“Pi,” she said breathlessly, tucking a curl behind her ear as Adi released her. “Easy aspi. Get it?”
“Like . . . the number?”
“Enough chitchat!” yelled Sierra. “The clock’s ticking.” But even she was grinning.
They joined her in front of the clown face.
“There are codes on the tickets,” Adi said, flipping them over so they could see the text printed on each side.
VEKQQ CMH
RKMX
RKWWKX
Adi was quiet for a moment. Then he said, “Kis almost certainly a vowel, but we’re going to need a cipher.”
One by one, they each held a ticket beneath the scanner next to the clown’s bulging red nose. Once the scanner beeped at the fourth ticket, the doors swung open on loud, squeaky hinges, and cackling laughter filtered out, followed by an eerie voice.“Welcome to my fun house! Once you’re in, you won’t want to leave!”
Beck ran his tongue across the front of his teeth, trying to neutralize the onslaught of textures and flavors this room was conjuring. Bubble gum from the popping balloons, dirty iron from the squeaking hinges, and a medicinal tang from the clown’s uncanny laughter.
As soon as they stepped inside, the doors creaked shut behind them.
They were standing in a square room with a checkerboard floor. The walls were painted with disorienting black-and-white swirls covered over in neon graffiti. Three tall mirrors hung on one wall. On another wall stood a giant carnival wheel. The paint was dingy and cracked in places, and trash littered the floor—discarded cups, ticket stubs, even a paper food boat with a few soggy french fries still inside.
The room was so decrepit, so ominous, so authentically disturbing. Beck was smitten. Total Game Master goals.
As one, they moved forward to explore the room. And as one, they yelped and jumped back when the checkerboard floor lit up where they stepped—forest green, vivid orange, sky blue, fluorescent pink.
They glanced at each other, shrugged, and carried on. The floor tiles changed to different colors every time they stepped on them, then returned to black or white as soon as they stepped off.
“Adi, you’ve got the wheel,” said Sierra. “Carter, inspect the mirrors. Beck . . . do you mind sifting through that pile of trash?”
“I don’t mind at all,” he said, sitting cross-legged on a lit-up purple tile to paw through the junk.
“They’re fun-house mirrors,” said Carter. “The kind that distort your reflection. This one has a keypad underneath. Uh . . . looks like we need a word, five letters. And this one’s got a padlock, so we’re looking for a key, too.”
“Key, five-letter word,” repeated Sierra. “Try the letters on the ticket.V-E-K-Q-Q?”
“No go. Maybe something fun-house related,” said Carter. “Clown? Music?”
“Creepy as hell,” Adi muttered, inspecting the wheel.
Beck smirked. “Not a fan of carnivals?”
“Not a fan of clowns. God, they freak me out.” Adi shuddered. “There are three levels to this wheel. Each level is a mix of letters, blank spaces, and the occasional illustrated clown doing, I don’t know. Creepy clown things. It’s probably the cipher for those tickets if we can line them up right.” He started playing with the wheels, frowning as he aligned and realigned them.
“There’s something about this graffiti,” said Sierra. “Like maybe there’s a message hidden in it, but it’s . . . an optical illusion?”
Beck reached for the boat of old, soggy fries. Gross. He was about to chuck it into a corner when his eye caught writing under the food. He dumped out the fries to find a code underneath.
“Adi!” he said, hopping to his feet. “We’ve got the key to a pigpen cipher.’’
Adi took one look at the code and . . . scoffed.“Child’s play. I’ve had pigpen cipher memorized since I was twelve.”
Beck frowned. “Ooo-kay,” he said, returning to his pile of garbage and leaving Adi to his clown wheel.
Suddenly, the room went dark, the bright carnival lights replaced with a haunting purple-black glow. The wheel started spinning. Air blasted from random holes in the ceiling. Mad, clownish laughter echoed off the walls, tasting like gloopy hand sanitizer, followed by that kooky voice again.“You’re not ready to leave yet, are you? We’re just getting started!”
