The Cabinet of Souls

by Jo Ann Ferguson

  Lightning flashed again. This time, it felt like it was right in Luke’s eyes …

  Everything faded in front of him, and Luke sagged, suddenly feeling drained. He blinked. The stage was empty. He could no longer see himself as a great comedian. He shook his head. His brain seemed to be stuck in neutral.

  Beside him, Dr. Hysteria watched him closely.

  “Where am I?” muttered Luke.

  Dr. Hysteria’s voice echoed all around him. “You seem to have wandered through an exit door.”

  “I don’t remember.”

  “Let me show you out.” He motioned toward the curtain at the back of the theater.

  Luke nodded, but something was different about him. About Dr. Hysteria. About everything.

  He had no idea what it was. But something told him he was in trouble. Serious, dangerous trouble …

  KELLEN STARED DOWN AT THE PHOTO on his phone. It was one of his favorite pictures of Beth, taken back when he believed they could become more than just friends. She was laughing, her head thrown back, her blonde hair falling over her shoulders.

  He swiped to the next photo. Beth making a goofy face. He laughed in spite of himself. She could always make him laugh when he was feeling lousy.

  The next photo was of him and Beth with Nicole and Luke. The four of them were gathered around a birthday cake. Beth was about to blow out the candles. He zoomed in on Beth. She looked so happy … just as she had looked when Hunter told her he wanted to help her find out what was going on with Dr. Hysteria’s stupid show.

  Kellen had messed up everything.

  A message popped up on the screen. It was from Nicole.

  Where is everyone?

  He texted back. I’m staying home. Luke’s at show.

  A moment passed, and then there was another text from Nicole.

  You should come.

  He sighed. He didn’t want to be with Nicole tonight. It wasn’t her fault. He just wanted to be with Beth.

  I’m not feeling it. Have fun.

  He put his phone down and sighed. Could this night get any worse?

  Nicole bit her lower lip. She really didn’t want to be here all by herself.

  “Kellen should pay attention to you,” said a deep voice behind her.

  Nicole whirled around. It was Dr. Hysteria. Had he been reading over her shoulder? Why would he do that?

  “You know Kellen?” she asked cautiously.

  “Young lady, tonight I shall give you a special treat.” With a dramatic flourish, he pointed to a door marked VIP.

  “The VIP entrance?” That sounded cool to Nicole.

  He gave a half bow. “Anything less would be an insult. Don’t you think you are a very important person?”

  Nicole liked the sound of that: a very important person.

  Dr. Hysteria took a step toward the door and motioned for her to follow.

  Nicole walked through the door. Dr. Hysteria led her to the same magic theater he’d shown Luke. He threw aside the curtain. “After you.”

  She entered, and immediately a lightning bolt sped across the stage. The light was so bright Nicole couldn’t see anything at first. Then she gasped.

  To her amazement, she saw herself sitting on a throne. She was dressed in a magnificent gown and golden jewelry. A servant was fixing her hair, which looked perfect already. Classical music played in the background as she picked a grape out of a bowl beside her.

  “Fetch my manservant!” she ordered.

  A maid quickly left and returned with Kellen, who was wearing a ragged vest and loose trousers. He was barefoot … and clearly no match for Queen Nicole.

  A small smile crossed the real Nicole’s face. She didn’t notice that Dr. Hysteria was smiling, too. She was too wrapped up in the fantasy to see anything but Kellen bowing before her.

  “How may I serve you, my darling?” he asked, going down on one knee.

  “Wow!” the real Nicole murmured. This was even better than anything she’d ever imagined.

  Queen Nicole leaned forward as one of her maids sprayed perfume on her glorious hair. She turned to Kellen and said, “My feet are tired.”

  “Allow me.”

  Kellen got on his hands and knees in front of her. She raised one foot and then the other onto his back. He was now her footstool.

  “Mmm …” she hummed in satisfaction.

  The real Nicole continued to watch, her smile widening. There was another flash of lightning, blinding her momentarily.

  The scene vanished, and Nicole blinked. Where was she? What had happened?

  Dr. Hysteria looked on with a knowing smirk.

  Nicole walked back onto the street, feeling a bit lost. Something was different … but what?

  Suddenly, she heard a ghostly voice saying her name. Nicole looked around, but there was no one there.

  Then it came again. Her name. It seemed to be coming from the stamp on her hand. The Dr. Hysteria stamp.

  “Nicole,” she heard, “now you are mine.”

  She stared down at her hand, confused.

  Outside the tent, the chained zombie leaped toward her with a growl.

  Nicole quickly backed away, bumping into Luke. He was staring up at the sky as if he had never seen it before.

  They looked at each other, said nothing, and walked off in opposite directions.

  There was something different … about everything.

  INSIDE THE HALL OF HORRORS, BETH heard screams coming from every direction. Just like last night, she thought.

  Creatures leaped out at the visitors. Just like last night.

  Friends joked and jostled and pretended they weren’t scared. Just like last night.

  But for Beth, nothing was like last night …

  With Hunter at her side, she made her way through the maze of hallways. She paid no attention to the ghouls and zombies and goblins. She was looking for the door. The special door she’d wandered through last night. She knew it was just past Zombie Boulevard.

  As a zombie chased frightened kids through a curtain, Beth turned and spotted the door. She tested the knob. It turned.

  She motioned for Hunter to come with her, and they slipped through the door and peered down the dimly lit corridor.

  “What exactly are we looking for?” Hunter whispered.

  “I’m not sure. I just know that there’s something they don’t want us to see.” She took a deep breath. “Let’s go.”

  She hurried down the corridor with Hunter at her heels. They wandered through a maze that seemed as large as the Hall of Horrors itself. The walls were covered with red silk wallpaper and pictures of people she didn’t recognize.

  “Gotta say,” Hunter murmured, “this is one of the weirdest dates I’ve ever been on.”

  She smiled at him. Tonight was high on her weird-o-meter, too.

  He grinned back. “I’m not complaining.”

  When she heard faint moans, Beth put out her hand to halt Hunter. “Do you hear that?”

  “Yeah,” he said. They continued through the maze, more cautiously now.

  They went around a corner. In front of them was a black door. It was the first door she’d seen since they’d left the crowds behind. She glanced at Hunter. The moans were definitely coming from behind the door. What would they find on the other side?

  She reached out and turned the handle.

  The large room held only one thing. A cabinet. It was about eight feet tall and had a double set of doors covered with carved symbols she couldn’t identify. “Oh …” said Hunter. “It’s pretty creepy. Probably a prop for one of their shows.” He didn’t sound very sure.

  “Maybe this is what we’re not supposed to see,” Beth said.

  The moans were definitely coming from the cabinet. As she moved closer, she noticed there were words carved at the top. “The Cabinet of Souls,” she read aloud.

  Another moan came from the cabinet.

  “Yeah,” Hunter said with a gulp. “Isn’t there a saying? You know … never o
pen a cabinet of souls in a hall of horrors?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think there’s a saying.”

  “There should be.”

  Strange sounds came from the cabinet. Beth hesitated long enough to look at Hunter, and then reached out to open the doors.

  She stared in disbelief. The inside of the cabinet was much deeper than she’d thought. Fog curled up from the floor and fell in a curtain over a stone-edged doorway at the back. Between Beth and the other doorway, two rows of people stood in the silvery-gray light. None of them moved.

  When she looked back at Hunter, he shook his head. He wasn’t going in there.

  But Beth’s curiosity refused to let her turn and run. Instead, she stepped around the cabinet. It was only about eighteen inches deep. It made no sense! The cabinet was much deeper than that on the inside. What did it mean?

  Beth took a deep breath and stepped inside. A force seemed to cling to her as she passed through the doorway, but it didn’t stop her.

  Once inside, the force released her, and she looked around. There were more than a dozen people inside. None of them moved. They all looked up at the ceiling. Indistinct voices—more like breath than words—came from every direction, but no one had opened their mouths.

  Beth looked back out into the room. No one was there.

  “Hunter … Hunter?”

  No answer.

  She heard a creaking sound … and the doors began to swing shut.

  She whirled around, but it was too late. The doors slammed shut behind her.

  She was locked inside the Cabinet of Souls.

  BETH HAD TO DO SOMETHING FAST. She needed to get out!

  When she looked back at the people around her, they hadn’t moved. She needed to get some answers …

  The closest person was a teenage boy. Then she looked down the row. All the people were teenagers close to her own age. They didn’t move. They all looked up at the ceiling, but they didn’t move.

  Then Beth realized most of them were wearing clothing from the past. Some wore clothes from the 1950s. Others were dressed in old-fashioned trousers and dresses that looked like they came from the nineteenth century.

  Maybe they’re costumes, Beth told herself. A chill went up her back. What if they weren’t costumes? What if these people have been here for years and years?

  Beth couldn’t make any sense of it. It was fascinating and terrifying. But she was in the Hall of Horrors, after all. Maybe it was all just fake.

  But somehow she knew it wasn’t a trick. There was something truly horrible in this place.

  She listened to the whimpers and moans the teenagers were making. Still they did not look at her. They just looked up. She wondered if they even knew she was there.

  “Souls,” she whispered. That must be what these people were.

  Raising her voice, she spoke to the young man in front of her. “Who are you?”

  No response.

  “Can you hear me?”

  No response.

  Beth walked along the row of teenagers. A Native American girl, a girl in a flapper dress from the 1920s, a young man in an out-of-date suit. She paused when she noticed something hanging from his side. Squatting, she saw it was a pocket watch. The time was exactly twelve o’clock. And she guessed it wasn’t twelve noon. She was sure the watch had stopped at midnight.

  The moans continued. Beth went to the next row. There was a teenage boy dressed in a 1930s sweater and trousers. He looked ready to take a drive in his roadster. His wristwatch was visible. The hands were also frozen at twelve.

  Something had happened at midnight to stop these teenagers’ watches. What?

  She hurried back toward the door, and then stopped abruptly. She knew that girl! The blonde curly hair and the hoodie with FEDERSON HIGH SCHOOL printed across the front. It was Andrea Payton, the girl who’d disappeared.

  “Are you Andrea?” Beth asked.

  No reply … just moans.

  The cabinet doors opened with a loud creak. Beth wanted to get out of there fast, but she froze when she saw who was entering.

  Ghouls and vampires and a witch and goblins of all sizes and shapes staggered through the cabinet doors. She could hear their groans as they drew closer. She was about to scream, but the frightening creatures did not approach her. One line of creatures went to her right, and the second line moved to the left. It was as if they didn’t see her.

  As she stared at the scary creatures, they merged with the teenagers from the cabinet. Beth was stunned. Right before her eyes, the creatures disappeared … sinking into the bodies of the teenagers! The teens sagged slightly and shut their eyes.

  A moment later, the monsters were gone.

  And the moaning ended.

  Beth tried to make sense of what she’d seen. It was hard to believe that the monsters were kids her age …

  How was that even possible?

  The doors of the cabinet began to close. Beth ran toward them, determined to get out.

  Inexorably, the light between the two doors grew smaller and smaller. In just a moment, they’d close, leaving her stuck inside.

  “No! No! No!” Beth cried.

  There was no way she could make it out in time.

  Beth was doomed to become a monster in the Cabinet of Souls.

  BETH THREW HERSELF TOWARD THE doors, twisting her body and squeezing through at the last possible second.

  Safely outside, she collapsed on the floor.

  She was amazed to see Hunter standing right where she’d left him. He helped her to her feet. “There you are! I lost you. Where did you go?”

  “I was inside of that!” She pointed at the cabinet. “We have to get out of here. Now!”

  “Right,” they said together, turning to the door.

  Dr. Hysteria was standing there. Right between them and the door.

  “Can I help you?” His skin looked even grayer than the last time she’d seen him. “Do we have a problem?”

  She stared at him, not knowing what to say. Hunter was just as silent.

  “You look frightened,” Dr. Hysteria continued. “But then this is the Hall of Horrors, so I suppose that’s quite the point.” He looked past her. “You saw the Cabinet of Souls?”

  She nodded, unable to look away from his dark eyes.

  “That’s a pity. It’s not ready for viewing. It is to be one of our best attractions.” A creepy smile curled beneath his black mustache. “But there are still some technical problems.”

  Hunter looked relieved as he bent toward Beth. “See? I told you.”

  But Beth didn’t believe a word Dr. Hysteria had said. No one was going to fool her this time! She knew what she’d seen, but she wasn’t going to argue with Dr. Hysteria. All she wanted was to get away from the Hall of Horrors. Maybe then she could figure out what had happened inside the Cabinet of Souls.

  “Did you see it, too, young man?” asked Dr. Hysteria.

  “No … sir.” He added the last word as he stared at the showman. “It’s a cool prop, by the way.” He swallowed roughly. “Theme-park quality.”

  “I’m sorry I sounded harsh, but this area is for employees only,” Dr. Hysteria said in a voice as sweet as sugar.

  “Yeah,” said Hunter. “We totally get it.” He put his hand on Beth’s back to steer her past Dr. Hysteria. “We’ll go now.”

  Beth looked back at Dr. Hysteria as they stepped out into the hall. His expression was one of pure evil.

  As Hunter drove back to her house, Beth told him what she’d seen in the Cabinet of Souls. He didn’t say much, just stared out the windshield.

  When he stopped his car in front of Beth’s house, she stared out the windshield, too. She was too shaken to get out. She glanced at Hunter, who slowly looked at her.

  “You don’t believe me,” she said.

  “I believe that you believe. Okay, it’s just … that place is all about illusion. The stuff they can do these days. Smoke and mirrors.” He pointed to his head. “The min
d plays tricks and all that …”

  “Maybe, but that missing girl from Federson … I saw her.” She couldn’t get that out of her mind. Of all that had happened, seeing Andrea was the most real. She looked at Hunter. “Andrea Payton. I know I saw her.”

  “Are you really that sure?”

  Beth saw him clamp his lips closed, as if he were afraid of saying anything more. If he said any more, he’d probably admit he thought she was crazy.

  She sighed. Was it possible she’d imagined it? The inside of the cabinet was filled with mist. It had swirled around everything and everyone.

  Hunter leaned toward her. “Beth, I admire you for caring so much.”

  She opened the door, wondering why he didn’t believe her. Now she was questioning herself. Could she have been wrong about what she’d seen? If she hadn’t seen Andrea, then who had she seen?

  Beth climbed out and closed the door behind her. Then she leaned on the open window. “Thank you for coming with me tonight.”

  He gave a small nod and a smaller smile. “Good night.”

  That night, Beth couldn’t sleep, so she got up and went over to her computer. She had to find out more about the Hall of Horrors.

  But that wasn’t enough. She needed to talk to someone. Not Hunter. She could see that he thought she’d lost her mind. She needed to talk to someone who knew her before all this crazy stuff happened.

  There was only one person.

  Five minutes later, she was walking across the street and knocking on Kellen’s door.

  He opened it, and relief surged through her. Kellen knew her. He might not believe her, but he’d known her long enough to listen.

  “Hey,” she said, trying to sound casual. “Can I talk to you?”

  “Sure.” He stepped back. “Come in.”

  She followed him to the living room. She smelled the wonderful scent of a fire in the fireplace. She’d spent almost as much time at his house as she had in her own. It felt good to be there. Safe.

  Not sure where to start, she decided to jump right in. “I saw something tonight.”