Trapped in the Circus of Fear Read online

  If you have a mirror with you, maybe you can try to catch the reflection of Barbarous’s pendant and aim it into your own eyes!

  But that might be dangerous. Who knows what will happen if you gaze at the magic pendant?

  On the other hand, if you have the bullwhip, you might be able to whip the violin out of the gypsy’s hands.

  If you have the mirror and you want to use it, turn to PAGE 15.

  If you have the bullwhip and you want to use it, turn to PAGE 29.

  If you don’t have either, turn to PAGE 57.

  Mistress Barbarous drags you into a long, narrow tent.

  The sideshow.

  It’s dark. Spooky and completely dark.

  “Now, where are the lights in here?” Barbarous mumbles to herself. She searches with her free hand for a light switch.

  Hey, you think. While she’s searching for the light switch, maybe I can find something, too! Something that might help me get out of here. A weapon!

  You wave your hands frantically in the dark.

  Your hand brushes against something scaly. You grab it.

  It feels like the tail of a lizard! Not much of a weapon — but maybe it’s better than nothing. How desperate are you?

  “Where is that switch?” Barbarous growls furiously.

  You don’t have much time!

  Are you going to use the scaly thing as a weapon or not?

  If you’ve already been in the sideshow, you know what you’re touching. Turn to PAGE 130.

  If this is your first visit to the sideshow, turn to PAGE 64.

  You find the camera in your backpack and whip it out. You aim it right at the evil lion tamer’s face.

  FLASH!

  A bright flare of light pops in Bostini’s eyes.

  “Aaaahhhh!” he cries, roaring even more loudly. But for an instant he lets go of you.

  It’s just long enough for you to get away.

  “Run!” the Lizard Boy shouts, urging you on.

  You dash out of the Lizard Boy’s cage and race toward the sideshow exit.

  Behind you, though, you hear the Great Bostini calling.

  “Wait! I’ll help you escape if you let me see the picture. I’ve always wanted a good picture of myself.”

  Hmmm. With Bostini on your side, your chances of escaping from the circus are much better.

  But what if he’s lying to you? After all, he just tried to eat you!

  To wait and show the picture to Bostini, turn to PAGE 14.

  To keep on running, turn to PAGE 30.

  “Don’t put me in the jar!” you implore Mistress Barbarous as you stare down at the gross goop. “I’ve got something cool, and I’ll give it to you — if you let me out of here!”

  “What is it?” Barbarous asks. She eyes you suspiciously.

  “You’re going to love it!” you assure her. “It’s —”

  If you say “a camera,” turn to PAGE 124.

  If you say “my lucky baseball cap,” turn to PAGE 117.

  If you say “a dictionary of circus terms,” turn to PAGE 47.

  You can feel your pet snake, Peppy, curled up in the pocket of your khaki shorts. You love snakes. Sara the Human Snake gives you a good feeling. Even though she does have a cobra on her costume.

  You decide to trust her.

  “Okay,” you tell Sara the Human Snake. “Let’s hit the ropes.”

  Sara leads you into the big top.

  “Follow me,” she instructs. “And hold on tight!”

  She begins to climb a rope ladder that hangs down from the highest point on the roof.

  You follow and climb up the rope rungs. You feel the ladder sway as the two of you climb.

  But then you feel something strange.

  TWANG! The rope jerks.

  Someone is following you up the ladder!

  Find out who it is on PAGE 27.

  Your heart pounds with nervous excitement as you and Ramon race through the circus toward the sideshow.

  “Keep your eyes open,” you tell him. “If you see Bostini or one of the others, let me know.”

  With Ramon standing guard, you slip into the sideshow. You grasp the mirror tightly in one hand, the pendant in the other.

  “You’re back!” the Lizard Boy cries happily. Then he spots the pendant. “Oh, no! Keep that thing away from us! It’s evil.”

  “No, it’s not,” you assure him. “It can do good, too! Watch.”

  You position the pendant so that the face is reflected in your mirror. Then you stare at the reflection.

  ZAPPP! The purple energy bolt zips to your eyes.

  “Danny Mendleson, be yourself again,” you command, staring at the Lizard Boy.

  BZZZT! In a flash, the Lizard Boy changes back into a normal kid. The same kid you met a year ago at camp.

  “Thanks!” Danny yells, jumping up and down with joy.

  “Don’t thank me yet,” you answer. “We’ve got a ways to go.”

  Save the rest of the sideshow kids on PAGE 83.

  You and Richie stare at the torn costume that the Great Bostini was wearing only a minute ago.

  Now it’s being worn by a small chimpanzee.

  The twin sister trapeze artists transform into harmless little garden snakes.

  And Morton the Knife Thrower changes, too. Into a white miniature poodle!

  “What a joke!” you laugh, pointing at the yapping dog.

  “Look at that!” Richie exclaims.

  You spin around and see Geyorg the Clown. He is slowly taking off his clown suit.

  You gasp. Underneath, he’s not a human being at all!

  He’s a skeleton!

  Don’t scream until you read PAGE 110.

  Your face turns red as the cruel clown squeezes your throat. Tighter. Tighter.

  But you turn your head and manage to squeak out an answer to the tiny clown beside you.

  “Chocolate,” you gasp. “I’ve got chocolate bars in my backpack.”

  “Chocolate! Goody, goody!” Mr. Peepers exclaims. “I’ll help you!”

  In the blink of an eye, Mr. Peepers picks up a huge wooden mallet and swings it at the mean clown’s knees.

  WHACK! WHACK!

  “Yeowwwwww!” the huge clown cries in pain. He lets go of you!

  You drop to your hands and knees, panting hard. You can breathe! You’re so thankful!

  “Come on!” Mr. Peepers yells. He pulls you to your feet. “Let’s go!”

  Follow him to PAGE 28.

  The coin comes up heads, so you lurch to the right to avoid the giant slipping-and-sliding clown.

  Oops. Wrong way.

  “Whoa!” the clown cries as his feet fly up in the air.

  With a huge, groaning crash, he comes down on top of you.

  SPLAT.

  You’d like to cry “Ouch!” but you can’t.

  You’d like to tell him to get off you — but you can’t.

  You’d even like to start this book over and forget about the bananas next time….

  Hey, now that’s something you can do!

  THE END

  “Mistress Barbarous is evil,” Mr. Peepers whispers. Chocolate drool drips down his chin. “Her whole family is evil. They have magic powers. Barbarous, Morton the Knife Thrower, Geyorg the Clown, the Great Bostini, who is the lion tamer, and Mistress Barbarous’s two sisters. All of them. She gets her power from —”

  But before the clown can finish, you hear a familiar voice. One that sends chills up your spine.

  “Aha!” Mistress Barbarous cries. “Caught you!”

  You stare up at her.

  Mistress Barbarous is standing at the far side of the tent with her hands on her hips. She looks furious.

  “How dare you run away from me?” she bellows. “You’re in big trouble, circus kid!”

  Quick! Turn to PAGE 80!

  You cower on the ground with your hands covering your head.

  The lion lands on you with a deafening CRUNCH! He lies there, dazed.
>
  The audience gasps.

  It’s five hundred pounds of beast against … what? Seventy, eighty pounds?

  You’d have to be pretty lucky to survive that!

  Well? How lucky are you?

  Do you have your lucky baseball cap with you?

  If you do, turn to PAGE 13.

  If you don’t, turn to PAGE 52.

  You plunge to the ground, screaming your head off.

  But as you fall, your old friend Mr. Peepers comes to the rescue! He shoves a big trampoline under you.

  BOING! You bounce. You’re breathless and shaken, but okay.

  “Listen up, kid.” Mr. Peepers lectures you as you climb off the trampoline. “Never bring a snake to the circus. They’ll get you into a lot of trouble.”

  He’s right. You’ll never survive the circus if all you’ve got is chocolate, a camera, and a snake.

  But since you made it this far, you get a break. Go back to PAGE 2 and choose again.

  The chocolate bars are good. And the camera is okay. But pick something besides Peppy, your pet snake!

  Choose something other than the snake. Go back to PAGE 2.

  “I can’t believe it!” you gasp. You stare at the decrepit clown skeleton in horror.

  As the last traces of the magic wear off, Geyorg’s bones disconnect from each other and crumble to the ground.

  “What is going on here?” Richie moans again.

  In answer, Mr. Peepers the clown races up and hugs your legs.

  “You did it! You took Barbarous’s powers away!” he shouts. “Now none of them will ever be human again!”

  “Yes!” you and Richie cheer. You high-five each other.

  “Wow,” Richie says. “Now let’s get out of here!”

  “Not yet,” you tell him. “We’ve got to free the kids in the sideshow first. Come on.”

  You race to the clown tent and find a hand mirror. Then you take it and the pendant to the sideshow tent.

  With Mr. Peepers telling you what to do, you stare at the reflection of the pendant in the mirror.

  ZZZAAPPP! A purple beam of energy bolts into your eyes and lights up your face.

  Using the powers of the pendant, you change all the sideshow kids back into normal human beings.

  Celebrate on PAGE 18.

  The knife thrower finally realizes that he can’t reach you by throwing his knives up in the air.

  But there is something else he can do with them.

  What is he doing? you wonder as he spins on his heel. He aims his knives toward the corner of the tent.

  Right at the place where all the ropes are tied and staked to the ground.

  He aims at one rope in particular. The rope that holds all the trapeze equipment in the air …

  The one holding you in the air!

  THWAP!

  “Aaaaagh!” you shriek as you plummet to the ground.

  Talk about cutting short your circus career!

  THE END

  “There is something you could do besides be the Kid Who Lives in a Jar,” she offers with a mean gleam in her eye. “You can be the human cannonball!”

  “Okay!” you agree eagerly. It sounds better than the goop jar. Dangerous, but less disgusting.

  Mistress Barbarous pulls a strange jade pendant from around her neck. The pendant is carved with a face. Then she takes a small, ancient mirror from the pocket of her black velvet vest.

  Holding the jade pendant in one hand, she gazes at the reflection of the jade face in the mirror.

  Suddenly, a beam of light travels from the pendant to Mistress Barbarous’s eyes!

  Instantly, her eyes turn purple. Then her whole face seems to glow with a purplish light.

  Then her purple eyes stare with an odd evil power directly at you!

  Go on to PAGE 93.

  “I don’t have any food.” You choke out the words as the evil clown’s fingers tighten around your neck.

  Mr. Peepers shrugs and starts to walk away. You know he’s your only chance!

  “Wait!” you gasp. You think fast.

  Your mom gave you some money to spend during the week. “I’ll buy you something to eat if you help me!” you whisper desperately.

  “Okay,” the little clown agrees.

  He reaches into a deep pocket in his clown suit and whips out a seltzer bottle. With a quick flick of his thumb, Mr. Peepers blasts the evil clown in the face with seltzer water.

  “Aaahhhh!” the giant clown screams, letting go of you and backing away.

  Your heart races as you gulp in big breaths of air.

  The bad clown is howling and writhing in agony.

  You stare at him to see why he’s screaming so much. After all, it’s just seltzer!

  Yikes! Your mouth drops open. His clown makeup is running in rivers down his cheeks.

  But underneath the green makeup, there’s no face!

  Turn to PAGE 43.

  A rope ladder! you finally decide. I’ll make a rope ladder.

  But while you were making up your mind, Geyorg the clown was busy, too. He’s stretched his fingers like pretzels. They’re bending around backwards — reaching for the ball of twine.

  Before you can even start on your rope ladder, Geyorg snatches the twine from your grasp!

  Oops.

  The chance of surviving this adventure just slipped from your grasp as well!

  THE END

  Mistress Barbarous grabs you by both arms. You notice a thick rope coil hanging from her belt. A lasso!

  “Hey, clown, I’m looking for two kids,” she snarls. “Have you seen them?”

  Your heart pounds. You shake your head silently.

  But you shake it a little too hard. Your wig flies off!

  “Ha-ha-ha!” Mistress Barbarous howls with laughter. “You almost tricked me, kid! Almost!” The last word becomes a growl.

  You try to break into a run, but the big clown shoes trip you! In a flash Mistress Barbarous uncoils the lasso.

  Before you know it, you’re tied up like a calf at a rodeo!

  Struggle to PAGE 129.

  “Quick! The sideshow!” you yell to Mr. Peepers. You both dash away from Mistress Barbarous and into the sideshow.

  “Come back here, you little imps!” Mistress Barbarous shouts. She lunges toward you. But she trips!

  BAM! She wipes out!

  Good! you think. More time to get away.

  But that’s when the wretched, rotten smell of the sideshow fills your nose.

  “Whoa!” you exclaim. You can’t help but stop. The smell is so bad it makes you feel faint.

  And then you see the exhibits.

  You gasp in horror.

  Face the ugly truth on PAGE 123.

  “Everybody needs a lucky baseball cap,” you tell Mistress Barbarous.

  “Okay, hand it over,” she demands. She plunks you down on the ground.

  You pull off your cap and place it gently in her hands.

  “Now can you please tell me the way out of this crazy place?” you beg her.

  Mistress Barbarous pulls the cap onto her head.

  “You know, this hat does feel lucky!” she exclaims.

  “See? I told you!” you say. “Now, which way is the exit?”

  “I feel so lucky! I feel like the best ballplayer there ever was!” she shouts. She looks so excited. Too excited!

  Mistress Barbarous picks you up and hurls you through the air.

  SPLAT! You land in the jar of smelly goop.

  “What a lucky throw!” Mistress Barbarous boasts. She strides over, clamps the lid on the jar, and seals it closed.

  Lucky for her. Unlucky for you.

  You’re doomed to float in the disgusting gray goop for the rest of your life.

  But look on the bright side — you’ll never run out of hair gel.

  THE END

  You keep running. Who cares how bad you smell? You just want to get as far away from the circus as you can!

  Feet pounding, you race towar
d the road. A few cars drive by, but none of them stop when you wave to them. In fact, the drivers hold their noses. You must really smell awful.

  Finally you come to a gas station. You call your mom and beg her to come get you immediately.

  When she picks you up, all she can say is, “Honey, you smell awful!”

  And the stink never fades. No matter how hard you scrub!

  At school, your teacher holds her nose every time you walk into the classroom. Your friends won’t eat lunch with you. Even your parents ask you to stay in your room with the door shut.

  One year later, the circus comes back to town. Sadly, you make the decision to return.

  “Hi! We knew you’d be back,” the Lizard Boy says. He and all the other freaks are happy to see you.

  You climb into your jar and pull the lid closed.

  The sideshow is the only place you belong now.

  Yes, this ending stinks, but hey! So do you!

  THE END

  You don’t have the camera. You don’t have the talcum powder. And the rest of the stuff you brought seems useless. There’s nothing you can do except scream your guts out.

  “Help!” you yell. You cower away from the lion tamer’s razor-sharp teeth.

  Too bad no one hears you. No one except Mr. Peepers. And Mr. Peepers can’t stand the sight of violence, so he squeezes his eyes shut.

  And so should you. Because you definitely don’t want to see what happens next. It’s too gory and disgusting for words!

  But have you ever watched those TV programs about wild animals eating their prey?

  That should give you some idea of what happens to you in

  THE END.

  As you stare, Mistress Barbarous brings her horse to a halt and slides off to the ground. Then she suddenly throws her hands up to cover her face.