خیابان های پارک وحشت فصل 33

Streets of Panic Park - Chapter 33

I landed gently on my feet.

Warm air brushed my face. Dizzy. My body swayed. So hard to stand.

The fierce wind was gone, but I could still feel it tingling my skin.

I took a deep breath and held it. And gazed around. “Luke? Are you okay?” “I … I guess.” My brother stood right next to me, shaking off the chill of the swirling winds. “Where are we?” I spun around. And saw Carly Beth. Not a shadow.

She and Billy were staring at each other, their faces shocked at first, and then grinning with relief.

“We’re back! We’re not shadows!”

Robby held his hands in front of his face. “I can see myself! I’m not invisible! Yaaaay!” And we all cheered when we saw Britney with her normal head. Abby and Julie had stopped shaking. And Michael was back to having only one face.

“We’re back! We’re back to normal!”

And we started to celebrate even before we realized we were standing in a parking lot. I saw the green-and-purple entrance sign, rows and rows away from us.

“It’s HorrorLand!” I shouted, pumping my fists in the air.

Yes. We were standing in the HorrorLand parking lot. And before we could celebrate for long, there were our parents.

Everyone’s parents. Moving down the row of cars toward us.

Dad studied his watch. “You’re late,” he said. “Where have you all been?” “Where have YOU been all this time?” I blurted out.

Mom wrinkled up her forehead. “Didn’t they tell you, Lizzy? They took all of us adults to our own hotel. We had a great time. We made so many new friends.” Dad frowned. “But we’ve been waiting for you kids here. Time to go home.” I glanced around at the other family reunions. Lots of hugs and happy greetings.

I whispered to Luke. “None of them have any idea of the danger we were in. Look at them all, grinning and laughing. Clueless.” “Let’s keep them that way!” Luke said. “How could we ever explain it?” A green-and-purple Horror watched from the side. He had a smile on his face.

I walked over to him. “You’re Ned, aren’t you?” I asked.

His smile grew wider. “Monster X to you!” he said.

“Thank you,” I said. “I think we all want to thank you!”

“Come on, you two!” Dad called. “We have a long drive ahead of us.” He gave us a push toward the car.

“Lizzy, look at your hair,” Mom said, brushing it down with her hand. “It’s all wild and crazy. Why is it such a mess?” “Uh … I went on a very fast ride,” I said.

That night, how happy was I to be back in my own bedroom?

Three guesses.

But as I started to unpack, I couldn’t get Panic Park out of my mind.

I thought about the little shadow girl, pleading with me in that faraway voice: “Find me … Can you find me?” I pictured that black-and-white world … the dark, empty buildings … the rides and shops and restaurants, all closed, all shades of gray. Shades from another world.

And again, I saw the park shrinking away … growing smaller and smaller. So tiny — and then gone.

A whole park. A whole world. Gone with a tiny pop.

I yawned. I was so tired, I could barely keep my eyes open.

I pulled out pairs of jeans from the suitcase. They were still folded. I never had a chance to wear them.

And what was this? My hand felt something hard. And big.

Something taking up all the room in the suitcase.

I pushed aside some T-shirts and gasped. “Oh, noooo.”

I lifted it out of the case. A ventriloquist dummy.

I rubbed its painted hair. It had an ugly grin on its wooden lips.

“How did this thing get in my suitcase?” I murmured.

And then I let out a cry as the dummy’s eyes slowly opened. And its ugly grin grew wider.

“Well, well,” it rasped in a tinny voice. “Lookin’ good, Lizzy.” It blinked its eyes and gazed up at me. “Ready to start a whole new story? This one will really give you goosebumps! Hahahahaha!”