She bit her lip and was trembling. Sue ran over to her and sniffed her and Miles pushed the curtain open. At the sight of his favorite little boy the dog ran and leapt up into his arms. A moment later, Lorelei could see the dog sitting perfectly quietly next to Miles, behind the curtain. His little tail flipping back and forth, but he didn't move. He was a trained dog, and he would wait with his boy.
The tail, thankfully wasn't thumping on the wall or the floor, just wiggling like a little flag. It still might be too much. Who wouldn't notice a little white tail flipping back and forth? Maybe they would get lucky and the clowns would be idiots.
The big red feet showed up and Lorelei tried her hardest to be a piano. Be a piano. Don't see us. Please.
But the clown, the girl, Skittles, she was not looking for any of them. She was holding a small girl who had to be barely two years old. The girl was blond and quietly crying.
"Hush now. That's enough of that, we have things to do. Let's get you up to bed honey." Skittles handed a bottle to the child.
The little girl turned her head and looked at Lorelei. Her face was painted. She was a clown. "Mama?" The little girl pointed at Lorelei. "Mama?"
"It's time for bed." She kissed the little girl, and her forehead makeup smeared. And Skittles, with her vibrant hair carried her little clown baby out of the room and a moment later there was a click.
Lorelei took a breath, and her ears nearly popped with the strain. A moment later they heard the singing, calm and clear. Mother to child.
"Twinkle Twinkle, little star
Everyone knows who you are
Pretty clowns and kids and fun
Go to sleep before I'm done."
The song paused, and lilted, and then started again.
The small child could be heard saying "Mama? More?"
While the clown sang, the boys quickly got out of their hiding spots. "Where next?" Lorelei mouthed.
Greg pointed at the stairs. Good idea, the eyeballs were certainly up there somewhere. What if those children were clowns? Lorelei realized they were standing in a little apartment setup. A tiny fridge, stove, table, piano, couch, and a large poster of a crippled boy. Up the stairs they went, quiet as they could go. Sue followed along quietly.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The top of the stairs had a landing with a big red window. Greg leaned out the curved glass. "This is the nose."
Lorelei peered out too. She could see the brambling bushes, and a slight hint of the winding path they had walked. The hallway at the top of the stairs was narrow and had three doors. A yellow, a blue and a red. They were all shut.
"This is as good as any." Thomas said, opening the yellow door quietly. On the other side was a bathroom. Lame.
Greg opened the red door and on the other side was a staircase that went up. "I guess this is the way." The four kids and little white dog quietly slipped up another set of stairs.
At the top of the stairs was a landing and three slides, green, yellow and red.
There were also two doors, blue and pink. Greg said, "Well let's try the doors I guess." And he twisted the handle of the blue door. Inside was a small yellow room. It had a large curved window. They had found an eyeball. The room itself was empty, a solid wooden floor painted blue. The center of the window had a large dark grey circle to make it look like an eyeball from the outside. But no children.
They checked the door on the other side of the hallway, and same thing, it was identical as the other room. Greg frowned. "We saw kids up here. I was hoping it would be Kayla and Micheal, so we could get out of here and go home."
Lorelei opened her mouth to reply, she was coming up with a plan. And they needed to discuss which slide they thought would be the smartest one to take. They certainly shouldn't split up. That's what she was about to say. When a child appeared. He looked like he was about five years old. His face was thin, and he was very sad. He looked at the four children. His hair was white, his shirt was blood soaked. But the rest of his garments were also white.
"Can you help us find Micheal and Kayla?" Miles asked.
The ghost boy cringed, but didn't speak.
"Please?" Thomas asked.
The ghost pointed at his mouth and shook his head.
"You can't talk?" Lorelei deduced.
The ghost nodded and looked very sad.
"You can point. Show us where to go." Miles said.
The ghost boy looked very serious and then pointed at the door. They stepped back in front of the three slides. He pointed at Greg, and then the yellow slide. He held up a stop sign motion when the kids started to move. Then he pointed at Lorelei and the red slide, and both Thomas and Miles to the green slide.
Lorelei's eyes grew wide. "Guys, we shouldn't split up, I don't think.."
But Miles and Greg had already slid down their slides. Thomas looked at Lorelei and said, "Hey, don't worry, we'll catch up later." And he jumped down the red slide and followed Miles. Sue immediately launched himself down the slide following his favorite little boy.
Lorelei turned back to the little ghost boy. "How does splitting up help us save those kids?" And he smiled, his teeth were blood soaked, and he charged at her. She screamed and went down the red slide. It was the closest one to her. And as she slide to the bottom she thought to herself, I just did what that scary ghost boy wanted me to do. What if he is evil?
Chapter Twenty-Three
Greg landed at the bottom of the slide. His slide had gone straight down for seemingly forever. It was much longer than he had expected. He had, in his eleven years on this earth, never been on a slide quite so long and so steep. He was grateful when his feet hit the floor. In his mind he thought he'd land exactly in the right place. Maybe right next to Micheal, who would still have two swords on him, and they could then slash their way to victory.
But once he was at the bottom, he was immediately frightened. Why had they split up? He couldn't fight a clown by himself. It still seemed like a bad idea. It was too easy to get captured one at a time if they were split up.
The room was large, maybe as big as his grandmother's oversized living room. It looked like a laboratory. There were large cardboard cutouts of clowns holding beakers. The table was wooden, and covered in thick dust. As Gregory walked across the room to see if there was anything he could steal as a weapon, he started coughing at the dust. It was kicking up in big clouds around him while he walked. He tried to step lightly and carefully so as not to disturb any more of the dust.
A thin girl in a white nightgown was sitting underneath the table when he drew close. "It's not safe here, you have to hide." She whispered.
"Are you a ghost?"
She burst into tears. "You have to hide."
"Where should I go?" Greg asked. He kneeled down next to her and tried to take her hand. But his fingers slid through her.
She pulled back further, the leg of the table visible right behind her pale eyes. "I hope you make it. The clowns are bad. If you need a knife, I'm sure there are some... around"
Greg frowned. "I wish I could have saved you."
She smiled suddenly. "There is a girl, a pretty girl. Save her. Her name is Kayla. I talked with her earlier. She is very frightened. But be careful, not everyone will help. Sometimes..." She paused and her eyes suddenly grew black. She said in a large roar, "sometimes we are too angry!" She bared her teeth, and they were each sharpened and terrifying. Then she winked out into nothingness.
Gregory was shivering. When she was gone, a long sharp knife protruded from the table leg. The tip of the knife had a long scrap of white nightgown, it was stiff with muddy colored blood in spots. Greg pulled on the handle and then, he was armed.
Kayla was alive and waiting for someone to rescue her. He was sure as hell gonna try.
Immediately he blushed. He wasn't supposed to say hell. A loud rattling sound came from behind him, and he quickly slid behind a curtain, and held his breath. The urge to cough was unbearable. He could hear the long clinking sound of
metal bumping and clinking across the floor.
But as he tried to hold back the dusty, cough that would surely get him killed, he wondered, how many children had been killed here already?
Chapter Twenty-Four
Miles landed on a soft mat. He got out of the way, hearing Thomas sliding behind him. The slide was long, but not unbearably long. It was wound in long steep curves. It was hard to tell how far he had gone, but he would have said it was longer than his average park slide- but not by too much. It wasn't as long as the big water slide at the pool.
The room was yellow. Yellow floor, yellow walls, a yellow couch. It looked like a livingroom, but it had one very odd contraption in the middle of the room. Miles wasn't sure what it was. There was a long fat handle sticking from one side, a huge crank handle.
He walked around it slowly. It was all yellow. Pipes were sticking out of it, and there were a pile of marbles at the top of it. He was certain it was a machine that did something when the handle was turned. But what? What did it do?
Thomas came plopping out into the yellow room and ran over to Miles immediately. "That was an awesome slide!" The two boys were both unphased by the mission to save the other children, they were unphased by the ghosts. In fact, they were easily distracted. They were both younger than Lorelei and Gregory.
Thomas looked at the machine and said, "Wow, that is cool. Did you turn the handle yet?"
Miles shook his head. "What if it's bad?"
"How could it be bad? What would happen?" Thomas looked at Miles like he was crazy.
Miles bit his lip and found his hand wandering to tightly squeeze Colorado. "I don't know. What do you think it does?" Sue suddenly barked after falling out of the mouth of the slide. She ran over and licked Miles. The boy ruffled the dog's pretty ears. "I love you too silly Sue. Do you know what this thing does?"
But when he turned back, Thomas was already cranking the large handle. Miles trembled, suddenly terrified.
Thomas turned it maybe twenty times, and nothing happened. Wheels turned, gears turned, but nothing particularly interesting happened.
Until, one marble that had finally coaxed itself up a belt, fell down a funnel. It made a loud clink, then a smooth swirling sound of metal being stroked by a round object. It rattled softly as it fell through the tiny tunnel. And then, there was a popping sound, like a small bell ringing.
Thomas's eyes lit up, and he cranked harder, and then faster. Suddenly several marbles were moving at once, and there was soft dinging and clinking as the marbles hit the metal funnel, and they fell farther and louder, clinking on little bells and suddenly the lights in the room got brighter. Thomas shouted, "It's a music machine!" He was very excited.
"They'll hear us!" Miles whimpered, Sue barked as the machine suddenly roared to life. The song was a calliope number, a creepy, slightly out of tune version of some old, familiar carnival music. It was getting louder, and more intense. "Stop Thomas! Stop!"
But it was already going. Thomas let go, his eyes wide as he realized Miles was right. They would be heard. The sounds were loud and terrifying. "We have to get out of here!" Thomas shouted.
There were only two doors in the room, one was boarded over and nailed shut. The other was the only option. The music kept playing. Miles was shuddering with fear as they ran to the door and swung it open. On the other side was a hallway, at one end of the hallway was a door coated in glitter. At the other end was a solid wooden door. The wooden door popped open, and there stood Milo. "Hello boys!" He said with a big, booming friendly voice. "Do you like the music?"
He was holding a baseball bat and swung it at Miles as they ran to the glitter door. "Do you like the music?" He screamed as he swung again, crashing into the drywall with the bat. The wall seemed to shatter at the force, the hallway almost rocking.
"He's gonna kill us!" Thomas screamed, as he frantically opened the door and they charged inside.
"You're right!" Yelled Milo as he swung the bat a third time.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Lorelei's slide seemed to take forever. She was shivering with fear and sobbing by the time she reached the bottom. How could her brother's be safe without her? She was the one with all the plans, all the ideas. They'd be bumbling around, lost.
And she couldn't fight a clown alone. She wasn't tough enough, or smart enough. And she was so scared to be alone. Why had that ghost boy split them up? The room she landed in was pink and blue checkered. There was a large fat female clown sitting in the rocking chair. Lorelei shouted and ran at her.
Break her nose.
Hit her until it pops.
Maybe she will run away.
Lorelei's little fist cracked hard against the nose, and it didn't pop, not really. Instead her fist sunk into the face. Her whole fist vanished for a moment. Lorelei's stomach flipped. Had she punched her brains in? As she pulled her hand back the clown's face slowly pushed back into place.
It was a doll.
A soft, plush doll. Her face sagged when it finally fluffed back out the rest of the way. Her red nose dangled down to her mouth. "That one is dead." A small voice said.
Lorelei turned around. Before she could answer the lights flickered and a loud musical sound started up. The speaker on the ceiling shed dust as the music rattled. It was loud, calliope and sounded off-key. It scared her. "Did you do that?" She turned to face the little voice.
It was a small boy, he was pale, and looked so thin that it made Lorelei wish she had a cookie to give him. "Me? I'd never turn that crank again." He whimpered.
Lorelei asked, "What is your name?" The little boy whimpered again. "How long have you been down here?"
"I think a week." He stepped forward and hugged her suddenly bursting into tears. "I don't know, I just want to go home. I've been hiding so much. But I keep getting worried they will find me. I don't want them to find me. Skittles is too scary. She scares me so much." He gulped a big sob. "The music means they are coming. They are coming soon."
"I'm Lorelei."
"Todd."
Lorelei kissed the little boy's forehead. "We are on a rescue mission. We're gonna save everyone we can. My brother broke a clown's nose already."
"Okay." Todd didn't look very brave, but he was trying to keep it together.
Lorelei was grateful she wasn't alone anymore.
The music paused for a second, and Todd's eyes got big and frightened. "We have to hide!"
And then, the music roared louder than ever.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Gregory felt the music long before he heard it, the rumbling above his head. A steady, pounding rumble. Until finally the speaker above him, coughed twice and then roared loudly as the lights flickered. He instantly recognized the tune, even with it's offputting whiny drone. Greg was still hiding behind the curtain, holding his breath. He heard the slap of big feet tromping.
And then finally he heard the words, "Oh I know where you are! I know exactly where you are, you dumb little boy."
Greg nearly pissed himself.
But then, the feet slapped away. He heard the door creak softly open and then shudder shut with a thud. He counted to ten before he let himself breathe again, which immediately ended in a coughing fit. Gregory stuck his head out of the curtain and saw that he was alone in the room. The long knife was tightly grasped in his right hand. He was alone. But the music was loud and rumbling.
The little ghost girl was gone. Fine by him.
Why had they split up? He didn't like being alone, it was scary. Even with the big knife. He looked at the room. A huge poster of a crippled boy with the words 'Latest Attraction' written on the top. Someone had written in red scrawl on top of the boy's face RINGMASTER. There was also large boarded up door with planks all over it, and a door that looked like it would open and close. Greg frowned.
Why was this door boarded up? Was someone locked behind it? Or...
Or was it an exit? Were the clowns trying to prevent them from escaping? It didn't matter though b
ecause he needed to follow whichever clown would get a kid. He would protect that kid too, whoever it was. So he went out the other door. He caught the slippery sight of the striped pants fluttering past the hallway. Greg smiled and quietly followed the clown.
His hand was tightly gripping the knife. And he was thinking about how easy it was to break a nose.
Would it be hard to cut someone with a knife?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Miles screamed as they ran through the glittery door. Sue and Thomas quickly charged through with them. The two little boys pushed the door tightly shut. Miles held the door, and Thomas pulled a chair against it. He tipped it and it blocked the door just as the handle twisted.
"Boys! I'm here to play!" The bat crashed at the door, and the door shuddered with the force of the hit. Miles screamed again.
Thomas shook the other boy. "Get it together, we have to get a plan."
The room had nothing obvious as a weapon. There was a table and another chair. The door thumped and crashed as the clown battered it with the bat, the chair squealed as it scooted forward. The door was now the tiniest bit open.
"Come on!" Thomas shouted and ran to the only place obvious- a large rainbow slide at the right side of the room.
As Miles and Thomas slid frantically down the rainbow colors, they heard a whispering voice, "Don't run, you have to hide. They always catch you if you run."
At the bottom of the slide was a room that was simply a box. Nothing to hide, not a curtain or a couch or anything. Three doors to choose from. Miles opened one of the three doors. Thomas quickly opened the other two. "Closets- we have to keep moving. This is too obvious."
Miles nodded and so they went through his door. Sue trotted along with them casually.
On the other side of his door was long mirrors and a colorful spinning floor. Thomas immediately fell as he tried to run, the spinning floor knocking him down instantly. Sue hesitated on the spinning floor, immediately confused.
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