Dark Carnival (A Horror Anthology)

by Macabre Ladies

  The Joe lookalike lay on the couch, his mouth slightly ajar as he stared unblinkingly at the screen. The clock on the wall ticked loudly, but the man never seemed to notice it, let alone the group of people staring at him. Ochre stepped closer to Leona. When Turin began to feel uncomfortable, he looked down at the program that Joe had handed them.

  ‘This must be the room of resignation,” he noted.

  “Yes, it must. It smells sad,” Celeste agreed. “What a nightmare. Imagine having to watch hours of this stuff. I don’t know how he can put up with such a torture device so unflinchingly and still show no emotion. It’s quite amazing.”

  Lady Macaw, who had overheard them, clicked her beak lips together in agreement. She looked over at Bobby Bones, who was staring at the man with his face crumpled in fear and a visible effort to understand how he was performing the feat. When he felt Lady Macaw’s eyes on him, he looked up at her and winked. She straightened her dress and let out a little chirp.

  Nervous but trying his best to hide it, Ochre led the group from the room with the blue glow through a doorway and into the next part of the funhouse. The group squinted as the lighting changed from dim and aquamarine to blinding white.

  Leona could make out a table with food on it, and she recognized this room as a kitchen, although instead of a hearth and an open fire like they were used to cooking on, this room had several metallic square boxes. A woman stood in front of one of these boxes, watching through a small window on the door as something rotated inside. The table was set with an array of food surrounded by four plates, four cups, and four sets of cutlery, yet the woman stood alone in front of this small box watching a package rotate around and around again.

  Leona stepped closer and realized the woman was crying. Big salty tears cascaded down her cheeks, leaving streaks before falling to the ground. The woman stood motionless in front of the small box until it let out a loud beeping sound which seemed to rouse her from her reverie. Wiping her tears, she walked over to another part of the counter and began to chop a carrot. The chopping only lasted about thirty seconds until the woman burst into tears again.

  Done with the carrot, she walked back to the small box and the scene began from the beginning again, an endless loop of misery. The longer the group stood there, the more they could feel the sadness attach itself to them. Celeste and Turin’s hue turned a deep blue, a darker shade than any of the others had ever seen on them.

  Leona pulled the program from the back pocket of her leather pants and looked down at it.

  “The room of desperation,” she whispered to Ochre, whose light, she noticed, had dimmed a little since the entryway.

  The funhouse was scarier than she had imagined it would be. She hoped it would ease up a little for Ochre’s sake, but another glance at the program suggested otherwise. She folded it up and put it back in her pocket. On edge, the group moved toward a long, dark hallway that branched off from the kitchen.

  The hallway had rooms on both sides and seemed to culminate at the far end with a staircase that descended to a door that led outside. Ochre was relieved that the end was getting closer, but being the bright boy that he was, he still wanted to be helpful to the group and to showcase his bravery, so swallowing his fear, he stepped forward into the hallway first.

  His feet squished into thick shag carpet as he slowly advanced. He pulled out his program as he walked and glanced at the room guide. The first room came up on his left. A large glossy poster hung from a tack in the wood. If what lay beyond the door was anything like the image, Ochre didn’t want to enter.

  Four young men—wearing clothes that were even creepier than Joe’s—seemed to be frozen in a kind of strange, choreographed dance. They stared at the camera with smoldering stares that made Ochre uncomfortable. He looked up at Leona, hoping to find reassurance about his reaction, but he was surprised to see Leona looking at the poster with an interest he couldn’t decipher. He didn’t like seeing that look on Leona’s face, whatever it was, so he pushed the door open, his eyes closed to protect himself from the atrocities that lay beyond.

  He couldn’t place the strange combination of squeaking, thumping, and thrumming that immediately filled his ears. He waited for more clues, but none came. It was only when he felt Leona reach for his hand that he felt brave enough to open his eyes. The walls of the room were covered in posters like the one that was on the door. Too many pairs of eyes stared out at him, all with that same hungry look.

  Ochre’s light flickered in fear. He shrunk against Leona, but realized she was not looking at the posters, but was fixated instead on the source of the thumping. He followed her frightened gaze and found himself staring at a girl about Leona’s age, running on a small conveyor belt.

  To Ochre’s dismay, as hard and fast as the girl seemed to be going, she didn’t move an inch. The conveyor belt kept spinning around and around, preventing the exhausted girl from ever reaching her destination.

  It was Leona who seemed to be the most frightened of the group this time. She walked over to inspect the wall behind the tortured girl and began to pace in front of it. Her hands searched the flat expanse for the lever to a secret door, but came away empty. Confused, Leona moved to the wall in front of the girl, and even then the girl did not acknowledge the group watching her, but only continued to sweat and pant as she suffered at the hands of the merciless torture device. Leona felt this wall for any telltale signs of an opening and again was disappointed.

  “No game to chase, no lions coming behind. Nothing is after her, yet still, she has to keep running. It’s like she’s trying to escape, but escape what? Nothing is there. Or maybe she’s trying to arrive somewhere, but there’s nowhere to go. It’s excruciating to watch. Why would anyone…”

  To Ochre’s horror, Leona’s voice cracked. It sounded as if she were about to cry. His wall of protection was breaking down. The panic that this induced, however, was interrupted by a loud screech, and he spun around to see Lady Macaw hovering in a corner of the room.

  Grateful for the distraction, he walked over to the bird lady and saw her standing in front of a tiny cage, her head cocked to the side. Inside the cage, a tiny furry animal— no bigger than the palm of his hand and not any shapelier than a lump with legs—ran frantically on a tiny metal wheel. The wheel let out a rhythmic squeaking sound as the animal seemed to mirror the girl on the larger torture device.

  As Ochre stared at the little struggling lump, he could feel his light dim. He knew he had to get Leona out before she saw this. He walked back to her and grabbed her hand, pulling her out of the room. She followed, dazed, unable to stop staring at the walls around the girl who was frozen in place.

  “Room of anxiety,” he said to her as he pulled her into the hallway and waited for the others to emerge from the horror scene. Soon, Celeste and Turin emerged from the wall looking disturbed. Finally, Bobby Bones came through the door with his radial bone hooked under Lady Macaw’s feathered arm. He was shaking his head.

  “The training they must put these freaks through in order to be able to do these things… It must be grueling. And she’s so young, too.”

  Lady M nodded her head erratically. Ochre noticed that the squeaking in the room had stopped and there was a strange tuft of fur stuck on her beak lips. Slightly alarmed but still wanting to be polite, he averted his eyes.

  He looked down the hallway and was relieved to see only one more closed door they had to venture into before nearing the exit at the back. He had a feeling, however, that the designers had saved the worst for last. Summoning his courage, the lightbulb boy managed to increase his wattage slightly as he led the pack towards the final room.

  The last door was ajar. Ochre nudged it open. A creature—almost his size but less bulbous and glassy—was sitting at a small table against the far wall, staring at a screen. Unable to tame his curiosity, Ochre walked right up to him. Although he seemed to be made of the same flesh as the last freaks, bright red pustules covered the creature’s face, some ooz
ing a repulsive white goo.

  The beast seemed filled with adrenaline, and when Ochre moved his gaze from his irritated, bubbling flesh to the screen in front of him, he was taken aback. The creature was enmeshed in some kind of distant war. The warscape and the guns flashed across the screen, and the funhouse freak aggressively controlled all of it with nothing but small buttons, their incessant clicking providing a grating soundtrack to the nightmare scene.

  Ochre watched in terror as he gunned down figure after figure, letting out a whoop after each successful shot. It was only the smell that pulled Ochre’s gaze away from the scene of destruction; a sharp musty odor burned Ochre’s nostrils and seemed to be emanating from the body of the beast.

  Was he putrefying? Ochre searched the volcanic-looking face for a sign of pain. As he celebrated his latest kill, the beast opened its mouth in a ghastly smile and Ochre stumbled back in horror. A harsh-looking metal grate had been tightly fastened to its teeth. A piece of food had gotten stuck between a yellowed tooth and a metal tine. Ochre realized that on top of the musty odor emanating from the crevices and caverns of the beast’s disproportionate body, he could also smell the scrap of food decaying. His light extinguished. The room was plunged into darkness.

  Only the glow of the screen remained, and the return of darkness pulled Leona out of the fear-induced haze she had fallen into in the last room. Darkness meant Ochre needed help. This was a piece of information that was woven into the core of her being, honed after years of protecting him. She felt for him in the darkness, and when she found his bulbous head, she pulled him to her and guided them both out of the room and down the stairs to the back door.

  The night air enveloped the group like a long-lost friend when they finally emerged into it. Collectively, they breathed a sigh of relief. Leona hugged Ochre and tried to ignite his glow again, as if she were trying to start a flame with an empty lighter. She grew more worried with each passing minute that his light stayed out.

  “Ochre, talk to me. I’m sorry, it was too scary. But it’ll make you feel better if you talk to me.”

  Finally, a little voice emerged from the light bulb boy.

  “Wh-o… who did that to the creature? Why would they do that to him?”

  Leona rubbed his bulbous head. “Listen, we aren’t circus freaks, we won’t ever be them, and we won’t have to do what they do, okay? These funhouses are just made up to scare people like us. They’re not really real like you or me or any of us.” She gestured at the rest of the group, who were all nodding.

  They had gotten over their initial fright and were now enjoying the thrill of the ride of terror they had just finished. Finally, a tiny spark ignited in Ochre, and Bobby Bones let out a huge belly laugh.

  “That’s it, boy! Hell, that was the scariest funhouse I could have ever imagined! Don’t worry, Ochre, that’s how they’re supposed to make you feel. But just wait, once the fear passes, your body remembers that it’s fake and you get a goddamn rush! That’s how these things work! Do you feel it yet? Wooooo!”

  With Bobby Bone’s bellowing exuberance, Ochre’s light flickered and grew brighter and brighter as he began to laugh with the others. As the group cackled, Joe appeared from around the side of the house. He was pushing a small machine and stopped when he saw them.

  “How was it?” he asked.

  “Terrifying,” Celeste answered.

  Leona nodded. “Very scary. Where are the rest of the carnival games?”

  “Games?” Joe repeated. “No, there are no games here. You don’t mind letting yourself out, do you? It’s just a straight shot and to the right.”

  He didn’t wait for a response but kept pushing the machine to the edge of the strangely uniform front yard. He pulled a string on the machine, and as it roared to life, he began pushing it in the same eerily straight lines that the group noticed on the grass when they had entered.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Bobby Bones said. “This place is starting to give me the creeps again.”

  The rest of the group agreed and said their goodbyes. Celeste and Turin waved as they blinked out into the darkness, and Lady Macaw pecked a kiss at Bobby’s calcified cheekbone as she took off in the air, leaving the last three to walk the empty gravel lot to the exit.

  “Can I take the lions home with you?” Ochre asked.

  Leona smiled. She was glad she had brought Ochre along to the funhouse, but she was happier that he wasn’t too cool for her yet.

  9

  Carnival Daze by Christine Marek

  Rath felt like his shoulder would pull out at the socket as his younger sister, Lisa, dragged him onto the sprawling carnival grounds. If it weren’t for the fact that he was the closest thing to a parent Lisa had left, he would’ve turned away at the sight of the looming big top tent.

  It had taken four solid days of whining before Lisa had convinced Rath to take her. Money was tight, but a little voice in his head told him if Lisa didn’t get to do something fun every now and again, he’d see her face on one of those missing kids posters plastered all over town. As much as he didn’t enjoy being a parent, he was responsible for her.

  Entry was free, but every tent and attraction had a ticket requirement. Rath watched his sister eyeing the games, the fried foods vendors, and the absurd number of different rides.

  Lisa clutched her stuffed moose tightly to her chest and looked up at Rath with wide eyes. “Can we go on that?” Lisa pointed to a carousel circling to enchanting music, the colorful horses moving up and down on their poles in hypnotic rhythm.

  Rath looked at the number of tickets required and checked his pockets. It would eat up most of what they’d brought, and they wouldn’t be able to do much else. If they were going to do something fun, Rath was going to get his money’s worth. His job at the supermarket wasn’t paying him enough to keep food on the table and do frivolous things. It would take another week’s worth of pay to cover half the rides, let alone adding games, food, or the special tent events.

  Lisa frowned when he didn’t respond. “What about that?” She pointed to a wooden roller coaster that shook on the rails as it rose up and up and up. “Dad would’ve let me go. He liked roller coasters the best.”

  “Well, Dad’s not here,” Rath pointed out, frowning at the roller coaster. He wanted to puke just looking at it. “And it’s too expensive,” he lied.

  It was cheaper than most of the other rides, but Rath definitely did not want to go on that. And Lisa certainly couldn’t go on her own. He didn’t want her to leave his sight for even a minute.

  It was one thing for kids in town to run away because their home life sucked. Many of the missing kids in town had pretty poor living situations, worse than Rath and Lisa. But not all of the missing kids had run away. There were rumors a couple of them had been kidnapped. If it were up to Rath, he’d never leave Lisa’s side. But that was unreasonable with their current situation.

  Lisa pulled Rath out of his thoughts when she pushed her stuffed moose into his face, “Hello?” she said in her ‘moose voice.’ “Are we gonna do anything fun today or not?”

  Rath looked around, desperate to find something worth the expense. His gaze was drawn to the face on a poster board nearby. It was the uncannily smooth and unblemished face of a young woman. Her eyes were round, black voids and her smile was unfaltering.

  Rath thought she was cute, but the extra set of eyes didn’t sit well with him. Rath shook his head. The artist had probably just painted them on as some weird artistic choice to catch the crowd’s interest. Nothing to get goosebumps over.

  Lisa let his arm go for a minute, and he massaged his shoulder in relief.

  He watched her dash between the dart game and the water gun range.

  The tent below the poster board was the cheapest thing he’d seen yet.

  “Lisa!” he called out.

  She stopped and eyed the water gun range hopefully.

  Rath pointed to the tent with the showgirl’s illustrated face beaming down at them.
“Let’s check out this tent. The posters claim it’ll shock and amaze.” It was half the price of the games.

  Lisa eyed the tent poster intently, then shouted in excitement, “She looks like a spider lady! Do you think she’s a spider lady?”

  Rath shivered. “Of course not. That’s just a drawing they did to make her seem more mysterious than she probably is.”

  Lisa had always been the one to try and save the spiders in their house, whereas Rath would squish them without hesitation.

  He pulled out just enough money for both of them and handed it to the attendant before following Lisa into the tent.

  It was more than just a show of one “spider lady”. Inside, a banner hung from the ceiling with the word ‘Freaks’ in huge red letters. It was mostly dark, except for a few spotlights that reached out far enough to illuminate the path they were supposed to take through the tent. Barriers cordoned off each act.

  Aside from the showgirl, Rath expected the tent to be full of people with missing limbs, hairier than usual bodies, or an attraction like the Hilton Siamese twins.

  Lisa rushed past him to be first to look at the showgirl.

  Her name shimmered behind her on the wall, Portia. She sat on one of the display stools, combing her hair like a woman in an old painting, shrouded in darkness, her face heavy with makeup. Something was off, though.

  When he took a closer look, he noticed her arms were low, just above her hips. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he realized that she did indeed have arms at her shoulders, where they should be… in addition to an extra pair at her hips. She turned to face him and smiled with closed lips.

  Rath flung himself back from the railing in shock and horror.

  Lisa smiled and clapped excitedly, nearly dropping her moose in the process. “She is a spider lady!” Lisa waved to her, and Portia smiled and waved back.

  “Ugh, come on,” Rath pulled on her shoulder. “She creeps me out, let’s keep moving.”