Chapter 5
Nadia
The Slaughterhouse
“I thought it was real there for a second.”
We’re just walking out of the forest, into the enclosure outside. Eveline is hugging herself, a shudder overtaking her as Zack holds her close to him.
Her words barely register. There’s an aching need inside me, and a feeling that perhaps I’ve grown delusional. It was real. Somehow, someway, something did happen in there.
The stranger I was attracted to at the beginning of the night and the enchanting man in the circus are both the same person. And he let me ride an axe all the while tied to a tree…
Is he a worker here? Or something else?
I ball my fists, my nails digging into my palms and distracting me from the reality of what just happened.
A stranger.
Outdoor candles light the rest of the path forward until we reach the enclosure of the forest and the haunted hayride.
“Where’s the driver? And the tractor?” the attendant asks, a look of bewilderment flickering over his face.
He peers intently at the woods where we just came from, as if doing so will reveal whoever he’s looking for.
“Oh, you’re good,” Eros mutters.
The attendant frowns with hunched shoulders as he looks at us, before hesitantly giving us the stamps for completing this level.
“Did you see where he went?”
A lump settles deep in my stomach, tingling with unease. “No. He ran away after seeing the man with the axe.” I try not to let the flush creep up my cheeks. I don’t think sexual encounters with the employers of the fair are encouraged very much.
That expression on his face is back, paling.
“Was that not supposed to happen?” I ask, feeling the lump growing stronger. I swallow, balling my hands even tighter until I’m sure crescents form from my nails.
“O-of course it was.” He plasters on a smile, but it’s uneasy and full of trepidation. “Good luck with the next level, it’s scarier than any other.”
After waving us off, encouraging us to continue with the haunted houses, the unease still hasn’t eased inside me. No one seems to notice or think that something is wrong.
“We only have two more levels left, and then the reward is ours,” Eveline exclaims, hooking her arm through mine. “Are you cold?” she asks, frowning when she realizes my teeth are chattering and my body is trembling.
My knees feel weak, like the earth underneath me is quavering. All I can do is nod, unable to tell her the truth or outwardly lie to her.
Truth be told, I’m as affected by the very mysterious stranger as before. An aching need inside me for the realization I was just about to get the greatest pleasure, before it was snapped away from me.
“Come on. Let’s move to the third level,” Zack says. “I wanna get it down with.”
The later the night becomes, the colder it gets. The chill in the air makes my fingertips feel like they’re burning, and I attempt to hide them in the sleeves of my dress, though it does nothing to ease it.
We follow the map to the next level, right around the corner to the entrance of the haunted hayride.
A chorus of upset voices erupts from behind us, people gathering in a crowd around the archway. “We paid a lot of money for this!” one person shouts.
“I’m sorry. We’ll have to postpone this ride. The driver isn’t here yet.”
Grumbles of displeasure echo in the frigid air, smoke billowing from their breaths. I’m distracted by them, not realizing we’ve arrived right outside the next haunted house.
“You’re really absent-minded today,” Eveline whispers in my ear, startling me out of my reverie. I turn my attention back to her. “I’m sorry I made you come here.” A guilty expression flashes across her face.
My heart stalls, and I instantly shake my head. “No, don’t apologize. You were right—it’s time to start living again. I’m sorry.”
She offers me a gentle smile and hugs me, the safety of her warmth enveloping me. The lump previously formed in my stomach dissipates, and I focus my attention forward. Having fun with my best friend, who’s lost so much but has finally found happiness in her life.
Before us, a looming building serves its middle to us.
It seems to consist of only one floor, with the cracked walls nearly falling apart, and the triangular roof made of metal.
There are cracked windows on the facade, but they all seem to be covered up from the inside, the only thing visible being darkness.
A large, neon sign illuminated in glowing red covers the entire front wall, right above the entrance. One of the letters has gone completely dark. It’s the words, however, that make me take a step back.
The mood to continue has entirely evaporated.
“‘The Slaughterhouse,’ isn’t that a bit too grotesque?”
“The attendant at the hayride did say it would be scarier than the forest and the circus.”
“I wonder if it’s more like gory than scary,” I reply, following the others into the enclosure around the building, until we’re the next in line.
The attendant there scans our stamp cards. “So you made it through the first two levels. Congrats.”
He gives us our cards back, taking a step forward to unclip the rope.
“Remember. If you hear the butcher’s blade scraping against the floors, it’s already too late. Watch out,” he says, eyes sparking in mischief and excitement.
We stumble through the entrance.
The first thing that hits me is the smell. It comes towards and slams inside me as if I were walking toward a concrete wall. Holding my breath, I try not to gag but fail miserably.
The odor of something dead, rotten, and metallic surrounds me like a vapour, and I swallow the nausea traveling up my throat.
Sweat clings to my forehead, far unlike the chill I felt inside the circus. Instead, it’s hotter and thicker in here, the air and smell clinging to my throat like smoke circling me.
“Oh fuck,” Eros exclaims, putting his hand over his nose as his face scrunches up.
“Did they have to make it so real?” Eveline says, hugging herself.
Zack stays silent, but I can tell he’s as disgusted by the smell as we all are.
Thick and heavy, the smell clings to the back of my throat with the aftertaste of iron.
The hallway we’re in splits into different directions, each more daunting than the other, with white, sterile light flickering above. I can feel a headache blooming in my temples from the brightness.
Green neon dimly lights up each new hallway at the end of them, revealing bloody handprints on each wall, followed by blood splatters on the floors.
None of us are keen to decide where to go out.
Suddenly, the sterile lights go out. Eveline lets out a startled yelp.
“Relax,” Eros tells her, but he soon startles as well.
And then, I can’t see anyone anymore. Not even their slight silhouettes that were previously lit up by the green neon light. Complete and total silence and darkness ensue.
“Eveline?”
Nothing.
“Eros?” I try, fumbling in the dark, but he’s no longer close to me.
I’m left all alone.
Voices erupt from the left, somehow resembling the others, so I quickly make my way in that direction in an attempt to catch up to them.
“Guys, wait!”
But at the end of the hallway, there is still no one nearby.
What’s even more disturbing is the room I’ve found myself in. Crooks hang from the ceilings, different lengths, dangling in the air with rusted chains that scrape against each other. It creates a horrible cacophony that sends shivers running down my spine, making me blanch.
The smell is even worse in here. It clings to me like wet ash, seeping into the fabric, and I know I won’t easily be able to wash it off.
Did they have to make it so real?
I take a step into the room, knowing that the sooner I walk through the slaughterhouse, the sooner I will get the fuck out of here.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Farther ahead, the eerie sound of something dripping down to the metal, stained floors ensues, filling the silence.
A single light bulb hums above, offering just a small amount of light to see what it is.
That is when the nausea comes rising inside me, and I sink to my knees, expelling whatever food I’ve had.
Gagging, tears fill the corners of my eyes, because that sight is definitely not fucking fake.
It can’t be.
Why would it be real?
The light flickers. Neon green transforming to the sterile light from the light bulb ahead, and then back again.
Fighting to stand again, I swallow as I stare at the carcass hanging from one of the hooks in the ceiling, dangling back and forth.
Dripping what seems like real blood, limbs jointed in the wrong direction.
Its chest is carved open, blood dripping down the chest and onto the limbs, down to the floor, and creating a pool of liquid.
I clench my fists, taking a deep breath.
I need to get my shit together. Walk through this house of horror, find Eveline, and get out. I don’t even know if I want to do the next level anymore. Might just need a break for an hour after this, but fuck, this is too real.
I make my way across the room, bypassing the carcass, which emanates a scent worse than before. Metallic. Heavy. Rotten.
I make it into another hallway, where a woman stands with a plastic saw, the sound scaring the shit out of me before she does. I jump, and she laughs manically before disappearing behind the door she came from.
Relief sags my shoulders when she’s gone, and I continue through the narrow hallway. This one is so narrow that, in fact, my shoulders brush against the concrete walls. The sense of claustrophobia hits me hard in the chest.
I’m breathing heavily, fighting to stay conscious as I push my way forward. It feels as if the walls are coming closer and closer, pushing me against them harder the deeper I venture. Darkness overtakes everywhere, and a yelp escapes me, haggling through the walls to get forward.
Fuck, it feels as if I’m going to pass out any second. The lack of oxygen to my brain is making me dizzy.
My breathing is staggered, the smell of blood permeating the air, pushing me back to that night two years ago.