Your Worst Nightmare

by P. J. Night

  The tunnel twisted and turned sharply—once, then twice, then three times. Kristi had an uneasy sense that she was looping back around. If this part of the maze was an endless loop, she might really be running in circles—and if she was, Kristi knew it was only a matter of time before her body gave up. And she knew exactly what those awful clowns would do: lock her in a cell and throw away the key. Some of those bars weren’t crumbling. Some of them were still strong. And once she was behind them, no one would know where she was. No one would come for her.

  “No,” Kristi said to herself. There had to be a way out, and she was determined to find it.

  Especially as the footsteps behind her grew louder . . . and closer. They motivated Kristi even more, pushing her forward, even though she was starting to wonder how much longer she could keep up this frantic pace. Far ahead, off to the side of the tunnel, Kristi saw a dark crevice. It was narrow, but it might be just big enough to fit her if she squeezed in tight. I can hide there, Kristi thought. I can hide there until the clowns stop looking for me. After they leave, I can go back the other way, past their cells, back to the Crystal Lake.

  Just having a plan made Kristi feel stronger. I can do this, she thought. I can escape.

  In seconds, Kristi reached the crevice. She glanced over her shoulder but didn’t see anyone coming. Kristi held her breath and squeezed into the crevice as the sharp rocks lining it scratched her face and hands. Then she exhaled heavily, shaking with exhaustion, fear, and relief.

  I made it, Kristi thought. I’m safe.

  Then, in the darkness, someone grabbed her hand.

  CHAPTER 10

  Kristi’s scream was so loud and powerful that it threatened to rip her throat in two. A hand clapped over her mouth and she tried furiously to bite it, to twist away, to keep running.

  “Kristi! Stop! It’s me—it’s Bobby—ow!”

  It took a moment for Kristi to understand that she was hearing a familiar voice. A friendly voice. The fight drained out of her, leaving her muscles trembling and weak.

  Kristi’s legs crumpled beneath her; she sank to the floor and started to cry.

  “What is it?” Bobby asked urgently. “What’s wrong?”

  “It was—it was clowns,” Kristi sobbed. “So many of them, and they’re trying to get me. We have to go, we’re not safe here—”

  “Where?” Bobby asked. “In the tunnel?”

  “Yes!”

  “Stay here. I’ll be right back,” Bobby promised her.

  “No! Don’t leave me—”

  But Bobby had already disappeared. One minute passed, then two. Kristi sat perfectly still, not daring to move, hardly even daring to breathe. What if Bobby didn’t come back? The thought was so terrible that Kristi couldn’t bear to think about it; she pushed it far from her mind. She crawled to the back of the crevice and felt the hole that Bobby must have come through. She pushed through it and stood up. For the first time since she had entered Ravensburg Caverns, Kristi found herself in an area with no lights. Not a single bulb dangled overhead. With a creeping chill, she realized what that meant: This area of the caverns was completely off-limits to visitors. And yet here she was, breaking all the rules like it was no big deal.

  But the longer she sat there, the more her eyes adjusted to the lack of light. The room was almost entirely dark, but there were thin pinpricks of light that somehow pierced the rocky ceiling. Kristi couldn’t see very far, but it looked like she was in a perfectly round room made entirely of stone. Some areas seemed even darker, causing Kristi to wonder if they led to more tunnels.

  Then, just as he had promised, Bobby returned. He knelt down next to her and shook his head.

  “They’re gone, Kristi,” he said. “Everything is okay.”

  Kristi knew that she should’ve felt better when Bobby said that. Instead, she burst into tears again.

  “Whoa, what’s wrong?” Bobby asked. “Don’t cry.”

  “I-I’m sorry,” Kristi said, trying to choke back her tears. “I was just—so—so scared—”

  “Of . . . clowns?”

  “Yeah.”

  Most people would’ve laughed—and in Kristi’s experience, they usually did. But not Bobby. He simply asked, “How come?”

  Kristi opened her mouth and closed it fast. It had been years since she had talked about what had happened in the fun house. Was she really ready to tell someone new?

  Then again, she had a feeling that Bobby would understand.

  “It happened a really long time ago,” she began. “I was five years old, and my cousin took me to this carnival where her boyfriend worked after school. She made me go in the fun house by myself while she hung out with her boyfriend. She said it would be fun. But it wasn’t. It was horrible. It was so dark, with all these spooky noises. And then . . .”

  Kristi’s voice trailed off, but she forced herself to keep going. “There was a clown in the fun house. His makeup and wig were really scary, not like a cheery birthday clown at all. And he . . . he started following me, from room to room. Everywhere I went, he was there, jumping out at me. I was trying to run away from him, but he thought he was hilarious. I was terrified. Eventually I ran into this room that was full of mirrors. Everywhere I looked, he was coming closer . . . and closer . . . but with all the mirrors, it was like a hundred clowns coming at me. I froze up. His hands were reaching out to grab me and I—I got so scared that I accidentally ran into one of the mirrors and broke it. It sliced up my arm pretty bad, and the clown got scared. He had to carry me out of the fun house, because I was totally lost, but I was so scared of him that I started screaming . . . and couldn’t stop.

  “When my cousin saw me all covered in blood, she freaked out. The manager of the carnival called an ambulance. And he fired that guy, too—the one who scared me so bad. The clown got really mad. He ripped off his wig and threw it on the ground. Then he leaned over and whispered, ‘You’re gonna be so sorry.’ ”

  “Then what happened?” Bobby asked in a quiet voice.

  “The ambulance took me to the hospital. I got seven stitches,” Kristi replied. “But I couldn’t forget about the clown. Every night, I hid under my bed and cried. One night, Mom came into my room to check on me and I got, like, hysterical. I finally told her everything and she helped me realize that I didn’t have anything to be scared of. The clown at the fun house was just some stupid teenager. But I still hate clowns.”

  “That’s why you freaked out about the grab bag,” Bobby realized.

  Kristi nodded. “Yeah. Stupid clowns,” she said. “But you know, it’s weird. . . .”

  “What’s weird?”

  “Fear. Like, actually being afraid of something. It’s hard to explain . . . but once you’ve been really, really scared, the fear can just live inside you. It’s like it’s always there, waiting to rise up and take you right back to the worst moment of your life. That probably sounds really stupid.”

  “I don’t think so,” Bobby replied. “It doesn’t sound stupid at all.”

  Kristi tilted her head as she tried to get a better look at Bobby’s face in the darkness of the cavern. He didn’t sound anything like loud Bobby or goofy Bobby or totally-desperate-for-attention Bobby.

  Then he started talking nonstop. “You know what I would’ve said if I’d seen those clowns? I would’ve been all, ‘You’re going DOWN, CLOWN!’ And then I would’ve been all, ‘Nice face, but doesn’t your mom miss her makeup?’ And then I would’ve been all, ‘Nice car, but the preschool wants it back.’ ”

  Kristi didn’t think that Bobby’s jokes were very funny, but she eventually cracked a smile. He grinned back at her and said, “Finally, my big mouth turns out to be useful.”

  “Sometimes I wonder about that,” Kristi said carefully. “I mean . . . you can act totally normal, like everybody else. But then you can also get really loud and start showing off and stuff. How come?”

  In the silence that followed, Kristi started to worry that she’d hurt Bobby’s feelin
gs. “Listen, forget it,” she said. “I don’t even know what I’m talking about.”

  Bobby shrugged. “It’s no big deal. I know people don’t really like me,” he said simply. “It’s not exactly a secret that I don’t have a lot of friends . . . or, uh, any friends. I guess I just figured that sooner or later, I’d make somebody laugh, and then somebody else, and then I’d be popular. That’s why I did all that research before the field trip. I thought if I knew, like, everything about Ravensburg Caverns, people would be impressed. And then they’d want to be my friend. But maybe . . . maybe it doesn’t work that way.”

  “Don’t be silly. I’m your friend,” Kristi replied. It was all she could think of to say, and it turned out to be just the right thing.

  “Really? Cool,” Bobby replied happily. He paused for a moment. “So, are you still afraid of clowns?”

  “I’m actually not sure,” Kristi said slowly. “I thought I was. But after being in that tunnel with all those clowns chasing me, I realized that I’m more afraid of freezing up. Like I did in that room full of mirrors. Ever since that night, I’ve been so worried that if something bad was about to happen to me, I wouldn’t be able to escape. I wouldn’t be able to save myself.”

  “But you did,” Bobby replied. “You ran until you found a safe place. So now you know you can always save yourself, if you have to.”

  “Yeah,” Kristi said, nodding her head. “I guess you’re right.” She paused for a moment. “So . . . what are you afraid of?”

  Bobby paused for a long moment. Kristi could tell that he wasn’t sure if he should tell her or not. At last, he opened his mouth. But before he could speak, he stiffened his shoulders. Kristi knew why immediately. After all, she heard it too: footsteps. Footsteps running in the dark. Running toward them.

  “It’s the clowns!” Kristi whispered in a panic. “They’ve found us!”

  “No way,” Bobby whispered back. “I walked through the tunnel for a while and I didn’t see anybody. It was empty. Whoever you saw there . . . they were gone.”

  Kristi shook her head. “No, that isn’t possible. There were so many of them. They were probably just hiding—”

  “Hiding? Where?” Bobby asked.

  “I—I don’t know,” Kristi replied. “Back in the cells, maybe.”

  Bobby looked confused. “What cells?”

  Now it was Kristi’s turn to look confused. “What do you mean, ‘What cells?’ ” she said. “The clowns were in jail cells. There were, like, dozens of jail cells along the sides of the tunnel. All those clowns got mad at me when I wouldn’t let them out.”

  “I didn’t see any jail cells,” Bobby said slowly. “The walls of the tunnel were totally smooth.”

  “But I know I saw them,” Kristi replied. “I know they were there! I—”

  “Okay, maybe I just missed them,” Bobby said as he pulled himself up. “I’m going to take another look in the tunnel.”

  “Wait! Don’t go. Not again,” Kristi said.

  “I should at least see who’s coming,” Bobby said as the footsteps grew louder. He glanced nervously toward the narrow entrance of Kristi’s tunnel. “Don’t worry. I’ll be right back.”

  In an instant, he was gone.

  Kristi crouched against the wall, ready to spring and run at a moment’s notice. She could no longer see or hear Bobby, and it was worse—so much worse—to sit here alone in the dark. He’ll come back, she told herself, partly because she believed it and partly because she wanted to convince herself that he would. Bobby promised. And he wouldn’t break a promise.

  But the footsteps were growing louder. And there was still no sign of Bobby.

  Then an unseen force—heavy, hard, screaming—catapulted into Kristi. She slammed into the stone floor under its weight. She tried to push herself up, to escape, but whatever it was had her pinned. Her arms, her legs, her lungs all started to seize up with fear. Then Kristi remembered what Bobby had said:

  Now you know you can always save yourself.

  “Get off me!” she screamed as the blood started whooshing through her limbs again. Kristi was flailing and thrashing with all her might. “Get off!”

  “Kristi?”

  CHAPTER 11

  “Olivia!” Kristi gasped.

  Olivia rolled off to the side as Kristi sat up. She reached out for her friend and grabbed Olivia’s arm as if to make sure she was real. “I’m so glad it’s you,” Kristi replied. “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to flip out like that. I didn’t know it was you.”

  “No, it’s okay. I’m fine,” Olivia replied, rubbing her knee. “I must’ve tripped right over you.”

  “Yeah, well, I was just sitting here, in the middle of the ground,” Kristi replied. “So, your tunnel . . . it led you here too?”

  In the dim light, Kristi could see Olivia nod. “Where are we?” she asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Kristi admitted. “Bobby was here, but . . .”

  “But what?” Olivia asked. “Where did he go?”

  “We heard footsteps, so he went to go check it out,” Kristi explained. “That was . . . kind of a while ago.”

  “That was really brave of him,” said Olivia. She shivered. “I don’t know how he did it. I just know I’m not ever going into that maze again.”

  “Me neither,” Kristi said fervently. “It was the worst.”

  “Was your tunnel really scary too?” Olivia said.

  “Yeah,” Kristi replied. “It was full of—”

  Then she heard it again. Footsteps. Olivia heard it too.

  “Maybe it’s just Bobby,” Kristi whispered.

  “Or Tim,” added Olivia.

  To the girls’ relief, it turned out that they were both right. Just seconds apart, Tim and Bobby entered the chamber from separate tunnels.

  “Looks like we all made it, huh?” Bobby said as he sat down next to Olivia and Kristi. “I see Tim did not exactly come in first place. So, what’s your time, Tim? Break any records?”

  Tim winced with pain as he knelt beside the group. “Not quite. I’m just glad that I made it at all.”

  “Why?” Olivia said. “What happened?”

  “Well, first I messed up my ankle,” Tim replied. “I think it’s sprained or something. And then . . . You guys are gonna think I’m crazy. . . .”

  “No, we won’t,” Kristi said, remembering the clowns and their cells. She was dying to ask Bobby what he had found when he ventured back into her part of the maze.

  “There were these red rocks everywhere,” Tim continued, making a split-second decision to leave out part of the real story. “They started exploding and bursting into flames. I thought I was gonna get burned to a crisp.”

  “Roast Tim,” Bobby joked. “It’s what’s for dinner!”

  Nobody laughed, and Bobby seemed to regret his words the instant he said them. “Sorry, Timbo,” he said at once. “Not funny.”

  “I didn’t know if I could get out,” Tim said. “With my ankle and stuff. The fireballs were rolling after me, and the tunnel was filling up with smoke. It was hard to breathe, hard to see. But I noticed this crack in the cave wall and squeezed through it. And here I am.”

  “Fireballs?” Bobby asked doubtfully. “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure,” Tim replied. “Why?”

  Bobby shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “But if there were a ton of blazing fireballs right over there, don’t you think we’d be able to feel the heat? Or at least smell the smoke?”

  Kristi didn’t say anything, but she thought that Bobby made a good point.

  “Well, how do you explain this?” Tim asked as he thrust his hand toward Bobby.

  “Explain what?” Bobby asked.

  “This burn on my palm,” Tim told him. “I got it from one of the—oh!”

  “What?” the others asked at the same time.

  “It’s . . . it’s gone,” Tim replied, staring at his hand in amazement.

  An awkward silence fell over the group u
ntil Kristi turned to Olivia. “What was in your part of the maze?” she asked.

  “Well, it wasn’t fireballs,” Olivia began. “It was . . . don’t laugh . . . it was moths. Giant ones. They attacked me. . . . You know, ‘moth’ isn’t quite the right word. Maybe they were trog—troglo—”

  “Troglobites?” Tim helped her out.

  “Yeah,” Olivia said.

  “But that’s not possible,” Bobby spoke up. “Mrs. Hallett didn’t think that moths could become troglobites, remember?”

  “I don’t care what she said,” Olivia said stubbornly. “She doesn’t know everything. I mean, these . . . creatures were not normal. They were huge, and all white, and some were blind, but some had these freaky, bloody eyes. I honestly didn’t think I’d make it out of that tunnel.”

  Kristi reached out for Olivia’s hand and gave it a fast squeeze. “Mine was filled with clowns.” And that was all she had to say for Olivia to understand.

  “Well, I don’t know,” Bobby said. “Maybe it wasn’t.”

  “What are you talking about?” Kristi asked. “Of course it was.”

  “I went back and looked all through the tunnel,” Bobby explained. “There weren’t any clowns. And no jail cells, either.”

  A flash of anger surged through Kristi. “So I guess I just made it up then,” she said. “Like I made up the key I took off the wall.”

  “I didn’t say that,” Bobby said quietly. “But . . . where is that key, Kristi?”

  “It’s right—” she started to say. Then Kristi stopped. Where was it? Hadn’t it been in her hand this whole time? Surely she would’ve remembered if she had dropped it along the way.

  But the key was gone.

  “So what was in your tunnel, Big Man?” Tim asked sarcastically.

  “Nothing,” Bobby said simply. “It was just a tunnel. Like all the others we walked through.”

  “Well, isn’t that nice for you,” Tim said, rolling his eyes. “The rest of us were scared half to death—”