Lorelei wrinkled her brow and opened her mouth to ask again. "But, is that how you..."
"No! That also was not enough to make this place. The simple, commonplace torture of a small child is certainly not enough to crack the afterlife into the land of the living. No. Dumb child, no. It was more than that." The arena broke into a roar of shouting, and the ringmaster held up his hand. "It was more than that. It was when my mother finally had enough of me. See, she worked out the math. She had enough money that she, most certainly, could stop. She could stop. But what to do with her mangled-faced boy while she wanted to retire? Could he fend for himself? Surely not. That was what my mother would have told you. That's what she would have said. Best to put him out of his misery."
Lorelei's eyes grew large with understanding. "She tried to kill you?"
"No, you dumb girl. Do you think that the afterlife would crack over the death of a maimed, tortured little boy?" He paused, "She sacrificed me!" The arena broke into another loud cheer. "Do you understand the difference? She wanted to make a deal with the devil. Her ruined child in exchange for freedom and fame and money. The devil didn't like that deal much." He turned and cracked Lorelei's little skull again with the end of the scythe. "Nor. Did. I."
"I made my own deal with the devil while she prepped to drain my blood." And he waved his hands over the clowns. "I wished for clowns. I wished for friends...." The arena cheered. "And I got them. But here is the thing about the devil..."
"He never does exactly what you planned."
Lorelei cringed as he spun the scythe and prepared to chop off her head.
"Wait!" She screamed. "What happened to your mother?"
He paused. It was as if the ringmaster had forgotten. He turned and paced back and forth a few times. Then he looked back at her. "It doesn't matter."
He lifted the scythe again, but Lorelei said, "Did the devil grant her wishes? Did you win?"
He paused in mid air again. There was an odd look on his face, like perhaps he had never considered this. Did the devil, in fact, give his mother the freedom she had craved? Was she alive out there, with a replacement son?
But more than that, the crowd had stopped cheering, they had gone silent. He lifted the scythe again, deciding that his mother was never the issue. He wanted to end this girl and let her join the ghouls.
"Isn't she outside? By the fence?" Lorelei shouted, desperately. "The girl? With the blood on her stomach?"
T he ringmaster paused, and he turned to the audience of ghosts. "Find her."
It didn't take long before the pale girl was standing in the arena. She was wild eyed and frightened. Her dress was blood-soaked, and she stared at the ringmaster. "What happened to you?" She whispered.
"What happened to me?" He shouted, flapping his crippled arm at her. "You've done this to me. You've done it all. You sacrificed me. You burned me. Who is the monster here? It's not me. It's you." He pointed the scythe at the ghost figure standing in front of him.
"I never..." She shouted. But the ghost figures launched themselves on top of her, tearing at her. "Try to remember! It wasn't me. I never..." But the sand rumbled under their feet as the underworld writhed. Ghosts tearing at ghosts. What would happen when they battled?
The ringmaster hissed and lifted the scythe this final time, ready to slaughter Lorelei, he saw the bear. Its tiny Colorado t-shirt staring up at him.
"I'm from Colorado." He blurted. "Before the damage," he gestured at his face. "I was a boy there. My mother told me..." He paused. "My mother..." And suddenly he realized. "Stop!" The ghosts paused and the pale girl with the long curls was left in the sand. "You don't look like her." The ringmaster stared at the ghoulish form. "You look like... an old memory of her. When I was in Colorado. We lived near a little beach on a big lake. I remember the sand." The room grew softer. "I remember the ice cream." He paused, "And I remember the playground at the Carnival."
Lorelei stared at him. The room had grown warmer, it was less cold, it was more beautiful. Something was happening. The sand was almost glitter now, the way it sparkled.
"And then..." He grew quiet and sat down.
"What did you remember?" Lorelei whispered.
"My mother." He swallowed and covered his eyes with his one good hand. "I've made a terrible mistake. That other woman, she wasn't my mother. The one who burned me. It wasn't my mother. This girl... this is my mother. How could I have forgotten?"
And the sand glowed brighter than ever. Lorelei could hear the waves on the beach and tiny tinkle of an ice cream cart, and suddenly she saw the girl.
"I've been looking for you." She said, staring at the crippled man wearing a top hat and silver and red cape.
"You're a child." He said, with shock.
"You are too." She said, and he shrunk suddenly.
Lorelei watched as he inhaled himself. Like a deep breath of youthfulness. His skin, still mangled, looked fresher, and soon he was the same size as Gregory used to be.
"You cracked apart the underworld." She said. She was calm and pointed at her stomach. "Do you remember this?"
The blood flowed again, and her white dress turned red slowly. Her body was bigger than his. "I was just a child myself when I had you, no bigger than 16." She grew quiet. "When that woman stabbed me, I bled to death before I could get to you. I saw you. I watched you. I have always watched you." She looked at him softly. "I couldn't get down here before. This was all my fault. She destroyed the one person I was trying to protect." Her face grew stern. "What have you done? Why would you tear more children from more parents? And why disfigure them as clowns? Why did you think that would heal you?"
The ringmaster scowled. "I made a deal."
"It was a bad deal."
"You didn't stop her. You never rescued me. These children deserve no better. They should be disfigured and slaughtered. These children laughed at me! While I sat there on that stage, they laughed at me! You never came!" His tone grew cold again, his eyes were sparkling with fury.
HIs mother stared at him and said, "I died."
And those two words struck him suddenly as if she had used a weapon.
"So what! You died. So be it. Die then. Move on. I have debts to settle." He turned to Lorelei, ready to fight her again. But she lifted the bear up and cringed behind it. That little t-shirt reminding him of what had been good so long ago. The few moments of goodness he had all those years ago. And his beautiful, dead, young mother, stepped between him and Lorelei. "This is enough. It's time to undo it. It's time to let them go."
And her ghostly hand touched his. And suddenly he was even smaller than Greg. He was five. His face was unscarred, his skin was smooth. His hate was gone.
Chapter Forty-Four
And then the world split and the sands shifted. There was a strong wind, and it was like everything relaxed the pain of moments earlier relented. Skittles was the first to shrink.
Her pigtails stayed exactly the same, but her skin went all fleshy, the whiteness suddenly melting away. Gregory, still sobbing slowly shrank back down to boy size. And when he looked up his face was normal again. He wasn't a clown at all. He was a normal boy.
Miles transformed, but he was still dazed and broken. Greg rushed forward to his brother and wrapped himself around the traumatized little boy.
Soon there were no clowns left. But they didn't all get up. Milo and Otis were still slumped in the sand. Still dead as a doornail.
Lorelei was exhausted as she walked across the sand to her brothers. "Guys?" She tried to ignore the fallen clowns. They were dead. Even lifting the curse couldn't help them. It seemed there wasn't much they could do for a dead person.
Lorelei got closer to Greg and felt a tug on her sleeve. She turned, and it was Stucco. "Please take Sue for me." He said. His skin was see through, for he must be dead.
"Sue?" Lorelei replied. She couldn't really remember who he was talking about.
"He might help your brother out. She's in the back, I kept her out of the arena bes
t I could. I loved that little dog." Stucco said. And he pointed to one far side of the arena where Sue was sitting still, eyes locked on Stucco's ghosty form.
He gave her a signal, and the dog with all the tricks came tearing across the arena floor. She ran and barked at Stucco. The dog knew Stucco wasn't himself, but also couldn't quite put a finger on what was wrong. Sue grabbed Colorado from Lorelei's hand and ran it over to Miles.
Miles didn't move when Sue came forward. His eyes were still glazed over, and he was mute again. But then Sue barked, dropping Colorado. Then the dog picked up the little white bear again and charged onto Miles' lap. The boy shuddered with a start. The dog was running in to tiny circles on his lap and then sat down, panting.
He nudged his hand.
Miles slowly looked down at the dog. Sue barked twice. Then picked up Colorado again and nudged it under Miles' hand.
"Sue?" Whispered Miles.
The dog barked again.
He reached forward and tousled the dogs' white perky ears. And then, he hugged the little dog. Sue wagged his tail so hard it almost fell off.
Slowly Miles looked up and saw Greg, still sitting close. The two boys hugged, and Lorelei finally made it over to them. "Let's go find Mom and Dad."
Chapter Forty-Five
They walked away from the second haunted house and back through the woods. It was dark. Surely the Carnival had been closed for hours. The three kids were so tired the walk seemed to take days. Skittles- whose real name was Bethany, trudged along with Todd, Micheal, and Kayla. Thomas was noticeably absent. "Do you think my parents will want to see me again?" Whispered Bethany.
"Yeah, why not? They'll be happy to see all of us." Todd replied.
"But... You saw what I did in there." She glanced over her shoulder at the haunted house. "You saw what I became, I was... a monster."
Todd paused. He had seen it all. Skittles was vicious. She had done terrible things to children, and to the first clown she caught. She had been worse than some of the other clowns. "Yeah, but parents... they tend to just be happy to have you home. Even if... you got changed around."
She bit her lip uncertainly. But soon they were walking farther down the path, through the brambly bit and to the long wooden fence. Sue trudged along happily next to Miles. He seemed present again, alive somehow. But sadder than he used to be as if his whole personality had been muffled.
"Do you think Miles will ever be all the way happy again?" Whispered Lorelei to her brother Greg.
"I don't know. I think he got really hurt... In his heart, or his head or something." Greg whispered back. "Do you know what happened?"
"I think, just... this happened." Lorelei waved her hand towards all of them. "We saw monsters, we fought them. It was terrifying."
Soon they found a gap in the wooden fence where they could get back in to the carnival. The Ferris wheel was still spinning, and Lorelei could hear the music now.
Todd let out an angry sound. "How can they still be having fun over here? Do you hear those children laughing? It's like they never even knew the horrible things that happen here."
"It's okay. If they had known they would have tried to save us." Said Lorelei confidently.
"Nobody tried to save me." Todd said. "I've been gone for weeks, I told you that." There was a bitterness consuming him. Even though he thought Bethany could go home, he had a hard time believing he could go home. What if his parents had given up on him? Where would he go?
Lorelei came up with a plan. It was extremely satisfying to have one again. "Well, you can stay with us until your parents can come get you. Or you can just live with us permanently. The boys have a spare bed in their room, for sleepovers. This would be like that, only better."
Miles grinned, and said, "But that was gonna be Sue's bed!"
And then they made it back into the crowd. There were no clowns present, no performers anymore, just the plain staff running games and food booths. Lorelei was relieved that they had all vanished. What would they do if it started all over again?
Before they could discuss it more, Micheal and Kayla hugged them and said, "Gotta go! I see my mom!"
Bethany lingered behind them, and Miles was on the tips of his toes, looking for his dad.
It didn't take long to find them. Their parents were snuggled together, kissing, and eating ice cream. Lorelei and Miles and Gregory came running up, sobbing tears of joy. All three of them were talking at once and their parents seemed dumbfounded. "Settle down guys, you were only gone a few hours. I don't know what the fuss is about." Their mother said, with very little concern.
"Can Todd move in with us?" Greg asked.
"I got a dog, I'm keeping him. The clown gave him to me. Can we go home?" Miles asked.
"What can we do for Todd? I think we should keep him. He really helped us in there." Lorelei said. "Plus I've got a plan."
"No plans! No dog! No Todd. He's going to have to go home with his real family." Mom said sternly. Her face had been soft from kissing dad, and now she looked tough.
"I'm keeping the dog." Miles said sternly.
"We can't just leave him here! Todd doesn't know where his family is!" Lorelei shouted.
"It's my dog. His name is Sue. I'm keeping him." Miles said again.
Mom jumped up and knocked over the ice cream her husband was trying to snarf down. "No dog, no kids. Let's go find a staff member to help find Todd's family."
"No!" All three kids shouted in unison.
"I think you three have gotten a bit hysterical over nothing." Their father said, and stood up too, joining his wife. "It's time to head home. Now what can we do for Todd?"
"I'm fine." Todd said, hesitantly, and stepped back into the crowd, dissolving into nothing it seemed.
"See there? Todd can find his own family. It's time for us to leave. Sheesh. We try to have a fun day out and you kids make it nearly impossible to have fun. Leave that dog, I'm sure the clown will come find him. Sue knows his way around here."
Mom started toward the exit. Lorelei hesitantly followed, unwilling to leave her mother. Miles looked at Sue, and at his mother stomping away. Then he looked up at his dad. "Can we ride with you?"
His dad looked down at the little dog, and up at Miles.
"Dad, he does tricks. And that clown kicked him. I'm keeping the dog." Miles said.
His dad shrugged. "Okay, but you're gonna get in trouble when we get home. Just tell her you snuck the dog in the car and we have a deal."
Greg walked with them and hesitated when they got to the gate. He looked back and saw Todd and Bethany standing in the shadows, staring helplessly at him. "Dad?" He turned to ask if maybe he could sneak Todd and Bethany home too when he crashed into the lady with the fliers.
"Please take one! Please." She had a desperate sound in her voice, and he took a flier, uncertainly. "They've been missing two weeks. We need all the help we can get." Greg looked down at the yellow flier and grinned.
"Todd and Bethany are right there." He pointed, and the lady dropped her whole stack of fliers and ran towards the two children. They screamed when they saw her and gathered into a sobbing, group hug.
Greg smiled, and chased after his dad and his brother, who were now a few steps ahead. As he got into his dad's car, he saw her, standing just behind the wooden fence. She waved and the white dress and white hair fluttered in the wind. She was holding the little crippled boy on her hip and swaying softly as to soothe him. He wondered if that was what forever would be like for the ringmaster and his mother. If they would endlessly be holding on to each other, trying to trade the comfort of broken hearts.
Sue barked happily, staring out the window. And for a moment, Miles saw Stucco, waving goodbye to his little dog. And suddenly, he wondered, Was Stucco a kid when he got Sue? Or was he a clown?
JASPIERRE
JASPIERRE'S DESCENT
JASPIERRE'S LAST CHANCE
SEVERINA- JASPIERRE BEGINS
LANDLOCKED LIGHTHOUSE
PADLOCKED P
ENTHOUSE
GRIDLOCKED GUESTHOUSE
FIRELOCKED FUNHOUSE
www.mixijapplebottom.com
A Note from Mixi...
Thank you for reading Firelocked Funhouse. I'd really appreciate a review if you aren't too busy!
Keep your eyes peeled for the next book in the series: Batlocked Bunkhouse.
If you enjoyed this novel and haven't yet read Landlocked Lighthouse, you might want to give it a try- Here is a little excerpt:
I called her a few times, but she didn't come running. She slinked up, her teeth bared at me as I held out my hand. A large chunk of fur was missing from the side of her neck, and fresh blood dripped from it. Crap.
I gently petted her, and she never stopped growling. There was a stick in the wound. I don't know if she ran into a tree and then bled all over, or if she started out injured and then got a stick in the wound. Either way, it was not good. I carefully pulled on the stick and she let out a snarling yelp. It didn't gush with blood, so hopefully, it hadn't hit anything that couldn't heal. I pressed my left knee against her head and my right one into her shoulder and I pulled with all my strength. Quick was better than slow when you had an angry animal in pain. She snarled, struggled and nearly bit me and the blood was quickly pouring. I pressed both my hands into the wound, slowing the flow, and she cried out. I counted to ten slowly, her body writhing under mine and I tried not to cry.
By the time I got to ten, she had stopped. No more growling, no more yelping. No wiggling or struggling. For a moment I thought she was dead. I lifted one hand, and the blood poured again, so I pressed hard and counted to thirty. Finally, at thirty seconds, the flow wasn't as dangerous. She wouldn't bleed out if she could hold still long enough for it to mend. That would be a challenge. I slowly took my right knee off her shoulder, still pinning her head with the other knee. You gotta let 'em up slow or they'll bite. That's what great-grandmother always said. Didn't matter what kind of animal, you let 'em up slow.
Firelocked Funhouse (Locked House Hauntings Book 3) Page 11