a writing challenge for camp nanowrimo-April 2019. General Hospital fanfic, when Ryan Chamberlain met his “death” in a carnival funhose. There are some story variations. Rated PG General Hospital belongs to ABC Network.
By Kristine Quick
“Give me your hand.”
Laurie Spencer turned and with a quick movement, slapped her child in the back of the head.
“Your hand! Now!”
“Ooow!” Christina moaned more insulted then actually hurt.
“You need to be careful, Laurie told her child. “There’s a serial killer on the loose! You think I need them grabbing you???
“I can run away from anyone,” Christina said “I’m faster than anybody”
They stepped up to the ticket booth of the funhouse and Laurie dug in her jeans for the money.
“Well, damn! I’m short $1. I guess you can’t go in.”
Christina just shook her head. Mom was always playing the weirdest jokes. Some of them were vulgar or even sexual in nature. She got the feeling that mom was not done taking shots at the serial killer.
“Hold my hand tightly. Don’t let go. He’s out there. And he’ll get you.”
Yep, mom was just getting started! Christina shook her head. “How do you know it’s not a woman?”
Laurie ignored her and continued her transaction with the attendant.
“Got to not be stupid,” was all Christina had to say
“Felicia, Feliciaaa!” A voice cried out, but it was mixed with the sounds of all the other carnival goers and barely audible.
“It’s dark in there Mom.”
They both went in together side by side their feet almost colliding with each other.
Christina pulled ahead and eventually their hands separated. God dammit, Laurie hissed
“You’re walking too slow mom! I want to go faster mom!”
Cackles of laughter from fake clowns, shrieks of horror from fake victims, made other voices immutable.
“What was that Miss Laura Spencer I didn’t quite get that!?” Christina mocked.
“I SAID THE SERIAL KILLER CATCHES YOU AND PUTS YOU IN A BAG, THEN THAT’S NOT MY FAULT!”
Christina growled deep in her throat, sometimes her mother really annoyed her, and sometimes she even frightened her.
“Excuse me! Move! Please get the hell out of my way!”
With neon lights flashing in the darkness, accompanied by the sounds of the crazy creatures inside the funhouse, Christina barely heard that too. Nothing was really wrong until someone slammed into her and knocked her to her knees.
“Yipe!” She cried out “Mom, where are you? Some piece of s*** ran into me!”
“FUCKING LANGUAGE OKAY???”
Christina shook her head and got to her feet. She found herself wishing that her grandfather had brought her to the funhouse instead, but he was off on some vacation with an Australian friend of his. She forgot the name but the man was awfully handsome, and he even took the time to teach her about the lifestyles and culture of his native homeland, Australia.
Grandpa’s voice was a bit easier to. He wasn’t into making the sick jokes that her mother was very fond of, and he treated her more like an equal, even if he did seem distant most of the time.
Sadly Christina’s mother and grandfather did not get along that well, and were rarely in each other’s company.
“There was an accident when I was a kid,” Laurie told her once. “I fell down but everybody thought it was child abuse.”
It was a simple and short story that Laurie refused to elaborate on. It wasn’t enough to satisfy Christina’s curiosity and upon further investigation she had indeed discovered that Grandpa broke her arm when she was 10.
Well, that was a long time ago, and grandpa was pretty nice to Christina.
She wandered further into the darkness of the funhouse and the shrieks and the laughter got louder, but she wasn’t afraid. Long ago she made up her mind that she wasn’t going to be afraid of anything.
It was mostly dark save for the black light illumination and the funny and frightening paintings on the walls. The corridors were thin and Christina made her way through very carefully.
Meanwhile, having been dragged outside of the funhouse Laurie was confronted by a frantic Felecia Jones.
“Help me! You have to help me!”
“What the he-” were all the came out of Laurie’s mouth as Felicia dragged her away from the funhouse.
“I need your help! Ryan Chamberlain is after me and he want’s to kill me! He’s obsessed with me! For God’s sake, he took my baby!”
Laurie sighed with annoyance. “I have a baby too!” Laurie grumbled “hey, I thought this whole thing was resolved.”
“Hardly, Laurie. It got so much worse after he killed his wife!”
***
Christina was a little shocked at first, but then shrugged; her mother often took off on a whim, seemingly forgetting about her only child. and continued her way through the funhouse.
With scary laughter and shrieks on all sides, she proceeded into the inner sanctum that was the fun house. The rooms were covered in a neon light of pink and yellow and green. A clown leered out at her from the corner, a demented grin pasted onto the face encrusted with sloppily painted makeup. It wasn’t real, but it was stupid-looking. She made faces at it.
She turned and wandered down a hallway, illuminated on both sides with long wavy tubes aglow in a dim blue color. Faint music could be heard, that kept starting and stopping. A problem with the sound system, perhaps?”
Blue changed to green, as she moved along, and green changed to orange.
Plastic zombies leaned out fast from the corners, making her jump slightly. The orange tubing lining the walls changed from orange to a deep glowing red.
“Mom!”
She turned back, looking in the direction she came from.
What did she just hear?
“Mom, is that you? If you plan on scaring me, it won’t work… mom?!”
“Let go of me Ryan! Ryan I said let go!”
Christina back down another hallway, that was not her mother, that was Felicia Jones, and she sounded like she was in trouble!
Scooting herself back into the darkness Christina watched carefully as a tall man dragged her into view.
“Mine all mine!” Felicia, we were meant to be together, and we will be together… I don’t care what it takes, do you hear me?!”
“Stop it please! You’re hurting my arm!”
Christina poked her head out a little bit more. She had to know what was going on, but then the tall man, the psycho everyone knew as Ryan Chamberlain glanced over and saw her. Even in the dim light of the funhouse, Christina could see that he gave off a very evil smile.
“Little girl, little girl. What are you doing here?”
She bolted out of her “safe” place, and began to run, as best as she could, through a darkened funhouse with winding quarters and laughing clowns, where the snakes that hung from the ceiling, and fake zombies lurking around every corner.
“Stay away from me, or I’m going to hurt you!”
“I need to talk to you little girl.”
“MY NAME IS CHRISTINA I AM NOT A LITTLE GIRL AND LEAVE ME ALONE!”
***
“God damn it. You bitch. Where the hell is my child???”
After Felicia ran from her in terror, Laurie went back to the ticket booth and made her way to the entrance.
Can’t get in without a ticket,” the attendant said.
She banged on the fiberglass window he stood behind. “Asshole, my kid is in there!”
The attendant was dumbfounded as she just strolled her way on in, but that feeling quickly gave way to confusion as a tall man and three cops showed up.
He stood there for several moments with our speaking. You need a… ” he looked at The tall man,
Then pointed to the entrance. Didn’t I see you just go in there?”
“We’re going around back,” one of the policeman said, the others nodding knowingly “block the exit make sure he can’t get out. The tall man was apprehensive, but hopeful. He turned back to the attendant
“I’m Kevin Collins, and the man you saw is my twin, Ryan… He’s psychotic. I’m asking very firmly… let me in I think I can talk to him.”
The attendant nodded hung up a closed sign in the window and allowed Kevin Collins passage into the funhouse.
**”
“I CAN DO BAD STUFF TO YOU!” Christina yelled out as she stumbled into a wall and started around another corner.
“But you’re just a child.” A lost, little child, with no place to go… you know life is full of suffering, and not even you can be spared from it… come to me, child… and I can make sure that suffering is never your fate.”
Running down another corner, she clipped another wall thant send her down onto her side, sliding across the checkerboard floor before coming to a sudden halt against a mirror.
Her arms were burning as she got to her knees, and then to her feet.
“Just go away!” Christina begged.
He laughed out loud. “You can’t escape me, child! I’m everywhere! Look all around you!”
“Is that a baby?” Christina pointed to the bundle in his arms.
He looked down at it, made cooing noises to it, then looked back at Christina. “Her mother gave her the stupidest name… Georgie! I’m going to rename her, raise her as my own, and then one day, we’ll be man and wife!”
The thought made Christina feel sick. “You can’t do that to a baby!”
***
“Christina, you fucking answer me!” Laurie howled.
Two cops pushed past her.
“Fuck off, pinhead!”
“Calm down lady, we’re the police, and we’re here to help. Please remain where you are.”
“I lost my kid!” She jerked away from the officer “I’ve really had enough of this!” Christina said and went on her way to find her child.
***
Christina was stunned. “You’re going to marry a baby???
Ryan chuckled. “Well she won’t be a baby when we get married!”
Christina stomped her foot. “You’re a bad man! You’re a very bad man!”
Ryan pulled out a knife, then. “I’m really sorry it has to be this way but you know what they say… You’ve seen too much!”
“Ahhh!” Christina cried out as her hands began to burn.
Ryan was shot, as the little girl’s hands begin to Glow White. What the hell?
“Ryan?” A voice called out from down the hall, a very familiar voice. “Ryan, I can help you! Please let me help you!”
“Bad man!” Christina said again.
Lightning bolts bloomed around her clenched fists. “And you are not going to hurt a baby! She insisted.
“What the hell??” he said as the lightning bolts shot out slamming into the mirrors.
Chaos reigned supreme as Kevin ran towards his brother and Felicia ran for her baby.
“The place is on fire! We have to get out of here now!” a police officer shouted to anyone who could hear him.
“Shit!” Christina cried out as the force of the bolts erupting from her hands knocked her onto her back.
“It’s okay, I got you, a policeman said and she grabbed her up and all of them begin to run and stumble and stagger from the funhouse as the fire took over.
“My God! YOU GET OVER HERE RIGHT NOW! Laurie shouted at her daughter, as the firemen gently set her on her feet in a safe place.
Christina was slow in coming. She looked very guilty.
“I did something,” she said pointing to the fun house. “I did something with my hands!”
For a long time now, Lori had suspected it, had anticipated it, had feared it.
While pregnant 8 years past, Laurie subjected her body to in utero experiments. She came to believe “new and improved” genetically engineered kids, would make a better future for all.
Now, Laurie was having real doubts
You didn’t use matches… ”
Christina shook her head. “It hurt,” and she began to cry.
“Shhh! Be quiet, and never tell anyone about this!” Laurie ordered her.
Yeah, okay,” she sniffed wiped at her face.
“hey, I thought of something, really cool… well I think it’s cool. I know what I want to be when I get older Mommy!”
Laurie narrowed her eyes. Her family had a somewhat dark and tainted past. Her father worked with mafia, and her aunt was a prostitute.
“Something virtuous, I hope!”
“A child psychologist… I want to work with kids, so their lives can be better!”
Then she looked over at the burning funhouse, as her mother put her arms around her.
THE END
