The Nightmare's Return

Chapter 6

Rachel opened her eyes to a very dark ceiling and a dim lit room. She sat up and looked around at an environment she didn't recognize. There were costumes, scarves and wigs hanging on small hooks that were on strongly taped straps on the four walls around her. The walls Rachel saw were all made of a type of fabric that were tied to big, long metal nails that had been hammered into the ground. She was in a small tent she realized, and was on a cot in the middle of the tent. She got up out of the cot still feeling half asleep as she walked over to the tent's opening, a flap of tent fabric that hung over the entrance. Small streams of light came through from the sides of the flap where the lights from the outside shown through. Rachel pushed the flap to the side and walked out of the tent she was in. It was dark outside. She began to walk towards a lit up area to her left, realizing where she was as she continued to look around. More tents were around, with strings of lights stretching across overhead. Everything was eerily silent, with not a single person in sight. As Rachel's head began to clear up she had already walked past the first of the two tents that were at her left. On her right were more tents, one slightly smaller than the one she had come out of, and one big one that looked like it housed a couple of vehicles, as Rachel could see tires past the half inch of space that the tent was off the ground of. She had bent down just long enough to get a quick look underneath, and now she was beginning to get an understanding of how she had got to where she was, after remembering Mr. Tophat riding in the front of a truck on the book cover in the warehouse, saying he was coming soon.

"No, no it can't be happening again.." Rachel said to herself, looking all around her.

She saw no one around still, until she looked forward again towards the lit up area she had been walking to until now. Than she felt two strong hands grip around her upper arms, on either side. Rachel looked back and forth to see two men in colorful suits holding her, that now forcefully pulled her to keep moving towards the lit up area in front of her. She wasn't strong enough to pull away from the two men whom she noticed did not seem fully conscious but in an inner hold, as they didn't respond at all to her pleas to them about releasing her, and moved almost like robots compliaing with whatever instructions they were given. They took her to the lit area that was around the last tent on the left, and stopped in front of a long rolled out red carpet, that led to a large stand that was painted red with small, yellow light bulbs that stuck out from the top. A small stage was out in front of the stand with black steps leading down to the carpet. But most noticeably was the darkened doorway in the middle of the stand. It was just dark empty space, but clearly meant for something, or SOMEONE to be seen in it, maybe soon. Nothing else was around except for four very large red squares that were aligned along the carpet, two on each side. Rachel looked back to the dark doorway in the middle of the stand and felt her heart rate go up, as the very familiar figure she had been seeing, began to emerge through the entrance. Rachel froze as she relived her most terrified nightmare as Mr. Tophat once again, walked through that dark entrance, looking every bit as much as she remembered him to be, with the red velvet suit jacket on top of a black dress shirt and tie, white striped sequined pants, black boots and gloves.. And of course, his large, black Tophat sitting on his head. And the cane. The one Rachel had completely destroyed, or so she thought. It was smaller now at the top, but it was still sitting there, that dark honey colored gem on top of a long, black cane stick, just like before. Mr. Tophat walked to the end of the stage and stopped right before the black steps. He stood legs together, arms in front of him, one hand placed over the other, both resting on top of the cane as it rested on the stand's stage, held firmly in place by Mr. Tophat. The two men holding Rachel jerked her forward by her arms and pulled her down the carpet, partially dragging her as she tried desperately to stop and pull away from them harder than she had tried to before. The whole time she kept her eyes on Mr. Tophat as he kept his eyes on her, with no expression on his face as he waited for Rachel to be brought to him. The men stopped close to the front of the steps of the stage and held Rachel to the spot as Mr. Tophat descended the steps slowly, still looking straight at Rachel, holding the cane right below the hilt with his left hand. He stopped a foot away from Rachel, tilting his head a bit to the side as he smiled big, and said the only other line that Rachel knew him by more than any other;