روزی در سرزمین وحشت فصل 15

One Day at Horrorland - Chapter 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?” “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.” 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.