Liar, Liar, the Mage's Desire Vol. 2 (The Oumeno Strikes Back)

The Creepy Carnival (1)

   "Cool, cool," Bryan said. 

   "Yeah, so it seems like everywhere this carnival went, kids would go missing," Ryan continued. 

   "Were they ever found?" Bryan asked.

    "No," Ryan answered. "And because of that, the carnival had to be shut down. Here's the thing, though. The last place they performed was somewhere in Japan." Himiko's eyes widened. 

   "Hey, I bet that was pretty cool!" Bryan said. "A lot of people would kill to go to Japan!"

    "Well, in this particular, case, a lot of people were killed...in Japan," Ryan said. "Oh, okay, well, not the entire country...just, you know, this incident."

   "Yeah, I gotcha," Bryan replied, listening intently. "So, what happened?"

   "Yeah, so apparently the Twilight Carnival burned down," Ryan explained. "But investigators were unsure of whether it was an accident or intentional."

   "Oooo, arson! I love it!" Bryan said, shuddering with glee. Himiko let out a soft gasp. She hadn't heard a story like this before. She thought something big like this would be talked about, even after all these years after the incident occurred. 

   "Here is also the thing," Ryan said. "People have claimed to have heard, like weird things around the area where the carnival burned down."

    "Oh? Like what?" Bryan asked. 

   "Like kids crying, or circus music, you know...the usual stuff," Ryan explained. "One thing that really creeps me out is that, like, tingling sound." Himiko immediately snapped to attention.

   "What tingling sound?" Bryan asked.  

   "Yeah, what tingling sound?" Himiko whispered, suddenly hyper focused on the conversation. 

   "So...some of the locals, mostly kids or slightly older, who live around that area said that their friends had told them they heard these little, like, tingling sounds, like little bells, or something," Ryan said. "Supposedly, their friends would talk about seeing some weird clown guy thing. And they said that a few days later, they never saw their friends again." Himiko gasped in fear, snatching her headphones off her head and turning the podcast off. She sat there in stunned, fearful silence, trying to take deep breaths. She felt dizzy to the point of almost fainting. She clutched her head into her hands and leaned her elbows on her desk, trying to calm and steady herself. 

   "Hey, Himiko!" came a voice from her doorway. 

  "AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!" Himiko shrieked in fear. She turned to see Kokichi staring at her with a confused smile.

   "Hahaha, it's just me," he laughed, holding his hands up defensively. 

   "Nyeeeh...don't scare me like that!" Himiko growled in annoyance.