The Fall of Candy Corn (20 page)

She made it to the finale, and Ray caught her. She struggled hard, trying to give the group a good show. Ray's arm tightened painfully across her chest, though, and his fingers were digging into her arm. She winced in pain.

“Ray, you're hurting me,” she said, just loud enough for him to hear.

“Not Ray,” a male voice hissed back.

Fear shot through her. It had happened. She had dropped her guard just enough. The saboteurs had come for her, and everyone would think it was just part of the show. “Help me!” she screamed.

He chuckled in her ear. “Nobody's coming to help you. In fact, they're going to be too busy trying to sort out the mummy mess to think about you for quite a while.”

It was Brandon's voice. She was sure of it. Through her mind flashed every time he and his friend had tormented her in the past few weeks. The first meeting, the mouse, by the train tracks. Each time someone had shown up to save her. This time, though, nobody was coming. Josh was in his maze across the park, and Kurt and Sue didn't even know that Candace was being used as bait.

What would Dad do? she asked herself. When she was a little girl, he had told her how to protect herself. What would he do now?

Candace jammed her heel down on his instep. He groaned and loosened his grip ever so slightly. She spun around and jabbed her fingers toward his eyes. Backing away, he tripped. An umpire appeared suddenly with another psycho, and together they tackled the fallen man.

“Got you!” she heard the second psycho yell. He sounded like the real Ray.

Ray and the umpire struggled against Brandon, but she didn't have time to help. What was it Brandon had said about the mummy mess?

Candace turned and ran outside, leading the cheering players out and to safety. She stopped the security guard just outside. “Radio Martha and tell her that one of the bad guys is in the Mummy's Curse maze! Then get inside and help subdue the other guy!”

He grabbed the radio, and she could hear him relaying her message even as she began to run. She had no idea what she was doing. From what Brandon had said, it might already be too late. Even if she did get there in time, how would she find Will?

A golf cart suddenly roared up beside her, its honk sounding like the whistle of a train. Pete was driving. “Jump on! I can get you there faster!”

She jumped. One foot anchored safely on the cart, and she swung the rest of herself in as Pete hit the gas. She was flung back in her seat as they went flying forward. The whistlelike horn blew continuously, and players and referees scattered before them.

“I need to get to the Mummy's Curse!” she shouted.

“I know!” he said.

The golf cart was moving at impossibly high speeds. Suddenly it rocketed ahead, and the wind whipping by brought tears to her eyes.

“I made a lot of special modifications myself!” Pete shouted.

Of course he did. She wondered briefly why he wasn't one of the pirate crew.

The pyramids of Egypt loomed in front of them, and Pete drove right up to the exit of the one holding the maze. A man in a vampire costume was just coming out. For a brief moment she thought it was Josh, but when the guy saw her he started to run. Candace leaped off the cart and tried to grab him. He twisted out of her reach, and disappeared back inside the maze.

Without thinking, Candace charged in after him. She saw the edge of his cloak disappear down a right-hand turn.

A maze, why did it have to be a maze? And worst of all, it was the only maze in the park that was an actual maze. She skidded to a stop when the hallway divided itself again. After a moment's hesitation, she turned left, guessing that he would have chosen that rather than risk running straight a little bit farther.

The maze was lit by flickering torches, which had the effect of making the painted hieroglyphics on the wall seem to move. Soon she was lost deep inside the maze. She ran into several groups of people just as lost as she was. To each of them she shouted, “Have you seen a vampire in here?”

All but one man looked at her like she was crazy. That man pointed down a dark tunnel.

Candace plunged into the tunnel and instantly realized she had made a mistake. The torchlight in this section was almost nonexistent. The sounds of players faded into the distance. Reason told her that she was never going to find Will in the endless web of tunnels and passageways. She should get herself out before whatever booby trap he had rigged went off.

She remembered what Josh had said about Will and Brandon upping the stakes. Whatever they had planned was probably going to be a lot more dangerous.

She turned back, but it was dark behind her and she knew she wouldn't recognize the path she had taken. Fear gripped her. She was lost with no way out. In the distance she heard shouts. She only hoped it was security clearing the maze and that they would find her soon. She thought about shouting for someone to find her.

Before she could decide what to do, she heard another sound coming from a few feet ahead. It was just a whisper, like a cape rustling against the floor. She held her breath and inched her way forward, praying that her eyes would adjust to the low lighting. Then she heard him breathing, hard. Whoever it was had been running.

She stayed absolutely still, trying not to make a sound that would give her away. The shouts were getting louder. She wondered how long before they found her. The more she thought about it, she realized she had been crazy to chase him in here. She hadn't thought, just acted. What was she going to do if she caught him?

Suddenly she thought of a much more grisly possibility. What would happen if he caught her?

“I see you,” Will said suddenly.

Candace jerked but didn't make a sound. Maybe it was a bluff to try to get her to expose herself. With any luck Will couldn't see any better in the dark than she could. Her heart was pounding even faster now than it had been before. She could feel the bruises that Brandon had left in their struggle.

She heard Will start to walk slowly toward her. She retreated, putting one foot silently behind the other without turning her back to him. Her hand ran lightly along the wall, guiding her.

“They paid us a lot of money to sabotage Scare. Told us they didn't care how, just to get it done. We figured the best way to crush morale was to hurt the darling of the park.”

Candace would hardly have called herself that. Still, in their twisted minds they probably believed the urban legend as much as the crazy Game Master Tish did.

The wall disappeared beneath her fingers, indicating a side passageway. She took it, still trying to move without making a sound. She could hear people coming closer. She just hoped Will wasn't paying attention. Maybe if she could keep just out of reach long enough, help would arrive.

Suddenly there was a rush of movement as he swung his arm toward her. She didn't let herself make a sound but continued to back up steadily. It had been a wild swing. He couldn't see anymore than she could.

She took another step back, and suddenly lights blazed on all around them. She froze for a moment, half-blinded, and stared in horror at Will who was also staring at her. The moment passed and Candace turned, fleeing up the narrow passageway.

She could hear his feet pounding on the ground behind her, and it spurred her on faster and faster. She plunged down one corridor and then crossed to another, hoping beyond hope that she was making her way toward either the exit or the entrance.

As fast as she ran, he was still gaining on her. She could hear him panting and feel the wind from his fingers as they passed by her time and again. She started to turn a corner only to realize it was a dead end. She lurched back into the main passageway, and she felt Will's hand come down on her shoulder. She twisted and plunged forward. There was a ripping sound as he tore her sleeve. She rounded another corner and ran headlong into a security guard. He caught her with a grunt, and the two half fell against a wall. When Candace staggered back to her feet, she saw two other guards wrestling Will to the ground.

“We would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn't been for you and your stupid friends,” he said.

“He did something to the maze!” she said.

“We already cleared out all the players,” the first guard said. “His pal told us what to look for. Everything's going to be okay.” He placed a hand on her shoulder, and she shied away from it. He backed up a step, holding both hands chest high.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“No,” Candace said. Her head was spinning, and sweat was pouring off her. In the bright light that now flooded the maze, she could see the bruises on her arms. And long scratch marks on her shoulder were bleeding. The Candy costume had lost its sleeve, making it even more grotesque looking.

The two other guards had subdued Will. The first guard called in on the radio. “We found them. We're in the main corridor.”

“How far are we from an exit?” Candace asked.

“You're in the dead center of the maze,” the guard said, then grimaced at his own choice of words.

“I'd like to leave now,” she said.

She heard voices and more pounding feet. Then Pete, Martha, and Josh appeared. Pete was the first to reach her, and he hugged her hard.

“I followed you in, but I couldn't find you,” he said.

“Thanks for trying,” she said.

Josh shrugged out of his own cape and draped it around her shoulders.

An hour later the police took away Will and Brandon. They had confessed everything and had fingered the executive of the rival theme park who had hired them.

Josh finally came to sit beside Candace outside the maze.

“You okay?” he asked.

She nodded slowly.

It was strange to think that through the rest of the park players and referees alike continued about their revelries, unaware of the drama that had unfolded such a short distance away.

“A lot of excitement around here tonight,” Josh joked. “I wonder if you heard about it?”

She smiled at his attempt at humor.

“You know what the funniest part is?”

“What?”

“This isn't even the end of Scare. I mean, next weekend is the big weekend.”

“That is weird. We caught the bad guys. If this were a movie this would be Halloween.”

“But it's not, and you know why that's great?” Josh asked.

“Because the bad guys didn't ruin everyone's Halloween?”

“Exactly. And who knows, once word gets out, you might have a lot more people volunteering to help you with Sugar Shock.”

“That would be great,” she said. “We're always looking for fresh victim — er, volunteers.”

“At least you haven't lost your sense of humor.”

“Yeah.”

“I'm really proud of you. I know how much you hate mazes.”

“I don't know what I was thinking,” she admitted.

Another thought occurred to her. “How did Pete just happen to be there with a golf cart when I needed him?”

“Turns out he's been monitoring the security channel ever since the incident with his train. He was privy to our plan all night and was close by your maze in case there was trouble. When he heard the guard radio in about the Mummy Craze, he figured you could use help getting across the park fast.”

“He was right.”

“Hey, I know something that will lift your spirits.”

“What's that?”

“Let's go watch the pirates in action.”

Candace followed him toward the Splash Zone.

Before they got there, they saw the pirates in a group. Between them and the pirates was a figure in a gray suit that Candace recognized as Tish. Just then, Tish looked up from a clipboard and saw the pirates.

The pirates saw Tish. A great roar went up from their midst, and suddenly they descended on her. She screamed and turned to run, but was caught, as if in a tide, and tossed up into the air. Candace watched amazed as she was tossed back and forth, screaming the whole while. When she finally came back to earth, she was completely disheveled and someone had sprayed her hair green.

“Enough!” she screamed, turning to face the pirate horde.

Candace watched with bated breath as Tish tried to stare down the pirates.

“What say ye?” Gib shouted suddenly.

Becca surged to the front of the group. “Make her walk the plank!”

The pirates surged forward and seized Tish. Then they took off at a run toward the Splash Zone.

Candace followed at a distance, curiosity burning within her. When they reached the Splash Zone, Candace saw with amazement that there was a miniature pirate ship moored in the lake with the lighthouse. The pirates surged on board with their prize. They set Tish down at the edge of an actual plank that jutted off the side of the ship over the lake and then retreated a couple of steps, leaving her and Gib alone at the edge.

“I won't walk the plank!” the woman said, crossing her arms across her chest.

“Argh. That's okay, you don't have to if you don't want,” Gib said and promptly pushed her.

Tish fell, screaming, and landed with a loud splash. The pirates gave a lusty cheer, and Candace joined them. Tish swam to the lighthouse and pulled herself up out of the water. She shook her fist at the pirates, which just made them cheer the louder.

Candace threw back her head and laughed. The pirates suddenly came swarming back off the boat, and Candace realized it was time to disappear before they made her walk the plank.

She wasn't sure if she could run anymore that night, but Josh pulled her into the shadow of a building and the pirates ran past.

“Wow, they really are marauding,” she said in admiration. “And it's permissible?”

Josh nodded. “John Hanson believes that the closer it gets to Halloween, the more unexpected things should be for the referees. He's always figured that a little fear goes a long way toward enhancing performance and providing fun. Of course, I don't think he ever envisioned what happened to you tonight.”