Funhouse

        Genny hated clowns. Their white faces, with their big red nose. All that bushy hair. And they were definitely not funny. No. They were creepy. And yet, here she was, at a fall carnival with her best friends Fabi and Deja. Because what else was there to do on a Friday night? Anything but being surrounded by clowns, she thought.

The trio of friends had already ridden the Ferris wheel, eaten corn dogs and fries, and even seen the cute farm animals in the barn. For Genny, the night was complete. But Deja wanted to go one last place.

“The Funhouse!” Deja said. “Look!”

Genny wished she hadn’t. The door of the funhouse was inside of what looked like a gigantic evil clownface. She gulped.
“I don’t know,” Genny said. “It’s getting kind of late.”

“Come on!” Fabi said, grabbing her arm. “It will be fun!”

Genny sighed and followed her friends into the funhouse.

The first part of the funhouse was a mirror maze. This was very disorienting for Genny because she lost Fabi and Deja quickly into the maze. Her friends looked like they were right next to her, but she kept bumping into mirrors. 

“Fabi? Dejaneira?” Genny asked.

No reply.

She nervously pushed forward through the mirror maze. Stopping every few feet and turning back after hitting another dead end. This is SO not fun. 

Suddenly, Genny glimpsed something bright and red move across one of the mirrors.

“Fabi? Is that you?” she asked, even though she knew her best friend was a brunette. “I think I’m lost.”

Silence. And then she began to hear something faint. Laughter?

“Deja? What’s funny?” Genny asked, as she walked through the maze. The laughter got louder and louder the closer she got to the end.

Finally, she stepped out of the mirror maze and into a room with 5 mirrors, each contorted differently. The first made her look very tall. The second very short. This must be what was making Deja laugh earlier.

She stepped in front of the big one and screamed. 

Looking back at her was not her reflection, but a tall, lanky clown. Genny turned around to run, and smashed right into someone, knocking herself onto the ground.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, standing up. “I thought I saw a–” 

Genny looked at the person she bumped into. They, too, were a clown. It’s wide grin larger than life.

Genny screamed again, and ran toward what she thought was the exit. Instead, it was another room. Full. Of. Clowns.

She ran right through the crowd of clowns and out of the Funhouse. Her friends, Deja and Fabi, were standing with a police officer. She ran over to them.

“Why did you leave me?!” Genny asked asked her friends.

“Us leave you?” Fabi said. “You disappeared! You were right behind me through the mirror maze, and then all of a sudden, you were gone.”

“Yeah!” said Deja. “We’ve been looking for you for hours!”

That’s when Genny noticed the lights to the carnival were off, and a single streetlight illuminated them. She looked behind her and realized the Funhouse lights, too, were off. “Th-there were clowns. So many clowns.”

Fabi, shaking her head, wrapped Genny in a hug. “Genny, there are no clowns in the funhouse. Only mirrors.”

Genny returned Fabi’s hug. “Let’s go home, Fabi.”

“Of course,” replied Fabi. 

But it wasn’t exactly Fabi’s voice. Genny was confused and looked back at her friend. Only, it wasn’t her friend anymore. 

Staring back at her was the clown in the mirror. 

Genny screamed.

Graveyard

 It was a dark night, only illuminated by the full moon silhouetted between two large storm clouds. Perfect for a cemetery seance. Carlos and his friends had finished their annual trick-or-treating through the streets of Cayce, and now they entered the old cemetery, hands full of their Halloween haul. 

“Are you ready?” Manuel said as they passed through the old gates.

“I don’t know,” Carlos responded, wondering what he had gotten himself into. At first, it was just a fun Halloween adventure, but now that they were actually in the cemetery, it suddenly got real. They were going to try to talk to a ghost. “Are you sure we should be doing this?”

“Come on,” Manuel said. “You’re not scared?”

Carlos shook his head. “No, it will be fine.”

Their friends, Felix and Juan, led the way to an old gravestone. Felix began pulling candles out of his bag, and Juan was lighting them. 

“It’s now or never,” Carlos told himself.

The four boys each found a spot around the gravestone. Manuel looked around the circle. “We’re not going to… hold hands… are we?” 

“No need for that,” Felix said. “The moon and candles will guide the spirit to us.” He smirked. “If you believe in that sort of thing.”

The boys laughed, and then Juan got quiet. He nodded to the other boys, and soon they were all silent.

“Spirit of this grave, we call you,” Juan said. “On this dark Halloween night, come back to the world of the living and talk once again.”

As Juan spoke, the wind suddenly picked up, slowly at first, before billowing all around them. The flames of the candles flickered with the wind but never extinguished.

“Spirit of this grave, we call you,” Felix repeated. “On this dark Halloween night, come back to the world of the living and talk once again.”

Soon, the cemetery trees began to blow, making scratchings and snappings all around them.

“Spirit of this grave, we call you,” Manuel repeated. “On this dark Halloween night, come back to the world of the living and talk once again.”

The flames of the candles grew taller and blew more wildly. Carlos was nervous to say his part, but he didn’t want to look afraid.

“S-spirit of this g-grave, we c-call you,” Carlos stuttered. “On this d-dark, H-Halloween night, c-come back to the w-world of the living–”

Suddenly, lightning cracked across the sky.

“--and t-talk once again,” Carlos finished.

All at once, the candles blew out, and a shadowy figure emerged from the headstone. Carlos looked around at his friends, who were all staring at the figure. 

“Who dares call me to the world of the living?” the figure bellowed.

Felix, Juan and Manuel all pointed at Carlos.

     “What?!” Carlos shook his head. “No, not me. I didn’t want to do this!” 

    “What did you want to say to me, child?” the figure asked.

    “N-nothing,” Carlos said. “I didn’t want to come here.”

    “You aren’t scared of me, are you?”

    “N-no!” Carlos insisted.

    The figure chucked. “Sounds like it to me!”

    The figure jumped down from the grave and landed in front of Carlos. “Boo!”

    Carlos backed up, rolling over himself.

    Then, all of his friends began to laugh. And the figure began to laugh. Carlos didn’t understand what was going on.

    “What’s so funny?”

    “You!” Manuel said, rolling in laughter.

    Carlos stood up and looked more closely at the figure. 

    “Oh my god,” he groaned. “Mr. Spigner!”

    The figure held his hand out to help Carlos up.

    “Did I scare you?”