The Nightmare's Return

Chapter 2

-Rachel was in her dorm room again, going over some schoolwork on her desk, when she felt the chill. It was a cold feeling of fear of something that she wasn't sure of. She guessed it into being anxious about her life and schooling and got up to get a light jacket from her closet. She put it on and wrapped her arms around herself, closing her eyes to calm herself down. She was a bit sleepy and her mind was drifting to another place..

She saw trees and woods, and small animals moving around. And then she saw a blur of lights off in a distance, which quickly reached her sight, as if she flew magically now to them. She saw strings of things hanging across open spaces now, connecting to tents and small bulbs of light hanging, or coming from things they were attached to. Blurry figures walked past her, in and out of view. Colors of every kind were around her, made brighter in different areas by the place's lights. The environment felt familiar to her, and definitely not in a good way. The fear Rachel had been feeling came back stronger than before, and she had a sudden urge to run. She tried to turn, tried to back up, but wasn't sure how to move. She felt a terrifying presence near her. Another figure came into view, moving a thin, long object around. It stopped where Rachel's sight stayed locked, where it's back was turned to her. It was a figure of a man Rachel could see now. It was lean with something sitting on top of it. As if the man could sense something, or someone watching him. He looked like he was slowly turning towards Rachel. He stopped, and only a side of him could be seen. His head tilted down a bit, and a very thin and long object came up to his face, with a small object at the top of it. All was still for a moment, before the head of the man turned quickly to fully face Rachel, without warning. She couldn't see the man's face, but one thing about him stood out for sure this time.. A full outline of a top hat..

Rachel opened her eyes, wide open. Her heart was beating fast, and her breathing was faster, going quickly in and out of her nose and mouth. Her arms unfolded and she lost her balance, falling against the closet behind her. Rachel scrambled with her arms and hands, to try and catch herself, but ended up falling to the floor. She laid on her dorm room carpet with her back up against the closet door, legs out from under her where she fell. Her head felt light and dizzy as she tried to collect herself. Rachel knew she was in her dorm room and safe, but the image of the objects and lights in her mind were still lingering in her head. And the one image that still had her fearful, was the man in the top hat that looked over at her out of nowhere, holding that long stick. Rachel pushed herself off of the floor and slowly walked to her bed. She sat down and rocked herself back and forth, trying to ease herself..

Mr. Tophat had set out to create another carnival, after deciding to return to the place where he had set up the last one, where he had also met his supposed demise. Anything that could have been left over from the last carnival was entirely gone now, but there was still a big empty space. Mr. Tophat got to work quickly. He looked around for any bits of metal to be found on the ground, pieces of wood, and any other type of left about items that could be made into building materials. When he found everything he needed, he placed them on various places on the ground in the open space, and got the re-building started. Mr. Tophat pointed his new cane at a piece of metal he had found hear a stretch of road a bit earlier, and used it's power to make the metal stretch out into a long bar, which stretched out into a large metal frame, that formed a shed. Another spark of power from the cane to a piece of wood, and the piece splintered into many pieces until there were enough to grow into many large planks, that flew from the ground to the metal frame of the shed to complete it. Mr. Tophat smiled, satisfied with the creation. He went over to a piece of a ballon he found, probably from a busted one from some sort of past celebration, and made it stretch out until it was large enough to form a tent. Another piece of wood and more use of the cane, and another frame was built up, this one for the tent to be stretched across it. Soon the new carnival tents and stands were all built and ready. Just a few more additions needed, and everything would be complete..