Toxic

About the author:

I like playing the guitar

When I was just 17 and Lora was only three my mother left me to take care of myself. I had to get a job to take care of the house and my little sister, plus all of the things we would need to survive without my mother. Working one job right after the other was not fun, but I had enough money after about two years of working four jobs to go on a trip to a old abandoned town with an amusement park. I had no idea it would lead up to the worst trip ever.

It was the night before our big trip, and I got Lora to bed and drifted off to sleep. Just as I closed my eyes the alarm went off, it read 8:03am. I was just about to take a shower when I heard Lora call my name. I smelt the bread in the toaster burning. I ran downstairs to find she had put two pieces of bread in each side of the toaster at once. She was no longer three, but she was five, and all five-year-olds want to explore what everything does. The kitchen smelt like a burning dumpster, but I was glad that she didn't get hurt. I told her to go upstairs and go in her room and that I would be up shortly.

I went upstairs and saw that she was sitting on her bed, looking at one of her books she had asked me to get when we went shopping. I asked her that next time she was hungry to tell me.

I told her to sit in her room and continue to read while I went to take a shower, and that we could go make some toast later. I got out of the shower, got dressed, and went back into Lora’s room. We both had our stomachs growling for food.

We went down and made food and then ate it. I looked at the clock and realized that it was time to drive down to the train station or we would miss our train. I grabbed a few snacks for the trip and packed each of us a lunch. Lora was so excited to go on this trip; she was asking every day last week when we would be leaving.

We went out to the car and drove down to the train station. The air had a thick layer of fog. It was chilly out and there was no sun. The sky was dull.

When we had gotten on the train, Lora yelled out loud, “Look Sammy, look at that person.”

The person was sitting near the window and staring at the kid across the train.

I told Lora it wasn’t nice to point at people and we continued to try and find a seat. When we finally did we were in the back of the train near the bathroom. It smelt worse than the burnt toast. I didn’t mind because people weren't staring at me and Lora.

We had been traveling for at least 4 hours when the train rolled to a stop. We were at our station where we were meant to get off. We had reached the old abandoned town. When we got off there were people that were there and told us we had to put on a mask. Lora struggled with hers so I helped her then put on mine. The air had a yellow tint to it and it made our hands tingle. The sky had no clouds, no wind, it was even darker than at home, the ground had broken open in different places. The ground also had green slime all over.

The tour guide said that we would have to put on a wrap that would cover our shoes from the slime, Lora was eager to start the tour and find out how the animals had changed from the chemical explosion.

When we started walking she was jumping in the puddles of slime. The tour guide asked her to stop, and she gave me a angry facial expression. I reminded her that we were lucky to be here and that we were selected to be there. There were abandoned cars everywhere, and some of the houses still had the doors open from people running to get out of the town. The slime was a dark color and it was sticking to everything. There was fog and it never went away. The trees had been stripped from all color, and the branches were burnt to a crisp. There was a squirrel on the branch, and it had neon-green eyes. He also had 14 feet.

When we finished touring the town we went to the amusement park. Lora was hesitant on walking in, and it was not like her at all because she is always wanting to go to theme parks and ride each and every one of the rides. But I understood because that place brought chills to me. I normally don’t get scared, and I never get goosebumps, but this place was different. When we went in the park the ground had grass, the grass was dark and ocean blue.

The tour guide told us that we couldn't take off the wrap on our shoes, and that the grass had been studied. It made your skin bubble up and feel like it was on fire.

Lora was now holding my hand. The tour guide told us about the rides and that most of them were never ridden because they only had the park open for an hour before the air had become poisoned and was toxic.

At this point Lora was scared and she tugged on my hand. I asked her what she needed.

She replied and said, “I have to go to the bathroom, Sammy.”

I told the tour guide and he said, “The nearest bathroom is located just down that path. We will wait right here, and when you get to the bathroom you can take off your masks. Just shut the door tight before you do.”

As we walked to the bathroom she said, “I don't like this trip. The park doesn't look normal.”

We arrived at the bathroom and took off our masks. She asked me to wait outside of the stall and I did.

We put on our masks and shoe protectors and walked out of the bathroom. As soon as I opened the door there was something horribly wrong. The grass had gotten even longer than it was to begin with.

Lora asked, “What is the point of going to a place that is so dangerous?”

I said that it was a once in a lifetime chance, and that we may not have been able to see the place if we didn’t go this one time.

We were half way from where we started, and I noticed that everything was different. Not that there were different things, but almost like the rides had moved. I didn’t worry too much or Lora might have noticed.

She was quiet for the rest of the walk, and it wasn't normal. When we were close enough to the spot where we were when we said we had to go to the bathroom, there was no one there and panic had started to set in. I thought maybe they went to go and see other things not too far away. Lora noticed they weren’t there, and she asked if they left like mother had left us two-and-a-half years ago. I was shocked she would remember and that she knew she had left us.

I told her that they were here and that maybe they just wanted to see something a little farther away, so we walked a little bit longer and they weren't there. at this point I knew that they must have forgotten about us and left to go see the town, and I knew it was true because the people that were in our group were very pushy and didn’t like staying in one place for to long, and they wanted to look at everything.

I was terrified and I didn’t know what we were going to do. I asked Lora if she wanted to see the rest of the park or if she wanted to go back to the train station. She just shrugged her shoulders and looked at me.

I didn’t want to give up this opportunity of seeing the abandoned park so just like any other person I asked if we could go and look at the other parts of the park, and she said it was fine with her.

We went to go look at the ferris wheel, and I noticed that there were a pair of clean, new shoes. I thought it was really strange and that they should have something growing on them or they would be removed from the area when everything else was.

I knew there was something wrong because when we looked at the other seat on the ferris wheel it had a bloody handprint.

I tried to walk away and make it so Lora didn’t see it, but it was too late. She was scared and she didn’t want to be there anymore. I didn’t either.

We started to walk to the entrance, and I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I thought it was the rest of the group, so I told Lora that we need to go tell them that we want to leave.

We walked near where they were and there was no one. I didn’t care if they wanted to go and see the rest of the park or not. We were going to be leaving. We were at the area I saw what I thought was the rest of the group.

We turned around and the park was different. Everything was in different places and I didn’t know where we were. Lora had started to burst out crying. I bet she was hungry and tired. I told her that we could stop and eat our snack that we were going to eat on the train. After we had eaten our trail mix we kept walking for a little while.

It was getting dark and it was almost as cold as Antarctica. We would need to find the exit soon or we might be stuck here all night.

Lora asked me if I could carry her and I did. She fell asleep in my arms.

I walked for a couple more hours and it only got colder. Each minute it was getting harder to hold her, but I still did because I didn’t want to wake her. My feet were sore and my back hurt, but I kept walking.

Just as we found the exit there was pouring rain. I was just about to end this nightmare and a clown came out of nowhere. The clown was wearing a polka-dotted shirt and pants. They had face paint that was not coming off in the rain, and the worst part about the whole thing was they were holding a giant knife in their hand.

I started to run away slowly. The ground was cold. My feet were frozen and numb. Lora woke up and asked where we were, and I said we were going back to the bathroom.

She asked why and what I was running from. I explained that when we got to a bathroom I would tell her why. I looked back and the clown was gone. We slowed to a jog, but I didn’t dare to stop until we got to the bathroom.

When we arrived she asked what that was all about, and I told her that there was a scary person trying to find us and we needed to get out, but we would have to spend the night here because there was a lock on the bathroom.

The next morning we both woke up and ate the rest of our food. I got up and was frightened instantly.

The clown had blood on the window and was putting his hand on it, and he wrote “you can’t hide forever.”

We waited for at least an hour after he left. I whispered to her that we would have to leave soon because the air was bad to breathe.

We both got up very quietly, I walked over to the door and slowly turned the door handle. When I opened it I found a very interesting surprise. All of the carnival rides were moving on their own, and there were manikins in the seats. I wanted to just run and never look back but I didn’t. Lora was white as a ghost, as if she had seen one of her nightmares come true.

I asked her if she wanted to go home now and she nodded her head yes. I said if she wanted to go home and see her kitten she would have to be brave.

We went outside and I felt a sudden urge to run. I picked up Lora and sprinted to the area where the entrance was, and sure enough, there was the clown. The park was like it originally was, but the only difference was the rides were going.

At this moment I didn’t want to go back into hiding, but I didn’t want to risk the safety of Lora and I. I started to walk towards the clown and the only way out of the park. The clown was facing the entrance and he heard us. He slowly turned his head, but his body stayed in the same spot and his head spun all the way around.

Lora was silently crying, and I covered her eyes because I was not about to give up are only way of getting out. The clown was just standing there looking like a freak with a knife. I was nearly three feet away from him and he started to mumble, not human words but just mumble.

We were going around him, two feet from escaping, and he bolted at us. We started to run, and just as we got to the entrance he changed the park so we couldn’t get out. I told Lora I was sorry, and that I don’t know what to do, so I got as small as I could.

Just as the clown was about to get us, I woke up in shock and smelt Lora burning her toast.