Streets of Panic Park

  He pressed his wooden face closer. His eyes blinked wide. “And do you really think The Menace will send you back to your mommies and daddies? I don’t think so!”

  “SHUT UP!” Britney shrieked. “SHUT UP! SHUT UP! I HATE you!”

  She smacked her fists against the mirror. Trying to hit him. “I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!”

  Slappy let out a giggle. He raised a wooden hand. He pointed two fingers at Britney. “Let me show you a wonderful trick The Menace taught me!”

  I heard a crackling sound. Like an electrical shock.

  Britney staggered back. She stumbled into the mirror behind her.

  Her eyes bulged. Her mouth hung open, and she took wheezing breaths.

  Slappy pointed the two fingers at her again.

  Again, I heard the crackle of electric current.

  Britney let out a moan.

  Something happened to her face. Her mouth froze open. Her eyes stopped moving. Her face appeared to harden.

  And then, as I stared in horror, Britney’s whole head hardened. Her skin began to glow like polished wood.

  “Unnh unnnh unh.” An ugly grunt escaped her throat.

  She raised a hand and pushed under her chin, struggling to close her mouth. Her mouth made a clicking sound as it closed.

  Slappy laughed. He pointed his fingers at her again.

  “Unnh unnnnh,” Britney grunted.

  Her eyes darted stiffly from side to side. Her head tilted forward, then back. Her mouth clicked as she tried to speak.

  “Ha-ha!” Slappy laughed. “Britney, dear, I always thought you were a DUMMY!”

  I was standing right next to Britney. I reached for her.

  My hand brushed her head. It was solid wood!

  Her head was a dummy’s head!

  Slappy peered out from the long rows of mirrors. “Who else would like to join my show?” he shouted.

  The dummy’s laugh roared out from all the mirrors.

  Poor Britney gripped her wooden head in both hands. Her mouth clicked open, but no sound came out.

  A wave of horror swept down my body. I pressed my back against the glass and took long, slow breaths.

  My eyes wandered down the row of terrified kids.

  Billy and Carly Beth were shadow people. Robby was invisible. Abby and Julie couldn’t stop shaking. And Britney stood there, grunting and tugging at her wooden dummy head.

  It’s like a horror movie, I thought. And then I told myself: No. It’s like living in TEN horror movies at once!

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” Matt shouted. “Everybody — think!”

  “Yes! Why don’t you use your brain?” Slappy snapped. “Use it to ram your head against the door! HAHAHAHA!”

  Slappy’s laugh faded as he sank back in the mirror. I gasped as I saw who appeared next — The Menace.

  His black hat was tilted over his face. The collar of his black shirt was pulled up. He looked like a black smudge repeated again and again down the row of mirrors.

  “People, people —” he boomed. “You’re just not trying.”

  He tilted his hat back, but his face was still in shadow. I stared down the aisle. There were dozens of Menaces staring back at me.

  “People, the Fear Meter is only at eighty,” The Menace complained. “Really, guys, I expected more from you.”

  “Let us out of here!” Michael screamed.

  “You can’t keep us in here!” Sheena chimed in.

  “Let us go! Let us go!” several kids started to shout.

  The Menace ignored them. “I guess you don’t think I’m serious,” he said. “Let me see … What can I do to prove to you that I mean what I say?”

  His head swirled around. His other face appeared. “Why don’t you ask me? I know how to scare these jerks!”

  The first face swung back to the front. “I don’t think so,” he said. “You always go too far. The kids never survive your scares!”

  I shuddered. I pictured all those kids’ sad faces in the chapel. And the terrifying words: Frightened To Death.

  “Well …” The Menace rubbed his chin with a gloved hand. “Okay. Fine. Go ahead,” he said to his other face. “Kill some of them if you think it’ll get the Fear Meter to the top. Do whatever you want to them….”

  KILL some of them?

  His terrifying words sent chill after chill down my back.

  “You’re CRAZY!” Michael screamed. He slapped his hand against the mirror.

  Matt tried to pull him back. But Michael totally lost it.

  “You’re crazy! Crazy! CRAZY!” he shouted at the shadowy face in the mirrors. Michael was so angry, the veins were throbbing in his neck. He pounded the mirror again and again.

  The Menace watched him calmly. Under the hat, his eyes were narrow slits. “You are a brave lad,” he told Michael. “Yes, yes. I know you’re part monster. I know your whole story, kiddo. It’s so impressive the way you stand up to me.”

  His head spun around. “So impressive, I could puke!” the red face said.

  “But really … who is crazy here?” the first face said softly. “I think I make perfect sense.”

  “Just let us go!” Michael screamed. “I don’t care if —”

  He stopped.

  A blinding flash of white light made us all stop.

  I shut my eyes. The light was so bright, it sent a burning jolt of pain through my head.

  I opened my eyes slowly. And stared in shock at the mirrors.

  They all appeared to spin. Spinning faster and faster, until the face in the mirrors was a blur.

  Michael opened his mouth in a long wail of horror.

  It was Michael’s face in the mirrors. Dozens of spinning reflections. Michael’s mouth open … screaming … screaming out his rage in every mirror. Screaming, his eyes bulging, his face twisted in anger, as he spun … spun …

  Then the scream cut off sharply as the mirrors came to a stop. Darkness fell over us.

  Silence. A terrified silence down the long room. And then slowly, the lights brightened. I struggled to breathe. I saw the other kids shaking their heads, blinking, dazed.

  And then my eyes stopped on Michael. Michael squinting hard into the mirror in front of him.

  And on the back of Michael’s head … on the back of his head … on the back of his head …

  My heart skipped a beat.

  On the back of Michael’s head was ANOTHER FACE!

  A hideous monster face with bulging eyes and a long lizard snout. Pointed, jagged teeth and a long black forked tongue.

  The Menace peered out at Michael from the mirror with a sick grin on his shadowy face. “How’s that working for you, partner? Glad you complained?”

  Michael’s second face opened its long snout in a monster growl.

  I screamed. I couldn’t hold it in.

  Some kids stampeded to the exit door and pounded on it frantically.

  Michael gazed into the mirror, turning his head from side to side. His eyes were wide with horror, but he didn’t say a word or cry out.

  “Michael, my boy,” The Menace called. “If you act like a monster, you should LOOK like one!” He laughed.

  “Good one!” The Menace’s other face declared.

  Michael just kept twisting his head around. Studying the monster face on the back of his head. Staring as if he didn’t believe it.

  “Let us out! Let us go!” kids screamed.

  The Menace peered out at us from under the shadow of his hat. “I’m enjoying this, people,” he said. “I’m feeling it. Yes, I’m feeling it! Could you scream a little harder?”

  The Fear Meter flashed into the mirrors. I stared at the red line. It was bouncing near 95.

  “Almost back!” The Menace cried. “My beautiful park is almost back! I can’t wait!”

  “What will happen to us?” Carly Beth called. Her voice floated out softly from her shadow. “If we bring your park back, what will happen to us?”

  The Menace pulled the brim of his hat l
ower over his face. “You don’t really want to ask that question — do you?”

  The red face whirled around. “FTD!” it shouted. “FTD! FTD!”

  I gasped as gray light flooded the narrow aisle. It took me a few seconds to realize the exit door had opened.

  We all stood blinking, gazing at the open door.

  “Don’t just stand there, people!” The Menace said. “You know how I get when I’m kept waiting.”

  Kept waiting …

  The last time The Menace was kept waiting, he vacuumed up that shadow person. He killed that person just for being slow.

  I shuddered just thinking about it. Would he do that to us?

  And then suddenly, different thoughts whirred through my brain….

  What would happen if we FORCED ourselves to be calm?

  What could The Menace do if he saw the Fear Meter drop lower and lower?

  If he couldn’t make us afraid, would he let us go?

  No time to think about that. Both of The Menace’s faces were screaming at once: “Go out and be afraid! Be VERY afraid! Go! Go! Go!”

  We stampeded out the door. Into the eerie, gray light.

  “We need a place to hide!” Michael shouted.

  His monster face uttered a low grunt.

  “Michael is right,” Matt agreed. “We need to regroup. We need —”

  He stopped. He was staring straight ahead. He let out a sigh.

  I turned. I saw the ventriloquist dummy first. Slappy, in his gray suit and red bow tie.

  The dummy stood on his own, knees slightly bent, arms dangling at his sides. The painted grin on his lips seemed to spread as he stepped forward.

  And then the others came into view. Moving toward us in a line — an ugly line of evil villains we had seen before. But never in one place. Never moving together … never moving as one evil force.

  Luke huddled close. We all froze with our backs to the Hall of Mirrors. Froze in frightened silence and gazed up and down the line of advancing villains …

  Dr. Crawler, the venomous snake, with his head raised, snapping his jaws. The snake was wrapped around the arm of Inspector Cranium in his white lab coat.

  As if watching a terrifying nightmare, I saw the green lizardlike monsters from the giant eggs staggering toward us…. Captain Ben, his wooden leg tapping the pavement, his skeletal pirates behind him.

  The ugly, muttering evil mask floated above the others. Beside it, a staggering, ragged mummy. And Dr. Maniac, cape flying, hovered off the ground as he came forward, his yellow-feathered boots kicking the air.

  We had no choice. We backed up. Backed up till we were pressed against the wall.

  My brother raised his face to me and whispered in my ear. “We’re going to be scared to death, just like the kids in that chapel — aren’t we, Lizzy.”

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

  I saw Abby and Julie at the end of the wall. They couldn’t stop trembling. Carly Beth and Billy were gray clouds, fluttering in front of us. Britney held her wooden head in her hands. Tears rolled down her painted cheeks.

  “Well, well,” Inspector Cranium said, rubbing his hands together. A thin, unpleasant smile spread across his bearded face.

  “Well, well. Here we all are. The last chapter.”

  “It’s YOUR last chapter!” Matt shouted. “We’re not finished yet!”

  Dr. Crawler raised himself on Inspector Cranium’s arm. “Ssssssave your breath!” he hissed.

  Cranium lowered the big snake to the pavement. “You’re getting heavy, Crawler,” he said. “How many mice did they feed you today?”

  “Bite your tongue!” the snake snapped at Cranium.

  “Look at you losers,” Slappy said, eyes darting from side to side. “Do you really think you stand a chance? Half of you are already shadows or freaks!”

  “I’d rather be a freak than a dummy!” Robby yelled.

  Slappy’s body jiggled as he laughed. “You’ve got us all beat, Robby. You’re an invisible freak! Hahaha.”

  Slappy shook his head. “And you’re also a dummy — because you created this clown!” He pointed to Dr. Maniac.

  “I’m not a clown!” Dr. Maniac roared. “I’m a MANIAC!”

  He swung around to face Slappy. “I’d grab you and teach you a lesson — but I’d get splinters!”

  “Pipe down, ye sea dogs!” Captain Ben boomed, waving his crutch wildly. “If ye sail with me, ye sail as one! It’s one for all and all for one. That be the rule of the seven seas!”

  The villains all started arguing at once. Dr. Crawler snapped at Captain Ben’s wooden leg. The captain brought his crutch down hard on the snake’s middle.

  “Silence, everyone!” Inspector Cranium cried, waving his hands above his head.

  None of us moved. We stayed with our backs to the building wall.

  What was this about? Why were the villains so tense? Why were they at each other’s throats?

  Finally, Cranium got them quiet. He turned back to us. “As I was saying, this is the last chapter. For ALL of us!”

  “What do you mean?” I cried. “I … don’t understand. Why is it the final chapter for you?”

  “Yeah,” Luke chimed in. “Don’t you work for The Menace?”

  Cranium nodded. “Yes, we came to work for The Menace. Byron chose us all. He made us a good offer.”

  Slappy’s mouth clicked up and down. “The Menace said we could all take our revenge on you losers,” he rasped. “You know. You got lucky. You defeated us back home. So he gave us another chance.”

  The snake lifted itself high. “He promissssed us a good time. All we had to do was sssscare you out of HorrorLand. Make you think HorrorLand was unssssafe.”

  “Aye, and we did a fine job of that,” Captain Ben chimed in.

  “We made you believe that HorrorLand was the scariest place,” Cranium said. “So you would try to escape to Panic Park.”

  Cranium turned his gaze on me. “It worked, too,” he said. “Except that stupid Horror, Ned — he nearly fouled us up by getting you and Luke involved.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied. “Who is Ned?”

  He rubbed his pointy beard. “Who do you think Monster X was?” Cranium demanded. “Who do you think was desperately feeding you two information about HorrorLand? It was Ned. Monster X was Ned!”

  “Ned was trying to help us?” Matt cried.

  “How do you know it was Ned?” I demanded.

  Cranium shrugged. “I’ve got my spies. You can’t keep a secret from the Thought Police.”

  “Ha-ha! Cranium is a maniac, too!” Dr. Maniac cried. “Maniacs rule! Maniacs rule!” He did a crazy dance. But he had to stop when his legs got all tangled in his cape.

  “Our job was to frighten you out of Horror-Land,” Cranium said. “Once we got you to Panic Park, our job was to get your Fear Level to the top. The Menace is very smart. He knew we would be your worst nightmares come true.”

  “Why are you telling us all this?” I demanded.

  “Ssssilence!” Crawler hissed.

  “No one can keep a secret from the Thought Police. Not even The Menace. I just read his mind,” Cranium continued. “Just now. Just this second. And what I learned, I didn’t like.”

  “What did you learn?” I asked.

  Cranium narrowed his eyes. “When you hit one hundred on the Fear Meter and Panic Park returns to the world, he plans to keep you prisoners in the park — forever. And US, TOO!”

  “All of us?” I gasped.

  “He plans to keep us ALL prisoners,” Cranium said. “He’s not going to let any of us go home after the job is done.”

  “I … still don’t understand why you’re telling us this,” I said.

  “Because we need your HELP!” Dr. Maniac screamed.

  “Huh?” We all gasped and cried out in surprise.

  Slappy shook his head. “I can’t believe I’m saying this,” he said. “But we have to work together with
you losers.”

  “It’s the only way we can defeat him,” Cranium said. “The only way we can destroy him.”

  Matt’s mouth hung open. He squinted hard at Cranium and Slappy. “You’re joking, right?”

  “Let me get this right. You want us to help you destroy The Menace?” Boone said slowly.

  “You have to stand up to him!” Cranium said.

  Matt laughed. “For sure.” He turned to the rest of us. “Don’t you get it? It’s a trap. A trick. It’s the final scare. The final scare that puts the meter over the top. And these guys win.”

  “No way!” Michael shouted to the row of villains. “No way we help you! No way! No way!”

  And we all began to chant: “No way! No way! No way!”

  As I chanted along with everyone, I saw the villains’ expressions change. I saw the evil settle over their faces. I saw the grim, cold stares as their eyes narrowed.

  And I felt chilling fear.

  I felt fear freeze every muscle of my body as the villains began to move … move in for the final chapter … the final attack.

  We had no place to run.

  The villains moved quickly. They pressed us against the building wall.

  Slappy’s eyes rolled with excitement as he strode stiffly up to me.

  Before I could duck away, he pressed his wooden face against my cheek. And rasped in my ear: “We don’t like you — and you don’t like us. But you freaks are the only ones who can stand up to him.”

  “Stand up to him?” I asked. “What do you mean? How can we stand up to The Menace?”

  “You have to show him you have no fear,” Cranium replied. “He needs your Fear Energy to keep his park alive. If your Fear Level goes down, The Menace is weakened.”

  “Stand up to him. Stand in front of him and laugh in his face!” Dr. Maniac declared. He tossed back his head and whinnied like a horse. “Something like that.”

  “I told you, I read his mind. Here’s what I learned. If you all stand in front of him and show no fear,” Cranium continued, “The Menace will vanish, and so will Panic Park. If you stare him down, his world will start to shrink. The Menace and the park will grow tinier and tinier — until it’s just a memory.”