M.A. Kleen

Please enjoy this horror short, part of a series experimenting with artificial intelligence. I fed a location, plot, characters, scenario, and mood into ChatGPT and asked it to craft a story, then used Stable Diffusion XL to create an illustration. How did it turn out? Well, you be the judge.

Three friends enter a carnival fun house expecting thrills and laughter, but soon discover its twisted mirrors and sinister corridors hide terrifying, all-too-real horrors from which they may never escape.

The night sky hung like a velvet cloak above the small town of Brimfield, twinkling with scattered stars. It was late September, and the crisp air carried with it the unmistakable scent of caramel apples and fried dough from the annual carnival, which had rolled into town like clockwork. Strings of colored lights crisscrossed above the crowded fairgrounds, casting a kaleidoscope of colors over the excited crowd.

Among the sea of faces, three teens wound their way through the bustling midway, laughing and nudging each other. Emily, Max, and Josh had been best friends since grade school, and as they made their way past the carnival games, they felt a nostalgia that seemed to bloom in every passing year.

“Come on, guys! We have to try the Fun House this year!” Emily chirped, her dark hair bobbing with every enthusiastic step she took. She was the smallest of the trio, but her energy was boundless, her wide eyes always gleaming with curiosity and excitement.

Max grinned and shoved his hands into his hoodie pockets. “If it’s anything like last year, it’ll be a total joke.” His voice carried the relaxed tone of someone who rarely took anything seriously. Tall and lean, Max was the kind of guy who could find humor in even the darkest of moments, his sharp wit a shield against the world.

Josh, the tallest and quietest of the three, shrugged as he followed close behind. His blonde hair was a little longer than usual, constantly falling into his eyes, which darted nervously around the fairgrounds. He had always been the cautious one, preferring to think things through before diving headfirst into any situation.

“I don’t know,” Josh muttered, casting a glance at the looming structure of the Fun House in the distance. “It looks… different this year.”

Emily waved him off with a scoff. “You say that every time! Besides, isn’t that what makes it fun? C’mon, it’s tradition! We have to do it. Last year was barely scary. This year, maybe they’ll actually try.”

Max chuckled. “I hope so. I could use a good scare.”

They walked closer to the entrance of the Fun House, and as they neared, the whimsical mood of the carnival seemed to shift. The air grew heavier, the vibrant lights dimming in the vicinity of the attraction. The Fun House stood at the edge of the carnival grounds, a gaudy, crooked structure with peeling paint and an unsettling grin painted on the front. The clown’s face that framed the entrance was wide-mouthed, its eyes too round and its smile too sharp. A flickering neon sign above read “The House of Horrors,” but some of the letters had burnt out, leaving a garbled mess of glowing shapes.

Max raised an eyebrow. “They definitely went for a more ‘haunted’ vibe this year.”

Emily bounced on her heels. “I love it! C’mon, let’s go!” She grabbed Max’s sleeve and pulled him toward the entrance, while Josh hesitated at the threshold.

“You guys sure about this?” Josh asked, eyeing the interior. From where he stood, it was dark inside, too dark for comfort. The once sweet smells of the carnival—the sugar, the fried foods—faded, replaced by a damp, musty odor that reminded him of basements and mildew.

Max clapped Josh on the shoulder. “Don’t be such a wimp, man. It’s all just smoke and mirrors.”

Reluctantly, Josh followed, though he couldn’t shake the unease creeping up his spine.

As they stepped inside, the world outside seemed to vanish. The sounds of the carnival faded into an eerie silence, the only noise a low, mechanical hum that vibrated through the walls. They stood in a narrow hallway lined with cracked mirrors, each reflection distorted in grotesque ways. Max laughed as he waved his arms, watching his limbs stretch impossibly long in one mirror and shrink to childlike proportions in another.

“This is just lame,” Max said, his voice echoing unnaturally off the walls. He turned to Emily. “Remember last year? We had that room with the spinning walls? I almost fell over.”

Emily giggled. “Yeah, and Josh freaked out when that fake spider dropped from the ceiling!”

Josh frowned. “It wasn’t just the spider. That whole room smelled like a dead animal. I told you something was wrong with that place.”

Emily rolled her eyes but didn’t argue. Instead, she pointed ahead. “Let’s keep going. I bet the good stuff’s further in.”

The trio walked deeper into the Fun House, the hallway sloping downward, the air growing colder and thicker. The floor beneath their feet became soft, almost like walking on a thin layer of carpet soaked in water. Emily wrinkled her nose.

“Do you guys smell that?” she asked.

Max sniffed the air and made a face. “Smells like something’s rotting.”

Josh stopped. “This isn’t funny. I swear to God, if this is some kind of prank—”

A loud crash echoed through the hallway, followed by the faint sound of children giggling. The mirrors around them suddenly cracked, spiderwebbing out from invisible impacts. Max, who had been closest to one of the mirrors, jumped back.

“Whoa, what the hell?” he muttered, suddenly less amused.

Emily stared at the cracks. “They’re probably using sound effects or something.” But her voice had lost some of its earlier confidence. The musty odor had intensified, mingling with a new, metallic tang. Blood. Faint, but unmistakable.

Josh’s eyes darted to the ceiling, where dim, flickering lights buzzed. His hands clenched into fists. “I don’t like this. Something feels… wrong.”

Max was about to say something snarky when the floor beneath them shifted. It wasn’t a subtle tilt—this was a sharp, jarring drop, as if the ground itself had disappeared for a moment, before stabilizing again. Emily yelped and grabbed Max’s arm.

“Okay, that wasn’t normal,” Max muttered, his playful tone gone.

A soft, wet sound came from behind them, a rhythmic squelching that sent a shiver down Josh’s spine. Slowly, the trio turned. The hallway behind them was no longer visible. Instead, it stretched into darkness, where something… someone… shuffled toward them. At first, it was just a shape, a silhouette barely distinguishable from the shadows. But as it drew nearer, the sickening squelch of bare feet on wet ground became louder, and the shape became clear.

A woman—or what was left of one.

Her skin was pale, almost translucent, hanging loosely from her bones like wet tissue paper. Her eyes were wide, unblinking, and her mouth was fixed in a ghastly grin, lips torn and raw. She moved slowly, dragging one leg behind her, leaving a streak of dark fluid in her wake.

Emily gasped and stumbled backward, her back hitting one of the cracked mirrors. “Is… is that part of the show?” she whispered, but the tremble in her voice betrayed her disbelief.

Josh’s breath came out in quick, panicked bursts. “We need to get out of here. Now.”

Max, for once, had no sarcastic comeback. His face was pale, his eyes fixed on the grotesque figure creeping closer. He reached for Emily’s hand, pulling her away from the wall. “Yeah. Yeah, let’s go.”

They turned and ran, the squelching sounds behind them growing louder as if whatever was chasing them had sped up. The hallway seemed to stretch infinitely before them, the air thick with rot and the metallic stench of blood. The lights above flickered more violently, casting long, disorienting shadows across the walls.

“Where’s the exit?” Emily gasped, her voice rising in panic. They had been running for what felt like minutes, but there was no sign of an exit, no sign of any escape.

“We have to be close,” Max said, though his voice was strained, unsure. “It’s just a stupid carnival ride. It can’t be—”

Suddenly, the hallway opened into a larger room, but what lay inside made them all freeze.

The room was circular, the walls lined with old, rusted carnival props—oversized clown heads, severed marionette strings, and broken funhouse mirrors that reflected warped images of the trio. In the center of the room was a large, wooden table, and on it lay a body—a man dressed in a filthy, tattered carnival worker’s uniform. His chest had been ripped open, his insides exposed, glistening in the dim light. Flies buzzed around him, and the sickeningly sweet smell of decay filled the room.

“Oh my God,” Emily whispered, covering her mouth, her stomach lurching.

Josh backed away, his face pale as he fought the urge to vomit. “We need to get out of here. This isn’t a fun house. This is real.”

A low, guttural laugh echoed from the shadows, and the door behind them slammed shut with a deafening bang.

Max spun around, searching for any other exit. “There has to be another way out!” His voice was rising in panic, no longer the calm, sarcastic Max they knew.

From the far side of the room, something stirred. The same figure that had been following them in the hallway appeared, but this time, she wasn’t alone. More figures shuffled into view—twisted, broken bodies, their skin hanging in tatters, their faces frozen in grotesque grins.

“We’re trapped,” Emily whispered, her eyes wide with terror. “What do we do?”

The figures closed in slowly, their twisted bodies moving unnaturally as they approached. The air felt thick with decay, and the trio stood frozen for a moment, terror gripping them like icy hands.

“We have to do something!” Emily cried, her voice rising in panic. “They’re getting closer!”

Max’s eyes darted around the room in a frenzy, looking for an escape. “There’s no way out!”

Josh’s mind raced, desperately trying to focus. His gaze fell on the mirrors again. Something about them had saved them before. He ran toward the largest one in the room, his breath ragged. “It’s the mirrors! They don’t reflect them! I think the mirrors are the key!”

Max looked back at the grotesque figures, now just feet away, their grins more horrifying up close. “We don’t have time to guess, man!”

Emily grabbed Josh’s arm, her eyes wide with fear but filled with determination. “What do we do?”

Josh’s mind clicked into place. “If the mirrors don’t reflect them, maybe they’re hiding something. Maybe they show a way out—something real, like before.” He pointed to a large, intact mirror on the far wall, which hadn’t cracked yet. “That one—it’s different. It’s clear.”

Max hesitated only a second longer before grabbing Emily’s hand. “Let’s go! Josh, if you’re wrong about this…”

Josh didn’t reply. He bolted toward the mirror, the figures close behind, their slow movements now transforming into jerky, rapid strides. Emily followed, breathless, with Max right behind her.

The mirror loomed large in front of them, reflecting only the three of them, no sign of the monsters closing in. Josh reached out and touched the glass. For a moment, nothing happened, and dread clawed at his chest.

But then, just as the rotting fingers of the figures brushed Max’s shoulder, the surface of the mirror rippled, as though it had turned to water. Josh’s heart leaped into his throat. “It’s open! GO!”

He jumped through, pulling Emily behind him. Max hesitated only a fraction of a second before diving in after them, just as the creatures lunged forward. The last thing he saw before slipping through was the outstretched arm of one of the figures, inches away from grabbing him.

On the other side of the mirror, they tumbled out onto a patch of wet grass. The night air hit them like a cold wave, fresh and crisp, so different from the suffocating, decaying atmosphere of the Fun House. They scrambled to their feet, gasping for breath, and found themselves back in the carnival grounds, just outside the Fun House.

The brightly colored lights of the carnival blinked overhead, casting a surreal glow over everything. Laughter and the cheerful sounds of the midway buzzed in the distance, as though nothing had ever been wrong.

Max fell to his knees, clutching the grass, breathing hard. “Holy… We made it. We actually made it.”

Josh leaned against a nearby tent pole, still trying to process what had just happened. “I don’t know how, but… yeah, I think we did.” He glanced back at the Fun House. From the outside, it looked like any other carnival attraction, cheerful and colorful with that grotesque clown grin above the entrance. But now, it seemed so much more sinister, a nightmare hidden behind a mask of fun.

Emily was trembling, hugging herself. “We need to tell someone. This place—it’s dangerous. People are going to get hurt in there.”

Josh shook his head slowly. “Would they even believe us?”

Max stood up shakily, brushing the dirt from his jeans. “We just went through a mirror to escape from walking corpses. I’m not sure we’re in any position to sound sane right now.”

Emily stared back at the Fun House, her face pale but resolute. “We have to at least warn people.”

Just as they turned to leave, the sound of an old, creaky voice behind them made them freeze.

“Enjoy the House of Horrors, did you?”

They spun around to see a tall, lanky man dressed in a faded carnival worker’s uniform. His face was gaunt, his skin pale, and his eyes dark and hollow, as though the very life had been drained from him. His lips twisted into a smile that never quite reached his eyes.

Max narrowed his eyes. “Who are you?”

The man tipped his tattered hat. “Just the caretaker of the place. I make sure things run smoothly. Seems like you found your way out, though. Clever kids.” His grin widened. “Not everyone does.”

Max looked back one last time at the Fun House. The clown face at the entrance seemed to grin even wider in the flickering light, as though mocking them. “Let’s go,” he muttered.

The trio walked away from the carnival, their hearts still pounding, but alive—alive, and free from the horrors inside. The lights and sounds of the carnival faded behind them as they hurried into the night, determined to leave the memories of the Fun House behind.