Hello! It’s day 24. I can smell the finish line. 6 more stories to go!
Today’s prompt: Write a story about an abandoned amusement park.
Enjoy!
It’s been about six months since the Fun World amusement park closed and sits abandoned in the middle of the neighborhood as an eyesore. Covid-19 forced them to close down. The only visitors now are homeless people and kids looking for somewhere to smoke their weed. Josh sits in his car and finishes rolling his joint then lights it. As he smokes and looks out of his window, he reminisces a bit on the times he spent at Fun World with his family and friends. He then looks at his phone, scrolls for a bit, and sniffles. After smiling and reflecting, he gets out and starts walking toward the park. He outs the joint and places it behind his ear as he reaches the padlocked entrance and looks around. After scanning the front, he walks to the side and jumps the wall. He lands on the other side and starts to look around the abandoned park with disinterest.
It is littered with cobwebs and dust and every ride has an eerie horror movie aura about them. He starts to walk toward the middle of the ark, towards a statue. It’s a statue of the park’s mascot, Scruffy. Suddenly, someone jumps from behind the statue and startles Josh.
“What the?!,” Josh exclaims.
“Wow. You play too much,” Josh says as he laughs.
Marlon, his best friend, laughs and stands in front of Josh. “I see you’re still easy to scare, huh?” He says to Josh.
Josh shakes his head and replies, “Whatever, bruh. When did you get here? You must have slipped past me.”
“You know I’m like a ninja!” Marlon teased.
They both share a laugh and begin to walk around. As they walk past a few rides, Josh pulls the joint from his ear, lights it again, and begins to smoke. After a few puffs, he offers it to Marlon. Marlon denies it and says, “I’m already floating, bruh.” Josh laughs and continues to smoke.
“You remember when we came here for our 8th-grade field trip?” Marlon asks.
Josh nods and replies, “Yeah, that shit was crazy. That was the Gravitron situation, right?”
“Yeeeeah! That nigga flew halfway across the whole park!”
They both laugh heartily.
“I can’t believe he survived that though,” Josh says and Marlon agrees.
They reach the basketball shooting game. “I remember I used to kill this!” Marlon says.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. It took you about 30 tries. I got it on my first try,” Josh replies.
Marlon laughs and replies, “Yeah. And you still not in the NBA, nigga.”
Josh laughs and continues to smoke. As they walk, they reminisce about other pastimes they shared there. They reach a bench and sit down. Josh smokes a bit more before he puts it out and places it behind his ear again.
“Man…I can’t believe this place took a shit. COVID blows,” Josh says.
Marlon replies, “Yeah, tell me about it.” They both chuckle.
“I won’t lie though. I got the munchies. I could go for some…” Suddenly, Josh stops in the middle of his sentence and his ears perk up.
Marlon curiously looks at him.
“Someone else is here,” Josh says sternly.
He stands and Marlon does the same. Suddenly, they hear a loud noise.
“Yoooo….,” Marlon says softly.
They both walk towards the walkway next to the bench and stare forward. After a few seconds of them looking down the walkway, a dark figure emerges from the side. They both freeze. The dark figure then starts to run towards them.
“Oh shit!” Josh exclaims as he and Marlon run.
They reach an old food stand and go inside. Josh locks the door and leans on it while Marlon shuffles over to the opposite wall and stands still.
“Who the hell was that?!” Marlon says exasperatedly.
Josh catches his breath. “I don’t know…You good?” Marlon nods.
Josh holds his ear to the door and listens for anything. There are a few seconds of silence until a loud sound snaps Josh out of his trance. Josh covers his mouth and stands still. The sound of shoes slowly walking on the ground fills the old wooden stand then stops abruptly. Josh and Marlon stare at each other in fear. The footsteps continue but then they pause, their steps echoing in the opposite direction. Josh waits for a few seconds, uncovers his mouth, exhales loudly then sits down. They both stare at each other, then laugh after a few seconds.
“You almost got us caught, dammit,” Marlon says as he sits.
Josh catches his breath then replies, “Shut up, they might hear…”
All of a sudden, the door to the stand is kicked open and someone yells, “Freeze!”
The moonlight peers in and reveals a police officer. He is pointing his gun and flashlight inside towards the opposite wall. He quickly scans inside the stand and finds Josh sitting down with his hands up.
“What are you doing here?! Get up!” the officer yells.
Josh slowly stands up. The officer puts his gun away and pushes Josh out of the stand. The officer scans the stand again then walks out behind Josh. The officer slams the door then turns and glares at Josh.
“I’m sorry, officer. I was just…”
Josh is interrupted by the officer. “Who else is here with you? I heard you talking to someone,” the officer says sternly.
Josh is silent for a few seconds then replies, “Nobody sir. It’s just me.”
The officer looks at Josh confused then replies, “Whatever. Just get out of here before I arrest your ass.” Josh nods and they both walk towards the entrance and leave.
The officer waits for Josh to go to his car before he locks the entrance gate and leaves. Sitting in his car, Josh gathers himself then lights his joint and starts to smoke once more. He pulls out his phone and opens his gallery. He clicks on a screenshot of an article. The headline reads ‘Marlon Warren, 23, is the first Fun World COVID-19 outbreak victim to succumb to the virus. ‘ Josh locks his phone and sheds a single tear. He starts his car and drives off. As he drives past Fun World, he sees Marlon behind the gate, waving at him and smiling. He smiles, waves back, and drives down the road.
© Jormatic. All Rights Reserved.
Originally published at http://illthinker.wordpress.com on October 13, 2020.
