Dark Ride

by Todd Loyd

  “Craving some Junior Mints,” he replies in between gasps for air.

  “There's a gingerbread house a few rooms back, but that's it,” Amy replies.

  “I'll pass.”

  Once he's confident that the cauldron will hold, Jack looks up at Mason, who's right beside him and sees him peering down into the cauldron's contents.

  He asks, “Mason, what are you doing?”

  Mason breaks his gaze from the cauldron temporarily. He approaches Amy and says, “Let me see your stick.”

  Amy jerks her prized weapon behind her back and demands, “Why?”

  “Umm, Mason? How ‘bout we not stir the cauldron full of probably creepy things,” Jack suggests.

  Mason rolls his eyes and says, “Whatever.”

  He proceeds to store the axe in the waist of his shorts, and the head sticks out like the butt of a revolver.

  Looking across the room, Jack sees two more sets of doors, one to the right and one to the left.

  They hear a familiar humming sound:

  “The teens prove clever, avoiding the beast.

  One false move and they would have been its feast.

  To survive in the story, their wits must be keen,

  For in this wood there's far worse yet unseen.

  Two doors, on either side, to continue your flight.

  Go to the left in order to make things right.”

  “There's worse?” Amy responds to the voice in dismay.

  “I don't like the sound of that,” Jack states grimly. “But it clearly told us to go through the door on the left.”

  “Hey,” says Mason. “Let me see that flashlight and the belt.”

  “Here,” Jack says as he flips the flashlight to his friend and then hands him the belt.

  Mason holds the light, assessing its weight and says, “Looks like we didn't come out of there empty handed.”

  “Yeah, I guess that mace can really saved our bacon,” Scotty adds.

  They are all quiet for a moment, still gathering themselves after the encounter with the bear. Then Scotty asks in a feeble voice, “Are we all going to die?”

  “We're okay, aren't we?” Jack replies.

  “Come on, Jack,” says Mason. “This is bad—really bad. Who knows what's going to happen in this place?”

  “Yeah. It's not my favorite ride anymore,” Jack muses.

  Scotty strolls over to Mason and peers over his left shoulder as he rifles through the various pouches in the work belt. From one of them, he pulls out a small notebook, and after looking at it, he says, “Hey, guys? Um…you should look at this.”

  “So, it's a notebook,” Amy sighs. “What's so big about that?”

  “Look at the cover.”

  Jack can't read the expression on Mason's face, but something is troubling him to be sure. Jack takes the small memo-sized notebook and stares at the cover. A name has been written on it in cursive lettering:

  Douglas Finch

  Jack thinks, Can this be real? Is this the actual work belt of Douglas Finch?

  Chapter 64

  “Unbelievable, huh?” Mason asks.

  Jack hands the notebook to Amy, so she can look at the writing herself.

  “You've got to be kidding me?” She says. “No, this can't be real. Mason, you wrote this while we weren't looking.” She passes the notebook to her brother.

  “What?” Mason counters, looking incredulous.

  “No, Amy,” Scotty confirms. “I've seen Mason's handwriting—or that scribble he calls handwriting—and he didn't write this.”

  As Amy thinks, she bites off a corner of her index fingernail nervously. She muses, “So it's not just an urban myth? There really is, or was, a Douglas Finch?”

  “Well, it's either that or we're falling right into the mother of all practical jokes,” Mason declares, still unwilling to give up on his reality TV angle.

  Scotty shoves his ever-sliding glasses back up the bridge of his nose with his pointer finger and says, “Okay, let's just assume this is his work belt. I guess the next logical question is what happened to him?”

  When no one responds, Mason is quick to supply an answer, “Hello? The bones outside the cave?”

  Jack, though, doesn't want to consider that question. He takes the work belt from Mason and asks, “Did you see anything else in here of use?”

  “Well, there's a small hammer. But I havn't checked the last pocket.”

  Rifling quickly through the undiscovered pouch, Jack lifts out a folded piece of yellowed paper. “What's this?” he asks, but after unfolding the old document, Jack asserts, “It's a map.”

  “A map of what?” Scotty asks excitedly.

  “It's a map of the ride, I think.”

  As the boys gather around the yellowed parchment, Amy opens the red notebook.

  “Do you think he got trapped in here, too?” Scotty questions.

  Mason shoots Scotty a scowl and says, “Uh, hello, knucklehead. Of course he did. We found the notebook in this crazy part of the building, didn't we?”

  “Guys,” Amy breaks in, “I guess none of you bothered to actually open the notebook. Get a load of this. There is a lot of writing here.”

  If you found this notebook, it means my fate has been sealed. It also means that you share in my predicament. I have penned some brief notes in the hope that others like me trapped in this strange ride will be able to find their way out. Take the map I have made. It should help you find your bearings. Beware, there are dozens of passageways and doors and a great many of them lead to danger. During my wanderings, I encountered a rhyme written in a stone wall. I believe it is the key to finding the way out. However, after days of endless thoughts and unanswered questions, I still don't know what it means. Perhaps it will make sense to you. It said:“

  Keys will cry to you, to a valued room.

  Many perils you will face. Avoid your doom.

  Within its walls a volume resides.

  This is what I now confide.

  The treasure is gold, and the lady will be true.

  The gingerbread house is home, and that is what you must do.”

  Perhaps whoever recovers my notebook and map will find this useful in getting help. You are trapped in a crazy world. I wish you all the luck that I apparently did not have.

  Yours,

  Douglas Jay Finch

  P.S. Do not cross the bridge.

  Chapter 65

  All four stand silent. Jack is speechless at this newest bombshell of a discovery. The grim reality that Finch did not make it out alive is the prevailing thought on his mind.

  Breaking the silence, Scotty whimpers while holding his shoulder, “More rhymes…. just what we need.”

  “No, Scotty, this is exactly what we need,” Mason declares excitedly. “This is real help, this map, the rhyme on this paper; this is a gold mine of information. And when I say gold mine, did any of you catch that bit about gold? I bet there is some kind of treasure in here.”

  The bit about “real help” is what sounds most appealing to Jack.

  Mason quips, “Okay, Scotty, you're the fairy tale king around here. Take a shot at deciphering this rhyme.”

  Once again adjusting his damaged glasses, Scotty seizes the notebook from Amy. His beady eyes glance back and forth over the page while the other teens wait for the guru to uncover the hidden mystery.

  A minute passes. Then another. Finally, an impatient Mason cannot hold his tongue and asks, “Okay, what are you thinking?”

  “Well, I guess…. Well, we are in some fantasy world, so I bet there will be, like, talking keys, and they will be crying. It says the gingerbread house is home. I bet the keys will tell us how to get back there through some hidden door. There will be some gold lady there—”

  “Or, there will be lots of gold in the gingerbread room,” Mason says. “Remember, the doors to that house were locked. That's what we're supposed to do—find the talking keys and unlock the gingerbread house. Then we get the gold and go home! H
ow about it, Jack? Easy, right?”

  “Well, that does make some sense, but you're leaving out some of the rhyme. Let's see here,” Jack says as he takes the notebook from Scotty. “Um…okay, so keys will cry to us. That means we will probably encounter some sort of magical keys. These will give us access to some hidden room. That seems clear.” Jack looks up at the others. All three are hanging on his every thought.

  “Yeah, better. That makes a lot of sense—keep going,” Mason says.

  “There must be something valuable inside the room.”

  “Something gold, right?” Mason inquires.

  “Yes, that's what it says, but ‘the lady will be true’ line…. I bet there's some gold statue of a lady hidden in the room. We know there are dangers. We've encountered a few already. ‘Many perils you will face. Avoid your doom. Within its walls, a volume resides’….. Maybe we are supposed to find some liquid of some sort once we get the statue and take it to the gingerbread house?”

  “Jack, you're brilliant! That's it. All we have to do is find the keys, enter the hidden room, grab the statue, avoid danger, find the volume or whatever and get to the gingerbread house—great!” Mason announces.

  Jack responds, “Well, guys, listen, this is great and all, and it does make sense, but what about the narrator's rhymes?”

  “What about them, Jack?” Amy questions.

  “So, I think the narrator is telling us we have to finish some story. We have taken the roles of the characters in the ride. I think he's trying to tell us that we have to find the exit ourselves. He told us to take the left door. I think the narrator is telling us we have to go that way to finish the story. Don't you remember he said ‘go left to make things right’? I mean a lot the rhymes have been about completing this or—”

  “Hogwash, Jack,” Mason cuts Jack off. “You said it yourself this makes sense.”

  “No, listen, the narrator said a thief, a wanderer, a tailor, and an apprentice will have to finish the story. Guys, it's all clear. Amy is the wanderer. Remember she got separated? Mason, you're the tailor. I mean the tailor was bold and brave, just like you, and you do have that badge. And the apprentice is Scotty. It's so obvious.” Conveniently skipping the role of the thief, he continues, “We are the characters, this ride is our story, and for some reason we have to make things right.”

  “Okay, Jack, you've lost me there. Why can't we do what we are supposed to by finding this clue?” Scotty counters.

  Jack has to admit he has a point. But he stands firm because he believes the narrator is trying to help them.

  He says, “Maybe Douglas Finch didn't listen to the narrator. He just kept going deeper and deeper until he finally—”

  “Jack, we need to follow the clues here. You deciphered the rhyme as far as I'm concerned. All that narrator has done is scare the pants off us and give us cryptic rhymes. Every time we've gone in a direction that voice told us to go, well, bad things have happened. He led us straight into the cave with the bear,” Mason argues.

  “But what other choice did we have?” asks Jack.

  Mason responds, “Jack, we have a choice now. This is real direction. I, for one, say we check out the map and look for the keys. What do you say, apprentice?” There is dripping sarcasm in the last few words.

  “I agree with Mason, Jack. Let's just follow the map,” Scotty announces.

  Of course you do, thinks Jack, who looks to Amy for support.

  Looking down at the floor and avoiding eye contact with Jack, Amy starts, “Jack, um, well, you were bitten by a snake, and Scotty has injured his shoulder. A bear almost killed us all. The map, well, it's something real. It's not some mysterious clue. I just want to get out of here, now. Let's just follow the map.”

  “’Atta girl,” Mason crows, taking the map in his hands and spreading it out on the floor.

  Jack could understand why Scotty backed Mason, but he's disappointed that Amy does too. Since when did she start siding with Mason? he thinks. A twinge of jealousy firmly takes a seat in Jack's head. However, he knows he can't blame her for siding with Mason. After all, she made a good point. Regretfully, he gives in and joins Scotty and Mason in studying the yellowed map.

  A series of boxes representing rooms are scattered across the parchment.

  “Look here! This says ‘The Vault.’ There's even an X on it. X marks the spot, right? I would bet a thousand dollars that this is where we find the treasure. We look for the key in one of these other rooms, open the door to the vault, take whatever is there, and go to the gingerbread house. See, here is the cave. That means we are here, and we need to take the doors to the right. It seems like we have a few rooms to navigate before we get there,” Mason declares.

  “The narrator said go left,” Jack argues.

  “Look, Jack, we have already decided. We're following the map. If you want to follow the mysterious voice that has almost gotten us killed, be my guest.”

  Jack gives no response. He knows he has lost this battle. Looking at the map, Jack feels a little lump develop in his chest, for he is certain there will be danger lurking in each of those rooms, possibly trying to stop them—or eat them. Dismissing these thoughts, he continues to scan the paper. The rooms are labeled with names that describe them, such as garden, grove, vault, chasm, and clearing. The gingerbread house is even labeled. Other cryptic notes are written in some of the squares, too. They say things like, “Beware golden orbs,” “fiery lass,” “whimsical tune,” and in the square labeled “the grove,” there are the words “grandfather rodents.” None of these notes are clear enough for them to decipher, at least not now, but each seems to spell out some awaiting danger.

  “Okay, so we just left the cave. The room we are in leads to the ‘garden.’ We take that door,” says Mason, ignoring the other set of doors to the left. “It looks like each of these rooms has two or three sets of doors. Man, I can see how someone could get lost. From the ‘grove’ we have, depending on the route we take, about six or seven rooms to clear before we hit the vault.”

  Suddenly, the cauldron rattles, and from behind the doors, a growl erupts.

  “Okay, gang, time to move on,” Scotty nervously asserts.

  Chapter 66

  Outside the ride, Gwen and Clyde are doing their best to keep the Carnahans at bay. Time was wasting, he and his companions were ready to enter the ride when Houston Carnahan started getting really loud, he decided to help keep things calm before re-entering. At one point Clyde thinks he is going to have to physically restrain Mr. Carnahan. The man is younger and much stouter than Clyde, and he is relieved Gwen is with him for support. He wonders if he might be making things worse by not going in now, thinking, Gwen is much better at this type of stuff. Let her do her thing. The other parents are on their way. Maybe their arrival will give the Carnahan man somebody to gripe with?He steps away from the parents to join Oliver and Colton, who await his arrival at the front of the ride. Just then, from the corner of his eye, the figure of a dumpy, footballshaped man saunters around a corner. “Great. Just great,” thinks Clyde, “Snodgrass is here.” The squat little man is tugging up on his pants with every step, only stopping to occasionally wisp the dozen or so remaining long hairs on the top of his head down over the rest of his balding scalp.

  Ignoring the parents and Gwen, Howard Snodgrass, grim-faced, makes a beeline for Clyde, who fires a pre-emptive strike over the bow by saying, “You told me to not disturb you.”

  “Clyde, that was a stolen prop. These are missing kids. Completely different. I might need to call the lawyers. If Sparkman there hadn't called me—”

  “They're just lost in the ride,” Clyde says while shooting a look of irritation at Oliver.

  “I don't care if they're playing hide-n-seek. This place is already a sieve with money, and I'm not getting sued ‘cause some kids decide to pull a prank that gets their parents’ panties in a wad.”

  Pulling out a cell phone the size of a brick from who knows where, Snodgrass types a message by b
ashing away at the keys with pudgy fingers. Before he finishes, he asks, “Are you sure they have not gotten out? They are not having a good laugh drinking some milkshakes over at Sonic or something?”

  “No sir, Gwen's been standing here all night.”

  “Just find the kids, Clyde. Do your job.”

  Snodgrass pauses, waiting for some voice on the other end of the phone. Then he says, “Pritchard? We got a problem at the park. No, no, no, not that again. It's with the Enchanted Forrest…the Dark Ride. For crying out loud, Henry, haven't you ever even been here? Never mind. Look….”

  Things have gone from bad to worse for Clyde. His only escape is to get back inside the ride. With a nod and a gesture, Clyde leads his crew through the front gate into the ride.

  Chapter 67

  The laboratory, the sight of Jack's near-death experience, is disheveled. Dozens of broken vials and books are toppled over, and the vent shaft is flush with the cement floor, which is awash with liquids from the broken bottles and vials. A slender lady looks over the room in a pleased manner.

  She states, “Well, I cannot say much for their housekeeping skills. They made a complete mess of the study.” This good-natured observation is followed by a pleasant laugh from her.

  The grey squirrel is resting gently on her folded arm and begins clicking and squeaking.

  “These brave children, bless them,” says the lady. “I see they have tried to make their own way.”

  The squirrel makes more clicks and squeaks.

  “We were lucky. I had forgotten about the viper.”

  The lady listens to more noises by the squirrel.

  “Yes, the bear. I knew that would be, shall we say, hairy?” says the lady, laughing at her own quip. “But they overcame, and neither you nor Victor had to interfere. Did they receive the gift?”

  She pauses for another brief response.

  “Excellent, we are in luck. The whole ordeal was too close of a call. Perhaps Victor will need to be more assertive. What?…Perhaps another gift? The danger will only grow. It is a fine line we walk. They need to do this on their own. They must fulfill the prophecy for the good of all. If we interfere beyond what we have already done, then all could be lost.”