Lorelei landed on top of Miles.
Todd was already on top of his feet. He was looking frantically left and right. "This part is a maze. It's just that, I think we have to going downhill. So pick a way to run, make sure it's downhill. Probably best not to stick together. See you in the arena." And he ran.
Miles didn't move. He was a shaking his head back and forth, uncomfortably. His whole body was shuddering. Lorelei could hear the slide rumbling behind her where Milo had gotten upon it. He was going to run them over.
She grabbed her baby brother and shook him.
"Miles, I need you to get it together. Run with me." Her voice was trembling. And she was so scared. She was so, so scared.
Miles did not reply. His eyes never seem to look at her, even when she was in front of them. Looked through her. Like his brain had gone on vacation and he was just a hollow doll. It terrified her, she was so frightened. She lifted them to his feet.
He wobbled. And almost fell over. But she grabbed his hand and did exactly what Todd told her to do. She ran.
Miles didn't exactly run behind her, instead he sort of bumper car'd down the hall. She felt terrible, his tender body sputtering across the walls smooshing into her she pulled at him and ran.
His legs and his brain were not fully connected, but after a bit of dragging, he caught into an easy jog. He bumped and dragged much less and instead just kind of bounced along behind her. His eyes were still unfocused, but he seemed like he was trying. There was a long red stripe in the white hallway, but everything looked the same.
Weren't they supposed to go downhill?
How could she tell?
She paused and tried to look around. But everything was blurring together. And she could hear the squeals of Milo's big, squeaking shoes coming behind her. What if Todd had left them to fight alone? He kept saying, over and over. He kept saying how he had only survived by being alone.
What if he would not meet them? What if he was just feeding them to this game, to the arena?
"The ringmaster has started the game. Hurry! You are late." Milo's voice carried clear as a bell. Was he right behind them?
Lorelei wheeled around turning and looking. But she couldn't see the clown, but she could hear his big squeaking feet echoing through the halls. Miles didn't stop. He crashed into her.
He looked flustered, and his eyes focused on her face. He opened his mouth to say something. Then his eyes got big and lost, and he said nothing at all. Instead his mouth gaped open, and he wailed.
Lorelei clapped her hand over his mouth. And whispered to him, "We have to find Greg. Please, we can do this."
His eyes flickered behind her and she turned to look at whatever it was he finally saw.
But there was nothing. She grabbed his hand and tried to run again, but it was hard. Her legs were tired. It seemed infinitely harder than running had been a moment ago.
But then she paused and looked around. And she realized, they were running uphill. She turned around and running got easier again. This was a trap.
She recognized it, it was a way to funnel them. They were doing it on purpose, going in the trap. Why would anyone go in the trap on purpose? What kind of mouse was she? What kind of mouse? This is where the bad things are!
But she heard Todd let out a terrible scream.
And she knew, this was their only choice. And so she grabbed Miles, and they ran faster, and they ran harder, until they found the door.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Kayla went out and fought immediately. As soon as the crowds of roaring laughter died down, she assaulted Michael. He couldn't look, he couldn't stare at the two kids turning into clowns. They were scary. And they looked like they could kill each other. Not for pretend, but for real.
Michael had gotten so tall he was at least twice as big as Gregory now. His arms were long and muscular. He was now a man. And Kayla, she had gotten his big as Gregory had gotten. But she was already much taller than she use to be.
He could see another door open on across from them. And in stepped a little child with pigtails. She was sucking her thumb, staring at the tall gangly clown attacking the girl. They didn't stop, now that there is someone new in the arena with them. They kept going, like she couldn't see. Like she wasn't little.
Greg hesitated, but then a single swing of the scythe and the little girls pigtail, the right one, was snipped off. She didn't even stop sucking her thumb! Greg bit his lip and then ran forwards into the sand. Sue followed, keeping a respectful distance from the fighting.
He grabbed the little girl and picked her up. She sat on his hip as though they were friends as though they had done this a hundred times. Her hair looked ridiculous now, and the little ponytail holder popped off suddenly. So one side of her hair was a fluffy mess, and the other side was still a long curly pigtail. She looked like she was wearing a clown wig.
He thought it before he'd even wrapped his head around what his brain just said to him. Not a clown, she didn't look like a clown. She was a little girl. His brain was playing tricks on him. If this little girl killed someone with she become his enemy?
Before he could decide what on earth that meant, another door panel slid open and two twin boys came tumbling into the arena. They were both holding sticks, and they leapt and launched on top of Michael and beat him.
Michael hollered at the blows, for it hurt like the Dickens. He let out a howl and responds spinning his scythe. It caught on one of the twins shirt tearing a giant hole.
"Don't hurt them! If you kill him you become a clown." Michael screamed.
But the crowd was so loud, and everyone was so focused on fighting.
He tried again, trying to trudge through sand with the little girl on his hip. "Don't fight! It's how you turn into them. You're fighting another kid, he's just turned... Clown."
It was to no avail.
Kayla leapt into the bray, pummeling one of the twin boys with her hammer. The fighting continued, and Greg was utterly helpless.
Chapter Forty
When they opened the door Todd was screaming behind them to jump. He was charging at them like a bull. His ear was dripping blood. Lorelei didn't have time to jump. Todd crashed into the pair. They fell down into a deep room. They landed on a pile of mattresses and sand. A moment later Otis stuck his head through the doorway ten feet above them. "Good, you've made it. Grab a weapon and get ready."
There were no other children in the room with them. It seemed eerily quiet. Painfully so. "Are you okay Miles?" Lorelei asked, as she untangled herself from her brother. Her elbow hurt, but she forgot it immediately as she saw his pained face. He was shaking back and forth, terrified and mute.
Todd, still bleeding, stood up and looked around frantically. There was a wall with swords and other weapons. "We have to prepare ourselves." He grabbed a long staff and swung it a few times. Then dropped it and grabbed a sword.
Lorelei frowned. "What?"
"We are gonna have to fight. Kill no one, just defend yourself. If you kill them you become them."
Lorelei shuddered. "Kill what?"
"The clowns." Todd said. "Don't fight the kids either, they're just like us, you know? And if you die as a kid or die as a clown... I think..." He paused and turned to Lorelei. "Haven't you wondered why there are so many children ghosts? Where they come from? Not all of them turn, but some of them do. The kids that get killed here. They turn into the ghosts. And then, sometimes they help other kids turn into ghosts. I think... maybe they get lonely. But also, I think they might try to save us. I'm not sure any more." He grabbed another stick and swung it. This one was much shorter, bat length, but skinny like a broomstick handle. He swung it twice and smiled. He was ready.
Lorelei watched with increasing fear. She looked at Miles, rocking back and forth, his eyes glossed over. What would happen to him?
And then the wall slide open like a door and they were looking at a large arena made out of sand. Children were all weaponized and fighting. Clowns were mixed among them. The
y were fighting.
Skittles was in the middle of it, holding a small knife. It sang through the air as she threw it at a child with red hair pressed against the wall of the arena. He was trying to escape the fighting. It smacked into the wall with a sickening thud. The little boy screamed and cowered, looking around frantically. Skittles pulled out another knife and threw again.
Lorelei looked away. She didn't want to see what would happen if Skittles knife landed where she aimed it. Todd let out a loud roar and charged into the sand. Running in sand was difficult, and he didn't make it very far before he had to slow down. He cracked a tall clown in the back of the head with his stick. The clown let out a scream of pain and whirled.
It was Milo.
His skinny long frame was hulking over the little boy. In his hands he held a real bat, not a skinny stick like Todd carried. Milo lifted the bat over his head and brought it down hard. Todd was quicker than Milo and rolled under his legs, bopping the lanky clown in the privates as he went by.
Milo screamed again.
Lorelei shuddered and looked back at her little brother Miles. He was still shivering, but his eyes were focused on the fighting. He was watching.
"Stay here, I have to go help them." She whispered to her little brother, and she picked up her own stick and marched into battle.
Chapter Forty-One
It was loud in the arena. And Lorelei could hear a crowd cheering. She looked up and there was an audience of ghosts. She stared at them, and the entire crowd was pale and see-through. Children and clowns, all sitting together and cheering. Watching the Devil's games.
She felt a sharp pain in her left arm, and she whirled. Nobody was next to her. She looked down at her arm. Sticking out of her bicep was a sharp, colorful blade. Her eyes grew big with fright and she looked up and saw Skittles standing so far from her. The girl clown grinned and pulled another knife out of her bag. Lorelei grabbed the knife in her arm and yanked hard, pulling it out. But Skittles stood taller than ever, her sharp blade drawn, her arm pulled back to throw. When suddenly Gregory leapt on Skittles. "Not my sister!" He screamed.
Lorelei gasped. Greg was here! She ran towards her brother, but Otis came from no where and leapt toward Greg. The boy whirled off of Skittles to the new attacker, and Otis landed on the little boy.
But the clown stopped and looked down. And then back up at Greg. Otis grinned slowly and fell. Lorelei could see the wet red color running out of Otis's stomach. Gregory let out a scream. "I didn't mean it! It shouldn't count! I didn't do it on purpose!" His scream was desperate. Skittles turned and looked at him.
"None of us mean it. This is just the way it is. Sorry kid. And welcome to the Funhouse." She held out her hand and helped him up. Greg was dazed, and when he turned to Lorelei with a desperate look in his eye, she could already see the bright blue triangles forming on his cheeks.
Lorelei screamed. "No! Don't take him! No!" And she tried to run towards him, but Milo suddenly was between her. Todd was hitting the big clown desperately on the back with his stick, but he lifted Lorelei into the air and threw her into the sand. Then Milo turned and swung his bat, hitting Todd in the face.
Todd went down suddenly, without a sound. One crack and he was silent and still.
Lorelei scrambled in the thick sand, trying to get her feet under her, and then she heard it.
"Greg?" The sound came too close. She whirled her head and saw her little brother standing in the middle of the arena.
He dropped Colorado on the ground behind him, as he wandered toward Gregory, or what was left of Greg. Greg had grown taller now, thicker, and wider. His face had blue triangles, and bright orange hair was curling out of his ears. He looked so desperately sad.
"Greg?" Miles said again, stepping forward.
Greg gripped his weapon more tightly, staring at his brother. "I'm sorry." He said and raised it into the air.
Miles held out his arms for a hug and said, "They killed Thomas."
Gregory charged forwards to the little boy.
Lorelei shouted, "Don't..." But then there was a cracking sound as the bat in Milo's hands smashed into her ribcage. The pain was unbearable. She screamed.
Gregory stopped charging and cocked his head toward the sound.
But Miles, he turned and charged. "Stay away from my sister!" He screamed and grabbed Micheal's scythe laying on the sand and drove it right between Milo's shoulder blade. Milo dropped. The transformation was even faster now. Miles grew tall and lanky, taller than Otis had been. His face was white as snow, with bold orange lips. His hair turned blue, bright like cotton candy. And he stopped moving, sitting down suddenly and shaking his head. He was lost again.
Chapter Forty-Two
Lorelei screamed. Both her brothers were clowns. Both of them.
She was the last child awake. All the others were turned, or were slumped onto the sand.
She shuddered and slid in the sand as she backed away from the clowns. The kids that had been turned were dazed. They were hesitant, adjusting to their new large bodies.
Gregory cried hysterically. "I didn't mean it." He whimpered, through hard, painful tears.
Lorelei shuddered. Her brother's sobs echoed her own terror. Were Gregory and Miles going to try to kill her now? Would they hurt her? A wave of fear washed over her. Her brothers did sometimes pinch her, but this would be different. This would kill her.
Or.
She could turn herself into a clown. All she had to do was hurt one of the other clowns. Then they'd be together forever. Lorelei, and Miles and Gregory.
Or would they have new names? Her mind was whirling with the possibilities. Skittles couldn't have been her real name.
Skittles.
Lorelei frantically glanced around. Where had she gone? Milo and Otis were gone, Stucco hadn't even been in the fight, as far as she knew, so where had the girl with the knives gone?
Just then she heard a whooshing thud and turned behind her. In the wall was a sparkling throwing knife. Skittles was here that's for certain. She could kill Skittles.
Lorelei swallowed and turned her head quickly, looking for the knife throwing vixen.
But she didn't see her pink hair.
Another whoosh. And the knife pinged off the wall behind her. It didn't stick into the wall. Maybe Skittles was tired from all the fighting?
Lorelei quickly grabbed the fallen knife and looked up just in time to see her. The clown was hiding, and she was bleeding. She popped her head up from behind the fallen Milo, and her arm whipped forward. Lorelei ducked, and the knife went smashing into the wall behind her. Lorelei waited until she could see the pink pigtails and threw the sharp knife with all her might. She threw hard.
The knife spun in the air, and Lorelei was shocked that it found its target, hitting Skittles right between the eyes. But, not with the blade, with the handle. The thump was loud and Skittles looked dazed, and then fell over, knocked out.
Lorelei wasn't sure how it had happened, but now she was the last child, and nobody left was even trying to fight her. Gregory was still sobbing. Miles was zoned out, staring into space. The crowd booed, the ghosts, and ghouls. The faded clowns, and children.
Lorelei stepped forward, so she was in the center of the arena. She frowned. Some of the ghosts were leaving. Was it over? It couldn't be over! Miles and Gregory were clowns! She was still a girl! The terror crawling up her skin was too much to bear.
She needed to find the person in charge. That's what she had to do.
Chapter Forty-Three
"I want to talk to the ringmaster!" Lorelei shouted.
Her shoes were full of sand and the tiny smear of white on her cheek was itching.
"Why do you do this to us? It's not fair. If we fight, we turn into monsters, if we don't fight we die." Lorelei shouted louder, and the arena grew quieter. She was holding the scythe with one hand and Colorado with the other. "It's not fair. What did we do to deserve this?"
The little bear dangled sadly fro
m her fingertips.
"What did you do?" The ringmaster's voice boomed out. "What did you do? What did I do?"
He jumped down into the arena, his crippled arm flapping like a bird wing as he fell through the air. He stuck the landing, his cape, flowing out behind him. Slowly he stood, and for a moment Lorelei could see the flicker. She could see right through him.
"You're dead." Lorelei whispered, surprised.
"Yes." He replied, and he grinned. Teeth were missing and a mouth full of gaping holes, combed with his twisted nose and gnarled shut eye made Lorelei wince. She could hardly look at him. He sneered and shook his head. "You, sorry, pathetic little child. You can't even look at me!" His cape swirled as he spun around her. Grabbing the scythe with one hand and yanking it from her. He bopped her on the head with the handle when he hit her. She let out a cry of pain.
"I was a child once. I had been little, a small thing. And my mother, the ungrateful monster, she left a pan of oil on the stove. She says she would fry chicken. That's what she expects us to believe. Chicken." He seethed. "And I, just a beautiful young boy of five, pulled the hot pot of oil down on my head. So she says."
"I remember it differently." His voice grew even harder, and more hateful. "I remember her asking me to grab the handle. And whatever happened, be it on purpose or be it by accident, it happened. It wasn't fair. Life isn't fair."
"Is that why you made this place?" Lorelei whispered. Tears were still rolling down her cheeks from the sharp pain on her skull. But her lips didn't tremble. Her eyes were dark and alert.
"No, of course not. One small tragedy can't create all of this." He held out his good arm and waved it across the arena. The ghosts, and clowns all sneered. "It was better than that. After I was dutifully deformed my mother, bless her broken soul, took it upon herself to put me in the circus, so to speak. Center stage! Come hither and see the deformed child! Welcome to the funhouse!" The ghosts let out a bellowing cheer, and he took a long bow. "She would paint me like a clown, and I learned to do some tricks. But mostly she made me stand with no makeup. People would cringe in the horror of my tiny, broken face- and pay her good money for it too."
Firelocked Funhouse (Locked House Hauntings Book 3) Page 10
