The Perfect Paradise

Avery was having an awesome day. Tests were finally done, it was spring break and she was beaming with happiness. Her 2 best friends Mark and Amelia were in the common room of their college and were puzzled as to why their friend was suddenly so cheerful and happy because Avery usually had a grumpy frown on her face, her standard expression. "So what's the occasion? It's rare to see you of all people smile'' Mark stated. "Nothing. Our tests are done and I was wondering if we could go out somewhere you know, like the three of us'' she replied. "Where exactly do you want to go?" asked Amelia. "I don't know like a fair or a comic convention or a carnival or something. Just away from the university for a while, it's messing with my head these days'' Avery said as a frustrated sigh escaped from her. "Let's try checking out if there are any events worth going to'' said Mark and pulled out his phone to do some research. The other two followed suit and whipped out their phones as well as they frantically started checking out the list of things to do around them. "Hey,. I found something!" Avery yelled excitedly "What is it?" asked Amelia. "There's a carnival at the outskirts of New York and look, it's really cool'' she said and showed her friends the pictures. "Looks neat. Till when is it open?" Mark asked. "It's there for 5 days, excluding this day and it closes at 11:30 pm everyday'' Avery said. "But we aren't going to be staying there for 5 whole days of course. That's going to be absurd, we'll have out fun there and come back to the city. "So when should we go?" asked Amelia. The trio went silent for a few minutes and Avery suggested a crazy yet wonderful idea. "How about right now?" she asked hesitantly as her friends looked at her in surprise. "You can't be serious'' Mark raised an eyebrow at her in surprise and Amelia asked "Are you sure?" "Well yeah. I mean, there's nothing in the way to stop us is there?" asked Avery feeling bold and daring all of a sudden. "Well I suppose not. All right then, we'll go now'' sighed Mark. "Wait... where will we stay though?" asked Amelia. "Oh don't worry, that's already covered. If at all we get delayed in coming back, even though the carnival is something like a one and a half drive from here, there's a nearby hotel we can stay at'' said Avery. "What's the time now?" asked Amelia and Mark replied "It's 5:00 in the evening'' "We still have plenty of time to have fun. Mark you'll drive, chop chop people, we don't have all day now!" Avery clapped her hands and the three of them rushed to Mark's car hearts pounding in their chests at an abnormal rate. Avery sat up at the front with Mark and Amelia was at the back. "This is going to be so exciting! I wonder what all are going to be there'' Amelia gushed. "Only one way to find out. When we get there that is'' smiled Mark and so began their drive to the Carnival

They had a blast on the usual carnival rides like the giant Ferris Wheel, played some cheesy carnival games that were unfortunately rigged and pigged out on every type of food item that was served there. It wasn't the closing time for the carnival yet but they had to get going at 10:00 pm since it was a one and half hour drive to New York city. They piled in the car, laughing and smiling, high from the euphoria they just felt after going on all the rides there. It was dark outside now and there weren't any lights to guide them back to the city. "It's dark outside. Mark why don't you turn on the GPS?" said Avery and he complied but 20 minutes later the signal and connection was lost. "Damn it, the signal here is faulty'' he cursed under his breath and Amelia started growing worried. "Uhm... maybe I'll call someone for directions'' she pulled out her phone but there were no bars on her phone to make a call. "I don't have signal too. This is turning out to be bad'' Amelia said in a worried tone and Avery said "Relax, I'm sure things will be all right'' but secretly even she was starting to get nervous. Mark took some turns here and there and after a while they were certain that they were lost. "Okay, I'll be the first to say it. We're lost'' Avery spoke up. "No we aren't. We'll just have to go on a bit further that's all....'' he said and while he was driving when suddenly a boy with dark mocha brown hair with freckles who looked like he was 14 was running their way. "What the hell!?" Mark exclaimed and immediately made a swift and sharp turn which made them crash into a tree nearby as the boy disappeared almost immediately frightened. Mark cursed under his breath and closed his eyes for a few minutes, thankful he was still in one piece. "Girls are you both all right?" he asked them. Avery's head hit the window at the side and she rubbed it slowly "Yeah... fine. Amelia?" "Yeah... what a shock though. And where is that guy, he's nowhere to be seen...'' she said. "That little punk what the hell was he thinking? Running towards a car in the middle of a highway'' grumbled Mark under his breath. "Well forget him let's just go home'' said Amelia tiredly. Mark tried to start the car but it just made some noises. "Uh oh... looks like we have trouble, the car isn't starting'' he said. "You have got to be kidding me. Where are we going to stay now?" Avery said and threw her hands in the air exasperatedly. "Well, we could always stay in the car'' joked Amelia feebly and Mark spoke "I'll check if there's a nearby place we can stay at. Don't go anywhere all right?" and got out of the car. "It's not like we can actually go anywhere now'' muttered Avery under her breath and gazed out the window. This was not how she'd envisioned her trip to a carnival. Ending up lost at the highway at night with no signal

Mark came back after 15 minutes much to the relief of Amelia and Avery and he said "Well we're in luck since I could see some houses just beyond those trees and yeah I know it's weird. It's like some society but we might have a shot at staying there'' he said and both of them felt relieved. They went to where he said he'd seen the houses and Avery said "Wow...those houses look pretty cool, but isn't it weird that there are houses in the middle of nowhere?" "A bit but we don't really have a choice. We need a place to stay at for the night'' said Amelia and a sudden fleeting thought crossed her mind. "Whatever happened to that boy we saw? I hope he's all right, he just disappeared'' she said. "I'm sure he's fine'' Mark waved his hand as a sign of dismissal and they went towards the houses. "Huh... there's a clock tower in between, how odd'' said Avery. "Do you think these people might kill us something?" asked Amelia feeling nervous as they kept walking. "Don't be ridiculous. We just have to knock on someone's door and ask them if they know a place to stay or something'' said Mark and they finally entered the community of houses. "Even though it's 10 something in the night it's still pretty weird that no one's out. Not even a single soul....'' muttered Avery as they stood on the road. All the houses were white with red roofs and there was a place that looked a lot like a town square. "Is it me or am I having second thoughts of staying at this place? It looks too.... perfect'' said Mark. "Oh who cares, let's just get this over with'' she huffed under her breath and trudged up to someone's door to knock but was greeted with stony silence from the other end. "Huh, it's completely dark. Let's try someone else's house'' said Avery after peering though their window. While they made their way to someone else's house, there were two adults, a paunchy man in a black suit with a blonde haired woman in a black dress. "HALT! What are you doing breaking the rules of the community? You shall be punished for breaking curfew!" the man yelled through a speaker and they three of them just stared at them. "I don't know about you but I'm not sticking around to find out how exactly they'll punish us'' Avery said and as the three of them made an attempt to run, the blonde haired woman snarled "Not so fast" as she pulled out a lasso and bound the three of them together. "Ow-HEY LET US GO!" yelled Avery as the three of them started squirming and struggling in futile. The man and woman got out from the golf cart and the man said in a stern manner "You three should be at home''. "Dude trust me, we'd love to be home but our car broke down'' grumbled Mark under his breath. "Wait... so you three are not from the O.P?" he asked them. "Uh one, we have no idea what the heck the O.P is and number two, we're from New York City. That should have been obvious'' Amelia replied sassily and rolled her eyes at them as the man and woman cast a glance at each other. In just a few seconds they had smiles on their faces and the man spoke "In that case you three are welcome to stay at our visitors center where you can spend the night. And as for you car, we'll have a group of our best workers to get it fixed for you'' as the three of them stared in surprise. Just a few minutes back they were ready to 'punish them' and now they were acting all nice and friendly? Wow, talk about a mood swing. "The accommodations will be perfect for you'' the woman cooed at them as she removed the rope from them

They were led to the guest quarters there and as the entered the room, it was decorated with a sky blue wallpaper with comfy chairs and two medium sized beds along with phones and a table near each bed and a TV as well. "We hope you enjoy your stay'' the man smiled and when they asked who he was, he smiled at them and replied "I'm the mayor of the community'' and left with the woman. As soon as they left Amelia jumped onto one of the beds and sighed happily and while her face was muffled in the cushions on the bed, she spoke "Wow... the mayor was right, this place really is perfect''. "Yeah... perfect creepy that is, check this out. There's no single channel on the TV except for people describing how this place the Ocean Paradise is fantastic and amazing and all that other nonsense'' said Avery her brows knitted together in worry. "You're just being paranoid about nothing now how about we turn off the lights and sleep, we'll leave in the morning tomorrow so it won't be that big of a deal'' said Mark sleepily and switched off the lights. Avery didn't know why she was getting a strange and bad feeling from the place and she wasn't liking it one bit. She tossed and turned on the bed next to Amelia as her friend slept. She finally ended up falling asleep 15 minutes later after ignoring the feeling in her gut. But what none of them knew was that there was a camera spying on the three of them in the room as they were sleeping

While they were sleeping another strange incident took place. The boy who they'd run into knocked on their window before being dragged by two people and that was what woke Avery up. She heard someone knock the window a few times and heard a faint 'Help Me' before disappearing and she quickly woke her friends

"What's going on?" asked Mark sleepily and she hurriedly replied "There's someone calling for help, we need to help them. Come on!" she said frantically and Amelia stopped her saying "What are we even going to do? We're not from around here" "Still... that person could be in danger. You both stay here if you want, I'll be back'' she huffed and turned on the door handle but it didn't budge. "That's weird....'' muttered Avery and stared hard at it. "I'll try opening the windows'' said Mark but they found out that it was locked. "Great.... how are we going to escape from this damned place?" sighed Amelia. Avery looked around thinking of a way to escape when she suddenly saw the vents above as yet another crazy idea popped into her head. "That way'' she smiled as she brought a chair, stood on it and opened the vents. They climbed through them and came out of the building

"Now do you guys agree with me?" asked Avery and Amelia replied "This is no time to be cocky, someone needs our help''. They heard the clock tower chiming and Mark frowned. "Why is that thing chiming at this ungodly hour of the day? Something's not right here''. "We'll worry about that later, right now we have to find that person'' said Avery. They could still hear some muffled screaming piercing through the silent atmosphere and as they traced it, they saw them take the boy to some sort of cellar. When they went inside, they cautiously looked around to see if there was anyone there. "Wow... this place looks like a high tech lab but what's it used for?" exclaimed Avery. "Guess we have to find out'' said Mark grimly and as they kept walking, they could see light coming from one of the rooms. As they peered from around the corner, they saw the boy strapped to a table and the Mayor muttering something about inserting a chip inside his mind so he'd be the perfect person as the woman who tried to capture them with a lasso before was clicking on some buttons on a panel of a machine. "What the hell?!" gasped Amelia softly. "This is exactly like those overrated spy movies'' said Avery as they watched what was going on. "We can't just sit around doing nothing, we need to do something!" hissed Avery under her breath but unfortunately for them they were caught by someone who was out. "HEY! TRESPASSERS! GET THEM!" as they looked up and that was when the three of them knew they had to get out of there. But they were unsuccessful as they were caught and they Mayor smiled at them in a sickly manner and said "Your behavior was quite concerning to us as we watched you through the cameras in the guest room but don't worry, we'll have that bad behavior of yours neutralized soon~" "You were watching us?! What is wrong with you, you creep?" Amelia wrinkled her nose in disgust as the woman spoke "Be quiet. It is rude to speak in such a disrespectful tone to an elder!'' "I bet this whole thing has something to do with that damn machine... if only there's a way to destroy it...'' Avery thought to herself and she saw some blue solution in a container. Avery made a beeline for it and before anyone could stop her she spilled it on the machine as the adults were furious with what she'd done. That was also Mark and Amelia's cue to untie the poor boy. He told them that they were being mind controlled into being the perfect citizens and they'd destroyed the source. Avery was about to get hit by the Mayor as the woman and the other person who caught them lurking around tried to get hold of them but they fought back and defended themselves. Avery grabbed a metal container she found nearby and hit the Mayor on the head with it which caused him to pass out cold. The other two suffered the same fate as well and after they fished for a phone from the Mayors' pocket they called the NYC Police department telling them what happened and where they were

They reached in a matter of 45 minutes and they were thankful that the drama was over. It turned out that the parents of the Ocean Paradise community tried to mind control their kids so they'd be good citizens. The parents were arrested and made to attend counseling sessions on how to be better parents. As for Avery, Mark and Amelia, they were given a ride home by the police officers and they'd promised that they'd fix Marks' car

"Wow... talk about perfection taken to whole nother level'' said Avery to her friends. "Yeah well, there's no such thing as perfect. Everything has it's flaws'' said Mark and Amelia continued "And there's no human being that can be perfect'' as the three of them fell silent again and got absorbed and lost in their own thoughts. This certainly was an adventure to remember... who knew? A harmless trip to a carnival took an unexpected turn to a paradise that has too many secrets about it's people.... It's like people say, 'Nothing ever goes as planned in life'....