How it came to this

What the hell?

Chapter 5:  Age 17 Time :Unknown

Popcorn is heavy in the air. Cheery people and laughter surround me. Carnival music plays in the background.

I realize that I am as I am today. Excluding the blood that should be spilling from me and onto my clothing.

Clown masks are worn by carnies. I am incredibly disorientated and wish only to lay down. That is when I realize where I must be. A dream.

I breathe a sigh of relief and continue walking. Something is off. I notice that rather than a carefree laughter and talking one would normally hear at a place like this I hear a more distorted laugh, a deranged laugh.

And screaming. There are petrified and shrill screams lingering in the night air.

"Where am I?" A dream I remind myself, this is just a dream.

I squeeze my eyes shut tight and attempt to forcefully wake myself by opening them. I am still here.

"Oof." I manage as I am nearly knocked to the ground by a passerby. An older woman passes me and grins, something that makes my heartbeat pound faster, something that gives me goosebumps.

Twisted. This place is twisted.

"Are you here for the show?" I young boy asks. Vertical blue stripes upon his white shirt, cotton candy in hand, a young boy with curly black hair.

I whirl around to see who he might be talking to. That is when I realize he is talking to me.

"Sure." I mumble. "Where is the show?" I want to ask him where his parents are.

"Better hurry or you'll miss it." He says and skips away farther into the distance.

I shiver though the air is warm.

I decide to trudge onward. Carnival games are beginning to pierce my ears with the bells and music.

"What?" I stop dead in my tracks as I see what is before me. It should be a normal water gun and target game. Instead, what I see are severed heads with their mouths open. Oh God, they are still, alive.

The human head is in the process of decomposition. It's eyes are yellow, teeth all missing as though they had been taken out.

The word zombie comes to mind.

"Used to know em." A boy around my age says and points to the head to the farthest right. "Used to be a cashier." He begins laughing so hard he has to put his hands on his stomach. "Hey!" He screams at the carnie. "Hey, I'll give ya 50 bucks if I can squish that old bastard!"

I remind myself that I have had similar dreams before. This is nothing new and I continue forward.

All the games I notice now have some form of zombie on chains or body less. Their teeth missing.

I hate these dreams. Eventually I will come across something that will try to kill me.

At least I will wake up in my bed safe and sound.

The crowd is sending me upward still, a movement I mimic. A tent, I see a large circus tent, with crusted blood and frayed edges.

A man on stilts ushers us inside and I sit beside a family of four on a stadium sticky with sweets. Their eyes are encircled with darkness on their pallor skin.