Best Friends, Remember?

The Death Park

Jared was still looking at Genevieve. She shed a tear, which smoothly came down on her cheek. He stood up and came to the shelf with vine plates. He took one and put it into the adapter. Suddenly, Put Your Head On My Shoulder by Paul Anka streamed from the machine. Genevieve rose her head to see Jared looking at her. He took her hand and helped her to stand. He wiped down tears from her cheeks and started to dance to the music. They were dancing slowly, listening into every chord coming out from the adapter. In the middle of the song, Jared reminded himself something important.

“Oh, I almost forgot. I have something for you”

“What it is?” she asked intrigued.

“This is a surprise. Come with me”

He took her hand and went upstairs with her. They went to the bedroom and he opened the first chest of drawers.

“Here you go” he said, passing a pack to Genevieve; “I’ll leave you alone, and when you’re ready, join me. I’ll be waiting downstairs”

“Okay” she responded, smiling, so thrilled and excited. She ripped the paper off the package and saw an amazing indigo dress, sparkling with loads of silver zirconias. She put it on and checked herself in the mirror. She also took the rubber of her hair and let it go down. She smiled at herself, but modestly. She never thought about herself as a pretty. But now, thanks to Jared, she had the opportunity to feel so.

Suddenly, when she was about to leave the room and go downstairs to join Jared, she saw something shiny in the corner. In Jared’s bag. She leant to check what was that and what she saw made her really upset…

Jared was sitting on a couch, nervous about the upcoming evening with Genevieve. He heard some steps from the stairs and stood up. He saw Genevieve, in that navy blue dress, sparkling with silver zirconias. But her face didn’t match the circumstances at all…

“Wow, Genevieve… you look…” he started, but then saw her face; “Genevieve? What’s wrong?” he asked, panicked.

“Why do you have this in your bag?” she asked, showing Jared’s gun, which she was holding by a cloth.

Jared panicked and rose his hands.

“I can explain that…” he said.

“Oh, yeah?…” she started to cry.

“That’s not what you think…” he shook his head.

“Isn’t it? Weren’t you trying to kill me? How could I be so stupid?… This whole story about Stan…” she was still crying.

Jared stepped closer and tried to grab Genevieve’s arms and calm her down.

“Gen, listen…”

“No!” she jumped; “no… I really trusted you. I…” then she looked behind her arm and threw the gun on the floor. She ran away from the Mist Hill.

“Genevieve!” shouted Jared and immediately started to chase her.

There was insane darkness outside. Luckily, the moon was shining in the sky, so a pure white light lit Mist.

“Genevieve! Genevieve! Wait!” shouted Jared.

They were running so fast, Jared was still trying to chase Genevieve down. He saw her passing the wheat field by and she disappeared behind the corner. Behind some old, abandoned building.

She hid. She turned and leant against the wall. Jared was calling her by her name, but she was too afraid to answer.

“Genevieve! Come back!” he begged, almost crying. He tried to convinced Genevieve to what he was telling her. He was shouting to make sure she heard him; “that’s really not how it looks…. This gun belonged to my father… I took this just in case, for safety. I… didn’t want you to know, not to make a weird situation happen. Like this…” he said sadly, so Genevieve looked from behind the wall at him. She came out slowly, so Jared smiled shyly.

“Is this true?” she asked, but she knew what the answer was going to sound like.

“Absolutely” responded Jared; “please, forgive this incident. Let’s just forget about this, okay?” he begged with hope, coming closer towards Genevieve. She was still far away for about twenty metres.

“I’m sorry” apologised Genevieve and started walking towards Jared.

“I’m sorry too” repeated Jared and calmed himself down. But then he saw someone behind Genevieve’s back.

“Genevieve, look out!” he warned her, but it was too late. Genevieve got punched in head and fell on the ground.

“No!”

He saw a person, in black hood, who walked towards him, pointing something shiny at his face.

“Get down!” commended the stranger.

“None of this” responded Jared, shaking his head.

“I said: GET DOWN!” he repeated. Jared stubbornly was standing still, not making any move.

“Okay, fine” said the stranger and Jared got punched in head by some other guy. He fell on the ground too and his sight became blurred. He could barely keep his eyelids open. The last thing he saw was Genevieve, lying twenty metres away. He put his hand towards him and whispered: “Genevieve…”

Suddenly, everything became dark and silent.

Genevieve regained consciousness. She smelt hay in the air. She slowly opened her eyes to finally see a cluttered room – with lots of papers, files, which were placed on a desk. There were also some cardboard boxes, situated one on another, reminding a low tower. In the corner, Genevieve saw two hula-hoops – a pink and an aquamarine one – and in an addition, there were some confetti pieces spotted not regularly on the floor.

“Where the hell am I?” thought Genevieve, massaging the back of her head. She frowned her eyebrows and rubbed her eyelids. When she opened them again, she looked at the door which had a very small glass. Unfortunately, it was too small and too rough, so she couldn’t notice anything, that was on the other side of it. She put her head closer to the glass and put her hands on it, but still, nothing could be seen.

Genevieve was walking around the room, biting her nail, to finally come up with something. Suddenly, she stepped in the middle of the room and sighed. Then, she took a look at the boxes and came closer to them. She took the one on the top and opened it. It was full of polystyrene. Genevieve felt disappointed, but she didn’t give up. She pulled the first box away and opened the second one. It was also full of the same material, but this time – in a pink colour.

“The last one…” thought Genevieve and with eyes closed, she opened the third box. When she had opened her eyes, she only saw another part of polystyrene – a blue one.

“Damn it!” she cursed and threw the third box away. She kicked the rest of the boxes – they were very light, so they flew to the corner of the room. By doing this, Genevieve has noticed something. The boxes were covering a baseball bat. Genevieve quickly sat next to it and then took it.

“Okay, it’s okay. At least, you have a weapon” she cheered herself up in her mind.

She sat straight and tried to think logically. She had no idea, where she was. She had no idea, where Jared was. She had no idea, what the time was and the most frustrating thing she didn’t know was – who kidn*pped them and why. Genevieve tried to breath deeply and not go mad. It was very hard, but she had no choice – she had to stay sober, keep her mind clear and eyes and ear open.

She was sitting, leaning against the wall, trying to figure something out. Make a plan. Or at least a move. Not longer later, when she had thought about calling help, she reprimanded herself for such an idea. If she started to shout, some stranger or thread could hear her and she would make serious trouble.

“No, I can’t do that” she whispered underneath her breath.

Suddenly, she literally jumped on her place, when something hit the door. It was someone’s knocking.

“Genevieve?!”

She has recognised the voice.

“Jared!” she shouted happily and ran to the door; “please, help me!” she begged.

“Okay, move!” he shouted, so Genevieve ran to the second corner of the room. Then, a gunshot could be heard and the lock exploded. Jared kicked the door and saw Genevieve. When they saw each other, they ran to each other and hugged warmly.

“Oh my God…” cried Genevieve in Jared’s eyes.

“Sh… it’s okay… it’s okay… I’m here, Genevieve…” Jared tried to calm her down; “we’re together again, everything is going to be okay…”

She nodded silently and shook her head in agreement. Jared stroked her hair and kissed her in the top of her head. That was a nice, heart-warming gesture, which really made both of them feel better.

“Come on, we have to run away from this place” hurried them Jared.

“But… where are we?” asked Genevieve, but then when they had left the office, they saw a huge hall with some cloth on its walls and went into

a giant room with a cone ceiling.

“Oh… my… God…” they both said scared, when they had happened to realise, they were in a circus…

“What?” astonished Genevieve; “why would someone ever put us in such place?”

“Probably a psycho…” suggested Jared.

Genevieve nodded her head in agreement.

“I guess…”

“Come on, this door should lead us outside” said Jared, pointing his finger on a sign which said: DEATH PARK WELCOMES YOU BACK; “s**t, what an unfortunate name for a circus” he commented with disgust.

“Totally” agreed Genevieve and they both started to walk towards the exit; “wait!” suddenly shouted Genevieve.

“What?” asked Jared.

“We will need this” she said and ran back to the office. She picked the baseball bat from the floor and rose it, to show it to Jared.

“Nice” he praised her. She smiled as a response and they both continued running away.

Suddenly, the spotlight, that had lit the whole room started to glitch. It was about to unfortunately go out. As soon as Genevieve and Jared had realised that, they both went ballistic a bit.

“Oh, no…” panicked Genevieve, so Jared took her hand. Her heart jumped energetically, when she felt Jared’s warming hand.

“Come on, hurry” he commended. He wanted to make it before the light stops shining. The spotlight was making longer breaks between darkness and light. It was becoming dangerous from second to second. Suddenly, it completely went out, but they luckily happened to escape on time. It was an insane darkness all around them.

“Gen, are you still here?” whispered Jared. They could not see each other’s faces.

“Yeah, I’m here. I’m okay. And you?”

“Yeah…” he laughed; “good I took this” he said and suddenly turned

a torch on. Genevieve saw, that beside the weird and a bit serious situation they were going through, Jared did not seem to lose his good sense of dark humour. That made Genevieve cheered, even at such dangerous moment of their lives. They were in a foreign place. They were strangers. They were intruders…

“Okay, we have to get out. Right now. I saw someone walking around there…” said Jared, leading Genevieve by hand. He was holding it delicately, but strongly and certainly enough not to let her go.

“Jared, where were you? Where did they hide you?” asked Genevieve, when they were trying to find an exit from the circus.

“I woke up in a van. And it was empty, with no driver in it. Unfortunately, the keys were gone, someone had to predict that I would eventually wake up in some time” he answered; “but the good thing is, that I took that torch in case. Someone will be very mad if discovers this” he mocked. Genevieve laughed quietly in agreement.

“Okay, now where?” asked Genevieve, when they left the enormous room and entered a long corridor. There were small windows, very highly situated – just up to the ceiling, so that was not possible for a person with

a normal height to reach it. Not to mention opening it and escaping through it. Jared realised that painfully and sighed.

“If I could only reach one of these windows to make us free…” he moaned sadly.

“Hey, Jared, that’s really nothing. We will figure something out… Well, at least I hope so…” she said with a smooth tone, so Jared looked at her with sympathy. He wanted to kiss her. Even just in a cheek. But he unfortunately knew, that was not the right time for such a gesture. Even if that would make Genevieve even more chilled and calmed. “Well… maybe I can give a try?…” thought eventually Jared.

“You’re amazing” said Jared and he smoothly gave Genevieve a warm kiss in lips; “of course we will” he added, and Genevieve blushed adorably.

They were moving around the circus, trying to find the way out, but unfortunately, it was a huge challenge for both of them. There many locked doors, blind corners and empty, useless rooms full with various decorations, gymnastics items and other circus stuff. The only thing matching these things, but – luckily for Genevieve and Jared – missing, were the people being able to handle them. Circus workers. Gymnasts. Jugglers. Dancers. Clowns…

“Ugh!” commented Jared with disgust.

“What’s wrong?” asked Genevieve, intrigued.

“Nothing, I just… ugh I hate clowns. And we are in a place, which normally is literally packed with them…” moaned Jared.

Genevieve laughed.

“I know, I see, Jared. I completely understand you. I don’t like clowns too. Maybe just not as much as you” she added, laughing again. Jared smiled for this response and shook his head.

“They freak me out. What’s so funny about them? What do people see in them? Ain’t funny, but creepy and weird”

“Oh, I am terribly sorry, that you hate clowns, Jared” whispered some creepy, hard male voice, coming from the darkness.

Jared, still holding Genevieve’s hand tightly, turned around and a stream of his torch lit an empty corner of the corridor. Jared started breathing faster and shallowly, so did Genevieve.

“Who was that?!” shouted Jared, a bit frustrated, a bit scared and a bit angry.

Suddenly, the same voice could be heard from the other side of the corridor. So far away, that even the torch’s light stream was not able to reach that point.

“I am your biggest fear…” sounded the answer for Jared’s previous question.

Genevieve gave an insecure look at Jared – he was still staring at the end of the corridor, with his eyes widely open. His nostrils were moving fast, extending and shrinking in turns, and it showed Jared’s enormous worry.

“Don’t you play any sick games with us!” he threatened; “let us go!”

Then, after Jared had said those words, a creepy and dark laughter was heard, like coming from the ceiling. Jared lit the ceiling with his torch, so both Jared and Genevieve looked up. It was an air duct above their heads.

“Where the f**k are you?! What do you want from us?!” shouted Jared. He was becoming angrier and angrier because of what the mysterious man was saying to them.

“We should better get the heck out of here…” whispered frightened Genevieve, so Jared took her underarm and they both started running. That happened, because Jared heard some heavy steps coming towards them, but actually he didn’t find their source. They had to be very cautious – not to step onto the strange man.

“Come on, Genevieve” Jared hurried her.

She was breathing heavily. They could both hear fear and panic coming from their throats.

“I’m scared” she cried, because the heavy steps were getting closer and closer.

“No, no, no” Jared was trying to calm her down; “it’s okay… I’m here, I’m here… We are getting out of here as soon as possible”

But unfortunately, these words were too little to make Genevieve relaxed. Even Jared was just telling them, not to scare and worry Genevieve unnecessarily. That would only make the situation even worse than it was at that moment.

Loud steps taken on the metal ceiling sounded all around, because of the echo. Someone was following and chasing Jared and Genevieve through the air duct. They could hear each other’s moves – the dangerous man and the escaping pair of Jared and Genevieve.

“Here!” commended suddenly Jared, when he saw a small tent, with

a weak light inside it. He looked in the tent to check if it was safe in there, and then let Genevieve go and hide first. Later on, he went it and looking on the right and on the left, he zipped the tent up.

He sat next to Genevieve and turned the torch of. They were in a complete silence and darkness. Scared Genevieve cuddled up and put her hands on her knees. Suddenly, she felt Jared’s hand on her hands, so she turned her head to him. Even if she could not see him, she knew he was looking at her that moment.

“I am so lucky to have you here” confessed Genevieve; “of course, I regret that we are not in a park or a cinema…” she laughed and so did Jared; “but after all… I am grateful, that… the last person I could possibly see, talk to, kiss and just… be with… is you…”

Genevieve shed couple of tears. They were both from sadness and happiness. Suddenly, she felt Jared getting closer to her and finally their lips touched softly. They were kissing warmly. Their hearts beat hard and fast. Adrenaline that flew in their veins appeared because of the kiss and the dangerous they had been at the same time.

They were sitting in a complete darkness, until it was interrupted by the stranger, who was coming closer and closer. He was approaching, while making some weird noises, including quiet giggling.

“Where are you…?” his voice sounded from out of tent. After saying those words he chuckled creepily.

Jared covered Genevieve’s mouth gently by his hand and whispered to her ear:

“Sh… Don’t be afraid”

She moved her head – nodded – and Jared could feel that. Unfortunately, it was no possible way to see it.

“If we don’t make any move, he will leave us alone. Don’t worry” Jared continued calming Genevieve down, speaking with his soft, quiet voice, underneath his breath.

Her response came from under Jared’s hand:

“Okay…”

They were both sitting calmly, not making any move. Even a small one. Their breathing was deep, but it was cruelly hard to draw. About a minute or two later their tent got ripped by a sharp knife, getting quickly and brutally through it. It was the stranger who broke it. The material was torn apart with a terrifying sound, just between Genevieve and Jared, sitting next to each other. In a whole that had been made someone put his head through it. A clown. He had a wrinkled face, covered with white face paint. His lips and nose’s top was marked with a red lipstick. He had a ginger wig on his unbelievably big head. Jared and Genevieve both screamed and then Jared rapidly picked Genevieve from the ground and shouted:

“Run!”

They stood up and started their escape.

“Who the hell is that?!” screamed Genevieve.

“I have no idea!” responded Jared, as terrified as she was; “but I do know one thing for sure: he is a psycho clown, who is trying to kill us!”

“Yeah, I have noticed that!” scoffed Genevieve.

They turned into an another corridor.

“Wait!” commended Genevieve and rapidly stopped.

“What? What happened?”

“Faraday…”

“What?” astonished Jared; “what are you talking about?” he asked, looking at her with frowned eyebrows.

“That’s his name. That’s the clown’s name. Faraday” she responded, kneeling, looking and pointing at a poster, which was hanging on the wall.

“Okay, good you got this, but now, we kinda have to get out right now!” panicked Jared.

“Sure” she responded, getting up from her knees. Jared took her hand again and they continued running away.

They successfully left the corridor, to finally move to the outside. But unfortunately, that was not the end of their problems…

“We’re finally out” cheered Genevieve with tears in her eyes.

Jared seemed happy too, but their enthusiasm had immediately gone down, when they discovered another Death Park attraction, which they had to go through. A labyrinth.

It has been made of hay. Blocks of hay, actually, tied with some old strings. If someone fired this place up, it would burn in a nick of time.

“And that’s risky” thought Jared, when he saw the labyrinth’s construction. Without a longer hesitation, Jared led Genevieve, still holding her hand. She was following his directions. They were inseparable and that guaranteed them a success. That is what eventually happened – they left the labyrinth, without a scratch. The fresh air, without any root of hay’s smell, stroke to their heads and nostrils and filled their lungs. It was a huge relief. But there was not time for Jared and Genevieve to celebrate it. Their priority was to run away. To survive.

They went through a metal gate with a huge description above: DEATH PARK. WELCOME. Jared and Genevieve passed the gate and ran onto the road. Some random cars were coming closer, but their drivers were to afraid to give Jared and Genevieve a ride to Mist Hill. Besides, no one probably knew where was that – it was like a ghost time. People were just ignoring them. Then, Jared thought, that the only way to catch a car, is to – literally – jump on it…

“That’s hopeless!” yelled Genevieve, giving up.

“No, no, it’s not, hang on” responded Jared; then he continued under his breath, not to let Genevieve hear his words: “once, I promised myself not to hitch-hike any more…”

“We have to jump” suggested Jared.

“What?” astonished Genevieve.

“Really. That’s the only way”

“No, it’s not. We can always ask someone for a lift” she proposed.

“Bad idea” shut Jared.

“Why?” asked Genevieve; “do you have any other LEGAL idea”

When she stretched the word LEGAL, Jared looked at the road and after

a moment of silence, he responded:

“You’re right”

Genevieve looked insecurely at him.

“You mean that?” she asked.

“Yeah… absolutely…”

For the first time in Jared’s life, he chose a safer way of rescuing himself or anybody. His memories from the past, which he barely wanted to share, even with Genevieve, suddenly went through his head and shook him. They said: “Do something you won’t regret. At least once” He followed that inner voice and that turned into a wise decision. Jared and Genevieve asked some green Volkswagen driver and he happened to be so nice, to give them the closest drive to their destination. He didn’t even ask unnecessary questions and didn’t demand to return the money. That moment – they had no money at all. Everything they had, they had left in Mist Hill.

While driving, Alan – the driver – was trying to run a cultural conversation with Jared and Genevieve, not make an awkward silence all the time. Genevieve let Jared answer all of them – she wasn’t quite sure if they had to hide anything. And probably did.

Genevieve turned her head to Jared. They were sitting at passengers’ seats in the back of the car. Jared looked at Genevieve too. He smiled to her, as he knew, that they were safe. At least then.

Genevieve leant her head on Jared’s arm. She didn’t want to fall asleep, though. She thought, that it would be unfair considering the fact, that Jared was also sleepy. But he happened to develop a nice conversation with Alan. She just decided to listen to Jared’s words. When she put her head on his arm, Jared smiled and put his hand on her arm. He looked straight ahead, trying to predict, what was waiting for them when they hit Mist Hill…