Page 18 of When Darkness Calls

Dani

This is…horrendous. It’s every backwoods carnival of your nightmares. I’m almost positive that a slight shift in the late evening breeze will have the Skyzone Tower keeling over. To be fair, it already kind of looks like the Leaning Tower.

“Remind me why you dragged me out here again?” I turn my head toward Lizzie and catch her mid-bite of a fistful of Ribbon Fries. She chews slowly, drawing it out with a slight wince.

“Honestly? I know I’ve been putting up a bad ass front about the whole Issac situation, but Dee Dee,” she pauses, continuing in a whisper, “it really fucking hurts.” Her hand comes up to rub small circles in the middle of her chest.

At the beginning of August, West View University holds the New Student Orientation, where the freshman class and all new transfers live on campus for a week. It’s highly impractical and kind of annoying. We get our schedules, attend seminars, “bonding activities”, and eat tasteless cafeteria food. If that wasn’t bad enough, we are also randomly assigned a roommate, and I hadn’t been lucky enough to get paired with Liz. So, it was as much a surprise as it was disappointing that on the first night of orientation week, Liz stood outside my assigned room, banging on the door at 2 a.m. crying because she had walked in on Issac with some girl in his Welcome Group.

Turns out, it wasn’t what it seemed, which we found out the next morning after Issac refused to let us leave my room until Liz heard him out. The girl was his assigned roommate’s girlfriend who Liz had caught Issac hugging. What Liz didn’t see, or know, was the girl was crying and had come to their room for her boyfriend because she had gotten bad news. Only, her boyfriend wasn’t there, and Issac was sadly caught in a bad situation.

They made up. Liz apologized for assuming the worst. Issac apologized for making her think the worst. Everything got all wrapped up in a pretty bow. Mostly. Sort of. There’s been a weird vibe between them. His blatant obliviousness and almost disregard of her the last few weeks have been noticeable not only to me, but to her too.

“I’m sorry.” I cringe to myself. I’ve been such a dick. Complaining about coming out like this. Of course, she’d want to spend time together, especially since we barely get the chance to without him there. She needs me to be there for her. They’ve been together for almost two years and things don’t seem to be going very good anymore.

“I’ve not been fair to you, Liz. I’m all yours. What’s the plan, Captain?” I mock salute and she begins to grin.

“That’s the spirit. Come on, I think there’s like face painting by the game booths, or something.”

And that’s how the evening went. I let her drag me around to whatever she deemed interesting in the section of Shadow Grove roped off for the evening. The whole thing was taking place in the blocks surrounding the park, so the rides were set up in the open field that’s sometimes used for drive-in movie events or town-wide celebrations.

We rode the carousel, the Scrambler, the Pendulum, the Tilt-A-Whirl, the Zipper, the Gravitron, the Ferris Wheel, and she even somehow convinced me to get on the Skyzone Tower. The latter in which has left my blood buzzing in my veins and a lightness in my head that’s eerily close to being high.

The view from the tower was breathtaking. Seeing the sun setting over the mountain range, their dark silhouette highlighting the vibrant pinks and oranges in the sky with the bright flashing lights below. It was like being inside a living painting. That was…before we dropped thirty feet in five seconds, and I thought my heart had stopped beating and I had died.

Liz’s scream-laugh echoed in my head. A small smile spread across my face thinking about it. I hadn’t realized how off she has been lately. The whole evening has only made it glaringly obvious that she’s not been acting like herself since Orientation. I’m just glad that I’m helping.

We were standing in line for slushies, “not just any slushies, but super, mega, extreme slushies, Deeds” as she had constantly reminded me when I mock-complained about the prices. She was in front, arms full of gift bags and a large, stuffed dragon she had been calling Johnathon, with the happiest expression I’d seen on her face in weeks. The sunflower painted on her cheek probably helped.

There were around ten people still ahead of us all in varying degrees of carnival mayhem like her, carrying oversized plush toys and bags, painted faces, or wearing airbrushed t-shirts. I stood a little off to the side, out of the line, but still near her, looking around at the festival unfolding. Hundreds of people had converged in the center of Shadow Grove to celebrate the town’s Founder’s Day aka, the day the town became official hundreds of years ago.

We used to learn about the town’s story in school as kids, but honestly, I barely remember anything aside from knowing that originally Ashwood County was one settlement way back when. But something happened and it caused the settlement to split into smaller towns.

Honestly, I’m impressed by how many people can fit in the park. It’s not uncommon for things like this to have a big turnout, not just here in Shadow Grove, but in all the surrounding towns. Being so far from the city—Tennebris, which is almost two hours away—the towns throw a lot of events throughout the year. Maybe it’s boredom, being secluded in the mountains like we are. Maybe it’s just a small town life thing. Maybe it’s a tourism or economic thing? Who knows, but it makes for a fun experience growing up.

I watch the crowd, taking note of all the people who have come out for the night. In the next line, in front of a funnel cake vendor, a group of friends are talking, grinning, as they look over the short menu posted on the board.

One of them—a tall, lanky guy with shaggy blonde hair— says something and the group cackles. Beside him, a girl—around my size but shorter with the coolest green tipped hair—smacks his arm as he fist bumps the big, burly, broody ass dude in front of him. I watch as the slimmer, taller girl with thin, long, bright purple braids and a playful grin says something that has them all roaring with laughter except the big guy. His broody-ish nature completely transformed as his overdramatic pout shifts into a bright smile.

Then, just as I turn, my gaze catches on a family moving their way through the crowd, a little redheaded girl with pigtails sitting on her dad’s shoulders eating cotton candy. Her eyes are full of awe as she looks around at the bright lights, the annoyingly cheery music, and laughter and screams from the rides. A warmth floods my chest.

Yeah, living in Ashwood County makes for a good childhood. Sweet girl doesn’t even realize in a few weeks there will be a dozen more of these kind of things for Halloween, but that makes it even better.

My eyes follow them as they walk toward the children’s rides sectioned off to the right of the Ferris Wheel, and as they do, they land on an unexpected face, narrowing.

“Really?” My voice is clipped.

Issac stands a few yards away with a sheepish look on his face. “I swear I’m not crashing.”

His voice catches Liz’s attention and now she’s also looking at him in suspicion. “It looks like you are.”

“Promise I’m not.” He makes a crossing motion over his heart. “You said you wanted it to be a girl’s night, and it is. I’m here with a friend, this is just a complete coincidence. Just came over for a slushie.”

I give him a side eye, fake-whispering to Liz loud enough he can hear me, “Issac has other friends?”

He gives me a bored look as Liz snorts. “Ha. Ha. Of course I do…now. But still.”

Liz and I exchange a look as she turns to him. “M’kay, babe. Get in line with me so you won’t have to wait for forever.”