by R. L. Stine
Julie sat on a bench away from the rest of us, hugging herself. Matt and Carly Beth sat near me. They both stared at the shadow people moving silently back and forth along a fence in the distance.
“Okay, okay, we’re all pretty freaked,” Jackson said finally. He stared down at the ground as he spoke. Beside him, his twin sister, Jillian, had her eyes shut.
“I’m scared, too,” Jackson said. “I’ve never been this scared. But we can’t just try to escape without rescuing the others.”
“If only we could find a living human,” Carly Beth said. “Just one normal, living human. Someone we could talk to. But so far …” She didn’t finish her sentence.
Robby sat down near Julie. He buried his face in his hands.
“Robby, what are you thinking about?” I asked.
He raised his head slowly. “Here’s one more idea,” he said. “It’s all so totally unreal. But …”
He took a deep breath. “We got to Panic Park through mirrors — right? So … maybe we entered a mirror reality. A reality that’s side by side with our world. You know. Like a parallel universe.”
Jackson shook his head. “That’s even crazier than going back in time.”
“I can’t follow that at all,” Julie said. “I can understand going back in time. But a mirror reality? Whoa! Give me a break, Robby. I think you’ve been reading comic books too long!”
“Maybe I can explain it to you, Julie, if I use tiny words,” Robby snapped.
“Hey!” Matt jumped to his feet. “I don’t know what to believe. But we’ve got to keep it together. Look. Our lives were in danger in HorrorLand, and we escaped — right? So we can do the same thing here.”
“But how do we find the others?” Carly Beth asked. Her voice was high and shrill. She couldn’t hide her fear. “How do we ever get back to our parents? To our homes?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Oh. Wait,” she murmured.
She pulled her cell phone from her jeans pocket. “I’ll try my phone. It didn’t work in HorrorLand. They had it jammed or something. But maybe it’ll work here. Maybe I can call home.”
She flipped the phone open and pushed some numbers. Then she raised it to her ear — and SCREAMED.
The phone fell from Carly Beth’s hand and clattered to the ground. She grabbed the sides of her head and shut her eyes. “It hurts …” she moaned.
I could hear the shrill squeal pouring out of her phone on the ground. It rose and fell like an ambulance siren.
Julie dropped down beside Carly Beth and put an arm around her shoulders. “Are you okay?”
Carly Beth blinked several times. “My head is still ringing,” she murmured.
Robby pulled a cell phone from his pocket. He dialed a number. Then he held the phone away from him as far as he could reach.
We all heard the deafening screech.
“Okay. So our phones don’t work,” Matt said. “But we’re making progress.”
Robby stared at him. “Progress?”
“Yeah,” Matt said. He held up the park map and the guidebook. “We have these.”
He spread the map out on one of the coffin tops. “I just had an idea,” he said. He turned to Carly Beth. “Remember where we saw Britney and Molly last?”
Carly Beth thought for a moment. “Sabrina and I had just arrived in HorrorLand,” she said. “You showed us a tiny piece of mirror. I saw two girls in the mirror.”
“Right,” Matt said. “That was Britney and Molly. They vanished from HorrorLand before you arrived.”
“Yes,” Carly Beth said. “We saw them riding some kind of carousel. It had flames shooting out of it. Like the whole ride was on fire.”
Matt leaned over the map. “Let’s find the flaming carousel,” he said. “Maybe the girls are still there, or somewhere nearby. Or maybe they left us a clue.”
It didn’t take long to find the carousel on the map. Matt stabbed his finger on the spot, very near the roller coaster.
“Let’s go,” he said. He folded up the map and tucked it into his back pocket.
We walked in silence along a high gray wall. A row of dark, empty shops stood across the path. I saw shadows in the doorways. The shadows moved. They turned as we passed by.
Shadow people watching from a distance. Always watching.
The wind felt cold and damp. It pushed against us as if trying to hold us back. We lowered our heads and moved through the gray park.
We passed low white buildings. Their doors were open, but I could see only blackness inside. A gray sign had fallen to the pavement. Most of it had rusted out, but I could read the words: GHOULS ONLY.
Shadow people floated in and out behind us. Were they following us?
Squinting through the gray, I saw a tall black Ferris wheel rise up in front of us. “Hey!” I cried out. “It’s moving!”
“Weird,” Carly Beth said, stopping to stare. “Who can be riding it?”
Matt pointed. “The flaming carousel should be right over there.”
We began to walk faster. But a shout made us all stop.
“Hey! Guys! Guys! Up here!”
I glanced up. We were passing a tall fake mountain. It was maybe three or four stories high. The mountainside was rocky and had patches of fake snow all the way up.
A boy and a girl waved frantically to us from a cliff at the top of the mountain. “Hey! Matt! Carly Beth! Up here!”
They were both tall and very thin. They both had straight black hair. And even from down below, I could see the flash of their blue eyes.
“Billy!” Matt shouted. “Sheena! How did you get up there? Are the others up there with you?”
I don’t think they could hear Matt. They kept waving and shouting. “Up here! Up here!”
Matt turned to the rest of us. “It’s Billy and Sheena Deep.”
He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, “We’re coming! Don’t move! We’re coming to get you!”
A narrow path circled the mountain, heading toward the top. We all started to climb single file. The path was steep and hard and slippery, with patches of fake snow. Our shoes slid on the glassy surface.
“Oh!” I felt my shoes slide out from under me. Nothing to grab on to.
I fell forward. My knees banged down hard, and I started to slide.
My hands grabbed at the path. But it was as smooth as a playground slide. I couldn’t stop myself. I slid all the way back to the bottom.
Luke turned. “Lizzy, are you okay?”
“Yeah. Fine,” I grumbled. I leaned forward and started to climb again.
We were all about a third of the way up when I heard a deep rumbling sound.
I stopped. I didn’t see anything.
The rumbling grew to a roar. The surface beneath me started to shake.
And then I saw it — rocks. Dozens of jagged, gigantic rocks! Roaring down the mountainside. Tumbling, bouncing hard and high.
Streaming down at us.
A rock slide!
“We — we’re going to be CRUSHED!” I screamed. “BURIED alive!”
The roar of the falling rocks drowned out our screams.
I dropped to the hard surface and began tumbling down the mountainside. Luke did a wild cartwheel in front of me and slid on his stomach headfirst.
“NOOOOOO!” I screamed as a jagged rock — as big as me! — bounced over my head. Smaller rocks clattered past me as I fell.
I could see the other kids falling … scrambling … sliding down the mountain. Rocks banged and bumped and bounced close, just missing us.
A few seconds later, I landed in a heap at the bottom of the mountain. Rocks fell all around me. I ducked down and covered the back of my head with my hands.
The ground shook. I raised my head — in time to see a huge round rock roar down at me.
“OWWWW!” It hit the top of my head.
I waited for the crushing pain. Waited …
And started to laugh. “It’s papier-mâché or something!” I shouted over th
e clattering and bumping of falling rocks. “It can’t hurt us at all!”
Finally, the rock slide ended. We all climbed to our feet, shaking our heads. Some kids were laughing. I knew everyone was happy to be alive.
Matt and Robby started tossing fake rocks at each other. It became like a snowball battle with everyone joining in.
“What about Billy and Sheena?” Carly Beth shouted. “Everybody — stop! Did you forget Billy and Sheena?”
I raised my eyes to the cliff at the top. Billy and Sheena stood up there, leaning down, watching us.
“Wait. That’s weird,” I said. “Do they look farther away or what?”
Luke quickly agreed. “You’re right, Lizzy. The mountain … it’s TALLER!”
“They do look farther away,” Julie said. “It’s some kind of optical illusion, right?”
Matt cupped his hands around his mouth again and shouted to them. “Don’t worry. We’re coming!”
He led the way as we began to climb again.
The path was super slippery now. We kept slipping and sliding back.
“OW!” My feet slid out from under me again. I landed with a hard thud on my back. It knocked my breath out. I struggled to sit up.
And as I gazed to the top, Billy and Sheena looked even farther away!
“HELP!” Carly Beth let out a scream as she lost her balance and fell. She made a wild grab for Robby — and pulled him down with her.
We couldn’t stop them. They rolled all the way down to the bottom.
“It’s too slippery!” Jillian cried. “And look!” She pointed at the tiny figures of Billy and Sheena.
“The higher we climb, the farther away they are,” Robby said.
“Is the mountain growing?” Julie asked, gazing straight up. “Or is it some kind of special effect?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “We can’t reach them by climbing. We’ll never get up to the top.”
“Lizzy is right,” Matt said. “We need a better plan. Maybe — WHOOOOA!”
Before he could finish, he slipped. His feet shot out in front of him, and he hit the ground hard on his back.
Luke reached for him — too late. We all watched Matt slide down to the bottom, screaming the whole way. He landed headfirst next to Carly Beth and Robby.
The rest of us made our way down carefully.
Billy and Sheena were shouting to us from the mountaintop. But they were too far away. We couldn’t make out their words. I turned and watched them wave their hands above their heads.
Did they think we were going to leave them there?
We huddled together, gazing up at them, trying to think of a way to get to them.
“Maybe some kind of vehicle,” Robby said. “Some kind of four-wheel-drive Jeep or something.”
Matt laughed. “Good luck finding one,” he said.
“Well … how did they get up there?” Carly Beth asked, pointing at Billy and Sheena.
Another flock of cawing crows flew over us. I felt a chill.
The sun was high in the sky, beaming down on the tall mountainside. But it cast no yellow light. Everything was a shade of gray — and the gray was actually making me DIZZY!
I’m in a different, frightening world, I thought. A world with no color … no warmth at all.
And then Jackson spoke up, shaking me from my grim thoughts.
“I know what we can do,” he said, glancing at his sister, Jillian.
“Of course!” Jillian cried. “Jackson, we should have thought of this before!”
Jackson raised his eyes to the two kids at the top of the mountain.
Wisps of gray fog floated overhead, making it hard to see them.
Jackson crossed his arms tightly over his chest. He narrowed his eyes and stared. He clenched his jaw as he concentrated.
Jillian must have seen the confused look on my face. She leaned toward me and whispered, “Jackson has powers. He can make things move.”
Jackson moaned to himself. He gritted his teeth, concentrating hard.
And a few seconds later, Billy and Sheena came shooting down through the wisps of fog.
They were both screaming in shock. Their black hair blew above them as they dropped.
The fog appeared to part. Kicking their legs and thrashing their arms, the two kids came rocketing down toward us.
Faster … dropping faster …
Screaming the whole way.
I had this horrifying picture in my mind — the two of them crashing to the ground, splattering at our feet.
I sucked in a deep breath and held it. My heart thudded in my chest.
Billy and Sheena hovered above us for a few seconds. They came to a complete stop in the air. Sheena’s hair fell over her face. Billy’s long scream ended with a sharp intake of breath.
Jackson cried out, and his hands shot above his head. Then he waved the two kids down … waved them slowly down, as if they were on wires.
They landed gently on their feet.
Billy swallowed hard. His eyes were bulging. He was panting like a dog. He held on to his sister as if trying to stay on his feet.
Sheena took a shaky step toward us. She brushed back her hair and smiled. “Wow,” she said. “That’s the best ride yet!”
We all laughed. Some kids cheered. Matt slapped Jackson on the back. “Way to go, dude!”
We gathered happily around Billy and Sheena. We all shouted our questions at once.
“What happened? How did you get up there?”
“Where are the others? Are they okay?”
“Why were you on the mountain?”
Sheena raised a hand to silence us. She turned to Jackson. “How did you DO that?” she demanded. “How did you bring us down?”
Jackson grinned at her. “It’s easy if you know how,” he said.
Sheena turned to the rest of us. “I don’t know where the other kids are,” she said. “We lost them. We got separated.”
“Sheena and I climbed the mountain to look for them,” Billy said. “It was easy to climb up. But then …”
“We couldn’t get down,” Sheena said. She shuddered. “Billy and I have had a lot of creepy adventures in the past. But this park is horrible!”
“Those shadow people are everywhere,” Billy said. “We didn’t see anyone who is ALIVE!”
“And it’s always gray and dark,” Sheena added. “It’s … it’s scarier than HorrorLand.” A sob escaped her throat. Her shoulders began to tremble.
Carly Beth wrapped her arms around Sheena. “You’re okay now,” she said softly. “We’re all here with you.”
“We’re much safer here than in HorrorLand,” Jillian said. “Byron told us that. We know we can trust Byron.”
“We just have to find the other kids,” Jackson said. “Then we can find a way to get home.”
Carly Beth gave Sheena a tissue, and she wiped the tears from her eyes.
“I think we’re in trouble,” Billy said. “Sheena is the brave one in our family!”
Matt stepped up to Billy. “Have you seen Britney and Molly?”
“No,” Billy answered.
“You escaped to Panic Park with your sister and four other kids,” Matt said. “Michael, Sabrina, Boone, and Abby. How did you get separated from them?”
“I … I don’t know,” Billy replied.
“My dumb brother insisted we all go on this ride,” Sheena said. “He got tired of waiting for the rest of you to come here.”
“Don’t call me dumb, stupid!” Billy snapped. “We didn’t even know if the rest of you guys were coming or not,” Billy said. “So we all went on a ride. It’s called The Tunnel of Hate.”
“The ride was open?” I asked. “Was someone running it?”
“I don’t know,” Billy answered. “It’s a boat ride. Sheena and I got in the first boat. They came after us. It seemed like fun at first. But then … it got weird.”
“Billy and I wanted to get out,” Sheena said. “But when we turned around to look
for the others … they were GONE!”
“They disappeared,” Billy said. “They weren’t in the tunnel. We searched for their boat. We couldn’t find them.”
“So we got out and looked for them,” Sheena explained. “We wandered around the park. It’s so totally creepy. And those frightening shadow people kept following us … watching us.”
“We didn’t know where to look,” Billy said. “So we climbed the mountain. We thought we’d have a better view up there. But we didn’t see them.”
“Whoa. Wait a sec,” Matt said. He locked his eyes on Billy. “You didn’t see the other four kids anywhere else in the park. So do you think they might still be in The Tunnel of Hate?”
Billy and Sheena both shrugged.
“It’s very dark in there,” Sheena said. “Very hard to see anything.”
“They could still be in there,” Billy said.
Matt waved us forward. “Let’s go for a boat ride,” he said.
Two long canoes bobbed in the inky gray water in front of The Tunnel of Hate. The water lapped gently against the sides of the canoes as we climbed in.
Matt grabbed the paddle in the first canoe. Billy, Sheena, Carly Beth, and Julie dropped in with him.
Luke and I climbed into the back of the second canoe behind Jackson, Jillian, and Robby. The boat started to sink under our weight. Then it bobbed back up.
Jackson took the paddle. He dipped it into the water, testing it from side to side. “I’m pretty good at this,” he said. “We went on a fifty-mile canoe trip at my camp last summer.”
“Let’s go. Keep close together,” Matt called.
The canoes rolled slowly into the low tunnel. Staring into the blackness, I thought there was no light at all. But a few seconds later, my eyes adjusted. I could see the low tunnel roof and dim pinpoints of light in the water ahead of us.
We sat in silence, staring straight ahead. The only sound was the steady splash splash splash of the paddles as Matt and Jackson pulled us deeper into the tunnel.
The narrow waterway ran straight, no bends or curves. The dark water was gentle and flat, lapping softly at our sides.
What a boring ride, I thought.
“I don’t see anyone else in here,” Carly Beth murmured. “The tunnel is empty.”
