Dark Moon (Nightmare Hall) (3 page)

Shouting at the people behind her to help Kevin, Eve ran after the horse.

Stopping it was out of the question. All she could do was scream a warning.

Too late. More screams rang out as the crazed horse lunged into the crowd. People began racing for their lives, in their panic stumbling over one another, pushing, shoving. Some tripped and fell, others stumbled over the fallen, and lay there, too stunned to move.

It seemed to Eve, watching with horrified eyes, that there were bodies everywhere. The noise level was horrendous, with screams and sobs and shouts of fear mixing with the horse’s furious snorting. The sounds tore at her ears. She wanted them to stop, but she didn’t know how to make that happen.

She saw the clown out of the corner of her eye. He was tall, broad-shouldered in his pink and yellow and turquoise polka-dotted suit, a matching tall, coned hat sitting on his head, thick white makeup on his face. He had a huge, bright red mouth, and fat teardrops had been painted on his cheeks with a black makeup crayon. He approached the horse cautiously, one hand in an oversized white glove outstretched, whispering softly as he moved closer to the bucking animal.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” he kept repeating quietly as he lifted giant, floppy black shoes carefully, taking one tentative step and then another and another.

The horse continued to buck, but its ears stood up.

“It’s okay, boy,” the clown murmured, “just take it easy, take it easy, it’s okay.”

The murmuring had its effect on the crowd. The screaming stopped, people halted in their frantic flight, and a sudden hush fell over the area.

Eve held her breath.

“There, there, it’s okay, we’ll fix it,” the clown said, so close to the horse now that Eve could almost feel its hot breath melting the white makeup. “Whatever it is, we’ll fix it, I promise. Calm down now, just calm down.”

The horse stopped bucking.

The oversized white glove reached out and gently took the reins, while the other gloved hand began stroking the palomino’s pale mane. Although the horse trembled, it made no attempt to escape the hand.

A sigh of relief rippled through the onlookers.

After a moment, the clown moved easily, quietly to the side, one hand firmly grasping the reins. The other hand moved cautiously to the saddle and began a gentle search.

“Here it is,” a deep voice said matter-of-factly, pulling something from beneath the saddle and holding it high in the air for all to see. “I knew there had to be something. No wonder the poor thing went nuts. Wouldn’t we all if we had something like this digging into our skin?”

Shaking with both relief and shock, Eve moved closer. The fat white glove was holding within its folds a … burr. A nasty, prickly, burr with dozens of sharp edges. There were tons of them along the highway, all as painful as a porcupine’s quills if they came into contact with human flesh. Or animal flesh.

“That was under his saddle?” she asked the clown.

He nodded. “Under the saddle blanket. Digging right into his skin,” he said.

“How did you know that’s what it was?”

“I didn’t. But I knew it had to be something. It was either that or locoweed and,” he laughed, “I don’t think you have much of that around here.”

“You know a lot about horses,” Eve said admiringly, her voice husky with relief. “You just saved a whole lot of lives.”

“Raised in Texas,” he said as two men from the carnival arrived to lead the exhausted horse away. “But I live in Twin Falls now. You know the camera shop in town. Draper’s?”

Eve knew it. A neat, trim, small white house on Pennsylvania Avenue. She had had film developed there. But the only two people in the shop had been an older man with thick white hair and … a tall, good-looking dark-haired boy in a blue T-shirt. She had dealt only with the older man. Impossible to match that good-looking boy with this white-painted face, oversized red mouth, and astonished crayoned eyebrows.

The ambulances arrived, sirens screeching. The shrill sound snapped Eve back to the present, shuddering as she remembered Kevin and Alice. Forgetting the clown, she turned and ran back to where the two were being lifted onto stretchers.

Kevin was still conscious, although his face was ashen with pain.

“You’ll be okay,” Eve said as he was being loaded into the ambulance. She tried to smile. “You have to be okay, Kevin. I can’t do this all by myself. If you desert me on the very first day of this thing, I’ll never forgive you.”

Then the doors closed. Eve felt totally alone.

But she wasn’t. “You’re assuming this celebration will continue?” Alfred’s voice said from behind her.

Eve turned to glare at him with disgust. He hadn’t helped at all, not one little bit. He still looked as neat and perfect, as he had earlier. Not a hair out of place.

Serena, white-faced, her flowered dress stained with Alice’s blood, was right behind him. Andie stood beside her. “You think the administration will cancel because of what just happened?” Eve asked them.

Serena shook her head. While she was tending Alice, she had pushed a strand or two of her long, pale hair away from her face. Those strands were streaked now with thick, dark red. Alice’s blood. “Who knows? So many people were hurt. Alice has had that horse forever. What made him go nuts like that?”

Eve explained. She told them about the clown taming the panicked horse.

“Poor horse,” Serena commented, but Alfred scolded, “Reserve your sympathy for the people on their way to the hospital. I’m just grateful I’m not one of them.”

“How could you possibly be?” Eve asked sharply. “You got out of the way so fast.”

Alfred winced. “You’re not mad, are you? I mean, like I said, I don’t know the first thing about horses. I was afraid if I did the wrong thing, I’d make everything worse, that’s all.”

Sure, Eve thought. Aloud, she said, “Is Alice going to be okay?” and knew immediately by the look on Serena’s face that Alice was not going to be okay.

“She wasn’t breathing,” Serena said. “And there was so much blood …”

Eve felt sick.

“But maybe the ambulance attendants can do something,” Serena added hastily. “What about the people over there, where you were?” She pointed toward the Ferris wheel. “Was anyone … killed?”

Eve swallowed. “I don’t think so.” She remembered then that she hadn’t even thanked the clown who had quieted the horse. “I have to go back and see if I can find that guy. The one who found the burr. Come with me? And we’d better get the committee together to see what needs to be done. Maybe you’re right, Alfred,” she added as they began to walk. “Maybe the whole celebration will be canceled now. Maybe it
should
be. Burr or not, that horse going crazy and hurting people could be an omen. A
bad
omen.”

Alfred grunted. “Since when are
you
superstitious? I distinctly remember you saying in parapsychology class that you didn’t believe in anything paranormal. You said you thought ESP and telekinesis, stuff that Dr. Litton talks about in class, were nonsense. You said if anyone
our
age had special powers, there’d be no such things as SAT’s. Everybody laughed.”

“And a lot of people in class agreed with me,” Eve pointed out. “I’m not the only one who thinks all that stuff is stupid and silly. A lot of people in that class are only taking it for extra credit, like me. Kevin was making jokes about paranormal stuff, and so was Alice.” She fell silent, thinking of Alice slamming into the ground. “When I said omen, I just meant that it’s not a good sign when disaster strikes on the very first day of an event.”

As they walked toward the Ferris wheel, Eve saw no sign of the clown who had calmed the horse. Maybe he’d decided this wasn’t a safe place to be, and had already gone back to town. She couldn’t blame him. And judging from the way the crowd had thinned, he wasn’t the only one.

Her heart sank. The goal was to make money for the new science building. How could they make any money if people were scared away on the very first day? And what if Kevin wasn’t able to return and help her? True, she still had the rest of the committee. But she and Kevin had been working so well together. She needed his quiet reassurance.

Then again, if the whole event was canceled, she wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore. And it wouldn’t even be her fault.
She
hadn’t put that burr under the horse’s saddle.

Strange thought. Of course she hadn’t. But maybe that was worth thinking about. “How would a burr get under a saddle?” she mused aloud, her eyes scanning the sparse crowd for some sign of the white-faced clown. “I mean, I know there are tons of burrs along the highway, but one wouldn’t jump up and implant itself under a saddle, would it?”

Alfred stopped walking and turned to look at her. “What does
that
mean? Are you hinting that someone put that burr there on purpose?”

Serena, too, stared at Eve. “Eve, why would someone do that? And wouldn’t he have been seen? I mean, there were people walking along with the equestrian club the whole time.”

“Alice stopped a couple of times, remember?” Eve reminded them. “She was having a problem with her boot or her stirrup or something. None of us stayed behind with her. We kept marching. She caught up with us a few minutes later.”

Alfred rubbed his chin. “And you think someone could have sneaked up behind her then and stuck that burr under her saddle? With her
sitting
in it?”

Eve shook her head. “I don’t know. I know it sounds stupid, and I can’t imagine why anyone would want to do something so cruel. But it’s hard to believe a burr would have lodged itself under the saddle without some help.”

“Could have been blown by the wind,” Serena said. “It’s very windy, Eve, has been all day. Look at the trees along campus, they’re bending almost double.”

That was true enough. And the round, prickly burrs didn’t weigh much. Was it possible that one of them had been yanked off its bush by a vigorous wind and implanted under Alice’s saddle?

It had to be possible. Because the idea that someone would have deliberately done it was too ridiculous to even consider.

Unable to locate the clown who had quieted the horse, Eve gave up the search. She knew where the guy worked. She could always go into town later and thank him.

The important thing now was to call an emergency meeting of the committee and head on over to the administration building to see if the celebration was being canceled.

It wasn’t.

When the cause of the incident had been explained to the dean, she said thoughtfully, “This event has been planned for some time. You’ve all worked very hard on it, and its success is important to the university. In spite of this very unfortunate accident, I believe the celebration must go on.”

There were nods of approval all around. Eve’s head didn’t move.

“I have spoken with one of the doctors at the hospital in town,” the dean continued. Her expression suddenly became very bleak. “There was nothing they could do for Alice. That is tragic. But canceling the planned events will not bring her back. I have also spoken with her parents. Although they are distraught, they have assured me that Alice herself would have wanted the celebration to continue. Therefore, I have decided that we will dedicate the entire week to her memory, and use a portion of the carnival funds to establish a scholarship fund in her name. I believe her parents would like that.”

Still Eve said nothing. Her eyes were focused on a large, round clock on the wall behind the dean’s desk. Only two o’clock in the afternoon. The parade had begun at noon. Shouldn’t it be later than it was? Shouldn’t it be, like,
days
later? If it were, for instance, next Sunday now, the whole Founders’ Day event would be behind her. She could lie on her bed in her room and relax, knowing that she had nothing more important to do that day than call her mother, as she always did on Sunday.

But it
wasn’t
next Sunday. It was
this
Sunday. Only the first day of the festivities. Hard to believe now, that her biggest concern last night when she finally fell asleep had been that it might rain, ruining the parade. It hadn’t rained on her parade. What had happened was worse. Much worse.

“By the way,” the dean added, “I have some good news. Kevin’s injuries are painful, but not that serious. He’ll be back to help you and the committee by Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. That should cheer you up some.”

It helped a little, knowing that Kevin would be back later in the week. But it didn’t help a lot. Eve still felt as if a heavy black cloak had draped itself over her shoulders. Because something she had never once thought to write down on her List of Possible Problems, had happened.

Someone had died.

It was only the first day of the celebration, and someone had died.

And there were still six-and-a-half days to go.

T
HE FOUNDERS’ DAY COMMITTEE
returned silently to the carnival site. All were visibly shaken.

Eve glanced around her, struggling to organize her thoughts. The debris left by the horse’s rampage had disappeared, and the scene seemed very normal. The sunflower-yellow Ferris wheel was revolving swiftly now. It was only half-f. Screams of fear and excitement echoed from the precariously swaying seats as they reached the very top, high above the campus. More shrieks came from wilder rides such as Devil’s Elbow, Hell on Wheels, Space Demon, and The Snake. People were buying popcorn and cotton candy and hot dogs and cold drinks, while others moved from the dart booth to the shooting gallery and bottle toss booths, seeking to win a giant panda bear or a small portable tape player. Balloons in vivid colors trailed along behind small children. There were already half a dozen of the round globes floating up into the sky, and more would join them soon enough as additional strings escaped small hands.

There were shocked eyes in some faces, muted whispers of horrors from others, but it seemed clear to Eve that those who had been affected most severely by the disaster had left campus, leaving behind those who were dismayed but determined not to let anything ruin their day. There was now a good-sized crowd, and newcomers were visible arriving at the entrance to campus.