The Guild of Fallen Clowns (26 page)

Geno stepped off the last step and leaned to
look for the key below. Todd’s trick was working, but if Geno
lowered to his knees and crawled under the steps, they knew they
would be discovered. Geno hovered in a half-hunched position for an
eternity while the boys lay motionless, awaiting their fate.

Finally, Geno returned to an upright
position. The boys’ muscles relaxed as they assumed Geno gave up
his search for the key.

“Where did I put that flashlight?” Geno
said.

“Shit!” Todd whispered.

“Oh, that’s right, It’s locked inside,” Geno
said. “Oh well, the place is locked tight for the night. I guess
I’ll find it in the morning.” He turned and walked away.

With Geno gone, the boys’ muscles relaxed
and Todd grabbed the key. He shoved against his friends and
shimmied out from below the building. He dusted himself off and
walked up the steps while the others stood and stretched below.

“C’mon, guys. Let’s see what’s inside this
place,” Todd said.

The two reluctantly followed and stood with
Todd on the landing.

“Okay, where are your flashlights?” Todd
asked as he retrieved a small flashlight from his own pocket. The
boys reached for their own flashlights.

“Mine’s missing,” one of them said as he
pressed all of his pockets. “It must have fallen out while we were
under the building.”

“Forget about it. Two should be enough,”
Todd said. Then he clicked the switch of his flashlight. It burned
bright for about five seconds before quickly dimming to total
darkness. Todd slapped it a few times and clicked the switch on and
off a few more times. The light didn’t return. He returned it to
his pocket and focused on the third boy.

“Turn yours on,” he said. The boy clicked it
on. Again, it burned bright for a few seconds before dying.

“I don’t understand. I just put new
batteries in it before we left. It should work.”

Todd grabbed the flashlight from him and
tossed it to the ground. “Forget about the flashlights. Do you guys
have lighters on you?”

Todd and one of the boys pulled out their
lighters. The third boy shrugged his shoulders and said he didn’t
smoke. The two successfully tested their lighters.

The one without a lighter started walking
down the steps.

“I’ll wait for you out here,” he said.

“What the hell?” Todd said. “Don’t tell me
you’re chickening out.”

“I’m not going in there without a flashlight
or a lighter.”

“Here,” Todd said as he reached out to offer
his lighter to his friend.

“No, that’s okay, Todd. To be honest, I’m
starting to get the creeps. Call me chicken, but I’m not going in
there. Keep your lighter.”

“Are you kidding me? We waited for hours
under the building for this. Then we got lucky when that guy
dropped the key right in front of us. You can’t chicken out now.
We’ll never get another chance.”

As Todd waited for a reply from the boy at
the bottom of the steps, the other boy nudged his arm. Todd looked
back to see his hand holding out his own lighter for Todd to take.
Todd took the lighter and the boy walked down to join the
first.

“You too?” Todd exclaimed.

“Sorry, Todd, but something about this isn’t
right. That flashlight had new batteries. Something drained them
and I think it came from inside the building. I’ve seen it happen a
thousand times on those shows I watch. We’ll wait for you out
here.”

“You can’t be serious. I’ll tell you what
drained the batteries. Time drained them. Old batteries lose their
power. I’d bet they were sitting on the store shelf for years
before you bought them. Besides, we have lighters. They might even
be better because it’ll be spookier with the flickering light from
my miniature torch here.” He laughed as he flicked on his lighter
and adjusted the flame to maximum height.

His friends wouldn’t budge. No amount of
name-calling or threats to out them as pussies back at the frat
house would change their minds. Todd knew he would be going in
alone. He shook his head and told them they would regret their
decision.

One more test of the lighters and he turned
to unlock the door. He opened the door wide and offered his friends
one last chance to join him. They didn’t reply. Todd smiled and
stepped inside. The door slowly closed behind him.

“Did Todd do that?” one of the boys
said.

“I don’t know. He must have.”

“Why would he close the door behind
him?”

“You know Todd. He’s probably just trying to
freak us out.”

“Good point.”

From the flickering glow of the lighter held
out in front of him, Todd cautiously stepped through the maze of
mirrors. Narrow pathways ended with countless choices of left or
right decisions. After making at least twenty directional
decisions, he wondered if the only haunting thing about the
labyrinth was in a person’s sense of desperation in finding the
exit. And while he wasn’t claustrophobic, he was beginning to show
signs of his own desperation. He proved himself to his friends and
looked forward to exercising his boasting rights upon exiting.

Ten feet ahead of him was another fork in
the road. “Where’s the exit to this place?” he mumbled. Standing at
the end of the path, he looked right. His flame only revealed the
first five to ten feet of the path. Darkness lay beyond the reach
of his light. He looked left to a dead end four feet in.

“That’s it! I’m just getting deeper into
this maze. Maybe I can find my way back—” He turned to the hallway
he just walked from and saw his own reflection three feet in front
of him. Without making a sound, the pathway had somehow closed
behind him. Retracing his steps wasn’t an option. He turned again
to review his previous choices. To the right was a long dark path
and to his left was a dead end. However, when he looked to his
right, the pathway was now glowing dimly from a hidden light
source. He glanced again to his left choice, where seconds earlier
his path was blocked by a solid mirror wall. Now he was looking at
a wooden door.

“Wow! These mirrors sure can trick the
mind,” he said.

Naturally, he chose the door to his left. He
took a few steps forward and confidently reached for the door’s
knob. As he did, his fingers curled into his palm. The handle
wasn’t real. He mashed his hand into another mirror.

“What? But it looked so real. Now I’m
starting to see how people might get freaked out in here. That’s an
awesome illusion.” He turned to take the only path left to him.
Using the light in the room, he returned his lighter to his pocket
and started down the long straight path. Ten paces turned to
twenty. Twenty turned to forty. The exterior of the building was
only about forty feet square, yet he just walked five times that
distance in a straight line with no end in sight. His pace
quickened as he grew anxious to find an end of the passage. His jog
progressed into an all out, minute long sprint.

“What’s happening?” he said as he stopped to
catch his breath. He looked down to the floor. “It must be some
sort of treadmill.” He kicked the floor in search of the hidden
track tricking his mind. The floor didn’t give up any of its
secrets. Todd returned upright. As he stared down the endless
corridor, the walls began to swell outward as the distance closed
in front of him. Silently, the narrow hall transformed into a half
circle. He turned to look behind, only to discover he was standing
in the center of an eight-foot-diameter room with no exits.

Still unwilling to accept a supernatural
cause for the illusions he was experiencing, he stepped forward and
reached out to feel the mirrored panel. His hand pressed against
it, proving it was real. He removed his hand, leaving a smudged
print on the high gloss panel. As he tested the next panel, the
walls started spinning around him, allowing him to touch every
panel in the room without taking a step. With each confirmed touch,
his hands went faster and faster, slapping each panel as they flew
by in a blur, until his dizzying frenzy to find an exit resulted in
a loss of balance. He fell backwards to the floor and the walls
stopped spinning. He sat disoriented in the center of the room; the
room was unchanged except for a four-foot-high ring of smudge marks
left by his hands after hitting each panel multiple times.

Wheezing and defeated from the experience,
he retrieved an inhaler from his pocket. He shook it hard and
exhaled the air in his lungs. Then he closed his lips around the
opening, squeezed, and took in a deep breath. He held in the
medicinal mist as long as possible before coughing it out. Two more
deep breaths of air, and his ability to breathe was restored,
allowing him to return to his feet and reassess his situation.

“Okay!” he said loudly. “I’m not alone in
here. The guy who left earlier wasn’t the only one who runs this
thing, and—well, whoever you are, you got me. I thought this was
just some lame carnival ride with nothing to back up the
reputation. Obviously, I was wrong. I’m really impressed and you
can count on me to spread the word and increase your reputation.
You’ll have more visitors than ever. So now, if you wouldn’t mind,
let me out so I can tell all of my friends.”

Todd turned in both directions as he waited
for a reply. “I know you can hear me,” he said. “I told you, you
win. Now show me the exit and I’ll be on my way.”

Again, nothing happened.

“Oh, I get it,” he said. “You’re holding me
in here because you called the cops. Okay, I’ll admit that I sort
of…broke in…but you don’t need to call the cops on me. It’s not
like I broke the lock or did any damage to the place. The other guy
dropped his key and I used it to get in. No harm, no foul. Besides,
if you get the cops involved, I won’t tell anyone how awesome this
place is. Seriously, you should really consider that because I’m a
popular guy at the college. I can make sure this place is packed
with people.”

After Todd’s plea for clemency from the
prosecution ended, a gravelly voice filled the room. “Only want
you.”

“Oh, okay, so you want to have me arrested.
You don’t care about making money. I can’t say I understand, but
it’s your choice. But I hope you realize that my father is an
attorney and he’ll make this whole thing go away. If I were you,
I’d take the publicity I can give you and just forget about
bringing the cops into this. Seriously, I’m sure you don’t have an
advanced education and maybe it’s difficult for you to make wise
decisions. No offense, but you have to trust me on this. If you
bring in the cops, you won’t get anything out of this. As a matter
of fact, I’ll make things worse for you. I’ll tell my father that
you kidnapped me and held me against my will. I’ll have you thrown
in jail and I’ll sue you for so much that I’ll end up owning this
shit hole. So I suggest you open the door and let me go or you’ll
live to regret it.

“Peepers already dead, Todd.” A faint and
distant image of dark shadow figure appeared in front of him. His
own reflection was blocked by the silhouette of a person standing
at a distance on the other side of the mirrored surface.

Todd squinted. “How did you know my
name?”

Peepers didn’t respond. His body floated
closer, stopping at the barrier between them. Peepers’ features
grew sharp. His hand rose to touch the panel. Todd took a step back
and to the side. His reflection returned as his body moved off
center with Peepers.

“That’s not possible,” Todd said.

Peepers grinned and brushed his finger over
the inside surface of the mirror, sending ripples through the
panel.

Todd stepped back to the wall and watched as
Peepers’ hand and arm preceded the rest of his body as he slipped
into the three-dimensional space of the room. Temporarily
withdrawing focus from his prey, Peepers held out and turned his
hands out at waist level, admiring the effects of his newly
enhanced powers. No longer was he transparent and ghost-like. Even
in the absence of the life force held in Alan’s Peepers sculptures,
the spirit’s energy grew stronger inside the labyrinth.

With Peepers self absorbed, Todd scanned the
mirrored panels comprising the walls of the small circular room.
Reflections of himself covered the lower two-thirds of the walls.
However, the only image of Peepers was that of the solid form
standing near the center, a point where every panel focused its
reflective powers.

“A blind spot!” Todd blurted.

Peepers’ arms lowered, his attention
returning to Todd.

“It’s a blind spot,” he said again. “The
mirrors look like they are aimed at you, but each one is slightly
off. That’s why I can’t see your reflections.”

Peepers took delight in Todd’s futile
attempts to explain the impossible. He slid his left foot two feet
out to his side. Then he slid his right foot over to meet it. In
this new position Todd scanned the mirrors again; still no
reflections. Peepers slid a few feet forward. Again, his image was
missing from the mirrors.

“Okay, maybe it’s not a blind spot. To be
honest, I really don’t care. They are great illusions. And I love
your costume—very Goth—but this is getting old.” Emboldened by his
own words, he stepped up to Peepers. He looked up at his face,
pressed his index finger into the clown’s chest, and continued,
“So, I’ll give you one more chance to change your mind. You can
either conjure up a doorway out of here, and we both forget this
ever happened, or I’ll have you thrown in jail for kidnapping.
What’s it gonna be, pal?”

Peepers’ eyes lowered to the finger against
his chest. Then they rose slowly to meet Todd’s angry stare. His
grin quickly opened to a sinister smile, exposing his pointed
teeth. Todd removed his finger but held his ground.

“Does Todd remember age of eight when chest
was tight?”

Todd’s expression turned to confusion.
“What?”