R/Nosleep (Get Spooked)

If You Visit The Crimson Carnival...(Pt 2)

By: u/Jgrupe

When I escaped the Crimson Carnival the first time, I knew I had to go back. It didn't matter that I had almost died, that I had been badly injured, half-blinded, and burned.

Sarah was there. All these years I had felt certain, but had no way to prove it. As it turned out I had been right all along. She had found the place and it had trapped her there, along with hundreds of others. Thousands maybe.

The secret ritual needed to get into the place was shared via an online forum and now I had real suspicions about who had planted those "tips". I had the feeling very few other people had actually been there and escaped. The only reason I had gotten out was that Sarah had seen me and warned me about the true nature of the place. Even then I had barely made it. It had me in some sort of trance, I realized. The time had passed quickly at first, but the longer I stayed the more it sucked me in and consumed me. Hypnotized me.

I went home and immediately read the sticky post from the moderators at the top of the main page. After scanning it again, there was no doubt in my mind the whole website was a trap being used to lure people in.

Here is what it read:

CRIMSON CARNIVAL MODERATOR TIPS

- Don't worry about tracking the time too much! Although "The Crimson Fair leaves with the sun" that doesn't mean you have to find your way back to the exit before that. Most people stay and watch as the carnival evaporates like smoke at the break of dawn – the grand finale of the fair, as it were. Speaking as someone who has seen it I can tell you, it's quite a sight and not to be missed!

There were plenty of other tips as well, some useful, but most were outright dangerous in retrospect. The whole thing was just a ploy to get people to go to the place, it seemed. To trap them there.

And it had worked. Judging by the looks of the midway, filled with entrapped workers, the bait was working and the carnival would continue to grow. Unless someone stopped it.

I suddenly had a vision, thinking about the giant red canopy tent at the center of the place. I pictured a massive beating heart in the middle of it, veins and arteries extending out from it, feeding poison to the entire place and everyone trapped there.

At the very center of the canopy, I had no doubt now, was the creator of the whole thing. The master of it all. The one who controlled everything and had caused all this chaos and heartache.

How many other families had been torn apart? How many relationships destroyed? Husbands and wives, fathers and sons, brothers and sisters – how many lives had been ruined by the monstrosity that was The Crimson Carnival?

Somehow I had to stop it. I was maybe the only one who could.

I vowed to return, and marked on my calendar the next Friday the 13th, so I would be ready.

What I didn't expect was another person to be waiting in the gravel parking lot to visit the carnival. Another thrill-seeker like my wife, I assumed at first.

It turned out they were more like me.

"You might want to rethink your visit," he said after rolling down his car window. "This place isn't as advertised."

"Tell me about it. I barely got out last time. I wouldn't be here if I had a choice."

He raised his eyebrows and looked at me solemnly, then got out of his car and went around to the trunk. He pulled out a small bag which he slung over his shoulder.

"I'm Gary, what's your name, kid?"

"Jordan."

"You've always got a choice, Jordan. Don't go back in there. It's no good. It's got me and it's gonna get you too if you keep coming back here. Maybe you can still have a life if you go now and don't come back."