My Adventures at Zak Bagan's Haunted Museum

Chapter 11-Clown Alley

I waited in a strange hallway just outside of the celebrity room for the rest of the tour to come out. I could feel the sound of screeching starting to fade. It seemed being away from that cursed axle was helpful. I took a moment to look over the hallway filled with strange drawers topped with unusual taxidermy. From stuffed birds, weasels, foxes, and even a strange jack-o-lope, it seemed to fit the museum. In other corners above the drawers, there were strange wax figure heads. It seemed to be a weird way to display such items.

"Welcome to Taxidermy Hall." The tour guide's voice behind me brought me out of my observations. "You'll notice the strange and unusual animals lining the walls of this hall that gives it its name. Also on display are wax heads from the Winchester Mystery House. Zak was gifted them on one of his investigations there, and returned them to his museum. The Mystery House is like a sister museum to the haunted museum, often encouraging Zak as he came up with plans for his museum. If you look closer at the jack-o-lope..." Suddenly, there was a loud whoosh, and the wall to the end of the hall opened. Many people on the tour jumped back. I even heard a scream and a few quick yelps as another tour guide now stood at the new opening at the end of the hall. 

He wore a black suit, like he was from one hundred years ago. His head sported a bowler hat. He chuckled before continuing. "And I'll be taking over for the next part of the tour here. If you'd like to follow me now, we'll be entering Clown Alley."

I noticed that Amber had caught up to stand next to me, and shadowed my progress through the hall. It had a few twists and turns, and I could smell popcorn and cotton candy. We emerged into a circus room with a large wooden model of dancing animals, clowns, and circus performers. On the walls were different circus posters. My clown dislike started to trigger. I had a bad experience when I was picked out of the crowd as a kid at a circus and was escorted around by clowns. My parents seemed to be okay handing me over to strangers, but I was just wary of these strange people. The creepy vibe never left me from that experience. I started to ease into a corner, waiting for the tour to progress through this room, because, I just really didn't like it.

The tour guide stood at the end of the room, turning to everyone and began. "How many of you don't like clowns?" I looked around to see a few people raising their hands. I declined, because I didn't really want to admit it right now. I was feeling very intrinsic after the last room, and was at this point, just trying to survive the tour. But I mean, really, what was this house doing to me? I thought it was going to be just a fun, creepy tour with strange oddities along the way. It was turning to be anything but. 

The guide interrupted my thoughts. "Welcome to the Circus Room. As you can see, Zak has collected many circus posters from around the country. Some are from the famous Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey Circus while others are from other smaller circuses that used to be a main form of entertainment one hundred years ago." I started to look around the darkly painted room only popping with color from the eerie circus posters plastered on the walls. He continued, "The model to your left is a complete circus extravaganza created by one man to commemorate his younger years loving the circus as a kid. It took him 10 years to complete it." I looked at the small figures. A seal balancing a ball with a ring leader near him. Lions in a cage waiting to go onstage. Elephants going around one of the three red rings. A miniature tribute to the dying entertainment that gave comfort or freaked out so many children while they grew up.  

"If you follow me, we'll head into Clown Alley. For those of you nervous about clowns, this might be a place that you may have to face your fears." The surge of people started to move forward. I bumped into Amber as I joined the press of people moving into the hallway. We let the stream of people lead us forward. I chose the safer path to be at the end. At least, that's what I thought.

Soon, we were moving along through a twisty, small dark passage. Strange circus music played with bellows of dry ice smoke creeping around the walls. The smell of moist air and popcorn lingered in the passage. Large mannequin clowns were standing in corners. Their glass eyes following you as you moved slowly past. 

"Shit, this is weird." Amber moved closer to me. I kept turning backwards, expecting one of the clowns to follow us. I heard the sound of hydraulic machinery and a scream. Jump scares. I hate jump scares. 

I thought out loud. "I'm guessing some of them must be automated to move as we walk past. Maybe a movement sensor."

"I just want to get out of here," Amber whispered to me. "I wish they'd shuffle through faster." She pointed to the slow moving people ahead of us.

"I think they're just being cautious going around the corner. Wouldn't you?"

She shrugged, and we just kept going. The only way out was forward. 

"Remember, we're facing our fears?" I laughed, after we rounded another corner. Thank god. It only had a tall adult size clown staring at us. I kept expecting them to move. I laughed at it, trying to make light of the fun house attempt on the tour. We walked past another clown sticking out of a window in the wall. It's arms were raised up as if it would try to grab us. Then, we heard the movement. Both of us jumped. The clown had jumped up a few inches through the window, the arms dangling menacingly towards us. We started to laugh. 

"It's just a dummy clown," I laughed. "Not as bad as those other haunted houses you go through at Halloween." 

Amber nodded agreeing. "Yeah, not so bad." Her echo of my thought didn't seem convincing. We still kept walking close together, on alert for other jump scares. I kept looking behind me, because I had that feeling I was being watched. Then, I felt a tap on my shoulder. A very light tap. 

I turned to Amber. "Hey, did you touch me?"

Amber shook her head. "No."

I looked behind me again. No one was there again. We were a little behind the group of people ahead of us too. We were alone, in a narrow, dark corridor. Red lights lighting our way ahead.

"Let's get going. I want to get through this part." 

I couldn't get out of there fast enough.