Clay

Clay is a friend of Luke and Lizzy Morris who appears in One Day at HorrorLand, Return to HorrorLand, and the Escape from HorrorLand video game.

One Day at HorrorLand
Clay had been invited by his best friend, Luke, to come with the Morris family to spend the day at Zoo Gardens Theme Park. But due to a map being left at the Morris' home, they soon got lost in what appeared to be a desert, making Clay very worried, but Mrs. Morris assured him, Lizzy and Luke that they were all right. When they stopped for a moment to see if there was a map somewhere, Clay, Lizzy and Luke noticed a billboard sign saying Welcome to HorrorLand - Where Nightmares come to Life! Lizzy and Luke excitedly asked if they could go since they couldn't find Zoo Gardens, which their parents agreed to. Clay was uncertain about this, but Lizzy assured him that it won't be too scary.

When they got to HorrorLand, Clay and his friends climbed out of the car toward the front gate, when the car exploded to smithereens! After Mr. Morris tried to ask to use a phone for help with no results, the family went into HorrorLand to see the sights. But Mr. Morris was still worried about transportation, so he and Mrs Morris left Clay, Luke and Lizzy by themselves. No sooner were they alone, when a gray wolf edged out from behind a cottage, menaced the children for a moment and darted away. Clay thought it was a real wolf, but Lizzy told him that it was probably a wolf or a robot. They also noticed a 'No Pinching' sign, which Clay and Luke thought was dumb.

The three kids decided to go on the Doom Slide first. Lizzy asked Clay if he was scared (due to a sign saying that one can slide to their doom) and he replied that he has seen slides before and everyone just sits on them and slides down. When they reached the top, Clay chose slide number ten, which turned out to be the Doom Slide itself. After a wild ride on the slide, Clay waited a while in a completely different area of HorrorLand, hoping Lizzy and Luke will turn up. They did so, and they were very relieved to see that Clay was okay (Luke told Clay that he had picked the best slide, trying to hide how worried he had been. The three kids noticed the House of Mirrors on their right, but before they went in, a Horror grabbed Lizzy and told her to get out of HorrorLand while she still can. Luke thought the Horror was joking, but Clay was uncertain as it really did sound like a warning.

Then he and Luke went into the House of Mirrors ahead of Lizzy. The two boys hid from her for a while, impatiently urging her to hurry up and find them and stayed quiet for a moment as a joke on her. When Lizzy did find them, Clay realized that he was surrounded by four glass walls that were not there before, the same with his two friends. Then the walls started to close in around each of them, making it seem like they were going to be crushed to death, until some trapdoors opened and the three kids slid out. Clay and Lizzy thought the walls closing in was far too scary to be fun, but Luke insisted that it was the whole idea and insisted they were not going to get hurt in a theme park. When Luke asked a Horror if anyone got killed in HorrorLand, the Horror replied that a person can only die in HorrorLand once, making Clay even more worried. Lizzy decided that they should go and find their parents. Clay agreed to this, while Luke complained that their father will make them go home.

Clay and his friends looked around for their parents in HorrorLand, narrowly escaping tree snakes and evil-looking statues reaching out to grab them. Soon, the trio reached the Bat Barn and since going through the barn was the only way to get to the other side, they reluctantly stepped inside. Once the three kids were inside, the doors on both ends, suddenly closed and they were attacked by what felt like real bats, until Luke opened the door on the other side and the bats vanished. Luke once again boasted about how he knew it was special effects all along, creating an argument between him and Lizzy that it wasn't special effects until Clay broke it up and suggested to find their parents, which Lizzy agreed to.

Clay and his friends searched around HorrorLand for Mr and Mrs Morris when they came across a group of Horrors, one of which told the three kids that their parents left the park when they asked where they were, making Clay more worried and upset than ever and now beginning to hate HorrorLand as he thought they should call it 'DumbLand.'

The three friends continued their search, but they couldn't find Mr and Mrs Morris anywhere. When they reached Alligator Pond and stood back to avoid the alligators, Lizzy told Clay and Luke that she is starting to think that the park really is evil and that the Horrors did something bad to their parents, much to Clay's shock. But as Lizzy was explaining her thoughts, Mr and Mrs Morris did turn up, much to Clay and his friends great relief. Mr Morris told them that they had been unable to find a phone to call for help, but Mrs Morris assured them that the Horrors will take care of it for them and suggested that they should go on a ride before leaving.

So Clay and the family went on the Coffin Cruise, as they thought it would take to the front of the park. It was nice and relaxing at first, but then the coffin lids shut themselves, making the family struggling to breathe and some of them feeling some bugs crawling up their legs (it later turned out there wasn't any bugs). When the ride was over, Clay and the Morris' were more anxious than ever to get out of HorrorLand, but they found that all the gates had been locked up and they couldn't get out. Clay, Lizzy and Luke were very uneasy about this, but Mr and Mrs Morris tried to assure the kids that they were not in any danger. While they were at one of the gates, a crowd of Horrors appeared out of nowhere and one them, calling herself the HorrorLand MC thanked them for appearing on a show called HorrorLand Hidden Camera, which Clay and the family had never heard of. The MC explained that they had been filming them right from the very start, trying to get their terror on film. And to thank them for appearing on the show, the Horrors had arranged a "new car" for the family behind the white door.

But it turned out to be a trap when Clay and the Morris' went into the white door as they had entered an obstacle course full of horrible monsters. Seeing that it was a fight for their lives, Clay and the family battled the monsters for fifty seconds. When it was over and after a close call from a voice saying it was three survivors out of five, Clay and his friends were brought back to the main part of HorrorLand. The Horrors were then revealed to be real monsters when Lizzy tried to pull the MC's head off, thinking it was a mask. The MC explained that their show is watched by many monsters all over the world and they tried to have fun with saying good bye by trying to persuade Clay and his friends to jump into a slimy purple pit. But Lizzy managed to get them out of it by pinching the MC and causing her to deflate. After pinching some more Horrors, Clay and the family raced to the HorrorLand buses, with the Horrors in hot pursuit. Mr Morris managed to find the keys in the ignition of one of them and they managed to escape, happy to be alive.

When they got home, Clay and the Morris' noticed to their shock that one of the Horrors had held on to the back of the bus and he handed them free tickets for next year.

Return to HorrorLand
Clay was visiting Lizzy and Luke and was watching a television show called "The Strange Report", featuring Margo and Derek Strange. In one of their episodes, Margo was interviewing Evan Ross, who was telling her about his run-ins with the Monster Blood, including when Cuddles the Hamster ate some of it and attacked his school. Clay, Luke and Lizzy laughed at this, completely unaware that it was actually true. While Clay and Luke continued to watch the show, Lizzy opened the door to find Margo and Derek Strange standing there, much to the kids' astonishment. While they were having a cup of tea, the Stranges explained that they have heard about the Morris' adventures in HorrorLand and they would like to film the children at the park. The three kids declined at first, remembering their past experiences there and Mrs Morris couldn't allow them to go back to the evil park to expose it. Margo assured them that they will be perfectly safe and won't be in any real danger and Derek offered them ten thousand dollars for one weekend. They also mentioned that they will pretend to be the parents, their way of going undercover. And when the discussion was over, Clay went home to get a permission letter from his parents and wondering if they had to go on every ride.

Later on Friday, the Stranges picked Clay and his two friends up and they went to the airport to go to HorrorLand (which had moved to Florida). When they got there (with Margo and Derek disguised as typical tourists), a Horror smashed Derek's camera, but luckily, the two of them had spare cameras. After that, Clay, Luke and Lizzy went off to explore the park.

The first thing the trio did was visiting a Egyptian Pyramid, where Luke became trapped in sarcophagus until he fell to safety from a trap door. And then the three kids visited an attraction called Monster Dentist Office, where they saw some monster dentists operating on crying children with drills! Clay and his friends managed to escape once they found that they are actually robots. They then realized that they had lost track of the Stranges, as they were meant to be their protectors. They then found the Stranges who insisted that the three kids were never in real danger but were disappointed and heckled Clay and his friends to show them real danger when the trio were caught in a giant butterfly net by a Horror, and the children were taken to a torture chamber where they meet the Dungeon Master, who unleashes a swarm of ferrets against the children. Clay and his friends managed to escape and went to a magic show, hosted by Amaz-O. While Lizzy was volunteering for one of Amaz-O's tricks, Clay and Luke were taken away and were tied to poles in a desert with vultures circling above, but Lizzy managed to locate them and come to their rescue. After the Stranges were thrown out of the park, Clay and his friends ran to the gift shop to avoid capture and managed to find three Horror costumes and dressed up in them to get passed the Horrors and back to the Stranges.

But it turned out that Margo and Derek Strange were working with the Horrors and were hired to see if the three kids would reveal the secrets of HorrorLand and since Clay and his friends were willing to do so, the Horrors attempted to kill them by pushing them off the side of a mountain. But before they could do so, three other Horrors arrived and walked Clay, Luke and Lizzy back down to the ground. And when they had safely passed the gates, they revealed themselves to be reporters of a television show called Weird Copy. And thanks to Clay and his friends, the Stranges have been arrested and HorrorLand has been shut down for good.

But the reporters felt that they didn't have gotten enough information to be able to make a good enough report. So they proceeded to drive Clay, Luke and Lizzy to a place called Terrorville.

Physical appearance
Clay is eleven years old, Caucasian, short and chubby with feathery blond hair and wears glasses. When he wears his worried expression, it makes him look like a frightened owl.

Personality
Clay is not one of the bravest kids in the whole world, as he is pretty easy to scare. He can be very tense and is easily worried and uncomfortable and he can be gloomy at times. But Clay occasionally has a good laugh with Luke, often laughing at his jokes and stunts but tries not to show Luke how scared he is at times, and he is firm friends with Lizzy too and always agreeable with her when something was not right. Clay is a very anxious and sometimes reluctant child, but he is always willing to do anything with his friends as long as it is not too scary or dangerous.

Trivia

 * Clay's surname is never said in any of the books.
 * Although he does not appear in the Goosebumps HorrorLand series, he is mentioned on the Escape HorrorLand website.