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I hand him my hand as he grabs a stamper.

He presses the stamp lightly on the top of it and I look down to see a creepy looking clown with the word carnival on it.

“Make sure that doesn’t rub off.” he says to me.

“Thank you.”

I walk off to go find Willow again because I know I have way less than ten minutes before it starts.

My phone rings. Willow.

“Hello?”

The crowds of people start to walk towards the exit so I know it’s going to be even harder to find my group.

“Rave, where are you?”

The loud background made it harder to hear her, but I could make out what she was saying.

I’m cut off by a shrill alarm.

The same one from last year.

I move my phone down to look at the time.

It cut through the fair at exactly eight.

I stopped mid-step.

Around me, conversations softened as another deep dong rolled across the grounds.

Two.

My stomach fluttered.

Last year, this was the part where my night ended.

Tonight, I got to stay.

Three.

Goosebumps litter across my skin.

The bright overhead bulbs flickered once before dimming, their warm glow swallowed by strands of red and orange lights that blinked to life across the midway.

The cheerful music spilling from the speakers warped into something slower, darker.

One by one, the cheerful signs above some of the games booths blinked out.

Different ones came alive in their place.

My skin prickled.

Around me, the crowd thinned out.

My eyes didn’t stop moving.

Searching every shadow.