Amusement Parks Aren't So Amusing

[Jessica Coulter]

A shutter outside slammed against the faded wood of the fun house. Inside, a lone figure made her way cautiously up a spiraling set of uneven stairs.

CREAK.

CREAK, CREAK.

Every step she took sounded like a gunshot in the quiet building. How she hated these old ruins of run down has beens. It never got any easier and she'd always dreaded anything to do with amusement parks. This one was especially nerve chilling. It had the whole "Creep me out" feel going and it was all Jess could do not to turn tail and run.

Why on earth had her father left her THIS case to chase down? Couldn't he have taken care of this one himself? She HATED it when he did this to her. He always seemed to toss cases at her that were designed to make her think twice about hunting. He'd never made any bones about wanting her to quit and settle down like a nice, NORMAL young woman. Only, she wasn't exactly NORMAL and never had been. Never WOULD be. Having been born into this lifestyle and grown up chasing down one thing or another, a regular life really wasn't in her future. Hell, she'd be lucky if she could even find a guy who didn't think she was insane after all the stuff she'd seen and done. It was really quiet depressing actually.

Just then, the sound of a door banging shut jerked the young brunette back to her current circumstances. Clutching her pistol securely, she edged down the hall and peeked around the corner. Nothing.

Swearing silently to herself, she leaned against the wall and took a deep breath. She wasn't exactly sure what was inhabiting the old house of fun but it wasn't friendly. Several teenagers in the area had gone missing only to be found mutilated almost beyond recognition inside the building. Several other older, rotten corpses had been found as well and all of them had died gruesome deaths. The old park itself had been shut down for years and the place had become the stuff of legends. An air of creepiness seemed to hang in the thick atmosphere so thick you could almost cut it with a knife.

Cringing at that thought, the young huntress contemplated her next move. Why on earth had she thought to investigate this alone? One of these times, it was going to get her killed.

[morgancaine]

Mac slipped into the fun house. It smelled of dirt, mold, and old plastic, but it was abandoned. That meant no other people around, which meant no overflowing emotions washing onto her. For a while at least, Mac could hold onto her sanity. She adjusted the backpack strap over her shoulder and moved farther inside. There were broken clowns and pieces of mirror on the floors. Mac slipped around them looking for a quiet corner to hide in.

Earlier today Mac had pick potted the wallet of some suit on the sidewalk. He’d been too busy talking on his phone and screaming at her to get a job to notice her hand slide into his pocket. The wallet had been a jackpot. Plenty of credit cards, an I.D. reading the suits name as Gerry Russel. She thanked Gerry Russel and then took the four hundred dollars in cash before tossing the wallet into dumpster.

Finding a nice little hovel in the dark corner, Mac sat down and pulled her bag in her lap. She unzipped it and pulled out the McDonalds burger she’d bought. Standing in the crowded fast food restaurant had made it hard for her to order. The chaotic emotions of the kids, the annoyance of the people behind the counter. The puppy love that was coming from the teen couple holding hands. They all bombarded her like waves crashing onto the shore.

As Mac bit into the burger though, she’d realized it’d been worth it. It was a rare treat when she wasn’t eating left over’s out of a restaurant dumpster at night. She tried to avoid homeless shelters unless she was loaded up on Xanax. Otherwise she was likely to lose her mind and be hauled off in a straight jacket. She was not going to have that experience again ever.

Hence the reason she used the rest of the money to score the little white pills. Now she had a small stash for emergencies situations. Mac would have to be careful when she used them. They were a double edged sword. They dulled her abilities enough so that she didn’t feel others emotions as much, but they also made her vulnerable to an outside attack.

Mac’s hands tightened on her burger as frustration and annoyance washed over. She shouldn’t have to be here. She didn’t want to be here and she shouldn’t have come alone. Then she squared her shoulders as confidence washed over her. She could do this.

Shaking her head, Mac through the burger against the wall. God damn it! Those weren’t her emotions. Someone else was here. She figured the place was out of the way. No one was supposed to be there. Grabbing her back pack she shoved the last of her burger away, saving it for later. Growling she got up and threw her back pack over her shoulder. She’d find another place to relax in peace.

“Stupid people. Why’d they have to be everywhere?”

As she ran down the corridor the way she game, Mac tripped over an old electrical wire. She went skidding on her belly down the hall, cursing herself for being clumsy. Fear tightened her chest as the room went cold. Mac saw her breath come out in a little white puff.

“What the hell?”

Mac got to her feet and suddenly there was a mutilated body standing in front of her. She jumped back, a scream tearing from her throat. She hadn’t taken any of the pills yet so why the hell was she hallucinating? What the hell was going on?

The ghost advanced towards her and Mac made the decision she wasn’t staying around to find out. Turning on her heel she took off the other way. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, keeping her feet moving. She had to get out. This was bad. Very, very bad. The more she ran though, the more emotions she kept feeling. It made her stagger against a dilapidated wall and slump to her knees, gasping for breath.

“Fear, anger,” Mac pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead. “Not mine. Shut it out. Close it off." She tried to get her thoughts in order, but the emotions were riding her. Consuming her, taking away any coherent thought she tried to form.

[Jessica Coulter]

This was it. The moment of truth.

Didn't it just leave her with all sorts of cuddly, huggy tingles.

Jessie had a feeling that things were just about to get interesting when she spun around the corner and started down the hall checking each room as she went. At the end was a door that seemed to open and close on its own even though there was not an ounce of wind in the damned house. Edging closer, the young woman took a deep breath and caught the frame just as it threatened to slam shut once more. A fridged, almost freezing chill began to grip her as she ducked into the room and looked around. That chill automatically told her she was dealing with a spirit and a gruesome one at that.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flicker of motion and turned just in time to see a young woman standing in the corner watching her. Dressed in a faded sundress and sandels, she had long flowing hair and probably would have been pretty if not for the sickening slash marks across her face and body. The dress itself was torn and tattered while covered with dark spots that Jess instinctively knew was blood. The expression on the girls face was one of abject horror and sadness. Gulping a bit, the young huntress saw her lips move and then a long arm was raising to point a slender finger at her. Baffled, Jessie could only stare at her as she tried to figure out what the girl was trying to say.

"What? What are you trying to tell me?" she asked into the silence.

Before the ghost could respond, however, another creak behind her caused her to spin about but she was to late. Hit with something resembling the power of a mack truck, the brunette was tossed across the room and into the wall. Pain exploded as she slumped to the ground and the pistol loaded with rock salt rounds skidded across the ground a few feet away.

Shaking her head to clear the shadows that threatened to descend, Jess glanced upward and saw the ugliest man she'd ever had the misfortune to run across. It wasn't so much that his features were ugly... It was more the whole gleam of malavolence that seemed to twist his expression. Hatred and evil scorced his eyes and the knife he carried in his other hand gave her a hint to the fate he had in store for her. The fact that he was a ghost was even more terrifying.

Knowing she didn't have a moment to loose, Jessie dived sideways for her gun and gripped it just as the spirit kicked out with a powerful leg. Hitting her square in the stomach, the young woman swore she heard a few ribs crack but gripped the weapon none the less. Bringing up the gun, she fired a shot a fraction to late as the spirit faded to miss the projectile.

"SON OF A BITCH!" she swore to herself as she tried to push herself up from the ground. "Wheres Casper when you'd really like to see him."

And thats when everything started going south. Yeah, she was just rolling in the luck these days.

From out of nowhere, another figure appeared and Jessie whipped up her gun to level it at the thing only realize it was an actual HUMAN. WHAT THE HELL??? Fuck a Duck! Now, she had not only a hostile ghost but she had a civilian it deal with too. And from the noise she'd been making, the woman was obviously on the verge of having a very real mental break down.

SHITTTTTTTTT!! Just what she DIDN"T need, thank you very much.

Using the wall for support, Jess pushed herself up and then forced herself forward.

"Hey!!! Are you all right?? Are you hurt?? We need to get the hell out of here but we need to do it together!!" She said, running a quick glance over the woman and taking in her attire. "Your going to think I'm nuts but I need you to listen to me VERY carefully... We are going to go out the same way we came in but if I say move.. You NEED TO MOVE!! Understand??"

Before the woman could reply, Jess felt the temperture drop again and whirled around in time to have the shotgun knocked from her grasp and take a blow to the shoulder that knocked her back and into the other women. Groaning in pain, Jess saw a red haze for a moment before the ghost moved in for another go. Flinging herself sideways, she reached for the gun but knew she was going to be to slow.

[morgancaine]

Mac rocked back and forth squeezing her head. Emotions slithered through her mind and Mac couldn’t sort out what were hers and what belonged to the woman who was now standing over her with a gun. Intense, like someone stabbing an icepick into her brain over and over again. It hurt like hell as the emotions cascaded into her.

Concern.

Annoyance.

Frustration.

More that Mac couldn’t decipher. She screamed as slithered through her mind. The woman was so close the feelings so intense.

Fear.

Could have been Mac’s, but she didn’t know. Too much wasn’t hers. So many was theirs. She had no way of deciphering between the two. Even when she was alone and had only her own emotions, Mac had no way to deal with them. Mostly they were drowned out or mixed in. There’s always overrode her own.

“Too much yours!” She screamed at the woman.

Mac realized that the woman was talking to her. She tilted her head trying to focus on the words but she couldn’t understand. She could only feel.

Urgency.

Shock.

Then before Mac knew what was happening the other woman slammed into her. Pain flourished through her physically and then the emotional hit. Contact with another person intensified the feelings. It was as if the emotions were eating her alive. She couldn’t stop the wave, it was washing over her, like molten lava, burning into her mind.

Somewhere in her mind though Mac knew there was danger. Maybe it was something she got from the other woman. Maybe it was just survival instincts. She didn’t know. Opening her eyes Mac pushed back against the emotions that were nibbling away at her sanity.

Mac’s mind couldn’t quite make out what was going on. The woman was going for the gun, but the evil looking man was too close. He was leaning in. It didn’t take a crazy empathy to know that he wanted to hurt the lady. Mac was closer to the gun though. Unfortunately she had no idea how to use it. Instead she shoved it towards the lady, having it glide smoothly into her hands.

“Too much! Too much!” Diving for her backpack Mac fumbled trying to get out another pill. It was the only way to take off the edge. Finding her supply she quickly downed one, but now she had to wait for it to kick in. That bit of help for the lady was all Mac had been able to do. She had forced the emotions back only a tiny bit, but now the damn broke and they slammed into her once more. Falling on her back, gasping for breath, Mac’s back arched and she screamed.