Page 14 of Dead End

A single light flickered back on under gas pump number five, and we all froze. I felt someone grab my arm, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the man standing underneath the pumps. He wore dusty blue coveralls with the gas station logo over his breast pocket.

“Finally, someone who can explain what the fuck is going on.” Jason shoved past us, but I grabbed his sleeve in a tight grip before he could take another step.

He jerked to a stop. I knew he could have shaken me off easily. Instead, he turned his head to snarl something nasty but stopped when he noticed how the blood had drained from my face. I lifted my shaking hand past his shoulder and pointed in the direction of the man. Jason spun on his heel and instantly backed up until he was grabbing the waist of my dress, pulling me close to his side. My fingers curled in his T-shirt. I’d never been this scared.

The man was staring right at us, and the light above him started going crazy, flickering like a strobe light. It flickered off his pudgy features and sunken eyes in such a way that it seemed like his face was contorting. His paleness was stark, and the stillness of his body compared to the flickering of those deep-set eyes made me want to turn and run. But what almost made me piss my pants was the way his face changed.

Despite the light playing tricks on his face, he was staring off into space, just an ordinary guy with pale skin and blue eyes. Creepy but just a normal guy...until he wasn’t. He slowly lifted his hand and pointed right at me, his skin turning a sickly blue-gray with little spots that looked like mold. The spots started to cover his skin in patterns, like they were growing right from his pores.

“Tell me this isn’t happening.” Maddie whimpered. “Tell me it’s the drugs... I swear I’ll never drink another drop of alcohol again in my life if we get out of this.” She made a sign of a cross before saying a little prayer under her breath.

We were frozen in place, watching as his mouth opened in a silent scream, expanding wider and wider, until I thought it might come unhinged. No human mouth could possibly open that wide without the jaw snapping right off. It was looking down into a black hole. No tongue, no teeth—just darkness, like a chasm of nothing inside this man. It made my stomach churn, and my heart raced in a pattern that almost made me fear that I was about to have a heart attack. I didn’t know true terror until it stared me in the face.

It took me a moment to register that Jason kept pulling on my dress, trying to get me to move unnoticed. I stumbled backwards, tripping over my feet, because I couldn’t look away from the man. His gaze locked on mine and held. The blue irises of his eyes were now fading away into a slate gray that was glossy and empty, like a film had covered his eyes. Just as it seemed like Jason was about to pick me up himself and run, a sharp, guttural scream ripped from the man’s mouth, making me cover my ears. Then the light overhead went out completely.

“Move!” Jason yelled at me. “Fucking run, October!” He snarled in my ear, his grip on my arm bruisingly tight as he pushed me in the opposite direction.

I couldn’t stop glancing back as my feet ate up the road, watching as all the lights turned back on at once, but the man was gone. He just vanished. We kept running, harder than I’d ever run before, and my feet felt like they were about to fall off. I was seriously regretting my choice of footwear.

We rounded street corners and sprinted through empty roads. I wanted to stop and gape at every familiar building we passed, but I couldn't get the man out of my head. I needed to get away from whatever he was. I needed to be as far away from that gas station as possible before my lid flipped completely off.

The town was entirely empty, but there were a few times I thought I saw the flickering of a candle in a window or a curtain here and there flipping open, as if someone was peering out. I only had a few seconds to scan the storefronts, but I didn’t recognize any of them. It was like the layout of my town was still here, but that was the only similarity.

The farther away from the countryside we got, the more streetlights were on, and the buildings looked a little more put together. No, that wasn’t right. They weren’t streetlights—they were lamp posts. like the kind of lamp posts from the Victorian era with real fire inside.

What the fuck is going on?

By the time I called it quits, we were halfway into town and a few blocks from my aunties house. Thank God, I would be home soon, locked in my bedroom and hidden away under the covers. I didn’t think that guy was following us anymore, and I really loathed running with a deep passion. So we slowed to a brisk walk. I was barely holding on.

“Stop! I need a break!” My breath came out in hard pants as I bent at the waist to draw in a proper inhale. “Oh god, my lungs are on fire! This is why I used to fail PE every year.” I wheezed before each pant.

Peeking through the curtain of my hair, I saw Maddie lying down on the ground with her arms stretched out wide as she took shallow breaths. That girl might have been athletic as the head cheerleader, but I knew she’d rather be home, snuggled in a onesie, and eating a twinkie. That was probably why we got along so well—laziness breeds friendship.

Freddy held up Norman, muttering quietly into his twin’s ear as they took a minute, then they straightened up from their crouched position. Norman didn’t look so good, with sweat coating his forehead and his eyes unfocused. He might have been in shock.

“Well, that was quite an adventure!” Jessica announced, sounding way too chipper right now. “We’re almost to the manor. You just have to pass the Killer Clown Hotel up on the right, and it’s homebound from there!” She appeared on my arm, crawling down, and pointed to the right side of the street.

“Tell me the words ‘killer’ and ‘clown’ didn’t just come out of your mouth,” Jason muttered, trying to hide a slight tremor. His eyes were full of dread as he looked at Jessica before slowly spinning on his feet to look behind him. “Tell me you didn’t say that.”

I was terrified to look; my eyes squeezed shut for a few long heartbeats. I muttered a quick, hopeless prayer. She said the C word. This couldn’t be happening right now.

Back in the day, when the guys and I were still small and innocent, we shared our fears with each other as we sat in a circle in the attic, our old hangout spot. Back then, we’d taken a blood oath to protect one another from those fears. I remembered pricking our little fingers with one of my mom’s safety pins. I suddenly knew that I was going to have to protect Jason any second now because his greatest fear was about to get real. Jason’s fear of clowns was soul-deep, and I could see the guys glancing at him with pity in their eyes.

I took a deep breath and straightened back up with a groan. At first, I only saw Jason’s broad back, his muscles shifting under his shirt as he stood there with his fists clenched at his sides. Shit.

I looked over his shoulder and finally saw what he was looking at, and my whole body started to quake. Soft lights illuminated a building up ahead. I made eye contact with Michael as he tugged on Maddie's hand to help her off the ground, then over to Freddy, who was still holding up Norman. They wouldn’t make it far without a head start, and Norman was looking paler by the second.

“Meet us at the manor,” I told them with authority, watching their eyes flicker with anger and doubt before Freddy looked down at his brother and glanced back up with a nod. He knew Norman needed to get to the aunties so we could figure out what was happening to him. He looked deadly sick, which wasn’t normal because he seemed fine an hour ago.

“Get out of here fast, you hear me?” Michael snapped, his jawline tight. His oceanic blue eyes were filled with worry and dread. I gave him a curt nod.

The four of them went off, with Michael and Freddy keeping an eye on Norman, who looked like he was about to throw up as they dragged him down the road between them.

I crept up softly to Jason’s side once the guys and Maddie turned the corner down the block, pretending like they weren’t gawking at the blinking sign. I made my footsteps known, but he didn’t notice my approach. It didn’t even look like he was breathing as he stared straight ahead. I’d never seen his eyes that dark—the usual gunmetal gray gone. His pupils were so blown out that you could only see a blackness full of paralyzing fear. Jason was a big, tough guy, and seeing him like this made my heart sink.

I snuck my hand out, placing it over his tight fist and uncurling his fingers to slide mine through. We were being watched. I’d seen them from the corner of my eye and tried to convince myself that if I didn’t acknowledge them, they’d disappear just like the guy at the gas station. It wasn’t working.

Clowns were never my personal enemies. My fear involved being left alone or getting stuck in small places, but I supposed I could make an exception and add clowns to my schedule for the night. The two-story building looked like any regular Motel 6 you’d find off the highway, and I firmly remembered passing it on our way out of town to the carnival. But this wasn’t Sunset Hollow’s Motel 6. There was nothing normal about this place.

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