Deep in the woods, in a clearing “The Lewis Brother’s Circus” stands, no one goes to this circus, at least not anymore. The rides no longer work, covered in rust and over growing vines, what is left of the concession stands are home to ants and small animals. These ruins were once lit up and filled with the laughter of children. The sign at the front of the park has since browned and letters have fallen off, it now reads “T-e -ew-s Br-t-er’- Ci-cu- “ no one comes here, ever. Though on some late nights in the summer kids will dare one another to enter the circus ruins, but it is not the circus that they are afraid of it’s the funhouse. A large clown face that stands in the middle of these grounds, mouth open, stairs leading up into its throat, all legends put aside this house will swallow you up. On this night the funhouse gets lucky, a group of six intoxicated teenagers stumble toward the clown’s face, these kids are not afraid, alcohol has masked their fear. This is the first mistake that they make.

The house waited patiently as the teens walked up its steps, one drunken step at a time. As they reached the door, the house burst with the sluggish laughter of children from a broken speaker.The teens jumped and laughed, one boy’s shaking hand met with the wall of the clown as they stepped inside, the house came to life. The sluggish laughter from the speakers turns into manic laughter and nursery rhyme songs. The foolish teenagers scream and turn to run out but the exit is gone, the clown’s mouth has closed. The leading boy tells his friends that it’s all okay with nervous laughter and shaky breaths, he steps deeper into the house with his friends following. As the group steps onto a dizzy bridge it begins to move, side to side, rusty metal scraping together. The girls scream and try to hurry the rest of them off the bridge but it’s dark, and all sense of direction is lost. The boy in front leads his friends off the bridge, but the solid ground that they found disappeared in a few steps.

The group leader’s feet went down and he brought the rest of them down with him, soon they were all surrounded by hollow plastic balls. This ball pit was deep though, the teens had to swim to keep their heads above the plastic. One of the other boys panicked about how he didn’t feel one of the girls behind him on the bridge, she was gone. The leader was determined to get out of this house alive, he swam until his hand hit the other side, and only three of his friends met him. Now in a complete panic, the group emerged from the pit two members short, now left with two boys and two girls. As they continued on, they were met with a mirror maze both boys in front and back, the ladies felt safe in the middle.

The leading boy felt his way through the winding maze of mirrors, hands pressed against the mirrors to either side of him. Heavy footsteps fell behind them, getting faster and faster, one of the girls screamed. The sound of breaking glass echoes through the mirrors and the leader didn’t feel the girls hands on his arm anymore. He reached a hand out and grabbed the remaining girls arm and pulled her along. After much confusion and panic they made it out, three of them left now. Carefully they walked and eventually saw a slide at the end of a small walkway, it was the way out. The small hall was dark and quiet, the sound of their shuffling feet bouncing off the wall. Thier steps stopped dead when “ ‘round and ‘round the cobbler’s bench, the monkey chased the weasel…” was being recited by a small child’s voice, and the sound of a jack in the box surrounded them.

“The monkey thought ‘twas all in fun…” the voice continued and the teens started running down the hall that seemed to only grow longer and longer. Laughter echoed down through the hall “pop goes the weasle…” now a scream filled this hall and only two sets of footsteps ran. The leader boy and the one remaining girl quickly sat on the slide and the boy holding the girl in front of him as they slid down the broken slide with sharp edges. When they reached the bottom the boy stood to and tried to pull the girl up but she would not move, she was not breathing. He looked in front of her and a plastic clown had fallen and broken and sharp, the clowns arm had impaled his friend. He turned and saw the stars on the other side of a tunnel, he quickly dove through the tube. Army crawling through the too small tube, he emerged from the other side and took in a deep breath of fresh air. “Come back...a-ga-ain” an animated voice struggled to finish its line, then a laugh erupted from inside the house. The boy ran, the laughter stopped as a hand landed on his shoulder and he opened his eyes. He was standing in front of the house again with all of his friends surrounding him.