The Devil's Carnival

The Carnival and the Children

It had been almost an hour with still no sign of rescue and so everyone had found a spot next to the asphalt to take a seat. Danielle had extended her offering of cigarettes to Amanda who had gratefully accepted but Mina again passed it up. The collective mood of all those present was quite glum and getting worse by the second. As Danielle brought her last cigarette to her mouth and struck the lighter when there was a loud roar behind them followed by several flashes of light. It sounded like a small centralized thunder storm. All at once everyone leapt up and turned on their heels to see the source of the commotion. As they stood staring at the massive red tent that seemed to have just popped out of nowhere only a short distance from where they had sat a moment ago Danielle’s cigarette fell from her lips for the second time. “That was not there when we got here.” They stared in awe as music slowly filled the air. It sounded like an out of tune organ playing tune that, although foreign, seemed strikingly familiar. The tent had a dark gleam to it and disturbed as much as it enthralled. As if in a daze Amanda and Brian stepped closer, but stopped when another flash of light illuminated two smaller red and white tents next to the massive big top. “It’s so pretty.” It was anything but and why Amanda had called it that was as much a mystery to her as it was to everyone else. She wasn’t the only one how felt strangely drawn to the horrendous thing. Danielle and Allen stepped closer while the rest of them fell into an almost trance like state, everyone except Bob and Mina that is. “Maybe we should go see.” Amanda smiled as she stared and the smiles that spread across numerous faces made it clear they agreed. “No.” Bob quickly raised his voice. “We need to stay close to the bus. If we’re not here when our help comes they will leave us behind.” His pleas fall on deaf ears. As a third flash of light illuminated the desolate darkness they watched as several more attractions filled in the barren landscape. Large rides and game stands decked out in colourful flashing light commanded attention and now there would be no more argument of staying. It may have been greatly attractive to the others but Mina was mortified. Despite the lights and the feris wheel turning with an ominous screech the place looked abandoned and that music wasn’t helping either. To her it looked something out of a nightmare. It looked like the place you went to have your soul torn out your nostrils. That and there were probably some or other kind of clowns. That was worse. “It’s not that far. We’ll still hear the bus.” Brian smiled as he griped Amanda’s hand and the two walked in the direction of the atrocity. “Wait! That’s not a good idea!” Bob tried talking some sense into his people but they had made up their minds. Danielle hooked her arm into Mina’s and started pulling her in the other in the tent’s direction. “Well come on, no need to keep everyone waiting.” No need to keep certain death waiting you mean was what ran through Mina’s mind. “No, I think I’ll stay here.” Mina stood her ground and refused to move another step, but Danielle was not hearing any of it. “Oh come on, we might just get some action.” Danielle pulled her along with little effort even though Mina did her best to resist. “That’s what I’m afraid of.” Not ones to be left out Tom shot a look at his comrades before he followed in the direction of the flashing lights. Michael, a natural born follower, ran after but Allen was not as eager. He was commanded by uncertain dread to not take another step. The further back his companions disappeared the more anxious he got. It was part fear of the unknown and part fear of becoming a social outcast again. The latter won the argument and he ran after the slowly disappearing dots in the istance. Mrs. Gimble could feel in her bones this would end bad and so could Bob. While Mrs. Gimble held tight her brood, whom were becoming more and more restless, Bob’s Coulrophobia set in. The looks of the place made his blood run cold and it wasn’t for obvious reasons. It was a memory from his childhood, a memory of a man that had broken into their home and brandished a knife in his direction. The perpetrator, for reasons only he would know, had been dressed as a clown. When the man had come in through a kitchen window five year old Bob had been in front of the fridge with a glass of milk. He didn’t need a quack to tell him that was the origin of his fear, he simply didn’t have any desire to face it. Even now when faced with a situation like this close to forty years later he found himself shaking just a little. Bob was soon distracted from his distraught thoughts by Mrs. Gimble’s creaming. “It’s the devil!” She called out hysterically. “The devils ‘taking my boys!” For just a moment Bob stood confused but then he noticed it. The Gimble boys were running at full speed in the direction of the big top. Mrs. Gimble was frantic and hopped from one foot to the other like a cat on a hot tin roof but she just couldn’t scrape her thoughts together to figure out what to do. It was only after watching her for a moment that Bob’s hysteria kicked in and not long after he was tippling about just like her. Why he couldn’t get a grip he would never know but finally Mrs. Gimble hit the road running. Once she was off and Bob was faced with the prospect of being left behind alone he followed with hast.