Funhouse by Diane Hoh

No normal bone could make such a crazy angle.
    “It’s broken,” volunteered Sam, whose father was a doctor. “Fractured, probably. Doesn’t look like a clean break.”
    “I don’t understand how this happened,” Tess said in a bewildered voice over the sound of an approaching siren. “Why was that circle missing?”
    Mancini’s eyes narrowed. “Missing? What was missing?”
    With tears in her eyes, Tess answered, “One of the spinning circles in the Funhouse. It was … gone. It had been there when we went through earlier. But this time, when I followed Gina into that passageway to see why she had screamed, one of the circles was gone. There was just this great big hole. Gina probably didn’t see it in time and fell right through.”
    Mancini would have questioned her further, but the ambulance arrived just then. Tess wanted to ride in it with Gina, but the paramedics discouraged her.
    “Call her parents,” one of them said, “and have them meet us at the Medical Center.” As he turned away to help carry the stretcher, he told his colleague, “I was on duty the other night when that roller coaster went. Some mess! And now this! I’m keeping my kids away from here from now on.”
    Tess turned away, intent on going straight to her car and then to the Medical Center. She wanted to be with Gina.
    But Mancini stopped her. “Look,” he said, “your friend’s in good hands. You can see her later. Right now, I need you to show me where this happened. So it won’t happen to somebody else.”
    Tess realized he had a point. That missing circle was dangerous. And she probably wouldn’t be allowed to see Gina for a while, anyway.
    She nodded. “Okay, come on. But I need to call Gina’s parents first.” She bit her lip anxiously. “They’re going to be so upset.”
    “Someone already called,” Candace said softly, putting a sympathetic arm around Tess’s shoulders. “I heard someone say so.”
    “Good!” Mancini said. “Then we can get right to it. Come on, miss, show me what you were talking about.”
    Which Tess would have been happy to do, except for one thing. When she led Mancini and her friends into the chamber, there was absolutely nothing to see.
    Because not a single circle was missing.
    Tess stared at the spot where the gaping hole had been. It was now filled by a whirling, innocent-looking saucer, just as it was supposed to be. The disk stared right back at her as if to say, “But I’ve been here all along. You were imagining things!”
    She could feel everyone’s eyes on her after they’d searched in vain for anything out of the ordinary. “I don’t believe this,” she said slowly, feeling a flush rise up out of her neck and spread to her face.
    “Well, I don’t get it!” Mancini said, eyeing Tess suspiciously. “There’s nothing wrong here. What were you talking about down on the beach?”
    “It was gone!” she cried. “It was!” She knew, even as she said it, how crazy that sounded. After all, the circles were huge. Someone couldn’t just lift one out and walk away with it without being seen. “The one in the middle was missing. There was a hole there! That’s how I could see Gina, lying on the beach.”
    No one said a word. And that silence told her, very clearly, that no one believed her.
    “Honestly, Tess,” Trudy said lazily, “first you see some dark spirit under The Devil’s Elbow and now you’re seeing missing saucers. I thought people like you always saw flying saucers.”
    And even though Candace said, “Trudy, don’t be so mean!” and Sam moved closer to Tess and said, “Take it easy, Tess. You’re upset about Gina,” Tess began to shake violently. Her arms and legs trembled and Sam had to take hold of her with both hands to keep her upright.
    “I know what I saw,” Tess managed to say. “And if I didn’t see it, then exactly how did Gina end up on the beach?”
    Mancini shrugged toward the passageway up ahead. “Tumbled over the railing,