Carnival

Foggy Mirrors Have No Use But Being Needlessly Creepy

"Come on!" Venus practically pulled Kian over the fence, barely giving him a moment to catch his breath before jumping to the concrete down below. The gap in the barbed wire gave them a perfect opportunity to climb the chain-linked fence without getting hurt, if you count out the nick Naomi had given herself by accidentally grabbing a rouge bit of wire that had frayed from the rest of the links. Gavin and Naomi were already waiting on the other side by the time Venus's feet made contact with the ground, nearly falling back onto the fence when the impact jarred her. Kian came after her, nearly falling after attempting to climb back down and landing on his ass.

"Good job, idiot." Gavin regarded with a good-natured smile, grabbing Kian's hand to help hoist him up off the ground. Kian's face burned pink with embarrassment as he dusted himself off.

"So..." Naomi began, turning around to look at the main entrance to the park. "Shall we get a move on? Or are you two going to stand there and be gay all night?"

All three chuckled, while Naomi smiled at her own joke. Kian kissed Gavin's cheek before leading him over to where Naomi and Venus were standing, surveying the brick arch that created the grand entryway into the amusement park. A large plastic sign hung near the top-middle of the arch, a faded grey with patches of the original white plastic showing through where the paint had worn away. The letters were as bright as if they had been put up just yesterday, alternating deep purple and electric blue, spelling out "Paradox Peak" in a very bold font. The logo was complete with a white-speckled swirl around the top and bottom of the letters, creating an unconvincing galaxy look.

"Where should we go first?" Venus asked once they had pushed past the creaky turnstiles, rusted to the point where it was practically impossible to turn, and they just had to climb over the booths in-between.

"Well..." Kian began, glancing around at the Main Street theme of the road past the entrance. "Seeing as we've come this far, we might as well go all out. Let's see what we can find in the shops."

Gavin gave him another wary look, but Naomi snickered. "Good point. If they just left all this shit lying around, who's gonna object to a group of teenagers taking some stuff nobody will miss?"

Despite the eerie feeling that was impossible to shake off, none of them could ignore the rush of adrenaline felt from rebelling, doing something they obviously weren't meant to do. As Venus had brought up in the car, this could potentially count as illegal, considering the "Do Not Enter" and "No Trespassing" signs bolted up around the main gate to the park.

Most of the doors were boarded up, the carnie stalls shut with metal shutter doors. However, a select few seemed to slip the owner's notice while they were closing up, as some doors were noticeably unlocked and some even left open, propped with tin garbage cans or plastic crates.

"Hey, I just noticed something." Venus glanced around, her face betraying a bit of confusion at her finding. "You guys notice that there's no graffiti? Like, anywhere? This place is super-easy to get to, and it doesn't seem like the government is too protective of it, so where's all the trash and stuff left behind from the other groups of teenagers hanging out here in the last, I don't know, decade or so?"

Now that she had mentioned it, the other three seemed to realize more and more things off about the grim park. Gavin pointed out the open doors and windows to specific shops, mostly ones for children; Candy shoppes, toy-stores, and even an extra-creepy looking building with a sign that stated it was like a Build-A-Bear, but to make the park's mascot in stuffed animal form. The Build-A-Bear type store was the weirdest by far, the pre-made display animals strung up on what could only be described as innocent nooses, as if the employees of that shop were urgent to get the job done and didn't fasten them right.