by Tim Miller
“Nope.”
As she felt her way along the wall, high pitched laughter rang through the darkness.
“What was that?” Coy asked.
“Shit. I recognize that laugh,” April said.
“Who is it?”
“It’s that crazy little kid clown.”
“Kid clown? What kid clown?” Coy asked.
The laughter sounded again, this time closer, right before Coy screamed.
Chapter 20
Stacy woke up, unable to move. Her vision was hazy but slowly things came into focus. She was strapped naked to a board while standing up. Her arms stretched out to her side, and her legs a few feet apart. Just in front of her, two clowns were standing there, laughing.
“Well, well, look who’s up!” one of the clowns said. It was Nutty Buster. “You have a good nappy?”
Just behind him, Dirty Rusty was standing there with his arms crossed. Looking around, the room was small and dark, with a single light bulb just overhead. The restraints were tight around her arms, digging into her skin anytime she moved even the slightest.
“That’s enough Buster,” Rusty said. “Hello my dear. You’re probably wishing you and your friend had helped us now aren’t you?”
“What’s going on?” Stacy asked. “Where am I? Where’s April?”
“Oh, April is being kept occupied.” He walked over to a table and began messing with something. “You know it’s weird. After being asleep for so many years, I forgot how much fun being a clown can be. I mean, yes, I want to get Uncle Monkey.” He turned to face her, holding several long, sharp knives. “I want my Funhouse back for sure. But I want to have some fun too. You know? Like why be a clown if you can’t have some fun?”
“What are you going to do to me?” Stacy asked.
“Just having a little fun!” he said as Buster pulled on the table she was on, which turned out to be a large wheel. She began to spin around so fast that the clowns were just multi-colored blurs. There was a sharp pain in her left arm. It stung through her shoulder all the way down to her hand. She looked to see one of the knives sticking out of her forearm.
“Whoops!” Buster called out. “Missed one boss! Hahahaha!”
Another sharp pain shot through her thigh as one of the throwing knives impaled her left leg. She screamed as several more knives came at her. One stuck into the wooden wheel just next to her head. Another landed between her legs, but missed her body. The last knife hit her in the stomach, but by the handle end before it bounced off knocking the wind out of her.
Finally, the wheel stopped spinning. Buster rotated her until she was right side up, at which point she threw up.
“Whoa! Messy! Messy!” Buster said.
“Please let me go,” Stacy said.
“Not just yet. Why don’t you lie down?” Rusty said as Buster pulled a lever, causing the table to slide backward until she was now flat on her back. Rusty walked up to her, running his hand along her face. “Such a pretty girl. Doesn’t she have a lovely face?”
“She sure does!” Buster said.
“Please? Don’t hurt me,” Stacy whimpered.
“I’m afraid I have to my dear.”
“Why? You can just let me go!”
“Because,” Rusty said twirling one of the knives in his fingers. “It’s what I do!” The hobo clown leaned in with the knife and began cutting along the side of her face, by her ear. She screamed as hot pain shot through her face and her head as he sliced through her skin, through the muscles and tendons all along her face, around her scalp and the other side of her face. It felt like her whole head was on fire. She had never felt so much pain as he cut around to the bottom of her chin, at the top of her neck.
From there, he began pulling on her skin. She screamed even louder as the flesh ripped from her face. Muscle clung to the skin, trying to keep it in place as Rusty cut through some of it, but ripped the rest away. As badly as the original cutting hurt, this felt even worse. She wished they would kill her and just end the pain, or at least she hoped she’d pass out. Finally she felt her flesh tear free and the pain went from intense and burning, to dull and throbbing all along her face.
Rusty stood before her holding her skin in his hand. He flipped it around as she saw her own lifeless face staring back at her.
“Wow!” Buster said. “Looks like we got a face off!”
“Very good, Buster. Very good,” Rusty said.
“That’s good work! It’s like a real mask!”
Stacy screamed again, this time just out of panic. These animals had literally ripped her face off. She was more than disfigured, she wasn’t even herself anymore. If she did survive, how would anyone fix this? No way the clowns would just leave her face lying around. She had no medical experience, so had no idea what would happen to her. Truth was, she no longer wanted to survive. Not just due to the pain, but her dignity. Her family would never accept her like this. She was now a monster, a freak.
“Please, kill me,” She said.
“What?” Rusty asked.
“Kill me. Just kill me please.”
“Now, we can’t do that. The fun is just starting!”
“I’m sorry we didn’t help you. We’re just scared,” she sobbed. “We’re so scared. We didn’t want to hurt anyone. I just wanted to go home. Please? But you took off my face!” She broke down, tears stung her raw would where her face used to be. “Please just kill me!”
“Stop that!” Rusty said. “You’re starting to depress me.”
“Can I see her face boss?” Buster asked. Rusty handed it to him. She watched as Buster stood over her and pulled her skin over his head as if it were a mask. “Ha! Look at me! Boogey! Boogey! Boogey! Hahaha!”
“Why don’t you run along now?” Rusty said. “Go have some fun with your new mask. Oh and while you’re at it, go wake up everyone else in the locker.”
“Yeah! That sounds awesome! Time to party!” Buster said as he ran out of the room.
“Are you gonna kill me now?” Stacy asked.
“Oh, no my dear. I’m afraid not. We’re just getting started.”
Chapter 21
Old Man Gunn was tired of waiting on Coy. The kid was supposed to meet up with him almost an hour ago. That boy wasn’t the brightest, but he usually listened to his elders. Tired of waiting, the Old Man got back into his truck and headed back toward the Funhouse.
Truth be told, he hated that place. He avoided going near there as much as possible. It had been there as long as he could remember, though was in a smaller building when he was a kid. Coy worried him asking all those crazy questions. Most of the young people in town just did what they was told without needing to know why. Everyone knew not to ask about the Funhouse, everyone that is, except for Coy.
As he pulled into the parking lot, he saw Coy’s truck sitting there.
“Goddammit son!” the Old Man yelled as he hit the steering wheel. “You stupid, stupid boy.”
He pulled alongside the truck and climbed out. Walking around, he looked in Coy’s truck, and then toward the building. No way had he gone in there. That would be suicide. The Old Man walked closer to the building, but stopped about a hundred feet away. He was afraid to get too close. Shit. Coy was like a son to him. He couldn’t lose him over something so stupid.
The Old Man walked around the side of the Funhouse without getting too close and then headed back to his truck. Once he got back to town, he found Kyle Brennan’s house. He was the local judge and sort of ran the town. They didn’t have a mayor; it was run mostly by committee. It was getting late, but this couldn’t wait until morning. He walked up the sidewalk and rang the doorbell. No one came. After two more rings, Kyle finally came to the door.
“Jesus Christ Gunn. It’s almost midnight,” Kyle could have easily been a politician in a bigger city. No telling why he stayed in Happytown. He was young, tall, and muscular with a thick head of black hair. However, at the moment that black hair was sticking out all over the place.
“What kind of situation?”
Old Man Gunn filled him in on Coy and the Funhouse. Once it all sank in, Kyle ran his fingers through his black hair.
“Jesus Christ, that stupid fuckin’ redneck,” Kyle said.
“He’s stupid, that’s for sure.”
“You think this will piss them off? The clowns? No one from town has ever just gone into the place that I know of.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it in my life,” Gunn said. “Young people these days just don’t have the respect they once did. They don’t take shit seriously. I’m worried what those clowns will do to Coy.”
“I’m worried what they’ll do to us. They might think we sent him in there. Head to the café. I’ll get everyone together and we’ll meet up there to discuss this.” Kyle said as he closed the door.
An hour later, Old Man Gunn sat in the café with Kyle, Bob Hanson, Roger Lincoln, and Rick Wilson. These were the town council for lack of a better phrase.
“So that stupid boy a yours went into the Funhouse?” Roger said.
“He’s not my boy. I just treat him like he is. He’s a good kid,” Gunn said. “Just gets confused sometimes.”
“I’d say so,” Rick chimed in. “So what do you suggest? I say to hell with him. He knew to stay out of there. He went in at his own risk.”
“Since when did we start abandoning our own in this town?” Gunn said. “We always looked out for our own. The Funhouse is only for outsiders. Them’s the rules! It’s always been that way.”
“The Old Man has a point,” Kyle said. “We’ve never run into this before. So we have a few options. First, we just leave him and go about our business hoping the clowns don’t try to send some kind of message. Second, a few of us can go in and see if we can talk to the clowns. Now, I know no one has ever spoken to them things so no tellin’ how that will go. At last, we can get a group of men together with weapons and all of us go in and demand him back. We know there’s only ever a few clowns in there so we’d outnumber them. That’s our options.”
They all looked around at each other.
“I still say leave him,” Roger said.
“Not so fast,” Bob said. “We’ve let those clowns run this town for a long time. I mean. Is anyone tired of living in fear?”
“I know I sure am,” Kyle said. “It would be nice to get this town back onto the grid and into the 21st Century.”
“I never liked sending outsiders to their deaths in that place,” Roger said. “We’ve sent whole families in there. Even kids! No one here has ever had a problem with that?”
Gunn was surprised to hear what they were saying. Usually even at meetings, the Funhouse was a forbidden topic. Granted this needed to be talked about, but he hadn’t expected them to open up like this.
“They’re outsiders!” Rick said. “They may as well be from another planet as far as I’m concerned. They come into our town; they live and die by our rules!”
“Ok,” Kyle said. “So we vote. Who votes to leave him?”
Rick’s lone hand went in the air.
“Who votes we go get him?”
All but Rick’s hand went in the air.
“I guess that settles it,” Kyle said.
“When do we go?” Gunn asked.
“Round everybody up,” Kyle explained. “All men who can handle a firearm. If any ladies want to come along, I’d say let them. We’ll need as many guns as we can in that place. We’ll go at first light.”
Chapter 22
Coy screamed again as April felt around in the dark until he grabbed her arm.
“It’s got me! That thing has got me!” Coy screamed.
She felt around and found the little clown had latched onto Coy’s leg.
“The little bastard is biting me! Shit!”
April grabbed felt the clown’s head and swung with the tomahawk. She made contact in the top of his head, and swung again and again until he let loose of Coy’s leg. The little clown squealed as he stumbled back. She swung in his general direction hitting him again. This time he went to the ground. April knelt down and began hacking away with the tomahawk until the little clown stopped moving.
“Come on,” she said to Coy. “Let’s get out of here.” She grabbed his hand and led him out of the dark room the same way in which they came. Once back into the light, they both shielded their eyes until they could adjust. Coy’s right thigh had a huge chunk of flesh ripped from it.
“Is it bad?” he asked.
“It’s not good. Give me your shirt,” April said.
Coy unbuttoned his shirt and handed it to April. He still had on a white wife beater. She took the shirt and wrapped it around his leg, tying it as tightly as she could.
“That should hold it for now,” she said.
“Are we going back through there?” he asked.
“Hell no. Not unless we can get some light in there. No telling what is waiting for us.” She walked along the curtains as Coy followed behind her. They worked their way out of the curtain maze and back to the freight elevator.
“You sure we should go back down there?” Coy asked.
“I don’t know where else go to. There’s nothing up here.”
They went down and arrived on the lower floor, finding the corridor dark and empty.
“You think she’s down here?” Coy asked.
“I hope so. I really don’t want to go through that mirror hell again.”
They walked down the corridor, checking rooms as they went along. Most were either empty or filled with junk.
“You know, one of these rooms where I first came in at was full of little kids,” Coy said casually.
“What? Kids?” April said as she stopped.
“Yeah, a bunch of them. They were all locked in these cages.”
“Jesus Christ, Coy. Why didn’t you say something earlier? Were they alive?”
“Yeah, they were all just looking at me all weird.”
“And you didn’t try to help them?”
“Well, I was lookin’ for you to help you. I guess I figured I’d go back and help them later.”
“Jesus we need to get them out of here. Why the fuck would they keep them there like that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe as like slaves or something?” Coy said.
“Show me where they are,” April said.
Coy hobbled just ahead as she followed along. April would check other rooms as they walked past. They went around the long curved hallway when Coy stopped.
“What’s wrong?” April asked.
“Um, there’s something weird up ahead.”
“What?” She asked, walking out in front of him and looking down the hall. There were several clowns walking together. They were lined up five wide in the corridor. April could see there were several others behind them.
“What in the fuck?”
“Looks like a bunch of clowns,” Coy said.
“Yeah. Let’s get out of here.” April turned and ran back around the curve. She opened one of the doors and ducked into the room. Coy ran in behind her as she closed the door and latched the deadbolt.
“What’re we doing?”
“I don’t think they saw us. There’s nowhere else to go. I figured we’d stay in here until they go past us.”
“Oh. What if they did see us?” Coy asked.
“Then I guess we’re fucked.”
They stood away from the door as they listened. After a few minutes, she could hear the shuffling of feet just outside the door. There was also lots of laughter coming from the clowns.
“Jesus Christ. Do they just laugh at nothing?” April asked.
“Well, they are clowns.”
“Fair enough.”
After several minutes, the shuffling stopped. April had no idea where they were going. No way all those clowns would fit on the freight elevator. There had to be another way out she didn�
�t know about.
“Where the hell did all those clowns come from?” April asked. “I thought there was only a few here.”
“Probably from that big meat locker,” Coy said.
“Meat locker?”
“I guess that’s what it was. There was a whole bunch a clowns in there. They all seemed like they were asleep and hanging from these big meat hooks. They musta woke up.”
“Goddamn. Is there anything else I need to know about?” April asked, annoyed.
“Uh, I don’t think so.”
“So down that way was a meat locker full of frozen clowns and a room with a bunch of kids in cages. There’s nothing else you saw you forgot to mention?”
“No, I’m sure that’s it.”
“You’re sure?”
“I think so.”
“God, you fucking hill jack,” April said as she undid the deadbolt and stuck her head out the door. “It’s clear,” she said as they stepped out of the room and worked their way back down the hall. She couldn’t take her mind off Stacy, even though she was worried about those kids. No telling where she was or what they were doing with her.
Once they were back around the curve and down the corridor, they found the meat locker which was now empty.
“See? All these empty hooks had clowns hanging off them,” Coy explained.
“Holy shit,” April said. “Every one of these hooks did?”
“Yeah.”
“Shit, there’s at least a hundred.”
“Looks like it,” Coy said.
“God, we are fucked. We have to get out of here.”
They went further to the next room where the kids were. When she saw them, April put her hand over her mouth. There were several kids, aging from toddlers to seven or eight year olds locked in small cages. There were little coffee cans in the cages with them as well as empty paper plates. The whole room smelled like piss and shit.
“What in the fuck?” April asked. “Come on, let’s get them out of here. You came in around here?”
“Yeah, it was through a vent. Not sure if I can get out that way.”
“Either way. We can’t just leave them here,” April said.