Alex over Jeremiah’s shoulder, the six raced toward the screams. In the lead, Priya pushed through a curtain of pine branches to see—
“Oh my God!” Priya cried.
“What?” Brynn rammed into her from behind. “What do you see?”
A half-rotted wooden fence, large pieces missing, bore the words CROP ’S AMUS ME TS in faded black paint. It was surrounded with images—a vampire, a clown, balloons, and a cone of cotton candy.
Lower down were several signs, tacked one on top of another: CONDEMNED. NO ENTRY. DANGER. TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED.
“Alyssa, the flashlight,” Priya said.
Priya pushed her head through the fence and shone the light over the silhouette of a small broken-down roller coaster and a merry-go-round. Farther back, there was a building shaped like a big skull. Its mouth was a set of large double doors standing half-open. She could just make out the sign, CHAMBER OF HORRORS.
“Jeremiah’s story is true!” Priya yelled. “Come on, help me break down this fence!”
“Wait. You called the police?” Chelsea said.
“Of course I did. You’re trespassing.” The man set down his ax. “I should have figured someone would hear the music.”
Just then, there was a tremendous racket behind him. He turned around.
And there was Belle!
No questions asked, Belle charged right at the man. She was a total warrior! She tackled him, throwing her arms around him and pushing him backward onto the floor.
“Aiya!” she bellowed. Then she rested her sneaker on his windpipe, her back straight, and her hands flat and extended in a karate-type stance.
Jenna appeared next, followed by Natalie, both still in their pajamas.
“Chelsea, are you all right?” Belle shouted.
Chelsea started to cry again, but she nodded. Then she sank to the floor.
“Chelsea, oh my God!” Natalie threw her arms around her and hugged her tightly.
Jenna ran over to where the man lay flat on his back and shone her flashlight on him and Belle.
“I’ve called the State Troopers!” the man gurgled. “They’re on their way.”
“What?” Belle remained in position.
“You’ll all be arrested for trespassing,” he continued. “And attacking me!”
“Who are you?” Belle asked him.
“I’m Jamieson Cropwell. Who are you?”
“One, two, three!” Priya shouted.
The group pushed on the fence. Jeremiah had settled Alex on the ground, propped against a pine tree. He, Priya, Alyssa, Brynn, and Candace nearly had it all the way down.
Priya looked through the slats.
And then she saw Natalie and Jenna emerging from the mouth of the skull building!
“Natalie!” Priya shrieked, but her voice was gone. “Alyssa,” she whispered, “Yell!”
Alyssa shouted, “Natalie!”
Natalie heard Alyssa and raced toward the fence. She was yelling and waving her hands.
“You guys! Oh my God, you guys!” she croaked. She gripped her hands around one of the boards and yanked. “We found Chelsea!”
“Is she okay?” Alyssa asked.
“Her ankle’s hurt. Belle thinks it’s just a sprain.”
“Alex needs her insulin,” Alyssa said.
“I’ll go tell Belle, okay? Mr. Cropwell called the State Troopers. Maybe they can bring some. I’ll go get Belle!”
Natalie turned and trotted back to the skull building.
Alyssa and Priya looked at each other, and then at Jeremiah. “Mr. Cropwell?” Alyssa said slowly.
Gaby, Tori, and Valerie jumped and clung to one another. It had been half an hour since something had banged on the truck. Tori had turned off the headlights to conserve the truck’s battery, but the girls were still afraid to get out. The fog was gone, and they’d been hoping that their monsters had left with it.
Then something hit the truck door!
“This is the Pennsylvania State Troopers. Open your door,” said an amplified voice.
Something hit the door again.
Only it wasn’t hitting, it was knocking.
Then a bright light shone in their eyes. Tori jerked and pushed against Valerie.
“Open your door,” said the voice again.
Squinting, Tori unrolled the window with the hand crank just a tiny bit.
“Who are you?” she called out.
“We’re State Troopers, miss,” said a woman’s voice. “Are you part of the missing bunk from Camp Lakeview?”
“Yes!” Valerie, Tori, and Gaby yelled in unison.
Tori popped open her door and climbed down gratefully as the trooper gave her a hand. Then she jumped back in as something white bobbed toward them.
“It’s okay. It’s just a sheep,” the trooper said, laughing.
What?
“Baaa,” said the sheep.
“Hold on.” Tori reached into the truck and flicked on the headlights.
A dozen sheep were milling in front of the high beams.
“Our attackers!” Tori told the others.
Gaby and Valerie started laughing.
Priya, Alyssa, Natalie, Jenna, Brynn, and Jeremiah accompanied Mr. Cropwell on a quick tour of the Chamber of Horrors, while Belle used Mr. Cropwell’s landline phone. First she made sure the closest urgent care had some insulin, and then she called Dr. Steve. He and Nurse Helen would meet the group there.
Chelsea’s ankle was too sore for any more adventures.
“Besides,” she said, “I’ve seen more than enough.”
Alex was sad, though. She wasn’t feeling up to going exploring. Mr. Cropwell told her he would take her on a tour another time.
“I built this place in 1953,” he said, ushering them into a room with a man in an electric chair and a body wrapped in bandages. “Hmm. Water damage.” He looked up. “This must be where your friend fell through the roof.” He pointed to the mattress. “I was getting rid of that. Lucky thing I got tired and left it there.”
“Why is everything all ruined like this?” Brynn asked. Once you got used to looking at Mr. Cropwell’s face, it wasn’t so bad. But Brynn could tell he was very embarrassed by his appearance. He kept ducking his head and he muttered a lot.
“Couldn’t make a go of it,” he said. “Not enough customers.” He looked back down and muttered, “I got so mad one night, I carted out a whole bunch of dummies and threw them in the lake.”
He pointed his hand toward the west. “I used to live in a little cabin on the other side of the lake. Stored lots of the Chamber of Horrors props in my basement. But things . . . happened. My wife died, and I had a bad accident.” He gestured to his eyepatch and sighed. “This park was her dream. And when she died, I guess it died, too. I kept it hidden for years. In the early days, people remembered and they would sneak in.” He pointed to the mattress. “Sometimes people even camped here. I had to shoo them away.”
“I’ve looked for Croppersly’s Chamber of Horrors ever since I was a little boy,” Jeremiah said. “I even Googled it.”
“You had my name wrong,” Mr. Cropwell pointed out.
Jeremiah nodded, then grinned. “Well, it’s a dream come true to finally find it. It was the music,” he added.
“Yes. Why did you play the music?” Brynn asked Mr. Cropwell. “That’s how we found you.”
“I started the utilities again so I could clean the place up,” he said. “Some people are thinking of putting in a playland—mini-golf, bumper cars, and reopening the Chamber of Horrors.”
He looked at the ground again. “They tried to buy it a few years ago, but I held out for too much money. So this time, I thought I’d clean it up before they got here. Then maybe they’d raise their offer a little.” He sighed. “But there’s so much to do, and they said they’d be in touch before the end of summer.”
“Maybe we can help you,” Brynn said. The others nodded excitedly.
“Well, that’d be nice, but you’re here to go to camp,” he said.
“We’ll ask,” Priya announced.
“I can help for sure,” Jeremiah told Mr. Cropwell. ”And Dan, too.”
“We could write an article on it for The Acorn!” Priya cried. “In fact, don’t you think it should be some kind of historical site?”
He laughed, and it was a funny thing, but when he laughed, his scars didn’t show.
“I don’t know about that, but I have a nice scrap-book about the place.”
“Oooh, can we see it?”
“Next time,” Belle said from the doorway. She looked at Mr. Cropwell. “The State Troopers are here.”
“I’ll talk to them,” Mr. Cropwell said. He limped out of the room.
Belle said to the others, “Dan and Clarissa got a ride. They called the troopers, too. They picked up Gaby, Valerie, and Tori. They’re fine.”
The nightmare was really, truly over. Dr. Steve, Nurse Helen, and Tashya met Belle, Alex, and Chelsea at the urgent care clinic. Mr. Cropwell drove them there, then went back to ferry the others over from the ruins of his amusement park. Chelsea had a sprained ankle, and the doctor fitted her with one of those weird boot-shoes and told her to stay off it. Gaby, Valerie, and Tori stayed at the trooper base.
As for Alex . . .
“She’s good,” the doctor said as he read the results of the tests he had run on her. “You guys did all the right things,” he told the girls.
Candace beamed with pride.
After making absolutely sure that all his campers were in relatively good shape, Dr. Steve listened to the entire story and explained that he would have to contact all their parents to let them know what had happened.
“Some of your parents may be unhappy and may want to take you out of camp,” he said, preparing them for the worst.
It would be the worst, Candace realized. Sure, she had been scared—make that totally terrified—but the whole bunk had worked together and taken care of one another. She had felt needed, and important.
In fact, she felt pretty good.
The group took the bus back to the campsite to retrieve the bunk’s personal belongings. Dr. Steve told them that someone else would come out in the daylight to take down the tents and collect the rest of the gear.
Before they left, the eleven bunkmates walked to the edge of the campsite and gazed down at Shadow Lake. Jeremiah and Dan were there, too. The troopers were going to take them in for questioning. Candace wondered if they were in trouble. They hadn’t shown good judgment, but they had pitched in to help when the bunk needed them.
“Well, some of your story was true,” Alex said to Jeremiah. “There was an amusement park. Mr. ‘Cropsy’ Cropwell’s amusement park.” She emphasized his name. “But no kid got his arm cut off. There wasn’t even a guillotine.”
“I can’t believe we never found that place before,” Jeremiah said. “I grew up here. We searched every inch of this lake.”
“Maybe tonight was a special, spooooky night when you were meant to find it,” Valerie said, making her eyes wide and scary.
“Please don’t,” Gaby said, huffing. “It was the music. We all heard it.”
“Mr. Cropwell’s got some cool old stories about the history of Shadow Lake,” Priya said. “I’m going to write them down. Maybe we can run them in The Acorn. I have newspaper for one of my electives.”
“No more scary stories!” Brynn cried.
“Bunk 5A, we need to go,” Dr. Steve told them, standing by the door of the bus.
“Well, his plan worked,” Natalie said. “We have bonded. High five, 5A!”
The girls all laughed and dog piled, slapping hands together.
“Last one on the bus . . .” Gaby began, then trailed off. She smiled and put her arm around Chelsea’s waist. “. . . has a sprained ankle!”
Bunk 5A had never looked so wonderful. Unfurling her sleeping back with a practiced hand, Priya fell into bed. So did everyone else.
“I’m too excited to sleep,” Brynn announced.
“Me too,” Natalie said.
“Me three,” Candace said.
“Me four,” said Chelsea.
“Girls, please, let’s not get to eleven,” Belle said.
And amazingly enough, they all did fall asleep.
The girls were excused from flag raising and breakfast. But word had gotten around about their harrowing adventure, and a lot of their friends came to see them while they were still in their pajamas. Belle allowed them in, and Jordan went straight to Brynn. Butterflies started dancing in her stomach. She would finally find out why he had wanted to talk to her.
He and Brynn sat cross-legged on the floor. He studied her face. “Wow, I can’t believe what happened.”
“I can’t, either,” Brynn replied, with a quirky half-grin. “And I was there.”
Jordan shook his head. “Well, I’m really glad you’re okay.” He paused. “You know, I wanted to talk to you about something.” He dropped his gaze to his hands.
This cannot be good, she thought. Then again, if I survived Shadow Lake, I can survive whatever he wants to tell me.
He looked back up at her. “I just . . . wanted to make sure we were okay. I saw you and . . . you look different from even the last time I saw you. More . . . grown up. And I . . .” He took a breath. “I wasn’t sure if you still wanted to have a . . . to be . . .”
Her heart sang. Her grin spread across her face as she said, “Do you want to go the social together? Like a date?”
He blinked rapid
ly. “Sure. Do you?” Then he laughed. “Well, I guess you do, if you asked.” His cheeks turned pink. “Cool!”
Priya came over to Clarissa’s bed. Chelsea had been moved there to make it easier on her ankle, and it was piled with presents, flowers, and get-well cards. And a whole ginormous stash of candy and cupcakes from Jenna. There would definitely be no more fights about who had a top bunk.
Not that Priya thought there would be any more fights. Their bunk had become too tight for that stuff. And Priya wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything else to get in the way of having a fun, cool summer. So she asked Chelsea to have a talk with her.
“About Spence,” Priya said, taking a deep breath. She looked at Chelsea. “I think he likes you the best.”
Chelsea’s face went red. “I don’t care.” When Priya grinned at her, she turned even redder. “Seriously.”
“Well, I’ve decided I don’t want to have a camp boyfriend,” Priya insisted. “I don’t want a guy to come between me and my bunkmate.”
“Then I won’t, either,” Chelsea said firmly. She held up her hand. “Spence is neutral territory.”
Priya laughed and high-fived her. “Okay!”
“5A rocks!” Chelsea said.
Alex looked over. “Say what?”
“5A rocks!” Priya yelled.
Everyone else took up the chant—Natalie, Jenna, Alyssa, Tori, Gaby, Valerie, Candace, and Brynn—yelling, “5A rocks! 5A rocks!”
“We totally do!” Priya shouted.
EPILOGUE
. . . so, Grace, that’s the story of Cropsy. Just a lonely old man whose dream didn’t quite come true.
We solved a few more mysteries. Jer and Dan confessed to tearing down the Camp Lakeview sign and spray-painting it, as a prank. And Tori thinks Monster the dog was the panting thing that poked at her in the fog. Then when he started howling, her imagination got the best of her and she thought he was howling for his arm!
Hide and Shriek #14 Page 18