Play Date **JUST UPDATED**

Dark Carnival

Adara was having another dream, more like a nightmare.She stood in front of a rusty old carousel under a dark, cold sky. Other shapes rose around her in the shadows but her eyes hadn't adjusted enough to see them yet. Suddenly the carousel made a metallic creaking noise and started to move. Adara's eyes fixed on it in frozen horror. The chipped painted animals went slowly around once. As they passed by a second time, a black and white clown appeared sitting sideways on one of them. He saw her and let out a maniacal laugh. Before she could think, he threw a bloody, headless teddy bear at her. She screamed.  His fingers slid up and down a couple times on his black and white conical nose, making an obscene suggestion before he passed out of sight. She fainted.

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The clock said 5:30 am. Adara slowly awoke, grunted and stretched. In her experience, the witching hour could be any time of night. Especially when you were a witch. She'd crossed paths with some odd things in her life, but this took the cake. This Jack guy was a living Jekyll and Hyde. He COULD have an evil twin, but she doubted it. Maybe it was just a nightmare. She padded out to the kitchen and groggily poured herself some red wine to calm her nerves. The rush of the first dream was still coursing through her veins. Like fire and ice. The red hot lover had turned into an ice cold monster with a pervy side. She'd been so mesmerized by him in the first dream she never thought to ask him where he was from. If the second dream was more than that, she had the answer. The first time she'd met him, she was told he would fall through a portal. He never appeared, but she had stood there staring up at it muttering "Laughing Jack...what am I gonna do with a Laughing Jack?"

Things had crossed over from the dreaming to the physical as the months went on. It was so disturbing she was still in denial about that. First there was the picture getting knocked off her wall while she was in the shower. She had jumped so fast she almost whacked her head against the tile. She could have easily slipped and broken a bone. Then she had gone to the mirror to comb her hair and saw the letters LJ scrawled across it as though written by a skinny jagged finger - or a claw. She felt a presence in the room that could only be described as watchful with an edge of danger. Not evil, but definately not good either. Primal, wild. What was he? And why had he chosen HER? She could handle the rainbow side but his other side was too much. He was like the lovechild of Pennywise and Drop Dead Fred.

Still half asleep, she returned to bed, too tired to even think anymore. Before she could even start drifting off, HE appeared, crouched on top of her headboard. That black and white bastard was back with an insomniac vengence! He had an eerie faint blue light around him and he was cackling with what could only be described as amused triumph. Adara screamed and threw a pillow out of instinct. It went right through him. He made a startled sound and disappeared.

"WHY ME?" she wailed, praying for sleep. She yelled a raunchy threat and fell back on the pillow with an exasperated sigh. Thankfully, it stayed quiet and psycho clown free enough for her to fall asleep this time. Her last thought was that he probably wasn't truly gone. The fucker was probably under her bed.

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Jack stood chuckling to himself in his mirrored funhouse. He was very amused, AND pleased with himself. For you see, it wasn't just an old attraction left behind by the last generation of humans. It was his center of power. He had used his magic to charm the mirrors to be several things. They could project realistic holograms, change placement so any wandering victims would never find their way out except for a trap door that led to a dungeon, and most importantly, they served as portals to other worlds. One of those, of course, was the mortal world. He hadn't found a way to time travel though, or he would have fixed his jaded past in a heartbeat. One of those portals led to a mirror in Adara's house.

Still, he was baffled as to the random experience where he had temporarily taken his old form. Perhaps some rift in the space/time continuum? Or he had just gotten too damn drunk that night. That woman was magic too, he could see it as a bright pink/purple firey glow around her. The woman with hair like spun sugar. Other humans couldn't see that unless they were readers. And when he had sex with her, he could feel it. Gods, could he FEEL it! He enjoyed a good romp the same as anyone else, mortal or immortal. But there was more to this girl than met the eye. And he wouldn't rest until he found out what it was.

Oh, it was fun scaring her tonight! Let her think he had been there in physical form in all his sadistic glory. The night is just beginning! Sleep tight, my sweetness. Don't let the undead children bite...