Jenna whispered, “You don’t think they’ve . . . that the boat sank and . . .”
“Don’t even say it,” Nat pleaded. The two friends fell silent. Nat’s heart beat painfully in her chest.
After what seemed like hours, Dan pushed through a narrow space between two pines, turning to help Belle through. She, in turn, helped Nat, then Jenna, then finally Clarissa.
“The truck should be just beyond these bushes,” he said, stepping through dripping wet leaves.
The moonlight shone down on an empty muddy clearing.
“It’s gone,” Dan announced.
“No,” Clarissa moaned. “Oh, no.”
“So Jeremiah took them to the market,” Nat said, crossing her fingers. She looked at Belle. “Right?”
“What are we going to do?” Clarissa blurted. She was getting panicky.
“Calm down, Clarissa. Try to call 911 from here on your phone.” Belle handed Dan’s phone to him. “You, too.”
All three made the attempt. No one got through.
“Okay, either he drove them somewhere to get out of the rain, or he realized they were in the boats and took the truck to get help,” Belle said as she put away her phone. “Or he never even saw them because they left the campsite before he got there.” Wearily, she rubbed her forehead again. “Whatever the case, we need to step this up.”
“I’m so sorry, Belle,” Clarissa said again. “I should never have left them.”
Belle just glared at her. Nat felt sorry for Clarissa, but she was grateful Belle was there. She figured everything would have turned out differently if Clarissa had gone after Chelsea, and Belle had stayed at the campfire with the rest of the bunk.
Belle’s a really good counselor, Nat realized. We’re lucky to have her. If we get out of this, I’m going to be as great a camper as I can.
“I can lead you out to the highway,” Dan said. “Maybe we can flag someone down to get us to the market.”
Belle turned to Clarissa. “We should cover as many bases as possible. Clarissa, you go with Dan to the highway. Dan, tell me how to get to Dead Man’s Falls. I’m taking Natalie and Jenna with me. We’re going to go back along the water toward the falls and search.”
“I can take them,” Clarissa ventured.
“No.” Belle regarded her steadily. “They’re staying with me.”
Nat was beyond grateful to hear that. From the look on Jenna’s face, she was, too.
Belle said to Clarissa and Dan, “Try to reach me on my cell if you get a ride. At the least, check in every thirty minutes. For all we know, a call may eventually get through. But pay attention to your battery. The last thing we need is to run out of juice at a crucial moment.”
Something else to worry about, Nat thought.
“I should take Monster with me,” Dan said, giving the dog a pat. “He’ll try to follow me, anyway, and he’ll be more of a distraction than a help to you. Hopefully, a driver will let us take him with us.”
“Okay.” Belle clapped her hands like a coach before the big game. “Let’s move.”
Someone’s here, the man thought, listening as he sat in the lair of the Shadow Lake Monster. He had a utility light angled over his right shoulder as he tried to clean one of the heads. Time had not been kind to them. Maybe he should just get some new ones.
Someone’s sneaking around, like they used to do before I sealed up the place.
Then he had a thought: It can’t be them yet. Can it? I’m not ready.
With an angry huff, he set down the head beside a row of rusty, dusty relays and put on his miner’s helmet. The sensor board flickered, indicating that someone was wandering around inside the house. Or else it was rats again.
His eye narrowed as he flicked on the light attached to the brim of his hat. It shone down on his single eye and added a sheen to his black leather eyepatch.
Then he rose and picked up the ax.
“Who’s there?” he called. “You’d better come out, or you’ll be sorry.”
Scowling, he limped from the room.
The Shadow Lake Monster, a huge, greenish-black creature with crocodile eyes, fangs, and gills, creaked in the shadows, alone.
Up to her neck in the icy lake, Brynn felt as if her body was made of concrete. She was trying to keep her legs curled up under the boat. She was afraid of the things in the water. They were probably fish, but she couldn’t stop imagining the kids in the school bus, or Randy, or Cropsy.
And she couldn’t see Alex’s flashlight anymore. None of them could.
Brynn had never been more afraid in her entire life. She didn’t know how much longer she could hold onto the boat. What if she let go and they couldn’t grab her in the icy darkness? What if she died out here?
She fought hard not to lose control. She guessed the others were at the breaking point, too. No one was talking much. From the moment they’d lost sight of Alex’s flashlight, gloom had descended on them like a heavy weight.
Her heart was thudding dully in her ears. She was shuddering so hard she was getting a headache.
Then, from across the water, she heard music. Weird, creepy, spooky-ooky music.
Am I asleep? she thought. Is this all a bad dream?
“Guys? Do you hear that?” she asked the others.
“Hear what?” Priya asked her.
Or am I going crazy?
It was the Chamber of Horrors.
Somehow Chelsea had crashed through the roof of what appeared to be an old, abandoned fun house. But fun was the wrong word. So was abandoned. Someone else was inside it, playing with the electricity. Every once in a while, a light would go on, or scary music would start playing, and totally freak her out.
The man lying on the table was the Frankenstein monster. The other man . . . well, all she could figure out was that he was being electrocuted. Both were dummies wired for chills and thrills.
Chelsea herself was not wired for chills and thrills. She was wired for getting out of here.
Trembling, her left ankle one continual throb of pain, she continued to stagger down a narrow, dark tunnel made of wood. It led from the room where the two dummies were arranged, and she had no idea if it was really long or if she was simply moving very slowly. It seemed to stretch forever, and every once in a while, when she stopped to rest, she would stare into the blackness and wonder when it would end.
Now and then, lights overhead winked on and off, revealing yards and yards of cobwebs looping from one side of the ceiling to the other. There were so many of them swathed so low that she couldn’t avoid them all, and they were sticky and thick, like cotton candy. When she tried to wipe them off her face, she got more on her hands. She used her teeth to scrape some threads off her mouth and spit as hard as she could. Then she took a step forward on her right foot, which was her good one.
A sickly green light flashed on about three feet above her head, revealing a glowing skull and crossbones mounted to the wall. The jawbone flopped open.
Chelsea jumped. Then she balled her fists and pulled her lips over her teeth to keep herself from making any noise.
“Arrr!” The jawbone snapped shut. Crazy laughter echoed in the distance.
It’s just pretend.
The light went out. The laughter stopped.
Then she heard the music again. It was screechy violins and an organ. It made her scalp prickle and her spine stiffen.
It was like the fun house was waking up. She tried not to think of all the horror movies she had watched about haunted houses. When the ghosts realized you were there, they started trying to scare you. She swore she’d never watch another one, if she could just get out of here.
Slowly, edging through the darkness, Chelsea kept going. Then another green light flashed on and a white-faced, red-mouthed clown popped out at her with its arms stretched toward her. Laughter billowed around it like fog.
It’s just a statue, she reminded herself, but her heart was trying to leap from her chest.
More lights
flicked on overhead. There was another clown at the end of the corridor. A green light shone directly down on it, concealing its eyes while highlighting its mouth, which was full of broken plaster teeth.
Chelsea didn’t want to go past it. She looked back the way she had come. The room with the two dummies was the only other thing back there. There was no other exit between there and here. She knew; she had looked. If she wanted to get out of here, she would have to keep going forward.
She limped down the corridor until she was an arm’s length from the clown, and she heard herself whimper. She was so scared. The clown was just a thing, just a statue, but she was still afraid of it. Summoning up every ounce of her courage, she took another step closer to its huge, grinning face.
The lights went out.
“No,” she whispered. In her head, she could see the face of the clown, smiling evilly at her. She could imagine it blinking its eyes and raising its arms, getting ready to choke her.
And then she saw a light bouncing off the side of the corridor. It was very faint, as if it were shining somewhere far away.
Someone’s coming, she thought. She didn’t know if she was relieved or more afraid.
A voice shouted, “Is someone in here? You’d better show yourself, or you’ll be sorry!” It was a man’s voice. A very angry man’s voice.
Chelsea ducked to the side of the clown statue, half expecting it to shout out, “Here she is!” as she bent down and peered in the direction of the light.
Then another, stronger light blossomed behind the approaching figure, revealing who had spoken.
It was a man, wearing a helmet with a light attached to it. A man with a hideous face and an eyepatch.
A man carrying an ax.
It was Cropsy!
chapter FIFTEEN
I dropped the flashlight into the water because I’m getting more light-headed, Alex thought. Her forehead was beaded with and not just from the water-logged, post-storm summer night. She was getting seriously nauseated, and she didn’t know what to do. She was afraid to tell Jeremiah. He might try to turn around and head back toward their campsite—back where there was a lifesaving insulin kit. But she couldn’t abandon her friends.
“I see a light! It’s them!” Jeremiah shouted.
Alex gazed through bleary eyes at the foggy expanse ahead of them. Sure enough, a yellow light was winking through the clumps of white.
“You guys!” Alex shouted. She stopped rowing to wave her hands. “Hey!”
Jeremiah joined in, waving, yelling!
“I see them!” Alex told him, jabbing her hands slightly to the left. “Go that way!”
They began rowing as fast as they could go.
Brynn kept swimming alongside the boat. “You guys? Seriously, I hear music.”
Everyone fell silent. “I do, too,” Priya announced. “It sounds like circus music. What do you call those things?”
“Calliopes?” Brynn said, slowly. “Like in the musical Carousel.”
“Is it a radio?” Priya asked.
“What radio station plays calliope music?” Alyssa said.
“Maybe a circus is coming to town,” Brynn suggested. “Do you remember if there was a circus around here last summer? Maybe that story Jordan told about the escaped lions had a grain of truth in it.”
“I don’t remember anything like that,” Priya said.
But Brynn squinted, concentrating as more whispery, ghostlike music played through the fog.
And then she heard something wonderful. Something incredible. She heard Alex!
“Alex!” she cried. “It’s Alex!”
“I hear her, too!” Priya was shrieking.
“I do, too!” Candace announced.
“Me four!” Alyssa croaked.
“Shine your flashlights!” Brynn said.
“Get us to Alex,” Priya urged Brynn and Alyssa as the two started swimming toward Alex’s boat. Alyssa was kicking as hard as she could and doing the Australian crawl with her free left hand. But she could feel the boat’s momentum taking it in the other direction. She figured Alex’s boat would probably drift toward theirs sooner or later, but she tried to close the distance as fast as she could anyway. She didn’t want to risk moving away from them again.
Before she knew it, the guy in Alex’s boat was cupping one hand around his mouth.
“I’m Jeremiah. Here’s the situation. We’re heading for a dangerous waterfall.”
“I knew it!” Brynn croaked. When Priya and Alyssa both blinked at her in surprise, she shrugged innocently. “I didn’t want to scare you guys.”
“I have a rope,” he said, holding up a length of rope. “Alex is tying the other end around the bench in my boat. I’m going to throw it to you, and I want each one of you to swim along it until you reach my boat. Then one of you needs to take over rowing from Alex. She doesn’t feel well.”
Uh-oh, Alyssa thought. Did Alex take her insulin?
“You mean we’re leaving our boat?” Priya asked him.
“Yes,” he said. “If you all crawl into my boat, it’ll overload it, so I want three of you to hang onto the outside. We’ll row toward land. We’re actually pretty close to the opposite side of the lake.”
“Oh my God,” Priya murmured, “this is so freaky. I can’t believe this is really happening.”
“We’re close to land,” Alyssa reminded her. “It’s almost over.” For us, anyway. But what about Alex?
“Just a little while longer,” Candace said.
“I know you can do it, guys,” Alex murmured.
Alyssa’s ears pricked. Alex didn’t sound right. Her voice was slurring.
“Okay, you two in the boat, this is up to you. Someone needs to shine a light and the other girl should try to try to catch the rope,” Brynn said. “But watch it. Don’t tip the boat over!”
“Candace, you man the flashlight,” Priya said. “I’ll try to catch the rope.”
Candace gripped the flashlight with both hands.
“Ready.”
“Priya, just pretend it’s a basketball,” Alyssa urged her.
“I’m playing horse with Jordan,” she announced. “And this court is mine!”
“Go Priya, go Priya,” Alyssa cheered.
On the other side of the boat, Brynn took up the cheer. “Go, Priya, go Priya.” Candace joined in, too, squawking away.
“Okay, I’m going to throw it to you,” Jeremiah said. “I’m a little off-balance because of my arm.
“Ready!” Priya croaked at the guy. “Bring it on!”
Jeremiah stood up and spread his legs wide apart. He held the rope up over his head like a cowboy. Alyssa stopped swimming and extended her free hand into the air. She was on the left side of the boat, farthest away from him, but she would be ready just in case.
“Here it comes!” he yelled.
Priya’s arms jutted into the air.
Alyssa could just make out the wavy line in the glow of the flashlight before a cry of disappointment rose up from inside the boat. Then she heard a light splash on the opposite side.
“Didn’t get it!” Priya rasped. “Try again!”
“Okay,” he said.
“Wait,” Alyssa said. “Brynn and I should hold flashlights so Candace and Priya can both try to catch the rope.”
“That’s a great idea,” Brynn agreed. “Let’s try it.”
Alex’s boat glided toward theirs as they made the readjustments, lowering a flashlight each to Brynn and Alyssa. As Priya lowered the flashlight down to her, Alyssa shined it at Alex’s boat. “Alex, are you okay?”
“I’m pretty good,” Alex said. But she didn’t sound pretty good. She sounded terrible.
Jeremiah was working to keep his balance. He held the rope over his head again.
“Here it comes!”
Alyssa focused her flashlight just above his head. She saw it fly out of his hands. Here it came . . .
“Yes!” Priya squeaked as Candace jumped up and seized the rope. “
We’ve got it!”
The boat rocked back and forth, back and forth. Then her side of the boat flew way up in the air. Alyssa dangled from it for a heart-stopping second as the boat went up and over, crashing into the water and ramming her hard beneath the icy waters of Shadow Lake.
Alyssa plummeted beneath the surface. The shock of the cold water made her eyelids flutter, and she saw nothing but icy blackness. She had dropped her flashlight when the boat had capsized.
She fought her way to the surface, gasping for air.
“Brynn! Candace! Priya!” she shouted.
“I’m good!” Brynn managed. “Candace! Priya! Lyss, I think they’re trapped under the boat!”
“No! I’m here!” Priya said, coughing hard.
“Candace! Answer me! Where are you? Help us!” Alyssa yelled at Jeremiah.
“Candace!” everyone shouted.
Jeremiah leaped into the water and started one-armed swimming for them.
Alyssa took a breath, held onto the side of the overturned boat, and ducked beneath the surface. She shut her eyes tightly and reached into the upside-down boat, searching for Candace. Her heart pounded in her ears as she darted her arm left, right, center.
She’s not in here, Alyssa thought. She jabbed her hand downward, and then she prepared to surface to get another breath of air.
Then fingers reached wildly for her. Candace! Alyssa wrapped her hand around the fingers and tried to pull her up. But Candace was pulling her under. She was about to lose her grip on the boat. And she was running out of air.
Then the fingers loosened.
And then . . . they went away.
No! Alyssa thought, reaching farther, feeling into the blackness more desperately.
Nothing.
She breached above the waterline, gasping so hard she couldn’t talk.
“There she is!” Alex cried from the other boat.
Jeremiah crashed to the surface with Candace in his arm. She was coughing hard. Alyssa knew that was a good sign. That meant her lungs were clearing.
Hide and Shriek #14 Page 16
