I hurried along the aisle of games until I stood face to face with Baz. Or face to dummy. He was the dummy. I think. Even though the life-sized mannequin was eerily like the real thing, complete with his superior sneer, once I got that close I was way more interested in the crystal ball.
It sat on a purple velvet pillow and looked no different from an ordinary globe of glass. Did this thing really have the power to predict the future? It sure seemed so, though I didn’t buy into Theo’s atomic-power theory. As hard as it was to stop logic from taking over and thinking there was no way a hunk of glass could possess that kind of magic, I had to hope it did. Theo’s life depended on it.
I reached up and ran my fingers along the edge of the wooden cabinet, searching for a hinge or a latch or anything that would show me how to open it. This was a machine. Machines needed service. There had to be a way to get in. The good news: I felt hinges along the left edge. The bad news: instead of a latch on the opposite side, there was a series of screws. My heart sank. This was going to take some time. At least I had come prepared. I reached into my hoodie and pulled out a Phillips screwdriver that I had grabbed from my father’s workshop. Sometimes I can be smart like that. I got right to work, figuring that I not only had to unscrew a bunch of screws but also would have to screw them back in after grabbing the crystal ball. With any luck, nobody would notice that the ball was gone, and I’d return it as soon as I could.
I didn’t stop to think or question that I was doing something idiotic. And totally illegal. I just got to work.
As soon as I started to unscrew the first screw, I heard a strange noise. It sounded like a gentle thump. It wasn’t scary or anything. It was just out of place. I stopped working and listened. A few seconds passed and I was about to get back to work when I heard several more thumps. It sounded like something was rolling around and banging into things. My curiosity got the better of me, and I followed the sound.
The mystery didn’t last long. It was a pinball machine. The metal pinball was moving inside the game, but since the power wasn’t turned on, the only sound it made was from the ball bouncing against the bumpers. A few seconds later the ball reached the bottom and disappeared into the hole that sent it to the chute that would line it up for the next shot.
There was nothing weird about it except that it had happened. It wasn’t like somebody was playing the game. How had the ball been released? I figured it had probably been stuck there for a while and finally fell free. Maybe I had jostled it when I ran by. Whatever the reason, it was done, so I turned back toward Baz’s machine.
And another ball released.
I spun around quickly to see the exact same thing happen. The metal ball rolled through the game, bouncing off bumpers. There was no reason for that to have happened. At least none that made sense. But I couldn’t stress over it. Time was ticking.
I ran back to Baz’s machine and worked quickly to unscrew the next screw.
That’s when I heard another thump.
This one was much louder than the others, and it had enough power behind it to make the wall shake. This was no small pinball. There was something on the other side of the wall. Something big.
Thump!
It happened again. Somebody or something was on the other side, banging against the wall. I tried to ignore it but couldn’t. I had to know what it was. So I ran out of the arcade the way I had come and headed around the corner toward the bumper car track.
On the far side of the track, a bumper car was moving. There was no power on, but the little red car didn’t know that. Nobody was behind the wheel either. At least I’d solved the mystery of what was doing the bumping. The red car moved forward, thumped against the barricade that ringed the track, and was sent backward. It then hit the car behind it, which sent it moving forward, where it hit the barricade again.
I stood on the track, watching this dance go on and on. I must have gone into brain lock, because I couldn’t come up with any explanation for why this was happening. I was so mesmerized that I let the screwdriver drop out of my hand. It fell onto the track and made a loud clatter that echoed through the cavernous structure.
The bumper car stopped instantly. It was as if the sound had broken whatever cycle it was stuck in. I didn’t move for fear it would start up again.
And it did. The car inched forward toward the barricade. But this time it didn’t hit. It turned. The little red car with nobody at the wheel moved away from the spot it had been sandwiched in and continued to slide across the track…toward me!
I was like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. I stood with my back to the barrier that surrounded the track, unable to get my feet moving. The car picked up speed, cruising directly at me. It was like it knew I was there. My mind raced, trying to understand what was going on, but nothing came to me.
The car kept sliding closer with no sign of slowing down. It was seconds away from hitting me and pinning me against the track barrier. Once I realized what a bad spot I was in, I got moving. I snatched up the screwdriver, then quickly boosted myself up and over the barrier. A second later the red car drove into the wall right where I’d been standing. It hit with a solid thump and stopped right there.
I kept my eyes on it from the safety of the other side of the barrier, waiting for it to make its next move. I must have waited a full minute, but the car didn’t budge. There was no explanation for what had happened, and I didn’t really care. All I wanted was to be somewhere else. But I couldn’t leave without the crystal ball. So as much as I was ready to run for the park’s exit, instead I sprinted back along the path to the arcade to crack the machine open, grab the ball, and get the heck out of there.
I went right to work on the screws, desperate to get them out before anything else weird happened. My hands were shaking with nervous energy, and the screwdriver kept slipping out of the screw heads. By trying to go fast, I was taking far longer to get the job done than if I had just slowed down and stayed calm. But calm wasn’t happening just then. I had gotten two screws out and had two more to go when I heard some kind of mechanical whirring.
The sound was coming from behind me. I didn’t want to turn around. I didn’t want to see what it was. I didn’t want to be there anymore. But I had to look. I turned around slowly to see that one of the games across the aisle from the Baz machine had come to life. It was a big glass cube that held a two-foot-tall marionette.
A clown marionette.
I hate clowns. Whoever was the first person to think it was a good idea to put on hideous makeup that makes your features bigger than life while wearing rainbow clothes was just plain demented. The clown doll hung from wires attached to its arms and legs, standing upright in all its clowny freakishness. The doll was lit from below by the glow of a row of bulbs that had sprung to life. Why was there suddenly power? The wheezy sound of circus calliope music began to play. I wasn’t even worried about anybody hearing and coming to find out what was going on. I was too focused on the creepy little clown. I actually left the Baz machine and walked toward the marionette. It was like I was being drawn there. I don’t know if I was moving closer to try and figure out how the machine could have turned itself on, or because that sinister little puppet was somehow hypnotizing me. Whatever the reason, I moved closer.
When I was only a step away, the clown’s arm twitched.
And I jumped.
The idea of the machine was to put in your nickel and move the handles in front. That would make the clown’s arms wave or his knees bend. You could make the thing dance, which might have been fun for a three-year-old…a hundred years ago.
It wasn’t much fun for me, that was for sure, especially because I wasn’t touching the controls. The clown hopped on one leg, which made its arms bounce. It jumped back and forth from one leg to the other in a macabre doll dance in time to the haunting calliope music.
I was
losing my mind. Nobody was controlling this thing. The knobs in front weren’t moving. I tried to tell myself that it was preprogrammed to do the lame dance, but that didn’t explain why it had turned itself on. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. All thoughts of the crystal ball and Theo and the fact that I was trespassing had flown out of my head.
And then the clown stopped dancing. So did the music. I was left in eerie silence. I kept staring at the little freak, hoping the performance was over.
It wasn’t. The doll’s arms were at its sides. Slowly, one rose until it was parallel with the floor. Its little clown finger was pointing at something. There was no mistake. Its head was tilted to the side with a blank expression. Its dead eyes looked nowhere. But its finger was pointing as if telling me to look.
I didn’t want to, but I had to. I turned slowly to see it was pointing at Baz’s fortune-telling machine. I had no idea why…
…until Baz’s machine came to life.
The lightbulbs inside his little cubicle warmed up, bathing the box in an eerie yellow glow. The lights created deep shadows under Baz’s eyes, making the dumb dummy look more like a menacing dummy. Seeing the lights come on was a surprise. It wasn’t the worst surprise.
Baz’s arm moved.
The machine was gearing up to tell a fortune.
Nobody else was around. There was only one person there whose fortune it could tell.
Mine.
I didn’t think for a second it was going to tell me I was about to win a million dollars. Every cell in my brain was screaming at me to get out of there. But I couldn’t. I had to know.
Slowly, I walked back to the machine. Baz’s lifeless eyes stared deep into the crystal ball as a blue light glowed from within it. Strange flute music drifted from the machine—the same kind of music that had played during Baz’s live performance eighty years earlier. It was a pretty dramatic presentation, for an ancient machine.
One I didn’t really care to see.
I walked right up to the machine. Baz’s head behind the glass loomed above me. His arm made a mechanical sweeping motion over the crystal ball, and the blue light went out. His hand continued on to a box of cards that sat next to the crystal. The hand reached down and plucked out a card; the same kind of card that Theo and Jenny had gotten. The mechanical fingers clenched the card as the hand lifted and swiveled toward an opening in the table. The fingers opened and released the card. It dropped through the hole and appeared in a small trough in the front of the machine’s cabinet, ready for the taking.
The lights went out and the music ended. Baz went back to staring into the dark crystal ball. The show was over.
But my fortune was sitting in front of me.
Reaching for it was like moving my hand through pudding. I knew I had to read it, but part of me was holding back, convinced I shouldn’t. It was a battle being fought inside my brain. I truly feared what the card would say. I finally plucked it from the trough and looked at it. On one side was the familiar logo: The Oracle Baz. My fortune would be on the other side. My hand was shaking. Literally shaking. It took an incredible amount of willpower, but I finally turned the card over.
A single word was written on the card, printed in bold capital letters:
RUN!
Run? What did that mean? That wasn’t a fortune. I kept staring at the card, trying to understand.
I looked up at the dummy of the Oracle Baz and nearly screamed.
Baz was looking straight at me. His eyes were focused with an intent gleam that made my heart stop.
That’s when he spoke.
“Run!” the dummy said.
I got the message. I was outta there. I turned, ready to take off and sprint as far away from this cursed amusement park as I could get. But when I turned, I saw that I wasn’t alone.
At the far end of the aisle of ancient games stood a shadow. Or what seemed to be a shadow. It was the shape of a man who stood there, blocking my way. Its outline was sharp and defined, as if it had been cut out of reality to leave a dark void. There was no detail inside, only eternal black.
The visitor from the Hall of Mirrors was back.
I put on the brakes and stood facing the apparition, too stunned to move.
The shadow lifted its arm, pulling the shadow of a curved sword from a sheath. There was no detail to the sword, but its outline was unmistakable.
The shadow lifted the sword over its head threateningly, ready to bring it down hard.
On me.
Another fortune was about to come true. My fortune.
I ran.
The shadow, or whatever it was, blocked my way out of the arcade, so I turned and sprinted past Baz’s machine, desperate to find another way out. I made it to the far end of the room, rounded another arcade machine, and came face to face with the shadow again. It stood only a few yards in front of me.
And it spoke.
“Thief!” it shouted.
At least I think it shouted. It wasn’t like I saw its lips move or anything. Though it was definitely man-shaped, the thing was totally black. I couldn’t see through it like a normal shadow. Normal? Normal shadows didn’t yell at people. Or jump around and get in your way, for that matter. And it wasn’t even a shadow, because there was nobody there to make a shadow.
Whatever it was, it moved toward me while raising the sword high.
Normal shadows don’t do that either.
I did a one-eighty and ran in a third direction, sprinting past the rows of arcade games while glancing around for fear the shadow would pop up again and slice me. I skirted the perimeter of the big room until I saw the exit. It was only a few yards ahead. Once through that door, I wasn’t going to stop running until I got to the bus stop. Or maybe I’d run all the way home. I definitely had enough energy for that. Only a few more steps and…
…the shadow stepped into the doorway to the outside, blocking the way.
I skidded to a stop. No amount of running was going to get me away from this thing, not if it could move around that fast.
“I wasn’t going to steal the crystal ball,” I shouted at it. “I just need it to—”
“Hey, who’s in there?” I heard a voice call from outside.
The shadow vanished. It didn’t fade or drift away like smoke. It simply blinked out like it was an image on TV and somebody cut the power.
“What’s all the shouting?” the voice said again.
I was still too stunned to move, even after Eugene the security guard stepped into the doorway. Only a few minutes before, he was the last guy in the world I wanted to see, but at that moment I could have hugged him.
He scanned the arcade quickly, and when he focused on me, his shoulders dropped. I don’t know if it was in relief or disappointment.
“You again?” he said with dismay.
He started toward me, walking quickly, as if ready to grab me by my shirt to heave me out of there.
“Did you see it?” I yelled. “It was a…a…shadow. With a sword!”
That stopped him cold.
“Say that again?” he said.
“It was right there,” I said, my voice about three octaves higher than normal. I guess fear will do that. “It was a shadow. Or…or…not a shadow. It was like a negative-person. There was nothing but black where a normal person would be. And it talked. I think it’s the thing I saw in the Hall of Mirrors. It was coming after me. With a sword! Did I mention that?”
I don’t know why I said all that. It was like verbal diarrhea. It had to come out. There was no way Eugene would believe me. But I was too amped up to be cool about it. I stood there breathing hard, too terrified over what had happened to worry about what this security guard would do to me.
“There wasn’t any shadow,” Eugene said calmly.
“Yes, there was! I saw it! It talked
to me!”
“It talked?” he asked.
“Yes! I wasn’t imagining it.”
Eugene looked all sorts of confused. Where a second ago it had seemed as though he was going to grab me and toss my butt out of there, he now looked concerned. Concern was good.
“I know you weren’t imagining it,” he said. “But it wasn’t a shadow.”
That threw me. Eugene believed me. Sort of.
“Then what was it?” I asked.
Eugene took off his cap and ran his hand through his gray hair, as though getting ready to confront a problem he was tired of dealing with. After a long sigh he said, “That, my young friend, was the Oracle Baz.”
* * *
—
Eugene led me behind the Ye Olde Gold Mine ride to a kitchen that looked like it was used by the staff at Playland. Since it was November, nobody was there, unless you counted Eugene and the occasional sword-wielding ghost.
Eugene told me to make myself some hot chocolate, so I used a teakettle to heat up water and tore open a pack of instant mix while he sat at a table quietly, watching me. I focused all my attention on the simple task of making the drink. I didn’t really want it, but it kept my mind from spinning out of control and my hands from shaking. It felt like an entirely sane and normal thing to do because at that moment I was feeling anything but.
When I finished making the drink, I sat across from him. There was no more dodging the question. I had to know what was happening at Playland.
“So,” I said, sounding totally casual. “The place is haunted.”
Eugene raised his eyebrows in surprise, then burst out laughing. “Well, you’re taking that news in stride,” he said.
“I’m used to it,” I said, deadly serious.
Eugene instantly stopped laughing and looked at me curiously. “Why did you come back? To help your friend? The one who got the bad fortune?”
“Yeah, but first tell me about Baz,” I said. “That shadow thing is his ghost?”
Eugene chuckled. “I ain’t crazy, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
Oracle of Doom Page 10
