The Realm of Darkness

Carl Atwood prided himself for running the one and only dark ride, The Realm of Darkness at The Chapel River Fun Park. The park itself had just recently celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, making it one of the only ma and pop amusement parks still around in the south or the whole country for that matter. Carl took pride in maintaining and improving the Realm of Darkness over the years since he started working there in the summer of seventy-four in the midst of the Watergate Scandal. He had the calloused, wrinkled hands and the shriveled, grey-stubbled face sunken beneath his drooping brown eyes to prove his devotion to its maintenance. The ride itself was celebrated on many websites as one of the only gravity-powered dark rides still operating in the country other than the Devil’s Den in Pennsylvania and the Haunted House in West Virginia. Carl always took pride in telling the guests that the Realm was the fastest of the three, taking riders through two and a half stories of twists and dips through the pitch black, sounding like he was in a commercial to promote the park.

Hank Simmons, the operator of the Whimsical Wheel hated Carl, hated him far worse than he hated the July heat waves, which he hated quite a lot. He had felt this way since the summer of ‘81 when Carl captured the attention of Marilyn Stewart, Hank’s then girlfriend who was also Chapel River’s fortune teller. Now, she hardly ever talked to Hank and refused to even greet Carl. She would flit her large, fake eyelashes and run her fingers through her dyed black curls and give Carl a quick, slit-eyed glare before sauntering off, jingling as she walked past with her bright red fortune teller getup. She hated Carl because he had broken it off with her, suddenly and without adequate explanation in the fall of ‘83. Rumors began to fly by the time the next season rolled around that Carl had a family in another town which he had tried to keep on the down low. When news of this reached Marilyn’s ears she huffed,

“Well, if’n it’s true that chick better not go and get herself attached. Carl can’t commit to anything except that infernal ride. God, I hate him and I hate that damnable ride with that creepy music and its shrieks and screams.”

When the winter came on, all of the park employees would go their separate ways, seeking work in the off season. Most of the worker would seek employment in Holster, the nearest town. There were logging and construction jobs, but little else. Carl had his own mechanics shop which his brother ran while the park was in operation and had plenty of cash to throw around, and much of it he reinvested in the Realm, making sure all of the props were operating as they should and updated when they had gotten stale. Recently, Carl ordered an animatronic skeleton that would jump out of its coffin at unsuspecting riders. This would replace the faded stationary, paper mache skeleton that was one of the original props.

The summer of 2019 saw the introduction of two new employees at Chapel River, Laura Wilkinson, the new head of concessions and David Nabors who was hired to work in security. David was a tall, brown-eyed and brown-haired thirty-two-year-old from Johnsonville, about twenty miles from Holston. David had no particular skills, but Buster Loudon, the park’s owner needed someone right away in the security department, so he hired him. For his first day on the job, David kept pretty tight-lipped, not associating much with the others who would gather during the mornings and evenings in the outdoor tent behind the midway, puffing on cigarettes, swilling coffee and other things.

One night after the park had just closed, David stopped by the tent and sat down at one of the picnic tables, his face expressionless, half awake.

“Evening, you must be the new guy,” Carl greeted in a friendly, slightly croaky voice. Then he took out a flask of whiskey, which he sipped and offered up to David who shook his head in response. Carl put the flask away and sat down at the table opposite David.

“Evening,” David echoed with a small grin. “You the one that operates the haunted house?”

“Yep, I been the main conductor at the Realm of Darkness since seventy-four,” he stated proudly.

“Long time,” David said simply, his eyes opaque.

“Yep… so you are going to be new security guy in our neck of the park, I hear. Good thing, we’ve had a couple purse snatchings and some vandalism in the restrooms,” Carl said, not sure how to read this new character.

“That I am. We’ll get it took care of,” David offered plainly, but nothing more.

“Well, nice talking to you, young man. Let me know if there’s anything I can help you with. Glad to have you on board,” Carl offered, a bit put off by the man’s brevity. There was also something oddly and unsettlingly familiar about David, though Carl couldn’t put his finger on what it was or recall a time when he’d seen him before.

“Will do,” David answered, his expression still impossible to read.

Carl made his way over to his pride and joy to check on the operation of the new skeleton prop that would soon be scaring guests. He was clutching the invoice for the prop, looking it over as he walked. Hank was coming from the other direction, headed for his post at the helm at the Whimsical Wheel. James Cummings and Harold Filmore who both worked in the games area were also walking by.

“How much money you waste on that prop?” Hank remarked, drawing Carl’s attention from the paper.

“What’s it to you, Hank? I do my best to upgrade my ride when I can. Why, you could do with putting a bit of pride into your ride, yourself. The Wheel’s paint is peeling off worse than the paint on my Aunt Sally’s trailer. James and Harold overheard this and stopped to chuckle with each other.

Hank scowled and stormed off.

“Jerk…” he mumbled under his breath.

Carl shook his head and laughed some more as he reached the Realm, which stood at a dead end of the park next to the shooting gallery. Its façade was much more elaborate than the fair variety dark ride, with their air-brushed, cheap looking horror scenes. The Realm of Darkness looked more realistic with its realistic, protruding grey green bricks and three turrets, fitted with windows. The window in the center turret opened every few seconds revealing a grim reaper figure that looked out from side to side before closing the window again. Just beneath this turret, the ride’s name was displayed in dripping red letters. The cars were black and red hearses that held up to four riders. Passengers were taken up a lift hill that carried them up into the dark until the cars emerged again on the upper story to the right of the center turret. Here the riders were turned suddenly through another door, carrying them through more dark, winding passageways past the spot where Carl wanted to place his new prop, about midway through the ride. Carl wanted more animatronics in the attraction despite the fact that the riders were already subjected to a shrieking witch, walls that close in, an ax-wielding clown, pop-up graveyard ghosts, a portrait that jumps out of its frame, a gathering of werewolves, and a grim reaper that drops down from the ceiling and whirls around his scythe. Adding to his menagerie was Carl’s main compulsion. It was one of the reasons that the ride was such a huge hit: people kept coming back to see if there were any new changes, which there often were. There were usually long lines on days when the weather was nice, wrapping around past the Whimsical Wheel. This also urked Hank in light of the fact that the Ferris wheel’s popularity had definitely waned over the years.

Carl pushed open the dungeon-like double doors to the entrance and entered the dark passage, his flashlight pointing the way forward. He wanted to test the sensor on the new skeleton prop to make sure it was working properly. Even though Carl had entered the ride late at night many times, the stillness and darkness sometimes made him realize how lonely he felt in that moment. It was also a little unsettling, even to Carl, to walk past the figures in the ride, standing motionless in the darkness. He was relieved when he finally reached the spot where the hearses suddenly turn to the right to face the new coffin prop. Carl switched on the power button of the coffin and activated the test switch. The skeleton popped right out and began laughing maniacally, extending its arms as if to grab the guests, its fingertips just inches from where the guests would be riding by. Carl smiled with devilish satisfaction. That same moment, Carl heard a sound coming from somewhere behind him in the blackness. It was a very low, dull thud.

Carl turned quickly around, shining his flashlight into the murky darkness.

“Whose there?” he asked loudly. There was no answer forthcoming.

Carl began to walk back towards the entrance, the flashlight trembling slightly in his sweaty grip.

“I said, whose there? This aint funny. That you Hank?” Carl asked. He began to tell himself that it could be rats. It wouldn’t be the first time there had been rodents inside the ride. Two seasons ago, after seeing one scurry through the corridors at night, he set some traps and eventually caught one.

Carl stopped at the end of a long, winding hallway near an emergency exit, just past the gathering of werewolves and listened. The silence and the darkness would have been complete were it not for the faint buzz and red light of the emergency exit sign. This light enabled Carl to see the silhouette of a figure standing opposite him. His mind searched his memory to try and remember which out which figure he had placed there. In his horror he realized that there shouldn’t be one there. The silhouette took a step forward as Carl gasped, taking a step backwards, his eyes wide with surprise and fear. The dull noise of a gun silencer went off as the figure stepped closer to Carl who grabbed his chest, let out one loud groan and fell to the ground in a heap.

“I just took the only thing that matters to you-your own pathetic life,” the murderer whispered in the dark before fleeing the scene.

A passing security guard heard Carl’s dying groan and came running towards the Realm of Darkness. He entered the ride and found Carl lying face down, the blood pooling around his mid-section. Minutes later, the howl of police sirens awoke the staff from their trailers. One by one they stepped out of their doors drawn by the stabbing light of the police cars.

“What the hell is happening?” James asked no one in particular.

“God only knows,” Marilyn answered him after taking a puff from her cigarette. “Maybe someone finally came to collect Hank’s gambling debts. Where is that Hank, anyway?” After they were informed about what had taken place, the staff began to gather outside the Realm as the police went inside to investigate what the security guard had seen. What felt to the onlookers like an eternity later, the police emerged carrying a body bag. A collective gasp washed over the staff.

“On no, it’s Carl!” Henry Morgan, the operator of the Racer Snake Roller coaster exclaimed.

“Carl? NO!” Marilyn shouted before breaking out in tears. Laura came over and hugged her.

“But what happened?” Harold asked the police.

“Looks to be a homicide,” the officer stated curtly. He then began to ask the staff members a series of questions to ascertain their whereabouts during the time of the murder. Like Marilyn, the others suddenly realized that everyone was there except Hank.

“Where is that Hank?” James asked. The police became very curious about the missing staff member. They asked for the location of his trailer and immediately went to question him.

They found him in bed, clutching his head. Next to him was an empty bottle of whiskey. It wasn’t uncommon to find Hank this way. He had become a very heavy drinker and it wasn’t surprising that the blaring sirens hadn’t been enough of a disturbance to rouse him from his drunken slumber.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Sir, there’s been a murder. We have some questions for you.” Just then, the policeman looked at the small chair opposite the bed and saw a gun with a silencer sitting there.

“Sir, come with us to the station,” another one said.

Hank was puzzled and trembling. “But I’ve been here all night. I swear it!” he pleaded. The others watched as the car drove away.

“Oh my god!” Marilyn uttered before burying her head in her hands once again. The shock of the whole scene hovered over the staff. The night seemed still and motionless, without regard for what had taken place. The crickets rejoined their quiet symphony, soon to be joined by the cicadas.

It took some weeks, but the staff went on with the show. The Realm was closed for the remainder of the season. Hank was found guilty of first-degree murder when the bullet in Carl’s chest matched the gun in Hank’s trailer. That evidence paired with Hank and Carl’s history provided enough of a motive to prove Hank’s guilt to a jury.

By the time the next season rolled around, David was moved from his position to run the Realm of Darkness when it was re-opened. A new staff member, Larry Filmore had been hired at the end of the previous year to operate the Whimsical Wheel in Hank’s absence. One perfect summer day, nineteen-year-old Frida Rogers and her boyfriend, Colin went for a ride on the Realm of Darkness. Frida was home from college and anxious to catch up with her old flame. She perched her sunglasses on top of her tied back, blonde hair and pulled on Colin’s hand.

“Take me inside the haunted house and kiss me,” she whispered in his ear. He made an expression not unlike the cat that ate the canary and followed her to the platform where David opened the crooked entrance gates to let them board their hearse. Colin looked up at the spooky façade of the ride, his eyes landing on the grim reaper that looked back and forth menacingly.

“What’s the matter, you scared?” Frida teased.

“Well, no, but didn’t someone get shot here last season?”

“Doesn’t it make it that much scarier?” she answered with a wide grin. “Come on Colin!”

Colin got in reluctantly beside her in the hearse as David guided it towards the lift hill. The couple rode through the darkness, past the shrieking witch, the walls that close in, the pop-up cemetary ghosts and the ax-wielding clown until they came to a shaking mine shaft full of skeleton arms reaching out and the light of an oncoming train. For a moment, the hearse creaked to a sudden stop at the end of the hall, next to the emergency exit.

“Why’d we stop?” Colin asked nervously.

“Ha! Don’t be scared. This happened to me once before on this ride. I’m sure they’ll get it going again in a minute. This would be the perfect time for you to kiss me,” Frida suggested.

“Right!” Colin said, forgetting his nervousness for the moment. He closed his eyes and readied himself for the kiss but was interrupted by Frida who suddenly uttered a bloodcurdling scream.

“What is it?” he urged.

“LOOK!” she gasped, pointing off into the darkness. Colin looked in the direction she was pointing in. His mouth fell open as he gazed upon a pale figure standing under the emergency exit sign. It was the sickly visage of Carl awash with pain and astonishment. He was clutching the bloody wound in his chest.

“David killed me! He is my son! I abandoned him and his mother long ago. He came here just to kill me!” he shouted at the couple with a blood-choked voice that reverberated in the dark.

Frida screamed again, lifted up the bar of the hearse and ran off into the darkness, trailed by Colin.

“Frida, wait!”

David was shocked to see the couple emerge from the entrance of the ride. He had been trying to figure out why it had stopped operating suddenly.

“What happened?” he asked them as they ran down to the loading platform.

“There’s a man in there- a dead man. A ghost!” Frida exclaimed. She was gasping for air; Colin ran his hand down her back to try and comfort her.

After David stopped to contemplate her statement, he answered them with more than a hint of sarcasm, “Well of course there’s a ghost- there’s tons of them. It is a haunted ride.”

“No, a REAL ghost. He says that his son, David killed him. I swear it!” she shouted as she and Colin ran down the steps to exit the ride.

David looked on at the fleeing couple, flabbergasted.

“It can’t be,” he finally uttered to himself. His normally calm, unaffected mood was now shattered. He tried to reassure himself that such a thing was impossible, but it wasn’t helping him. Just as he decided to close the ride down for the night, a man and his little girl came up.

“You’re not closing it are you? The park doesn’t close for another hour.”

“It’s having, uh.. maintenance issues,” David stated.

“Oh man, are you sure? My little girl really wants to go on this ride, and we came from a long way away. Can you let us have the last ride of the night?” The man took two twenties out of his pocket and placed them in David’s hand.

“Eh, sure, but let me make sure it’s running like it should.”

David was still reticent about letting them on, but he needed the money. So, he switched on the control panel, which hummed dutifully, ready to operate again.

“Alright, Patricia, take my hand,” the man said as they boarded their hearse. After several nervous minutes, David heard another human scream uttered from somewhere deep inside the ride, the sound was clearly not one of the pre-programmed ones.

“Oh no, not again,” he mumbled nervously, his palms and forehead were pouring sweat.

“Call the police, there’s a man in there whose been shot!” the man shouted as he and his daughter emerged from the exit. The little girl’s face was awash with tears and she could not stop shrieking.

“No, no, NO!” David shouted as he turned and ran off into the night.

The police caught up with David about fifteen miles down the road and pulled him over.

“Yes, I did it,” David stated in the interrogation room. His face had taken on its formally stoic demeanor, his dark cold eyes held no regret.

“I killed Carl because he never did anything to help me or my mother- pretended like we didn’t even exist. She died of an overdose.. and I’ll bet he didn’t even know about it. He wouldn’t care even if he did. I was left with nothing, homeless and alone for the longest. I vowed to find him and get even, and I done what I set out to do. I took from him the only thing that mattered to him- his own life and that infernal ride, the Realm of Darkness!”