Demons Deal

Prt 1: The Gift

I opened my eyes hugging the blankets closer to my body, the air in the bedroom was freezing and my only haven was snuggled beneath the heavy comforter blankets. Even underneath them I was shivering, staring across the room my sleep blurred eyes stared emptily at my closed bathroom door. Rolling over onto my other side in an attempt to get comfortable I found my window wide open, the dark sky wasn’t inviting or promising.

I slipped from beneath the covers and felt goose bumps rise up all over my skin. I moved quickly to close the window before it got any colder in the room, as I made my way back to the bed I rubbed my slowly numbing arms trying to keep what little warmth I had. I slipped back under the covers shivering like a scared Chihuahua.

With sudden realization I sat straight up in bed and looked down at my bruised body. I rubbed my eyes and tried to remember how I had gotten home. I remember coughing blood, then nothing… Blank. Did the teacher find me? Or was it Jen… I frowned he had been the only one there, maybe he got the teacher. Which meant the whole school knew I had been hurt!

I groaned pulling the blanket up to cover my face, what stories would Harely make up about this? My life was as good as over, I knew it was. Well might as well get this over and done with, I slid from bed and got dressed in my blue skinny jeans and a baggy black sweater. I paused for a moment to hug myself tightly to harbor all the heat I could before I moved anymore.

I pulled my black and red stripped hat and tugged it on over my messy bed head hair, it was too cold for me to really care. I walked over towards my bedroom door and took a deep breath in mentally preparing myself for what the rest of the day would hold. I needed to get out of the house, and wasn’t about to wait till morning. I usually went out at strange hours, Ofelia never had a problem then. But now the thought of her catching me made me think otherwise about her reaction.

I frowned as I opened the door and crept out into the quiet hallway. I could hear her soft snores from her bedroom downstairs, I stepped down the stairs and listened to every creak waiting for Ofelia to wake up and catch me. This voice in the back of my head told me it would be a bad idea to go outside. I knew my destination, I knew where I was going to end up. I wanted to go to the carnival, if it was there then the past few weeks hadn’t been some horribly constructed dream that I would wake up from any moment.

I stepped down into the main level of the house and looked around. Everything was quiet, calm, peaceful and sleeping. Silently I snuck towards the front door slipping on my flats before I snuck out the front door with my red scarf. I quickly wrapped it around my neck un-tucking my hair letting it free in the chilling night breeze. I jogged down the front walkway and headed into the forest, the wind was cold and sharp, I could see my breath as it froze in the night air.

I hugged the sweater to my body as I walked forward my eyes locked on the sky. The large moon was slowly filling, by the end of the month it would be full. Just in time for Halloween, just in time for the carnival and hopefully Jera and his jackass brother to disappear with it. I broke into a sprint towards the hypnotizing lights that flashed bright cheery colours at me, the music that surrounded the carnival was drawing me in closer to it pulling me.

I walked through the crowds of people bumping into other kids from school. The bruises hurt and now my chest was aching, I should have stayed home. Or gone back when I saw the carnival was here, what if Jera was here? What would I do, I could try and run away, scream maybe? And accomplish what? My entire school thought I was dating him, I gritted my teeth as frustration burned in my chest. Then why was I here?

This was pointless and stupid what the hell! I turned slowly something in the corner of my eye had caught my attention. I turned and saw nothing, I could have sworn I had seen Jen. Or somebody with silver hair, I frowned and turned away from it. The world seemed to slow down around me, I gasped and stumbled backwards.

“A world alone for you to hold…” The voice was familiar to me but the memories were just out of grasp.

I looked down at my closed right hand, I could hear the carnival music in the back of my head. Slowly I opened my hand in front of me and stared down at the trinket that sat perfectly. It was a porcelain carousel, when my hand flattened the lights under the tent lit up brightening the glass horses adorned with bright festive head gear. The poles stuck through their backs were gold and shone in the light emitted from the roof of the trinket.

The music box song began to play as the horses danced around in a circle led by the rotating carousel. The hypnotic prancing paired with the music was drawing me in. Slowly the world around me dissolved and I was left with only the sound of the carousel in the back of my head creating a mist that fogged up my eyesight. My legs became clay and crumbled away. My eyes only saw the horses and the carousel. The only world I saw was what revolved around the glass horses that pranced and galloped without stretching a muscle.

They moved round and round circling in an endless cycle. The music escalated, the song growing drowning out my own thoughts. It was like a being, hungry, predatorily, consuming me was its main objective. My hand n longer supported the glass carousel, it now sat in front of me. The horses reared up and whinnied at me. Making me stumbled backwards startled as they moved clomping their hooves against the base of the carousel. They had come to life!

“Creation is like clay, you can mold it into anything. But if not cared for, will crumble” That voice again, I knew I really did.

I looked up at the pitch black sky, no stars no moon. Had it been dark this whole time? The only light came from the carousel. I stepped towards it and found myself falling like a leaf through the air, leaving behind the glass horses. The music from the carousel faded as I fell deeper and farther away from the world. My hand reached up to grab the entrance to the pit, instead my hand closed around the small glass trinket.

Cold and lifeless kept safe in my hand. I blinked and was flooded with carnival music, flashing lights, screams and laughs, the sound of roller coasters and game vendors. I gasped and stumbled on the muddy over trodden ground. I looked up at the sky and counted stars, the moon a small sliver in the indigo sky.

There was a sudden weight in my hand and I looked down bringing my hand up. I opened my fingers flattening my palm again. There sat the glass carousel. The lights out and the glass aged and cracked. The song started again but the lights didn’t come on. The horses remained frozen in place, their lifeless eyes watched me. A child pushed by me holding his mother’s hand as he ran forward a giddy smile brightened his narrow face and brown eyes.

He pointed forward and I looked up, my eyes grew wide. How had I not seen it, sitting in front of me was the carousel. The same one I came to every year. The one that I lost my parents on. The horses shone like glass, their posts looked like twined gold ropes. They had been adorned with bright colorful head pieces and saddles. Their frightened dark dead eyes watched me attentively.  I held my new glass carousel up to it and smiled at the replica.

“I’m losing my mind, I think I’m going crazy” I whispered, “Or am I?” I murmured lowering my hand.

I stepped through the crowd towards the familiar lights and music that pulled me here in the first place. I looked over the person in front of me and felt my eyes grow wide. Harely was on my horse, my stomach tightened and I backed up a step. Then I saw Jen, his hair for a heartbeat appeared to be longer, still shaved at the sides but now dipped down past his knees. I blinked and it was gone, I rubbed my eyes and looked back up at them on the carousel. My stomach felt knotted while my brain was filled with white noise.

I stumbled backwards out of the crowd, hugging the carousel to my chest as I turned running out of the carousel grounds. Back across the empty stretch of field towards the ominous forest. Why did I have to see that, I didn’t want to see Harely on my horse. She hated carousels anyway, Jen that bastard. Him and his brother could both go. To. Hell!

“Hey There Beautiful”