'But soon after we regained our composure, a hand emerged from behind the curtain, from inside of Delamont, causing us to jump back in fear...'

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Gear's POV:

Is that a hand? An actual floating hand?

I'm just confused. Either somebody's got a severed limb or they're invisible or some shit. Like, I don't know what's going on.

Then, said hand yanks back the curtain.

And I was very wrong.

Turns out that the floating hand just belonged to an acrobat.

Everybody's just glaring at each other right now. My God, this is awkward.

"Um, hello?" Megan says, waving.

"Hello there, friends! You're right in luck! The carnival's in town tonight!" The acrobat responds, a sinister smile drawn on her face.

"Yes, that's the reason we're here, Miss. Now, if you wouldn't mind letting us in, that would be wonderful." Oli says, confusion lingering in his voice.

"Not yet, pretty lad! I haven't told you about the attractions here tonight! We've caught a Stone Man, a dog woman, steampunk twins with knives! It's like bloody Mardi gras every day!" She giggles, exploding into a cackle.

Gear: 'OK, this bitch is weird as fuck. Like, I would much prefer to go to a carnival with my friends and now we're chatting with somebody weirder than Hannibal Lecter. I'm looking at everybody and I can tell we're all asking the same thing; what the fuck did we get ourselves into?'

Lizzie: 'So, to sum up, this girl in one word, she's eccentric. Being eccentric's great, but this girl's making it creepy.'

"So, just to clarify, with these steampunk twins with knives, are these knives like Scream or..." Valentina questions, before the acrobat cut her off.

"You've hit the nail on the noggin, young lady!" She yells, knocking the side of the head to show.

"Yeah. We need to..."

After another awkward silence, Zach thought of something.

"Talk to the mayor," He lies, hopefully being able to get us away from this crazy lady.

"Well, I've said all I needed to say, so....."

She pulls back the purple curtain, letting us through.

"Welcome to Delamont and enjoy the ride!"

Though I'm still weirded out by that lady, I just walk into town, holding Lana's hand.

Damn, this place... looks pretty cool.

There's this diner called Laceline Rockettes, a gigantic Ferris wheel, and a lot of other stuff.

And even though we just got here, this guy approaches us.

"Hey," He says, handing Vanessa a rose. "I'm Victor, nice to meet you all."

Valentina waved at him.

And, I'm going to be honest, I'm kinda freaking out right now. I mean, is this guy trying to take my girlfriend?

I mean, he better not be or he's getting punched right in the face. I don't care how many people are watching.

Joey: 'So, we run into this guy. His name's Victor and he's kinda hot, but I'm like 'Why are you over here?'. Can we trust this guy or not?'

"So, why don't we have some fun, play some games and just wait 'til my dad gets here?" Victor suggests, looking around at the carnival.

"Your dad? Is he meant to be here with us or something?" Oli questions, that tang of confusion from earlier still prominent in his voice.

I mean, I'm as confused as him, but I'm saying nothing.

"My dad is actually the Mayor. He's giving his annual speech, which he does every year when we have the carnival in town, even if we got lost in time years ago." Victor sighs, looking visibly upset.

"Well, at least he still believes in tradition." Lana comforts, holding onto my arm as she tried to lighten the mood again.

I mean, she's sure making me feel better.

"So, are we going to play these games or not?" Zach asks, looking over at us.

We all said goodbye to Victor, although knowing how small this place is, we're probably gonna run into each other again.

I wander off with Lana, Lizzie, Oli and Val to play some games.

I won a tiger plushie, Lana won a pink bird toy named Rose and Lizzie won a cat plushie, which she named Freddie.

Val and Oli haven't won nothing yet; Oli wasn't that bothered and Val said she was waiting until we got around to the ball throwing games.

We finally get to the ball games and boy... Val definitely nailed it.

I won prizes on all of them; a blue horse, a purple dog...

And then an acrobat gives her a juggling baton as her prize for the third game.

Oli: 'Who gives somebody a singular juggling baton for a prize? I mean, at least give Val two more so she can ACTUALLY learn how to juggle!'

We meet up with the rest of the group, who had somehow got quite a lot of free popcorn.

Val showed them the baton, and they all had the same reactions we did was when she first got it.

"Why did she only give you one? Don't you normally get two or three?" Veronica asks, looking extremely confused.

"Girl, we could all ask the same question," Lia says, everybody else quickly agreeing.

Whilst we're all trying to process this... strange occurrence is the only way I can describe it, the Mayor's megaphone goes off.

"Oh, he's going to give his speech, guys! Come on!" Lizzie shouts, all of us running to catch up with her as she dashed off.

I'm just over here trying not to fall over or run into somebody; there is way too many people here.

We all make it to the Mayor's balcony just as he speaks, Victor approaching us and standing close by.

"Hello there, everybody! And welcome to the Delamont Carnival!" He bellows, causing everybody nearby to cheer and clap, ourselves included.

"I see we have guests this evening; it is an honour to have you here. And I see you have a baton in your hand, young lady," The Mayor pointed at Valentina.

"Why don't you throw it and give it a go?"

"Um, well...." She began, but a lady appeared out of nowhere and cut her off.

"No, Dad, don't! Your words cannot be trusted, and neither can that baton! If she throws that, it will release its powers! And you-know-who will be back!" She yelled at her father, causing looks of concern and confusion from all present, including ourselves, similar to what happened at the entrance of town.

I don't think something's right.

"You-know-who? Are we talking about Harry Potter or something a lot more dangerous?" Megan asks, pointing at this new lady.

"It's most likely the second one you said, but I'm not sure," Lana says, shrugging.

OK, something definitely isn't right.

"Heidi, darling, please calm down, I'm trying to give a speech here." The mayor says.

If this guy is trying to reassure his daughter- assuming this Heidi bitch is, in fact, his daughter- he's not doing a very good job.

"Yeah, you know what, guys? Do you just want me to drop this? Even if it is evil, at least it'll get the mayor off my case?" Val asks, holding the baton up.

"Yeah, just do it; even if we get attacked, which hopefully won't happen, at least he'll leave you alone," Zach says, rolling his eyes at the mayor.

Taking a deep breath, she holds the baton out in front of her and drops it on the floor.

The next thing I knew, a purple light comes out of it and people were screaming.

And I'm just internally freaking the fuck out because I don't know what's going on. Like, WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?

"I don't know what's going on!" Veronica shrieks, her head darting everywhere.

And then, the next thing you know, Val's picked up the baton and an acrobat's come up behind the Mayor, thrown him off of the balcony and into a box.

"OH, SHIT!" I yell, my hand partially covering my mouth at the sight.

"Guys, do you think we should run?"

"Yeah, we should definitely run! Guys, follow Heidi!" Megan shouts.

We just started sprinting and, if things couldn't get any crazier, they did.

The acrobat from the entrance to town and her comrades turn up in completely different outfits, guns blazing, and they're just killing everybody and everything in sight.

Normally, I'd think this kind of thing cool.

But right now? At this moment? I'm fearing for my life.

We keep running until we get into this RV, which is pretty cramped; there is 13 of us, if you count Victor and Heidi.
In one RV.

"OK, can somebody explain what the fuck's going on!? Why is the mayor dead, why are the acrobats killing everybody, and why are we here?!" Lana whisper-shouts, trying not to alert the acrobats and freaking the absolute hell out.

"OK, I'll tell you." Heidi begins.

"The baton Valentina found is an artifact belonging to the Delamont Mistress, who everybody calls you-know-who, since people believe her to be an urban legend. If you were to drop or throw it, it unleashes the true evil behind the carnival's innocent appearance." Heidi explained, leaving everybody- myself included- confused and downright terrified.

"OK, so you're basically saying we're stuck with killer acrobats for the rest of the night? Well, we only came here for Joey's birthday, so... what do we do now?" Oli says, looking around slightly.

Whilst I was still trying to process that, oh my God, I'm stuck here with a ton of people I don't know and there's a gang of killer acrobats outside about to murder us, Lizzie and Val look in the RV's kitchen.

Lizzie: 'I reach into the cupboard and I feel something round. It definitely isn't a bowl, so I grab it and I see a Ferris wheel that basically looks like a tiny replica of the one outside.'

"Guys, I found something in the back of the cupboard," Lizzie whispers.

It was a replica of the Ferris wheel outside.

"Wait, try turning it." Val raises her voice slightly.

"That could operate the Ferris wheel outside."

"Yeah..." Veronica sticks her head out of the window.

"Wait, I see something on the side of the top carriage! It looks like numbers of some description."

"Wait, guys! Hear me out; Lizzie, try turning that wheel; I see numbers on the four carriages at the top of the Ferris wheel."

Lana: 'So, whilst they're talking strategy, I turn around and I see a lock on the door with a four-number code needed to open it. That must be what the numbers on the Ferris wheel are for.'

"Wait, guys, there's a number lock on the door. Over here." Oli, Val and I go check it out, while Lizzie turns the Ferris wheel using the device she found.

"That must be what the numbers on the Ferris wheel are, the answers to the code."

"Lana, you're a genius! OK, who here is great at being quiet and is not in a really bright outfit?" Vanessa asks, looking for a reasonable candidate to help us out here.

After a quick discussion, we selected Lia.

Someone has thankfully blessed Joey with perfect 20/20 vision so he could see how many fingers Lia was holding up.

By the way, whoever did that, thank you, your help is appreciated in this life or death situation.

"OK, guys. So, I think the code is 1206. Try that." Joey notes, looking back towards us.

Lana got the lock off the door and I kick it open.

We signal to Lia to rejoin us and successfully get into the arcade unharmed.

"Thank god we're all still alive." Val sighs, barricading the door with a nearby wooden plank.

Once we enter the arcade, we look for clues.

And it doesn' take too long.

"Oh wait, guys! I found a note behind a poster!" I shouted, signalling everybody else crowding around as I read it.

It read:

'If you want to find the truth, go outside to the ball games.'

"Why would we go outside when people are trying to kill us?! It's a trick!" Val yells, trying to make sure we didn't die or get captured.

Veronica: 'I mean, Val has a good point, but she's outnumbered 10-3 if you count Victor and Heidi, so we're still going outside.'

Doing what the note said, we go outside.

And... there's nothing here.

But then we all just get snatched up and dragged.

"OH, SHIT! LET GO OF ME, YOU IDIOT!" Lia yelled, literally kicking and screaming.

Valentina: 'Next thing you know, we're all tied to the merry-go-round, and it's spinning and I'm terrified that one of us is going to die. And Victor and Heidi have vanished. Amazing.'

"OK, you little shits!" That erratic acrobat leader yells, pointing her knife at us.

"We're gonna roll our Dice of Death, and whoever it lands on, I'll gut 'em right here, right now. However, if I roll snake eyes, you all can take it easy! And if I roll a 10 and an ace, you'll all die!" She cackles again.

Gear: 'I am literally internally praying so badly that this slag doesn't kill Lana; she's my girlfriend and I'm going to die emotionally if she dies too.'

Oli: 'I'm just begging 'Please roll snake eyes, please roll snake eyes!' I'm freaking out right now!' I've already been in one of these situations and I ain't dying on my second rodeo!'

The acrobat rolls the dice, and it lands on...

TO BE CONTINUED. <3