Inferno Park Read Online Free

soul!” or “Who dares face the devil?” that echoed through the park as if to personally taunt every customer.
    Carter had never ridden it, but he knew the mountain’s interior was a horror ride and the train spiraled down through alternating darkness and hellish scenery. When the pitchfork gates opened at the bottom, the riders on the train came out looking terrified, and there would always be a few crying kids among them.
    He glanced up at the devil’s enormous face, which had an eerie way of always seeming to look right at you no matter where you stood. He quickly looked away.
    “Scaredy-cat. Still scared of Hornsby,” Jared said, using a common local name for the big devil face.
    Carter didn’t say anything, but his heart was racing. He felt stupid for being scared of something that everyone else above the age of ten seemed to find cheesy and funny, but his fear dated back to a very young and impressionable age. He didn’t understand why everyone didn’t find the giant horned face at least a little scary.
    They reached Space City, which took up the northeast corner of the park, featuring glowing high rides like American Rockets and the big rotating Moon Robot. The line for American Rockets wasn’t too bad yet, so they only had to wait a few minutes before riding.
    They climbed aboard a ride car shaped like a fat, silver 1950s-style rocket lined with rows of glowing light bulbs. The ride’s four rocket cars were arranged around a central tower, and Carter made sure to pick one that faced inward toward the park rather than out toward the highway and the ocean.
    “This is going to be awesome,” Jared said as the safety bar descended to their laps.
    A recorded voice played nearby, along with the sound of rumbling rocket engines: “Three...two...one...BLAST-OFF!”
    The rocket cars shot upwards, gaining speed as they rose above the park. Teenage tourist girls in the next rocket over screamed—prematurely, Carter thought, since they weren’t even to the good part yet.
    “First-timers,” Jared snickered.
    The rocket moved up, up, up until the entire park spread out below them like a map, with the Starland Express roller coaster running across the far end. Carter couldn’t see some of the big Space City rides behind him, but he could see everything else. He found himself at eye level with the huge red devil face of Inferno Mountain. It still seemed to look right at him, even from this height.
    Directly across the park, on the opposite side of the midway, a few tamer rides stood between Fool’s Gold and Tyke Town—the carousel, the Ferris wheel, the swings. If it had been a few minutes later, with the sun a little deeper behind the horizon, he wouldn’t have seen her at all.
    Tricia rode one of the swings, her blond braids streaming out behind her. She wasn’t gripping the chains, either, but holding her hands above her head, whooping in excitement as she circled high above the park. The flashing neon lights painted her in flaming hues of red, orange, and yellow.
    “That’s her.” Carter pointed. “On the swing.”
    “How can you tell this far away?”
    “I can tell.”
    The rocket car soared up ten stories above the ground. Then it paused. Carter had a couple of seconds to feel his adrenaline pumping and his hands turning sweaty on the safety rail as he took in how high up they sat.
    Then the car gave a loud squeal and tilted sharply forward as if it were about to spill them out and send them falling toward the pavement far below. The teenage girls in the next car screamed, and it was genuine this time—no need to fake or exaggerate their fear. It was the killer moment of the ride, that half a second when even veteran riders nearly believed the rocket car was about to break loose and plummet a hundred feet to the solid concrete below.
    The rocket car dropped, blowing Carter’s hair back and sending his stomach up into his throat. It plummeted faster and faster toward the ground below, the wind