CarnEvil

Red. The fastest colour on the spectrum. Red surrounds her. It is her favourite colour. Her name is Ruby Adamson. Red reminds her of her best friend, Scarlett Redmond. Scarlett has bright red hair as opposed to her long black tresses. Scarlett and Ruby have been best friends for 10 years. It was back in 2nd grade when they first noticed that when they stand together, they resemble a beautiful cardinal. Black and red hair, black and red feathers. Ruby stands on the gravel and admires the view with Scarlett. The night is young and the sky is dark. The soft grey clouds inch across the sky. They walk through the entrance that is decorated with colourful lights. Young children surround a clown that is making all kinds of balloon animals for them. A girl dressed like a doll sells cotton candy and other carnival treats. Scarlett bought a stick of cotton candy but Ruby is distracted by a woman dressed as a fortune teller. Ruby turns to Scarlett to show her the woman but by the time she caught Scarlett’s attention, the woman disappeared.

Red and white stripes surround them as they walk through the carnival. Cotton candy melts sweetly on Scarlett’s tongue. The laughter of children and carnival music is harmonious. They climb on to the carousel and ride around and around again and again. Ruby’s blue eyes are attracted to the stars above, spinning around like they were caught in a tornado. Scarlett adores the way the colourful lights reflect off of the glimmering sugar. The melodious staccato music from the carousel harmonizes with their laughter. Ruby swings around to sit side ways on the moving horse and wraps her legs around the pole. She tightens her grip on the ride and leans back to look up at the sky, her hair flies behind her in the wind. Scarlett laughs at her, she is not as reckless as Ruby.

A single drop of water falls down from the grey clouds on to Ruby’s rosy cheek. She hears thunder as a sheet of rain suddenly falls. Ruby and Scarlett are dry under the top of the carousel but they can’t stay there. Lightning strikes across the sky as the clouds grow heavier. Thunder booms loudly and water begins to leak off of the carousel top as it continues to spin around and around.

Ruby carefully gets off of her horse. Scarlett joins her in a carriage on the carousel for extra shelter from the sudden storm. The carousel spins faster. Sparks begin to fly as the electrical wires come loose from spinning faster than the carousel was built to handle. Scarlett contemplates if it is because of the water or if lightning had struck the carousel. The girls shut their eyes tightly and decide to wait on fate’s decision. Storms don’t last forever. Ruby opens her eyes and notices that they were spinning backwards. She shuts her eyes and waits for the spinning to stop. The carousel music is stuck on repeat of one eerie note. Scarlett opens her eyes when she couldn’t hear the thunder or lightning anymore. There was no rain. They were spinning backwards but much slower than before.

“Let’s jump off of this thing!” Ruby says. Scarlett nods and they get out from behind the carriage. They jump off of the carousel into a big puddle. They begin to laugh at their near death experience. Relief and fresh air never tasted so good to their lungs. Scarlett proceeds to fix her dress and her hair. Ruby looks around at the empty carnival. Everything looks different. There is no laughter or happiness. Fog surrounds them.

“This place looks haunted.” Scarlett notices. Ruby agrees. The sign that once read: “Line up to ride” now reads “Line up to DIE”. Scarlett laughs hesitantly at the sign. “This is obviously some kind of prank or reality T.V. show that I’m going to sue!” Scarlett shouts.

They run straight to the entrance of the carnival. They dash out of the carnival entrance and then see the same entrance ahead of them. They run through it again only to see it in front of them again. They look at each other in confusion and turn around. Everything behind them stays the same and the entrance is always in front of them. They cannot run out of here.

“We’re trapped here! We’re gonna die here!” Scarlett cries. Ruby thumps her in the head.

“Snap out of it. Let’s find another way out.” Ruby says.

“That hurt!” Scarlett says.

The girls run down the same path they took when they first came to the carnival. Signs that once read: “Carnival” now read “CarnEvil”.

“That’s not a good sign.” Scarlett says. They stop to catch their breath.

“Candy! Buy your delicious candied hearts here!” The girl dressed as a doll calls out to the girls. She looks almost the same except she never blinks and her hands are covered in blood. She pulls out a human heart from where the apples are supposed to be, dips it in red syrup and shoves a wooden stick into it. Scarlett and Ruby back away discreetly.

“Let’s have some fun! This is fun! Fun! Bloody murderous fun! This is gonna be fun!” the clown laughs as he looks directly at the girls. He has a bloody knife in his hand.

“Nope!” Scarlett says. The girls look at each other and race as fast as they can. Ruby grabs Scarlett’s hand and they duck into a tent. They hold the little breath that they have and wait. Fear consumes them entirely. Scarlett is visibly shaking. Ruby might even cry. Their hearts beat against their ribcages as if it was trying to escape into the clown’s mouth just to be rid of the fear.

“Scarlett, that’s the woman I saw before!” Ruby says. The woman smiles and doesn’t blink.

“She’s creepy.” Scarlett notices.

“Please help us. I saw you before this mess. How do we go back?” Ruby asks.

“She’s not going to help us. We should go before she turns into a monster, too!” Scarlett says.

“Ring around the rosy! A pocket full of posies! Ashes! Ashes! We all fall down! Ring around, around, around, around, around…” The woman sings. She gets stuck like a tape recorder on the word. Ruby sighs in disappointment. Scarlett silently nudges Ruby in the direction of the exit. The woman begins to twitch, her eyes turn white and the girls leave immediately. They turn out of the tent and into a maze of mirrors. Ruby reaches for Scarlett so they can’t be separated but her hand touches a cold glass mirror. The girls dart through the maze and constantly see reflections of the other. Every time they collide with a mirror is a disappointment. Scarlett stops seeing Ruby’s reflection.

“Ruby! Ruby! Ruby! Where are you?” Scarlett calls but there is no reply. She hears a thump like someone falling against a mirror and she turns around. A woman with pale eyes and black hair peers through the mirror. Her face is covered in blood and she bares her fangs at Scarlett; she’s a vampire. That’s when Scarlett finally sees Ruby. The vampire lady grabs Ruby’s hand and bites her wrist. Ruby screams and disappears with the vampire. Scarlett runs to them and collides with another mirror. “No!” She yells and kicks the mirror. Scarlett turns around and faces a mirror that’s reflective glass is like liquid. She touches it and ripples break across the surface like water. Scarlett takes a deep breath. Scarlett summons up all the bravery she has within her and steps through the mirror. On the other side is an empty room covered in red and white stripes. The floor, ceiling and four walls were all red and white stripes. She hadn’t noticed it at first but the room is closing in. She backs up into a corner and the ceiling hits her head. She hugs her knees and shuts her eyes tight, praying for the safety of her best friend. One of the walls break and she tumbles out to the dirt. She scrambles to her feet.

“Come on!” Ruby calls to her over the sound of snarls and rain. They are surrounded by monstrous creatures. Scarlett sprouts up from the floor and hugs her best friend. “I know what the fortune teller was trying to say! Follow me!” Ruby says. Scarlett nods. She trusts her best friend with her life and is mostly overwhelmed with joy that Ruby is alive and well. Ruby leads them back to the carousel. Monsters growl at them from all angles. Ruby runs to the control panel and turns the ride on. The eerie note spills out into the air and covers the sound of the rain. Ruby and Scarlett climb back into the carriage. Scarlett doesn’t want to keep looking at the monsters so she shuts her eyes. The growls of the monsters fade away and the carousel song begins to play as it once did before; melodically.

The girls open their eyes to see reality. Ruby and Scarlett fixed their hair and calmly walk through the carnival. They strictly avoid the girl who sells candy and the clown that makes balloon animals. They walk to the exit and pass the entrance without it appearing ahead of them again. The girls quickly exit the carnival and get into the car.

“Sleep over tonight?” Ruby asks.

“Yeah, I don’t want to be alone and I don’t know anyone who would believe me except you.” Scarlett says.

When they got to Ruby’s house, they got ready for bed immediately. As much as Ruby tried, she was too exhausted to stay up and talk. She just passed out as soon as her head hit the pillow. Scarlett laughed at her best friend. She was still really glad that Ruby was okay. There was a pit in her stomach. She didn’t want to know but she looked anyway. Red. There was a red bite shaped wound on Ruby’s wrist. Scarlett shakes her head and turns off the light. Black. The darkest shade of the spectrum. Black consumes her consciousness.

…The End…