Creepy Carnival

Creepy Carnival

It was a Thursday night and Quinten was staying the night at my house. His parents were out of the country. My mom and dad were out on a date. They told us they wouldn’t be home till late. Quinten and I were close. In 1st grade is when we met. No one really liked us so I assume that is why we made friends in the first place. That’s a different story. Anyways, Quinten was at my house a lot. And we never thought that that night would be any different.

We were watching Silence of the lambs. Right when Hannibal ate that one guy’s face off is when the power went out. “Ty!”, Quinten yelled my name with worry in his voice. I replied, “Quinten, the lights just went out, chill.” The lights flickered and turned back on. I looked over at Quinten, as he hid under the blankets.

“Awe I didn’t know you were afraid of the dark.”, I chuckled.

“No, shut up.”

“Then why were you hiding in the blankets.”

He wrapped the blanket around him. “Because I’m scared-“

I cut him off, “Of? ”

Quinten got up and shuffled his socks across the carpet. He sat on the ground next to my feet then handed his phone to me.

I laughed and said “Dude this is a picture of your cat.” He looked at his phone.

“Huh…ugh!” Then he opened an article and gave his phone back to me.

“Teen goes missing” I read out loud “Okay, and kids go missing all the time”

“Yeah, well not in our town “Quentin said with an insolent tone. He showed me the picture of who it was.

“Quinten, do we know him?”

“Oh-my-gosh, yes, we know him! We go to school with him. Remember Hairy Jose? In 8th grade he put gum in your hair.”

“OH! That guy! I hate him. Maybe he is learning his lesson not to put gum in a girl’s hair”

There was a loud thump upstairs. It sounded like it was coming from my parent’s room. Quinten and I looked at each other. His face was pale. I hadn’t seen him this scared before. I ran upstairs. Quinten grabbed a plastic fork from the kitchen and ran up behind me.

“Quentin, shh. It sounds like someone is in my parent’s room going through their stuff” I whispered

Quinten whispered, “Omg what if they rob the house, then kill us, then take our body parts and sell them in the black mar-“

“Quinten shut up!” I yelled.

Whatever or whoever was in my parent’s room stopped making noise. The door was cracked open, I peeked through. I was nervous. My hands were shaking. I pushed the door open a tiny bit to get a better look. No one was in there so I stuck my head in. Then Quentin pushed me into the room, ran in and locked the door.

“I HEARD FOOTSTEPS COMING UP!”

I stood up and checked the time on my phone. It wasn’t even 10 o’clock yet. I turned the flashlight on my phone, that’s when I saw footprints. Not from a human though. It looked like a horse shoe. I followed them and they disappeared. Was I hallucinating?

“Quentin come look at this.”

Quentin tip-toed over. “What the hell?” he said, confused.

“Did you guys hear that too?” A voice from above us said.

Quinten and I both looked up. There was a unicorn on the ceiling fan. An actual, real life unicorn. The unicorn had a pastel purple body. Its tail was white and had a faded rainbow colors at the end of it. It kind of looked like it hadn’t eaten in awhile.

“Am I... Just seeing this or do you see it too Ty?”

“Yup” I said, kind of scared but surprised.

“Are you guys just going to stand there or are you going to help me down?” The unicorn said.

Still shocked we pulled my parents bed out and the talking unicorn jumped from the ceiling fan.

“Thank god, I was starting to get cramps. Anyways my name is Salem.”

The unicorn looked at me and said “But you already know that Ty” and winked. “What’s this kid’s name?”

“Uhmm…Quinten? “ Quinten said.

“Where did you come from?” I said.

“…the window” Salem said like she was talking to a baby.

“And why were you in my parent’s room? “ I asked like I was interrogating a criminal.

“Whoa, Calm down. First, don’t you remember? I was your best friend before this dweeb.” She nodded towards Quinten.

I stood speechless. This was my imaginary friend. “You left me. Why!?”

“Okay, I was in your parent’s room because I remember you and I would always find candy hidden in your dad’s sock drawer, I was hungry. And you know why I left… You know …blah-blah I left because you didn’t need me any longer. It’s not like I wanted to leave you”

“Okay enough with the nostalgia guys. Remember there’s still someone out there?”. Quinten said.

“Smartest thing you said all night” I said. Salem and I looked at each other and laughed.

“Shut up” Quinten said, agitated

“Make us” Salem replied.

There was a knock on the door. Quinten and I looked at Salem then at each other.

“Don’t look at me” Salem said, “I’m not the one with the plastic fork in my hand.”

Quinten rolled his eyes. There was a knock on the door again. And then Salem yelled “No-one is here, go away!” And we climbed on her back and we went through the window. I turned around and someone was standing in the doorway.

Salem took us to a nearby trail, where people walk or jog all the time. We went off the trails and I started to feel weird. Quinten was holding on to me so tightly I almost couldn’t breathe.

“Quinten, can you please let go of me or at least loosen up your grip” I said, running out of breath. He let go until Salem jumped over something then he grabbed me again. “Quinten!” I said.

“Hey, um Salem where are we going?” Quentin asked

“Somewhere” Salem replied.

“Yeah, Salem, I want to be home when my parents come home” I said.

She just ignored me.

“Whoa”, Quentin said.

I looked up and there was a carousel. I honestly couldn’t have been any more surprised. It was a crazy night. It looked like a creepy carnival. I got the chills as we got closer. I noticed there was someone on the carousel, but they weren’t awake. When we reached the carousel I noticed it was Hairy Jose. I jumped off Salem, and ran to him. I checked my pockets for gum but didn’t find any. Quinten checked his pulse.

“He’s fine.” Salem commented. “Get on one of the horses.”

I jumped up on a unicorn one and Salem smirked at me. Quinten jumped on the one behind me. Then Salem rolled her eyes, I chuckled at her expression. The carousel music started playing. Then we started to go around and around. Every time we went around it went faster. I noticed the surrounding started to change. I was starting to get dizzy. Quinten yelled, “I’m going to be sick”. Quinten made gagging noises.

“Quinten, if you barf on me, I swear I will slap you. If you need to throw up, throw up on Hairy over there.” I yelled.

He just groaned. The carousel finally stopped. I Jumped off and explored the new setting. I heard Quinten throw up. Salem laughed at him. Salem walked ahead and asked if we were coming.

“Guys, don’t forget him” she nodded her head towards Hairy Jose.

“Come on, let’s get him.” I mumbled

“How are we going to do that? He’s twice our size.” Quentin asked.

I grabbed Jose’s feet, and handed one foot to Quinten.

“Well, we’ll drag him of course.” I laughed

We followed Salem.

“You can tell us where we're going now, right?” I asked Salem. I was ready for more adventure,

“Yeah, we're going on the Ferris wheel.” Salem replied.

Quinten and I dropped Jose’s feet and jumped on the Ferris wheel. Salem got on after us. When we got to the top, it felt like we were so close to the stars. It felt like we could touch them. I whispered Quentin's name. He didn’t reply, I looked at him and he was asleep. I laid my head back and looked at the stars. I felt my eyelids getting heavy. Then I fell asleep.

When I woke up, it was morning. I was in my parents room covered in candy wrappers. I got up and saw Quentin asleep on the ground. I grabbed a pillow and screamed into it.

Quinten woke up frightened. And said, “I just had a crazy dream.”