He didn’t expect any Hollow Men to be at the amusement park, and didn’t find any in a cursory search. After all the time he spent and all the spying, he never really was sure where they went at night. Back when they were patrolling for him he’d assumed they walked around all night, never sleeping. But after he’d faked his death and the patrols had stopped, they had disappeared at night just like everyone else. His best guess was somewhere in the mansion, the only building big enough to comfortably hold them. Which was exactly why he needed the distraction, since the mansion was exactly where he needed to go.
Much of the amusement park was made of wood, but the roller coaster was the tallest point. He used half the gas can on it, spreading the noxious liquid evenly amongst a few supports. It was exhilarating, the grand carnage he was about to reek. It made him giddy, a somersault in his stomach. Two years in Nowhere Blvd. and he’d only rode that roller coaster a few times in the early days.
What a waste, he thought. Though a smile was upon his face as he thought it.
The second half of the gas he used to prepare a trap he wasn’t at all sure would work. The approach to the roller coaster was made along a wide corridor of games and prize booths and carnival stands. There were paths between them that were pretty easy for a kid to slip through, but too narrow for the wider gait of the Hollow Men. At the far end of that corridor he created a barrier made of various stuffed animals from the booths. A barrier that would be very easy for the long legs of a Hollow Man to step over on the way to the roller coaster. Then he soaked the barrier with the rest of the gasoline, choking on the fumes.
The plan was to light the roller coaster on fire and set a fuse on the barrier, hoping to trap the Hollow Men between two walls of flame when they came to try and put out the roller coaster. The fuse would be another trick he’d seen on TV, a cigarette placed sideways in a book of matches. The cigarette burns down after a while and when it reaches the matches the whole thing goes up, lighting the barrier along with it. The Hollow Men didn’t have expressions, but just the same he wised he could be here to see them when they realized the trap they had stumbled into. He hadn’t had a chance to give the matchbook trick a test, but was sure it would work. After all, he figured, it worked on TV.
He’d decided it would be best to set the fuse first, since once he lit the roller coaster he would have to run fast so as not to meet with any Hollow Men who happened to be closer than he thought. He pulled the cigarette and matches from his pack, lighting the cigarette with one of them and taking a puff on it to get it going. An action that sent him into a coughing fit and left him feeling twice as nauseous as he had from the fumes alone. He carefully slid the cigarette into position and closed the matchbook around it. The gold leaf letters on the cover caught his eye. The Glen Carrig Lounge. His dad’s home away from home, if he remembered right.
As he moved close to carefully slide the matchbook into place under the edge of the barrier, the fumes of the gasoline were overpowering.
Maybe I overdid it, was his last thought before the explosion.
Waking up after what must have been only a few seconds, head ringing and vision blurred, he heard a strange roaring sound and his feet were very very hot. As consciousness made its way back he realized what was happening, jumping up and away from the heat. He almost fell again as his feet stuck to the ground, the rubber soles of his shoes half melted. Backed away from the fire, coughing on the poisonous thick smoke of burning plastic and stuffing.
He was thoroughly confused and off balance, was stuck between making a run for it and staying to assess the situation. He felt like a little kid who has broken a vase and is trying to decide whether to distance himself from the crime or try and hide the evidence. He had the absurd desire to go to his room and try and think up a backup plan.
He looked at the wall of flame, tried to think for a second as he breathed through his shirt. His face felt like he had a fresh sunburn and his eyes stung from the smoke. He saw by the firelight that all the hair on his arms had been singed off.
Fuck fuck FUCK, he thought as he realized how completely ruined the plan was. Can gas catch fire just from getting a match close to it? Fuck.
Spencer’d successfully blocked off his only access to the roller coaster. At least his only easy and fast access. The fire as it currently was might catch no ones attention at all, and on the other hand might have a complete robotic fire brigade on the spot within sixty seconds, perfectly willing to tear apart Spencer piece by piece as part of the job. He looked over at the pile of flaming rubbish. He could get close to the edge of it, for a second anyway…
He rushed in and grabbed a partially burning stuffed animal from the pile, darting back away quickly. Looked down to find he was holding a pink bunny, the manic smile on its face being quickly consumed by yellow flames with a greenish chemical tinge. Tossed it on the roof of a nearby prize stand and scrambled up after it.
He took the bunny’s leg in his right hand, holding tight with the paw that covered it. Remembering the little league games his dad had always demanded he win. Remembering the way his coach drilled him to throw. He took careful aim and launched the bunny as hard as he could.
Dad would have been proud, he thought, for the arc of flame as the bunny flew across the night sky was truly a thing of beauty. It landed just where he’d aimed, at the base of the gas soaked roller coaster supports. For a moment he was afraid nothing would happen, that the bunny would just burn itself out down there. But then the flames began to slowly spread upwards, and he knew it would be enough.
He wanted to wait, to stay and watch it. The fire was beautiful…entrancing. But time was short, even in these last few moments he felt there was a giant clock ticking its way to alarm somewhere, and he had to beat it. Hopped down from his perch and ran north, skirting around the edge of the town. Moving faster than ever without the weight of the gas can at his back.
As Spencer re-entered the town around the area of Mr. Buttons’ tree house, he could only hope that the Hollow Men had by now all made their way south to fight the fire. He didn’t know if they really had any programming for that, but felt certain at least Jack would have directed them that way. The glow in the south was more than plainly visible, it was unavoidable from the entirety of Nowhere Blvd. If you couldn’t see it, you’d surely smell it. In fact Spencer began to wonder if, given his theory that Nowhere Blvd was completely enclosed underground, whether they would all suffocate from the smoke. There was always the possibility too that the fire would spread to the forest or the rest of the town, which would truly be the end of them. Although he didn’t think it very likely, given that Nowhere Blvd. didn’t have any wind.
Some deaths are better than others, he thought.
The next stop was the visiting children in the log cabin. Like Spencer before them, most only half believed what their friend Smiling Jack had told them about the monsters in the woods lurking about at night. But they started screaming anyway when a large rock flew through the window while they slept, followed by a shadowed figure whose claws glinted in the moonlight.
The screaming surprised Spencer, set him to glancing at the mansion nervously in hopes no one there was listening. For a boy used to wearing stealth as a second skin, a smash and grab job amidst a panicked mob was way out of his comfort zone. There wasn’t any help for it at this point so he turned on his flashlight and played it across the terrified faces of the children in their beds (and a few under them).