Carnival World Boxed Set (Episodes 1-3) (11 page)

Sam wasn’t jumping for joy either. His sister was kneeling next to him. They were talking and Sam looked agitated, just as he had when he told them about the Barker.

“This isn’t what’s supposed to happen,” Sam insisted.

“It’s okay,” said Summer. “Everything was really scary but it’s over now. We’re going to see Mom. You want to see her, right?”

“Sure, but—“

“Come in. Come in, you sillies.” Mrs. Shanks gestured to them from the office door. “Don’t stay outside and roast like little birds.”

They entered the office. It was as Nicole remembered it. There was a long desk in the front with a room in the back. Near the front desk was a small lounge area with sofas, love seats and a television set. The lounge looked out onto the pool.

Nicole plopped down on the loveseat. The others followed her lead. It felt so good to just stretch out in a real chair. The memory of sleeping on that filthy picnic table made her shiver.

Ryan was still moping and Sam looked nervously about. Nicole noticed the chairs and sofa were ratty and the carpet hadn’t been shampooed in years. It was grimier than usual. And there was a smell coming from the room behind the front desk. A smoky odor, like a backed-up fireplace. But there was something else about it. The smell of cooking meat.

A barbeque?

“Would you like some lemonade?” asked Mrs. Shanks. She appeared from the back room with a pitcher and glass. “Or perhaps a nice pie. I make a wonderful pie. The secret is using the right kind of fat for the crust.”

“Thank you,” said Ryan. “What we’d really like are some answers. What happened here?”

Nicole rolled her eyes. Ryan still had that stupid metal bar in his hands. Why couldn’t he give it a rest? Everyone else was relieved that this weirdness was coming to an end. He looked like he was about to cry about it.

“Oh, don’t concern yourselves with all that. There will be time. Your parents will be here soon to pick you up.”

“You talked to them?” asked Justin.

Mrs. Shanks set the glasses down on the coffee table and filled them from her pitcher. The liquid was cloudy and had no ice.

“Yes, yes. They’ll be here soon,” The old woman went on.

“How are they going to get here? The road’s all busted,” asked Sam.

Sam was a cute kid, but Nicole really wanted him to shut up. He was just causing problems. Didn’t he see that they were safe now, that they’d been saved?

Mrs. Shanks wagged a plump finger at Sam. “I bet you like games, don’t you precious?”

She led Sam toward the TV and plopped him down in front of it. She handed him a boxy black controller.

“Can I watch Cartoon Network?” he asked.

“Sam, be nice,” groaned his sister. She was stretched out on the sofa next to Maddie and Justin.

Mrs. Shanks only laughed and turned on the videogame console.

Sam stared at the controls and the box. “What’s ColecoVision 5? It doesn’t look like an Xbox.”

“Sam,” Summer whined again, “Just play it, okay?”

The game started. To Nicole it looked like a fairly new game; she could tell by the graphics. She didn’t recognize it, though she didn’t play many video games outside of Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution. Sam fiddled with the controls, then seemed to get the hang of it. At least it would keep him from asking silly questions.

Nicole looked down at the glasses of lemonade. She wasn’t that thirsty and the glasses were warm to the touch. Maybe they’d just come out of the dishwasher or something.

She didn’t want a drink anyway. What she really wanted was a shower. She just wanted to wash away all the grime and misery of last night and this morning. Her eyes drifted to the pool. She remembered the water being clean and warm, before.

“Can I go for a swim?” Without waiting for an answer, she opened the door and strode toward it.

Moments later the others joined her at the edge.

The pool was fenced off by a rusty gate. The plastic furniture looked old and cracked. But the water was clear and the tiles still blue. It was a diving pool, ten-feet deep all around with no shallow end. There was no diving board. She’d heard it was a mistake; the owners originally wanted a regular pool with a shallow end but the order somehow got mixed up and they were too cheap to fix it.

The water was low. There was at least a foot between the surface and the lip of the pool. Nicole didn’t care. She always loved taking a swim whenever she and Darien were there. One time, late at night, they snuck out of their room and Nicole jumped in wearing nothing but Darien’s football jersey.

She slipped off her shoes and socks. Her mom wouldn’t approve. Only trashy poor girls went swimming without a bathing suit. It didn’t matter. She’d towel off before her mother arrived.

How’s she going to get here? The road’s busted.

Sam’s complaint echoed in her head. She pushed it to the back of her mind and dove in. The water was freezing. It was all she could do to keep from screaming underwater. She stayed under and swam toward the chrome ladder. She reached it and arched her head as she came up. She imagined herself in the pages of
Sports Illustrated
— a perfect cover-girl pose. She gazed back at the others. Darien was already taking off his shirt.

“How is it?” yelled Maddie.

“It’s fine,” Nicole answered with a straight face.

Maddie and Justin took off their clothes without hesitation. Maddie wore a black sports bra and matching black cotton undies. Justin had on a pair of gray boxer briefs and Nicole had to admit that he looked good in them. The boy was surprisingly built. One after the other, they jumped in. Both were screaming when they came up.

“Arrgh! It’s cold!” cried Maddie.

Nicole laughed.

Ryan put his metal “sword” to the side. He took off his
Dawn of the Dead
t-shirt and shoes. Then he flipped into the pool.

Show off
.

“Bracing,” was his comment after he came back to the surface and shook his head like a dog.

“You won’t even notice after a few seconds,” Nicole said.

She kicked away from the wall, then paddled to the center of the pool. If she closed her eyes she was almost back home. This was just like a pool party with Tina, Kristy and Caitlin.

“Come on, Summer!” yelled Darien.

That snapped Nicole back to reality.

Summer was standing by a plastic chair. She had her shoes and socks off. Her bare toes skimmed the pool’s edge.

Darien started a chant, “Summer! Summer!”

The others joined in.

Summer gave them a cute and innocent smile that made Nicole want to vomit. Then she plugged her nose and stepped off from the side. She screamed about how cold the water was as she came up. Maddie and Justin paddled beside her and the three chattered like birds.

Nicole floated on her back and looked up at the hot sun. Everything had been so perfect. Then she came along and ruined it. Stupid cow.

Someone swam too close to her and splashed water in her mouth. Nicole opened her eyes to see Summer treading water near her.

“Sorry,” she offered meekly. Her blonde hair trailed around her like seaweed.

Nicole snapped. All she could see was that stupid face of hers, with her big blue eyes and pouty lips. Nicole wanted to smash her face in. Instead she shoved Summer’s head down under the water.

Kiss the bottom of the pool, bitch!

Summer struggled beneath her, but Nicole kept her down. Ten seconds underwater ought to be enough to teach her a lesson. Maybe twenty or thirty seconds more would really show her who’s boss, who’s better.

Summer’s flailing hands found the top of Nicole’s head. She had just a split second to take a breath before Summer dragged Nicole down with her. The water was still freezing cold and it crushed the air out of her.

Eventually, Summer broke free of her grasp and kicked for the surface. Nicole tried to follow, but Summer kept her head pressed beneath the surface.

Flailing about underwater, Nicole could hear Summer’s muffled gasps just above her. Her hands slapped the surface until she finally came up, though Summer still had a hand atop her head. Nicole weakly tried to tear it away, but Summer pushed her back down.

In an instant Nicole was starving for air. Her breath came out of her body. She couldn’t help it — she had to breathe back in, and choked down a mouthful of water. Then Summer wasn’t holding her anymore and she swam to the surface.

Nicole gasped for air and coughed loudly. She heard Ryan laughing his head off at the other end of the pool.

Darien was next to her. “What’s gotten into you?”

Angry that he wasn’t appalled by what Summer did, she splashed water at him and reached for the safety of the ladder. But her hand found only more water.

Swirling around in a panic, she looked for it. “Where is it? Where’s the ladder?”

––––––––

S
am played the video game, but his heart really wasn’t in it. He couldn’t concentrate on it. Something was wrong. He could feel it in his belly, just like when he had a bad dream.

He didn’t like the old couple one bit. There was something bad about the way they’d looked at his group. It wasn’t like when he went to visit his grandparents and they smothered him with hugs, kisses and cookies. His grandma made the best oatmeal-raisin cookies in the world.

For a minute there, when the couple first greeted them, he thought maybe he’d get a cookie but after being in the motel his hunger had evaporated. He didn’t like the smell of the place. It made his nostrils twitch and he had to fight off the urge to cover his nose with his shirt.

It reminded him of the time he’d forgotten a half-eaten ham sandwich under his bed. After a week, the smell was terrible, like sour milk. That was the odor that wafted to his nose now.

Several flies buzzed around his head and he batted at them. He hated flies. They always reminded him of something rotting. There had been flies in his room after the ham sandwich incident.

He then heard a door open behind him and hushed voices.

“What are you doing?” It was Mrs. Shanks.

Based on the way they spoke, Sam knew they didn’t want him to hear what they were saying. He slowly turned toward the harsh whispers coming from the next room. The room where smoke leaked out from under the door.

“I’m just lowering the water,” said Mr. Shanks.

“It’s low enough already, you fool!”

Getting to his feet, Sam jostled the table and his lemonade spilled all over. He ignored it and tiptoed toward the door. Something was definitely wrong.

“Get out there and watch them,” Mrs. Shanks hissed.

“What about the boy?”

“Oh, we won’t be forgetting him. Young ones make the tastiest little morsels.”

Sam turned back to where he’d been sitting. He noticed the flies had stopped buzzing. He looked at the coffee table and saw a puddle of yellow liquid — it was the lemonade he’d spilled. The flies were in the liquid, and they weren’t moving. They all appeared dead, save for one that staggered from the liquid and fell over, its legs up in the air and curling into themselves.

Poison!

The lemonade that Mrs. Shanks had given him was poisoned. His heart leapt into his throat. He had to get out of there. He had to hide before they came out of the room and found him. But where?

Summer swam around the pool’s edge, trying to find a way out. Justin and Ryan swam alongside her. The ladder was gone. Someone had obviously taken it.

Darien swam along the other side with Maddie, looking for the same thing. A way out.

Pushing herself up along the wall, Summer tried to reach for the pool lip, but it was too far. It hadn’t been when she first dived in. She was sure the water level had only been a foot below. Now it seemed at least three feet, if not more. Too far to simply lift an arm and grab hold of the side.

Nicole floated in the middle of the pool. She coughed and cried, “Help! Mrs. Shanks, please!”

“They’re not coming!” Summer shouted.

“What?”

“Who do you think took the ladder? Who lowered the water level?”

Earlier, Summer had felt a suction beneath her feet. She didn’t realize it had been the water draining out until it was too late. The pool was ten feet deep. The edge of the pool was now three feet above them. That meant the depth was still seven feet, well over even Darien’s head.

“Why would they do that?” asked Darien.

“Who cares why, you idiot?” Ryan sneered.

“Come over here and say that!”

“Shut up, both of you!” yelled Summer. “Now’s not the time. We’re kind of in a predicament, if you haven’t noticed.”

“You’re one to talk!” shouted Nicole. “I can barely keep afloat because of you.”

Summer wanted to tell her to piss off. But the truth of it held her tongue. Nicole looked pathetic. She was barely keeping her chin above water. Their little dunking match had wiped Nicole out but Summer didn’t have the heart to tell Nicole she lived in the water. She was on the swim team and could hold her breath for a long time. In fact, Summer figured the girl deserved whatever she got for trying to dunk her in the first place.

But being the better person, she managed a weak, “I’m sorry.”

Then she heard her brother’s scream and every ounce of energy drained out of her, just like the water from the pool.

“Summer!”

“Sam!”

Mr. Shanks called out. “There he is!”

“Sam!” she shouted again as she leapt at the pool’s edge, but it might as well have been a mile away. Her fingers didn’t even reach the top. She tried again, and again, until she could barely get in any air.

“Summer, stop,” Maddie said as she grabbed Summer to stop her from trying it again. “You’ll just tire yourself out.”

“She’s right.” Darien was next to her.

Summer glanced up at the edge. She had an idea.

I knew it!

As Ryan treaded water, he tried not to shiver. His black jeans were soaked through and heavy, so it was hard to keep himself afloat. His legs were fatigued.

Everything had smelled like a trap. This was a classic scenario. He should’ve said something. He didn’t know why he didn’t speak up. At first he’d been unsure. Maybe they really had been rescued. Maybe everything was really okay.