Big D spent the rest of the evening thinking about not only his fortune, but Fluey's as well. He couldn't figure out why, but he was getting an odd feeling about them. He also found he couldn't get his mind off that carnival ad he had found. Where had it come from?

Big D's thoughts were interrupted by something banging against the garage. He walked over to the window and looked outside. Fluey and Mike were out in the driveway, playing basketball, despite the heavy wind blowing.

"Gotten windy all of a sudden, hasn't it?" Mike asked, tossing the ball at the hoop above the garage door.

"Yeah, looks like a storm's brewing," Fluey said, catching the ball on the rebound and dribbling it. "Hey, Mike? You think there's any truth in fortune cookie fortunes?"

"Not really," Mike said. "Especially with the kind of fortunes Phyllis and I ended up with."

"Well . . . . what about mine?"

"You were the only one of us who got somethin' that was even remotely close to a plain old fortune cookie fortune. But I really don't think there's any truth in them."

Fluey nodded, but for some reason, he couldn't help but feel that his fortune would somehow materialize. He somehow knew he would find something he once lost. He just couldn't think of what it was. He decided to skip it for the time being, and he and Mike got back to their game, though the wind was picking up even more. While they were playing, one of the windows on the second floor of the house opened, and Big D leaned out.

"All right, you two," he said. "Game called on the count of wind. Fluid, come inside now. Rogers, I'll see you Monday."

"Aw, come on, chief!" Fluey groaned. "We just got the game started and . . . ."

"And the wind is picking up," Big D said. "Looks like a storm's coming. Driving conditions are likely to become hazardous, and I'd rather not have to deal with the thought of my granddaughter's boyfriend having to spend the night on my couch. Or quite possibly my granddaughter's bedroom. That's how I ended up with grandchildren in the first place."

"Say no more, chief," Mike said. Then, he went over to his motorcycle, put on his helmet, and took off. Fluey was about to head inside when a piece of paper blew right into his face.

"Hey!" he shouted, swatting at the paper. He picked it up so he could see what it was.

"Nightshade's Carnivale Fantastique," he read. "October twentieth. Hey, that's next week!"

As Fluey walked into the house, Big D came downstairs, and noticed his grandson reading something.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Nothing," Fluey said, shrugging. "Just an ad for a carnival. Looks like it's pretty old."

"Let me see that."

Fluey handed the flyer to Big D. The chief read it, and noticed it was identical to the one that he had found earlier. As he was reading through the ad, a low rumble of thunder was heard outside.

"I hope that's not an omen," Big D muttered, as he looked at the flyer.

"What did you say, chief?" Fluey asked, giving his grandfather a weird look.

"Nothing," Big D said, folding the flyer and sticking it in his pocket. "Absolutely nothing."

And with that, Big D walked back upstairs. Fluey shrugged, and went into the den to watch TV. He figured the flyer was nothing to worry about.

However, Big D couldn't seem to get his mind off of it. Megatropolis usually held an annual county fair in August. The city was rarely visited by traveling carnivals, especially this late in October. The whole thought of carnivals brought back memories for the chief. He hadn't been to one in ages. The last time he went to one was five years before he had joined the Secret Security Headquarters, about forty years ago. He was eighteen, a recent high school graduate, and dating a girl named Georgianne Jackson, though everyone called her "Annie" for short. Big D and Annie had dated throughout high school, and they were practically inseparable since. One summer day, they went to a carnival in town. They spent the day on the rides, checking out the booths, and playing some of the games on the midway (which was mainly Big D showing off his skill at them to impress Annie). The day ended when the couple rode the Ferris wheel, and were stopped at the top during a fireworks display. During the display, Big D proposed to Annie, and she accepted.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck twenty-two years later, when the notorious mob boss, Antonio "Big Tony" Manikatti, and his gang, the Syndicate, and a rival mob began a gun fight, and several innocent bystanders, including Annie, were killed. And, as if that weren't bad enough, Manikatti had also taken the life of Big D's only child, Jack, two years after Annie died. At the time, most of the agents of the Secret Security Headquarters figured Manikatti ordered Jack to be killed because he was the SSHQ's top agent at the time, and he was closing in on the Syndicate. But Big D knew the truth. Manikatti had sent his goons to gun down Jack because Jack had spent a weekend in a hotel room with Manikatti's fifteen-year-old daughter, Maria, and Maria had gotten pregnant as a result of that, and then she just disappeared without a trace (but all that is another story entirely).

That night, as the storm brewed outside, Big D's dreams were filled with images of Annie. It was the day he proposed to her at the carnival. But, even dreams can take an unexpected turn. As Big D and Annie disembarked the Ferris wheel, the lights on it started to go out, and a thick fog rolled in. The calliope music suddenly grew louder, and a lot more sinister. The fog grew thicker, and everything around Big D suddenly disappeared. Then, Big D thought he could see something in the distance, and began walking toward it. It looked like a carousel. A large, golden carousel, all lit up, featuring horses of all sorts, all decorated as if they were trotting in a fancy parade. As Big D got closer to it, the carousel began spinning, and music began playing. Then he noticed the carousel began spinning faster and faster until the lights and the horses became a blur, and the music seemed to be playing faster and faster as well, making it sound ominous and sinister. Finally, it began slowing down, but the horses on it had changed. There were now horse skeletons on the carousel, and the minute they stopped, thunder crashed and lightning flashed. Laughter began echoing all over the area, evil laughter. Big D had no idea where it was coming from, but he didn't like the sound of it one bit, and he began backing away from the carousel, and ended up backing into what felt like a wall. He turned around, and was face to face with his reflection in a mirror. Suddenly, the mirror clouded over, and Big D's reflection morphed into an image of Fluey, and he looked scared to death. His hair was disheveled, his eyes wide with fear. He pressed the palms of his hands against his side of the mirror, trying to reach out to the chief.

"Help me!" he pleaded.

"Fluid, what happened?" Big D asked.

"Help me!" Fluey repeated, sounding hysterical. "Please! Please help me!"

Maniacal laughter suddenly filled the air, mixing with the crashing of the thunder, which seemed to be perfectly synchronized with the flashing lightning. Fluey began banging on the glass, screaming the same three words over and over again like a madman.

"Help me!" he yelled. "Please help me!"

The mirror then began moving away, floating backwards into the thick fog. Big D tried to follow, but somehow, he couldn't move, no matter how hard he tried. It was as if something was holding him back. The calliope music, thunder, evil laughter, and Fluey's screams began to meld into each other, and a howling wind joined this "chorus" of sorts.

"Beware . . . . ." the wind wailed. "Something wicked this way comes . . . ."

An extremely large explosion of thunder jarred Big D from that nightmare. It was still storming outside, and the wind was practically howling. Taking a deep breath, Big D glanced at the clock. Three in the morning. He then got up, and walked down the hallway to Fluey's bedroom. He opened the door, and heaved a sigh of relief when he saw his grandson sleeping peacefully. Usually, if Fluey was involved in one of the chief's nightmares, Big D would get up and check on him. He walked over to the bed, and began stroking his grandson's hair. Fluey stirred for a minute, rolled over onto his back, and slowly opened his eyes.

"Hi, chief," he said, stifling a yawn. "What are you doing in here? What time is it, anyway?"

"Three in the morning," Big D said. "I thought I heard something, and I figured you had left the TV on again watching those late night horror movies. But it turned out to be nothing. Go back to sleep."

Fluey yawned again, and closed his eyes. Big D didn't want to go into details over that nightmare now. He figured it would only give Fluey nightmares, since he was prone to them. Big D wondered if he was starting to develop an inner sense of danger, like Fluey seemed to have. It wouldn't surprise him. Big D went back to his room, deep in thought. The last words the wind had "said" in his dream were the same as his fortune inside the fortune cookie.

Something wicked this way comes

Big D knew that was a quote from Shakespeare's Macbeth, but he didn't have any idea what all this meant. He did know one thing, however, and that was he didn't even want to know what it all meant.