12

"Then let's go," I ordered.

I sat down at the top of slide number ten. Luke plopped down right behind me, stretching his legs outside of mine.

I felt the floor tilt up beneath us.

We started to slide.

"Clay, here we come!" I cried.

I didn't scream this time. I clasped my hands in my lap and gritted my teeth.

There was no way I was going to enjoy this ride. I just wanted to get to the end of it. I wanted to solve the mystery and find Clay.

As we slid down together, Luke grabbed onto me, his hands gripping my waist. He cried out when we slid over a big bump, and it felt as if we were going to go flying off the slide.

Then we both screamed as the slide took a steep dive — almost straight down — and we started to fall.

We landed hard, and then the slide curved sharply to the right. We were both screaming our lungs out now.

We were sliding faster and faster, in total darkness, blacker than black. I tried to see if we were moving alongside the other slides. But it was so dark, I couldn't even see my sneakers in front of me!

Luke squeezed my waist so hard, I could hardly breathe. I tried to tell him to loosen his grip, but he was screaming too loud to hear.

Down, down.

Darker and darker.

We hit another bump that sent us bouncing up into the air. Then the slide dipped and curved sharply to the left.

We should be at the bottom by now, I realized.

We'd been sliding a very long time.

I gritted my teeth harder and tried to brace myself to go flying out the chute and bumping onto the ground.

But no chute opened.

The ride didn't end.

We began to slide faster. I gasped in mouthfuls of the hot, damp air, struggling to catch my breath.

The slide dipped and curved, sending us down into the thick, heavy blackness.

We're going to slide forever.

The warning sign didn't lie.

I struggled to force those frightening thoughts from my mind.

Luke suddenly got very quiet. "Are you okay?" I called back to him.

"I don't know," he replied, holding on even tighter. "Why are we sliding so long?"

"You're hurting me!" I cried.

He loosened his hold a little. "I don't like this!" he shouted in my ear.

We hit another bump. His hands flew off me.

Another bump. Even harder. I thought I was going to fly off the slide and fall to the bottom — if there was a bottom.

Down, down.

Luke and I both cried out in disgust as something sticky covered our faces. I reached up with both hands and tried to pull it off.

"Yuck!" Luke screamed. "What is it? My face — !"

"It's like cobwebs," I shouted back at him. "Hot, sticky cobwebs."

My whole face itched. The sticky threads covered my face like a net. I pulled frantically at them.

"Oh!" I cried out as the slide took another sharp dip.

Tearing at the sticky cobwebs, I managed to pull most of them off. But my face still itched like crazy. It felt as if a thousand ants were crawling around on it.

"It's so gross!" Luke yelled behind me. "My face — it hurts!"

Down, down into the heavy darkness.

And then a flare of bright light made me shut my eyes.

Was it daylight? Were we heading outside?

No.

I forced my eyes open and squinted at the yellow light.

And realized I was staring at blazing flames.

The slide ahead of us was on fire!

The yellow-and-orange flames raged up, topped by a curtain of billowing black smoke.

I raised my hands to my face and started to shriek.

We were sliding right into the blazing flames.

"We're going to burn up!" Luke screamed. "Help — somebody! Help us!"