Lizzie switched hands with me, getting me in front of her as we dashed past the clown.His faded outfits were torn and stained—brown and red splatter covering him from head to toe—and his makeup was streaky and splotched from being worn for who knew how long.
We took off down the only option forward, rushing down another hall as the sound of a chainsaw screamed from just the other side of the wall.There was only the single path onward, and Lizzie and I didn’t take any chances with slowing down, sprinting through the twists and turns and running into the sides more times than I could count.
Light appeared as we rounded a corner, and my heart surged in my chest.“Lizzie!Look!”
“Don’t stop for anything, Temps!Go for it!”
Powering toward the exit, my lungs screamed, more animatronics popping out from corners as we zig-zagged through a section of oddly angled pony walls.A Jack-In-The-Box opened, screaming as it leaped out and drove a knife downward.I stumbled back, but the point of the blade caught my shirt, tearing down from my collarbone to my already injured knee.
“Temps!”
I kicked wildly as Lizzie tried to run up to me, looking back for her just in time to see another clown appear from below a section of the short wall.He stood up, wielding a massive meat cleaver with jagged edges.Blood coated the blade, which was spray-painted with red stripes; the handle featured a swirling red and black pattern, reminiscent of a lollipop.
“No!”
I rolled as the Jack-In-The-Box swung forward again, grabbing hold of the knife in its hand and using all my strength to break it free.The thing was so much bigger in my much smaller hands, a white painted blade with a smiling clown face drawn on in Sharpie.The eyes were Xs, and the red smile was finger-painted on with what had to be blood.
My skin burned where the long cut traced down my skin.Each step to Lizzie was so fucking painful that I nearly fell to the ground.But that godsdamn clown held her shoved against the wall, his cleaver at her throat, the points of the broken metal pressing into her skin.
As I dragged myself closer, I forced down the pain and realized that the clown asshole wasn’t right.His exceedingly pale skin was stretched too tight, and even from the side, I could tell that his hair was made of ropes, rough jute that frayed this way and that.
It also covered his eyes and mouth, sewn into the skin in Xs.
“Holy fuck.”I reeled.
This thing was dead.This wasn’t a human in costume, either.It was too real.The Xs on his mouth when all the way back to his ears, but he was somehow still talking.
“Come on, pretty little thing.Don’t you know you’re prettier when you smile?”He lifted the cleaver to Lizzie’s mouth, angling one of the points at her cheek.“I’m just going to make it easier for ya.And you’re gonna scream all pretty for me.”
“Fuck off!”Lizzie kicked at the clown’s crotch, making contact.
He lurched, pulling himself in, but as she tried to run for me, he snagged her by the braid.She halted, the clown yanking her to his chest.I needed to move quicker, but my vision was going hazy as I leaked red all over the damn floor.
“Now, now, little slut.You know you want it.Why else would you dress this way?”
I shook my head, trying to focus while this undead creep reached around to Lizzie’s front and groped her breast.His bony, blood-stained fingers wormed down her stomach, balling up her skirt and stuffing between her legs even as she squeezed her thighs together.
“Oh, fuck no.You get your hands off her.”
I used everything I had to run forward, and the asshole didn’t even seem to notice me until I was pulling Lizzie out of his grip and throwing her behind me.I didn’t hesitate, jamming the blade in my hand up into his stomach.He dropped to the floor, the knife in his guts, and I turned to run back to my girl.
“Go!”I pointed behind her.“The exit!”
A low growl reverberated through the air from the shadows.This fucking place wouldn’t quit, and I just focused on sprinting straight ahead, zeroed in on the way out.Lizzie stood at the threshold, waving her arm frantically like it was actually going to get me moving faster.Then, her eyes flared.
“Behind you!”
Squish.
I heard it before I felt the pain.The sound of my skin tearing and the wet slice as my blood bubbled up around the wound.The knife I’d used stuck out of the spot below my collarbone, my nerves screaming as the injury registered.I gasped, unable to keep moving forward.
“No!”Lizzie took off from the doorway, running toward me in slow motion.
Or was that just me slowing down?Everything felt so far away.
And then that feral growl was everywhere around me, so loud and menacing and omnipresent.I could feel it in my bones, and then a hard yank, making my skin burn again.A massive black shape, furred and snarling, stood over me where I slumped to the floor.
But it faced the clown, two clawed hands moving like lightning, they tore into its body until it was in little pieces on the floor.It was disgusting, but I couldn’t find it in me to be nauseated.
