Carnival World Boxed Set (Episodes 1-3) (4 page)

Her mother’s voice echoed in her head. Control yourself. Don’t go to pieces. There are people watching.

That was her mom’s answer to everything. It didn’t matter what was happening as long as Nicole looked poised and ladylike. Nicole wondered how poised her mother would be in a situation like this. More than likely, she would be screaming her head off as well. The thought of that nearly made Nicole burst out laughing. She stifled a giggle and hoped no one noticed. They’d think she had gone crazy.

Even here it still mattered what others thought of you.

But no one noticed. Everyone had been busy listening to Ryan and Darien argue. But now the talking was over and everyone was choosing sides. The twins had gone over to Ryan. That’s when Nicole noticed Summer Vaughn and her brother heading over to her and Darien.

“You have got to be kidding. We’re not hanging out with them,” said Nicole. It was almost a reflex. It was what she would automatically say at school. She’d been doing it forever and didn’t even think about it anymore. It was almost like breathing to her now.

There was a split second when she thought about apologizing. But she wasn’t sorry. It felt good to say it. It made her less afraid. It took her back to her home, her friends, and her parents.

Darien answered, “What do you want me to do? Tell them to sit at another table?”

Nicole shrugged and muttered, “Well...”

Nicole hoped that was still an option. It wasn’t because she hated Summer Vaughn. In reality, she didn’t think much about Summer at all. But she needed to cling to something normal and familiar. If that meant being mean to this plain beanpole of a girl, that was just her tough luck.

Back in high school Nicole followed Katie Parsons, the head cheerleader and queen of Crooks’ social scene. Nicole was part of Katie’s inner circle, which wasn’t always peaches and cream but it beat being on her “list.” Summer was definitely on Katie’s list. Nicole didn’t know the exact reason, but she suspected it was jealousy. Summer was a real blonde while Katie had fake hair and a fake tan. Summer was smart and Katie definitely wasn’t. And Summer was an easy target. The girl could have easily taken over the school, but she had no idea how the game was played. She was way too nice.

Even now, Summer approached unsure of herself. Her feet were already sliding backwards. Nicole could sense that one word in her direction and she’d turn tail and go over with Ryan Mulvaney. But her little brother was all smiles.

“Hi!” He was like a puppy dog.

“Hi kid,” said Nicole.

No fair, she thought. The kid’s adorable.

“I’m glad we picked you.”

“Hey, thanks,” said Darien.

Great, now they were stuck with them. Darien wasn’t going to send a fan away.

“All right. I guess they can stick around. It’s only for a little while,” Nicole conceded. She thought it might even work out. Jabbing at Summer would keep things normal and keep Nicole from going crazy.

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S
ummer watched Ryan and the twins head off for a different part of the park. She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. It was the same type of feeling she had when her father packed his suitcase and split on her, Sam and their mother.

She looked at Darien. “It is only for a little while, right?”

“Sure. You don’t really believe all that time warp crap, do you?” Darien answered.

“I just think it’s a bad idea to split up.”

“Everything will be fine. Trust me,” said Darien.

“So what now?” asked Nicole.

Darien didn’t answer. He just stammered again. “Um. Eh.”

“I’m glad you thought this out so thoroughly,” said Nicole.

As much as Summer wanted to tell her to shut it, she didn’t think fighting would be a good idea.

“We should find a spot to sit down. Someplace where they can spot us.”

“Yeah that sounds good,” said Darien.

But Nicole complained, “Gross! This place is dirty.”

Summer rolled her eyes. “If we find a clean spot, it’s yours.”

She saw Nicole giving her the eye. Great, Summer thought. This wasn’t going to be easy. But nothing with Nicole ever was.

In middle school, she was paired up with Nicole for a social studies project about Africa. Needless to say, Summer did all the work. All Nicole did was bitch and complain and make rude comments about Africans.

Summer didn’t want to cause problems, especially with a girl like Nicole who had the ear of the popular crowd, so she sucked it up and didn’t breathe a bad word about it. The teacher raved about the report, which came complete with a diorama Summer constructed on her own.

She imagined that it was probably the first and only “A” Nicole had ever received on her school work.

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D
arien was feeling pretty confident as he walked away with Nicole, Summer and little Sam. He’d won that round against Mulvaney. Now all he had to do was find a place to hole up and wait for the cops or somebody to show up. Darien had no idea what had happened and he didn’t want to guess.

It was weird to be sure, and creepy. It was like the haunted house exploded all over the place, he thought.

He was trying to make fun of it but deep down, the place unnerved him. Darkness began to creep in as the sun lowered. The wrecked tents and rides grew darker. They began to look like shapes in the darkness, skeletal hands grasping at the sky, billowing ghosts hovering just above the ground, dark insects the size of cars gathering around them.

The place looked scary. But it was the silence that struck Darien the hardest. He couldn’t hear cars in the distance, even though he knew the highway was in walking distance. There weren’t any birds chirping or insects humming. He’d been out hunting just a few weeks before with his dad and the forest was alive with animal chatter. There was none of that here. It was like some giant glass had been set down over the entire carnival, cutting them off from everything.

It was crazy, but space warps and magic kingdoms? There was no way he could swallow that. Whatever had happened had to be limited. There had to be people out there who were worried about Darien and Nicole and the others. They would send help. They had to.

Darien didn’t want to think about what would happen if they didn’t.

His group settled on the picnic pavilion as their spot. It was just a short distance from the caterpillar ride. Like everything else it now looked rusty and old, but the large canopy was still intact and looked solid as ever. That would give them some shelter. The picnic tables were all still there in lined rows. They had a place to sit down.

Rather, Darien, Summer and Sam had a place to sit down. Nicole took one look at the bench and pulled out a small cloth from her purse. She furiously wiped the bench.

“This is disgusting,” said Nicole.

Summer stretched out and watched her clean. “You should probably stay away from the porta-potty.”

Nicole whirled on her and hissed, “Shut up!”

Darien and Summer grinned. He knew he shouldn’t. If Nicole kept on getting wound up, who knew where it could lead? But it was too easy. Nicole had always been a clean freak. Darien couldn’t even let out a small burp without her making a scene.

But he might just rile her up again if it meant Summer would smile. She lit up the place. He tried to remember why he hadn’t talked to her more at school. A lot of people at school said she was a loser, but he’d never thought that. She always seemed nice and friendly. There were things about school he just didn’t get. The way girls went after other girls was one of them.

Darien was about to say something to Summer when he heard a loud crack. He nearly jumped out of his seat. After the strange quiet, the sound was like a cannon going off.

Across the fairgrounds he saw Ryan, Maddie and Justin running around. They were attacking the wooden stalls around the fair. They were breaking them up into planks and sticks, then carrying the wood away. Ryan kicked over a snack vendor cart and pulled out several individually wrapped snack cakes. He still had that sword/crowbar thing with him. He used it to smash another game stall to pieces.

If Ryan didn’t have that weapon, Darien would have taught him a lesson. Once they got back to school he’d make sure Mulvaney regretted that. Darien would have his teammates with him then. But he wouldn’t have them join in. No, they would just stand by and make sure Mulvaney didn’t cheat again. Then he’d show Ryan. But maybe Ryan would be in jail for vandalism by then.

“Idiot’s going to get himself thrown in jail when help arrives,” Darien muttered.

“Are you sure?” asked Summer.

“Sure about what?” Darien wasn’t sure about anything but didn’t dare say it. The girls had put their trust in him. He had to come through.

“About help arriving?”

Summer’s face was pinched in worry. It was already late afternoon and help hadn’t arrived thus far. Darien hoped they were on their way, but there was a gnawing feeling in his stomach.

They watched as Ryan and the twins ran off not just with firewood but also cakes, popcorn and beef jerky.

“Shouldn’t we get some food too?” asked Summer.

“I’m hungry. I want dinner,” said Sam.

Darien gave him a smile. “Don’t worry buddy. Pretty soon we’ll be safe and we’ll all go to Louie’s Diner. And we’ll have chili mac and hot wings and milk shakes.”

Darien could picture them all at a booth with plate after steaming plate in front of them. He could almost taste Louie’s chili mac. It wasn’t much; macaroni, hamburger, canned sauce and cheese so orange it glowed in the dark. Now Darien felt like he could eat a ton of the stuff and still ask for seconds.

WHAM!

Nicole smacked the back of his head and knocked him out of his reverie. “Cut it out, idiot! Now we’re all starving.”

Summer and Sam sat next to each other and looked like they were ready to eat the picnic table and bench.

“Sorry. I was hungrier than I thought,” said Darien.

“It’s all right. We should look for something to eat. Just to snack on,” Summer said. She rubbed her arms. “Maybe build a fire too. It’s getting a little chilly.”

Darien nodded. “I suppose they wouldn’t be too mad at us.”

Nicole was up and ready to leave. “They have no business being mad. We’re the ones that got—whatever this is—happen to us. Somebody is getting their behinds sued.”

Nicole sounded more pissed than scared. Darien suddenly didn’t feel that victorious, or that sure anymore. He had to admit that whatever had happened, help was at least a day away. It might even be farther away than that.

Maybe a universe away, he thought.

He quickly banished the thought. That sounded too much like Ryan talking. And he wasn’t going to let that conniving little weasel into his mind.

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M
addie approached the old wooden fence with her brother and Ryan. The planks were loose and most had fallen off. On the other side lay dark woods that made Maddie shiver to look at them.

“Yay. Firewood,” said Ryan.

“Don’t we have enough already?” asked Justin.

Ryan kicked down some planks. “That was kindling. That’s what you use to start the fire.” He stacked fence planks on Justin’s arms. “You make a fire with just kindling and it dies out in a few minutes.”

He added more planks to Justin’s arms. “Once you light the kindling, then feed it larger and larger pieces.”

He put even more planks in Justin’s arms. Maddie tried not to giggle. Her brother could barely see over the pile of wood he held.

“That way the fire burns longer and we stay warm all night,” said Ryan. He handed her a single plank and they smiled at each other. “Of course, we could just all snuggle together to stay warm.”

“Okay. Okay. You win,” said Justin.

Maddie watched her brother trudge back to their camp by the old carousel. After he was gone, Maddie and Ryan looked each other over.

“You said you know me? How do you know me? I think I would have remembered you,” said Ryan.

“It was middle school,” said Maddie.

“Oh?” Ryan suddenly sounded a little chilly. Maddie guessed that middle school wasn’t a pleasant time for Ryan. It wasn’t for most people. But she was sure he wouldn’t mind this memory.

“We weren’t in school for very long, as usual. Only one semester. Our parents kept moving us around. I didn’t have any friends, of course. Then my last week I’m in the hallway and I see this kid walking towards me.”

“Yeah?” Ryan’s lips twitched a little into a grin.

“Like he didn’t have a care in the world. And then he stopped right by my locker. I thought, ‘how did I not see this boy before?’”

“Not your fault. I decided to change things up a bit with my look.”

Maddie definitely approved of the makeover.

“Then what happened?” Although by the glint in his eye, Maddie knew Ryan was just asking to hear her say it.

“I said ‘hi.’ He said ‘hi’ back. We both tried to be cool and talk about nothing. Then we both leaned in and...”

She remembered that moment. That electric second she had her first real kiss. It had been short and sweet but unforgettable. A girl always remembered her first.

Reliving the memory, they were both leaning into each other when a low growl interrupted them.

Ryan spun around and picked up his iron bar.

“What was-” A shiver rushed up Maddie’s back.

Ryan shushed her.

The growl continued. A pair of yellow eyes shone through a gap in the fence. Maddie’s body instantly froze. The eyes belonged to a dog, but it was unlike any dog she’d ever seen before. It was twisted and looked diseased. Its flesh was red and ropey and it didn’t look like it had any skin.

She gasped at the gruesome sight of it. So did Ryan.

“Back away. Real slow,” he said.

Maddie nodded and did so. Ryan kept his iron bar up and ready to strike as they retreated. When they were away from the fence, they turned and ran. Maddie shivered as she heard the beast howl. She thought she heard other howls answer back in the distance.

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S
ummer stood up just as Ryan and Maddie came racing through the fairgrounds.

“Something’s going on,” Summer said as the others joined her.