Chapter 40
That night Linda found
herself caught in a nightmare that she couldn’t escape from, even when she
willed herself to open her eyes. She was afraid that it wasn’t a nightmare, but a sinister game that had gone wrong. She didn’t know how she’d
gotten herself into it or how she was ever going to get out.
The nightmare had begun
with Linda passing through the magical door at the diner—but it wasn’t the
diner anymore; it was a remote house that she’d never seen before. The house was
dark and dreary like End House, but it wasn’t End House.
She heard the sounds of
waves crashing against the house. She couldn’t believe that she was a prisoner
in another house by the ocean. She didn’t know where she was or what day it
was. She didn’t even remember how she’d gotten here. She just remembered following
the little girl through the door: she’d been curious to see what was on the
other side.
On the other side of the
door, Linda found herself at the same carnival that the little girl from the village had visited, except
this carnival was much louder and the people were leering at her, trying to
force her into their tents. The fat man was waving his pudgy arms at her as he
got closer and closer. A clown came at her with his balloons and howled at her.
A man began throwing his knives in her direction, but luckily, kept missing.
She ran away and ran behind the tents to the colorful booths of the carnival.
She chose the Fun House.
She stepped into a room full of mirrors that made her multiple reflections
appear distorted and unreal. She couldn’t figure out why she’d run into the Fun
House: if in every horror movie the victims were always portrayed as being
terrorized there. She hoped this wasn’t another game of The Dead. She was
determined to locate an exit, but found only mirrors and more mirrors; they
made her dizzy. Her distorted reflections stared back at her; as if they were
distinct entities, united against her, instead of her own creations.
She ran until she crashed
head-first through a mirror, into a dark place with no beginning or end. The
whole experience felt unreal to her—as if she were lost in a different
dimension. Behind this mirror, she encountered a man with a white mask and
empty holes for eyes, laughing at her. When he touched her arm, she realized
that he was real and not just a reflection.
She fled from the laughing
man, going deeper and deeper into the dark unknown. She looked back and noticed
creatures following close behind her. Some were bats and some were dark shadows,
but all were reaching for her. She hoped that these weren’t the same shadows
from town that had been haunting her for weeks.
She hit something hard
and fell down. So maybe this place did have an end. She raced away with her
hands out, hoping to find the mirror that had caused her to enter this dark
hell. Ahead of her in the distance, she glimpsed a shiny surface. After she got
closer, she realized it was the mirror, patiently waiting for her. I hope this wasn’t a trap.
She decided to step
through the mirror and worry about the consequences afterward. She had always been afraid of the dark.
She wondered how these creatures knew her fears—unless it wasn’t real, but just
a figment of her imagination. She stuck her hand out and found that it flowed
right through the glass. She followed her hand and crawled through the mirror.
She found herself back in
the house by the sea. She was in the main hall, looking up at a long flight of
stairs. She raced up the stairs and ran through the deserted rooms. The house
was empty of any people or furnishings. All she could hear were her heels
clicking on the shiny wood floors.
Fearing that she was
caught in an endless loop like the one at End House, she hurried back down the stairs, all the
way down to the basement. Since the top two floors were empty, she decided to
try the basement—even though basements were also popular in horror stories,
which was exactly what she was in.
The basement was empty. The
floor she was standing on began to rotate around and around. She reached up to grab hold of something to help her climb off the revolving circle, but
there was nothing: the walls were wet and slippery. She tried to escape but
found herself falling deeper and deeper into the dark hole. The only thing she
remembered before she lost consciousness was the sound of a man’s evil laughter as he chanted the words over and over,
“It’s not over. I’ll be back.”
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