Halloween Collection

Circus of the Damned

Luke stared down at the ticket in his hand, the blue lettering on the front glowing in a vaguely disturbing way. The Circus of the Damned, it read. Then, in slightly smaller lettering: Admission from sundown to sunup. Something about it seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. All he knew for certain was that he had a feeling of dread somewhere in the pit of his stomach.

"What's that?" someone asked. Luke looked up and saw his friend Carmine walking towards him.

"I'm not sure." he said, turning it over in his hand.

"Well, there's no practice today. Want to check it out?"

"Sure." Luke shrugged.

He turned the ticket over, wondering where this 'Circus of the Damned' was supposed to be. He was mildly surprised to see what looked like a map on the back. If he was reading it right, it wasn't that far into the woods that bordered up against the town. But Luke had been going into those woods his whole life, and he'd never seen a circus there before; he was pretty sure there wasn't a clearing big enough to set one up. The realization only piqued his curiosity further.

The two made their way to the edge of the woods, then started following the path sketched on the back of the ticket. It didn't take long before they lost sight of the treeline. They took a left around a giant oak, then a right near a small patch of bluebonnets. Then... he wasn't quite sure. Luke squinted down at the map. Was that a... bridge? But there was nothing like that around here. He looked up and realized he had no idea where they were.

"Uh..." he said slowly. He looked sheepishly over at Carmine.

"Are you lost?" she asked, arching an eyebrow at him.

Luke was forced to nod his head.

"Really? Haven't you been coming out here every month for like forever?" Carmine asked.

"Well, yeah. But something's... weird." he said defensively. He didn't know how to explain it, but this didn't seem like his forest. There was something dark here. He didn't want to say evil exactly, but it felt a lot more sinister than it ever had before.

"Some werewolf you are," Carmine muttered under her breath.

Luke slid his eyes towards her, trying not to bristle at the comment. It wasn't the fact that she knew what he was that bothered him – she'd known for a couple years already. And the fact that she'd said it out loud wasn't even that bad; there was no one around to hear. But she'd questioned his competence, and that did bother him – more than he'd like to admit. But before he could say anything about it, she held out her hand.

"Let me see." she said.

Wordlessly, Luke held the ticket out for her. As Carmine studied that nonsensical map, Luke looked around, trying to find any familiar landmarks. Of course, he didn't see any. But he did see something familiar. Or rather, someone. A girl on their track team – one of the most popular girls in school, actually – was standing a few yards away. She was studying something in front of her while running frustrated fingers through her brown hair.

"...Megan?" Luke called out, taking a step towards the girl. She looked up, surprised.

"Oh... Uh, hi..." she said.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked, walking towards her. Carmine followed along behind him.

"Well, I... I got this thing... and maybe it's stupid, but I kind of wanted to see where it leads." She was holding a ticket that looked identical to his own.

Luke exchanged glances with Carmine. He had no idea why Megan would have a ticket to this thing, but he didn't think she should be out here alone. Apparently, Carmine had a similar thought, because she gave a short nod before turning to Megan.