Jake looks around and points over to a Fun House across from a few roller coasters. “Let’s try that,” he says, pulling a cigarette from his pocket. Dean agrees and pulls out a cigarette for himself. They share a lighter and walk over to the structure, puffing away.
There’s a small incline leading up to the entrance, but from there, it’s nothing but easy. Shifting floors move side to side and a large spinning tube is next. Dean and Jake wobble all over trying to get up the stairs, spitting out their cigarettes in laughter. Once up the stairs, the spinning tube trips them up and they are caught in a constant slide from the rotation. Dean gets to his feet and starts pretend jogging and Jake breaks into a fit of laughter.
Jake stands up and the two side step out of the tube and onto normal ground. They are then confronted with a hall of mirrors and see the duplicates of themselves and other boys all over the place. “Okay, follow me,” Dean leads and walks right into a mirror. “Do I have to?” Jake smiles and puts his hands out as he walks. The halls echo with the sounds of boys laughing and crashing into walls and each other. Jake’s ears start to bother him a bit, and he reaches up and rubs them. They feel almost longer, but he just shrugs it off. Dean is right behind him, still scratching at his back, but now has moved down to his rear. A small bump has formed just at his belt line, and it was getting bigger.
They both turn a corner and run into another couple of boys. They all apologize to each other and laugh. One of the boys they ran into seemed very tall, but Jake saw that he was walking on his tiptoes, and his feet looked dark, like they were really dirty. He looked down at his own feet and saw that they looked rather dirty too, but that wasn’t the worst part. “Oh, man,” Jake groaned, “I lost my sandals.” Jake and Dean look around, but they’re no where about. “You’ll never find them back in there,” Dean says patting him on the back, “I guess you’ll have to go barefoot.”
Finally through the mirrors, they come to a room full of conveyer belts. They have to run in order to reach the other side of the room. Once across they catch their breath and continue in. The next part is a long slide that boys are running and jumping down. Jake and Dean go one after the other as the slide takes them to a lower level and drops them in a pool filled with soapsuds. They both stand up, covered in white bubbles and look down at the end, watching boys slip and disappear back into the void. They both take careful steps while brushing the suds off themselves.
“AAWW,” comes a hoarse voice from the bubbles, as Jake steps back. A boy stands up, and brushes himself off, “bwatch bwhere you stwepping,” he says with difficulty. The boy brushes off his face and Jake sees that his lips are thick and brown. “Sorry, I didn’t feel you down there,” Jake shrugs. The boy just scoffs and walks away. Jake and Dean climb out of the suds and are greeted by a sudden hose of cold water. They shriek and run through to the other side.
“Awww man, I’ dwenched,” Dean says and then licks his lips. He opens his mouth and closes it a couple times, as if it’s bothering him. His lips had thickened and started to turn a light brown, and his ears had slight points on them. Jake just shivered and looked down at his feet, which ached slightly. He tried to flex his toes, but they would barely move and despite the soap and water, they looked even darker and dirtier than before.
Ahead of them was the loud crowds and music of the boardwalk, and the boys slowly made their way toward the exit of the funhouse.