The buttery smell of popcorn, joyful calliope melodies and the thrilled screams of children filled the air. The summer state fair had once again sprouted dusty canvas tents, junk food carts and bulb-speckled rides. In the back, the self-proclaimed "Scariest Ride in the World" kept most sugar-sticky kids at bay, but not Seth.
Seth smirked at the haunted house ride, festooned with carved and painted skulls, serpents and spiders. He puffed his chest then marched through the mouth-shaped entrance unafraid.
His eyes fought to adjust to the darkness, and he nearly yelped at the sight of the decrepit ticket taker extending an open palm. Seth grumbled as he fished for a ticket and placed it into the wrinkled hand. The grinning old man pointed a bony finger to the solitary cart sitting on the track. Seth approached and slid into the wooden seat, and the rickety cart clacked along the track into the darkness ahead.
The cart rattled on the rails past dusty animatronic dummies; a cackling witch to his left, a shoddy ghoul to his right. A laughable rubber ghost charged on a zipline and a jiggling rubber spider straight out of a Halloween supply store dropped and dangled above him. "Scary my ass," Seth huffed then spat a loogie onto a cheap plastic skeleton. Bored, he stood up and hopped from the slow-moving cart onto the floor beside the track.
He began to kick at the motorized ghouls and stuffed black cats. He even unzipped his jeans and pissed inside a shadowy alcove, nearly yelping when a surprisingly realistic bat flapped out from within, nicking his forehead. Ignoring the sting, he chuckled as he kicked over plastic gravestones and yanked fake cobwebs down from the ceiling. Seth laughed as he strolled back outside onto the sunlit fairground.
In the following days, Seth bragged to his peers about his exploits on the childish ride. He neglected the two tiny red dots on his forehead, which began to tingle and itch. A week passed before Seth fell ill with what seemed like the common flu. Days later, an intense feeling of dread haunted his every waking moment, and he writhed in constant agitation. By the time he'd confessed about how he'd gotten the tiny bite, the rabies virus had penetrated his brain.
Seth would soon be unable to drink water, violently coughing it from his stinging throat. Hallucinations more horrific than his darkest nightmares would torment him daily. Spasmodic contractions would ripple through his aching muscles as he lay strapped to a hospital bed, foaming at the mouth. Seth would tremble and moan in absolute agony in those long days before his certain death. But that relief would come much later, for the scariest ride in the world had only just begun.
