Forbidden Horrors

Cirque des Cauchemars

It’s been three hours since the terror began. Three hours since I’ve been trapped here. Three hours since blood began to rain down and stain my soul.
        I know what you must be thinking. What am I droning on about, right? But listen. This is serious.
It all started about three weeks ago. There was a news report on the t.v. about a mass murder that occurred at an amusement park near my house. My friends Lilia, Drew, Chase, and Pam were all shocked by it.
        Drew, being a child, dared the entire group to go there Halloween night.
        Pam and Chase agreed right away. I was hesitant, but eventually I caved and said I’d go. Lilia said nothing. She just stared at the television, her green eyes glossed over.
        “Well, Lilia? You gonna come? Or are you gonna chicken out?” Drew questions.
        Lilia turns to look at him. “Of course I’ll go. It sounds like… fun,” she replies.

The next week, Pam, Lilia, and I were out shopping for Halloween costumes.
        “Oh, Lilia, look at this!” Pam exclaims, grabbing a ringleader costume off a rack. “You’d look adorable in this when we go to the amusement park.”
        “What?” she says. Lilia looks rather shocked.
        “Come on! Try it on! Oh, I have an idea. Everyone can dress up like circus people! Lilia, you’re the ringleader. I call being the magician! I’ll convince Chase to be a lion tamer. Let’s see… Drew can be a clown -”
        “And I’ll be an acrobat,” I say, cutting Pam off. “I’m flexible enough to actually be one.”
        Lilia smiles at me. “Yes, you do have the body of an acrobat,” she comments.
At last it was Halloween. Everyone met at my place. My parents were gone to a movie, so they didn’t care who I brought over. Pam had been able to convince all the others to dress up. I welcomed all of them in, checking out their outfits.
        Drew was decked out in a ton of white clown makeup. His costume was red and blue, with little balls placed in random spots on it. Chase had on a red and black lion tamer costume. He even had a leather whip strapped to his hip. Pam came in a modest magician outfit. She wore the suit and gloves, as well as the huge top hat that people normally associate with magic. In her hand, she held a black wand with a white tip. Lilia wore a red and white ringleader costume. It was the one that Pam had pointed out in the store.
        As for me, I was wearing a pair of blue tights. I also wore a pink leotard. I was only wearing ballet slippers on my feel. Luckily for me, it was unseasonably warm this Halloween.
        “So, everyone ready?” Pam asked. The rest of us nod. Everyone goes outside and clambers into Pam’s van and we head off to the park. As it comes into view, I feel a chill run down my spine.
        I feel someone lightly touch my hand. I look over to see Chase looking back at me, his eyes filled with worry. “You okay” he mouths. I nod slightly in response.
        We all get out of the car and walk up to the big gates. A chain is wrapped around them, securing the place shut. “Well, looks like we can’t get in,” I say.
        Drew laughs. “Don’t worry, I got my dad’s tools. We can break the chain.”
        “Great,” I mutter. Sadly, either everyone ignores me, or they don’t hear the sarcasm and fear laced into my voice. Drew breaks the lock and pushes one side of the gates in. I follow the group inside. I shiver slightly and run my hands up against my arms in attempt to make the chills go away.
        “Ha, come one. Don’t tell me you’re scared,” Pam whispers to me.
        “No. I’m just a bit chilly,” I lie.
        She snorts and turns away, Bouncing over to Drew. “You think the rides are working?”
        Drew points to a custodial area by the entrance. “Let’s go find out.” We walk over to the closet. Drew pushes lightly on the door. It creaks loudly as it opens up. The breaker switches are directly in front of us on the wall opposite to the door. Chase stretches out his hand and flips one switch on. Carousel music begins to play. I spin around. The carousel and some other things have their lights on and music emanates from speakers nearby. Chase flips the rest of the switches.
        “Alright,” he says, “let’s have some fun.”
        “Oh, can we go to the haunted house?” Pam asks.
        Lilia smiles. “Yeah! The haunted house sounds great!” she agrees. I was a bit surprised that the two of them were agreeing. Lilia and Pam stopped agreeing back in eighth grade, when Pam stole Lilia’s boyfriend.
        “Aww, but haunted houses are for babies!” Drew complains.
        “Please, Drew?” the girls beg.
        He sighs. “Fine, but if you wimps try to hold my hand, I’m leaving to go do something more fun.” Lilia and Pam hop towards the mansion. Drew gloomily follows them. Chase and I walk behind the others, taking our time.
        “You alright?”
        “Yeah, I just have the feeling that something bad is going to happen.”
        Chase puts his arm around my shoulders. “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you. No one knows we’re here, so we can’t get into danger or trouble.”
        “I suppose you’re right. Thank you, Chaser,” I say, using the nickname I called him back when we were younger. He always playfully chased me everywhere, even in hallways. We enter the spooky mansion together. Lilia, Pam, and Drew are all already waiting for us inside.
        “What took you guys so long?” Pam inquires.
        “We walked, that’s all.”
        Our small little group walks through the house. None of us had been to the park when it was still running, so we had fun going through together. Once or twice, Drew actually got scared by something in there. He sounds like a little girl when he screams. It’s quite funny. Every so often, something would startle Pam and she’d jump slightly. I squeaked whenever I got frightened by something. However, Chase never seemed to get scared at all. I wished I was as brave as him.
        By the time we exited the building, Pam and Drew were clinging to each other. I giggle at them. “Scared, Drew?” I ask, still laughing.
        He turns and glares at me. “No. I was… comforting Pam.”
        “Uh-huh. Sure.”
        “Hold up,” Chase says. THe rest of us fall silent. “Where’s Lilia? She was with us not too long ago, and I thought she was behind me.” He looks behind his shoulder at the building behind us. “Do you think something happened to her?”
        “I’m sure she’s fine,” Pam says. But I don’t think anyone actually believed that. “Look, you guys stay here, and I’ll go see if she’s near the exit.” Pam walks towards the haunted building, but I can see her hesitate with each step.
        After that, Drew and Chase decided they wanted to go onto some of the rides. I wasn’t sure we should leave Pam alone, but they said she’d find us eventually. I gave up and went with them, since I didn’t want to be alone either. Most of the time that the boys and I were on the rides, I just wanted to leave. I was not having any fun at all. Something about the place was definitely off.
        A while after going on rides, Drew and Chase found a snack stand. They ate a bunch of chips, cookies, and candies. It was around that time when we heard it. A blood-curdling scream that sent shivers up and down our spines. “What was that?” I ask, my voice low.
        “It sounded like Pam. Maybe we should find her?” The three of us go off in search for Pam. The park is so big that it takes us about ten minutes to find her. She’s sitting on a chair, faced away from us.
        “Pam, are you alright?” I ask. I walk over to her. “Pam?” I go in front of her, staring down. I back away as soon as I see. Tears form in my eyes. I keep backing up, unable to believe what I’m seeing. Eventually, I bump into some old crates. They topple over and fall crashing to the ground. I look behind me and I see it. A message is written on the side of a building. A message written in red. It’s blood. Pam’s blood. I glance back at her body. Her top hat is in her lap. One hand is in the hat, the other is holding her wand, sharpened at the tip. Inside her hat is what looks to be like the insides of her body, her organs. She had been sliced open and torn apart. I read the message on the wall: Ready for a magic show?
        I rush over to Chase and bury myself in his arms. “We need to leave.”
        “Oh, come one. What’s wrong?” Drew asks. He walks in front of Pam. “Oh Lord,” he breathes.
        “Please, we have to leave,” I beg.
        Drew and Chase nod. We hurry back to the gates. However, when we get there, the lock is in tact. Drew’s tools are on the other side of the gate, out of our reach. “Okay, what now?”
        Right then, a voice is heard through the speakers placed around the park. “Did you like the magic show? Good! Haha. I’ve given each of you a task. Once you complete it, I’ll let you go, but if you can’t complete it… Well let’s just say you won’t have fun at my carnival. Good luck!” The voice was unfamiliar, almost like a child’s.
        “So what do we do?” Chase asks. A low growl is heard nearby. We go to see what is there. I gasp when I see it. An animatronic lion. It’s in a cage, but it looks mad.
        The voice comes back on the loudspeakers. “Oh! Looks like Mr. Lion isn’t being good. Lion tamer needed to teach him a lesson. Hehe! Looks like your task is to survive for, hmm, an hour. Alone. The others need to get their challenges done. Ciao!”
        I look at Chase. “You can’t do this,” I tell him.
        “I have to.”
        “Chaser, you aren’t a lion tamer. You don’t even know how to crack a whip!”
        “Drew, get her out of here.”
        “Man, you aren’t serious.”
        “Drew! Get her out. I can do this, okay? Just keep her safe.”
        Drew grabbed my arm and started dragging me away. “Chase, no! Don’t do this!” I shout before Drew pulls me around a corner. I listen to the cage open and shut. Then I hear the whip cracking. “Drew, we can’t do this. We can’t.” He pulls me further away.
        “Listen, Chase knows what he’s doing. Just stay calm. Everything is going to be fine,” he assures. After a while of us walking around aimlessly, the voice comes back.
        “My, my! Two down, two to go. Well, what do you say, clown? Ready for your test? It’s gonna be a riot! All you need to do is make thirteen balloon animals and then ride the ferris wheel while holding them. But you need to get this done in thirty minutes, otherwise you lose! And Miss Acrobat, no helping. You’re needed in the circus tent.”
        “Go,” Drew tells me. I shake my head. “Look, they said you can’t help. Besides, your challenge is in the tent. Hurry. I promised Chase I’d keep you safe, so go complete your task. I’ll wait by the wheel when you’re done. And don’t even try to argue. Just go!”
        I run towards the circus tent. On my way, I pass by the lion cage. The mechanical thing was turned off. Chase’s body was lying in a corner, mangled. A message was scrawled on the ground. Mr. Lion is grateful for his meal.
        With tears streaming down my face, I continue to the tent. When I get there, all the lights are off. I slowly walk until I feel sand beneath my feet. I believe I’m in the middle of the ring. A bright spotlight comes on, almost blinding me. The voice returns, “Two down, and two still here. Too bad! Welcome to my circus of nightmares. For your test, you must walk the tightrope. However, you can’t walk on your feet. Good luck!”
        “Wait!” I shout. “How can I walk without my feet?” I receive no answer. I glance up at the rope. There’s no net under it, so if I fall, it’s all over. I take a deep breath and climb the ladder to the rope. I stare at the rope, then get onto my hands and knees, thinking I might be able to crawl to the other side somehow. “Oh god. Very high,” I mutter. Slowly, I crawl. Right hand, right knee, left hand, left knee. I repeat this over and over again.
        About three-fourths of the way to the other side, the voice startles me. “So sad! Poor Mr. Clown couldn’t do it. Three down, one to go.”
        I force myself to continue on. Soon, I reach the other side. I smile to myself once I get safely back on the ground. I did it. I completed my test. I turn around to see Lilia. Though, the strange thing is that she’s wearing an outfit similar to one she wore when she was in sixth grade. “Lilia?! Thank goodness you’re safe. Where were you? How’d you get different clothes?”
        She lifts a microphone to her lips. “My, my,” she says, her voice unnaturally high. A voice of a child. “Our acrobat succeeded. How about another test before she goes? If you can hide from me until dawn, you get to live, and I’ll turn myself in.”
        “Why, Lilia?”
        She sighs. “Alright, I’ll tell you. But then you hide, got it? Good! Now, I’m doing this because years ago, my brother died here. And you guys think it’s funny to have a little fun at his final resting place? I’ve gotten revenge on everyone who thinks they can have fun here, because this is a place of nightmares, not dreams.”
        “Lilia, I-”
        “One minute to hide. I suggest you run. Time’s ticking.”
        I take off running. I’m heading to the closet with the light breaker. I doubt she’d ever look there. On my way, I spot Drew. He has a frown and tears painted onto his clown face. The message she wrote reads, Poor Mr. Clown. They never laughed with him, only at him. I continue to the closet. When I get there, I shut the door and sit down. My back against the wall opposite to the door. It’s here that I’ve been waiting. Three hours. I glance down at my phone. There’s no signal, and it’s almost dead.
        I hear footsteps approaching. I hold my breath. I squeeze my eyes shut as the doorknob turns. Through my closed lids, I can see a light shining on me. “Miss, Are you alright?”
        I look up to see a police officer. I start crying.
        “Miss?”
        “Please tell me you caught her,” I say.
        “Who?”
        “Lilia. She’s about my age. She’s wearing a white and blue striped dress.”
        “You sure you’re alright?”
        I sigh. “Yes.”
        The officer leads me out. I’m led over to my parents. Everyone else’s parents are there as well. “Hi, mom.”
        “Oh sweetie, what happened?”
        “Lilia. She’s crazy. She killed Chaser and the others.”
        “What?”
        “She brought us here and forced us to try to complete insane tasks. The others failed, mom. So she killed them.”
        “You’re talking about Lilia Adams, your friend from childhood?”
        I nod.
        “Honey, Lilia died when you all were in sixth grade. Her brother brought her here for her birthday. A ride broke while they were on it and they fell to their deaths.”
It’s been a year since that night. I’m still haunted by the images of my dead friends. I haven’t seen Lilia again since then. But I’m sure she’s still here. Watching and waiting. Looking for the right time to find me alone back in that closet.