Who's Your Mummy?

  The Horror’s short yellow horns curled above the wavy green hair on his head. He had blue eyes under thick brown eyebrows. His whole body seemed to be covered with purple fur.

  Was it a costume? It had to be. The Horrors weren’t real. But then, why couldn’t I see any eye holes in his mask? And how come I couldn’t see any wrinkles in the fur?

  “Who are you?” he demanded in a tense whisper. His eyes darted all around, as if he was watching out for something or someone.

  I gazed at the brass name tag pinned to his overall strap: BYRON.

  He leaned over me, casting a shadow over us both. “Are you Abby Martin?” He turned to Michael. “Michael Munroe?”

  “Yes,” I answered. “Is something wrong?”

  I thought of Granny Vee. Was she sick again? Was he delivering a message from her?

  “There’s plenty wrong,” Byron replied.

  He glanced all around again. This dude was definitely TENSE.

  He shoved something into my hand. “Someone wants you to have this,” he whispered.

  “Excuse me?” I said. “What is it?”

  But he had already spun away from us and was trotting through the crowd on the plaza.

  “Well, that was totally disturbing,” Michael said. He grabbed my hand. “What is it? What did he give you?”

  I gazed at the folded-up paper in my hand. “Oh, wow,” I said. “I think it’s just an ad. I saw other Horrors passing out flyers. For the magic show at the Haunted Theater.”

  “Big whoop,” Michael muttered. “That dude looked so frightened, I thought it was going to be something really scary.”

  “He’s just a good actor,” I said.

  I unfolded the sheet of paper. I was wrong. It wasn’t an ad for the Haunted Theater. It was a handwritten note in red marker, and it read:

  ESCAPE HORRORLAND.

  YOU ARE IN DANGER.

  Michael laughed. “That Horror probably goes around the park passing these out all day.”

  I stared at the fat red letters. Red as blood.

  “I don’t think so,” I said. “Michael, he wasn’t passing this out at random. He … he knew our names.”

  Michael rolled his eyes. “It’s another HorrorLand joke. Like that roller coaster ride back there. We thought we were going to fall out and drop to the ground — but we didn’t. They want to scare us. That’s the whole fun of HorrorLand.”

  I thought hard. “I’m not so sure.”

  And then I saw Byron across the plaza.

  I grabbed Michael’s sleeve and pointed. “There he is. Come on. Let’s make him tell us what this note is about.”

  I gripped the note tightly in my right hand, and we started to run. We almost crashed into two women pushing baby strollers. Then we got trapped in the middle of a group of teenagers heading to the games arcade.

  We were both breathing hard by the time we caught up to him.

  The tall Horror had his back to us. He was straightening the straps on his overalls as he gave directions to a family.

  “Byron!” I called.

  He spun around — and Michael and I both gasped.

  The Horror blinked at us in surprise. Beneath his horns, he had yellow spiky hair. He stared at us with one green eye and one brown eye.

  He wasn’t Byron.

  I squinted at his name tag: CODY.

  “Oh, wow. Sorry,” I muttered.

  “Thought you were someone else,” Michael said.

  “That happens to me a lot,” Cody said. “But you can always recognize me by the dimples in my cheeks. No one has dimples like these. I made them myself with a power drill.”

  He laughed.

  I stared hard, but I didn’t even see any dimples. I guessed it was his little joke.

  He lowered his weird-colored eyes to the sheet of paper. “What’s that?” he asked.

  He didn’t wait for an answer. He grabbed it from my hand and quickly read it.

  I saw his expression change. His smile faded as he read it again. He squinted at it, studying it for a long time.

  Then he laughed. “You two didn’t believe this dumb warning, did you?” he asked.

  “Well …” I started.

  “It’s one of our joke messages,” he said. “You know, nothing is real at HorrorLand.” He gave us a wave of his paw. “Have fun, guys! Don’t get too scared! Ha-ha!”

  He started to walk away.

  “Hey, can we have that paper back?” Michael called.

  Cody turned and shrugged his big furry shoulders. “I think I’ll keep it. You know. Pass it on to some other sucker!”

  He laughed again. “We Horrors pass these things out all day long. Part of our job. Gotta keep it SCARY! You know.”

  He turned and hurried away.

  Michael and I stared at each other. “Well, that was disturbing,” I said.

  “I told you,” Michael said. “I told you it was just a joke.”

  I groaned. “Are you kidding me? Michael, that Horror was totally lying. Didn’t you hear that phony laugh?”

  Michael shrugged. “I believed him, Abby. Why would someone send us a threat like that? We just got here. Why would someone want us out? We were invited!”

  Of course, I didn’t have answers to those questions.

  Michael and I discussed the warning note all the way back to Stagger Inn.

  As we walked, we passed groups of kids and dozens of families, all laughing and having fun. None of them seemed afraid. I didn’t see any of them carrying handwritten messages in red ink.

  “See you later,” I told Michael. I took the dark, creaky elevator up to my room.

  The elevator was ice-cold. Frightening organ music played as it climbed. And I shared the elevator with a skeleton, who was leaning against the back wall, holding a suitcase.

  I stepped into my room and found my cell phone on the nightstand. I picked it up. I started to call Granny Vee.

  Silence.

  No bars. No network here.

  “Weird,” I muttered. I set it back down. Started to the closet. And spotted something on the desk.

  A folded-up sheet of white paper.

  My breath caught in my throat.

  I hurried over to it and picked it up. My hands trembled as I struggled to unfold it.

  Another threat!

  No. Wait.

  My eyes glanced over the page. There were bats with red eyes all around the margins.

  Did someone know how much I hated bats?

  No. It was an invitation. To lunch. I read it carefully:

  Come meet all the Very Special Guests at the Vampire Café.

  All blood types are welcome!

  Get the 4-1-1 at a meeting afterwards — unless you are feeling DRAINED!

  There was a little square map at the bottom of the page. I saw that the Vampire Café was in the Vampire State Building.

  Sounded like fun. And I was eager to meet the others. Mainly, I was curious. I wanted to ask them why they were picked as Very Special Guests.

  I glanced at my watch. Almost lunchtime.

  I hurried into the bathroom to get ready. My long hair had been blown in every direction by that roller coaster ride. It was a tangled mess. I grabbed my hairbrush.

  “Huh?” No mirror in the bathroom?

  That’s totally weird, I thought.

  I moved back into the bedroom and searched around. No dresser mirror. No wall mirror.

  I pulled open the closets. No mirrors on the closet doors.

  A hotel room without a single mirror?

  Shaking my head, I walked to the window. I could see my reflection just a little bit in the glass. I brushed my hair as best as I could. Then I changed into a fresh T-shirt and shorts.

  I grabbed the invitation and headed out the door.

  * * *

  I heard flapping bat wings as I stepped into the Vampire Café.

  Abby, don’t freak, I told myself. I took a deep breath. The bats aren’t real here. Nothing is real.

 
I stepped up to the hostess. The room was so dark, I could barely see her. She raised a candle and smiled at me in the flickering light. She was very pale, with black lips and heavy black eyeliner around her eyes.

  She wore a long black dress and a black cape that brushed the floor as she stepped forward. “Welcome,” she said softly. “We keep it very dark because the vampires burn up in bright light. And I hate when that happens.”

  “I like your eye makeup,” I said.

  She squinted at me. “I don’t wear makeup.”

  The flapping bat wings grew louder. They sounded as if they were right overhead.

  I knew it was just sound effects. But I still felt a chill.

  The hostess led me to a long table at the back. A waitress was filling everyone’s glass from a big pitcher. The drink was red and thick. Like blood? “We only serve it warm,” she told me. “More nourishing that way, don’t you think?”

  Before I could answer, a boy jumped up and started introducing everyone around the table. It was hard to remember all the names.

  I sat down next to a pretty girl with straight brown hair named Carly Beth. The boy who greeted me was tall and athletic looking. I think his name was Matt. Next to him — a brother and sister named Billy and Sheena.

  I dropped into my chair. The waitress filled my glass. I tasted it. Tomato juice.

  Against the far wall, I saw a tree. Fake, I guessed. And hanging from the branches of the tree were dozens of bats. I hoped they were fakes, too.

  I waved to Michael. He sat at the other end of the long table, next to a boy whose name I think was Robby. Robby was busily drawing a cartoon on his placemat, and Michael was laughing.

  “Have you all been here a long time?” I asked. “Has it been awesome?”

  “Definitely not awesome,” Matt replied. “We’ve had some … problems.”

  “I was telling Matt what Sabrina and I overheard,” Carly Beth said. She leaned closer so everyone could hear her over the noise of the restaurant.

  “We heard these two Horrors talking,” Carly Beth said. “One of them was named Bubba. I don’t remember the second one. They didn’t know we were there.”

  “And what did they say?” Robby asked, putting down his marker.

  “They were talking about us. The Very Special Guests,” Carly Beth said. “They said it’s going to get a lot scarier for us.”

  “They didn’t mean it as a joke,” the girl named Sabrina said. “They meant it for real.”

  I glanced around the table. The kids all looked weird in the flickering candlelight. But even in the darkness, I could see how troubled they were.

  Matt shook his head. “Byron warned us we weren’t safe,” he said. “We have to keep searching for him. If we can find him, he’ll tell us what’s really going on here.”

  “Hey,” I said. “Did you say Byron? I just saw a Horror named Byron.”

  The kids all acted shocked. A few of them gasped.

  Everyone at the table turned to me. “Where did you see him?” Sheena asked.

  “Was he okay?” her brother, Billy, asked.

  They bombarded me with questions. “Do you know where he went? Did he give you a message for us? Did he tell you anything?”

  I was totally confused. Why were they so excited about this Horror named Byron?

  “He came up to Michael and me at Zombie Plaza,” I said. “And he —”

  “He gave Abby a message,” Michael interrupted. “It said, ESCAPE HORRORLAND. YOU ARE IN DANGER.”

  “We didn’t know if it was a joke or not,” I said. “We tried to find Byron to explain, but he disappeared in the crowd.”

  That got everyone buzzing.

  “Let’s go,” Matt said. He stood up. “If he’s walking around the park, we have to find him. We have to learn the truth.”

  Carly Beth pulled Matt back down into his seat. “We can’t just run out,” she said. “There’s a meeting after lunch, remember?”

  “Maybe we can ask questions,” Sabrina said. “Maybe we can get some answers at the meeting.”

  Everyone started talking at once.

  Robby clinked his spoon against his glass until we grew quiet. “I didn’t get to tell my story,” he said. “I saw the two missing girls. In the arcade.”

  The kids all acted stunned again.

  Michael and I stared at each other across the table. We were both totally confused. Missing girls? What were they talking about?

  “They came into the arcade. Really,” Robby said, tapping his marker excitedly on the tabletop. “I saw them both. I talked with them.”

  “What did they say?” Matt asked him.

  “That none of us are safe in HorrorLand,” Robby answered. “They wanted to take me to another park. They said we’d be safe there.”

  “That proves it!” Matt cried. “We have to get out of here!”

  “Wait a minute! Wait a minute!” Sabrina cried. Everyone turned to her. “Robby hit his head. When Carly Beth and I found him in the arcade, he was totally unconscious.”

  “So?” Robby demanded.

  “So maybe you dreamed about seeing Britney and Molly,” Carly Beth said.

  “Right,” Sabrina agreed. “You were knocked out. How could you see the two girls?”

  “Whoa. Wait.” Robby stood up and reached into his jeans pockets. “I didn’t dream it. I can prove it.”

  He pulled a golden coin from his pocket and held it up. “Check it out,” he said. “They gave this to me. It says PANIC PARK on it. It’s some kind of token from another park.”

  He passed the coin around. Everyone studied it with serious expressions.

  Again, I glanced across the table at Michael. He and I didn’t know what they were talking about. Missing girls? Another theme park?

  I had a million questions I wanted to ask them.

  The token came to me. I raised it close to my face to study it. It was shiny and new. I could see the letters PP engraved on one side.

  And I could see my reflection in the coin. I saw my eye up close. Then I saw that one side of my hair was messed up.

  Suddenly, I felt a strong pull.

  As if the coin were pulling me toward it. Like a vacuum cleaner.

  I blinked. What is up with this?

  I gripped the coin tightly. I tried to pull back.

  But I could feel myself sliding … moving toward the shiny surface …

  It was drawing me to it … pulling me … pulling me into it.

  I felt so strange, so helpless and light.

  A hand grabbed the token away.

  I felt dizzy, stunned. I turned to see that the waitress had taken it. She shoved it into her black apron pocket.

  “Thanks for the tip, guys,” she said. “Tips mean a lot to us.”

  Robby jumped to his feet and stuck out his hand. “Hey, give it back!” he cried. “That wasn’t your tip. That token belongs to me!”

  The waitress rolled her eyes. “Okay, okay,” she grumbled. “Don’t get your boxers in a twist.” She handed back the token.

  Robby raised it to his face to examine it in the candlelight. “Hey!” he shouted. “It’s not the same coin. This one says HorrorLand on it.”

  He turned around to protest. But the waitress had disappeared into the kitchen.

  “She made a switch!” Robby cried. “She didn’t want us to have that token.”

  “Let’s go get her!” Matt declared. He jumped up, too.

  But before anyone could move from the table, two Horrors stepped up to block our way.

  One of them was a skinny Horror with purple freckles on his green face. His name tag read: BUBBA. The other was the yellow-haired Horror, Cody.

  “Hope you all enjoyed your last meal on earth!” Bubba boomed.

  He was joking. The two Horrors led us to a big dimly lit auditorium for our meeting. The stage was lit by one spotlight. It beamed down on a podium in front of a black curtain.

  We Very Special Guests filled the front row. The rest of the aud
itorium was empty. Eerie organ music played over the speakers. The two Horrors took up places at the doors. Were they guarding the exits?

  Michael and I sat at one end of the row. Next to us, Robby was showing his token to Billy and Sheena.

  “Do you get what they were talking about?” Michael asked. “Something about two girls named Britney and Molly? And they went missing?”

  Before I could answer, a smiling Horror walked across the stage and stepped into the spotlight. He was very thin and frail looking. He had pale green skin, a bald head under his horns, and squinted down at us through square-framed glasses.

  “My name is Ned,” he said in a squeaky old man’s voice. “We’re so happy to have you all in our park. We invited you as Very Special Guests for a reason. We want you to go home and tell all your friends how much good, scary fun you had at HorrorLand. And tell them to come visit us, too.”

  “But someone is really trying to scare us!” Matt shouted from his seat.

  Ned’s smile grew even wider. “All in good fun,” he said.

  Matt didn’t give up. “We have a lot of questions for you,” he said.

  Ned nodded. “I’ll be happy to answer your questions,” he squeaked. “But first, I have a special gift for each of you. A little memento of your stay with us.”

  Matt groaned. “This dude won’t answer anything,” he muttered.

  “Here to give you your gifts,” Ned said, “is the Horror who had the great idea to invite you all here to the park. And it was his idea to have this meeting today.” He waved to the side of the stage. “Please come here and hand out the gifts.”

  A tall Horror with short yellow horns, green hair, and purple fur came striding out, carrying a package.

  Byron!

  I recognized him instantly — the Horror who gave me that warning message. The other kids were all muttering excitedly.

  “We’ve been looking everywhere for him,” I heard Sheena whisper. “And here he is!”

  “Byron — where were you?” Matt shouted.

  Ned stood beside Byron, a smile pasted on his face. Byron pretended he didn’t hear Matt’s question.

  He held up the package. “I have special HorrorLand tokens for each of you,” he said. “I think you will want to carry them with you everywhere.”