Author's Note: I'll put the votes for each couple to the right of their names, and an "X" for them being voted off on the left.
-Izzy and Owen-2
-Heather and Justin-20
X-Lindsay and Tyler-0
-LeShawna and Harold-4
-Beth and Cody-4
X-Eva and Ezekiel-0
-Bridgette and Geoff-13
-Gwen and Trent-55
-Courtney and Duncan-85
X-Sadie and DJ-2
-Katie and Noah-8
"Courtney, Courtney, are you okay?" Duncan asks. She mumbles something into Duncan's shirt. "What?"
"I said, I'm fine," Courtney says, her voice shaking. "Are you okay?"
"Of course." They look around, and see just white.
"Crap, Duncan, how are we going to be able to get outta here?" Courtney asks. Duncan bites his lip.
"We should dig, I guess," Duncan says.
"My hands are freezing!" Bridgette exclaims, holding them to her stomach.
"I know, babe, mine too," Geoff agrees. He takes Bridgette's hands in his, and they assess their work so far. They were about 3 meters above the outcrop of rocks, and they still hadn't hit fresh air yet.
"How much longer of digging, do ya think?" Bridgette asks. Geoff shrugs.
"Hmm… Maybe about 4 more meters?" he guesses. Bridgette sighs.
"Look! There they are!" Gwen cries. Duncan and Courtney were waving their arms at the passing helicopter. But Chef kept driving.
"Hello?" LeShawna says, "Chef? Are yall even gonna go back for them?"
"Bridgette and Geoff are out too," Chef growls. The campers jump to the edge of the helicopter and see Bridgette and Geoff waving at the helicopter. The couples cheer.
Once Bridgette and Geoff are picked up, Chef goes back for Courtney and Duncan.
Chris stands in the middle of the helicopter. "We are going straight from here to our next contest. Oh, yeah, and by the way, Izzy and Owen are voted off since they had the least viewer votes. You two are going to stay on the helicopter to take the Helicopter of Losers instead of the Boat of Losers. Anyway, our next contest is to have you each survive the Carnival of Terror," Chris explains.
"Carnival of Terror?" Owen whimpers.
"Owen. Remember: You were voted off," Chris says.
"Ohhh. Right," Owen says, relieved.
"Anyway, the Carnival of Terror is, well, scary. Whoever plays the most games and wins the most 'Terror Tickets' by the end of the day wins. Good luck!" Chris finishes as Chef lands the helicopter. The couples run off the helicopter to the clearing in front of the carnival. They freeze up and stare.
A tall, rusty iron fence lines the carnival. The iron gate squeaks in the slight breeze. Spider webs and cobwebs hang from post to post in the fence. Beyond the fence is a ticket booth, with peeling red paint. The whole main road of the carnival is barren -- there are no visitors. A creaky carousel at the end of the road plays loud and stuttering carnival music. This somehow makes the whole place seem even creepier.
"Well, let's go!" LeShawna exclaims. She pulls at Harold's arm, but he's rooted at the spot. Harold's eyes are wide with fear. "Harold?"
"I'm not going!" he says. His face is a ghostly, pasty white. LeShawna sighs.
"Whatever you say, Little Man," says LeShawna, draping her arm over his shoulders.
"Does that mean none of the rest of us have to go, since they already quit?" Courtney asks Chris. She's shaking.
"No, you still all have to go. Plus, there's a fantastic prize for this contest winner!" Chris says.
"Fine," Courtney mumbles. Duncan puts his arm around her.
Now Beth and Cody are whispering. "Um, Crith?" Beth says, spraying spit with her braces, "Cody and I dethided we don't want to go though the thcary carnival." Chris shrugs.
"Your loss. That just means both couples are voted off." Beth and Cody sit on a fallen tree next to LeShawna and Harold. (Author's Note: Hey, sorry I had to get rid of Beth and Cody along with Harold and LeShawna. But, they had the same number of votes so I had to make it fair. I didn't really like either couple anyway, lol. Also, about the voting for your favorite couple: You probably have noticed that I haven't been giving all the votes to a couple if you gave, like, let's say, 50 votes for one couple. I only gave them one. That's because somebody would end up saying a million or a billion or whatever. And I just don't want to do that much math. Ha-ha. So, you can give a vote to more than one couple, but you can't give more than one vote to one couple.)
"C'mon, Princess," Duncan says, leading her towards the squeaky gate. She holds back.
"Uh, Duncan?" Courtney asks, unsure.
"Miss C.I.T. is afraid of a little carnival?" Duncan teases, taking Courtney's waist in his hands. She plays with her thumbs.
"Well… yeah," she mutters.
"Oh. Well, I'll just have to protect you then," Duncan smirks, grabbing Courtney's butt, and kissing her softly on the lips. She gently pulls away.
"Duncan…"
"Don't you want the million dollars?" Duncan asks.
"Well, yes, but--"
"So you have to do this," Duncan says, picking Courtney up and hanging her over his shoulder.
"DUNCAN!" Courtney yells as he walks towards the fence. She pounds his back with her fists. Duncan chuckles.
"Is that all you got, Sweetheart?" he chides. She huffs and crosses her arms. Then once Duncan passes through the cobweb-filled gate, Courtney flinches.
"Can you please put me down now?" Courtney whimpers. She didn't like the idea of facing scary clowns or robots or whatever was ahead of her with her butt in the air. Duncan places her on the ground and takes her hand. Courtney clings to Duncan's arm as they near the empty ticket booth.
Duncan knocks on the dusty and cracked glass windowpane. Courtney looks behind her. The other couples were coming too. After the last couple is in the carnival, the gate slams shut. "Hello?" Duncan asks and knocks on the glass again.
A clown with a bloody face falls from the ceiling of the ticket booth and its bleeding face presses against the inside of the glass. Courtney screams, and so does Bridgette, who was close enough to see what happened. Cody faints and falls off the log, beyond the fence. There's a pause.
"Hello?" Duncan asks the clown. Courtney punches his arm. "What? We need out ticket pouch thing!"
The clown mumbles something and, with a shaky hand, slides a red pouch through a hole in the glass. It doesn't let go of the pouch, though, and Courtney sees long, cracked fingernails on the hand. Duncan reaches for the pouch.
"Duncan!" Courtney shouts, swatting his hand away.
"Come on, Princess, we need the pouch!" Duncan replies, sticking his hand out again. He places a hand on the pouch, and tries to tug it from the clown. It doesn't let go.
"Um, dude?" Duncan asks. The clown whips out a knife and stabs it into the counter -- right between two of Duncan's fingers. He pulls his hand back and steps in front of Courtney, who had screamed again.
"Duncan, man, I say we just put the tickets in our pocket," Geoff says quietly. Duncan nods, and the couples slowly walk past the ticket booth. The clown was still hunched over, holding onto the knife.
The couples huddle in the middle of the carnival. Chris, from the gate, pulls out his megaphone. "Hey, um, there's one fact I forgot to mention: This carnival is deserted. And, um, supposed to be haunted. I didn't really think it was, but between the slamming gate and the clown that wasn't supposed to be here, I guess it is," Chris shouts.
A rock from no where crashes into the iron fence. It was too big to go through the bars, but Chris jumps into the woods and hides anyway.
"I say we split up," Noah says. Everybody looks at him like he's crazy, even Katie. "What? This is obviously just a hoax."
"Fine. Then we're going with Katie and Noah," Heather says, pulling Justin with her.
Once they're gone, Duncan says, "Well, they're dead."
"Duncan!" Courtney exclaims.
"What? I bet they will be," he defends himself.
"Hey! Pay attention, people. We're locked in a crazy carnival. What do we do first?" Geoff asks.
"Play the games?" Gwen asks. Bridgette gasps. "What?" Gwen asks.
"Duncan almost practically had his hand cut off just asking that clown for a ticket holder! And you want to play his games?" Bridgette asks. Gwen shrugs.
"What if he lets us out when we get enough tickets?" Gwen replies. Courtney bites her lip.
"Doubt it," she mumbles. Gwen puts her hands on her hips.
"Fine, Courtney, watch this," Gwen says, walking over to a game.
"Gwen! No!" Trent shouts, running after her, "At least don't play a game called 'Survive This'."
"Fine," Gwen mumbles, changing course to a weight game. Gwen picks up the hammer. "See? How dangerous can this be? All I do is hit the target with the hammer, and the target will shoot the weight towards the bell." Gwen shakily raises the hammer and slams it down on the target. The weight shoots up, but doesn't quite make it to the bell.
A lever swings out from the top, and a hatch opens. A ball begins to fall, right over Gwen's head.
"Gwen!" Trent shouts, tackling Gwen out of the way. The heavy ball crashes into the ground.
"Don't try that again," Trent whispers, panting.
"Okay," Gwen whispers. Three tickets flutter in the wind and land on Gwen's chest. She lifts them up.
"Got my tickets," she says, standing up. Trent sighs and leads her back to the group, which was all wide-eyed.
