Killer Amusement

The autumn leaves crunched under Jeremiah’s boot as he trekked through the dense forest. He was focusing on a rundown map that his grandfather had left behind when he died a few years ago. As he made an abrupt stop, one of his other companions ran straight into his back, making him jolt a bit. Annie huffed as she took a step back, crossing her arms in frustration, “Jeremiah, you can’t just stop like that.”

“Sorry,” he frowned, turning back to look at her, along with the other two companions they were with. “This map is hanging by a thread. I can barely tell what’s North or South.”

Greg rolled his eyes and stepped in front of Annie to look down at the worn map with holes, smudges, and who knew what else. “Are we sure it’s even still out here? It’s been burnt down for what, 75 years?”

“It has to be.” Jeremiah groaned, looking around the colorful forest for any sign of direction. “He said that no one has touched this amusement park since the accident.”

Heidi chimed in meekly, biting her lower lip as she pushed up her black rimmed glasses, “What if it’s for a reason?”

“I doubt it. The only reason the county never rebuilt is because it was way too expensive to put the money back into it. So, they let it rot, closed off the only road to it, and now the forest has completely taken over.”

“Yeah, but… What if there’s more to the story?”

Greg snickered at the girl as he wrapped a firm arm around her shoulders. “Are you talking about all those horror stories about people going out there and never coming back?”

“Well, yeah.” Heidi shrugged off his arm as she took a step away from him. “At least 15 people have gone missing in these woods since Henny’s Amusement Park was destroyed.”

Annie shook her head, crossing her denim-clad arms in front of her chest. “I’m sure they were all coincidental. The forest spans more than just the old amusement park. It’s easy getting lost in here…” She turned to look at Jeremiah. “Like we are now.”

Jeremiah groaned and held up the map, “We are not lost, just a bit turned around.”

“Right. As the daylight quickly vanishes from the sky.”

“We have at least 3 more hours before sundown.” Jeremiah turned on his heels and started walking in a new direction. “We’ll find it before then and set up camp. Maybe even have some time to explore before it’s too dark.”

Begrudgingly, the other three followed Jeremiah, hoping that whatever awaited them wasn’t being stuck in the woods after sundown in the freezing cold.

***

After another hour of trudging through the suffocating overgrowth, a massive, skeletal structure loomed out of the fog. It was a giant, rusted oval, resembling a painter’s palette, tilted at a crooked, unnatural angle as if the earth were trying to swallow it.

Most of the vibrant yellow and white paint had long since flaked away like dead skin, leaving behind a scab of oxidized iron. Across the center, the words, HENNY’S AMUSEMENT PARK, were fashioned in jagged, red metal channel letters. The large bulbs that once made them glow were shattered. The glass shards, hanging like jagged teeth from the sockets.

Bolted to the side was the most unsettling part: a massive, three-dimensional fiberglass egg, cracked jaggedly down the middle. Bursting from the shell was Henny herself. Her painted eyes were wide and vacant, and one of her gloved wings was frozen in a stiff, welcoming wave. A greeting that, after seventy-five years of rot, looked more like a warning to stay away.

Annie was the first to speak up, as they made their way to the entrance and the dilapidated sign, “Ugh, Henny always gave me the creeps. My grandmother used to have a plush doll of her, and whenever I had to stay over, it just stared at me with those big, soulless black eyes.”

Greg grimaced as he peered up at the sign, tilting his head a bit to really scrutinize its appearance. “She’s definitely not a looker, that’s for sure. Can’t believe kids used to enjoy these creepy looking mascots back in the day.”

“Just more trauma from their period. No wonder they were so screwed up.”

Jeremiah grinned as he made his way through the broken-down and oxidized turnstile gates, ignoring Greg and Annie’s discussion of Henny. “See, I knew we could find it. Come on, let’s look around before we need to set up camp.”

Heidi stopped short of the entrance, looking around nervously as she held herself. “I don’t want to go in there.”

Greg folded his arms, flapping them up and down, “What’re you a chicken? Just like Henny here?”

“Shut up, Greg!” Heidi grumbled as she continued to look at the desolate park entrance. “This place gives me weird vibes. And I really think we should leave.”

“It’ll be okay,” Annie said with a sigh, wrapping a comforting arm around Heidi. “And we couldn’t possibly head back now. It’ll be dark, and we’ll be caught deep in the woods. At least here we can build a fire, and camp out until daylight.”

“Honestly, I think I’ll take my chances out in the woods right about now.”

Jeremiah called out, leaning against a ragged wooden cutout of Henny near a ticket booth. “Don’t be silly. What can happen out here? Except maybe tetanus and some mosquito bites.”

“Fine,” Heidi mumbled as she made her way inside with Annie guiding her into the old amusement park.

Greg checked his watch, looking around the area, “Seems we still have about an hour and a half of daylight. Should we explore a bit?”

Jeremiah nodded and said, “We've made it this far, might as well check out the place that’s been hidden away. Maybe we can find some old timey stuff.”

***

For the next hour, the group of four explored the old amusement stuck in time. A few attractions were visibly charred from the fire that had claimed them 75 years ago. But those that were still standing; were rotting away and covered in thick foliage and vines. While they explored, Jeremiah found a rusted token that had a cartoon Henny on the front, and a scuffed out, ‘One Ride,’ on the back. He pocketed the coin before catching up with his friends, just in time to find the two ladies telling Greg to get down from the lift of the wooden coaster, The Clucking Coaster.

As Greg huffed and climbed, the wood groaned with a sound like dry bones snapping. Every time he shifted his weight, a shower of rotted splinters and 75-year-old soot drifted down onto the others like black snow. Jeremiah grimaced, taking a step back from the contraption. He decided to chime in with the two women, hoping Greg would at least listen to him, “Come on, dude. Get down from there. That thing is 75 years old and probably structurally unsafe.”

Greg huffed as he made an action pose on top of the first peak of the coaster. “Aww, come on! This is a once in a lifetime type of thing. Let me have this!”

“Well, if you die, it’s not on us.”

“If I die, tell them it was the most epic death you’ve ever seen.” Greg gave a shit eating grin.

Annie shook her head, peering at the sky as the pink hues started to get dimmer. “Get down, Greg. We have to start setting up camp and you’re the one with the pack.”

“Whatever,” he grumbled as he carefully made his way back down. “You all are not fun. We find an abandoned place and can’t do jack.”

“We’ll let you explore to your heart’s content in the morning, big guy. Promise. But until then, let’s find a place to get warm, and eat something.”

Heidi hitched a thumb toward a downed directional signpost, its wood splintered and gray. “If that thing is correct, it says that Henny’s Midway is back that way. I’m sure that it has a nice open space to set-up camp.”

“Good,” Annie muttered, rubbing her arms as a sudden, sharp chill swept through the clearing. “The sooner we get a fire going, the better. I feel like this place is watching us through the trees.”

They turned their backs on the skeletal coaster, unaware that high up on the lift hill where Greg had just been standing, a heavy, yellow-felted shadow stood perfectly still, watching them retreat into the heart of the park.

***

They found the center of the Midway. It was a wide, cracked concrete plaza where the Nest fountain once sprayed water. Now, it was just a bowl of dead leaves and sludge, overseen by a peeling statue of Henny.

The fire they had created was small but fierce, casting long, flickering shadows against the boarded-up “Ring Toss” and “Balloon Pop” booths. For a while, the crackle of burning wood and the smell of roasting hot dogs almost made the park feel like a regular campsite.

“See?” Greg said, leaning back against his pack. “No ghosts. No killers. Just a bunch of rusty iron.”

“Yes, Greg…” Annie rolled her eyes as she blew on her hot and crispy hot dog. “There were no threats besides some kind of plague, and asbestos.”

Heidi leaned over slightly, fidgeting a bit with the tips of her sweater. She whispered toward Annie and asked, “I kind of need to go. But I don’t want to be alone. Will you come with me?”

Annie nodded, taking a small bite of her food before setting it aside on the cheap paper plate they had brought. “Sure thing. I kind of have to go too.”

The two women stood to go to the bathroom, and Jeremiah tapped Heidi on the arm as she passed by. “Here, you two take the extra flashlight for some light.”

“Thanks,” Heidi said as she grabbed the flashlight from his hands, turning it on with a simple flick of the switch.

“We’ll be back soon,” Annie turned to glare at Greg. “And don’t you dare eat my hot dog.”

Greg winced, raising his hands in defense. “Hey, I can behave myself.”

“Right, tell that to my order of fries at Joe’s last weekend.”

Before he could retort, the two women set off to find a place to go to the bathroom. After wandering a bit out of sight of the campfire, the women decided to go behind a row of concession stands that seemed to give them good coverage. Heidi held the small flashlight firmly as the beam cut a weak path through the gloom. Some of the forest was creeping up and there was enough foliage to cover them from prying eyes. Annie nudged Heidi and said, “You go first, and I’ll keep watch. Then we can switch.”

“That sounds good,” Heidi handed over the flashlight. “Just keep talking so I know you’re still there.”

Heidi ducked under a low tree branch just behind the Cluck-In Snack Shack, so she could relieve herself. Annie looked around as she kept up her end of the bathroom break, “I’m here, Heidi. I’m right here.”

“Okay… I’m almost done!” Heidi called out.

“Okey dokey,” Annie replied, her voice steady. “You know? I was thinking, when we get back tomorrow, maybe the two of us can—”

The sentence ended abruptly with a sharp, wet thud.

Heidi froze as she finished zipping up her jeans. “Annie?”

Her blood started to run cold as she heard a faint sound in the near distance. A frantic, muffled scraping of sneakers against the dirt, followed by a heavy, rhythmic thump-thump-thump against the wooden wall of the shack. It sounded like someone was trying to scream through a thick, woolly blanket.

“Annie! Stop it! You’re scaring me!” Heidi scrambled out from behind the foliage, arriving back behind the shack.

The flashlight Annie had been holding lay on the ground, its beam shining uselessly into a pile of rotted trash. The space where Annie had been standing was empty.

A few feet away, at the edge of the forest’s brush, the branches were still swaying. A single, bright yellow feather, nearly a foot long and matted with something dark, drifted down onto the flashlight’s lens. With a nervous tremor, Heidi bent down to pick up the foreign object along with the flashlight. She scanned the feather before looking around for any sign of Annie, but it was eerily quiet.

Without a second thought, Heidi ran back to the other half of the group. She burst back into the firelight, nearly tripping into Jeremiah, her face a mask of pure terror. “She’s gone! Something took Annie!”

Jeremiah stood up instantly, his hands reaching out to steady the frantic woman before placing them in his pocket where the rusted token sat. “What do you mean ‘took her’? Did she fall?”

“No! I heard her! She was struggling,” Heidi cried out. “Something grabbed her and dragged her into the woods!”

Greg rolled his eyes, though he looked slightly uneasy. “Give me a break, Heidi. Annie’s probably just hiding around the corner to get back at me for the coaster thing. It’s a prank.”

“It wasn’t a prank, Greg! There was a... a sound. Like a bird, but wrong. And I found this!” She held out the yellow feather toward the firelight, but Greg just scoffed.

“It’s probably insulation from an old ride, Heidi. Chill out.”

“I’ll go look for her,” Jeremiah said, grabbing his own light. “Heidi, you want to come with me?”

“Yeah,” Heidi set the other flashlight down, along with the feather, following Jeremiah.

“Ugh… You guys are being ridiculous. She’s messing with us,” Greg called out to them as they made their way into the park. He reluctantly got up, grabbing the discarded flashlight and tossing the yellow feather into the fire, “This is stupid.”

As Greg made his way in the other direction, he caught a glimpse of what he thought was Annie’s outfit inside the Tunnel of Love. “Annie? Annie, this isn’t funny anymore!”

Greg stomped onto the damp maintenance catwalk of the Tunnel of Love, his flashlight beam dancing over the stagnant, black water. “I see your jacket, Annie! I’m not playing!”

He leaned over the rail, reaching for the yellow shape slumped in a swan-shaped boat. The “jacket” didn’t move, but the water beneath the boat began to churn. Suddenly, a massive, felt-covered arm reached out from the dark water. A rusted poultry hook caught Greg’s belt, jerking him off his feet with a violent snap. He barely had time to gasp before he was pulled into the murky water. The last thing Greg saw was the oversized, papier-mâché head of Henny rising from the sulfurous depths, her painted eyes wide and unblinking as she dragged him into the lightless tunnel. A single, wet and distorted cluck echoed against the heart-shaped entrance, followed by a spray of red that stained the decrepit white swan boats.

Back on the Midway, Jeremiah and Heidi heard the muffled scream. “Greg?” Jeremiah shouted, his voice cracking. They sprinted toward the sound, but the layout of the park seemed to shift in the dark. They found themselves standing before the Henhouse of Mirrors.

“Maybe they’re in here,” Jeremiah panted, pushing through the plywood doors. Inside, the world became a fractured nightmare. Everywhere they turned, there were several Heidis and several Jeremiahs staring back.

“I see her!” Heidi pointed to a flicker of yellow in the glass.

“Wait!” Jeremiah stepped forward, his hand reaching for Heidi, but pressed against a mirror instead. He rounded a corner and came face-to-face with Henny herself. She was barely taller than him, but her presence seemed much larger. He swung his heavy flashlight, shattering the glass into a million pieces. But the “Henny” was a reflection. The real mascot was standing directly behind him. Before he could scream, a gloved wing slammed his head into the jagged remains of the mirror. Heidi watched in horror as Jeremiah was hauled backward through a hidden door in the wall, leaving only a smear of blood on the glass and a thousand reflections of his empty space.

Heidi didn’t look back. She ran until her lungs burned, bursting through the double doors of the Chicken Coop Theater. The doors slammed shut behind her, the ancient locks engaging with a heavy, final thud.

The stage lights flickered on. They were a dim orange, buzzing with old age. A crackling recording from the 1950s began to play over the distorted PA system: “Welcome to the show! Let’s give a warm Henny-welcome to our newest guest!”

Heidi backed away into the center aisle. She looked at the front row and felt her heart stop. Propped up in the moldy velvet seats were Annie, Greg, and Jeremiah. They were positioned like dolls, their heads tilted at that same crooked angle as the park sign.

On stage, the curtain rose. Henny stood there, bathed in a blood-red spotlight. She began a slow, rhythmic dance, crouching up and down, and flapping her wings. Then she stopped. And her poultry hook came out as she walked toward the front. The poultry hook scraped aggressively against the floorboards. Scrape. Step. Scrape. Step.

As Henny hopped off the stage with a heavy, rhythmic thud, Heidi realized there was nowhere to run. She was trapped. The record Henny danced to started to skip, repeating a single, cheery line over and over: “Have a clucking good time at Henny’s... Have a clucking good time at Henny’s...”

Henny tilted her head, watching her last “chick” with wide, soulless eyes, and raised the hook. And soon, silence fell upon Henny’s Amusement Park once more.