Disney after Dark

“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,” Fi

“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.”

Fi

“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?” Fi

“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?” Fi

“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, a

“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?” Fi

The boys nodded.

Fi

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. Fi

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.

The air felt even colder now.

Fi

Philby dropped to one knee, looking for wet prints to follow. He crawled forward on his hands and knees and ended facing the middle of the three doorways. He pointed silently.

Fi

The boys entered a dank, narrow tu

Fi

It reminded Fi

Many similar patterns and designs adorned the room. Had Walt Disney once shown this room to the great artist?

Maybeck crossed his arms tightly. “Temperature alert,” he whispered. “Arctic air mass.”

It was an u

Philby, in the lead, led them to the right. Noticing that the chill was reduced here, they reversed directions, following the cold like a bloodhound follows a scent.

A tremor of terror ran through Fi

Fi

The boys heard hushed voices to their right. They changed direction, hunched, and stooped by the sloped ceiling.

“Valor is such a dangerous thing.” The same voice from the teepee: Maleficent.

The boys stopped and turned in unison.

She stood alongside a column. She’d hidden behind it. They’d walked right past her. “Like bees to sugar water,” she said.

She now blocked their return route.

She said, “If you didn’t care so much about your two girlfriends up there, you wouldn’t have followed us down here. And if you didn’t follow us, then how would we ever get you to give us the pen?”

They’d been tricked. Jez and Maleficent had wanted to be followed.

Maybeck made a quick move to his left, but with a simple wave of her gloved hand Maleficent threw up a series of white vibrating lines that co

The lines hummed and sparked with electricity. They added light to the gloominess.

A second wave of her hands erected more lines, intricately co

She said, “You’re familiar with shock collars for dogs? Wireless fences? Same concept. I don’t advise testing it, but be my guests, if you must.”

The light allowed Fi

“We know you have it on you,” she said, “you clever child. Now…place the pen down on the floor there. As soon as you do, your girlfriends will feel fine.”

Silence. Not even Maybeck responded with his usual sarcasm.

Philby’s eyes danced toward the sparking white lines that caged them. Fi

Fi

“You insolent young man.”

“We were there. One Man’s Dream.” Jez stepped out from behind another column.

“One Witch’s Dream, too,” Maleficent said. “These parks grow so…claustrophobic—don’t you think?”

Seeing these two side by side, Fi

“You two can go,” Maleficent said to Philby and Maybeck. She swept her hand to one side and the fence sputtered and vanished. “Omnia haec obliviscantur!” she chanted musically, then said, “When you reach the surface, you will remember none of what has gone on here. Neither the events nor the way down. All you will recall is going to the restroom together. You don’t know where Fi