Lead Me Out of the Dark

Ghost Carnival

A ghost carnival? I looked around wondrously. I couldn’t get enough of this place. It looked like a cemetery that had come to life.

“C’mon,” he urged me, tugging me forwards with the hugest smile on his face. I followed excitedly. I was practically skipping. He led me to something big and black and twisting, like a snake. Something loud whooshed past, and a bunch of screams ensued. A huge wind followed, whipping my hair away from my face. Deck lifted our clasped hands, showing some guy our matching wristbands. He nodded and let us move past him. We ascended four staircases, and when we were at the top, we waited in line for a short time.

My eyes danced around, searching for any sort of clue as to what was happening. The surprise made it so much more thrilling. When we made it to the front of the line we were at, I noticed that there were employees wearing matching outfits. They all had a glow in the dark green shirt. Their faces were painted like a clown with glow in the dark paint, except they had studs all over their faces. They looked so realistic. I couldn’t help but shiver a little bit at the sight of the clowns. They were ghastly. Deck nodded, as if he knew exactly what I was thinking.

“Don’t worry, they creep me out, too,” Deck said. I gave him a grateful glance. He made me feel a little better. Something tapped me on the shoulder, and I turned around. I couldn’t help but jump when I saw it was one of the employees.

“It’s your turn,” the employee exclaimed. Their voice sounded like steam rising. Each word was spoken in a loud, high pitched hissing noise. They must have voice distortion machines, like they had on those Darth Vader costumes, I realized. Deck led me to a small black car, allowing me to sit first before he got in. He pulled neck restraints down, and I copied his movements.

“A roller coaster?” I asked excitedly.  He nodded, fixing a small clasp on his seatbelt.

“I hope you like them, because you can’t get off now,” he threatened. I rolled my eyes at his pathetic attempt to scare me. Little did he know that I lived for roller coasters.

“I love roller coasters. This will be a piece of cake,” I said, clapping my hands together happily. He turned towards me. I expected a snarky comment, but he was completely serious.

“This is going to be different from anything you’ve ever seen or done before, so don’t throw up or pass out, okay?” He ordered. I waited for him to break out in a grin, but he remained completely serious. What did he mean by that? Did he think I couldn’t handle rollercoasters? I’d been on a lot of them. There wasn’t much that I hadn’t seen before.

“Okay?” I said, my affirmation sounding more like a question. He leaned back against his seat, seeming at peace with my answer. There was a loud bell, and we began rolling forwards slowly. I literally couldn’t see two inches in front of my face. It was like there was a curtain of darkness surrounding me. I couldn’t even see Deck, and he was sitting right next to me.

“What the Hell?” I muttered warily. Deck reached over and gripped my hand, causing me to jump a little. Was he actually being nice?

“This is only the beginning,” he warned. I looked around, but I couldn’t see anything. It was like I was blindfolded. At least I understood why the employees wore that glow in the dark material. Otherwise, no one would be able to see them. Since I couldn’t see anything but black, I had no idea when the car was headed. We could be going up, down, left, or right, and I would have no idea. I squeezed Deck’s hand a little tighter in anticipation. Deck rubbed his thumb across the back of my palm, and I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. My skin heated up where he touched me.

At that moment, the car dipped so violently that my body was thrown upwards. None of my skin was in contact with the seat any longer. I was in free fall, my head spinning dizzily. A scream escaped my lips before I could help it. My stomach felt like it was lodged in my throat. The car went upwards again and then we were thrown to the left. I felt my body crash against Deck’s hard chest, and I caught a glimpse of his violet eyes. He chuckled, and then we were going down again. This time, I let out an elated holler. This was insanely fun. I was vaguely aware of the car going upwards for two seconds before we jerked forward. The car seemed to loop forwards, and for a fleeting second, we were upside down. My hair was hanging below me, and my heart stopped beating. The air left my lungs and we were suspended. Then we continued forwards, twisting so violently to the right that we were halfway upside down.