Page 43 of Possess Us
Oh my…
I let out a girlish giggle, thoroughly enjoying the view and attention.
Pain steps between us and looks down at him, blocking my fantastic view of the kneeling man.
‘If you want to keep your eyes,’ Pain growls. ‘I suggest you don’t look at her. Or I will pluck them out and make you eat them.’ He takes a menacing step towards him.
The performer looks up at Pain as if ready to argue back. But quickly decides not to when he meets his gaze. I know he can feel the same thing I do. That aura of inhumanity. The aftertaste of death. The smell of damnation. All from a single look.
Both of them have that effect on me, too. The ability to make the air around them unnatural.
The performer gets to his feet and skates backwards, unable to look away until he knows he can get the hell away as quickly as possible. Then he fades into the crowd, lost to the sea of strangers all dressed up, drinking, eating and plotting where to go next.
Pain takes my hand once more and leads me on, pulling me as he speeds up.
I think I pissed off the Demon Prince of Pain. Not good.
We pass the Ferris wheel, a red and white circus tent with a giant plastic clown face at its entrance. Its mouth opens wide, acting as the entrance.
Carved pumpkins sit in large groups, their candles inside flickering away, making ghostly eyes follow us.
We walk in silence. I remain pinned between the two who seem to know precisely where they are going. I realise that weare not the only ones walking with purpose in this direction. Groups of teens skip and laugh past us, all dressed in costumes. Some sexy. Some grotesque. Some are barely in more than their underwear.
I can’t really talk. My skin-tight nurses' dress is torn, stained with blood and cum, and minus many a button. I’m pretty sure my ass cheeks are visible.
My breath hangs thick in the air, but I can’t feel the cold. I should. I know I should. Either adrenaline has banished such an unnecessary thing as to feel the cold, or my descent into a Hell bound soul has already begun. I am designed for the fires of Hell. My exposed backside in the October night air is hardly an issue.
When we pass the house of mirrors, I see what everyone is so excited about and why so many are rushing in this direction.
The star of the Halloween carnival.
A looming black building three stories high. A grand and gothic mansion with a warped and rustic sign atop a great arched doorway.
This is clearly the carnival’s crown jewel. A sprawling house of horrors. Its towers are all crooked and made to look as though years of neglect have ravaged it. Strings of light flicker ominously around the boarded-up windows. Beyond the thick boards of wood, a dim glow seeps outwards, hinting that there is still life inside these dead walls and forgotten locks.
It looks less like a hospital and more like a trap. Not to lure people in, but to keep those already inside from ever setting foot beyond its grasp again.
Everyone skips joyfully towards the attraction. But they stop at its gates, watching the house as though it is something to be conquered. To be faced and defeated.
I look at them both in turn, each staring up at it. At the stone steps. The heavy doors are wide open.
It’s not fake, I realise. But it's a real building. One of actual stone, wood, brick, and metal bars.
‘What is that?’ I ask. ‘It’s not a simple attraction.’
‘This is Shadow Sanatorium. Or it was a hundred and fifty years ago.’ Lust looks down at me with pure boyish excitement. ‘It was a mental hospital for the criminally insane. Until the inmates escaped one night. The hospital went into lockdown. All the doors and windows were sealed, trapping the staff and patients inside. When the police opened the doors the next day, all the staff were dead and only three inmates were left alive. The Wade family purchased it a decade later and tried to make it into a hotel. But they gave up after less than a year.’
‘Why?’
He looks down at me.
‘Because the mechanism which puts the mansion into lockdown kept triggering. And every time it did, those stuck inside would die.’
He bounces on the balls of his feet as he looks up at the house.
‘But it’s a ride now, right?’ I ask. 'Just a ride?'
‘It was purchased by the Wade brothers ten years ago. They purchased the land too and made this theme park bullshit.’ Pain grunts as though bored by the entire conversation. He nods to the house. ‘You need to go in there.’
