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      NO SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS. REWRITE PLOT IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM THE ORIGINAL.

           * * *

             "Faith, I don't see any clowns..."

            I wanted to leave the carnival right then and there. I knew what I saw. I saw a clown, staring at me, and if David hadn't seen it as well, that was anything but good.

             I also wanted to run home and hide under my covers for an eternity.

            "Faith?" David said my name gently, lightly touching my shoulder. My heart was pounding so hard in my ears that for a moment, it sounded as if he was underwater and it was difficult to understand him.

            I leaned into him. "What did you say?"

             "I said, are you alright? Do you want me to take you home?"

            I looked up at the handsome man in front of me with a dazed look in my eyes. I force a smile onto my face. "I'm fine. I--I just watched a really scary movie last night. Must be a little jumpy or something."

            David watched me carefully. "Makes sense. We could always reschedule, you know. You seem pretty shaken up."

            Was I just another girl being penciled into his schedule?

            "The last thing anyone who's shaken up wants is an arrogant bastard trying to make some moves on her," David continued, lowering his voice playfully.

            I shook my head, laughing. "I need to face my fears more often, I'm a scaredy cat when it comes to just about everything. Doesn't surprise me that I'm scaring myself right now." I don't want to be an easy target, especially when there's nothing really there. "I'm absolutely positive that I want to go on a date with you right here, right now. Plus, you drove 30 miles out here to see me, and for an arrogant bastard, that's pretty impressive."

            "I'm impressing you? Good." For a moment, David leaned so far over the counter into my booth that I thought he was going to kiss me goodbye. "I'll come back for you when your shift is over," he said softly in my ear. Then, in a mischievous, yet slightly hostile way, he added, "Don't keep me waiting, Miss Williams."

            You never want to see me again, but you still think I'm really hot.

            Out of the blue, I found myself so unbearably physically attracted to David that I wanted to rip his shirt right down the middle and spread my hands along his muscular torso. A small part of myself fought against that strange urge, but a much larger part of myself won. Before David leaned back away from the counter and walked away, I gripped him by the collar of his t-shirt and held him firmly in front of me. He stiffened significantly under my grip and moved his hands to my waist, and as if his first instinct was to defend himself, he squeezed my waist so hard I thought his hands were metal clamps.

            I yelped, letting go of his collar.

            "What are you doing?" David unclenched his hands as quickly as he had grabbed me, but kept me close. "You caught me off guard. I guess I'm a little bit jumpy today too." He gently probed my sides where my shirt was bunched up. "I hurt you, didn't I? I didn't even realize..."

            "Didn't hurt." I lied, once I had found my voice. "It's fine, I don't know what I was thinking either." I had clearly done the last thing David had expected from me and held onto him like he was my lifeline.

            Now David's beautiful face was closer than ever, and I had no idea what to do next besides gawk at his lips.

            Kiss him. That rebellious thought made me backtrack and put distance between my body and his body. Already, I wanted to kiss a man that I once hated more than anything, and that confused me immensely.

             "So, I'll be back to pick you up?" David had a way of talking in a very quiet, soothing way. "If you'll still go on a date with me, of course. I really want to try this whole "nice" thing. I think I might like it."

            "I guess I will," I teased.

            With one final long look at me, David turned, and, sipping on the lemonade I had made him, melted into the crowd.

            Once he was out of sight, I gingerly lifted up my shirt a few inches to find bright pink scratches where David had gripped my sides.

            * * *

            I was about as competitive as a girl got when it came to any sort of sport or game, so needless to say, when I was up against David in Dance Dance Revolution inside of the arcade center, I put in my all as I normally did. But, David was a phenomenal dancer. He was so good at dancing and timing it with the DDR game, that he would teasingly throw in moves in-between steps, distracting me with his hip movements and making girls cheer around us.

            Oh, did I mention he was getting so many girls' attention the whole night? That was fun.

            Maybe I had been paying too much attention to the girls, because towards the end of our last round, I did what I had never, ever done ever in any DDR game, and stumbled off of the small stage, giving him the lead.        

            The crowd cheered.

            There was a crowd.

            "Next?" David shouted jokingly, making me roll my eyes.

            I punched him playfully on the arm. "Competitive, much?"

            "I'm next," a guy with spiky blonde hair said, stepping into my place on the game board. "Name's Spike. I recognize you, Star. You're pretty popular these days." They shook hands like they were old friends. Spike turned and winked at his girlfriend who had a nose ring and gages in her ears, then patted David on the back. "Just letting you know, I have the high score, man."

           "Sounds like a challenge." David gave me a thumbs up, basically asking me if it was ok. I nodded. 

            Man, had my date been going easy on me.

            It wasn't only entertaining watching David move, it was compelling, and at one point, I asked myself if he had been an exotic dancer at some point in his life. I laughed out loud at the thought of him wearing cheetah underwear and performing on a stage for singles.

              After an intense, suspensful game, my date beat Spike and got the new high score.

            David did a backflip off the stage, punching his fists up in the air victoriously. Girls surrounded him, giggling and twirling their hair. Asking for autographs. David said something funny and made them all laugh hysterically. I couldn't help but feel stranded off to the side, watching him become the center of attention.

            David pushed through them after signing a few autographs, wrapping an arm around me. "Hey, you. Come here, I'm sweaty."

            "I can see that." I leaned away from him, not because of the fact that he was sweating, because I liked that he was kind of sweaty. "Get any numbers?" I asked, slightly irritated. "One of those girls really wanted you to sign her boobs. You should have done it. If you take your shirt off, who  knows what you'll have to sign."

            He brought me back against him. "Stop that. There's only one girl here whose breasts I would actually sign." He tapped his chin inquisitively. "Her name is Something... Williams. She wouldn't even have to say please... What's her first name again? Fate? It's something like that. Well, it's definitely fate that brought me here with her today, so maybe I'm just getting confused."

            "That was smooth, I'll give you that." I may have blushed a little, a smile twitching on my lips. "Just saying, you totally have DDR at home. There's no way you're that good and you've never played."

            "Has anyone ever told you that you tend to speak your mind on everything? I'm surprised you haven't commented on the fact that I'm wearing my sunglasses in a dark arcade just because I look cool."

            I snorted. "I'm David Star and I wear prescription sunglasses in an arcade because I'm cool," I mocked in a deeper voice, making him chuckle loudly.

              "Easy, sweetie."

             David beat me at every single arcade game after that, but never once did he pick out a prize for himself. He let me have all of them.

            "Pick already," David said, standing so close to me from behind that I wanted to fall back against his chest and let him hold me. I couldn't even imagine someone like David hugging...

             "You haven't even won the game yet and you want me to pick a prize? This is a difficult game, you know. I heard these are rigged so that the tower never falls down."

            David shrugged. "We'll see about that."

            I rolled my eyes at him. "Alright, Cocky, I want the penguin then."

            "Then you'll have the penguin." He rolled his broad shoulders, preparing to throw a baseball at the tower of blocks in front of him, when I gently touched his bulky arm and motioned for him to come close to me. "What is it?"

            He was so close I could smell his aftershave. "I just want you to know that I forgive you for cheating at that DDR game...and, well, for what happened yesterday." With a fluttering sensation in my gut, I then kissed his cheek and quickly pulled away.

            David touched his cheek, then smirked. "Remind me to ask for your forgiveness more often, if that's the kind of stuff I get in return."

            The obnoxious vendor at the baseball booth made a gagging sound. "Freaking gag me. Can you throw the ball already? It's too late for this soap opera shit."

            David won the extra large prize and slung my penguin over his shoulder victoriously.

            "Lucky throw, Star. I didn't know they had baseball at Pretty Boy School." The vendor snorted with laughter. "Think I didn't recognize you, Pretty Boy? Well I did. Those were some nice throws and all, but I think you should stick to those ballerina classes that daddy still buys for you."

            David's smile reminded me of a shark grinning at a fish. "Actually, ballerina classes don't start until ten o'clock. I have time to kill."

            The vendor ground his teeth together, eyes sliding over to me. He dropped his gaze to my breasts for an uncomfortable amount of time. Disgusted, I crossed my arms over my chest and covered up my cleavage, anger etching my features.

            The vendor smirked, waving us off and playing with his phone. "Whatever, kid."

            Without saying anything back or even acknowledging the vendor again, David politely lead me out of the arcade with his hand on my back. But before we exited, I heard the vendor vaguely mutter something under his breath to another carnie followed by an obnoxious laugh, and David stopped in his tracks, stiffening from head to toe.

            He handed me the giant penguin. "You know what? I'll be right back, I'm going to tell that man something he will never forget," David told me rather calmly. "Stay here."

            I grabbed his arm. He was itching for a fight. "David, don't."

            David loomed over me, jaw tight. "Don't tell me what to do, Faith," he said in a terrifying voice. His sudden change of mood shocked me. "I'm going to go over there, and you're not going to stop me."

            "Ok," I said, then frowned because I wasn't sure why I had agreed with him.

            Whatever it was David said to the man, moments after, made the vendor's eyes get wider than the moon, and his skin whiter than snow. The man fell back against his station, knocking over the blocks of his game. With one last quick look in David's direction, the vendor messily got to his feet and fled out a back door of the arcade.

            David plucked a toy frog from the prize shelf, then strolled over to me like everything was fine. "Do you want another penguin? I don't think that guy is coming back..."

            "David--?"

            He took my hand. "Let's get some food."

            I remained in the same position. "What did you say to him? I'm not going to ask again, David."

           A shrug. "I said words. Cursed a little..."

         "Alright, smartass. Obviously words. Threatening words, since he ran out of the building. What if he gets the police? What if what you said ends up in the news?"

          "Worse things about me have been in the news." David went to walk past me. I blocked his way.

            He sighed.

            "I said very threatening words," David clarified.

            I shook my head at him. "I think it actually pains you to be genuinely nice to people, and my goal tonight is to make that completely stop. You're going to be a new man by the end of this date. The man I know you can be."

            He snorted. "Corny. Good luck with that, Virgin Girl."

            "Hey!"

            David scrunched up his face like he had eaten something sour, then stuck his tongue out at me.

            * * *

            I couldn't shake the feeling that something terrible was about to happen. I knew it was best to leave when one felt that way or as if one's life was in danger, but it felt wrong to cancel the "date" with David when he was obviously so set on wooing me, and I had honestly never been on date before. I hoped that I had came off as confident when David had asked me out, because on the inside I was ready to pass out at any moment.

            I put my head in my hands, watching a group of contortionists twenty or so feet away who were rolling around and bending in different angles on a small stage. The way they twisted their legs and arms gave me the willies, reminding me of the Exorcist.

            As I became fixated on their incredible flexibility, I felt my eye lids start to grow heavy, and remembered that I hadn't really slept for a long period of time in weeks. School had been a drag, and that stack of canvases in the corner of my room was getting taller day by day. I asked myself every morning in the mirror how I still had my sanity after encountering the Grim Reaper, and the only explanation I could come up with didn't make any sense whatsoever.

            I felt comfortable around Death. I felt like I knew him. That was why I still had my sanity.

            And I had a feeling that wasn't a good sign.

            Nothing seemed like a good sign anymore.

            Both Death and David confused me and threatened me in two very different ways. Death threatened my life and David...he threatened my love life-- which was currently extremely single. Perhaps it was time for a change in that area. Yes, I was of course skeptical of both of their motives, but they were two entirely different men--or whatever Death was-- and were practically from two different planets.

            I had hated David for the longest time before meeting him, and even the day I met him, (and I really shouldn't have forgiven him) but he seemed pretty apologetic for his actions back at his office. I also believed in second chances. Plus, my hormones, to say the least, were so alert when he was around, and that was definitely a major factor that drove me to accept his proposal.

            My hormones.

            It still didn't make sense to me, as to why David had asked me out, of all people. I knew I wasn't too plain looking, but I was definitely no Tiara Red, David's secretary at the D & S Towers. (Who clearly was in love with him.) I had to get to the bottom of David's true intentions. There was a still a part of me, perhaps a childish part, that felt like this "date" was some sort of practical joke, and that the entire thing was being recorded by one of his friends.

            David ordered his meal, then walked over to me at a bench. When he lounged next to me, he set his food down on his lap, draping a long arm around the back of the bench and teasingly poking my shoulder furthest from him. He had positioned himself so that our legs touched, and it immediately began to drive me insane how his body radiated a soothing warmth that cancelled out the autumn chill of the afternoon.

            Maybe if I fake hypothermia he'll take his clothes off and try and warm me up.

             Alright. All I wanted to do was turn towards David Star and sit in his warm lap for an eternity, but alas, I wasn't one to take things that fast and I was definitely border-line stalking him after that thought.

            "Do you really plan on eating all of those, Big Boy?" I laughed, both confused and excited that he had chosen to sit as close as possible to me.

            "Oh, yeah." He patted his flat stomach. "You really have no idea how much I eat. I'm actually the fattest man in the world at heart."

            I glanced at his biceps, then his t-shirt, finding the tight ridges of his abdominals. "Definitely at heart," I muttered under my breath.

            David bit into his first hotdog, nearly shoving the whole thing in his mouth. He smiled at me around a mouthful of food, shifting his aviators up with his cheek bones until I could almost see his eyes behind them.

            I choked on my lemonade a little. "You're such a dork."

            "I usually order twelve hotdogs, but I wanted to be polite and not pig out. You're welcome."

            We were quiet for the next couple of minutes, but it wasn't at all awkward.

             David leaned into my ear. "Hungry, Chipmunk?"

            "Mmmff?"

            "Your cheeks. You look like a chipmunk." David's handsome face softened as he laughed. "I just watched you stuff that whole hotdog in your mouth in one bite. It was fairly impressive. Do you want me to get you another one or something?"

            Struggling to swallow the unbelievable amount of food in my mouth, I shook my head and bathed in my own flames of embarrassment. "I'm so sorry you had to see that," I said, mostly to the ground and not to his face. I could feel him watching me intently behind his aviators as I squirmed. 

            God, this is torture sitting in front of this gorgeous man, not knowing whether or not he's truly on a date with me or just messing with me.

            David cleared his throat. "I'm glad I saw it, but I'm even more glad that I took a picture," he laughed out, displaying a picture of me on his phone. "Baaaackground!" he sang.

            I dove for the phone.

            David playfully pulled it out of my reach, shaking his finger at me. "Nuh-uh. This one is definitely a keeper. Now I know I'm interested in a girl with an appetite. Speaking of appetite." He burped loudly. I gave him the stink eye. "I'm going to go get some funnel cake. Do you want anything?"

            "Nah, I'll just wait here," I said.

            "I'll be right back."

            I hated lying to David about how afraid I was of the whole clown thing, especially when he had immediately offered to take me home, but he was turning out to be a lot sweeter than I ever thought he was capable of, and I would have felt like a jerk for rescheduling or making him drive me somewhere else because of a "scary movie" that I hadn't even watched.

            Not to mention, the last thing I wanted to do was run away from whoever it was who had been watching me...or whatever it was.

            In a matter of seconds, I went from being calm to so uneasy that those hotdogs I had eaten were threatening to come back up. I hurried to the nearest garbage can, about to retch my guts out, when a cold hand suddenly gripped my arm tightly from behind. "Faith."

            I held back my vomit.

            It was Mason Hanes, the outlandish boy who I was convinced had a huge crush on me for years, who's family was really good friends with my family. He volunteered at the lemonade booth with me.

            "Faith, I really need to talk to you," Mason trembled out, stepping closer to me. His face was bloodless, paler than a fresh white linen sheet, and his eye lids were stretched so wide that I could see the full roundness of his eyeballs as if they were about to pop out of his skull.  "I've done something bad, Faith. I've done something, really, really bad."

            "Mason, what are you talking about?" Hairs prickled the back of my neck. I tried to break free from his grasp, but Mason just held on tighter. "Let go of me, Mason," I said firmly.           

            "I've been seeing things that nobody else can see," he said slowly. "I didn't just see the clown you were talking about, I saw what was beneath, and it was terrifying. That's why I left. I was terrified. I shouldn't have left you."

            I stood still like a statue. Sweat trickled down my back. There was something terribly, terribly wrong with Mason, and I was afraid if I said anything wrong to him he would hurt me.

            "Are you even listening to me? Aren't you wondering why I saw him too?" Mason shook my shoulders. "I'm not normal, Faith. We're not normal. There's something wrong with me. I want you to know what is wrong with me. I need to tell someone!"

            "Mason." I quaked with fear as he gripped my shoulders tighter. "Mason, please stop! You're not making sense!"

            "It appeared to me as a raven at first," he sputtered out, eyes darting left and right. "I saw it outside our house the other day. I knew, whatever it was, it was focused on me. The bird spoke to me. Its voice was rough and coarse, but it clearly said...Mason. I tried to run, but suddenly someone appeared in front of me. It was a demon. It was halfway between a man and raven, with black claws and black eyes. It gripped me by the throat and lifted me up off the ground." Mason pulled away his hair and t-shirt, displaying bright red scratches lining his throat and chest.  "It scratched me when it lifted me off the ground, and they've been there for days, never healing. It said I could see him and any other forms of evil once it marked me. It said...it would let me live...it would let me live...if I... sent you a message."

            My heart skipped a beat. "Mason, please tell me you're kidding," I whispered slowly and carefully. Now my voice was a pure shrill, and I was gripping Mason by the jacket. "Tell me you're kidding! This isn't funny."

            "I didn't know what to do. Faith, please believe me, I never wanted to be its messenger. I really wish this wasn't real, but it is. The demon wanted me to tell you that there's a way to avoid signing Death's contract."

            Heart in my throat, I leaned towards Mason and whispered, "Death's contract? Who told you this? I want a name."

            "He--he wouldn't give me a name," Mason stuttered out.

            "What else did he say?"

            "He said, no matter what Death has told you, the contract is the only way he has full control of your mind, body, and soul. It's a new law, apparently."

            "What law?"

            "I don't know, that's what the demon said. He said, you must sign the contract yourself in your blood. Death will do anything to trick you, but he can't physically force you to sign it unless..." He ran a hand down his face as if his next words were hard to say. "Unless, he brings you to the brink of death."

            "What--!"

             "But the demon said that's not a risk Death normally would take! He's too concerned about keeping you alive to risk bringing you to the brink of death and accidently killing you." Mason stepped closer to me lowering his voice, placing a cold hand on my shoulder. "You've been given the Kiss of Death. A second chance. With it, come consequences. You will start to see creatures that nobody else can see, and attract them to you. That's how the demon who spoke to me found out about you, there's already been rumors about you around the Underworld."

            "The Underworld? As in, hell?!" I put a hand to my forehead. The world spun. "You have to be freaking kidding me! All of hell knows about me?"

            "You defied your humanity, Faith. Now you stand out amongst other humans to the supernatural. Not everyone can be brought back to life. Death wouldn't have--he couldn't have saved your soul unless you were inimitable and valuable. But the demon who approached me, doesn't know why you're valuable. The demon hasn't been able to get close to you, but as soon as he can, he said he will help you."

            It was a miracle I hadn't fainted by now. "I don't--I don't want to meet the demon who approached you," I trembled out. "I don't want any of this, Mason!" Now I was in full panic-mode, sweating bullets. "How do I avoid signing the contract?" I hurried out, feeling as though I was running out of time. "What's wrong with my soul, Mason? What did the demon tell you? You're not telling me something, aren't you? What's wrong with it?"

            Mason looked away from me. "Your friend is here. We'll talk later."

            "Hello." David startled me with his deep, prominent voice as he chewed on a mouthful of food. He motioned to Mason with his funnel cake. "Who's this, Faith?"

            I was a deer caught in headlights. "Mason, this is David. David... this is Mason," I uttered. "Mason and I both volunteered today for our church."

            "Oh." Wiping powdered sugar off his hands, David stuck out his hand, frowning a little when Mason made no effort to shake it. "It's nice to meet you, Mason. Any friend of Faith's is a friend of mine."

            "Cool." Mason smiled weakly, looking back and forth between David and I. "Uh,  I'm pretty sure my mom has your modeling calendar..."

            "You too?" I whispered, recalling how obsessed my mother was with David Star's merchandise.

            David chuckled.

            "Um..." Mason cleared his throat awkwardly, stuffing his hands into his pockets. "I should go." We locked eyes. "We'll finish this conversation later, Faith?"

            I swallowed a lump in my throat. "Yes."

            He left.

            "This is probably going to sound cruel, but that guy made me feel tremendously awkward just by looking at him..." David ran a hand through his hair, holding his funnel cake with the other. "Looked kind of sick too, didn't he?"

            "What? Oh, yeah. Must have a cold or something," I said dazedly.

            "That sucks. Well, I'm going to warn you in advance, and say that I eat funnel like a horse. Momma always told me to clean my plate, and I definitely obeyed. I obeyed with my napkin on my lap too."

            "You were a classy horse, then?" I joked.

            He gave me his best impression of a horse. "Yes."

            A giggle escaped my lips that seemed foreign and way too girly for me to ever allow to pass through my lips again. Truthfully, I was way too frightened about what Mason had told me to act normal around anyone.

            Or trust anyone.

            You defied your humanity, Faith. Now you stand out amongst other humans to the supernatural.

            My hands were shaking so hard I had to stuff them into my pockets. I had to make up some sort of excuse to leave the carnival.

            David nudged me. "You alright?"

            I managed a nod, jumping back into the conversation like nothing was wrong. "A well-mannered horse. Sounds like my kind of guy..."

            Chuckling, David kept his mouth by my ear and stepped closer to me, voice dropping to a low, husky tone. "Then you should know that I'm not always well-mannered..."

            "Oh." I blushed furiously.

            You need to get out here. You need to tell David you have to leave.

             "My mom is the same way with me," I began, reluctantly following David back to our bench. Once again, my good nature was getting the best of me and I couldn't bring myself to tell David I wanted to go home. "Making me clean my plate, I mean. I think she's actually afraid of leftovers because to her that means we didn't like her cooking."

            I sat back down on the bench. My legs noticeably shook.

            Jesus, I was a mess.

            "My mom used to do the same thing." David swallowed his bite of food and laughed a little, but it was slightly strained and an awful feeling settled in my gut that I had opened up an old wound in him. "She loved to cook, and I was definitely a handful. I guess you could say that I've been this big for a while now, so she had to make a lot of food."

            David took a sip of his lemonade, not saying anything for a while, and it was then I felt a lump lodge in my throat. He had been talking about his mother in past tense. "I'm so sorry for your loss," I blurted out.

            He waved me off. "No need to be sorry. I appreciate your kindness, but she passed away a while ago."

            I frowned. He had said that so coldly. "It doesn't matter how long ago she passed away." I reached for his hand. "If you ever want anyone to talk to, I'm completely serious when I say that you can always talk to me--"

            "Don't count on it." David pulled his hand sharply away before I could continue, and like some sort of switch had been turned on in his personality, his shoulders tensed and he threw a brick wall between us. "What I meant to say was," he started over more calmly, after a few slow, ragged breaths, "I don't really want to talk about it with anyone. Not just you."

             "I understand. I'm sorry I brought it up." Does he not trust me?

            "It's not your fault my life is complicated." David's jaw tightened. "Listen, Faith, I know we didn't have the best first introduction..." He cleared his throat. "I was wondering... if you might want to--" David turned towards me, facing me straight on, and suddenly went as still as a statue with his mouth slightly hung open mid-word. I couldn't tell if he was looking at me or at something behind me because of his sunglasses, so I found myself turning around to see what was interesting him so much.

            Blood pulsed in my ears.

            Nothing was moving around me. It was like I was inside of a television and someone had pressed pause on a movie. I turned back around towards David. He still had the same blank look on his face, staring in my direction. I waved my hand in front of his face. Shook his shoulders. I screamed his name. I even took off his sunglasses and looked him right in his brown eyes for a good minute, hoping this was all some sort of prank.

            He didn't blink or breathe, and when I moved his shoulders, he fell right back into his original position. I put his sunglasses back on and took a step back from him, horrified.

            I was starting to learn nothing was a prank in my life.

            I pinched myself hard.

            I wasn't dreaming, but none of it felt real. It was like a fog had been thrown over my reality and I was blinking slowly, my feet weighted down as I stood up and took in my surroundings with both terror and bewilderment. I had never been so afraid in my entire life, than I was at that very moment.

            Everything was still. Everything but me.

            A child giggled.

            Slowly, pulse thumping in my ears, I turned my head towards the sound and spotted a little boy with a pink balloon, wearing what looked like a batman Halloween costume, skipping in between the frozen pedestrians and carnies scattered around. He weaved between a tightly knit group of kids, waved at me, then disappeared behind a pretzel stand.

            "Will you play with me?" the boy asked, now at my side.

            I nearly had a heart attack.

            He skipped around me, giggling. "Will you play with me?"

            "What's going on?" I demanded. "Why can't anyone move?"

            "I don't know! Mommy can't move. Now we can play!" the boy said carelessly, keeping his head down low, tracking the ground as he circled around my bench as if he was watching his tiny boots sink into the ground with each step, singing a song under his breath I couldn't quite understand. He tapped my knee with his small hand before skipping in another direction. "Come on, play with me! Please?"

            "Where's your mom? Can she move too?"

            The boy ran away from me. "Catch me and I'll tell you!"

            "Why must these things happen to me," I muttered to myself, waving my hand in David's face one last time, before finally succumbing to the gnawing thought that I had to follow the boy to stop whatever supernatural activity was going on. I felt compelled to follow him.

               I couldn't leave David. That's what I kept telling myself. I cared too much about him to leave him alone. I cared about him. Too much. What if something hurt him, and he wasn't able to defend himself? 

              What if he never moved again?

              After shaking David one last time, I decided I had to run after the boy and get answers out of him. It was the only option. What if time would freeze for me next if I didn't?

              Survival, first. Emotions, second.

            "You'll never catch me!" the boy giggled from afar. He was too fast to keep up with, holding his arms out like an airplane, batman cape moving with the wind.

            "Where are you going?" I shouted after him.

            He kept running.

            "Stop!" I shouted breathlessly, stumbling over myself a little and knocking into a unmoving woman holding a bag of popcorn. I fell momentarily to the ground, then quickly got back up to my feet.

            Now I was at an incredible disadvantage because the boy was a practically a dot in the distance. I started to pick up my pace, sprinting after him. I pumped my arms hard, cold air burning my lungs and my body screaming for me to slow down.

            I was gaining on him.

            The boy with the balloon, to my relief, finally stopped ahead of me in front of a traveling funhouse about the size of two large trailers, with many whimsical colors, textures, and quirky, motorized animals and cartoons along different floors of the structure.

            The boy stood eerily motionless, facing the dark entrance of the funhouse with his back to me, hand firmly holding the pink balloon. He looked over his shoulder at me, smiled, whispered something to the darkness, and unexpectedly, a white-gloved hand with black and white ruffles reached out from the entrance and handed him another balloon.

            "I wanted blue," the boy whined.

            That same gloved hand fell back into the darkness and came back out with a blue balloon.

            "Woo!" The boy leaned forward into the darkness. "Wait, what did you want me to tell her again?" he whispered.

             My heart lodged in my throat. I was unable to move.

            Those gloves looked way too familiar.

            The boy slowly turned towards me. He had freckles and large, bright eyes.  "He said, now we can all play, cupcake!"

            Cupcake.

            A figure emerged from the dark entrance behind the boy. Fear struck me hard, paralyzing me entirely. For the longest time, I couldn't inhale or even blink. It was the punk clown I had seen before, with the same black Mohawk, piercings, and black and white outfit.

             "You have no idea what I am capable of."

            All of the sudden, those words hit me like a an avalanche.

            I had been too blind to see it before, too stupid, when the answer had been right in front of me. Death.

            Death was the clown. Death had somehow stopped time, freezing everyone in the carnival. Death had been watching me, waiting for the right moment to--what, attack? Why the little boy?

            "I always get what I want," Death told me once.

            "Not this time," I had snapped.

            "Every time."

            My face paled. He was going to hurt the little boy if I didn't sign the contract, which meant he was definitely becoming desperate. But why?

            "Let the kid go," I said firmly, holding back my tremble. "He has nothing to do with this, Death. Let the kid. Go."

            That was my first mistake, showing Death that I was afraid for the kid's safety, and my second mistake was not facing my fear of clowns right away, and ripping the child away from him.

            Death held up his hand in the shape of a gun and recoiled.

            I fell back to the ground with a sharp intake of breath, and as if I had physically been hit with a bullet, pain pulsated unbearably in my stomach and I cried out until my lungs gave out. I lifted my shirt with wavering hands, nearly crying in pain. No wound, but my skin was scorching hot to the touch. I slowly got up off the ground, confused, disoriented, momentarily disregarding the child with the balloon until I lifted my gaze back up at the funhouse.

            I collapsed onto my knees, unable to stay upright.

            He had tricked me again.

            Death, 1. Faith, 0. Deep snickering invaded my mind. Don't feel too bad. Every idiot is susceptible to me when they're terrified...

            I looked back up towards the funhouse, enraged, but Death was gone.

            "Yoo-hoo."

            I turned sharply around.

            Death grinned, looming over me with his incredible height, clown makeup shifting his features into something more horrifying as his lips stretched upwards. The makeup, now altered and lining up differently, looked more like a skeleton's face than a clown's face.

            "Death," I gasped out.

            "The man, the myth, the legend. Sexy, aren't I?" He struck a pose, jingling bells around his neck as he moved.

            "You're not funny," I hissed, feigning courage. Internally, my stomach was doing back flips and I thought I was going to have a heart attack, I was so afraid. And whatever mind trick he had played on my stomach before, shooting that pretend bullet into me, I was still physically unable to get off of the ground.

            I was way too vulnerable for my liking.

            As if knowing I couldn't get up, Death took leisure, calculated steps towards me. "I heard you don't like clowns, Faith. That's unfortunate, because this clown is feeling very hands-on tonight, if you know what I mean. P.S, I mean that I'm going to strangle the f*ck out of your neck with my bare hands if you don't sign my contract."

            "I'm not signing your contract."

            "We'll see about that." Panic tightened my throat as Death stopped at my feet, rubbing his hands together, gazing down at me. "Did you miss me, mon petit gâteau? That's French for cupcake. I'm going to put the rest in English, and say I planned on forcefully making your stubborn little ass sign the contract anyways."

            He reached towards me.

            Then it hit me. My cross.

            "Burn, asshole!" I shouted, unclasping my cross and holding it out in front of me."The power of Christ compels you!"

        He stared down at my cross. "The power of Christ bores me."

             I threw the cross at him.

            The cross anticlimactically smacked Death in the chest, fell, and became lost in the grass.

            "OH!" Death dropped to his knees in front of me, coughing wildly. “Oh, the agony! Oh, the pain! I'm melting! The world is going black!" He blinked rapidly, clutching at my legs with his big hands. "I can't," he gasped for air, sobbing, "breathe! Goodbye, cruel world, these nuts were good for you anyways..." He extended his arms and fell back onto the ground, throwing a hand dramatically over his forehead.

            Death lay still for a good fifteen seconds.

            He sat up, expression deadpan. “Seriously? I’m not a demon, you can't exorcise me. That was just pathetic."

            "Not as pathetic as your five dollar Grim Reaper outfit," I snapped before I could I stop myself.

            Death got on all fours and crawled towards me like an animal. Trying to get away from him, I knocked into the small legs of the boy with the balloons who had been standing behind me the entire time, and lifting the kid with me, I ran. But Death grabbed onto me before I could get far enough, tore the kid from my grasp, and then knocked me flat on my butt without touching me, with just a swish of his hand in the air.

            "You wanna play with me, bitch? I'll play with you." His eyes were black and hard, fixated on me as he brought a white gloved hand to his mouth and blew a kiss. "I'll play dirty too," he added throatily.

            All at once, clamor and music exploded from the funhouse in front of me, and the boy's balloons popped loudly in his hands. The boy silently reached out for me as Death disappeared with him into the entrance of the double-trailer.  

            This time, without faltering, I held back my terror and ran into the funhouse. 

* * * 

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