Enjoy the Show

Thrills and Chills

I crept slowly down the narrow, dim corridor between black painted wooden walls scuffed from presumably years of thousands of bodies brushing up against them, coughing on the dry ice fog laced with the scents of fried food and popcorn, and squeaked in fright as a red spotlight suddenly switched on to illuminate my grossly distorted reflection in a mirror to my right while a demented giggle sounded from the hidden speakers surrounding me.

"God I hate circuses.  Why did I let them talk me into coming here?  Especially during Halloween.  The least this place could do is have some candy waiting when people come out," I thought with annoyance as I put a hand to my racing heart and inched forward again down the never-ending hallway, leaving the startling image behind.  Focusing on the scuffed and dirty black wood floor, since it seemed unlikely to hold any surprises more unpleasant than smushed food and dropped tickets, I banged my head into something and yelped as my hands fluttered around my head, unsure whether to massage the bump forming on my forehead or fend off whatever had attacked me.

When nothing else happened after a few moments, I cautiously lowered my hands and opened my eyes, only to gasp and flinch as I found myself centimeters away from and staring into another mirror I'd clearly failed to notice at the end of the hallway as it turned left.  I'd hit my head against the upper portion, which was tilted away from the wall, and my too-tall reflection with a gigantic head and I chuckled nervously as we turned to go down the next corridor.  Just before I moved away from the mirror I thought I saw the mirror-me turn back to face me, cock its head, and grin menacingly, baring a set of wickedly pointed fangs as its eyes flashed red, but when I turned to look it was normal - well, as normal as a reflection in a "fun-house" mirror ever is.  I shook my head at myself and I begged my overactive imagination to reign it in.

As much as I'd been bemoaning losing the game of rock-paper-scissors that resulted in me coming in this creeptastic place by myself, I was a little glad that there was no one else to see how pathetic and ridiculous I looked right now as I rubbed my forehead and shuffled forward, eyes darting everywhere and curled into myself.

Turning another corner, I came face-to-face with a tall man wearing tight grey shorts and an orange tank top hefting an anvil above his head, towering over me and ready to drop it on my head.  I screamed and stumbled backward, pressing up against a wall as the man snickered, the light shining up from his feet lending him a particularly sinister aura.  Then, accompanied by the sound of screeching cheers and applause, one arm lowered mechanically so he was literally holding the anvil single-handedly, and I realized it was just a mannequin, albeit a disturbingly realistic one - or maybe it was just the dark and my wild imagination that made it so.  The light faded out as platform he was on abruptly swung back into a recess in the wall, clearing my path to continue on.  

I eyed him warily, taking a few deep breaths of the hot, close air to calm my racing pulse as I watched his other arm move back up to the anvil in preparation for the next victim to stumble through.  The regular background noise of some haunting organ piece accompanied by low laughter began playing again, and I sensed this was my cue to move on.

Taking a few tentative steps forward, I couldn't help but think, "I know all fun-houses are weird, but this one's on a whole different level.  It feels more like a haunted house."

Movement caught my eye and my heart beat kicked up a few dozen notches again as adrenaline flooded my system, but I saw it was only a dim light that had turned on to illuminate a set of rickety-looking stairs a few yards ahead.  With the hallway otherwise being a dead end, there was no choice but to go up, and I was about to do so when a sudden roar startled me into falling backwards right onto my butt.  What I'd thought was just a regular, blank wall behind the stairs suddenly lit up with bright yellow stage lights to reveal metal bars like you'd see on some kind of cage.  I stood up, wiped my grubby hands on my pants, and gingerly moved around the stairs, thinking that it must be the way to proceed.  When I peered in, however, another roar made me flinch as I saw a large room filled with big cats - panthers and tigers from the looks of it.