Nightmare Island (A Partial Draft)

Chapter 8

Lexie was terribly confused when she saw Emersyn, Brent, and Maddox go into the Anatomy Battle building, and she didn't ever see them come out.

The ghost-hunting crew asked why she kept looking at the building.

"Because some of our friends went in there like thirty minutes ago and haven't come out yet."

"Well, let's go in there and see what's up." Crystal said. Everyone nodded and walked into the building. Everything looked dusty and dirty, but other than that, everything looked pretty much the way Lexie remembered it looking when the park was operational. The one thing she thought was odd was that there was an empty syringe on the ground near the Head Alert show.

Sure, it was a little odd, but Lexie could chalk that up to perhaps druggies coming to shoot heroin or whatever.

What ended up unnerving her was that Rudy, the large, pumpkin-headed animatronic seemed to be in a slightly different position than she ever remembered him being in before. She remembered really liking the attraction even though it wasn't a rollercoaster, so it wasn't extremely exciting. But now, whether it was the fact that the park was abandoned , or the fact that Rudy wasn't in the same place as before, but Lexie was more than a little bit on edge.

Ren whispered in Lexie's ear that something didn't feel right here.

"I know..." she said in a hoarse almost-whisper. Something about this place made her feel like Something oppressive was pressing down on her chest, and she was choking.

So far, nothing had really happened in this place that Lexie or her friends were aware of, but still, Emersyn and the rest had gone in there and never come out. There had been no sound and no light once the group walked through the doors.

Crystal must have seen the looks on the faces of the group because she immediately went into 'friend' mode. It didn't seem to matter to her that they'd just met and none of them knew anything about anyone else. The same with Annalise, her brother, and their friend.

Lexie, despite feeling nervous for her friends, appreciated the straightforward kindness. Other than Ren and Kyla, Lexie was kind of over the group. It felt horrible to think that, but the thing was that she had realized a thing or two about life, and her friendships with especially Emersyn, but also the other two. They didn't really care about her and they never had- Maddox and Brent. They didn't hate her or anything, but they just thought she was a goodie=goodie...

And these new friends, the ghosthunters- they were really nice. The actually seemed to care about Lexie, Kyla, and Ren.

To prove that point, Annalise and her friends got out their equipment from their backpacks. Now, Lexie was a bit of a newbie at all this, and knew next to nothing about it, but when she asked, they told her with chipper, excited voices.

"This is a spirit box."

"These are motion sensors."

And they mentioned a few other things that Lexie didn't quite catch.

After setting everything up, Annalise went around with her brother, looking for heat signatures.

Crystal didn't seem to think that they would find anything due to the fact that as far as they knew, no human apparitions were housed in this part of the park. The only thing in this building in terms of anything that even moved was Rudy, the animatronic. But, to the group's horror, Rudy's image on the thermal camera glowed red and orange. In a way, however, the ghost-hunting faction of their group was interested by the whole thing. They had always wanted to find a ghost. Even though they had been long-since interested in finding ghosts, and they were aware of ghost-hunting being done in the park, they had yet to see them. After all, they were fairly young, pretty much the same age as Lexie and her friends, so they had only just kind of gotten the money to buy the equipment used for ghost hunting. And they all had to get to a point where they weren't all working at night so that they could come to the amusement park the hours it was dark. Not to say that there wouldn't be ghosts to be had in the light, but it was a little more likely to find them in times and places where there wasn't a lot of light. Also, the atmosphere was more what one would expect from a ghost-hunting mission.

In a moment, after seeing the heat signature radiating off of Rudy, Annalise turned on the spirit box and began to ask it questions.

"Who are you? Can you tell us your name and why you're here?"

At first, there was no answer. But after Annalise introduced everyone in the room and explained why they were here... mentioning also that they were curious about Emersyn, Brent, and Maddox, the animatronic moved. Not just moved, jerked into a standing position and flicked what was left of his wrist. The spirit box turned off as if by magic...

And Rudy looked directly at Lexie, cracking his head to the side menacingly like a Japanese horror movie monster.

"Your friends are out of the way." He said. "Especially that pesky brat, Emersyn. If she ever comes near you or any of the ones gathered here, it will be the last thing she knows."

That was a lot to process and Lexie tried, and failed to come up with a response that wasn't totally lame.

Luckily, Annalise had it under control. "Who are you? What did you do to Emersyn, Brent, and Maddox?"

The beast made a mechanical groan which- even though it didn't really sound the same, reminded Lexie of that scene in The Empire Strikes Back when Luke and Vader are fighting on Cloud City- just before Luke gets his arm chopped off. Darth Vader is struck on his robot arm with Luke's lightsaber and makes a sound of pain or discomfort- even though his body is mechanical for the most part.

After his moving and groaning, Rudy looked at Annalise, "My name is Rudy. You know my name. I am here the way I have been for years."

"How are you imbued with life if you're a machine?" Crystal asked.

He chuckled maniacally. "The demon inside this machine is the being that is speaking to you now. This park was cursed from the moment it opened..."

"Why was it cursed?" Logan asked.

The beast groaned. "Built on a former witch-burning stake and public execution arena."

"So, is that why all the hauntings are happening, or is there more to it than that?" Aidan inquired.

Rudy tilted his head as if considering the question. Of course, it was much darker than what anyone probably would have expected.

Of course, he was a demon thing, so it probably could be at least somewhat expected.

"That is just the beginning. I have- as a demon of the underworld, serving Satan and Zalgo, and Supreme Leader Regis of Invictus- been attaching myself to this boy robot... and I suck a little bit of life out of the ones who are bad apples."

He looked menacingly at Lexie. "Your friend will no longer be a problem. I have eliminated the threat of her. She's been transported to The Other World by my demonic elevator. Whenever she sleepwalks and finds herself in front of this park, or in front of any of her friends' doors, she is in violation of the rules I set down for her. Soon, all worlds will be rid of her. And it will be for the best. She certainly is a troublesome one."

He hadn't really answered the question, but he was a demon possessing an almost inanimate object. Was it to be expected that he would never really answer a question in a satisfying way?

"Did the owners do anything that caused the other deaths in the park?" Crystal asked.

"They didn't heed the warnings I laid out for them. They were clear. I told them to dedicate funds to building a portion of the park devoted to fantasy beasts. It was commanded of me to do so. But they failed to heed my advice, and now they will pay for their lack of vision. They have only partially fulfilled their punishment by losing their business."

Lexie was getting ready to ask a question, but it seemed like Rudy had done all the talking he was going to do. He climbed back onto his hydraulic perch and snapped back into position like it was sunrise in an enchanted museum full of mannequins which came to life at night.

The group all shivered and headed out the door, wondering what to do next. They went back to where the "hellmouth" was supposed to be, and the place where Emily died. And there, as clear as day- even with only the moonlight and the glow of their lanterns, they could see the red-haired girl's apparition.

She looked even paler than she had before, but there was a strange determination on her face.

Lexie wondered what was in store for them now.