Rushed: All Fun and Games

by Brian Harmon

Piece of cake.

  Careful not to trip over the small, hyperactive, clown-nosed savages, he made his way to the right, away from the busy party room entrance, and around the ball pit. As soon as he rounded the corner, he caught sight of a familiar, green sport coat and froze.

  The clown was squatting down, its back to him. There was a little brown-haired girl in front of it, staring wide-eyed at an arcade token it’d just produced for her, no doubt through some magical means.

  It gave the token to the girl, then looked back over its shoulder at him.

  It knew he was there. It always knew where he was.

  Eric didn’t dare charge the clown again. He didn’t want to risk frightening the girl. But he also didn’t want to get boxed up in a mirror coffin again.

  It stood up, as spry and energetic as any of the children, and stepped behind the girl, then stood there with its bony hands resting on her shoulders. It wasn’t as frightening as it was before. Its makeup was no longer smears and smudges. Its lips were neatly painted, its smile sharply drawn across its cheeks. The circles around its eyes were smaller, neater, more cheerful.

  This was the face it showed the children, he realized.

  The little girl showed Eric the token and happily exclaimed, “Look! Magic!”

  Eric gave her a cautious smile. “I’ll bet it was,” he said.

  The clown knelt down behind her, so that he was peering over her shoulder. She looked back at him, grinning, and he grinned back. But when she looked back at Eric again, its face changed. Its eyes went black. Its mouth opened all the way to its chest, revealing long, jagged teeth, and a black, serpent-like tongue.

  Eric took a step forward, his heart leaping into his chest.

  But the girl looked back at the monster again and in an instant it was only a happy, friendly clown again, smiling innocently at her.

  “Do it again!” she said.

  “Hey…” said Eric. “What’s your name?”

  “Nevaeh,” replied the girl.

  “Neveah,” said Eric. “I think I heard your mom looking for you.”

  Neveah wrinkled her nose at him. “My mom’s not here,” she replied. “She dropped me off and went shopping.”

  “Oh.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Must’ve been someone else.”

  Nevaeh turned back to the clown. “Please?” she begged.

  The clown raised its hand in front of her, showing her its empty palm. Then, lightning fast, it snapped its fingers and turned its hand palm, up, presenting two more shiny tokens for her.

  She squealed with delight and snatched them up.

  “Hey, Nevaeh,” said Eric, an idea striking him. “Did you see the other clown? Out in the party room? The pretty one with the red hair?”

  Her eyes lit up again. “Oh yeah! She’s nice!”

  Behind her shoulder, the clown changed again. This time, its entire face peeled open around its mouth, revealing a great, gaping maw filled with rows upon rows of needle-like teeth.

  Eric forced himself not to react. “She is, isn’t she? Did you know she has a treat for you?”

  “She does?”

  The clown’s face began to rotate. From deep down in that awful, toothy gullet came a mass of twisting, coiling things that slowly slithered toward the girl’s head.

  This place was crawling with children. Was no one else seeing this?

  He didn’t dare take his eyes off them to look around.

  He wanted to grab her and snatch her away from the monster, but he couldn’t risk frightening her. If she ran to someone, crying and saying that he grabbed her in the playland, he was going to have much worse to deal with than monster clowns.

  Todd said it wouldn’t risk frightening the kids and losing its free meal. He had to believe that was true, otherwise what was keeping it from going on a rampage right now?

  “Oh yeah,” he told her. “All you have to do is tell her Eric said you could have one.”

  Nevaeh shouted, “Yay!” and then ran past him, heading for the party room and her promised treat.

  The clown stood up. Its face had reverted back to its friendly form again. It put both its hands on its cheeks and pursed its mouth into an, “uh-oh!” expression, then bolted around the back of the ball pit.

  Eric ran after it, but the moment it was out of sight, it was gone again.

  He stopped and turned in a circle, scanning the area around him.

  Directly behind him, somebody knocked on the plexiglass wall of the ball pit. He turned to find the clown standing inside, surrounded by screaming, writhing children. It was waving at him, grinning its stupid grin.

  Its face had reverted to the scary, smeared visage from their last encounter.

  He looked around, but there was no way in. You still had to climb up into the playland and descend into it from above. It should’ve been physically impossible for the clown to have gotten in there so quickly.

  As he watched, it stuck a foul, black tongue out at him and then sank straight down into the balls and vanished.

  Eric stood there a moment, then turned away, puzzled. Two girls, both of them about twelve, were walking by. “Did anybody else see that?” he asked them.

  “See what?” asked one of the girls.

  He cocked a thumb at the ball pit behind him, but when he looked back at where he was pointing, there was a chubby kid standing there with his shirt pulled up and his face and bare belly mashed against the glass, making ugly faces at them.

  “Gross!” said one of the girls as they continued on their way.

  “Weirdo!” said the other.

  Eric rubbed wearily at his temples. “I hate this place,” he growled.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Eric searched the playland. He made a circle around the ball pit, searching the upper levels whenever he could find an opening to look through. He peered into the mirror maze. He stepped out the back and checked the hallway by the restrooms and stairs. The clown was nowhere to be seen.

  He kept playing the encounter over and over again in his head. It didn’t make sense. He could handle that the clown wasn’t human. That much was clear almost from the start. And it was pretty standard fare for him, to be honest. When it came to the weird, there were always monsters. But this particular monster, whatever it was, demonstrated its supernatural skills in what should’ve been plain sight of countless children, without any visible fear of being seen.

  Clearly, little Nevaeh could see it, at least in its “friendly” face. But they were standing right next to the plexiglass wall of the ball pit. At least a dozen kids were playing in there at any given time. Plus, they could be seen through the playland’s mesh walls from most of the surrounding parts of the playland. Sure, these kids were probably all too busy having fun to pay any attention to them, but all it would’ve taken was a single glance while that thing was making faces at him over the girl’s shoulder to start someone screaming.

  And in spite of how crowded it was in here, no one ran past them during that encounter. No one came down the padded steps, no one slid down the slide and no one came out of the mirror maze, all of which were in plain sight.

  It was almost as if the clown could manipulate its environment in some way, preventing people from interrupting them. Or maybe it was invisible to everyone else. Maybe it could choose who it wanted to be seen by.

  But this only led him back to the million-dollar question: Just how the hell was he supposed to fight something like that? What prevented it from simply blocking him out until it was ready to break free.

  For that matter, what prevented it from killing him? Besides wanting to avoid bringing the party to a premature end, he supposed. It probably would’ve been a major party killer if Melodi had opened the midway doors to find his tattered and bloody body lying on the floor. But what kept it from killing him when it had him trapped in the mirror maze?

  If Todd was telling the truth, then it was certainly capable of killing people. The only thing keeping it from doing so was an insatiable de
sire to gorge itself on as much life energy as possible first.

  And it’d been able to transport him from the mirror maze to the midway, in spite of the doorway between the two being blocked off. So why not kill him and dump him in the basement somewhere? Who would know? By the time he was missed, the party would be over anyway.

  Unless…

  He glanced down at his phone. Unless it knew about Isabelle…

  She’d know. She could tell someone.

  THAT COULD BE IT, she agreed.

  What she’d do in such a situation, he didn’t know. And neither did she, he was sure. It wasn’t an outcome either of them cared to think about too much. But it was a variable that the clown didn’t have control over.

  IT WON’T RISK IT, agreed Isabelle.

  Eric nodded. She was right. It wanted the energy these kids were giving off. It wouldn’t risk doing anything to scare them. That was probably the only thing keeping him alive right now.

  But then why didn’t it just stay hidden? Why was it stalking him?

  BECAUSE IT KNOWS YOU CAN WIN

  She was right, he realized. It was messing with him, distracting him so that he’d waste time instead of getting on with what he was supposed to be doing. And it was working. Because he was standing here trying to psycho-analyze a psycho clown when what he was supposed to be doing was locating this Eliot kid, who he didn’t even have a description of and who was probably a ghost. Because, apparently, finding an ordinary child in this three story tower of childish madness would be far too easy.

  He asked a couple of the kids he passed if they knew Eliot, but of course none of them did. Why would they? He wasn’t on the guest list. And he probably blended in far better than Eric did. He was just another kid in the crowd to them.

  Time was ticking away and he had no idea what he should do next.

  TODD SAID HE LIKED PLAYING WITH GROWNUPS, Isabelle reminded him.

  He did say that. Sort of… With the help of his “two-headed” token. Meaning that Eliot, like Todd, might just come to him if he was patient. But how patient was he expected to be? He’d already killed too much time in here. He was starting to think he’d be better off forgetting the ghosts and investigating the rest of the building.

  He even slipped his hand into his pocket and touched the keys Kacie gave him.

  WE STILL DON’T KNOW HOW TO HANDLE WHAT’S IN THE BASEMENT, she reminded him. IT’S TOO DANGEROUS TO GO DOWN THERE WITHOUT MORE INFORMATION

  But how long can we afford to wait? he wondered.

  Isabelle didn’t get a chance to answer. At that moment, his phone went black.

  He frowned at it and pressed the button.

  A tiny image appeared on the screen then, no more than an eighth of an inch tall. He held the phone up to his face, trying to see what was there. It was then, as he squinted at it, that the image blew up to the full size of the screen, revealing it to be the emaciated face of the woman he saw in the arcade.

  He was so startled that he actually threw the phone, bouncing it off the mesh wall of the playland.

  Horrified by both the startling image and the idea of his only link to Isabelle shattering into expensive pieces, he snatched it up off the floor before one of the children could step on it

  Fortunately, the padded floor was soft enough to keep the screen from cracking on impact. And by the time he was holding it in his hand again, the unsettling image of the woman was gone and it was working perfectly again.

  WHAT THE CRAP WAS THAT?

  Eric had no idea. But it scared the hell out of him for a second there.

  He was really starting to hate this place.

  Who was that woman, anyway? Why did she keep turning up like that?

  Before he could consider it any further, Melodi’s voice boomed cheerfully over the loudspeakers, announcing that pizza was being served in the dining area. Apparently, the children were hungry, because the chaos of the playland immediately shifted in the direction of the exits and everyone began fleeing the playland in a mad rush.

  Eric turned in time to see the chubby kid inside the ball pit plow right over two smaller children in his rush to the steps.

  Suddenly, he was happy to be in here and not out there in the party room. In less than a minute, the din of screaming children dulled to a slightly muffled roar.

  But not every child was hungry enough to abandon the playland. He could still hear several of them running around up there, screaming at one another. One little girl was still in the ball pit, throwing balls up in the air, enjoying having the place to herself for a change.

  And he could hear several mothers calling out for their children, encouraging them to come eat.

  He hoped this would make finding Eliot a lot easier, but as it turned out, he didn’t need to worry about it.

  “Aren’t you going to go eat, too?” asked a small voice from somewhere over his head.

  When he looked up, he found a small, dark-haired boy of about four staring down at him through the black safety mesh. He was lying on his belly in an overhead tunnel, wearing blue jeans and a plain, white tee shirt.

  “No,” replied Eric. “I’ve got things I need to do.”

  “What kinds of things?”

  “Well, for starters, I’m looking for someone. A boy named Eliot. I don’t suppose you’re him, are you?”

  “I might be,” replied the boy. “What do you want him for?”

  “I need his help. I need to talk to Judith.”

  “Hmm…” said the boy. “Judy doesn’t like to talk to people.”

  “But it’s really important,” pressed Eric. “I’m trying to save the children. Todd told me I have to talk to Judith.”

  “You know Todd?”

  “I do. He’s the one who told me to find you.”

  The boy considered him for a moment without speaking.

  “So can you take me to Judith?”

  “Sure,” he replied. “I can.”

  Eric stared up at him for a moment. This kid was up to something. He was being evasive. “Okay… Will you?”

  “Sure,” he decided. “On one condition.”

  “What’s that?”

  Eliot grinned down at him. “You have to catch me.”

  “What?”

  “Catch me,” he said again. “If you do, I’ll take you to Judy.”

  Todd did tell him that Eliot liked to play with grownups. He should’ve taken it as a warning.

  He looked around at the towering playland with all its small, confined spaces. “I’m pretty positive I won’t be able to catch you in there. I’m way too big.” Not to mention way too old… “I’m not sure I’d even fit.”

  “Come on,” urged the boy. “I’ll go easy on you.”

  “We don’t have time to play games,” insisted Eric. He glanced around to make sure no one was close enough to hear him and said, “People could die if I don’t talk to Judith right away.”

  But when he glanced back up, the boy was gone.

  “Then you’d better hurry up,” he called down from somewhere higher up. “Because I’m not taking you to Judy until you catch me.”

  Eric cursed under his breath. He didn’t have time for this. But he didn’t seem to have any choice.

  The fastest way up to the next level seemed to be the padded steps, but the padding was so thick, he found it difficult to run up them without tripping. He had to slow down and take his time, widening Eliot’s already unrealistic lead.

  At the top of the steps was a narrow passageway that was tall enough for him to stand upright in, but filled with large, plastic balls that were suspended from above. They were all swinging back and forth, as if someone had just run through them.

  “Come on!” called Eliot. It was difficult to tell whether his voice was coming from this level or the one above.

  He pushed past the big, plastic balls and then stopped as he found himself in a cramped intersection. Which way did he go? There was no sign of the boy. Even ignoring the fact that the kid wa
s a ghost and could probably just freaking teleport to the top and back, how the hell was he supposed to find anyone in a place like this?

  Someone ran by directly overhead. Was that Eliot? Or was it one of the other kids still running around in here?

  Time was still ticking away. He needed to just pick a direction and go.

  There was a yellow tube to his left, designed to be crawled through. By children. Not slightly-overweight, thirty-three-year-old men. But it wasn’t impossible, either. He managed to fit through it (much to the protest of his poor knees) and found himself directly beneath a narrow, square opening to the level above him.

  He squeezed through it, barely managing to fit, and then crawled through another plastic tube just like the first one, except this one was blue instead of yellow and about twice as long.

  This took him to a little viewing window overlooking the party room. From here he could see the children lined up, waiting their turn for pizza. Other children were already stuffing their faces, eager to get back to playing. Karen, Melodi and an older woman he’d never seen before—the cook Kacie mentioned, he was sure—were doing their best to keep up with the pushing crowd, while Holly and Kacie passed out cups of soda.

  That was the sort of work he was supposed to do here. It was why Karen dragged him along. That, and to pick up the balloons, of course. He’d been dreading it ever since she first told him he was recruited, and even now he wasn’t exactly sorry to not be down there in the midst of all that craziness.

  But this wasn’t really an improvement, either.

  And at the pace some of those little beasts were eating, the playland was going to get crowded again really fast. He didn’t have much time.

  There was a climbing net beside him, leading still higher up into the playland. Made of thick, course rope, it was perfectly easy for children to scurry up them. He’d seen them do it on another net at the bottom. But what he discovered as he began climbing was that his increased weight had the unfortunate effect of turning the knotted footholds into torture devices. It was like standing on dull, metal blades.

  This wasn’t a playland. This was some kind of cleverly disguised upper level of hell.