Free Wings of Darkness: Book 1 of The Immortal Sorrows Series by Sherri A. Wingler Page A

bet it feels a lot like that.  I started falling
forward about halfway across when I felt strong hands at my waist, steadying
me.  Alex.  I turned around quickly to tell him thanks, but nobody
was there.  Alex was about ten feet away from me; there was no way he
could have moved fast enough to catch me.  Spooked, I hurried to catch up
to Gwen and Marc.
         At the end of the tunnel we stepped
through several layers of gaudy, bright plastic streamers.  They were more
annoying than scary, but it gave everyone a chance to catch their breath before
the next thing jumped out at us.  Circus music played, too long, too loud,
and too slow; it had a discordant tone running through it.  Instead of
cheerful, like at a real circus, it sounded legitimately creepy.  This
must be the Circus of Fear.
         A guide appeared, almost as if by
magic, and beckoned us on with the crook of her bloody finger.  Her
brightly colored clown outfit was covered in blood and tiny fake spiders. 
Gwen elbowed me in the side and nodded her head slightly to the left. 
Marc obviously had a problem with clowns.  No kidding, he was as pale as a
ghost himself, and visibly starting to shake.  He wet his lips nervously,
and shifted from foot to foot, like he wanted to run.  I wondered how long
it would be before he had a total freak out.
         Our creepy clown rubbed her hands
together and brought us together in a cluster, all around her.  All,
except for Marc.  He stayed as far away from the clown as he possibly
could.  I rolled my eyes at Gwen.  Catching my meaning, she
snorted.  He had to know none of this was real, right?  He was so
pale, the sprinkle of freckles across the bridge of his nose stood out like
cinnamon on a vanilla cupcake.  Sweat beaded his forehead and started to
trickle down the side of his face.  He wasn’t going to make it through the
whole attraction.
         “Welcome to the Circus of
Fear!”  Spooky clown had a properly wispy, sinister voice.  “Be
careful as you enter, for not everything is as it seems.  Feel free to
scream if you feel the need, but remember that no one can hear you, if you
do.”  Well, that was ominous, but a nice opening to the same old speech
about the cell phones.  At least she tried to add some drama.
         The clown ushered us into a huge
room laid out as a maze, only the “walls” were thin strips of metal and all of
it was painted with the same day-glow paint that was inside the rolling
barrel.  It was all extremely disorienting, and looked more like a looney
jail than anything else.  It, too, was full of stuff meant to scare the
crap out of us; and all of it glowed under black light.   Alex looked
around and smiled broadly.  “This is so cool.”  His teeth glowed blue
under the light.  I stopped myself from sniggering.
         “Yeah, it is.  Um, check out
Marc, over there,” I said, quietly.  Alex’s eyes swung towards his friend.
         “Damn.  I forgot he has a
hang-up about clowns.”  That was putting it mildly.
         Tiny clowns with bloody,
grease-paint smiles, and greedy hands reached to grab at us as we passed. 
Big aquarium tanks full of real snakes and spiders made up whole walls of
creepy-crawlies.  I cringed inside.  I was terrified of snakes and
the thought of them getting out of the aquariums was enough to make my blood
run cold.  I began to think poor Marc wasn’t as crazy as I originally
thought.
         I was more than ready to find the
exit when a giant, demon clown walked up to Gwen.  Eyes so dark that they
were nearly black, twinkled with silent laughter as he held out his closed hand
to her.  She giggled and put both her hands in her hoodie pockets.
 “Nope, no way.  Not taking whatever you’re handing out, Buddy.”
         I laughed at her.  “Aww, you
made a friend, Gwen.”  I nudged her forward.  “Take it. How bad can
it be?  Everything in here is fake.” Well, almost everything.  I