They emerged into a long, straight hallway that lay in shadowy twilight. Jail cells lined both sides.
“It’s a…prison,” Maybeck said.
Finn stopped and examined a shiny piece of metal that hung from one of the doors. It turned out to be a padlock. A sparkling new padlock. Each of the cells was secured with a similar lock, all brand new. On further inspection, many of the hinges to the cell doors had been recently repaired. Fresh weld marks abounded.
“This has all been fixed up,” Philby said. “And recently. What’s with that?”
“Padlocks,” Finn said. “A hundred padlocks stolen. Remember what Wayne said?” He recalled his father mentioning welding gear being stolen. The Overtakers.
Philby handled one of the padlocks. “You’re not saying—”
“You want to explain it? Go ahead!” Finn said.
Maybeck said, “Listen, this makes sense. These cells are huge. Each cell could hold what, ten, maybe twenty people?”
The boys continued through the gloomy jail.
Philby did the math. “That means you could lock up hundreds of people down here. You realize that?”
Finn said, “Park employees.”
“They’re planning a takeover,” Philby said. “They stole the locks. They fixed up the cells.”
Finn stated, “They obviously plan to use these.”
“This is exactly what Wayne is afraid of,” Philby said. “Now I get it: if they organize, and if they have real powers, it’s possible they could take over the park.”
“And once they did,” Finn said, “what would happen to the guests who arrived?”
“It’s not just a jail, guys. Welcome to the dungeon.” Maybeck pointed to a door at the end of the jails. The door hung open, revealing a tomblike darkness beyond. “And yes,” he added quickly, “I realize how stupid this sounds.”
Finn reminded, “Remember, we’re not crossed over. We’re not going to turn invisible. We’re not going to glow. We’re not going to walk through walls. So if we run, we run.”
“I’m all over that,” Maybeck said.
They paused at the door and listened to high-pitched voices faintly coming through the darkness.
Philby whispered, “I suggest we stick to the shadows.”
“Shadows?” Maybeck questioned. “It’s pitch-black in there.”
“It won’t be,” Philby assured him.
Maybeck said, “No matter what, we hang together. You do not want to go one-on-one with these people.”
“If they are people,” Philby said, meaning it as a joke. No one laughed.
“Any advice?” Finn asked.
“Don’t underestimate their power over you,” Maybeck said. “You don’t want to look into their eyes. I remember looking into a pair of eyes—the cold got much more intense.”
“So…try to think of other things, or what?” Finn asked.
“Yeah. They definitely put thoughts into your head, which feel like your own ideas. But they aren’t your ideas at all. They’re like orders. We ought to go through that door with our minds already occupied,” Maybeck suggested. “If we go through at all.”
“Occupied with what?” Philby asked.
Maybeck answered, “What’s the ugliest, weirdest monster you’ve ever seen? In a movie, in your imagination, in your sleep? Try that. And don’t let go of it. Fight fire with fire.” He added, “Jez is so nice, it’s hard to see her as dangerous. That’s when you start losing power, when the cold really gets going.”
“And you couldn’t have told us this before we decided to come here?” Philby asked, annoyed.
“I didn’t remember any of this. Swear I didn’t. Not until just now. But man, I’m telling you, it’s all coming back in a big way.”
“Are we all set?” Finn asked.
The boys nodded.
Finn led the way through the door, his feet feeling the way in front of him. The darkness gave way to a descending stone staircase. Partway down, the stairs turned left and a dim electric light shone overhead. More lights up ahead.
The stagnant, musty air grew quickly cool. The walls dripped and green slime ran down them like thick paint. The boys sloshed through several shallow puddles. Finn followed two sets of wet shoe prints now, from puddle to puddle.
All at once the space opened into a square room. The stone ceiling was supported by four enormous stone pillars, each with a different animal head carved onto it. The carvings were of ghoulish, evil faces, half animal, half human—hideous, with bug eyes and tongues sticking out. Stone benches ran along the walls. This was some kind of gathering place.