The Stars Were Beautiful That Night

9:00

"𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓇𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝒶𝓊𝓉𝒾𝒻𝓊𝓁 𝓉𝑜𝓃𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉."

17 year old Liz said to her best friends since middle school, Kelsey and Willow. Liz was wearing her favorite blue jeans and a dusty grey tank top that had a sunset on it.

Liz, Kelsey, and Willow were sitting on a hill gazing at the stars. The four of them had spent all day at the carnival and so they were taking a break on a grassy hill nearby.

"Wait, where's Amber?" Willow asked as she took her hand out of her misty teal sweatshirt to brush her short brown hair behind her ear.

All of a sudden, Amber appeared behind Liz with a clown mask on her face. There was a dark black fibery string holding the mask to Amber's face. The mask was a regular clown mask that you can find at any party store. The only exception was that the mask had blood on the side of it. The blood looked too realistic to be a sham. Along with the mask, Amber was rocking black combat boots, a white lacy tank top, and a shirt she bought at a carnival stand. Without a sound, Amber popped up from the side of Liz to scare her.

"Blurhhhhh!!" Amber yelled while giggling and pretending her hands were claws.

Liz let out a blood curdling scream and pulled her legs and head to her chest. Liz has feared clowns her whole life. When Liz was little, her 14 year old neighbor would always babysit her. The teenager tormented her with clown masks. Liz still hates him.

"That's not funny!" Liz yelled as she got up and started chasing Amber.

Kelsey and Willow sat up and burst out laughing. PLOP! Willow and Kelsey turned to see that Liz jumped on top of Amber!

'Oh no!' Kelsey thought, 'She's gonna hit Amber!'

Contrary to what Kelsey was thinking, Liz started tickling Amber instead!

"Stop it! Stop it!" Amber yelled in between giggles, but Liz kept tickling her.

~~~

A lot of laughs and tickling later, the girls decided to get a snack. Kelsey and Amber walked over to a corn dog stand run by an older gentleman. He had grey, almost white, featherlike hair. The man was smiling ear to ear with visible laugh wrinkles across his face. He was wearing a white apron over an indigo polo and brown khakis.

"Why, hello there young ladies!" the man said smiling "My name's Geoffrey, what can I do ya for?

Amber smiled and answered, "Four corn dogs please."

Geoffrey quickly whipped up some corn dogs for the girls.

While she was waiting, Kelsey noticed a poster on the side of the stand.

"Is this carnival boring? The real fun begins at 10:00pm. 16+ only please." Kelsey read aloud as Amber paid for their corn dogs, "That seems a bit shady."

"Not like we have anything better to do." Amber replied before taking a bite of her corn dog.

Geoffrey's smile faded. His eyes narrowed. Geoffrey had a look of fear on his face.

"I wouldn't go to that if I were you girls." Geoffrey said quietly, the blissful tone in his voice, gone.

"Wh-" Kelsey started to say

"Whatever, let's head back." Amber interrupted

Amber grasped Kelsey's hand and started walking back to Liz and Willow.

"You're acting different." Kelsey muttered

Liz and Willow were sitting on the hill and talking calmly... Until Liz saw that Amber was carrying corn dogs! Liz charged Amber for her corn dog, and almost knocked her over. Meanwhile, Willow got up and calmly walked over to Amber.

Kelsey started to tell the others about the flyer as she sat down on the hill, "I know we were planning on leaving soon, but Amber and I saw thi-" but Amber cut her off.

"O-M-G! Kelsey and I saw this SUPER cool poster for some fun event that starts at 10!" Amber breathlessly explained

"We should ...definitely ... stay for that!" Liz replied in between bites

"Definitely! What time is it now?" Willow smiled.

"It's 9:30 right now." Amber retorted as she threw out her corn dog's stick, "I'm sure we'll be able to pass the time."

Amber, Liz, and Willow eagerly talked about what to do in the meantime and how excited they were for this event. But Kelsey wasn't. Kelsey was distraught by what the man had said.

The words haunted her. .

"I wouldn't go to that if I were you girls."

"Geoffrey works here, he would know what's going on... right?" Kelsey thought to herself "I need to go back there."

"Hey, I think I saw a bathroom by Whack-A-Mole. I'll be right back." Kelsey swiftly excused herself and walked away before the girls could even bat an eye.

When Kelsey was safely out of view point from the girls, she hastily went back over to the corn dog stand. Geoffrey wasn't there. She looked around, but couldn't find him anywhere.

"That's weird..." The flyer from prior was gone as well, "Maybe it flew away." Kelsey hopped that was the case, at least

Despite still feeling weary of this event, Kelsey went back to her friends.