by Brian Harmon
Poppy said she saw him handing a gold coin to a mysterious figure in a boat.
There was no boat, but Todd could certainly be described as a mysterious figure. The way he came and went, the things he knew…it was clear he was far more than he first appeared. He was not of this world.
Still without taking his eyes off the game, Todd said, “Pay attention. I’m going to show you something really cool.”
“Okay?” said Eric as he tried to shake off the eerie feeling that he’d just paid the ferryman without any idea what his final destination might be.
The boy held the coin out to him, showing him one side of the disk. It had a cartoon clown’s grinning face stamped on it. “It’s a two-headed token.”
“Is it?”
“See? This side is heads.” He flipped the coin around and showed him the other side. “And this side is heads, too. Cool, huh?”
But the side he was showing him now wasn’t the same as the first side. There was no clown face. It read “1 TOKEN” just like the reverse of all the others.
The boy closed his hand around the token and returned it to the wheel of the Batmobile. After a moment of concentrating on the game, he held up the coin and showed him the clown-faced side of the coin. “There’s something here. It’s feeding off the energy the children give off when they play. It’s not hurting them. It doesn’t want to scare them away. It can’t risk it. It needs them. But it wants to hurt them. And it’s getting stronger each day, biding its time until it’s powerful enough to break free. When that happens, it’ll escape into the world.”
“And that’ll be bad,” deduced Eric. “Really bad, I’m sure.”
“It’d be like setting the boogeyman loose on the world,” replied Todd. “Imagine every horror movie you’ve ever seen, wrapped up in one, terrible package, just wandering around out there, free to slink into your home when you least expect it, turning your life into a terrifying hell until it finally gets bored with you and moves on, leaving nothing behind but a blood-soaked nightmare of an unsolvable crime scene.”
“Really, really bad, then,” said Eric.
It was surreal listening to the boy speak. He didn’t talk like a child at all. His words and tone were mature and concise and carried a grim weight.
Todd flipped the coin around to the tails side, which he’d also called heads. “It’s not strong enough to break free yet. It needs to feed more.”
Eric stared at the coin.
1 TOKEN.
Todd flipped the coin around again.
Clown side.
True heads.
“It won’t pass up a free meal. So even if it was strong enough to break free, it wouldn’t miss its chance to feed off the children while they’re here. Especially when there’re so many of them. It would want to feed on their energy until they’re all gone and there’s nothing left. But if it were strong enough to break free already…”
He flipped the coin again.
Reverse. False heads.
“Which it’s not.”
He flipped the coin again.
Obverse. True heads. “Then it would feed on their energy only as long as they were all still here. The moment they started to leave, it wouldn’t have any reason to stay. It’d leave this place forever. But first, it’d slaughter everyone in the building.”
He closed his small hand around the coin again and then returned it to the wheel.
“Understand?” he asked.
Eric nodded. He did indeed. The two headed coin. One side was true heads; the other side was false heads. One was the truth and one was the lie. The boy was protecting himself—maybe both of them—from whatever awful thing was listening to them, trying to confuse it.
Truth: There was something evil lurking in these walls, something that wanted to escape into the world, where it would be all but unstoppable.
False: It wasn’t yet strong enough to escape. A lie. It was strong enough to escape, which meant it didn’t have to keep playing nice. If it had made itself known here, it probably would’ve been the end of Bellylaugh Playland, which meant no more children for it to feed off of, making it impossible for it to ever gain enough strength to escape. It was forced to keep a low profile all this time. But not anymore.
True: It wouldn’t pass up a free meal. And right now it was enjoying an all-you-can-eat banquet provided by dozens of rambunctious children. It would enjoy that energy as long as it lasted. Then, the moment it looked as if the party was over, it would finally satisfy its primal desires and leave this place a bloody nightmare that would no doubt make headlines all over the world.
“You said this thing is feeding off the children now,” said Eric. “Is it hurting them?”
Todd showed him the clown side of the coin. The truth. “Children give off tons of energy when they play. It’s a form of life energy. It’s as natural as the carbon dioxide we all exhale when we breathe. It doesn’t hurt the children at all. But when it’s done hiding, it’ll be a different story. It’ll kill every living thing in and around this building.”
Eric nodded. Very concise for a seven-year-old.
But then again, he wasn’t really seven any more than Isabelle was really thirteen. How old was he, really? How many years had it been since he stopped growing up?
On second thought, he didn’t think he wanted to know…
“You’ve got time for one more question. Then I have to go. Make it count.”
Eric stared at the boy. The pressure was on, it seemed. “Can you tell me how to defeat it?”
Again, the boy showed him the clown face. “No. I can’t.”
“Didn’t think so.”
“Try again. Quickly.”
“Can you at least tell me where to find it? Or at least what it is?”
The clown face again. “I can’t.”
“I see.”
“I don’t know,” he explained. “It’s hidden from me. You’d need to talk to someone stronger. You’d have to find Judith.”
“Judith?” asked Eric. The first time they talked, Todd said something about needing “a key to find her” and that if he didn’t find her, he wouldn’t be able to save the children. This must have been what he was talking about.
“She’d know.”
“Is Judith…” He hesitated. He didn’t dare ask if she was dead. “Is she like you?”
Todd nodded. “She is. She’s much stronger than me. She’ll know where to find it. She’ll be able to tell you exactly what it is. She may even tell you how to stop it.”
“How do I find Judith, then?”
“Can’t tell you. Don’t know.” He was still holding up the clown face.
“I see.”
“Only Eliot would be able to tell you that. He always hangs out in the playland.” He was still holding up the clown face, but now he flipped the coin around.
1 TOKEN. A lie.
“But you’ll never find him. He doesn’t like to play with grownups. So you’ll have to find another way.”
Eric nodded. “I understand.”
Without flipping the token over, Todd added, “Don’t worry. It can’t risk showing itself yet. It’s still not strong enough. So it won’t try to stop you.” Now he looked away from the screen and met his gaze. “It’s not like it can kill you or anything.”
The Batmobile crashed and the game ended.
It switched to a continue screen with high scores and the laughing image of the Joker. He’d always liked that character, ever since he was a kid. One of his all-time favorite villains. But never before had the Clown Prince of Crime ever looked so creepy.
Again, he wondered why it had to be clowns.
When he looked away from the screen, he found that Todd had vanished again.
He was alone.
It’s not like it can kill you or anything, he thought.
Tails.
A lie.
Whatever evil thing was lurking here was going to do everything it could to stop him.
He checked his
watch. It was already going on eleven thirty. A little more than three and a half hours remained. The moment the children began to leave, all hell was going to break loose.
The only thing keeping everyone alive was its greed.
Chapter Twelve
Eric’s first thought as he stood up was that he needed to tell Karen what he’d learned. His second thought, right on the heels of that first thought, was that his first thought was an absolutely terrible idea. He couldn’t tell her that. It would terrify her. It would terrify anyone. It terrified him.
It was a conundrum. He didn’t lie to her. He simply didn’t. He believed very deeply that honesty was sacred between a husband and a wife. The closest he ever came to lying was when he bent the truth about how narrowly he evaded death during a few of these insane adventures. (Sure the wacko in the cowboy hat shot at him, but he missed by a mile. He certainly never heard a bullet whistle past his ear.) But how could he tell her that there was a powerful evil lurking somewhere in this building, feeding off the energy expelled by all these children, and that if he didn’t find a way to stop it before the end of the party, it was going to rise up and slaughter everyone?
They were all sitting on a ticking time bomb. One that would go off instantly if they attempted to evacuate the building. Except instead of fire and shrapnel, it would be a hellish monster rampaging through the building.
How could he possibly lay something like that on her? She was already stressed out. Being a party planner was tough enough on its own. How much worse would it be if she knew that she could die horribly if too many people began to leave the building?
What kind of horror would it be, he wondered. What would they all see in the final, agonizing moments of their lives?
No. It wasn’t going to happen. He wouldn’t let it.
He glanced around the room and again made eye contact with Danielle from the second floor ticket counter. She was standing beside the token machines now. Again, she was just staring at him.
He didn’t want to seem rude and just turn and walk away…but he also didn’t know what else to do, so he just…turned and walked away…
What in the world was that woman’s deal, anyway? That didn’t seem like normal behavior for an arcade employee. The other guy, with his big, red nose glued to his cell phone, he was normal. This… This was how horror movies started.
He crossed the second floor of the arcade, away from Danielle’s ever-present gaze, and walked up to the second floor entrance of the playland. He peered in at the children, watching them for a moment. Then he stepped to one side and withdrew his phone.
He didn’t need to ask the question aloud.
IT’S DEFINITELY POSSIBLE, she told him.
Todd said the energy given off by the children as they played was a form of life energy.
IT COULD BE RELATED TO SPIRITUAL ENERGY, theorized Isabelle. IF LIFE IS INHERENTLY CONNECTED TO THE SOUL, THEN THE TWO MIGHT COME AS A PAIR. OR MAYBE LIFE ENERGY BECOMES SPIRITUAL ENERGY AFTER DEATH
That made a certain kind of sense, he supposed.
EVERY LIVING THING COULD GIVE OFF LIFE ENERGY
“Why wouldn’t we know about it, then? Wouldn’t life energy be everywhere? I mean, there’s nowhere on earth without some kind of life, right?”
PRECISELY. LIFE IS EVERYWHERE, SO WE’VE NEVER BEEN ANYWHERE IT’S NOT. I CAN’T SENSE IT BECAUSE I’M ESSENTIALLY BLIND TO IT
That made sense, too. It was like getting used to a certain smell. Like those little air freshener things Karen liked to buy. After a day or two, you just couldn’t smell them anymore. He never could understand why she bothered.
I’VE WONDERED IF THERE WAS SUCH A THING, BUT I COULDN’T BE SURE OF IT. IT’S NOT SOMETHING YOU CAN TEST
“How many different kinds of energy can there possibly be?”
THERE’S NO WAY TO REALLY KNOW. MAYBE HUNDREDS
OR MAYBE THERE ARE ONLY A FEW, BUT EACH ONE HAS TONS OF VARIATIONS. HOLLY TOLD YOU THAT MAGICAL ENERGY COMES IN DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT FORMS, DEPENDING ON WHO’S USING IT
That was true. According to Holly, the magic she and her sisters used was almost certainly unique to their coven. Any other magic he might encounter on these strange journeys would probably differ from what he’d seen them use.
MAYBE ALL NON-PHYSICAL ENERGY IS LIKE THAT
Maybe. For all he knew, it could all be variations of a single kind of energy.
This was a fascinating subject, but they didn’t have time to stand around discussing it. They needed to find the kid named Eliot and convince him to take them to Judith.
Eric peered through the mesh walls of the playland structure. It was now crawling with children. It wasn’t going to be easy. He didn’t even know what Eliot looked like.
When they first met, Todd told him that he’d need a key to find “her”. Was he talking about Judith? He also said that the key wasn’t a key. It was something else. Was Eliot the key? Or was he overthinking this whole thing?
He wished Todd could’ve answered a few more questions. But wishing wasn’t going to help these kids. He needed to stop wasting time and get in there.
But before he could duck through the entrance and into the colorful labyrinth, he was frozen by the same, eerie giggling he heard in the Midway.
Slowly, he turned and scanned the area around him.
Nothing. There was no sign of the clown.
But still the giggling went on.
Something was apparently very funny. But Eric didn’t think he was going to be amused. He stepped toward the arcade, his head cocked, listening.
The machines in front of him didn’t have monitors. They were mostly redemption games. Drop in your tokens, get a handful of tickets, cash them in at the counter for some junk you could’ve bought at the store for far less than you spent on the tokens in the first place.
But they all had speakers. And the creepy giggling seemed to be coming from several of them at once.
Eric stopped. He wasn’t going back into that arcade. Something wasn’t right. He could feel it.
It was trying to bait him.
He needed to be careful. Todd warned him to be careful.
But the giggling didn’t stop. It went on for a moment. Then the same voice said, “So pretty…” before returning to the eerie giggling.
Eric took a step backward, suspicious. What was this thing up to?
“So… So pretty… Very pretty…”
Then, abruptly, the giggling voice stopped.
He didn’t move.
“Very pretty wife you’ve got there,” the voice whispered into his ear.
Eric jumped and twirled around, startled.
There was no clown. There was a twelve-year-old girl standing a few feet away, staring at him as if he were a raving lunatic, but there was no clown.
He didn’t have time to feel embarrassed.
Why was it talking about his wife?
There was a walkway separating the second floor of the playland from the safety glass wall that overlooked the party room. He rushed over and looked down, scanning the partygoers below.
Karen was at the gift table in the far corner of the room, organizing the presents into an impressive display. She was alone. Her mother and Joyce had apparently wandered off to mingle with friends, finally leaving her to her work. And yet, she was only alone in that corner of the room. There were children running around and parents gathered at several of the tables.
Everything seemed normal down there.
Just a distraction? A bluff? A weak attempt to distract him from his task of finding the boy named Eliot?
Or was it a threat?
One of those plaster clowns was standing against the wall near the gift table. As he watched, the grinning monstrosity turned its head and looked at her.
Chapter Thirteen
It was one of those tall, skinny clowns, with a wide, cartoonish grin and long, awkward-looking arms and legs. It wore a jumpsuit with red and yellow vertical stripes and a tiny, orange bowle
r hat. Until now, it had been standing with its huge, red shoes spread apart and its oversized, cartoon gloves on its hips, frozen in mid-laugh. But now it stepped away from the wall and turned to face Karen.
She was absorbed in her work, paying attention to nothing but the arrangement of the gifts in front of her, oblivious to anyone who might approach her, including a murderous, plaster clown.
Eric’s heart was pounding. What did he do? With all the screaming children in the playland right behind him, it wouldn’t matter if he screamed at the top of his lungs. She’d never hear him from this distance.
He fumbled for his phone again.
Isabelle. He rarely used the phone to make calls. He liked to let others contact him, if he had to use the damn thing at all. In the time it took him to call her number, Isabelle could already have her on the line.
ON IT, she assured him. As always, she was way ahead of him. It didn’t hurt that she could react to his thoughts as soon as they popped into his head. Plus, she was usually clever enough to make decisions on her own, often knowing what to do before he could even think of something.
He stared down at the party room, his stomach twisting into a terrified knot as he watched the clown take a large, clunky step toward his distracted wife. “Come on!” he groaned. “Pick up!”
Why didn’t anyone else see it? There were dozens of people down there. Surely somebody would notice a walking clown statue!
“Forget the stupid presents and pick up!”
But she continued with her project, unaware of the monster that had detached itself from the wall and begun lurching toward her.
SHE’S NOT ANSWERING!
“What?”
She might not always answer her phone, but she always checked it when it rang. And she wouldn’t ignore Isabelle.
He leaned against the glass and looked down at the people below. They were all going about their own business, completely unaware of anything taking place in the far corner of the room.
“Try Holly!” he said, catching sight of her. She was replenishing the soda cups at the refreshment table.
I’M TRYING!
NEITHER OF THEM IS ANSWERING!
