Set It Off || One Shots

Carnival

Month: September 2019

[Maxx Danziger]

Right before Halloween, my school holds a Halloween carnival. It's almost like a regular carnival, but more fitting to the Halloween theme.

In that carnival, there is a maze, apple bobbing, a genuine haunted house. There is more, but those are the most used main attractions as a regular carnival is still within' the Halloween one. Everyone from school goes unless they can't. If a person can't go, they have to tell the school, because the school has to keep track of everyone that is in the carnival.

As every Hallows eve, the carnival is at night. The first year that the school did the Halloween Carnival, the school didn't do glow stick accessories. And us being high schoolers, we would forget to bring flashlights, as you would expect the school to have that. Oh no! They couldn't be bothered. Four years later, they did finally sell flashlights and glow stick accessories for the people who don't want flashlights.

But, before I forget to say it, the three years without any light within' the attractions, some kids have gone missing. Though those students going missing isn't something to worry about, as the school says. Though the students weren't known, so them going missing wasn't a surprise. But what was a surprise is that it seemed like nobody cared, no one at all. 

So that fateful October 31, 1999, my friends and I went to the haunted house. To investigate what is happening with those students.

It's Cody, Zach, and I going on the small adventure. Dan couldn't come as his mother needed him for something, but he didn't specify when we were talking on the walkie talkie.

We're at the entrance of the carnival, walkie talkies in our backpacks, in case anything goes wrong. We have our tickets, as we needed to get them to get into the fair.

"You ready?" Cody questions.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Zach hesitated.

"What about you, Maxx?" Cody questioned.

"'Bout the same," I spoke.

"Alright!" He kicked off, "Let's start the adventure."

And after that, we began to walk to the house. Once we got there, there was a Ticketmaster.

"How many going in?" He first questioned with a raspy voice.

"Uh," I began, "All three, how much tickets?"

"You sure you want to go in, youngsters?" He rasped.

"Yes," Zach confirmed.

"Alright, one ticket each," He stated.

"Is that it?" Cody asked.

"Is that it?" The man repeated, "Yes."

It clicked into his brain that Cody was talking about tickets.

"You can go in," He motioned for us to move inside the house.

"We'll see you on the flip side," I responded.

"If you survive," The man muttered.

We didn't respond, just walked into the house, through the front door.

"We are going to stay together unless otherwise," Stated Cody.

"Yeah, even though Scooby-Doo is cool, I just don't want to die," Zach admitted. Cody and I hummed in agreement. 

"Let's get the show on a road," I told them.

It was a victorian style house. The year I'm guessing is somewhere between the 1800s and the early 1900s. From what I can tell, the interior and exterior haven't updated in years. Maybe that's because there isn't an actual owner, the state owns the house and rents it to different people.

"Where should we go first?" Zach whispered.

"Uh," Cody stuttered before getting an idea, "Basement."

"Oh, so you choose the creepy place," I laughed as Cody looked away from the group.

"Yeah," He admitted.

And we began to walk to the basement. Every so often hearing the house creak with the weight of all three of us.

We finally reached the basement and not my surprise; the door was open.

"Who dares to go first," I jokingly ask.

It was surprising that Cody didn't volunteer to go down first, as he usually does. Zach didn't move, and he didn't make any eye contact with us.

"I guess I'll go first," I muttered, taking my first couple of steps.

As I was nearing the bottom of the steps, I turned to see if Cody and Zach moved. They didn't, not one move from when I was up there.

"Aren't you guys coming down?" I questioned.

They didn't move; they didn't speak; it was as if they weren't alive.

I moved my feet up the stairs, going to poke one of them.

"Hello?" I poked Zach in the shoulder.

Nothing, no reaction, it doesn't even look like he's breathing. So I moved to Cody, I poked him in the should, like I did Zach. Still nothing, absolutely nothing.

I give up! I went back to the spot I was and looked back up the stairs. I was two steps from the end of the staircase when I hear a gasp or more like an in-sync gasp.

I turned around once more to see Cody and Zach with shocked expressions on their faces.

"What?" I asked.

"Uh, um," Cody choked out.

"Come on man, tell me," I pleaded.

"Uh, I think there is something behind you," He spoke, but his voice getting quieter and quieter every word until it was above a whisper.

"Wha—" Before I could even finish my sentence I felt something grab me by my waist and plunged me into the darkness.

All I could hear was the sound of Cody screaming, Zach as well. I couldn't hear my screaming, it was too loud. Everything was too loud, but it settled down, as now I couldn't hear anything, not even the sound my breathing.

It was dark.

It was cold.

I couldn't feel anything.

I couldn't think.

I couldn't see.

Nothing.

Just darkness.

=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|=

and that's where it ends! i hope that it turned out good, if not, feel free to leave suggestions on where it could be fixed.

as i am always looking for suggestions to improve my writing skill!

and tbh i don't think this is truly about a carnival, maybe it is, or i just really wanted to talk about victorian houses. but anyways, i hope whoever is reading this has a good day or night!

- Maxx