Wings of Darkness: Book 1 of The Immortal Sorrows Series (6 page)

      In all honesty, I have to
admit I was more nervous about that spiced leather scent that followed us than
about the haunted house.  I had the strange feeling that something huge
was about to happen.  Like the other shoe was about to drop, and it might
just land on the back of my head.

     The zombie room narrowed down to a
hallway again and someone started beating on the walls from the other side with
a board, or a hammer. Plywood walls can make an awful noise if someone is
really working at it.  Deep, echoing booms set all of our nerves on edge.

     A pair of girls in front of us
somehow ended up behind us as they squealed and giggled with nervous delight. I
wasn’t sure if we were going too slowly, or they were just doubling back to get
a better look at some of the actors. I couldn’t blame them; the make-up on them
was top-notch. It was worth another look.

     I started to get hot and a little
sweaty, but didn’t want to take my hoodie off and carry it.  Laziness on
my part, I know, but there it is.  I also didn’t want to let go of Alex’s
hand, in case we got separated. I figured there was a corn maze up ahead somewhere,
so we would be outside again, and into cooler air, eventually.

     We climbed up a few flights of
stairs lined with metal fencing along both sides.  I wasn’t sure if it was
meant to keep us inside, or to keep whatever was outside from getting in. 
Suddenly, another maniac showed up in a hockey mask and ran a metal rod across
the fence, throwing sparks wherever he touched.  Everyone in the group
jumped back, startled.  A panel opened up in the wall and hands made a
grab for us.  We turned and ran for the top of the stairs. So much for
keeping our cool.

     We came out into another tight
hallway.  Whomever built this place loved to torture the
claustrophobic.  This led into a metal walkway that ran through a rolling
barrel about forty feet long.  Inside, the barrel was painted with
multi-colored spirals of neon glow paint.  Black light turned it all into
a life sized, moving kaleidoscope.  It was incredibly cool, but the tunnel
made me dizzy as hell.  I let go of Alex so I could hang onto the safety
rails.

     It was like the room was spinning
and the floor was coming up to meet me all at the same time. I’ve never been
drunk in my life, but I bet it feels a lot like that.  I started falling
forward about halfway across when I felt strong hands at my waist, steadying
me.  Alex.  I turned around quickly to tell him thanks, but nobody
was there.  Alex was about ten feet away from me; there was no way he
could have moved fast enough to catch me.  Spooked, I hurried to catch up
to Gwen and Marc.

     At the end of the tunnel we stepped
through several layers of gaudy, bright plastic streamers.  They were more
annoying than scary, but it gave everyone a chance to catch their breath before
the next thing jumped out at us.  Circus music played, too long, too loud,
and too slow; it had a discordant tone running through it.  Instead of
cheerful, like at a real circus, it sounded legitimately creepy.  This
must be the Circus of Fear.

     A guide appeared, almost as if by
magic, and beckoned us on with the crook of her bloody finger.  Her
brightly colored clown outfit was covered in blood and tiny fake spiders. 
Gwen elbowed me in the side and nodded her head slightly to the left. 
Marc obviously had a problem with clowns.  No kidding, he was as pale as a
ghost himself, and visibly starting to shake.  He wet his lips nervously,
and shifted from foot to foot, like he wanted to run.  I wondered how long
it would be before he had a total freak out.

     Our creepy clown rubbed her hands
together and brought us together in a cluster, all around her.  All,
except for Marc.  He stayed as far away from the clown as he possibly
could.  I rolled my eyes at Gwen.  Catching my meaning, she
snorted.  He had to know none of this was real, right?  He was so
pale, the sprinkle of freckles across the bridge of his nose stood out like
cinnamon on a vanilla cupcake.  Sweat beaded his forehead and started to
trickle down the side of his face.  He wasn’t going to make it through the
whole attraction.

     “Welcome to the Circus of
Fear!”  Spooky clown had a properly wispy, sinister voice.  “Be
careful as you enter, for not everything is as it seems.  Feel free to
scream if you feel the need, but remember that no one can hear you, if you
do.”  Well, that was ominous, but a nice opening to the same old speech
about the cell phones.  At least she tried to add some drama.

     The clown ushered us into a huge
room laid out as a maze, only the “walls” were thin strips of metal and all of
it was painted with the same day-glow paint that was inside the rolling
barrel.  It was all extremely disorienting, and looked more like a looney
jail than anything else.  It, too, was full of stuff meant to scare the
crap out of us; and all of it glowed under black light.   Alex looked
around and smiled broadly.  “This is so cool.”  His teeth glowed blue
under the light.  I stopped myself from sniggering.

     “Yeah, it is.  Um, check out
Marc, over there,” I said, quietly.  Alex’s eyes swung towards his friend.

     “Damn.  I forgot he has a
hang-up about clowns.”  That was putting it mildly.

     Tiny clowns with bloody,
grease-paint smiles, and greedy hands reached to grab at us as we passed. 
Big aquarium tanks full of real snakes and spiders made up whole walls of
creepy-crawlies.  I cringed inside.  I was terrified of snakes and
the thought of them getting out of the aquariums was enough to make my blood
run cold.  I began to think poor Marc wasn’t as crazy as I originally
thought.

     I was more than ready to find the
exit when a giant, demon clown walked up to Gwen.  Eyes so dark that they
were nearly black, twinkled with silent laughter as he held out his closed hand
to her.  She giggled and put both her hands in her hoodie pockets.
 “Nope, no way.  Not taking whatever you’re handing out, Buddy.”

     I laughed at her.  “Aww, you
made a friend, Gwen.”  I nudged her forward.  “Take it. How bad can
it be?  Everything in here is fake.” Well, almost everything.  I avoided
looking at the snake aquariums.

     “You take it,” she laughed at
me.  The giant clown waited patiently, like he had all the time in the
world.

     “He wanted you to have it, not
me.”  The clown nodded, silently agreeing with me.  Under all the
paint he looked like he might be kind of cute, if you scrubbed his face long
enough. And got him out of the over-sized, bloody clown getup. He was big, and
broad in the shoulder; he had serious potential.

     “Fine.”  Gwen put out a
hesitant hand.  Creepy clown grinned sharp teeth at her and carefully,
almost tenderly, placed a large, hairy spider in her hand.  At first
glance, it looked fake, but the look of horror that washed over her face was
legitimate.  So was the blood-curdling scream she let out, followed by a
round of curses that would have made a sailor blush.  She dropped the
all-too-real spider, and started to stomp on it, but the evil clown was quicker
than that.  He snatched his pet out of mid-air and sauntered away,
laughing at her expense.  I had to grab Gwen to keep her from going after
him.  “That nasty sonofabitch!  Let me go, I can still catch him,”
she snarled, thoroughly pissed.  I was amazed I managed to keep hold of
her.  Alex helped me to calm her down; otherwise we’d probably finish the
double date in the county jail.  The last thing she needed was an assault
and battery charge against her because of some asshole clown.

     “Calm down, Gwen. You wanted to be
scared.  He got you fair and square.”  Well, there was nothing fair
about it.  Live spiders shouldn’t be part of the entertainment. 
There was no question he’d scared the crap out of everybody, including some of
the other clowns, it seemed.  The actors even looked confused about what
had just happened.  It made me wonder if he was part of the original crew,
or a walk-on actor, hired just for the evening.  For all we knew, he could
be a crazed serial killer looking to fill his freezer with some unsuspecting
teenagers.  Yeah, not a pleasant thought.

     Gwen finally calmed down, but by
then she was more embarrassed than anything else.  She didn’t embarrass
easily, but screaming like a five year old about to crap herself on the
playground was sure to do the trick.  The other people in our group left
us behind as they maneuvered through the forest of giant glowing prison
bars.  “Let’s just get the hell out of here. This is like a demon version
of Willy Wonka, with Oompa Loompas from Hell.” 

     “I couldn’t agree more. 
Wait.  Where’s Marc?”  I looked around, but he was nowhere to be
found.  At least not by me; I was at a serious height disadvantage.

     Alex spotted him first.  Marc
was cowered into a corner, having a controlled freak-out.  A shadow
separated itself from a corner of the room and glided towards us.  It was
one of the actors we’d been warned about that would be watching us.  She
didn’t have on any elaborate, scary make-up; she was camouflaged, more than
anything else.  “I think your friend has had enough.”

     “Ya think?”  Gwen tried to
help Marc to his feet, but not feeling well herself had taken a toll; he nearly
dragged her down with him.  Alex ended up helping him up.  I saw Marc
nodding at whatever Alex said to him. He walked determinedly towards the exit
sign. 

     Gwen took his hand. That was just
so not like her. “I can take him home.  I’ve had about as much fun as I
can stand, myself.”

     “Are you sure?  We can go with
you, maybe go get something to eat?”

     “You guys go ahead and finish your
date.  I’ll see you tomorrow, Iz.”  She waved us off as they headed
for the exit.  Poor Marc never even looked up.  He was probably too
embarrassed. Come Monday morning, the story would change, but for now, he’d had
enough.

     Alex turned to me.  “Are you
sure you want to stay?”

     “Yeah, we might as well.  Gwen
wasn’t feeling good to start with; I’m surprised she held up this long.  I
think she’s coming down with something.”

     “Ok.  There shouldn’t be too
much more to get through.”

     By the time we made it out of the
Circus of Fear, we’d lost the rest of the party we came in with.  It was
just the two us in the broken elevator.  The elevator was rigged to spin
around and do a controlled drop into darkness.  The sudden stop was
bone-jarring and as with everything else in this crazy place, highly
disorienting.  Alex caught me as I started to fall on my rear. He was
making a habit of saving me, lately. The doors opened up and we suddenly found
ourselves outside, in what had to be the Vampire Cemetery.

     There were people up ahead, but I
still didn’t see anyone I recognize in our party.  I guessed it didn’t
matter.  The ticket lady had said we would go through at our own
pace.  We surely weren’t the only ones getting left behind by our original
groups.  I couldn’t see a whole lot of anything; not with all of the fog
covering the ground. It creeped over the tombs, and played peek-a-boo in the mausoleums. 
Just to the right of us, a coffin groaned open, and a vampiress glided slowly
out.  She must have practiced that move for months, because it was as
smooth as silk.

     Vampira was obviously going for
elegant, yet slutty, vampire couture. She had on thigh high boots with a gown
that barely covered her goodies.  Well, whatever worked for her, I
guessed.  I personally thought the night air a tad too chilly for an
outfit that left nothing to the imagination.  She was gonna freeze her
tatas off, if she wasn’t careful.

      The cold air was nice for me,
however, after the hot and stuffy air of the haunted house.  “Thank God, I
was burning up in there.”  I fanned myself with my hand as I waited to
cool off.

     “Yeah, me too.”  Alex looked
around the graveyard, trying to find a clear path. “Have you ever noticed that
there are sexy vampires, sexy nurses, sexy everything outfits for Halloween,
but no sexy zombies?”  At least he wasn’t staring at Vampira’s
boobs.  Most guys would have been; I had to give him credit for that.

    I snorted.  “Well, it’s hard to be
sexy when you’re supposed to be rotting.”

    He nodded.  “True.  I bet you
could pull it off; you could be a sexy zombie.”

    “You say the sweetest things.” I still
couldn’t see any clear path to get through the vampires. “No guide, so I guess
we just wander around till we find the exit.”

     “Don’t let these guys take a bite
out of you.”  Vampires rolled out of their coffins in all
directions.  Some looked pretty gory: fake blood covered most of the outfits. 
Every once in a while one popped up like the first one, looking like an undead
call-girl. “Don’t take anything they hand you, either.”  Alex laughed. “I
still think Gwen could have kicked that guy’s ass if you’d have let go of her.”

     “He was a good half a foot taller
than her.  And that’s pretty impressive since she’s a freaking
amazon.  Still, if you insist, we can go back and track him down for
her.  I can gnaw on his kneecaps while you kick his ass, and restore the
family honor.”

     He rolled his eyes at me. 
“Who are you kidding?  You don’t reach his kneecaps.”

     “Ouch.  Smart ass.”  I
started walking in the general direction I thought we were supposed to
go.  “Come on, before Vampira gives you a hickey, or something
worse.”  I tried to keep my voice low enough nobody heard me but Alex.

     He eyed the trampy vampire with
distaste.  She looked like she was trying to dry hump a coffin.  Not
a seductive move.

     “Would you be jealous, if she did?”

     “You wish.”

     He sighed, dramatically.  “I
really do.”

     “I bet they got her from a strip
club earlier tonight.  Maybe they needed a fill-in for somebody who got
sick?”  Oh, crap, Vampira heard me say it.  Her head swung around,
and her eyes narrowed to evil slits. Her fangs showed as she hissed in our
direction.