Keep or Tell

The air was crisp. There was a light drizzle of rain falling upon the heads of all the inhabitants inside the magnificent carnival, suspended around the carnival were vivid blazing lights made up of every colour imaginable. All anyone could hear was noise, either music or the playful screams of young children having the time of their lives. The carnival was always full to the brim, people sprinting at speed to reach the next ride as quickly as possible, it was like a heard of elephants rampaging through an African safari. However the finest aspect of the carnival was the cuisine, any food anyone wanted would be there weather it was burgers, ice-cream, pancakes even pizza and waffles. The smell these foods produced was simply breath-taking, you knew you were near the carnival when you smelt the food.

Out of sight tucked away in the very far corner of the carnival lived a murky machine, despite how it looked this machine was no ordinary machine. Folk from all over the country would visit the carnival just the see this abnormal masterpiece, but there was a catch. There was no possible way to intentionally find the machine. To find it you had to be lost, which is harder said than done. No one knew who created it or even placed it there in the first place, but it was there and had been for several decades. For most people it had always just been there. The purpose of this device was to keep everyone's secrets. Individuals would pay to tell it their secrets just to get it off their chest without telling a real, living person , once they had told the secret the machine would give advice on what to do, whether they should tell someone or just merely keep it to them self. The answer would mostly be to keep it to themselves. Somehow this satisfied the customers.

Then one night while everyone was shaking the floor by dancing inside the disco hall a mysterious man wearing a dark emerald green coat with a black gap covering his face snuck away to the machine as if he was lost yet still knew where e was. No one found this strange since many visitors were always running off to tell secrets they had. However drinks were never allowed near this particular machine in case something happened, in case something bad happened... However this man did have a drink, the fizziest and stickiest drink sold at the carnival, the drink was dark purple and gave off a purplish hue, like a witches potion bubbling under the night sky. This devilish man carefully poured the beverage into the battery compartment of the secret keeping machine. As soon as the strange man had poured the entire content of the cup and not even a single drop of the liquid remained he hopped over the fence and ran off heading towards the dark ominous woods.

Just as the darkness swallowed the man and he was out of sight a loud ear-piercing noise struck throughout the carnival. The lights one by one dimmed and slowly turned off, the music and dancing suddenly stopped and everyone stood as still as trees on a warm summers day. As everyone looked at each other panic and fear started to appear between people, many people started to run off in different directions, while a few stumbled around the hall drunk for a few minutes searching for the exit. After a few minutes of panic everything calmed down. All the men and women became curious about what could have possibly caused that horrible noise, everyone searched the carnival for the source of the noise, eventually a crowd gathered around the machine tucked away in the very far corner, the machine that was no longer there.

Now the crowd of people had turned into more of a mob, furious about where their beloved machine could have gone. People were now marching through the carnival looking for any trace of the machine. Several hours passed until the search party stopped. The search party finally parted in separate directions, each family going back home to sleep after a long day out.

Once everyone had left the carnival looked like a ghost town - deserted. The lights were still off so all you could see was darkness, the wind was howling through the trees in the nearby woods and there was not a single person to be seen. Not a single person too be seen if you weren't looking for anyone. Once person from the crowd remained, hidden under a tarp seeking for warmth in the chilly night. A man covered in leaves wearing a dark grey suit with a pale blue tie. The suit was covered in mud since he had been lying on the ground for the past couple of hours. The man had a small ungroomed beard and a bushy moustache. This man had no name. Nameless as some would say. It seemed the machine was now a man. This meant trouble...

The strange male hid under the tarp until the dark night slowly turned into a freezing morning, with nothing to keep him warm the man was now shivering and shaking. Then he heard something, people. The voices and footsteps of people walking briskly in his direction. Keeping as quiet as possible trying not to breath he eventually heard the footsteps become quieter and quieter until they were non-existent.

Unexpectedly he jumped out from under the tarp and made his way towards the voices - it was carnival workers. The workers confused about who this man was and why he was inside the carnival so early promptly asked for his name. Obviously the man did not have a name. Thinking on the spot, looking around the fair foraging for any inspiration to what his new name could be he spotted an apple cart. On the apple cart was a sign that read "Adams Apples". Replying to the men he said "Adam, yes that's my name Adam". The next question the workers asked was why he was there so early. Rapidly he answers with he got lost on an evening walk through the woods and found himself here. The workers seemed to believe this story and walked off to continue with their tasks. 

Strolling around the carnival amazed at all he games and rides he was in awe. He had never seen anything like this before since for his whole "life" he had been tucked away in a corner out of sight. As some time passed carnival-goers started to appear to play some games. Knowing all these secrets that everyone had told him was slightly starting to haunt him - he needed to tell someone. He was now sprinting round the carnival at speed spilling secrets to anyone who would listen. At this time it was normally young children playing games with their parents or going on the small rides, you could tell the adults were mildly cautious of this man attempting to keep their children away from him. However he noticed a small blonde haired girl with no parents by her side, she seemed as if she was lost with no hope of finding her parents. He plodded over to her asking for her name. She replied with grace. This young girl grace seemed very nice, scared, weary but in a way Adam trusted her, even though he had only known her for a matter of minutes.

They talked for a while since her parents had not yet returned form wherever they had gone. Adam tells her all about his life, how he used to be a machine that everyone told secrets to then how somehow he was turned into a real man. How the guilt of all the secrets was getting to him so he told everyone everything he knew. Grace acted innocent and nice throughout the whole conversations as he continued to tell her everything however what he did not yet know was that although she was young she was smart and cunning in a way quite immoral. She had a habit of using other peoples words against them in not a good way. Once her parent returned she decided she wanted to go home immediately. She sweetly said goodbye to Adam and off she went in her car. Adam didn't suspect a thing.

Instead of sleeping that night she stayed up until dawn researching any possible way that a machine could turn into a man and if it was possible how she would be able to turn him back into the machine form he once was. Notebooks were placed upon her desk that night and she hardly moved from her laptop and if she did it was only to write something down that may help her in her quest.

The next day she begged her parents to take her back to the carnival. She waited until it was dark then she requested to go. This was so her parents could be dancing while she completed her task. Once they had arrived she spotted Adam immediately and nicely asked him to show her where he once had lived as a machine. But first she asked if he could buy her a drink before they left. Of course she bought the stickiest and fizziest drink that was sold. Since Adam had no memory of how he had been turned into a real man he was oblivious to what grace was doing. When they arrived in the very far corner of the carnival she urged Adam to taste the drink coming up with the excuse that the drink was the best thing she had ever drank. This was a lie. The only reason she wanted him to drink it was because if he drank it he would somehow turn back into the machine he once was. Sipping the drink another loud ear-piercing sound was heard throughout the whole carnival, the same sound that everyone heard just the other night. Although grace was not there the other night she had done her research and knew that sound was a good thing, it meant in a few minutes Adam would no longer be a real man that was able to tell everyone's secrets.

Again the light slowed dimmed then turned off and everyone stopped dancing. After all of the confusion had appeared the disappeared people made their way to were the machine once was. On the way grace re-joined her parents as if she had never left their side. When everyone arrived the machine had repapered. It was back and everyone was in shock. Stood there in all of it's glory. The crowd that had gathered was no longer angry and furious like the other night but instead it was relived, now their secrets could be told to no one again. Hopefully the machine never find it's way back to becoming a real man again...