Maxi thought she felt the floor shaking, then the statue of Jack the Ripper caught her eye. The statue's eyes were gleaming coldly in the darkness. His hand - the hand that held the straight-edged razor, moved ever so slightly. His dusty lips twitched upward in a smile. Movement to her left - Maxi's head spun just in time to see Marie Antoinette sitting up by the guillotine and smiling. The spooky organ music turned up to the highest notch yet. Then the disemboweled woman who lay at Jack the Ripper's feet began to rise. So did the woman with the horribly blue face, whom the Boston Strangler had strangled. But where was the Boston Strangler himself?

   Chapter 26

The Boston Strangler's hands were dry as dust as they clamped down on Maxi's windpipe. She felt herself falling backward into his arms. The statue stood in the middle of the track, choking her with a vicious frenzy. Selena was punching him and kicking him, but it was of no use. He was going to choke Maxi to death. He would've done it too except just then the next Fun House car zoomed by on the track and ran right into the back of the Strangler's knees. He fell hard, dragging Maxi down with him.

The car was right on top of him, its wheels spinning as it struggled to move forward. The car was grinding his legs into a white powder. Selena dragged Maxi out of the killer's grasp, but now the statues were all coming fast. Their dusty mouths grinning hideously. Coughing and gasping for air, Maxi held on to Selena as they hobbled down the track toward the exit. The music blaring everywhere. They banged out through the double doors.

Outside, the smoky air felt like pure oxygen after the dust and terror of The Fun House. They kept running. Maxi looking back over her shoulder, expecting at any moment to see The Fun House statues lurching toward them, but no one followed.

Maxi was no longer looking back when the black cloud of vampire bats emerged from The Fun House door. The bats flew off in jagged circles. One large bat, his head streaked with white where the artist had missed a spot, was leading the rest. Luckily, for Maxi and Selena, this large bat led the flock high into the night sky. The screeching of the bats grew fainter and fainter. The bats were gone.

When they could run no more, Maxi and Selena collapsed onto the grass in the middle of the fairgrounds, gasping for air. The fairgrounds were brighter than before. It took Maxi a moment to figure out why. All the rides were going at once. The Ferris wheel was whirling - the carousel spinning. On the roller coaster, the empty cars were flying around the tracks at blurring speed. Even the organ grinder music was going faster and faster, cutting through the music was the high-pitched grinding of gears. To Maxi, it Sounded as if the grinding rides were screeching out a single word over and over — ‘Jason’ ‘Jason’ ‘Jason’. That wasn't all. The Scrambler was on fire. So was the Tunnel of Love.

   Friday the 13th: The Carnival, chapter 27