Dark Ride (23 page)

Chapter 78

His conscience gets the best of him, and Jack somewhat reluctantly places the knife back down on the table. He tells Amy, “You're right, we don't need another enemy. There's enough to go around in this place.” Then, interrupting Scotty and Mason's discussion, he calls out, “Okay, you guys ready to roll?”

“Not with that eight-legged creature out there,” Mason says.

“Maybe if we can sneak around the spider, then we can work the door open? We've got the hammer. Mason, we can't be in here when she comes back; you saw her.”

Even though Jack's solution is far from ideal, the group, including Mason, knows it may be their only hope.

“Okay, Jack, I'm game,” Mason says and pulls the hammer from the work belt now tied around his waist.

“Good. Finally, he sees something my way,” Jack says to himself.

Mason continues, “Maybe I can grab the axe if I see it? Amy, keep that stick handy. If the spider sees us, you may have to go all Ted Williams on him.”

“Who's Tim Williams?” Scotty asks.

Mason rolls his eyes and says, “A baseball legend. Played for Boston back in…oh, never mind.”

Tick
,
tick
,
tick
. The hands on the clock are at 11.

Jack announces, “Time to move, guys. Out the door, go. But be quiet.”

The last to walk back out into the Grove is Jack, but before he does so, he decides to take another look at the knife. However, it's gone. He thinks this is odd, but he goes ahead and walks out of the cabin and quietly closes the door.

The group is behind the cabin, and there is no sign of the spider. With his back leaning against the cabin and taking one small step after another, Mason peeks around the corner.

“Any sign of anything?” Jack whispers.

“Nope. No woman, no spider.”

“Good, just take your time—”

A pebble lands next to Jack. Not a muscle in Jack's body moves at first. He has no desire to look up, but he knows he must. Taking a quick glance to the roof, Jack yells, “Spider!”

Everyone looks up and sees the spider looking down on them with those eight glowing orbs.

Without a moment to lose, they bolt for the door, caution and silence being thrown out the window. Jack avoids a giant spider web that is draped from a tree. Then he looks back and sees the enormous spider that has a body so large it makes the cabin look like a play toy.

Mason makes it to the door but declares, “It won't budge!”

Pulling on Mason's arms, the two boys use all their strength in a desperate attempt at forcing the door open. Jack turns to get a gauge on the spider's location, and his eyes are met by a terrifying sight: Amy is caught in the large web. She had not seen it during their flight to the door.

Forgetting the door, Jack instinctively runs to her. He thinks,
That knife! I If only I had that knife!
The spider is drawing closer to the door. A shot of liquid flies past Jack's head and hits the door just above Mason.

“Get me out of here Jack!” Amy cries.

Jack lunges toward her. He tries to pull her away and calls out, “Help, Scotty, she's stuck! Help me!”

The web is so sticky thatJack's arm gets caught in it. Another volley of webbing then strikes Jack, and he has only one arm free. His flailing only gets him more tangled. Scotty has not come to assist Jack, and, now, the spider is almost upon them. Jack takes the flashlight and flings it at the monster. It makes a dull thud but has no effect. The creature continues to lumber forward toward its prey.

Jack says, “Your stick, Amy! Can you give me the stick?”

“No, it's stuck, too.”

“Maybe I can fight him off,” Jack says. He looks at the menacing giant, and just over its head, Jack sees a ray of light enter the room. He realizes that someone is coming through the door and hopes that maybe it will be someone who can help.

Struggling, Jack arches his neck to see the possible rescuer. He realizes it's the wolf and that the situation has just gone from bad to horrible.

Chapter 79

Scotty has heard Jack's cry, and he sees his sister caught in the web. His body wants to respond, but his legs are frozen to the floor. Even as the ominous hulking spider draws closer to Amy and Jack, fear deprives Scotty of his will. And as if a gigantic arachnid were not enough, a new player has entered the mix: a six-foot-tall wolf.

“Scotty, snap out of it!” Mason cries.

Scotty stutters, “Ma-Ma-Ma-Mason—the wolf!”

Mason, who has been working on the door, turns around and sees the wolf. He doubles his efforts with the door and says, “Scotty, help the others! Now—go!”

Scotty thinks to himself,
You coward. You can do this, Scotty. You have to do this.
He knows he must do something, but he's praying that somehow Jack can free his sister.

“Scotty, for crying out loud!” Mason screams.

The wolf rushes through the room, heading for Amy, and the scene before Scotty is amplified terror. In an instant, the spider turns away from its prey in the web after it becomes aware of the pounding footsteps from behind. A jutting spray of the sticky webbing hits the wolf in the chest,
ensnaring both of his arms, and he falls to the ground due to the impact. Then another shot of webbing wraps around his legs.

Upon seeing the distracted spider, whatever mental chains once held Scotty to the floor unshackle. He runs to Amy and Jack. However, the spider whirls again, this time toward Scotty. Unaware that he has been marked, Scotty falls face-first to the ground after a thin rope of the webbing encircles his ankles.

“Oww!” yells Scotty.

His shoulder throbs. Scotty turns to see the spider slowly approaching him. It is making low clicking and gurgling noises while frothy white bubbles seep from its horrid mouth. Scotty knows that after it makes a few more steps, he'll be done for.

Then he remembers,
The scissors!
Scotty rolls onto his side and reaches into his shorts' pocket, searching desperately for the scissors, but his fingers tickle a small vial instead. He had forgotten about the vial.

Scotty yanks the vial from his pocket and attempts to hurl the vial, but it's no use. The pain in his shoulder will not allow him to make a good throw with his right arm. He considers throwing with his left, but he realizes that he has not thrown anything with his left arm since shattering Mr. Turner's windshield in third grade. Scotty tries again with his right arm, but the pain is too intense. He knows he will have to do it left-handed, but for greater accuracy, he decides to wait until the spider is closer.

Scotty thinks,
A little further. A little further.
Amy screams, “Scotty, move!”

The spider picks up speed toward Scotty, and just before it strikes, Scotty throws the vial.

Chapter 80

It's a direct hit. The vial breaks into a dozen tiny shards, and the contents of the potion spill onto the spider. Immediately, an orange vapor emits around the head of the spider. As the orange mist wraps and shifts around the entire body of the monster, a stunning transformation occurs. The giant spider begins to shrink. Jack watches in jubilation as the spider reduces, becoming smaller and smaller. But, he begins to get nervous when the cloud inches closer to Scotty. Before the orange mist can shroud him, though, Scotty rolls away. Then he pulls out his scissors and goes to work on the webbing.

“Jack—the spider! Scotty did—uh, Scotty threw—uh, Scotty shrank the spider!” Amy calls to Jack.

He glances at Amy, grinning at Scotty's heroics, and says, “I saw it.”

Jack turns back to the spider and can now barely make out the eightlegged fiend. In spite of its rapidly dissipating size, the spider makes a final lunge at Scotty, who gets the webbing off his feet just in time to kick the creature, now about the size of a football, across the room.

It lands near the wolf.

“Look guys, this way!” Mason calls. He is standing with hammer in hand before an open door. However, the others cannot join him yet because Amy is still tied up.

At the same time, the wolf, who has managed to free an arm, is now crawling toward Amy.

“Jack—the wolf!” Amy screams as the predator inches towards her.

Scotty hurries over to Jack and Amy and begins snipping away at their bindings with his scissors. Mason also joins them to lend his support while being careful to avoid becoming ensnared in the same webbing.

Still, the wolf continues his desperate crawl. His green eyes are burning, remaining focused on Amy.

Mason and Scotty manage to free Jack and Amy, and Jack utters, “Thanks guys” as they rush toward the door.

None of them want to spend one more second in the Grove.

Chapter 81

In the next room, the four teens squat with hands on hips, sucking in whatever oxygen they can.

“Is every room going to be a trial like that?” Jack moans to himself.

“Did you see the size of his teeth?” Scotty asks in a gasping voice.

“Whose teeth, wolf or spider?” Jack answers.

Amy proudly hugs her brother and says, “Scotty, thank you. You really saved us back there.”

In agreement, Jack extends a hand to Scotty and says, “Thanks, man.”

Jack and Amy turn to Mason, waiting for his show of thanks to Scotty. Instead, the older boy asks, “What took you so long back there, man? Amy and Jack could have been toast, or eggs. Well, actually, probably bacon. I'm hungry. We need to get out of here or find some food.”

Mason trudges off, and Scotty's once-beaming face falls.

Jack comes to Scotty's defense by saying, “Come on, Mason, we got out of there didn't we?”

Scotty takes of his glasses and fiddles with them. His mouth is tight, and his eyes are squinting. Jack realizes that he's thinking about something and says to himself,
Come on, Scotty, give Mason a piece of your mind.
“He's right. Sorry, guys, I really froze,” Scotty apologizes.

Amy gives Mason a scolding look and says, “Are you forgetting that he did not let us die. If it wasn't for whatever he did to that spider…. Of all the nerve, Mason Chick….”

Waving his arms in the air, Jack interrupts, “Okay, okay. Scotty, how did you do that to the spider? It just, like, shrunk.”

After relating the story of how he found the shrinking potion, Scotty's confidence is restored.

“We're not out of the woods yet, guys,” Mason points out.

Although the pun was not intentional, Mason's point is valid, and Jack knows it. With every new room, new danger awaits.

Jack looks around at their current surroundings while Mason whips out the map from the work belt.

“Looks like we are back on track,” Mason informs. “We need to go left, through those doors at the end of the room.”

The room is, of course, dark. The walls are almost black and the center is not much lighter. Still, the group can tell that more stumps litter this room and another set of doors to the right is barely visible.

“Looks as if a lumberjack went to town in here,” Jack notes.

“Either that or eight-foot-tall beavers,” Mason quips.

From the far end of the room, the group begins to hear a humming noise. It's not a mechanical noise, but an actual human sound. Jack eventually recognizes the tune as “Frère Jacques.” After turning his eyes to the dark corner of the room, he barely makes out two small legs, which are just visible below the knees. The rest of the body is shrouded in the shadows.

“Hello?” Jack calls. By this point, the others also see the focus of Jack's call.

There is no answer, but the humming continues.

“Excuse us, but….” Scotty beckons.

The humming continues.

“Let's just go,” Amy says while pushing at Jack's side.

Jack, Amy, and Scotty prepare to simply avoid the person and walk out the door at the left end of the room. Mason, however, does not move an inch because he is obviously curious.

All of a sudden, the humming stops, and the legs start to move.

The three who are leaving stop their momentum. Even their breathing seems to halt.

Then, from the shadows, a small girl emerges. She is clad in a tattered smock dress, which at one point must have been white, although large brown streaks and yellowing stains have overtaken the garment. The girl's face is ruddy, smeared with what appears to be dried mud, and medium-length tangled brown hair hangs from her head. The entire package is creepy, but none of her unkempt features can take the group's attention away from the empty look on her expressionless face or her pair of haunting blue eyes.

The girl takes another step toward them and stops. She levels her hands at her chest and fiddles with a small brown box the size of a domino, but she never takes her eyes off them as she begins to hum another bar of her haunting tune. With one hand, she pulls a match across the box. Fire begins to sizzle at the end of the stick and casts a flickering shadow across her face. The effect is beyond disturbing.

The humming stops, as if the flame provides a solace for her. The girl now watches the fire burn, and no one is sure whether to move or not.

Just before the light burns out, she asks, “Would you like to buy some matches?”

The light fades out. She begins humming again, “Frère Jacques, frère Jacques….”

Chapter 82

Although Amy feels this is the creepiest display the group has seen in any of the rooms, she can't help but feel some empathy for the girl and wonders,
Is she trapped in here, too
? Amy begins walking toward the girl, but is halted by the extended arm of Jack. Amy shoots Jack a quizzical look, but there is no sternness in Jack's face. Amy understands his intent and rethinks her decision to go to the girl.

Instead, she calls to her, “Um, little girl, what are you doing here?”

There is no verbal response or even a hint of recognition that she has been spoken to. The creepy little girl simply strikes another match and waits as the light flickers out.

“Are you trapped?” Scotty asks.

Again, she stands motionless. Here pale blue eyes are staring not at the teens but at some empty void.

“So, this is interesting,” Scotty says, breaking the tension. “Maybe we should be moving on then, right guys?”

“Right,” Jack confirms.

“No, not yet,” Mason retorts. “What's she doing? Why is she here?”

Amy wants so desperately for the girl to say something else, thinking it would be nice to converse with another female after being cooped up in the building with boys all night. Also, for all Amy knows, this seemingly frail little girl could have wandered into this world just like they had and is now defenseless in this horrible place.

Amy urges, “Please, talk to us. Are you lost?”

Again, nothing.

“All righty then. That settles it. Scotty, shall we?” Jack asks and takes a large, deliberate step to the left side of the room.

The girl strikes a match. Then a blink of something in her registers. In a tiny, breathy voice, she whispers from her chapped lips, “No, just waiting.”

All four of them are startled at the sudden eerie voice of the girl.

“Uh, waiting? Waiting for who?” Amy asks in the sweetest voice she can muster.

“My grandmother.”

“On, no,” Scotty utters in a flash of recognition.

“What?” Jack asks with more than a little trepidation.

Scotty grabs his friends by their arms and starts dragging them toward the door. He says, “We gotta leave right now.”