The steel flashed by CJ’s face and plunged directly into the hangman’s. His fall occurred so quickly that he wasn’t able to register anything prior to his crash landing.
He hadn’t seen the hangman lying by his side. Nor had he seen Sadie take hold of the knife, or the look of darkness bubbling in her eyes when she stared at the fictitious man’s head. CJ had zero forewarning of the hate she directed toward the hangman.
In Sadie’s mind, the inanimate figure was responsible for her sister’s death. And as she slammed the knife into the weathered kickball and watched the blade slice through the rubber, she could no longer control her fury.
“You killed her!” Sadie bellowed out.
After stabbing the hangman’s head several times, she shifted her vengeful thrusts to the fluffy body. Poke after poke saw small streams of cotton from the dummy’s interior sent streaming outward.
“Isaac, we need the clothing still,” CJ reminded.
Isaac took CJ’s hint and stepped up behind his sister.
“Sadie, calm down,” Isaac said.
Sadie didn’t hear his words. She remained lost in her inner torment, slashing away at the hangman.
As the knife cocked back for the next stab, Isaac grabbed her wrist. He even surprised himself by the way he took charge of the volatile situation. CJ had given him the shirt off his brother’s back to patch his arm up, the least he could do was try to reciprocate.
It wasn’t until Isaac got Sadie restrained and pulled the knife from her clutches, that Tanya started screaming.
She kicked her legs wildly, side to side.
“Ants! There’s ants everywhere!” she cried.
Tanya stepped away from the hangman’s hellish head. She observed a mass of flame-colored fire ants as they scrambled about feverishly with rage and hunger. The army of tiny hellions climbed up the feet and calves of the children, pinching onto flesh with malicious intent.
The bites were true to the sadistic insect’s name. A sharp, stinging pain blazed around Tanya’s ankles. The intense burning sensation spread as she continued to yell and kick.
“What the?!” CJ yelled.
He gawked down at the horde of agitated ants. Waves of the insects continued to pour from their previous area of confinement. All of a sudden, the stitches on the face of the hangman made more sense; the ants had been intentionally implanted inside his head.
As the rest of the kids backed away from the countless fire ants, CJ spied a plastic baggy sitting inside the deflated dodgeball. Through the transparent bag, a key and a piece of paper could be seen.
He knew the contents had to be critical.
CJ sacrificed a moment to bend over and retrieve the plastic bag and also removed the collared shirt from the dummy. The minions pounced on him, scurrying off the shirt and up from his shoes. He flung his legs and used his arms to shake as many bugs off as possible.
Thinking quickly, CJ kicked the hangman’s head into the ball pit. Clusters of the pests still contained in the rubber landed on the salty floor. There were still plenty of fire ants rallying around them, but CJ had bought a little time.
“They’re gonna climb out of the ball pit soon! We’ve gotta go now!” CJ screamed.
He continued to shake off the bugs. Once he displaced enough of the angry creatures from his body and the items, he tossed the long-sleeve flannel at Bobby.
“Hold on to that! Tanya, we need to look at this, fast!”
Tanya was still knocking off ants from her body, but tiptoed around the larger masses and arrived beside CJ.
She looked at the plastic baggy he’d just ripped open and grabbed the small note beside the skeleton key inside.
“What’s it say?!” CJ yelled.
“I’m opening it as fast as I can!” Tanya replied.
Her shaking hands pulled the parchment apart. She did her best to focus on the scribbled words amid the stampede of insects.
CJ stomped out the fire ants as they continued to trickle towards them, trying to allow Tanya to focus.
“You must follow directions or all shall bleed, remember the playground chooses when you actually leave. If your reaction was swift, like the crack of a whip, then you’d notice the lever to the left of the pit. Pull down and in the ceiling, you’ll see, the hole inside the pink is awaiting a key,” Tanya said.
CJ’s eyes moved to locate the red lever sitting in plain sight. When Sam freaked out, they didn’t exactly get any time to think out their next steps. But the poem had spelled it out for them. Had they been able to solve the puzzle first, the path to certain death that Sam went down would’ve been completely avoided.
Upon Tanya’s reading concluding, CJ didn’t even need to say it. Each of the kids was already listening closely. They all watched on, ready to follow him. As CJ approached the sloppy pile of horror that Sam had become, he was able to overlook the nauseating sight in his haste.
He gazed upon the glowing pink exit sign that once sat above the hallway. It was now so close to the ground that he had to squat to align with it.
In the center of the hot pink sign, just like the riddle said, a small hole appeared ready to accommodate the skeleton key. Had he not known it was there, it would’ve simply blended in with the rest of the wall.
CJ cranked his head back toward his sister.
“Give me the key,” he said.
As CJ inserted the key and twisted, the ants continued to flow up out of the ball pit. The red-spotted trail of torment was rapidly closing in on them.
He felt relief as the wall above the signage collapsed in on itself. The newly fashioned opening was made of cold metal and the dimensions of square tubing ahead were about twice the size of a standard air duct.
While a fear of the unknown still loomed over them, the agonizing jaws of the tiny terrors outweighed it. CJ, Tanya, and Isaac all helped the smallest children inside first, followed by Bobby.
As CJ crouched inside the aluminum with the rest of the group, his hands shook. He couldn’t avoid pondering what the next set of horrors they’d be up against might be.
The possibilities were beyond chilling.
