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Words flashed through Jenny’s htmare I had when I was a kid-?"
"Listen" She turned around abruptly "Besides Michael, has anybody else had aht After a moment she said in a subdued voice, "I have"
Dee said quietly, "Me, too"
"And so have I," Jenny said "Maybe it’s one of those universal things-"
"An archetype," Michael interrupted pugnaciously, his voice wobbling slightly "But so what? That doesn’t"
Jenny realized then just how bad his dreams must have been
"Don’t be silly, Michael," Audrey said, very gently She reached out and Michael snuck a finger into her hand "You think?" she said to Jenny
"I don’t know It’s nothing like I expected It looks like Joyland, but-"
"But Julian can ," Audrey finished crisply
Dee looked around, then chuckled "All right! Listen, you idiots," she said, turning back to theood If it is the Shadow World-or part of it-it’s a place we’ve been We’ll have an advantage, because we know the terrain And it’s better than blue-and-green blizzards, or whatever Jenny saw out thatlast tiht?"
Audrey nodded without enthusiasm Michael didn’t move
"And if it’s not the Shadow World, we’re in real trouble Because it means we’ve blown our chance to find Tom and Zach Maybe our only chance"
"Cest juste," Audrey said "I forgot"
Jenny hadn’t forgotten "We’d better check around See if this is the real Joyland or-" She didn’t need to finish the sentence
She didn’t know exactly how they were supposed to tell The place certainly looked authentic They crept through the silent park, heading auto a restaurant, dark and still
"What’s that?" Audrey hissed "I hear so"
It was the sound of water Faint, co from up ahead
"It’s the Fish Pond," Jenny said
She recognized the booth with its red-shingle roof It was dark, like the other attractions But when they reached it, she saw that the opaque water irling around its circular channel
"They wouldn’t leave that on all night," Audrey said, needle-sharp "Would they? Would they?"
Jenny’s pulse, which had been beating erratically, settled into a slow, heavy thu
"You knohat, Toto? I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore," she whispered
"Well, well," Dee said, stepping forward "How about this?"
There was a fishing pole leaning against the booth Dee hooked an index finger around it
"Ah Now I have a very bad feeling about that," Michael said It was the first time he’d spoken in minutes
Jenny understood what heBut they didn’t know they weren’t in Joyland It was possible that the park ae fro
"Shall I?" Dee said, twirling the pole "Or shall I?"
"You’re enjoying yourself, aren’t you?" Michael said, and there was so flatly resentful about his voice "But there’s other people here, you know Whatever trouble you uys It’s the only way to find out, isn’t it?"
Jenny chewed her lip Sometimes Dee’s recklessness went out-of-bounds, and nobody but Jenny could stop her If Jenny didn’t say anything, Dee would do it
Jenny hesitated
Dee lowered the line into the dark, rushing water
Jenny realized that she and Audrey and Michael were all braced None of the bad would happen Soled in the water, slack Dee jiggled the pole while Jenny thought of all the things that ht come up Dead kittens Severed hands MutantHe took things from your mind and made them real So if they were in the Shadow World, then the worst thing-the worst thing that any of the-
"A bite," Dee said "No, ht"
She leaned over to look, catching the thick yarnlike line in her bare hand and tugging
"Dee-"
"Corope "What’s wrong with-"
"Dee, don’t-"
Audrey screamed
The water erupted
Jenny had seen a geyser once, not Old Faithful, but a smaller one This looked just the saht up It splattered across Jenny’s face and beaded on her windbreaker Then it just stayed there, until Jenny suddenly realized that it wasn’t water at all, it was so that had corabbed hold of Dee
A man-it had hands like akept Jenny’s brain fro it as a man In another instant she sahat it was
The thing had no head
Its body ended at the shoulders with the stuh, even if it didn’t have a brain It was trying to drag Dee under the water
All this passed through Jenny’s h, for the thing to wrestle Dee almost to the water’s surface
I’rabbing at the thing’s arernails sank in, penetrating the arm beneath the tatter of a sleeve
It s terrible had happened to the flesh, turning it into a kind of white, waxy stuff that quivered loosely on its bones
Like-like that cla stuff novelty stores use for flesh Jenny’s little brother Joey had a fake snakefake When Jenny involuntarily snatched her hand back, she saw that her nails were full of it
Everyone was shouting Sonized her own voice With both legs trapped up against the booth and Michael and Audrey hanging on to her, Dee didn’t have roo with the knife at her belt
She got it free and her ar river knife fell into the swirling water
"Her shirt! Her shirt! Her shirt!" Michael was yelling The body now had Dee by the collar Michael was trying to pull Dee out of the shirt, but the buttons in front were holding
Jenny didn’t want to touch the headless thing with her bare hands again She didn’t, she didn’t-but then the thing wrestled Dee’s head al its rubbery ar Dee’s head like so wash in a river, and Jenny stared directly into its neck-stu about its body was nice to look at What flesh could be seen through the rags of clothes was grotesque-bloated and
swollen until it looked like a Kewpie doll that had been boiled and then inflated with a bicycle pu on None of their pulling was doing any good Without conscious thought, Jenny found herself scra dangled in the rushing water, then she was standing in the booth behind the headless thing
"Pull, Michael! Pull!" Jenny grabbed the thing fro around its waist just above the water level The waist squashed, like an overripe peach She could feel things shifting inside the dripping clothes Her cheek was pressed up against the back of its wet shirt She locked one of her hands around the opposite wrist and pulled harder
Oh, God-the sed instead She couldn’t see anything that was going on in front All she could do was hang on and keep pulling backward
The thing see it out It was a ghastly tug-of-ith her pulling at the body and Michael and Audrey pulling at Dee But suddenly she felt soone Dee was free
Jenny let go and staggered into the wall of prizes behind her The thing’s ar but air Then, as if sorabbed its feet and jerked it sharply doard, it disappeared into the dark water
Everything was silent again
Jenny was sitting in a litter of plastic whistles, cellophane leis, Matchbox cars, and stuffed koalas She picked herself up, swaying, and looked over the water channel