Festival Gone Wrong

I’d heard about this fair before. No one had ever been there, that I knew, anyway. I had heard rumors of a family I had known about that had gone, and they left town soon after. No one had ever seen them again around here.

I had a strange feeling about this. The Harvest Bounty festival. I couldn’t quite shake this feeling in the pit of my stomach. Still, my partner insisted, saying it looked like fun. She was new to this little town. Sounds cliche, but big city girl, moves to a small town, and itches to get out as much as possible. That was her.

She had looked at me earlier in the day, over her enormous cup of coffee, eyes pleading. “Can we, please? We’ve been cooped up for months!”

“We’ve been to the farmer’s market every week!” I shot back at her. There was just… Something wrong. I couldn’t explain it.

“Farmer’s markets don’t count if we don’t have to drive to it,” she pouted, and turned back to her laptop. She was probably going to look up more photos to try to convince me.

Now, a few hours later, here I was, stepping out of the car, Amber excitedly grabbing my hand and leading me towards the entrance. Whatever I felt from this place, I loved seeing her bounce when she was excited, light brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and swinging with each step.

She had been right, it had been months since we’d been out. She even wore her favorite outfit. Denim vest over a pink t-shirt, and a simple black skirt. Well, her favorite outfit for the less fancy things in life. Amber is the type to wear anything from a ball gown to a full suit of foam armor to a convention. Or maybe something a little downplayed for fancy work functions.

Guiding me toward a small blue tent with a window, she pulled out her wallet and excitedly told the admissions person “two please!”

There was something very weird about this person taking the money. His eyes lacked a certain spark of life. His too-pale skin and white hair practically glowed in the light above his seat. Probably a trick of the makeup, I told myself. The look he gave as we walked by almost looked like an apology as he nodded. I felt my throat clench, but pushed the feeling aside.

Behind the small blue admissions tent was a small trail through some of the trees leading to a large blue, red and yellow circus tent. The entrance of the tent was a clown’s mouth. Great, even more unsettling. The eyes of this wooden clown adorning the entrance were painted to look hungry. I shuddered, set my eyes forward into the tent itself and followed my partner’s lead. I coudn’t tell if she noticed how off the entrance was, or my shudder.

Inside the tent was a large pit in the middle, with the sides sloping in and holding bleachers around three sides. The fourth side looked to be the entrance to their backstage. In the center of the ring at the base of the pit was a large ball, lit up with a spotlight. Jaunty music came from the speakers around the tent and some set into the bleachers themselves, other speakers faced the audience from the edges of the rings. Amber led me to the center bleachers and to seats in the third row. We filed in and watched some of the other stragglers filing to seats.

It was not as packed as I thought it might be. The whole tent was only about a third full, but it seemed to be enough for the performers. The music from the speakers slowly faded out and the house lights dimmed. A hush fell over the crowd as the spotlight on the large ball in the center of the ring captured all of our attention.

A drumroll came through. The spotlight went out, leaving the tent dark.

“Are you ready?” Came a booming almost ethereal voice from the speakers around the ring. The rest of the speakers hosted the continuing drumroll.

The spotlight hit the ball in the center once again, only not the ball itself. It hit the man now balancing on the ball with ease. Again, this man looked too pale, and even the three piece suit he wore looked like a light gray. His white hair also practically glowed in the spotlight, though his eyes did not match the ticket taker.

Where the ticket taker lacked the spark of life, this man’s eyes glowed with excitement. His irises looked red in the light. That had to be a trick right? Contacts and makeup? He held his arms out looking around the tent as people applauded.

I peaked over at Amber, and she seemed excited by the creep factor that this festival set forth.

The man brought the microphone back to his face and began to sing, moving the ball beneath him around the ring. It was a warm, inviting, and jaunty tune. As the ball rolled around the ring, different groups of performers were lit up by spotlights, and performed some sort of circus trick before the ball moved on and the light on them went out.

Everyone was dressed in white, the same ghostly pale skin and hair, even those with vastly different ethnicities. Some sported the same dead look in their eyes as the man who took our tickets, a few seemed to have attained something akin to the announcer’s eyes. Some were somewhere in the middle, eyes not entirely dull, but nowhere near as lively as the red eyes of the announcer.

The song itself introduced some of the acts, most with acrobatics or perhaps the odd balance acts. It was not overly long for an introduction song, and ended with fanfare as the announcer bounced off the ball, performing some gravity defying flips before landing directly in front of the center bleachers, directly in front of Amber and I.

He made eye contact with me for a split second after his bow while the crowd cheered and applauded. The knot in my stomach grew tighter, my mouth ran dry. He turned away suddenly, shouting into the microphone that it was time for the first act; the trapeze artists.

I looked around and no one else seemed as bothered as I felt by the announcer’s gaze. Amber looked over at me excitedly as we saw some of the performers scurrying along the floor in the dark to set up the safety net. The announcer happily hopped through the doorway to the backstage area. Another couple of performers climbed to the top of the poles framing the ring in a large square. The spotlights lit them as they arrived at the top, and they began their act.

As the four acrobats flung themselves around in the air, gravity seeming like hardly a question on their mind, the music swelled as they reached the end of their performance. They ended with all for of the performers dangling from one fly bar after having completed a series of impressive flips.

“Give it up for the flying squirrels everyone!” A spotlight lit the announcer, who was once again balancing on his ball just outside of the ring to avoid the net. As the net was swiftly removed, he bounced the ball slightly to jump over the ring and into the center. The crowd let out a small cheer through their initial applause as the ball bounced into the ring, the announcer balancing ever so easily.

“And now, we’d like to invite the first lucky couple to meet some of our performers backstage,” he shouted into the mic, his voice booming through the speakers. I looked around hesitantly. “We’ll be doing this throughout the night as normal, but it’s time for lucky pair number one!”

The house lights lifted just enough to be able to see other faces in the crowd. Everyone looked a little nervous, and two people to the right looked especially excited to go. Amber gripped my hand tightly in hers and shot me a nervous smile.

The announcer zeroed in on the two in the right bleachers, happily cheering. I saw one of their expressions change as they also locked eyes with the announcer. It was brief as their partner and some of the ushers led them toward the ring and the exit to the area. Everyone else cheered and applauded as they disappeared through another hungry looking clown.

The house lights were brought down once again as the announcer began to introduce the next performers, this time a gymnast with a german wheel. Basically a large hamster wheel with a few rungs all the way around, and some hand and foot holds built in. The performer wheeled out from the clown mouth at the back of the ring where a portion had been removed for their entry, and closed quickly after the wheel made it into the ring.

The performer had their entire act choreographed to the music perfectly, allowing the music to accentuate any particular movement of the wheel or their body. It felt short to me, however, as they held their pose atop the wheel, standing very still for the applause. Then, they wheeled out towards backstage and back through the clown mouth as the announcer began to speak again.

“Give it up for our lovely Wheel Dancer! And now, you guessed it, it’s time for our next pair to meet our performers backstage,” he continued as he rolled the ball around the ring again. Amber bounced excitedly next to me and whistled. I squeezed her hand in support but as the announcer's eyes met with mine once again as the house lights lifted just a bit, it felt like I was holding on for my sanity. The announcer’s gloved hand held out his cane as he pointed at Amber and I, and he let out a booming shout “These two, right here!”

Two ushers rushed from the aisles between the bleachers and started leading us forward from our seats. I tried to hold back but Amber gave me another one of those pleading looks, and I gave in, allowing myself to follow. I looked around as the house lights were lowered again, only to see disappointed, but excited faces.

As we approached the clown face that served as the entrance to the backstage tunnel, I swallowed hard and squeezed Amber’s hand as she crossed through the flimsy curtain, and I followed.

Behind the curtain was a small tunnel, curving slightly. I was unsure how the german wheel had been maneuvered through such a small space. It seemed not to curve too much, but still seemed very small.

It wasn’t much longer before we emerged from that small tunnel. Except, the scene before us was nothing like we had expected.

Facing away from us was a crowd of people, many of them dressed as performers, all in white. Some were not. All of the people in this rather large room were standing idly, and some of those closer to the door turned as we exited the tunnel.

Their eyes were the first thing I noticed. Dead. Worse than the ticket taker. I gulped, still holding Amber’s hand.

Then, I felt hands grab me. One covered my mouth as two or maybe three people grabbed me from behind. They tore my hand away from Amber’s and I was able to turn my head just in time to see three people grabbing her as well. The eyes of the people in the crowd, more of them turning around now, turned from dead to hungry.

From the front of the room in front of these people, the announcer stood atop a stage. Only, it wasn’t the announcer. It had his voice, yes, and looked like him, in passing, but this version of him was a much larger man, almost a ball of person. He sang the welcoming song, laughing darkly as the crowd advanced on us.

Everything went black.

I still have no real idea what happened to us. It seemed like we did not cooperate enough for the creature at the front of the room, as our souls have been kept captive in cages around that very same room, forced to watch as more festival goers were led into this trap, and our bodies becoming part of it.