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.