Carnival

It didn't take Poppet long to fine Jude's path that he had obviously been using the past month. The only problem was the difficulty of getting through it. It was strung with blackberry vines and poison oak.

Poppet carefully went through it (attempting to not tear her crimson skirt), it seemed like forever but at last she made it to the end of the dark trail.

The gate was rusted. And the arch of the opening was a clowns mouth, its bright nose appeared to be one of the things that would light up. . . or used to.

It was supposed to be a fun place. . . but it was so dark and so. . . terrifying. It felt so hazy and blurry, almost as if it was fading away right in front of Poppets eyes.

She slowly walked through the arch, noticing at the roof of the clowns mouth there was a series of spikes that seemed to be able to come out farther.
It was dull. Not a colorful place that made you want to buy fresh food, and want to go on stomach twisting rides. It was just plain.

Hello, dear.

A distant voice came from one of the food trailers.

"Hello." Poppet attempted to speak clearly but her own voice came out very quiet and distant.

The voice never continued to speak, and the sound of the cold wind returned, running chills up Poppets spine.

Something certainly wasn't right. Poppet was used to odd. . .but this was different. This seemed wrong in so many different fashions. The rides such as the carousel, even the foods looked odd. As if they were a 3d picture, changing with angle into something new. Something scarier that before. The Carmel apples turned to what seemed like small heads. The carousel horses turned to what appeared to be real horse corpses. . .

Was this a dream?
No it couldn't be.
Even as odd and creepy as Poppet was, she would never dream of this.

She walked around a bit more, observing the hazy carnival. Until she came to a red and white show tent. Excited cheers blared from inside.

The carnival was in use.