Carnival✔

1

Seven year old Joshua sat out on his front porch, playing with his little plastic army men and dinkies. The neighborhood was quiet, but the sun was shining.

Josh made tiny 'pew pew' noises as he made the army men shoot at each other. He looked up when a big truck slowly drove down the road and came to a stop at the house directly next to his.

The house had been abandoned for years and it was in need of a remodeling. Josh watched as people got out and started bringing boxes and furniture inside the old run down house.

A car pulled up a few minutes later and a couple got out, followed by at boy that looked to be Josh's age. Josh was intrigued to say the least.

The tiny boy hugged a pale colored stuffed bunny to his chest and stared up at the large taunting house. He looked kinda sick. The woman, the boys mother walked by him and he flinched slightly as she neared.

Once she walked by though he smiled and skipped after her, grabbing her hand and holding it with his much tinier one. The woman rolled he eyes and shoved the boy away.

He kept a smile on his face though and made his way inside the house. Josh got back to his army men, getting lost in his imagination.

After everything was inside the house and the truck had left the tiny, sick looking boy came back out side, holding his stuffed bunny by the arm as he walked. Josh looked up to watch him again.

The boy looked down at his toy and began talking to it, Josh couldn't hear what he was saying though. Josh bit his lip and stood up, slowly making his way to the edge of the step.

He watched the boy sit it the grass and place his bunny in front of him before talking to it again, smiling and laughing. Josh furrowed his eyebrows, confused to what was so funny.

He noticed the boy had tears dried to his cheeks but he looked happy right now. Another few minutes of the boy talking to the lifeless object pass before the boy looks up and notices Josh.

The boy says something else to his bunny before standing up, picking his toy up and walking over to Josh. Josh swallowed anxiously, he wasn't good with new people.

"Hi I'm Tyler." The boy said with a smile. "Hi." Josh whispered. "This is bon bon, hes my best friend." Tyler said holding up his bunny. Josh furrowed his eyebrows but nodded.

"What's your name?" Tyler asked. "Uh.. Josh." Josh replied. "Cool. I live next door now." Tyler smiled. Josh nodded. Tyler suddenly gasped and pointed to Josh's toys. "Can I play with you? Pretty, pretty, pretty, please?" He begged.

"Sure." Josh said walking back over to his toys and sitting down. Tyler happily followed. He set bon bon on the step next to him and picked up one of the army men, starting to play with it, occasionally talking to bon bon.

Josh sat awkwardly, not being able to look away from the boy. Now that they were up close, Josh could see that Tyler had a lot of bruises and cuts and he looked even sicker up close. He also found it kinda of weird how Tyler would speak to his toy, not receive a response but act like he had.

After a while Tyler was called back over to his house by an angry sounding voice. Tyler quickly looked over. He dropped Josh's toys and grabbed bon bon before quickly running over to his house and inside, not even saying goodbye.

Josh took a deep breath and cleaned up his toys before heading inside and making himself dinner. His parents were at work but they would be home within the next hour or so.

He went up to his room after he finished eating and decided to do homework. He sat at his desk with a pencil in hand and his paper in front of him.

He suddenly heard a loud, high pitched scream. He quickly got up and ran to his window. In the house Tyler had moved into, in the window directly across from his Josh could see Tyler, bon bon and Tyler's father. Josh hid behind his curtains as he watched.

Tyler was crying, screaming as the man tried to grab bon bon. When he was successful the toy was thrown across the room and Tyler was grabbed and shoved against the dresser.

What Josh saw next made him want to throw up. He slowly back away from his window down as Tyler began sobbing and thrashing around, trying to get away. He gasped when Tyler's father grabbed his head and smashed it against the dresser, rendering the boy unconscious.

The sound of the front door shutting made Josh jump slightly. Within the next minute his mom was in his room. "Hey sweetheart.. what's wrong?" She asked, noticing her son's state.

"Uh.. n-nothing how was work?" He said following his mom out of his room and downstairs. The rest of the night Josh was haunted by the picture of Tyler bent over his dresser, completely vulnerable and used, by his father.

(New story ✌)