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A Day At Horror Land - Chapter 21
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“Go away!” I let out a low moan of horror and swung my hands wildly above my head.
The rapid fluttering retreated, then returned.
“Bats!” Clay cried in a terrified, tiny voice. I felt him grab my arm.
“I can’t see!” Luke shouted. “It’s so dark!”
“I — I hate bats!” I stammered.
I felt a cold whoosh of air as a bat flapped over my head.
I swung my hands wildly.
The flapping, fluttering sounds were all around us.
As my eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, I began to see shadowy shapes shooting past. Back and forth. Faster and faster.
I felt one brush my shoulder.
“Oh, help!” I cried.
Clay started to shriek. “Help us! Help us!”
“They’re zooming right at me!” Luke wailed.
Something bumped into my shoulder. I screamed.
“Help us! Help us!” Clay continued to plead at the top of his lungs. His shouts were nearly drowned out by the flapping of wings.
I felt another bat brush against my shoulder. Covering my face, I tried to make my way blindly to the door.
The sour odor choked me. My terror made my legs shaky. I could barely walk.
And then I felt a hard tug in my hair.
Another tug. Loud flapping right on my head.
A shrill whistling hiss. So close, it could have been coming from me.
I screamed. I screamed again.
“It — it’s caught in my hair!” I cried, falling to my knees.
Another shrill hiss. Another tug of my hair.
I swung my hands. I hit it. I felt a warm body, felt the brush of fluttering wings.
I shoved it hard — shoved it from my hair.
“Ohhh, help!” I cried.
The flapping wings and shrill whistles surrounded me. I could hear Luke and Clay shouting. But they seemed far, far away.
Another one brushed my cheek. Another one bumped my shoulder.
The shadows darted back and forth. The barn was alive with flying, chittering bats.
“Ohh, help! Help us, please!”
Another one brushed my face. I felt a rush of air, beating wings on the top of my head.
“Help us! Help us!”
But there was no one around to help.
I covered my eyes with one hand and thrashed out wildly with the other hand, trying to beat the bats away.
Choking and sobbing, I could barely breathe.
I heard Luke calling, far, far away. He seemed to be behind a curtain of flapping, chittering bats.
And then, suddenly, sunlight invaded the barn.
On my knees, I lowered my hand from my eyes and saw that the barn door had slid open.
Luke, standing at the door, his mouth open in shock, turned back to Clay and me. “I — I touched the door, and it opened,” he explained.
Clay’s glasses were hanging off one ear. His blond hair was totally messed up. His eyes darted around the barn. “Where are the bats?” he cried.
I raised my eyes to the rafters. “Hey — !” I cried out. No bats. No sign of any bats anywhere.
I climbed to my feet, pulling my hair back with both hands. “Let’s get out of here!” I cried.
Clay and I followed Luke out of the barn. The warm sunshine felt so good!
I was still itchy from the bats. I rubbed my shoulders and the back of my neck. “I hate bats! I really do!” I exclaimed with a shudder.
“But there weren’t any bats,” Luke said, grinning at me. “It was all a fake.”
“Huh? It was not!” Clay cried angrily. “Those were bats. I could hear them — and feel them!”
“All special effects,” Luke claimed.
“It wasn’t special effects when one got tangled in my hair!” I cried. Just thinking about it gave me cold shivers.
“Special effects,” Luke repeated. “Really excellent special effects. I was almost scared, too.”
“Almost?” I cried. I walked over, grabbed him, and pretended to wring his neck. “Almost? I heard you screaming your head off, Luke!”
He pulled out of my grasp, laughing. “I knew it wasn’t real. I was just screaming like that to scare you!”
What a liar! I really didn’t believe my brother. He was scared. He was plenty scared. I knew he was!
“They were bats, not special effects,” I insisted angrily.
“Then where did they go when the door opened?” Luke demanded. “As soon as the door opened, the bats all vanished.”
“Let’s stop talking about it,” Clay pleaded. “Let’s find your parents — okay?”
“Yeah, okay,” I agreed, glaring at Luke. “You really are nuts, you know that?” I told him.
He stuck his tongue out at me.
I wanted to punch his lights out. But I try to be a nonviolent person. So I just gave him one hard punch on the shoulder.
He howled in protest. “You’re stupid, Lizzy. You’re really stupid,” he muttered. “And you’re afraid of pretend bats!”
I ignored him and led the way down the path toward the front gate. Two people in Horror costumes appeared on the path, going the other way, chatting enthusiastically.
“Is this the way to the front gate?” I called to them.
They ignored my question and walked right past us.
“Hey — !” I called to them.
But they both kept jabbering away and didn’t even seem to see or hear me.
The sun beamed down on us. The air had become hot and still, with no breeze at all.
I wiped sweat off my forehead with one hand. I could still smell the sour aroma of the Bat Barn. The odor was on my hands, on my clothes.
I saw four teenagers in bathing suits, two boys and two girls, hurrying over the grass toward a large, brown pond. A sign came into view near the shore. It read: ALLIGATOR POND. FEEL FREE TO SWIM HERE.
Luke laughed. “Are those guys crazy?”
We stopped to watch them step into the water.
“Do you think there are really alligators in there?” Clay asked, biting his lower lip.
I shrugged. “Who knows? I don’t know what to think about this park!”
We continued along the path. A few minutes later, I recognized the mountain-shaped structure of the Doom Slide. The wide, circular plaza came into view. It was nearly deserted. Even the ice-cream-selling Horror had vanished from his cart.
“Where do you suppose Mom and Dad are?” I asked.
“They’ve probably been looking for us for hours, and now they’re really mad,” Luke said, frowning.
“Where are they?” Clay cried. He was starting to sound really stressed out. “We’ve got to find them.”
“Is that them?” Luke asked. He was pointing to a man and a woman in the shade of a large stone fountain.
I shielded my eyes from the sun with one hand. The woman was tall, with dark hair. The man was short and blond.
“Yes! That’s them!” I cried happily. I started running to the fountain, calling to them, “Mom!
Dad!” The boys came racing after me.
“Mom! Dad! Hey — !” I shouted happily.
They both turned around, surprised expressions on their faces.