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��Thank God!" a voice shouted in Jenny’s ear Jenny relaxed against the sli her
"Dee-you scared o-round across the lake It was turning and Jenny could hear faint an
"You scared us to death," Audrey said "Where have you been for the last two hours? We ran down that shaft with the roof caving in right behind us all the way-and then e finally got to the mouth of the cave, we realized you weren’t with us Then Dee went crazy and tried to go back while everything was still falling, but it alot out, it was just a ride again"
"The caving-in noise stopped," Michael explained, "and I looked back and the cave was fiberglass again"
"And eo "We walked all through it, the three of us, and you weren’t in it It was just a ency Exit we just caer at Jenny’s door "So the question is, where have you been? You’ve seen hi down at herself by the light of a nearby fountain-a fountain which had been dark when they’d first gone into the ride Her jeans were ruot when it dried without her brushing it The supplies she’d packed so carefully to help her face the Shadow World were gone Even her flashlight was gone
"I saw hi at her "I found out what the new Ga the three doubloons to get to Zach and To about the other Shadow Men, or the rising water in the dark cave, or how it had felt to die She wanted to; she wanted to talk about it in privacy, and maybe cry, and be comforted, safe with her friends But she wasn’t safe, and there wasn’t any privacy, and as the point of alar everybody?
As for Julian and his bizarre et on the subject
"So at least we got so out of that ride," Michael said "I mean, it nearly killed us, and we lost et so What happens after we collect these doubloons?"
"I think we go to the bridge, just like that kid said in the regular park," Jenny said She was grateful-and proud They were all battered and tired, and there were only two flashlights left-but no one was even talking about giving up
"The bridge must be on the other side of the lake, around back," she added "When we get there, I guess Julian will let us across" She looked at the lake The hts were reflected in it, and so were other lights, blue and green and gold, from the island itself Shadows of trees broke the very tall and white, was the lighthouse It looked the same as the one Jenny had seen that afternoon, in the real park, except that noas illuton Monument Like a tower for imprisoned princes
"That’s where Tom and Zach are," she said quietly
"Where should we start looking?" Dee said, equally quiet
The Eht Jenny out close to the front of the o left to Kiddieland," she said, "or right, back the e came from the Fish Pond Or around the front of the lake, toward the h his ruo around the lake-it’ll take us by the billboard about the contest Maybe that’ll give us a clue"
"That’s where we cah the door with the runes, I toss booth and around the gentle northern curve of the lake There seemed to be no rhyme or reason as to which parts of the park were awake and which still slept
They kept a close eye out for things like the one that had attacked Dee, but they saw nothing Then, as they got closer to the billboard, Jenny heard a voice
A low voice It scared her-who else was in the park with them?
She rounded a clump of spruce trees and saw a car from a circus train, with a red roof and silver bars
"I’ Lion," the muzzle thrust between the bars said
Only the voice-rong It wasn’t the peppy, friendly tenor of the Leo in the regular park It had dropped two octaves and become distorted and almost machinelike A thick, muddy cybervoice
"Geez," Michael whispered
Jenny hted, very bright and gay against a dark background of bushes The animal looked like the Leo of the ordinary park, with a shiny caramel-colored face, dark mane, and painted body Jenny’s eyes were drawn to theO so it could suck up trash It looked as if it were calling "Yoohoo!"
"I eat all kinds of things," the growling, guttural voice said
"I bet," breathed Michael
"What’s it doing here? Is it just to scare us?" Audrey said, circling the cart at a safe distance Dee was playing her flashlight into the olasticin there," she said
"You’re kidding You are kidding, aren’t you?" Jenny edged along beside Audrey She didn’t want to get any closer to the lion than she had to-the asphalt path wasn’t nearly wide enough in her opinion
Dee knelt and squinted "Soold," she said "No, really, I’m serious Look way back in there, in the throat"
Unhappily Jenny took the flashlight and aiht be soold or silver, she couldn’t tell
"It um wrapper," she said
Dee leaned a casual arm on her shoulder "Don’t tell htmares"
Jenny hadn’t, that she could remember But the lion had looked sinister even this afternoon, and it looked doubly sinister now
"I a my hand in there," Michael said positively
Dee flashed her ot nice long nails How about it, Aud?"
"Don’t tease her," Jenny said absently "Noe need is so pole wouldn’t work because it wouldn’t catch a coin Maybe if we put so’s as good as a hand Audrey could-"
"Dee, quit it!" Jenny cast a sharp look at the girl beside her She didn’t knohy Dee and Audrey see problems today-maybe it was a reaction to all the tension-but this was no time
for Dee’s skewed sense of hu a little apart from the others, head tilted back, chestnut eyes narrowed in disdain, cherry-colored lips pursed She looked very cool and superior
"Leo’s always hungry So feed me," the distorted, bestial voice said Every time it spoke, Jenny’s heart juhttoward her
It can’t It’s plastic, she thought But she was afraid her heart would simply stop if it did The quietness of the park around them, the darkness, made this one animated trash can even more eerie
Dee sat back on her heels "It looks like there’sthe coins We have to actually get theame"
"Quest?" Jenny said
"Yeah Reaories The first one Julian played with us, where we had to get to the top of the house by dawn, that was a race gaht, and the second one, where the aniame Like hide-and-seek," Jenny said
"Yeah, well, there’s another type of gas in order to win-like in a treasure hunt or a scavenger hunt Or hot and cold A quest gaames"
"Naturally," Michael said "Hus The Holy Grail, or the truth, or the treasures in Zork, or whatever"
"Surely you can find so"
Jenny looked up, jerked out of the pleasant hypothetical discussion Audrey was standing by the circus car, exahtly chipped in the htful
"Go on, princess I dare you," Dee said, her black eyes flashing in amusement
"Don’t be silly, Audrey," Jenny said autoh, that she said it unhurriedly Audrey never did anything reckless-not physically reckless, at least
So Jenny didn’t say the warning with urgency, and therefore she was, in some way, responsible for what happened next
Audrey put her hand in
Michael was the one who shouted Jenny ju to be all right
Audrey, her face set, was fishing around in the hole Her hand was in it to the wrist
"I feel so," she said
Jenny’s heart was thudding "Oh, Audrey"
Audrey’s lips curved in a triuht out her beauty ot it!"
Then everything happened very fast
The caraoodeffect in a -but here it was real It was real, and so awful that it froze Jenny to the spot
The colors bled and changed, going olive green, then a dreadful grayish ce hollow pits Theteeth that had grown to trap Audrey’s wrist
It happened so fast that even Dee didn’t have tiasp, and then screamed instead Her entire body snapped forward
The thing had sucked her arm in to the elbow
"Audrey!" Michael shouted He covered the distance to her in two steps Dee was right behind hiht dazedly It’s not flesh, like that thing-like Slug It’s stone or
"Don’t hit it, Dee That won’t help-that won’t help We have to pull her out!"
The thing-it wasn’t a lion anymore, but some sort of hideous cyberbeast-was now the color of an old statue coated with ain, breathlessly, and her body jerked The nylon jacket was skinned up to her shoulder now, bunched" like an inner tube as her arMichael was yanking at Audrey
"No, don’t pull! Don’t pull! It hurts!"
Vaseline, Jenny was thinking Or soap-so