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Chapter 54
Acknowledgments & Author’s Note
Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind...
—William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part III, act 5, scene 6
River Ridge, Illinois
“You’re doomed!” the fat man on the stool said.
He was missing two lower front teeth. Peppered stubble whorled on his cheeks; vines of long hair framed his face. His eyes locked on Gage as he extended his hand, raising his voice over the chaos of the midway.
“Give me your ticket, kid.”
Smiling, Gage placed his ticket in the man’s red-stained palm, then raised his voice. “Hey, is that real blood?”
“You tell me, kid. Look where fate has brought you.” The fat man cast his tattooed arm back to the huge arching sign bearing blood-dripping words that proclaimed the attraction.
The Chambers of Dread: America’s Biggest Traveling World of Horrors!
“This is so cool!” Gage said.
“Cool? How old is your young soul?”
“What?”
“How old are you?”
“Nine!”
The man’s eyes narrowed into reptilian slits as he assessed Gage, then his dad, then his mom. They stayed on Mom long enough to border on being unsavory before coming back to Gage. Then the man knocked on the wooden advisory bolted to the metal barricade next to him.
Warning! This attraction may be too intense for pregnant women and people with heart conditions. It is not recommended for children under the age of 12 unless they are accompanied by an adult.
A fat finger, tipped with a long, yellowed and chipped fingernail, pointed at Gage. “Mark my words, kid. These Chambers is cursed. No one who enters is ever the same when, and if, they
