Carousels, clowns, and children’s laughter. Just another day at the same old park, the same routine I’ve been living for the past five years.
I look about the park, seeking something new to stimulate my brain. However, I have no luck. I continue to walk down the familiar pathway that leads to every ride. I scan them all. Pirate Jack’s Wild Ride!, Fortune’s Favor, etc etc. Nothing new. I continue down the path of familiarity, and find a strange door. A door I’ve never seen before. “Odd.” I think to myself. I consider the notion of asking a fellow employee, however for some reason, a compelling energy befell me.
“Come inside.. Come inside…” it whispers and nags in the back of my mind. And I do as commanded.
I twist the glimmering metal handle sideways, opening it gently and peeking inside with both curiosity and nervousness.
The room is glowing dark neon red, as the lights above flicker ever so gently. I walk inside.
The door slams behind me, as if automatic. I attempt to open it out of fear, but it doesn’t budge.
“What the hell…” I whisper to myself with a tad bit of panic in my voice. Suddenly a loud whirring noise alerts me to turn around away from the door.
Above read a sign, “Memory Lane”, and at the bottom of it, a ride? Why would a ride be hidden in seclusion? Something about this seems off, but I feel the need to get inside the odd black and silver seats of the ride. So I do.
The seats are quite odd, instead of sitting upright or standing, you must lay all the way down and buckle yourself inside. On the side of the tracks reads a sign, “Enjoy yourself! And remember DON’T SCREAM.” It says in red bold letters. The ride begins to move slowly.
At first, nothing really happened. The same sidelines of piping and electronics pulling me along. Bumping slightly as it changes track and trajectory.
After a bit of the same scenery and unfaltering boredom, I am met with a small red satin curtain you’d see at a play, and it unfolds before me. Along the ceiling are pictures. Pictures of houses, families smiling, cute animals, and even antique images of maybe the 50’s?
“Odd ride.” I say, chuckling to myself a bit. “Why would I scream at dingy old photos?” I speak out loud to myself.
As images pass me by, the same familiar categories, I enter another curtain. This one however, is purple.
“Congratulations. You’ve made it to level 2! Remember. Stay calm, and don’t scream!” Says an enthusiastic AI generated female voice over an intercom.
I lay awaiting the ride to move, thinking to myself what could be next.
After a moment in time, the ride begins to resume it’s trek to whatever the end of this ride is.
The ceiling lights up revealing more pictures. However these pictures are a bit darker. Funerals, tragedies like cancer or other terminal illnesses that lead to death. Children crying, domestic abuse, house fires. Along the sides of these pictures are tiny televisions and monitors, displaying crude movie scenes of gore and death.
“What the fuck? What kind of ride is this?” I say, trying to sit myself up. But the belts tighten and yank me back in place, holding me still. The ride pauses. Fear paralyzes me as the intercom speaks “Do not move explorer! Remember, don’t scream!”
My eyes widened with fear. Am I being watched right now?
“Hey let me out of here! I don’t want to do this anymore!” I shout angrily.
“Don’t scream.” A deeper voice replies this time.
The ride begins to resume, coming to a halt at now a white curtain.
“Congratulations! You have reached Level 3! This one is much more difficult for riders, so make sure to stay calm and DO NOT SCREAM.” The female AI voice states.
The curtain unfolds, and a shiver runs down my spine. The room is dark, cold unlike the ones before. Audio seems to be playing from my sides, weeping, crying and screaming. It sounds uncanny and slightly inhumane. Like something pretending to be human.
A familiar voice shoots to my attention.
“Please let me out of here, I promise. I promise I won’t do it again. I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry.” A females voice plays. This voice sounds very familiar. So familiar. Too Familiar.
“I see you recognize the voice.” A man’s voice states monotonously over the intercom.
I do recognize the voice.
It’s the voice of my daughter, my missing daughter.
“You sick fucks! Le-” A loud ringing emits through the now visible speakers, accompanied by fluorescent white lighting flickering wildly, disorienting me. It is pitch black once again.
“Remember riders! Don’t scream! Don’t scream! Don’t scream, don’t scream, don’t scream, don’t scream.” The AI voice repeats. I’m shaking now, but I’m dead silent.
The ride resumes.
The lights flicker on one by one, however the ride speeds up from its regular pace.
It’s images of my old home. Pictures of my missing daughter’s room.
The next image is closer to her window.
The next the window is open.
And the last, a picture of her duct taped mouth, with such fear in her eyes.
I feel like throwing up, my head spinning wildly.
Yet I stay quiet. So quiet. So still.
“Congratulations. You’ve completed the ride. Good job! You didn’t scream.” The AI voice says, “Now let the true game begin.”
The belts that held me tightly to the ride snap free, and I scatter to my feet immediately. The lights shut off, along with the tv monitors.
“We know you hurt your child.” The intercom says repeatedly, overlapping voices ringing loudly.
It comes to a halt.
“Run. Don’t scream.” It says in a low, flat monotone voice, different from the previous uplifting and enthusiastic voice I’d grown accustomed to.
I hear loud chainsaw noises coming from the left of me, and footsteps accompanied them as well. Fast, running footsteps.
“She wanted to be rescued. I set her free.” The AI voice says.
I run in the opposite direction, tripping over my feet with my breathing labored.
I can see in the distance the white curtain I once came through, the lights glimmering slightly through the sides being my only lightsource. I run to it like a bug to a lamp.
Just as I made it to the curtain, the chainsaw noises stopped. I stand within the range of the purple curtain. The ceiling adorned with the previous disturbing images. I pick up my pace, running faster than ever before.
“Daddy?” Emily’s voice reverberates throughout the corridor. “Daddy I’m scared. I can’t see. Daddy please come save me.”
I begin to break down and cry. I know it’s not her. I know it’s not her, because I killed her. I sit in the cradle position and rock back and forth. “Please just kill me now. Please. I don’t want to be alive anymore please, just take me.”
“You killed me daddy.” Emily’s voice says over the intercom.
“You killed me.” A demonically deep voice echoes throughout the corridor.
I hear the monitors from the previous corridor beyond the white curtain begin to play. The sounds of Emily crying. I run away. Like I always do.
I run through the purple curtain, then the red. Ignoring all the voices, all the images, all the shadows I think I see moving. I run and run. Until I am at the entrance once more.
The door I came through is rusted, broken down now. And the lights are no longer neon red, just the normal bright fluorescent lighting. I bust through the door, expecting to be greeted by the park. The park I now miss so much. But instead I find myself in an all white, marbled room with a strange box in the center. The door slams behind me just as before, and of course, it doesn’t open.
I drift my attention to the box in the middle. It’s black and embroidered. Very expensive looking.
Atop the box reads “Open Me”, and I do so. There lies a 9mm handgun with one bullet, and “You Won!” embroidered in green at the ceiling of the lid.
And in the end, he did indeed win.
He got his wish to die.
Now you will get yours.
They’ll be expecting you soon, and remember.
Don’t scream.