The Funhouse

out of the car, up, up, dragged through a hole in the ceiling, as if he weighed only a few pounds.
        Overhead, a trap door banged shut.
        The attack had transpired in only three or four seconds.
        For a moment Amy was too stunned to move or speak. She stared at the darkness above, where Richie had disappeared, and she couldn't make herself believe what she had seen. It had to be a trick, part of the funhouse tour, an incredibly clever illusion.
        Apparently Liz and Buzz thought the same thing, for they, too, were mesmerized.
        Gradually, however, Amy realized that Richie was really gone and that no carnival in the world would risk injuring a customer with a trick as dangerous as that one.
        Liz said, “Blood.”
        That single word broke the spell.
        Amy and Buzz looked at her.
        Liz was turned part of the way around in the front seat. She was holding up her arms. They were spattered with something wet and dark. Even in the green light, it was obvious that Liz was spotted with blood.
        Richie's blood.
        Amy screamed.

----

    15
        
        As soon as Conrad switched off the power to the tracks, stranding the carload of teenagers, he went down the boarding ramp toward the midway. He intended to walk around to the back of the funhouse, enter by the rear basement door, lock it after him, and locate Gunther. He wanted his son to kill three of those kids, but not Amy Harper. Amy, of course, would have to suffer for several days before she died, she would have to be well used, perhaps by both himself and Gunther, that was the way Conrad wanted it, the way he had dreamed of it for twenty-five years. He had instructed Gunther carefully, but he wasn't sure that Gunther would be able to control himself once the killing began. Gunther needed to be reminded, he needed constant guidance through the next critical hour.
        But when Conrad reached the bottom of the ramp, as he was about to head for the walkway between the funhouse and Freak-o-rama, he saw the boy. Joey Harper. Amy's little brother was standing over by the second set of castle doors, through which the gondolas exited the funhouse.
        He must have seen his sister go inside, Conrad thought. He's waiting for her. When she doesn't come out, what will he do? Go for help? Seek out a security guard?
        Joey glanced at him.
        Conrad smiled and waved.
        He would have to do something about the damned boy, and quick.
        
        * * *
        
        Buzz climbed onto the ledge where the ax-murderer display was bathed in green light, and he pulled the ax out of the skull of the mannequin that was crumpled at the foot of the mechanical madman. Ax in hand, he jumped down into the gondola channel, where Amy and Liz were huddled together, waiting for him.
        “It's a real ax,” he said. “Not very sharp, but it ought to be of some use.”
        “I just don't understand,” Liz said shakily. “What is going on here? What the fuck is this all about?”
        “I don't know for sure,” Buzz said. “I can only guess. But you saw that hand…”
        “It wasn't a hand ,” Liz said.
        “Claw, paw, whatever you want to call it,” Buzz said. “Anyway, it was just like the hands on the thing in the jar, that dead freak we saw pickled in formaldehyde over at Freak-o-rama. Only this hand was a lot bigger.”
        Amy had to make an effort to speak. She was surprised she could talk at all. “You mean… you think we're trapped in here with a freak that kills people?”
        “Yeah,” Buzz said.
        “It didn't kill Richie!” Liz said, her voice cracking. “Richie isn't dead. He's alive. He's… somewhere… and he's alive.”
        “It's possible,” Buzz said. “Maybe it's just a kidnapping scheme or something. Maybe they're just going to hold Richie for ransom. It's possible.”
        He and Amy exchanged looks, and although it wasn't easy to read his expression in the green light, Amy knew that Buzz felt the same way about it as she did. Richie couldn't possibly be alive. There wasn't one chance in a million that he would ever smile at them again. Richie was dead, gone, forever.
        “We've got to get out of here and call the cops,” Liz said. “We've got to save Richie.”
        “Come on,” Buzz said. “We'll walk back to the t'' entrance doors. If we can't open them, maybe this ax is just sharp enough so that I can chop a way