A/N: 707, you're too kind, really. But the generous words from you and others in the PMs and reviews are a big half of what drives me to keep on keepin' on, even when the words don't come easy. Thanks for reading!

Chapter 21

Pure, Unedited Fern

Fern had spent a great deal of her savings to get into Wonderworld on Saturday afternoon. The annual Spooktoberfest was going on, which meant that, throughout the month of October, the theme park was dressed up with every sort of spooky offering imaginable. Upon entry, guests were greeted by the grand circular garden in the main courtyard. The garden had been converted into an ancient graveyard straight off the set of a horror film, complete with blackened and decaying headstones and fake trees with gnarled branches, dripping with Spanish moss. A large crow—fake, of course—perched on one of the headstones closest to a gaping hole in the ground which could not have been very deep, but was there all the same to give the illusion of a freshly-dug grave. The black-cloaked statue of a gravedigger was positioned next to the grave, his shovel stuck into a mound of dark earth, frozen mid-dig. At dusk, fog machines would start up, and scareactors would roam the walkways, dressed as everything from werewolves, to aliens, to blood-thirsty, demonic clowns, seek out the easy prey among the parkgoers and elicit shrieks and screams from them. "Road to Nowhere", the park's signature haunt designed around a desolate stretch of highway in the midst of the zombie apocalypse, would open to guests who had purchased a special Spooktoberfest pass. Numerous Jack-o'-lanterns sat tucked into every nook and cranny of the park, all with twisted expressions and glowing red eyes. Animatronic skeletons and zombies lurked around corners or from behind tree trunks. There was even a gigantic anaconda hanging from a branch, equipped with a speaker that emitted a chilling hiss. Even the food court was not to be outdone. The two waterfall fountains on either side of the archway entrance flowed with water dyed a radioactive green, and several prop food carts had been set up near the real vendors, each offering sinister versions of Wonderworld's usual fare. The cart that garnered the most oohs and ahs from guests had to be the creepy popcorn cart. Through the glass incasing the popper, one could clearly make out a pile of glassy eyeballs with every possible color of iris instead of popped kernels of corn. It certainly had been Fern's favorite.

If only this place were like this all the time… she mused as she polished off the last of her beverage.

Fern had purchased a Sangue Latte, which was nothing more than white hot chocolate topped with a pillow of latte foam and a heavy drizzle of raspberry syrup, but it was delicious. She sipped her final sips, sitting on a bench as she took in her surroundings with a giddy smile on her face, occasionally pushing back into place the fake, black-rimmed glasses that kept sliding down her nose. Fern was not here for Spooktoberfest; she was here on a mission, and that mission included a bit of trespassing.

As she continued to develop Around the Dark Corner, her newest and perhaps favorite project to date, Fern had discovered something about Kelly, the book's protagonist. In addition to being an urban explorer in her spare time, Kelly was also a theme park enthusiast. A shower thought had hit Fern one morning, that Kelly's two loves must overlap, and she instantly knew that Around the Dark Corner needed an opening scene in which Kelly sneaked into an abandoned and off-limits area of a theme park near her hometown. That meant research, practical research, if Fern could manage it. That was the best kind of research, in her opinion.

She had searched online for local legends, anything that would get her close to what she needed for her story, and she had hit a wellspring of information about Wonderworld. The Elwood City theme park had been in operation for decades, and there used to be a small section of the park called "Kiddie Cove". Of course, there was no real cove in Kiddie Cove, but it was entirely pirate-themed, with a swinging pirate ship ride, a coaster appropriate for younger children, a swashbuckling stage show, and a water slide and wade pool during the warmer months. The Cove had operated with middling success until The Powers That Be pulled the plug on the attraction and its wade pool in the fall of 1988. Rather than sink money into revamping or demolishing it, a new standalone restroom area was erected at the mouth of the pathway leading to Kiddie Cove, adorned with a hedgerow and flowerbeds. Beyond this, the rest of the pathway remained, and all one had to do to reach Kiddie Cove was travel the path through the overgrown tunnel trellis to find the old section that was tucked away from the rest of the park.

Countless explorers had done it, some even travelling from out of state to get a look at the Cove, and they all came back to the internet to share their findings. What was most curious about their explorations had been the lack of consequences that came with sneaking into the Cove. Of all the accounts Fern had read, and she had combed the web until she was sure she had read them all, only one man had been arrested, and that was because he had been caught in Kiddie Cove in the dead of night, having broken into Wonderworld after hours, which was already illegal. A few had managed to sneak into the Cove and back out undetected, but the majority of explorers had been caught, and all they had received was a slap on the wrist. Most accounts claimed security either told them to leave the area or escorted them to the park's gate, whereupon the explorers were warned not to come back for the rest of the day.

Many were perplexed by the lax security and absence of repercussions. The prevailing theory, one to which Fern personally subscribed, was that it all came down to money for Wonderworld. One could not sneak into Kiddie Cove if one did not pay the Wonderworld entry fee. And if one made it into the Cove, only to be thrown out with no real consequences, then they would surely brag about their success on the internet. Their bragging would gain attention, the attention would breed enthusiasm, which would breed copycats, and the copycats would buy even more tickets to Wonderworld so they could try their hand at breaking into Kiddie Cove. The circle of life and all that.

And now it was Fern's turn. If she was thrown out of Wonderworld, even for a whole year, it was no skin off her nose. She was not even upset that Buster had turned her down at rehearsal Tuesday night. Putting their one-on-one practice off until Sunday meant she would have time to explore Wonderworld today. Besides, she could just as easily ask him tomorrow. Still, there were butterflies in her stomach, and she was certain they had nothing to do with sneaking into Kiddie Cove.

During her respite on the bench, which was located outside the food court and directly across from the restroom pavilion barring the entrance to Kiddie Cove, Fern had been doing more than appreciating her surroundings. She had been devising her plan and assessing just how many security cameras there were in the area. There was only one that was remotely close by, a small black dome attached to one of the lampposts. It was possible that there were more hidden, as well as plain-clothes security guards milling about the crowds. It was probably a given, but she would not be deterred.

Now or never, Fern. It's showtime.

Her cup was empty. She discarded it into the garbage can next to the bench and stood, tugging at the hem of her denim jacket, to which she had tacked an "I Heart Wonderworld" button, just so everyone would know how big a fan she was. She reached into her gray shoulder bag and withdrew the Wonderworld map of attractions, opened it up upside down on purpose and gave it a puzzled expression as she looked it over. She brought the map closer to her face as if studying it carefully, adjusted her fake glasses, then lowered the map quickly to look at the restrooms in confusion. She glanced back to the map, back to the restrooms, back to the map, then shrugged. She made a beeline toward the pavilion, peered around the side of the building, then slipped out of sight.

The hedgerow was higher than her hips. Fortunately, she found a small gap through which she could slip. Others had apparently used the gap, too, for the edges were ragged, naked twigs that looked as if they had been brushed clean of their leaves thanks to people passing through. She was on the footpath now, and she walked along its cracked and crumbling surface as the tunnel trellis stretched out before her. The sunlight filtered green through the multitude of climbing vines stretching over the trellis. There were splashes of orange-red, dying poison ivy that had somehow found its way into the neglected, overgrown mix. Fern did not have to walk far before signage made an appearance, each warning guests to turn back, that this was a restricted area, and only authorized employees may enter. Fern shifted the map to one hand so she could fumble in her bag for her phone. Time was of the essence, and if she wanted pictures, she would need to be quick.

Briefly, she wondered if Buster would be interested in hearing about her trip to Kiddie Cove. He likely would. Was there a way she could tell him about it and perhaps seamlessly segue into asking him what she wanted to ask him? She would have to be crafty, but she was sure she could come up with something.

"What are you doing?" she breathed to herself. "You shouldn't be thinking about him right now."

What she was feeling right now was an overabundance of nerves at the prospect of tomorrow, and it was hard not to think about it. Fern was a lurker, an observer. She never laid it all out, not in the way she was planning, never exposed her true thoughts and feelings. Never this way. Normally, she expressed herself through her art, but she could always mold it, shape it, edit and pare it down to be exactly what she needed it to be. Her expression always came through the guise of others—the characters she created. They could do and say anything she wanted them to because they were different people. To express herself in the way she intended to tomorrow would be pure, unedited Fern Walters, without a face or name or character description behind which she could hide. It would be herself and her feelings. Truth. And her crush. A terrifying thing she would experience in just a few short hours.

Experience this! You need to get to the Cove and get this done. Be in the moment here. Be in the moment for your story, for Kelly.

Kelly needed to see what Fern saw, hear what she heard, feel what she felt. Fern had to take it all in so she could, in turn, convey it properly.

Fern began snapping pictures before she had exited the tunnel trellis. A sharp thrill ran up her spine as she caught the first real-world glimpse of what she had previously only seen in poorly-lit photos on the web. Kiddie Cove really was a small area. Everything seemed cramped. The stage was no bigger than one might find at a county fair—old, wooden, and rotting. There were very few seats, and they were positioned way too close to the coaster tracks. Surely that must have been noisy if not dangerous. A musty odor came off the wade pool. Though drained upon closing, it obviously retained water every time it rained, and it was left behind to stagnate. The pirate ship ride was well past its glory days, if it had ever actually seen any, a mass of metal with peeling paint and rusting bolts and rivets. Kiddie Cove had been reduced to a sad, eerie ghost town, and it was oddly beautiful.

"Excuse me!" called a squeaky male voice from behind Fern, growing ever closer. "This is a restricted area and you need to leave!"

A teenaged staff member, judging by the voice. The jig was up, but she was probably safe. To be sure, it was probably best to keep up the dumb act. People could be forgiving of those they deemed too dumb to live. Fern slackened her jaw and turned around, pointing at her upside-down map and looking utterly lost.

"Hey, yo," she said dully to the young cat boy donning a Wonderworld staff polo, "is this the, uh, the Road to Nowhere haunt thingy?"

The boy gave his surroundings a once-over and then looked back to Fern with a you've-got-to-be-kidding-me expression.

"Does anything about this place scream 'Road to Nowhere' to you?" His tone exuded condescension, and it was clear that what little authority he had been given went straight to his head. "I mean, did you even bother to read the signs that said you were not allowed to come in here?"

"Ohhh," said Fern. "Those were real signs. I just thought they were decorations. You know, for the haunt? This place looks pretty haunt-y…"

It gave her immense satisfaction to see how much this irritated the boy.

"It's not a haunt," he said, growing testier by the second. "Road to Nowhere is located past the food court and near the Hurl-a-Whirl. Please leave now. And I don't know if you realize it, but you're holding your map upside down."

Fern looked at her map and made a shocked face. "Oh my god, you're sooo right. Ah, now I feel, like, really dumb. Thanks a bunch…"

And with that she walked back into the tunnel trellis, pushing up her glasses yet again. The boy followed her out, mumbling something about how much he hated working with people under his breath. Fern did not care enough to hone in on what he was saying. Her spirits as well as her courage had been bolstered by this little field trip. She had done it, a successful trek into the legendary Kiddie Cove. She now had tons of inspiration for her book, and to top it off, she was now free to think about Buster and how she planned to throw caution to the wind and ask him to the Autumn Ball tomorrow.

To be continued…