Hello everyone! Tetsu-roku here! I decided to make a collection of short stories based on horror. If you're reading these stories, I want you to think that you are the main character in these stories. Sure, I may be picking on some random FFX characters, and they don't live happily ever after, but it's pretty fun... Before we begin, I should remind you that these stories are based on urban legends and myths, so you might know a variation to the story I'm telling you. So, without further ado, let's start the story...
Funhouse of Fear
Tidus was crazy about the carnival. It came to town at the end of every summer and he couldn't recall a single year that he hadn't gone to see it. He knew every one of its rides and attractions by heart: the double Ferris wheel, the gypsy fortune teller, the shooting gallery (a favorite of Yuna's), even the freak show. But Tidus's favorite attraction was the funhouse.
He could always spot it from the midway. It was a short black building that looked like a clutter of giant shoe boxes of different sizes lying end to end. The black exterior was decorated with drawings of vampires and witches, Ochus and Garudas, and of course living corpses. The monsters were painted in slashes of bright colors, mainly red and green, that seemed to glow brighter than any other midway light.
Tidus liked nothing more than to be chased by those creatures.
He knew the layout of the funhouse by heart, and had for some time. You see, this was his first stop every time he arrived at the carnival. He knew where all the booby traps were, and where to jump over disgusting... things.
But this year, something new had been added.
The end of the funhouse walk was lit by a solitary overhead light bulb. He had nearly reached the hall's end when he heard a loud creak, and something bulky dropped from the ceiling. The light flared bright with shocking intensity, and Tidus found himself standing face-to-face with a corpse dangling from the end of a noose. Hands slack at the sides suddenly reached up to grab him.
Awesome.
Tidus thought he might be able to convince Yuna to come and see the thing, just to scare her, before he remembered that tonight was the last night of the carnival.
Then, he thought about how cool it would be to actually steal a corpse. He could just imagine the look on Yuna's face when she walked into their bedroom and saw the guy hanging there! Of course, she'll make him sleep on the couch...
Tidus was scheming so hard that he didn't look where he was going on his way out and nearly tumbled over the little man who ran the funhouse. The guy was short little lump of puffy flesh, with misshapen muscular limbs and a hump over his shoulder that threw his whole posture out of alignment. The guy fixed him with a sinister glare. He was gargoyle-faced, with snaggled teeth, and a squashed nose beneath a mop of hacked, greasy blond hair.
Tidus knew most of the carnies on sight, but he had never seen this guy before. He was as new as the corpse in the funhouse- and just as ugly! From the look the guy gave him, it seemed as though he knew that Tidus was thinking he belonged inside with the rest of the horrors. Tidus felt a tingle of fear run down his spine until the lumpy creep turned back to taking tickets for the next group of funhouse victims.
Tidus walked the fairgrounds for another hour, killing time. He made some half-hearted attempts to throw a Ping Pong ball into goldfish bowls, and pitch basketballs into hoops, but his thoughts were on the funhouse and how he might steal the dummy.
At one booth he was trying to concentrate on throwing darts at balloons pinned to a painted piece of plywood when he got the feeling he was being watched. He shrugged it off, but when he went to throw, his arm jostled, and the dart flew shy of its mark. He turned around quickly, and could have sworn he saw a bush of unruly blond hair disappearing between the crowd behind him.
Tidus got that tingle again, but shook it off. Probably just feeling nervous about what he was going to do.
At midnight, a voice came over the public speakers telling the crowd that the carnival was closing down, and to start heading for home. Now was Tidus's chance. When he'd left the funhouse, he'd seen the back door: just a loosely hanging piece of black canvas. It would be a cinch to sneak inside during the confusion of everyone leaving the fairgrounds. He could have the dummy in his hands in a few minutes and take it out through the gates with him. Lots of other people were carrying stuffed animals, and no one would suspect that the dummy wasn't something he'd won at one of the games. The carnies probably wouldn't know that the dummy was missing until the next town they set up in- and then it would be too late for them to come back looking for it.
By the time Tidus reached the funhouse, the lights shining on the painted front were all off, and the gangplank leading up to it had chains across it. Tidus made sure no one was looking, then ducked under the wires put up to keep people from straying off the path. With the lights off, it was darker in back than he had thought it would be.
Suddenly, his leg snagged against something. It was a trap! He barely had enough time to move his arms in front of him before he we went sprawling facedown into the grass and dirt. He shifted around, his heart pounding against his chest, and laughed nervously. He'd just tripped over a rope anchored to the ground by a stake.
The back door to the funhouse beckoned him, and Tidus was surprised to discover that it was wide open. All he had to do was slip behind the flap and he was in. It was like they were begging someone to come in and rip them off...
It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dim light inside. He felt his way along the wall, but the weird angles made him feel uncertain of where he was.
He was feeling his way along the wall when something smacked him across the face. It was hairy and smelled disgusting as it pressed against his mouth. He spluttered and gagged against it.
With a laugh, he realized it was a fake arm that had shot out of the wall. He remembered how he had dodged it during his earlier walk through. Tidus felt a floorboard wobble beneath his shoe, and when he lifted his foot from it the arm pulled back. It was on some kind of spring that the funhouse visitor activated by stepping on the floor. That was probably the way all of the frights worked.
The dim yellow light was shining down on the hung corpse as Tidus groped his way to it. They hadn't even bothered to hoist it back up after the last show. Probably just left it there so that it would be easier for the short little creep to take it apart when they packed up the carnival that evening.
He twisted the dummy around and saw it was locked into a harness with struts that extended into the arms. So that was how they made the hands seem like they were clutching at you as it bounced at the end of the rope. All Tidus had to do was lift the dummy up to free the harness from the hook that attached it to the rope.
Creaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!
A floorboard sounded behind Tidus. He instantly froze.
Creaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!
There it was again.
He thought about bolting back the way he had come. But he'd already put so much effort into getting this far, it would be a shame not to follow through. Besides, he wanted to scare Yuna.
Creaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!
He was just being a kid. There was probably lots of loose floorboards in the rickety building that were making the noise. The funhouse had scary things in it, but nothing real.
Tidus turned around and embraced the hanging corpse, his hands clasping just behind the harness. The thing's bobbing head nodded down and its fact rested against his cheek. He felt the icy coldness of a mask. It was solid black plastic, with a shiny surface that caught the light and reflected it in strange ways so that it would look like it was grinning or snarling, depending on the point of view.
Up close, he realized the dummy had a horrid odor- sort of like the dead animals he occasionally came across in the woods. He'd have to spray it with something if he was going to hide it from Yuna inside the house.
The hook didn't give easily, and Tidus lost his patience. He gave it a sharp tug. The dummy slipped out of his clumsy hands, and as he went to grab it he awkwardly pulled one of the arms. He heard a papery crackle and felt it wrench free of its socket.
Damn! I broke it.
The detached arm slithered out of the sleeve, the hand still snug in Tidus's grasp. It had a knoblike bump protruding from its end, and Tidus held it up to the light.
He dropped it as if it were red hot.
A bone. A human bone...
The dummy spun around and Tidus gingerly reached up and flipped off the plastic mask.
The face behind it was mummified, the skin gray with the texture of leather. A filthy gag was tied around its mouth, but the dried-out skin had pulled in and Kevin could make out perfectly the detailed skeletal teeth in the gaping mouth.
This is no dummy...
Tidus stepped back, gagging.
A pair of hands reached out from the wall behind him and grabbed him!
He stepped off the board, trying to make them retract and let go of him, but no matter how his feet danced over the surface the arms held tight. Then one of them grabbed him by the hair and roughly spun him around.
It was the creep.
The man smiled and laughed. Then he brought down something hard and painful on Tidus's skull.
When Tidus came to, he found that he couldn't move his limbs. They were bound to something hard and unyielding. His chest felt constricted, as though there were cords bound to him. And a nasty tasting piece of cloth stretched around his mouth, making it difficult for him to make any noise.
Tidus felt himself twirled around and came face-to-face with the funhouse dwarf. The man stared at him and stroked his face with the cracked fingernails on his filthy hand.
Such a good-looking boy. Much better looking than he was. But too nosy for his own good...
Tidus tried to scream but could muster no more than a gurgle against the cloth. He flailed his legs, only to find that he was no longer standing on the creaking boards of the funhouse floor. He was several feet above them.
The dwarf tugged Tidus's head roughly, forcing him to look down at the shriveled remains of the funhouse corpse, lying on the floor.
The dwarf glared at Tidus. What a shame you're a mischievous boy. And how sad that you went poking into things you shouldn't have, just like the last boy I knew. Now you have to replace something you broke...
He cackled as he snapped something over Tidus's face. Something dark and tight. Something cold and plastic that would hide his tears.
Let's give you a tryout right now? the dwarf asked, and Tidus felt the support he was standing on give way and he plummeted into space.
Tidus's disappearance was a complete mystery to Yuna and his friends.
Eventually, they assumed he'd run away with the carnival...
Wow. Interesting story. Sort of disgusting, but otherwise really good. Next time on Chronicles of Horror: Secret Ingredient.