House of Pain

This is in response to a challenge issued by Dharrsheena Raja Segarran , who can be found here on Vocal:

The challenge was issued in True Crime, Horror Story & Dark Poetry on Facebook:

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Dark clouds hovered and shadows of dusk ruled the landscape in the aftermath of the wake. Cars lined cobblestone streets near an Old Savannah cemetery while Spanish moss lilted overhead. Mourners disembarked their vehicles parked on the long grove of Live-Oaks, seperated by a wide median offering the last flowering of Crepe Myrtle trees.

Cammie stood next to the rented limousine waiting for aunt Ginny to get out. Her car was paled only by the one carrying Cammie's uncle, Hugh Shackleford the III. Cammie had only been in college a few days when the news came. She'd wondered why they bothered calling, since her uncle had already been a ghost to her. He and her aunt parted when she was little and she never really got to know him. She'd only come to support her aunt, who took her in after her parents were killed in a car accident. Aunt Gin-Gin was the only mother she'd known.

Her uncle Hugh had passed two weeks ago and left Ginny just enough to bury him; not because he was poor, but because he was rich and cruel. Highschool sweethearts, he and his "Gin-Gin" had gone through everything together; college, two kids, his practice... his assistant. After their son was born, Ginny had gained a lot of postnatal weight and trying to get that under control proved to be more than she could manage, at least not quickly enough for Hugh.

Cammie smiled to her aunt's driver as he came to help Ginny out. He was about Cammie's age and she'd caught him eyeing her leg at the hem of her skirt in the rearview mirror on their way over. He winked at her as he opened the door.

"Thank you, Driver." Ginny told him. "I just need a minute."

With a mock tip of his hat, he went to stand at the front end of the car until summoned.

Amber and burgundy leaves littered the cemetery as Cammie enjoyed the wind lifting her hair. She admired the dance of color in comfort, as November in Savannah only had a little bite of chill. In a moment, she heard the sound of music. Beginning faintly, it almost sounded like circus music, but she couldn't understand why she'd be hearing that at a cemetery. Focusing for a moment, the wind drowned out the music and she shrugged it off.

"Need any help Aunt Gin?" Cammie called to her aunt.

"No. I'm fine." Came the chipper response. "I'm trying to touch up my makeup before I get out."

After the divorce, Ginny had done everything to make Hugh regret his decision by losing the weight, working on herself and trying to be the best possible version of herself that she could be, but it was all for naught. She got older raising their children without his help, and his women kept getting younger. Aunt Ginny's house was always full of pain, but there were happy moments, too.

In a moment, one long slender leg clad in fine hosiery peeked out of the car and then the other as Ginny got out. She stood tall and beautiful in the waning autumn sun. Her black skirt suit with white accents clung to her curves as though painted there for effect. In her hand, she held a small, black clutch that sparkled when she moved.

As she emerged the vehicle, she took a deep breath and smiled broadly.

"Cammie, my love, I thought this day would never come!"

As they began walking up the hill toward the cemetery, Cammie stared at her aunt.

"No offense Aunt Gin-Gin, but you almost sound glad."

"Don't be ridiculous!" She replied. "Of course I'm glad."

"What?" Cammie stopped walking and looked at her aunt incredulously.

"Oh come on." she laughed at her niece. "Admit it. Mr. Perfect fucked up! Instead of having his funeral at his home in Memphis, which would have made more sense, he chose to have it here and was stupid enough to let me plan it."

"I have to say, you did a fine job with the wake." Cammie admitted, thinking about how cozy the room was in the funeral home, with the fireplace crackling and soft music playing. Hugh probably chose her aunt to handle his funeral because she'd been the responsible one over the years. Besides, his current wife would likely have had him dumped somewhere and spent all his money on herself.

"That's nothing." Ginny fluffed her silver hair with her fingers as they turned to continue walking up the hill. "That bastard never came to so much as one of you kid's events or birthdays. He just wrote a check for absurd bouncy houses, ponies, clowns, and all other manner of ridiculously expensive things; all to make me feel bad and to make himself look better to you kids. He never paid a nickel of child support."

"I'm so sorry to hear that Aunt Ginny!" Cammie exclaimed. "I never knew! How did you do it by yourself all these years?"

"Oh, Hugh liked to think he was smart, but I was smarter. I knew the old bastard wouldn't leave me anything but heartache so I saved up for this. Hell he didn't even leave the kids anything."

"Which is probably why they opted not to come." Cammie put in.

"Right!" Ginny agreed. "He was always like that; ignoring them and then acting like he wanted them. I finally decided that if he couldn't make a fulltime commitment, I wasn't going to let him ruin their lives like he ruined mine.

"You know, Cammie, court orders are marvelous things. By the time you and my two were pre-teens, he'd stopped contributing to special occasions so I saw no reason to let him be in our lives at all. Unfortunately, I had to sign an agreement to stay away from his money if he stayed away from y'all, but it was worth it. In court he told the judge he didn't know what I was so upset about; he'd paid for all the birthday parties. I was so angry I shouted that he'd better hope he outlived me or I was going to jump around with his corpse in a bouncy house at his funeral."

As they crested the hill and looked down at the cemetery in full blown regalia below, she finished.

"And by God, I am!"

Carnival effects donned the landscape. There were balloons tied to trees and statues, children lined up for face-painting done by clowns and for pony rides. A local barbecue truck offered local fare and people were eating sausage dogs and ribs. Some munched on cotton candy and chit-chatted in the setting sun while a DJ played popular music.

Cammie stood speechless looking down at the bizarre setting with a lump rising in her throat.

"Let's go have some fun, shall we?" Her aunt laughed as she started down the hill into the cemetery. Bewildered by what she saw, Cammie followed, not knowing what else to do. Swatting at a few oversized flies as she headed down the hill, Cammie marveled at how people milled around enjoying themselves as though no one had died at all. Most of the people in attendance were from Aunt Ginny's side of the family and the rest were her friends.

Making her way to the rows of folding chairs, Cammie seated herself to watch, content to remain alone and not get involved in the macabre circus. A clown offered her a bag of popcorn, but she refused, more than a little disturbed by the large fly roaming across the top of it. Apparently, it had gotten so much butter on it, it almost didn't look like a fly anymore.

Looking up then to the people assembled, Cammie's eyes fell upon her uncle's casket... open... empty!

Her gaze then drifted slowly to a tented structure. The outline resembled a mausoleum, but it was too hard to tell. Her sight moved farther over to the front of the rows of chairs, where her aunt pushed playfully at the DJ and took the microphone. The music stopped and Ginny asked everyone to be seated for the eulogy.

People quickly made their way to the seats and faced the DJ tables where Ginny stood. Once everyone was settled, she began to speak.

"We are all here to say goodbye to Hugh Shackleford the third." Cammie noticed her aunt's voice crack a little, but she recomposed herself very quickly.

"As everyone knows, Hugh was quite the humanitarian. He donated his fortune to various charities right before his death, leaving only a little money to bury him. Well..." she stressed the word to make sure people were still listening. "I couldn't let him go out like that, could I?"

Giggling, Ginny swatted at a couple of pests while delivering her oration.

"Always one to have a big party for the kids, I thought he might like one last bounce himself."

At those words, four men theatrically pulled away the tent and in it's wake stood the largest, spookiest looking bouncy house Cammie had ever seen!

The bust of a clown loomed over the entrance and to Cammie's chagrin, people got up and began lining up at the door. Her aunt took off running to get in front and yelled at everyone that she got to go first.

Cammie cast a questioning glance at the DJ, who shrugged and then loaded the song Aunt Ginny asked him to play. As the words to "Jump Around" rolled into the air, her aunt climbed into the bouncy house and started jumping up and down. As she did so, Hugh's body, still in his burial suit, popped up and down like a pop-tart inside.

Soon, one of the clowns started admitting the adults in one at a time, while the other clowns were escorting the children to pony rides and the party-like atmosphere returned. Cammie's stomach sank within her. How could Aunt Ginny be so callous?

She'd always been there to support her. She consoled her through grief, got her into college and it was tearing Cammie apart to see her so excited to bury someone. Was life not precious to anyone anymore?

The music hit the crescendo and how it started, Cammie wasn't sure but somewhere among the revelers in the bouncy house, someone screamed.

Rising to her feet, Cammie started running toward the sound. As she arrived, everything fell silent. Even the music had stopped. Low groaning drifted from inside the bouncy house.

"Aunt Gin? Are you okay?" she asked.

Nothing. Cammie wondered where the clown had gone, but was too focused on her aunt right now to care. Pulling the flap back, Cammie's stomach lurched within her! Her uncle was eating the people bouncing in the bouncy house. He turned white eyes to her, pointed teeth gnashing as he started toward her.

Slowly, Cammie began backing away. She was stopped short by something and when she turned around, the clown from before was standing there, blood dripping down his chin and a smile that bored into her psyche.

Screaming, as she ran, Cammie realized that zombies were all around her, tearing into the living. The food truck people were trying to close their doors but were quickly overtaken. The only thing keeping the zombie clown from tearing into her was her long legs, running like mad through the cemetery. Once she reached the top of the hill, she turned to look down at the carnage. The ground was soaked in crimson. Strange creatures tore into the flesh of others and some of the ones on the ground, previously bitten, rose and began lurking around for scraps of flesh for themselves.

The terror was too much for Cammie, she turned, thinking to run to the limousine, but was stopped short by the driver.

"Come with me!" He told her, taking her hand and running toward the car. He snatched open Cammie's door and hurried to get behind the wheel himself as the walking horde came toward them.

As he cranked up the car, he lowered the window between them and gunned it toward the zombies.

"Hold on!" he yelled.

As he spun the car into the first wave of them, he jumped the long median and began barreling down the road away from the carnage.

"Are you okay?" He asked after they could no longer see the zombies.

"I don't think I'll ever be okay again!" she told him.

"I know what you mean!" He said. "Listen, I need you to know... I knew your uncle."

"What?" Cammie asked incredulously.

"He was my father. He wasn't overly impressed with my mother's station in the world, but he was a good dad to me."

"It's nice to know he was good to someone. You wouldn't believe what Aunt Ginny had to say about him."

"I would believe it." He told her as he turned the car toward the back of the cemetery so they could talk. "He set your aunt up." He said as the car slowed.

Cammie's eyes crested the back seat so that she could see his face in the rearview mirror.

"Dad didn't want to die, but cancer was killing him. Being a scientist, he had no difficulty creating the zombie genome to infect people. The flies were carrying it and the food was pre-poisoned with it. It was my job to get your aunt to the funeral on time because she's late to everything." He said as the car came to a stop.

"How can that be?" Cammie asked. "How could he know she would do something like this?"

"Because she was always doing things like this. That's why he dumped her in the first place. Just because she was a good mother to you doesn't mean she wasn't a shitty person. That woman led a life you will never know about."

"Please don't talk like that about aunt Gin." She said meekly, trying not to cry.

"I hate to say it, but my orders were pretty clear when I came here and this conversation wasn't part of it. My dad was right about the women from this family: easy on the eyes, but all you think about is yourselves."

"No! Please don't think that!" Cammie exclaimed, leaning forward to try and explain herself. She didn't get the opportunity as the tinted glass rose between them and she sunk back in the seat, trying to take in all she had experienced. Quiet pressed into her ears as she sat contemplating what she should do. It seemed the driver was done with her, so she should probably try to find a way to sneak out of the cemetery. He may want to be eaten, but she didn't. Trying the door, she found it locked.

Knocking on the tinted glass, she was going to ask if he would let her out, but she then realized, she had been so self-absorbed she hadn't even asked him his name.

"I'm sorry." She said. "What is your name? Mine's Cammie."

"I know who you are." he practically growled. "My name is Alan."

"Alan, I'm sorry about Uncle Hugh's passing. I'm sure it was difficult for you. And it's true what you said. My aunt Ginny did keep us from him, so I never really got to know him. I am happy to know that he was a good father to you. You have been nothing but gracious to me and can't thank you enough. I'd be dead right now if it weren't for you."

"That is true." Came the reply. "And now the opposite is true."

As he said that, Cammie heard the doors unlock. Moaning could be heard... right before the screams.