I jumped to my feet and helped pull Matt up from the mud.

Why were we fighting? I couldn’t remember.

As they stampeded toward us, the Monster Police waved their sticks and screamed at us to stop. I knew they wouldn’t hurt us. I mean, we were guests at the park — right?

But I took off anyway. We all did. We ran in different directions.

I was close behind Abby for a while. But then I lost her in the crowd. And then I lost myself in the crowd!

Where was I? I was running full speed now along a wire fence. On the other side, I saw kids on a beach. The kids were screaming and laughing, sinking into the sand.

Finally, I saw a sign: QUICKSAND BEACH. DROP IN ANYTIME!

It looked like fun. I spun around. I’d lost the two Monster Policemen.

I took a few minutes to catch my breath. Then I made my way back to Stagger Inn.

*  *  *

A short while later, everyone gathered in my room on the thirteenth floor. Matt and I stared at each other with our hands in our jeans pockets. Then we both apologized at once. We even shook hands.

“We’re cool?” I asked.

“We’re cool,” Matt said.

“Look, we’re all scared and stressed out,” Carly Beth said. “But we have to stick together.”

She sighed and dropped down onto the edge of my bed next to her friend Sabrina. “Sabrina and I didn’t believe any of this,” she said. “You know. About the missing girls and the other park.”

“But we do now,” Sabrina said.

“Look, Abby and I just got here yesterday,” I said. “We don’t know why everyone is so nervous. Tell us what’s up.”

They all started talking at once. Finally, Matt said he’d try to explain everything.

“As soon as I arrive,” he started, “this Horror named Byron runs up to me. He says I’m in danger. And he gives me this.”

Matt pulled a gray plastic card from his wallet. “It’s a room key card,” he said. “But it’s not from HorrorLand. And it seems to have special powers. It helped me win at the carnival games. And it opens doors that regular key cards don’t open —”

“Our first day, my sister, Sheena, and I met these two girls,” Billy Deep interrupted. “Molly Molloy and Britney Crosby. Then they disappeared. Gone. Poof. We’ve been searching for them ever since.”

“The Horrors won’t help us,” Sheena said. “They say the girls were never here.”

“We saw them in a café with a big mirrored wall,” Matt said. “This key card opened the door to the café. But when we went inside, the girls were gone.”

“The mirror was soft, like liquid,” Sheena explained. “I stuck my arm into it — and I disappeared, too. It’s all very hazy. But I think I ended up in a different park.”

“Byron keeps leaving us hints about another park,” Matt said. He held up the two pieces of an old park guide. One showed a carousel with flames shooting out of it. It was called The Wheel of Fire. The other showed a hall of mirrors, called Mirror Mansion.

“Strange characters keep following us here,” Robby said. “Trying to frighten us. We’ve all had scary problems back home. And they’ve followed us to the park!”

“When we looked into a piece of mirror, we saw Britney and Molly on that burning carousel,” Billy said.

“I think we’re in real danger,” Carly Beth said. “We need to make a plan. We need to get out of this park.”

“Whoa. Wait a sec,” I said. “Tell me more about the mirrors. All this stuff about mirrors is really interesting.”

“I searched my whole room,” Abby said. “I couldn’t find a mirror anywhere. Whoever heard of a hotel room without mirrors?”

Again, everyone started talking at once. None of us had mirrors in our rooms.

“This is totally disturbing,” I said. “It means we have to find a mirror. Mirrors must be a very important clue.”

“We have to find Byron first,” Matt said. “He’s the only one who can tell us what’s going on.”

I didn’t want to fight with Matt again. I could see he wanted to be leader of the group. And that was okay with me.

But once I get something in my head, I can’t get it out. And right then, mirrors were definitely in my head.

So we split up. They all went out to search for Byron. And I went on a hunt for a mirror. We planned to meet in Matt’s room in two hours.

I searched every inch of my room first. The other kids were right. No mirror. Nothing even shiny enough to be used as a mirror.

I was dying to know why.

What if I just ask someone for a mirror? I thought.

It seemed like a good plan. I took the dark, creaky elevator down to the hotel lobby. The elevator had thick cobwebs hanging from its roof. Eerie organ music played all the way down.

But I wasn’t in the mood for that kind of scary fun. I was on a mission.

I stepped up to the front desk. A green-skinned Horror with curly green hair and one brown eye and one blue eye stood behind the counter. He wore a bright purple tuxedo and lacy white shirt. A very colorful dude.

His name tag read: BOOMER. He looked up from his laptop. “Help you?”

“Yes,” I said. “Do you have a mirror I could borrow?”

“A mirror?” he replied, squinting at me with his brown eye.

“Yes, do you have a mirror?” I repeated.

He smiled. “Sure thing,” he said. “No problem.”

I blinked. That was easy.