Oracle of Doom

by D. J. MacHale

  I stood there in brain lock, not knowing which way to turn. The heat was getting so intense that breathing it into my lungs made me cough. The toxic smell probably had something to do with that too. I was in serious trouble.

  But so was the pyro. Where was he? Did he get out?

  I caught a fleeting glimpse of the dark figure on the far side of the room, deep in the depths of the basement, running for his life. But to where? He sprinted to a set of rickety wooden stairs that led up to a door. A door. Escape. Safety. It probably led into the castle itself. It didn’t matter, as long as it got me out of there.

  I’d gotten what I came for. Sort of. I didn’t know who set the fire, but I found out for sure it wasn’t Derby. That would have to be good enough. Maybe this was Derby’s story after all. Maybe his spirit was doomed to haunt Playland because he mistakenly thought he had set the fire that killed Baz. I’d tell him the truth. It wasn’t him. He’d be set free. I still wanted to know who set the fire, but I also didn’t want to be barbecued.

  It was time to get out of there and go home.

  As I ran for safety, I pulled the Paradox key from around my neck. It didn’t matter to me where the door at the top of the stairs led to. It was going to get me back to the Library.

  The fire was spreading quickly. It was right on my butt and closing fast. The whole building was about to go up in flames. I choked on fumes and coughed so hard my head spun, but I kept going. When I reached the bottom of the stairway, I climbed two steps at a time. The flames had already hit the rickety wooden stairs and were traveling up fast, engulfing them. Fire licked through the open stairs, curling over them, destroying them faster than seemed possible.

  I stayed focused on my target. The door. It wasn’t a normal door. It didn’t have a doorknob or a standard doorframe. It looked like it was just a section of wall with hinges. I had a moment of panic, thinking the Paradox key might not work because this wasn’t a proper door. At the top of the stairs was a small platform. I stopped there and reached forward with the key.

  The keyhole appeared, right where it always did.

  “I am so out of here,” I said.

  But I wasn’t.

  Before I could stick the key into the keyhole, the door swung open and the pyro lunged out at me. He grabbed me by my sweater, swung me around, and pinned me against the wall next to the door. This guy was powerful. I didn’t stand a chance.

  “I can’t let you go,” the guy said in a raspy, desperate whisper.

  I reached up and grabbed the hood that covered the guy’s face. I had to know who he was. Hensley? The jealous boyfriend? Or was it somebody else who wanted Baz dead?

  I yanked the hood off and came face to face with the pyro.

  The truth made my head spin.

  He wasn’t a he.

  It was the lady who Baz and the jealous boyfriend were fighting over.

  Daring Donna turned out to be a whole lot more daring than anybody imagined.

  “Why?” was all my brain could think to get my mouth to say.

  The woman’s eyes were wild with crazy, and she actually smiled.

  “Because I love him,” she said almost sweetly.

  Crack!

  The rickety wooden stairs were about to collapse. The whole structure jolted as if ready to pull away from the wall and send the two of us crashing down into the inferno. The woman fought to keep her balance while still clutching my sweater. She was strong too. Athlete strong. She pivoted and pulled me away from the wall, trying to fling me off the stairs.

  I reached back at the last second, grabbed the side of the door opening, and held on for my life. No way I was letting go.

  Donna couldn’t pull me loose and she knew it. She let out a guttural, almost inhuman cry of frustration and let me go while leaping through the door to safety.

  I spun around while still clutching the doorframe for fear she would try to push me back from inside. But she was gone. I guess she was more worried about saving herself than finishing me off.

  Crack!

  The stairs collapsed. The platform fell away beneath me, crumbling into a well of fire. I held tight. No way I was losing my grip and taking a death fall. I managed to swing my leg up and catch the other side of the opening. From there I hoisted myself up to safety.

  Safety? I was still only a few feet above a raging inferno that was gathering strength. A quick look around showed me that I was in a dark, narrow corridor. It was a little cooler away from the fire, but that wouldn’t last long. I had only a few seconds to take a deep breath and to try and figure a way out of there before the fire burned up through the floor. My best chance of escape was still plan A. The Library. The door was still a door. It would get me out of there. All I had to do was open it with the Paradox key.

  The Paradox key.

  The key I no longer had.

  I felt as though my brain exploded. The key had been in my hand when Daring Donna attacked me. It wasn’t anymore. At some point I had dropped it while I was struggling with her. Where the hell was it?

  I crawled to the doorway and looked out onto the basement room that was no longer a room. It was hell. Fire had engulfed the entire space, fueled by paint and all sorts of other flammable liquids. I looked directly down to where the stairs had been to see nothing but flames. The heat was so unbearable it took my breath away. In that one horrible second, I was hit with a sickening realization.

  I wasn’t just stuck in a fiery nightmare; I was trapped in this story.

  I couldn’t leave there without the Paradox key. If I did, I’d never leave there at all. I’d be stuck in the otherworldly limbo of this story for…what? The rest of my life? Would my parents even know I was gone? Would time at home stand still until I found another way out? How long would that take? Was it even possible?

  What if it took years and I showed up at home as an old man? At least then I wouldn’t have to worry about the cops—they wouldn’t be looking for an old codger. But my parents would never see their son again, because I’d be older than them!

  Fire or no fire, I had to find that key. Spending the rest of my days in somebody else’s story was not an option.

  All those thoughts took about four seconds to race through my head. If the key had fallen into the fiery basement below, I was done. I had to hope that I’d dropped it somewhere near me…and that I’d find it before the flames burned the floor beneath me.

  I pulled myself back in through the doorway and looked around to see nothing but dead black. Even the light from the fire didn’t help me see anything, because my pupils must have contracted. I got on my knees and swept my hands back and forth across the floor. It was the only way I had of searching.

  But now the floor was getting hot as the flames built up below. I feared that at any second I’d hear a crack, the floor would give way, and I’d tumble into the fiery furnace. But I kept searching. To give up would mean my life was over. But staying there much longer really meant my life would be over.

  Flames suddenly licked up through the floorboards in front of my face. The surprise knocked me back onto my butt. Time had run out. It was now about survival. I had to get out of there. I struggled to my feet as the corridor suddenly lit up with a bright light. I thought for sure the fire had engulfed the space and I was a goner, but instead of the sound of crackling flames, I heard a loud school bell.

  I’d heard that sound before. What was it?

  Looking up, I saw the Frankenstein monster leering at me from behind a chicken-wire fence. I was in the Magic Castle ride. The light came from the dumb exhibit. Something must have triggered it.

  “You looking for this?” somebody said.

  I saw the silhouette of a person standing in the corridor in front of me. The guy had something in his hand that he was holding out to me. It dangled from the end of a cord. My brain flashed back to M
ichael Swenor’s ghost and the times he had offered me the Paradox key. But this wasn’t Michael Swenor. Or a ghost.

  It was Derby.

  “What’re you doing here?” he asked, breathless. He sounded as panicked as I was.

  I could have kissed the kid. Instead, I jumped to my feet and snatched the key out of his hand.

  “Trying to get out,” I yelled. “Where do we go?”

  “That way,” he shouted over the roar of the flames, pointing behind me.

  Crack!

  The floor gave way beneath Derby. He screamed in terror as his foot broke through.

  I lunged forward, grabbed him, and pulled him toward me. No way I was gonna let anything happen to him, even if he was a spirit from another time.

  “Move!” I shouted, and the two of us stumbled back along the dark corridor, headed for the ride’s exit. Or entrance. I didn’t care which, as long as it got us out of the fire.

  “This is the way I came in,” Derby said with authority.

  He grabbed me by the wrist and led me forward, making quick twists and turns through the labyrinth. The light from the fire behind us made it way easier to navigate than when Lu and I had been there before. The air grew cooler as we got closer to the entrance. I could breathe again. After a few more turns, I heard the music of the park. We were leaving the real terror behind and returning to the land of make-believe thrills.

  The escape route brought us to the entrance of the ride. We burst out from the doorway into the cool of the night to see fire trucks headed our way, their red lights blazing as they rolled cautiously across the midway to avoid curious onlookers.

  “Keep moving,” I commanded. “The whole building’s going up.”

  To get clear of the doomed castle, we ran across the drawbridge that spanned the moat. I looked back and saw the turrets already enveloped in flames. Baz had once again died a fiery death.

  When we were far enough away to feel safe, we stopped to catch our breath.

  Two cop cars were parked on the edge of the midway, keeping people back and clearing a path for the firefighters to get through.

  When I finally focused on Derby, I saw that he was in tears, and not just from the smoke.

  “It was an accident, I swear,” he said frantically. “I didn’t mean to start the fire. I was just…scared.”

  “You didn’t start it,” I said.

  “Yeah, I did!” Derby shouted. “I brought a candle in there. It was stupid, but those guys wouldn’t cut me any slack. I thought if I went through once, they’d leave me alone. But they followed me in and jumped me and…I dropped it. I gotta turn myself in.”

  Derby started for the cops, but I stopped him.

  “You didn’t start it, Derby,” I said. “No way the fire from a candle would spread this fast.”

  “But the ropes were on fire,” he cried. “I couldn’t put it out. I got scared and ran. That’s when I heard something that sounded like a fight. I beat it through the ride, and when Frankenstein lit up, I saw you. And that key.”

  “You saved my life,” I said as I slipped the Paradox key back around my neck. “If not for you, I’d still be in there.”

  And stuck in this story forever. And dead.

  “Yeah, but if not for me, there wouldn’t be no fire,” he argued.

  “I’m telling you—I know who started the fire, and it wasn’t you.”

  “Donna!” somebody yelled.

  Running past us, headed for the police, was Hensley.

  We followed him as he hurried toward two policemen who stood on either side of a woman. Baz’s girlfriend. Or Ron’s girlfriend. Or both. Daring Donna. The pyro. Her face was covered with soot and ash. When she spotted Hensley, she threw her arms around him.

  Uh…what?

  “Isn’t that the lady Baz and that guy were fighting over?” Derby asked. “Why’s she hugging Hensley?”

  Good question. Really good question.

  “Are you okay?” Hensley asked Donna.

  “You know this lady?” one cop asked Hensley.

  “Yeah, she’s my girlfriend,” Hensley replied, then focused on Donna. “Why are you all dirty? Were you in there?”

  “Yeah, she was,” I called out. “She’s the one who started the fire.”

  Everyone shot me a surprised look.

  Hensley was absolutely stunned. He kept throwing confused looks between Donna and me.

  That was it. That’s when it happened. It was the moment the story changed, because the mystery had been solved.

  The disruption was over.

  “Who are you?” Hensley finally asked, taking an angry step toward me.

  One of the cops held him back.

  “I’m the guy who nearly got killed because your girlfriend set a fire in the basement,” I said. “Ask her.”

  “What’s he talking about?” Hensley asked Donna.

  “It’s okay,” Donna said. “You’re safe now.”

  “What did you do?” Hensley said with growing urgency.

  “Baz can’t hurt you anymore,” she said while kissing the guy on the cheek. “Now you don’t have to go away.”

  Hensley gazed up at the nightmare of the Magic Castle that was now completely engulfed in flames. The look on his face was one of pure horror as the truth became clear.

  “That’s why you asked me to close the ride?” he asked, incredulous.

  “I didn’t want anybody else to get hurt,” she said. “I didn’t know that kid would be in there.”

  “Surprise,” I said.

  “You did this for me?” Hensley asked, bewildered, like he couldn’t wrap his head around it.

  “Baz was going to have you arrested,” she said innocently, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I didn’t want that, and I didn’t want you to leave. Now it’s all okay.”

  Hensley pulled away from her as if she were toxic.

  “This…this ain’t right,” he said, bewildered.

  “You can say that again,” one of the cops said as he pulled Donna away.

  Daring Donna.

  Demented Donna was more like it.

  “I love you!” she called back to Hensley as they disappeared into the crowd.

  Hensley looked dazed. He turned back to the Magic Castle just as the giant turret collapsed, sending up a huge spray of sparks.

  “That’s what she told me in there,” I said to Derby. “She said she did it because she loved him. How seriously insane is that?”

  “Donna sure has a lot of boyfriends,” Derby said.

  I took him by the arm and led him away from the scene as firefighters rushed forward with hoses to put out the fire that had already destroyed the building. It was too late for the Magic Castle, and for Baz. It was now about containing the fire and saving the rest of the cursed amusement park.

  Derby and I got away from the crowd that had gathered to witness the horrifying spectacle. I had already seen too much fire to care.

  “So it really wasn’t my fault?” Derby asked.

  “No, it was crazy Donna,” I said. “You’re off the hook.”

  Derby looked totally relieved. Then he glanced back at the fire, and his shoulders dropped. “This park ain’t never gonna be the same,” he said.

  “Yeah, but you won’t have to feel guilty about it the rest of your life,” I said.

  “Thanks, Marcus,” Derby said with genuine gratitude.

  “No problem,” I replied. “Now I gotta tell your future self.”

  “Uh, what?” Derby asked, totally confused.

  “Can I ask you a favor?” I said, changing the subject.

  “Name it,” Derby said.

  “Come with me,” I said, and led him away from the midway.

  I took him to the building that held the
kitchen where, decades from now, the security guards would stick me, waiting for the cops to arrive. I was relieved to see it looked pretty much the same as it did in my time, without all the photographs, of course.

  The room was empty. Everybody was out watching the demise of the Magic Castle.

  “You say you know everything about this park,” I said. “If you were trapped in this room and people were coming for you, what would you do?”

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “I mean, is there a way to do the whole Escape the Room thing that I’m missing?”

  “What’s an Escape the Room thing?” he asked.

  “It’s an app that hasn’t been invented yet.”

  “A what?”

  “Doesn’t matter. Is there another way to get out of this room if the door is locked?”

  “Well, yeah,” Derby said matter-of-factly.

  “Show me.”

  He walked farther into the room and said, “This is the same building as the Ye Olde Gold Mine.” He went behind a counter that acted as a serving bar, reached to the floor, and pulled open a trapdoor. “This goes right into the ride,” he said.

  For the second time that day, I could have kissed that kid.

  “Yes!” I exclaimed. “You just saved my life again.”

  “I did?” Derby said, confused.

  “Look, chief,” I said, “I gotta go. Do me a favor and don’t go starting any more fires, okay?”

  “Hey, I learned my lesson.”

  “Great. See you in about eighty years.”

  Derby gave me a confused look and said, “You’re kind of an odd duck.”

  “Yes, yes, I am,” I said.

  I left Derby in the kitchen and ran back to the maintenance room in the carousel house, where I dropped my sweater and hat in the lost-and-found bin. I wouldn’t be coming back to this story again. It was done. At least this part of it, anyway.

  I pulled the Paradox key from around my neck, wiped away some gray ash, and kissed it. Yes, I really kissed it. I held it out toward the closet door to see the keyhole appear. It was the most welcome sight I could imagine. I opened the door, and seconds later I was back in the Library.