Eye Of The Fortuneteller

1

Kelsey Moore tried to scream, but the scream stuck in her throat. The giant Sea Serpent whipped her from side to side. It moved so fast that she could barely hold on. And then the green monster began to dive.

Kelsey tightened her grip. The Sea Serpent plunged down. Down. Down.

Kelsey screamed.

She screamed as the Sea Serpent, the biggest, wildest roller coaster at the beach, rounded the last corner and suddenly jerked to a stop.

“Wow!” Drew gasped. “I’m glad that’s over.”

“What a gyp,” Kelsey said as she and Drew climbed out of their seats. “I can’t believe we stood in line for twenty minutes for that. It wasn’t scary at all.”

“A gyp!” Drew cried. “Are you crazy? It was totally scary.”

“No, it wasn’t,” Kelsey said as they headed for the exit. “Did you ever ride the Exterminator at Echo Ridge? That’s a scary ride.”

“If it wasn’t scary, how come you were screaming?” Drew asked.

“Me? Screaming?” Kelsey laughed. “You were the one who was screaming.”

“I was not,” Drew lied.

“Were, too,” Kelsey replied. “The same way you screamed on the merry-go-round.”

“Very funny,” Drew shot back. “I screamed on the merry-go-round when we were six years old.”

“Yeah, I know,” Kelsey said. “It scared you so much, you haven’t been on it since.”

Drew reached out and yanked Kelsey’s ponytail.

“Cut it out!” she yelled. But she wasn’t really angry. Kelsey and Drew were best friends – and cousins. Cousins who looked practically liked twins.

They both had the same curly blond hair, the same freckles, the same green eyes. They even had the same last name. And they were the same age, too. Twelve. But Kelsey liked to brag that she was older – even if it was only by three weeks.

Every year their parents rented a house together at the beach. And every year Kelsey had to drag Drew on all the rides. She loved them. He hated them.

It had taken Kelsey two whole summers to convince Drew to ride the Sea Serpent. And after all that, it was a total letdown.

“I’m telling you,” Kelsey said. “I’ve had scarier walks to school.”

“I know. I know. You live on Fear Street. There are ghosts and monsters there every day,” Drew replied.

“The stories about Fear Street are true,” Kelsey insisted. “Really strange things happen to people who live there.”

“Nothing weird has happened to you,” Drew pointed out.

“Not yet,” Kelsey said. But she had plenty of stories to tell about the ghosts that haunted her neighborhood. And she told them to Drew about twice a day.

Drew rolled his eyes. “Okay. You’re from Fear Street. Nothing scares you. Nothing except sand crabs.”

“They don’t scare me,” Kelsey lied. “I just think they’re gross, that’s all. So what do you want to do now?” she asked, changing the subject.

“Go on the bumper cars?” Drew suggested.

“We can’t,” Kelsey replied. “We don’t have enough money left.”

“What are you talking about?” Drew started digging through his pockets. “We had almost ten dollars each.”

“Drew, we’ve been on about a hundred rides,” Kelsey began. “And we spent a fortune trying to win that stupid prize you wanted.”

“It’s not stupid,” Drew insisted. “That video game costs eighty bucks in the store. We could win it down here for only a quarter.”

“If we could win it for a quarter, how come we’ve already spent fifty of them trying to get it? Besides, there’s no way to win anything on those giant wheel games. They’re rigged.”

“That’s not what you said last year,” Drew reminded her. “Remember when you made us spend all our money trying to win that pink baby elephant?”

“Oh, yeah,” Kelsey replied. “I remember – we didn’t win one single game.”

“Well, this time it’s going to be different. This time we’re going to win that video game,” Drew declared.

“Okay, okay,” Kelsey gave in. “But we should head home now. It’s almost time for dinner. We’ll try to win it tomorrow – when we can get more money.”

Kelsey and Drew headed toward the part of the boardwalk that led to the exit.

“I have a little change left,” Drew said, still searching through his pockets. “Let’s buy some saltwater taffy-” Drew turned to Kelsey, but she was gone.

“Kelsey?”

“Over here,” she called from around a corner. “Check this out.”

“What is it?” Drew asked, turning the bend.

Kelsey stood in front of a creepy old shack. It was made of wood. Splintered, rotted wood that smelled ancient and moldy.

The small building sagged – the right side stood higher than the left. Kelsey tried to peer through one of the grimy windows, but it was covered with thick iron bars. Heavy black curtains draped the panes.

“I don’t know what this is,” Kelsey said, circling the strange old shack. “I’ve never seen it before.”

Kelsey glanced up and spotted a sign that hung over the doorway. “The Amazing Zandra,” she read, trying to sound spooky. “It’s a stupid gypsy fortune-telling place – only the Amazing Zandra is ‘Out to Lunch.’” Kelsey pointed to the sign.

Drew pressed his nose up against the window in the door to peek inside. He leaped back, crashing into Kelsey.

“Ouch!” she cried out, rubbing her foot. “What’s the matter with you?”

“Take a look,” Drew whispered.

Kelsey pressed her nose up against the dirty window. She peered into the dark room. Squinting.

Then she saw it.

A skeleton.

A human skeleton. It stared at her with its hollow eyes.

She inhaled sharply. Then laughed.

“It’s just a skeleton. A prop,” she told Drew. “Fortunetellers use stuff like that all the time. To make you think they’re spooky and mysterious.”

Kelsey jiggled the doorknob. The door opened with a loud click. “Let’s go in!”

“No way,” Drew told her, stepping back from the door. “We don’t have time. We’ll be late for dinner.”

“You’re such a chicken,” Kelsey taunted.

“I am not,” Drew shot back. “There’s just no reason to go in. Fortunetellers are fakes. Everyone knows that. They can’t really tell the future.”

Kelsey pulled the door open wide enough to stick her head inside. The air inside the shack felt icy cold. It sent a chill down her spine.

She glanced around the room. A layer of thick dust carpeted the floor. Old books were scattered everywhere.

Kelsey’s gaze shifted to the far wall of the shack, where bookshelves rose from the floor to the ceiling. On them sat tons and tons of stuffed animals.

Kelsey stared at the animals. They weren’t like the ones she had in her room.

These were real animals.

Real dead animals.

“You’re not going to believe what’s in here,” Kelsey whispered. “Let’s go in.”

“No way!” Drew repeated. Then he tugged Kelsey back. “Let’s go. We’ll be here all summer. We can come back another time.”

Kelsey sighed. “Oh, all right, but-”

“Stay. Stay,” a raspy voice called from the back of the shack.

Kelsey and Drew turned in time to see a very old woman make her way to the front of the shack. She pointed a wrinkled, gnarled finger at them. “Come,” she said. “Come in.”

Kelsey stared at the woman. She wore a red flowered dress that hung down to the floor. Her face was lined with wrinkles. And her mouth twisted in a half sneer. But it was her earrings that Kelsey gaped at.

Dozens of gold rings dangled from each ear. Heavy gold earrings that pulled on her lobes and made them hang low.

She fixed her dark eyes on Kelsey as she spoke again.

Kelsey gasped. The woman had one blue eye and one eye the color of coal.

“Come,” the woman beckoned. “Come inside. There is much to tell. Come, Kelsey and Drew.”

All the color drained from Drew’s face. “Kelsey, how does she know our names?” he murmured. “How does she know?”