Rebecca stared. For a few moments, all she could do was stand with wide eyes and clenched fists, watching as the monster clawed its way toward her. But as the beast drew near, her mind finally seemed to comprehend it. Strange limbs and discordant parts combined to create a single macabre image. The thing was humanoid, at least partially. It crawled like an adult on all-fours, but its thin, leg-like appendages would perhaps not support its weight if it tried to stand.
Ragged dark hairs jutted out its crevices, but the strands on its head were blond, a frighteningly human growth pattern jutting out a decidedly inhuman head. Its exoskeleton and the thick layer of blood coating it shimmered in the half-light.
Rebecca took an unsteady step back as it approached. The eyes. There were five of them gazing directly into her. Two large red spheres and three tiny bulbs situated between them. Beneath them were the mandibles, powerful, spiked things defending a bottomless void of a mouth.
It opened in that moment, releasing a low groan, and then its body seemed to vibrate. A melodic chirp echoed through the cavernous room and gave the impression of an army, of hundreds of insects crying out in deafening unison. And then the monster lunged.
Rebecca did not have time to think. In a single swoop of self-preservation, old training resurfaced, and she brought up a sneakered foot to kick the thing squarely in the center of its head. The blow was weak, unpracticed, colored with the fatigue of age and misuse. But it did its job.
With a sickening pop, the creature's eyes seemed to burst beneath the pressure, and fluid hit Rebeca's bare calf in a single nauseating wave. She stumbled. But the monster did the same, reeling backward from the contact but not deterred. Its cry grew more powerful, the mind-numbing drone returning with new vigor.
Rebecca took the opportunity to run, shoving Siobhan toward the door before taking the younger woman's wrist in her hand and barreling back out into the park. They ran, past the faded prize stalls, past the shattered visages of long-dead carousel horses, past the discarded costume of a rabbit mascot propped against a bench. The Ferris wheel loomed overhead, the clown at its center watching the scene unfold, the blind idiot god too stupid or too proud to intervene.
"What was that? What was that?" Siobhan panted, sneakers kicking up stagnant dirt and mangled weeds. "Oh my God. What was that?"
Rebecca merely tugged her along, shaking her head before speeding to a stop. Her breath was ragged in her throat, and dryness stung her tongue. For the first time, she realized she was shaking, either with adrenaline or cold. The sun was all but gone from the sky, and with the approaching dark came a heavy, lingering chill. It rooted itself in the air and refused to move.
"Which way did we come in?" Rebecca stammered hurriedly, looking down the fence as it rose out the ground ahead of them. In the dim light, the crevice through which they made their entrance seemed to vanish, and with her heart pounding in her ears, Rebecca could not console herself enough to find it again.
"I don't know," Siobhan stammered, taking the opportunity to clutch her wrist in her free hand. Rebecca's nails had dug into her skin there and left deep red marks, but she could barely focus on them. Her attention moved over her shoulder, back toward that godforsaken bathroom and whatever horror waited inside.
As if on cue, the creature reappeared in that moment, scurrying out the doorway and cocking its head around as if testing its surroundings. A scream erupted from the student's throat, and she was running again, seemingly in a random direction down the fence.
"Siobhan! Don't! Wait!" Rebecca shouted, casting the monster a final glance as she took off after her companion. Not again. Not again.
The pictures in her mind were ancient, dusty remnants of a destroyed city and its destroyed citizens. They fluttered around like moths before taking root, swarming the corners of her subconscious. But Rebecca rallied against them, mustering all her mental fortitude, keeping them out. "Siobhan! The fence!"
She saw it. Even in darkness, she saw it, the welcome hole in the iron fence that would provide their escape. Perking her head up, the younger woman cast a glance in its direction before turning back over her shoulder.
"Dr. Chambers!" she shrieked, but before she could get the words out, the older woman felt the thing barrel into her back. The creature leapt through the air, using rudimentary wings to take flight, and it shoved all its strength into her torso. Rebecca flailed as its appendages tore at her garments, as it reared its head down and coated her neck in wet, panting breaths. I can feel it. Oh God. I can feel it. The mandibles seemed to skirt her exposed skin, testing the flesh as if searching for the proper place to pierce it.
But then Siobhan was upon them, delivering another kick to the monster, sneakered food landing in and puncturing one swollen red eye. Its contents, fluid, and pus, reeking of iron and rot, splattered the front of her clothing and legs, and the woman froze, staring down at herself as she reconciled what she had just done. But Rebecca used the moment of weakness to roll out from beneath the monster. It fell screeching and writhing on the ground in a puddle of black bile.
Without wasting another moment, the older woman took Siobhan by the hand once more and started toward the hole, but as if to cut them off, a figure emerged up ahead. It was disturbingly tall, slender and elegant, with long arms and an extended neck ending in a thin, curved head.
It was merely a form in the dark, a deep black shadow cast against a backdrop of lighter hues. And Rebecca could see only its shape. It seemed to vibrate as it moved, each appendage shaking at a frightful, electrifying velocity that defied the grace inherent in its design. It cocked its gaze upward, situating itself in their direction before starting forward. Buzz, buzz, buzz. The new sound flitted along the breeze, weak among the thrashing death throes of the four-legged beast only a few yards behind them.
Throwing her weight to the side, Rebecca tugged Siobhan into a crevice between two prize stalls, pulling her down the line and trying to put as much distance between them and whatever else walked there as possible.
"Do you think it saw us?" Siobhan whispered hoarsely, having seemingly regained at least some of her senses in the moments since her burst of courage. Rebecca shook her head uncertainly. Whatever it was, she was not keen on lingering too long to have a proper look.
But as if to answer some of the stubborn curiosity, the buzzing grew more violent, climaxing in the sickening wet noise of splattering gore. The fallen monster screeched as if it were being torn apart. Rebecca held her breath, releasing Siobhan's hand to bring up an arm and plant over her chest, holding her firmly against a faded wooden wall. And they listened.
The big thing's tearing the other thing apart. It's killing it. Rebecca swallowed hard, having only just realized how parched her mouth was becoming. And then there was silence, nothing but stagnant air and the distant drone of cicadas in the trees.
"I think it's over," she whispered, sucking in a breath. Her hair was beginning to fall down over her face, and in a sudden fit of irritation, she tugged out her bun and allowed the shaggy brown strands to fall lifelessly to her shoulders.
For a few long moments, she simply breathed, slow steadying breaths meant to quell her pounding heart. But then came the dragging, a distant, low noise but undeniable in its source. A body was being tugged across the dirt, and Siobhan dared to crane her neck, dared to glimpse out the alley in which they had hidden and watch as the elegant figure scurried by, tugging a bundle behind it.
"How are we going to get out?" the student mumbled. "We can't go back that way. I can't go back that way. There's…whatever that is. It's over there."
"There's got to be another way out," Rebecca replied, cocking her head in the other direction. Siobhan nodded weakly, and with a silent sense of agreement, the pair of them began moving along the wall, toward the other end of the alley.
"My phone. I can call the police. They're in the next town over, but…they'll be here. They'll come," Siobhan stammered, as if to reassure herself. Rebecca brought up a hand and offered an affirmative shh. A few seconds later, they emerged into an open area littered with picnic tables, some overturned but all ruined by rain and neglect.
A haunted house attraction towered ahead of them, its clapboard turrets and wooden gables obscuring the stars just now beginning to blink to life in the sky. The sign above its entrance read "Madman Manor" in jagged, blood-red letters, and a skeleton with a missing jaw swayed from a noose beside the large wooden entry doors. Rusted carts in the shape of gargoyles, all gaping mouths and ruby eyes, clung to a metal track that once led inside.
Paintings of cartoonish ghosts and the imposing form of a masked man with an axe adorned the building's crumbling exterior, but someone had spray-painted obscenities over the latter's face. Rebecca regarded the scene with a nagging sense of irony as she stepped forward. God, a mansion and a train in one day. Screw this.
"I think we're okay for now," the older woman said weakly, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Call the police. Tell them a man attacked us, and someone's dead. They won't come if you tell them the truth."
No one had believed them after the Spencer Mansion incident either, and once the public was ready to lend an ear in their direction, it was too late. And her friends and neighbors were taking bites out of one another in the same murky streets she had walked only weeks earlier.
"I'm not getting any reception. Of course I'm not getting a goddamn reception," Siobhan grumbled, pacing back and forth as panic once again threatened to seize her. However, she took a breath and steadied her shaking frame as Rebecca surveyed the area, moving in circles and keeping her eyes open for any signs of movement in the dark.
"Just keep trying. You'll get through eventually," she nodded, offering a small reassuring smile in her direction. Siobhan looked frail, frightened and exhausted, as if her entire world had just crumbled in front of her. And it had, Rebecca knew. She knew all too well, and at least some part of her realized that she was looking at herself. At a young woman thrust into extraordinary circumstances and forced to cope.
But hell, now she was supposed to be the experienced one. She was supposed to have a plan, to have answers, to survive and make sure Siobhan did too. And it sucked. It sucked hard.
Lost in these thoughts, Rebecca moved for a nearby food stall. Patty's. A burger stand named Patty's. She let out a breath of unamused air, casting her sight on the building's edge, where an old bit of piping had come loose. Bending down, she grasped the metal in her hands and tugged with all her strength until it popped off cleanly in her grasp with a ghastly creak.
It was a bad weapon, she knew. Too heavy to swing quickly and too long to swing gracefully. But it was better than having to use her fists. Her eyes moved downward, to the dark liquid still clinging to her calves. It had begun to settle there, growing sticky as it hardened around her flesh.
"Hello? Hello? Yes, can you hear me?" Siobhan paced back and forth, bringing up one hand to cover her free ear. "Yes! Yes! My name is Siobhan Long. I'm in Woodpine. I'm in Fantasyland at Woodpine, and there was a man. That's right, a man. He attacked me and my friend…I don't know. I don't know."
She was beginning to ramble, and Rebecca, toting the pipe, jogged up beside her, knitting her face in genuine concern. Cocking her head, she listened to the one-sided conversation unfold.
"Calm down, Siobhan. Calm down," she whispered, bringing up a comforting hand to rest on the younger woman's shoulder. She could feel Siobhan trembling beneath her touch, and despite the heaviness of her own hand, she could do nothing to quell the other woman's shaking.
"Shit. Shit. Shit! It went dead again. It went dead again. I lost the stupid signal," the student snapped, looking down at her phone in defeat. Her hand came up to run through her hair before pushing her glasses back into place. They hung raggedly there on her nose, and scattered specks of blood must have splashed across them during their earlier flight.
"It's okay. They know where we are. You got that through, right? They're going to try to call back, so just try to keep the line open," Rebecca nodded, digging her own phone out her pocket and giving it a glance. "No bars."
"Yeah, yeah. You're right. They'll come. They'll come," Siobhan breathed out. For a moment, she took the opportunity to glance at her surroundings. The park had gone quiet, a mausoleum filled with memories of the dead and whatever beasts lurked beyond waking life. "Dr. Chambers…I…what's going on? What are those things? Why is this happening? For God's sake."
"I don't know," Rebecca breathed weakly, squeezing the woman's arm in an effort to be reassuring. "But we're going to get through this, okay? You saved my life back there, yeah? As long as you keep fighting like that, we're going to get out of here." Siobhan nodded, swallowing hard. "And you know, you can call me Rebecca," the older woman continued. "Less of a mouthful to scream."
Siobhan looked up, and for a brief second, her eyes crinkled. A mirthless laugh escaped her mouth, and prompted by this display, Rebecca let out one of her own. The fit of laughter was misplaced, and like the amusement park itself, it lacked the joy it may have possessed. But in its place was relief, reassurance, hope, the assuredness that as long as they were standing, they could get out of this.
However, the affair ended as abruptly as it had begun once the buzzing noise returned. Rebecca cocked her head up, glancing over her shoulder. The figure was there. It moved about in the distance, swaying in place as if it would collapse under its own height. With her eyes adjusting to the darkness, Rebecca could make out more of it this time. Its lower back seemed to end in a point, and its fingers curled outward into long, thin spines. Not claws, but needles. Although it tilted its head around, taking in its surroundings, it did not seem to know there were other intruders roaming its domain.
Siobhan stiffened, breath stopping in her throat as she caught the shadow moving across the park. Rebecca looked around a moment before angling her head as a signal to follow, and with her partner at her heels, she jogged toward the haunted house ahead and tugged on the heavy wooden door.
It opened just enough in her grasp for Siobhan to slip through into the dark, and with a final look at the thing lurking in the faraway shadows, Rebecca slunk in after her, letting the gateway slam shut behind them with a clank.
"I hate these rides," Siobhan mumbled, bringing her cell phone up and flicking on its flashlight. It cast the tunnel ahead in an eerie white glow, bouncing off crudely painted walls and dusty, corroded mannequins arranged in a series of grim poses.
The metal tracks at their feet continued down the corridor before vanishing around a corner. To their right, a zombielike dummy coated in fake blood hung down from the ceiling—as if he were meant to pop out from a trap and his machinery had malfunctioned.
Across from him was a plastic woman in a maid's uniform, soaked in gore, clutching an unconvincing severed head in her outstretched hand. Dead strobe lights and narrow nozzles, perhaps for fog, dotted the ceiling, and Siobhan gnawed on her lip as she ran her light over them.
Bringing it back down, the woman jumped at the sight of a large, skeletal figure up ahead. It was half-hidden behind a section of movable wall, poking its head out at the end of the walkway. Regaining her composure, Siobhan let out an embarrassed sigh, pushing her hair out her face.
"We can just wait here until the cops arrive," Rebecca sighed, slumping against the wall. The pipe was a heavy weight in her hand, and she let it dangle freely at her legs as she closed her eyes and tried once more to fight the adrenaline rushing through her veins.
"How will they know we're in here?"
"Hopefully they open fire on that thing, and we know when to come out, huh?" Rebecca laughed weakly, flashing the other woman a sympathetic look.
"Great," Siobhan replied, shrugging her shoulders. She kicked at the female mannequin with a dull grunt, letting the light in her hand fall to her side and dangle idly at her hip. "I feel so helpless."
"It'll be alright. Any bars on your phone?"
"Let me check," Siobhan sighed, bringing the device up to her face and squinting. "None. You know, it's hard enough getting a signal out in the streets around here. Anything on yours?"
"I don't think so." Rebecca shook her head, fishing her own phone, a notably outdated model, from her pocket once more. The screen blinked a few times, and she narrowed her eyes at it and let out a breath of air. "I think it's going to die soon. Three-hour train ride and nothing to do, you know?"
The glance that Siobhan flashed her was sympathetic, and falling against the wall, she collapsed, closing her eyes and allowing her body to slide down toward the floor. For a few moments, the pair of them simply sat in silence, waiting for the cavalry to rush in and save them. But for now, there was only the quiet, the oppressive, all-encompassing stillness of Fantasyland surrounding them.
At the very least, there was no more buzzing, and Siobhan imagined that the monster must have wandered elsewhere, to do whatever it is monsters do. She sighed, biting her lip. Her thoughts flickered outward, outside the murky confines of the abandoned attraction in which she now found herself. To a mother, a father, to an older sister, and summers spent life-guarding on the Jersey shore. All of it felt unreal now; this, this macabre carnival was her reality. And whatever lurked inside it, it consumed her, shrouding her in its suffocating embrace.
Just as she began to drift off into something akin to slumber, however, a light foggy grogginess settling over her limbs, she sat upright, eyes widening as a burst of air shot out her nostrils. Rebecca glanced up from across the hall.
"What is it? What's wrong?"
"Do you hear that?" Siobhan whispered, voice hoarse. The older woman paused, craning her neck to listen. Nothing but the building's relative quiet echoed in her ears, but then she heard it. Chirping. Scores of it, ringing from somewhere deeper in the tunnel. Her thoughts flashed momentarily to the man in that disgusting, festering bathroom. To the creature that had burst from his back only to be slaughtered by another creature unknown.
"Don't move, alright? Stay here," Rebecca said hurriedly, bringing up a hand as if not to allow any protest.
"No….No, I don't want to. I'm coming." Siobhan shook her head and scrambled to her feet, brushing off her pants. Her hand met a sticky bloodstained near her upper thigh, and she reared back, visibly repulsed.
Rebecca offered a sharp nod before starting down the path, her partner at her heels. The younger woman brought up her phone, letting the flashlight illuminate their path, bouncing off the walls at bizarre angles and casting the rotten, forgotten decorations in a strange otherworldly glow.
As they rounded the corner, Siobhan seemed to tense, sinking in closer to her companion as if in search of protection. But Rebecca did not look back; her gait was steady and her purpose defined.
Ahead was a large wooden bed with an embroidered comforter and pillows yellowed with age. By now, its canopy had collapsed, but the dismembered legs of some forgotten mannequin still stuck out from beneath the billowing fallen drapes. Rebecca glanced over it briefly as the light brought it to life, but her attention was suddenly drawn downward. Crack. Crack. Crack.
Each step brought another brittle crunch, and the older woman glanced backward as if in search of an answer. Siobhan, pale-faced and wide-eyed, merely brought the flashlight downward.
"It's the blue cicada. Its shells," she mumbled, dazed. There were hundreds of them on the floor. Skins, outer skeletons, abandoned by insects that had long since outgrown them. Now they sat brittle with age, coating their feet in a dull blue carpet of organic waste.
Rebecca clutched at her arms, bumps trailing up her exposed skin. She shivered, but by now, the distant chirping was growing louder, and with nothing else to do, she pushed onward. It's just bugs, Rebecca. You can deal with bugs.
With Siobhan close behind, she rounded another corner and froze as the narrow beam of light skated its way upward. And there was the source of the buzzing. There were droves of them, all shimmering blue, crawling up the walls and across the ceiling. Blue cicadas, Tibicen Lazulinus, fashioning themselves in a makeshift nest, pulsating there like a heart in the dark. They chirped and buzzed, crawling over one another, all skittering legs and wide, black eyes.
But Rebecca was not looking at them. She was looking at the thing in the center of their midst. It resembled the four-legged beast from earlier, deep blue with large, red eyes. But dark hair hung down its face in streaks, concealing its vision and knotting itself in its gaping maw.
"Ah," Siobhan stammered, stumbling back as more exoskeletons crunched beneath her sneakers.
"It's not moving," Rebecca faltered after a pause. She stared the monster in the face, but it stood frozen as cicadas swarmed over its frame. A hole in its back?
But then the chirping grew, blossoming into a crescendo before culminating in a cacophony of noise. The last thing Rebecca saw before the room went dark was a whirling swarm of blue taking flight in her direction.
There was a hand on her wrist, and she was being pulled, pipe dangling at her side. Around a corner, and then around another, the buzzing returning to a distant whirr as the entrance came back into view, moonlight filtering in through the slits in the door.
Rebecca blinked, and Siobhan brought her phone back up, flashlight blinking back to life.
"Why did you do that?" Rebecca stammered breathlessly, glancing around. No cicadas. No frozen monsters. Just darkness.
"The light. They were flying towards the light," the student breathed. "I'm sorry. I…They're harmless…I just…That thing…That monster. I panicked."
"It wasn't…It wasn't moving. It was…I don't know." Rebecca shook her head, clutching her arms again as bumps bristled their way across her skin. "It had a hole in its back. I think it was dead."
"A hole in its back?" Siobhan asked. She could feel the remnants of the cicadas on the bottom of her shoes, and her mind began to turn. "That's…that's how Tibicen Lazulinus molts. It bursts out the back of its exoskeleton."
"You don't think…?" Rebecca asked, eyebrows shooting up.
"No…no, no, no," Siobhan mumbled, shaking her head. "Dr. Chambers…Rebecca….If that was a shell, doesn't that just mean there's a bigger version of it running around in here?"