Disney After Dark by Ridley Pearson Read Free Book Online Page A

speech.
    Finn felt a spike of fear but hid it. “Is that so? And I suppose I’m Jack Sparrow?” he asked, smirking.

    The captain stepped forward boldly, still a ways off. “Is ye now?”
    The pirates stopped their pushing. They gathered behind their captain.
    Finn counted six in all. They were dressed in ill-fitting costumes. They had scars on their faces and scabs on their hairy legs. They went barefoot, wearing dark pants that stopped at their calves, and blue-and-white striped shirts. But they weren’t human.
    Blackbeard drew his sword. His six pirates drew knives. “I said lend a hand. You’re my conscript now, lad. I’d be obliged if you hove to.”
    “You’re not ready,” Wayne hissed at Finn from the shadows. “I’d help you if I could see them, but I can’t.”
    Finn felt a jolt of terror, unsure what to do. His legs, wobbly and rigid, were unwilling to move.
    He figured he could run faster than a bunch of mechanical pirates but wasn’t sure he wanted to test that theory. Besides, he couldn’t budge.
    Finn looked back. Four glowing eyes, like cats’ eyes, shone from behind a tree. Charlene and Philby.
    “What are you doing with those cars?” Finn asked the captain, stalling. Think !
    “You might could say I’m borrowing them, laddie. Or you might could say the Space Ranger Spin is under repair.” He tilted his head and cast an evil eye in Finn’s direction. “I’ve seen you before, Jack Sparrow. Now, where would that be?”
    “I don’t believe we’ve met,” Finn said.
    “He’s one a’ them hosts, Captain,” a smallish man with frog eyes called out. The man’s right arm continually lifted up and down, up and down. This was apparently the motion he made in his role in the attraction, and he couldn’t stop it.
    “A host!” the captain declared. “A new ride? Is that what ye’re telling me?”
    His pirates mumbled.
    “We don’t much care for new rides,” the captain explained in a dry, cold voice. “Don’t much care for them at all.”
    “Do I look like a ride?” Finn asked. His voice trembled. “I’m just a boy.”
    “You’re my boy now,” the captain declared. “Ain’t he, lads?” His pirates all nodded in chorus.
    He said to Finn, “Now…be a good boy and lend us a hand.”
    “I’d prefer not to,” Finn said. “If you don’t mind, I’ll be on my way.” He summoned his courage and turned.
    “Ye don’t turn yer back on the captain, youngster! I said halt !”
    Finn stopped and glanced back over his shoulder. The captain signaled his crew, and they reacted immediately, like a bunch of well-trained dogs. They fanned out. They were not exactly fast on their mechanical legs and feet, but they were steady and worked well as a team.
    One of the pirates climbed into a Space Ranger car. He aimed its toy laser cannon at Finn and fired. A bright red pulse of light shot through the night, narrowly missing Finn. He’d ridden the Space Ranger Spin himself a dozen times or more. He knew there was nothing to fear; he’d put his hands into the laser’s light stream before. Nothing ever happened. The laser cannons were no more dangerous than a flashlight.
    Another thin red line of light flashed. Again, it missed.
    But then Finn realized the cars were not plugged in, were not attached to any ride, had no power source. So where did the electricity for the cannon come from?
    As if to answer him, the next pinpoint of light struck his arm. A red bead flickered on his shirtsleeve. The fabric instantly turned brown, then gray. Then… ouch !
    It burned him! Finn leaped out of the way.
    “Hey!” he blurted out.
    He smelled burning hair. His hair. His skin.

    The laser was real.
    Another flash. Finn dodged out of the way. He avoided the next few attempts as well, the red beams flying past him like glowing arrows. He danced left and right, his arm stinging.
    Now the other pirates circled and closed in on Finn, their knives extended.
    If a toy laser can burn, what is a very