Chap 1
I shivered involuntarily and looked around once more, that familiar feeling that I
was being watched creeping up on me. Nothing was illuminated by the streetlamp, but
that didn’t mean there wasn’t something cloaked in darkness.
Shut up. You’re being paranoid. I scolded myself and spun back around, the old
duffel bag threatening to slide down the shoulder I had slung it upon. I looked down at
the map I held in my right hand, hoping that it would show me a place greater than this.
A place I belonged. But no blinking sign appeared. No little dot on the map saying I
should go there. I was officially alone. A street kid. I could be invisible to the people who
inhabited this city. People who called this place home. I had to get out of here.
I folded the map and started back down the sidewalk, unwillingly keeping my
eyes and ears open for a sign that I was being followed. I needed to grow up. I wouldn’t
last the night out here if I kept acting like this, but I couldn’t help it. Something about
this place was off; something made me keep my guard up.
A piece of paper came to rest at my feet, having been moved by the breeze. I
picked it up out of curiosity and scanned its message to the reader.
Carnival Death
Join us for a night of darkness and let your curiosity take hold of you.
Let us drag you into the depths of our game.
Let us begin a journey into Hell.
I snickered at the paper. Punks and goths would attend, and while I fit in to some
extent, it wasn’t my type of place. It was for the posers. And yet it called to me.
Something about the picture beneath the words. A picture of a Ferris Wheel illuminated
by the light of a full moon and cast in shadows by the surrounding structures. An address
was listed below, along with a date. January 13, 2012. Tomorrow. Friday the 13th. What
could go wrong?
I pocketed the advertisement and ran a hand through my hair, noticing a slight
shake in my hand. I still felt the hair on the back of my neck standing and eyes staring
into the back of my skull. Coward. I spat at myself, but checked the map once again for a
place to stay. Somewhere cheap, a rundown hotel or something.
I curled my lip once I entered the room. Third night in a row at a place like this.
The chair was probably a better place to sleep than the bed. I slid the bag off my shoulder
and set it on the desk and went into the tiny bathroom.
My hands gripped the edge of the sink as I glared into the grimy mirror. Short
black hair with red highlights, dark blue eyes, a white v-neck t- shirt beneath a black
blazer. I wasn’t girly, at all. Maybe that’s why I left my family. Why I ran. They wanted
