The Funhouse

minds? It'll get us if we go in there.”
        “It's just as likely to get us if we stand here by the doors,” Amy said.
        “Right,” Buzz said. “Let's get moving.”
        “No, no, no!” Liz said, shaking her head violently.
        The flame flickered.
        Darkness.
        Amy struck another match.
        The renewed light revealed Liz crouching very low against the sealed doors, looking up at the ceiling, shivering like a cornered rabbit.
        Amy took the girl by the arm and pulled her to her feet. “Listen, kid,” Amy said gently, “Buzz and I aren't going to just stand here until that thing comes back for us. So you have to go with us now. If you stay here alone, you're finished for sure. Do you want to stay here all by yourself in the dark?”
        Liz put her hands to her eyes, wiped away the tears, droplets still glistened in her lashes, and her face was wet. “All right,” she said unhappily, “I'll go. But I'm sure as hell not going to go first.”
        “I'll lead the way,” Buzz assured her.
        “I won't go last, either,” Liz said.”
        “I'll bring up the rear,” Amy said. “You'll be safe in the middle, Liz. Now let's go.
        They fell into line and took only three cautious steps before Liz stopped and said, “My God, how did she know?”
        “How did who know what?” Amy asked impatiently.
        “How did that fortune-teller know something like this was going to happen?”
        They stood in baffled silence for a moment, and the match went out, and Amy fumbled for a long time with the next one before she finally got it burning, suddenly her hands were shaking. Liz's unanswerable question about the fortune-teller had sparked a strange feeling in Amy-a tingle along her spine, not a shiver of fear, but an unnerving quiver of deja vu. She felt that she had been in this situation before-trapped in a dark place with exactly this same horrible freak. For a few seconds that feeling was so shatteringly powerful, so overwhelming, that she felt as if she might faint, but then it passed.
        “Did Madame Zena really see into the future?” Liz asked. “That isn't possible, is it? That's too damned weird. What the hell is going on here?”
        “I don't know,” Amy said. “But we don't have time to worry about that now. First things first. We've got to find that emergency exit and get out of here.”
        Outside, the clown laughed.
        Amy, Liz, and Buzz moved deeper into the funhouse.
        
        * * *
        
        For a minute after Joey asked for a rain check on the guided tour, Conrad stood behind the boy, staring at the double exit doors, pretending to wait for the sister and her friends to come out of the funhouse.
        “What's taking them so long?” Joey asked.
        “Oh, it's the longest ride on the midway,” Conrad said quickly. He pointed to a poster that proclaimed precisely that virtue of the funhouse.
        “I saw that,” Joey said. “But it can't be this long.”
        “Twelve full minutes.”
        “They've been in there longer than that.”
        Conrad looked at his watch and frowned.
        “And why haven't any other cars come out?” Joey asked. “Weren't there cars ahead of them?”
        Conrad stepped up to the gondola channel by the exit ramp and looked down at the tracks. Faking surprise, he said, “The center drive chain isn't moving.”
        “What's that mean?” Joey asked, stepping up beside him.
        “It means the damned machinery has broken down again,” Conrad said. “It happens every once in a while. Your sister and her friends are stuck in there. I'll have to go inside and see what's wrong with the equipment.” He turned away and started around the side of the funhouse. Then he stopped and looked back as if he had forgotten Joey for a moment. “Come along, son. I might need your help.”
        The boy hesitated.
        “Come on,” Conrad said. “Let's not leave your sister sitting in the dark.”
        The boy followed him to the rear of the funhouse.
        Conrad opened the door that led to the room beneath the main floor of the structure. He went inside, felt for the light chain, pulled on it.
        Joey entered after him. “Wow!” the boy said. “I didn't realize there'd be so many machines!”
        Conrad closed and locked the door behind them. When he turned to Joey, he grinned and said, “You lying little shit. Your mother's name isn't