The New Year's Carnival comes around once a year. It opens at dawn on New Year's Eve and closes at dusk on New Year's Day. My parents made it a tradition to bring my sister and I as we loved carnivals and the staff put on a fantastic firework show to bring in the new year. But last year the New Year's Carnival became my greatest dread, and that's exactly why I had to go back.

We exited the car. Snow swirled in the frigged air. Our breaths came out in puffs. I pulled my scarf up to my nose and followed my parents as they walked toward the distant rumbling of the packed carnival. The giant letters of the welcome arch loomed and reached well into the clouded sky. The flag topped tents rippled against the wind but held steady like gargoyles anticipating our approach. I took a deep breath, I can do this. My eyes traveled to my side where my sister should have been and repeated to myself, I can do this.

"Come on, kiddo!" my dad called. They had stopped a bit farther away when they realized I wasn't keeping pace. "The carnival's going to close before we even get there at this pace."

My mom swatted his chest though a smile tweaked her lips. "Come on, sweetie! Maybe you can meet up with Ronda again!"

My dad leaned over and whispered something in her ear that caused a flash of panic on her face before correcting herself. "Reyna! Maybe you can meet up with Reyna again!" She waved her arm, beckoning me forward as they turned around so they could continue walking.

Reyna. My sister. My parents don't remember that though. No one in this town does. Not even the police. Their records show no sign of her. Actually, there is no record of her existence anywhere I looked. But I did have a sister and she went missing along with several of our other friends one year ago. At this carnival. No one remembers but me.

The hosts greeted us with wide smiles, ushering us to join the loud sounds and bright lights. The rides and tents towered over us like soldiers, their lights like watchful eyes. My mother turned to me, reaching out to give me some cash. "Okay, here is some cash. You can stick with us if you'd like, but if you want to venture off then meet us at the firework show. If you need us before then we'll be at the circus and your father wants to see the daredevil show after that."

I gave her a nod and began my journey in the opposite direction from where they were headed. Even before my sister's disappearance this carnival made me a bit uncomfortable. Particularly some of the staff. The ladies who worked the food vendors always pointed and whispered whenever they saw me. The boy with the pointed ears, who was a part of the circus, usually smirked and gave me a wink. The daredevil would single me out and give me a kiss on the hand. I could look past these instances, but there was one wink I couldn't ignore. It came from the guy who ran the resolutions stall. Where I'm currently headed to now.

My sister loved New Year's resolutions. She used them as a way to challenge herself for the next year. It was a fun game she played with herself to see how many of them she could accomplish. My eyes began to burn and a single tear blazed a trail down my cheek. I quickly wiped it away and took a deep breath. I can do this.

I walked past the food vendors. I didn't bother looking over as I could hear the hiss of whispers and knew what was being exchanged. My sister seemed so frantic the last time we were here and her shrill voice would sometimes echo in my ears when I was in silence. I could still feel the grip of her hand on my wrist as she dragged me to the resolutions stall in the cubbyhole of the carnival. When she told the host there that she had not completed her resolutions, a grin carved itself into his handsome face as he said, "Oh, what a shame." He then turned to me and winked. My sister didn't seem to notice and signed up a new list of resolutions then badgered me into doing the same. When I couldn't find her after the firework show all I had to go on was a handsome guy with a wicked smile and a wink.

As I approached the resolution stall, the host looked up at me with a wide grin. "So, she comes back. Took you long enough. We've been open for hours."

"I couldn't get here until now," I replied coolly. "I didn't complete my resolutions. I know you took my sister. I don't know how you made my parents and this entire town forget about her and probably many others, but I know you did something."

He laughed and just when I thought he was about to deny everything, he stood and opened the gate to behind the counter. He beckoned me forward with his hand while reaching to pull back one of the curtains obscuring the back of the stall. "Come, come. I'll give you the answers you seek."

A pull snuffed out the tiny voice telling me to run and I followed him behind the curtain to a world that shouldn't exist. A world of never ending twilight and a forest of purple and gold stretching far into the horizon. Distance castles, blurred by clouds and fog, were beacons of new civilization. The guy has brought me to a small pocket outside of those civilizations. A cottage with rolling fields of farmland and orchards. Plants I had never seen before and of colors that should not be. There were moving dots in the fields I could only guess to be farmhands working the crops.

We stood in silence as he allowed me to drink it in until I asked, "Why was I the only one to notice?"

"Because you're fae," he replied. "We all could see it when you walked into our parts of the carnival for the first time." Then, he shrugged. "So, I guess your mom got snagged at some point. Both of your parents are human and so is your sister."

"Why are you giving me answers? Why not deny it all?"

He smirked. "Because you broke your resolutions contact. You now belong to me."