Page 20 of When The Fair Goes Dark

I walk out the door and look around.

I mean, I couldn’t pee where all the cars were parked, but I also don’t think I can wait the entire drive it takes to go to my house.

I look back around and see a clearing where a lot of trees were.

Peeing outside wasn’t unheard of, and I definitely have had to in the past.

I look back over at the exit really fast as I see lines and lines of people leave, and I make the quick decision to go out there and pee really fast.

Walking further out into the wooded area, it was still part of the campground, but it was a little way out, so no one would hopefully stumble upon me with my pants down.

Speed walking, I walk further and further away before I find a spot kind of hidden from view.

I walked for a few minutes before I decided it was private enough.

I looked around once, twice, and a third before I felt comfortable enough to pee. My shorts slid down and I crouched over the leaves.

I feel like a fucking animal.

My bladder decides to feel shy and it won’t come out.

Pee Raven.

I chant over and over until my bladder decides to work.

I’m almost done when I hear an alarm sound out.

Scaring the pee right back inside of me.

I don’t move and stay crouched over where I was.

The alarm was loud and quick.

The lights flickered.

They didn’t go out all at once.

They dimmed, slowly, like someone was pinching the air out of the fair.

Gold bled into amber, then into a sickly, fading glow that clung to the edges of the tents.

Laughter thinned with it, stretching father apart, until even the music sounded unsure.

What the hell?

Now that my pee was safely back inside of me, I pulled up my shorts.

I stand still and look from where I was at the atmosphere shift.

The music sounded like the same fair tune, but slower, darker somehow.

I hear a crunch of something nearby that had my heart stalling. I even my breathing and lean against a tree as I try to see what that sound was.

“I cannot wait to chase Marissa. She has been giving me the eyes all fucking year.” I hear the voice say from far away, but not too far. “Last year I wasn’t fast enough, but this year, I got it.”