by RL Stine
She makes a horrible face. Then you realize she’s smiling! She begins to laugh. It sounds like a cow choking.
“I like your honesty,” she says. “All right, I’ll give you a chance to use my mirror. And I’ll restore your friends. But you have to earn your chance.”
“I’ll do whatever you say,” you tell her.
“Not so fast!” she warns. “The task I have in mind is difficult. And if you fail …” She trails off and gives you that ugly smile again. “Your punishment will be my little surprise.”
You gulp. Sounds risky. But your friends need you!
“I’ll take the chance,” you tell the Queen.
Take your chances on PAGE 126.
You choose the path that says LOREO. In this backward world, you’re sure you’ll find the Palace that way!
“AROOO!” As you hurry along the left-hand path, the hideous sound grows fainter. You relax. Soon you’ll reach the Palace. Then, somehow, you’ll find the way home.
The problem is, you aren’t getting anywhere. After walking for at least an hour, you’re still in the woods. You peer ahead. All you can see is — more woods!
“I’m tired,” Jason complains.
“I’m thirsty,” Stacey adds.
You push through a tangle of leaves. And then you stop.
“Oh, no!” Jason groans.
“You and your bright ideas,” Stacey snaps at you.
What’s the matter? Find out on PAGE 115.
You hear applause. “Contestant Number One!” the voice calls. A spotlight skewers Jason. “Turn around!”
Jason shrugs, then turns around, showing off his weird, tall, skinny body. An unseen audience claps enthusiastically.
“Number two,” the voice orders Stacey. “Smile at the crowd.”
Stacey smiles with her tiny mouth and waves eagerly. The applause is polite. But it isn’t as loud as it was for Jason.
“Number three,” the voice booms. A spotlight shines down on you. “Open your mouth. Show the audience your fabulous teeth.”
You don’t know what else to do, so you obey the voice. Your mouth is so big your lower jaw hits the floor. The audience yells and hoots. They love you!
“And the winner is — Contestant Number Three!” the voice declares.
You’ve won! It’s weird, but you feel almost … proud. You wave and bow, blushing all over your enormous face.
Then the stage lights go out. You can finally see the audience. They’re fun house freaks, just like you! Their faces and bodies are twisted and warped, bloated and bent.
And every single one of them is gazing adoringly at you.
But don’t let it give you a swelled head!
THE END
You glance up fearfully.
The person clutching your shoulder is Professor Shock! “I’ve been looking for you,” he says.
Stacey crawls through the window. Jason is right behind her. “Professor!” Stacey exclaims. “What are you doing here?”
“Were you following us?” Jason demands suspiciously.
“Of course I was!” Professor Shock snaps. “I had to get my remote back! Luckily, you kids pushed the red button. That’s a homing device. Still, my robot and I have been chasing you all afternoon.” He scowls at you. “My robot tells me you threw crumbs in his eyes.”
You remember the cookie crumbs you threw at Deep Voice.
That was Professor Shock’s robot?
You start to blush. “I’m sorry I caused all this trouble,” you mumble.
“Well, there’s no serious harm done — yet,” Professor Shock replies. “Just give it back.”
“I can’t,” you admit. “The cyborgs took it.”
“Oh, no!” Professor Shock exclaims. “That’s the worst thing that could possibly happen!”
Then his gaze focuses over your shoulder. He gasps.
“I take that back,” he murmurs. “This is worse.”
Go to PAGE 87.
“I know I’m right!” you shout. “Turn around!”
“You’re crazy!” Jason wails. But he does what you say.
You spin to face the bull. He’s charging straight at you. His horns look as sharp as shish kebab skewers.
What if you’re wrong?
Too late to think that way. You’ve made your choice.
So you sprint toward the bull. The twins run on either side of you, yelling.
You blink. Is it your imagination?
Or is the bull a little bit farther away?
“Yes!” you shout triumphantly. With every step you take, the bull gets smaller. In a minute, it’s a speck in the distance. Then it vanishes completely.
“It worked!” Stacey cries.
“I feel sick,” Jason groans.
You laugh. “Let’s go find that road sign and see if we can go back home again!”
Turn to PAGE 132.
“I want one of those carvings, too,” you cry and reach for a little onyx guitar.
A single, piercing tone rings in your ears.
Then everything becomes quiet. Very quiet.
You try to glance around. Hey! You can’t move your head! In fact, you can’t move any part of your body….
You can feel yourself swaying. Stone walls glide past your eyes. Back and forth. As if you’re on a rope swing.
Then a gust of wind spins you around. Your heart skips a beat. You’re staring at a life-size stone carving of a girl. A girl that looks a lot like Stacey. It swings from a thick chain, next to an equally large carving of a red rose.
How’d they get a carving of Stacey? you wonder. And what about that stone rose? Isn’t that the same one Stacey was trying to pick? Somehow it got bigger. Or … you got smaller.
A chill runs through you. Now you realize what happened.
You’ve become one of the carvings in the Queen’s chamber!
You catch sight of yourself in a mirror as you swing by it. It’s true. There you are, in gorgeous green marble. Forever young — that’s nice. But also forever frozen, dangling from a chain — which is not so nice.
Hang in there, kid!
THE END
Now you know the secret of escaping from the mirror world. All you need to do is step backward through a mirror.
You thank the Queen and rush back to the entrance hall. You and your friends turn your backs on the largest mirror, then step backward into it. You feel that strange, rubbery feeling again, like walking through Jell-O.
The next thing you know, you’re back in Professor Shock’s garage!
You and the twins gaze around. Everything looks normal. The mirror leans against the wall. The big colored switches are off.
“Let’s get out of here!” you exclaim.
You and the twins hurry through the front part of the garage. It’s still piled with junk. But you don’t feel like doing any more cleaning. You just want to get away from this place!
The front door is open. You can see your bikes, right there in the yard.
Then a dark figure looms in the doorway.
Professor Shock! And he’s blocking your way out!
“Oh, no you don’t!” he exclaims. “You’re not leaving now — not after what you’ve done!”
He holds up a strange-looking black box with a long tube on one end. He aims the tube at you. “Don’t move!” he shouts.
Go to PAGE 116.
You aren’t in the woods for long before you realize that something is wrong.
Very wrong.
“This doesn’t look like the path that we took before,” Stacey murmurs. “This path is narrower.”
You gaze around. Stacey’s right. The path is narrower. Because the vines are closing in again!
You swallow hard and keep walking. But soon there’s hardly any room to move. And your foot is caught on something.
You glance down to see what it is. A thick, orange vine has wrapped itself around your ankle! The more you tug, the tighter it hugs. And it’s climbing your leg….
“A tree just grabbed
me!” Stacey cries. “Let’s turn back!”
“Back where?” Jason yells. “To the Loreo? Anyway, we can’t go back. We can barely even move!”
The vine is past your waist now. Your mind churns frantically. Is this how it will end?
Turn to PAGE 34 to find out.
You and the twins hurry down the path to the Palace. At once you hear the terrifying howl again: “AROOOO!”
“Oh, no!” Stacey cries. “What’s making that awful noise?”
“It’s following us,” Jason declares. He starts to run. You and Stacey tear after him.
“AROOOOO! AROOOOOO!”
The sound grows louder and louder. It seems to be coming from everywhere. It fills your head.
“Up there!” Jason cries. He points up ahead.
You screech to a stop as a huge shadow falls across the path. A shadow as tall as a building. With hundreds of arms. And thousands of grasping, twitching fingers. From behind the shadow, the noise thunders: “AROOOOOOO!”
“Get down!” you whisper. “Maybe we can sneak past it.”
You and the twins drop to your bellies and crawl along the path. Then you stop in shock. Now you can see what’s casting that horrifying shadow. And what’s making that awful sound!
Turn to PAGE 13.
You peer into the nearest mirror. Your face gazes back at you. But no red dots. No dots of any color.
You examine another mirror. Then another. And another. You see a dot! No, wait — that’s a freckle.
You gaze around in despair. And then — you spy something red in a corner of the room.
You rush over to the corner. Leaning against the wall is a bottle of glass cleaner. Next to it is a rag … with a tiny red smudge on it.
You pick up the rag and gaze at it in despair.
No wonder you couldn’t find the dot. Someone cleaned all the mirrors! The red dot is gone!
And you’re trapped … forever.
Too bad. Dot’s the way the cookie crumbles!
THE END
“Go through there!” you shout to the twins. You push Jason through the gap between the tent and the ground. Then you dive for it yourself.
The Loreo pounces, pinning you to the floor. Its mouth is so close you can count every one of its pointed teeth.
“Help!” you scream.
“Go away!” Stacey shouts. She picks up one of the nearby mirrors and smashes it over the Loreo’s head.
The Loreo is stunned! Only for a moment. But that’s all the time you and Stacey need to squeeze through the gap.
Behind you the Loreo screams in anger. A long tear appears in the side of the tent. Then another. It’s trying to claw its way out. It wants its dinner!
You don’t wait around. The three of you run as fast as you can away from the woods. In just a moment, you’re back among the trees, pushing through vines. You’re moving toward the fork that will take you to the Palace of Mirrors.
Or are you?
Go on to PAGE 108.
Deep Voice looms over you, his hand outstretched.
You gulp. Any chance you can bluff your way out of this? “Give what to you?” you ask, trying to sound innocent.
“The remote control, dimwit!” Jason cries.
“Jason!” you groan.
“I don’t have time to explain,” Deep Voice says. “Trust me. You must give me Professor Shock’s remote!”
“Maybe we should trust him,” Stacey whispers.
You aren’t sure. Maybe it would be better to try to run.
“Hurry! There’s no time to lose,” Deep Voice insists.
If you give Deep Voice the remote, turn to PAGE 119.
If you’d rather try to run, go to PAGE 124.
And then … the monster robot freezes.
Its shovel hands are only inches from your head.
“What?” Red yells. He holds up the remote and punches buttons furiously.
Nothing happens.
You start to breathe again. Cautiously, you put the hose down and step out from under the shadow of the shovel.
Red is still jabbing at the remote. “Arrgh! I don’t believe it!” the cyborg screams. He hurls the remote control down on the pavement. It smashes into a hundred pieces.
Red sinks to his knees in the middle of the parking lot. “All my plans … my dreams …” he wails. “Ruined!”
“I don’t believe it!” you say.
The cyborg is crying like a baby!
Professor Shock puts a hand on your shoulder. “Well done,” he tells you. “We’re saved!”
Turn to PAGE 90.
“Calm down!” the voice cries.
You relax. That’s Professor Shock’s voice. And it’s his face in the mirror — not you as an old person. What a relief!
“What are you doing in there?” you ask.
“It isn’t really me,” he answers. “It’s my reflection. And it was more trouble than you know to get it to appear.”
You don’t have time to chat. “Please — get us out of here!”
“I can’t,” the professor answers. “You need the Queen’s mirror to escape.”
“We know that!” you exclaim. “But we can’t find it!”
“It’s in one of the Queen’s chambers,” the professor tells you. “The Queen’s chambers are the rooms full of stone carvings. Unfortunately, that’s the most dangerous part of the backward world. Be very, very careful when you —”
You wait for the professor to finish his sentence. But his image suddenly begins to flicker. His lips move but you can’t hear his voice.
“What?” you yell. “Speak up, Professor!”
Turn to PAGE 5.
You’ve emerged from the forest into a meadow. In the center stands a big, yellow-striped tent. A sign over the tent doorway says SEE THE AMAZING LOREO.
The sign on the path wasn’t backward after all! The Palace must be the other way!
“Let’s start walking back,” Jason says grumpily.
“Wait!” Stacey exclaims. “I want to see the Loreo.”
You’re curious yourself. “Me, too,” you tell Jason.
You step up to the doorway of the tent. A thin man in a tall black hat holds up his hand to stop you. “Tickets?” he demands.
“Where do we buy them?” you ask.
“Buy them?” the man repeats. He laughs. “What an idea! You don’t buy them. I give them to you.”
You should have guessed. It’s backward!
The man hands each of you a ticket. “Have a seat inside,” he says. “The Loreo will appear shortly.”
You step through the doorway. The inside of the tent is lined with mirrors. And one of them looks exactly like the mirror you came through to enter this backward world!
You rush up to it. Maybe your problems are over!
Turn to PAGE 66.
You can’t believe it! After everything you’ve been through, this crazy old man has pulled some kind of ray gun on you!
“We’re sorry!” you exclaim. “We know we weren’t supposed to go in the back room.”
“We didn’t mean to!” Stacey adds. “Let us go!”
“Please, don’t shoot us!” Jason begs.
“Shoot you?” Professor Shock looks annoyed. “But you made it through the mirror world. No one’s ever done that! I must capture the moment! Now, just step into the light so I can shoot a couple of pictures. Then you can leave.”
You’re not sure you heard correctly. Pictures?
“You mean that’s a camera?” Stacey asks.
“Yes,” the professor replies. “I invented it myself. It’s very special.” As he talks, he clicks away. “You see, once I’ve photographed you, you can step into the film negative and find yourself in a negative world. I’m sure you’d love it …”
You’ve heard enough. “Sounds cool, Professor,” you say as you push Jason and Stacey toward their bikes. “But we have to go now. Maybe some other day.” Maybe some other lifetime!
But as you ride away, Sta
cey’s already starting to say, “It might be fun. Maybe we should come back tomorrow….”
“No way!” you shout. “I’ve had enough. And that’s
THE END!”
“What’s that noise?” Jason cries.
“I don’t know!” you whisper.
“AROOOOO!” The sound is louder now. Closer.
Even Stacey is scared. “Maybe we should go back,” she says.
You stop and glance back. Thick vines have grown over the places you walked. The path is gone! You try to break the vines apart. But they grow back instantly.
You gulp. “We’ll have to keep going,” you assert.
“AROOOOOO!” This time the howl is so loud that the ground shakes. Your eyes dart around fearfully. You can’t see anything through these thick vines! What’s out there?
“Come on!” Jason cries. He takes off running.
Your heart thudding, you tear after him. Stacey’s right behind you.
Quick! Dash to PAGE 95.
The carving is of two turtles facing each other. But they aren’t ordinary turtles. They have human faces — angry human faces! The turtles appear to be arguing with each other.
You can’t help smiling. They look like Jason and Stacey.
Jason and Stacey!
Your heart pounds. You examine the carving closely. The faces are your friends’ faces. You’re sure of it! This is what the Queen transformed your friends into! You’ve found them!
But what should you do next?
You’re tempted to slip the carving in your pocket and make a break for it. If you manage to escape, you’ll have the carving with you. And then, somehow, maybe, you’ll find a way to turn Jason and Stacey back into real, live kids.
On the other hand, maybe you should polish the carving and hang it up. After all, the Queen said that if you didn’t polish all the carvings, you’d be punished. Who knows what her powers can do? Maybe you’d better obey her!
