Freak Show Read Free

longer and fear grips my heart. Both mine and Kelly’s feet hurry to find our friends but when we reach the wet wall we both freeze.
                  “It looks wrong.” Kelly whispers and I nod while reaching out one hand to touch the shimmering wall. My fingers completely disappear from sight and the tiny bubble of water in the air tickle my digits. Kelly turns to look at me and her brown eyes are as wide as mine feel. “We can’t leave them in there.” She mumbles. “Or should I say, we can’t stay out here?”
                  A clap of thunder explodes in the air above us and I pull my hand back when we both jump. I inspect my fingers and they look exactly the same as they did before I slipped them into the mist. Another deep roll of thunder rocks the hills behind us and I look up. The once grey sky is now blotted with dark black clouds. Still, no wind ruffles our hair, but above us the sky looks as if it’s swirling.
    “I guess we go through then?” I take her hand in mine and inhale a large breath before pulling Kelly through the fog. It’s like walking under a waterfall without getting wet. For a few steps everything around us feels as if it’s shivering. A whirling sound, like the hum of an air conditioning unit, fills my ears but fades with my next step.
                  The sun is incredibly bright as we exit the mist and a soft breeze blows past my skin. I blink a few times to adjust to the light before looking around. I’m honestly dumbfounded by the sights before me. The sun is high in the sky and not a cloud drifts above us, even though four feet behind me, thunderous clouds cluttered the sky.
                  A giant metal gate blocks us from the edges of the theme park and a small line of people wait to be let in. The gate looks old, almost ancient, with its grand scrolling metal work and delicately carved iron bars. “Oh my God.” Kelly wheezes in as much shock as I am. “That gate is stunning!”
                  I can’t see much of the park beyond the gate but I can smell it, scents of strange foods flood my nose and other things tickle my nose hairs, too. I’m sure I’ve never smelled them before, because I can’t identify them.
    I can hear the park as well. Screams of pleasure and pain slice through the air, mixed with the rickety rushing sounds of rollercoasters. My body is sending me mixed messages and I don’t know which feeling I should listen to.
    Run back. Run forward. Hide. Stand out.
                  “Serenity!” The sound of my name pulls me out of my own thoughts and my head snaps around to find Becca waving a hand for me to join her, Anne and Kelly who has already found her way to the back of the line. I force my feet to move forward and join my worry free friends. “This is so exciting!” Becca is bouncing on her toes and her joy seems to bleed into my nerves, so I find myself feeling lighter and less wary.
                  “It is, isn’t it?” I smile feeling it down to my very cells that today will forever change the way I see the world we live in. “Is it magic?” I ask Anne who purses her lips and wiggles her eyebrows.
                  “Not like Vegas magician magic,” she begins and the line shifts so we all step forward as a group. “But like really old magic. It’s not a bunch of smoke and mirrors here, Ladies. This is Other world stuff. Things that make no sense to us as humans, but will blur the edges of our world regardless. This place allows us to mingle with things we couldn’t ever imagine.” I look past Anne as she speaks and notice the couple before her are even more excited than we are.
                  The man is tall with pale skin and dark hair, the woman with him is wrapped up in his arms and his hand is actually down the back of her leather pants. I can see the outline of his hand from within her pants, cupping and kneading her ass