Welcome to the Wicked Wax Museum

by RL Stine

  His ax blade is raised. You reach up your left hand to hold it back. It’s no use. You can’t win against his strength. The blade is sinking!

  It’s getting closer. And closer. It’s only an inch away! You strain against it with all your might.

  Right then, a blast of icy air comes down through one of the ceiling vents.

  In less than a second, both you and the Executioner are frozen stiff. He stands poised with his ax ready to chop. Where are you? You’re frozen in position directly under the blade!

  “Perfect!” you hear a man’s voice say. “My Executioner has his victim, and I have another exhibit ready for the opening tomorrow.” He laughs a wicked laugh and adds, “They don’t called me Dr. Wicked for nothing!”

  It’s the evil owner of the museum himself — Dr. Izzy Wicked.

  Iz-zy Wicked?

  Yes, he is!

  THE END

  “Go for a thin rope!” you call out to Liz. You both grab hold of the thinner ropes. Before you can start climbing, the ropes automatically lift you up. They swing you through the rows and rows of wax-dipped figures.

  Higher and higher you go until you stop directly over the vats of bubbling wax.

  “Cut them loose!” Dr. Wicked cries from his platform.

  A worker holds an oversized pair of hedge cutters. On the order from Dr. Wicked, he cuts the thin ropes. You and Liz drop to the vats below.

  The next sounds you hear are voices of children on a field trip to the Wicked Wax Museum. “Wow! Check this scene out!” one kid says. “It’s kids like us getting dipped in hot wax!”

  So that’s it, you think to yourself. This is the scene you and Liz were meant to be in all along. You’re just two kids being dipped in vats of hot wax in a wax museum. At least your audience is enjoying the show. As for you, your performance has come to …

  THE END.

  You decide to try the laughing jester button. “This one looks sort of friendly,” you declare. Picking up the phone, you push the button.

  BZZT … BZZT… BZZT … BZZT …

  Busy.

  “You mean they don’t have call waiting?” Liz grumbles.

  You try again.

  BZZT … BZZT … BZZT … BZZT …

  Still busy.

  Want to try again? Or would you rather try one of the other phone buttons?

  To try the laughing jester again, turn to PAGE 108.

  To try the button with the clock, turn to PAGE 22.

  To try the blank button, turn to PAGE 35.

  “I’d rather not find out,” Liz declares. “We’ve got to get out of here! Come on, let’s try those doors.”

  “Wait a second,” you call. You’ve spotted a blueprint tacked to the wall by the bed. You cross the room for a closer look. Liz is right behind you.

  Detailed drawings show a machine that looks like a steel octopus. Eight robotic arms reach out from a round, stainless steel cylinder. Each arm has a different function and is labeled clearly: FACE PEELER, EYE POPPER, LIP RIPPER, EAR ERASER, NOSE NIPPER, CHIN SKINNER, BONE BREAKER, SKIN SCALER.

  The machine is labeled: THE FACE LIFTER.

  “Oh, gross!” Liz exclaims. “It lifts the features right off your face! Do you think that’s what happened to Axel?”

  Before you can answer, you hear footsteps outside the room. It’s hard to tell which direction they’re coming from. You need to hide. But should you risk going through one of the doors and maybe running into someone? Or should you dive under the bed?

  If you go for one of the doors, turn to PAGE 11.

  If you dive under the bed, turn to PAGE 90.

  “We already know the door on the right is just a closet,” you declare. “We’ll check out the other one.”

  You stick your head cautiously through the left-hand doorway. Beyond it is a short hall with two more doors. The first one is painted purple. You can hear a voice behind that one. Axel’s voice.

  “Not that way,” Liz whispers.

  Your heart pounds as you tiptoe past the first door. But no one comes out. No one grabs you.

  You put your hand on the knob of the second door. This door is bright yellow. You wonder why it isn’t purple like the rest.

  Then a sudden noise behind you almost makes your heart stop!

  Turn to PAGE 112.

  “Jake! Don’t!” you whisper loudly as he disappears through the red door. You glance at the ticket lady. She’s busy with something in the booth. “Jake!” you call again. “We’re in enough trouble already!”

  You jump up from the bench and try to grab the door before it closes. Too late! The red door slams in your face.

  “Hey! Open up!” You hear Jake yelling through the door. He rattles the knob. “Help!” he cries.

  Liz leaps up to help you push the door open. It won’t budge.

  “Ha-ha, funny. Stop kidding around, Jake!” she scolds.

  “Help!” Jake screams again. He really does sound scared.

  Then you hear a whir, like a motor starting up. The click of gears mingles with Jake’s cries. “Jake!” you shout.

  There’s no answer. You press your ear against the door and listen. “I think something is really wrong,” you whisper to Liz. “His cries are getting farther away. We have to get in!”

  You shake the door handle and give one last push. Suddenly, the door opens easily. Darkness greets you both. Darkness and the loud whirring of a motor. No sign of Jake.

  If you go in after Jake, turn to PAGE 30.

  If you decide to get help first, go to PAGE 111. But HURRY!

  “I think we should get out of the Dumpster. It might be going to an incinerator,” you point out. “We’ll find another way out of this crazy place.”

  “Right,” Liz agrees. “Let’s go!”

  The two of you scramble over the side of the big Dumpster and jump down to the floor. Not a moment too soon! The Dumpster plunges into the tunnel and is swallowed by the darkness.

  You’re in what looks like a basement. It’s huge and dimly lit. A set of rails snakes past your feet — the tracks the Dumpster moves on. “Let’s follow these back and see where they start,” Liz suggests.

  It’s a good idea. You trace the tracks backward until they disappear into another dark tunnel. You don’t want to follow them in there. Instead you climb the seven steps next to them.

  At the top of the steps is an arched doorway. Cautiously you stick your head through. You’re looking down a long hall lined with purple doors.

  “Aha!” yells a voice behind you. “There you are!”

  Hurry to PAGE 41.

  “I told those kids to wait in the lobby!” the voice repeats. “Now they’re holding up the whole group. I told those kids to wait in the lobby! Now they’re holding up the whole group!”

  There, on a closet shelf, sits a tape recorder. It’s playing a tape labeled DUNNING AUDIO in black magic marker. The door slams behind you. And you hear the lock turn.

  “It’s only a tape recording of Mr. Dunning’s voice,” you whisper. You’re too stunned to scream.

  Liz starts pounding on the door, but it’s no use. No one’s going to let you out.

  You’re trapped in here with the voice of Mr. Dunning playing endlessly. “I told those kids to wait in the lobby! Now they’re holding up the whole group!”

  The Executioner was bad, but this is horrible! What could be worse than listening to Mr. Dunning’s dull voice forever? Whoever said history never repeats itself?

  Looks as if you’re doomed to be bored to death in …

  THE END.

  The wax on the hand of the Executioner peels away easily. You flick a soft lump of the stuff off your finger and scratch some more.

  This time you scrape a patch on his arm. You dig deeper with your nail. Under the cool layers of wax you feel a warm spot. You squint your eyes and look closer. Is it only flesh-colored wax?

  Or is it really flesh?

  Turn to PAGE 132.

  You turn the handle. The door is u
nlocked!

  You push it open, and pull Liz inside the warm building. There’s a staircase in front of you. You turn back and see the Strangler reaching the walkway leading up to the door. You have only seconds left before he’ll get to you.

  You and Liz race up the stairs just steps ahead of the menacing man. He catches you by the hand. “Got you!” he growls.

  “Let me go!” you cry, twisting your hand in his. Liz pulls at you as you pull at him. You scratch at his gripping hand with your free hand. Gobs of soft wax are stuck under your fingernails. He’s wax, just like all the others.

  Wax, but alive, too!

  Twist your hand free and turn to PAGE 129.

  “Go for the thick ones!” you instruct Liz.

  You and Liz grab the fraying ropes and start climbing. “Get them!” Dr. Wicked shouts. He’s not going to let you get away.

  “Pull!” You encourage Liz. “Faster!”

  You notice a few strands of rope coming lose under your hands. Maybe we should have taken the other ropes, you think. But there’s no time for that now. You’ve got to climb!

  It’s harder than you thought it would be. The ropes aren’t anchored anywhere, so you and Liz swing wildly through the air.

  What happens next is a total accident. You and Liz were just trying to get away, that’s all. But while you are swinging out of control, you accidentally swing into Dr. Wicked. And Liz swings into the whole row of workers.

  Like bowling pins being knocked over by a giant bowling ball, Dr. Wicked and the workers fall into the vats of hot wax below. Their screams fill the laboratory. Dr. Wicked is destroyed.

  “It was them or us,” you say to Liz as you slide down the ropes and land safely.

  “Right,” Liz says weakly. “Them or us.”

  “Mmfffffggbgbff!” a muffled voice says from the table.

  Turn to PAGE 115.

  Liz screams, too. And no wonder!

  One of Sybil’s eyes is blue. One is brown. The brown one is bigger than the blue one. And two inches higher on her face.

  A puckered seam runs down the side of her nose. The seam continues around her mouth and runs off the edge of her jaw.

  One cheek has freckles. The other doesn’t. Her forehead has a tuft of hair growing out the middle of it. Red hair.

  Sybil’s face is like a patchwork quilt. Out of your worst nightmare!

  “Stop screaming!” Sybil cries. “I know the horror of my face. I’ve seen it, too.” She throws a purple-sleeved arm across her face and steps back, knocking against a rack of wax legs.

  “I’m sorry,” you start to say. “I didn’t —”

  “Save it,” Sybil interrupts. “I don’t have time to chat with you. I’ve got to get you to my new, improved Face Lifter!”

  You and Liz both gasp. “You’re going to lift our faces?” Liz squeaks.

  “That’s right.” Sybil laughs. “I’m going to lift them — right off your skulls!”

  Go to PAGE 127.

  “Forget it, skull-face!” you say. “No way are we going to help you. Not after all you did to us! You got yourself into the Deboner. Now you can get yourself out.”

  “Aaaargh!” Axel howls with rage.

  You and Liz walk away, leaving him hanging in the claws of the Deboner. You can hear him thrashing and trying to get loose. But you don’t pay any attention to it.

  That is, until a heavy hand falls on your shoulder.

  “So you were just going to leave me there to be deboned like a piece of chicken,” Axel growls in your ear.

  Oh, no! He’s free! Somehow he managed to escape the machine’s awful claws!

  You’re terrified. But you have to ask.

  “Wh-what are you going to do to us?” you croak.

  Turn to PAGE 106.

  You’re out of the Parts Room at last! But Axel and Sybil are just behind you. And you’ve made them mad. REALLY mad.

  You’re now in a long hallway. Once again, the walls are painted purple. “Boy, am I sick of purple!” you mutter.

  “Yeah,” Liz agrees. “If we ever get home again, I’m getting rid of every purple thing I own!”

  There are no doors on this hallway. At the end, though, there are two identical stainless steel escalators. One goes up. The other goes down.

  You rush to the foot of the down escalator and peer down. It’s totally dark. You can’t see where the escalator goes.

  Liz investigates the up escalator. “I can’t see a thing,” she reports. “Which way should we go?”

  “I’m not sure,” you answer.

  “There they are!” Sybil’s voice echoes down the hall.

  You’ve got to choose now. Up or down?

  If you’re not wearing a hat, go up to PAGE 84.

  If you are wearing a hat, go down to PAGE 61.

  “Down will take us deeper underground,” you reason. “Let’s go up.”

  You and Liz hop onto the escalator. It carries you swiftly upward. After a moment, you glance over your shoulder.

  Sybil and Axel are at the foot of the escalator! Axel is peering up. You press deeper into the shadows. Can he see you?

  “They’re down there,” you whisper to Liz.

  “I can’t believe this is happening to us,” Liz whispers. “I can’t believe Sybil wants to lift our faces!”

  The escalator reaches the top. You step off and find yourselves in front of a purple velvet curtain. A sign next to it says DO NOT DISTURB. From behind the curtain comes a faint buzzing noise. Like a distant swarm of bees.

  Then the sound of voices drifts to you from the escalator. “If they come this way, they’re ours. Warm up the Face Lifter, Axel!” Sybil is commanding.

  “It’s them!” Liz says in a panic. “We’ve got to move!”

  Ordinarily, you would obey a sign that said DO NOT DISTURB. But this is no ordinary situation.

  You and Liz duck under the curtain.

  Turn to PAGE 39.

  “I’m going to wake one up,” you say. “I bet she can give us advice on getting out of here.”

  Bending down, you take Sybil 85 by the shoulders. Her skin feels cold and gooey. Yuck! But this is no time to be squeamish! You shake her gently.

  Nothing happens.

  You shake again. Harder. Still nothing. “She’s a heavy sleeper,” you complain. “Liz, try one of the other ones.”

  Soon you and Liz are both shaking away. But the sleeping Sybils just keep snoring! What’s wrong with them?

  “Hah!” a voice behind you suddenly sneers. Axel! “You’ve fallen right into Miss Sybil’s wax trap!”

  Wax trap?

  You spin around. That is, you try to. But you can’t. Your hands are stuck fast in Sybil 85’s gooey skin!

  Turn to PAGE 123 if you can.

  You lean closer to the Executioner.

  This time you’re sure. The wax figure’s chest is definitely moving. Slowly. In and out. Is this part of the exhibit?

  “What are you doing?” Liz jokes. “Checking him for bad breath?”

  “Do you see it?” you whisper.

  “See what?” Liz asks. She takes a closer look at the wax ax-man. Then her eyes grow wide. “They made it look like he’s breathing!”

  The spotlight above the exhibit flickers. Liz grabs your arm. “This is too creepy,” she cries. “Let’s find Jake and get out of here.”

  But you’re too busy examining the Executioner. Curiosity overcomes fear. You scratch at one waxy hand with your fingernail. It kind of grosses you out, but at the same time, it fascinates you.

  All the while, the big wax figure’s barrel chest moves in and out — ever so gently.

  Turn to PAGE 78 to see what you find.

  At exactly the same moment, all the Sybils open their almost-identical mouths and shriek. “EEEEEEEEEE!”

  Then, like an army of zombies, they climb off their shelves and start toward you.

  “Run!” you yell to Liz.

  “That word is getting really annoying,” Liz pants as you tea
r toward the far end of the huge room.

  She’s right. If you get out of this nightmare, you’re going out for track. After all this practice, you’ll be a star!

  Except that it’s starting to seem like you won’t get out. You can see the wall now. But you don’t see any doors.

  The zombie Sybils are closing in! You gaze around. There’s nowhere else to run — except back through the Sybils.

  You realize you’re still carrying the object you knocked off the shelf. What is it? You look down at it.

  Hey! It’s a blowtorch!

  If you try to run through the Sybils, turn to PAGE 19.

  If you decide to use the blowtorch, turn to PAGE 68.

  All at once the living, breathing wax villains step, crawl, and fall out of their horror scenes. Clawed hands, fanged mouths, and slime-covered arms reach out for you and Liz.

  You decide not to stick around and find out what they have in mind. “Run, Liz!” you cry over the shouts, moans, and groans of the pack of creatures. “Run to the Skin Center!”

  You both make a mad dash for the end of the hall.

  But Count Dracula is a step ahead of you! His cold, waxy form steps into your path just before you get to the glass door. He smiles a horrible, fanged smile.

  You put on the brakes and take a step back.

  The rest of the wax attackers line up behind the Count. The Wolfman howls. The Frankenstein monster groans. Breathing their hot, rancid breath in your faces, they advance on you.

  You retreat in sheer terror. Your legs are shaking. Liz’s teeth are chattering.

  Looks as if they’ve got you trapped. The door behind you is locked! Remember?

  Dracula licks his lips hungrily….

  With all these monsters breathing down your necks, there’s only one thing you can think of to do.