Dusk Harbor 1999

Rollercoaster

"No problem Jake. Anytime." Jordan replied. "Now, who wants a lift?" He looked to the kids.

Sarah giggled and ran over with her arms up. He turned around and knelt to the ground, and let her hop up on his shoulders. He stood back up and she screeched. So loud he thought his ears were going to burst. Then she started laughing. They said their goodbyes to Jake and Catherine.

They made their way to the gate. Olivia pushed the stroller alongside him. He could hear the little tires rumbling against the rocky dirt path.

"Wow! I'm tall now! I'm the world master!" She proclaimed.

Sarah's twin sister Olive, who was named after Olivia ran to Mason and demanded a lift from him. He refused. She kept pulling at the bottom of his torn denim jacket, but he ignored her. Brushed her away with his hand. Kept walking on ahead. Tried walking faster. Olive growled at him.

Jordan glared at him.

"Just pick the kid up, Mason." He said.

Mason rolled his eyes. Gave a loud sigh. Then spun around and grabbed Olive and lifted her right over his head, and placed her on his shoulders. She sat triumphantly. Beamed with satisfaction. She tugged on his hair to steer him around. Mason's eyes darkened, his face was drawn into a slight scowl. He clearly was not pleased.

They came to the red and white striped ticket booth, and Mason handed over the tickets. The man with swept-back black hair took them. Examined them with great interest. Looked to their big group.

"Such a different world now, isn't it?" The man asked.

"Whatcha mean?" Mason asked.

"I mean, sixty years ago, you'd never see this," he said.

The ticket taker pointed to them. To Olivia, then to Jordan, and Mason, and made a sweeping gesture at the kids.

"You know polyamorous relationships. In public. You three are out here with your kids. No fear of judgment. I applaud you."

Mason's eyes widened. His jaw dropped open a little.

"No no, you listen here ticket boy. That thing--" Mason said, nodding to Jordan. "Is my brother. This thing here," He continued as he clapped Olivia on the shoulder. "Is just a friend. That's all. These kids aren't ours. They belong to a friend."

Olivia stormed up to the counter.

"Yeah, you presumptuous creep." She said. "None, I repeat none of us have ever been together like that. I can assure you."

Mason glanced at her and put an arm over her shoulders.

"Yeah. She ain't my type. She's a good friend. Not that good of a friend."

Jordan couldn't help but laugh at the entire situation. The guy's outrageous assumption. Mason's panicked reaction. Olivia's outburst. It was quite amusing. Jordan didn't know why they had gotten so worried over it. They could have just said; 'No, we're friends actually'. But they hadn't. Mason always did kind of act repulsed by the idea of anything like that happening with Olivia. Must have thought of her strictly as a friend. Or a sister or something like that.

The guy smiled and nodded. Visibly unaffected by the outrage.

"Ok. I believe you." He said to them. "Enjoy your day."

Mason stuck his tongue out at him, and then kept his eyes locked on the poor guy as he walked backward through the gate. Only broke his gaze when Olive tugged on his hair, to warn him of a trashcan coming up behind him.

The park smelled of buttery popcorn and fried dough. Deliciousness. Made his mouth water up. He wanted to stray off and go eat a hundred things. The kids obviously had different plans.

As soon as they were on the first fake little street of the carnival, Drake ran up to the giant map that was posted over a wooden fence. Stepped up onto the bench under it. Studied it carefully. Used his thumb and index finger as a way to measure distances between things. Nodded, hopped off the bench, and went running down one of the left-hand streets. Away from all the food. Towards things like the merry-go-round and the kiddie roller coasters.

"Hey!" Olivia shouted. "Wait up!" She ran, pushing the stroller. Wheels grinding against their gears as she bolted. Jordan and Mason took off after her. Jogged carefully so they wouldn't drop the kids on their shoulders.

There was no line for the Carousel, so he waited with the stroller while Olivia and Mason took the twins and Drake to go on the ride.

He took the opportunity to check his phone. He flipped it open and hoped to see that there was a message from his girlfriend Allie. The screen was blank. He tried to will a message onto the screen, prayed for some sort of sign. Nothing. She hadn't contacted him since the day after the fire. It was eating away at him. Between the nightmares and the headaches, and the worry about Allie, he wasn't sleeping. And he was going insane.

And then the vision came again. The joyous music of the carousel faded until he could only hear every fifth note or so. It was slow and distorted. The pretty lights on the inside of the structure dimmed and the bouncing horses seemed to jolt backward a couple times before disappearing altogether.

There were only flickering images of destruction and death and chaos everywhere. Acrid smoke burned his throat and lungs as he breathed in, and a gust of hot wind slammed into him. Shrill screams of panic sent the hairs on his arms standing on end. He could feel the heaviness in the air, the tension like a lead blanket. The vision steadied. He was standing alone on a broken up street, staring up at a row of concrete buildings under an assault of wind and hail. Windows were being torn out of their frames, lightning struck every which way across a deep blue and coal-grey sky. A bolt came down across the street from him, striking a lamppost. So bright it half-blinded him.

The rain was warm, and infrequent. It pelted upon him for a few seconds, and then slowed, and then whipped at him again in a pattern with the eerie slow music. There was a dark figure hovering seventy feet in the air, with its arms out to the sides. Four more dark figures materialized beneath it in a square shape, all of were different in size and shape. All of them doing the same pose.

The music stopped entirely.

A deep, clear voice rang out in all directions, he couldn't tell where it was coming from.

It said: This is our future. Brace for it.

A warm blast of rain hit him in the face. He closed his eyes against it and shook his head. Tried to clear the vision away. Told himself it was just stress and anxiety. A hallucination.

A hand tapped his arm, and he was jolted from the scene. Olivia was there in front of him, with Sarah on her hip and a confused expression. Eyebrows in that classic 'I don't understand this situation' position. Drake was there too, standing beside her tapping his foot with great impatience.

"Did you fall asleep?" Olivia asked with a chuckle.

"No. I was thinking," he replied.

"About what?"

"About how I should drag you over to the Flaming Inferno," he stated with a devilish grin.

"Wait, isn't that the biggest coaster in the park? The one with the loops and ninety-degree drops?" Olivia asked, her eyes widened.

He nodded, and led the way back out to the fake street, and pushed the stroller to Mason.

"Here, you manage the teacup humans while I take her to go on the Inferno," Jordan said.

Mason looked at him like he was crazy.

"Olivia won't go on that," he glanced to her and shook his head. But Jordan was convinced. He just had to take her on that roller coaster. Watch her horrified expression, and screams of terror. It was going to be absolutely priceless. He couldn't wait any longer.

"Yes, she will." Jordan grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her away, and he laughed when she turned to mouth 'help' to Mason.