“Hey Dad, can you take me and my friends to the carnival tonight?” The words echoed through my head. The question my son asked left a sense of nostalgia.
“Sure bud, let’s go check with your mom, okay?” I replied, a faint hint of sadness in my voice.
Those words brought me back to when I was a young and dumb teenager back in my senior year of high school. The reason behind the emotions I felt at the thought of carnivals was due to an event that had been burned into my mind because of what I had witnessed and had to do all those years ago… I’ve decided here would be a good place to share this experience and hopefully finally have some answers for what happened to me all those years ago…
The day was July 24th, 2006, it’s a day that will stick with me until the end of my days. It was a scorching summer like you could expect in July, that day me and my friends had just gotten out of school and were walking home. We always walked the same direction since we lived all within walking distance of each other’s houses on the same street. These were the only real friends I had ever had. We had grown up together doing everything we could to stay in trouble just us three.
Sure, being into sports had made me what you could consider one of the popular kids in school. Everyone knew my name even if they didn’t know my face kind of thing, but Josh and Juan were the two best friends I’ve ever had. We had each other’s backs in everything since we were just little kids racing each other on the playground. Back then we thought we knew it all and had a plan for where we were going to go to college, what sport to play we thought we were going to be pros one day… I’m sure you’ve guessed by now that none of that happened or I wouldn’t be telling this story…
As we were walking along that summer day chatting about what video games, we had been playing recently and sports games coming that we were playing in Josh pointed out something stapled to an electrical pole. I had almost missed it and probably would have walked right past it without a second thought had he not pointed it out…
God I wish I did… I wish we never saw the flyer and just kept walking…
“Hey guys check this out.” Josh said stopping abruptly pointing out the flyer stapled to the pole in front of us. “Looks like there is a carnival in town tonight. You guys down?”
“I don’t know man,” Juan said back a slight hint of fear in his voice, “I’m not too big on carnivals I always throw up on the rides.”
The idea of going to a carnival seemed almost childish to me in the moment, but as I was mulling these thoughts over
Josh spoke up again.“Hey man don’t worry I’ll bring the drinks if you know what I mean so you’ve got nothing to worry about,” He started off “and you’re not going alone anyways you’ve got us.” He added at the end to trying his best to convince Juan that it was a good idea. “This might be one of the last times we can have fun and do stupid things together before we graduate man.”
Shaking his head, I could see the small smirk starting to form on Juan’s face, “Alright alright man. I’ll go, but only because you’re asking.” He finished that sentencing lightly pushing Josh.
They both turned to me expectantly as if wanting my approval on going or not. Speaking up I said, “Don’t worry you two already know I’m in. You don’t have to convince me to do something stupid.” I laughed.
I ripped the paper off the pole and stuff it into my pocket, and we continued our walk talking excitedly about how much we were going to drink and what dumb stuff we could get into at the carnival before parting ways to our homes. I opened my front door to be greeted by my mom in the kitchen preparing dinner for later that night. She greeted me as I shut the front door behind me.
“Hey honey, how was school?”
“It was good, nothing special as usual, but me, Juan and Josh found this cool poster about a carnival going on tonight. I’m going to go with them if that’s alright.”
“I don’t have a problem with it,” She started “just be safe and don’t get into any trouble with those friends of yours.” Her voice became stern with those last few words to emphasize she that she was serious.
“Me? Trouble?” I laughed sarcastically, “You know me mom I keep my nose clean.” I half smirked as those last words fell out.
Turning to me wooden spoon in hand and pointing it at me she said, “Yea and I’m a rocket scientist. I’m serious David be safe and don’t get into any trouble, but if you do you can always call me… or your father. You know what your father always says though, if you get arrested that a night in jail might teach you a lesson, so you better call me first.”
She let out a soft laugh before turning back around. I quickly turned on my heels and headed up stairs to my room and threw my backpack down pulling out the flyer and putting it on my desk. Looking it over I checked the address of where it was, the flyer read,
“Come one come all! The carnival has arrived bring your friends and family to see the spectacular show we have. Enjoy fun rides and shows! $5 entry fee ages 12 and up, free ages 11 and below! Located on 21st Street, Downtown Morrisville. At Winston Park!”
My thoughts circled to it being a great idea to invite my girlfriend at the time, Chelsea, so I shot her a text telling her the location of the carnival asking her if she could meet us there at a little past 5 o’ clock.
A few minutes passed and she replied agreeing and told me she would bring one of her friends.
Setting my phone down grabbing an empty backpack off the floor grabbing a few things I wanted to bring with me to the carnival.
Throwing them in it before shooting my friends a quick text, “Meet outside my house 5 o’clock I’ll drive us.” Hitting send I threw my phone into my pocket and laid in bed listening to music until it was finally almost 5 my phone was reading 4:55pm when I checked it which meant it was time.
Getting out of bed and grabbing my bag that I prepared earlier I threw one strap over my shoulder before heading out of my room.
Before I reached the front door I yelled, “Love you mom and dad see you guys later tonight.”
I grabbed the keys hanging on the key rack for my mom’s car and headed out the door. When I stepped outside, I noticed the sun already starting to set and two figures walking down the street together in the direction of my house.
I already knew it was Josh and Juan, so I called out to them, “Hurry up guys!” Jokingly and waved them over.
“You guys ready for tonight?” I asked smiling and unlocking the car.
“Hell yea!” They both replied in unison before hoping into the car.
Cranking the car, I turned up the radio blaring music way too loud before pulling out the driveway and heading to the carnival. Time moved by quickly and before we knew it, we were already downtown at the parking lot near the park.
I quickly spotted Chelsea standing next to her car with her friend who I recognized to be Sarah. I pulled into the empty parking spot next to them and we all piled out the car to which I was greeted by Chelsea with a hug and kiss before grabbing my hand.
“Nice of you to join us.” Chelsea said grinning at me. “Me and Sarah thought you got lost.”
“Hey now. You keep that up and I won’t be winning you anything while we’re here.” I said back.
She gave me a playful shove on the shoulder giving me a playful smile.
“This looks like it’s going to be fun.” She said gesturing over her shoulder to the park.
The smell of popcorn and the sounds of the carnival floated on the air giving off a welcoming aroma.
“Yea,” I replied back “let’s head in guys.”
We all walked together off towards the carnival not having a single clue the about the horrible fate we were walking into…
When we got to the front entrance it seemed like everyone in town had showed up to this carnival. As we approached the ticket booth, I could see the worker. A frail looking old man greeted us as we approached.
He visibly counted out how many were in our group and told us the total price for all our tickets combined, each of us pulling out $5 to pay the man. Afterwards, we received the red wrist bands for entry.
Stepping away from the ticket booth we walked through the front entrance flashing our wrist bands for the workers who let us pass without question.
The inside was lit up with all different kinds of rides and attractions. They had a decent sized roller coaster, strongman game, ring toss, and tons of other things to do.
A few clowns could already be seen moving through the crowds of people entertaining children with balloon animals and tricks. I could see Juan visibly tense up at the sight of them, but he held his composure.
I didn’t even bother to tease him about it instead I opted to just give him a firm smack on the back and said, “Come on man let’s see what we can get into.”
He gave out a halfhearted smile in response before joining us in walking forward into the huge carnival before us.
“Wait wait wait,” Josh spoke up, “remember I said I would bring the drinks.” He said with a smile he took off his small backpack he was wearing and pulled us all aside reaching into the contents of the bag revealing a bottle of liquor.
“Grabbed this out of my dad’s liquor cabinet I doubt he’ll notice it’s missing since he hardly looks at these anymore anyways.” He opened the bottle and took a sip visibly recoiling at the taste but swallowing down the contents regardless before offering some to the rest of us.
I obliged taking a sip for myself coughing a little as the liquid burned its way down my throat into my stomach.
“Damn that stuff is strong.” I said the taste of the bitter liquid still lingering on my tongue.
“Only the best for my friends.” Josh replied offering the bottle to Juan who took a sip having a similar reaction like the two of us. Both Sarah and Chelsea politely declined not wanting to take the chance of their parents smelling alcohol on their breathe when they went home later that night.
“Suite yourself.” Josh replied taking another sip before putting the bottle back into the depth of his bag and throwing it back over his shoulder.
Walking back into the crowd of people we went from game-to-game laughing and drinking more as the night went on. I had stopped drinking well before they did since I was driving us back home afterwards, but they continued the party well after I stopped.
After a while of games, we found ourselves outside of a tent that no one appeared to be going in or out of. I remember thinking how strange it was at the time that no one seemed to even look in the direction of the quiet little tent, but I didn’t think too much about it.
“Damn this little tent is creeeepy.” Josh said slurring his words a little as he spoke and kicking the side of the tent.
“I agree.” I said back taking a step back and looking the tent over curiously. “It doesn’t seem busy at all.” Just as I finished that sentence, I saw a figure appear from the inside of the tent. Looking over I saw it was a clow waving us all to come over.
It didn’t take long for everyone else to notice the clown waving us over and before I could even think it over Josh started towards the clown without a second thought. Clearly too drunk to be thinking clearly.
Thinking back on it now I should have done more to try to stop him before he made it inside and it is still one of my biggest regrets to this day… I was just too late…
Me, Chelsea, Sarah, and Juan chased after them trying to catch up. The clown and Josh disappeared into the entrance of the tent. I went inside first taking hold of Chelsea’s hand who in turn took hold of Sarah’s hand.
The inside of the tent was dimly lit with white light and filled with mirrors; it took my brain a few minutes to process what I was seeing but quickly realized we had entered a mirror maze.
Josh was just up ahead, and we made our way over to him. The clown that led us in here was no where in sight as far as I could tell which freaked me out a little, but I tried my best not to show it in front my Chelsea and the others.
“Wow,” I said, “This place is weird. We should just get out of here this place is creepy as hell.”
I took in my surroundings and noticed we were in a mirror maze room. The ceiling was dark expect for a few lights allowing for limited visibility in the darkness.
I started towards the entrance we had just come through and quickly realized it was gone. I reached the area I was 100% sure we had come through and found my hand touching a cold metal like wall in the darkness. I started to internally panic at this moment feeling like a fly caught in a trap. I was starting to get a bad feeling at this point as well. Something was definitely off here.
“What the hell.” I said to the others. “The entrance is missing. I can’t find it on this wall anywhere.”
“No way man.” Juan said stumbling over feeling along the wall. “What the hell?” He swore to himself quietly. I could see him sober up a little at the realization that we were trapped in here. The panic forming on his face the more he checked the wall.
“Listen guys.” I spoke up before everyone else freaked out. “I’m just as freaked out as you guys are, but we need to try and keep calm. There has to be a way out of here. Every mirror maze has an exit right? So, we just have to find it and stick together while we do. Where the hell did that clown go that led us in here?”
“I don’t know man…” Josh spoke up first. “The moment we got inside he was just… Gone…”
“Someone should try and call for help on their phone.” Sarah spoke up.
We each pulled out our phones one by one slowly looking up at each other drawing the same conclusion we had each feared. “No service?” I asked slowly. Each one of them nodding in reply.
“Okay then we have to figure this out, let’s try and find the exit out of this damn place.” I grabbed Chelseas hand and made my way towards the start of the mirror maze and turned back to the others. “Come on guys let’s go.” They all started in my direction, and we started to make our way through the maze as a group.
I clearly remember the first person to speak up and say that something felt off as we were walking through the maze. It was Juan slurring his words slightly he said something along the lines of, “What the hell.” With a nervous chuckle. “My reflection isn’t moving right guys.” We all collectively turned to Juan after he said that, and he just wasn’t there anymore. “Juan?!” I called out to the void surrounding us. “JUAN!?” What the hell. I thought to myself.
“Okay dude we have to find Juan, I’m freaking out right now.” Josh spoke up voice trembling as he looked around erratically twisting and turning looking in all the mirror trying to see where Juan went.
I walked over to him and grabbed his shoulders and shook him firmly. “Hey man, snap out of it. We need to make it to the end of this damn maze and get out of here. We can call the police as soon as we’re outside and they can find Juan.”
As I did this I looked into the mirror behind him and saw his reflection wasn’t the back of himself like it should have been it was Josh staring at me with a sinister grin instead. I jumped back in fear and suddenly the reflection reached through the mirror and pulled Josh through it with such force and speed that I had no time to react or try to help.
I let out a yelp and fell backwards onto the floor scrambling away from the mirror.
“Josh!? Josh!!?” I called out. “What the hell is going on here!?”
Chelsea and Sarah hadn’t noticed what had happened until I started yelling and then they looked up at me stopping their conversation. They both wore a look of fear and confusion upon their faces noticing that now not only Juan was gone, but also Josh. There was seemingly no trace of either of them.
“Oh God, what is going on…?” Chelsea asked looking between me and Sarah.
“We shouldn’t have come here. We shouldn’t have come here. I knew this was a bad idea.” Sarah started muttering to herself. “I always let you talk me into coming to this type of stuff Chelsea, why do I always have to come along.” I could tell she was losing it. She started to pace back and forth continuing to mutter to herself.
“What do we do now David.” Chelsea asked the fear evident in her voice. I reached over placing a hand on her trembling shoulder pulling her into a hug.
“I don’t know… we need to figure out how to get out of here. Something strange is going on here. I won’t let anything happen to you guys, okay?” I said to her looking around at all the mirrors scanning them for anything out of the ordinary like I had seen earlier with Josh.
“Do you hear that?” Chelsea said pulling away from my embrace.
“Hear what?” I replied.
“Exactly… It’s quite.” The realization hit both of us and we turned to where Sarah had been standing to find the spot empty. “David what is that behind you?” Were the last words I heard from Chelsea before feeling something grab my shoulders from behind with such intense force and pulling me backwards. Where I should have crashed into a mirror, I instead found myself falling backwards. It felt like I was free falling for a few seconds before landing onto hard floor with a thud surrounded by more darkness and mirrors only one thing was wrong though I had no reflection in the mirrors I was looking at.
“What the hell?” I muttered to myself looking around. “Josh!? Juan!? Chelsea!? Sarah!?” I called out each of their names into the darkness multiple times in hopes I would receive some response, but I didn’t even hear the echo of my own voice in the void surrounding me.
What now, I thought to myself looking around. I could either go left or right where I was standing. I pondered what to do for a moment and then decided to just go left stumbling my way clumsily through the maze bumping into mirror after mirror before suddenly bumping into something like a brick wall.
“What the hell.” I quietly murmured. I looked up at the object I had run into to find Josh. “Holy shit man!” I said reaching forwards to embrace him relieved to see a friendly face. Just before I made it into the hug I felt his fist connect with my jaw sending me sprawling onto the floor.
“What the hell man?” I shouted at him quizzically.
I scrambled to my feet just in time to dodge his foot crashing down where I was just laying on the floor. I took a few seconds to look him over and see if I could figure out what was wrong with him, but nothing made sense. This looked just like Josh, but for some reason he was trying to fight me. His face was twisted with rage as he glared at me.
I tried to rationalize with him, “Hey Josh it’s me dude, David. Your best friend whatever this is about we can talk about it man we don’t have to do this.”
Josh suddenly stopped and spoke for the first time. “Yes… Yes we do…” His voice sounded foreign to me like someone doing a cheap impression of Josh’s voice.
I stumbled backwards shocked the sudden realization hit me as I thought back to the figure in the mirror with the sinister smile. This can’t be Josh. There’s no way it is. I thought to myself just before I decided to take up a good fighting stance; fists raised to defend myself.
He attacked first throwing a right hook which I stepped forwards into blocking it and using my free hand to throw punches at his exposed stomach. I managed at least three good hits before he shoved me backwards with such force that I fell backwards onto the floor again.
He didn’t even seem fazed by my attacks, but I pressed on trying different hits trying to gain the upper hand. No matter what I did though he didn’t seem to slow down or even be fazed by my attacks and I was getting tired quickly also having taken a few good hits myself.
My ribs were burning in pain and my legs felt like they would give out any moment so I did something as a last ditch effort hoping it would stop him. I rushed forwards and tackled Josh backwards shoving him full force into the mirror behind him shattering it. I quickly straddled him raining down punches, but unfazed he wrapped his hands around my throat and started to squeeze.
I reached out feeling with my free hand, the other trying to stop him from choking me, until I was able to grab one of the broken shards of the mirror I had produced with my tackle and brought it down hard into his arm. His grip didn’t loosen and he continued to squeeze harder.
I brought the shard down again this time in the middle of his exposed throat. As soon as the shard pierced all the way through, I pulled it free attacking again and again until the thing that was pretending to be Josh stopped moving. Red blood didn’t pour form the wounds though, instead a foul-smelling black liquid gushed from each stab wound. I felt sick and I fell backwards taking a moment to catch my breathe before shakily rising to my feet.
I still clutched the broken mirror shard in my hand ready to defend myself if it got back up, but much to my relief it didn’t. I limped over to it and looked down at the pale lifeless corpse. Its eyes were glazed over a cloudy grey not even looking human. I hadn’t noticed at first glance, but now with a closer look I could tell something was more off about this thing than I noticed before. It definitely wasn’t Josh no matter how much it looked like him.
I gave the body one last kick for good measure before stepping away from it. Making my way down the maze hoping to God or anything that I wouldn’t run into another one of these things. Multiple thoughts flooded my mind such as if everyone was dealing with these… things… or if it was just me.
It felt like hours had passed as I made my way along the maze hoping that I would run into one of my friends and not one of those clone things. I was exhausted, everything hurt, and I was beyond thirsty at this point. I had originally packed water and snacks in my bag that I brought, but when I was dragged through the mirror, I guess it didn’t come with me. I continued though one step at a time praying for a miracle.
After a while of walking some more, I heard something up ahead a shuffling noise like someone walking in my direction ahead of me so I took cover behind a mirror waiting for the figure to appear so I could jump out and attack them before they could attack me. I saw the familiar hair and then face of Chelsea. My heart leapt to my throat as I stared at this perfect replica of my girlfriend, I wasn’t sure if this was really her or not. I opted to try and speak first against my better judgement.
“Chelsea is that really you?” I spoke up.
“David?” She said in a shocked tone.
It didn’t sound inhuman like Josh’s voice had earlier which gave me hope that this was really her. I rushed over to hug her still cautious but too tired to care about questioning her further instead I chose to take my chances. I embraced her and she returned the hug with one of her own. Relief flooded my body as I was sure this had to be her.
“I was so worried!”
“Sarah just tried to kill me.” She said in a shaky voice.
“It’s going to be okay.” I said to her not letting go as I spoke. She didn’t reply instead I was met with silence. I tried to pull away from the embrace, but suddenly she had so much strength and started to squeeze tighter and tighter. I felt it becoming harder and harder to breathe to where I started gasping for air.
“Yes, it will.” A demonic sounding voice spoke in my ear instead of Chelsea’s.
“Chel..sea… Let… Go…” I choked out still having hope it could really be her, but I knew all too well it wasn’t. I raised my hand behind her still gripping the shard of the mirror I had from earlier and plunged it into her back her grip lessening for a moment, but just enough time for me to squeeze out from the deadly embrace and push her away from me. I raised the shard in front of me defensively and Chelsea charged an evil look in her eyes, she was unrecognizable now, completely different than earlier.
Tears in my eyes I charged forward as well plunging the shard with both hands directly into her heart. The tears now streaming down my face as I did so. Pulling the shard free I repeatedly stabbed the creature in front of me over and over until it fell limp onto the floor. Black blood soaked my hands mixed with my own blood from the shard cutting into my palms. I stood over the limp figure of who I thought was Chelsea only moments before.
“How the hell do I get out of here!” I screamed into the void and empty mirrors surrounding me. So much time had passed that I wasn’t even sure what time it was anymore. My phone had stopped working hours ago when it died, and I was starting to lose hope that there was any way out of this maze. When I suddenly heard an answer to my question from somewhere close by.
“David!? Is that you!?” I recognized Josh’s voice immediately. I felt a small sense of relief at the sound of his voice but was still cautious as to if it was really him or not. I remembered with Chelsea it was nearly impossible to tell at first.
“How do I know it is really you Josh?!” I called out to the voice.
“Follow my voice David and I can prove it to you in person we need to get out of here man.” Josh’s voice called back.
Josh continued talking just to keep his voice going so I could follow it through the maze of mirrors until I eventually came to an opening where all the mirrors stopped abruptly, it opened up into a small room lit by one white light shinning down into the pitch-black room.
In the center of the room was Josh. I wanted to rush forwards just get out of there with him but I kept position staying at a distance from him gripping the mirror shard so hard now that my knuckles were white, and blood had started to pour from my hand where it was leaving a deep cut.
“I want to believe it is you Josh, but I’ve seen shit man, crazy things that don’t make sense. I killed you… I stabbed you to death. How do I know this is really you and not some fake version of you?” I called out to him.
He stepped out into the light so I could see him clearly and I saw his clothes covered in the same dark liquid mine were and he was also holding a shard of a mirror in his hand as well which was soaked in the same dark liquid. “Is this proof enough man…” He said tiredly “Let’s get the hell out of here.” He reached out a hand gesturing me over and dropped the shard of mirror as further proof it shattered against the floor as it landed.
I cautiously approached him and when I was within grabbing distance, I lowered my guard and the mirror shard I held loosening my grip just a little. Relief washed over me, and I could tell just by his eyes and demeanor this was actually Josh.
“I thought I’d never seen any of you guys again.” I said to him.
“Same here I never thought this madness would end. It feels like we’ve been in here forever.” Josh replied a deep sadness mixed with relief in his voice.
I looked around the room fully observing my surroundings for the first time and I could make out what looked like an exit roughly fiftey feet away from where we were standing under the light.
“Let’s get out of here.” I said throwing my free hand over his shoulder so we could lean on each other for support as we walked out of this place.
I really wish it had been that simply… Just walking out the entrance and seeing freedom again, but it wasn’t… Of course, it wasn’t…
Just as we reached the exit, we heard a deep demonic sounding laugh emanate from all around us. We both froze in our steps terrified. Within a few seconds I was thrown off my feet and I felt a sharp burning pain in my side as the shard of the mirror I was holding embedded itself directly into my leg.
I screamed out in pain rolling over to my good side trying to see where Josh had gone. I could see him in my tear blurred vision and he looked fine, but he was also knocked off his feet and was trying to stand.
A figure appeared out of the darkness next to him and I could see it clearly finally it was the clown from before. It looked different though… It no longer looked like a costume wearing person, but something sinister and evil. It was like the costume was its skin not just clothes. I still to this day can’t find the right words to describe it. Whatever this thing was it wasn’t human…
Josh turned to face the thing and took up a half stumbling fighting stance and tried his best to defend himself. He threw the first punch and the thing just brushed it aside like it was nothing before lunging forwards. In a blur of movement it plunged its arm straight through Josh’s chest and out the other side.
It took me a few seconds to realize what I just saw, but I will never forget how his body went limp as the clown was holding his heart in its hand. It pulled its hand back through his chest and Josh’s body hit the floor with a wet and hard thud the clown then began to devour the heart in its hand like a hungry animal.
I didn’t even give it time to shift its attention on me. I used the last of my strength and adrenaline to get to my feet and rushed to the exit. I tripped as I fell through the door landing flat on my face in the dirt.
As I emerged out the other side it seemed like no time had passed I could hear the laughter of children and the sound of rides still moving around me. All of the sounds and lights suddenly blended together and swirled in my vision, and I made it roughly three more steps before collapsing into the dirt and passing out.
From what I was told after the incident the police had ruled it that my friends and I had just gotten drunk, and I had fallen stabbing myself. I had woken up two days later in the hospital surrounded by family.
The police couldn’t find any of my friends that I had gone out with that night. Their families filed missing persons reports and I was later questioned about the events.
I played it off that I couldn’t remember anything because I knew they would all think I was crazy if I told them what actually happened to me that night.
To anyone reading this I have one warning to you… Stay out of the mirror mazes at the carnival you never know if you’ll make it out alive…