Page 23 of Hell's Fear

“Ain’t got no choice. I’m not being stuck in here with these lunatics and the clowns,” Nando replied.

A clown popped up in front of him, and Nando jumped but didn’t let me go. When I tried to run, Nando yanked me back, and I realised I was zip-tied to him. How the hell did that happen?

“We ain’t letting you belt around like a maniac, Ali-Kat,” Nando said as he stroked my shoulder to calm me down.

“I’m not a lunatic!” I gasped and shrieked straight in his ear as a clown popped up, and I bopped it on the nose. The fucking thing bounced and sprung back up. I smashed it harder as Nando laughed.

“It won’t stay down!” I yelled, looking for a weapon.

“Because it’s inflatable!” Nando replied through his laughter.

“You’re not amusing. This isn’t funny, I want my bed!” I wailed, and Nando hugged me tightly.

“Come on, honey, let’s get you out of here,” he murmured.

“Stop giving me a wedgie!” Blaze howled from behind us as Razor encountered the inflatable next. Razor was babbling, and I saw Blaze shaking his head.

“Give me my wife and take this one,” Blaze demanded.

“Not fuckin’ likely,” Nando said and set off before Blaze could argue.

We banged into Diesel next, who had curled into a ball and held his hands over his head. Alice coaxed him up and made him carry her to distract him.

And then we discovered Booth, who ran towards us with three clowns on his tail.

This time, everyone stayed together, and we stumbled out of the maze without warning. The door swished open, and we fell through it and sighed in relief.

Diesel, Razor, and I all slumped to the floor and huddled in a clinch.

Nando broke our zip ties for us.

“I hate fuckin’ clowns,” I muttered, and Razor squeaked in agreement.

“No shit,” he replied.

“This one looks easy enough,” Tiny said, looking around. We were in a darkish room which was full of shelves with tins on. It looked like a circus storeroom. There were two cannons, several trapezes hanging from the ceiling, a spinning wheel for a knife thrower, a rack of costumes, and lots of other miscellaneous items.

“It does?” Alice asked.

“We need to find the pieces that make up that window,” Nando said, pointing at a frame with the lead remaining but the glass missing.

“We better get searching. There’s thirty minutes left. Come on, you guys can collapse once we escape here. There might still be another room,” Booth said.

Diesel, Razor, and I got to our feet and, staying well away from anything resembling a clown, we searched for the glass.

“Five minutes left,” I called when we had all but two pieces.

“Got one!” Diesel exclaimed and rushed over to slot it into place. The stained-glass image was of a big top.

“One fragment remaining, three minutes,” I cried, panicked. We had to get out of here. Who knew if the clowns would return?

“Thirty seconds!” Alice yelled.

I was just resigning myself to being locked in when Blaze ran forward and fumbled with the last piece.

“Fifteen seconds!” Alice warned.

Blaze slotted it in with five seconds left, and the door opened. We stumbled through, and it tried shutting on us but kept encountering our bodies. As soon as we were through, it slammed shut, and a second door opened.

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