Night on Terror Island

by Philip Caveney

  ‘Don’t hold your breath,’ Kip told him.

  The entrance doors opened and Beth stepped into the foyer. She came over to Kip and smiled, but when the smile wasn’t returned, she sensed that something was different tonight. She watched as he glumly filled a box with popcorn.

  ‘Problem?’ she asked.

  ‘Yeah. Grannie’s had a fall, Dad’s had to shoot off to Blackburn and now I’m going to have to miss the film so I can keep an eye on Rose.’

  Beth frowned. ‘Oh, that’s a pain,’ she said. ‘Can’t we talk her into watching the film with us? It’s only a twelve A.’

  ‘No you can’t!’ said Rose’s voice from the office.

  Beth smiled.

  ‘There’s nothing wrong with her hearing,’ she observed.

  ‘No,’ said Kip, nervously, thinking about what he and Mr Lazarus had just been discussing. ‘Anyway, there’s nothing I can do about it. I’ll be stuck out here.’

  ‘Maybe there’s a solution,’ said Mr Lazarus. ‘How about if Rose brings her crayons and things up to the projection room?’

  Kip looked at him. ‘Seriously?’ he asked.

  ‘Why not?’ Mr Lazarus looked towards the door of the office and raised his voice a little. ‘I’m sure Rose would like to see how the projector works,’ he said.

  There was a brief pause and then Rose’s voice said, ‘Whatever.’

  ‘But what about the ticket booth? Somebody might come late.’

  ‘Not to worry. At eight o’clock, I’ll set the film running, then I’ll come down and keep an eye on the booth for half an hour or so. Once I’m sure nobody else is coming, I’ll go back up to the projection room to see how Rose is getting on. Easy.’

  ‘I’m not sure,’ said Kip.

  ‘Oh, go on,’ Beth urged him. ‘She’ll be safe up in the projection room.’

  Kip thought about it for a moment and then nodded. ‘OK, that’d be great,’ he said. ‘Thanks, Mr Lazarus.’ He grinned at Beth and reached into the fridge for her Diet Coke. ‘In that case, save me a seat,’ he said. ‘And don’t hang about. I’ve got a feeling we’re going to be very busy tonight.’

  He was right. What started as a trickle soon became a flood. It seemed that news of the Paramount’s fabulous new projection system was getting around, because there were faces in tonight that Kip had never seen here before, and a lot of money seemed to be changing hands. He was kept very busy, running from ticket office to confectionary booth and back again. He seemed to be doling out huge amounts of popcorn, drinks and sweets, and he told himself that Dad would be well impressed when Kip presented him with the takings after he got back from the hospital.

  The last few ticket holders drifted into the auditorium as the clock inched towards ten minutes past the hour and right on cue Mr Lazarus appeared in the door of the ticket booth.

  ‘I’ve just set the film running,’ he announced.

  ‘OK. How’s Rose?’

  ‘She’s fine. Playing with her toys.’ Mr Lazarus raised a gloved hand and suddenly it was holding a large container full of hot popcorn. He handed it to Kip. ‘Hurry along now,’ he said. ‘Or you’ll miss the start of the film. I don’t know about you, but to my mind that’s the worst thing that can ever happen.’

  Kip nodded. He couldn’t agree more.

  ‘Thanks, Mr Lazarus,’ he said. ‘I owe you one.’

  He hurried out of the booth, pushed through the doors and climbed the flight of steps to the auditorium. Eerie theme music was playing and, as he descended the steps to the stalls, he saw the title Terror Island scrawled across the screen in blood-red letters. He dropped into the vacant seat that Beth had saved for him and settled down to watch the movie.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  ROSE WAS BORED. She’d coloured in almost half a picture in her Flying Fairies book and there was absolutely nothing else of interest in the projection room. She looked forlornly around, wondering when Mr Lazarus was coming back. He had said he’d only be gone a minute or so.

  Rose decided that there was something very strange about Mr Lazarus. She remembered that, a little while earlier, she’d overheard him and Kip in the confectionary booth. The two of them had been whispering about something … something that had to do with equipment that was stored up here in the projection room. Kip had warned Mr Lazarus to keep it covered up. Now Rose was beginning to wonder what they had been talking about …

  She got up from her chair and standing on tiptoe, she peeped through the little window into the auditorium. For the moment, things didn’t seem too bad. A bunch of Americans were aboard a boat and they were arguing about something.

  ‘And I’m telling you, there’s no island on any of my charts!’ shouted a man who seemed to be in charge of things. ‘I’ve been sailing these waters for years; if there was an island out here, I’d know about it.’ He was tall and powerful-looking and wore a scuffed-leather jacket. He talked in a kind of growl, gritting his teeth as he spoke. A pretty blonde woman seemed to be leading an argument against him.

  ‘And I’m telling you, Captain Holder, that I have documents going back hundreds of years that testify to the existence of such an island. The ancient tribes called it “The place of the monsters!”’

  That was enough for Rose. She could not for the life of her understand why anybody would want to watch a scary film. She turned back from the window and her attention was caught by something beside the projector – something that was covered by a big black sheet.

  Down at the front, Kip was enjoying the film. This part was known as ‘the set-up’ and he knew that it was important to get the first half-hour right, in order for the audience to accept all the fantastical things that would follow.

  The blonde actress, Kara Neetly, was playing Dr Tamara Flyte, an anthropologist (whatever that was). She had chartered a yacht belonging to Captain Dash Holder – played by tough-guy actor Clint Westwood – and ordered him to take her and her team of two scientists out to look for a mysterious island that she’d been reading about for years. But Captain Holder was convinced that all the old stories were just a bunch of myths and that there was nothing out here but ‘more water’. It was night time and they’d been searching for ten days now, without success. They had all gathered in the cabin for an emergency meeting.

  ‘This is a wild-goose chase,’ growled Captain Holder. ‘I don’t know why I ever agreed to this trip.’ His deep snarling voice made him sound like he was permanently constipated.

  ‘But you did agree to it,’ said Dr Flyte. ‘And as long as I’m paying your wages, you’ll do as I say.’

  ‘No way, lady. It’s over when I say it’s over.’

  The rest of the team looked on in anxious silence. They comprised of Tad Baxter, a young research assistant who wore his hair long and spent all his time cracking bad jokes, and Jade Callahan, a pretty brunette who seemed to take every opportunity to wear as few clothes as possible.

  The film cut to a long shot of the yacht ploughing through the water. It was late afternoon, the sun very low on the horizon. Captain Holder’s first mate, Sam, an elderly man in a yellow raincoat, stood at the tiller, helping himself to gulps of whiskey from a hip flask. He wasn’t taking very much notice of what was going on around him – but the ominous music that was slowly building to a climax was enough to tell Kip that something bad was about to happen.

  Rose reached up on tiptoe to pull the sheet aside. It fell away, revealing an odd-looking piece of machinery, which seemed to consist of a round wooden platform on a set of metal rails. There was also a funny-shaped lump of glass on an upright pole. She wondered if this was what Kip and Mr Lazarus had been talking about.

  She reached out a hand to touch the round wooden thing and it moved under her fingers, gliding smoothly forward an inch or so. She stopped it and pulled it back a little, gazing at it with interest. She noticed the marks of a couple of footprints on the pale wood and guessed that you were supposed to stand on it. She pushed it gently forward, to see if anything would happe
n. Almost immediately, a beam of light was reflected into the glass shape and this angled sharply down to illuminate the platform with a fierce white glare. She pulled it back again and stared at it for a moment, trying to puzzle out what it did. She wasn’t sure why, but she thought that a person was supposed to stand on the platform and then slide forward into the light, though she couldn’t see any point in actually doing it. Perhaps, she thought, it would make her look like a dancer in a spotlight, the kind of thing she liked to watch on TV. Why not try it, slide into the light and take a bow? After all, what harm could it do? She thought for a moment and then came to a decision.

  She climbed up onto the platform.

  On screen, Captain Holder was still arguing with Tamara Flyte.

  ‘Doctor Flyte, I’d appreciate it if you’d stick to what you know and leave the handling of the ship to me,’ he said.

  ‘I’m not trying to interfere,’ Dr Flyte assured him. ‘I just want to be sure we haven’t missed anything. If you’d just read the articles I’ve collected about this mysterious island, I feel sure that …’

  ‘We’ll give it one more day,’ said Captain Holder. ‘If we don’t find anything by then, we’ll have to—’

  He broke off at a sudden crashing sound and everybody was thrown violently sideways. Captain Holder threw out his hands to a nearby table to steady himself. He stared around, a look of anger on his grizzled face. ‘What in the name of God was that?’ he roared.

  Rose stood for a moment, wondering what to do next.

  After a few moments, she decided that she needed to get the platform to move forward again, so it would slide into the light. She tried rocking backwards and forward on her feet, but that did nothing. Then she realised she would have to do it as though she was on her scooter. She dropped one foot to the floor and kicked herself off. That did the trick. The platform slid smoothly forward a second time and in an instant the powerful light was blazing into her eyes, a light so strong that she had to lift a hand to protect them. And then she began to feel very, very strange indeed …

  On screen, the characters were now scrambling up the steps to the deck, only to find that the yacht had beached itself on a sharp coral reef and was sticking up from the water at a crazy angle. Captain Holder looked over the side and saw that water was pouring into the yacht through a jagged hole in the hull. Sam was staggering around the deck shouting that they’d run aground, which Kip thought was a bit rich, since it wouldn’t have happened in the first place if he’d kept a proper eye on things.

  ‘Look!’ cried Tamara. She was pointing to the horizon where everyone could see the distant outline of a tropical island silhouetted against a brilliant red sunset. ‘What did I tell you?’ she cried, as she spun round to confront the captain. ‘There is an island.’

  ‘Lucky for us,’ snarled Captain Holder, ‘because this ship is going down, fast.’ He swung round. ‘Sam, unhitch the lifeboat. We don’t have much time.’

  ‘Aye aye, Captain,’ spluttered Sam, pushing the hip flask back into his pocket out of sight.

  ‘Wait!’ cried Tamara. ‘My charts! My equipment!’

  ‘Forget them,’ roared Captain Holder. ‘We’ve got to—’

  He broke off in amazement as a little girl appeared on the deck right in front of him. He stared down at her in wide-mouthed amazement. ‘Where the hell did you come from?’ he gasped.

  The girl looked up at him, her hands on her hips, her expression very cross indeed.

  ‘What’s going on?’ she screamed. ‘How did I end up here?’

  Down in his seat, Kip had just been taking a sip from Beth’s Coke but now he sprayed it all out with a gasp of horror. Rose was in the film! He sat there, his heart going twenty to the dozen, a horrible heat rising in his face. Beside him, he heard Beth say, ‘Kip, that little girl. She looks just like—’

  And then Kip was scrambling up out of his seat in a panic.

  ‘Where are you going?’ asked Beth. ‘You’ll miss the film.’

  Kip ignored her. He began to run up the central aisle, heading for the steps that led up to the projection room. As he ran, he could hear the characters’ voices booming from the cinema’s sound system.

  ‘Who the hell are you?’ gasped Captain Holder.

  ‘My name’s Rose! How did I get here? I’m not supposed to be here. I hate scary movies!’

  Uncertain laughter rippled through the audience.

  Kip got to the door of the projection room and went inside. It was only then that he realised that Beth had followed him, but there was no time to worry about that now. The first thing he saw was the black sheet lying beside the Lazarus Enigma and the bright pool of light illuminating the wooden platform. He threw his hands to his face and went down on his knees.

  ‘Oh no,’ he gasped. ‘Oh no, not Rose!’

  Beth stood there staring at him.

  ‘What’s going on?’ she asked anxiously. ‘That kid in the film … she looks exactly like Rose.’

  ‘It is Rose,’ groaned Kip. ‘Oh God … what am I going to say to Mum and Dad when they get back?’

  Beth’s face was a picture of astonishment.

  ‘What do you mean?’ she muttered. ‘How can it be Rose? She’s in here.’ She looked around the darkened room. ‘Isn’t she?’

  The door behind them swung open and Mr Lazarus stepped into the room. He stood there a moment, staring at Kip and Beth in surprise.

  ‘What are you two doing up here?’ he cried. ‘You’re missing the film.’

  He noted the angry glare in Kip’s eyes and then his own gaze moved sideways to look at the wooden platform, bathed in the light of the projector. The smile on his face faded in an instant.

  ‘What’s going on?’ he asked blearily. ‘Where’s Rose?’

  At that moment, Kip could have cheerfully strangled the old man.

  ‘What have you done?’ he whispered. ‘For God’s sake, she’s only six years old.’

  Mr Lazarus arranged his face into a look of total innocence.

  ‘I haven’t done anything,’ he said. ‘I was down in the ticket booth, taking care of a few stragglers.’ He took a couple of steps closer to the projector and stared down at the wooden platform. ‘Oh dear,’ he said. ‘How very unfortunate.’

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  ROSE WAS FEELING bewildered and rather scared. She gazed down over the rail of the sinking ship as the other members of the crew lowered a lifeboat into the churning waters. In the fading light, the sea appeared to be almost black. Captain Holder stared down at her for a moment and then strode away, shouting orders to the others.

  Now the blonde-haired woman, who Rose recognised from the bit of film she’d watched earlier, came over to stand beside her. She was looking at Rose as though she didn’t quite understand what she was doing here, but Rose felt exactly the same way about it. She understood she had somehow gone into the film but she didn’t have the first idea how she was going to get out again.

  ‘Where’ve you been hiding all this time?’ asked the woman. She had an American accent. ‘Are you a stowaway?’

  Rose looked up at her.

  ‘What’s a stow …?’

  ‘A stowaway,’ said the woman, ‘is somebody who hides aboard a ship.’

  Rose shook her head. ‘Haven’t been hiding,’ she protested. ‘One moment I was at the Paramount, the next there was this light in my eyes and I was here.’

  ‘You … were at the … Paramount?’ The woman looked baffled. ‘What does that mean exactly?’

  ‘My dad has a cinema.’

  ‘That must be very nice for you,’ murmured the woman. ‘But what does it have to do with anything?’

  ‘I don’t know. I was up in the room where they show the films and there was this black cloth and I took it off and …’ Rose shook her head. ‘I want to go home,’ she said.

  ‘We all want to go home, honey,’ said the woman and slipped an arm round Rose’s shoulders. ‘But we can’t right now.’ She pointed to the horizon. ‘Fir
st of all, we need to get to that island.’

  Rose looked where the woman was pointing and sure enough, there on the blood-red horizon was a smudge of land, and what looked like a stretch of palm trees.

  ‘Is this like a dream?’ she asked.

  ‘More of a nightmare,’ said the woman grimly. As she said this, the deck of the ship seemed to lurch to one side and they had to grab hold of the rail to stop themselves from falling.

  ‘I don’t like this,’ said Rose.

  ‘You and me both, honey. What’s your name?’

  ‘Rose.’

  ‘OK, Rose. I’m Doctor Tamara Flyte. Don’t worry, I’m going to take real good care of you.’

  Rose studied the woman for a moment.

  ‘I’ve seen you before,’ she said. ‘You were in the trailer.’

  Tamara looked confused.

  ‘I don’t live in a trailer, I have a very nice apartment.’

  ‘No, the trailer for that horrible film!’

  ‘You must be mixed up,’ said Tamara. ‘I’m not in films. I’m an anthropologist.’

  ‘What’s that?’ asked Rose.

  Tamara thought for a moment and then looked even more puzzled.

  ‘I’m … I’m not really sure,’ she said. ‘But I know I am one.’

  Just at that moment, the lifeboat dropped from its harness into the water with an almighty splash. Captain Holder came running along the deck towards them.

  ‘Everybody into the boat!’ he yelled. ‘There’s not much time. We’re going down like a lead balloon. ‘As if to confirm this, the yacht gave a grinding roar and seemed to settle even lower in the water. ‘She’s slipping off the reef,’ bellowed Captain Holder.

  ‘Come on,’ urged Tamara. She climbed over the rail and then turned back to hoist Rose up beside her. She was a lot stronger than she looked. She pointed to a series of metal rungs on the ship’s hull. ‘Now we have to climb down,’ she said. ‘Think you can do that?’