Psychological Horror Story: Wrath, Carnival of Sin Finale

Eli stood looking between the business card in his hand, and the building in front of him for several minutes. What could these people do for him? He wondered. Could they do anything for him? He paced in front of the door.

“What would Colin think of me going to strangers for help?” he wondered aloud.

That decided it. He didn’t need strangers to tell him what to do.

Within a few steps, the sight of the street in front of him disappeared behind the most intense memory.

Colin's house. The basement. Eli could feel the damp, smelled the tang of mold overlaid by the sharper scent of blood. The girl was lying on the tiles. She wasn't dead. Not yet.

Eli kneels beside her, his hand on her thigh. Her flesh is still warm. His hand creeps up under her skirt.

In the present, Eli bent over with a gag. His hands grasp the hair on either side of his head and pull. Colin is gone, his mentor, and he will never have the chance to explore those experiences again. He can feel a scream of rage boiling in his chest. His back arches as he opens his mouth to the sky, but then quickly slaps his two hands over his mouth.

He can't let the scream go forth. If he does, he'll punch something, or someone, and this time his boss won't be able to save him.

Instead, he bites the inside of his palm hard enough to break the skin. The pain stops the scream. Finally, he takes a deep breath, turns on his heel, and walks back to the building. Biting his lip, he pushes through the door.

The building was dark. It being after hours, but there were a few lights on inside. And so, Eli finally tugged the door open. He found an information desk with a security guard.

 “I’m looking for the grief counseling meeting,” Eli said.

The guard didn’t even look up from his book, just pointing down the hallway. “Room 21B. Listen for the crying.”

Eli stared at the guard for a minute. “Jesus Christ.”

Room 21 B was a gymnasium. In the middle of the basketball slash volleyball slash audience center was a circle of folding chairs. Against the wall was a folding table with a coffee urn and snacks  

As he made himself a cup of coffee, knowing full well the caffeine wouldn’t help his nerves, he listened to two people chatting beside him.

“Hello, Valerie,” began the man.

“Jacob,” she replied.

Undeterred by her less-than enthusiastic greeting, Jacob continued. “"I didn't know you'd be here."

"Well, Charlie was my husband after all," Valerie replied.

"True," Jacob said.

"I’m surprised you’re here,” Valerie drawled.

“We may have had our differences, but I still cared about him.”

Valerie snorted. She took her coffee and went to sit without another word.

Jacob sorted through the doughnuts, touching at least six of them before picking up a sprinkle and taking a huge bite. He then went and sat in the circle as well but on the opposite side from Valerie. Eli had the feeling that he wanted to be able to stare at her throughout the meeting.

‘Oh, this is going to be fun,’ thought Eli.

“Excuse me.” Eli turned slightly as an older man pushed past him to the coffee urn. He leaned toward Eli. “Gotta get me some caffeine before the crying starts.”

Crying was a recurring theme, it seemed. Eli didn’t respond. He chose a seat next to a woman whose eyes were red. She held a handkerchief between her hands and was twisting it around one hand.

A tall thin man with an enormous head of curly hair came in a side door, dressed in slacks and a button-down shirt. He clapped his hands. "All right everyone, let's get started," he said, as if speaking to a class of rambunctious children. The rest of the group made their way to the remaining chairs.

“It’s so nice to see so many new faces.” There was a gasp from someone in the group and the man frowned. “I’m so sorry.” He put his hand to his chest. “I simply meant that I’m happy to see people coming to get help in their time of need.”

He looked around at the group. “Janine, as you’ve been here before, would you mind starting us off to show the others how we do things?”

The woman beside Eli looked up in surprise. “I..um, yes. Ok.” She took a deep breath. “I am here because my daughter my daughter went missing a few weeks ago and I… um.” The woman cleared her throat. “She was just going to the carnival with a friend.” She looked around at the group. “I’m just here trying to figure out how to manage until she comes home.”

The man who ran the group shook his head minutely. Eli got the impression that he didn’t think much of Janine’s message.

“Who would like to go next?”

Like the others in the group, he looked anywhere but at the man who spoke. He wasn’t sure that he was going to speak about his reasons for being here. He wasn’t sure how long he would even last here. Regardless. He sat holding the business card crumpled in one fist.

Slowly, the other people around the circle started telling their stories.

It turned out that the man and woman who had been talking by the snack table were in-laws. They spoke over one another as they told the story her husband’s accident – “my stepbrother murdered!” – after attending the stepbrother’s stag and doe.

The man who ran the group had to step between them to suggest that someone else take a turn.

The gruff man who passed Eli to grab a cup of coffee was there because his best friend had gone missing as well. “Funnily enough, he was also going to the carnival.” He looked at the first woman who had spoken, who was still wringing the handkerchief between her hands. “I was the one who told him to check it out…” His voice trailed off.

Eli’s fists had tightened until his fingernails were gouging his palms, but he couldn’t release them.

The man to the other side of him jumped in. “My daughter is also missing.”

There were murmurs around the circle.

“What do the police say?” asked Eli quietly. His hands hurt from clenching his fists so tightly. His jaw ached from grinding his teeth together. His body was a coiled spring of tension and there was a ringing in his head. When no one responded, he jumped to his feet. “What is wrong with you people,” he asked. “How can you be so calm about all of this? I lost my best friend, my mentor. Colins gone. And the police aren’t doing anything!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” said the leader of the group who stood and held his hands up gently, gently moving toward Eli. “Let’s just settle down for a minute, shall we? Can I ask your name, son?”

Eli’s mouth opened and close for a few minutes, and he slumped into the chair behind him. “Eli,” he said slowly.

“You’re the kid who was going to put a complaint against Detective Hale.” A large, bear of a man stood and peered around the group leader at Eli.

Eli glanced up. “You’re the police captain.”

The man nodded.

“Fat lot of good you did. The detective still hasn’t gotten back to me.”

“That’s because he’s missing, too.” There was a shocked silence at this announcement. Then everyone started speaking at once.

“What do you mean ‘missing’?”

“He’s working on my daughter’s case!”

“What happened to him?”

“Missing is missing!” The captain barked, shocking the others into silence. “Funnily enough, the last thing I knew, he was going to the carnival to follow up on a lead.” He looked at Eli. “Do you know, we have video of Colin also going into the Carnival just before he went missing?”

Eli nodded vigorously. “I was trying to tell Detective Hale that I knew who took him.” He looked around the circle at the others. “It’s the people in the carnival. They took him. And I think they took the others, too. We must do something.”

“What are you suggesting son?” The captain asked. Most everyone around the circle leaned forward to hear what Eli had to say. All except Valerie and Jacob, the only two people who were there because someone they knew died. Valerie stood up abruptly.

“I don’t’ know what you’re suggesting, but I’ll have nothing to do with it.” She pulled her purse off the back of her chair and stalked out of the room, her heels tapping across the pressed wood floor.

Without a word, Jacob followed her, leaving the people whose family and friends were just missing.

‘Lost,’ thought Eli. Like something set down and forgotten. But he knew he would never forget his mentor, Colin.

“I don’t know what I was thinking coming here,” Eli said. He rubbed his face and scrubbed his fingers through his hair. “Who will join me, who will come with me and confront the people who have stolen our loved ones and demand their return.”

In some other forum, this would have seemed an idiotic statement, if there was a group of people mass kidnapping, would you really go and seek them out, but Colin’s wrath was like a disease that spread from person to person.

“No one’s listening.”

“No one’s doing anything!”

“We have to do something!”

“Come with me. Together we can stand up to those… those… whatever they are!” Eli’s eyes burned with an intensity that most would have deemed madness. Indeed, the group leader considered interrupting, but one look around the circle and he could see that the others had the same look in their eyes. He pulled back and let the group leave.

Once they were gone, the group leader looked around at the few people left in the circle. “Well, that was interesting. Shall we continue?” No one realized that would be the last time anyone heard from those people again.

As the rampaging mob stormed from the auditorium and down the hall, the few lights pulsed, and there was a ripple in the walls that none of them seemed to notice. They burst through the front doors of the building and stormed out into the street—only it was no longer the street. They were standing in front of the gates to the carnival, and each of them took a moment to get their bearings before they could try to wonder what happened.

Valerie and Jacob, the two who had refused to be a part of the vengeance seekers, were there as well, looking bemused as if they were half-asleep.

The carnival was in full swing. Caliope music danced on the back of the bright lights and laughter from the crowd. The ticket master stood beside his booth, his gate open. He smiled a wide, slightly maniacal smile.

“Go on in,” he said, waiving his arm in a gesture for the group to pass him. “The carnival awaits.”

Eli was the first through. He was looking for the ring master, the leader of the carnies. He stormed into the crowd, not waiting for the others.

The older woman and man who had both lost a daughter were the second the enter. They had bonded over their shared loss.

“I hear her!” the said in unison and dashed off into the crowd, hand in hand.

After them came the police captain. He looked around as if he didn’t know where to look first. A sign lit up ahead of him.

‘Court of justice, this way.’

Captain Rourke followed the arrow.

When Valerie and Jacob entered the carnival, slowly, dragged against their will. Jacob followed his nose toward the food tents. Valerie saw a sign for the hall of mirrors. She muttered under her breath, “Why me? You took her. Why me? Why now?”

Lastly came Sam, the bartender who sent his friend to the carnival. He stopped when he reached the gate.

“Gerald?” he gasped, staring at the ticket master. His friend was wearing a garish orange and red striped suit with a tall, red top hat. His smile stretched wider than Sam thought possible.

Gerald put his arm around Sam and steered him toward the ticket booth. “We can always use more ticket takers,” he said.

Separated, the group of revenge seekers were each on their own path through the carnival. Each destined for the same fate as the loved one they searched for.

A thick fog separated the parents who followed their daughter’s voices to the corn maze, distorting their voices when they called out to each other, but then each heard their daughter’s voice.

The man heard Lydia and said, “I hear her. I hear you, my darling.”

He rushed off the corn maze, just barely visible around him, cornstalks smacking him in the face as he pushed through deeper into the ever-thickening fog.

Marcy’s mother, who had always cherished her daughter, constantly doing everything for Marcy with no thought to how she would turn out. Marcy’s mother stilled when the fog separated her from the man she’d just met. She could hear his voice, but the fog not only distorted the direction, but what he was saying. She could sense his urgency, but quickly it faded until she was alone.

She could hear her daughter’s voice calling to her, but the fog was so thick that there was no sense of right or left or up or down. Instead, she slowly crumpled onto the ground, and that’s where the fog took her.

Jacob’s nose carried him on the scent of food, like a cartoon animal. He found himself at a table covered in plates of food. Without meaning to, he sat and began shovelling food into his mouth faster than he could eat. Chomping through hot dogs. Handfuls of gravy coated fries. Cheesy nachos. Soon flecks of food covered him, on his shirt and in his hair, and he was barely able to swallow.

Coughing, choking. Gasping. Still, he couldn’t stop. As he munched, a shadow moved from beside the food tent. When Jacob recognized his stepbrother, Jacob knew he was a goner.

Something pulled Valerie, as if a tractor beam had grabbed her, and no matter how she tried to fight it, inexorably she found herself in front of the mirror maze. Then, she was inside. With each mirror, a part of Lydia showed - an arm here, a leg there. Valerie recognized the pair of shoes that Lydia had been wearing when they went to the carnival together. With each new piece of her old friend showing up, Valerie whimpered. Her denial got stronger. “No! No, no no.”

Yet, the maze pulled her in further. When she stood before the last mirror, her reflection was no longer hers. Lydia was looking back at her from her reflection.

Valerie cried out, “Why, why me, it took you, why, why now?” There was no answer.

Lydia reached out, her arms elongating until she wrapped them around Valerie and yanked her into the mirror. Valerie’s scream cut off the instant as she entered the mirror.

The captain had roared a greeting when he’d seen Hale, but there was no response from the grinning man, whose smile made him look crazier than ever before. That’s when Rourke knew he was never leaving the tent. At least, not as the person he was before.

He bowed to the inevitable, slumping at the defendants table, resigned to his fate. He stared at the prosecutor who looked like his detective, but who hadn’t said a word TO him since he’d entered the tent and wondered what he had done in his life to deserve this.

Eli never found the Ring Master. Instead, as he stormed through the crowd, he caught a glimpse of his neighbor, sweet Stephanie, the woman who populated the fantasies that kept him awake late into the night.

He chased after her until he found her leaning beside one of the game booths. Her short, ruffled miniskirt hung just far enough to cover her, but with every swish, Eli was sure he would see more. She wriggled and winked at him. Eli stopped short and looked around as if she could be speaking to someone else.

She smiled and sashayed up to him. “Colin sent me,” she whispered. Her scent enveloped him, a cloud of coconut mist, and Eli swooned. He didn’t even think to ask her if Colin was there. Stephanie was speaking to him!

“Come,” she whispered, first on one side, and then in an instant on the other. “Win me a prize.” Her breath tickled the side of his neck, and he swallowed convulsively at the shiver that ran down his spine. He nodded, and the next thing he knew, she was ahead of him in the crowd, about to disappear. He shoved through the people; there seemed to be so many more of them now.

She kept just out of his reach, sometimes so close his fingertips just grazed her back, other times only there as a scent in the air. Eli swallowed the saliva that flooded his mouth at the thought of catching the lovely creature and hurried on.

He followed her to a tent where giant teddy bears hung.

Step right up and win a bear. Just get three rings onto the bottle and the bear is yours.”

Other men stood around the game, tossing rings, clapping when the rings snagged the neck of the bottles, spinning round, round and down.

Eli tossed on ring.

“The gentleman in the blue has a lucky first shot,” the barker announced.

Another ring landed on the neck of the bottle.

“A second one. Can the young man make it to three?”

Eli would toss and toss and toss that ring, never getting the third one onto the bottle. The woman’s voice whispering sweet nothings in his ear ensuring he never gave up.

Days later when the carnival arrived at the new town Zara looked out at the carny workforce, pulling the rides and tents from their storage on the trucks that had brought them from the last location. She could feel the hum of the new souls incorporated into the carnival matrix.

“Grief ripened quickly,” she thought. “What sins will come to our door today?”