{Reader's POV}
As I stood, gazing at the hellish scene in front of me, my lips quivered as a deathly cold enveloped my body. I shivered as though ice had replaced my spine.
Everything around me looked like something out of a nightmare. The tattered ends of many circus tents flowed along with the wind and gave off an eerie sense of despondency. Several booths and carnival games had their prizes and stuff animals hanging off the ceilings from nooses. The morbid toys stared down at the floor with their plastic, deadpan eyes, as if they were once full of life.
A potent, dreadful stench swirled and clung to the air and displeased my stomach once I realized it was the smell of blood.
"Wh...What is this place..?", I mumbled under my breath as I gazed at the dark, twisted scenery in front of me. My hands, shaking from the fear and shock of having to wake up in such a terrifying place, unconsciously gripped my head in exasperation.
The last thing I remembered after waking up was me cuddling next to Jack while we slept in my bed. Once I had felt the warmth of his body vanish, my eyes slowly fluttered open only for me to be greeted to this disturbing sight.
"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!"
I whipped my head to the sound of a blood-cuddling scream and looked in all directions for the source of it. Then, as if on cue, loud, haunting bursts of circus music resonated and echoed through the creepy carnival. Tinges of eerie lullabies mixed with an orchestra of drums and trumpets struck fear in me.
I unconsciously backed away as the screaming continued and gradually became louder. My instincts flared up and I sprinted in the opposite direction of where the noise was coming from. I raced down several booths and slammed my hands over my ears as sounds of laughter suddenly exploded in the carnival.
I looked around in awe as I watched the stuff animals topple over in craze fits of laughter as they hung from their nooses. The once lifeless, plastic eyes I saw were now demonic and staring at me with bloodlust in them. I shook my head and continued to sprint away from all the madness and lunacy that hid in every corner.
However, my body collided with another and I soon tripped backwards and landed on the ground. My heart raced and I widened my eyes as the threat of death stood in front of me. Without checking who was there, I clumsily got off the floor and scurried away where I would be safe, but a rough, callused hand snatched my arm before I could.
"AAHHH!!! LET GO OF ME!!!"
I thrashed and struggled under their hold and fearfully turned around to see who was owner of the hand. "It's me! Wasn't expecting to find you here too..." My eyes widened as I turned to find Officer Stan gripping my wrist as he carefully inspected me. "Or... Could you be just another illusion...", he mumbled under his breath and unexpectedly took out his gun and aimed it at me. I froze and tensed up at seeing the black gleam of the weapon and shivered when realizing what he intended to do.
"NO! Don't shoot! It's me! It's (Y/N) (L/N)!!", I pleaded with the man and trembled as his finger ignored me and pulled the trigger. I slammed my eyes shut and recoiled in fear as the deafening bang rung in my ears.
However, my eyes sprouted open as the bullet pierced my arm and squirted blood over me. I gasped as I hit the floor and gripped my arm from the pain. "Argh..!", I coughed up blood and choked back on the coppery taste as Officer Stan stepped closer towards me.
"Huh... That's odd, you're bleeding."
His response struck anger in me and, even with the immense pain, I gritted my teeth and glared at him from where I squirmed on the ground. "The others didn't bleed and if they did they're blood was already rotting and black", Officer Stan said as he squatted down in front of me and watched as I winced intensely. "Guess you really are (Y/N)... But that doesn't explain why you're here", he mumbled under his breath as he brought up his gun again and aimed at my head.
"STOP IT ALREADY!! Wasn't shooting me once enough?! I obviously can't attack you even if I wanted to!!", I said as I clenched my fists and fought back the pain. Officer Stan let out a heavy sigh and knitted his eyebrows. "Nope, you're you alright. I'd recognize that high-pitched voice anywhere."
I groaned and turned to lay on my back as Officer Stan chuckled. He got up and offered his hand to me, to which I reluctantly took ahold of to get back on my feet. "Relax, the wound will heal. Apparently in his 'world' nothing can die. It's like he doesn't want his victims escaping his grasp through the use of suicide. Clever little bastard...", the officer said in his husky, angry voice as he stared off into the tents and lit up a cigarette.
I slumped forward and gritted my teeth harder as a drop of sweat slid down my face from the pain. "Well not soon enough..", I muttered angrily as I watched Officer Stan exhale a puff of smoke. He grinned and nodded his head to the game booths.
"See those stuff animals over there. They're watching us—heh, through those stupid plastic eyes of theirs... In a moment they'll start screaming to alert the kids that we're here and all patched up for another round of fun and games."
"You're kidding?"
"Nope, they're... alive? And they don't like disappointing him. That's why they try to do a good job of getting us killed-er, wounded I mean."
"Alright... Can't we avoid them?"
"Tried that already, best if we just stay put and let 'them' tear us apart."
"Whose them?"
"Dunno, just a bunch of zombie kids. Must be his old murders, a few seem familiar from some old cases of mine."
I blinked and gawked at the Officer as he casually blew a ring of smoke into the air. My mind went back to the conversation I had with Jack and I shrunk back as I remembered of the carnival he had mentioned before. "But... Why am I here?", I muttered under my breath and accidentally made the pain in my arm intensify.
I grunted and eased off the tension in my shoulder as more blood streamed down my shaking hand.
"Wait... You DON'T know why you're here? That's ridiculous! He obviously put you here because he wanted you out of his hair. You've probably been working up his last nerve holding onto his box and messing up his killing sprees!"
"That's not true! He wouldn't!"
"Then why are you here?"
I widened my eyes and tensed up at the Officer's words. My lips tried to form a response but no matter how I saw it, he made a good point. "B...But...
Why..?" I choked back on my words and painfully gazed down at the floor in question. Officer Stan let out a sigh and shook his head disapprovingly as he watched me from the corner of his eye.
"Don't worry, we'll get out of here soon, and once we do... I'll arrest him."
Officer Stan said evilly but his response didn't interest me anymore, I was still caught up with why Jack had sent me to such a terrible place....
"AAaAaaaAAaaHHhhhHH!!!!"
An ear-splitting noise struck my ear drums and I quickly covered my ears from the morbid, high-pitched screams of the stuff-animals. I ignored the pain in my bleeding shoulder and winced as the screams pierced my hearing. "Gah..! Argh..! We.. Need to..to..run..!!!", I said under clenched teeth and stared up to see the Officer's face.
His expression contorted into a look of pure horror and I quickly noticed what he was staring at.
Rows of children stood a few meters away from us as they all tilted their heads disturbingly. Their clothes were all tattered and stained with blood. Some were dressed oddly as if they were from a different century and others were dressed more familiarly, but one thing they all had in common were their dark, empty eye sockets dripping with a black ooze.
I stared in bewilderment and felt even more shock when Officer Stan shoved me on the ground and sprinted away. His fleeing body stunned me and left me speechless as the rows of children trudged towards me.
I shook my head and hurriedly got off the floor as the children suddenly darted in my direction. My blood ran cold as I limped and ran away from them in an attempt to escape their foreshadowing torture.... But alas, they caught up with me and pinned my frail body to the ground.
I struggled and retaliated as their small bodies swarmed all over me. A few held me down by grabbing onto my limbs and the others took the pleasure of wrapping me up with ropes. I screamed and cried under them as the stuff animals chanted Pop Goes the Weasel and laughed at the scene before them.
I trembled and gripped the floor as the undead children picked me up and carried me off to God knows where. "J...JACK!!! HELP MEEE!!!", I thrashed under the ropes and screamed for help as the children giggled under my weight.
As tears began to flow down my cheeks, I hung my head in defeat and quietly cried as the thought of salvation escaped my fingertips....
"LET HER GO YOU DAMN IDIOTS!!"
My eyes shot open and I raised my head to find the monochrome clown standing a few feet away with an expression of rage on his face.
If he didn't look so menacing, I would have smiled and squealed with glee... but now I felt bad for the children...
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