Disney After Dark (24 page)

Finn said, “He’s not an errand boy, he’s my friend.”

“Hey! I don’t mind,” Dillard said. He raised his oven mitts, made claw motions, and waddled off in search of something for them to drink.

“He’s a good guy,” Finn said, when Jez faced him again. “He’s big, so people make fun of him, but he can’t help it.”

She ignored what he’d said. “Want to do the Haunted Mansion with me?” Jez asked.

Finn felt his throat tighten in panic. The mansion was an attraction that seemed perfect to hide Overtakers. “It’ll be too crowded,” he said.

An awkward moment settled between them.

“
Miss Congeniality
,” Finn said.

“What?”

“The Sandra Bullock movie?” Finn inquired. He pointed toward the park entrance. “A friend of mine…Charlene. You met her at the sports park,” he said. Charlene also wore makeup and lipstick, which gave her high cheekbones and a thinner face. It was a good disguise. Her blue cocktail dress swished as she paraded straight over to Finn.

Charlene looked Jez up and down. “Adorable,” she said insincerely.

“Imaginative,” Jez said back to her.

Charlene ignored Jez. “Sorry if I’m
late
” she said.

“No prob.”

“Finn and I are going over to the Haunted Mansion.” Jez announced. “Want to come?”

Charlene complained, “But Finn, you promised me the first ride.
Remember
, Finn?”

She was giving him the excuse they needed to get over to Pirates and be with the others.

“When you’re right, you’re right!” Finn said, a little awkwardly. He asked Jez if he could catch up to her later for the Haunted Mansion.

She frowned.

Dillard returned, bearing too many drinks to hold. He dropped one.

Jez reached out and caught it as it fell. She not only snagged the cup but somehow managed to catch all the soda as well. Not a drop spilled to the ground. It was an impossible feat.

Finn took a moment to replay it in his mind. “How did you
do
that?”

Charlene took the third cup from Dillard and thanked him.

“I…ahh…” Jez said.

Dillard had intended one of the three for himself, but didn’t tell that to Charlene. When he moved, his various arms bounced wildly. He mumbled and headed off to get another.

“You didn’t answer me,” Finn reminded Jez. “How did you do that?”

Jez stumbled over her words as she made what was clearly a lame excuse. “My mom doesn’t like me messing up the kitchen. I’ve gotten pretty good at not spilling.”

Catwoman approached. Finn recognized Amanda immediately.

Finn hadn’t spoken to her since their collision behind One Man’s Dream. He couldn’t sort everything out: what she’d been doing there; why the cold hadn’t seemed to affect her. He didn’t feel like hanging out with her tonight. He wasn’t sure how to tell her.

Dillard returned fairly quickly and said hello to Amanda. Her attention remained on Finn.

“Finn?” Amanda said.

Finn turned his back, not sure what to do. Not that, he realized, as she stormed off. He felt rotten.

Finn offered Charlene and Jez another drink and then headed off himself, grateful to get away. The girls hung with Dillard, who struggled to get a paper cup to his mouth. He spilled some soda down his front when one of his own claws banged against him.

Amanda snuck up behind Finn in the soda line.

“I saw her, Finn. Jez. Behind One Man’s Dream. Those monitors are old and fuzzy, but I’m sure it was her, and I came over there to warn you.”

Again, Finn didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what to think. He didn’t turn around.

Amanda continued, “Doesn’t that strike you as a little odd? A little too coincidental, her being there like that? Right then?”

“You were there, too. That struck me as odd as well.”

“I just explained.”

They stepped away from the soda line. Finn juggled three cups. “You weren’t sure it was her.

You just said so yourself.”

“Think about her name, Finn. Jezebel? Come on. The Bible?”

He was not exactly a Bible scholar.

“Jezebel is wicked. Evil. Just like a witch. And that fits with the cold, right?” Amanda asked.

“It could have been anyone doing that,” Finn blurted out, thinking of the woman in the car.

She leaned back and looked at him as if she didn’t know him. “What are you thinking? Are you
serious
? Me? Listen, there’s something you need to hear…something I have to tell you about her. I’m not supposed to—do you understand that? This could get me in big trouble….”

Suddenly, Amanda shuddered. Her head jerked up toward the sky. Her shoulders shrugged and stiffened. Her eyes rolled in her head. Finn thought she was going to faint. He dumped all the drinks into a nearby trash can, freeing his hands, and took her by the arm. Then by the waist. She sank into his arms. She felt cold, really cold, and stiff, as if she were suffering some kind of seizure.

Finn, wanting to avoid making a scene, walked her to a bench and sat her down.

A commotion erupted behind him. He turned to see Charlene now sitting down on the sidewalk, her head hanging slack over her knees. She had apparently fainted as well.

An adult hurried toward Charlene.

“Finn!” It was Willa, late to arrive.

“No time to explain,” he said. “You’ve got to get Charlene over here before people start asking questions. The giant crab—that’s Dillard—he’ll help you. Hurry!”

Willa, who’d come as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, rushed across to Dillard, took hold of one of his oven mitts, and dragged him over to the wilted Charlene.

Finn checked Amanda. She looked half asleep, her eyes barely open. Thankfully, she was breathing normally. “Amanda!” he said, but got nothing from her.

A brownout, he thought. But a brownout affecting a human, not a DHL.

If you’re not careful, I’ll cast a spell on you.
Hadn’t Jez said something like that? Was he imagining that she’d said that?

He looked around, his eyes searching for Jez.

Hadn’t Amanda been just about to tell him something to do with Jez when she’d fainted?

Willa and Dillard had Charlene walking between them. Definitely a good sign.

There! Finn finally spotted Jez. She stood on the far side of the street, talking to an adult—a There! Finn finally spotted Jez. She stood on the far side of the street, talking to an adult—a thin woman in a large witch’s hat, her back to Finn. He watched as Jez pointed in his direction. He felt goosebumps race up his spine. What was she talking about?

Then, just for an instant, Jez accidentally met eyes with Finn, from clear across the street. A moment later Jez led the woman off, absorbed by the crowd.

“Listen…Finn said, trying to think. “I gotta go,” he told Willa.

“What, just leave us here?” Willa asked, astonished.

“You know anything about the Bible?” he asked Willa.

“A little. Sure.”

“I think I know what’s going on,” he announced to Willa just as Philby and Maybeck showed up.

“I’m glad someone does,” Maybeck said.

Philby had come wearing a white curly wig and big black glasses, calling himself Einstein.

Maybeck had sprayed his hair gray and wore the flag of South Africa on his sleeve.

“Nelson Mandela,” Maybeck told Finn.

“You guys come with me,” Finn instructed as he spotted Jez and the woman again. They were well down Main Street, heading toward the castle.

Amanda sat up suddenly, surprising them all. Willa yelped.

“Don’t!” Amanda gasped, looking directly at Finn. “You have no idea…of their powers.”

She slumped back, in that same lost state again.

“We’ve got to go. Now!” he told the boys.

The three boys hurried down Main Street.

“What about, you know…?” Maybeck asked.

Finn tapped his chest. “I brought the pens.”

“Aren’t we going the wrong way? Shouldn’t we be going to the fire station?”

“Don’t ask me how, but Jez did this to Charlene and Amanda. Made them sick.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Maybeck said, his voice raspy. They were nearly running.

Finn explained, “Jez hooked up with a
witch
! In costume? Or for real? Super skinny. Long black hair. Sound like anyone we’ve seen lately? And oh, by the way, Jez just happens to be wearing long white gloves.”

“Can I just say, you’ve completely lost it,” Maybeck said. “And by completely, I mean one hundred percent.”

“Gloves. Jez is wearing white gloves tonight. They go to her elbow. Amanda and I saw those same gloves at—”

“The car wash,” Maybeck answered. He’d seen them too.

Finn said, “Jez is a witch. And so’s her mother.” Philby and Maybeck looked stunned. “You want me to prove it, you’ll come with me.”

Following now, Philby said, “What if you happen to be right? In that case, what are we doing chasing a witch and her daughter? I mean, how stupid can we be?”

Maybeck huffed. “I’m going to have you guys institutionalized. Am I the only
sane
person left?”

“Wait!” Finn said, stopping them. They ducked behind a pillar in front of a Main Street shop.

He pointed. Jez and the woman turned left at the plaza, just before the castle.

“How much do you want to bet they’re heading to Pirates?”

Remembering the conversation on the monorail, Philby said, “Amanda told us Jez disappeared there.”

“A figure of speech,” Maybeck interjected. “That’s all!”

As Finn led them left off the street as well, Maybeck said more seriously, “Listen, I’ve been there: where Charlene and Amanda are right now. Feeling sick like that. You do not want to mess with these people.”

“They aren’t people,” Finn said. “That’s the whole point. If they were people, then Wayne and the others could deal with them. This is up to us, you guys. No one else is going to do this.”

“We’re going in there after them?” Philby said. Jez and the woman arrived at the entrance to Pirates of the Caribbean. Sure enough, they headed inside.

“I do
not
like this,” Maybeck said. “What happened to voting?”

“All in favor?” Finn asked. He and Philby raised their hands.

Maybeck groaned.

They stopped short of the entrance and stared warily at the old Spanish-style building.

“Okay,” Philby said, “now I’m scared.”

30

A
t night, in the midst of a Haloween costume party, Pirates of the Caribbean took on a more menacing feel, something each boy felt as he entered. Flamenco guitar music echoed from walls that flickered in the light of dim lanterns. And while the mood was festive, the Halloween party was a special event, so the crowds were much smaller than usual. The result was an attraction with deserted hallways and a hollow echo to every sound.

The boys hurried down a stone corridor. Finn had lost sight of Jez and her mother just as he heard the older woman’s raspy voice saying, “Over here.”

This was followed by a slight squeak of metal, a door swinging on hinges, and a resounding clang that reverberated off the walls.

“You hear that?” Maybeck asked.

The trio slowed. As they reached a sharp turn in the hall, Maybeck bent down, pretending to tie his running shoe, to let a group of eager teens race past them. When the hall was empty again, Philby pointed to a short staircase set into the wall, cordoned off by a chain.

To the right of the hall was a pit, a jail cell holding a pair of pirate figures engaged in a game of chess.

Maybeck hurried forward, jumped the chain, and climbed the short stairs. He reported back down to the others, “There’s a pair of cannons and a kind of turret thing. Looks like the top of a fort or something.”

Philby, ever the academic, explained, “It’s a mock-up of a battlement, with twin eight-pound cannons and their shot in woven baskets.” He’d done his homework, as usual.

Finn’s attention remained on the jail cell and the sturdy iron bars mounted into the concrete.

He tested its door, which swung open, making the same eerie squeak they’d heard only moments before.

Excited voices rang from the entrance to the attraction. More people coming.

Maybeck whispered softly, “If we’re going in, we’re going in. We can’t stand around staring at it.”

The boys stepped inside the heavy jail cell door and Finn pulled it shut.

They ducked into shadow as several groups of kids hurried past toward the start of the ride.

Finn then motioned down into the pit and the two pirates playing chess. It was a long way down, and there were no stairs.

Philby found a weighted rope connected to an over-head pulley. “Care to take the elevator?”

He tested the rope, held on tightly, and stepped off. He floated to the bottom of the pit. A moment later the other boys had reached the jail’s floor.

“Okay, this is
really
weird,” Finn said, “but I know this guy.” He pointed to one of the pirates.

He knew this figure from the laser battle. Looking more carefully, he realized that he recognized
both
pirates. He dared to reach over and gently poke the arm of the nearest pirate. Thankfully, it was a model, like a mannequin, and he relaxed.

They emerged into a long, straight hallway that lay in shadowy twilight. Jail cells lined both sides.