Eliza Twitchel & The Haunted Forest

Eliza Twitchel & The Haunted Forest--Chapter 28

                                      Eliza's Wild Ride

Eliza reached the top of a long flight of stairs leading to the second floor where she found a man with a shiny porcelain face and painted-on thin black mustache standing at a window in a ticket booth.  Behind him, a carnival ride car in the shape of a bright yellow duck sat on narrow tracks.

Gears whirred and clicked as the man stood up straight.  "Tickets please," he said in a tinny voice.

"I don't have a ticket," Eliza said, looking around for a ticket dispenser.

The ticket taker leaned forward and looked down at Eliza's hands.  "Then what is that in your hand?"

Eliza brought up her hands.  She frowned at a red ticket clutched between her left thumb and forefinger.  "How did that--?"

The ticket taker pointed to a silver slot next to his window.  "Please insert ticket."

Eliza slid her ticket into the slot.  Behind the booth, a gate swung open.  The ticket taker motioned toward the gate with a white-gloved hand.

"Admittance accepted. Please keep your hands inside the car at all times. Some of the exhibits bite.  Have a funtastic time!" Gears whirred as the man reached up and pulled down a slatted shade.

Eliza doubted she would have anything of the sort as she passed through the open gate and climbed into the yellow duck. The car door slammed shut.  Metal wheels grated on the tracks as the duck lurched forward.  As the car entered a dark tunnel, the heartstone on Eliza's bracelet flashed bright green.

The duck picked up speed, clacking noisily along the tracks as it veered left, then right, climbing hills and racing down the other side.  Witches, skeletons, ogres and ghosts in white sheets lunged out of their hiding places along the track, illuminated eerily in green, red and yellow lights that flashed off and on.  Snarls, moans and growls filled the air and sharp claws raked the sides of the metal duck, sounding like nails on a chalkboard.

A light appeared ahead, growing larger as the carnival duck clattered closer to the end of the tunnel.  Eliza squinted as she entered a brightly lit forest of painted pine and spruce trees made of plywood. Plywood clouds and birds hung from the ceiling and paper-maché boulders dotted the ground.  Bird and animal sounds crackled over a loudspeaker hidden among the trees.

"What's so scary about this?"

A plywood cutout of a gobbling holding a crossbow popped up beside a fake green bush. The gobbling swiveled to face Eliza. Before she had time to duck, the gobbling fired.  A crossbow bolt whizzed past her head.

"Hey!"

More plywood gobblings popped up next to trees and shrubs, holding real crossbows. Steel-tipped bolts clanged off the metal duck as it made its way along the track through the fake forest. Eliza ducked down and covered her head as bolts whizzed past, ricocheting off the inside of the car.

"Stop it!" she screamed as a barrage of crossbow bolts pelted the duck, leaving dimples where the metal tips struck.  A bolt nicked her shoulder; another grazed her leg. She curled into a fetal position at the bottom of the duck car, covering her ears.

After several minutes, she poked her head over the door of her car.  The forest was gone, replaced by rolling grassy hills—not the phony paper-maché and plywood of the forest but actual grassy knolls and a real blue sky.

An acrid stench stung her nose.  She looked up to see black smoke rising over the top of a hill.  Sounds filled the air, distant but growing closer—people screaming in terror.