Carnival

The carnival has started. My friends and I have been waiting all year for this, as had most of the town. Within the town, there were only a select few I didn't expect to attend on the first day, with it being the most packed of the days. It might have the longest lines, but more people are ready to see something go wrong like what always happens when people converge and pretend to be happy. This isn't always the case, sometimes though, on rare occasions, they are joyful. This is not that time, not at all...

"Can you all stop fighting back there," said Caelin, who was driving the van, taking his friends to the carnival.
"Yes sir, captain sir," Brendan said in a mocking tone. We turned onto the road that takes us to the fair and we see the same, depressed looking old man, dressed as a clown.
"I can't wait to ride the Olympus," said Katrina, my girlfriend, who is the most adventurous of the group. Katrina and I met at a pizza place seven years ago and we hit it off really well. The others on the trip are Koal, Sam, and Beth. Koal, Brendan, and Sam have been my best friends since third grade and Beth is Katrina's friend from high school.
"Quiet, I want to hear the carnival music as we get close," said Beth, being overly joyful. Beth grew up in a small farm town in Nebraska, so she never got to experience a carnival in its full glory. Koal, Sam, and I have gone every year since we met in third grade. As we slowly get closer we start to hear the music and we see the light up ferris wheel and the Olympus looming over the event. The two monsters of rides seem to be peering down at all the people in the carnival, mocking them.
"Finally, Sam can ride the Olympus with us this year", Koal said, making the same joke he makes every year about Sam being very vertically challenged. We can now see the park in its full glory, lights, screams of joy, the carnival music, and the smell of cheaply made and greasy food. We pay for our parking, then we head to the gate, get our wristband and wait for the gates to open. The 50th annual Buckingtown carnival is finally underway. The first ride we go to is our group favorite, the Sun Slam, where you get catapulted into the air by bungee cords.
Brendan and Beth go first and get flung into the air and bounce up and down like a pool floaty in the ocean. Katrina and I go next and as we launch, I forget to take my phone out of my pocket but luckily as it falls loose Sam grabs it. As the ride ends, I open my eyes to see all my friends laughing at something on Koals phone so I go check and it's a picture of me out cold when the ride ended.
"You better delete that picture, Koal", I said.
"In your dreams, lover boy," he says as he posts the picture on his SnapChat. Before I can do anything to Koal, a girl pulls him aside and he says something I don't hear. Next thing you know, Koal and the girl are swallowed by the sea of converging souls heading for the now accessible Olympus.
"Come on, if we get there now we can be at the front and we can go more than twice this year," Katrina said. She's always been the one in our group to get our sauntering bodies places; so we're not late.
"Five more minutes, mom" I say in a banterful mood. Katrina shoots me a glance that says I hate and love you at the same time. As we get to line for the coaster we see the line is already wrapping around another ride. We start to get in line and realize that Brendan is nowhere to be seen. Sam and I played it off as he went to get food because he's always hungry. Deep down Sam and I knew something was off because this is his favorite ride and this is the shortest the opening line has been in a while. I get the occasional big jock pretending to be asleep as he walks by me because of Koal's SnapChat post and popular kid status. It was finally our turn and Brendan still hadn't returned to the line so we said we're going to go on the ride then look for him. We get on the ride and it's as amazing as ever. The loopty loops go perfectly with the corkscrew section and the big drop leads into the underground tunnels built for the coaster. We finish the ride and get off chuckling and smiling with the largest grins on our faces. We pay for our tickets and as we walk around to the other side of the ride we notice no ones in line and this section of the park is empty. We run too where we hear screams to see Brendan, crushed beneath a rock, under one of the taller rides.
"OMG! What happened to him!" screams Beth and looks around for someone to answer her. A tall lanky man with broad shoulders and big muscular arms, more known as the freak show ring leader, walks up to the front and says,
"I saw a rock fall on this poor young man and I tried to help him but the rock was too heavy to lift off him, I'm sorry young lady." the ringleader said as Beth stormed off into the bathrooms. Katrina runs after her to leave Sam and I to figure out what happened.
"We were right, something was off, only if we didn't get on the ride he might be alive. It's all my fault I was the one who said we can ride the ride then check." Said Sam
"Hey don't beat yourself up about it, it's not your fault it was probably just a wrong place wrong time thing.". We both knew that wasn't the case. Beth and Katrina get out of the bathroom and Beth through her sobbing words tries to say " I-I-I can't believe some-one would hu-rt a man li-ke that, he-he-he just asked me ou-t on a da-te." Everyone tries to comfort Beth at the food court the carnival has when the ring leader comes over to us and says.
"If you would like you can come and wait in the freak show tent you can."
"Thank you for the offer but some of the people there scare me," I said to the man. The man let out a sigh and made another offer.
"Well if you want you all can stay in my office for now and we will get you some food," he said in a persuasive tone. My friends and I all exchange looks and come to an agreement.
"Okay, we'll take you up on your offer but you have to let us get anything we want to eat," Sam says. Then the ring leader raises an eyebrow and looks to contemplate the offer.
"Okay, just not too much money. Follow me this way to my office," he says as he gestures with his hand towards a building. We continue to follow him into the building and to a room with his name on it. He opens the door and a floral smell hits us like a truck. We follow him into the room and he has us sit down and he takes our order. As he walks out we see the doors lock turn and we hear a click. Through the door we hear a faint whisper of the man saying,
"Make sure you don't let them out, they'll be perfect for the show."

I start to look around the room for anything they can use to break out of the room. I see old rusted carousel figures in the corner and Katrina sees them too. We give each other a look and we both go over the figures and we toss them through the window.
"I see what you want to do. It's just like how we used to sneak out to go to parties.", Sam said to me. I went out first then Beth, who's mascara stained her usually pale cheeks, went out next. Then Katrina and Sam followed her climbing down the wall. Sam was halfway down the wall when he lost his grip and fell to the ground with a loud thud.
"Sam!", I scream, "are you okay, did you get hurt."
"Yeah I'm okay but I can't move my arm. I think I broke it." We start to run towards the parking lot but a group of carnival patreons swarms us and we get separated. I can see Katrina when I feel a hand grab my shoulder. As I spin around ready to punch the person holding on to me I see it's Sam and Katrina finally catches up to us out of breath.
"Where did these people come from?", I said.
"I don't know, it's like they came out of nowhere.", said Sam.
"Wait, where's Beth, I thought she was with you guys?", said Katrina.
"No, we didn't see her,'' I said. Then we hear a loud bang and the crowd we were engulfed in starts to scream and scatter in all directions. We see the man and the bearded woman standing next to Beth's slouched over body. We see a blood splatter on the wall and a hole in Beth's temple. The man has a smirk on his face as he says something we can't understand and the bearded woman starts to run at us. We start to run the other direction when the old man clown sprays us all with something and we all pass out.
"Ugh where are we?", I say, still half dazed by the spray.
"I think we're in the freak show tent." Katrina says "Wait, do you see Sam anywhere?" I start to panically look around to find Sam when we hear a screech of a microphone.
"Hello, hello is this thing on? Okay good, welcome to the freak show where you will see freakish people do crazy things. Up first this hideous woman with a beard will lift a 200 pound weight.", the man says, pretending like this is a normal show. We watch the man lift the weight and slam it into the ground. Next the spotlight starts to move, drawing our eyes with it, now pointing to the tightrope walk.
"Next up is our highflying acrobat, who will walk across this tightrope. The light shines on a person that I soon realize is Sam. We watch as a man with a rod starts to push Sam and he begins to walk on the tightrope. He makes it halfway on the rope and he looks like he's going to make it so Katrina and I start to cheer as loud as we can. As Sam looks back at us he takes a step and the rope shakes forcing Sam to lose his balance. As Sam fell it felt like time stopped but time didn't stop forever. When his body hit the ground his skull made a nauseating sound. Katrina and I watched in horror as there was nothing we could do to stop it.
"Next up, we will see Kat-rina tame and make a tiger do tricks.", the man said
"Wait, don't make her do it, have me do it.", I say, trying to cut a deal to save her life. The man waves off the men grabbing Katrina and looks to contemplate my offer.
"Okay if you travel and live with my freak show , then Katrina gets to go.", said the man.
"Okay I accept, just don't hurt her.", I said.
"You're a very smart man, Caelin.", said the man. The next thing I knew a lady with a body that looked to have scales on it approaches me, holding out a piece of paper and a pen.
"This is a contract that states for the rest of your days on this earth you will live, travel, and work for my show," he says pointing at the paper. He lets the snake lady undo my shackles and has the bearded woman hold my other arm while I sign. As I place my signature on the paper Katrina looks at me and says "Thank you, I will miss you and will always love you."
"Aw, isn't that sweet, you two can meet each other someday," the man says as he pulls out a concealed pistol from his colorful ringleader pocket and shoots Katrina in the head. I scream and try to thrash my wrist away from the woman with a beard but they hold on so tight it feels like my wrist might break. I scream at the man "Hey this isn't fair this wasn't part of the deal! You're a sick horrible monster of a man!"
"Ah, but you didn't read the fine print, if you did you would see it said the last person alive with you will die. Also, we can't have her sharing what we do to the public, now could we?" Instead of seeing him as a hero like I did as a kid I saw him as a sick and twisted monster.
"Well this was messier than other years, pack everyone up, we're moving again. Leave the girl's body, it's too much extra work to hide." I run my hand through Katrina's hair like I used to on hard days. Except this time when I take my hand away, it's covered in her blood from where the bullet left her head.  Then the man walks up to me and looks at me sobbing over my dead girlfriend's body slumped over in the metal chair that bound us together.
"Listen Caelin, it's going to be okay. Everyone here has had the same thing happen to them, even me, so just be happy you get to join us in your new life.
"Boss, the caravan is ready alright, we have to leave now," said a man I was yet to see today.
"Come on Caelin, you're bound by the contract you signed, follow me to your trailer where you'll be staying on this trip forever," the man said. Sadly I had to follow him knowing my soul was now bound to the contract he possessed over me.