Things really start getting interesting when dusk is about to fall.

They're pretty much out of daylight, and Shawn is observing a man who is charming an entire nest of snakes. He doesn't really understand how this sort of thing is possible—especially to the degree he's seeing right now. He swears he heard that dude speaking Parseltongue earlier. The snakes just do what he wants. It's ridiculous. Shawn's not sure if snakes are trainable, but even if they are…

It's not the first unexplainable or near unexplainable act he's seen. Most of them he can watch for a minute or two and pick out the ultrasonic beeper in this lady's pocket or the button that that dude keeps pressing with his foot. Then there are the genuine acts that, while strange, he knows are possible when you have the right medical phenomenon or you're made of Jell-O.

And then there are the ones that just aren't possible.

There's this snake guy, he's not sure about that one. It's conceivable, he supposes, but highly unlikely. And the other one is the sword swallower. When he first saw the guy, Shawn noticed a bruise just above his eyebrow. (He doesn't know how he got it, but he keeps imagining a guy going to swallow a sword and accidentally clocking himself with the hilt, and it's enough to make him almost laugh.) He watched the guy's act multiple times (he can't help it, there's just something inexplicably fascinating about watching a guy almost make himself a human shish kebab), and the third time, when he drew the sword out, Shawn saw blood on it. The man clearly has quick hands, because within seconds he had wiped the blade on his baggy red trousers and put on a smile, and that was that.

Shawn knows any internal bleeding's gotta be very serious. But the dude is fine. It's not possible. Shawn is sure of what he saw.

And even if he weren't, later he noticed that the man's bruise—which, again, he is certain was there—was completely gone.

The snake charmer concludes his act, and a few seconds later Shawn realizes that he's not the only one. All other acts are wrapping up as well, within two minutes of each other, like a well-oiled machine.

Seeing something out of the corner of his eye, Shawn looks up, and is surprised to see that there is activity going on on the platforms between which the tightrope is extended. Three people now stand on them—two men, one on each side, and one woman. The woman is wearing a pale blue leotard and seems to be the one who is to start the act, seeing as she is raising her arms, waiting for the crowd to quiet a bit.

Shawn watches silently. Clearly this act is an important one, for it to have its very own time slot.

After the hustle and bustle of the crowd has died down enough for her to know people are paying attention, the woman takes her first careful step onto the tightrope.

Shawn frowns thoughtfully. It didn't occur to him before, but… is this a trapeze act or a tightrope act? Both are set up. Perhaps there will be a trapeze act later.

Dramatic music begins to play from the various speakers around the carnival. When the woman is about a quarter of the way across, the man opposite her begins to walk as well. The man who was on her side follows not long after. When she reaches the center, she stops, and the men come to a halt almost right next to her. The music is building up.

The men crouch down, the woman turns—and jumps over one of them. The crowd gasps, and applauds. Shawn raises his eyebrows, trying to remember the last time he went to a circus and if he saw that trick there.

Then the woman turns back, and cartwheels over to her original position.

Shawn actually lets out a small gasp at that one.

The men just sit there, chilling on the tightrope, while the woman jumps over them like they're hurdles. Shawn almost feels obligated to clap.

And then—

Her foot slips. She nearly rights herself. Shawn sees it a split second before she desperately lurches to the side, overshoots just a tiny bit, and succumbs to gravity.

The crowd gasps in horror. There is no net. For a moment Shawn is sure she's going to die.

Then she grabs hold of a trapeze, flips herself over to land gracefully in a sitting position on it, and raises her arms in victory.

The crowd bursts into wild applause.

Shawn, for his part, stands still, unable to believe what he's just seen. The way her body jerked when she stopped her fall… seemed… unnatural. He's suddenly sure that there must be hidden cables somewhere. It is getting dark, after all.

The men return to their original places fairly quickly, get down onto their own trapezes, and start flipping the woman around with moves that all trapeze acts include. Shawn doesn't take his eyes off the woman, who is by now obviously the star of this act. He's waiting for the impossible to happen again.

The moment comes when one of the men throws her particularly high, and she does a few midair somersaults while she's up there. Shawn sees that the other man is not in a position to catch her, and he watches, riveted, as she reaches the peak of her flight, starts to come down—

and lands on the tightrope.

The clapping is explosive. Shawn reaches up to test his ear for blood.

That's not even the end of it. She's back on the trapeze within a few seconds, and the jump that brings her there is outrageous. Then when one of the men throws her again a short while later… Shawn isn't even sure what happens. She's headed for the rope, she clearly has enough momentum to continue upwards quite a ways, but she doesn't. She twirls around the tightrope, and then grabs onto it with one hand, does a quick little move not unlike breakdancing, and lets herself fall again.

That, Shawn is sure, is not physically possible.

The act ends and so does the applause, several minutes later. Shawn hasn't put his hands together since that first cartwheel. All his attention has been focused on that woman.

It's already fairly dark. The song that's been playing throughout the act ends, and another, almost as dramatic, begins.

And suddenly there is fire everywhere.

Shawn spins around about eight times, taking it all in. All the stages are suddenly occupied, and spurts of flame are abundant. He sees a fire-eater, a few men juggling torches… Some he saw doing other acts during the day, others are new.

He's a bit stunned—by the act he's just seen, by the fact that he's so stunned by the act he's just seen, and by the sudden explosion of flame that escaped his notice until it wasn't supposed to anymore.

Deciding he needs to sit down with something greasy and clear his head, he acquires a hot dog and a beautiful pile of nachos, and heads over to the same bench as before to sit.

The defiance of physics is bugging him, but he tries to remind himself what he really needs to be thinking about—finding a way out of this. This, however, is going to be difficult, considering he's surrounded by fire and has ADD.