24
Demon’s Dare
“C’mon, Cindy. Cindy McNeil. Wake up,” Dogboy shouted in her face.
She sneezed, shook, then opened her eyes. “Are we on a rolly coaster?” she said, still a little out of it.
“Yeah, and we gotta get moving right now or it’s gonna kill us.” Dogboy pulled her toward the steps. He waited, trying to time it right so the moving train wouldn’t rip off his leg. He got one foot over when the cars lurched to a stop, which sent Cindy flying out of his arms, rushing toward the platform eighty feet below.
Dogboy jumped after her, flying past her before scooping her out of the air. He put her down in one of the seats then landed beside her.
Hot John ran up the narrow stairs, taking them two at a time. The clouds above them faded to a dark purple. A thunderclap brought a light drizzle. The clown approached.
Dogboy considered stopping time and flying Cindy away, but then he remembered how flying with another person had winded him. I’d suffocate before we landed, he thought.
He stood up, raising his hands high above his head, his cape draped over his arms like a teenage Dracula. “I’m warning you. Let us go or I’m gonna have to do something I don’t want to do.”
Hot John chuckled, stepping over onto the train. “Aw, go on. I’m a big guy. I can take it. Might be funny, a little pup like you thinking he’s a match for an old hound like me.”
Dogboy blasted the big brute’s shoulder with an orange beam. Hot John winced then poked his finger in the hole left behind. “That’s gonna cost you plenty. Starting with her,” he said, narrowing his eyes as he looked at Cindy. He started climbing up the cars.
Back down on the platform Osbert paced along the wall. When Axle, Mr. Horum, and the others walked in, he didn’t even glance in their direction. Axle lifted his hand to zap the pointy-nosed creep, but Nuncio grabbed his hand before he could.
“Look, up there,” Nuncio said. “Cindy’s up there. Look at all this metal, dude. You start shooting electricity in here you might as well go up and fry her yourself.”
“You, Mr. Smarty Man,” Mr. Horum shouted across the gap between the platforms. “You get kids down or I come over there and hand your butt to you.”
“I can’t let Dogboy leave here alive. Not for you. Not for anybody,” Osbert said, edging toward the wall. “A shame. Another day, another life, we could have interfaced on a thousand different topics.” He snatched the metal controller off the wall then hit the green button. “Sorry, old friend,” he called up to Hot John, “but we do what we must for the Guild. For Andrus.” He dropped the box, jumped over the railing, then disappeared down the service road behind it.
Back up on the tracks the cars started back up the hill.
“We’ve gotta stop this,” Cindy said. “We aren’t even strapped in.”
“I can’t stop it,” Dogboy said, leaning over the edge of the car to get a clear look at the brains of the coaster. “Let’s see how this thing runs with only one motor.” He shot a blast into the motor on top, sending sparks flying everywhere. Mr. Horum pulled Jesse behind the shelves where riders stored their loose items.
“Is that Mr. Horum down there?” Dogboy said. “Looked like he was with a bunch of kids. Maybe he found your friends.”
The cars slowed but continued past the 180-foot marker then over the top, where gravity took over a big chunk of the work.
Dogboy hugged Cindy as tightly as he could, his orange aura extending around her. It held them in place as the cars rushed down the first hill. Dogboy’s stomach went up into his throat as they hit the dip at the bottom.
Hot John held onto a seat cushion with his good hand, legs flapping behind him like a flag. He hooked his mallet hand around a lap bar and pulled himself into the car.
“Hold on to my cape,” Dogboy yelled over the constant wind. Cindy grabbed a handful of his cape. His aura bled out from the cape and surrounded her.
Hot John wedged his feet between the bench and the front of the car, holding himself in place as he took swings as the masked mutt two cars ahead.
Dogboy concentrated, and the glowing orb rose out from his hand. He smiled under his mask then reeled back to throw it.
“Bronson Black,” Cindy screamed, tugging on his cape. “Don’t you dare. You’ll kill ‘im.”
They neared a dark tunnel running straight through a demon’s mouth, his eyes glowing green as steam poured through the opening.
“I’m not gonna let him hurt anybody else,” Dogboy said. “He’ll never be anything but a rotten crook. He doesn’t want to be anything else.”
Cindy jumped in front of Dogboy, hitting his arm with her free hand. “You won’t. You can’t. Stop.”
Dogboy let the ball absorb back into his open palm as they entered the tunnel. “Fine, but we’re leaving him here.”
Dogboy wrapped his arm around Cindy’s waist, shooting a few well-placed warning shots into Hot John’s leg. Purple and green neon lights strobed as they shot through the dark tunnel. They wound this way and that, twisting around in the dark.
As they emerged from the tunnel Dogboy took off into the sky, leaving Hot John confused and alone in the train.
“We can’t just leave him here,” Cindy said.
Dogboy zoomed past the loading dock, looking out for Osbert. He wasn’t there, but Dogboy spied him slinking back to the front of the park. “Looks like nobody’s at the controls. Guess he gets unlimited rides until the cops get here.” Dogboy and Cindy laughed as he floated down to drop her off with her friends.
Hot John roared at the airborne avenger as the train ripped past. He shook his fist and mallet above his head as the cars hit the turn in the tracks. The sudden force threw him off the coaster, sending him head-first into the pavement below. Blood spattered and bones shattered.
Our heroes flew on unaware.
“It totally looked like it,” Jennifer said.
“No. He good boy,” Mr. Horum said with a hint of doubt in his voice. “Accident at most, you betcha.”
Orange light angled through the trees near the entrance to Demon’s Dare. A second later Cindy walked up the path.
“Hi, guys. Looks like you found each other after all,” she said, running up to hug Jennifer and Nuncio. “Let’s hustle. Dogboy’s calling the cops and we need to be gone when they get here.”
“Cindy, you know them?” Mr. Horum said. “You know they have magic too, yes? Like our friend. You tell him these things?”
“We can talk about it in a minute,” Cindy said. “Did you keep my friends safe at least?”
Mr. Horum put his arm around Axle’s shoulder. “No, but they take care of me. Real smart leader you guys got here.”
“Leader?” Cindy said, looking at the others to suss out their reactions. “I’m the leader.”
“Yeah, about that,” Axle said, slipping out from under Mr. Horum’s arm. “We decided we’re gonna have a vote. What took you so long? Too busy having fun with your little super friend? We’re all thinking maybe it’s time to trade up.”
“Sure. Fine. Whatever,” Cindy said, confident that if they left it up to a vote she’d win. “Right now we’ve gotta leave.” She pointed west. The soft sound of sirens sang in the distance. “That is unless you want a free ride back to City Hall.”
“Point taken, chica” Nuncio said “Come on, y’all. Let’s zip-a-dee-doo-dah outta here.”
“You guys go ahead,” Cindy said, grabbing Mr. Horum’s arm. “Dogboy had a message for this old guy. It’s private.”
“See, this is what I’m saying,” Axle said as they headed back towards the ride’s entrance. “What makes her so special? Why does she get all the secrets?”
“Maybe he thinks she’s, like, cute or whatever,” Jennifer said, popping some chewing gum.
“Cindy’s friends not like her much,” Mr. Horum said once they’d gone. “How you get mixed up with bad kids, hmmb?”
“I thought you said they were good. Smart.”
“All relative, yes?” Mr. Horum said. “Goodest, smartest people I find here. Outside park… Well I no let them come in my shop.”
“The truth of it is I know those kids because I have a power too,” Cindy said. “The mayor ran all sorts of weird experiments on us. Messed us up pretty good.”
“Why Bronson no tell me about this?” Mr. Horum asked, a hurt look on his face. “He no supposed to lie no more.”
“Because I didn’t tell him. Well, I did. Then I made him forget. That’s my power see. I can make people forget things.”
Mr. Horum’s eyes grew wide. He backed away from the girl. “Why you make him forget? He like you. Trust you. Lies and secrets ruin all that in time.”
“I can’t let him know because he’ll never let us do it. A powerful man like that mayor can’t be stopped by a trial or a scandal. We’re prepared to do things Bronson would never… should never dream of doing. Things I’d never want to see him do.”
“You no worry. I tell him. He help you fix it,” Mr. Horum said.
“Afraid I can’t let you do that, Mr. Horum.” She grabbed his hand. “I’m gonna have to make you forget too.” His eyes flashed. He stared at the wall for a moment then turned back to Cindy.
“Why you stand there? We leave, hmmb?” Mr. Horum said, pulling her behind him by her hand (which he was still holding). “Bronson will meet us outside, hmmb?”
“He’ll meet you back at the shop,” Cindy said, picking her hat up off the platform floor.
“You come back too, hmmb? We celebrate, order pizza. Whatever you want,” he said.
“Sorry, Mr. Horum,” she said, sliding her hat onto her head. “Think I’m gonna head home. I’m not feeling too good all of a sudden.”
“Get out here, Osbert,” Dogboy said. “It’s over. It’ll go a lot better if I don’t have to come find you.”
A harsh, dramatic sigh came from under a pile of thin mattresses tossed in the corner. The stack shifted. Two pudgy hands reached out between the mattresses, spilling them on the floor. Osbert adjusted his crooked glasses then waved gently as to not offend.
“Hear that?” Dogboy said, holding his hand around the dog ear on his mask. “That little siren off in the distance? That’s the sound of me finally beating you. How’s it feel, ya’ big creep?”
“He shall come round again,” Osbert said. His thin little smile sent a shiver down Dogboy’s spine, but he did his best not to show it.”
“You seem like a pretty smart guy, Ozzie,” Dogboy said. “You could have gone anywhere… done anything… Why couldn’t you walk away?”
“The night I met Andrus he changed my life,” Osbert said, tears welling in his eyes. “Never before had I met a man so in tune with the way I see the world. We were in sync. He didn’t find my pursuits archaic or insane. To him, they were insightful. Useful. He needed me, and I always did my best to fulfill those needs. What kind of man would I be if I abandoned our cause after one defeat? When what you fight for what’s right you don’t surrender. ”
Dogboy gestured for Osbert to stand and turn around. “A smart guy told me something about being right once. I can’t remember it exactly but it was something like ‘You know you’re right when you win.’” He slapped some trick handcuffs on Osbert’s wrists, hoping he wouldn’t discover the hidden switch that unlocked them before the police came. “If I’m counting right, this is the second time you’ve lost. How many times is it going to take?”
“My devotion to Andrus is endless, child,” Osbert said. “I will stand with him until my dying day. To do otherwise would be to deny everything we discussed that first night… everything we fight for.”
“Have it your way, Dimples,” Dogboy said, cocking his head to hear the growing sirens. “It’s been a pleasure defeating you. And remember…”
He froze time, holding his breath as he ran out the screen door and crouched behind it. Time in and he finished: “I’m Dogboy.”
Osbert’s face a picture of confusion, he darted around the room (as fast as he could with his hands bound behind his back) searching for the boy.
Dogboy giggled, tickled that his “dramatic exit” had finally worked. He crept away from the door then ran up past the Psychlotron, through Happy Town, then out the front gate.
Down the path, around the globe, walking away from Curleyworld at last. His muscles ached. The maroon sunburn on his neck burned when his shirt scratched across it. He needed water, a warm bed, and as much sleep as he could get.
The man waving at him in the parking lot didn’t seem too concerned about any of that.
“Hey, you. Dogboy,” said the man (one John Upton-Haywood). “It’s your old pal, John. From the Herald? Something going down in there? Cops are on their way. Care to do that interview before they cart you off?”
“How did you get here before them?” Dogboy asked, hoping the answer was simple so the conversation would be quick. “I called them like ten minutes ago.”
“They were already on their way,” John said, flipping a few pages back in his notebook. “Seems they held some sort of “grand re-opening” ceremony here today. When people started calling the newsroom complaining they shut things down early, I did a little digging. Turns out Dexter Stonehouse acquired this park along with some other properties from Funtime Entertainment when they restructured. Not that his wife had any idea.”
“No, you must have got something wrong,” Dogboy said. “Curleyworld’s owned by this old guy named Zeph Curley. That’s what he called himself anyway.”
“Interesting,” John said, scribbling the name on his pad. “Probably some scam artist. Come on. Zeph Curley? What kind of made up name is that?”
“Yeah, I should have figured he was lying about that too,” Dogboy said. When he saw red and blue lights on the horizon he floated up a few feet in the air. “Sorry, mister, but I gotta go.”
“Look, kid. I’m going to mention in my story that you were somehow involved here. Come on. Give me a quick interview and I’ll tell your side. If you don’t, I’ll have to go by what the cops tell me, and we both know they aren’t going to cast you in a good light.”
“Fine. Five questions. Ya’ gotta make it quick, Mr. Taylor. They’re almost here.
John smiled, flipped to a new page, and jotted something down. “Okay, but I think I just came up with a real juicy one for next time. First question: What happened inside Curleyworld today, and how were you involved?”
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