No one helped me. Not one. I cried and screamed and kicked every step of the way, but not one single person helped me. At best, they would scowl and move on. At worst, they would stop and laugh. There’s only so long you can struggle when that is how people react to you. You start to feel like you’re the crazy one with all these knives lining the inside of your skull. Every thought feels like a trap. The lights are flickering, but no one else sees them, you know? I stopped trying after a while. It wouldn’t have changed where I was going.
The Consortium may not have had a haunted house, but it had a fun house. Gristle dragged me down endless rows of grotesque abominations before we arrived somewhere in the back. The house was pressed up against the fenceline like the Contortium’s shameful secret. Which was odd because it was the nicest looking place there. It had bright, psychedelic colors painted all over it, each shade swirling together like paints in water. The shape was twisted but in a fun way with sloping roofs and wacky shapes. Only thing slightly creepy was the entrance.
It had been shaped to look like you were going through someone’s mouth, only the inside was disturbingly accurate. The teeth weren’t plastic but a discolored stone that hung from festering gums. Even the floor looked like a giant tongue and felt like one as we stepped inside. A smell like a corpse’s breath blasted my nose. The air was thick and warm, and I could feel it oozing into my pores. My feet sunk into the tongue floor. If I stayed still long enough, I was sure I’d have been swallowed up. This place did seem like the hungry type.
Inside, there wasn’t a single block of stone, only meat and bone. It was barely firm enough for me to walk on, but Gristle had no problems traversing that place. He looked to be dancing the way he skipped down the throat, no step lingering for more than a second. The tongue dissolved into the floor of a massive throat that quivered and contracted as we stepped in. A crooked row of lights was screwed onto the ceiling and followed us to the back of the throat.
We entered out into a massive room or cavity or whatever. The walls were an enormous rib cage between which flesh and skin were strung. Fleshy pink light seeped from the membrane and bathed the entire area. From what I could see, it was a playpen and a big one. There were big jungle gyms set up all over, strung together by tubes and walkways. Only they weren’t made of plastic and steel. Those tubes looked like massive intestines stretching between not playgrounds but loose collections of organs. They were all held up by gigantic bones replacing support beams. Cute patterns covered the organs like flowers and suns and stuff but had been made of scar tissue and open wounds. On any other day, I would be horrified by it all, but if anything, I was relieved.
All of it, from the meat to the bones, was dead. More specifically, it was quiet. Nothing looked at me or screamed for mercy. It even looked like Gristle, and I were the only ones alive in there. If only.
As I looked around the playground, I noticed something moving inside. I thought it was from some abominations. Maybe that would have been for the better, looking back. It became clear, however, that I wasn’t the only kid who’d been dragged in here.
“Come on out, kiddies!” Gristle called. All at once, dozens of little bodies came scurrying out from their hiding spots. They all looked around my age. Most wore everyday clothes, but a few were dressed in little costumes when they came waddled out of the flesh yard. It was kinda hard to watch.
The kids assembled in front of Gristle like dutiful sheep before their farmer. He scanned over the crowd, muttering numbers to himself, and then said, “Hmmm. It appears some of you have refused to assemble. Perfect.”
He tossed me in with the rest of the kids.
“Listen up now, little gremlins. I have wonderful news. One of you lucky children will have the chance to join our merry little band here at the Contortium! Does that not sound wonderful? Unfortunately, we only have one open position left, so you children are going to play a few games for it. Whoever’s left standing will be given the honor of performing in tonight’s Grand Top! And the losers get to go home.”
An excited murmur ran through the crowd. Even I got excited, but that was just what Gristle wanted.
“Of course, we will have to extract a small few for letting you stay here. The heart, liver, and a few other organs. We have to keep the lights on in here, after all.” He giggled as he watched out joy die.
“Now then, since some of your friends have decided to disobey my call for assembly, they will be the subject of our first game: Hide and Seek. There are, what, 23 missing and 15 present? Perfect. The rules are simple. The seekers, that’s you all, will have 15 minutes to find our missing friends. And when you do, prick them with one of these.”
Before we could ask, Gristle opened his jaw again and reached inside his mouth. I heard his throat churn until he pulled out a large pile of barbed spikes. They were slathered with spit and landed on the ground with a wet splat. They were the size of butter knives and made of bone. Looking back, they were kinda like fangs.
“I’d be careful if I were you, though. They have a rather nasty bite. Once you prick a hider, bring them back to me, and you’ll have won. Oh, and for any HIDERS OUT THERE,” He projected his voice out to the playground. “If you manage to stay hidden and avoid being poked, then you win. Now, everyone take a pike.”
No one moved an inch.
“Well, don’t everyone jump up all at once. Unless, that is, you’ve all decided to forfeit?” He dragged his tongue over his teeth with a hungry look in his eye. That was all the motivation we needed to bolt for the pikes like the last puddle in hell. A few kids got trampled in the chaos; thankfully, I wasn’t one of them.
“Wonderful!” Gristle said when we’d all snatched up a Pike. “Now then, when I give the signal, your time will begin. Ready?”
He didn’t give us a chance to reply before opening his mouth and letting out a bone-shaking roar. We didn’t need much more of a signal than that. We all dashed into the play equipment for no reason other than to get away from that fucking clown.
I didn’t have a plan at first and didn’t plan to find anybody. My first thought was to get the fuck out of there, but that hope died fast. From what I could see, there was only one entrance, which had disappeared since Gristle, and I entered. At first, I didn’t think that would be a problem. This place was made of meat, after all, and I had a knife. I tried cutting through the walls, but the pike somehow wasn’t strong enough. The flesh contorted around the blade like rubber before snapping back to shape. I would have wasted the whole night trying to claw my way through if Gristle didn’t give his first warning.
“TEN MINUTES REMAINING!!” His voice shook the playpen. Realizing how much time I’d wasted, I abandoned the wall and rushed headlong back into the playpen.
I stayed out of the actual structures for as long as I could, but it was clear that’s where everyone was hiding. Not that that made it any easier to go inside. There was a tube dangling from one that connected to the floor. The entrance resembled a mouth with all its teeth knocked out, but just enough of a gum line to make it clear what it was. Crawling inside was fucking terrible. It smelled of bad breath, and the meat squished with every step I took up into the playground.
As I climbed, however, I started hearing voices echoing from somewhere above. I slowed and peaked my head out of the opening. The tunnel opened into a small meaty pocket where two other kids stood. One was in his street clothes and pointing a pike towards the other. Now he was wearing this poorly made dinosaur costume that was nothing more than a fake tail and cheap face paint ruined from tears.
“PLEASE!” He cried out over and over again when he could stop sobbing long enough. My gut sunk into my feet at the sight, but I was far more frightened of the attacker than I was for the kid. So I stayed hidden in the tunnel while the scene played out.
“Just shut up, okay!” The seeker cried out but failed to sound commanding in the least. His hands trembled as he pointed the pike and his eyes struggled to hold back tears. “Hey, hey, just, um, close your eyes and…and…and stop crying! Please! I can make it quick, but you need to stop crying!”
“No, no, nooooo! I wanna go home!”
“I want to go home!”
The hider let out another long shriek.
“Okay, okay, okay! I… I’m not gonna hurt you, okay?”
The hider didn’t stop.
“Jesus, just stop! Look, look.” The seeker threw the pike to the ground and held his hands up. “See? I’m not gonna hurt you, okay? I just want to go home. And you do too! Right?”
He didn’t stop the hiders crying, but he did earn a slight nod from the hider.
“Right. And this place has to have a door somewhere, right? So why don’t we just find it and get out while that clown isn’t here? Right?”
The hider had stopped crying enough to say, “Then we can go home?”
The seeker hesitated. Even I felt my gut drop at that. “Yeah.” His timid voice did nothing to help my confidence in him. “Yeah. We’re gonna get out of here. I promise. So just stop crying and come with me. Alright?”
The hider didn’t move, and I couldn’t blame him. Even the seeker didn’t look confident in what he said. However, while he did hesitate, the little guy take a small step toward the seeker.
“Yeah. That’s it. And if we hurry, we can-“ The seeker never finished. In a flash, the hider dove for the pike left lying on the floor and stabbed it into the seeker’s side. It all happened in the time it took to blink; even the seeker didn’t seem to realize it had happened. He simply stared ahead for a moment before suddenly collapsing to the ground. The hider jumped back to avoid getting crushed while the seeker started to convulse.
First thing I noticed was that all the kids’ hair had started to fall out. Even his eyebrows fluttered to the ground. In seconds, it looked like he’d gone through chemo. Then, his teeth tumbled from his mouth, and his lips and gums fused until his mouth had vanished. The skin grown over it discolored almost like a bruise until a pattern formed, looking like a large, animated smile painted over what once was his mouth. Next went his eyes, each melting away and pouring down his face like tears. His sockets were then covered by skin with bright, cartoonish eyes painted over each. Paper mache grew to replace his hair, and the rest of him began to break and shift.
The sound of his bones snapping filled the room like some deranged choir. His limbs were twisted into alien shapes until their bones had been ground to dust. They then slithered into the body and disappeared into his sleeves. What was left by the time it was done was a human pinata that shared its features with the seeker. Only, even after the transformation finished, that thing was completely dead.
It started to move on the ground. Not a lot, just the slightest shake, but it was still there. There was something still alive in the doll. Something with no eyes, ears, mouth, or even skin. And yet, despite all that, something still trying to scream. Not that anyone would notice. The hider certainly didn’t. He didn’t say a word as he stumbled away, face frozen and tears rolling down his cheeks. There wasn’t any fear in his features. Not exactly. It was as if he was too shocked to feel anything. He didn’t even look at the piñata, instead staring straight ahead. He stayed like that for a moment, dead to the world, before he stumbled towards the body and picked it up. Then, he turned to one of the many tunnels stretching from the room and walked away without a sound.
I stayed in hiding after, trying to process what I’d seen. The pike in my hand felt a lot heavier, but I didn’t dare let it go. Let me be clear, I wanted to drop it. More than anything. The only problem was that the seeker I’d just seen had lost. All I could think about was what might happen if I lost, and there was no faster way to find out than dropping the pike.
I didn’t climb into the room until the hider’s footsteps faded into silence. Five other tunnels connected to that room, one of which the hider vanished into. I thought about going after him. He’d killed someone after all, so I felt a little justified doing so, but he was just a kid, and this game didn’t change that. None of us chose to be here. We were doing what we had to. Besides, I didn’t want to risk him stabbing me first. So I picked one of the other tunnels and plunged ahead.
It was a while before I saw another kid, let alone a hider, and I passed through a few weird-looking junctions along the way. The first had raised pools filled with what I think was acid. The words “adult supervision required” were carved into the flesh above the pools. I didn’t laugh. The second was what I think were supposed to be mirrors. The walls were smooth and slightly shiny, but they didn’t hold reflects. As I stepped into it, slash marks appeared on the walls until they’d drawn a perfect copy of whatever was in front of them. Every time I moved, the wounds healed and popped up to match whatever new position I was in. They weren’t even good drawings. All of them were warped depending on which angle I faced the mirror. I again did not laugh.
It wasn’t until the third that I finally found someone. It was filled with this massive bundle of tree-like appendages sprouting from every surface. At the end of their “branches” were these bulbs that inflated and deflated in rhythmic patterns. I know now that they were those things inside your lungs, but at the time, I thought they were weird trees.
I started making my way through them when a whimper came from a corner of the room. At first, it might have been a random squelch from the walls. Then I heard it again, louder this time, and it became clear it wasn’t a fluke.
I wasn’t sure which was worse: the kid being a seeker or a hider. Either idea sat in my gut like shards of glass. The pike in my hands got heavier the closer I got, but it wasn’t enough to stop me. I worked my way through the fleshy thicket, raising my weapon higher and higher. My heart thundered in my ears, and sweat soaked my clothes. I couldn’t stand the idea of hurting that kid. So I had to stop thinking of them as a kid. They were just some blob as far as I was concerned. With that in mind, I could do what I had to.
It wasn’t until I pushed past the last layer of thicket that I froze. The kid was crouched in a corner of the room hidden by foliage. Seeing me, he screamed like he’d been set on fire and shattered the image in my mind. It was hard to see he was anything but a scared kid when he was howling in my face.
“Stop. Wait.” I hid my pike behind my leg, trying to make it look as casual as possible. “Stop screaming. I’m not a seeker.”
The kid stopped, but I could see he was still afraid.
“Sorry I scared you. I didn’t know anyone else was hiding here. My name’s Kyle.”
He looked me over and mustn’t have noticed the pike. “Alex… you’re Mrs. Garrahan’s class, right?”
“Yeah. And you’re…” I honestly didn’t remember the guy.
“From Mr. Nickerson’s. Next door.”
“Right. Sorry. It’s hard to think with all this stuff going on.”
“It’s alright.” Alex seemed to soften. “This is all so fucked up.”
“What gave it away?” I said with a tiny yet genuine giggle. Alex smiled, but only for a moment.
“You think he’ll let us go?” He asked, which made me choke for a second.
“I mean, he has to, right? Our parents are gonna notice if we don’t.”
“Will they?” Alex curled into a ball. “They took me from the roller coaster. I didn’t mean to scream, but there were so many teeth, and I couldn’t help it. But my mom…she begged them to take me.” He whipped his eyes. “I don’t think she wants me back.”
I froze again, but this time I wasn’t afraid or shocked. It felt more like being forced up on a stage. I had no idea what to say to the kid, and everything I thought of felt like it would make things worse. Not only that, but it brought back some bad memories.
“No. Your mom does want you back.” I said after a moment. “It’s just this place. It did something to our parents. They’re hypnotized.”
“You think so?”
“Well, they have to be. My parents would never have let me go to a place like this. When they leave, they’ll snap out of it or something and then come right back with the cops. You’ll see.”
“Really?” Alex perked up.
I was about to reply when a thundering voice exploded through the playpen. “ONE MINUTE!!!” All at once, panic came crashing down on me, and my mind was flung back to that pinata.
“Sure,” I answered. “And look. We only have to wait a few more minutes, and then we win. How bad can these games be?”
“Very.”
“Alright, fair enough. Maybe we should stick together, then. Just for a little while, you know?” I gripped the pike tighter. We were too far apart. He might scream if I charged him; if he did, I’d never be able to skew him. Alex, thankfully, never brought it to that point.
“Sure. You wanna hide here until the time runs out?”
I let out a breath. “Totally.” Alex made some room as I curled up next to him.
“THREE MINUTES!!”
“So what now?” Alex asked.
“Let’s just stay quiet until times up. Just in case there are seekers around.”
Alex nodded and glanced back to the thicket while I did everything I could to not look at him. Even then, I couldn’t ignore what he was. Not some blob, but a kid like me and those two I’d seen before. However, the thought of those two reminded me of the game. At the end of the day, there would be winners and losers, and only one of them would get to go home. It’s not my fault this was happening, I told myself. He’d do the same if he were me. I’m not the bad guy. I’m just some kid.
It was easier than I thought. I simply pricked Alex on the leg. I almost thought he didn’t feel it, but then I heard him say one single word. The last word he ever spoke.
“Kyle?”
I turned and saw him staring right at me. I’ll never forget those eyes. He wasn’t afraid, more confused. He waited for an explanation, something other than what he saw. They begged me to tell him it was a joke or that he was seeing things. It had to be. After all, I was a friend. So he waited for me to say it would be alright. He waited and waited and waited.
I looked away just as his teeth started to fall out. His first and only scream was cut short when his mouth sealed shut. He grabbed at me, desperately trying to get my attention, but soon his arms snapped and pulled back into his body. I closed my eyes and tried pretending it wasn’t happening. The sound of cracking bones and muffled screams made sure I didn’t.
In a matter of seconds, it was over. They might as well have been an eternity. I didn’t look even after the thrashing had stopped. Looking would make it real. It was only when I heard Gristle yell “TWO MINUTES!!” that I sprung into action.
Looking at the piñata actually made me feel better. Seeing that painted smile staring back at me gave me something to distract myself from the moans. My mind latched onto that sight with all its strength, never letting myself think about anything else. I even smiled back at the doll.
But then, I heard something move in the thicket. I sprung around and saw a figure standing just outside my hiding spot. It was a girl and, from the looks of it, one who’d been standing there for a while. Her eyes shown through the gunk, one being a sharp jade green and the other a deep blue. Against the meat and bone, those mismatched colors stood out like sore thumbs. It only made it more clear that there was somewhere there and not some extension of this horrible place. Someone from outside, someone guiltless; someone who could judge. My gut dropped, as did my jaw. Suddenly, I couldn’t forget what I’d done. Not with her eyes shining like spotlights upon the scene. In an instant, I’d realized just what I’d done and worse, that she did as well.
She’d tell everyone, I thought. She’d scream, and everyone would know. However, she didn’t say a word. Instead, she looked between me and the body and then strolled back into the thicket, disappearing without a trace. I didn’t feel much better when she did. Who was she? Where did she go? Questions raced through my mind. I trembled like mad, sweat gushing down my face and breath in tatters. There was, however, one good thing that came from her leaving. No one was left to remind me what I did.
I thought of what Gristle said. Find someone and bring them back. I turned back to the piñata, picked it up, and started backtracking through the flesh bushes. All the while, no matter how hard I tried to ignore it, I couldn’t ignore the slight shaking from the doll. It was as if Alex were still in there, begging me for help. But it was okay, I told myself with a smile on my face. It was just a game. And I had won.