Oracle of Doom Read online

  “I ain’t afraid of you, swami,” Hensley said. “You understand? You can’t touch me. I have more friends here than you do. Remember that.”

  Baz never took his eyes from the crystal ball. He didn’t lower his hand either, or say another word to Hensley.

  “Be smart,” Hensley said. “Go home and figure out what your next move is. Think long and hard about it and get back here tomorrow for your shows. Your full shows. Understand?”

  If Baz understood, he didn’t say so.

  Hensley turned and stormed off. The last person left in the tent besides us was Mrs. Simmons. She gave Baz one last worried look, then left.

  Theo tugged on my arm to get me to leave, but there was no way. We were there to save Baz, whether he liked it or not.

  The tent was now empty. I took a cautious step closer to the oracle and said, “You’re seeing your own future, aren’t you?”

  Lu gasped with surprise.

  “Of course!” Theo exclaimed.

  Baz finally tore his gaze from the crystal ball. Instantly, the light that came from within went dark. When he looked at me, I saw the fear in his eyes.

  “It’s a fire, isn’t it?” I asked. “That’s what you saw.”

  Baz opened his mouth as if to say something, but no words came out.

  “Please say you can change your future,” Theo said.

  I think Baz was in shock. He tried to say something, but all he could do was shake his head.

  “You can!” Lu exclaimed. “Just stay away from your apartment.”

  Baz’s eyes went unfocused. He glanced down at the crystal ball as if hoping it would show him something more. It didn’t. The glass orb stayed dark. Suddenly, Baz ran off backstage, his purple robes billowing behind him.

  “This is good, right?” Lu said, hopeful. “Now he can save himself.”

  “Did that look like somebody who thought everything was going to be okay?” Theo asked.

  “Stop being so negative!” Lu exclaimed.

  I took a step closer to the edge of the stage, where I got a good view of the crystal ball. I looked deep into the glass, hoping to see any hint of a vision that would predict the future.

  “So where’s the real power?” I asked my friends. “Is it Baz? Or the crystal ball?”

  I didn’t expect to see anything, but I did. It was like a fire burning within the glass. It was quick but unmistakable, and so real I imagined that I felt heat on my face.

  “Whoa!” I exclaimed, and backed off. “Did you see that?”

  “See what?” Lu asked.

  “You didn’t see the fire inside the crystal ball?”

  Lu shook her head. I turned to Theo. Theo shrugged. Neither had seen it.

  “I swear I saw something,” I said.

  “So what does that mean?” Lu asked.

  “It means we’ve got to make sure Baz doesn’t go home,” I said.

  I took off running for the exit with the others right behind me. We blasted out of the tent, only to get caught in the crowd of people who had just left Baz’s show. There was no way to know if the fire was going to start right away, or later that night, or long after the park closed, but we couldn’t take the chance. Baz was headed for trouble, and we had to make sure he didn’t find it.

  We had to prove that his predictions didn’t have to come true.

  We had to change the future.

  We pushed our way through the crowd, taking way longer than we should have. Once we broke out from the masses, we jogged toward the midway.

  “What are we going to do?” Lu asked, breathless.

  “We keep Baz from going to his apartment,” I answered.

  “How?” Theo asked. “That guy doesn’t listen to anybody.”

  “Then we’ll drag him out,” I said. “Or we’ll go to that Hensley guy and tell him his Magic Castle ride is going to catch fire. Maybe he’ll close it down.”

  “Or maybe closing it down is the exact thing that leads to the fire,” Theo said.

  I didn’t want to think that. I had to believe we could change what was coming, because we knew what it was.

  We ran onto the midway to discover that it was really crowded. There were so many people, it took forever for us to push our way through to the Magic Castle ride.

  “I guess we don’t have to worry about closing the ride,” Lu said. “Look.”

  There was a sawhorse in front of the castle entrance with a bright yellow Ride Closed sign on it.

  “It’s already closed,” Lu added.

  “Uh-oh,” Theo said, pointing up to the turret.

  A light shone from a lone window high above. Baz was home.

  “We’ll go to Hensley,” I said. “We’ll get him to pull Baz out of there and—”

  “Marcus!” Theo shouted.

  “Theo, stop arguing!” Lu said, frustrated.

  “I’m not arguing,” Theo said. “I know how the fire started.”

  Lu and I shot him surprised looks.

  “You do?” I exclaimed.

  “Yeah. You were right. It wasn’t an accident. It was set,” Theo said, sounding numb. “Not by one of Baz’s enemies either.”

  “Then who?” Lu asked.

  “Look,” Theo said, pointing toward the ride.

  A lone person approached the entrance, but not on the pathway leading in. The person crept along the base of the ride in front of the bushes that surrounded the castle, as if trying to make sure nobody noticed him. In one hand he held something that he shielded with the other.

  It was a lit candle.

  He slipped in behind the Ride Closed sign and walked straight for the front door.

  “He’s afraid of the dark,” Theo said. “So he’s bringing in his own light.”

  It was Derby.

  The kid glanced over his shoulder to see if he was being watched, then ducked inside the entrance and disappeared.

  We’d found our fire starter.

  The three of us made our way through the crowded midway to get to the Magic Castle ride. I didn’t even want to think why Derby would set fire to the place. It couldn’t be because he was angry at the guys who were bullying him. That would be, like, psycho. It would have to be an accident.

  An accident we had to prevent.

  By the time we made it over the drawbridge and up to the ride’s entrance, Derby had already been inside for a while. All we could do was try to catch up.

  “Theo, go find Hensley,” I said. “If we don’t get there in time, he should call the fire department.”

  “Where do I look?” Theo said nervously, tugging on his ear.

  “I have no idea,” I exclaimed. “You’re the smart one—figure it out.”

  “Right,” Theo said, and jogged away.

  “I hate dark rides,” Lu said, staring at the ominous entrance.

  “Me too,” I said. “Let’s make sure it stays dark.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her inside.

  The place was dark. I mean pitch dark. We couldn’t see a thing and waited a few seconds for our eyes to adjust. Didn’t help. It was still dead dark.

  “No wonder Derby’s afraid,” Lu said, her voice wavering. “This is ridiculously creepy.”

  “We’ll shuffle ahead slowly,” I said.

  I inched forward and walked straight into a wall.

  “Ow!” I screamed. “What the heck? This is supposed to be fun?”

  I put my hand out to feel my way along and kept moving ahead through the narrow corridor. It was slow going because I had to slide my hand across the wall or risk getting slammed again.

  Lu said, “Whoever thought of this stupid ride was a demented—”

  Honk!

  A loud horn sounded next to us as a light came on to reveal the Frankenstein monster to our right. We co
uld see a display through a window covered in chicken wire. It was filled with tombstones, electrical laboratory gizmos, and the monster himself. He lifted his arms and let out a groan. It was silly except for the surprise, which almost made me pee my pants. Lu pushed herself against me out of pure shock.

  “Well, that sucked,” she said.

  We hurried past the dumb display and the light went out, waiting to surprise the next innocent victim.

  “There must be a trigger in the floor,” I said. “When somebody steps on it, boom, surprise.”

  The display was hokey, but not knowing when the next scare was going to pop out made the whole deal nerve-racking.

  We moved on slowly, and a few seconds later…

  Wheeeee!

  A shrill whistle blew as the next display lit up. It was Dracula sitting up in his coffin. This dummy was pretty cheesy, too, and not scary at all. It was all about the surprise.

  “I hate this,” Lu said.

  “Derby!” I called out.

  No answer.

  “He had a candle to help him see where to go,” Lu said. “He could move a lot faster.”

  We turned a corner and entered a room that was fully lit. It was painted with vertical orange and purple stripes, which made it look like a circus tent. It wasn’t until we stepped into the room that the purpose of the stripes was clear. The floor was tilted on a forty-five-degree angle. The stripes gave the optical illusion that it was level. We had to walk through a maze of handrails, snaking back and forth, hanging on for fear of falling down.

  “Is this supposed to be fun?” Lu asked as she slammed into one handrail.

  There was nothing even close to enjoyable about this demented spook house.

  Beyond the slanted room were more dark corridors. After a few turns we reached a passageway that was lit up, but the floor was covered with spinning disks that made it nearly impossible to cross over without falling down.

  “This is, like, dangerous,” Lu said. “We could twist an ankle. They’d never have this kind of stuff nowadays.”

  I kept hoping we’d run into Derby after every turn.

  “Where would he start the fire?” I asked. “I hope he didn’t know about some hidden service door that we missed.”

  We passed through a maze of glass just like the one in the Hall of Mirrors. Thankfully, I didn’t see any floating shadows. The maze was followed by a room with a row of distorting mirrors. As we kept moving forward, each new room was connected by more dark, maddening corridors filled with pop-up scares.

  “This can’t go on much longer,” Lu said. “We’ve gotta come out the other side eventually.”

  “Listen,” I said.

  Somebody was up ahead. The voices were muffled, but it sounded like there was more than one person, and they were arguing.

  “Got him,” I said, grabbing Lu’s hand.

  We hurried through the next dark corridor, ignoring the creepy circus clown and the werewolf that jumped out at us. With each step we took, the sounds of the scuffle got louder. Finally, we broke out of the dark corridor into a large room that looked like a dense forest. From the ceiling hung dozens of green streamers that appeared to be made of thick cotton or burlap. It was like pushing through a sea of heavy, dangling spaghetti.

  More important, this was the room where the voices were coming from. It sounded as though a fight was going on between kids. Some cheered as the sounds of the fight grew louder.

  “Hey!” I shouted.

  The fight stopped.

  “Somebody’s coming!” one kid yelled.

  “Go!”

  “Scram!”

  “No scramming!” I yelled. “Don’t move!”

  The sound of footsteps running away was obvious.

  “Do you smell that?” Lu asked.

  I took a whiff. Yup, something was burning. I pushed forward, throwing aside the hanging strands, desperate to find the source.

  “There’s smoke!” Lu yelled.

  Wispy smoke drifted between the draped tendrils. We were getting closer. I followed my nose as much as anything else, and when I pushed aside one hanging vine, I saw it.

  Flames were licking up the length of one of the vines, spreading toward the ceiling and the forest of other vines that dangled beside it, waiting to ignite. I quickly whipped off my sweater and used it to smother the flames. Another couple of minutes and the fire would have spread like crazy.

  We had gotten there just in time.

  Lu bent down and picked up a candle from the floor directly beneath the vine that had been on fire.

  “He really did try to torch the place,” she said. “Why would he do that? And who were the other kids? He came in here alone.”

  “No idea,” I said. “But you know what? Who cares? We stopped the fire. We changed the story. Baz’s predictions don’t have to come true.”

  “We can save Theo,” Lu added with a big smile. “I knew it.”

  We hurried the rest of the way through the ride and exited onto the midway, where Theo was waiting with Mr. Hensley.

  Hensley looked pissed.

  “What happened?” Theo asked.

  “False alarm,” I said, and handed the candle to Hensley. “Somebody dropped this inside by accident.”

  Hensley took the candle and looked at it like it was an alien artifact. “Somebody brought a candle in there?” he asked, stunned. “What kind of fool would do that?”

  I wasn’t going to tell him. It was none of my business. This wasn’t Derby’s story; it was Baz’s.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “But we snuffed out a fire before it could spread. You might want to check it out.”

  Hensley left us and headed for the castle without a word. His mind must have been racing ahead to the fact that Playland had just dodged another disaster bullet.

  Theo looked at us hopefully.

  “You put it out?” he asked. “There’s no fire?”

  With a big smile Lu said, “We really do have control over our lives.”

  Theo laughed giddily. “That’s great! I’m not doomed!”

  “I told you!” Lu exclaimed.

  “Let’s not celebrate just yet,” I said. “All we proved is that Baz’s predictions don’t have to come true. We still have to figure out what’s waiting for Theo on his birthday.”

  Theo’s smile dropped.

  “Oh. Right,” he said, suddenly depressed again. “Well, that was fun while it lasted.”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “I’ve got an idea of how we can do that.”

  “How?” Lu asked, incredulous. “Now you can see the future?”

  “Maybe,” I replied. “Let’s go.”

  A few minutes later we were back in Baz’s tent. The place was eerily empty.

  “I think this whole fortune-telling thing isn’t just about Baz,” I said. “I swear I saw something in that crystal ball, and I’m no oracle.”

  We all stepped up onto the stage and approached the crystal ball, which sat on a purple velvet pillow.

  “I think it’s all about this thing,” I said. “This is the exact same crystal ball they’re going to put in the fortune-telling machine.”

  Theo brightened and said, “Yes! That would explain why the machine can see into the future. Baz is gone, but the crystal ball still works.”

  “Touch it, Theo,” I said.

  “What? Really?”

  “Yeah. It’s like the thing senses when there’s something to tell. This is about your future, so introduce yourself.”

  Theo looked at the glass ball like it was alive, and who knows? Maybe it was. He reached out slowly, his fingers getting closer and closer to the orb.

  “Boo!” Lu whispered in Theo’s ear.

  Theo yelped and jumped backward as if Lu had screamed at him.<
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  Lu couldn’t help but giggle. “I’m sorry, that was cheap.”

  “Don’t kid around!” Theo scolded. “This is about your cousin too.”

  “I know, I know,” Lu said, trying to keep from smiling. “Go ahead.”

  Theo reached out again, more tentatively than before. He gave a warning glance to Lu, making sure she wouldn’t mess with him again.

  Lu winked at him.

  Theo’s fingers got closer. Slowly.

  “I don’t think it’ll hurt you,” I said.

  “I’m not worried about it hurting me,” Theo replied. “I’m worried about what it might show me.”

  He took a breath, braced himself, and touched the crystal.

  Nothing happened.

  He reached out and touched it again.

  Nothing.

  He put his hand on top like he was palming a basketball.

  Nada.

  Theo took a step back, the tension gone.

  “Maybe it is about Baz,” he said. “He might have the power to trigger this thing.”

  At that exact instant there was a flash within the glass ball. It was fast. If I’d blinked, I would have missed it. It was like a movie was being projected inside. I saw a violent image that looked like a crash. Some kind of vehicle hit a hard surface and crumbled. There was no sound, only a fleeting image. I couldn’t make out any more than what looked like a panel of red metal that crumbled on contact. There was water too. Spraying water. I saw a flash of a person. It was a guy. A black guy. He was wearing a bright blue shirt. It was so fast that I couldn’t tell if it was Theo or not. I also saw a brief flash of a white guy who looked like he had orange hair. That was the weirdest image of all, but it only added to the bizarre burst of random visuals.

  “Whoa!” I shouted.

  “I saw it!” Theo exclaimed.

  “I did too,” Lu added. “It looked like a crash.”

  “Oh man,” Theo whined. “Was that me? I’ve got a blue shirt like that. Am I going to die in a crash? Why can’t we see more?”

  He knelt down and looked into the ball, but the show was over.

  “How can Baz make such specific predictions if all he sees are quick flashes of things?” Theo asked.