Frankie's Funhouse

Desperation for cash has led me down a rainbow painted hallway to Frankie's Funhouse-a children's gambling casino. Or as my boss likes to call it, a pizza arcade.

The coworkers are strange, the patrons are disturbing, and the animatronics are possessed. Which I was willing to put up with until my boss died.

Well, he was murdered, actually.

Now I have to serve pizza and birthday cake while thinking about burning down the mall to hide a body for an animatronic that keeps hitting on me.

Drug dealings in the backrooms, puddles of blood seeping out from the storage closet, and parents threatening to talk to my (dead) boss if I don't get their screaming kids' pizza was all manageable...

Until I realized I didn't mind Frankie's possessed tongue in my mouth.

Author Notes: Previously published in the Creepy Court Monster Mall Anthology. This is the 1980s supernatural prequel to the Umbra Valley series. Although this is in the same (or alternate) universe as the Lux Oleander Umbra Valley books, it is very paranormal. The following books in the series are strongly contemporary with only vague mentions to potential supernatural activities.