خیابان های پارک وحشت فصل 09

Streets of Panic Park - Chapter 09

The wind stopped.

Gasping for air, I pressed my hands to my frozen cheeks. Then I tried to smooth my hair down.

I could still hear the roar of the wind gusts, rising and falling like ambulance sirens in my ears. I took a long breath and let it out slowly.

“Were you watching the film?” The Menace demanded. “Did you see those people struggling against the winds? They were terrified! It was beautiful! What a beautiful sight!” The chair pulsed around me. I could feel its heartbeat against my back. Thinking about it gave me the shivers.

“When people stumbled from The Whirlwind,” The Menace continued, “their brains were a little scrambled.” He sneered. “Big deal — right?” His head spun, and the bright red face spoke up. “You went too far. You turned their brains to mush!”

“And what’s your excuse?” the dark face snapped. “Okay, okay. Maybe my experiments with fear and reality went too far. Something went wrong, guys. The Fear Level in the park was so high, it hurled us into another reality.” He sighed. “Yes, I closed Panic Park. And then my beautiful park went spinning away … whirling away to a parallel universe. The world moved on. The years passed. But we stayed in 1974.” He picked up his hat and twirled it in his hands. “I loved it at first,” he said. “It gave me time to do more experiments in fear. My experiments were brilliant. I learned the true path to terror.” The head spun. “A lot of people disappeared because of you,” the red face said. “A lot of people became shadows.”

The first face spun back. “You can’t make chicken soup without breaking a few chickens!” he boomed. “My experiments in fear were exciting. But I got bored. I decided I wanted to return to the real world.” He kept twirling the wide-brimmed hat between his gloved hands. “How to get back? I began studying the problem. And guess what, people? I discovered that HorrorLand park was built on the same spot where Panic Park had stood.

“I discovered I could use mirrors to travel back and forth between Panic Park and HorrorLand. I could travel to HorrorLand through even the tiniest mirror. It was an amazing discovery. But then … I had a little accident.” “Is THAT what you call me?” the red face screamed. “An ACCIDENT?”

“Shut up! Shut up!” the first face cried. He turned back to us. “I was doing an experiment with a two-way mirror. The experiment went wrong. And I ended up with that ugly face attached to my head.” “You’re not winning any beauty prizes!” the other face said. “Come on, people. Check out my blue eyes, my adorable blond eyebrows. Let’s vote on which of us has the prettiest face.” I looked down the row of kids. No one moved. We were trapped in the pulsing, living chairs. Staring in silent horror at this insane monster with two faces.

“Now I need your help, people,” The Menace said. “I need your Fear Level to go so high that Panic Park returns to its place in the real world. Fear brought us here, and fear will bring us back.” Michael sat at the end of my row. I could see the anger burning in his eyes. Finally, he spoke up. “No way!” he shouted, swinging his fist at The Menace. “No way we’ll help you!” We all started shouting at once. “No way!” Matt shouted. “No way! No way!”

“Let us go!” I cried.

The Menace waved a hand in the air. And I felt my chair arms tighten around my waist. The arms raised themselves to my throat and began to choke off my breath.

Choking, gasping for air, I grabbed the chair arms and struggled to pull them off me.

The Menace waved his hand again — and the chair arms sank back to my sides.

“Save your voices for SCREAMING!” The Menace cried. He turned to the side of the stage. Byron appeared, pushing the tall Fear Meter in front of him.

“The meter is still only at twenty-five,” The Menace said. “You people aren’t trying!”

Only twenty-five, I thought. We’ll never survive what he has in mind.

“More fear! More fear!” the red face shouted. “I get all tingly just thinking about it!”

His words sent a chilling jolt of fear over the room. The Fear Meter needle jumped a little. We were all afraid. Because we knew he was serious. And crazy.

“Keep your eyes on the Fear Meter, guys,” Byron chimed in. His big hand thumped the side of it. “We’re going to get that red needle up to the TOP!”