by Brian Harmon
He appreciated any help he could get whenever the weird came to call, and it certainly wasn’t uncommon for him to find help in unexpected places. Even the most frightening of monsters had occasionally turned out to be surprisingly crucial allies, without which he never could’ve survived some of the messes he’d found himself in. But literally getting handed the keys to every room in the entire building just seemed too easy.
Kacie took them from a drawer in an office desk and placed them in his hand. “These should get you anywhere you need to go,” she informed him. “If you have any questions, you can come find me or Melodi. Or anybody else, really.”
“How many other people work here?” asked Eric.
“Arron and Danielle are tending the arcade. They’ll be at the prize counters, mostly.”
Eric nodded. Aaron would be the heavyset young man with his nose in his cell phone. Danielle would probably be upstairs, then. He hadn’t seen anyone when he was up there, but then again, the party hadn’t quite started yet.
“The only other person here today is Edna. She’s the cook.”
The source of the delectable pizza smell.
“That’s not a lot of employees for a place this big,” remarked Eric.
Kacie shrugged. “They kind of keep a skeleton shift around here. Melodi’s dad is a major cheapskate when it comes to wages.”
He didn’t miss the tone of resentment in her voice as she said that. Melodi told him that it was her dad’s idea to drastically cut back the hours. It made sense that he also cut back on employees. Was Melodi’s dad and his skinflint approach to business the only thing keeping Bellylaugh Playland open these days, he wondered. Or was he only holding the place back from its true potential?
He suspected that Kacie believed it to be the latter.
“Is there anything I can help you with before I go back to work?” she asked.
“No. I think I can handle it from here. But I’m a little curious. You said the building is haunted. Do you mind if I ask what kinds of activity you have here? Just because I’m kind of a geek for those ghost hunting shows.”
Her eyes lit up at this. “Me too! Mel hates us talking about it. I mean I get it. It wouldn’t be good for business if kids were afraid to come because they hear all these ghost stories.”
“That’s probably true,” he agreed.
“But come on. Get the stick out of your butt. Some people really find this stuff interesting.”
“Some people do.”
She glanced up and down the hallway, making sure Melodi wasn’t lurking nearby, and then said in a humorously conspiratorial hush, “You already know about the doors. They lock and unlock by themselves. Same with the lights. We find them on when we get here in the mornings, but we know they were off when we left last night. And everybody’s heard kids playing in the playland when there can’t be anybody here. Lots of people have even seen someone moving around in there. But when you go in to check it out, there’s no one there.”
Eric nodded, interested. Was that Todd, he wondered, entertaining himself when there were no children around? “What about the arcade?” he asked. “Anything weird ever happen there?”
Kacie shook her head. “No. Not that I know of. I mean sometimes, when no one’s here, I get kind of a creepy feeling in there, but I think that’s just the atmosphere. Or the EMF.”
Eric nodded. Electromagnetic frequency was a popular term on ghost hunting shows. Too much of it could make a person feel sick and even cause paranoia and hallucinations. The Bellylaugh Playland arcade, with all those machines, seemed like a perfect place for something like that. And yet, he didn’t think the things he’d experienced in there a little while ago had anything to do with EMF.
“Some people’ve seen shadows and heard voices and footsteps up on the second floor when it’s quiet. And a lot of people get uncomfortable in the basement.” She shrugged. “But then again, the basement’s just kind of creepy, so…”
“Makes sense.”
“I think that’s it. No like, full-bodied apparitions or slime dripping down the walls or anything.” She sounded disappointed when she said that.
“That’s interesting,” said Eric. “Thanks.”
“No problem. Anything else?”
“Um… Just one thing. It doesn’t have anything to do with anything else, but I was curious…did this place ever employ actual clowns?”
This question apparently came even more out of left field than he expected. She kind of scrunched up her face as she thought about it. “Not that I know of. But Mr. Boldt was really fond of circus stuff, so who knows? Maybe when the place was new.”
Eric nodded. So it was possible that those two clowns had once worked here, explaining why they might be haunting the place now.
It certainly explained the unnatural buildup of spiritual energy that Isabelle felt when he entered the building. There were almost certainly more spirits than just the three.
But there was more to all of this than a few wayward spirits. Isabelle had told him once that ghosts don’t generally congregate in one place on their own. Like in Hedge Lake, large numbers of lingering spirits usually indicated something unnatural at work.
His money was on the clowns.
Something was up with those guys. Especially the skinny one with the dark energy hanging around him.
“I should get back to work,” said Kacie. “Let me know if you need anything else.”
Eric assured her he would and thanked her for her time, then watched her walk away. When she was gone, he looked down at his phone. “What do you think?”
OBVIOUSLY, YOU EITHER HAVE SOMEONE HELPING YOU OR SOMEONE TRYING TO LURE YOU INTO A TRAP
“Obviously,” he agreed.
AFTER WHAT HAPPENED IN THE MIRROR MAZE, I’M LEANING TOWARD THE SECOND ONE
That was his thought, as well. (But she knew that, of course.) The same clowns associated with the dark energy had tried to trap him in the mirror maze. What was stopping them from arranging for him to be given these keys so they could lure him somewhere more isolated?
It was far too easy to picture himself getting locked in a closet somewhere in the basement where no one could hear him shouting, helpless to stop whatever tragedy was looming. And that was a profoundly optimistic worst-case scenario.
BUT YOU DON’T HAVE A CHOICE. YOU HAVE TO FIGURE OUT WHAT’S GOING ON IN THAT PLACE
“I know.” There was no way around it. If there was a trap waiting for him somewhere in this building, he was just going to have to risk it.
Besides, he had Isabelle. If anything happened to him, she could let Karen or Holly know in an instant.
He looked up and down the hallway where he was standing. Did he just start nosing around the offices and break room? The kitchen?
I COULD BE WRONG, BUT I DON’T THINK YOU’RE GOING TO FIND ANYTHING IN THAT PART OF THE BUILDING. WHATEVER’S THERE DIDN’T MOVE IN THIS MORNING. IT’S BEEN THERE A WHILE. IT’LL BE LURKING SOMEWHERE PEOPLE DON’T USUALLY GO
Eric nodded. He was looking for the darkest, most terrifying spot in this entire building. Probably some dark, moldy, forgotten corner of the basement.
WHATEVER PLACE IS MOST LIKELY TO BE HIDING A GATEWAY TO HELL, YES
“Yeah, we should just save ourselves the time and go there first.”
TOTALLY
“Get it over with.”
YEP
“Right.”
He turned and walked back the way he came. He’d passed the stairs on his way here. It was the same stairwell that was accessible from the doorway next to the prize counter on the arcade’s first floor. Against his better judgment, he made his way down to the basement where he was sure no one would be able to hear him scream.
He was halfway down when he remembered he still wasn’t wearing any shoes. They were still in the circus train cubby by the playland entrance. He almost turned around and went back for them, but what was the point? He’d gone this far without them. He really didn’t want to walk all the
way to the other side of the building.
He’d just have a quick look around, then he’d go back.
Kacie told him that the doors in this place had a mysterious habit of unlocking themselves, but none of Bellylaugh Playland’s ghosts had been considerate enough to unlock the basement door for him, so he withdrew the keyring and examined it. There were about a dozen keys in all, and none of them were labeled. His only option was to try them one at a time until he found the one that fit this lock.
He glanced around as he tried the first one. It was quiet down here. Unusually quiet, it seemed, considering that there were no doors between him and the noisy arcade. It was probably just the way the sound traveled in this building, but it made him nervous.
The maze had seemed quiet, too, after all.
He couldn’t help but feel like this was a really bad idea.
True to his usual luck, the correct key turned out to be the second to the last one he tried.
He pulled the door open to find a long, gloomy hallway. He could see a number of closed doors, but there was little else to look at. It was a perfectly unremarkable corridor. Bare, concrete floors. Cinderblock walls painted in muted shades of cream.
The light switch was conveniently located just inside the door and although the ceiling fixtures looked a little dated, they all seemed to be in perfect working order, illuminating the entire hallway for him. There wasn’t even any of those creepy, horror movie cliché lights that kept flickering on and off for no apparent reason.
At first glance, the basement didn’t seem nearly as scary as the midway.
He stepped through the door and then stopped. His first thought was that it was much colder in here than it was elsewhere in the building. There seemed to be a chilly breeze blowing against him.
He glanced down at his phone. “Anything?”
NOTHING, replied Isabelle. SPIRITUAL ENERGY AND SOMETHING DARK BUT FAINT
“Good. Let’s hope it stays that—”
WAIT…
Eric snapped his mouth shut.
WHAT IS THAT?
“What’s what?”
THE DARKNESS IS DOING SOMETHING
He glanced around, nervous. “What is it doing?”
IT FEELS LIKE ITS MOVING AROUND
Eric scratched at the back of his neck, uneasy. “What does that mean?”
DO YOU HEAR SOMETHING?
He listened. Now that she mentioned it, he did hear something. It was very faint, but it was there. A sort of murmuring… Or was it more of a whimpering?
He looked both ways, confused. Where was it coming from?
He moved a few steps down the hallway to the left, his head cocked to one side. Was it getting stronger or fainter? The only thing he was sure about was that he didn’t like it. There was something very unsettling about the sound. It made him extremely uncomfortable.
Maybe it would’ve been wiser to stay upstairs and try to learn more about what he was up against before coming down here.
The overhead lights dimmed for a second and then brightened again. He glanced up at them, nervous. Probably a power surge. Maybe the kitchen freezer cycled on or something. It was a big place, with lots of power demands. Nothing to be concerned about. But he couldn’t help feeling jumpy. Something felt very off down here, and the last thing he wanted was to be caught in the dark again.
A loud bang sounded in the silence behind him, startling him. It sounded like a door slamming shut. But when he turned, there was nothing moving.
It could’ve been a draft. Or it could’ve been the plumbing. Sometimes pipes banged together when someone turned on a faucet or flushed a toilet.
But it sounded like a door slamming, and Kacie told him that doors in this building had a habit of opening and closing on their own.
He stood there, motionless, holding his breath, listening to the silence.
And it was silent, he realized. He couldn’t hear the arcade above him, or the screaming children. Even that strange murmuring/whimpering had stopped.
Everything had gone as still as a tomb again.
He felt an icy prickle crawl up his back. Suddenly, he wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of the basement.
But before he could take himself back up the stairs, the silence was broken by the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps behind him.
Alarmed, he spun around. He had only an instant to see the thing that attacked him, far too little time to fully comprehend what he was seeing. It wasn’t human, though it was roughly human-shaped. It had the foul, purplish black color of a decomposing corpse and large, gnarled hands that reached out for him.
He had just enough time to let out a terrified yelp and throw his arms up to shield himself before the thing slammed into him.
It was like being hit by a truck. A massive weight slammed into his chest and stomach with bone-jarring force, lifting him up off his feet and sending him flying backward through the air.
Chapter Ten
Eric landed hard on his butt and then fell backward onto the carpet, clutching his belly and gasping for the breath that had been knocked out of him.
That had hurt like hell. And it was weird. He’d expected clawing or biting, maybe a bludgeoning. He didn’t get a good look at the thing that hit him. He couldn’t remember seeing a face at all, come to think of it… But he saw enough of it to see that it had hands and that it was reaching out for him. Yet he didn’t feel any hands. He didn’t feel anything organic for that matter. It felt like a solid mass, like a wrecking ball colliding with his ribcage. That was the only way he could think to describe it.
Seconds passed. Slowly, his breath came back to him. Nothing else hit him.
He managed to roll onto his hands and knees and look around. The monster was gone. And somehow he was back in the stairwell.
The noises of the arcade and the party had returned.
His cell phone buzzed at him, alerting him to a new message.
OH MY GOD THAT ACTUALLY MADE ME SCREAM!
He wasn’t surprised. That was a scream-worthy experience. A few more scares like that and he might lose his perfect bladder control record…
OKAY, NEW PLAN: STAY THE HELL OUT OF THE BASEMENT UNTIL WE KNOW MORE ABOUT WHAT’S GOING ON
“Yeah,” he grunted. “Way ahead of you there.”
He rose shakily to his feet. Although he wouldn’t have been surprised to find that he had a few broken ribs, he didn’t seem to be severely injured. Was the point of that attack simply to eject him from the basement and discourage him from coming back? If so, it was working splendidly.
YOU NEED TO FIND TODD AGAIN. HE’S THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN TELL YOU WHAT’S GOING ON
His hand went to his pocket. He could feel the weight of the forty tokens inside. The boy told him he’d answer more questions in exchange for tokens, but how did he go about finding a ghost?
SAME WAY YOU FOUND HIM LAST TIME
He nodded. She was right. He didn’t find Todd. Todd would find him if he made himself available.
He turned and walked back up the stairs. If Todd still wanted tokens for the arcade, that’s where he’d be waiting.
But as he reached the first landing, his cell phone rang. No name popped up, only that it was an Illinois call. He started to ignore it, but thought better of it. Last time he ignored his phone, Isabelle yelled at him.
“Hello?”
For a moment, no one spoke. He could hear the line open, but no one seemed to be there. He was about to repeat himself when a small, girlish voice said, “Is this Eric?”
Confused, he replied that it was.
Again, there was a pause. Then, just before Eric could ask if the girl was still there, she said, “Hi.”
“Um… Hi. Can I help you?”
“Yeah. I mean no! I mean… I’m helping.”
Eric stopped short of the noisy arcade and ran a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, who is this?”
“Alicia,” she replied. Then, after a pause, “Holly’s sister…?”
He closed his eyes, confused. “Holly’s…” It hit him then. “Alicia! Vaine.”
“Uh huh.”
“I’m sorry. My head’s somewhere else today.”
“That’s okay,” she assured him.
He met Holly and all her sisters, including Alicia, a little more than a year ago, after they summoned him to rural Illinois to protect them from a murderous wizard they called “the magic man”. Alicia was the youngest survivor of that awful night, with the exception of Siena Lowe, who became a member of their less-than-typical family during the course of those events. She was also a self-proclaimed eco-witch with some of the most impressive supernatural talents he’d ever seen.
And she’d had an awkward crush on him almost since the moment they met.
“I wasn’t expecting to hear from you,” he explained.
“Really? Holly said you needed our help…”
“She did?”
Alicia hesitated. “Didn’t you tell her to call us?”
Eric rubbed wearily at his eyes as he realized what was going on. When Karen refused to let him take Holly so that she could cast her divination spell for him, Isabelle called her directly to let her know what was going on. She promised she’d find a way to help. Clearly, that meant calling her sisters in Illinois to cast the spell in her stead. “Yes,” he replied. “I guess I sort of did. I just wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she told him.
There was an awkward pause then, which Eric eventually broke by saying, “So do you have something for me?”
“Huh? Oh. Yeah. The water. We looked for you. Me and Poppy. It was crazy. You’re so weird.”
Eric frowned.
“I mean it was weird!” she stammered. “The visions were weird. Not you. You’re not weird. I mean you are, I guess. But like, in a good way. Like, I like your weirdness. Oh my god…”
“Okay, just give me the phone before you hurt yourself,” said a voice in the background.
“Okay,” pouted Alicia. “Bye, Eric…”
“Bye,” he replied.
A moment later, the other voice took over. “Hi, Eric. Alicia has to go now, but she says she loves you and wants to have your babies.”
