Page 110 of Serenity Falls

‘See?’ Miles pointed ahead.

I thought he might be screwing with me, and I was about to say so when, suddenly, I saw it. Sunken deep into the woods, half covered with ivy and moss. A ramshackle wooden structure, so well camouflaged you could almost walk right past it.

Harold’s cabin.

We’d found it.

31

In the twilight, the fair looks very different from the previous afternoon.

Multicoloured lights flash, music pours out of speakers and spinning rides twirl high into the sky. In the centre, the Big Wheel moves leisurely around, carriages swaying. Sadie can hear screams of delight and terror echoing in the muggy air, which is ripe with the smell of buttered popcorn and hot dogs.

It’s kind of intoxicating. There’s something about fairgrounds, she thinks. Something that always gives her a nervous thrill in her stomach. Maybe it’s the anticipation of the rides, or maybe it’s that fairgrounds always have a slight edge. A feeling that, beneath the lights and the music, something dark lurks, waiting to grab you with yellowed fingernails and drag you away, screaming.

Or maybe she’s just read too much Stephen King.

She stares around. Ellis had said to meet up by the Whirl and Twirl.

She wanders through the entrance. The fair is busy, a mix of families with small children, couples and some older teens. You’d think people might get bored of the fair, what with it being here all the time, but from the look of it, apparently not.

In front of her, the freaky wooden horses whisk riders around the Carousel and there’s a small queue of people at the hot-dog stall. The sight reminds her of the flyer Larry gave her. It might sound weird, but she didn’t get the feeling that Larry was trying to threaten her, more like he was trying to warn her. And now she might have got him into trouble.

She turns right and almost immediately spots the Whirl and Twirl. It looks similar to the old-fashioned Waltzers they have in the UK. Red, orange and green lights flash around the sides of the ride, ‘Twist and Shout’ by the Beatles blares out and the carriages whirl and twirl so fast it makes her feel slightly sick just watching them.

Sadie’s never really liked the Waltzers. She could never shake the feeling, especially in ramshackle travelling fairs, that one of the carriages might spin so hard it would just fly off into the crowds.

‘You made it!’

The voice makes her jump. She swivels around. Ellis has appeared from the side.

‘Hey, I didn’t see you.’

‘Oh, I was just lurking over there. The music right by the ride is like, deafening.’

‘Yeah.’

They grin at each other. Ellis is dressed in a cropped vest, baggy three-quarter combats and Converse. Her blonde hair is yanked into two pigtails. Cute, Sadie thinks. She’s slung on a baggy pair of jeans and vest tonight, not that she gave it much thought or anything.

‘Where are Ramona and Dax?’ she asks.

‘Waiting for us.’

‘Where?’

Ellis’s grin widens. ‘That’s what I wanted to show you.’

Sadie eyes her suspiciously.

‘Trust me. I think you’ll like this. And if you don’t, I will buy you an extra-large hot dog, with all the toppings. C’mon.’

Sadie allows herself to be led through the crowds, past the Whirl and Twirl, the Helter-Skelter and the Dodgems.

‘This place is pretty busy,’ she says.

‘Yeah, but then there’s not much else to do in Serenity Falls.’

They walk past rows of fairground games – Hook-a-Duck, the rifle gallery, Ring Throw. Huge stuffed animals – all Winsom characters – hang from the back of the stalls, a bit like they’ve been lynched. She spots Lenny the Leopard, Daphne the Dolphin and yes, Arnie the Armadillo, gazing out with dead glass eyes. She shakes off a shiver and allows Ellis to hurry her along.