Disney after Dark

The guards were in the back hallway.

Whatever was on the other side of the door made a sound like wintry wind.

Fi

Then, from outside the door, Fi

Fi

The ice cracked and the door opened. Fi

Bright late-afternoon sunshine blinded him. He could just vaguely make out Willa, a good distance away, ru

Behind him, a girl with long hair.

Jez? Amanda?

Fi

The fleeing girl rounded the building’s back corner, out of sight.

Fi

He, too, hurried around the corner. He collided with someone and they went down hard. Fi

“You?” he said.

He sat face-to-face with Amanda.

“You?” he said again, desperate for an explanation. “You cause the cold?”

“Fi

“You’re the one?” he gasped in disbelief, hating her for all her lies.

“Me?” She looked astonished. But was she just acting?

She said in a whisper, “Did you get what you came for?”

Fi

“Fi

He rose to his feet and backed away from her, but not daring to take his eyes off her. “I trusted you,” he said.

“Fi

“Not anywhere,” he fired back. “Not ever.”

“Run!” Willa called out, catching up. “They’re com-ing!

Amanda, still seated on the pavement, had tears in her eyes.

Willa came to a breathless stop. “Fi

He and Amanda had not broken eye contact, though they did now. He backed up at first, still looking at her. Then he turned and ran as hard and as fast as he could.

29

Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Haloween Party, the most fun of any of the park’s special events, was not to be missed. It provided a good opportunity for the kids to bring the pens to Wayne, since they would have to deliver them in person, not as DHIs.

All five of the kids had pla

The party took place at night, after hours. Main Street was decorated to match the occasion, costumes were all but mandatory, and ghoulish characters walked the streets, adding to the chills and thrills.

Philby believed the party also provided Maleficent a rare opportunity to use all the costuming to hide herself. A witch would go u

The kids—kids, not DHIs—had a plan in place to keep both Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion under close watch. They chose the Haunted Mansion because ghosts and goblins would serve a witch well, and if Maleficent pla

Fi

Once inside, the plan was for the kids to meet at the statue of Roy O. Disney outside the fire station in Town Square. From there they would “divide and conquer,” as Maybeck put it.

Having struggled with costume ideas, Fi

At eight o’clock thousands of kids and their families poured into the park wearing elaborate costumes that added to the heightened sense of fun. In any other year, Fi

Music was pumped into the park, not the typical Disney songs—most of which Fi

Arriving as pla

“There you are!” Dillard Cole said. He’d elected to come as a crab, wearing a large round shell made of brown paper, his hands in oven mitts for claws, and several sets of springy legs protruding from the shell.

“You look like a giant tick,” Fi

“Grocery bags. It was the only paper we could find.”

From up close, Fi

“You seen anyone from school?” Fi

“Nah. You?”

“Nah.”

“I hate Halloween,” Dillard said.

“Then why did you come?”

The crab shrugged, all its legs bouncing at once. “The candy. Where you been, anyway?

Seems like we never hang out anymore.”

It was true: Fi

“You know what’s going on,” he said. “Or at least some of it.”

“Your super powers,” Dillard teased.

“Yeah. Like that.” Fi

Until this moment he hadn’t realized just how secret. Worse: until he and the others fixed things, until the growing power of the Overtakers was challenged and stopped, his life wasn’t going to get much better. Staying awake all night. Feeling tired all day. Battling his parents. Telling his mom the truth, which she, of course, found unbelievable.

“What ride do you want to go on first?” Dillard asked. “Earth to Fi

Fi

As Dillard turned to follow Fi

“Check out Cruella De Vil,” Dillard said, following Fi

“Her name is Jez.”

“From the car wash.”

“Right.”

Jez wore a skintight black-and-white leotard with black-and-white tights. Her hair was half black, half white. She carried a masquerade mask on a stick and wore white gloves that ran all the way up to her elbows. The small mask was black, like Fi