Oracle of Doom

by D. J. MacHale

  * * *

  —

  “Ya gotta stop putting yourself in so much danger!” Everett exclaimed, waving the book at me. “It makes for good reading, but you’re tempting fate, boy-o.”

  “It’s not like I had a whole lot of choice,” I said as I walked quickly through the Library, headed for the door back home.

  “So it was this Donna woman,” Everett said as he followed me.

  “Yeah, what a piece of work,” I said. “She had three different boyfriends fighting over her and killed one to protect another. Yikes.”

  “Didn’t see that one coming,” Everett said. “My money was on Hensley being the culprit. You did a fine job, Marcus. The story’s ended.”

  “Not yet it isn’t,” I said. “We ended the disruption, but Theo’s still in trouble and Lu’s cousin is still missing.”

  “But she isn’t!” Everett exclaimed. “They found Jenny!”

  I stopped short, and Everett nearly ran into me from behind.

  “Really?” I said.

  “She went on a trip and left a note that nobody saw. The fortune told her to seize the opportunity, so she did. She’s in Australia.”

  “She’s okay?” I asked.

  “Fine and dandy.”

  “Excellent. Now all we’ve got to do is figure out how to protect Theo.”

  “Aye. But first you have to deal with the police coming to arrest you,” Everett said. “You certainly seem to attract a lot of attention.”

  “Hey, it’s not me!” I exclaimed. “Blame these stories you’ve got in here.”

  I stopped at the door that would lead me back to Playland. The present-day Playland.

  “Do you have a plan?” he asked.

  “You know something?” I said. “For a change, I do.”

  I threw open the door and stepped into my next crisis.

  As soon as I entered the kitchen, I ran straight for the far end of the room and the trapdoor that would be my escape route. The serving bar was still there, just as it was in the story.

  “Where is he?” I heard somebody call from outside.

  “Locked up in the kitchen,” came the reply.

  The silhouettes of two people moved by the window, headed for the door that would lead them to me. I was seconds away from handcuffs. No problem. I was also seconds away from getting out of there. But when I got behind the counter, I didn’t see the trapdoor. My pulse shot through the roof. Had it been covered over? Had they put in a new floor? I forced myself to calm down and took a closer look. I realized there was a rubber mat covering it. I lifted it to reveal the metal ring in the floor that Derby had used to open the trapdoor. Yes! I quickly rolled the mat up and stuffed it under the counter.

  The sound of footsteps outside grew louder.

  I reached down, flipped up the ring, pulled, and…the door wouldn’t budge. No! This thing probably hadn’t been opened in years. Or worse, it might have been nailed shut. What was I thinking? What an idiot! The only thing I could do was use brute force to try and yank it open. I braced myself with both knees flat on the floor and pulled.

  The trapdoor didn’t move. But I didn’t give up. What else could I do? I kept pulling for all I had until I thought I’d burst a blood vessel in my head. There was a brief crack and a slight movement. That only made me work harder. I released the pressure, then yanked again. Little by little, the hinge loosened until there was a sharp crack! The door pulled open with a loud creaking of rusted hinges.

  There was no time to celebrate. I heard the jangle of keys outside the locked door. I yanked open the trapdoor and saw wooden steps leading down into the dark. I didn’t know where they would take me and I didn’t care, as long as they got me out of there. I slipped through the opening and pulled the door down quickly, hoping that nobody could hear the metallic squeal from the ancient hinges.

  I sat there in the dark with the closed trapdoor inches above my head, not moving for fear that any sound would give me away.

  The sound of multiple footsteps on the floor above signaled that the cops had arrived.

  “Where is he?” somebody said, the voice muffled by the floor between us.

  “We left him right here!” somebody else exclaimed. It was probably one of the park security guards. “He couldn’t have gotten out. The door was locked!”

  Somebody walked around, probably searching the room. I held my breath, fearing that any slight sound might give me away. If they walked behind the counter and looked down, they’d see the trapdoor for sure. I waited, expecting to hear the sound of footsteps directly over my head.

  “Yeah, well, nobody’s here now,” somebody said.

  “That’s impossible!” somebody else exclaimed.

  “Well, unless he was a ghost, I’d say it’s possible,” came the annoyed reply.

  I almost laughed at that. Almost.

  “Look, we’ve got better things to do than deal with kids running around your park,” one of the cops said, sounding pretty ticked off. “You might want to try installing a better gate at the entrance.”

  “Tell me about it,” the security guard said, defeated. “I’ve been telling them that for years.”

  “Do us a favor and kick the kids out yourself,” a cop said.

  “Yeah, whatever,” the guard said softly.

  The next sound I heard was a flurry of footsteps walking away and the kitchen door closing.

  Thank you, Derby.

  I didn’t think it would be wise to open the trapdoor and leave through the kitchen, so I cautiously moved down the stairs to find another way out. Derby said the stairs led into the ride called Ye Olde Gold Mine. I’d done this ride a few times when I was a little kid. It was a boat ride through dark caverns made to look like a mine where little fairy-tale-like dwarfs worked to excavate gold. It had been around since the park first opened and probably hadn’t changed much. I remember it being pretty scary when I was six.

  At the bottom of the stairs was a door. It was the only way to go, so I pulled it open and stepped through…

  …to find myself in a cavernous, make-believe mine. I could tell it was a mine because there were little dwarfs everywhere and according to fairy tales, mining was a popular dwarf profession. I guess they were supposed to look like Snow White’s pals, with pointed caps and shoes, but there were a whole lot more than seven of them.

  A few feet in front of me was the waterway the boats traveled on. The only light came from a single bulb that was probably a work light. The rocky cavern wasn’t lit up the way it would have been when the ride was working. I remembered being afraid of the scene when I was little, and, to be honest, it still creeped me out. It was all too dark, and I kept expecting the dwarf dudes to come to life.

  “I’m sorry,” somebody said.

  I think I jumped about a foot out of pure surprise. If a dwarf had come to life, I would have lost it completely. But when I spun around, I was relieved to see Eugene. Or Eugene’s ghost. Weird to think that seeing a ghost could be a relief, but welcome to my reality.

  “Jeez, you scared me,” I said, trying to catch my breath.

  Eugene stood at the edge of the waterway with his hands in his pockets.

  “I didn’t help you with the guards or the police,” he said. “I guess you know that I don’t really work here. At least not anymore.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “That. And you’re a ghost…Derby.”

  Eugene’s mouth fell open with surprise. Kind of strange to think that I had the ability to surprise a ghost, but that’s the way my life had been going lately.

  “But…how…I don’t understand,” Eugene said, totally stunned.

  “I told you I can see into the past,” I said. “And I’ve seen a lot. I know your parents worked a concession here when the park opened. I know you brought a candle into the Magic Castle and accidental
ly started a fire. And I know you think it was your fault the ride burned and Baz died.”

  Eugene stared at me in total shock.

  “How is that possible?” he muttered.

  “I’m standing here talking to a ghost, and you’re asking me how that’s possible?”

  “If you saw what happened that night, you know why I’m still here. And why Baz is still here.”

  “I do,” I said.

  “I can leave, you know. Anytime I want. But I don’t. I lived a long life. Baz didn’t. It’s my fault that his spirit is stuck here after suffering such a stupid, violent death. I won’t abandon him.”

  “Yeah, well, that may be why you’re here, but that’s not why Baz is here,” I said.

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “Can we go to him?” I asked.

  Eugene nodded.

  “But I don’t want to run into those security dudes again,” I said.

  “You won’t,” Eugene replied. “It’s their lunch break. They never miss it. I see it every day.”

  Eugene led me out of the creepy tunnels of the fairy-tale mine, headed back toward the arcade. The whole way there I kept looking over my shoulder, fearing that one of the guards would be out hunting for me. When we got back to the arcade, I walked right up to the Baz fortune-telling machine and looked at the dummy, whose gaze was fixed on the crystal ball.

  “I know what happened,” I said to the dummy. “I saw it all. I saw how you gave Mrs. Simmons money to help her out after her husband was killed. I saw how you got jumped by that jealous boyfriend who beat the snot out of you. I saw how you threatened to turn Hensley in for stealing money from Playland. I saw it all.”

  Eugene let out a sigh. “How could you possibly know all this?” he asked,

  “Trust me,” I said. “It’s possible.”

  I turned back to the Baz dummy and said, “What did you see in the crystal ball the night of the fire? Why did you go back to the Magic Castle?”

  The Baz dummy said nothing.

  “They found his body in the ruins of his apartment,” Eugene said. “He was clutching a suitcase. It was badly burned, but they could clearly see it was packed for a trip. People figured he saw the future, predicted the fire, and tried to get out with some belongings. But it all happened much sooner than he expected, and he got caught.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Makes sense. But you know what else I saw? Eugene Derby went into the Magic Castle with a lit candle. He dropped it and accidentally started a fire. But it wasn’t the fire that burned the Magic Castle. I saw how the real fire was set.”

  I think Eugene was holding his breath, if ghosts had breath to hold.

  “It was Donna,” I said.

  “Donna?” Eugene said. “Daring Donna?”

  “She was daring, all right, and very busy. Seems like everybody was fighting over her. Baz got beat up because of her. And she had another boyfriend besides Ron. Hensley.”

  “The park manager?” Eugene blurted out.

  “She knew that Baz was going to turn him in for stealing from the park, so she lit the fire to stop him. She did it to protect Hensley. I know. I saw it. She started the fire in the basement of the Magic Castle in a room full of paint and turpentine. That’s what lit the place up. That’s what killed Baz. You weren’t to blame, Derby.”

  I looked to the Baz dummy, waiting for some kind of reaction, but got none.

  “Are…are you sure?” Eugene asked tentatively.

  “Positive,” I said. “Baz’s spirit has been trapped in this park because he didn’t know the truth about what happened that night. Now he knows. Now he can leave. That means you can leave, too, Eugene. Derby.”

  Eugene looked uncertain, as if he wanted to believe me but was having trouble getting his head around something that for years he had felt certain happened in a completely different way.

  “I didn’t kill Baz,” he finally said, as if trying the words on for size.

  “If anybody’s ghost should be stuck in this park, it’s Daring Donna’s. Though I wouldn’t want to be here if she ever showed up. That lady’s a wack job.”

  Eugene smiled, then chuckled as his eyes lit up with joy. “After all this time,” he said, almost giddy. “I’ve lived with guilt my entire life, and beyond. I don’t know what to say to thank you.”

  “You don’t have to say anything,” I said. “It’s Baz I want to hear from.”

  I turned around to face the dummy.

  The dummy had no reaction.

  “Well?” I said. “Mystery solved, chief. You owe me.”

  The light winked on inside Baz’s glass box. It made me jump because I really didn’t expect to get a reaction. Surprise. The mannequin came to life, moving very machinelike as his arm swept over the crystal ball. I took a step back, not sure what to expect. At least the creepy little clown marionette next door wasn’t moving again. That would have put me over the edge.

  Baz lowered his hand to the box full of cards, lifted one out, and dropped it into the hole. It fell through and popped out of the slot in front.

  I could only stare at it. I didn’t want my fortune told.

  “You gonna read it?” Eugene asked.

  “Do I have to?” I asked.

  “I would.”

  “Yeah, well, you’re already dead,” I said.

  But I went for it anyway. I grabbed the card, took a deep breath, and flipped it over.

  There was a single word on the card:

  FREE

  I could breathe again.

  “Not yet you’re not,” I said to the dummy. “I bailed you out. You and Eugene. I want something in return. You told my friend Theo’s fortune.”

  I held up the card with Theo’s fortune on it.

  LIFE AS YOU KNOW IT WILL END ON YOUR FOURTEENTH BIRTHDAY.

  HUMILITY.

  “His birthday is tomorrow,” I said. “I know the fortunes you tell can be changed. It’s why you tried to get Simmons to leave the park before his accident, and I guess it’s why you packed your bag to try and get away before the fire. Nobody’s future is set. Everybody has control. I want to know what’s going to happen to my friend.”

  The dummy stared blankly at the crystal ball. Nothing happened.

  I turned around to look at Eugene.

  The guy shrugged and said, “Maybe he doesn’t know.”

  I spun back to the machine, ready to yank open the door and grab the crystal ball. “Talk to me,” I shouted. “Or I’ll break this glass and steal your crystal ball and find out for myself.”

  A blue light glowed from within the crystal ball. I was so surprised that I think I actually let out a gasp. The Baz dummy didn’t move, but it didn’t matter.

  The crystal ball was alive.

  I took a step closer and gazed inside. What I saw was like a frantic movie playing out in close-ups that flew by so fast it was hard to make out exactly what was happening. It was the same jumble of images I had seen before, only this time they kept playing. Over and over. It gave me more of a chance to register what they were and what they might mean. There was a flash of red, like sheet metal. There were fleeting images of people. One was a black guy I only saw from behind. Theo. He wore a bright blue shirt. A rubber tire spun by. Water sprayed. And then it all jumbled together in a way that told me there was going to be a horrific crash. The red sheet metal crumpled. The guy with orange hair flashed by. It was all so fast and frantic that none of it made sense. The same images played over a few times, like a movie on constant replay. But it was so jumbled that it was hard to tell exactly what it was showing me. Water, tires, blue shirt, orange hair, crumpled red metal, crash. After it repeated a few more times, the crystal ball went dark. The show was over.

  “No!” I yelled with frustration. “I don’t know what any of that means. I
t looked like a crash, but where was it? When? How is it going to happen?”

  The dummy sat there like, well, a dummy.

  I spun to Eugene. “Get him to come back!” I shouted.

  But Eugene was gone.

  I turned back to Baz.

  The machine was dead. The lights had gone out. The crystal ball was dark.

  The whole place seemed strangely still, and I was feeling very alone. Playland had been haunted. I sensed it from the minute I showed up. It was alive with the dead.

  Not anymore.

  It’s hard to describe exactly how I knew, but the park suddenly felt empty. Whether the curse that had plagued it from day one was broken or not, I couldn’t tell. But I knew in my gut that the spirits were gone. Probably forever. The disruption was truly over.

  Baz had told his last fortune.

  And I still wasn’t sure how to protect Theo the next day.

  His birthday.

  “Australia?” I said, incredulous. “She went all the way to the other side of the world and didn’t tell anybody?”

  “She did tell,” Lu replied. “She left a letter. But it got lost in a bunch of junk mail and nobody saw it.”

  We were hanging out in Theo’s driveway so Lu could spin around on her roller skates. It was Saturday night. The night before Theo’s fourteenth birthday. The day when life as he knew it would end.

  “Why didn’t she just talk to them?” Theo asked.

  “You gotta know Jenny,” Lu said. “She does things her own way. Drives my aunt and uncle crazy. She was sure they’d have been all negative about it and done everything they could to stop her from going. They’re pretty conservative. So she did what her fortune told her to do, and now she’s on the adventure of a lifetime.”

  I looked at the card from Baz’s fortune-telling machine that held Jenny’s fortune.

  SEIZE THE MOMENT. YOU MAY NOT GET ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY.

  FOLLOW YOUR HEART.

  “She followed her heart,” I said.

  “And yet another fortune came true,” Theo added, sounding glum. “Good for her. Not so good for me.”