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?”

Under a Summer Sky

Glistening, glittering.
The eyes of a thousand suns,
A million worlds,
Look down on me on a cool summer night.

Seconds, minutes, hours have passed
Since I last visited here,
Where orchestral music of the night
Serenades my ever wandering soul,
Searching for, yearning for,
A moment of solitude.

I am blessed.

Love abounds here,
Surrounds my existence
With beauty divine.
My heart consumed with
Dreams and visions
Of a supreme being,
Who has set in motion
The perfect comedy of life.

Days and nights of good and bad,
Swirling into a mix of perfection.
There have been cold winter storms
And sunny days in paradise,
A symphony of chaotic bliss.

I am blessed.

With love. With life.
With happiness and despair.
With days I didn't want to move,
And nights I danced until dawn.
With the family I call friends,
And friends I call family.
With the worst of days, and the best of days.

And still it continues.
It's busy, it's messy,
It's boring,
it's a whirlwind of mystery,
a portrait of a complete and broken man.
It has mountains to climb, valleys to cross,
A sea of wonder,
It continues.

I am blessed.

Rescued

Light.
I can see it in the distance.
I surge forward,
but it doesn't get closer.

I push through the cold water,
choking me from all around
constricting my body,
forcing me to cease my efforts.

My fate looks dim,
the surface so far away.
Unattainable. Lost.
Nothing can help me now.

Then he comes.

Pushing through the water,
he embraces me,
pulling me toward a destination
I've longed for.

His body moves effortlessly through the water,
as if he were swimming through air.
The weight of this world gradually lifts itself,
and my body begins to move through the water

Gasping for air,
my lungs indulge in the essense,
this appetite finally being fed.
My eyes drift toward my savior.

Nothing spectacular,
But all the more amazing.
He's a normal boy,
yet everything I've longed for.

I smile, and it is returned.
He helps me out of the water,
wraps me in his warmth.
And here I am.

Secure.

Hourglass

He ran. An not just ran. He could hear his voice echoing down the streets of this small city, and try as he might, he couldn't make himself stop. He heard a bullet ricochet off the dumpster to his right, the sound of glass shattering bouncing off the bricked walls around him. He needed to get the hell out of this alley--preferably with his heart still pumping.

As he narrowly made his escape, and darted left onto the street in front of him, he realized his voice had ceased, and the street was at least a tiny bit more crowded than the alley. But he knew public witnesses wouldn't stop the man behind him. He knew his best friend, afterall. Nothing short of the dramatics.

His vision snapped him back into reality. David stood there, brown eyes locked into his own. "You stabbed me in the back, Sam."

He looked around. Everyone was staring at them. He really did hate for private matters to become public. But then again, this was David Reece. Nothing was ever kept private with him. Not the victimized stuff, anyway. Oh, there was plenty David kept hidden from the public eye. But any chance for him to be the victim? No, David ate that up.

"I'm pretty sure that's not the way it happened," he replied, eying the VodkaCran in his friend's hand. "And if you would have even tried to be reasonable and listten? You would have known that."

"I don't want to listen!"

David's voice lingered for a moment. Sam sunk that in, and ran a hand through his hair.

"You're so quick to assume everyone has it out for you, Dave." He chuckled in near disbelief. "Who hasn't been on your bad side? Your best friend? Your boyfriend? Your mom? Thing is, we aren't. I screwed up. I hurt you. And I'm sorry. But I wasn't out to get you. And you didn't even give me the chance to talk it out before you blew it all over the world."

He shook his head. "In some ways, I am pissed so royally because you couldn't respect me like I should have been. You came at me all accusational, and didn't allow my side to be told. And it makes me think, 'Hmm, do I really want this guy to be my friend?' But at the end of the day, you are. Because I know you better than any one of those gossip whores who no shit about any of this--or nearly anyone here, for that matter."

He stepped closer. "Point is, if you cant give me the decency to talk it out, I kind of would rather you go on hating me. Because that means after all this time, you really don't know me. And that hurts worse than the disrespect."

He threw a twenty on the bar for his tab, nodded to the bartender, and walked past his friend. The crowd incredulously remained silent as he broke through them. Someone grabbed his arm on his exit out.

"Give him time."

Sam brushed past him and continued on. The thing about time is...it's always running out.

Carnivale

Torn, Confused, Broken, Hurt.
The teeter never stops tottering.

The roller coaster with its ups and downs
does little to amuse,
The carnies all hidden behind
clever masks of friendly fun

The darkness creeps in,
The day gives way to night,
The chill air brushes against my shoulder,
nothing to cover these open wounds

I cry out for hope,
understanding, sympathy?
No, nothing is freely given,
Everything has a price.

The joy is gone,
The sorrow wept,
Nothing more than mirrors and mazes,
contorting the image i've tried desperately to form

I stop and take a breath,
Soak in those familiar sights and sounds,
The dreamland lost in a wave of reality.
I reach the top of the hill.

The slope goes on for miles,
twisting and turning, up and down.
I look back at the track behind me,
covered up by a dense fog.

Nowhere to go but down,
I brace for the drop, grit my teeth,
and prepare for the long road ahead,
continuing on the journey unkown.

Hiding Behind Walls

For my final project in Advanced Writing, I wrote two short stories: Of Discovery and Of Life and Death. When posting them together, I wanted a title that correctly encompassed both stories and I felt a similar theme in both works was walls. Both main characters have built was in defense of what they feel, and both men learn to slowly take down these walls. So here they are for you to read.

Of Discovery
Jake is an average high school student, struggling with how he is perceived by other people. In order to complete a school assignment, he begins to journal. And through his journaling, he begins to see himself for who he really is, and comes to a personal discovery.

Of Life and Death
One morning, Chris wakes up to realize his husband is dead, and through the motions of burying a loved one, he begins to understand the emotional pressures placed onto him through what he feels as abandonment. Eventually, he realizes he must face the issues of abandonment he has in order to truly lay his husband to rest.