“I don’t think we’re ever getting out of here. This place, it’s all wrong, man.”
“I think we all understand that, but there has to be a way out. We just have to find it.”
Greg shook his head. “I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.”
Ashley glared at them from over Tasha’s trembling shoulder. “What are you getting at, Greg? Did something happen when you went back? Where are the supplies you were meant to fetch?”
“I couldn’t get them.”
“Why?”
“Because as soon as I tried to make it past the room with the starving family, I ended up back here. I made it through the area where AJ was attacked by that… thing… but when I walked through the rest of the ride in the direction of the room we left everything in, I ended up back where I started – except you were all being attacked by wolves this time.”
Tasha sobbed.
“You just got turned around,” said Ashley. “It’s dark. Frightening.”
Greg shook his head. “I wasn’t lost. I followed the walkway in one direction the whole time. I was moving through the rooms, one by one, but I found myself back in the desert with you lot being attacked by wolves. What the hell was that about, anyway? They were just statues when I left.”
“They came alive,” said Ashley. “AJ found a way out and they attacked us.”
“They came alive?” Greg didn’t sound as if he was questioning her, more that he was questioning reality itself. AJ understood how he felt.
“None of this should be possible,” said AJ. “Ben can’t actually be…”
Tasha wheeled on him again. “Well, he is! He’s fucking dead. My brother is…” She broke down in tears. “He’s gone!”
“I’m so sorry, Tasha. Ben was my best friend. I… I loved him.”
Tasha nodded and wiped away snot on the back of her arm. She no longer seemed angry, just broken. “He loved you too,” she muttered. “That’s why he sacrificed his own body keeping our escape open.”
Greg frowned at AJ, seeking confirmation. “Ben trapped his own legs in the door?”
AJ nodded. “We wouldn’t have made it out of there if he hadn’t done what he did.”
Greg looked like he’d just been slapped. “Jesus, Ben…”
AJ could barely believe it either. He studied the fire escape they had come through and saw that it was a heavy metal frame affixed to the back of a cement facade. As suspected, the whole thing was corroded, and it hung awkwardly on warped hinges.
The room they were now in wasn’t much more than a corridor. There was a mildewy sheet of paper on the wall housed inside a discoloured plastic frame – some kind of certificate or former staff notice. It was impossible to imagine that this place had ever had staff walking around it, bored and waiting for knocking-off time. That this place had ever been normal.
“Why is this happening to us?” Ashley hobbled away from Tasha and sat down on the floor. Her bare ankle was now both swollen and bleeding. “Why does this place want us dead?”
“Evil doesn’t need a reason,” said Tasha. “The way those people burned to death here would have left their spirits angry. Angry that they had their lives cut short. Angry that they never got to say goodbye to their loved ones. All that anger… it turns into something real. Like a force of nature. This place has been infected with the rage and anger of nine innocent victims.”
“Eight innocent and one madman,” AJ corrected.
Greg studied her. “You really think that’s what’s going on here?”
“What else could make statues come to life? Or summon giant snakes out of fake rivers? How d’you explain ending up back with us instead of at the entrance where you should’ve been?”
Greg shrugged. “Maybe we’re dead. I always assumed I’d end up in Hell.”
AJ frowned. “What? Why? What have you ever done that’s so bad?”
“Nothing, but you know what they say about…” He shook his head. “Nothing.”
“No,” said Ashley, rubbing at her ankle, but looking at him intently. “What were you going to say?”
Greg shrugged again. “Just that I’m a bad guy. Look at how I’ve treated you.”
“You’ve treated me just fine. That’s why I wanted to get married, dumbass.”
“Really? You want to marry me? Even though we barely see each other?”
Ashley clutched her hair and started bunching it together. She seemed suddenly evasive. “Well, you’re always at the gym, aren’t you? It’s your career. And I have my photogra—”
“It’s not my job to be there twelve hours a day. I go there so that by the time I get home, I can tell you I’m too tired to do anything or, you know…”
Ashley rolled her eyes and huffed. “Have sex with me. Am I really so repulsive?”
“What? No! You’re stunning. I can’t believe how beautiful you are.”
“So what’s the fucking problem? Why haven’t you touched me in months?”
“You’re just not my type.”
Ashley flinched as though he’d slapped her. AJ was a little shocked too. “How can she not be your type? You’ve been together for years. In fact, when you met, all you did was show the guys down the gym pictures of her on your phone. You thought she was a knockout.”
“I was covering.”
“Covering what?” Ashley was demanding now, getting angry. These issues had begun long before tonight, yet this seemed to be the first time they were truly being aired.
Greg shifted awkwardly, like he was subconsciously hoping he could summon wings and fly away. “That I’m… just that…” He sighed, unable to get out what he was trying to say.
“He’s gay, for fuck’s sake,” said Tasha.
Greg flinched. “W-What?”
Tasha joined them, but didn’t sit. She spoke angrily. “You’re gay, Greg, what’s the big fucking deal? Ben saw you one night getting off with some guy around the back of the library. The physiotherapy clinic is right on the corner. He saw you after one of his evening sessions. It was a shock, he told me, but we both decided it wasn’t our business. He was good like that. Never judged a soul. Now he’s dead.”
Greg was mortified. It looked like his eyes might pop out of his head. Ashley had the exact same expression. “Is it true?” she asked him, gawping like a fish between words. “Are you… are you bisexual?”
Tasha groaned and turned away.
Greg swallowed. Then, all at once, he seemed to deflate. “I don’t know. I’ve always been a bit mixed up about it all. When I got with you, Ash, I really was attracted to you. I thought I’d just been going through a weird phase that was starting to end. A lot of guys get confused in their teens and early twenties, right?” He glanced at AJ, and AJ shrugged as if to say, sure.
“So what happened?” Ashley demanded. “How long have you… How long have you been making out with guys round the back of the library?”
“He was just a mate. A nurse at the clinic Ben went to. I should have thought about the risk. Maybe it was the risk of being found out that appealed. I’ve always been too much of a coward to come clean voluntarily.”
“Fine,” said Ashley. “How long has it been since you decided you didn’t want to be with me then? That you didn’t love me?”
Greg shook his head at her vehemently. “Ash, I love you to bits. I love you more than anyone. But I’ve been having these feelings for a while and they’re not going away. The longer we’ve been together, the more trapped I’ve felt.” Ashley rolled her eyes, obviously hurt by the word, but Greg didn’t let it interrupt him. “I wanted to be normal. I tried so hard. My dad’s voice would always bounce around inside my head. Faggots go to hell. Queers need a kicking. Fucking bumboys.”
Tasha was still angry, but she softened for a moment. “Your dad really said those things?”
“His dad was a real piece of work,” said Ashley, compassionate all of a sudden, as their shared intimacy came into play. “He used to knock Greg around.”
> Greg nodded. “He didn’t win any father of the year awards, let’s put it that way. Maybe if I hadn’t spent my entire life being terrified of him, I might’ve been a little more open about my feelings. Believe me, the last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt you. You don’t think I want to settle down and be married with kids? Of course I do – Christ, it would be so simple that way – but I’ve been realising lately that it’s never going to work. I can’t force myself to be happy in a situation that doesn’t suit me. And it wouldn’t be fair to you either. I’m so sorry.”
There were tears in Ashley’s eyes as she spoke. “I don’t know what’s worse. That you wasted years of my life I could’ve spent with someone who actually wanted to be with me, or that you didn’t trust me enough to tell me. If you’d spoken about how you were feeling earlier, I would’ve listened. I would’ve been there for you.”
“Me too,” said AJ. “You should’ve told me, man. Instead, you’ve been playing the part of an overly butch muscle head. I could happily have done without the act.”
“Can anyone say overcompensating,” said Tasha glumly.
Ashley chuckled. “We don’t know the real you, do we, Greg?”
Greg sighed. “Not sure I even know. And now it looks like there’s never going to be a chance to find out.”
Tasha leant up against the wall and closed her eyes. “Don’t say that. I don’t want to die in this shit hole. I can’t bear the thought of no one ever knowing what happened to Ben. I need to get out of here.”
“Let’s just take a breather,” said Ashley. “I need a moment, you know? This is all just so…”
Greg nodded and so did Tasha. AJ added to the agreement. “Okay, let’s take a time-out,” he said. “Then we can keep trying to find a way out of here. Sam needs us to keep trying.”
“God, Samantha,” said Ashley. “What the hell happened to her? We have no idea if she’s even—”
AJ cut her off. He wouldn’t hear of it. “We’re going to find her. If she’s still in this place, I’ll find her.”
Tasha rolled her eyes. “Bit late to be a hero.”
“You don’t think I tried to save Ben?”
Tasha shook her head and fell silent. She seemed to know she was taking things out on him unfairly. The truth was that there was nothing he could say to make it any better for her; and there was nothing she could say to make him feel any worse.
Ben is dead.
And Sam might be too.
By the end of the night, all of his friends might be dead, and even if they lived, he knew he had lost them forever. Just like he had lost his hand, his life, his career.
And soon, his sight.
He blinked twice, trying to clear away the blurriness.
It only got worse.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Okay,” said Tasha. “I’m ready to get the fuck out of here.”
“Or die trying,” said Greg.
AJ’s attention had drifted, so the sound of voices startled him. He felt as though he’d been asleep, his memory of the last few minutes fuzzy.
“Does anybody have a plan?” Ashley asked. She had bunched her hair into a loose knot and positioned it over her shoulder. It was nice to see her face in full, even if it was streaked with grime. “Because I don’t.”
“Tasha.” AJ wasn’t sure why he said her name, but his gut told him she was the one who might be able to give them an idea of what they needed to do to get out of there. “Tasha, if this place is haunted by the people who died, how could we appease their spirits? What would get them to let us go?”
Tasha frowned suspiciously. Perhaps she thought he was mocking her. “Well, um, there’s the whole unfinished business thing. Most spirits can’t move on if they feel like they have something left to do.”
Greg said, “Surely anyone who dies has unfinished business?”
Tasha shrugged. “I’m kinda regurgitating fiction here, so take it for what it’s worth, but in theory, if someone dies violently, and their killer goes unpunished, they might want the truth to be uncovered.”
“But they found the killer,” said Greg. “We know the truth. It was that Donal McCann bloke who worked at the park.”
AJ thought about it. “So what unfinished business would the people here have?”
Ashley cleared her throat and gave a short laugh. “They never got to finish the ride.”
Greg groaned, but Tasha seemed to consider it seriously. “You know what, the spirits here could be in some kind of loop. They might be trying to complete their final task. Maybe finishing the ride would bring them closure enough to move on. It might be why the ride powered up, so that we could finish it for them. Their spirits will be drawn to us. We could act on their behalf.”
There was a moment’s silence, which AJ then broke. “This morning I would’ve laughed at you, but now I’m not sure of anything.”
“So we need to complete the ride?” said Greg, also sounding like he was willing to accept it. “Now that we’re trapped in the fire escape?”
Tasha shook her head in disgust. “All that effort, getting through the gap, Ben dying, we should have just stayed put.”
“The wolves would still be out there,” said Ashley. “We didn’t have a choice.”
“The wolves only came when we tried to escape,” said Tasha, “because we weren’t playing by the rules.”
AJ nodded. She was right. “We really are supposed to go through…” he stumbled over his words as dizziness took him for a moment, “th-through the entire ride? It doesn’t make any sense. The ride was rebuilt and reopened months after the victims died. Why wasn’t it haunted during that period? There were never any reports of strange things happening.”
They all looked at Tasha. She shrugged. “Maybe the bad energy took a while to build up – kind of like mould. When people were still coming on the ride, the spirits were probably content. Then it was abandoned.”
Greg folded his arms and finally seemed doubtful. “You’re saying the spirits are lonely?”
Tasha shrugged. “I don’t know any more than you do, except you all keep looking at me like I do. AJ is the one who knows this ride inside out. Ask him to make a plan.”
Everyone looked at AJ, and he shifted uncomfortably. “Okay,” he said, “if we are, um, going to try and finish the ride, we need to pass through the icy flats and then enter Woden’s sacrificial chamber.”
Ashley groaned. “That sounds pleasant.”
“It’s not,” said AJ, “but it leads to the way out. I think that’s where we’ll find our answers.”
“Why do you think that?” asked Greg.
“Because Woden’s sacrificial chamber is where everyone burned to death. Whatever is causing this, it has to be coming from there.”
“So how do we get there?” Tasha asked. “How do we get back into the ride?”
AJ turned and looked down the corridor. “Through the next fire escape. After the fire, they added one to every single section of the ride. We came out of this one, but we should be able to get back in through the next. This corridor should run past all of them.”
Greg stood up and brushed himself down. “On to the big finale then. It’s been great knowing you all.”
“We’re not dead yet,” said AJ, then looked away when he saw Tasha’s eyes burning into him. “I’ll go first.”
“You sure you shouldn’t let me?” Greg asked. “You’re already on your last life.”
AJ held up his stump, pointing the sharp, exposed bone like he was Captain Hook or something. It smelt foul – clotting blood and open flesh. He could feel it throbbing along to his heartbeat. A heavy exhaustion was falling over him, and even if they got out of this ride, he wasn’t sure he could make it much further. Greg would need to go get help, which was why they couldn’t risk him getting hurt. “I’ll go first, Greg. You make sure nothing happens to Ashley and Tasha.”
“Yeah, I can do that. Lead the way, brother.”
AJ took a moment to breathe, ensu
ring he had enough energy to keep going. His first step was unsteady, but those that followed were surer. Nothing about this night made sense, and he had never believed in anything supernatural, but he held on to the hope that their plan would work. They just needed to reach the end of the ride. Then all would be revealed.
The corridor was lit by dusty halogen tubes, but they flickered and blinked out periodically. What was keeping the place powered? Electricity, or bad vibes?
“There’s another door up ahead,” said AJ as he spotted another metal frame bolted to a layer of cement. Such a thing wouldn’t have met today’s health and safety standards, but as long as it wasn’t welded shut, he was glad to see it.
“And there’s another door down there,” said Tasha. “Maybe it leads outside.”
“Yeah,” said Greg. “New plan – we try to find a way outside.”
AJ shrugged. “Sure, try it.”
Greg hurried over to the door further down, a normal door made from wood with a rusty metal handle. The handle fell off as soon as he grabbed it. “Motherf—”
“Nice going, Greg,” said Tasha.
“Hold on, I can get us through this.” He reared back, then threw himself at the door. The wood was brittle, and it caved in easily.
A black mass erupted from the wood and drenched Greg. It started moving. Writhing. Greg beat at himself and started to panic. “W-What the hell?”
“Spiders,” said Ashley, covering her mouth. “You’re covered in spiders.”
Greg howled like a child and started dancing frantically. He hit himself so hard he would be left with bruises, and the little black bodies squashed and stained his bare skin. Several crept inside his vest.
AJ wasn’t usually afraid of spiders, but in such numbers, he would dare anyone not to be creeped out. Despite his fear, he helped his friend, raking at Greg’s arms and knocking the scuttling bodies to the ground. Greg backed away from the door, where thousands more spiders spilt from the cracked wood.
Tasha and Ashley eventually got over their fear and started patting Greg down too. Eventually, they got him clean, but he couldn’t help but fidget incessantly afterwards. “I still feel ’em on me, man.”
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