The Beast 2 Page 7
Ashley was wearing her shiny pink clogs, a pair of white Bermuda shorts, and a pale pink halter. The outfit was a little wrinkled, but it looked great to me.
We stood a moment longer in nervous silence, waiting for the time warp to take effect.
I shook my hands out, as if that might speed up our return to the future.
Ashley stamped her clogs.
My heart was beating a mile a minute. My mouth was dry.
We waited to be swept away from the 1930s.
And waited.
Then we gave up and sank down heavily onto the couch.
“Nice try, James.” Ashley sighed. “But it didn’t work.”
“Wait!” I cried. “I have another idea!”
But the door burst open and the Captain barged in.
He took one look at us in our own clothes and his eyes narrowed to angry slits. “Just what do you two think you’re doing?” he growled.
He grabbed us, one in each hand. “You two are coming with me,” he snarled.
“Where are you taking us?” Ashley choked out.
“Where you’ve wanted to go all along,” he replied, dragging us away.
As if sensing our fears, the Captain stopped in the hallway and turned to Ashley. “You will make a pretty frog-girl, Princess.”
Then he spun around to me, jabbing me hard in the chest with his index finger. “Isn’t that right, salamander-boy?” he declared.
28
Without another word Captain Time dragged us down the hall.
Where was he taking us? To the big fish tank?
No. He pulled us to the time machine.
“Get in,” he commanded.
“Where are you sending us?” I squeaked.
“Back into the past with your friend the pterodactyl. No doubt you’ll make delicious bird food.”
He shoved us inside and leaned in, turning knobs and flipping levers. “Good riddance to future rubbish,” he said. Then he slammed the hatch behind us.
The machine started vibrating.
“James!” Ashley whimpered. “I’m scared. I don’t want to go back to the time of dinosaurs!”
I was so frightened, my teeth were chattering. But I managed to turn the knobs and flip the levers to the exact opposite settings.
Captain Time may have wanted us to go backward. But forward was where we were headed, if I had any say.
I waited. I was so nervous I wanted to scream.
I had myself a real case of the screamies.
The screamies.
“I’ve got it!” I exclaimed.
Ashley looked even more scared than before. “What are you talking about now, James?”
I reached into the back pocket of my shorts.
They were mashed nearly flat, but they were still there! My pack of Karamel Kreemies.
“Only two left,” I murmured. “Just enough.”
“Enough for what?” Ashley demanded.
I handed her a Karamel Kreemie. “Just put it in your mouth and chew it, Ashley,” I told her.
She shook her head and pointed at her teeth. “You keep forgetting. My braces!”
I couldn’t believe her. “Ashley, don’t be a jerk. Chew it anyway. So what if it sticks to your teeth? It will save you from being dinosaur food!”
She stared at me, not understanding.
I turned to her and tried to explain. “The candy from the 1990s will create a time warp. I understand completely now. We have to have something from the future outside us and inside us! We’re already wearing our 1990s clothes. Now we need to chew the 1990s candy. And it will take us back to our time.”
The machine was shaking now, rocking back and forth.
“I hope you’re right,” Ashley said. She stared at the candy in her hand.
“Just eat it!” I shouted at her over the mounting roar of the time machine.
I was already chewing my piece.
The sticky sweetness filled my mouth and slid down my throat like syrup.
Would it work? Was my idea right?
Would the candy and the clothes carry us forward in time?
I stared at the capsule walls. They began vibrating with a high-pitched hum. The walls started to fade, and a strange yellow light spread over us.
“Ashley, look! I’m starting to fade!” I cried.
Ashley’s body remained solid. Why wasn’t she fading along with me?
As the time machine walls faded away, a furious Captain Time came into view. “How dare you reverse the controls!” he screamed.
His voice exploded inside my head.
He reached forward and grabbed Ashley’s arm. “You’re staying here with me, Princess!”
Inch by inch Captain Time pulled her out of the capsule—back into his time!
I was fading, fading away. Why wasn’t Ashley fading with me?
And then I realized what the problem was.
The candy. The Karamel Kreemie. She still hadn’t eaten the Karamel Kreemie.
“Chew the Kreemie!” I screamed at her. “Chew it or you’ll be left behind!”
“It’s too late!” Ashley wailed. “Too late!” She uttered a sob. And then in a trembling voice she called, “Bye, James.”
“The candy!” I cried, feeling far away from her.
I saw her stuff it into her mouth. I saw her bite down hard on it.
And as she bit down, the Captain began to grow smaller and smaller. We were leaving him behind.
“Chew it!” I shouted. “Keep chewing!”
We were rushing forward now, through people and cities, through time itself. Every cell in my body was tingling, as blurred faces and buildings and strange places flashed past me.
My skin was on fire.
“Keep chewing!” I shouted to Ashley. “It’s got to work! It’s got to.”
My stomach was in my throat. Bright lights and colors exploded around me. I was falling through the air. Faster and faster, the wind whizzing past me at a dizzying rate.
Suddenly I felt smooth cold metal beneath my hands. I opened my eyes and looked down.
I was holding on to a metal bar.
A metal safety bar.
I was on The Beast!
Ashley and I were roaring down that last hill. Behind me, I heard the screams of the other riders. The bright lights of the amusement park sparkled and winked and twirled around me.
The sky was purple. The orange moon was shining overhead.
Not quite full.
We had done it. We had returned to our own space and time. My jaws ached from all that chewing.
“We did it, James!” Ashley cried happily.
The Beast slowed down and clattered into the platform.
I climbed out and nearly dropped to my knees to kiss that cold, beautiful concrete I thought I’d never see again.
But what time was it? What day? We’d been gone for days.
“Look, James!” Ashley pointed up.
The sky exploded in a shower of fireworks, sparkling bursts of orange and blue and pink and purple.
“It’s still Wednesday, James! The same day we left!”
“How can you tell?” I asked as a great white rocket spiraled high into the air and exploded in a cascade of sparkles.
“Don’t you remember? The fireworks!” she cried joyfully. “That’s why we came to the park today. Because we wanted to see the fireworks.”
I nodded, still in shock. Then I remembered.
There was going to be a fireworks display tonight, half an hour before closing time.
“You know what that means, James?” my cousin asked, her blue eyes flashing.
“No. What?” I asked.
“It means we have time to ride The Beast again!”
She grabbed my arm and dragged me back onto the platform. “Let’s go. One more time!”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
“Where do you get your ideas?”
That’s the question that R. L. Stine is asked most often. “I don’t know where my ideas
come from,” he says. “But I do know that I have a lot more scary stories in my mind that I can’t wait to write.”
So far, he has written nearly three dozen mysteries and thrillers for young people, all of them best-sellers.
Bob grew up in Columbus, Ohio. Today he lives in an apartment near Central Park in New York City with his wife, Jane, and son, Matt.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Aladdin
An Imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
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Copyright © 1995 by Parachute Press, Inc.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020
ISBN 0-671-52951-X
ISBN 978-1-4424-8840-3 (ebook)
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