Your Worst Nightmare (2 page)

“What?” Kristi and Olivia exclaimed at the same time.

“My brother says that if you listen really carefully in the caves, you can still hear the echoes of their cries for help.
Please . . . please . . . please . . . help . . . help . . . help . . . meeeee . . . meeeee . . . meeeee . . . ,”
Bobby said, raising his voice to a shrill whisper as he imitated the echoes.

The sound of Bobby's echoes made chills run down Kristi's neck. But apparently she was the only one who responded that way: Everyone else on the bus burst into laughter. It was definitely not the response Bobby was hoping for. His whole face darkened.

“Okay, okay, save it for Halloween, Mr. Lehman,” Mr. Tanaka said sternly. “An excellent tall tale . . . but not a true one. You'll all learn about the real history of the Ravensburg Caverns on our tour tomorrow.”

“It
is
true,” Bobby said stubbornly. “I know a lot more about the caverns than you do.”

“Watch it, young man,” Mr. Tanaka said, and there was no mistaking the warning in his voice. “And face forward, please. No turning around in your seat while
the bus is moving—you know better.”

Bobby slumped down in his seat. Kristi couldn't see him any longer, but she could imagine the frustrated look on his face. Just then her phone buzzed with another text:

Lame story, right?

Kristy half-smiled, half-shrugged at Olivia. “Hey, I downloaded some new songs last night,” she said, changing the subject abruptly. “Want to listen?”

“Definitely!” Olivia exclaimed, plugging her headphones into Kristi's phone. Kristy cued up the first song and stared out the window while Olivia listened to it.

She couldn't stop thinking about the story that Bobby had told. The thought of being lost in the caves . . . lost forever . . . made her wish that she was in second-period Spanish class instead of heading straight for the Ravensburg Caverns. Because you could use a lot of words to describe Bobby—he was definitely a loudmouth, a bragger, an attention hog—but Kristi knew one thing: Bobby Lehman was no liar.

A few hours later, the buses pulled up in front of the Ravensburg Motel. All the students screamed so loudly that Mr. Tanaka pretended to plug his ears. “We made it!” he joked. “Before we get off the bus, I want to remind everyone to be on their best behavior. We're not the only ones staying at the motel right now, so I expect each and every one of you to be respectful of the other guests. That means no yelling, no shrieking, no running—you know the drill. Now, when we get into the lobby, I want you to line up with your roomie so Ms. Pierce and I can distribute your room keys.”

Kristi and Olivia exchanged a grin. “Come on,
roomie
,” Kristi said with a giggle as she stood up and
stretched. She was looking forward to moving around a little—six hours sitting on a school bus was about six hours too many!

Because of Mrs. Chen's busy schedule, Kristi and her family didn't get to go on vacation very often—but when they did, they stayed in nice hotels. Kristi had never realized just how nice those hotels were until she walked into the lobby of the Ravensburg Motel. Faded brown-and-orange curtains sagged across the windows, and the carpet was dotted with tiny holes and mysterious stains. Worst of all, the entire lobby smelled disgusting—worse than the cafeteria on sloppy-joe day. Olivia looked at Kristi and made a face.

“Maybe the rooms upstairs will be nicer,” Kristi said hopefully.

“Maybe,” Olivia repeated—but she didn't sound convinced.

“Chen, Kristi. Papas, Olivia,” Ms. Pierce said, scanning over her roster as she walked up to them. She handed each girl a plastic key card. “You'll be in room two-twenty-two, on the second floor. The bus drivers are almost done unloading the luggage, so why don't you grab your bags and get settled into your room? Then
everyone will have free time until five o'clock, when we'll meet at the motel diner for dinner. Remember, no one is allowed to leave the motel, got it?”

“Got it!” Kristi and Olivia replied. Then they found their bags and took them upstairs to room 222, where they soon realized that Kristi was wrong about their motel room. It was just as dingy as the lobby.

Kristi dumped her overnight bag on one of the beds and walked over to the window. She pulled back the peach-colored curtains and peered out the streaky window. Across the parking lot she could see the black, gaping mouth at the entrance to the Ravensburg Caverns. Even from a distance it looked cold and creepy . . . especially when Kristi remembered Bobby's story.

“I can't believe we're going
in
there tomorrow,” she said.

“What, did Bobby scare you with his story?” Olivia teased her.

“I'm not scared,” Kristi insisted. “But you have to admit that the cave sounds like a pretty freaky place. In a good way, I mean.”

“Totally agree,” Olivia said, nodding her head. “But come on. Let's go downstairs. This room looks even
worse than the lobby and I think I saw a gift shop when we walked in.”

Back in the lobby, Kristi spotted the diner around the back of the check-in desk. It had a blinking neon sign and a large chalkboard with the daily specials written on it.

TODAY'S SPECIALS: STROGANOFF, MIXED-MEAT STEW, MEAT-LOAF SANDWICH, MOLASSES COOKIES FOR DESSERT.

Kristi suddenly realized where the weird smell was coming from.

“
That's
where we're eating tonight? And tomorrow?” Olivia asked in disbelief.

“It must be,” Kristi replied. “The sign in the window says
FOOD
.”

“But it smells nothing like food,” argued Olivia.

“Dog food, maybe!” Bobby said as he walked up to them. Despite themselves, Kristi and Olivia started to laugh.

“Come on,” Olivia said to Kristi. “Let's go check out the gift shop.”

Of course Bobby tagged along, as if Olivia had been talking to him, too.

“My mom gave me twenty dollars,” Bobby announced.
“So I hope there's some cool stuff in the gift shop.”

Before Kristi or Olivia could respond, Bobby suddenly burst forward and caught another boy, Tim Hendricks, in a headlock. “TIMMMMMMM-BERRRRRR!” Bobby yelled.

“Hey, hey, hey, get off!” Tim said, laughing as he tried to duck out of Bobby's grip. Tim was one of the most easy-going kids in the whole seventh grade (unless he was competing in a track event. Then he was a fierce competitor); not even Bobby's antics could faze him. “Chill, man.”

“We're going to the gift shop. Wanna come?” Bobby asked.

Tim shrugged. “Sure, I guess. There's not much else to do around here, is there? The TV in my room only gets two channels.”

They reached the gift shop and split up to explore. It was smaller than Kristi expected. Several of the shelves were empty. There was a small black cat curled up on one, sleeping in the late-afternoon light. “Hi, kitty,” Kristi called to it. The cat chirruped and gave a big stretch, then went right back to sleep. Kristi continued to look around. Near the old-fashioned cash register she
saw dusty glass jars filled with pale pink, green, and yellow rock candy. She could hear Bobby and Tim snickering nearby as they messed around with a shelf full of wind-up circus-animal toys. The toys still worked, even though they were pretty rusty. Again and again, the boys wound up the monkeys, elephants, and lions and faced them off so that they would crash into one another.

After walking around the store for a few minutes, Kristi joined Olivia in front of a locked display case. She gasped when she saw what was inside: an assortment of glittering stones, as big as plums and as red as blood.

“Are those
rubies
?” Kristi asked.

“I don't know,” Olivia replied. “They're so pretty, aren't they? The best thing in this store. I was gonna buy one, but . . .”

As Olivia's voice trailed off she pointed at a small sign near the bottom of the case. In thick black letters, it read
FOR DISPLAY ONLY!!! NOT FOR SALE!!!

“Wow,” Tim said as he joined them. “Are those for real? I was looking at those geodes over there, but the ones they cracked open aren't as nice. They're just gray inside. They don't even have a lot of crystals.”

Kristi moved away to look through a revolving rack of postcards. She hadn't seen anything that she wanted to buy yet, but maybe there would be some cool postcards she could bring home to show her mom. She slowly spun the rack around, but every card seemed kind of . . . creepy. There was one with a freaky-looking crow standing in the mouth of the caverns. It read:
QUOTH THE RAVENSBURG CAVERNS . . . NEVERMORE
. And there was another one with a photo that appeared to be taken at the edge of a bottomless pit. It said:
I SURVIVED RAVENSBURG CAVERNS . . . COULD YOU?

Before Kristi could check out another postcard, someone shoved a brown paper bag in her face.

“What is—!” she exclaimed in surprise.

Bobby's face appeared above the bag. From the crinkles around his eyes, Kristi could tell that he was grinning. “Grab bag!” he announced. “Here. I got you one. I got one for everybody. They were only a quarter each.”

Kristi glanced over her shoulder to see Tim and Olivia holding grab bags too.

“They're probably not going to be very good,” Bobby babbled on. “Only a quarter. That's, like, nothing. But whatever. Might be fun. Or not. There's only one way
to find out. Who wants to go first?”

“I will,” Olivia said quickly, giggling a little as she stuck her hand into the wrinkled bag. She paused for a second before pulling out . . . a piece of cardboard with dented edges. Two long, sharp pins were stuck in it, securing a very large, very fuzzy, very dead moth.

“Ahhhhh!” Olivia shrieked. She frantically wiped her hand on her sweatshirt; her fingers were coated in translucent dust from the dead moth's wings. “Get it off! Get if off!”

“Ewwwww,” Kristi said loudly, partly to cover Olivia's meltdown and partly because the dead moth
was
pretty gross. She reached for the moth and the bag so that Olivia wouldn't have to hold them for a moment longer.

“That was so—so—” Olivia stammered.

“Yuck,” Kristi finished for her. She looked more closely at the moth. It was very pale, almost completely white, with unusual markings—jagged silver stripes intersected by splotchy gray circles. Kristi shoved the gross dead moth back into the bag. “Well, I guess I'll go next. I hope there's nothing
dead
in my bag!”

“Would you rather get a bug that was still alive?” Bobby joked.

Kristi plunged her hand into her grab bag. She felt several bumpy, oval-shaped objects, but didn't have a clue what they were. Her fingers closed around one and she pulled it out of the bag.

It was a miniature clown head. Its face was as white as death, with bloodred hair and lips and vacant blue eyes staring at . . . nothing. Instinctively, Kristi dropped the bag, only to watch in horror as a dozen more miniature clown heads bounced out of the bag and rolled around at her feet. The black cat that had been sleeping on a nearby shelf jumped down and began batting one of the clown heads around on the floor.

All the color drained from Kristi's face. She couldn't even speak. She started to back away from the clown heads, rolling and grinning at her with those bloody-looking mouths, when Olivia reached out and grabbed her arm.

That was all it took to remind Kristi that everything was okay. When their eyes met, Kristi could see sympathy and understanding in Olivia's gaze. She took a deep breath. Olivia was the only person at school who knew what had happened in the fun house, back in kindergarten, and Kristi was determined to keep it that way.

Tim knelt down and examined one of the clown heads. “Oh,” he said, sounding a little disappointed. “They're just erasers . . . you know, pencil toppers.”

“Oh. Duh,” Kristi said as a flush of embarrassment crept up her cheeks. She tried to laugh. “Of course. I was just, like,
ahhhh
, there's a head in my hand!”

It worked. Everyone else started to laugh too. Tim and Bobby finished picking up the clown heads. Then Tim said, “Me next!”

His bag was bulging, filled nearly to the brim with whatever mystery item it contained. Tim stuck his hand in and pulled out a heaping handful of matchbooks. A few of them slipped through his fingers and tumbled to the floor.

“I don't—” Tim said, frowning at the matchbooks.

Kristi picked one up from the floor and looked at it too. The cover read
GUARANTEED TO BURN HOTTER, STRONGER, AND LONGER!
and there was an illustration of a grinning devil's head engulfed in a flame.

“Exactly what do you think you're doing?” said someone behind them.

It was Mr. Tanaka!

Kristi jumped a little as she shoved the matchbook
into her pocket. But Mr. Tanaka didn't even seem to notice that she'd been holding one. His eyes were focused on Tim, who had gone very pale.