Fun House

Backs and Stories

The flame of hysteria was quickly ignited by the crowd of bodies pushing at an undeniably intimidating force. 12 sweaty, bruised, beaten, and exhausted people half-sprinted/collapsed through the doorway. My frail body was pushed to the back of the group from all the commotion. I tried running to keep up with them, but my body instantly rejected it. I felt faint, and had to hold onto the wall; trying to steady my spinning vision, with darkness poking out from the corners of my eyes. Once again, the tidal wave of nausea hit, and I vomited all over the wall. If nobody knew the context, a passerby would probably think I was just some hungover teenager. As I threw up, I noticed the bile was practically translucent. I hadn't eaten since earlier in the day of my abduction, and I had no idea how long it had been since then.

Suddenly, two hands grabbed around my waist, moving my torso upright. Jolted, I stumbled forward, resulting in crashing my head into the wall. Instantaneously, the black poking out from the corners of my vision almost completely dominated my sight. I felt knees quiver , and the rest of my tall figure came crashing down. Luckily for me, the pair of hands caught me, and brought my body upright, shaking it around a little bit, bringing me back to my senses.

"Clarity. It's Nate." the voice spoke in between heavy breaths. "I lost you up there."

Quickly trying to compose myself, I wiped the excess vomit on my chin with the sleeve of my sweater. If I was going to have to fight my way out, I wasn't about to be appearing as the weakest link before the brawls even began.

"C'mon. Lets catch up with the others." Nate spoke soothingly. But I wasn't convinced. I wanted to be, but I wasn't. I still don't know who needs to be my enemy here and who doesn't. However, as much as I didn't want to be the weakling, I wasn't about to turn down a momentary ally. He wrapped his arm around my waist, supporting some of my body weight, and steadied me as I hobbled down the long hall and around the corner.

Whatever house we were trapped inside, it must have been huge. It felt as if the long, humid, and dark hallways went on forever. Eventually, I regained my strength, and was able to hold my own weight again. We picked up speed as we turned the corners Nate had seen the group go down. As we got closer to reaching our destination, we began to hear shouting, and the scuffling of feet. We both stopped dead in our tracks and turned to each other. Gradually, we turned the corner; expecting the worst. We shuffled down the last corridor silently. As we approached the room in which the group was, the noise was now almost deafening. We Stepped forward, only to see the other 10 victims rejoicing, and surrounding themselves around what seemed to be a table, but to be honest, I couldn't see through the sea of bodies blocking it. It seemed that the room was just like a pit-stop, as the only way in and out was through the archway in which we were about to pass through.

I walked forward with Nate, revealing ourselves. Immediately, the woman who almost struck me earlier greets us, now smiling. "There you are!" she spoke excitedly. "Anyways, look!" She motioned for us to go towards the center of the room. We pushed our ways through the scurrying bodies, and soon enough; we were met with the first sign of relief since we had been trapped in this hell hole.

On an old, antique-looking table, sat two loaves of bread and gallon of water. I turned back to the curly-haired woman. "Where did you find these?" I question, still shocked that we had - well, found food in the first place - but found what seemed to be un-tampered with food.

"You're not gonna believe me, but I turned the corner, and it was just sitting there." She chatted. I couldn't believe it. But before my brain could process a logical reason as to where it came from, I shoved my way through the bodies, and quickly grabbing two slices of bread, and took a drink from the jug. Instantly, I felt relief. The cool water splashed over my tongue, which felt like it had been sitting next to cotton balls it was so dry. I chomped down on the first slice of bread. Even though the taste was subtle, it seemed like a 5-star-meal to my depraved senses. Not wanting anyone to see that I had taken two pieces (as I wasn't sure if we were going to ration things or not), I folded the soft substance until I could tuck it into my undergarments. Although the bread was semi-irritating to my right breast, I wasn't about to give up food for comfort.