It’s October 27,1988, in Medford, Winsconsin, and 10 year old Katherine Holt is at the annual funfair with her parents. The fair is hosted by the mayor every year as a ploy to gain votes, and it works every year. Her older sister Megan had left to go to college a month ago to pursue her dreams of becoming a world-renowned artist. Cynthia, Katherine’s mother, decided to take her daughter to the Ferris wheel to show her the view of their small town, while her husband Ben headed over to the concession stand to buy hotdogs and beverages.
Taking Katherine’s hand, they head over to the Ferris wheel, but the young girl’s attention diverts to the “House of Mirrors”. Beverly is a little skeptical about taking her daughter into the “House of Mirrors” mainly because she doesn’t feel safe going inside with Katherine during the tough times their town is going through. The “House of Mirrors” is a maze with dark corridors and mirrors everywhere, workers dress up in disturbing costumes and often pop out from their hiding spots at very inconvenient times and traumatize children.
Even though they won’t be alone and other families will be inside, it’s what goes on in the dark that scares Beverly to death.
Children in Medford had been disappearing mysteriously for the past few months. At first the police thought it was nothing and that maybe Bill Marsh, the first child to go missing, just ran away from home. But, one by one over the course of a few weeks, bodies of young children began turning up left and right, and sometimes the parents’ bodies would also be found.
Many witnesses and citizens seeing unexplainable things came forward and the statements said were quite bizarre. Some claim they saw a killer robot shooting lasers, a lion roaming the streets, a werewolf in their own home, a two headed werewolf-like creature, and other things. Needless to say, Beverly, was afraid of letting Katherine wander around on her own. This year she told her daughter that they wouldn’t go trick-or- treating and they would stay inside their home and have a horror movie marathon with lots of candy.
After they had they had a turn on the Ferris wheel, Katherine dragged her mother over to the “House of Mirrors”, but she quickly changed her mind because a man dressed up as a clown stood outside by the entrance holding balloons. Smiling creepily, he waves at Katherine and makes a hand motion, indicating her to come closer to him. Katherine tugged on her mother’s arm so she could look at the clown, but by the time the time Beverly’s head turned around, the clown had vanished. Katherine was deathly afraid of clowns. The fear of not knowing who lies behind the excessive makeup, red nose, and colourful hair, nauseated her.
Cynthia grabs Katherine’s hand and takes her over to a quieter area where kids are sitting at tables drawing. It was a stand run by a pizza joint that opened a few months ago, hoping to use the big crowds attracted to the fair to boost their popularity across town. Katherine sits down while her mother waits for her husband to come back. A middle-aged woman greets Katherine and hands her a piece of paper. Grabbing a pencil and placing the paper in front of her, she slowly reads the words “draw your biggest fear”, located at the top. She wrote down the word “clowns” at the bottom of the page where there was a line to write down your phobia.
Trying to remember the clown she saw a few moments ago, she begins to draw his big smile that was clearly forced, the balloons he was holding and his bright red shoes. Katherine’s stomach begins to rumble, and looks up to see if her father had arrived back from the concession stand. Ben stood beside his wife smiling at her, with a sparkle in his blue eyes, he looks over and meets Katherine’s emerald green eyes that had been inherited from his wife. Katherine smiled and ran over to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. Lately she had become more attached to her parents and dreaded going to school and being away from them. There was a voice in the back of her head telling her that every time she leaves them or they leave for a moment, that could’ve been the last moment she’d see them. Perhaps it was all the disappearances making her paranoid.
After the Holt family finished consuming their food, they all agreed to heading back home since it was beginning to get dark. As Ben drove his black Chevy Camaro down the road, Katherine was looking out the window while softly humming “Take on Me” by A-ha. She abruptly stops when she recognizes the sinister clown off the side of the road in the shadows, waving at her again. She quickly looks down as an attempt to hide from the clown’s view, hoping to arrive home soon.
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