“I don’t think this old abandoned town has ever seen a drop of sunlight,” I look out the window of the fast moving car, and the far stretched sky had a musty grey color. Empty houses with broken windows, and clothes on the yards ruined the beauty of the town. The town was mostly uncut grass that had bloomed flowers only to have them dry out, and sit there untouched swaying in the wind. My comment floated into thin air and no one heard it over Elizabeth’s irritating music and Daryl and Adrian playing bloody knuckles.
“How about we don’t distract the driver. This is my dad's car, and if I even get a scratch on it, he will disown me fast!”
Dean adjusted his grip on the steering wheel, and the car went silent. Even Elizabeth’s music stopped playing which was a gift to my ears.
“Where are we even going?”
Elizabeth looks in the mirror, and fixes her dried out, long, blond hair which was kept in place with a bobby pin on the side.
“No name,” Dean looked back at Daryl, and gave him a taunting look.
“Nope! Let me out! I’m not going to that ghost town!”
Daryl unbuckled, and tried to open the door.
“I knew you were going to freak out, so I child locked the doors.” Dean starts to chuckle.
“Why are you so scared of ‘the no name town’?” I question Daryl, knowing I was going to get a story out of it.
“The bloodthirsty devil lives there! If we are going where I think we’re going, then I’m out! Stop the car, and let me out!”
“Is the bloodthirsty devil's name Elizabeth?” Adrian chuckled from the back seat thinking he was clever.
“Haha. Very funny, I think it’s name should be grim.” Elizabeth said quickly turning her head almost all the way around and rolling her eyes.
“No… We are naming it nothing, because it doesn’t exist!” I said trying to calm everyone down.
“Nah, it’s name should be thing because none of us know anything about it… See what I did there?!” Adrian starts to laugh even harder than before.
“Fine! Its name is Thing…” I rolled my eyes, and looked out the window again.
“No, we shouldn’t name it. That definitely means it’s going to eat us,” Daryl starts to punch the seat in front of him, which oddly enough is Elizabeth's seat. When he realized it, he immediately stopped, and looked out the window, and started muttering to himself.
“I think your more scared of Elizabeth than you are a monster” Dean starts to crack up and slaps the wheel.
“No one cares about you little orphan Annie” Adrian says trying to get Daryl buckled.
“Come on that’s not cool Adrian, he was just joking Dean” Elizabeth says trying to mask that she’s laughing.
“But he thinks he is cool kid he really isn’t, he is loud and honestly if he even smells a fight at school he starts to puke and sadly enough that’s not an exaggeration it actually happened, and the only reason we hang out with him is cause he has a car, and no one else does in this group.”
Daryl blurted out the car filled with anger and heat off of Daryl’s face.
“I made pancakes before I left my house so you guys don’t get hungry” Dean holds up a baggy of burnt pancakes and pretends nothing happened.
“I think we’re going to be okay Dean” I try to talk before Daryl. Daryl is a run away from home he has been living with Adrian since we were in the fifth grade.
“Eww! get those away from me weirdo” Elizabeth scrunched her face and slapped the pancakes out of Deans hands. Elizabeth is the clichè mean blond of the group, but she is too smart for school all of us are that’s why we usually skip. The thing is about Elizabeth is I don’t even know how she got to hang out with us it’s almost like one day she just appeared out of thin air and no one questioned it.
“Everyone just chill out before I push Daryl out of this car” Adrian starts waving his hands in the motion of him opening the door and pushing Daryl out. Adrian is actually fine, besides the fact he is kind of abusive and mother like towards Daryl because they have been living together for so long. I like to think of our friend group like a dysfunktional family because most of the time we hate each other and take each other for granted, but we still hang out which in my opinion is unhealthy.
“We’re here everybody!” Dean jumps out of the car into the rusted old abandoned roller coaster park we all exchange looks of confusion. As I stepped out of the car a smell of rotting wood and rust strangled my nose and all the old food stands had chipped paintings of clowns that unsettled my stomach.
“Everyone back in the car we are leaving, going back to class” I pointed back at the car a started walking.
“Why you scared Shana” Elizabeth’s annoying high pitched voice crawled through my body and I think popped a blood vessel in my brain.
“No” I turned around and kicked some dirt.
“Well prove it” Elizabeth started to climb on the speed demon ride and tapped on the seat next to her
“No… I’m going to help Dean with sitting up the pancakes” As I walk over to Dean taking out paper plates and putting the cold pancakes on them I hear Elizabeth and the boys trying to push the cart to move on the tracks of the ride.
“What is this place” I rub my arm uncomfortably.
“You don’t know about this place?” he almost looks excited that I was clueless.
“I mean I know of the town being abandoned and stuff, but I don’t know the story.”
“Wait we want to hear this!” Elizabeth slaps Daryl and Adrian's arms so loud you could hear it from a mile away. They run up to me forcing me to the ground while they sit next to me.
“Well they say this used to be an old dairy farm and when the cows stopped producing milk they had an extra piece to the barn and that’s where they slaughtered their cows, but when they started putting their cows in the room to be slaughtered the farmers would come back and it was like the cows exploded in the room.”
“What do you mean?” Elizabeth questioned.
“Something broke into the barn and ate the cows, but left a mess afterward” Daryl whispered into her ear.
“Shut up, Dean keep telling the story” Adrian yelled.
“Well this went on for awhile ‘cause they thought it was an animal like a weasel just bigger or something trying to kill just for fun, but they didn’t really care about the cows in the slaughterhouse because they were going to die anyway it’s when the milk cows started exploding they finally put traps up around the barn which as you could expect didn’t work. The farmers son was a ten year old who got bullied a lot in school so he thought that if he killed this animal then people would stay away from him. So he asked his father many times if he could stay out in the barn and try and kill the animal long story short his father never let him. Until one night the little boy snuck out of the house in the middle of the night with his BB gun and hid in the hay loft waiting and watching for the little weasel to show itself” Dean took a long pause and looked around.
“Come on Dean just tell us” I shouted so loud birds flew out of trees a mile away.
“Lets just say that night the cow survived and the boy wasn’t as lucky” those words pierced my brain and went out of my mouth leaving it open.
“That was a disturbing twist” I go to stand up and brush the dead grass off my legs, but Daryl got up and pushed me back down.
“The story is not done.” Adrian quietly said under his breath.
“Well the farm started to lose farmers and cows, and slowly it dwindled down to the head farmer dude, and he didn’t want to stay any longer so he put his farm up for sale and sure enough a businessman came and wanted to buy it to make a amusement park and have clowns and freak show be the theme it would be the towns favorite thing the farmer tried to tell him that this land was not fit for anything living and that people died on the land, but the farmer gave the land to him for cheap anyway.”
“This might possibly be the longest story ever told” Elizabeth was putting press powder over her bumpy red skin.
“Like i was saying... They built this amusement park in one week and the businessman was right it was the town's favorite thing you know until the ride would end and people were missing body parts and you know heads… So they shut down the amusement park and everyone left the town in fear that it was cursed and they say that anyone who dares come to this park will never make it out” we all give each other looks and all a sudden I don’t feel so good.
“That was a dumb story” Elizabeth laughed.
“Yeah totally like so dumb” I try to wipe the sweat off my forehead.
“It’s not just a story its history” Dean crunched his face in disgust at Elizabeth’s statement.
“Let’s go play on that ride” Adrian pointed to the speed demon and we all got up.
“I think i’m okay i’ll just stick to the pancakes” I sat back down and watch everyone get on the old rusted ride. I turned my head up and took a deep breath which didn’t help at all because of the horrible smell and I sat uncomfortably because of the dead grass that felt like little sewing needles.
It all stopped when I heard what sounded like if you step on a dogs tail and I knew it had to be Elizabeth.
“Shana can you come over here” Adrian ran into my sight and ran back to the ride. When I got up the grass had stuck to my bare legs and was way too hard to wipe off. I ran around the corner and the smell got worse because the food stands had wet rotting wood that maggot loved to bath in and the sound of flies buzzing made me want to die.
“I’m here what do you wan- oh crap” Elizabeth’s white shirt turned red with blood and she looked like a ghost.
“Okay let me see it” I creep closer to her and she kept mumbling things that I didn’t understand. When she let go of the gouge going from her elbow to her wrist a river poured out of where skin should be.
“Quick one of you rip your shirt or pants into a strip i’ve seen this in a movie or something” I turned to Dean, Adrian and Daryl.
“Why can’t you rip your pants, My pants are denim from New Zealand” Dean said it so softly I almost didn’t hear him.
“Because I’m wearing shorts and a tank top idiot” as soon as I said that Dean untied his sweatshirt from his waist and gave it to me. I tried to tie it as tight around her ripped arm as I possibly could.
“What happened Elizabeth.”
“Well that idiot picked up a piece of old rusted metal a cut me with it” She started to yell mid way through the sentence.
“Damn… Your going to need a tetanus shot if you don’t already have tetanus” her shoulder had turned black and blue pretty fast then I spotted a little bunny running by the track I quickly tapped her shoulder and she didn’t even notice...
“Guys come here” I walk over behind the food stand in hope that they follow me.
“She doesn’t have feeling in her arm and she is going to get tetanus, Dean go get a first aid kit out of your car so we can bandage her up and bring her to the hospital” I whispered as quiet as I could.
“First the nearest hospital is like two hours away from here as it is it takes us an hour to get here from school. Second I don’t have a first aid kit in my dads car.”
“Guys where did she go,” Daryl yelled as he walked back to the ride.
“Elizabeth!” We all scatter looking for her.
“Shana wait!” Adrian trails behind me with a nervous look on his face and to be quite honest I probably had the same look on my face.
“You don’t think” I was to scared to even look at him as we pasted all of the ripped pictures of clowns and my feet stopped moving at freak shows tent that had been knocked over and looked like a blood rusted box.
“I hope not” He stands facing the other direction where the freak show tent is. Its dirtied red white stripes on the outside terrified me I was unable to move the wind started to to pick up and my goose bumps doubled.
“I’m not going in there” I say that mostly cause i’m physically unable to.
“And you think I am,” Adrian turns to me and he was more white then Elizabeth was.
“We should head back maybe Daryl and Dean found her” Adrian grabbed my arm and practically dragged me back to the speed demon.
“Oh My God someone help me help me!” Me and Adrian heard from a distance.
“Its Dean!” Adrian took off running and I followed behind him when we found Dean curled up in a ball covered in blood head to toe we knew it wasn’t his blood.
“Wh-who’s blood is that” Adrian whispered behind my back but Dean layed here motionless in the cart.
“W-W-We found Elizabeth” Dean strangled his words to get them out.
“Where is she Dean and where is Daryl?” I kneel down and tilt my head hoping he was going to say that they were in the car waiting for us to stop fooling around and that Elizabeth was blaring her music as always and Daryl was waiting to play bloody knuckles with Adrian.
“Elizabeth i-is-is gone” he starts to cry I look back at Adrian and he shrugged thinking it was a joke.
“Where has she gone to?” I said as soft as I could Adrian kneels down with me.
“She is dead” his words were clear and he had stopped crying Adrian grabs Dean by the shirt and pulled him above his head.
“This is not funny I will kill you if you don’t tell me where she is right now” Adrian’s voice scared me. I stayed kneeling down looking at the rusted cart.
“Where is Daryl, Dean” I turned around and Adrian had threw him to the ground.
“I- I don’t know we were running from it and he just disappeared” He started to cry again, but this time it looked like it was from pain.
“What were you running from?” I walked closer to him.
“The prodigium it’s freaking real and I just want to leave we can all escape if we go now let’s go!” He starts to make a run for the car but, Adrian grabs the back of his shirt.
“We are not leaving without Daryl and Elizabeth” He pulls him back and threw him to the ground again.
“Did you not just hear what I said Elizabeth is freaking dead… Gone… Food… Exploded… Just like the farmers boy and i’m not sticking around to find out what happened to Daryl” Dean waved his hands in the air and his voice got higher the more he talked.
“Say that one more time” Adrian’s jaw locked and he moved closer to Dean.
“Knock it off you two. This isn’t going to help anything and i’m freaking out you know what if I was going to blame anybody for this it would be Dean you brought us here when we didn’t want to be here so both of you just shut up and let me think” I need a better way to see the fairgrounds so maybe we can find Daryl from above.
“Ferris wheel.”
“What did you just say” Dean’s eyebrows sank to his eyes after he asked the question.
“Dean you need to climb up the ferris wheel and look for dean from above while me and Adrian look for him on the ground” I walk closer to both of them feeling brilliant.
“That’s a terrible plan” Dean blatantly spoke.
“You got a better plan” Adrian pokes Dean’s chest knocking him to the side.
“That’s a great plan then” Dean turns to me and gives me a thumbs up.
As we walk through the wreckage of the fair grounds I feel a chill through my spine and I can tell that Adrian does too.
“I don’t know what I would do without him,” Adrian whispers and rubs his eyes.
“We’ve been together since fifth grade he lives with me the house would be empty if he wasn’t there.”
“We will find him, but we should head back to the ferris wheel and see if Deans okay.”
We trail our way back to the rundown wheel.
“Dean do you see them” Adrian whispers trying to make sure that he is as quiet as possible, but there was no response we walked under the ferris wheel and it started to to rain a little bit on my shoulder and face the warm rain felt good on my overheated face.
“Shana… Shana bl-blood” Adrian pointed to my face. As I left my hand to lightly touch my face what I thought was water was red and I went blank for a few seconds…
“Shana run!” I faintly hear his words it had almost been like I had slept for weeks my eyes blink heavily and then I see it. Sprinting at me and Adrian, Adrian drops my arm and starts to run.
“Come on Shana, Come on!” He waves his hands and my feet felt heavy like cement and I couldn’t hear as well as I probably should almost like a high pitched siren. It all came back to me at once. It all became real. This is the fastest I have ever ran. Like what mr. Grendel was talking about fight or flight i’m running which means i’m definitely not fighting.
“Shana jum-” This all happened in slow motion as I fell my life didn’t flash before my eyes it felt like it ended. My foot snapped and my eyes filled with tears.
“Adrian!” I tried to stumble up as Adrian lifted me to my feet.
“Here!” He threw me the keys to the car.
“Come on now’s not the time to be deciding the driver,” I got angry at him until I realized why he gave me the keys.
“ We are both getting out of here don’t even think about that” At this point the monster was practically next to us.
“Just go drive away and never come back that old car would never out run that thing and neither can you i’ll distract it” Adrian bolted behind the hundredth food stand screaming gibberish not even once did he turn back and neither did I...
News Cast One Month Later…
“Police are still investigating the disappearance of five teenagers if you have any tips or know the location of Daryl Williams , Adrian Jones, Dean White, Elizabeth Wright, and Shana Miller.”