Dark Ride (16 page)

Chapter 51

Amy looks on, clinging to hope that Jack will respond to the potion.

Scotty, for good measure, clasps one hand over Jack's mouth, and with the other, he clasps Jack's nose, explaining, “My mom has to do this to the twins.”

After seeing Jack swallow, Scotty relaxes his grip and removes his hands.

Coughing, Jack suddenly lurches and rolls off the table while shaking violently.

“It's making it worse!” Amy cries.

Scotty rushes down to Jack's side and tries to hold him still, but the pudgy boy is no match for the convulsions of Jack. He calls out, “Amy, a little help here!”

The girl had been in a daze from just looking at Jack suffering, but Scotty's urging wakes her. She grabs Jack's right arm and attempts to force it down, which turns out to be no small feat.

On the ground, on table in the corner of the room, three cages sit. Two of them are empty, and one is holding two mice. Setting down the hatchet, Mason quickly takes the mouse from his pocket and places it back into the cage with the other two mice.

He looks at the snake and says, “You better hope that venom of yours works.” Then he quickly grabs the hatchet again.

Amy's level of discomfort rises as Jack's convulsions grow harder to contain. She decides to try a new tactic and starts whispering into his ear, “Jack, remember when we met? We had gone to the circus at the Falls Armory. My family had just moved to Tennessee, and your parents sat down next to us on the front row. You were laughing so hard at those clowns.”

Jack's legs stop twitching.

Scotty notices that Jack's convulsing is slowing down. He tells his sister, “Whatever you're saying, whatever you're doing—keep doing it!” Then, while holding Jack's left leg, Scotty looks at the book again, searching for a possible mistake.

“And I remember you dressing like a clown for Halloween the next year. You had those huge red shoes and that bright green wig. You were so funny looking. You know, I hated clowns until that day.”

With no warning, Jack's body goes limp.

Amy yells, “Scotty!”

Scotty, who had, until then, been pouring over the list of ingredients for the fifth time, abruptly looks at Jack and comments, “Oh no.”

“Why isn't he moving?”

Deep lines of concern wrinkle Scotty's forehead. He shoves his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and declares, “Well…because…I don't know.”

Amy takes Jack's hand and squeezes it. She glances at her brother, who has already moved to a shelf and is searching through various vials, most of which were broken during the previous search. He gives a look to Mason, who seems to be enjoying holding the hatchet over the snake's head.

“Jack Braddock,” Amy whispers. Then, before she can talk herself out of it, she kisses him on the cheek.

Amy lifts her head once again to make sure no one is watching, and she hears the snake cry from across the room, “We had a deal! Let me have the mice!”

“Just be patient,” Mason says and squeezes a little tighter on the snake.

“Put me in the cage now!”

“First, I want you to look at Jack and see what you did.”

The snake glances over at the boy and says, “I know I bit him. If he dies—”

Mason drops the snake into the cage, but it's an empty cage. Quickly, he slams the lid down.

Faintly, Mason hears the snake crying, “Treachery! Traitors! Liars!”

Mason laughs and says, “Well, it seems like I dropped you in the wrong cage—oops.”

“We had a deal. You cannot do this.”

“I just did.”

Chapter 52

Scotty leaves the shelf to scan Jack's shoulder. As he observes the wound, he remarks, “The color is coming back to him.” Incredibly, the bright purple hue is fading before his eyes, and the pale face of the unconscious Jack begins to redden.

Franticly hoping, Amy asks, “Did it work?”

Scotty replies, “I think it may have. The wound already looks better.”

All three circle around Jack, hoping the formula has worked. Finally, with a cough, a moan, and fluttering eyes, Jack comes to.

“What happened?” he asks.

“You were bit by a snake, and you nearly died,” informs Scotty.

Jack blinks rapidly, and says, “I what?”

Amy blinks and smiles and responds, “We almost lost you. You don't remember?”

Jack glances up around the room. Mason stands to his right. In the corner are the three cages, and he sees that one of them holds a very upset snake that is crashing into the sides.

“You okay?” Scotty asks.

“Uh, yeah, I guess so.”

Jack raises his torso by pushing up with his elbows. He continues to try to regain composure and says, “I don't remember hardly anything. I just had these weird dreams about clowns.”

Amy represses a smile and asks, “Really?”

“Yeah, I kept seeing one with baggy polka dot pants and, like, these big floppy shoes. It was really funny.”

“I bet.”

“I think I can stand.”

“You sure, Jack?” Scotty asks.

“Yeah, I'm a little woozy, but I'll be fine. Help me up.”

Scotty and Amy help him to his feet.

“Oh man,” Jack says as he grips his shoulder. “That's where it bit me, huh? Man, I'm a little dizzy.” He motions to the snake held captive in the cage and asks, “Is that him?”

“Yep. Same one that took a swipe at me,” Mason confirms.

“Okay. I remember that. What now?”

“You let me go!” the snake hisses violently.

“Nope,” says Mason, “I think it's time you got what you deserved.” He winks at the others and gestures for Scotty to open the doors to the cold room.

“What is this, what are you going to do?” asks the reptile.

Carefully, Mason eases his hand through the plastic handle that prevents the snake from coming too close. The snake wildly strikes at the top of the cage with no results. Mason maneuvers the cage out the door and into the cold.

“There is your reward, loser.”

After the door shuts, they hear the snake's desperate cries, saying, “No, I helped you! You will pay for this betrayal. You kids have no chance in the woods! No chance! I am the smallest thing you have to worry about. You will all die!”

Amy cannot help but let a little humph of satisfaction escape from her mouth. With that, she turns her attention back to Jack.

Chapter 53

Wallace Braddock is sitting in the recliner of his living room. On the television, a man screams about the virtues of a new weight loss scheme. Wallace is only halfway paying attention to the tube while fingering through an issue of
Newsweek
.

The phone rings and Wallace thinks,
Stupid telemarketers. Why don't we get rid of that thing and just use our cell phones?
After two more rings, Brenna calls from the kitchen, “Are you going to get that, honey?”

“No, it's just somebody trying to sell us something.”

An irritated humph floats through the air as Brenna Braddock marches into the living room.

She looks at the caller ID and announces, “It's the Carnahans,” after which she shoots an irritated glance at her husband.

Once she picks up the phone, she changes her tone and gently says, “Hello. Oh, hey, Carol.”

After Wallace hears his wife say, “The park wanted you to call us?” his interest is peaked and he uses the remote to turn down the television.

“Carol, Jack is asleep upstairs.”

Wallace looks at his wife and sets down the magazine.

“That can't be right. Wallace, go upstairs and check on Jack.”

Clearly hesitant to follow orders, Wallace makes an exaggerated effort to crawl out of his comfortable chair.

“You said they were stuck on the ride? How long?…. Ummm, Carol, let me call you back in a second…. Goodbye.”

Brenna hangs up the phone and quickly proceeds up the steps to Jack's room where she had checked on him not more than thirty minutes ago. In spite of the call, she cannot believe that Jack would sneak out. She fully expects to see her boy lying asleep in his room.

“What's going on, mom?” Blair asks and removes the headphones from her ears.

“Stay in your room, Blair.”

In spite of the warning, Blair follows her mother.

With one glance in the room, Brenna Braddock's fear is realized. Wallace stands above Jack's bed with sheets in hand. They all see the dummy lying still on the mattress.

“That little sneak,” Blair muses.

“He snuck out, Brenna.”

“I see that, Wallace. Carol said he's stuck in the Enchanted Forrest. She said he's been in there for an hour.”

“He deceived us—I can't believe it.”

Blair, dripping with vileness, says, “I can. I always said—”

“Go back to your room, Blair!” Brenna directs.

The girl complies.

Brenna exclaims, “He left the house in spite of being grounded!” There is unmistakable disappointment in her voice.

“Well, he sure went to a lot of trouble. He made a dummy. Look at this thing.”

“Wallace, they've been in the Enchanted Forrest for an hour,” Brenna informs. Her disappointment is giving way to a twinge of worry.

“What?”

“They're stuck in that, that dark ride.”

Although Brenna has not been to the park in years, something about the ride triggers a memory from long ago. Finally, a name comes to her, and she asks, “Wallace, remember Douglas Finch?”

“Oh, honey, there you go. That was a bunch of silliness. Goodness, that was years ago. You're not actually suggesting…. Brenna, the kids are just stuck. This has nothing to do with that. Besides, that Finch boy ran away. He's probably living somewhere in Vegas.”

In spite of his assurance, Brenna remains unconvinced. She says, “Wallace, we're going to Storybook Hollow.”

Chapter 54

Jack's recovery quickens. He's still suffering from an occasional twinge of pain, but the dizziness is behind him. Whatever concoction Scotty put in the vial did the trick.

Jack tells the others, “I owe you, guys, big time.”

Mason shrugs off the thanks by saying, “Hey, I wasn't going to lug you around this place any further than I had to.”

His gift for turning a sincere moment into a laugh always amuses Jack, who grins at Mason's remark and says, “Of course not. You'd have made Scotty carry me.”

“Ha ha, funny man,” responds Mason. He then snatches Lucky back in defiance of Jack's insinuation.

Jack looks at Amy, and it seems she is obviously relieved. He wonders if things will be better now between them. Then he shifts his attention to the predicament that still exists for him and his friends.

Jack says, “Okay, I suggest we get back to the business of finding our way out. If this is what the ride is going to be like from here on out, the quicker we find the exit, the better.”

“Funny you should say that, Jack,” mentions Mason. “Remember how I told you there was an air vent in here?” He looks at the others, waiting for his moment, and goes on, “There's an air vent right above your head.”

Sure enough, above Jack's head is a metal grate screwed into the ceiling. Jack thinks,
Looks like we will be going all “secret agent.”
But what about the narrator's words? What about finding the end of the story?
He is confident that the narrator is guiding them, pushing them through the ride, but he knows that he must now go along with this plan because of his previous negotiation with Mason. He thinks that if he reminds Mason about the narrator now, it will start a new quarrel, which would be no good for any of them, especially since the group now seems so cooperative.

Jack says, “Okay, Mason. I'm in. Scotty, Amy?”

Scotty, who is fumbling thumbing through a rather thick book on invisibility, ignores the question while Amy looks nervously up at the grate six feet above their heads.

She says, “I'm not sure. Can we even fit up there?”

“Won't know till we try. Come on, Amy, it's our best chance. We can avoid any danger up ahead. Just like the guy in the show. We escape before the bomb goes off,” Mason urges.

The girl, still unsure, does not reply.

Mason ignores Amy and says, “It's settled then. Let's get outta here.”

Jack, though, observes Amy closely, trying to read her thoughts. He knows that things are not, in fact, settled for her.

Mason, on the other hand, immediately begins moving the table that Jack had used during his sickness and says, “If we position the table under the grate, we should be tall enough to lift ourselves up there.”

With Mason preoccupied with his project and Scotty engrossed with the vials, Jack takes the time to check on his status with Amy.

He tells her, “Sorry for giving you a scare back there.”

Amy responds, “Jack, it wasn't your doing. It was scary, but I'm just glad you're okay.”

Then she gently places her hand on his shoulder and gives it a light squeeze. The tenderness in her eyes provides Jack with renewed hope. He wants to hug her, or take her hand, something, anything to let her know
that he really does have feelings for her. But, just as he considers the right path to take, Mason busts up the moment.

“Steady the table, will ya, Jack. That is if you're up to it. I'm getting on.”

Jack thinks,
Amy will have to wait”
and says, “No problem.”

He nods at Mason and grabs hold of the table while the he lifts himself to a standing position.

“Yep, this is good,” says Mason. “Once we get this vent cover off, we can all climb up easily.”

“How you gonna get that thing off?” Jack asks.

“Good question. There has to be something in here somewhere. Scotty get your head out of those vials and help us find a screwdriver or something.”

Scotty is reading the label on a small container that looks like an Aspirin bottle. It says:

Standing to attention at Mason's call, Scotty places the small bottle in the right pocket of his shorts. He asks, “A screwdriver? What do you need one of those for?”

Jack realizes that Scotty has missed the entire vent discussion.

Mason says, “Pay attention for goodness sake. Do you want to get outta here, or do you want to camp out with your books and potions? Get me a screwdriver or something that will loosen these screws.”

“Check. I'm on it,” says Scotty.

His foray through the various vials is over. Amy and Jack join the search, but they find nothing.

“Come on, guys. Just find something with a thin edge.”

They decide to try using a book cover, but it's too flimsy.

“There's not much in here,” Jack announces. He is almost relieved. While Mason's idea is good, and he has committed himself to trying it, he would prefer to keep his feet on the ground.

“I've got it!” Mason announces. “It's been in my pocket the whole time. He produces the badge stolen from the Tailor's shirt. Lifting it in the air, he places it into the notch of one of the screws. “Excellent. Perfect fit.”

With minimal effort, the first screw gives way followed by the second. As soon as the fourth screw gives way, the metal vent drops like a rock. Mason, clearly unprepared for the obvious result, has to duck his head.
The vent crashes to the metal table and bounces off onto the floor causing a series of crashing sounds.

“So much for stealth,” Amy remarks as she nervously peers at the doors.

Jack stares at the doorways, unsettled as well and leery that perhaps the loud crash will somehow alert someone or something that wants to have them for dinner.

Mason pulls himself into the vent shaft and disappears for a moment. After a few seconds, he says, “Oh man, this is awesome! This is going to work.”

Mason's head drops into view, and he looks down on the others and says, “Hand me Lucky.”

“Are you serious, Mason? You're going to lug that thing around up there?” Jack asks and rolls his eyes.

“No, Scotty is,” replies Mason. He laughs and winks over at Scotty, who is clearly not paying attention.

Amy bends down to pick up Lucky. Jack can swear he sees her whisper something into the animal's ear.

“Okay, who's next?” asks Mason. “Come on, Scotty.”

Scotty gives the lab one last look. It's as if he will miss the place. With reserve and caution, Scotty scales the table and then nervously stands up and puts his arms in the vent.

He tries to join Mason but says, “I can't pull myself up.”

“Too many tacos? Gee, Scotty, you really need to cut down on the calories,” jabs Mason, who then shoots a hand down for Scotty to grab.

Scotty's body seems to levitate up through the hole, and then Jack says, “You're next, Amy.”

The girl easily navigates the table and pulls herself up. Once inside the vent, she says, “Come on, Jack, there is plenty of room up here.”

Jack then attempts to lift himself up into the black hole, but another twinge of pain shoots through his shoulder. After trying again and feeling another shot of pain, he says, “I'm gonna need some help.”

Mason responds, “Nice, Jack, you and Scotty, both, huh? I don't suppose you saw how easily Amy did it?”

He thinks of reminding Mason about his shoulder, but decides not to. Mason is kidding anyways. He reaches down with both hands to help Jack up.

Inside the vent, Jack can barely make out the silhouettes of his three friends who are also on their hands and knees. The shaft is too narrow for
anyone to even stoop. It's also quite dark since the only light comes from rooms below.

Before moving on, Jack looks back into the laboratory room and spies the vent cover. He wonders,
Maybe we should have grabbed it, replaced it somehow?