InsaniKey 2

I stood in darkness with my back against the wall, feeling the ground beneath my feet and trying to determine if it was okay to step forward. I don’t feel like falling into any more voids today.

“Welcome.” A deep voice greeted in the distance.

“Andy?” I stepped toward the voice.

“Wait.” A hand pressed into the center of my chest. I stopped walking. “You’ll need your hand stamped to enter.” He said. He took my wrist and turned my palm to face downward, putting something cold and wet to my wrist and pressing hard. “Cover it with your bandana, and look at it when you wish to leave.” He instructed. Another bright light flashed and my eyes blinked shut.

When I opened my eyes I saw the ride section of an amusement park from my nightmares. The carousel was made of bass and treble clefs instead of horses and painted black and white. A towering Ferris wheel stood motionless in the background painted green and purple with scrawling numbers on the sides of each cart. There were bumper cars bashing into each other driven by lanky skeletons, the teacup ride spun abnormally fast and was filled with Alice from Wonderland, grinning widely with a blood covered smock…staring right at me.

“Go on.” Andy said.

“Uh.” I began to peel back the corner of my bandana and peace out this weird place, maybe wake up in my tour bus bunk and tell the guys about this stupid dream I just had, microwave a burrito and down a shot of whisky, laugh it off.

Andy placed a hand on my wrist. “If you do that now you’ll wake up in the hotel and you’ll have to start over.” He grinned, the dim overhead lighting casting a glare upon his demeanor. “Or you could ride every ride here and move on to the next round.”

“No!” I shook my head, losing myself to anger and fear for a moment before pinching the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger. Why do I keep getting trapped in these games?

“The choice is yours.” He shrugged dismissively. “You can quit anytime you want and be just like everybody else.” His smile held a tinge of anticipating my choice before I’d made it.

He knew I would never settle for the lesser. He knew I’d never let go of airing on the side of intrigue. He knew I’d play his game, he knew he’d win; he knew I wouldn’t give in.

I sighed heavily and looked at the rides. It’s just a dream right? I’ll wake up eventually so I might as well have some fun while I’m trapped here.

“Trapped.” Andy laughed. “Like I said.” He waved a long arm toward the hole in the wall I’d come from. I glanced back to see Jinxx standing stoically at the entrance gate like a robotic statue somebody had left in standby mode. Sensing that I was looking his way, he slowly turned his head toward me and tipped his top hat. I shivered and went to the bumper cars first, grabbing a skeleton and throwing it outside of the steel gates, taking my place in the driver’s seat.

“There was an empty car.” Andy pointed from the ride operator booth.

“Let’s do this.” I glared at one of the other cars, choosing the first victim of my bumper car fiasco. When the ride started I floored the gas pedal and went nowhere, took my foot off and tried again. One of the skeletons rammed his car into mine, then another. Within the blink of an eye I was surrounded by skeletons with nowhere to go. “Fuck this.” I stood up and went to the nearest car, throwing the skeleton outside of the gates and taking his seat. I backed the car up and did a long circle outside of their little circle before ramming into each of the other cars. Just when the fun began, the ride stopped and Andy was gone. After I walked away from the cars, I looked back and noticed that the cars had begun to move on their own again.

Notes