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We were enveloped in blackness as soon as the door closed behind us. My heart pounded. We were trapped. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. Why had I let her enter first?  “Marcy!” It was too dark to see.  “Marcy, answer me!”

“Over here, Mama!” Her little voice came from faintly in front of me. My heart pounded. I hadn’t expected darkness.

A faint hissing emanated from the walls. Marcy shrieked, and my adrenaline shot up. “Smoke, mama! Smoke! It’s all around me!” She shrieked again. “There’s someone else in here!”

Panic clogged my throat. I lurched towards her voice. “Stay where you are, honey. Wait for me. Don’t walk any farther. No one here will hurt you.”

A maniacal laugh sounded to my right, and I screamed. Marcy screamed. Hot breath on my neck and I turned rapidly, throwing a hammer fist out in the dark. It connected with something solid. I heard an “oof” as I drew back and rushed towards my daughter’s voice. We need to escape this madhouse.

“Marcy, where are you? Talk to me.” Hands outspread, I moved forward, reaching for her, feeling for her in the dark. I heard moaning behind me but nothing in front. The smoke was thick, and I was becoming queasy.

“A door, mama! I found a door!”

“Stay where you are, Marcy. It could be a trick. Wait for me!” I bolted forward blindly, listening for her voice. “Talk to me, Marcy. Tell me where you are.”

“I’m opening the door, Mama.”

My heart pounded. “No! Marcy, wait!”

A shaft of light blinded me as she opened the door. Marcy screamed, the door slammed, and it was dark again. The moaning stopped, and something began dragging itself across the floor towards me.

I have to get out of here. Where did she go?  “Marcy!” My pulse raced. I ran towards the now disappeared light and hit the wall face first. My head bounced back, and I doubled over, sucking in my breath. My nose throbbed as if I’d been clobbered by a softball. A trickle of liquid worked its way down my upper lip, and I ran my tongue over it. Blood.

Where was Marcy?

There would be a doorknob somewhere. I began feeling my way along the wall. The scuffling sound drew nearer, and my efforts grew more frantic. Panicked, I began to hyperventilate. How the hell had I gotten into this mess? I felt blindly along the wall to the left and hit another wall. The hissing started up again, and I could feel smoke rising up from the floor. I moved towards the right along the wall, felt a seam and then the doorknob. Finally.

A hand grabbed my ankle as I turned the knob. I screamed and kicked out wildly with my free foot.  It connected with something, and my ankle was free. The moaning started again. I grabbed the door handle, turned and stepped through the door.

There was nothing beneath me. I fell straight down through a tube and into a broad rope net. What fresh hell was this? Where was Marcy? The bright light hurt my eyes. Blood ran across my lip and into my mouth.

“Marcy!” I screamed. “Marcy, where are you?”

“I’m here, Mama!” Her voice was shrill. “I found a rope and I’m climbing out of here.”

I tried to place her, keeping my eyes closed and listening to her voice carefully. “Stay where you are. I’m coming to get you.”

I was shaking uncontrollably, which made it impossible to crawl across the net. I felt myself swing back and forth in spread eagle fashion.  I kept my eyes closed, hoping to quell the nausea and trembling.

“You’re bleeding. Let me help you.”

I opened my eyes to a silken voice above me. A dark figure was on a ladder near me – a man – but something was wrong with his face. It was white. Too white. His lips were ruby red, and as he smiled, I saw a full set of sharp teeth. A vampire! My blood ran cold. He held his hand out and smiled his bloody smile. I screamed and kicked out as hard as I could. My leg struck his knee, which buckled, and he slipped a few rungs. I didn’t wait to see what he would do next but scrambled clumsily to the rope ladder that hung at the far corner of the net. Marcy had to have gone up it.

I reached the rope and clambered up quickly, ignoring the movement of the net below me. The rope became a ladder which ended at a wooden walkway.  My daughter was at the far end.

“Marcy!” She turned and waved, but as her face lit into a smile, she suddenly dropped from view, the echo of her scream the only sign that she’d been there at all.

“Marcy!” I shouted her name then felt the ladder tighten as someone stepped onto the rungs below me.  Without thinking, I took my shoe off and threw it as hard as I could. Below me, cursing.

“Stay away, devil!” I shrieked. Blood was still pouring from my nose. I scrabbled onto the wooden boardwalk and tried to run to where I’d last seen Marcy. The floor was solid but moved under me, like a suspension bridge. I held onto a metal railing to keep my balance as I swayed back and forth wildly. I slipped once and hung from the railing, prevented from falling by thick netting attached to the rails. As I reached the the spot where Marcy disappeared, I turned and saw the vampire’s head rising above the ladder from which I’d come. I took my other shoe off and chucked it hard, striking him in the nose. He fell back with an angry cry, and I searched for a way out of this hellhole.

As I was searching for an exit, the floor dropped away from me, and I fell screaming into a deep pool of black plastic balls. What fresh hell was this?

I saw movement and Marcy’s brown ponytail bobbing up and down as she swam across the pool. “Marcy!”

She crossed the length of the pool easily, and I followed in stops and starts, my breathing erratic and choppy.  I just wanted her to wait for me. My nose throbbed. The floor beneath my bare feet was cold and rocky.   I was desperate to get out of this place.

Marcy reached the end of the pool and climbed out. As she pulled herself onto a cement walkway, two men and a woman in black shirts and black pants appeared. One of them had an ice pack to the side of his face, while another had my shoes in his hand. Oh God. Marcy was talking animatedly and pointing towards me. As I approached, she turned in my direction.

“Mama, did you throw your shoes? Why is your nose bleeding?”

I climbed onto the first rung of the ladder and tried to slow my breathing. Had I done that? I felt my bare feet on the rungs as I ascended. “Yes, I guess I did.” I tried to remember why my nose was bleeding.

“This man says you hit him, Mama. Did you hit him?”  I blinked. Did I hit someone? I remember the terror of the dark. And the panic of watching Marcy disappear. She screamed, and I reacted.

The woman in black spoke.  “Ma’am, two of our staff members say that you assaulted them.  They do not want to press charges, but we are going to ask you to leave the park.”

Marcy stared at me, mouth agape. I dropped my eyes and felt my face grow hot. I looked up at the woman and held my hands out. There were streaks of blood on my fingers. “I’m sorry about this. I lost my head in there.”

I put my shoes on, and the two men escorted us away from the House of Horrors, past the other rides and games and out to the parking lot. Marcy was silent until we sat down in our car. “Next time, I’ll let Dad take me.”

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