Welcome to the Underground Circus

Enter Here

 

Paul stared with uncertainty into the inky depths of the large hole before him. “This is it?” he asked. It was a steep slide. A steep, dark slide. A steep, dark slide that had an echo of carnival music coming from its belly. A slide that would send him plummeting to the center of the earth for all he knew. A slide accompanied by a suspicious wooden sign that had a blood red arrow pointing down with the words ENTER HERE haphazardly scrawled across it. Paul didn’t trust the sign or the slide.

“You twerps made me drive you three hours for this,” growled Paul’s older brother, Doug. Doug’s sour look was highlighted all the more under the twinkling lights hanging above them. “You’re going in that hole.”

As was normal, Doug’s words weren’t threats – they were gospel. He fully expected Paul to slide down into some freaky hole because he had driven his precious new car (Doug said new but really it was an old hunk of junk that their dad found as a fixer upper) out of the driveway.

Paul huffed, uncomfortable with the way the silence around them seemed to be listening. But that was ridiculous. There was nothing but corn and night outside the small tent. “This is your birthday gift to me, remember? My birthday means that I do what I want. And if I say we’re going back to the car then we’re going back to the car.” He sighed and shook his head. What a disappointment this trip had turned into. Maybe his brother had known it was nothing all along and drove him out here just to mess with him? “Somehow I should have known that it would be nothing but an empty hole. It’s just my luck.”

“You’re the one that wanted to come!” Doug said, raising his voice and pointing a grimy finger in Paul’s face. “Mom and Dad are going to kill me when they find out how far out of town I drove you guys. We weren’t even supposed to leave the neighborhood. You bugged me for days about this after I found that flyer and now that we’re here, you’re going to chicken out? It’s called an Underground Circus. It’s supposed to be underground.”

As if to make his point, Doug motioned to the slide and made a show of listening to the faint tinkle of music floating out of it. Paul fought hard not to roll his eyes. His big brother could be so nauseating.

He’s right though, thought Paul.

Paul and his friends, Steve and Wade, had been so excited for tonight they had already begun planning what they were going to tell their parents and where they were going to find snack money to bring. They couldn’t exactly ask for spending money for a circus their parents didn’t know about. All of them had been impatient to see the bright lights and smell the sweet scents of the circus right up until the moment they had arrived and found nothing but a decrepit farm house surrounded by acres and acres of tall corn and some stinky pigs. There were other cars, but no people. The imposing house with its chipped white paint didn’t even have its porch light on. And not one person in circus attire greeted them. Paul found it all very suspicious.

But behind the grunting and snorting of the pigs was the undeniable sound of carnival music and Paul’s excitement of this mysterious Underground Circus had ticked up again. He and his friends, with his big brother in tow, ran through a wide cornrow to a lone crimson tent wrapped in twinkle lights. The faint music was coming from behind those flaps.

Paul, Steve, Wade, and Doug stood at those canvas flaps now, weighing their options. Each one of them, with the exception of Doug, was looking for a reason to go home. Paul especially. His luck was horrible on the best of days and tempting fate by diving into an abyss on Halloween night was probably the worst idea ever.

“There could be anything at the bottom of that hole,” said Wade. His pirate’s wig shook and rattled every time he moved, becoming more and more lopsided with every slight gesture. Paul was waiting for the moment when Wade grew tired of it and chucked it. Mostly because he was tired of watching Wade fiddle with it. He had to have reset it at least fifty times that Paul had counted and their night hadn’t even begun. Wade spoke again, peeling Paul’s attention away from his ridiculous wig. “It could be a trap. We are out in the middle of nowhere.”

“Yeah,” Steve agreed, twisting his rubber mask between his long, pale fingers, “I’ve seen scary movies that start like this. I mean, it’s Halloween. Anything could happen.”

Doug let out a long, loud groan and ran his hands over his face. “Steven, you doofus, those are movies and movies are pretend. Halloween is about costumes and candy. It’s not like real monsters are waiting in the dark to snatch you up.”

The tension was thick and Paul needed to break it up.

“I bet you’d taste awful anyway,” Paul said to Steve with a grin. His brother’s confidence was beginning to rub off on him. And this had already been more fun than running through the neighborhood for a few pieces of candy.

“You’d taste awful. And my name’s not Steven, Dougie,” he added under his breath.

Paul snickered at his friend’s lame comeback and at the way his cheeks angrily flamed like a wild fire. He smirked when he realized that he had called Paul’s brother Dougie without Doug hearing it and getting angry. For Steve, that was a win. Paul was the only person who could call Doug that nickname and live to see another day. Paul smiled at his friend and nudged his shoulder with a friendly fist. Then, it dawned on him. His friends were scared. They would rather have turned away too, just like Paul. But as unnerved as he was, Paul had to admit that he was also curious. Could this really be an underground circus? He needed to know what kind of adventure awaited them at the bottom. He could never forgive himself if he let his fear turn him away. Although, his curiosity always seemed to get him and his friends into trouble. Paul’s mind raced as he debated giving in to his curious nature or saving his friends from a possible month long grounding.  

But then again, Paul thought, Dougie was there to keep him in check. And Doug wasn’t scared. And if Doug wasn’t scared then Paul reasoned that he shouldn’t be.

Paul puffed his chest out and tried to put on a brave smile. “You know, if this were a trap, we’d hear people screaming for help. Especially if it is just a hole leading to a pit,” he said to Wade who was already thinking of another reason to leave. “And if we had stayed home we’d have done nothing but walk miles for a few small candy bars before giving up and smashing abandoned pumpkins. Besides, this is my birthday gift. Dougie isn’t going to get me anything else if I turn this down.”

“Got that right.”

Paul glared at Doug and watched his two best friends shuffle their feet.

Maybe, he thought, he should lay a little guilt trip on them. Just a tiny one. “You don’t want to celebrate my birthday with me?” It was hard for Paul to keep a straight face when his friends began to groan.

For a moment, all Paul could hear were the cricket’s songs mingling with the organ music and the whooshing of the wind through the corn. A storm was brewing. Paul could smell the impending rain. Then, Steve and Wade began to talk over one another.

“No, it’s not that…”

“Your birthday isn’t even for a couple of days…”

“I just remembered I forgot to let the dog out…”

As the excuses poured from their mouths, and Paul’s disappointment in his friends grew, his brother caught his attention.

Doug smiled and cracked his knuckles. Paul knew that mischievous smile. It meant trouble was on the horizon. He started with Wade, the bigger of the two, and tiptoed up behind him. In one swift move, Doug wrapped his arms around Wade’s generous middle, hefted him into the air, and forced him down the slide and into the unknown, screaming as he went. Then he turned to Steve, his grin darkening. “All right, Steven. You have two choices: You can go down of your own free will or I can throw your skinny butt down there. Which is it?”

Paul could only laugh as Steve shook like a frightened scarecrow in his loose overalls. He never understood why his friends were so intimidated by Doug but, right now, he was grateful for it.

“Dude, it’s going to be okay,” Paul said, trying his best to give some comfort to Steve, who was going in whether he wanted to or not.

Steve held up his mask to shield himself from an encroaching Doug. “Okay, okay. I’ll go.”

Steve gave Paul a worried glance as he seated himself at the edge of the slide. He looked like a man going to the gallows. Paul knew that Steve was no doubt worried about the bugs and the creepy crawlies, probably more so than any monster his imagination could make up.

Steve muttered to himself, “I have definitely seen this in a horror movie,” before he closed his eyes and let the slide take him down.

“Great,” Doug said cheerfully, clapping his callused hands together and aiming that grin at Paul. “One left.”

Paul suddenly realized that his brother planned to lob him down there as well and since Doug hadn’t had any problems lifting a heavy Wade, Paul knew there was no point in fighting him. He not only the youngest, but the smallest as well.

He fought anyway. “Dougie, I can slide by myself!”

No matter how hard Paul kicked or flailed, his brother’s grip was too strong. Doug’s smile broadened into something that almost looked like genuine happiness as he glanced down at Paul. “Happy thirteenth, little man.”

Then he threw Paul down into the darkness.