Dark Moon (Nightmare Hall)

by Diane Hoh

  Eve liked Kevin. He had wanted this position more than she had, actively campaigning to be selected, and could have been annoyed that he had to share it with her. But he’d seemed to welcome her help. And he had been patient with her constant doubts and fears, assuring her that hiring a traveling carnival wouldn’t be too expensive, that it would not rain, and that every horse in the campus equestrian club, the group holding last position in the long parade, would behave because they had all been in parades before. Quit worrying, Kevin told Eve.

  They had worked hard. And they had worked well together, she thought.

  Still … his eyes did reflect the same anxious expression she felt in her own.

  “D day!” Serena Wolfe, a tall, blonde girl standing beside Kevin cried. She was thin and very pretty, wearing a chiffon, summery dress that fell to her ankles. Her blue eyes were wide with excitement and anticipation. Thin hands clutched Kevin’s elbow, as if without that grip, she might find herself jumping up and down.

  Serena’s parents, Eve thought, had been way off base when they named their daughter. The girl was anything but serene. It was almost impossible to gauge her moods from one minute to the next. Sometimes she seemed quiet and relaxed, but more often she was bouncing around like a Ping-Pong ball, overflowing with nervous energy. But she had settled down and worked hard on the committee, and Eve was grateful.

  “About time you got here,” a voice said heavily in Eve’s ear.

  She groaned silently as she turned to face a short, good-looking boy so neatly dressed and groomed he always reminded Eve of a store-window mannequin. The only flaw on his perfect face was a small cut from shaving. His dark, straight hair was carefully slicked into place. He was the only guy in the group wearing a white shirt and tie.

  “Hello, Alfred,” she said coolly. “How’s it going?” Not that she really wanted to know. Alfred had latched on to her at the very first committee meeting. She had known immediately that he wasn’t someone she could ever be interested in, but Alfred wasn’t easily discouraged. He called constantly, using the committee as an excuse, and often waited for her after the two classes they shared, math and parapsychology. Short of hitting him over the head with a brick, there didn’t seem to be any way to get rid of Alfred.

  He couldn’t seem to grasp the concept of rejection.

  “You’re late,” he accused, fixing his dark eyes on her. “We’ve been waiting for hours. I thought you’d had an accident.”

  The thing Eve hated most about Alfred was his eyes—cold and hard, like little black marbles. Impossible to know what he was thinking.

  Still, he, too, had worked hard on the Founders’ Day celebration, even helping to set up the carnival, lifting heavy equipment, putting it in place until the early morning. Alfred wasn’t very tall, but he was strong. His strength had proved very valuable.

  Kevin glanced at his watch. “Well, it’s time,” he said heartily. “Let’s get this show on the road. Literally.”

  So, after one last check to make sure the floats and the bands and the horses and the cars and rolling cannons and clowns were all present and in order, the whistle was blown and the parade celebrating the kickoff of the Founders’ Day celebration began.

  It was noisy and colorful, and things went as smoothly as Eve had hoped. The long parade marched from town to campus, the throng of spectators following along. Drums boomed, cymbals clanged, and horns tooted. Clowns armed with candy and cheap plastic whistles danced in and out of the crowd, entertaining them with foolish antics between parade units.

  A traveling carnival hired by Eve had been set up in a huge field on the edge of Salem’s campus. By the time the final unit arrived, the earlier units had already disbanded, with band members and float drivers and clowns still in costume milling about amid the game and food booths, and the rides. A huge, bright-yellow Ferris wheel hovered over the scene.

  “We did it!” Eve breathed softly as the final horse from the equestrian club crossed the highway. “We actually did it! Everything went great, didn’t it?”

  She was standing in front of a large palomino horse ridden by a small, blonde girl named Alice. Eve knew her from parapsychology class. Alice was a friendly girl who loved to talk about her horse, Shadrack. She sat astride the horse as if she had been born in that position.

  “Let’s not get too close to these horses, okay?” Eve warned and, as if he’d heard her, the big palomino let out a sound that chilled the blood of those around it. Half-screech, half-neigh, a mixture of pain and fear and anger, it split the air like a siren. Before Alice could figure out what had happened or what to do about it, the horse reared up on its hind legs, still making that horrendous sound. When it landed, it began bucking wildly, snorting furiously.

  Eve watched with horrified eyes as Alice struggled to regain control, her knuckles white on the reins.

  But it was hopeless. The horse was completely out of control.

  Alice lost the battle. Eve and the others stood frozen in shock as the small figure was tossed out of the saddle and into the air as if she weighed no more than a feather. She crashed to the ground at Eve’s feet. Her body hit the earth with a soft but deadly smacking sound. Her head flopped lifelessly. A second after she landed, blood began pouring out from beneath her black velvet riding helmet, staining the bright green grass around her.

  People ran toward the horse in an effort to stop its wild bucking and spinning in circles. But they quickly backed away at the sight of the deadly, flying hooves.

  The animal, still bucking frantically, ducked its head, snorted in rage, and galloped toward the crowd of spectators in the distance, milling about beneath the big yellow Ferris wheel.

  Chapter 2

  BUCKING AND SPINNING, ITS deadly hooves lashing out repeatedly, Alice’s palomino lurched toward the crowds gathered beneath the lemon yellow Ferris wheel and standing in front of the bright red game and refreshment booths. The band members still in uniform, the costumed clowns, and the spectators who had marched from town were all anxious for the refreshment booths to open. They needed to quench their thirst after the long walk. Continuing to talk and laugh among themselves, they failed to hear the shouts of alarm behind them.

  While a panicked Kevin and Eve ran alongside the horse, Serena and Andie ran to Alice’s side and knelt on the ground. Serena used the hem of her long dress in an attempt to stop the flow of blood pouring from the head wound. Alfred hung back, insisting, “I don’t know anything about horses!”

  Two men from town ran toward the animal. They quickly backed away again when they saw that attempting to grab the reins would be sheer folly, if not suicidal. The rest of the spectators who had trailed onto campus along with the equestrian club continued to retreat, watching in frozen silence.

  “Do something!” Eve screamed at Kevin as they ran along beside the frenzied animal, ducking to avoid the wicked hooves. “We have to stop him!”

  Kevin tried, lunging in underneath the horse’s head, his hand outstretched to grab the reins. He was careful, darting in and out of the path of the palomino’s frantic bucking.

  He never got close enough to grab the leather straps. On his third desperate attempt, the horse swung around abruptly. His left hind hoof came out in a wicked slash and caught Kevin directly in the midsection, lifting him up off his feet and flinging him backward. Kevin let out only a small, startled sound as he went up and out and then down, slamming into the ground with the wind knocked out of him and several ribs painfully shattered. He lay on the grass stunned, his face twisted in agony, his eyes blank with shock.”

  “Kevin!” Eve screamed again, her cheekbones white with terror. But when she tried to run to his aid, the horse lurched between them, bucking and snorting. Then it raced away, toward the crowd.

  Shouting at the people behind her to help Kevin, Eve ran after the horse.

  Stopping it was out of the question. All she could do was scream a warning.

  Too late. More screams rang out as the crazed horse lunged int
o the crowd. People began racing for their lives, in their panic stumbling over one another, pushing, shoving. Some tripped and fell, others stumbled over the fallen, and lay there, too stunned to move.

  It seemed to Eve, watching with horrified eyes, that there were bodies everywhere. The noise level was horrendous, with screams and sobs and shouts of fear mixing with the horse’s furious snorting. The sounds tore at her ears. She wanted them to stop, but she didn’t know how to make that happen.

  She saw the clown out of the corner of her eye. He was tall, broad-shouldered in his pink and yellow and turquoise polka-dotted suit, a matching tall, coned hat sitting on his head, thick white makeup on his face. He had a huge, bright red mouth, and fat teardrops had been painted on his cheeks with a black makeup crayon. He approached the horse cautiously, one hand in an oversized white glove outstretched, whispering softly as he moved closer to the bucking animal.

  “It’s okay, it’s okay,” he kept repeating quietly as he lifted giant, floppy black shoes carefully, taking one tentative step and then another and another.

  The horse continued to buck, but its ears stood up.

  “It’s okay, boy,” the clown murmured, “just take it easy, take it easy, it’s okay.”

  The murmuring had its effect on the crowd. The screaming stopped, people halted in their frantic flight, and a sudden hush fell over the area.

  Eve held her breath.

  “There, there, it’s okay, we’ll fix it,” the clown said, so close to the horse now that Eve could almost feel its hot breath melting the white makeup. “Whatever it is, we’ll fix it, I promise. Calm down now, just calm down.”

  The horse stopped bucking.

  The oversized white glove reached out and gently took the reins, while the other gloved hand began stroking the palomino’s pale mane. Although the horse trembled, it made no attempt to escape the hand.

  A sigh of relief rippled through the onlookers.

  After a moment, the clown moved easily, quietly to the side, one hand firmly grasping the reins. The other hand moved cautiously to the saddle and began a gentle search.

  “Here it is,” a deep voice said matter-of-factly, pulling something from beneath the saddle and holding it high in the air for all to see. “I knew there had to be something. No wonder the poor thing went nuts. Wouldn’t we all if we had something like this digging into our skin?”

  Shaking with both relief and shock, Eve moved closer. The fat white glove was holding within its folds a … burr. A nasty, prickly, burr with dozens of sharp edges. There were tons of them along the highway, all as painful as a porcupine’s quills if they came into contact with human flesh. Or animal flesh.

  “That was under his saddle?” she asked the clown.

  He nodded. “Under the saddle blanket. Digging right into his skin,” he said.

  “How did you know that’s what it was?”

  “I didn’t. But I knew it had to be something. It was either that or locoweed and,” he laughed, “I don’t think you have much of that around here.”

  “You know a lot about horses,” Eve said admiringly, her voice husky with relief. “You just saved a whole lot of lives.”

  “Raised in Texas,” he said as two men from the carnival arrived to lead the exhausted horse away. “But I live in Twin Falls now. You know the camera shop in town. Draper’s?”

  Eve knew it. A neat, trim, small white house on Pennsylvania Avenue. She had had film developed there. But the only two people in the shop had been an older man with thick white hair and … a tall, good-looking dark-haired boy in a blue T-shirt. She had dealt only with the older man. Impossible to match that good-looking boy with this white-painted face, oversized red mouth, and astonished crayoned eyebrows.

  The ambulances arrived, sirens screeching. The shrill sound snapped Eve back to the present, shuddering as she remembered Kevin and Alice. Forgetting the clown, she turned and ran back to where the two were being lifted onto stretchers.

  Kevin was still conscious, although his face was ashen with pain.

  “You’ll be okay,” Eve said as he was being loaded into the ambulance. She tried to smile. “You have to be okay, Kevin. I can’t do this all by myself. If you desert me on the very first day of this thing, I’ll never forgive you.”

  Then the doors closed. Eve felt totally alone.

  But she wasn’t. “You’re assuming this celebration will continue?” Alfred’s voice said from behind her.

  Eve turned to glare at him with disgust. He hadn’t helped at all, not one little bit. He still looked as neat and perfect, as he had earlier. Not a hair out of place.

  Serena, white-faced, her flowered dress stained with Alice’s blood, was right behind him. Andie stood beside her. “You think the administration will cancel because of what just happened?” Eve asked them.

  Serena shook her head. While she was tending Alice, she had pushed a strand or two of her long, pale hair away from her face. Those strands were streaked now with thick, dark red. Alice’s blood. “Who knows? So many people were hurt. Alice has had that horse forever. What made him go nuts like that?”

  Eve explained. She told them about the clown taming the panicked horse.

  “Poor horse,” Serena commented, but Alfred scolded, “Reserve your sympathy for the people on their way to the hospital. I’m just grateful I’m not one of them.”

  “How could you possibly be?” Eve asked sharply. “You got out of the way so fast.”

  Alfred winced. “You’re not mad, are you? I mean, like I said, I don’t know the first thing about horses. I was afraid if I did the wrong thing, I’d make everything worse, that’s all.”

  Sure, Eve thought. Aloud, she said, “Is Alice going to be okay?” and knew immediately by the look on Serena’s face that Alice was not going to be okay.

  “She wasn’t breathing,” Serena said. “And there was so much blood …”

  Eve felt sick.

  “But maybe the ambulance attendants can do something,” Serena added hastily. “What about the people over there, where you were?” She pointed toward the Ferris wheel. “Was anyone … killed?”

  Eve swallowed. “I don’t think so.” She remembered then that she hadn’t even thanked the clown who had quieted the horse. “I have to go back and see if I can find that guy. The one who found the burr. Come with me? And we’d better get the committee together to see what needs to be done. Maybe you’re right, Alfred,” she added as they began to walk. “Maybe the whole celebration will be canceled now. Maybe it should be. Burr or not, that horse going crazy and hurting people could be an omen. A bad omen.”

  Alfred grunted. “Since when are you superstitious? I distinctly remember you saying in parapsychology class that you didn’t believe in anything paranormal. You said you thought ESP and telekinesis, stuff that Dr. Litton talks about in class, were nonsense. You said if anyone our age had special powers, there’d be no such things as SAT’s. Everybody laughed.”

  “And a lot of people in class agreed with me,” Eve pointed out. “I’m not the only one who thinks all that stuff is stupid and silly. A lot of people in that class are only taking it for extra credit, like me. Kevin was making jokes about paranormal stuff, and so was Alice.” She fell silent, thinking of Alice slamming into the ground. “When I said omen, I just meant that it’s not a good sign when disaster strikes on the very first day of an event.”

  As they walked toward the Ferris wheel, Eve saw no sign of the clown who had calmed the horse. Maybe he’d decided this wasn’t a safe place to be, and had already gone back to town. She couldn’t blame him. And judging from the way the crowd had thinned, he wasn’t the only one.

  Her heart sank. The goal was to make money for the new science building. How could they make any money if people were scared away on the very first day? And what if Kevin wasn’t able to return and help her? True, she still had the rest of the committee. But she and Kevin had been working so well together. She needed his quiet reassurance.

  Then agai
n, if the whole event was canceled, she wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore. And it wouldn’t even be her fault. She hadn’t put that burr under the horse’s saddle.

  Strange thought. Of course she hadn’t. But maybe that was worth thinking about. “How would a burr get under a saddle?” she mused aloud, her eyes scanning the sparse crowd for some sign of the white-faced clown. “I mean, I know there are tons of burrs along the highway, but one wouldn’t jump up and implant itself under a saddle, would it?”

  Alfred stopped walking and turned to look at her. “What does that mean? Are you hinting that someone put that burr there on purpose?”

  Serena, too, stared at Eve. “Eve, why would someone do that? And wouldn’t he have been seen? I mean, there were people walking along with the equestrian club the whole time.”

  “Alice stopped a couple of times, remember?” Eve reminded them. “She was having a problem with her boot or her stirrup or something. None of us stayed behind with her. We kept marching. She caught up with us a few minutes later.”

  Alfred rubbed his chin. “And you think someone could have sneaked up behind her then and stuck that burr under her saddle? With her sitting in it?”

  Eve shook her head. “I don’t know. I know it sounds stupid, and I can’t imagine why anyone would want to do something so cruel. But it’s hard to believe a burr would have lodged itself under the saddle without some help.”

  “Could have been blown by the wind,” Serena said. “It’s very windy, Eve, has been all day. Look at the trees along campus, they’re bending almost double.”

  That was true enough. And the round, prickly burrs didn’t weigh much. Was it possible that one of them had been yanked off its bush by a vigorous wind and implanted under Alice’s saddle?

  It had to be possible. Because the idea that someone would have deliberately done it was too ridiculous to even consider.

  Unable to locate the clown who had quieted the horse, Eve gave up the search. She knew where the guy worked. She could always go into town later and thank him.