Monsterstreet #3, page 5
“Then there might still be a way for you to escape. But there’s no use in running—you’ll ask for the bite sooner or later. They always do,” Johnny Pumpkinhead said, then spit out another seed.
He pointed to the coffin, and Ren remembered the trap door that had been in the bottom of the one on the ride.
“It’s a trick coffin,” Johnny Pumpkinhead began. “The Tick-Tock Man uses it onstage for his final disappearing act. The bottom falls out, leading to an otherworldly realm—or perhaps simply to a secret exit beneath the carriage. Like it did for your brother on the Drop of Fear.”
“But what about the lock on these bars?” Ren asked, distracted by his current predicament.
Johnny Pumpkinhead reached into his pocket and pulled out a small item. He scooted closer to Ren’s cage, put his jack-o’-lantern face near the bars, and offered the tiny object to him.
“Take this. It’s one of Scary Mary’s hairpins. You can use it to pick the lock.”
Ren began to reach for it but stopped himself. Something Johnny Pumpkinhead had said bothered him.
“H-how did you know my brother went through the bottom of a trick coffin? I never said anything about that,” Ren said.
Johnny Pumpkinhead laughed.
“It’s been the word on the street, that’s all,” he replied.
Ren decided it was possible that other carnies knew what had happened the night before.
“What did you say you’re in here for?” Ren asked.
“Does it really matter?” Johnny Pumpkinhead said.
Ren knew he didn’t have enough time to wait around for an answer, so he went ahead and reached for the hairpin.
But when his hand touched Johnny Pumpkinhead’s fingers, something awful happened. . . .
The fantastical creature’s tough orange skin began to melt, the light of his eyes snuffed out, and his pumpkin head spun upon his neck like a basketball.
Soon, his entire body morphed into something else.
Into someone else.
The Tick-Tock Man! Ren thought in horror. Johnny Pumpkinhead was only a disguise!
The bars of the cage vanished, and the Tick-Tock Man gripped Ren’s arms like vises.
The magician lifted Ren into the air with superhuman strength and laughed like a madman.
“Let me go!” Ren shouted, his legs dangling.
“Not until you swear to keep everything you know a secret!”
“I—I swear!” Ren said.
The Tick-Tock Man squeezed tighter.
“Don’t lie to me, boy. I know what you’re up to. And if you keep going down that path, it won’t end well.”
The Tick-Tock Man opened his mouth, and a green fog drifted out of his throat toward Ren.
Just before Ren breathed it in, he kicked the magician in the stomach.
The Tick-Tock Man lurched over, dropping Ren. The frightened boy leaped toward the wooden coffin at the center of the carriage, activated the secret door, and jumped in.
“Your brother will never escape! Never!” the Tick-Tock Man shouted after him.
As Ren descended through the bottom of the carriage, the ticking of the soul-clocks and the shouts of the magician grew farther and farther away.
He crawled out from beneath the carriage and sprinted away from it as fast as he could.
When he glanced back over his shoulder, he saw one word painted across the side of the carriage in giant red letters:
CARNEVIL
18
Banishment
The carnival was alive. The smells, the sounds, the sights . . . were all ablaze.
It’s already late! I have to get back to Old Manor to stop Kip from coming here, Ren thought.
As Ren made his way through the crowd, he felt the rides pulling at him like magnets. He couldn’t explain it, but it was much harder to resist them than it had been the night before. As soon as he found the strength to walk away from one of them, another lured him in. He felt like a puppet being tugged by a dozen different strings. And each time, he had to find the strength to cut the string that pulled at him the hardest.
For what seemed like hours, he was a mouse trapped in a maze, unable to find his way out. He craved the brain-fried funnel cakes, the bloodstained cotton candy, the liver-flavored lemonade, and he became more and more curious about the dark wonders behind each ride’s door.
Just when he thought he could no longer resist the temptations of the carnival, he saw . . .
Kip.
Looking a bit older than he had that morning.
And his darkened eyes were full of craving.
He’s already here! Ren thought.
Kip skipped the line at Clowntown and ran straight through the ride’s entrance.
No! Ren thought. I have to get him out of here!
Too afraid to go inside Clowntown, Ren waited outside for Kip to return.
A few minutes later, he saw Kip appear across the jack-o’-lantern-lit midway on the Skeleton Coaster, looking older than a few moments before.
Ren tried to catch up to him, but Kip disappeared onto another ride.
And another.
And another.
Until Ren finally gave up.
Every time he gets on a ride, he comes off looking taller and older, Ren thought. It’s like the rides are fast-forwarding his aging process. I have to find a way to get his soul-clock back before it gets any worse.
Knowing he couldn’t help Kip if he was tempted by the carnival any longer, he crept behind a tent where there were no crowds, trying to make his way through the maze of jack-o’-lanterns to the carnival gates.
But soon, he heard two voices arguing nearby. . . .
“What you did is forbidden,” a familiar voice said. “Taking the heart of the carnival out of safekeeping could ruin everything. If it ever traveled beyond the boundary, it could destroy the backward clock.”
“I only wanted to see the heart up close,” the other voice returned.
Ren glanced around the corner of the tent and saw the Tick-Tock Man scolding a carnie at the edge of the carnival grounds. In secret.
“If you can’t obey the laws of the carnival, then maybe you no longer deserve its gifts,” the magician threatened.
The carnie’s eyes grew wide, as if he knew that beneath the magician’s words was a dire threat. He looked at the Tick-Tock Man in terror.
“I swear I won’t ever go near it again. Just please let me stay,” the carnie pleaded.
“I’m afraid it’s too late for that. You were told when you joined us that I have a no-tolerance policy on this issue.”
The Tick-Tock Man took a step toward him.
The carnie opened his mouth to plead for mercy. But before a single word could escape his lips, the magician pushed him beyond the carnival boundary.
The carnie screamed.
As soon as his feet touched the ground beyond it, his body began to wither.
At first, Ren thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. But within seconds, the carnie turned into an old man, then into a decrepit corpse with hollowed eyes and yellowed flesh, then his corpse crumbled to dust and blew away in the October wind.
19
Monster in the House
Ren couldn’t believe his eyes.
The carnie was gone. Forever.
Carnies can’t step beyond the boundary of the carnival, Ren realized. That’s why Zora said she couldn’t leave to visit her sister.
The Tick-Tock Man glanced in Ren’s direction, and Ren quickly hid behind a tent. He waited until he saw the Tick-Tock Man’s shadow disappear around the corner.
A few moments later, Ren sprinted through the carnival gates and back into the quiet world beyond.
The two miles back to Old Manor seemed like an eternity.
Coyotes howled from the forest.
Creatures lurked in the fields.
And hungry eyes stared back at him from the wild darkness.
Even the flyers stapled to the telephone poles seemed to glow in the dark, possessed by some strange magic that Ren had never known existed.
All the while, he thought of ways he might be able to trick the magician into getting close enough to the boundary to push him beyond it. Then perhaps all the deals would be voided—including Kip’s.
When he arrived back at Old Manor, he found Aunt Winnie helping the residents carve pumpkins for the jack-o’-lantern contest in the main hall.
“Hi, Ren. How was the carnival?” she asked.
“It’s evil!” Ren shouted. “It takes kids’ souls and makes them grow up overnight!”
“What are you talking about?” she said, putting down her carving knife and walking toward him, a concerned look in her eyes. “How many funnel cakes did you eat tonight?”
“You have to listen to me, Aunt Winnie,” Ren replied. “The magician—he’s—”
“I thought I told you to stay away from that man,” Aunt Winnie said.
Before Ren could explain, he heard the front door of Old Manor open. A teenage boy walked inside. The stranger looked about seventeen years old and seemed to know his way around. He walked into the next room, sat down in a chair, and stared out the window toward the carnival, his gaze unmoving, as if lost in a trance.
That’s when Ren realized . . .
The stranger was wearing Kip’s blue cap.
Kip? Ren thought, suddenly recognizing the young man’s eyes. He’s already aged ten years!
“Look, Aunt Winnie! Kip looks like a teenager now!” Ren said.
“What in the world, Ren?” Aunt Winnie asked in surprise, not understanding why he would say such a thing. She glanced at Kip in the other room, then back to Ren. “Kip still looks nine and not a day older. By the way, I left some homemade cookies in the kitchen at the guest house. Why don’t you take your brother over to eat a few and watch one of those monster marathons?”
Ren glanced over at Kip, then back to Winnie.
“You mean . . . you don’t see it?”
“See what?” Aunt Winnie asked.
When Ren turned back to Kip, he was gone.
The front door was open, and Kip was walking back toward the guest house.
“Never mind,” Ren said to Winnie, then hurried after his brother.
Aunt Winnie squinted, confused. She watched Ren as he ran out the door toward the guest house.
Once inside, Ren smelled the pumpkin–chocolate chip cookies that Aunt Winnie had made for them. He was tempted to take a bite, but his concern for Kip far outweighed his hunger.
As he walked down the hallway toward their room, he heard Kip talking to someone. . . .
“What if my aunt gets suspicious?” Kip asked.
It was the magician’s voice that returned. “Her eyes won’t see the truth until after the carnival leaves town at midnight on Hallows’ Eve. No need to wait until tomorrow night. You can join us now, Kip. But I can only come to the other side if you invite me.”
The Tick-Tock Man is in our room! Ren thought in horror. But—how did he cross the carnival boundary?
Ren cracked open the door and saw Kip sitting before the vanity mirror in the dark. There was no reflection in the glass, and no one else in the room.
Where is the voice coming from? Ren wondered, perusing the room for any sign of the magician. Then the truth hit him . . . the mirror!
The glass began to glow eerie green like a witch’s cauldron.
Kip reached his hand toward the mirror, until his fingers melted through into the swirling portal of twisted magic.
“No!” Ren shouted.
He ran into the room and tackled his brother away from the bewitched mirror. Kip’s chair fell over, and the green glow of the glass extinguished.
All was dark and silent.
“I’m tired,” Kip muttered, as if nothing out of the ordinary had just taken place.
He stood, took off his shoes, and climbed into the bottom bunk of the bed with his clothes still on. Ren realized that Kip’s shirt, pants, and shoes had somehow grown along with his body. It was all part of the aging illusion.
Ren looked at his brother, not knowing what to do.
He then peered out the window at the silhouetted tombstones of the graveyard.
A moment later, Ren saw a lone bat fly across the pale October moon.
Sleeps in a coffin during the daytime.
Doesn’t have a reflection.
He can only enter a house when he’s invited.
Ren’s eyes widened in horror.
The Tick-Tock Man is a . . . vampire? But that’s impossible!
20
Preparations
The next day was Halloween.
Kip slept all morning while Ren ran around the nearby neighborhoods handing out flyers that he had made to try to lure kids away from the carnival.
They read:
Come to the Creepiest Place in Town This Halloween . . .
Old Manor Nursing Home!
A Haunted Hearse, Scary Stories, and Lots of Candy!
By early afternoon, the sky was filled with dark clouds. But they didn’t seem to move. They just sat there, as if waiting for the autumn wind to tell them where to go.
Ren spent the afternoon hanging garlic on every door of Old Manor so that the vampire-carnies couldn’t get in. Then he put on his skeleton costume. It was a black long-sleeve shirt and pants with white bones painted over them. Aunt Winnie had bought him a skeleton mask at the local costume store to go with it. He then helped dress the residents in their costumes and makeup. Most of them said they hadn’t had so much fun since they were kids.
Nearby, Aunt Winnie practiced her witch’s cackle while she helped Kip put on his mummy costume, not noticing that he no longer looked like a boy. She was surprised when she ran out of gauze from the medicine cabinet.
I have to find a way to get Kip’s soul-clock back before midnight, Ren thought, more worried than ever about his little brother. As soon as the carnival opens, I’ll sneak in to find it in the magician’s carriage.
After Aunt Winnie finished mummifying Kip, Ren approached her.
“Aunt Winnie, no matter what happens tonight, we can’t let Kip leave Old Manor. He has to stay as far away from the carnival as possible, okay?” Ren warned her, then removed his skeleton mask.
“Ren, I already told you I’d help watch Kip so you can have fun tonight. And I admit, that place is weird, but it’s just a dime-a-dozen Halloween carnival, that’s all. Your imagination is getting the best of you. As long as you stay away from that man in the cape, you’ll be fine.”
Ren put his hands on her arms and stared into her eyes.
“Listen, if you ever do anything for me in my entire life, please do this one thing,” Ren pleaded, his eyes as solemn as twin graves.
Aunt Winnie squinted, concerned.
“Okay, Ren,” she replied, rebalancing her black witch’s hat atop her head. “I won’t let Kip leave Old Manor tonight. But only if you go down to the basement and bring up that last box of decorations.” Aunt Winnie winked.
“No problem,” Ren said, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Here, take this,” Aunt Winnie added, grabbing a flashlight from the nearby table and handing it to Ren. “I already cut off the electricity in the basement to give it an eerie ambience for when the trick-or-treaters go down to the Morbid Mortuary scene tonight.”
Ren smiled, took the flashlight, then headed down the hallway toward the basement door.
Where a shocking secret had been hidden for seventy-seven years.
21
Basement Secrets
The door to the basement was covered in black butcher paper with spooky words written on it.
Morbid Mortuary!
When Ren pushed open the door, it screeched like a cat being stepped on.
Only darkness stared back at him.
He turned on the flashlight, and the dusty beam of light licked the dark walls. Each step creaked beneath his feet as he crept down the stairs to the dungeon below.
Thunder rumbled outside, conjuring goose bumps on his skin.
Once his tennis shoes touched the concrete floor, he stepped carefully through the maze of cobwebbed mannequins and wax figurines all around him.
He passed by the mortuary table in the center of the room, where a bloodstained sheet covered a fake corpse. Bloody tubes ran out of the veins of the cadaver. And even though Ren knew it was fake and that Aunt Winnie had set it up the day before, his heart still thumped in his chest.
His flashlight beam moved over the room until it finally illumined the sealed box of decorations. He quickly grabbed it and was about to head back up the stairs when something else caught his eye.
In the farthest corner of the basement was a veil of cobwebs hiding something ancient.
He cautiously approached it, then peeled away the tangled webs until he could make out what lay beneath.
What is this doing down here? he wondered, running his hand over an antique file cabinet.
He squatted to open the drawers and discovered hundreds of dusty files within it.
“This must be where they used to store the records of Old Manor,” he whispered.
He perused the files and realized they were sorted by years.
I wonder if . . . , he thought, thumbing through the files.
He stopped when he saw a section of files labeled “Unknown Identities.” It was different from the other files in that it was marked with both red and black ink.
He pulled it out of the drawer and examined the folder.
Each file contained a paper-clipped photograph of an old person. There were at least a dozen of them, and they were all labeled “John Doe” or “Jane Doe.” Ren knew those were generic names detectives used on mystery shows when they didn’t know the actual identity of a person. But the strangest thing of all was that every single one of them had been checked in to the nursing home on the first day of November.
That’s weird, he thought. All these old people showed up at Old Manor the day after Halloween . . . exactly seventy-seven years ago.
Behind the files was a yellowed newspaper clipping. It read:
Parents Report Missing Children after Carnival Leaves Town.
