The Carnival Freakout

Tomorrow was my special day. I am going to go to the carnival for the first time. And not just any carnival, a supposedly haunted one! You might think, oh! So scary! I would never go! But, I don’t believe it’s haunted. I heard some stories about people going missing there, but I’m pretty sure they’re just rumors. My mom had never let me go to the carnival, I never knew why, she never told me. She was always like “No Guedado!” Now that I am 18 and moved out, I decided to go. I don’t know many people in the area. It's an okay, medium-sized town that's a little popular, so how could the Carnival be “dangerous or haunted?” I’m going at night tomorrow, I mean come on? It’s a carnival! Carnivals are better at night with all of the lights and everything! It’s going to be packed with people, how is it going to be haunted? That night, before I went to bed, I called my sister, I trusted her, so I knew that she wouldn’t tell mom that I was going to the Carnival. I had to call my sister twice before she could answer.

“Hey Rue, so sorry that I didn’t find the time to call you before, I just moved here and it’s been a little busy,” I said when she picked up the phone.

“No haha, you’re fine Gued, I get it. Have you talked with Gizem yet?” My sister replied.

“I haven’t, I wish I could speak to her but like I said, I barely have the time to talk with anyone ever since I moved here, I promise I will try to find time to speak to the whole family.”

“Well we can’t talk to dad,” She gave a small laugh mixed with a cough after she said that, “because, you know, the incident.”

I remembered that awful day when my dad went missing. It was my worst day of his life. I didn’t even know it happened, one day my dad just left for work and never came back, even after three years. I stood still in the silence, I could hear my own breath, it was that quiet. 

“Gued, you still there?” My sister said.

“Oh yeah, sorry, but anyway, I’m going to the Carnival tomorrow night! I honestly just want to see what it’s like since I’ve never been.”

“What? You can’t go, you know what mother said about going to Carnivals, it’s forbidden!”

“Yeah yeah, but so what, Do I live under her roof? No. Am I an adult now? Yes! See, I have every right to do so.” I was trying to persuade her, but I don’t know if it was working.

“I’m sorry but I have to tell mom.” Right then, she hung up without even saying goodbye. How could she do this to me? I was her brother, I trusted her with my life, but now, she lost all of the respect I had for that gal. I decided to go to bed after that hard call. I hoped that I would sleep peacefully.

I’m at the carnival! It was 7:00 at night and everything was lit up. The Ferris wheel looked amazing and so did the Zipper. I had always seen so many videos of the Zipper, it was the coolest ride ever! I went to the booth where you can buy a wristband or tickets.

“Hi, may I have a one-night pass wristband please?” I asked the Carny. He didn’t do anything, he just stood there. Then after a couple of seconds, he opened the gate to me. Strange I thought. Everyone else was paying for the tickets, why wasn’t I? I moved quickly to go to the Zipper. There was such a long line. Everyone in front of me creepily turned around and stared at me. They all stepped back and motioned me to go to the front. Were all Carnivals like this? Did they let people that have never gone skip to the front of the line? I felt bad for getting special treatment, I didn’t deserve it.

It was my turn to go on the Zipper, I went to one of the carts. No one else gets on. What was happening? I buckled up and the ride started going. It was super high-speed! I have never felt more alive than right now! After a couple of seconds of screaming and yelling, the ride stopped and I got off. Right after I got off, the conductor said the ride was out of order and motioned the people in line to leave. How was it broken? It was working fine just a minute ago! The people that stepped out of line motioned me to the inflatable clown mouth, it was weird being led somewhere, maybe these people knew what they were doing. I go in and a clown pops up and starts screaming, I scream along with the clown.

I woke up screaming. I had just had the worst dream ever. I checked the time, 4:38 AM my bright electric clock said. Should I go to the Carnival after all? Why did this happen to me, was it a sign? Then I remembered, all of my dreams are fake, none of mine have become true. But this was the only dream I remember. I looked at my phone. Six missed calls from Mom. Oh gosh.

I did not want to call my mom, but I knew I had to. I dialed her number, I wasn’t expecting her to answer, but she did. 

“Hey, mom.” I greeted.

“Regret unwanted mystery.” She said in a weird voice.

“Huh, mom are you okay?”

“Regret unwanted mystery, regret unwanted mystery. Regret. Unwanted. Mystery.” Then I heard the call end tone. What did she mean to regret unwanted mystery? The only memory I have from my childhood is our mom telling Rue to never regret anything, she told me that I was to not do anything unwanted, and she told my younger sister that there will always be mysteries. I decided to go back to sleep to get my mind off of this. 

I woke up at almost 11, I had a horrible headache. I didn’t know what to do. Many hours go by, then suddenly, I get a text message from my sister saying “What did you do to mom?” I ignored her, I did nothing! She's the one that told her that I was going to a Carnival and then my mom freaked out. I had nothing to do for the rest of the day, by now, it was 4, three more hours until I could go. I decided to get ready. I got the clothes I needed and hopped in the shower. I had so many shower thoughts, I didn’t know what to do. Then I remembered, what’s like without a little bit of risk? I had to go to the fair to actually enjoy something. I got out of the shower at about 4:45 and put on my corduroy khaki pants and slipped on my plain black shirt and a white sweatshirt on top that I had gotten from Goodwill. I relaxed and watched TV for the rest of the time. At around 6:45, I started driving to the Carnival. It was in the countryside of our town. I parked my 1995 silver Honda Civic as near to the entrance as I could. I went to the entrance and paid my $10 entrance fee just like I imagined. As I was entering the crowd, a man gave me a map while I walked directly to the ticket booth. I asked for the night pass wristband so I don’t have to pay for tickets for everything, and it was worth more. I paid and put on the purple wristband. I looked at the map, there were a bunch of rides on there, this place was pretty shocking for a Carnival. The place was crowded, how could it be bad? I looked around and saw the Area 51 ride, the Ferris wheel, fortune teller, and the food trucks. My sister texted me again asking if I've seen mom and that mom isn’t at her house. I ignored her of course, this was my time. As I was wandering around, someone spoke to me.

“You should go to the clown house, it's rad.” This same man that gave me the map told me. I have wanted to go in it ever since I had the dream. Dreams are fake, this clown house cannot be anything like it. I followed the dude for a while, then I lost him. It was okay, I had the map. I took a glimpse at the map. Nothing on there. Just a minute ago, the whole Carnival had been on there, it was like a trick I thought. I turned the map over and saw one little ride there. The Clown House. What a coincidence I thought. This map was crazy, it had an arrow pointing where to go. I followed it around, but it took me to a corn maze. Was the Clown House in the corn maze? The corn maze was in the carnival, so I thought that it would be safe to go in there. There were many ways to go. Left, right, and straight, I went left because when life doesn’t give you right, choose left. I spelled the delicious spell of the yellow corn and the green grass. I turned a couple of more times, I felt lost, but the corn maze couldn't be that big. I went to a dead end and saw that there was a note on the ground. Regret Unwanted Mystery. I didn’t know what to do. Did my mom follow me here? Who wrote this? I was scared. I tried going back to the same turns I took. Nothing was working, it's almost like the corn maze shrunk and swallowed me whole. At this point, I was freaking out, I didn't want to know what would happen next. I had an idea, I always carry a pocket knife with me, I would just have to cut the corn and get back to where I came from. I knew that this was bad, but it was the only thing that would work. Then I could say it. I was lost. At a Carnival. My first trip to the Carnival. I cut many corns and leaves just trying to get out. Right then I saw the front entrance of the corn maze. I finally saw the path of where I came from! Or so at least I thought. I walked to it, and right when I got out the corn maze, there was the Clown House. I had to go in, there was no other way. A couple of thoughts went through my head, how did the Clown House get here. I didn’t like this at all, I was nervous, what would happen. I walked in and saw a clown. The clown grabbed me. I started praying, I just wanted to be okay. I tried to leave as much DNA as possible just in case. I looked at the clown, a part of its arm was showing RUM. I thought it was funny, the clown must like rum. Maybe it was a tattoo of just a drawing, but nothing could make me feel better. Right then I blacked out. 

A Couple of Days after Guedado went missing; at the family house.

“Mom, I’m worried about Gued, he hasn’t been answering my calls or texts and I don’t know what to do. Rue said.

“I’m sure he's okay, he's probably just mad at you, it's fine, he’s an independent man now. Mother said quietly. Right then, Rue saw a tattoo on her arm saying RUM.

“Hey mom, what does RUM stand for or mean?” Rue said as she pointed out the tattoo. Right then, the mom pushed her sleeve on it so it wouldn’t show. 

“Nothing, haha, it’s just I like Rum!” She snapped. 

“May I ask, what does Regret Unwanted Mystery mean, you said it when you found out that Gued was going to the Carnival?”

“Just a thing I say when I’m nervous.” She said as she chuckled

Rue went to say hi to Gizem, then went upstairs and did research, she thought her mom was very suspicious.  She tried searching up the meaning of RUM, but couldn’t find anything. She knew that it couldn’t be their initials since all of the kid's initials would be RGG. She searched up the meaning of their names, thinking that she wouldn’t find anything. She saw that Rue meant Regret, Guedado meant Unwanted, and Gizem meant Mystery. Regret Unwanted Mystery! That's what RUM stood for! But, what did it mean? She searched up all of their names at once. What the headlines said horrified her.

Kids Still Missing, Mom of Kids says was taken by someone with the tattoo RUM.

Three kids, Anne, Charles, and Mary, ages 3,2, and 1 went missing on March 26, 2005, 16 years from today. Mom of kids is still looking, even after all this time. Mother of Children, says the kid's birthdays are September 21st, August 9th, and December 18th. The mother also claims that the security camera only caught the kidnapper's arm, which said RUM. Investigators say they might never be able to solve this case as the kidnapper may have killed the kids or moved.

Rue sat there in silence. This is what the kidnapper said. Regret Unwanted Mystery. She named it after what she regretted doing. Rue wanted to run, she wanted to grab Gizem and run. She knows what happened to Gued now. All of these missing cases were by her “mom.” She turned around, and saw her, she knew what she was doing.

“Run girl run”