Carnival

3

A chill wobbled through me. It was properly dark now, and I was beginning to wonder where on earth Victor had got to. My stomach was grumbling, the tempting smells of corndogs and toffee apples making my mouth water. I stood in the queue at the cotton candy cart, and tried to call Victor from my cellphone. No signal. I sighed angrily, shoving my phone back into my pocket. Someone pushed my back, and i realised I was now at the front of the line.

A bell jangled, and the painted face of a circus clown appeared through the bags of fluffy candy floss. He made me jump, but I really just wanted to get some sugar in me and hurry up finding Victor.

"A cotton candy please."

He unhooked the bag from the rim of the cart, and handed it to me, without saying a word. Well, I think it was a he. Their face was shrouded with darkness, only a shiny red clowns nose visible. I handed him the change and made my way to the hotdog stands. Maybe the queue for hotdogs had been exceptionally long, and Victor was still hanging around there? I scanned the crowd of misfit people, but he was nowhere to be seen.

He would be sure to turn up soon enough. I tried to reassure myself, and went to find a distraction. The queue from the cotton candy cart was now trailing all the way down past the hotdog stands. Thank goodness I had got mine already.

Horrible thoughts began to swim around my scrambled mind. What if Victor had disappeared, just as his sister had done? What if someone had kidnapped him, and was murdering him this very moment? I checked my phone again, but there was still no signal.

I suddenly felt very alone. Even here, at this merry carnival, surrounded by hundreds of people all playing games and having fun, I had never felt more lonely. A cool breeze was rippling through the air, and I bundled into the first tent I came across. It was the freak show, and I nervously observed the freakish human beings, sat on metal chairs or in small cages, staring into space as people gawked at their abnormalities.

It wasn't pretty. As soon as possible, I found my way to the exit and began walking past the market stalls. People cooed out to me, offering lavender sticks and brandy bars, trying to sell whatever they could before the night's end.

"Fresh ring donuts! Get your sugary sweet handcooked donuts here!"

There was no queue, so i decided to spend a few pounds and buy myself a ring donut. The chef fried the donut for only a few seconds, then tossed it in sugar and handed it to me in a red napkin.

"Enjoy, my friend!" He moved on to the next customer.
The donut was gorgeous, crispy on the outside and sweetly fresh and warm on the inside. My spirits suddenly lifted a little.

"Pretty doll! Come buy a puppet! Handmade, painted, oiled and polished!" I jumped back as a string of carved wooden puppets were swung in front of my face, clacking as they bumped against eachother. One looked just like me, black and white striped tights painted onto her spindly legs, and ivory cracks spidering across her darkened face.

"No thank you." I ducked away from them, bumping into a figure behind me. He turned round, and I gulped down a lump of donut without chewing it. It was the clown who had served me the cotton candy, and it was definitely a male. I only got a glimpse of his face before he turned away again, but it was pure white, painted with a menacing black smile, and topped with the shiny red nose, like the red cherry on a cake. The bells on his hat jingled a little as he disappeared into the crowds, not giving me the chance to apologise.
Okay, now I really should be finding Victor.

I looked across the crowds of people. Dazzling pink and yellow lights from the fairground rides were casting shadows across faces, chiming music and shouts of laughter filling the air. Victor had been wearing a yellow hoodie, so maybe if I rode the Ferris wheel again, I would stand a chance of spotting him.

I climbed into a swinging gondola, and waited as the old Ferris wheel shifted in the wind, lifting me up into the blackened sky. It was slightly awkward being alone on the ride, like I had no friends and was some kind of weirdo, but in some respects that was true. This wasn't for enjoyment anyway, it was to find Victor.

Peering over the edge, my heart sank. Everybody looked the same; grey ghosts of people milling around the stalls below. I was going to be stuck in this freaky carnival for all eternity, hopelessly looking for a boy in a yellow hoodie, when every colour looked dark and grey.

I checked my phone again, still no signal. My service provider was going to have to change. I cast my mind back to when Victor had left to go and buy food. He had said he would come and find me, hadn't he? If I hovered around the face painting tent, maybe he would turn up.

I put my phone back in my pocket, zipping my hoodie all the way up to the neck. It was getting nippy now. Looking across at the gondola below me, my breath turned to ice in my throat. A whitewashed face, scathed with an unnaturally large black smile, was staring back at me. The golden lights of the carousel glinted off his shiny red nose. The clown waved at me, and I sat there, frozen with fear, and confusion. I didn't wave back. Bumping into this clown was becoming a habit, and one I wanted to break. It was beginning to seem creepy. And it wasnt as if i could just blend into the crowds - nobody else was wearing strips tights, with a China doll face. I wanted to find Victor, and fast.