Welcome to the Spook House

“Where are we going?” 1

“The carnival!”2

“You mean that old creepy one?”3

“Yeah, that one!”4

“Why?”5

“I wanna see if they’re there.”6

“They won’t be out now! It’s not even Halloween, idiot. Besides, they don’t exist!”7

“How do you know?”8

Peggy fastened the last buttons on her black lacy dress, looking herself over in the mirror. She tightened her messy black pigtails and straightened her tiara as she heard the sound of the old cuckoo clock on the opposite wall chirping away the hour. She turned around and gave an annoyed glance in its direction, hoping that the clock would somehow tell she was annoyed and stop. However, it didn’t, so she grabbed one of her heavy platform shoes off the floor and hurled it at the clock. It hit the clock with a satisfying bang, and little pieces of wood and metal fell onto the floor. 9

The cuckoo bird hung by a spring, swaying up and down slowly, still chirping faintly. Peggy walked over to the clock and ripped the bird of the wall, throwing it onto the floor. She hastily put her shoe on and crushed the little wooden bird under her foot. She gave a satisfied smile, staring down at the wooden fragments on the floor, when she heard someone else come into the room.10

“We’ve got a slight problem,” she heard him say.11

“What is it this time, Edgar?” She asked. Edgar walked closer to her and stared with a raised eyebrow at the shattered clock on the floor. He pushed his glasses up higher on his nose and then looked back at her.12

“I won’t even ask,” he mumbled. “Anyway, Jack can’t find his gloves.”13

“The white ones?” Peggy asked. He nodded. She stared up at the colourful ceiling, drummer her fingers on the desk she was leaning against. Edgar looked at her expectantly, and she glanced at him with a raised eyebrow.14

“Well, don’t ask me, I don’t know where he keeps his junk.” Peggy spun around; her fluffy skirt flying out around her striped stocking legs as she pushed past Edgar and walked out the door. He sighed and reluctantly followed after her.15

Jack pulled open the closet doors for the third or fourth time, searching through all the messy piles of clothes and random trinkets for his precious pair of white gloves. He heard someone push past his curtain door, so he stopped his search and turned around abruptly to see Edgar and Peggy standing in the doorway.16

“Why’d you have to bring the wench with you?” Jack asked, gesturing to Peggy, who scowled at him.17

“Well, she kinda stormed off after I asked her about the gloves, so I was on my way back here when I saw her walking over here,” said Edgar. “I dunno what she was doing.” Jack glanced at Peggy, who took his pair of white gloves out from behind her back and tossed them at him. He caught them and looked them over suspiciously. 18

“What did you do to them?” he asked, looking up at Peggy angrily. She frowned and put her hands on her hips.19

“I haven’t done anything to them,” she said. “But if you don’t want them, I’ll take ‘em.” Jack quickly put the gloves on, glaring at Peggy. She gave him an unkind smile and walked out of the tent. 20

She passed by the old merry-go-round, which hadn’t been turned on in years. She wondered if it even worked, so she stepped onto the metal platform that would be rotating if it had been turned on. She walked around in circles, looking carefully at all the horses, paint chipping and scratched all over. 21

“Over there.” Peggy stopped abruptly and listened. 22

“Yeah, see?” She turned around to see two children – a little boy and a slightly older girl – standing by the gate, staring at her. She smirked and walked off the merry-go-round, making her way over to them. They looked genuinely terrified and she stood in front of them, towering over their small forms. 23

“Well, what are two little children like you doing all they way out here?” said Peggy. They children stared up at her and didn’t answer. She frowned slightly, and seeing her reaction, the little boy spoke up.24

“We…wanted to see if the story was true,” he said. Peggy lowered herself to a sitting position on the ground so she was closer to his height. 25

“What story?” She asked. The girl cleared her throat and the little boy looked at her expectantly.26

“Well, they say that on Halloween, the creepy people who live in this old carnival come out,” she said, “and they lure children in and steal them away…”27

“Oh, then why are you here now?” Asked Peggy. “If…we only come out on Halloween, you’re a day early.”28

“I know,” said the girl, “but my stupid brother made me come.”29

“I am not stupid!” the little boy whined. His sister was about to say something back, but Peggy interrupted.30

“No time for petty arguments!” said Peggy, standing up and playing with the heavy lock on the gate. “Would you like to come in?” The children exchanged a glance, and shook their heads.31

“You’ll kidnap us!” said the little boy. “And cook us in your oven and eat us for supper!” Peggy laughed.32

“Oh, I couldn’t do that,” she said. “I don’t have an oven!” The children stared up at her, confused. She took a key from a chain on her necklace and pushed it into the lock. She turned it and it snapped open, a cloud of dust rising as it hit the ground. She tapped the gate and it swung open with a loud creak, and the children simply stared at her.33

“So? Are you coming in or not?” She asked. The children stared at her for a while longer, before the little boy took a step forward. His sister followed him inside, and Peggy shut and locked the gate behind them. 34

Peggy led them through the park, and they walked into a huge tent. Edgar and Jack were still there, sitting down on the floor talking about something. They looked up as Peggy walked in, the two children in front of her.35

“Oh, we have guests!” said Edgar. “Lovely.”36

“Yeah, I was getting kind of hungry,” said Jack, smiling evilly. The children stared at him, looking terrified, when Peggy laughed.37

“Oh, he’s just joking!” She said, pushing the two children towards Edgar and Jack. “Entertain them while I go get some things.” She walked out of the tent, and the children looked around worriedly.38

“So, I think an introduction is in order!” said Edgar. He pointed to himself. “I’m Edgar, and this is my good friend, Jack.” Jack waved and smiled. “And you two would be?”39

“Um, I’m Katie,” said the girl. She glanced at her brother.40

“And I’m Jason,” said the boy. 41

“Well, nice to meet you both!” said Edgar. “You know, you don’t have to stand in the doorway all day…come sit down!” The two of them slowly walked over to where Edgar and Jack were sitting and sat down next to them so they formed a little circle.42

“So, are you two going out for Halloween this year?” asked Jack. Katie and Jason nodded slowly. “Great! It’s my favourite holiday, you know.”43

Peggy walked back in holding a large knife and a big orange bag. She walked over to a nearby table, stabbed the knife into it and then set the bag down next to it. She sat down on the floor, smiling.44

“Quit stabbing my stuff!” said Jack. “You’re gunna ruin that table!”45

“Well I don’t care,” said Peggy. “It’s not my table.”46

“We’ll see how you like it when I go into your room and stab all your stuff with giant knives,” said Jack, glaring at Peggy.47

“Well I won’t care,” said Peggy smugly. “I break my own stuff all the time.”48

“That’s because you’re insane,” stated Jack.49

“No need to state the obvious,” said Edgar.  50

The two children sat there silently, watching the three of them argue about stabbing tables. Katie leaned in close to Jason and whispered, 51

“Let’s get out of here.” Jason nodded and they tried to quietly slip away from the group. They were about half way to the exit of the tent when they realized that the room had gone silent. 52

The two children turned around to see Jack and Edgar now standing, staring at them. They bolted for the exit, but ran into Peggy. Jason fell to the floor and Katie staggered backward.53

“Where do you think you’re going?” asked Peggy. The two children looked up at her, frightened. Jason quickly got up off the floor and tried to run around her, but she grabbed the handle on his backpack and pulled him back inside. He fell to the floor at Peggy’s feet.54

“Hey!” said Katie. “You can’t push him around like that!”55

“Who says?” Peggy retorted, sticking out her tongue. Jack and Edgar came up behind the two children, and stared down at them. 56

“Hey, you wanna play a game?” asked Peggy, smiling evilly. 57

“What about the stuff?” asked Edgar, pointing the knife sticking out of the table and the bag next to it.58

“Forget about it,” answered Peggy, smiling. “I wanna have some fun.” She looked at the two children hopefully. “So, what do you think? Wanna play a game?” The children didn’t answer the question, so she pulled Jason off the floor and practically dragged him out of the tent by his hand. Jack and Edgar pushed Katie along after them. 59

They walked past various old, broken down rides and stands before they stood in front of a giant old house, with broken neon lights around the outside. An old rusty fence stood around the house, with a large sign on it that said “SPOOK HOUSE” in large fancy lettering. The sign was titled severely sideways and looked like it could fall off at any moment. 60

“Welcome to the spook house!” said Jack, gesturing to the house in front of them.61

“Spook house?” Katie repeated.62

“Yeah, like a fun house!” said Edgar. “Except…spooky.”63

“How is that a game?” asked Jason.64

“Ah, you’ll see!” said Peggy.65

She led Jason past the rusty fence and up the front stairs of the house, with Katie, Edgar and Jack following. She opened the big wooden doors and they all went inside. 66

Inside the house, it was pitch black – the only light came from the opened door. 67

“Alright,” said Peggy. “This is how it goes: we hide somewhere in here and you have to find us!” 68

“So, like hide and seek?” asked Jason, seeming to brighten up a little.69

“Exactly!” said Jack. “But you have to find us before time runs out!”70

“What happens if we don’t?” asked Katie, her fingers twitching nervously.71

“Well, you’ll see,” said Jack, smiling evilly. Peggy giggled.72

“Happy hunting,” she half-whispered, giving them one final smile before73

slamming the door shut. 74

Katie and Jason stood still, listening to them all scurry away into their hiding places.75

“I’m scared,” said Jason, clinging to Katie. “It’s too dark…how are we supposed to find them?!”76

“Well, we’ll just have to…um…” Katie tried to find some way to console her brother, but she couldn’t think of a way the situation could get much worse.77

“Are we gunna be stuck here forever?!” cried Jason. “I wanna go home!”78

“We’ll make it home, don’t worry!” Said Katie. “I’ll make sure we get out of here…the door might still be open.” She walked back in the direction she thought they had come in, her hands stretched out in front of her. Soon enough, she touched a wall. She felt along the wall, moving slowly sideways, searching for the door. Eventually she felt the cold metal of the doorknob under her fingers. She tried to pull the doors open, but they had been locked.79

“No use, it’s locked,” she said. She heard Jason whimper. She paced back and forth, wondering what to do. “Well, I guess we should just look for them.” She started to walk in what she hoped would be the right direction, with Jason clinging to her arm. 80

“Hm, seems you’re going to wrong way!” they heard Peggy say. Katie abruptly stopped and turned around. They heard Peggy giggling, and the voice slowly faded away. Katie looked up – not that it would do any good, she couldn’t see a thing – when she heard footsteps thundering above them. 81

“There must be an upstairs!” said Jason. “That’s where they are!” 82

“Oh, don’t be so sure,” they heard Peggy say again. “We’re not all in the same place, you know…”83

“Where are you?!” yelled Katie. “We wanna go home!” They heard Peggy giggling, and then Jack’s voice joined in.84

“You won’t find us if you just stay in one place!” he said. “Maybe this will help you…” Suddenly, the room lit up and music began to play. There were bright lights everywhere, and little automatons lined the walls, seemingly dancing to the music. 85

Katie saw three doors at the end of the room, plus two on either side. There was a staircase to their right. 86

“Where should we go?” asked Katie. Jason pointed to the door closest to them on the left, so they walked over to it and opened it. It merely led to a brick wall.87

“My, my, we are tricky, aren’t we?” they heard Jack say. They both looked around frantically, but he was nowhere in sight. 88

“Oh my, where could he be?” Peggy said, giggling. 89

“Where are the voices coming from?” asked Jason, looking around the room. Katie looked at one of the automatons on a table next to the door. It was a little dancing man, with a speaker in the top of his hat. Katie tapped on the speaker and Jason came over to look at it.90

“Oh, seems you’ve found it…well, my fun with that is over.” Peggy’s voice came out of the speaker, sounding slightly disappointed. “But I still have my tricks…” The lights dimmed considerably and the music stopped, making everything much more eerie. They could still see, but just barely. 91

Katie made her way over to the next door, with Jason of course following. She opened it and saw nothing but pitch-black darkness. She took a step inside the room, and the lights turned on. She faced herself in a mirror. She looked at her reflection, confused, and tapped on the mirror. It moved slightly to the side, and she discovered that it revolved, like a revolving door. She pushed past the mirror, and found a whole maze full of mirrors awaiting her on the other side. Jason quickly followed her through and stared at his many reflections in awe. 92

“Wow, I remember these!” said Jason. “They’re fun!” Katie didn’t respond, and she walked slightly to the left, trying to see if there was anyone else in the maze. She heard a thumping noise, which sounded slightly like footsteps. She walked through a path of mirrors, with Jason trying to follow her and occasionally running into mirrors he didn’t know were there. 93

Out of the corner of her eye, Katie glanced Peggy’s reflection…or the real thing. She quickly disappeared, but reappeared in another mirror, closer to Jason.94

“Oh, hello!” she giggled. Katie ran towards her, but she quickly disappeared, and reappeared in another mirror, further away this time. 95

“Don’t you just love these?” asked Peggy. She moved again. “I’ve always loved them.” Katie ran towards what she thought was Peggy, until she bumped into a mirror. “You can fool people so easily…” Peggy’s reflection passed through another mirror, until Katie didn’t know where she was anymore. 96

She stared at one of her many reflections, trying to think of a plan, when a knife came whizzing out of nowhere and stuck right into the middle of her reflection’s forehead. The mirror shattered, and she could hear Peggy giggling, and then a door slamming shut. 97

Katie spun around, looking for the door that Peggy had gone through. Jason came up behind her, and she pulled him further into the maze of mirrors, looking for a way out. They passed through a few more hallways of mirrors until they came to a small door. Katie yanked it open and they walked into a dark hallway. The floor was checked black and white, and the only light came from little dim lamps lining the walls. 98

They walked down the hallway until they got to another door. Katie opened it, and they stepped into another room. 99

The room was very plain, with just a couple large paintings lining the light yellow walls. The floor was hardwood and there were too wooden doors leading out of the room, one in front of them and one to the right. 100

Jason started to walk towards the door at the far end of the room, and Katie followed him cautiously. When they were about half way to the door, the walls seemed like they were slowly sinking inward. 101

“Hey, what’s happening?!” Jason exclaimed, watching the walls moving.102

“I don’t know,” said Katie. “It’s probably just another one of their tricks…just go to the door!” 103

Jason turned his attention back to the door, only to discover that it was no longer there.104

“It’s gone!” he yelled. “The door’s gone!” Katie spun around and looked for one of the other doors, but all that they could see was the plain yellow walls slowly coming towards them.            105

“What are we gunna do?!” cried Jason, clinging to Katie. “We’re gunna die!” Katie squeezed her eyes shut and held onto her brother tightly. She pulled him over to the area where the door used to be, and started feeling the wall around it, searching for the door. She could feel the wood of the door, but all she could see was the wall. Then she noticed the wall wasn’t moving anymore. The door slowly started reappearing, and she opened it as fast as she could and pulled Jason into the next room. 106

They stumbled through the door, which shut immediately behind them. It was dark, and Katie could barely see. She took a step forward, and heard a splash. She could feel the water soaking through her shoes, and stepped back onto the dry part of the floor.107

Jason took a step into the water, and splashed around in it while Katie thought. 108

“I wish there was a light in here,” she muttered. As if on cue, the lights in the room turned on, and Katie saw that the room was entirely filled with water. There were no visible doors.109

“How do we get out of here?” asked Jason after noticing that there were no doors in the room.110

“I’m not sure,” said Katie. “They said they like to play tricks, right? Maybe it’s an illusion.”111

“No way, it’s too good for an illusion!” said Jason, his pants becoming wet at the bottom from standing in the water. “Plus, the water’s real enough.”112

“What do you think we should do?” asked Katie. Jason looked around and thought.113

“We could go swimming!” he said, running further into the water. It slowly got deeper the further he went in, like a pool. He splashed around, and then dived under the water. Katie waited for him to come back up, but he never did. 114

“Jason?” She called out, as if it would help. She started to walk into the water, looking down cautiously. She was becoming more and more worried, and tried to run, but only succeeded in falling over and getting entirely soaked. “Jason!” She reached the spot she saw him go under. She looked around through the clear water, but saw nothing. “Where are you?!” She heard rumbling noises coming from underneath her, and she tried to move as quickly as she could back to the door. She looked around and still couldn’t find another way out, so she opened the door she had come through in the first place, going back into the yellow room with the collapsing walls. 115

She ran into the room and looked around. The walls had somehow turned blue in the time her and Jason were in the other room, and there were no longer any paintings hanging. Instead, there was one giant circular mirror hanging on the wall in an ornate frame.116

“What’s going on?!” Katie yelled, hoping someone would hear her and answer the question. Jack’s face appeared in the giant mirror, and Katie spun around frantically, trying to find out where he was.117

“Can you see me?” he asked. “Because I can see you.” He started to laugh, and Katie ran over to the other door, pulling it open and running out. The door slammed shut behind her, and she discovered she was just underneath a staircase. The other side of the room had two doors…118

She was back where she started. 119

Katie heaved herself off the floor and walked into the middle of the room. She looked around, and slowly walked up the staircase. She walked through the first door she saw, just hoping she could somehow find a way out and get home…but instead she walked in on Edgar fixing a cuckoo clock and hanging it up on the wall, where there were already hundreds of other clocks hanging.120

“Oh, hello!” he said, smiling. “You found me!” Katie nodded and didn’t really seem to care. 121

“Unfortunately…” Edgar continued, “You’re out of time.” All the clocks in the room went off at once, making an extremely loud noise, which was a mixture of bells ringing and birds chirping. Katie covered her ears and collapsed to the ground. Edgar merely stood there and watched her, waiting for the clocks to turn off. Soon enough, they did turn off, and Jack and Peggy walked in through opposite sides of the room. 122

“Oh my, seems someone ran out of time!” said Peggy with fake disappointment. “What will happen to her?”123

“What did you do with Jason?” Katie asked, still sitting on the floor. Jack smirked.124

“I think I found a suitable place for him,” he said. “But don’t worry, you’ll be seeing him soon.”125

“W- what do you mean?” asked Katie. “You didn’t kill him, did you?!”126

“Oh, of course not!” said Peggy, smirking. “I couldn’t do that…I left my good knife in your forehead, and my better knife in Jack’s table.” She sighed. “What’s a girl to do?”127

“Just follow us and you’ll see your dear brother once again,” said Jack, walking towards Katie. “And tomorrow, you’ll have even more friends to play with!” 128

Katie contemplated what he actually meant by that, and moved aside as Jack opened the door and walked out. Edgar followed, and Katie ran after them. Peggy was walking behind her, a fact that made her very uncomfortable. 129

They walked down the stairs, and Jack and Edgar stopped next to the door. Peggy walked past them and unlocked it. She pushed it open and they walked outside. The sun was setting, and Katie looked out on the distant city lights glowing in the darkness, wondering if she would ever go back home again…130

They made their way to a cellar door on the side of the house. Peggy unlocked at least five locks on the outside of the door and kicked it open. Jack and Edgar grabbed Katie, and before she knew what was going on, they threw her down into the cellar and slammed the door shut. 131

Peggy giggled to herself as she locked the door. She could hear Katie banging on it, demanding to be let out. 132

“Well, that was the unexpected surprise of the day,” said Edgar. They all began to walk back towards the tent.133

“Yeah, but I feel just a tiny bit sorry for them,” said Jack.134

“Hm, that’s not like you at all!” said Peggy. 135

“I know,” said Jack. “But I mean, they could’ve had one more day of freedom. Could’ve told their parents how much they loved them before coming here and being captured alive in our little house of tricks and illusions.”136

“Oh, but I do love tricks and illusions,” said Peggy. Edgar laughed.137

“We know you do,” he said, patting her on the shoulder. Jack pushed past the curtain of the tent and walked inside, with Peggy and Edgar following. 138

“But Jack does have a point,” Edgar continued, “would you have taken one more day of freedom if you could have it?”139

“If I’d have known what was coming, maybe,” said Jack. “But you never know what life has in store for you.”140

“Exactly. People need to value their time,” said Peggy, stepping on the crushed remains of her cuckoo clock. 141