Jeanette Graves rolled her eyes as she stepped out of the house with her young son Doug. The young boy took off down the rough path to their car as the mother stood in the slightly misshapen doorway and fumbled for her keys to lock the entrance.

The family of two lived in a very poor part of the city, but as it was Doug’s birthday, there was no second option when he had asked about the carnival. As she followed her son down the steps, the sound of her worn high heels on the sidewalk echoed around the houses and down the street.

In front of the car, she stopped and glanced down the road. Empty. She couldn’t blame her neighbors to not want to be out on a day like this, but she felt that it was less that the street was empty, and more that it was deserted. Every house had an old, unfinished and boring look. Each was one storied and painted a light brown, with a frame of raw wood around every door and window.

As she lowered herself into the driver's side of their old Chevy, whose color matched the shade of each house, the car tilted slightly to the left under her weight. She started the ignition and waited a few seconds for the car to start. It was around mid-day, and the gray sky met the dull houses and the cement of the road to make it feel as though she had been set back in an old movie.

She changed the gear and slowly pressed her foot down on the gas pedal as they pulled out of the suddenly strange place that they called “home”.

They arrived at the carnival to find that it wasn’t very busy. There were several cars parked in the lot, all of which were the very same model as theirs, although cleaner. With one eyebrow raised, she bent forward through the car door, until she could stand up straight. She helped Doug out of his booster seat, and walked with him to the gate. There were dead shrubs bordering the fence, blocking most of the park from view. When they reached the entrance, Jeanette slowed and glanced around.

There was a single teenager behind the glass at the counter, blowing bubble gum. His face showed that he’d rather be at home watching TV, but he was getting paid, so here he stood in front of her. His half closed eyes followed her as she walked up to the glass, holding Doug’s hand. Several seconds passed as they both waited for the other to talk. Then eventually, the teenager pointed to a piece of paper taped in the corner of the window. Jeanette released Doug so that she could try to fish out a 10 dollar bill from her pocket for the both of them. The clerk waited as still as a statue, only moving when she slid the money under the glass.

Her hand was then reaching for Doug’s, but met clear air. She turned, and found that her son wasn’t there. Panic coursed through her and she spun back to the counter. The teenager stood, as still as he had ever been, and lazily glanced behind her. She turned and saw that Doug was already through the gate and was running towards the merry-go-round.

She sighed with both relief and frustration, and started running after him. Her high heels didn’t make it easy to run, so she stopped and took them off. The concrete squares were rough against her bare feet, but she continued jogging until she reached the entrance.

As soon as Doug had reached the merry-go-round, he stopped and stared at it. He then dashed off down the path to the right, leaving Jeanette out of view.

She picked up her pace, and bolted through the gate and into the amusement park. It was at that moment that the sky darkened and day turned to night. Still a decent distance away from the first light in the park, the wooden entrance around her was pitch black, and the sky was a dark, dark blue. The moon didn’t come up that night, along with the stars who were just as well hidden.

She sprinted the rest of the way to the light fifteen feet away from the merry-go-round and stopped to catch her breath. Hands on knees, and back bent over, she glanced around the space that she could see.

Looking down the path, she knew that she’d made a mistake by bringing Doug.

It was a very large park, with three roller coasters weaving in and out of each attraction. Street lights, along with the logos of attractions, dimly lit each road. Moderately ominous signs fought for more attention along each of the paths that criss-crossed each other throughout the park. At the very back, on a hill no less, was a giant ferris wheel. Although there was no indication that it was on, the wheel faintly moved with the wind, each creak echoing across the park.

Jeanette looked back at the entrance, wanting to go back, but she remembered about her son, and started walking down the same path that she saw him take.

To each side, there were different attractions. She looked at one of the games where the person is supposed to throw a small ping-pong ball into a cup to get a stuffed animal. As there was nobody behind the counter, she thought that anybody could just take one of the prizes if they wanted, until she looked at them. Flanked by two red balloons, there were stuffed demented clowns and evil bunnies hanging on each of the hooks along the dark oak wall. For some reason, she highly doubted that many people would be willing take one of those home with them.

Quickly turning away, she had had no idea what she’d gotten into, as they’d never been to the carnival before. Walking quicker, she continued on. She reached the end of the road, where the street lights stopped, and saw a dark red light about 50 yards away. She slowly walked towards it, hearing the sound of child laughter, but not completely sure that it was Doug’s.

In the side of the hill, there was a giant open mouth of a clown in which there was a tunnel that was obviously supposed to be an attraction. Just to the left was the ferris wheel, which she was sure would fall over soon as it was swaying violently in the wind. Beads of sweat clung to her as she glared down the tunnel in the clowns mouth. She knew that she had to go down there, but… not yet. She turned around and got away from the mouth as fast as she could. Although the clown wasn’t real, she felt as though it’s bad breath was clinging to her as she reached the edge of the light back on the main street.

She walked back down the street, once again passing the stand with the clowns and bunnies. As her eyes darted from left to right in fear, she walked right by it, not even noticing that the two red balloons were gone.

Having backtracked too far, she took a right, then another right. Then a left. She stopped in front of the ferris wheel. Having reached the end of the park, she climbed several feet onto the hill, and gazed through the streets. Shadows wreaked havoc in the brightness of the streetlights. To the right, was the sidewalk, getting darker the further it went towards the fence, more attractions lining it on the far side of the road. The hill, dotted with white and yellow flowers among the grass, continued next to it. She then looked to the left. It looked parallel to the right, but instead of ending at the fence, it just ended at an L shaped intersection. Although the street stopped, the hill did not. It continued on, further down, until she could barely see the clowns head coming out of it, faint red and orange light coming from the mouth.

The light seemed to ripple ever so slightly, as did the wind. Behind her, the ferris wheel creaked and the cars shook a little. She turned and looked back at the light from the mouth just in time to see a small black shadow stretch across glow.

Doug.

She scrambled to get down the hill and sprinted as fast as she could down the street and into the dead grass in between the road and the clown’s head. The light became ever brighter until she was flowing in it. She reached the mouth and without thinking, bolted straight down the wooden stairs at the back of the throat. She jumped down, two at a time, and the walls on either side of her turned from the red color to plain, unpainted cement. A musty smell filled the air as she hit the ground. She jogged down the corridor of concrete until it met an opening. In a circular chamber, was Doug, who was looking up into the eyes of a smiling clown. The clown was bent over slightly at the waist, holding out two red balloons, to coax the boy away from wall.

“Doug Graves, you get over here right now,” Jeanette said. For several seconds, the words just sat on the hard ground with no response from either of the other two. Then Doug looked over and ran to his mother. The clown’s head slowly turned, and right as she made eye contact with it, she fainted.

“Mom! Wake up!” A young voice whispered. Jeanette rolled over with a groan. She was lying in bed.

Doug stood next to her bed. Light flooded the room, as it was late morning. The white curtains moved peacefully in the breeze. Outside, the sky was a dull gray color.

“It’s my Birthday!” Her son insisted. “Can we go to the carnival?”