Maleficium: Duo (Devil's Playground 2)

Some had the same idea as us and broke away from the main cluster, taking off in different directions.

We were nearly to the left tunnel when a bloodied clown emerged from the end of the first, with a spiked bat in his hands causing everyone who’d gone that way to panic. He swung without a moment’s hesitation, cracking the man at the very front of the group in his head. The music was so loud the sound wasn’t audible, and the flashing blacklights made the blood spray look like neon splotches. The moment the man’s body hit the floor; all hell broke loose.

People began running into one another in their desperate attempt to get to what they considered was safety. Mel was swept away in the masses and Dion vanished from behind me. These people’s panic caused them to act without thinking, taking off down tunnels clearly not safe.

I grabbed hold of Grace and kept moving, entering the left tunnel.

“What about Mel and Dion?”

I didn’t answer her. I couldn’t worry about them right now. Mel was capable of handling herself. If Dion were with her, he’d be fine if she didn’t stand back and let him die. We didn’t have the luxury of trying to look for them. Time was never on our sides in these situations.

The sheer stupidity of the people we’d been herded in here with became our gain. As they were taken out by the clowns that were waiting, probably used to this exact reaction, we were able to swerve around the wounded and those being attacked, making it through along with a few others.

This tunnel led off to another circular entrance. Ducking through the plastic flaps to go through it, we arrived in a maze room full of fun mirrors with three other people. I’d always hated these fucking things.

Worse was being armed with a tiny ass pocketknife and going up against murderous clowns. Despite our relatively high chances of survival, the odds were not in our favor.

The lights were dimmer, flashing less frequently in here which severely limited our visibility. We kept moving, though. I did my best to ensure she stayed with me, but I also had to watch our surroundings. We weren’t in here alone. There was a clown or two easily moving through the glass maze.

I went forward a few steps and then attempted to move closer to Grace, only I stepped right into a mirror. I bounced back and reached out to touch it. The glass didn’t budge.

“What the hell?”

This was not here a minute ago. And there was no fucking way she left me. I hadn’t taken my eyes off her for more than a few seconds. Were the mirrors moving?

I felt everywhere, I’m sure leaving a trail of fingerprints. If these things moved, it wasn’t possible for me to do it without knowing what triggered them. I gnawed my lower lip and turned. So, I was back to square one---by myself not knowing where anyone was.

I took a moment to fumble with the pocket watch, engaging the sad excuse of a blade. I could not go right or left, leaving backward as my sole recourse, but this path had changed too. Searching for a new way to take, blood sprayed onto a few of the mirrors that appeared to be on the far right.

The screams that had initially carried through this room had ceased, which meant I was one of the only ones still alive. I cautiously kept moving, going as fast as I was able, keeping one hand out in front of me and the other wrapped tightly around my dismal weapon.

After I slammed into another mirror for the hundredth time, I cursed and decided it was time to switch up my tactic. I couldn’t find one specific route to take so I simply needed to go wherever the mirrors were allowing me to.

I was expecting one of the clowns to appear behind or in front of me at any second. After another while I feared I would be stuck in this fortress of mirrors for fucking ever. Was I going in circles?

I took another turn, maybe a few actually, and then spotted an opening seemingly straight ahead that resembled the one we had initially come through. I stopped and squinted, trying to determine if there was a mirror right there or an actual exit. I inched forward, moving closer and closer towards it. No other mirrors blocked my path, but I was not going to get my hopes up. It would be just my luck for some crazed psycho to appear at the last second.

Miraculously I made it out without further incident. That wasn’t any reason to celebrate, though. The next room I entered was shaped like a cylinder. The walls were a black and white geometric pattern, the shapes seemed to move as the overhead lights flashed in a variety of colors.