Shady Lake Park

OCCULT – here we have the making of pacts with the Devil, and the selling of souls, as well as witchcraft and sorcery, spells and curses.

VISCEREL – More reality based with supernatural overtones with a tendency to be “in your face” with descriptions of the horror – though not extreme as Splatterpunk.

Write a story in the "OCCULT" sub-genre - in the "VISCERAL" style - for the prompt "A night at an abandoned amusement park" Prompt posted by Starr* Rathburn

Due Aug. 15; 666 word limit; follow prompts!

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Shady Lake Park

By Indelibleink

"This is a far cry from how I remember Shady Lake."

There was no immediate reply to Robbie's comment from the other three members of the group, who all seemed to be having trouble dealing with the realization that their favorite amusement park from a decade earlier was now deserted. Robbie's wife Linda, seven months pregnant, could only stare in disbelief at the vacant midway. Bud, apparently the least convinced that the park was actually closed, went from building to building, checking each door to see if it was locked - as if the discovery of an un-locked door would offer some proof that the park was still functional. Joanie, spouse of Bud and, like Linda, quite pregnant - just over eight months now - watched her husband's exercise in futility and shook her head.

The two couples, best of friends since their high school days, had planned this event for months. With the responsibilities of parenthood lurking just over the horizon, they all agreed that one last visit to the place which held the memories of their carefree younger days would be a fitting way to say "good-bye" to freedom as they had always known it. Apparently, no one in the group had considered checking with the park ahead of time as it always had been perceived by all - at least up until now - as a permanent fixture in their lives. The tradition of the group in the past had always been to arrive at the park after 6 PM to take advantage of the deeply-reduced entrance fee, so it was getting late already. And, since it was late August and the days were becoming noticeably shorter, shadows were already looming large at the park, making an eerie environment even more unsettling.

The silence was broken when Bud finally turned the knob on a door which actually opened. "Hey you guys, check this out! This looks like a side entrance to the old wax museum." The other three ran over and joined Bud as he cautiously entered the building. Bud stumbled on something in the dark, so he reached down and grabbed a small cylindrical item. Seconds later, there was a beam of light. "Sweet...A working flashlight!" Bud slowly directed the beam around the room, finally settling on a hideous-looking wax depiction of what appeared to be a witch and warlock feasting on the body of a human fetus.

"I want to throw-up. This exhibit never was here in the past. This is in unbelievably poor taste, but just remember to remind yourselves that it's all fake." Robbie sounded like he was trying pretty hard to remind himself as he made the statement.

"Robbie, look..." Robbie turned to see Linda dragging her finger through a thick reddish substance beneath the hacked-up torso of the fetus. As Bud drew closer with the flashlight, it slipped from his nervous grasp and fell to the floor, plunging the room into total darkness. Seconds later, a blood-curdling scream came from Linda's mouth. Practically in unison, Bud and Joanie yelled, "Let's get out of here," and Robbie could hear them running towards the door. Again, a second scream from Linda, only this time her scream was abruptly cut short by some other source. Robbie yelled for his wife, but his cries were answered only with sickening silence. As he groped his way towards the area from which he had last heard his wife, he located the flashlight. With haste - coupled with an unholy apprehension toward what he was afraid he might see - Robbie turned the light on.

Again it was the earlier scene of the witch and warlock, only this time the figures were moving, and feasting on the fetus savagely ripped from the womb of a different female. Robbie shone the beam along the body of the woman, and although the face was partially covered by a burlap sack, he instantly recognized the clothing to be Linda's! Robbie felt his esophagus beginning to convulse in the rhythmic pattern that precedes regurgitation, accompanied by considerable gagging.  Despite Robbie's presence, the ghoulish couple sloppily continued their feast upon the infant corpse - with their backs to Robbie - but with the exception of an occasional satisfied grunt - nothing more.

What happened then lasted perhaps fifteen seconds. Robbie noticed a meat cleaver just to the left of the warlock, and grabbed it. Half-expecting it to be only a plastic replica, he was intensely surprised to find it a razor-sharp, legitimate weapon. With one decisive motion, Robbie brought the tool down into the back of the warlock's neck with such force that it nearly decapitated him. Just now looking up and comprehending what was happening, the witch began to scream in protest while simultaneously raising her arms in an attempt to ward off Robbie's cleaver. It was too little - too late. His first horizontal swipe caught the first two front-most inches of her neck, severing her windpipe and main artery at the same time. As she fell directly into Robbie's arms, he could feel the kicking from the now oxygen-starved unborn baby within the witch's belly. The Devil's seed! Robbie wasted little time in hacking into the mother's womb and rendering the infant lifeless from a dozen or so powerful chops.

Dazed, and beside himself with grief, Robbie staggered out into the midway, looking for any sign of someone - anyone - who might help him. Noticing a dim light coming from a building a few hundred feet away, an exhausted Robbie eventually pushed his way through the doorway and into the room.

"Surprise!" The lights turned on and, with a backdrop of revelers singing "Happy Birthday," Linda laughed and looked at her husband. "Wow! Bud and Joanie got you pretty good, didn't they? Well, they should have - they've been planning this for months. Bet you really thought that was me there, with that wax corpse wearing my clothes, huh? Joanie said the baby was kicking; she was afraid she'd go into labor before we played this gag on you! Looks like you really got into it, yourself...That fake blood on your hands almost looks real. Speaking of Bud and Joanie, they were supposed to come back from the wax museum with you. Where are they, Ronnie? Ronnie, what's the matter?"

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Words: 1051