“Candace, are you all right?” Brynn cried.
“Yes.” She coughed some more. “I’m fine.” Then she began to cry.
“The rope, get the rope,” Alex yelled. “Take Candace to the other boat.”
“Here it is! I’ve got it!” Brynn said. She lifted it over her head for all to see.
“Hold it tight,” Jeremiah said. “I’ll take Candace over and then I’ll come back and hold it for the rest of you.” Then he added, “Alex is having some trouble. Do any of you have any candy?”
“Um, I do,” Candace said. “I wore pajama shorts with pockets so I could bring some candy. And my good-luck worry doll. I have a packet of Skittles and some sour apple jawbreakers. But they’re probably soaked.”
“I don’t think Alex will care,” he said. “You go first, hand over hand. It’s better if you don’t try to swim. You guys are cold and tired and you can probably feel the pull of the water toward the falls. When you reach my boat, give the Skittles to Alex.”
“Got it.”
Everybody watched Candace maneuver across the rope. When she reached Jeremiah’s boat, they all cheered. She gave Alex the Skittles, and Alex ate them one right after another, quickly devouring the package.
Priya went next, then Brynn, and finally Alyssa. They took up their positions alongside the boat, then Jeremiah swam back and awkwardly flopped inside as Alex helped him. When he sat down on the bench, she gave him a quick hug and he smiled at her as she moved off the bench. Candace took her place.
“I’m a really good rower.” She lifted her chin.
No one argued.
Jeremiah and Candace took up the oars and began to row. Brynn, Priya, and Alyssa held on tight. Alyssa swept Jeremiah’s flashlight over the lake.
The beam passed over dark shapes jutting into the sky. They were trees. She moved the beam lower to see a bank, and farther down, the shoreline.
“Land,” she said in a hushed whisper. “We’re almost there.”
The girls cheered. Jeremiah’s smile grew. He and Candace kept rowing, and Alyssa found comfort in the rhythm of the oars as they dipped into the water.
Then Alyssa heard the weird, creepy music again. It was drifting over the water like fog.
Jeremiah tilted his head. “Do you guys hear music?”
“Yes,” Alyssa told him. “Do you know what it is?”
“I think I do,” he said, gazing at her, “and it’s totally freaking me out.”
Alyssa was afraid to ask, but she had to.
“Why?”
“Because it goes with the story of Cropsy that I heard. It’s different from the one your friend told you guys, but it’s just as scary.”
“No,” Brynn wailed. “Not another Cropsy story!”
“Maybe you should tell it. It might help us find Chelsea,” Alyssa said.
“For all we know, she’s been found,” Brynn said. “Please, no more scary stories!”
“I think we have to hear it,” Alex insisted.
“We have to hear it,” Candace agreed.
“When we get to land, I’ll tell it,” Jeremiah promised.
“If we get to land,” Brynn muttered.
“We should just stop,” Gaby told Tori as the truck inched along. “We can’t see where we’re going.”
“Sorry,” Tori said, staring into the fog. She was so bummed. The rain had cleared the fog away, and they’d been good to go. But then they had dipped down into a valley, and a new fog bank had drifted over the road, almost as if it were trying to keep them from seeing where they were going.
“What if a car comes from the other direction?” Gaby said. “It might hit us.”
“We need to get help for the bunk,” Tori argued.
“We’re not going to be able to get help if we get into an accident,” Gaby argued back. “Seriously, Tori, you need to pull over.”
“Guys?” Valerie said. “Look.”
In the fog ahead of their headlights, three or four dark shapes shifted and moved. They looked as though they were floating about two feet off the ground.
“Oh my God!” Gaby cried. She grabbed the wheel and turned it to the right.
“Gaby, no!” Tori shouted.
The truck turned. They were going so slowly that there was no danger of losing control of the steering. But the fog was so thick that there was every danger of running into something they couldn’t see.
Sure enough, the truck hit something hard and jerked to a stop.
Tori gunned the engine. It wouldn’t go. Grunting, she put the truck in reverse. It backed up . . . and then stopped again.
“We’re stuck,” she said.
“We’re trapped,” Valerie replied.
Then something bumped against Tori’s door.
“Land, sweet land,” Priya crooned, kneeling down and pretending to kiss the mud while Jeremiah and Candace made sure the little fishing boat was securely pulled up on the shore.
“Amen,” Brynn said, kneeling down beside her.
Alex and Alyssa joined them, and they gave each other a group hug. Then Candace trotted over, making it five bunkmates who had worked together to survive the ordeal.
As they hugged, the eerie calliope music wafted through the muggy night. They all heard it, raising their heads and listening.
“It’s louder now,” Alex pointed out. She looked at Jeremiah. “About that story. You said you’d tell it once we hit land.”
The girls looked at him expectantly. He took a deep breath and began.
“Okay. Here goes. It’s been said that in the 1950s, a man named Elias Croppersly built an amusement park in the hills of Shadow Lake. It was like a carnival, with a few rides, some games, and a freak show. The big attraction was the Chamber of Horrors. There were all kinds of terrifying scenes of murder and death, and some of it was so gory that the locals complained. But Croppersly just made it gorier.
“He had a real guillotine shipped over from France. The guillotine was used for executions during the French Revolution in the 1700s. A razor-sharp blade would be raised high into the air. Then a condemned prisoner was tied down and the razor-sharp blade would descend . . . and slice off his head!
“Kids loved to sneak into the amusement park after hours. The boys would throw rocks at the lights and steal props. Croppersly warned them all that if they kept it up, they’d pay . . . and pay dearly. That just encouraged them to do it more.
“One night, two brothers snuck into the Chamber of Horrors. The older one was named Randy, and Chris was four years younger. Elias Croppersly heard them and came after them with a gun! He chased them into the guillotine room.
“ ‘I’m sick and tired of you kids!’ he shouted at them. ‘I warned you!’ He aimed the gun at Chris and told Randy to lie down on the guillotine. He strapped him in. Randy started struggling and screaming, and Chris begged for his brother’s life, but Croppersly was determined.
“Then he turned on the Chamber of Horrors sound track, and laughed as the awful music drowned out Chris and Randy’s shrieks of terror.
“As Chris looked on helplessly, the blade came down! And Randy’s head was chopped clear off his body! Blood from his neck sprayed everywhere. Then his head plopped like a gooshy watermelon into a basket.
“Croppersly unstrapped his bleeding corpse. It fell to the floor, blood pooling around the legs of the guillotine. Croppersly and Chris slipped in it as Croppersly grabbed Randy’s fainting brother and flung him onto the guillotine. Chris was in shock and he didn’t fight Croppersly, who still had the gun, as he rebuckled the straps, soaked with Randy’s blood.
“Then Croppersly raised the blade and got ready to let it go!
“But just as he reached for the rope to release the blade, Randy’s headless body rose from the floor of the Chamber of Horrors. It staggered over to Croppersly and threw its arms around him. Croppersly shot his gun, but the bullets did nothing to stop the corpse. It stretched the evil man’s arm beneath the path of the guillotine blade and unstrapped
Chris!
“Chris rolled free just as the blade plummeted, cutting off Croppersly’s arm at the shoulder. Croppersly screamed as blood gushed from his arm.
“Then Randy’s body collapsed.
“And from inside the basket, his head whispered, ‘Run, Chris, run!’
“The amusement park was closed the next day, forever . . . and the forest reclaimed the land. Legend has it that Croppersly still roams the woods, searching for the boy who escaped the guillotine, which took his own arm instead.”
The music had grown much louder by the time Jeremiah finished his tale of terror. The girls looked at one another. For a moment, no one spoke.
“Okay, I don’t like that story, either,” Brynn declared. Training her flashlight in his direction, she narrowed her eyes at Jeremiah. “Is this part of your plan to scare us? Is your friend hiding in the woods and playing music on a boom box? Because that music sounds very close.”
“Yeah,” Candace said. “Are you still pranking us?”
“No. I swear.” Jeremiah held up his hand. “There’s absolutely no way.” He hesitated. “I have never heard that music before. Some friends of mine said they heard it when we were little kids, but I never did. Until now.”
“Do you think this has something to do with Chelsea?” Alex asked.
“Chelsea’s missing, and Croppersly’s music is playing . . . you don’t think he would cut off her head?” Brynn covered her mouth with her hands and let out a squeak.
“I’ve never found the amusement park,” Jeremiah said. “No one has. And we’ve looked. But we can follow the music.”
“We can find a way out of here and call the police,” Brynn interjected.
Jeremiah took a breath. “The quickest way out of here is to go back across the lake. The hike out would take hours any other way.”
The music swelled. Everyone looked at one another.
“I think at least two of us should row back across,” Priya suggested. “Maybe Belle and the others are back at the campsite. Are you too tired, Jeremiah?”
“No, but . . .” He turned his head. “Oh, no! Look!”
The boat was gone.
“No!” Brynn cried. She leaped to her feet and raced to the water. Priya joined her and they dashed in up to their ankles, shining their flashlights. Alyssa joined them, followed by Candace.
Their slumped shoulders told the story. The boat was gone.
Candace was the first to return. She was crying. “Didn’t I do a good job of pulling it up on shore?”
“You did fine,” Jeremiah said. “I’m the one who messed up.”
“Yeah, to make your prank work better,” Priya said.
“Yeah.” Candace wiped her eyes. “How convenient.”
“I swear that’s not it.” Jeremiah shook his head. “With your friend Alex sick? No way.”
Alex shifted. “I do need my insulin,” she admitted. “I should probably go to urgent care once . . . this is over.”
“So, all that’s left is to follow the music,” Priya said.
“It’s like we’re being forced into the clutches of Cropsy.” Brynn clutched her hands beneath her chin.
“Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” Priya said.
“Dramatic? Hello? We just nearly drowned!” Brynn cried. “I’d say a little drama is in order!”
Alex privately agreed with Brynn. But she said aloud, “We should go check it out. Just in case. Don’t forget, we’re Bunk 5A and we are solid!”
“Woo-hoo!” Candace cried. “Solid!”
“You guys are doing great,” Belle said as she, Natalie, and Jenna turned back from the headwaters of Dead Man’s Falls. There was no evidence of the two dinghies, and no way to tell if they had gone over the falls or not. But Belle just moved on to Plan C. She stayed amazingly calm, and she kept Jenna and Natalie calm, too.
She rocks, Jenna thought. She’s the best counselor I’ve ever had.
Now they were following the creepy music that echoed off the trees. Jenna stuck close to Natalie, who was trembling as hard as she was.
“Belle will keep us safe,” Jenna told her.
“I know,” Natalie replied.
They walked a while longer. Belle had amazing stamina.
“I keep hearing it, but I can’t figure out where it is,” Jenna said as the three stopped to catch their breaths. “It’s almost like it’s . . . under us.”
“I know,” Belle said, sweeping the ground with her flashlight beam. “I can’t figure it out.”
Inside the Chamber of Horrors, the eerie music shut off as Cropsy moved closer. He had a limp, too, and as he walked toward Chelsea, his light bobbed. Soon it would shine on Chelsea and then . . . oh, God, would he cut off her head?
She was shaking so badly, she didn’t know if she’d be able to move. She didn’t know what to do. She darted her gaze left and right, looking for inspiration.
“I know you’re in there,” the man said in a loud voice. “Come out now. This is your last chance.”
Then his flashlight beam hit Chelsea square in the eyes.
Inside the cab of the truck, Tori, Valerie, and Gaby held onto one another as more things bumped against the doors in the thick fog. Tori honked the horn again, but it didn’t seem to phase whatever was attacking them. She gunned the engine and floored the gas pedal, but the tires spun. Whatever had captured them, it still had them.
“Oh my God, what is it? What’s out there?” Valerie shrieked.
Wham! Something bumped harder against the truck.
“Go away!” Tori laid on the horn.
Chelsea let out a squeak that even she couldn’t hear as she leaped up and covered her eyes against the flashlight.
As she turned to get away, she stepped down hard on her bad foot. Pain shot from her ankle up through her leg and she started to fall. Her hand shot out, grabbing onto the clown statue. A piece of it broke off in her hand as she fell down.
“Hey!” Cropsy shouted.
With his ax raised over his head, he started toward her.
Chelsea looked from him to the piece of the clown statue in her hand. It was the clown’s arm, broken off at the shoulder, just like Cropsy’s.
She scrambled backward, stretching out her leg and trying to crab-walk with one foot and two arms. But she couldn’t do it. She was too clumsy, tired, and scared.
“Stop right there! Stop!” the man yelled at her. “Don’t move!”
She flung herself backward. The floor behind her tilted downward at a steep angle and she fell onto her back. Then she started to slide headfirst down what felt to be a slick metal slide.
She screamed all the way down. Really screamed, her terror pushing her voice past her hoarseness.
“I hear her!” Nat yelled. “She’s close!” She whirled in a circle, cupping her hands and bellowing, “Chelsea!”
“She’s underneath us,” Belle yelled, pointing her flashlight. “She’s fallen into a mine or something.” She kept her flashlight pointed downward.
Then she shouted, “Look!”
In the middle of the forest ground, there was a jagged hole. It was barely big enough for someone to fall through.
Belle dropped to her knees. “Chelsea?”
As they tromped through the woods, Alex heard Chelsea screaming and her heart skipped beats.
“Come on!” Brynn yelled, taking off. Alyssa and Priya followed after her.
Dizzy and nauseated again, Alex stopped walking.
“I’m in trouble,” she told Jeremiah.
Without a word, Jeremiah scooped Alex up in his one good arm, flung her over his shoulder, and jogged toward the screams.
They all ran.
chapter SIXTEEN
Screaming, Chelsea hurtled down the slide through the darkness. Then she sailed into the air and landed back-first on another dusty mattress.
Dazed, she panted for a few seconds. Then she made herself sit up. She grabbed onto the end of the slide and painfully got to her feet. Her ankle burned.
<
br /> She had lost the clown arm. She had no weapons.
She turned around and started limping with her arms outstretched. There was no litter on the ground. It smelled better, too.
She kept going, with no clue what to do next. She didn’t know how long she could keep limping on her foot. She wished she had something to use as a crutch or a walking stick. She could use it to whack Cropsy if he came after her again.
A dim light played over her surroundings. She stoppe uld she go toward it, or stay away? She didn’t know what to do.
Footsteps pounded overhead. He was looking for her!
She limped forward. As the light grew stronger, she saw an entrance to a room. There was a sign over it that read, THE LAIR OF THE SHADOW LAKE MONSTER.
Chelsea moved to the side of the entrance and peered in. She grabbed the wall to hold herself up as her knees buckled.
A wooden table littered with tools sat to one side. There was a light in a metal cylinder attached to a ladder. The light shone on . . . heads! There were three of them, one facing her, with eyes that were all white, its mouth frozen in a scream.
It’s a prop, she told herself, but it looked too real. She’d seen a lot of horror movies where the crazy killer had hidden the real bodies among the fake ones.
And he came after me with an ax!
Behind the table, a huge dark green figure stood about six feet tall. It had eyes like an alligator, and its finned arms stretched menacingly toward Chelsea. It looked like a cross between a man and a fish, with bulgy eyes and fleshy lips with fangs. Fins stuck out from the sides of its bald head, and its arms and feet ended in flippers.
“Game’s over,” Cropsy said.
Chelsea whirled around.
He was standing in his miner’s hat, his ax slung over his shoulder. She could see nothing else in the yellow glare of his flashlight.
Oh my God.
Tears streaming down her face, she ducked into the room, immediately realizing her mistake. Now she was trapped. She limped as fast as she could toward the table of tools . . . and the heads . . . searching for something to hit him with. There! A big wrench!
Hide and Shriek #14 Page 17
