Chapter 10: Trapped

Ein stared at himself in the funhouse mirror. He looked like a rather plump schoolgirl, with pigtails, and a school uniform. And the only thing the mirror changed was his width. "Why can't one of you be the damsel in distress?"

Princess said, "Because, Ein, you scream the loudest and the girliest."

Well, she had him there.

But dressing up as a girl wasn't the worst part. The worst was that he was going to be attacked by--

"Vincent," Sunflower said and smiled. "You make an excellent monster."

"Doesn't he," Ein muttered.

Vincent clenched his teeth and raised one of his furry fists into the air. He was about to burst when Ein made a taking-picture motion with his fingers, and the negative energy flowed out of Vincent like a deflated balloon.

Ein laughed, inside. This was almost worth dressing up like a girl, because he knew how much Vincent would normally enjoy mocking him, but now he couldn't.

Sunflower glanced down at her diagrams. "Alright, let's get this started. Ein, go outside and start skipping around. Then Vincent will run around from the back of the haunted house and start chasing you. Ein, that's when you scream. Loud enough for the whole town to hear. Stop only when the ninja shows up. And remember, if any cops come around, we're just practicing for a play."

Ein scratched the back of his wig. "Do I really have to skip?"

"Yes."

***

Princess exploded with laughter. "Look at him! He's doing it! He's actually doing it!" She stumbled backwards away from the window, and rolled on the floor, unable to control the tremors in her stomach. Finally, she sat up and took ten dollars out of her pocket. "Here."

"You're a weird girl, do you know that?" Sunflower took the money. "There's Vincent."

Princess sprung to her feet and stared out the window. She had to hold onto her stomach to keep herself from collapsing again.

Vincent roared and Ein ran around, flailing his arms about like mad.

Then, the screaming.

Princess covered her ears, and after a second, Sunflower did the same.

Ein's scream was the most high-pitched noise that Princess had ever heard, and she'd watched a lot of anime.

The windows began to vibrate under the strain.

A black dot appeared in the distance. The darkness grew larger and larger, until the Ninja jumped up in the air and landed between the Damsel and the Monster.

Ein ran into the haunted house with Vincent close behind.

Vincent slammed the door right before the Ninja could enter, so the Ninja had to climb through the open window.

The only one in the kitchen now was Princess. "The monster went that way, Mr. Ninja." She pointed.

The Ninja nodded a thanks, and kept running.

Princess followed.

***

Ein stood by Vincent, behind Sunflower's desk. He leaned in close to Vincent's ear. "Let's never talk about what happened here."

Vincent nodded.

Sunflower kept her finger right above the big red button on the desk.

The Ninja dashed inside, and stared at the three of them.

"Sorry about this." Sunflower pressed the button, and the trap door opened.

The Ninja fell into the pit of plastic balls below her office.

Everyone surrounded the trap door and looked down.

"You don't have to struggle, Mr. Ninja," Sunflower said. "We're not villains or anything, and we'll let you out in a second. We just need to talk to you first, and we weren't really sure any other way to find you."

The Ninja stopped struggling and looked up.

Ein waited for Sunflower to speak up again, but for some reason, she didn't say anything. Sunflower was looking at Ein. Everyone was!

"Go ahead, Ein," Princess said.

"Why me?" Ein shook his head. "I'm not--"

"Just do it!"

Ein nodded and cleared his throat. "Well, Mr. Ninja…Sir…you see, me and my friends are starting up this restaurant. Actually, I'm not really part of it. I just help out from time to time and--" Princess elbowed him. "Ouch! Anyway, we were wondering if you could show up at our grand opening. Maybe sign a few autographs. Something like that. We need people to show up."

The Ninja just stared. Didn't speak. Didn't move.

Ein cleared his throat again. "You see, Mr. Ninja…our dreams are kind of depending on this restaurant doing well. Princess, she wants to become a world-famous eater, and she needs this restaurant to showcase her talent. Sunflower, she wants to become a successful businesswoman. Vincent, he wants to prove himself to his father." He swallowed, hard. "And me…I…I…."

The Ninja nodded.

"Does that mean you'll do it?"

The Ninja nodded again.

***

"Hello Samantha." Ein waved at the computer girl when he entered Chucky's room.

"Oh, hello Sign." She was pecking at a digitized game controller with her fingers. She was playing a game with Chucky on another monitor. It was a rather strange sight to see a computer image controlling another computer image, but somehow the strangeness didn't phase Ein a bit.

He reached up and touched his hair, making sure he'd remembered to take off his pigtails.

Samantha's character fell over, dead. "Oops, guess I lost."

Chucky sighed. "You let me win, didn't you?--I know--"

"No, you really beat me this time."

Ein cleared his throat.

And for the first time, Chucky realized Ein was standing there. Chucky was probably too caught up in his game to perceive him before. "Hi, Ein, can I help you with something, because whenever you come over here, it seems like you need--"

"Actually I do need to talk to you about something."

"Alright."--He turned to the computer.--"Samantha, we'll have to continue this later and--"

"Do you have to? I want to play another game."

"You'll just let me win again, anyway, like you always--"

"I won't this time, Chucky. I promise, I'll play for real."

"In a little while, but for now you can go and continue your research if you--"

"Alright." She looked down and sighed. "Bye." She stepped into the internet, and vanished.

Chucky turned to Ein. "So what can I do for you?--Does this have to do with that Jerk Boy?--Or does it--"

"The Jerk Boy situation has been handled, and I only couldn't have done it without your help. Thanks."

"You're welcome, I'm always happy to help out a friend, why, I had this friend named Pop who--"

"I'm here because I'd like to invite your family to something. Tomorrow is the grand opening of the restaurant my friends are starting up."

"Hey, that's neat, what kind of food are you going to have, and where is it, and--"

"Our menu is pretty diverse. Lots of different types of food. And the restaurant is in that old house, where the amusement park used to be."

Chucky's eyes opened wide. So wide, Ein was afraid his eyeballs were going to pop out. But they didn't. "ARE YOU TELLING ME IT'S IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE!!!--THAT'S--"

"Yes. It's in the haunted house."

Chucky reached under his pillow and pulled out a little stuffed ghost. He sat and stroked the ghost's bald head. "For years I've dreamed of this day, finally, I'll be able to do it, finally--"

"Do what, Chucky?"

The lights in the room dimmed, and shadows danced on Chucky's face. "I'll able to see one for real, I'll see it like I'm seeing you right now, I'll see--"

"What are you talking about?"

"Ghosts!"--He stood, and held the stuffed ghost to the light.--"I'm talking about ghosts!--You see, Ein, I hold some interest in UFOs and bigfoot and things like that, but my greatest obsession is ghosts, ghosts are-"

"It's not a real haunted house, Chucky. It was built for an amusement park."

"That's where you're wrong, my fine mistaken friend, indeed, there used to an amusement park around where the haunted house now stands, but the house has existed for far longer a time, you see, the amusement park builders simply decided not to tear down the old house, because they thought it looked spooky, so they added a bunch of mirrors and plastic skeletons and scary music and--"
"Are you telling me that they built a pretend haunted house out of a real haunted house?"

He nodded, then reached under his bed and pulled out a very large box. "I'll make sure my parents come to the grand opening, but only if I can bring some equipment, otherwise--"

"What kind of equipment?"

"Oh, nothing much, just some doodads and doohickeys and thingamabobs and thingamajigs and..."

***

Ein biked back towards the haunted house to tell everybody the good news. It felt so good to bike again, riding his trusty steed like the good old days. He couldn't believe he was admitting this to himself, but high school was the good old days. No matter how difficult high school was for him, no matter how many tests he flunked, no matter how many times he embarrassed himself--they were simpler times. Go to this class, then go to that class, then go to lunch, then, then, then. The path was laid out for him.

Now…now he couldn't even see a path anymore. He could only see what was straight ahead of him.

And right now that was--

Waitress Girl dove out of the way of Ein's bike just in time to avoid being biked over.

Ein skidded to a stop and raced to Waitress Girl's side. She took his hand and he pulled her to her feet.

"Sorry," he said. "I was so trapped in my thoughts, it was like you appeared out of nowhere."

"No. It's my fault. I ran right out in front of you. I should have looked both ways first."

Ein looked around to see where he was. Mario's was across the street. That was probably where she was running to. Maybe she was late. "I know you have to go, and I know you're mad at me and you never want to see me again, but I just want to say sorry one last time. I didn't mean to humiliate you…twice. And almost run you over. I'm sorry."

She stared at him kind of funny. "I'm not mad at you."

"What?"

"I'm not mad. I was humiliated, but it wasn't your fault."

Ein's could feel his face expanding with happiness, but he pressed his cheeks back to normal with his hands. "Oh," was all he could manage through his squished up lips.

"I have to go now." She turned around and headed for Mario's.

He concentrated really hard and made his face shrink back to normal. "Hey, Waitress G…uh, Daisy."

She turned around. "Yes."

"A couple of friends of mine are starting up a restaurant in the old haunted house down the street. The grand opening is tomorrow. Do you…do you want to come?"

She stayed silent for a long time, then smiled. "Sure."

***

They all spent the rest of the day running around town passing out fliers. The townspeople didn't really seem to care what kind of food the restaurant would be serving, or how fancy it was, or what kind of chef was cooking there. There would be Soap Stars and the Ninja, and that seemed to be enough to make their faces light up like human-faced fireflies.

Sunflower brought everyone into her office for one last meeting before they could all get some sleep. She finished scribbling in her notebook and looked up. "I'm glad you all could make it here tonight. We have something very important to discuss."

"What?" Princess said.

"The topic: the name of our restaurant. We don't have a name. We need one. Ideas?"

They all looked at each other, but said nothing.

Princess snapped her fingers and smiled. "I got it!"

"What?" Sunflower asked.

"Not the name for the restaurant. I mean, I finally figured out the riddle that was on my popsicle stick. The answer is a blushing penguin."

Sunflower sighed. "Does anyone else have any ideas?"

Ein raised his hand, like a good little schoolgirl. Sunflower chuckled at her internal joke, but said nothing about it. "Yes, Ein?"

"How about we call it…After School Special? It's kind of a pun."

There was quiet for a second, then an overflow of laughter from everyone except Ein. Even Old Hobo Joe laughed in his own silent way.

"Hey, what are you guys laughing about?" Ein said. "I thought it was a good name."

Princess patted the top of his head. "Sorry, Ein. It's the cheesiest thing I've ever heard. We could never use a name like that."

"Does anyone else have an idea?" Sunflower asked again.

Vincent scratched his chin. "We could perhaps use the fact that this place was once an amusement park attraction to our advantage…seeing as the whole town seems to have heard of and made up stories about it. My suggestion is we call this place Haunted House Dressing."

Ein burst out laughing, but stopped when he noticed that no one else was.

Sunflower smiled and shook Vincent's hand. "Haunted House Dressing it is."