All shades of gray. No color. No color anywhere. Their clothes were weird. Old-fashioned.
None of them turned to look at us. We were still our normal colors. But no one seemed to notice.
“Totally weird,” Carly Beth muttered. “It’s like we stepped into an old black-and-white movie.”
“Let’s get going,” Matt said. “We’ve got to find the other kids.”
“Yeah. Maybe they know what’s up with this weird place,” Robby said.
“At least we’re safe,” Jillian said. “We’re out of HorrorLand.”
She turned and stared at me. She expected me to argue with her.
But I didn’t say anything. I started walking, following Matt and Carly Beth, who led the way.
We passed the swan ride tent. Behind it, the path led to a row of white buildings with black doors.
Shadowy, gray people stood in a long line in front of a building with a grinning skull on the front. A black-and-white sign proclaimed: SCREAM HOUSE.
Next to it, people stood in a circle, peering down into a deep, black pit. The sign in front of it read: HOLE OF HORROR.
“This park is huge,” Julie murmured. “How will we ever find the other kids?”
“I have an idea,” I said.
Jillian sneered at me. “You want to go back to HorrorLand and forget about them, right?”
“No way,” I said. “Give me a break. I’m trying to help.”
“You can help by going away,” Jillian snapped. “We know you and your brother are spies for the Horrors.”
“Not true,” I said. “I swear. You’re wrong, Jillian. You’re totally wrong about us.”
I saw a little girl walking by herself. I hurried over to her.
The girl wore a gray skirt and a gray blouse. Her long, wavy hair was black. Her face was pale gray.
When she raised her eyes to me, I could see the sadness on her face. Her eyes were ringed with black circles. Her gray cheeks were puffy and tearstained.
I bent down to talk to her. “Have you seen eight kids, all walking together?” I asked.
Her chin trembled. She spoke in a tiny mouse voice, so soft I could barely hear her. “I vanished,” she said.
My mouth dropped open. “What did you say?”
“I vanished,” the little girl repeated. “I vanished. Can you find me?”
The other kids gathered around us.
“Has she seen our friends?” Julie asked.
“I … I don’t know,” I stammered. I turned back to the little girl. “Are you lost?” I asked.
The little gray girl stared up at me with her sad, dark eyes. “Can you find me?” she whispered. “I vanished. I vanished. I vanished. Can you find me?”
Gray tears trickled down her pale cheeks.
I reached out. I tried to put my hand on her shoulder —
— and my hand went right through the little girl!
I let out a gasp. I staggered back, away from the girl.
Her tears carved dark lines in her pale cheeks. Her slender shoulders sagged. “Please find me,” she whispered. “I vanished. Please find me.”
“I … I’ll try,” I said.
I didn’t know what else to say.
Jillian stepped forward. She gazed down on the shadowy little girl. “I’m trying to read her mind,” she said. “But I’m getting only static. It’s like … the signal is too weak … too far away.”
A young man and woman stepped up behind the little girl. They wore black T-shirts and black shorts. Their skin was the color of ashes after a fire dies out.
“We all vanished,” the woman said. Her gray eyes were blank, like clear glass.
“We all vanished when the park disappeared,” the man said. “We are the shadows. We are the shadow people.”
“I don’t understand you,” I said. “Shadows? What are you saying?”
“We’re all that’s left,” the man said. His voice sounded muffled, far away. “The park disappeared, and we did, too.”
“Find me,” the little girl repeated. “Find me. Can you find me?”
“You mean — you’re DEAD?” Matt asked.
“No. We’re what’s left,” the woman said. “We’re the shadows we left behind when we disappeared. Don’t you see?”
“We … don’t understand!” Matt cried.
More shadowy, black-and-white people arrived. Little boys and girls and their parents. A few gray, sad-looking teenagers.
“I vanished,” the little girl said. She began to sob. Her whole body shook. “Can’t you find me? Can’t you find me anywhere?”
The shade people formed a circle around us. They began to move around and around us. Their low voices were chilling as they murmured to us.
“We’re all that’s left.”
“Where did we go?”
“Can you find us?”
“I vanished. Please find me.”
“I’m a shade now. We’re all shades. It’s so drab and dark here.”
“Where did we go?”
Muttering their sad words, they circled us faster and faster — until they were a moaning blur of charcoal gray.
“Find us! Find us!”
“Don’t leave us here!”
“We can’t let you leave till you find us!”
“Let’s get out of here!” Carly Beth screamed.
We took off running.
I ducked my head — and ran right into the swirling shadow people.
I felt a shudder of cold, as if I were breaking through solid ice.
And then I was on the other side, outside the twirling circle of gray. Outside the wailing voices.
The others came bursting out, and we kept running until the voices faded behind us.
A strong gust of wind blew hard against us. I heard a smaaaack sound.
Robby let out a startled cry. I turned and saw him struggling to pull crinkled newspaper pages off his face.
He unfolded them. “The wind carried this …” he started.
But then his eyes went wide as he read the front page — and he gasped in shock.
“Robby — what’s wrong?” I cried.
He stared at the headline on the paper for a few seconds more. Then he held it up so we could all read it: PANIC PARK CLOSED.
I felt my throat tighten. Luke and I exchanged glances. My brother and I had a hunch about this. But we were never sure it was true.
Seeing the bold, black type of the headline sent a cold shudder down my back.
“What does it say?” Matt asked Robby. “Read the rest of it.”
We huddled close as Robby read:
“‘Following the disappearance of several park visitors, Panic Park was shut down forever today. This followed the strange deaths of many park visitors in the past year.
“ ‘City officials announced that the park — all its rides and buildings — will be torn down immediately.’ ”
“But — the park is still here!” Matt said. “It hasn’t been torn down. We’re standing in it.”
We all started talking at once.
“It must be a mistake.”
“They probably changed their minds.”
“Did it really say a lot of people died here? Those shadow people …”
“Wait … wait,” Robby said, holding up one hand to quiet us. “There’s more.”
We fell silent. Why did Robby suddenly look so pale?
“Check out the date at the top of this newspaper,” he said. He pointed to it with a trembling finger. “July 12, 1974.”
No one said a word.
Another strong gust of wind lifted the newspaper out of Robby’s hands. It swirled into the air and sailed across the plaza.
Carly Beth shook her head. “This is too frightening,” she said. “Has Panic Park really been closed since 1974?”
“Does that mean we traveled back in time?” Robby said. “I’ve drawn a lot of comic strips about time travel. But it can’t really happen. No way!”
“You ca
n’t travel through mirrors, either,” Julie said. “But we did it. How can you be sure we didn’t travel back to 1974? And now we’re stuck here. Like … like prisoners.”
“Maybe those shadow people told us the truth,” Matt said. “Didn’t they say they were here when the park closed?”
“And now they’re dead?” Julie cried. “That little girl? The others? They’ve been dead since 1974?”
“This is too weird,” Jillian said. “We have to stay calm. We can’t be having all these crazy thoughts.”
My mind was spinning. I had warned them about Panic Park. But they didn’t want to believe me.
I decided I had to speak up. “I think we should go back to the Hall of Mirrors,” I said. “I think we should go back to HorrorLand.”
“Lizzy is right,” my brother, Luke, quickly chimed in. “If we go back, we can find out the truth about Panic Park.”
“No way!” Jackson cried. He glared at Luke and me. “No way! No way! You just want to leave the other kids here? We can’t do that. We have to find them first!”
Jillian spoke up angrily, curling her fists at her sides. “Jackson is right. Our friends need us.”
She turned to the others. “Lizzy and Luke don’t care about them,” she said. “They’re not really part of our group. They showed up just as we were leaving HorrorLand and tried to stop us. Now they’re trying to tell us what to do.”
“I knew we never should have let them come with us,” Jackson added.
It’s a good thing I’m the calm one in my family. If I wasn’t, I’d probably try to slug Jillian.
She had no right to accuse Luke and me that way.
I saw the angry look on Luke’s face. He made a move toward Jackson. Luke is a foot shorter than Jackson! I grabbed him by the shoulders and held him back.
“Luke and I just want to help,” I said quietly. “Let’s find the rest of your friends and get out of here as fast as we can.”
“She’s right,” Robby said. “Something is terribly wrong here. If the park really did close in 1974 …” His voice trailed off.
Julie had a camera strapped around her neck. She raised it and stared at it as if seeing it for the first time. “I almost forgot I had this,” she said. “Let me take a quick photo of everyone. You know. Just for proof that we were here.”
She waved us over to a tall sign. The sign was black with gray letters. It read: CAUTION. GHOUL CROSSING.
Julie lined us up in front of the sign. “I can’t believe I forgot to take pictures,” she said. “We’ll all want them when we’re home safe and sound — right?”
She moved Carly Beth and Luke to the front row. They were the shortest. The rest of us stood in a line in front of the sign.
No one smiled.
I think we were all thinking about the newspaper. Had we walked into some kind of weird time warp?
Julie flashed the photo.
Then she raised the back of the camera and squinted at the viewscreen.
She brought the camera closer to her face. She squinted at it some more.
Then she let out a cry: “I don’t believe it!”
Julie’s hand shook so hard, she nearly dropped the camera.
I grabbed it and gazed at the viewscreen. “Whoa,” I muttered. “Totally weird.”
I could see the GHOUL CROSSING sign. But where were we?
None of us were in the picture. Just the sign. Black and gray. No color anywhere.
“Come on,” Julie said, waving us back in place. “We need a do-over. It can’t be the camera. This is my newest one.”
We lined up again. Carly Beth and Luke stood in front. The rest of us huddled close behind them.
Julie raised the camera and gazed into the viewscreen. “Okay. I can see everyone clearly. Matt, squeeze in a little.”
She took a step back. “Okay. I’ve got you all now. Don’t anybody move.”
She flashed the camera.
We hurried over to check it out with her.
“You … you’re INVISIBLE!” Julie cried.
“That’s impossible!” Matt said. He turned the back of the camera toward him to see it better. “Huh? Where ARE we?”
Robby shook his head. I could see him shiver.
“I … I wish I hadn’t read so much science fiction,” he said. “I wish I hadn’t read so many comic books.”
“Robby, what are you thinking?” Carly Beth demanded.
“Well …” He shivered again. “If we did go back in time, we wouldn’t show up in a picture.”
“Why not?” Jillian asked.
“Because we weren’t born yet!” Robby replied. “None of us was alive in 1974!”
“Stop! This is giving me a headache!” Julie said.
“Why did you say that?” Luke said to Robby. “Now I am totally creeped out.”
“Do you mean we’re standing in this park that doesn’t exist? And we aren’t even BORN yet?” Matt cried.
Matt pointed across the plaza. “We should try to take a picture of one of those shadow people over there,” he said.
We turned to stare at a group of shades walking around a fountain.
“Bet it wouldn’t come out, either,” Julie said.
“Let’s stay away from those shades!” Luke said.
And then Carly Beth let out a cry. “Over there!” She pointed to a small, square building that looked like a log cabin.
A black-and-white sign over the door read: INFORMATION BOOTH.
“Come on,” Carly Beth said, trotting toward the cabin. “Maybe someone is in there. Maybe someone can help us.”
“Maybe …” I muttered. But I didn’t really believe it.
My legs felt as if they weighed a thousand pounds as I jogged to the information booth. I knew it was my feeling of dread weighing me down.
I had the most frightening hunch that our troubles here were just beginning.
I followed the others through the open door. We stepped into a small, dark room. Gray light filtered in through a tiny window.
A black counter stretched across the back. Cobwebs hung down like a curtain from the low ceiling.
“Anyone here?” I called in a shaky voice. “Anyone in here? Please?”
“Check this out!” Matt said. He picked up something from a low black table. It looked like a magazine.
“It’s the park guide,” he said. He held it up. “It’s in color!”
We gathered around. The cover was in bright reds and yellows.
Matt opened it. I looked over his shoulder. I saw photos of a flaming carousel. A tall blue-and-green roller coaster. A bright red food cart, selling Human Pancakes.
“What happened here?” Matt said, gazing around the dark cabin room. “Why has all the color in the park faded away?”
“Check out the clothes on that guy!” Julie said, pointing to a photo in the guidebook. “Are those bell-bottom pants?”
“That girl with him is wearing a miniskirt with white boots,” Carly Beth said. “I saw outfits like that in my grandma’s old photo album.”
I saw an African-American man with a tall afro. Two guys next to him had long sideburns.
“How old is this guidebook?” Jillian asked.
“Three guesses,” Matt said. “I’ll bet you it’s from 1974.”
He pulled something out from the back of the book. “A map!” he said. He unfolded it carefully. “It’s a map of the whole park. All in color.”
“Maybe it will help us find the exit,” I said.
Jillian rolled her eyes. “There you go again,” she said. “Did you forget our friends, Lizzy? You just want to leave them here and get out of the park as fast as you can?”
“That’s not what I meant,” I said. “I just —”
“Whoa. Check this out,” Robby called from across the room. He was leaning over the long counter. He waved to us. “There’s someone behind the desk.”
We hurried beside him. Sitting in a low chair was a wooden mannequin. A dummy. He wore jeans and
a checked flannel shirt. He had a black baseball cap pulled over his head. A button on the cap read: GUIDE.
His wooden hands rested on the chair arms. The chair was tilted back. His eyes were closed, as if he were asleep.
I spotted a small sign behind him on the wall. I read it out loud: “ ‘Push the button and Rocky will answer your question.’ ”
“Where’s the button?” Carly Beth asked. “Quick — find the button.”
I spotted a black button at the edge of the counter. I pushed it.
The dummy blinked. It raised its head. The head made a creaking sound as it leaned toward us.
The wooden mouth slowly opened….
“Ohh, gross!” I cried.
I watched a fat worm curl out from the open mouth. Then another.
Worms poked out of the dummy’s nostrils and dropped onto its lap. Another worm crawled out from its left eye.
“GO-O-O AWA-A-A-AY!” the dummy rasped in a scratchy recorded voice. It sounded like a crackling, old phonograph record.
“GO-O-O-O-O AWA-A-A-A-AY …”
Worms fell wetly from its nose and open mouth and plopped onto its lap.
I pushed the button again. “Can you help us?” I shouted.
“Can you help us find our friends?” Carly Beth asked.
“Please! Can you help us?” I asked.
“The park is CLOSED!” the dummy rasped. A big knot of worms plopped from its mouth. Worms curled out one nostril and into the other.
“The park is CLOSED! The park is CLOSED! The park is CLOSED! The park is CLOSED!”
I ran out of the cabin with my hands pressed over my ears. I couldn’t stand that scratchy, hoarse voice. And I kept seeing the worms squirming out of the dummy’s nose, mouth, and eye.
The park stretched in front of us in grays and blacks. The only color, besides us, was on the park guide that Matt clutched under his arm.
I heard a dry flapping sound. I looked up to see a flock of crows flying low overhead. The birds made ugly cawing sounds as they soared over us.
We all gathered at a clump of low benches shaped like coffins. I slumped down beside Luke and shut my eyes. I struggled to get the ugly dummy out of my thoughts.