The Man of Wax

The Man of Wax - Katelyn Mercil (Jefferson High School, Ninth Grade)

“Today we uncovered a horrid scene revolving around Mirror Street. We are sad to announce that we found 4 dead bodies in this area, who suffered unusual deaths. One of the bodies was found coated in hard wax, name unknown. Two were found tied down to a hospital bed, a bag was placed over their faces and chests, with hot wax suffocating them. Names unknown. The fourth was found in a car with a glass shard stuck in her neck, which seems to be the cause of death. Name unknown. All seem to have severe burn scarring and signifcant blood loss. If you live in these areas, please stay alert and call authorities if anything suspicious occurs. 9:00 News signing off.” 

                                                      5 Days Earlier

“Jax slow down, we're about to go over a bridge!” I yelled. 

“Relax Kay, live a little!” 

I covered my eyes with my hands and instantly deemed that a mistake as I looked down at the sparkles and mascara that had gotten all over my fingertips. I wiped my hands off on my pants, as I felt the car suddenly jerk to a stop. 

“What happened to living a little?” James piped in from the backseat. 

Jax pumped the gas, “It’s not budging.” 

“Did you fill-up the tank before we left, like I asked?” I snarked. 

“Well…no…” 

“Well, that would be our problem.” I threw my hands up. 

“So what do we do now?” Lex, my best girl-friend from the third grade, asked.

“Now we drink!” James yelled and attempted to throw the bottle of fireball he had up to Jax when it hit the ceiling and broke all over us.

We all gasped and stared at him.

“James!” Lex hit him. 

“Oh shoot, well new plan, are there any towns nearby?” James asked, brushing glass off of his lap.

“No idea, I’ve never been all the way out here.” Jax shook his head and looked around wearily. 

We all got out and looked around for any signs or landscapes, but nothing and no one were to be seen. Suddenly, I heard a rustle and looked behind me to see a buck with only one antler and a straight line of fur cut across its neck. It stared at me like it was looking inside of me. I took a step closer, and it stomped its hoof and ran away. A strange feeling crossed my stomach that night, like I was supposed to follow it. And that is exactly what I did. I raced through the weeds, not even bothered that I might get a tick. All that mattered was that I felt some sort of connection with this deer, and I had to find out where it would lead me.

“Kay! Where are you going?” I heard Jax call, but I didn’t turn around.

After multiple trips over tree stumps and rocks, I saw what the deer was trying to show me. A small town now lay in front of me, maybe only a few buildings and a gas station. I stopped, as the deer continued to race through the city and past the only illuminated building in this small town. I heard 2 sets of feet and breaths behind me.

“You did it!” Lex said and hugged me from behind. 

“Why did you just take off? Why not warn us first? It would’ve saved us a twisted ankle.” With that, Jax stepped aside to show James who was just coming out of the woods, hobbling on one foot.

“Oh my gosh, I'm sorry James! There must be something here that we can wrap it in…” 

“No, no, I’m ok, I just need to rest a second.” James began to sit down.

“No! You can rest in the car, the quicker we go into this creepy town, the quicker we get out!” Lex exclaimed, and she wrapped James’ arm around her neck and limped with him as she sped-walked towards the town.

 Me and Jax walked behind them. 

“I think we should go in…There!” Lex pointed, as she led us towards the giant building that the deer ran by.

I felt a chill in my spine. Something told me to get in and get out.       

We walked inside the big building with the words ‘wax museum’ carved across the top,   there were exactly 30 stairs that led us to the wide doors beckoning us inside. 

“You go first!” Lex pushed me in front of her.

“Absolutely not, Jax?” I pushed him in front of all of us.

“Okay fine, but next time we play truth or dare, you all are down to two chickens.” He shrugged and walked up the stairs and pushed open the doors.

Lex, still with James over her shoulder, peaked out over my shoulder, as I was peeking over Jax’s shoulder. It was quiet and dark. Almost too quiet…

“BOO!!” Jax turned around and put his hands up in an attempt to scare us. Only I gasped.

Lex rolled her eyes, “Really, Jax?” 

James laughed.

My stomach churned, partially because of the embarrassment, but mostly because of this god-awful feeling that was rumbling with every step I took closer to the middle of this building. 

“Seriously, where are the lights in this place?” James asked, limping far behind us. 

“Oh yeah, they’re right here, I forgot to turn them on after I scared you guys. By you guys, I mean Kay.” Jax smirked as he turned on the lights.

“Oh shut up…” I was right in the middle of my comeback when our new surroundings set my rumbling to a full eruption. There were creepy waxed figures staged all around the room. It was weird, though, that all of these figures had the same expression, pain. Bloodshot eyes, upper eyelids pulled up, mouth stretched and drawn back.

Nothing about this felt right. 

“Well, that’s a little creepy…” James, still limping, said. 

“A little?” Lex asked. 

“Why are we even here?” I stopped. “Shouldn’t we be looking for a mechanic?”

“We could go find a mechanic, or… we could look around?” Jax said with a sly smile on his face. 

“Absolutely not Jax. This place is giving me the creeps.” Lex shook her head. 

“Lex c’mon! There’s no one here! What’s the worst that could happen?” 

I kept my voice low, “Getting stuck inside one of these wax figures…” No one paid attention to me, only to Jax who kept rambling on why we should continue.

Jax won. We kept exploring the building and found nothing but more and more wax figures. 

“Ok Jax, you got what you wanted, can we just go now?” Lex rolled her eyes, and James sat down on a nearby bench. 

“There’s still so much to be seen, Lex! I mean, this place is huge! I know what will make this more fun…” With that, Jax pulled out a 12oz. Bottle of fireball. 

“Didn’t I break that?” James asked.

“Right, and you know don’t even like fireball…” I started to say.

“Relax Kay, what’s a little burn? Just let us have some fun!” 

“Really? We are only here to find a mechanic so we can go home.” 

“Home? What happened to the party?” Jax popped open the bottle.

“Yes, home. I don’t want to go to that stupid party anymore, it’s probably over anyway. Now c’mon, this place is creeping me out and I just want to go home.” I took a deep breath. 

“Jeez, relax Kay. Fine. Let’s go guys.” He mocked and turned around to leave, setting the bottle on a nearby table. 

“Thank you.” I breathed out and started to leave. 

“Wait guys, where’s James?” Lex stopped. 

Perfect. Just another thing to slow us down. Where did he wander off to now?

“I don’t know, James?” Jax yelled out. 

“James!” I yelled, the wax figures seemed to shudder.

“Where could he have gone?” Lex asked. 

“Maybe he left, maybe he was too overwhelmed with you, Jax.” I stared at him. 

“Relax Kay! Jeez, we can go look outside now.” Jax started towards the first room we entered. 

We walked for a long time in silence until I saw the yellow glow from the room we first entered. I turned the corner and that’s when I saw it. A new wax figure had entered the room, standing right in front of the door. It looked exactly like James. Same black shirt, same jeans, same cowboy boots, same expression, fear. 

“Look he even has his foot up!” Lex pointed. So we were all thinking the same thing. 

“You don’t think that’s him do you…” I asked. My stomach churned. 

We stood in silence, staring at the figure. After what felt like forever, Jax turned to us. 

“Well, we're not going to find him here. C’mon let’s go.” he led the way towards the figure.

We had one problem though, the figure was right in front of the door, and we would have to move it to get out. 

“Dibs not.” Lex chimed. 

“Dibs!” Said Jax. They looked at me. 

“Seriously?” I looked at them and rolled my eyes. “You guys are a bunch of kids.” I moved towards the figure and stuck my shaking hand out. I hesitated, then tried to push it forward. My hand was engulfed in the warm sensation, the wax must not be dried yet… I pulled my hand out and it was coated in a thick, red liquid. Blood. I stared at my hand in horror. It wasn’t blood, it was just wax… This couldn’t be James, could it? I reached for the face and pulled back the waxy cheek. 

James let out an excruciating scream, muffled by the wax. 

I held a piece of James’ cheek in my hands, his teeth and muscles exposed. I pulled more, trying to get him out. 

“Stop, stop!” Lex screamed as she pulled me back. 

I kicked and kicked, reaching out my hands which are now full of skin and blood. 

“You’re hurting him!” Lex yelled more. 

I stopped for a second, tears brimming my eyes. I looked down at my hands, pieces of skin under my fingernails, blood dripping onto the floor. I looked up at James, he wasn’t screaming anymore, half of his face now exposed to the world, his eye dangling from its socket. A horrid thing to look at. 

Lex kept hold of me, and we stared at him in horror, hoping, praying for him to just be better and be standing in front of us right now, no wax, with all his skin.

After a while Lex let go and I stood still. 

“We should get going. Find a mechanic, and get out of here,” Lex whispered.

I nodded. 

We still had to get past James though.

“Jax, were there any other passages that led outside?” I turned around. “Jax?”

Jax wasn’t here anymore, I looked at Lex and Lex looked at me. 

“JAX!” She screamed. 

“Relax, relax, I’m right here. I just found something for us to defend ourselves with.” Jax was holding an axe. 

“Where did you get that axe?” I asked.

“From the lumbar dude…he was real too.” 

Me and Lex both gasped. My stomach churned more. 

“Ok, whatever is going on, we need to figure it out and get out of here. I am not getting trapped in wax.” Lex said. 

Suddenly, we heard the floor around us creak. Jax held up his axe. All three of us put our backs together in an attempt to see every direction. That didn’t work though.

A man appeared next to us, also holding an axe. He had a bag over his head, and two circles, dripped over the bag, for eyes. He disappeared just as quickly as he appeared. Jax screamed and flung to his hands and knees. The man had struck his ankles with the axe. Lex screamed and bent down to help him. 

My eyes widened in horror, it was do or die, fight or flight. And I chose flight. 

I quickly jumped towards the door, using all my strength to push James over. My hands were on his bones, the only thing that was hard enough to push. James fell over, a pool of blood quickly flooding around him. Before I ran, I looked back and for a split moment, I saw Lex get slashed and join Jax on the floor. The sight of them both stung me. They were helpless, they were going to die. And for what? It was all my fault, I wanted to go to this stupid party across town and we got stuck and ended up here. Because of me. Tears streamed into my open cuts.

 Do or die. The choice had to be made, and I chose to die. 

I raced towards Lex and Jax and helped them up, the man nowhere to be seen.

“Hurry! Hurry, we have to go!” I screamed.

“Kay you have to go, we're done here we can’t even stand up. Kay go, now.” Lex gave me a hard look.

“I can’t Lex, I can’t just leave you here, you're going to die!” 

“And so are you! Someone needs to get out of here alive!” Each word she said stung. 

I didn’t have a response, I couldn’t say no but I couldn't help them either. They couldn’t even walk, I couldn’t help them both. 

“Go, Kay.” Jax looked up at me too. 

My tears streamed faster, “I love you guys.” I said, swallowing my tears and blood.

As I stood up to run I felt a hard force slide across my neck. 

No.

I stared at the doors, only 8 feet away. 8 feet away from freedom and safety. The blood gushed quickly, I couldn’t move. 

“Kay! You need to go!” I heard Lex scream, her words echoing in my brain. 

My tears stung the fresh cut across my neck, a pool of blood swimming at my feet. I needed to go. I was dizzy, the room was spinning, and my vision went dark.

 I needed to go. I didn’t look back. I stumbled towards the door and slowly grasped the handle. My hand slipped off the hand with all the blood, but I wiped it off on my pants and swung the door open. I practically fell down the stairs, stumbling to get to the car.

“Help! Help me please!” I cried for help, “Lex, James! Help Me!” I cried for my friends who only hours before this I had walked in, and now their gone. 

I cried for James, the pain he must have felt while getting taken and us not even noticing, not even saying goodbye. I cried for Jax, the one who was supposed to go to college and play football as an all-star but was never given the chance. 

Finally, I cried for Lex. My best friend since the 3rd grade. I cried for her not only because she was the kindest, but she was the most helpful during my times of recklessness or stupidity.  

  How could this happen to her? Why? She didn’t deserve this. She was nothing but nice to people she didn’t even know. She drove random people home who were drunk at parties, she gave her lunch to people who couldn’t afford it, and she snuck out of her house to be with me when I found out my mom had passed. 

James, Jax, Lex. I would miss them. I already do. Should I go back? 

My hand grasped the car door. The shards of the glass still lingered all over. I picked up the biggest one. 

My friends were gone, this car was broken, everything seemed so gloomy, and had nothing. They were my only family left. I couldn’t do it anymore. I sat there, staring at the shard and my bloody, broken reflection in it. 

Finally, I had made up my mind. I held the glass shard up to my throat and took my last breath. I sawed, and sawed, and finally finished the cut that the man had already started.

 5 Days Later

An old woman with a white fluffy dog walked along in the woods. They both loved the woods, the oaky smell, the many sticks to chew on, and all the calming sounds of nature that whispered through their ears. The woman hummed as her dog carried sticks and twigs around.

 Suddenly, they heard a rustle in the leaves behind them, the woman turned around and the dog’s ears pricked up. They saw a deer emerge from the bushes, it was weird though, it had only one antler and an awkward tuft of light fur that was placed right across its neck. 

“Darling, come here.” The old woman grabbed her puppy as it dropped its twigs, and he started to bark. 

The deer stomped its hoove and raced away, the dog jumped out of the grandma’s arms and raced towards the deer. 

“Darling no! Come back!” She called. 

The dog barked the whole time, racing after the deer. The grandma stumbled over bushes and twigs to get to her dog. 

“Puppy! Where are you?” She called out. “Puppy!”

After almost 3 minutes of looking and yelling, she saw a fluffy tail behind a bush.

“There you are! I was so worried…” She froze.

The puppy was frozen too, as they were both staring through the car window at a girl with blood stained down her chest and a glass shard sticking out of her neck.