Goosebumps- All In One

One Day In Horror Land

  1 

  

  

ONE DAY AT 

HORRORLAND 

  

Goosebumps - 16 

R.L. Stine 

(An Undead Scan v1.5) 

  2 

  

1 

  

  

As we entered the gates to HorrorLand, we had no idea that, in just a few hours, we 

would all be lying in our coffins. 

I’m  the  calm  one  in  the  Morris  family.  Everyone  says,  “Lizzy,  you’re  the  calm 

one.” And I’m trying to tell this story calmly. 

But believe me—there’s no way! 

We had never planned to go to HorrorLand. In fact, we’d never heard of it. 

The  five  of  us  were  squeezed  into  Dad’s  little  Toyota,  on  our  way  to  spend  the 

day at Zoo Gardens Theme Park. Dad had messed up and left the map at home. But 

Mom said the park would be real easy to find. 

When we got close to the park, Mom said, there would be lots of signs to direct 

us. But so far we hadn’t seen a single sign. 

Dad was driving, and Mom was beside him in the front. I was squeezed in back 

with my little brother, Luke, who is ten, and Luke’s friend Clay. 

It wasn’t the best place to be. My brother cannot sit still for a second. Especially 

in the car. He just has too much energy. And he’s totally goofy. 

The  longer  we  drove,  the  more  restless  Luke  became.  He  tried  wrestling  with 

Clay, but there really wasn’t room. Then he tried arm wrestling with him, and the two 

of them kept bumping me until I lost my temper and started shouting at them to stop. 

“Why don’t you three play Alphabet?” Mom suggested from the front. “Look out 

the window for letters.” 

“There aren’t any,” Luke replied. “There aren’t any signs.” 

“There isn’t anything to look at,” Clay grumbled. 

He was right. We were driving past flat, sandy fields. There were a few scraggly 

trees here and there. The rest was all desert. 

“I’m  going  to  take  this  turnoff,”  Dad  announced.  He  took  off  his  Chicago  Cubs 

cap and scratched his thinning blond hair. “Haven’t I already taken this turnoff?” 

Dad is the only blond in the family. Mom, Luke, and I all have straight black hair 

and blue eyes. 

In fact, Dad doesn’t look as if he belongs in the same family. The three of us are 

tall and thin, with very fair skin. And Dad is short and kind of chubby, with a round 

face that’s almost always pink. I tease him all the time because I think he looks a lot 

more like a wrestler than a bank manager, which he is. 

“I’m pretty sure we’ve already been here,” Dad said unhappily. 

“It’s hard to tell. It’s all desert,” Mom replied, gazing out her window. 

“Very helpful,” Dad muttered. 

“How  can  I  be  helpful?”  Mom  shot  back. “You’re the  one  who  left  the  map  on 

the kitchen table.” 

“I thought you packed it,” Dad grumbled. 

  3 

“Why should it be my job to pack the map?” Mom cried. 

“Break  it  up,  you  two,”  I  interrupted.  Once  they  start  fighting,  they  never  stop. 

It’s always best to interrupt them quickly before they really get into it. 

“I’m  the  Mad  Pincher!”  Luke  cried.  He  let  out  a  gruesome,  horror-movie  laugh 

and started pinching Clay’s ribs and arms. 

I  hate  Luke’s  Mad  Pincher  routine  more  than  anything.  I  was  so  glad  that  Clay 

was  sitting  in  the  middle  next  to  Luke  and  not  me. Usually,  the  only  way  to  stop 

Luke’s pinching is to slug him. 

Clay started squirming and laughing. He thinks everything Luke does is a riot. He 

laughs  at  all  of  my  brother’s  stupid  jokes  and  stunts.  I  think  that’s  why  Luke  likes 

Clay so much. 

The two of them began pinching each other. 

Then Luke shoved Clay into me. “Give me a break!” I cried. 

I shoved Clay back. I know I shouldn’t have. But it was getting hot in the car, and 

we’d been driving for hours, and what was I supposed to do? 

“Lizzy! Boys! Chill out back there!” Dad cried. 

“Dad, nobody says ‘chill out’ anymore,” I told him calmly and quietly. 

For some  reason, that made him  go berserk.  He  started  yelling, and his  face  got 

bright red. 

I knew he wasn’t mad at me. He was mad because he couldn’t find Zoo Gardens 

Theme Park. 

“Everybody just take a deep breath and be silent,” Mom suggested. 

“Ow! Stop pinching me!” Clay screamed. He gave Luke a hard shove. 

“You stop pinching me!” my brother shrieked, shoving him back. 

Boys can really be animals. 

“Hey,  look—a  sign  up  ahead!”  Mom  pointed  as  a  large  green  sign  came  into 

view. 

Luke  and  Clay  stopped  fighting.  Dad  leaned  forward over  the  steering  wheel, 

squinting through the windshield. 

“Does it say where the park is?” Luke demanded. 

“Does it say where we are?” Clay asked. 

The  words  on  the  sign  came  into  view  as  we  drove  past  it.  It  read:  SIGN  FOR 

RENT. 

We all let out disappointed groans. 

“The Mad Pincher returns!”  Luke cried. He  gave Clay  a hard pinch on the arm. 

Luke never knows when to quit. 

“This  road  isn’t  going  anywhere,”  Dad  said,  scowling.  “I’ll  have  to  turn  around 

and get back on the highway. If I can find it.” 

“I think you should ask someone for directions,” Mom suggested. 

“Ask someone? Ask someone?” Dad exploded. “Do  you see anyone  I can ask?” 

His face was bright red  again. He drove with one hand so he could use the other to 

shake a fist. 

“I meant if you see a gas station,” Mom murmured. 

“A gas station?” Dad screamed. “I don’t even see a tree!” 

  4 

Dad was right.  I stared out the window and saw nothing but white sand on both 

sides  of  the  road.  The  sun  beamed  down  on  it,  making  it  gleam.  The  sand  was  so 

bright, it nearly looked like snow. 

“I  meant  to  go  north,”  Dad  muttered.  “The  desert  is  south.  We  must  have  gone 

south.” 

“You’d better turn around,” Mom urged. 

“Are we lost?” Clay asked. I could hear some fear in his voice. 

Clay isn’t the bravest kid in the world. In fact, he is pretty easy to scare. Once I 

crept up behind him in our backyard at night and whispered his name—and he almost 

jumped right out of his shoes! 

“Dad, are we lost?” Luke repeated the question. 

“Yeah, we’re lost,” Dad replied quietly. “Hopelessly lost.” 

Clay  let  out  a  soft  cry  and  slumped  in  the  seat. He  looked  a  little like  a balloon 

deflating. 

“Don’t tell him that!” Mom cried sharply. 

“What should I tell him?” Dad snapped back. “We’re nowhere near Zoo Gardens. 

We’re nowhere near civilization! We’re in the desert, going nowhere!” 

“Just  turn  around.  I’m  sure  we’ll  find  someone  we  can  ask,”  Mom  said  softly. 

“And stop being so dramatic.” 

“We’re  all  going  to  die  in  the  desert,”  Luke  said, with  a  gruesome  grin  on  his 

face. “And buzzards will peck out our eyeballs and eat our flesh.” 

My brother has a great sense of humor, doesn’t he? 

You can’t imagine what it’s like having to live with a total ghoul! 

“Luke, stop scaring Clay,” Mom said, turning in her seat to glare at Luke. 

“I’m not scared,” Clay insisted. But he looked scared. His round face was kind of 

pale.  And  his  eyes  were  blinking  a  lot  behind  his  glasses.  With  his  short,  feathery 

blond hair and round eyeglasses, Clay looked a lot like a frightened owl. 

Muttering to himself, Dad slowed the car to a stop. Then he turned it around, and 

we  headed  back  in  the  direction  we  had  come.  “Great  vacation,”  he  said  through 

clenched teeth. 

“It’s still early,” Mom told him, checking her watch. 

The late morning sun was nearly straight overhead. I could feel its warmth on my 

face through the open sunroof. 

We  drove  for  nearly  half  an  hour.  Luke  wanted  to  play  Twenty  Questions  or 

Geography  with  Clay.  But  Clay  moodily  said  no.  He  just  stared  out  the  window, 

watching the desert roll by. Every few minutes, he’d ask, “Are we still lost?” 

“Pretty lost,” my dad would reply unhappily. 

“We’re okay,” Mom kept reassuring us. 

As  we  drove,  the  scraggly  trees  reappeared.  Then,  after  a  while,  the  sand  gave 

way to darker fields, dotted with trees and low shrubs. 

I sat silently, my hands clasped in my lap, staring out the window. I wasn’t really 

scared or worried. But I wished we would at least see a gas station or a store or one 

other human being! 

“I’m getting hungry,” Luke griped. “Is it lunchtime?” 

  5 

With a long sigh that sounded like air escaping from a tire, Dad pulled the car to 

the side of the road. He reached across Mom to the glove compartment. “There’s got 

to be some kind of map in there,” he said. 

“No. I already looked,” Mom told him. 

As they started to argue, I raised my eyes to the open sunroof above my head. 

“Oh!” I let out a cry as I saw a hideous monster staring down at me, lowering its 

enormous head, about to crush the car. 

  6 

  

2 

  

  

I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out. 

The monster glared down at me through the sunroof. It was as tall as a building, I 

realized. Its red eyes glowed with evil, and its mouth was twisted in a hungry grin. 

“D-Dad!”  I  finally  managed  to  stammer.  Dad  was  bent  over,  fumbling  through 

the papers in the glove compartment. 

“Wow!” I heard Luke cry. 

I  turned  and  saw  that  Luke  was  staring  up  at  it,  too,  his  blue  eyes  wide  with 

fright. 

“Dad?  Mom?”  My  heart  was  pounding  so  hard,  I  thought  my  chest  might 

explode. 

“Lizzy, what is it?” Mom asked impatiently. 

The monster lowered its head over us. Its mouth opened wide, ready to swallow 

the whole car. 

And then Luke started to laugh. “Wow! Cool!” he cried. 

And I realized at the same time that the monster wasn’t alive. It was a mechanical 

figure, part of a giant billboard display. 

Ducking  my  head  to  get  a  better  view  through  the  side  window,  I  saw  that  Dad 

had  pulled  the  car  up  right  beside  the  billboard.  My  parents  were  so  busy  arguing 

about maps, they hadn’t even noticed it! 

I stared up at the red-eyed monster. It lowered its head and opened its jaws. Then 

the jaws snapped shut, and the enormous head slid back up. 

“It looks so real!” Clay exclaimed, staring up at it. 

“Didn’t fool me,” I lied. I wasn’t going to admit that I nearly leaped out through 

the sunroof. I’m supposed to be the calm one, after all. 

I rolled down the window and stuck my head out to read the billboard in front of 

the  mechanical  monster.  In  huge  red  letters  it  said:  WELCOME  TO 

HORRORLAND, WHERE NIGHTMARES COME TO LIFE! 

There  was  a  dark  red  arrow  in  the  upper  left-hand  corner  with  the  words:  ONE 

MILE. 

“Can we go there?” Luke demanded eagerly. He leaned forward and grabbed the 

back of Dad’s seat with both hands. “Can we, Dad? How about it?” 

“It looks kind of scary,” Clay said softly. 

Dad slammed the glove compartment shut with a sigh. He was giving up on the 

map idea. “Luke, stop pulling my seat,” he snapped. “Sit back.” 

“Can we go to HorrorLand?” Luke asked. 

“HorrorLand? What’s HorrorLand?” Mom demanded. 

“Never heard of it,” Dad muttered. 

  7 

“It’s only a mile from here,” Luke pleaded. “It looks great!” 

The monster lowered its head over the car, staring in through the sunroof. Then it 

raised its head again. 

“I don’t think so,” Mom said, looking out at the huge billboard. “Zoo Gardens is 

such a wonderful park. HorrorLand doesn’t look very nice.” 

“It looks great!” Luke insisted, pulling at Dad’s seat back again. “It looks really 

excellent!” 

“Luke, sit back,” Dad pleaded. 

“Let’s go,” I urged. “We’re never going to find Zoo Gardens.” 

Mom hesitated, chewing her lower lip. “I don’t know,” she said fretfully. “Some 

of these places aren’t safe.” 

“It’ll be safe!” Luke declared. “It’ll be very safe!” 

“Luke—sit back!” Dad growled. 

“Can we go?” Luke demanded, ignoring Dad’s request. “Can we?” 

“It could be fun,” Clay said quietly. 

“Let’s give it a try,” I urged them. “If we hate it, we can always leave.” 

Dad rubbed his chin. He sighed. “Well, I guess it would be better than sitting here 

in the middle of nowhere arguing all day.” 

“YAAAAAY!” Luke screamed. 

Luke and I reached over Clay to slap each other a high five. HorrorLand sounded 

like a pretty cool place to me, too. I love scary rides. 

“If the rides  are as scary as that monster,”  I said, pointing at the billboard, “this 

park will be awesome!” 

“You don’t think it’s too scary—do you?” Clay asked. I saw that he had his hands 

clasped tightly in his lap. And he had that frightened owl look on his face again. 

“No, it won’t be too scary,” I told him. 

Oh, wow—was I wrong! 

  

“I  can’t  believe  someone  would  build  a  big  theme  park  out  in  the  wilderness,”  Dad 

declared. 

We were driving through what seemed like an endless forest. Tall old trees leaned 

over the two-lane road, nearly blocking out the late morning sun. 

“Maybe they haven’t built the park yet,” Mom suggested. “Maybe they’re going 

to clear out these trees and build the park here.” 

All three of us in the backseat were hoping Mom was wrong. And she was. 

The road curved sharply. And as we came out of the curve, we saw the tall gates 

to the park straight up ahead. 

Behind  a  tall  purple  fence,  HorrorLand  seemed  to  stretch  for  miles.  Leaning 

forward in my seat,  I could see the tops of rides  and strange, colorful buildings. As 

we  drove  across  the  enormous  parking  lot,  eerie  chords  of  organ  music  invaded  the 

car. 

“YAAAAAY! This looks great!” Luke exclaimed. 

Clay  and  I  enthusiastically  agreed.  I  couldn’t  wait  to  get  out  of  the  car  and  see 

everything. 

  8 

“The parking lot is nearly empty,” Dad said, glancing uneasily at Mom. 

“That means we won’t have to wait in long lines!” I quickly exclaimed. 

“I think Lizzy is excited about this place,” Mom commented, smiling. 

“Me,  too!”  Luke  cried.  He  punched  Clay  enthusiastically  on  the  shoulder.  Luke 

always has to be punching or pinching somebody. 

We crossed the wide parking lot. I saw a few cars parked near the front gate. At 

the  far  side  of  the  lot  stood  a  row  of  purple-and-green  buses  with  the  word 

HORRORLAND across the side. 

As we rode closer, I got a good look at the front gate. The same monster we had 

seen  behind  the  billboard  rose  up  behind  a  big  purple-and-green  sign  over  the  gate. 

The  sign  read:  THE  HORRORLAND  HORRORS  WELCOME  YOU  TO 

HORRORLAND! 

“I don’t get that sign,” Mom said. “What are the HorrorLand Horrors?” 

“We’ll find out!” I exclaimed happily. 

The  solemn,  eerie  organ  music  floated  heavily  over the  parking  lot.  Dad  pulled 

into a space in an empty aisle to the right of the front gate. 

Luke  and  I  pushed  open  the  back  doors  before  the  car  had  even  stopped.  “Let’s 

go!” I cried. 

Luke,  Clay,  and  I  started  trotting  toward  the  gate.  As  I  ran,  I  stared  up  at  the 

green monster over the sign. This one didn’t move its head like the billboard monster. 

But it looked very real. 

I  glanced  back  and  saw  that  Mom  and  Dad  were  hurrying  to  catch  up  with  us. 

“This is going to be way cool!” I exclaimed. 

And then I gasped as a deafening explosion made the ground shake. 

And I stared back in horror as our car burst apart, exploding into a million pieces. 

  9 

  

3 

  

  

It took me a long while  to stop screaming.  Finally,  I  swallowed hard,  choking back 

my cries. 

We all stared in shock. Small chunks of twisted metal and a few burning cinders 

were all that was left of our car. 

“How—?” was all Dad managed to say. 

“I—I d-don’t believe it!” I stammered. 

“Thank goodness we were all out of the car!” Mom cried. She gathered us up in a 

big hug. “Thank goodness we’re all okay.” 

Luke and Clay still hadn’t uttered a sound. They  stood wide-eyed, staring at the 

spot where the car had stood. 

“My car!” Dad choked out in a horrified whisper. “My car… How? How?” 

“We’re  safe,”  Mom  murmured.  “We’re  all  safe.  What  a  terrifying  explosion.  I 

can’t get the sound of it out of my ears.” 

“I—I’ve got to call the police!” Dad sputtered. 

He began trotting to the gate, shaking his head, muttering to himself. 

“How could the car just blow up like that, dear?” Mom asked, hurrying after him. 

“What would make it do that?” 

“How  should  I  know?”  Dad  snapped  angrily.  “I—I  don’t  get  it!  I  really  don’t! 

And now what are we going to do?” He sounded really panicked. 

I didn’t blame him. The explosion was really scary. 

And when I realized that we could have all been inside the car when it went off, I 

had cold chills down my back. 

“Maybe there’s a car rental place we can call,” Mom suggested. 

Mom is like me, calm in any emergency. 

We  followed  Dad  as  he  went  running  up  to  the  ticket  booth  at  the  entrance.  A 

green monster stood in the booth. He had bulging yellow eyes and dark horns curled 

over his head. It was a really great costume. 

“Welcome  to  HorrorLand,”  he  said  in  a  gruff,  low  voice.  A  loud  stab  of  organ 

music  rose  up  from  inside  the  ticket  booth.  “I  am  a  HorrorLand  Horror.  All  of  the 

Horrors and I hope you have a scary day.” 

“My car!” Dad cried frantically “There was an explosion. I need a phone!” 

“I’m sorry, sir. No phones,” the guy in the monster costume replied. 

“Huh?” Dad’s face was bright red again. His forehead was drenched with sweat. 

“But I need a phone! Right away!” Dad insisted, glaring angrily at the green monster. 

“My car exploded! We’re stuck here!” 

“We’ll take care of you,” the Horror replied, lowering his gruff voice nearly to a 

whisper. 

  10 

“You’ll what?” Dad cried. “We need a car.  I need to get to a phone! Don’t you 

understand?” 

“No  phones,”  the  monster  repeated.  “But,  please,  sir.  Allow  us  to  take  care  of 

you.  I  promise  we  will  take  care  of  everything.  Don’t  let  this  spoil  your  visit  to 

HorrorLand.” 

“Spoil my visit?!” Dad shrieked, his face growing even redder. “But my car—!” 

Another  loud  stab  of  organ  music  made  me  jump.  The creepy  music  made  me 

feel as if I were actually in a horror movie! 

“We  will  take  care  of  you.  I  promise,”  the  Horror  said.  A  strange  smile  crossed 

his  face.  His  yellow  eyes  lit  up.  “Please  enjoy  your  stay,  and  do  not  worry  about 

transportation. The other Horrors and I will see that you are properly taken care of.” 

“But—but—” Dad sputtered. 

The Horror gestured toward the park. “Please enter as our guests. Free admission. 

I apologize for your car. But, please, do not worry. I promise you will have no need 

to worry about your car.” 

Dad turned back to us, sweat dripping down his forehead. I could see that he was 

really upset. “I—I can’t enjoy an amusement park now,” he said. “I can’t believe this 

happened. I really can’t. We’ve got to get a car somehow, and—” 

“Oh,  please,  Dad!”  Luke  cried.  “Please!  Can’t  we  go  inside?  He  said  he’ll  take 

care of it for us.” 

“Just for a little while?” I joined my brother in pleading. 

“We’ve had such a long drive,” Mom told Dad. “Let’s go in for a short while. Let 

them blow off some steam.” 

Dad  thought  about  it,  frowning  hard.  “Okay.  Just  for  a  little  while,”  he  agreed 

finally. 

The organ music grew louder as we stepped through the gate. “Wow! Look at this 

place!” I cried. “It really is like being in a horror movie.” 

We  were  standing  on  a  brown  cobbled  street.  Strange  dark  cottages  tilted  up  on 

both sides of the street. Tall trees along the street nearly blocked out all the sunlight. 

The air carried a chill. 

Low howls, like wolf howls, floated out from the cottages. 

“Cool!” Luke declared. 

A  sign  proclaimed:  WELCOME  TO  WEREWOLF  VILLAGE.  DO NOT  FEED 

THE WEREWOLVES. IF YOU CAN HELP IT. 

The frightening howls grew louder. 

Luke and I laughed at the sign. 

I  saw  a  green  monster,  one  of  the  Horrors,  staring out  at  us  through  a  dark 

window in the cottage across the narrow street. Another Horror walked past carrying 

a very real-looking human head. He grasped it by its long blond hair and bounced it 

up and down, sort of like a yo-yo, as he walked. 

“Cool!” Luke proclaimed again. It seemed to be his word of the day. 

We walked along the cobbled street. The sound of our thudding sneakers echoed 

off the cottage walls. 

“Ohh!” We all let out cries of surprise as a long, low, gray wolf ran in front of us. 

It disappeared around the side of a cottage before we really got a good look at it. 

  11 

“Was that a real wolf?” Clay asked, his voice shaking. 

“Of course not,” I told him. “It was probably a dog. Or else it was mechanical.” 

“Well, they certainly keep this park clean,” Mom said, trying to sound cheerful. 

“There isn’t a piece of trash or dirt anywhere. Of course, it isn’t very crowded.” 

Dad  lingered  behind.  “I—I’ve  got  to  find  a  phone,” he  said  fretfully.  “I  can’t 

enjoy this until I know we have a way to get home.” 

“But, dear—” Mom started. 

“There’s got to be a phone somewhere,” Dad interrupted. “Go on without me.” 

“No. I’ll come with you,” Mom said. “You’re in such a frantic state. You’ll need 

me  to  make  the  calls  for  you.  The  kids  will  have  a better  time  without  us  hanging 

around anyway.” 

“Leave them?” Dad cried. “You mean, let them go on their own?” 

“Of  course,”  Mom  said,  hurrying  back  to  him.  “They’ll  be  perfectly  fine.  This 

looks like a very nice place. What could happen?” 

What could happen? 

With those words, Mom and Dad rushed off to find a phone. 

“Meet back here!” Mom called to us. 

Luke, Clay, and I were suddenly on our own. 

I turned to watch Mom and Dad hurry away. 

I  turned  back  in  time  to  see  a  gray  wolf  edging  out  from  behind  the  cottage.  It 

lowered its head and let out a rumbling warning growl. 

All three of us froze as we realized its hungry red eyes were locked on us. 

  12 

  

4 

  

  

I cried out and pulled Luke and Clay back. 

The wolf slithered out, holding its head low, glaring up at us with wide red eyes, 

its mouth open hungrily. 

“It—it’s real!” Clay declared, swallowing hard. I had my hand on his shoulder. I 

could feel him trembling. 

The wolf let out a deep growl. 

Then it slid back behind the cottage wall. 

“I think it’s some kind of robot or something,” I told Clay. 

“Let’s go somewhere else,” Clay replied, suddenly very pale. 

“What does that sign up there say?” Luke asked. He went running over the dark 

cobblestones to the sign, and Clay and I followed. 

The sign read: NO PINCHING. 

Luke laughed. “That’s stupid.” 

“What a dumb sign!” Clay agreed. 

“That sign was meant just for you, Luke!”  I exclaimed. I gave him a hard pinch 

on the arm. 

“Hey! Can’t you read?” he shouted angrily, pointing to the sign. 

I  saw  a  green  Horror  watching  us  from  down  the  street.  Then  I  saw  a  family 

making its way behind the row of cottages. There was a mother, a father, and a little 

girl.  The  little  girl  was  crying  for  some  reason.  The  parents  had  their  hands  on  her 

shoulders and looked very upset. 

A wolf howl cut through the air. 

“Let’s find some rides!” Clay suggested. 

“Some scary rides!” Luke added. 

Walking  side  by  side,  keeping  close  together,  we  made  our  way  out  of  the 

Werewolf Village. The street widened into a round plaza. Bright sunlight returned as 

soon as we stepped out of the village. 

Several  purple-and-green  buildings  surrounded  the  plaza.  I  saw  a  few  more 

families and several green-costumed Horrors keeping an eye on everything. A pudgy 

Horror behind a purple-and-green cart was selling ice cream cones—black ice cream! 

“Yuck!” Luke declared, making a face. 

We  hurried  past  the  cart,  past  another  no  pinching sign,  and  stopped  in  front  of 

what appeared to be a tall purple mountain. 

“It’s a ride!” I told them. 

A doorway was cut into the side of the mountain. 

And above the doorway was a sign: DOOM SLIDE. WILL YOU BE THE ONE 

TO SLIDE FOREVER? 

  13 

“Cool!” Luke cried, slapping Clay a high five. 

“I’ll bet you climb to the top, then slide all the way down,” I said, pointing to the 

top of the mountain-shaped building. 

“Let’s go!” Luke cried excitedly. 

We ran to the building, then through the open doorway in its side. It was dark and 

cold inside. A wide ramp curved up toward the top. 

I could hear kids squealing and laughing, but I couldn’t see them. The three of us 

half walked, half ran up the ramp, eager to get to the top. 

About halfway up, we stopped to read another sign: WARNING! YOU MAY BE 

THE ONE TO SLIDE TO YOUR DOOM! 

Now  I  could  hear  kids  screaming  as  they  slid  down. But  it  was  too  dark  to  see 

anything. “Are you scared, Clay?” I asked, noticing his tight expression. 

“No  way!”  he  insisted,  embarrassed  by  my  question. “I’ve  seen  these  things 

before. They’re like really huge sliding boards. You just sit on them and slide down.” 

“Hurry!” Luke shouted, running ahead of us. 

“Hey—wait  up!”  I  called.  I  followed  them  to  the  top  of  the  ramp.  We  found 

ourselves on a wide platform. A row of long, curving sliding boards stretched to the 

end of the platform. The sliding boards were numbered from one to ten. 

In the dim light, I saw two Horrors watching us approach. They stood in front of 

the sliding boards. Their bulging yellow eyes lit up as we hurried over to them. 

“Do you slide all the way down?” Luke asked one of them. 

The Horror nodded. 

“Do you go really fast?” Clay asked, lingering a few feet behind us. 

The Horror nodded again. “It’s a long way down,” he rumbled. 

“Be  careful  which  slide  you  pick,”  the  other  Horror  warned.  “Don’t  pick  the 

Doom Slide.” He gestured to the number painted in black in front of each slide. 

“Yes.  Don’t  pick  the  Doom  Slide,”  his  partner  repeated.  “You’ll  slide  down 

forever and ever.” 

I laughed. 

He was just trying to scare us—wasn’t he? 

  14 

  

5 

  

  

I chose slide number three because three is my lucky number. Luke sat down on top 

of the slide next to mine, slide number two. And Clay scrambled over to the far end 

and dropped down onto slide number ten. 

I  glanced back to see what the Horrors were doing. But before  I could  focus on 

them, I felt the bottom tilt underneath me. 

I let out a long, high-pitched shriek as I began to slide. 

I raised my arms over my head, leaned back, and screamed all the way down. My 

cries echoed in the enormous dark canyon of the Doom Slide building. 

It  felt  great.  The  slide  curved  and  curved,  and  I  swirled  down  in  the  darkness, 

faster and faster. 

In the shadowy light, I could see Luke in the slide next to mine. He was lying on 

his back, staring straight up with his mouth wide open. 

I tried to call out to him. But the slide curved away, and I curved with it. 

Down, down. 

I was sliding so fast, the darkness became a solid blur. 

The slide curved up, then around, then down again. I’m a human roller coaster, I 

thought happily. 

Down, down. Darker and darker. 

I’m sliding faster than the speed of light, I thought. 

I glanced from one side to the other, trying to see Luke and Clay. But it was too 

dark, and I was moving too fast. 

Too fast. 

And then, bump. 

A chute opened up. I hit the ground hard, landing on the seat of my jeans. 

Outside. I was back outside. 

Bump. 

Luke bounced out beside me. He hit the ground, still lying on his back, and made 

no attempt to get up. He grinned up at me. “Where am I?” 

“Back on the ground,” I told him, climbing to my feet. I brushed off the back of 

my jeans, then reached behind my head to straighten my braid. “Great ride, huh?” 

“Let’s go again,” Luke said, still lying there. 

“We can’t go again if you don’t get up,” I said. 

“Help me.” He reached up a hand. 

I  groaned  as  I  tugged  him  to  a  sitting  position.  “Get  up  yourself,”  I  said 

impatiently. 

“You were screaming in there,” he told me. 

“I did it on purpose,” I said. “I wanted to scream.” 

  15 

“Yeah. Sure.” He rolled his eyes. Then he pulled himself to his feet. “Wow. I’m a 

little dizzy. How fast do you think we were going?” 

I shrugged. “Pretty fast, I think. It’s so dark in there, it’s hard to know how fast 

you’re going.” 

And then I realized we were missing a member of our sliding party. I stared at the 

closed chutes on the wall of the building. “Hey—where’s Clay?” 

“Huh?” Luke had forgotten about him, too. 

We both stared at the side of the building, waiting for Clay to pop out. 

“Where  is  he?”  Luke  demanded  shrilly.  “He  couldn’t be  that  much  slower  than 

us—could he?” 

I shook my head. I was starting to feel really nervous. I had a heavy feeling in the 

pit of my stomach. And my hands were suddenly cold and clammy. 

“Come on, Clay,” I pleaded, staring at the wall. “Come on out.” 

Luke  scratched  his  black  hair.  “Where’d  he  go?”  he asked.  “Why  didn’t  Clay 

come out?” 

“Maybe he came out the front,” I said. “Maybe slide number ten dumps you out 

in front. Let’s check it out.” 

As  we  ran  around  the  building  toward  the  front,  I  scolded  myself  for  getting 

scared  so  easily.  Of course Clay  came  out  in  a  different  chute.  He  was  probably 

waiting for us in front of the building. He was probably worried about us. 

As  we  rounded  the  purple  building,  the  wide,  circular  plaza  came  into  view.  I 

searched for Mom and Dad, but they weren’t there. I saw a couple of other families 

on the other side of the circle, and the pudgy green Horror leaning on his ice cream 

cart. 

No sign of Clay. 

Luke and I kept running, up to the front entrance of the Doom Slide. We stopped 

a few feet from the dark opening. 

“He isn’t here!” Luke cried, struggling to catch his breath. 

I  was  breathing  hard,  too.  And  the  heavy  feeling  of  dread  in  my  stomach  grew 

even heavier. “No. No Clay,” I muttered. 

“What are we going to do?” Luke asked. His blue eyes were wide with fear. 

I saw a green Horror woman standing just inside the entrance. “Hey!” I called as I 

ran over to her. “Did you see a kid come out of there?” I asked breathlessly. 

The yellow eyes on the Horror’s mask bulged and appeared to light up. “No. This 

is the entrance. No one comes out here,” she replied. 

“He’s  blond  and  sort  of  chubby.  He  wears  glasses,” I  told  her.  “He’s  wearing  a 

blue T-shirt and denim shorts.” 

The Horror shook her head. “No. No one comes out this way. Did you check the 

back? Everyone comes out the back.” 

“He  didn’t!”  Luke  said  shrilly.  “We  were  there.  He didn’t  come  out.”  My 

brother’s  voice  was  high  and  squeaky.  He  was  breathing  so  hard,  his  chest  was 

heaving up and down. He was in a panic. 

I was frightened, too. But I knew I had to stay calm. For Luke’s sake. 

“He  didn’t  come  out  the  back,”  I  told  the  Horror,  “and  he  didn’t  come  out  the 

front. So what happened to him?” 

  16 

The Horror was silent for a long moment. Then she said in a low voice just above 

a whisper, “Maybe your friend chose the Doom Slide.” 

  17 

  

6 

  

  

I  stared  at  the  woman  in  the  Horror  costume.  “You—you’re  joking,  right?”  I 

stammered. “I mean, the Doom Slide—that’s just a joke.” 

She stared back with her bulging yellow eyes and didn’t reply. “The signs give a 

warning,” she said. “There’s always a warning.” 

She  turned  and  disappeared  into  the  dark  entrance. Luke  and  I  goggled  at  each 

other. I swallowed hard. My throat suddenly felt very dry. My hands were cold as ice 

now. 

“This  is  stupid,”  Luke  muttered.  He  jammed  his  hands  into  his  jeans  pockets. 

“It’s just a dumb slide. Why is she trying to scare us?” 

“I guess that’s her job,” I told him. 

“We’ve got to find Mom and Dad,” Luke muttered. 

“We’ve  got  to  find  Clay  first,”  I  told  him.  “If  Mom  and  Dad  find  out  we  lost 

Clay, they’ll get angry and make us go home as soon as we find him.” 

“If we find him,” Luke said glumly. 

I  glanced back  across the plaza. No Mom and Dad. Two teenagers were  buying 

black  ice  cream  cones  from  the  Horror  at  the  cart. Two  Horrors  were  sweeping  the 

plaza with push brooms, working side by side. 

Far in the distance, I could hear the howl of a wolf from the Werewolf Village. 

The sun was high in the sky now. I could feel it beaming down on top of my head 

and on my shoulders. But I still felt cold all over. 

“Clay—where are you?” I asked, thinking out loud. 

“He’s sliding forever,” Luke said, shaking his head. “Sliding forever and ever on 

the Doom Slide.” 

“That’s  dumb,”  I  replied.  But  Luke  had  given  me  an idea.  “Come  on,”  I  said, 

tugging the sleeve on his T-shirt. I started pulling him to the dark entrance. 

“Huh? Where?” Luke pulled back. 

“We’ll go on the slides again,” I told him. 

His  mouth  dropped  open  in  protest.  “Without  Clay?  We  can’t  go  on  it  again 

without Clay.” 

“We’re going to find Clay,” I said, grabbing his arm this time and pulling him to 

the dark open doorway. 

“You mean—?” My brother was starting to catch on. 

I nodded. “Yes. We’ll follow him. We’ll take the same slide he took.” 

“Slide  number  ten,”  Luke  murmured.  And  then  he  added  in  a  solemn  whisper, 

“The Doom Slide.” 

“We’ll take it, and it will lead us right to him,” I said. 

  18 

We  climbed  the  ramp  in  silence.  The  rapid thud of  our  sneakers  echoed  in  the 

vast hollow mountain. 

We ran past the sign about halfway up to the top. I read it again as I passed it by: 

WARNING! YOU MAY BE THE ONE TO SLIDE TO YOUR DOOM! 

Clay—are you still sliding? I wondered. 

I  shook  my  head  hard,  shaking  away  the  thought. Of course he  wasn’t  still 

sliding. What a stupid idea! 

The  two  Horrors  were  still  standing  at  the  top  of  the  slides.  “Be  careful  which 

slide you pick,” one of them warned. 

“We know which one we want,”  I said breathlessly. “Slide number ten.  Both of 

us. Together.” 

The Horror nearest the slide motioned for us to sit down. I glanced at Luke, who 

stood right behind me, his features tight with fear. 

He tugged me back a few steps. “Maybe we shouldn’t,” he whispered. 

“Why not?” I demanded impatiently. 

“What if the warning is true?” Luke demanded. 

“Don’t be dumb,” I scolded him. “This is an amusement park—remember? They 

don’t kill kids or send them sliding to their doom. It’s all for fun!” 

Luke swallowed hard. “You sure?” 

“Of course I’m sure,” I replied. “Now, do you want to find Clay or not?” 

Luke nodded. 

“Then let’s go,” I ordered. 

I  sat  down  at  the  top  of  slide  number  ten.  Luke  plopped  down  right  behind  me, 

stretching his legs outside of mine. 

I felt the floor tilt up beneath us. 

We started to slide. 

“Clay, here we come!” I cried. 

  19 

  

7 

  

  

I didn’t scream this time. I clasped my hands in my lap and gritted my teeth. 

There was no way I was going to enjoy this ride. I just wanted to get to the end of 

it. I wanted to solve the mystery and find Clay. 

As we slid down together,  Luke  grabbed onto me, his hands  gripping my  waist. 

He  cried  out  when  we  slid  over  a  big  bump,  and  it  felt  as  if  we  were  going  to  go 

flying off the slide. 

Then  we  both  screamed  as  the  slide  took  a  steep  dive—almost  straight  down—

and we started to fall. 

We  landed  hard,  and  then  the  slide  curved  sharply  to  the  right.  We  were  both 

screaming our lungs out now. 

We were sliding faster and faster, in total darkness, blacker than black. I tried to 

see if we were moving alongside the other slides. But it was so dark, I couldn’t even 

see my sneakers in front of me! 

Luke  squeezed  my  waist  so  hard,  I  could  hardly  breathe.  I  tried  to  tell  him  to 

loosen his grip, but he was screaming too loud to hear. 

Down, down. 

Darker and darker. 

We hit another bump that sent us bouncing up into the air. Then the slide dipped 

and curved sharply to the left. 

We should be at the bottom by now, I realized. 

We’d been sliding a very long time. 

I gritted my teeth harder and tried to brace myself to go flying out the chute and 

bumping onto the ground. 

But no chute opened. 

The ride didn’t end. 

We began to slide faster. I gasped in mouthfuls of the hot, damp air, struggling to 

catch my breath. 

The slide dipped and curved, sending us down into the thick, heavy blackness. 

We’re going to slide forever. 

The warning sign didn’t lie. 

I struggled to force those frightening thoughts from my mind. 

Luke suddenly got very quiet. “Are you okay?” I called back to him. 

“I  don’t  know,”  he  replied,  holding  on  even  tighter.  “Why  are  we  sliding  so 

long?” 

“You’re hurting me!” I cried. 

He loosened his hold a little. “I don’t like this!” he shouted in my ear. 

We hit another bump. His hands flew off me. 

  20 

Another bump. Even harder. I thought I was going to fly off the slide and fall to 

the bottom—if there was a bottom. 

Down, down. 

Luke  and  I  both  cried  out  in  disgust  as  something  sticky  covered  our  faces.  I 

reached up with both hands and tried to pull it off. 

“Yuck!” Luke screamed. “What is it? My face—!” 

“It’s like cobwebs,” I shouted back at him. “Hot, sticky cobwebs.” 

My  whole  face  itched.  The  sticky  threads  covered  my  face  like  a  net.  I  pulled 

frantically at them. 

“Oh!” I cried out as the slide took another sharp dip. 

Tearing at the sticky cobwebs, I managed to pull most of them off. But my face 

still itched like crazy. It felt as if a thousand ants were crawling around on it. 

“It’s so gross!” Luke yelled behind me. “My face—it hurts!” 

Down, down into the heavy darkness. 

And then a flare of bright light made me shut my eyes. 

Was it daylight? Were we heading outside? 

No. 

I forced my eyes open and squinted at the yellow light. 

And realized I was staring at blazing flames. 

The slide ahead of us was on fire! 

The  yellow-and-orange  flames  raged  up,  topped  by  a curtain  of  billowing  black 

smoke. 

I raised my hands to my face and started to shriek. 

We were sliding right into the blazing flames. 

“We’re going to burn up!” Luke screamed. “Help—somebody! Help us!” 

  21 

  

8 

  

  

I shut my eyes and felt a powerful burst of heat, almost like an explosion. 

I’m burning up! I thought. 

Burning up! 

A whoosh of cool air made me open my eyes. 

The fire was behind us now. We had sailed right through it. 

Curving gently, we slid through cool darkness. I could still see the orange flicker 

of flames reflected on the dark walls above us. 

Luke  and  I  were  both  silent.  I  was  waiting  for  my  heart  to  stop  thudding  in  my 

chest. 

“Great  special  effects!”  Luke  cried.  He  let  out  a  wild  laugh,  a  frantic  laugh  I’d 

never heard before. 

The fire was fake, I realized. Some kind of projection or something. 

I sucked in mouthfuls of the cool air. I had never been so terrified in my life. 

“When  does  this  ride  end?”  Luke  cried.  His  voice  had  become  high  and 

frightened. 

Never, I thought glumly. We really are going to slide forever. 

And as that frightening thought lingered in my mind, a chute opened in front of 

us. Daylight streamed in. 

Bump. 

I landed hard on soft grass. 

A second later, Luke dropped out behind me. 

I blinked several times, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the bright sunlight. 

Then I climbed slowly to my feet, my heart still pounding. 

A  yellow-and-green sign on a wooden pole stood directly in front of us.  It read: 

WELCOME TO DOOM, POPULATION: 0 HUMANS. 

Standing  next  to  the  sign  was  Clay.  He  came  rushing  over  to  greet  us,  a  happy 

smile on his round, pink face.  “Hey,  guys—hey!” he called. “Where’ve  you been?” 

He slapped Luke a high five. Then Luke gave him a playful punch in the stomach. 

“Where’ve we been?” I asked. “Where’ve you been?” 

“Right  here,”  Clay  replied.  “I  didn’t  know  where  I was.  I  think  this  is  the  other 

side of the park or something. So I just waited for you.” 

“We  went  back  on  the  Doom  Slide,”  Luke  explained.  “We  took  your  slide. 

Number ten. What a ride! It was so cool!” 

A  few  seconds  ago,  Luke  had  been  shrieking  in  real terror.  Now  here  he  was, 

pretending he loved it, telling Clay how cool it was. 

“You picked the good slide!” Luke told Clay. “Wow! It was excellent!” 

“I was kind of scared,” Clay confessed. “I mean, the fire—” 

  22 

“Great special effects!” my brother exclaimed. “This park is awesome!” 

Luke was such a phony. There was no way he would ever admit that he had been 

worried about Clay. And no way he’d admit that the long slide to Doom had terrified 

him. 

But  I  was  glad  to  see  his  old  enthusiasm  return.  I really  didn’t  like  seeing  my 

brother frightened and in a panic. 

“It was kind of a long slide,” Clay said, frowning. His feathery blond hair glowed 

in the bright sunlight. “A little too long, I think.” 

“I’d like to go on it again!” Luke boasted. 

I turned and gazed around. We were definitely in another section of HorrorLand. 

Nothing looked familiar. 

Across  the  wide  walkway,  I  saw  several  kids  in  bathing  suits  heading  down  a 

sandy path. A sign over the path read: HORROR RAPIDS. 

To our right, a square-shaped building made of glass reflected the bright sunlight. 

The glass walls shimmered brightly as if on fire. Squinting into the light, I could just 

barely make out the sign in front of it: HOUSE OF MIRRORS. 

“Let’s try the House of Mirrors!” Luke urged, pulling Clay by the arm. 

“Whoa! Wait a minute!” I cried. “Don’t you think we should try to find Mom and 

Dad?” 

“They’re  way  over  on  the  other  side  of  the  park,”  Luke  replied,  tugging  Clay 

along with him across the pavement. “Let’s have some fun and then find them.” 

“They’re probably looking for us,” I said fretfully. 

“The park isn’t very crowded. They’ll find us,” Luke replied. “Come on, Lizzy—

it looks like fun!” 

I hesitated, thinking about Mom and Dad. I stared into the white glare of the glass 

building. 

Suddenly, I felt someone tap my shoulder. 

Startled, I cried out and spun around. 

It  was a  green-costumed Horror. His bulging  eyes stared into mine as he  leaned 

close to me. “Get away while you can!” he whispered. 

He  turned  his  eyes  quickly  from  side  to  side,  as  if  making  sure  no  one  was 

watching him. “Please—I’m serious! Get away while you can!” 

  23 

  

9 

  

  

I was so stunned, I didn’t say anything. I watched him run off, moving awkwardly in 

the bulky Horror costume, his purple tail dragging over the pavement behind him. 

“What  did  he  want?”  Clay  called.  He  and  Luke  were  nearly  up  to  the  House  of 

Mirrors entrance. 

“He—he  said  we  should  get  out  while  we  can,”  I  stammered,  running  over  to 

them.  I  lost  them  for  a  moment  in  the  blinding  sunlight  reflected  off  the  glass 

building. 

Luke  laughed.  “These  Horror  guys  are  great!”  he  declared.  “They  really  try  to 

scare you in this place!” 

Behind his glasses, Clay’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “He was kidding—right?” 

he asked quietly. “I mean, it was just a joke, wasn’t it?” 

“I don’t know,” I told him. “I guess so.” I watched the Horror disappear quickly 

behind a tall, blue, pyramid-shaped building. 

“That’s his job,” Luke insisted. “He goes around scaring people all day.” 

“Maybe he was really warning us,” Clay murmured, staring at me. 

“No way!”  Luke declared. He gave Clay a hard  slap on the back. “Stop looking 

so gloomy all the time. This is a great place! You like to be scared, don’t you?” 

Clay’s expression remained worried. “I guess,” he replied uncertainly. 

I  started  to  tell  Clay  I  was  sure  it  was  just  a  joke,  but  Luke  interrupted.  “Hurry 

up! Let’s check out the House of Mirrors. Let’s have some fun before Mom and Dad 

show up and make us leave.” 

He  dragged  Clay  toward  the  entrance,  and  I  followed.  We  passed  another  no 

pinching sign as we made our way to the shimmering glass building. 

Outside  the  entrance,  I  stopped  to  read  the  yellow-and-green  sign.  It  read: 

HOUSE OF MIRRORS. REFLECT BEFORE YOU ENTER. NO ONE MAY EVER 

SEE YOU AGAIN! 

“Hey—wait up!” I called to the boys. They had already hurried inside. 

I stepped in and found myself in a narrow, dark tunnel. My eyes were still filled 

with the bright glare from outside. I couldn’t see a thing. 

“Luke,  Clay—wait  up!”  I  shouted.  My  voice  echoed  through  the  low  tunnel.  I 

could hear them laughing up ahead. 

I  jogged  blindly,  ducking  my  head  because  the  ceiling  was  so  low.  Finally,  my 

eyes adjusted to the darkness. 

The  tunnel  ended,  and  I  found  myself  in  a  narrow  corridor  with  mirrored  walls 

and a mirrored ceiling. 

“Oh!” I uttered a low cry. I could see my reflections—dozens of them. I seemed 

to surround myself! 

  24 

I stopped for a moment and adjusted my long black braid. It was always coming 

loose. Then I called again to the boys, “Where are you? Wait up!” 

I could hear them giggling somewhere up ahead. “Try and find us!” Luke called. 

More giggling. 

I made my way quickly  through the mirrored walkway. The walls curved to the 

right,  then  the  left.  My  reflections  followed  me,  stretching  deep  into  the  mirrors, 

dozens and dozens of me, getting smaller and smaller, stretching to infinity! 

“Hey—don’t get too far ahead!” I cried. 

I  heard  them  giggling.  Then  I  heard  a  rumble  of  footsteps  that  seemed  to  come 

from the other side of the mirrored wall. 

I  followed  the  corridor,  walking  slowly,  carefully,  until  I  saw  a  narrow  opening 

up ahead. 

“Wait right there. I’m coming through!” I called. 

I started through the opening and—BONK!—hit my forehead on solid glass. 

“Ow!”  I  cried  out  as  the  pain  jolted  across  my  forehead,  then  down  the  back  of 

my neck, all the way down my spine. 

I raised my hands to the glass and waited for my dizziness to fade away. 

“Lizzy, where are you? Try to find us!” I heard Luke call. 

“I hit my head!” I shouted, rubbing my forehead. 

I could hear him and Clay laughing. Their voices seemed to be behind me now. I 

turned back, but there were only mirrors behind me. No opening. 

My  head  still  ached  a  little,  but  the  dizziness  had  gone  away.  I  started  walking 

again,  more  carefully  this  time.  I  kept  both  hands out  in  front  of  me  so  I  wouldn’t 

bump into anything again. 

I turned  a corner and stepped into a different room. To my surprise, the floor in 

this room was a mirror. The walls, the ceiling, the floor—were all mirrors. I felt as if 

I were standing inside a mirrored box. 

I took a few careful steps. It felt so weird walking on my own reflection. 

I could see the tops and the bottoms of my sneakers as I walked. It made it really 

hard to walk. I kept having the feeling that I was going to fall into myself! 

“Hey, guys—where are you?” I called. 

No reply. 

I felt a sharp stab of fear in my stomach. 

“Luke?  Clay?  Are  you  there?”  I  saw  the  mouths  of  my  reflections  move  as  I 

called out, dozens of mouths. But only one voice came out, my voice, tiny and shrill. 

“Luke? Clay?” 

Silence. 

“Don’t fool around, guys!” I shouted. “Where are you?” 

Silence. No reply. 

I  stared  at  the  dozens  of  reflections  on  all  sides of  me.  They  all  looked  very 

frightened. 

“Luke? Clay?” 

Where had they gone? 

  25 

  

10 

  

  

I stared at my reflections as horrifying thoughts swept over me. 

Had the boys really disappeared? 

Had they fallen into some kind of trap?  Were they lost in the maze of glass and 

mirrors? 

HorrorLand was too scary, I decided. It was fun to be scared. But it was too hard 

to tell whether the scares here were for fun—or  for real. Were there dangers in this 

place? Or was it all a big scary joke? 

“Luke? Clay?” I called to them in a trembling voice, turning all around, searching 

for an exit. 

Silence. 

Then I heard a muffled giggle. 

Then I heard whispering voices. Nearby. 

Another giggle, louder this time. Luke’s giggle. 

They had been playing a little joke on me. “Hey, you’re not funny!” I screamed 

angrily. “Really! Not funny!” 

I  could  hear  them  both  burst  out  laughing.  “Come  and  find  us,  Lizzy!”  Luke 

called. 

“What’s taking you so long?” Clay added. 

More giggling. It seemed to come from just up ahead. 

Sliding my hands along the mirrors, I followed the hallway around to the right. I 

had to duck my head to slip through a narrow opening between the mirrors. 

I  found  myself  in  another  small  room  surrounded  by mirrors  above  and  below 

and  on  all  sides.  The  mirrors  were  tilted  at  strange  angles  so  that  my  reflections 

appeared to bounce off each other as I moved. 

“Where are you? Am I getting closer?” I called. 

The  light  grew  dim  as  I  made  my  way  through  this  room.  My  reflections 

darkened. The shadows grew longer. 

“We can’t see you!” Clay called. 

“Hurry up!” Luke shouted impatiently. 

“I’m  going  as  fast  as  I  can!”  I  screamed.  “Just  don’t  move,  okay?  Stay  in  one 

place.” 

“We are!” Luke called back. 

“How will we ever get out of here?” I heard Clay ask him in a low voice. 

“Ow!” I bumped my head again on a section of clear glass. 

I pounded my fist angrily on the glass. 

This wasn’t any fun, I decided. It was too painful. 

  26 

“Hurry  up!”  Luke  called  from  somewhere  nearby.  “It’s  boring  waiting  here  for 

you!” 

“I’m coming,” I muttered, rubbing my poor aching forehead. 

I turned a corner and stepped into a wider room. No mirrors here. The walls were 

all glass. I stopped to gaze around—and there was Luke. 

“Finally!” he cried. “Why couldn’t you find us?” 

“I kept hitting my head,” I told him. “Let’s get out of here. Where’s Clay?” 

“Huh?”  Luke’s  mouth  dropped  open  in  surprise.  He  spun  around,  searching  for 

his friend. “He was standing right here,” he said. 

“Luke—I’m in no mood for any more dumb jokes,” I said sharply. “Clay, where 

are you hiding?” 

“I’m not hiding. I’m over here,” Clay called. 

I  took  a  few  steps  closer  to  my  brother,  and  Clay  came  into  view.  He  was 

standing in deep shadows behind a glass wall, his hands pressed against the pane. 

“How’d you get over there?” Luke asked Clay. 

Clay shrugged. “I can’t find a way out.” 

I moved toward my brother, then stopped. I suddenly realized that he was behind 

a wall of glass. Luke and I were in different rooms. 

“Hey—where’s the opening?” I asked him. 

Luke glanced around. “What do you mean, Lizzy?” 

“You and I—we’re not in the same room,” I replied. I walked up to the glass wall 

and tapped on it with my fist. 

“Huh?”  Luke’s  face  filled  with  surprise.  He  made  his  way  over  to  me.  Then  he 

tapped on his side of the glass, as if making sure it really did exist. 

“How’d that get there?” he murmured. 

Clay started moving around his room, sliding his hands along the panes of glass, 

searching for the opening. 

“Stand right there,” I told Luke. “I’ll find a way into your room.” 

I  followed  Clay’s  example.  I  moved  slowly  around  the  room,  keeping  a  hand 

pressed  against  the  glass.  The  light  was  dim.  My  shadow  fell  over  the  glass  as  I 

walked. I could see my face reflected darkly in the glass. My eyes stared back at me, 

dark and desperate. 

Before I realized it, I had made a complete circle. 

I was back where I had started. And there was no opening. No doorway. 

No way out. 

“Hey! I’m trapped in here!” Clay called shrilly. 

“So am I,” I told him. 

“There’s got to be an opening,” Luke said. “How did we get in?” 

“You’re right,” I replied fretfully. “We should be able to get out the way we came 

in.” I began to search along the walls again, moving quickly. 

My heart began to pound. I had a fluttering feeling in my chest. There had to be a 

way out. There had to be. 

Luke  pounded  hard  on  the  glass.  In  the  other  room, I  could  see  Clay  jogging 

frantically around his room, pushing on the walls as he moved. 

  27 

I went all the way around twice, then stopped. 

There was no way out. 

“I—I’m trapped,” I stammered. “It’s like a box. A glass box.” 

“We’re all trapped!” Clay cried. 

Luke  was  still  pounding  frantically  on  the  glass  with  his  fists.  “Luke—stop!”  I 

cried shrilly. “That isn’t helping!” 

He lowered his fists to his sides. “This is ridiculous,” he muttered. “There’s got to 

be a way out.” 

“Maybe  there’s  a  trapdoor  or  something,”  I  suggested.  I  began  to  search  the 

mirrored floor. It was too dark to see well. The floor appeared solid to me. 

I returned to the glass wall. “This isn’t much fun,” I said glumly. 

Luke  and  Clay  nodded.  I  could  see  they  were  both  really  frightened.  So  was  I. 

But I decided I was two years older than them, so I had to try to be the brave one. 

I wasn’t feeling very brave, though. Uttering a worried sigh, I leaned against the 

wall that separated Luke and me. 

And as I leaned, the wall started to move. 

I jumped back with a sharp cry. 

The wall was sliding toward me, closing in on me. 

I took another step back. 

Glancing around frantically, I saw that all the walls were sliding in. 

“Luke!” I cried. I turned to see him backing up, too. 

“The walls!” Clay called. “Help me!” 

“They’re sliding in on me, too!” Luke screamed. “Each room must have its own 

glass walls!” 

All three of us were trapped. 

With a desperate groan, I threw myself against one of the walls and tried to push 

it back. 

But I couldn’t stop it. 

The box was closing in, growing smaller. Smaller. 

“We’re going to be crushed!” I cried. 

  28 

  

11 

  

  

“Do something! Please—do something!” Clay was screaming. 

Luke lowered his shoulder to the glass and struggled to stop it from moving. But 

he wasn’t strong enough. The walls kept sliding in on him. 

I backed up, my hands raised like a shield. 

Closer, closer. The glass walls moved slowly, silently. 

I backed up until my back hit the wall behind me. 

There was nowhere to go. 

“Do something! Somebody—do something!” Clay’s terrified screams rang in my 

ears. 

“The glass—it’s squeezing me!” Luke shrieked. “Lizzy!” 

“I—I can’t move!” I shouted to him. 

The panes of glass began to press in on me from all sides. Above and below, too. 

I suddenly pictured one of those crushed cars. 

You  know.  The  ears  that  are  crunched  into  a  perfect  square  in  those  big 

compactor machines. 

My entire body shuddered as  I realized  I was  going to be crushed into a  perfect 

square, too. 

“Ow!” I cried out as the glass pressed down on me. “Somebody—help!” I tried to 

scream, but my voice came out a muffled yelp. 

It was getting hard to breathe. 

The glass panes moved in. Tighter. Tighter. 

I gasped for air. 

I tried to push with all my might against the glass. 

But it was no use. 

I was being crushed into a human square. 

  29 

  

12 

  

  

I couldn’t hear Luke or Clay anymore. 

I could only hear my gasping, choked breath. 

I shut my eyes. 

And felt the floor drop away. 

And before I realized what was happening, I was falling, falling rapidly down. 

I  opened  my  eyes  in  time  to  see  the  glass  walls  roll  above  me  as  I  slid  down, 

down, down through an open chute. 

And in a few seconds, I was back outside. I landed sitting up on the grass with a 

gentle thud. 

Luke and Clay came sliding out beside me. 

For a long moment, we sat on the grass, blinking in the bright sunlight, staring at 

each other in disbelief. 

“We’re  okay,”  Clay  said  uncertainly,  finally  breaking  the  silence.  He  slowly 

climbed to his feet. His round face was bright red, and his glasses were crooked and 

nearly falling off his nose. “We’re okay!” 

Luke  let  out  a  laugh.  A  gleeful  laugh.  He  stood  up and  began  jumping  up  and 

down for joy. 

I didn’t exactly  feel like jumping up and down.  I  was still picturing the  crushed 

car. 

Luke reached down, grabbed both of my hands, and pulled me to my feet. “What 

should we do next?” he demanded, grinning. 

“Huh? Next?” I cried. “Are you for real?” 

“That was really scary,” Clay said, his face still red. “I thought we were going to 

be scrunched flat.” 

“It was awesome!” Luke declared. 

Once again, he was forgetting that a few seconds before, he’d been screaming in 

total panic. 

“It was way too scary,” Clay murmured, shaking his head. 

“Clay’s right,” I agreed. “It was too scary to be fun. One more second, and…” 

“Don’t you see? That’s the whole idea!” Luke cried. “That’s how they scare you 

here.  It’s  so  awesome!  They  make  you  think  that  one  more  second  and  you’re  a 

goner. But it’s all perfectly timed. They want you to be terrified—and then—poof—

you’re okay!” 

“I  guess  you’re  right,”  said  Clay  doubtfully.  He  pushed  up  his  glasses,  then 

rubbed his chin. 

  30 

“We’re  not  really  going  to  get  hurt  or  anything,”  Luke  continued.  “This  is  an 

amusement  park,  remember?  They  want  you  to  come  back  again  and  again.  So 

they’re not going to really hurt anybody.” 

“Maybe,” Clay said. 

“But,  Luke,  what  if  they  mess  up?”  I  asked  him.  “What  if  the  machines  get 

goofed up? What if the timing gets off? Let’s say the floor underneath us got stuck. 

Then what?” 

Luke didn’t reply. He stared back at me thoughtfully. 

“What  would  have  happened  to  us  if  the  floor  hadn’t  dropped  away  at  the  right 

moment?” I demanded. 

Luke shrugged. “They make sure everything works okay,” he answered finally. 

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah. Sure.” 

“Is it possible to really be scared to death?” Clay asked me, a solemn expression 

on his face. “I mean, I know it happens in books and movies. But does it happen in 

real life?” 

“I don’t know. Maybe,” I replied. 

“I’ll  bet  people  could  get  scared  to  death  in  that House  of  Mirrors,”  Clay 

continued seriously. 

“No way!” Luke insisted. “Listen to me. This is just a place for fun. Scary fun.” 

He was watching something over my shoulder. I turned to see one of the guys in 

a green Horror costume walking by, carrying a huge bouquet of black balloons. 

Luke hurried up beside the Horror. “Hey, has anyone ever died here in this park?” 

Luke asked. 

The  Horror  kept  walking.  The  black  balloons  bobbed above  his  head.  “Only 

once,” he told Luke. 

“One person died here?” Luke asked. 

The Horror shook his big green head. “No. Not what I meant.” 

“What did you mean?” Luke demanded. 

“A person can only die once here,” the Horror said. “No one has ever died twice.” 

  31 

  

13 

  

  

“Do you mean people have really died here?” I shouted. 

But  the  Horror  walked  quickly  on,  the  black  balloons  bouncing  against  each 

other, floating darkly against the clear blue sky. 

The  Horror’s  answer  made  me  shiver.  It  wasn’t  just his  words.  It  was  the  cold 

tone of his voice, the way he made it sound like a warning. 

“He was joking—right?” Clay asked in a trembling voice. He scratched his blond 

hair nervously. 

“Yeah. I guess,” I replied. 

A  family  walked  past  us,  heading  toward  the  House  of  Mirrors.  They  had  two 

little boys with them, both about five or six, and both of them were crying. 

“I’ve seen so many crying kids in this park!” I commented. 

“They’re just wimps,” Luke replied. “Scaredy-cats. Let’s go find another ride or 

something.” 

“No, I really think we should find Mom and Dad,” I told him. 

“Yeah. Let’s go find them,” Clay said eagerly. The poor kid. I think he was really 

scared. But he was trying his best not to let my brother see how frightened he was. 

“Aw, what’s the hurry?” Luke protested. “Let them find us.” 

“But  they’re  probably  really  worried,”  I  insisted. I  started  walking  toward  the 

front gate. 

“Dad  will  only  make  us  leave,”  Luke  grumbled.  But  he  followed  anyway.  And 

Clay gratefully came along, keeping close to my side. 

Following the trail, we passed by a rickety old wooden roller coaster. It rose up as 

high  as  a  four-story  building,  casting  a  wide,  dark  shadow  over  the  walk.  A  sign  in 

front read: OUT OF ORDER, DO YOU DARE TO RIDE IT ANYWAY? 

The gate was open. There was no attendant. 

“Hey, Lizzy, want to ride it?” Luke asked, staring at the beat-up old cars parked 

at the bottom of the tracks. 

“No way!” Clay and I replied in unison. We kept on walking. 

The  trail  curved  under  thick  trees,  and  we  were  suddenly  in  the  shade.  A  sign 

read: BEWARE OF TREE SNAKES. 

Clay covered his head with his hands. All three of us raised our eyes to the trees. 

Were there really snakes up there? 

It  was  too  dark  to  see  anything.  The  leaves  were  so  thick,  no  sunlight  filtered 

through. 

Suddenly, I heard a gentle hissing sound. 

At first I thought it was just the rustle of the leaves. 

  32 

But then the hissing grew louder—until all of the trees seemed to be hissing down 

at us. 

“Run!” I cried. 

The  three  of  us  started  running  along  the  trail,  ducking  low,  our  sneakers 

thudding  hard  on  the  pavement.  The  hissing  in  the  trees  above  us  grew  louder, 

angrier. 

I  thought  I  saw  a  long,  dark  snake  slithering  in  the  grass  beside  the  trail.  But  it 

might have just been a shadow. 

We  kept  running  even  after  the  trees  ended  and  we  were  in  sunlight  again.  The 

trail curved past a row of evil-looking statues. They were made of stone. They were 

statues  of  grinning  monsters,  eyes  narrowed  menacingly,  fangs  lowered  from  their 

twisted mouths. Their arms were outstretched, ready to grab anyone who came close. 

I  slowed  to  a  trot,  my  eyes  on  the  ugly  statues.  Suddenly,  I  heard  low,  evil 

laughter. 

“It—it’s coming from the statues!” Clay exclaimed. “Keep running!” 

Did  the  statues  move  toward  us?  Did  they  raise  their  arms  higher?  Did  they 

beckon to us to come closer? 

I’m not sure. With their evil laughter in my  ears, I lowered my head  and  turned 

on the speed. 

All three of us were panting hard as we ran along the trail. I didn’t see any other 

people. I didn’t see anyone in a Horror costume, either. 

We  slowed  as  we  came  to  another  sign.  This  one  had an  arrow  pointing  in  the 

direction  we  were  running.  It  read:  FRONT  EXIT,  DON’T  BOTHER,  YOU  WILL 

NEVER ESCAPE. 

I  caught  the  worried  expression  on  Clay’s  face  as  he  read  the  sign.  “It’s  only  a 

joke,” I told him. “The signs are supposed to be funny.” 

“Ha-ha,” he said weakly. He was panting hard, struggling to catch his breath. 

Without  warning,  Luke  jumped  on  Clay’s  shoulders.  “Hey,  Clay—how  about  a 

ride?” 

Clay cried out angrily, “Get off!” 

Luke laughed and hung on. Clay dropped to his knees, trying to throw Luke off. 

“Come on, guys,” I pleaded. “Luke, stop being such a goof. We’re trying to find 

Mom and Dad.” 

But now they were laughing and wrestling on the ground. 

“Come on, guys!” I shouted, rolling my eyes. “Let’s go!” I tugged my brother to 

his feet. 

Clay’s  glasses  had  flown  off.  He  stopped  to  pick  them  up  from  the  grass.  Then 

we continued on our way. 

The path led past a rectangular flower garden—filled with black flowers! Then it 

suddenly came to a stop in front of a large red barn. 

The boys walked up to the open doorway of the barn. I stayed back, searching for 

a path that led around the barn. I couldn’t see one. 

“The  path  goes  right  through  the  barn  to  the  other side,”  Luke  called  to  me. 

“Come on, Lizzy!” He motioned for me to join them. 

  33 

I spotted a small sign painted to the right of the barn’s double doors. It read: BAT 

BARN. 

“Hey—are  there  bats  in  there?”  I  called,  feeling  a cold  shudder  run  down  my 

back. I like most animals. But bats really give me the creeps. 

Luke stepped inside the barn. Clay hung back, standing just outside the door. “I 

don’t see any,” Luke called out to me. “It’s kind of dark.” 

A strange odor invaded my nostrils. It was strong and sour. It came from the barn. 

I didn’t want to go in there. 

“Come on, Lizzy!” Luke called. “The path goes right out the other side. Don’t be 

chicken. You can run straight through.” 

I stepped up beside Clay at the doorway and peered inside the barn. 

“It looks okay,” Clay said quietly. 

The  sour  odor  was  much  stronger.  “Yuck,”  I  said,  making  a  face.  “It  really 

stinks.” 

Luke stood inside the barn, his eyes raised to the rafters. “I don’t see anything up 

there,” he reported. 

Doors on the opposite wall were wide open. It would only take ten seconds to run 

through the barn and out the other side, I realized. 

“Let’s go,” I told Clay. 

He  and  I  stepped  into  the  barn.  The  sour  smell  was overpowering.  I  held  my 

breath and pinched my fingers over my nose. 

We started running to the doors on the opposite wall—and they slammed shut. 

With a gasp of surprise, I turned back to the doors we had entered. They slammed 

shut, too. 

“Hey!” I shouted angrily. 

“What’s going on?” Clay cried in a whisper. 

We were in total darkness, blacker than black. 

The sour odor swept over me. I started to feel sick. 

And then I heard the rapid flutter of wings. Soft at first, then louder, closer. 

I screamed as I felt something brush against the back of my neck. 

  34 

  

14 

  

  

“Go  away!”  I  let  out  a  low  moan  of  horror  and  swung  my  hands  wildly  above  my 

head. 

The rapid fluttering retreated, then returned. 

“Bats!” Clay cried in a terrified, tiny voice. I felt him grab my arm. 

“I can’t see!” Luke shouted. “It’s so dark!” 

“I—I hate bats!” I stammered. 

I felt a cold whoosh of air as a bat flapped over my head. 

I swung my hands wildly. 

The flapping, fluttering sounds were all around us. 

As  my  eyes  slowly  adjusted  to  the  darkness,  I  began  to  see  shadowy  shapes 

shooting past. Back and forth. Faster and faster. 

I felt one brush my shoulder. 

“Oh, help!” I cried. 

Clay started to shriek. “Help us! Help us!” 

“They’re zooming right at me!” Luke wailed. 

Something bumped into my shoulder. I screamed. 

“Help  us!  Help  us!”  Clay  continued  to  plead  at  the top  of  his  lungs.  His  shouts 

were nearly drowned out by the flapping of wings. 

I  felt  another  bat  brush  against  my  shoulder.  Covering  my  face,  I  tried  to  make 

my way blindly to the door. 

The sour odor choked me. My terror made my legs shaky. I could barely walk. 

And then I felt a hard tug in my hair. 

Another tug. Loud flapping right on my head. 

A shrill whistling hiss. So close, it could have been coming from me. 

I screamed. I screamed again. 

“It—it’s caught in my hair!” I cried, falling to my knees. 

Another shrill hiss. Another tug of my hair. 

I swung my hands. I hit it. I felt a warm body, felt the brush of fluttering wings. 

I shoved it hard—shoved it from my hair. 

“Ohhh, help!” I cried. 

The  flapping  wings  and  shrill  whistles  surrounded  me.  I  could  hear  Luke  and 

Clay shouting. But they seemed far, far away. 

Another one brushed my cheek. Another one bumped my shoulder. 

The  shadows  darted  back  and  forth.  The  barn  was  alive  with  flying,  chittering 

bats. 

  35 

“Ohh, help! Help us, please!”  Another one brushed my  face.  I felt a rush of air, 

beating  wings  on  the  top  of  my  head.  “Help  us!  Help  us!”  But  there  was  no  one 

around to help. 

  36 

  

15 

  

  

I covered my eyes with one hand and thrashed out wildly with the other hand, trying 

to beat the bats away. 

Choking and sobbing, I could barely breathe. 

I heard Luke calling far, far away. He seemed to be behind a curtain of flapping, 

chittering bats. 

And then, suddenly, sunlight invaded the barn. 

On my knees,  I lowered my hand from my eyes and saw that the barn door had 

slid open. 

Luke, standing at the door, his mouth open in shock, turned back to Clay and me. 

“I—I touched the door, and it opened,” he explained. 

Clay’s  glasses  were  hanging  off  one  ear.  His  blond hair  was  totally  messed  up. 

His eyes darted around the barn. “Where are the bats?” he cried. 

I  raised my  eyes to the rafters.  “Hey!”  I cried out. No bats. No sign of any bats 

anywhere. 

I  climbed  to  my  feet,  pulling  my  hair  back  with  both  hands.  “Let’s  get  out  of 

here!” I cried. 

Clay and I followed Luke out of the barn. The warm sunshine felt so good! 

I was still itchy from the bats. I rubbed my shoulders and the back of my neck. “I 

hate bats! I really do!” I exclaimed with a shudder. 

“But there weren’t any bats,” Luke said, grinning at me. “It was all a fake.” 

“Huh? It was not!” Clay cried angrily. “Those were bats. I could hear them—and 

feel them!” 

“All special effects,” Luke claimed. 

“It wasn’t special effects when one got tangled in my hair!” I cried. Just thinking 

about it gave me cold shivers. 

“Special  effects,”  Luke  repeated.  “Really  excellent  special  effects.  I  was  almost 

scared, too.” 

“Almost!” I cried. I walked over, grabbed him, and pretended to wring his neck. 

“Almost? I heard you screaming your head off, Luke!” 

He pulled out of my grasp, laughing. “I knew it wasn’t real. I was just screaming 

like that to scare you!” 

What  a  liar!  I  really  didn’t  believe  my  brother.  He  was  scared.  He  was  plenty 

scared. I knew he was! 

“They were bats, not special effects,” I insisted angrily. 

“Then where did they go when the door opened?” Luke demanded. “As soon as 

the door opened, the bats all vanished.” 

“Let’s stop talking about it,” Clay pleaded. “Let’s find your parents—okay?” 

  37 

“Yeah, okay,” I agreed, glaring at Luke. “You really are nuts, you know that?” I 

told him. 

He stuck his tongue out at me. 

I wanted to punch his lights out. But I try to be a nonviolent person. So I just gave 

him one hard punch on the shoulder. 

He howled in protest. “You’re stupid, Lizzy. You’re really stupid,” he muttered. 

“And you’re afraid of pretend bats!” 

I ignored him and led the way down the path toward the front gate. Two people in 

Horror costumes appeared on the path, going the other way, chatting enthusiastically. 

“Is this the way to the front gate?” I called to them. 

They ignored my question and walked right past us. 

“Hey!” I called to them. 

But they both kept jabbering away and didn’t even seem to see or hear me. 

The sun beamed down on us. The air had become hot and still, with no breeze at 

all. 

I wiped sweat off my forehead with one hand. I could still smell the sour aroma 

of the Bat Barn. The odor was on my hands, on my clothes. 

I  saw  four  teenagers  in  bathing  suits,  two  boys  and  two  girls,  hurrying  over  the 

grass  toward  a  large  brown  pond.  A  sign  came  into  view  near  the  shore.  It  read: 

ALLIGATOR POND, FEEL FREE TO SWIM HERE. 

Luke laughed. “Are those guys crazy?” 

We stopped to watch them step into the water. 

“Do  you  think  there  are  really  alligators  in  there?”  Clay  asked,  biting  his  lower 

lip. 

I shrugged. “Who knows? I don’t know what to think about this park!” 

We  continued  along  the  path.  A  few  minutes  later,  I  recognized  the  mountain-shaped structure of the Doom Slide. The wide, circular plaza came into view. It was 

nearly deserted. Even the ice-cream-selling Horror had vanished from his cart. 

“Where do you suppose Mom and Dad are?” I asked. 

“They’ve  probably  been  looking  for  us  for  hours,  and  now  they’re  really  mad,” 

Luke said, frowning. 

“Where are they?”  Clay  cried.  He  was  starting  to  sound  really  stressed  out. 

“We’ve got to find them.” 

“Is that them?” Luke asked. He was pointing to a man and a woman in the shade 

of a large stone fountain. 

I  shielded my  eyes from the sun with one hand.  The woman was tall, with dark 

hair. The man was short and blond. 

“Yes!  That’s  them!”  I  cried  happily.  I  started  running  to  the  fountain,  calling  to 

them, “Mom! Dad!” 

The boys came racing after me. 

“Mom! Dad! Hey!” I shouted happily. 

They both turned around, surprised expressions on their faces. 

“Oh!” I cried out when  I saw it wasn’t them. I stopped short, and Luke bumped 

right into me. 

“Sorry,” I told the confused couple. “We thought you were someone else.” 

  38 

The three of us hurried across the plaza. I could hear the wail of wolf howls from 

the Werewolf Village. The ice cream cart stood lonely and deserted near the entrance 

to the Doom Slide. 

“Where are they?” Clay asked, whining. “I’m starting to get hungry.” 

“Yeah. It’s way past lunchtime,” I agreed. 

“They  could  be  anywhere,”  Luke  said  unhappily,  kicking  a  pebble  across  the 

pavement. “They could be anywhere in this giant park.” 

I sighed. “Let’s look for them in the shade. The sun is really getting hot.” 

We  headed  toward  the  shade  of  the  Doom  Slide  building.  Suddenly,  two  green-costumed  Horrors  came  into  view.  Their  big  yellow  eyes  bulged  in  front  of  their 

heads. 

Without  thinking,  I  went  running  up  to  them.  “Have you  seen  our  parents?”  I 

asked breathlessly. 

They stared at me in surprise. “Your parents?” one of them repeated. 

“Yeah.” I nodded. “My mom has black hair. My dad is kind of short and he has 

blond hair.” 

“Hmmmm.” The two Horrors glanced at each other. 

“Mom was wearing a bright yellow sundress,” I told them. 

“And Dad had a Chicago Cubs cap on his head,” Luke added. 

“Oh, yeah. Right,” one of the Horrors, a woman, replied. 

“You saw them?” I asked eagerly. 

She  nodded.  “Yeah.  I  remember  them.  They  left.  They  left  about  half  an  hour 

ago.” 

“Huh?” I gaped at her in disbelief. 

“They asked me to give you a message,” the Horror said. 

“Message? What message?” I asked. 

“Good-bye,” the Horror replied. 

  39 

  

16 

  

  

“You’re wrong!” I cried. “They wouldn’t leave.” 

“About half an hour ago,” the Horror repeated. She shrugged her shoulders under 

the bulky monster costume. “I was at the gate when they left.” 

“But—but—” I sputtered. 

The two Horrors turned and began walking toward a small white shed at the edge 

of the plaza. 

“Hey,  wait!”  I  called,  chasing  after  them.  “You  made  a  mistake.  Our  parents 

wouldn’t leave without us.” 

• They disappeared into the shed. The door slammed behind them. 

I turned back to Luke and Clay. They stared at me blankly. 

“She was wrong,” I told them. “Mom and Dad are still here. I know it.” 

“Then why  did she say—” Clay started, but his voice broke.  I  could see that he 

was very worried and upset. Beads of sweat ran down his pink forehead. 

Luke  tried  to  make  a  joke.  “I  guess  that  means  we  have  the  whole  park  to 

ourselves!” he exclaimed, forcing a smile. 

“Very funny,” I replied sarcastically. “We also have no money, and we’re about 

three hundred miles from home.” 

“We could call somebody,” Luke suggested. 

“No  phones,”  Clay  muttered.  He  lowered  his  head,  shoved  his  hands  into  the 

pockets of his shorts, and turned away from us. 

“Oh, right,” Luke remembered. “They told Dad there are no phones in the park.” 

“That’s crazy,” I said heatedly. “They’re liars. The Horrors are all liars.” 

“I guess that’s their job,” Luke said. “Telling us lies to scare us to death. That’s 

why they call it HorrorLand.” 

“They should call it DumbLand,” Clay muttered bitterly. 

“But  it’s  so  cool!”  Luke  protested.  “I love being  scared  out  of  my  wits.  Don’t 

you?” He gave Clay a hard shove. 

“No,” Clay replied softly. He made no attempt to shove Luke back. 

“Well, she was lying about Mom and Dad,” I insisted, gazing at the white shed. 

“She  was  just  trying  to  scare  us.  Mom  and  Dad  are  still  here.  We  just  have  to  find 

them.” 

“Come on, let’s go,”  Luke urged. “I hope we find them soon.  I’m getting really 

hungry.” 

  

We  wandered  through  the  park  for  what  seemed  like  hours.  We  searched  through 

dark, mysterious woods and strange monster villages. We passed through a carnival 

area with dozens of scary-looking rides. 

  40 

On the other side of Vampire Village, we passed a building marked Monster Zoo. 

It  was  closed.  But  we  could  hear  the  most  terrifying  grunts,  howls,  and  moans 

coming from inside. 

A  long  yellow  building  had  a  sign  outside  that  proclaimed:  GUILLOTINE 

MUSEUM, PLEASE HOLD ON TO YOUR HEAD.  Luke wanted to  go inside, but 

Clay and I talked him out of it. 

HorrorLand was surprisingly empty. We passed  several  Horrors scurrying  along 

the  paths  in  their  bright  green  costumes.  And  we  saw  a  few  families  wandering 

around, always with crying kids. 

The rides in the carnival area were all running empty. All of the food stands and 

restaurants were empty, too. 

We walked clear across to the other end of the park. I was feeling more and more 

worried. 

Why hadn’t we run into Mom and Dad? 

Surely we should have seen them by now. 

Clay had become very quiet. I could tell he was really scared. Even Luke trudged 

along with his shoulders slumped and his head down. 

By the time we found ourselves back at the Alligator Pond,  I was feeling pretty 

bad. I crossed the grassy shore and walked up to the edge of the brown water. 

“What  do  you  think  happened  to  those  teenagers  who went  swimming  here?” 

Luke asked, staring across the pond. “Think the alligators ate them?” 

“Maybe,”  I  replied.  I  wasn’t  really  listening  to  him.  I  was  thinking  about  Mom 

and Dad. 

“Hey, look!” Clay cried, pointing to the water. 

I  saw  two  long,  greenish-brown  logs  floating  toward  us  on  top  of  the  water.  It 

took me a while to realize that the logs were alligators. 

“Big ones!” Clay declared in a hushed whisper. 

“Better step back,” I warned them. 

All  three  of  us  were  standing  at  the  water’s  edge. The  alligators  floated  silently 

just below the surface of the still water, hardly creating a ripple. 

“Mom and Dad didn’t leave without us,” I repeated for the thousandth time. 

“But we searched everywhere,” Luke said quietly. 

“They  didn’t  leave  without  us,”  I  said.  “They  would  never  leave  without  us. 

So…” I hesitated. I was thinking hard, and my thoughts were all frightening. 

“So?” Clay asked eagerly. 

“So  if  they’re  not  in  the  park,”  I  continued,  “it  means  something  happened  to 

them. Something bad happened to them.” 

Clay gasped. Luke narrowed his blue eyes at me. “What do you mean, Lizzy?” he 

asked. 

“I  mean  maybe  this  place  really  is  evil,”  I  said.  “And  maybe  the  Horrors  or 

somebody did something bad to Mom and Dad.” 

I  stared  down  at  the  brown  alligator  backs  gliding so  smoothly,  so  effortlessly 

toward us. 

“That’s crazy,” Luke muttered. 

I knew it was crazy. But I had no other explanation. 

  41 

“I have such a bad feeling about this park,” I told them. “A real bad feeling.” 

And as I said that, I felt strong hands grab me from behind and push me into the 

Alligator Pond. 

  42 

  

17 

  

  

I screamed. 

Then I realized I wasn’t being tossed into the water. 

The hands were holding on to my shoulders. 

I spun around. “Dad!” I cried. 

“Lizzy!” he exclaimed, still holding on to me. “Where have you guys been?” 

“We’ve searched this entire park twelve times!” Mom declared. She was standing 

behind us on the grass, hands pressed tensely on her waist. 

“We were looking for you!” I cried. 

“They told us you left!” Luke said. 

“We were kind of scared,” Clay added. 

We all started talking at once.  I was so happy to see them. And  I  could see that 

Luke and Clay were really happy, too. 

I had imagined all sorts of terrible things happening to Mom and Dad.  It wasn’t 

like me to let my imagination run away like that. 

But  HorrorLand  was  such  a  scary  place.  It  was  impossible  not  to  have  scary 

thoughts here. 

“I want to go home,” I said. 

“Did you find a phone?” Clay asked. “Did you find a car?” 

Dad shook his head. “No. No phones. The guy in the monster costume didn’t lie. 

There are no phones in the park.” 

“But the Horrors were very nice to us,” Mom broke in. “They told us not to worry 

about a thing.” 

“They  said  to  just  come  to  the  ticket  booth  when  we  were  ready  to  leave,”  Dad 

reported. 

Mom  ran  a  hand  tenderly  through  Luke’s  hair.  “Did  you  go  on  any  rides  or 

anything?” 

“We did a lot of scary stuff,” Luke told her. 

“Very scary,” Clay added. 

“I’m really hungry,” Luke said. 

Dad glanced at his watch. “It’s way past lunchtime. I think we’re all hungry.” 

“The restaurants and foodstands are all on the other side of the park,” Mom said. 

“Can we just eat lunch and then leave?” I asked eagerly. I still had a bad feeling 

about the place. I wanted to get away from HorrorLand, far away. 

“Your  mom  and  I  have  spent  all  our  time  searching  for  you,”  Dad  said,  wiping 

sweat off his sunburned forehead with one hand. “We haven’t had any fun at all.” 

“We should all at least go on one ride together before we leave,” Mom said. 

  43 

“I just want to go,” I urged. “I really do.” 

“Lizzy, that’s not like you,” Mom scolded. 

“She’s scared,” Luke told them. “She’s a chicken.” 

“Maybe there’s  a ride that will take us to the front of the park,” Dad suggested. 

“We could all take it, then have some lunch and leave.” 

“That sounds good,” Mom said. She stared at me. “Okay with you?” 

“I guess,” I told her, sighing. “It’s just that the rides here are all too scary. They 

aren’t any fun.” 

Luke laughed. “They’re too scary for Lizzy—but not for Clay and me,” he said. 

“Right, Clay?” 

“I was a little scared in the Bat Barn,” Clay confessed. 

We  headed  away  from  the  Alligator  Pond,  across  the grassy  shore  to  the  paved 

walkway. A couple of costumed Horrors walked past, chattering in low voices. 

A  girl’s  high-pitched  shrieks  of  terror  floated  in the  air  from  somewhere  in  the 

distance. The same frightening cry repeated over and over. 

Wolf howls rose up in front of us. And from a speaker hidden somewhere in the 

trees, I heard evil laughter, a hideous cackle that repeated over and over. 

“It’s like being in a horror movie,” Mom commented. 

“Very clever,” Dad added, walking with a hand on my shoulder. “It’s strange that 

we never heard of this park.” 

“They should put some ads on TV,” Mom said. “Then they’d get more people to 

come here.” 

We passed by a tall, narrow green building with a sign in front that read: FREE 

FALL, THE ONLY BUNGEE JUMP WITHOUT A CORD. 

“Want to try that?” Dad asked, squeezing my shoulder and grinning at me. 

“I don’t think so,” I quickly replied. 

Luke was way ahead of us. He turned around and walked backward, waiting for 

us  to  catch  up.  “Mom  and  Dad  should  try  the  Doom  Slide,”  he  said,  grinning.  “It’s 

awesome!” 

Had he really forgotten how terrified he was? 

“I don’t think they’d like it,” I said quietly. 

“Maybe we could find something that’s just a little scary,” Clay suggested. 

Dad laughed. “Are you having a good time, Clay?” 

Clay hesitated. “A little,” he replied finally. 

“I’m having a great time!” Luke declared. 

The path curved along a narrow brown river. Millions of tiny white insects flitted 

over  the  surface  of  the  water.  Catching  the  bright sunlight,  they  looked  like  little 

sparkling diamonds. 

A small brown boathouse came into view.  Behind it, I could see slender  canoes 

bobbing beneath a wooden dock. 

A sign beside the boathouse read: COFFIN CRUISE. 

A RELAXING FLOAT TO THE GRAVE. 

“This might be fun,” Mom said, her eyes on the small boats. 

“I think the river flows toward the front of the park,” Dad said. “Let’s take it!” 

  44 

Luke cheered and went running to the dock. 

I lingered behind the others. When I finally stepped out onto the dock, it took me 

a while to realize that the objects bobbing in the brown water weren’t canoes—they 

were coffins! 

They  were  made  of  black  polished  wood.  The  lids  were  pulled  back,  revealing 

red satin interiors. Each coffin was big enough for one person. 

I felt a cold chill run down my back. “We’re really going to climb into coffins?” I 

asked. 

“They  look  comfy,”  Mom  said,  smiling  at  me.  “The  water  is  flat  and  gentle, 

Lizzy. It won’t be a scary ride.” 

“Me first!” Luke cried, running to the end of the wooden dock. 

Two costumed Horrors appeared to help us into the coffins. “Lie back. Enjoy the 

ride,” one of them said. 

“It will be your last,” the other Horror added with a low chuckle. 

When we were all inside coffins, the Horrors untied them and gave us a hard push 

away from the dock. 

Here I am, I thought, lying in my coffin. 

Here we all are, my entire family, on our backs in our coffins. 

The coffin floated gently, bobbing in the water. I stared up at the bright blue sky. 

Trees shimmered on both banks as I floated past. 

It was so pretty, so relaxing. 

Why did I think something terrible was about to happen? 

  45 

  

18 

  

  

Lying on my back, I couldn’t see the others over the coffin sides. But I could hear the 

splash of their coffins around mine. 

“This is nice,” Mom said. “Very relaxing.” 

“It’s boring!” Luke declared from up ahead of me. “Where’s the scary part?” 

“It’s just a nice ride in a coffin,” Dad said. “Do you think we’re really floating? 

Or do you think the coffin is on some kind of track?” 

“I could float like this for hours,” Mom said. 

“The rides here are pretty long,” Clay told her. 

“Is that a hawk up in the sky?” Dad asked. “Can everyone see it?” 

Shielding  my  eyes  from  the  sun  with  one  hand,  I  searched  the  sky.  Directly 

above, a dark shadow hovered high in the sky, a little bigger than a dot. 

“It’s  not  a  hawk.  I’ll  bet  it’s  a  vulture!”  Luke  declared.  “It  sees  the  coffins,  and 

it’s waiting to eat our flesh!” He laughed. 

“Luke—where do you get these hideous ideas?” Mom demanded. 

“Maybe  Luke  should live in  HorrorLand!”  Dad  exclaimed.  “We  could  get  him 

one of those green monster costumes, and he’d fit right in perfectly!” 

“He  doesn’t need a  costume!”  I  joked.  I  was  starting  to  feel  a  little  better.  The 

ride  was  gentle  and  relaxing.  And  I  figured  nothing  terrible  could  happen  with  my 

whole family around. 

I settled back on the coffin bottom, my hands resting at my sides, and stared up 

dreamily at the bird circling high in the clear sky. The coffin bobbed gently, making 

soft splashing sounds. 

So pleasant… 

So quiet… 

And then, before I could utter a sound, the coffin lid slammed shut over me. And 

I was trapped in total darkness. 

  46 

  

19 

  

  

“Hey!” I shouted. My voice was muffled by the heavy lid over me. 

I could hear the dull thud of the other coffin lids slamming shut. 

“Hey—let me out!” 

I pushed against the lid with both hands. But it wouldn’t budge. 

I took a deep breath and tried again. This time, I pushed with my hands and my 

feet. The heavy lid still didn’t move. 

My heart was pounding so hard, I thought my chest would explode. The air inside 

the closed coffin was already getting hot and stuffy. 

“Open up! Open up!” I screamed. 

I tried pushing the lid again. I could hear Clay’s muffled cries in the coffin next 

to mine. The poor guy was screaming his head off. 

I let out a loud groan as I pushed up with all my strength. The lid wouldn’t give 

an inch. 

Calm  down,  Lizzy.  Calm  down, I  instructed  myself. It’s  just  a  stupid  ride.  The 

coffin lid will open any second. 

Breathing hard, I waited. 

I counted to ten. 

I counted to ten again. 

The lid didn’t snap open. 

I  tried  shutting  my  eyes  and  counting  to  fifty. When  I  reach  fifty, I  told  myself, 

I’ll open my eyes, and the lid will be open. 

“…twenty-two,  twenty-three,  twenty-four…”  I  counted  out  loud.  My  voice 

sounded tiny and choked. It was getting hard to breathe. The air began to feel really 

stale. 

I  stopped  counting  at  twenty-five  and  opened  my  eyes.  The  lid  hadn’t  popped 

open. 

It’s so hot in here, I thought. The sun is beating down on the lid. There’s no air, 

and I’m going to fry! 

I tried to scream, but no sound came out. 

I gasped for air. 

Outside, I could hear muffled shouts and cries. 

Was that my mother screaming like that? 

“It’s  just  a  ride,”  I  said  out  loud.  “Just  a  stupid  ride.  The  lid  is  going  to  pop—

now!” 

But it didn’t. 

The air was so hot, so hot and stale. 

Why didn’t the lid open? 

  47 

Why? 

I  tried  to  force  back  my  panic,  but  I  couldn’t.  My entire  body  was  shaking  and 

shivering. I felt cold perspiration drip down my forehead. 

“Something has gone wrong!” I cried out loud. “The lid is supposed to open—but 

it doesn’t!” 

Frantically,  I pushed up  with both hands. My arms ached from pushing  so hard. 

But the lid didn’t move. 

The coffin bobbed and rocked in the water. 

I  lowered  my  hands  in  defeat.  I  sucked  in  a  mouthful  of  the  hot,  stale  air.  My 

chest was heaving. My body trembled. 

And then I felt my legs start to itch. A tingly feeling down near my ankles. 

Moving up my legs. 

An itchy, crawly feeling. 

Something was crawling slowly up my legs. 

Something small and prickly. 

“Ohh.” I let out a low, terrified groan. 

Spiders! 

  48 

  

20 

  

  

I tried to scratch my legs, but my arms weren’t long enough. Unable to move or bend 

in the cramped coffin, I couldn’t reach down to them. 

The tingling moved higher. 

I wanted to scream, but I started to cough. 

And then the coffin lid popped open. Bright sunlight made me shut my eyes. 

“Oh!” I pulled myself up to a sitting position. Blinking against the light, I saw the 

others already scrambling up out of their coffins. 

I scratched my legs furiously. To my surprise, there were no spiders. No bugs of 

any kind. 

The coffin had pulled up to a small dock. I braced both hands against the sides of 

the coffin and heaved myself to my feet. 

“Let’s get out of here!” I heard Clay cry. 

“That was horrible!” my mom shrieked. 

Luke didn’t say anything. His face was pale, and his black hair was matted to his 

forehead with sweat. 

“They really went too far!” Dad said angrily. “I’m going to complain.” 

“Let’s just go!” Mom told him. 

We all scrambled onto the dock. I helped pull Clay up. Then I took several deep 

breaths of fresh air. 

Dad ran off the dock toward the open plaza, and the rest of us hurried after him. 

“To the ticket booth!” he called back to us. “Right up there!” He pointed. 

The coffin ride had taken us to the front of the park. I could see the front gate and 

the row of green ticket booths to the right. 

“That ride was really gross!” Clay said, shaking his head. 

“My legs got all itchy. I thought it was ants!” Luke declared. 

“I thought it was spiders!” I told him. 

“I wonder how they did that,” Luke said thoughtfully. 

“I don’t care,” I replied. “I just want to get out of here. I hate this place!” 

“So do I,” Clay agreed. 

“They just go too far,” Mom said breathlessly, jogging to keep up with us as we 

followed  Dad.  “It  isn’t  any  fun  when  a  ride  is  that  scary.  I  really  had  trouble 

breathing.” 

“So did I,” I told her. 

“Hey,  how  do  we  get  home?”  Luke  suddenly  demanded, staring  at  Mom.  “Our 

car blew up.” 

“I think those people in the monster costumes will lend us a car,” Mom replied. 

“They told your father just to come to the ticket booth.” 

  49 

“Can we stop and get pizza?” Luke asked. 

“Let’s get out of this place and then worry about lunch,” Mom told him. 

The main plaza was totally empty. Not another living person. 

We  followed  Dad  to  the  first  ticket  booth.  He  turned  back  to  us,  making  a 

disappointed face. “Closed,” he said. A metal grate had been pulled over the window. 

Dad  was  breathing  hard  from  running  all  the  way.  He  pushed  his  blond hair  off 

his sweaty forehead with both hands. “Over here,” he said. 

We followed him to the next ticket booth. Also closed. 

Then the next. Closed. 

It didn’t take us long to discover that all of the ticket booths were closed. 

“Weird,” Luke said, shaking his head. 

“Don’t  they  expect  any  more  visitors  today?”  Mom  asked  Dad.  “How  can  they 

just close up like that?” 

Dad  shrugged.  “We’ll  have  to  ask  someone.”  His  eyes  searched  the  empty 

grounds. 

I  turned  and  checked  out  the  plaza  along  with  him. Still  no  one  in  sight.  No 

visitors. No Horrors. 

“Let’s try over there,” Dad said. He started walking to a low green building that 

stood beyond the ticket booths. It looked like some kind of office. 

It was closed, too. Dad tried the door. It was locked. 

Dad  scratched  his  head.  “What’s  going  on  here?  Where’d  everyone  disappear 

to?” he demanded. 

Mom took his arm. “It’s very strange,” she said softly. 

I glanced at Luke and Clay. They were standing tensely side by side on the walk 

in front of the office. Neither of them spoke. 

“Are you sure these are the right ticket booths?” I asked. 

“Yes,” Dad replied wearily. “This is the front entrance.” 

“So where can everyone be?” Mom asked, chewing her lower lip. 

“Maybe  we  can  find  someone  in  the  parking  lot,”  I  suggested.  “You  know.  A 

parking  attendant  or  something.  They’ll  be  able  to tell  us  how  to  get  a  car  to  go 

home.” 

“Good idea, Lizzy,” Dad said. He patted the top of my head, the way he used to 

when I was a little girl. 

I waited for Luke to make fun of me. But he didn’t say a word. I guess he was too 

worried and upset. 

“Come on,” I urged. I turned and ran past the empty ticket booths. The tall metal 

front gate to HorrorLand stood just beyond the booths. 

I  stopped  for  a  second  to  read  a  sign  on  the  side  of  one  of  the  ticket  booths.  It 

said: NO EXIT, NO ONE LEAVES HORRORLAND ALIVE! 

“Ha-ha,” I said sarcastically. “These signs are a riot, aren’t they?” 

I jogged the rest of the way and reached the gate first. I pulled it, and it wouldn’t 

open. So I tried pushing it. 

It didn’t move. 

Then I saw the heavy chain and the large steel padlock on the gate. 

  50 

Swallowing hard, I turned back to the others. 

“We’re locked in!” I told them. 

  51 

  

21 

  

  

“What?”  Dad  stared  at  me,  his  face  twisted  in  confusion.  I  don’t  think  he  believed 

me. 

“We’re  locked  in!”  I  repeated.  I  lifted  the  heavy  metal  padlock  with  both  hands 

and then let it fall back with a loud clang against the bars of the gate. 

“But that’s impossible!” Mom cried, raising her hands to her cheeks. “They can’t 

lock people inside an amusement park!” 

“Maybe it’s another joke,” Luke suggested. “Everything in this place turns out to 

be a joke. Maybe this is one, too.” 

I  lifted  the  heavy  padlock  again.  “It  doesn’t  look like  a  joke,  Luke,”  I  said 

unhappily. 

“Then there must be another gate where they want us to exit,” Mom suggested. 

“Maybe,”  Dad  said  doubtfully.  “Maybe  there’s  a  side  exit.  But  I  haven’t  seen 

one.” 

“What are we going to do?” Clay asked, whining. His face was red, and he was 

breathing hard. 

“Where is everyone?”  Luke  demanded,  whining,  too.  “They’ve  got  to  let  us 

leave. They’ve got to!” 

“Let’s  try  to  stay  calm,”  Dad  said,  putting  a  hand on  Luke’s  shoulder.  “There’s 

no reason to panic. This is a strange place, but we’re not in any danger.” 

“He’s right,” Mom broke in. “There’s no reason to be afraid. We’ll be out of here 

and on our way home in no time.” She forced a smile. 

“As  soon  as  we  get  out,  I’ll  buy  you  guys  pizzas  and  big,  cold  drinks,”  Dad 

promised. “And we’ll all have a good laugh about our terrifying adventures today in 

HorrorLand.” 

“But how do we get out?” Luke demanded shrilly. 

“Well…” Dad rubbed his chin. 

“Do you think we could climb the fence?” I asked. 

We all raised our eyes to the top of the iron fence. It was way over our heads. It 

must have been about twenty feet tall. 

“I can’t climb that!” Clay cried. “I’d fall!” 

“It’s too high,” Mom said quickly. 

“Bad idea,” I murmured. 

A  large  white  cloud  drifted  over  the  sun.  Our  shadows  grew  longer  over  the 

pavement. The air quickly grew cooler. 

I felt a chill run down my back. 

“There’s got to be a way out of this stupid park!” I cried angrily. I hoisted up the 

padlock and slammed it against the bars of the gate. 

  52 

“Hold  on,  Lizzy,”  Dad  said  soothingly.  “We  just  have  to  find  one  of  those 

costumed park workers. They’ll tell us how to get out.” 

“Uh… Dad…” I turned and saw Luke grab Dad’s arm. “Here they come.” 

We all uttered astonished cries as we saw the Horrors crossing the plaza. Dozens 

of them. They moved quickly, with a steady rhythm. Silently. 

A  few  seconds  before,  the  plaza  had  been  empty.  Now  it  was  filled  with  green-costumed Horrors marching toward us, spreading out, preparing to surround us. 

I could feel the panic rise up from my stomach. My knees began to shake. I stared 

in horror at them as they drew closer, closer. I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t move. 

“What are they going to do?” Clay cried, his features twisted in terror. He slipped 

behind Dad. “What are they going to do to us?” he cried. 

  53 

  

22 

  

  

We huddled together as the Horrors marched silently toward us. The only sound was 

the  soft  thud of  their  monster  feet  on  the  pavement,  and  their  long  purple  tails 

dragging on the ground. 

“There are hundreds of them!” Mom murmured. She grabbed Dad’s arm with one 

hand. She slipped her other arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer. 

We  had  our  backs  against  the  iron  fence.  We  stared helplessly  at  the  grinning 

green faces, the bulging yellow eyes, which appeared to be laughing cruelly at us. 

Finally, they stopped a few feet in front of us. 

The plaza was still and silent. Terrifyingly silent. 

The sun was still hidden behind the big cloud. Two large blackbirds swooped low 

in the gray sky. 

We stared at the Horrors, and they stared back at us. 

I  swallowed  hard,  leaning  against  my  mother.  I  could  feel  her  entire  body 

trembling. 

I took a deep breath and then cried out: “What do you want?” The sound of my 

own voice startled me. 

One of the Horrors, a young woman, stepped forward. 

Frightened,  I  tried  to  back  up.  But  my  back  was  already  pressing  against  the 

fence. 

“What do you want?” I repeated in a trembling voice. 

The costumed Horror stared at us one by one. “I want to thank you,” she said in a 

cheery voice. 

“Huh?” I uttered. 

“I’m the HorrorLand MC. We all want to thank you for being our guests today.” 

She flashed us a warm smile. 

“You mean we can go?” Luke demanded, half hidden behind my dad. 

“Of  course,”  the  Horror  said,  grinning  warmly.  “But  first  we  all  want  to  thank 

you for appearing on HorrorLand Hidden Camera.” 

The dozens of Horrors behind her broke into applause and loud cheers. 

“Huh? You mean this is some kind of show?” Dad demanded, frowning. 

“See the cameras?” the MC asked. She gestured up to two tall poles in the plaza. 

Raising my eyes to the top, I saw two TV cameras. 

“You mean we were on TV?” Luke cried. 

“Since the moment you arrived,” the MC replied. “Our hidden cameras followed 

you  everywhere.  From the hilarious scene where we blew up  your car, our cameras 

were  with  you.  And  I  know  our  home  audience loved the  terrified  expressions  on 

your faces and all of your horrified screams as you took our HorrorLand rides!” 

  54 

“Now, wait a minute,” Dad said angrily. He took a step forward. His hands were 

balled into tense fists at his sides. “You say this is a TV show? How come I’ve never 

seen it?” 

“We’re seen every weekend on The Monster Channel,” the Horror replied. 

“Oh,” Dad replied quickly, lowering his eyes. “We don’t have cable.” 

“You  should  get  it,”  the  Horror  told  him.  “You’re  missing  a  lot  of  great  scary 

shows on The Monster Channel.” 

The Horrors all clapped and cheered. 

“Well,  you’ve  been  very  good  sports,”  the  MC  continued,  her  yellow  eyes 

bouncing  in  front  of  her  head  as  she  talked.  “We’ve  enjoyed  having  you.  And  to 

show our appreciation, we have a brand-new car waiting for you in the parking lot!” 

More cheers and applause from the Horrors. 

“A new car? Excellent!” Luke exclaimed. 

“Does that mean we can leave?” Clay asked timidly. 

The  Horror  nodded.  “Yes,  it’s  time  for  you  to  leave.  The  real  exit  is  right  over 

there, through that doorway.” 

She pointed to a tall green building near the end of the fence. I saw a yellow door 

on the side. 

“Take  the  yellow  door,”  the  Horror  instructed.  “And  thanks  again  for  appearing 

on HorrorLand Hidden Camera!” 

As all the Horrors clapped their big green hands, we stepped away from the fence 

and hurried toward the exit. “I can’t believe we were on TV the whole time!” Mom 

declared. 

“And we’re  getting  a new car!”  Luke exclaimed happily. He started jumping up 

and down. Then he leaped onto Clay’s back, nearly knocking him over. 

I laughed. It was good to see the old Luke back with us. 

“We’ve  got  to  get  cable!”  Luke  told  Dad.  “I  want  to  see  The  Monster  Channel. 

It’s got to be awesome!” 

“We’ll have to order it so we can see ourselves,” Mom said. 

I  reached  the  yellow  door  first  and  pulled  it  open.  I  stepped  into  an  enormous 

room, with white walls that shone under the bright white lights from the ceiling. 

“Is this the exit?” I cried. 

As soon as we were all inside, the door slammed shut with a bang that made my 

heart skip. 

Then all the lights went out. 

“Welcome to the HorrorLand Challenge!” boomed a deep, frightening voice over 

a loudspeaker. 

“Huh?”  I  gazed  blindly  around,  trying  to  see  something—anything—in  the  total 

darkness. 

“You  have  one  minute  to  go  through  the  Monster  Obstacle  Course,”  the  voice 

thundered.  “Please  keep  in  mind  that  the  games  are now  over.  This  is  real.  You’re 

playing for your life!” 

  55 

  

23 

  

  

“We’ve been tricked!” I heard Dad cry angrily. And then he shouted at the top of his 

lungs, “Let’s get out of here!” 

“Run!”  the  deep  voice  boomed  over  the  loudspeaker. “You  have  fifty-six 

seconds.” 

Dad  started  to  shout  again.  But  we  stopped  when  a  dim  light  came  up,  and  a 

disgusting four-armed creature stepped toward us. 

“Ohhh!” I cried out without even realizing it. 

The size of a gorilla, the monster had huge green eyes surrounded by thick red fur 

over  its  face.  Saliva  drooled  from  its  mouth.  And  as  it  opened  its  jaws  wider,  two 

rows of long fangs slid over its thin purple lips. 

“Don’t  just  stand  there!  Run!  This  is  an  obstacle  course!”  the  voice  boomed 

impatiently. “You have fifty seconds to live! At least make a good race of it.” 

The  monster  uttered  a  low  growl  and  lumbered  toward  us  in  the  dim  light.  Its 

jaws  were  opened  wide  as  if  preparing  to  bite.  Its four  enormous  clawed  hands 

swiped at the air in front of it. 

I was too stunned to move, too frightened to run. 

But suddenly, I felt a hand grab mine and tug me hard. 

It was Dad, I realized, trying to pull me to safety. 

I heard the boys screaming in fear.  I felt Mom brush beside me as we started to 

stumble forward. 

“Run! Run!” the deep voice urged over the shrieks of the two boys. 

I couldn’t see where I was running. The light was so dim, so shadowy. I saw only 

a blur now, a blur of running feet, of moving shadows. 

The monster let out a deafening roar. I covered my ears and kept running. 

Its four clawed hands swiped at Dad. Missed. 

We hurtled past it. 

Only to face two giant birds, at least ten feet tall. They looked like cranes. They 

squawked and flapped their enormous wings. It sounded like canvas tents flapping in 

a strong wind. 

“Ohh! Help!” 

Was that me shrieking like that? 

Was I really being wrapped in their hot, flapping wings? Smothered? Choked? 

“No—please!” 

How did I break away? 

Was  I  being  chased  now  by  six  growling  piglike  creatures  with  sharp,  pointed 

teeth curling from their twisted mouths? 

  56 

The screams and terrified shrieks of my family rose over the beating birds’ wings, 

the monstrous growls and grunts. 

I  heard  Dad  cry  out.  And  in  the  dim  light,  I  saw  him  struggling  to  free  himself 

from the four-armed creature. 

“No!” I screamed as I felt something warm wrap around my ankle. A fur-covered 

snake! 

I screamed again and kicked wildly, sending it flying into the darkness. 

But  before  I  could  move  away,  another  furry  snake  spun  around  my  leg, 

tightening quickly. 

I bent and pulled at it as it hissed in protest. 

I tossed it aside. 

“Run! Run!” the voice on the loudspeaker boomed. “Twenty seconds to live!” 

More monsters loomed in front of us. Disgusting yellow lizardlike creatures with 

dark  flicking  tongues  like  bullwhips.  A  hopping  furry  ball  that  roared  as  it  hopped, 

sharp teeth poking out of three mouths. 

Hissing snakes, enormous buzzing insects with glowing red eyes, more grunting 

pig monsters. Then a giant bearlike creature came at us on two legs. It tossed its dark, 

round head back and laughed like a hyena as its paws punched the air. 

“Help me!”  I heard  Luke shriek. And then  I  saw him disappear, wrapped inside 

the beating wings of one of the giant birds. 

The bird cawed in triumph as its wings tightened around my brother. 

“Ten seconds!” the voice boomed. 

“No!”  I  cried.  I  lunged  toward  the  bird,  grasped  the  beating  wing,  and  pulled  it 

open. 

Luke slid out, and we both began to run. 

Monsters growled, and flapped, and grunted, and roared. 

“Are we… going to make it?” Luke asked in a tiny voice. 

I didn’t have a chance to answer. 

Two powerful paws grabbed me around the waist, hoisted me high in the air, then 

slammed me to the floor. 

I landed hard on my stomach. My forehead hit the floor. 

Dizzy  and  hurt,  I  looked  up  in  time  to  see  an  enormous  elephantlike  creature 

about to flatten me with its huge furry back foot. 

I’m not going to make it, I realized. 

I’m not going to make it. 

  57 

  

24 

  

  

The enormous flat foot lowered over me slowly, steadily. The monster was taking its 

time. 

It all seemed to be happening in slow motion. 

I wanted to move. I wanted to roll out from under it. 

But the fall had taken my breath away. I lay there gasping, watching the monster 

foot coming down to crush me. 

“Ohhh.” I couldn’t catch my breath. I couldn’t squirm away. 

I could feel the heat of the monster foot. I could smell its putrid sweat. 

The foot pressed down on my stomach. 

I shut my eyes and waited for the pain. 

The jarring blast of a buzzer made my eyes shoot open. 

The  monster  raised  its  heavy  foot  from  my  body.  The  floor  shook  under  its 

weight as it began to lumber away. 

Am I alive? I wondered. 

Or am I only dreaming that I’m still alive? 

Is that creature really leaving without crushing me? 

The buzzer echoed in my ear. Then it abruptly stopped. The loudspeaker crackled 

on. 

“Time’s  up!”  a  woman’s  voice  said.  The  voice  of  the  HorrorLand  MC  who  had 

led us to this terrifying obstacle course. 

“Time is up. What a thrilling race!” she gushed. 

I  groaned  and  started  to  pull  myself  up.  In  the  dim  light,  I  saw  that  all  of  the 

monsters had vanished. 

“That was a tough battle,” the MC continued over the loudspeaker. “Do we have 

any survivors?” 

“Yes, we do,” the deep, booming voice replied. 

“How many survivors do we have in there?” the woman asked. 

“Three,” the booming voice replied. “Three survivors out of five.” 

  58 

  

25 

  

  

A cold chill ran down my body. 

I opened my mouth in a silent cry of shock and leaped to my feet. 

Three out of five? 

Did that mean that two of us were dead? 

My  chest  still  ached.  My  knees  were  trembling.  I  squinted  into  the  dim  light, 

searching desperately for the others. 

Halfway  across  the  room,  I  saw  Luke  and  Clay.  They were  huddled  together, 

walking as if in a daze toward the far wall. 

“Hey!” I tried to call to them. But my voice came out a choked whisper. 

Where were Mom and Dad? 

Were they both killed by the monsters? 

Three out of five. Three out of five. 

“Nooooooooo!” I finally found my voice and let out a horrified wail that echoed 

off the walls. 

“Excuse  me.  A  slight  mistake,”  the  deep  voice  boomed.  “Make  that  five  out  of 

five survivors.” 

“Five out of five!” the HorrorLand MC exclaimed. “A new record. We’ve never 

had a perfect score before. Let’s give them a round of applause, everyone!” 

I took a deep breath and held it, trying to stop my trembling. 

They’re okay! I thought happily. Mom and Dad are okay. 

And  then  I  saw  them.  They  had  their  arms  around  Luke  and  Clay  and  were 

making their way toward me. 

“We’re okay!” I cried, rushing to them, my arms outstretched. “We’re okay!” 

All  five  of  us  huddled  in  the  center  of  the  dark  room,  hugging  each  other  and 

sobbing. 

Dad’s arm was bleeding from a deep gash. One of the monsters had clawed him. 

Aside from that, we were shaken but not hurt. 

“Now what?” Luke asked in a trembling voice. “Are they going to let us go?” 

“They can’t get away with this,” Dad said angrily. “They can’t do this to people 

and get away with it. I don’t care if it is TV!” 

“Those monsters were real!” I exclaimed with a shudder. “It wasn’t a fake. They 

were really trying to kill us.” 

“How do we get out?” Luke demanded. “Will they let us out?” 

We all started chattering at once, our voices high and frightened. 

Suddenly, the ceiling lights flashed on, flooding the room with bright light. And 

the MC’s voice broke through our frightened conversation. “Let’s bring our winners 

out with a round of applause!” she announced cheerfully. 

  59 

We all cried out as the floor began to tilt beneath us. I grabbed on to Dad, and we 

started to slide. 

The  floor  tilted  down  like  a  sliding  board.  And  we slid  out  of  the  room—and 

landed in the plaza outside. 

Still feeling dazed, I jumped quickly to my feet as the HorrorLand MC hurried to 

greet us. The big crowd of Horrors behind her was clapping and cheering. 

“You can’t do this to us!” I screeched. 

I was so angry, I didn’t know what I was doing. I just totally freaked. 

I leaped at the woman, grabbed the top of her mask, and started to pull it off with 

both hands. 

“You  can’t  do  this!  You  can’t!”  I  shrieked.  “Let  me  see  your  face!  Let  me  see 

who you really are!” 

Using all of my strength, I gave the mask a hard tug. 

Then I screamed and let go as I realized the truth. 

  60 

  

26 

  

  

She wasn’t wearing a mask! 

The monstrous green face was her face. 

She  wasn’t  wearing  a  monster  costume.  None  of  the  Horrors  were  wearing 

costumes, I realized. 

I stepped back, raising my hands in horror as if trying to shield myself.  “You—

you’re really monsters!” I stammered. 

They  nodded  back  at  me,  pleased  grins  on  their  ugly  faces.  Their  yellow  eyes 

bobbed gleefully. 

“You—you’re  all  monsters!”  I  screamed.  “But—but  you  said  this  was  a  TV 

show,” I stammered to the Horror MC. 

Her  bulging  yellow  eyes  gazed  at  me.  “We’re  happy  to  say  it  is  the  top-rated 

show on The Monster Channel,” she said cheerily. “Thanks to great contestants like 

you  and  your  family.  The  Monster  Channel  is  watched  by  nearly  two  million 

monsters all over the world.” 

“But—but—” I stammered, taking another step back. 

“People  don’t  always  take  us  seriously,”  she  continued.  “People  come  to 

HorrorLand  and  think  it’s  all  a  big  joke.  People  laugh  at  the  signs  around  the  park. 

They laugh at the rides and attractions. But it’s all very serious to us. All of it.” 

My father stepped up beside me, shaking a fist angrily. “But you can’t do this to 

innocent people!” he shouted. “You can’t bring people into this park to torture them, 

and—and—” 

“Oh, I’m sorry. Our time is up,” the MC interrupted, shaking her enormous green 

head. “I’m sad to say it’s time to say good-bye to our special guests for this week.” 

“Now, wait—” Dad shouted, raising both hands for quiet. 

The  crowd  of  Horrors  silently  pushed  forward.  We  had  no  choice  but  to  start 

moving with them. 

“Let  me  show  you  people  the  way  we  say  good-bye  on HorrorLand  Hidden 

Camera,” the MC said. 

Dad  tried  to  hold  back,  to  resist,  but  several  Horrors  bumped  against  him.  They 

were bumping all of us now, pushing us toward what appeared to be a round purple 

pond just beyond the plaza. 

We couldn’t fight back. There were too many of them. 

We couldn’t run. They had us surrounded. 

They drove us like sheepdogs herding cattle. In a few seconds, we were standing 

at the edge of the purple pond. 

A  foul  smell  rose  up  from  the  pond.  The  purple  liquid  bubbled  and  gurgled, 

making a sick sucking sound. 

  61 

“Let us go!” Luke cried shrilly. “We want to go home!” 

The  HorrorLand  MC  ignored  his  frantic  pleas  and  stepped  to  the  edge  of  the 

gurgling pond. “Saying good-bye is always sad,” she said. “So we try to have a little 

fun with our farewells.” 

“Just let us go!” Luke insisted. Dad put a hand on his shoulder to try to comfort 

him. 

We all stared at the MC as she raised a large rock in one hand and held it over the 

disgusting, bubbling pond. “Watch,” she instructed us with a smile. 

She let the rock drop into the pond. 

As soon as it touched the thick surface, it was pulled down with a loud  sucking 

sound. 

“See how easy it is to say good-bye?” the Horror said, turning to us. “Now, will 

you jump in—or do you want to be pushed?” 

  62 

  

27 

  

  

Silently, the Horrors began moving in on us. Closer. Closer. 

Backing up, Clay tripped over my foot and nearly fell into the gurgling purple pit. 

I grabbed him and held on to him until he regained his balance. 

All five of us were standing at the edge of the pit. 

The sour odor swept over me. I felt sick. The thick purple slime lapped up at my 

ankles as if reaching out to grab me. 

“Mom!  Dad!”  I  cried.  I  didn’t  know  what  I  expected them  to  do.  We  were  all 

helpless. 

I knew we weren’t going to escape this time. 

Without realizing it, we were all holding hands. 

“Will  you  jump  in—or  do  you  want  to  be  pushed?”  The  MC  repeated  her 

question. 

“I’m real sorry,” Dad murmured to us, ignoring her. “I’m real sorry I brought you 

here. I—I didn’t know…” His voice broke. He lowered his eyes. 

“Dad, it’s not your fault!” I told him, squeezing his hand. 

And as I squeezed his hand, I had an idea. 

A wild idea. A stupid idea. A really crazy idea. 

I knew I had to try it. It was the only idea I had. 

“People laugh at everything in the park,” the HorrorLand MC had told us. “But 

it’s all very serious to us,” she’d said. 

All very serious… 

Very serious… 

She stood right in front of me now, waiting for us to jump to our deaths, eager for 

us to get sucked down into the purple slime. 

I knew this was my last chance. I knew it was crazy. 

But I knew I had to try it. 

I stepped up to the MC, reached out, and pinched her arm as hard as I could. 

  63 

  

28 

  

  

Her mouth opened wide, and she let out a startled gasp. 

She  tried  to  pull  her  arm  away.  But  I  held  on  and  pinched  harder.  “The  Mad 

Pincher strikes again!” I shouted, remembering Luke’s annoying cry. 

Her yellow eyes rolled around crazily. “No!” she pleaded. 

Harder. Harder. 

And  then  I  was  the  one  to  cry  out  as  her  mouth  opened  wide,  and,  with  a  loud 

whoosh, a rush of air escaped her lips. 

I leaped back. 

As the air rushed from her mouth, she appeared to deflate, just like a balloon. 

I gaped in amazement as she folded helplessly to the ground. 

An  angry  cry  rose  up  from  the  crowd  of  Horrors.  “Inflate  her!”  one  of  them 

yelled. “Inflate her immediately!” 

They began moving in on us, growling and grumbling menacingly. 

“Pinch them!” I shouted to my family. “Pinch them! The ‘No Pinching’ signs that 

we  thought  were  so  stupid—they  were  serious!  The  Horrors  deflate  if  they’re 

pinched!” 

A Horror stepped up,  arms outstretched to push  me into the pond.  I pinched his 

arm hard, and a few seconds later, he deflated. 

I  heard  the whoosh of  air  escaping  to  my  right  and  saw  that  Luke  had  deflated 

one, too. 

Whoosh! Another one deflated and folded to the pavement. 

That’s all it took. 

The plaza filled with frightened cries and gasps of horror. 

The alarmed Horrors turned and ran. Stampeded is a better word. They scattered 

through the park, screaming as they ran. 

Taking  a  long,  deep  breath,  I  happily  watched  them flee.  “See?  I  always  come 

through in a pinch!” I said, amazing myself by making a joke. 

I  don’t  think  anyone  else  in  my  family  heard  me.  They  were  shouting  for  joy, 

hugging each other, jumping up and down. 

“Let’s  get  out  of  here!”  I  shouted.  I  started  running  toward  the  front  gate.  The 

others followed close behind. 

The gate was open now. I guess the Horrors had opened it, figuring the only place 

we were heading was to the bottom of the purple pond. 

Without looking back, we ran out into the empty parking lot. 

And stopped. 

“No car,” I murmured. 

In all the excitement, I had forgotten that our car had been blown up. 

  64 

I  let  out  a  weary  sigh.  I  felt  as  if  I  were  deflating,  just  like  the  Horrors.  “Now 

what?” I asked, staring across the enormous flat parking lot. 

“It’s too far to walk!” Luke wailed. “How do we get out of here?” 

“The  buses!”  Mom  cried,  pointing.  I  turned  my  eyes to  the  row  of  purple-and-green  buses  parked  on  the  side  of  the  lot.  They  glowed  under  the  bright  afternoon 

sun. 

“Yeah!”  Dad  cried  excitedly.  “Maybe  we  can  start  one  up  and  get  away  from 

here!” 

We  started  jogging  over  the  pavement  to  the  buses. “Cross  your  fingers,”  Dad 

called, leading the way. “Maybe they leave the keys in them. It’s our only chance!” 

“Hurry!” Luke shouted suddenly. “They’re coming!” 

My heart leaped in my chest. I turned back toward the gate. 

Sure  enough,  the  Horrors  were  pouring  out  of  the  park,  chasing  after  us.  “Give 

up! You cannot escape!” one of them screamed. 

“No one ever escapes!” another Horror shouted. 

“Hurry!” Luke cried. “Hurry! They’re going to catch us!” 

  65 

  

29 

  

  

With the Horrors close behind, shouting and threatening us, we ran full speed toward 

the row of buses. 

My heart was pounding almost as loud as my sneakers against the pavement. My 

throat ached, and I had a sharp pain in my side. 

But I kept running. 

“You cannot escape!” 

“Stop now!” 

“Give up!” 

The angry cries of the Horrors sounded even closer. But I didn’t turn back to see 

if they were catching up. 

The door to the first bus was open. Dad got there first and scrambled up the steps 

and inside. 

Mom stepped in, followed by the two boys. 

I pulled myself inside and the bus door slid shut behind me. “Dad—the keys!”  I 

choked out. 

“Yes! They’re here!” he cried happily. “Hold on! We’re getting away!” 

The engine coughed, then started up with a roar. Dad lowered his foot on the gas 

pedal, and the bus shot forward. I stumbled down the aisle and fell into a seat behind 

Luke and Clay. 

“Hurry!  They’re  coming!  They’re  coming!”  Luke  and  Clay  were  screaming  in 

unison. 

I could hear the angry shouts of the Horrors through the closed bus windows. 

“We’re  okay!”  Dad  cried,  leaning  over  the  big  steering  wheel.  “We’re  okay! 

We’re outta here!” 

“Yes!” I shouted happily. “Yes!” 

We all started to cheer. We kept cheering until we were out of the parking lot and 

back on the highway. 

We laughed and celebrated all the way home. 

The  drive  took  hours  and  hours,  but  we  didn’t  care.  We  were  safe!  We  had 

escaped! 

It was night when Dad pulled the bus up our driveway. “Home, sweet home!”  I 

cried joyfully. 

We  all  piled  eagerly  out  of  the  bus.  I  took  a  deep breath  and  stretched.  The  air 

smelled so sweet and fresh. A full moon made the front lawn shine. 

Then I saw him. It was a Horror, and he was clinging to the back of our bus. “Oh, 

no!” I cried out. 

“What are you doing there?” Dad demanded. 

  66 

“Did you ride there the whole way home?” Luke asked in disbelief. 

I shrank back  as the Horror let  go of the bus  and slid to the ground. His  yellow 

eyes studied us menacingly. He moved toward us quickly. 

Clay and Luke hid behind Dad. Mom’s mouth dropped open in fright. 

“What do you want?” I cried. 

He reached out his green hand. “Here,” he said. “We forgot to give you your free 

passes for next year!” 

Scanning, formatting and 

proofing by Undead.