A/N: This... is what I'm really doing while I'm watching a merry-go-round. Good thing people can't look inside my head.
45. Illusion
The winter fair was at it's peak hour, the people milling around the rides and stalls, smiling, laughing, pushing through the crowd. Nobody seemed to mind that it was almost impossible to get anywhere, nobody was in a hurry to get anyplace anyway, they were just enjoying the sounds and the smells of a long-ago forgotten memory of their childhood. In this day and age of computer arcades, amusement parks and TV, the old-fashioned rides of the winter fair seemed tacky. But fun.
There was the old Ferris Wheel, nowhere near as high as the ones one would get at the the great fairs in the larger cities, looking as if it could use a bit of extra paint. But the owner smiled a friendly smile at everybody and patted the children on their heads, their cheek red from excitement and fatigue, it being way past their bedtime.
The loud music from the Dodgem cars didn't drive people away either, and a long line was standing at the side of it, people waiting for their turn to have a go at something that was to be avoided in their everyday lives.
It took some courage, Danny mused, to come to Amity Park with a Ghost House, taking at shot at scaring people who were so used to ghost attacks they didn't even pause to look at it anymore when he was battling Skulker, or Ember, or some other powerful ghost way up in the sky. Ghosts were like the rain, annoying, but just there.
He wrapped his arms around the shoulders of his raven haired girl friend and pulled her close, pointing at the gloomy ride, which had 'Horror' written in large, fluorescent green letters. She smiled at him and nodded, and they both sat down in the little cart and let themselves be pulled through a series of more or less scary looking skeletons, ghosts with glowing red eyes and slimy monsters suddenly popping up beside them. Sam was laughing the entire way.
The bright lights of the fair greeted them when they stepped out of the cart, smiled at the attendant and slowly made their way through the fair again, working their way through the crowd. He bought Sam some cotton candy, and they shared the pink sugar, plucking at it with sticky fingers. Then they stopped to look a the Merry-go-round.
It was a beautiful carousel, with painted on scenes of winter landscapes, dancing people and animals. The mechanically moved horses were shining in the lights, looking as if the owner polished them every day. They sparkled too, and wen Danny looked a bit closer, he saw that they had small mirrors glued on them that reflected the light. It stopped, and the people got off, laughing, picking up their children and helping them down from their horses or carriages.
Sam tugged at Danny's arm, and they climbed on it, each taking a horse. He noticed the horses had names painted on them. Sam was sitting on Neville, he himself was on Johnny. Other people got on as well and then the bell sounded, and they started turning, going round and round, until he could no longer tell where they were.
He looked at Sam's sparkling eyes and reached out to grab her hand, squeezing it to tell her how much he was enjoying her company. The cold air blew his hair back, and he could see her breath steaming from her mouth as she said something to him he couldn't hear.
"I love you too," he yelled at her, and that brought another smile on her face.
They were going fast now, the lights were flickering in his eyes, the faces of the people standing on the ground becoming a blur of white ovals with holes for eyes. The music became louder, the wind was blowing harder, and he grabbed a hold of the pole that went through his horse, keeping it in place, moving it up and down faster and faster. He held on to Sam's hand even tighter and looked at her worriedly, but she was still smiling at him.
Round and round, the fair was gone, only a stream of lights remained and the glittering of the horse he was on, which, he saw now, was missing an ear. Spiky splinters were where it should have been, and Danny wondered why the owner, who took such trouble to maintain his carousel, wouldn't fix this. The paint was pealing off too, and the wood of the horse felt brittle with age.
Turning his head to look at the inside of the carousel, he saw the owner standing there, grinning a toothless grin at him, and his mouth went dry. The other people were gone, he and Sam were the only ones left on it, and the music was going faster and faster, sounding off key. There was no 'outside the merry-go-round' anymore, the darkness and colored lights of the fair had changed into a green swirling.
He felt her bony hand still in his and he turned again to look at her, seeing her pale face and the dark circles under her eyes, no longer smiling at him but grinning, showing black rotting teeth between black lips. He let go of her and clutched his horse tightly, ignoring the splinters that stung his aged hands, watching her as her face turned old and withered away, leaving only a white skull.
Echoes sounded through his head, flashes of light in his eyes, the darkness that entered his vision, then one last look at the smiling owner of the carousel. A cold that chilled him to the bone, a cold that would never go away, a cold that he could never turn off again and turn into something breathing, living. A coldness of the grave.
Please don't ask me what's going on here. I haven't a clue. Well, he's dead, obviously.
