left, met no resistance, and turned in that direction. Tanya followed, her hand tight on his shoulder.
If we had a candle, he thought, we’d be out of this thing by now.
We could’ve smashed straight through with the ax, fuck the maze.
But doing that without light would’ve been disastrous. They’d discussed it, and both agreed that they’d be cut to pieces if they tried.
This was taking forever, but at least they might get through with their skin intact. If they didn’t get jumped by more trolls.
Jeremy turned, and turned again.
And saw a glimmer of light.
“All right,” Tanya whispered.
The faint glow ahead of them turned out to be a reflection. The ax thudded the mirror. Jeremy turned, and the light was stronger.
Instead of a mirror, there was suddenly a hallway to his left. Candles on the walls. He stumbled free of the maze and took a deep breath.
“Made it,” Tanya whispered. She hugged herself against his back, then stepped around beside him.
Along the left side of the hallway were barred windows like those they’d passed in the corridor above. Jeremy saw no trolls behind the bars.
“So where the hell’s our audience?” Tanya said.
“Maybe they all cleared out. Maybe the fire scared them off.”
“I wouldn’t bet on it.”
Midway down the hall, on the right, was a door. Another door waited at the end. “What’ll we do?” Jeremy asked.
Tanya said nothing. She looked from one door to the other and frowned.
“The one at the end,” Jeremy said, nodding toward the far door. “It might be the one at the stairway.”
“If it is, you can bet they’ve got a nasty surprise waiting for us.”
“Yeah. They aren’t gonna let us just walk away from this.”
“Fuck the doors,” Tanya said. “Let’s chop our way out.”
“Yeah!”
“No more playing by their rules. We’ve got the ax, we can play the game our own way.” She took a few strides forward, turned to the right, and tapped the wall with the point of her knife. “There’s probably some kind of a room through there. All we’ve gotta do is bust in, then we can knock a hole in the wall and maybe step right out onto the boardwalk.”
“Sure hope so.”
Tanya moved aside. Jeremy raised the ax overhead and swung with all his strength. Its heavy blade bit into the wall. As he tore it loose, a thick splinter of wood split away and dropped to the floor. He put his eye to the narrow gap.
Darkness on the other side.
Stepping back, he chopped again. The entire head of the ax broke through the wall.
“It’s going to work!” he blurted.
“Damn right!”
As he struggled to free the trapped ax head, a sudden sharp tug yanked the haft from his hands.
In the instant it took him to realize what was happening, the entire length of the handle vanished into the hole.
“Oh, Jesus,” he gasped.
“We’d better get…”
They both jumped as a chunk of the wall flew at them. Jeremy glimpsed an inch of the ax blade before it withdrew.
Now they’ve got it. And they’re coming for us.
Jeremy heard maniacal laughter.
It came from him.
Tanya tugged his arm, and they ran down the hallway.
Ran until the floor dropped out from under their feet.
Then, side by side, they dropped into the black chasm of the Funhouse basement.
Forty-six
Whirling away from the three corpses in the mirror maze, Debbie hunched over and vomited. Joan rubbed her back while she heaved.
The poor kid had been through hell. And it wasn’t over yet.
The worst is over, Joan told herself. The worst had to be in that closet upstairs, alone and fighting for her life. Debbie was damn lucky to have survived. With her mind in one piece, too. A lot of people might’ve flipped out, having to deal with something like that.
She was holding up pretty well.
Losing her dinner was probably a good sign. Showed she was still in touch with reality.
“This one must’ve come down a goddamn beanstalk,” Dave said. His trembling voice sounded astonished and disgusted.
Debbie finished. She straightened up, sobbing, and wiped her mouth with the front of her sweatshirt.
“Two of them are kids,” Dave said. “One’s a girl. The other’s the guy from the fight.”
“Our fight?” Joan asked.
“The one with the ear.”
“Oh, no.”
She’d saved his ear for this. So he could get his head split open in this mad perversion of a funhouse.
Debbie turned around. She sniffed and rubbed her eyes. “That’s Cowboy,” she said. “And Liz. God!” She slapped a hand to her mouth and squeezed her eyes shut.