by Adam Cece
And suddenly Cymphany stopped dead—which is to say she stopped abruptly, not to say that she actually died on the spot, which would have been quite horrifying.
‘Wait a minute,’ Cymphany said, as a smile spread across her face. ‘I know an adult who can help us. But we will have to risk our lives to get to him.’
Kipp looked closely at Cymphany’s face. Then a matching smile spread across his face. ‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’ he said.
Cymphany nodded, and then they both turned to Tobias.
Tobias studied their faces. ‘Umm…you guys might be thinking the same thing, but I’m not sure I am. Because I’m still thinking about the unfairness of advertising free popcorn when you have no intention of providing it.’
So Kipp and Cymphany told Tobias who they were thinking of, and Tobias agreed it was an excellent plan, even if they had to risk their lives to reach the person they were now all thinking of.
Now readers of this story might be slightly annoyed, that I, as storyteller, did not reveal in the last chapter the identity of the person Cymphany, Kipp and Tobias were thinking of, or why they had to risk their lives to get to him.
The reason I did not reveal this is because I was using a storytelling technique we storytellers use called ‘building suspense’. It’s the same reason that when you are watching a movie, and the movie’s hero is hanging off a cliff, and the movie’s villain is slowly stepping on each of the hero’s fingers one by one, that right when the villain’s boot is coming down on the hero’s last finger, and the hero is surely about to plummet to a gruesome death that the movie will suddenly cut to a break, and you will be forced to spend five agonising minutes watching ads about new model four-wheel drives, low-fat cheese and a new television show about a Saint Bernard and a disgraced down-on-his-luck detective who team up to solve crimes, called Paw and Order.
I personally have always been against this sort of despicable suspense-building, although Paw and Order has become my all-time favourite television show. But now that I am a storyteller myself, I can see its usefulness. So I will skip past Kipp, Tobias and Cymphany going to visit the person they knew would listen to them, and jump straight to the Nothing-Scary-Here-at-All party.
The lawns surrounding the House of Spooks had been transformed into a fairground, complete with sideshows and rides and men in brightly coloured suits waving their arms and bellowing, ‘Step right up, step right up,’ and there was even a giant ferris wheel. Kipp and Cymphany weaved through the crowd, dodging balloons and teetering towers of fairy floss on sticks. They saw Tobias bounding towards them, holding a red-and-white-striped bucket. He had a huge beaming smile on his face.
‘They do have free popcorn,’ he said, enthusiastically scooping a handful out of the bucket. ‘I never should have sent that complaint letter. This is great.’
‘Tobias,’ Cymphany said sharply. ‘Don’t forget why we’re here. We have to save Conrad Creeps and stop the top-hatted scientist and Mr Dark Two before they…actually, I don’t know know what diabolical thing they’ve got planned, but we have to stop them and save Huggabie Falls.’
‘You mean stop them from holding a great party?’ Tobias said. ‘Did you see the bouncy castle over there? It’s a full-size replica of Buckingham Palace!’
‘It is peculiar,’ Kipp said, looking around. ‘We thought the top-hatted scientist and Mr Dark Two’s plan was to scare everyone out of town, but this party seems to be doing the exact opposite.’
Tobias nodded. ‘It’s true. My dad was just saying before how much fun he was having, and how maybe he was a bit hasty in deciding to leave Huggabie Falls.’
‘My dad said the same thing,’ Cymphany said. ‘He’s having so much fun on that Spin-master 10,000 ride over there, he seems to have forgotten all about the geese.’
Kipp looked at the party goers, laughing and enjoying themselves. There was even a giant hot-air balloon floating above the party that had ‘Party Your Fears Away’ emblazoned on it. ‘I don’t understand,’ Kipp said. ‘Why haven’t my parents got scare balls? What are the top-hatted scientist and Mr Dark Two up to? I want to get back inside the House of Spooks and find out.’
‘Inside the House of Spooks?’ Tobias said warily, staring up at the creepy, spiderweb-covered house.
‘Look,’ said Cymphany pointing at a little window that was open. ‘That little window is open. We could sneak in that way.’
‘Or,’ Tobias said, ‘we could do something much less dangerous and stay out here and keep enjoying the free popcorn.’
Cymphany shot a fierce look at him. ‘Tobias, don’t forget about the Brussels sprout with the very bad Scottish accent—he’s still after you, and he seems to have an unlimited supply of grand pianos.’
Tobias glanced about nervously. ‘I was hoping the power in his scare ball had ran out,’ he said hopefully, ‘Or maybe…hey, what’s that noise?’
‘It sounds like whimpering,’ Kipp said.
They followed the noise to a row of portaloos. When Cymphany saw them she stiffened and took a step backwards, obviously still a bit traumatised by her encounter with the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Kipp stepped up to the portaloo that was emitting the sound. He pressed his ear to the door.
‘Mr Dark?’ he said, knocking.
The whimpering stopped, and they heard the sound of a bolt sliding across. The portaloo door opened a crack and one of Felonious Dark’s fearful darting eyes peeked out.
‘Mr Dark?’ Cymphany said, stepping forward. ‘Are you okay?’
‘Is he out there?’ Felonious Dark whispered.
Kipp, Tobias and Cymphany looked around. ‘Who?’ Tobias asked.
‘Who do you think?’ Felonious Dark said. ‘Mr Puddles.’
Kipp, Tobias and Cymphany scanned the rides and sideshows.
‘There.’ Kipp pointed. There was a gasp behind them and the portaloo door slammed shut again, followed by the sound of the bolt sliding back into place.
Tobias and Cymphany followed Kipp’s pointing finger to see Mr Puddles standing at a sideshow where you shot water guns at rows of rubber ducks. With his little padded hands, Mr Puddles was holding a…
‘That’s weird.’ Tobias rubbed his chin. ‘If that’s a water-gun sideshow, why is Mr Puddles holding a bow and arrow?’
Kipp had already worked out why, which is probably why he was running in the opposite direction. ‘Quick!’ he screamed. ‘We’ve got to get to that window and sneak inside the House of Spooks.’
Tobias and Cymphany looked at each other and back at Mr Puddles, who had removed an arrow from the quiver on his back, spun around and pulled the arrow back in the bow. Without a moment’s hesitation he shot it high into the air, and Tobias and Cymphany watched it fly up and up, headed straight for the giant hot-air balloon floating over the party. And suddenly Tobias and Cymphany were racing after Kipp, because they had probably worked out, like Kipp already had, what was about to happen.
The arrow hit the balloon, and the balloon popped. And from inside it exploded thousands of scare balls. They rained down on the party, and as soon as they hit the ground they sprouted their little spider legs and began to open, projecting their unbelievably scary contents.
Within seconds the Huggabie Falls residents at the fair—who only moments ago had been laughing and chatting and cheering, and munching on free popcorn—were all wailing and screaming in fear.
The screams of the Huggabie Falls residents became muffled and distant as Kipp, Tobias and Cymphany snuck along dark passageways inside the House of Spooks. Their progress was slow, as they had to crawl low past all the warning signs to avoid being detected by the hidden surveillance cameras in the i’s, but eventually they found their way back to the secret lab.
‘There’s no one here,’ Kipp said, looking around. From one of the hallways leading off the secret lab a voice floated: ‘Kipp?’
Kipp’s eyes spread wide. ‘Is that you, Mum?’ he said as he ran down the hallway.
Tobias and Cymphany looked at each other.
‘What are Kipp’s parents doing in here?’ Cymphany asked.
Tobias shrugged, and they ran after Kipp and into another large round room. This one was lined with doorways blocked with vertical steel bars, and behind the bars were small stonewalled cells.
To Tobias and Cymphany’s immense surprise—as he had been running in front of them just a second ago—Kipp was standing in one of these doorways behind the steel bars.
‘Kipp,’ Cymphany cried, and she grabbed the bars, looking up and down and left and right for a latch to open them. She tried to shake them, but they wouldn’t budge. ‘How did you get in there?’
Kipp was trying to jiggle the bars. ‘The bars came crashing down as soon as I ran into this small room.’
‘I couldn’t warn him in time,’ said a voice from nearby. Kipp, Tobias and Cymphany spun around. In one of the opposite cells, Conrad Creeps was peering out. And in the cell beside him was Kipp’s little sister, Kaedy.
The voice Tobias and Cymphany had just heard seemed to be coming from Kaedy’s cell, but not from Kaedy. And now another voice from that cell, still not Kaedy, said, ‘We tried to alert him. But now we’re all trapped in these cells.’
Tobias and Cymphany looked at each other. They knew those voices. ‘Is that you, Mr and Mrs Kindle?’ Tobias asked.
Kaedy rolled her eyes. ‘Derr, great guess, genius. I mean, how many other invisible people are there in Huggabie Falls?’
‘The top-hatted scientist offered us a free ride on the House of Spooks ghost train, while the party was going on,’ Mr Kindle’s voice said. ‘But the train ended up in here. Conrad has told us what’s been going on: how the top-hatted scientist and Felonious Dark are trying to scare everyone out of Huggabie Falls.’
Conrad Creeps’s head dropped. ‘It’s all my fault,’ he said. ‘And to make matters worse, I’m scared of cells.’
‘It’s weird,’ Mrs Kindle’s voice said. ‘I thought Felonious Dark was reformed.’
‘Actually, it’s not Felonious Dark,’ Tobias said. ‘It’s his identical triplet brother.’
‘Pardon?’ Mr Kindle said. ‘Did you say identical triplet brother.’
‘It’s not important right now,’ Cymphany said. ‘What is important right now is how we get you out of here.’
‘You have to go for help,’ Mrs Kindle said. ‘Before you are captured too.’
‘I’m afraid there’s no one left to help you,’ said the top-hatted scientist, entering the large round room with Felonious Dark Two right behind him. ‘Our little scare-ball party has scared everyone out of Huggabie Falls.’
Cymphany put her arm in front of Tobias in a protective manner, and stepped back away from the top-hatted scientist and Felonious Dark Two. ‘What are you going to do?’ she asked. ‘Capture us too?’
The top-hatted scientist laughed. ‘No, you are free to go. We are not kidnappers.’
‘Ummm…’ Mr Kindle’s voice said. ‘There are five people in cells in this room who would disagree with that.’
The top-hatted scientist ignored the comment, and Cymphany and Tobias took another step backwards. Cymphany’s eyes darted to the only doorway that didn’t have bars on it or the top-hatted scientist and Felonious Dark Two standing in front of it. Her eyes met Tobias’s and they gave each other a quick nod, as if to say, on the first chance we get, we’ll run through that door, and hopefully it won’t be another cell, but a way out.
As this quick nod was happening, the top-hatted scientist continued talking. ‘We haven’t kidnapped you, Mrs Kindle. We’ve just offered you an all-expenses-paid holiday here in the House of Spooks. It’s an offer you cannot refuse. And after we have finished with our plan, you will all be released without harm.’
‘And what is your plan?’ Kipp asked. ‘The last time a scientist was in Huggabie Falls, she was trying to turn everyone normal, and now you’re trying to make everyone leave. Why?’
The top-hatted scientist smiled. ‘I’m glad you asked. ‘Our plan is—’
‘Ahem.’ Felonious Dark Two cleared his throat. ‘It’s not really a good idea to tell these children our plan. These particular children have been known to foil a good evil-scientist plan.’
The top-hatted scientist shot Felonious Dark Two a dark look. ‘But I want to tell them. It’s such a great plan. And it’s not like there is anything they can do about it. My plan is completely foolproof.’
‘That may be,’ Felonious Dark Two said, ‘but let’s keep the plan to ourselves, just in case—’
‘Need I remind you, Dark Two,’ the top-hatted scientist said sternly, ‘that you have a performance review coming up soon.’
Felonious Dark Two opened his mouth, then shut it again and rolled his eyes, as if to say, I really hope I get a chance to say I told you so later on, and a pay rise.
‘So,’ the top-hatted scientist continued. ‘My predecessor—whom you just mentioned, and whom I understand you called the creepy scientist, but whose actual name is Agatha—did want to eliminate weirdness from this town. But I want to harness the weirdness. I’ve worked out a way to put the weird things in this town to good use. There’s a bottomless hole in this town, which could solve all the world’s waste-disposal problems. There’s a reality rift in this town. I’m not sure what that is exactly, but it sounds very powerful. A man who can do anything, literally anything, in three minutes. And just the other day, I saw a real-life dragon. A dragon!’
‘That’s Burney,’ Tobias said. ‘Whatever you do, don’t play fetch with him. A kid did that once, and he accidentally burnt down the fire station, which left no one to put out the fire, because…well, the fire station was on fire.’ Tobias paused. ‘I think it’s still on fire, actually.’
‘See what I mean,’ the top-hatted scientist said. ‘If I could harness the power of these weird things, think of all the good I could do for myself…err, I mean for the world. I hear there is even a girl who can time travel in your class.’
‘So you’re planning to capture Lemonade Limmer too?’ Cymphany scowled.
‘Well, no,’ the top-hatted scientist said, and he grimaced. ‘She’s actually living three years ago now, so we would’ve had to have captured her before we came up with this plan, which would have been difficult, even for me.’
Cymphany scowled. ‘So you thought you’d scare everyone out of town so that no one would be left to stop you.’
Kipp sighed. ‘Except me and my family,’ he said. ‘Because you want to be able to study our invisibility I suppose.’
The top-hatted scientist clicked his fingers. ‘You kids are pretty smart. The first thing I want to do is to master invisibility, because it’s crucial to my plan to conquer the world…err, I mean my plan to do good in the world. But don’t worry’—he smiled at Kipp—‘once we’ve worked out how to extract your family’s invisibility, we’ll let you all go, I promise.’
Kipp gripped the bars. ‘Why have you got your hand behind your back? Have you got your fingers crossed?’
The top-hatted scientist jumped, quickly whipping his hand out from behind his back. ‘Of course not,’ he yelped.
Then he paused for a moment. ‘Okay, let me rephrase that,’ he said. ‘Once we’ve worked out how to extract your family’s invisibility, we’ll probably let you all go. But you two’—he turned back to Cymphany and Tobias—‘we have no interest in extracting the power of standing on a slight lean or being treacherous, so you can go, and, like I said, everyone has been scared out of town now, so you won’t find anyone to help you stop us. It’s impossible.’
Felonious Dark Two took a deep despondent breath. ‘I don’t think you should have told them our entire plan,’ he said.
‘Remember that holiday,’ the top-hatted scientist sneered, ‘that you’ve got booked. I can still reject your leave request you know. The form hasn’t been processed yet.’
‘We’re not leaving,’ Cymphany said firmly. ‘Not so you can do weird experiments on our friend and his family and poor Conrad.’
‘Actually
, I’m quite scared of experiments,’ Conrad said.
Tobias nodded, sucking in a lungful of courage. ‘There’s no way we’re leaving.’
The top-hatted scientist chuckled. ‘We’ll see about that.’
He and Felonious Dark Two stepped aside and a Brussels sprout with a grand piano under its arm stepped into the room.
‘Nice ta see ye again, numpties,’ the Brussels sprout said with a very bad Scottish accent.
Tobias gasped in fear, but it was the creature standing beside the Brussels sprout that made everyone else’s eyes bulge and their faces fill with horror—and probably Kipp’s parents’ faces too, although no one could tell because they were invisible and this made it impossible to see their faces fill with anything, but the sound of two sharp gasps came from their cell.
Cymphany’s face, which everyone could see, was twisting into all kinds of weird shapes. ‘Oh dear,’ she said. ‘I was wondering when that would show up.’
Kipp gulped. ‘Cymphany, what is…that?’
Cymphany shivered. ‘When I was young I thought it was silly that kids were scared of stupid things like ghosts and the dark, and Brussels sprouts—no offence, Tobias.’
‘None taken,’ Tobias said, but while everyone else was looking at what Cymphany was looking at, Tobias wasn’t taking his eyes off the Brussels sprout with the grand piano under its arm.
‘So,’ Cymphany continued, ‘one day in class, when our teacher asked us to draw a picture of something that scared us, I drew the most absolutely terrifying creature I could imagine. And as you can see’—she gestured at the creature standing in front of them—‘I did a pretty good job.’
‘You can say that again,’ Kipp stammered.
A rumbling growl from the most absolutely terrifying creature’s throats reverberated around the room. It focused its nineteen eyes on them, and wiped the drool dripping off its fangs with one of its barb-covered tentacles.
It was so unbelievably scary that even Tobias stopped being scared of the Brussels sprout with the very bad Scottish accent and became scared of the most absolutely terrifying creature instead. He had to steady himself against Cymphany so he didn’t faint.