Young Writers Society

Chapter Three: Lightning Crash

Casey had never been to a carnival in their life. When they were little, they sometimes saw colorful flyers around town for local fairs and asked their parents if they could go, but they always said no. Their parents had never told them why, even now that they were in 9th grade, but there was always an aura of fear surrounding the topic.

That week, their parents were on a business trip, so Casey’s older brother Félix had been in charge. They told him they were going to hang out with their friend Sarah after school. Sarah lived on the richer side of town, but luckily Casey lived within walking distance.

What they didn’t know, however, was that Sarah bought passes to Beau Bowie’s Totally Amaze-Tastic Carnival of Awesomeness. “I bought them with my parents’ money!” She had exclaimed.

This wasn’t just something that happened every day. They lived in a small-ish city, and thus there was absolutely nothing to do here. Ever. Casey wondered why the carnival was coming here of all places, instead of bigger cities nearby.

The idea of the carnival seemed wonderful, but there was one problem: today was the carnival’s last day here, and Sarah was trying to go today. Casey hadn’t told Félix anything about a carnival—and even if they had, there was no way that he would ever let them go.

They had never snuck away from home before. Ever. They would be in big trouble with not only Félix, but their parents as well.

It wasn’t like Sarah was forcing them to go with her. It was just…they felt like they would disappoint Sarah if they said no. High school had been rough so far, but Sarah had always been there for Casey; they couldn’t possibly lose a friend like her. Would she still want to be friends if they didn’t go? Would she still think they were cool?

Casey agreed to go. Immediately after, Sarah took their hand and practically ran out the back door.Casey pulled backwards, stopping her. They were under the assumption that an adult would be with them; the two of them were too young to go by themselves. Now that they thought about it, though, Sarah’s parents didn’t seem to be home that often. She always had a nanny over—an elderly lady who was always sleeping on the couch.

Casey tapped Sarah on the shoulder. “Uh, Sarah, shouldn’t we have an adult with us?”

Sarah laughed. “Of course not! We’ll be fine on our own; we’re in high school now! We aren’t babies anymore!”

Casey’s face flushed red. They were never allowed to go anywhere on their own (their parents were even a little iffy about them going over to Sarah’s house). They had forgotten that not everyone’s family was the same way.

“Oh, wait, I gotta go get something!” Sarah said, changing the subject. She ran back into the house and came back with her camera bag. “Can’t forget my camera!”

Sarah got the camera for Christmas last year, and she started a YouTube channel in which she posted miscellaneous content. Casey had actually been in a few videos. She only had nine subscribers—one of which was Casey—but she always talked about how she would “make it big” someday.

“You and I are going to do a YouTube challenge! I’ll explain it when we get there!” Sarah said as she grabbed Casey’s hand again and pulled them in the direction of the carnival.

The carnival was in an empty lot near the city event center—not too far from their houses. As they walked down the sidewalks, they could see the carnival in all its glory. They could see the swirling rides and the color-changing ferris wheel. Casey had seen licensed Beau Bowie products at the grocery store, but they had never seen the carnival itself.

Sarah stopped walking when her and Casey were a few feet from the carnival. She turned on her camera and started recording.

“Hey guys! Welcome back to another totally awesome video!” She turned the camera towards Casey. They smiled and waved. “I’m here with my friend Casey, and today we’re going to be doing a 24-hour challenge at this carnival! Let’s go!”

A 24-hour challenge? This gave Casey mixed feelings. They wanted to have fun with Sarah, but there were so many things that could go wrong. And besides, didn’t those die out in 2017?

They lifted their hand to tap Sarah’s shoulder, but something stopped them. They remembered that 24-hour challenges were always fake; they would have nothing to worry about.

When they walked through the gate, Sarah filmed from left to right, so that her nine subscribers could see every detail of the carnival. Casey’s eyes widened as they looked around. Everything at this carnival was bright and glowing and appealed to their young eyes.

Sarah stopped filming again and looked at Casey. “Okay, so here’s the plan,” she whispered, “we’re going to hide out somewhere and stay here the whole night! Let’s go find a spot!”

Casey started to panic a bit, but then reassured themself. There was no way she actually wanted to stay here overnight. She would probably film during the day and use special effects to make it look like nighttime.

The two of them traveled to the outskirts of the carnival, looking for any secret spots where they wouldn’t be seen. Sarah decided that their spot would be in a storage shed near the circus tent. She hadn’t actually checked out the inside; Sarah just looked at it and said “Yep, this’ll do.”

They went back to the front of the carnival, and Sarah looked down at her jewel-encrusted smart watch. “We’ve got a couple of hours left until we need to start filming. What do you want to do first?”

Casey looked around the carnival once more, feeling a little overwhelmed at all of the attractions. “Umm… I’m not sure. Maybe—”

“Ooh, wait! I saw a really cool game I want to try!” Sarah interrupted.

She took them to a Wack-A-Whammy game. You had to hit a hammer on a pad and try to hit the bell at the top. That seemed impossible, though, since the game towered far over both of their heads.

Sarah was set on winning a makeup kit, hanging from the very top of the prize rack. She held out the tickets to the carney, who had sunglasses and was leaning on a small table. The whole area around him smelled like cigarettes.

He gave her the hammer, and she almost tipped over. She struggled to carry it, and when she finally did hit the pad, the puck inside barely went up.

The carney laughed dryly. “Sorry kiddo, better luck next time,” he said as he sorted the tickets, his voice deep and scratchy.

Sarah stomped her foot repeatedly like a small child would. “No, no, no!” Everyone around her stared critically.

Casey could see tears forming in Sarah’s eyes, and they knew they had to do something. Sarah got upset over little things like this often; people often called her a “spoiled brat” who needed to “grow up.” But even though she could be a bit much at times, Casey couldn’t stand seeing her like this.

“I’ll try,” they said, giving the carney some of their own tickets. With a scoff, he handed them the hammer. Casey had no trouble at all carrying it. They lifted it high over their head, and slammed it down as hard as they could.

The puck hit the bell with a loud clang.

Sarah perked up. The carney’s sunglasses dropped to his nose. He snickered to himself before he grabbed the makeup kit and gave it to Sarah.

Sarah ran up to Casey to give them a huge hug, almost knocking them over. “Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” she exclaimed, her words slurring together.

She looked at the box lovingly, and Casey peered over her shoulder to look at it too. The box showed many different types of lipstick, eyeliner, eyelashes, and other makeup products that Casey didn’t know the name of. There was also a mirror in which Sarah was checking out her reflection.

She passed the box to Casey to check out. “The mirror has a funny film on it, check it out!” Casey looked down. Their fluffy black hair and oversized band hoodie looked distorted in their reflection. They laughed, and soon Sarah laughed too, until the carney had to shoo them away.

After they were booted out of that game, Casey looked around at the carnival with a whole new perspective.

~~~

Casey had never had so much fun in their life. They soared through the air on the Tilt-A-Whirly and the Spinning Swing of Doom. They found their way through a mirror maze and could see their whole city from the top of the ferris wheel. They even won a teddy bear themed after their favorite band, We’ve Been Fired.

At some point, the two of them took a break and sat down to eat some ice cream. The sky was getting darker by the minute.

“I’ve got to admit, Sarah,” said Casey, “I’ve never actually been to a carnival before. Are they all as fun as this one?”

“Eh, it depends. Most carnivals have nothing special going on compared to this one, so you haven’t really been missing much.”

Suddenly, Casey’s phone vibrated in their pocket.

It was a message from Félix:

Félix: Where r u? U were supposed to be home 10 mins ago.

Casey just stared down at their phone, absolutely petrified. They had completely forgotten about him! How could they possibly explain this to him without getting in trouble?

They felt a sharp pain begin to develop in their throat and their breathing became rapid. Their hands began to shake violently, causing them to drop their phone. The world began to feel blurry and dream-like as nausea and dizziness took over.

No, they thought, this can’t be happening. Out of all places, why did they have to have a panic attack here? They felt the cold glare of strangers piercing their back as tears streamed down. Sarah looked at them with confusion rather than concern. “Huh? What’s up with you?”

Casey wanted to tell Sarah what was happening. They wanted to tell Sarah that they had to go home right now, or else they’d probably be grounded for eternity and a half. They could hear the words in their head, crashing against their skull like tsunamis, demanding to spill out.

But Casey just couldn’t tell her. It was like someone had wrapped a metal chain around their neck and shattered their vocal cords.

They jumped as their phone vibrated some more. Félix’s texts became more demanding.

With one swift movement, Sarah grabbed their phone and shut it off. The notifications stopped. “Boom! Problem solved! Now calm down, okay?” She wrapped her arm around Casey without asking.

They pushed her away. This didn’t solve the problem at all. There were so many things that they wanted to say to her. Calm down? Calm down? You really think it's that simple? If I could just magically calm down, don’t you think I would have done that already?

But they still could not speak. And besides, Sarah was their friend; they couldn’t say these types of things to her, right? So they just bowed their head and kept quiet. It’s okay, she was just trying to help, they told themself

Sarah looked a little hurt at being pushed away, but she quickly dropped it. She looked up at the sky, and at all the people leaving. “Huh, I guess we should start filming soon.” She unzipped her camera bag.

Casey tried to smooth their hair over their eyes, so the viewers wouldn’t see that they had just been crying. They still felt quite detached from the world, but they supposed they had to pretend they were okay.

Then they finally realized that Sarah was serious about staying overnight.

“Hey guys,” said Sarah to the camera, “as you can see, it’s getting late. We’re going to be going to our hiding place soon.”

What am I going to do? They thought. Before they could think of an answer, though, Sarah grabbed their arm and dashed towards the shed.

She looked around, making sure nobody was watching, and then she quietly opened the shed.Sarah quickly shoved Casey inside, not wanting anyone to see. They hit the floor hard.

One look around was enough to realize that this place may not have been the best choice. On every wall was something sharp or dangerous: knives, morning stars, ninja stars, and throwing axes were just a few examples. What is this? Some sort of torture chamber?

“Wait, I think this stuff might be for the circus performers,” said Sarah, as if she had read their thoughts. “I’ve heard that they get pretty crazy.”

~~~

They were in there for hours, with their only source of light being the camera light and a tiny window on the door. It had to be past midnight by now. Every so often, Sarah would start filming for a few minutes, trying to get as much footage as possible.

Casey tried not to show it, but they had been worrying the entire time. Was Félix worried about them? Was he going to tell Mom and Dad? Did he call the police and report them missing? What would happen if they were caught?

Movement out of the corner of their eye interrupted their thoughts.

There was something—or someone—outside.

Sarah quickly pressed her face against the tiny window, desperately trying to see what was out there. Casey didn’t want to at first, but their curiosity got the better of them, and they ended up looking out the window too.

The entire carnival was barren. All the games, food stands, and rides were gone. It was the carnival’s last day here, so this wouldn’t have been so unusual—if not for the fact that they hadn’t heard anything being packed up.

A good distance away, a tall, horned man stood with his back to them. The back of his suit was unzipped to make room for the many arms sprouting out of his back. He was checking something off on a clipboard.

Across from him were a handful of clowns and carnies, all lined up perfectly straight like soldiers frozen in time. They all had a sickly gray look to them.

Sarah and Casey looked at each other. They didn’t say anything, but they spoke with looks alone.

Sarah’s eyes were wide. Are you seeing what I’m seeing?

Casey gave a small nod. All of it.

They continued to look out the window. The man began to pace around the people. He looked familiar, but Casey couldn’t put their finger on who he was.

Once he made a full circle, however, they were able to see his face, and they realized why they recognized him. No, it couldn’t possibly be… there’s no way…

It was Beau Bowie, of course.

It didn’t make any sense. He looked like Beau, but at the same time, he was so monstrous. So inhuman. And what was going on with the carnies and clowns? What was he doing?

The two watched as he stopped pacing and stood in front of the people once more. His eyes began to glow orange. He extended his arm. A circle opened up in the ground across from him, and out popped a stout man with small horns. Casey realized that he was one of the carnies.

Beau was not yelling, but his voice could be heard quite clearly. It echoed all throughout the empty space, rattling Casey’s bones.

“Come here at once,” he demanded. The carney, noticeably shaking, approached him.

“Good evening, Bob. As you know, today was the carnival’s last day in this location. As such, we must prepare our performers for our next carnival showing. You are my most faithful henchman, and I trust that you will assist me well. You will not fail me.”

Bob’s voice was harder to hear than Beau’s, but Casey could faintly hear him say “Yes, boss.”

“First, we must lay the protective border around the whole carnival, to ensure we are not seen,” said Beau. His eyes and fingertips began to glow. Bob did the same, albeit much dimmer.

Casey heard their footsteps come closer, and pulled Sarah down so that they could not be seen from the window. They put a finger to their lips. Sarah gave an understanding nod.

For the next few minutes, they could hear footsteps circling the carnival. Casey’s stomach was filled with ice at the thought of being found. Meanwhile, their mind was swarming with questions, attempting to sort out anything that they just witnessed.

They heard Beau and Bob walk back to the center of the carnival. Sarah and Casey got up to peek out the window again, but this time they tried to keep themselves hidden.

Beau’s eyes glowed, and so did the employees lined up in front of him. With a twisting motion of his hand, they all fell apart.

Casey’s eyes widened in horror, but to their relief, there were no limbs or organs splattered on the ground. Instead, there was just a big pile of oddly colored sticks and logs at Beau’s feet.

“Some of our staff is faulty and needs replacement,” said Beau, walking in the opposite direction as he scribbled on the clipboard. “Gather the wood for me, will you?” Bob was still shaking, and looked like he wanted to cry as he piled it off to the side.

Beau picked up a few sticks at a time and arranged them into rows of intricate circular designs. He stood at the front of it and raised both of his arms, repeating a phrase in a language Casey didn’t understand.

The circles began to glow. Beau raised his voice, and the whole earth began to shake. Casey and Sarah fell to the ground. Everything in the shed rattled, and they feared that something sharp would fall down.

After a few minutes, everything stopped.

The two reluctantly peeked through the window, to find that there was a whole new army of carnies and clowns. They were just as sickly and lifeless as the previous ones.

With a flick of Beau’s hand, they all straightened out, and their eyes began to glow.

“Salutations, dear underlings,” he said, his voice louder than ever, “I am your commander and leader, Bozalial—but you will refer to me as Beau. You will listen to what I say and accept it as fact.”

“We will listen to what you say and accept it as fact,” they all repeated after him.

“I am your superior, and thus you are my minions. Your purpose is to serve me and my organization for as long as you are alive. But first and foremost, what is this organization? What does it stand for? And, most of all, what are we?”

Beau laughed maniacally. “We are the most elite demons in the entirety of the three realms,” said Beau. Everyone repeated after him again. “We are strong. We are resilient. We are intelligent.

“However, we demons face a huge problem. The world we are in right now is inhabited by some of the most egocentric, barbaric, and homicidal creatures in the universe: humans. Many centuries ago, these cretins invaded our homeland—Hell—and they have remained ever since. Because of them, we were mistreated and forced into a corrupt social hierarchy, leaving us at the bottom.

“Are we just supposed to sit around and let it happen? Absolutely not! I established our organization to give these filthy pests a taste of their own medicine! We have started by infiltrating their world, and this carnival is only the beginning. We shall soon work our way to the top of this world and conquer it!”

Beau’s minions repeated every word as he filled their heads with information. Their bodies started to get more colorful as he went on.

Casey could not comprehend anything that just occurred. Was this some sort of cult? Were they hallucinating? Was this all a dream?

They were so lost in their thoughts, that they almost didn’t hear Beau tell Bob to get something out of the shed.

Their head shot up when they heard footsteps coming closer.

“Hide!” Sarah whispered. The two crouched behind a big box, praying that they wouldn’t be seen.

“...never asked to be a part of this; none of it,” Bob muttered to himself as he opened the door. He immediately began walking in the kids’s direction. They panicked even more, looking at each other with a What do we do? look.

As soon as Bob saw the kids, he gasped loudly. He stood there for a few seconds, his hands over his mouth, not sure of what to do. Sarah and Casey didn’t know what to do either; there was no space to run.

“Please don’t hurt us!” cried Sarah.

“Shh, hey, don’t be so loud; wouldn’t want him to hear you,” he whispered with a finger to his mouth. “I’m not going to tell you about him, okay? I’m not one of them.”

He kneeled down to get to their level. “What are you kids doing here? It’s not safe.”

Sarah didn’t want to answer the question. It would be quite embarrassing to tell him that they were risking their lives over a Youtube challenge.

Bob shook his head. “You know what? Never mind; it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you aren’t found.”

Casey could say nothing, but Sarah blurted something out. “Wait a minute, why are all of them bad, but you’re… not?”

Bob looked at her for a few seconds with a look that said “Is this kid seriously asking dumb questions during a serious moment?”

But he decided to answer anyways. “Well, those guys are a lot more mindless that I am; they just do what Beau says. But me and a few others are beau’s ‘elite henchmen,’ which means I’ve got free will—or rather, something adjacent to it.”

“Bob?” called Beau from outside. Bob jumped. “Bob, what’s taking so long?” They could hear him coming closer.

In a panic, Bob drew a circle in the air. There was a puff of smoke. Casey went to fan the smoke out of their face, only to find that they couldn’t see their hand (or any part of themself, for that matter). They assumed Sarah had also become invisible, as they couldn’t see her next to them.

“Keep quiet, okay?” whispered Bob, right before the door flung open.

Beau stood with his hands behind his back, unamused. Bob quickly grabbed a magical staff off of the wall and handed it to Beau. “A-Apologies, boss. It won’t happen again, I promise!”

Beau snatched it from his hand, not saying anything. He scanned the shed. His pointy ears flicked like an animal’s would, as if he knew something was off. Bob was noticeably sweating and avoiding eye contact.

“Tell me, Bob, why did you take so long?” he asked, taking a step towards the children. Casey held their breath.

Bob stuttered and took a second to come up with something. “Well, I… the staff was buried under other things in the shed—”

“What nonsense!” interrupted Beau. “The staff is always kept on a special shelf! Did you really think you could lie to my face like that?” Beau made a swift movement with his arm, attempting to knock Bob over. Bob avoided him, and it was clear it wasn’t the first time this had happened. “You really thought that I couldn’t see behind your weak magic?”

Casey pulled their knees to their chest, absolutely terrified. It was only then that they looked down at their hands and realized that they were slowly becoming visible.

Beau seemed disgusted at the sight of them. “I can’t believe you, Bob. Helping humans? Are you really so low as to go against everything our organization is for?”

Casey looked up at Bob, tears in their eyes, pleading for him to do something.

He looked Beau straight in the face, seemingly unafraid. “Yes,” he said, “Yes I am.”

With a sudden movement, he grabbed a couple smoke bombs off of a shelf and threw them in Beau’s face. He used all of his strength to push Beau. As he hit the floor, Beau made a noise like he was utterly offended.

“Run, kids!” Bob shouted as he threw something at the wall behind him, blowing a huge hole in it.

Without a second thought, Sarah and Casey bolted out of the shed. They ran past the clowns and carnies, who were still glowing and seemingly frozen in time. There were no carnival rides or games to get lost in, so they knew exactly where the exit was.

As they ran faster and faster, they got closer and closer. The glow of the streetlights became brighter as they got nearer.

Almost there. Almost…

Just before they had stepped outside, cold hands suddenly grabbed them by their necks.

They were lifted out of the air and came face-to-face with Beau. As Casey looked into those bright orange eyes, their heart felt like it was about to explode. They felt like they would die by a heart attack if Beau didn’t kill them first.

Beau’s skin was freezing cold on their neck. In one of his other hands, he held Bob tightly.

“Don’t hurt them,” Bob croaked, out of breath in only a few words, “they’re just kids.”

“They are filthy vermin that we must exterminate!” Beau yelled back. His grip on both the kids and Bob got tighter.

Beau let go of Bob, and Casey could only watch in horror as he turned into a bunch of sticks and logs.

“As for you,” said Beau, turning to the kids, “I will make sure you tell nobody of what you saw today.” He snapped his fingers with his free hands.

In their last moments of consciousness, Casey thought about their life. Was looking cool for Sarah worth such a hefty price? Was a dumb YouTube challenge worth dying for? Would Bob have been able to save them if he hadn’t waited so long? Or would the outcome have been the same regardless?

The world around them slowly faded away.

~~~

Casey had no idea what would happen when they woke up (or if they would wake up at all). Perhaps they expected a dreamy field full of flowers or large golden gates in the clouds, but they certainly did not expect this.

All around them were carnival toys, hanging up in stands, talking angrily among one another. It was night time, but Casey couldn’t tell if it was the same night they were doing the challenge. Their body felt weird, like they were in a trash bag full of fabric scraps.

Suddenly, they felt someone frantically trying to tap their arm. They turned to see a neon green stuffed donkey with her mouth sewn shut. The donkey waved her arms around in a panic. She made muffled noises like she was trying to say something to Casey, but she was unsuccessful.

The sight made Casey panic too. They wanted to shout something or make some noise of confusion, but to their horror, they discovered that their mouth was sewn shut too. They looked down at their hands, to see that they didn’t have hands at all; they only had blue paws.

What is this? What’s going on?

“Hey! You two!” Someone called out across from them. It wasn’t clear if the message was for them or not, but Casey turned to look anyways. The donkey did the same.

There was a daisy-printed sheep hanging up at a vintage-themed bowling game. “Hey there,” he said, “I’m Hazel.” He was quite soft-spoken, and all of the other toys got quiet.

“Listen, I know things seems very confusing and scary right now, but I promise I’ll explain everything.” Casey noticed that he didn’t promise things would be okay.

Hazel then explained everything that was happening to them. Casey just sat there and listened—what else could they do? As he went on and on, Casey thought of the things they’d heard from Beau and began to put the pieces together.

Hazel told them that Beau had killed them and trapped them in stuffed animals. Casey looked over at the donkey next to them and realized that this must be Sarah. They remembered what Beau had told them: “I will make sure you tell nobody of what you saw today.” Now it made sense as to why their mouths were sewn shut.

Hazel also said that nobody knew why Beau trapped them here, but Casey knew. Beau was a demon who didn’t like how Hell was filled with sinners, so he wanted to get revenge on the entire human race. At first, this didn’t make sense; not all humans were horrible people like Beau said they were. But then it hit Casey that, because he lived in Hell, Beau had only ever been exposed to the bad humans.

Casey looked around at everyone. Beau thought he was doing the right thing, but he wasn’t. None of these people deserved to be here. None of them deserved to suffer. They were just normal people, who should be living normal lives.

All of this was too much for Casey. They shut out the world around them and everyone in it. They stopped listening to Hazel and they wouldn’t respond to Sarah nudging their arm.

They were stuck inside their head for the whole night, and they barely noticed when the sun came up. They snapped out of it when they heard the sounds of people growing louder and louder.

They were shocked to discover that they couldn’t move. It felt like they were constricted by an invisible force, like sleep paralysis.

Even though they couldn’t move, they could still move their eyes to look around. They realized that they didn’t know where they were. They could see mountains in the distance; this definitely wasn’t their hometown. They also realized that most of the other toys were looking around too.

They watched people walk by their stand. At some point, a small family stopped by. There were two children, a boy and a girl, both of which looked to be the same age. The little boy jumped up and pointed at the game. Casey finally looked down, and they could see that they were at a basketball-tossing game.

The family went up to the game and the carney gave the boy a basketball. Everyone was speaking a language that Casey couldn’t understand, but they could generally sense what was going on.

The boy missed most of the shots, but was able to make a basket on his last try. The carney—who looked very similar to Bob—congratulated him and reached up to grab Casey.

They could do nothing but watch as they were pulled down and put into the hands of the boy. For a brief moment, they locked eyes with Sarah.

He looked down at them with excitement and immediately hugged them. As the family walked around the carnival, the boy waved Casey around in a game of pretend. His sister seemed to get jealous; she complained a lot, especially when she couldn’t win any games without her parents’ help.

At some point, she got so jealous that she snatched Casey out of her brother’s hands. He snatched Casey back. Soon enough, each of them was tugging on one of Casey’s arms. Casey could feel the strain on their seams and began to panic.

Their parents stopped and scolded the children, but they did not let up. They pulled harder and harder. Casey could feel their stitches stretching past the point of no return.

The girl suddenly tugged a little too hard, and Casey could only sit in absolute horror as they felt their arm come off and their stuffing fly out.

They hit the ground. They didn’t feel actual pain, but rather the ghost of pain; they felt a sharp tingling where their arm should be, but it seemed to go away when they paid attention to it, as if they were just imagining it.

The children’s mother scolded them some more. She picked Casey up by the ear, as if they were the bane of her existence, and tossed them in a trash can.

Not being able to move, they stayed there until night time came. A couple of people threw trash on top of them, but it wasn’t much; the trash can was in the very corner of the carnival.

As soon as the sky became dark, Casey felt the function return to their limbs. They started to climb out of the trash can, but they stopped when they heard talking in the distance.

It was Beau Bowie, of course.

It was hard to tell who he was talking to, but they could tell by the tone in his voice that he was mocking someone. They waited until they could no longer hear Beau’s voice (and a couple extra minutes, just to be safe) before climbing out.

It was quite difficult, only having one arm. There was a point where they had almost gotten out, but they felt a shooting sensation where their arm should have been, and they fell back in to the trash.

Eventually though, they did make it out. They jumped out of the can. Once they got out, they looked at the trash can, which was shiny and metallic. A blue bear plush with a yellow t-shirt stared back at them.

They felt cold pinpricks falling on their fur, and they realized that it had started to rain. It was like a rotten cherry on top of all the bad things that had happened in the past 48 hours.

They looked around, not sure what to do. Truthfully, they hadn’t had a plan for what they were going to do after they got out. They looked around for some place they could stay dry in the meantime.

Right behind them was a haunted house with a huge orange “out of order” sign. Because they weren’t used to their new legs yet, they crawled around the place to find a spot where they could enter. Meanwhile, the rain got heavier. They found a hole on the side.

The flopped onto the floor. They just laid there for a bit; perhaps it was the crushing weight of everything that had happened pinning them down.

When they finally did look up, they found themself in a hallway covered in scribbles. Graffiti was usually hard for Casey to understand, but this was on a whole other level of incomprehensible.

Suddenly, they heard a small, shaky voice from another room, crying and sobbing. They didn’t expect anyone else to be here. What if it was a trap set by Beau? What if the person staying here wasn’t friendly? Casey hesitated before going to check it out.

They peered into what looked like a library, to see a rabbit plush curled up in the corner, shaking with her knees to her chest. She didn’t see Casey.

Casey was relieved to see another toy, but they felt bad for her. They knew nothing about this girl or what she was going through, and yet they completely sympathized with her. They knew what panic attacks felt like and how hard they could be.

They knocked on the wall to get her attention. Her head shot up. She was smiling, but Casey could tell that this smile was forced, as if some cruel puppeteer was tugging on the sides of her lips like a marionette. Although her mouth did not change, Casey could see shock in her face.

Casey waved and sat down next to her (they had to prop themselves against the wall for this). Although their mouth was sewn shut, they could still move the corners of their mouth upwards to give a friendly smile. They tilted their head to the side as if to ask, “Are you okay?”

She calmed down a tiny bit. Casey held out their hand and tilted their head in the other direction. Do you want to hold my hand? The rabbit took it. Although Casey could not talk, they made it known that they were there for her by patting her arm. She gradually stopped shaking.

She turned to look at Casey. “T-t-thank you,” she stuttered out. Casey nodded. You’re welcome.

“Thank you,” she said again. It was clear she was just rambling and wasn’t thinking about what she was saying. “I just… this kind of stuff happens all the time, and most of the time there’s nobody sane enough to help me…”

She suddenly jumped up, as if she had just realized something. “Wait a minute. You’re… you’re a toy! You’re one of us! How did…” she trailed off. She stuttered, wanting to say something but not knowing how to say it.

“Sigh,” she said (she didn’t actually sigh, she just said the word),“it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you came to the right place; Beau can’t get you here, I promise.” Casey was reminded of the promises Bob and Hazel had made, but this time they actually believed it.

“I’m Grace, by the way. But, um…” she paused, not quite sure how to word it. “Well, I have a friend here with me. He’s not.. all there, so most of the time he’ll call me Giggles. I can’t explain it.”

Just then, a green robot came rushing in. Grace gestured towards him. “Perfect timing,” she said.

“Giggles, my dear lagomorphic companion!” He shouted, “You’ll never believe what I—” He stopped as soon as he saw Casey.

“Oh? What is this my eye-holes spot? A new contender has entered the ring of suffering!” He began to hop around frantically.

Casey didn’t know what to make of him. They started to wonder just how long Grace had been stuck here with him. Grace leaned in and whispered. “Remember what I told you about him? Yeah… this is what I meant. He isn’t like this 100% of the time, though; sometimes he snaps out of it.”

He continued to hop around the room, singing a rather disturbing tune over and over. “Ring, ring, ring! Ring of suffer-ing!”

He clearly wasn’t paying attention to where he was going, though, because he ran straight into a wall. He fell on his back. His eyes, which were previously a swirly yellow, turned completely black.

Casey was shocked at first, but Grace reassured them. “Don’t worry, this happens a lot.”

In a couple of seconds, the color returned to his eyes and he got up. This time, though, he had black pupils with white sclera. He rubbed his head and looked around, confused. “Ugh… what happened?”

He said the word “gasp” when he saw Casey. He put his claw hands over his mouth, just like Bob had done.

“Alistair,” said Grace, “Someone found their way into the haunted house.” She gestured to Casey. They gave a small nervous wave.

“Hey there. I’m Alistair!” He said. “But, uh, Grace already told you that, didn’t she?” He chuckled lightly.

He stopped, though, when he noticed Casey’s mouth. He stared for a bit, deciding if he should ask or not. “I’m sorry if this seems rather sudden, but…did he do this to you?”

Casey nodded.

“Oh. I know how you feel; he cursed me too. There’s this whole thing with my crazy alter ego named Asthma Man. It’s, uh, rather complicated. But that’s not important right now. What’s important is that Beau can’t find us here. We’re not really sure why, but we just know it’s true. I actually have an interesting theory...” He suddenly stopped himself. “Am I rambling too much? I’m probably rambling too much, aren’t I?” He chucked again.

Casey looked at the two of them. Even though absolutely nothing was okay right now, they felt safe.

~~~

Living with Alistair and Grace certainly took some getting used to. Heck, all of this took getting used to—and sometimes, Casey felt like they hadn’t gotten used to it at all.

They had to cope with the fact that they were dead, and would be dead forever. They had to cope with the thought of never seeing Félix or their parents every again. They had to cope with sudden bouts of phantom pain that would come and go. They couldn’t tell Alistair and Grace anything that had happened—because of their sewn-up mouth—and thus had to bottle up all the pain.

And even though they didn’t really like Sarah anymore—since she was the one who got them into this mess—they often wondered where she was. Did somebody win her, or was she still hanging up at the stand?

Sometimes, Casey felt an immense sense of guilt. Sure, their situation was far from perfect, but they figured it was much better than hanging up at a game stand; why did they get to hide away safely from Beau while others were still out there suffering? The day of their death replayed itself over and over in their head, and they couldn’t help but wish they hadn’t gone with Sarah that day.

While they thought about Sarah, they realized that Alistair and Grace were much better friends than Sarah ever could be. Alistair was quite funny and also happened to be a fan of We’ve Been Fired; Grace was like the big sister that Casey never had. They both taught Casey how to walk with plush legs. Casey couldn’t tell Alistair and Grace what their name was, but Asthma Man had nicknamed them Crash for whatever reason, and it stuck.

They had all grown quite close. Was it just their situation that brought them together, or were they just that compatible?

The group had become such good friends that they even had their own inside joke. When talking about themselves as a whole, they often called themselves “The Spooky Squad” (they knew that a squad was usually four people, but who was there to correct them?). In their conversations, they’d say things like “The Spooky Squad has done it again!” or “Another victory for the Spooky Squad!”

They all acted like they had healed their trauma through their friendship, but deep down, they all knew this wasn’t true. Nobody wanted to bring up anything from the past; that would be like ripping bandages off of wounds that were still bleeding.

Sometimes, at night, Casey looked out the attic window to view the stars while their mind raced. Alistair and Grace acted so casual and chill, but Casey knew this was a façade; they were still broken. Powerless. Scarred. Hurt. Just like I am. They now understood why their parents hated carnivals so much—it probably wasn’t for the same reason, but they felt the hatred nonetheless.

Casey constantly felt on-edge. They couldn’t possibly let their mind rest knowing that Beau was still out there, killing innocent people and leaving permanent scars. 

~~~

Next Chapter: Chapter 4