What Kind of Wonderland is This?

The carnival was located at Ramsey Park, a couple blocks away from the park me and Collin were walking from. Ramsey Park was a perfect place for carnivals and fairs because it was pretty much one big, empty, space of grass, and a few clusters of newly planted trees. (the trees were planted by some local ralliers I think so the city couldn’t ‘destroy the beauty of nature’ and build condos or something.) Nevertheless it’s a great places for big activities.

I always loved this park. It was my favorite place to hide out during my parent’s fights and when Lily came, it was my place of solace from her and her controlling rules. It was never really crowded, which was amazing to me. A park not surrounded by obnoxious people talking on cell phones and walking rat-like dogs? It was like a quiet piece of heaven. That and I love the fence. Honestly, half the reason I love this place was because of the fence.

It’s the only reason you knew it was a park. It was made of wrought iron and surrounded the huge space. It had spires and an old English-style knocker, (why, who knows?) and in the middle of the towering gates was the name of the park in big rusty letters.. It was like a step back to the days where old English-style mansions were surrounded by these very fences. As a bonus, the fence completely fit in with the theme of this carnival.

As we walked up to the big iron RAMSEY I was feeling pretty good. I was prepared for anything this carnival could possibly throw at me….until I saw and realized how completely wrong it was to assume that. When we arrived at the push-backed gates we both stopped and stared. Just a few feet from us were this enormous, dark, blood-colored, velvet curtain. It seemed as if it stretched to encircle the entire park! As if the mere girth wasn’t good enough, we had to crane our necks upwards to see the top, though I realized we couldn’t before Collin did. He fell backwards trying to see the top. How could they have set this up? There was nothing around to hang this curtain on to!

Collin seemed in shock and unable to speak which was the biggest miracle yet. Obviously this carnival was not some joke. We stood there, trying to comprehended it before Collin started to laugh. I turned to him confused and he grinned at me.

“We’re not even inside to the actual carnival and it’s already amazing!” he cried out as his laugh echoed out around us.

We blinked in surprise as we finally realized; it was completely quiet. Where was the carnival noise? The laughing, vendors, games? Was this carnival still going on or did we miss it? Well, I guess the curtain meant it probably was and there was really only one way to find out….Collin glanced at me and I raised an eyebrow back. Then we walked carefully to the only entrance of the curtain.

Collin took a deep breathe as I held mine. As Collin opened the flap we heard a burst of noise that proved the carnivals existence. It startled both of us so much we tripped over each other as we backed away. Collin fell in the mud face first and I landed on my butt. We glanced at each other and started to laugh. As I helped him up Collin shook, the mud from his eyes and grinned at me.

“Shall we?” he said as he held out his arm. I smirked at him as I took his arm. “We shall indeed.” Then we pathetically skipped to the entrance of the carnival moving the flap and entering El Carnival Bizzaria.

We stopped short as we almost rammed into a small booth. I checked out the booth; it was empty and seemed ratty as if it was abandoned and has been for a while. Collin blew the bangs out of his eyes irritated. He stood on his toes trying to see around the booth but it was in vain. We still couldn’t see the carnival, there was a second black curtain blocking it. We could only hear the sounds emanating from the other side of the cloth. There was something like a toll, booth blocking our path. Collin grunted. “What the hell?!” He reached out to grab the gate when a bar fell down.
“Woah, woah, woah now….” A slithery voice said. We jumped and turned to see a large man sitting behind the booth. My eyes widened. He wasn’t there before, and he was not someone who would be easily missed. He put his feet up before looking at us again. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you….”

He seemed stretched out almost, his body was long and lean but that wasn’t what grabbed my attention. He was covered in leather. He had this patchwork leather vest on with a black short-sleeved shirt on under it. He had black leather pants with a chain belt and chain pices dangling from hidden pockets. I could barely see a worn, stepped-on looking bowler hat with chains in the rims on his head. He was almost submerged in the shadows. If you looked close enough you could see that had long black hair that fell around his shoulders like vines and almost completely covered his face. The only pieces of his face I saw were his eyes and smile. His eyes glowed icily out from underneath the tangles and darkness while his teeth gleamed as he leered at me.

“You two have to earn the right to come in.” He said as he leaned forward, his eyes didn’t leave mine and I felt as if I was being frozen on the spot. Collin ‘hmphed’, causing the guy to glance over, losing eye-contact with me long enough for me to scurry away from the booth. He frowned at Collin and I realized Collin was yelling at him.

“Who are you to tell us we can’t come in?!” Collin demanded. The man glanced at him, slightly amused. Maybe it was because Collin was half his size and was trying to call him out and act tough. The man just arched his back as he leaned into a ratty ez-chair that wasn’t there before either before turning to talk to me.

“I’m Etien, the Guard and it’s my job to make sure visiters pay before entering. And who are you?” he said leaning towards me. I stared and flushed. Was I being hit on? Collin growled.

“You don’t need to know!” he said hoarsely, briging Etien’s attention to him again Besides, we don’t have to do anything- your flyer didn’t mention any cost so we’ll just go through.”

Collin reached out to pull up the bar but his wrist was grabbed by the Etien. He was surprisingly quick. “Caaaalm down. Who said anything about money?” he said calmly as if what he did didn’t just scare the crap out of us. “You have to answer something for me, that’s all.” Collin looked at him confused.

“Like what, a survey?”

Etien laughed. My skin crawled at the raspy sound. “Not as easy as that…..”

“Then what?!” Collin said exasperated.

“A riddle…” Etien said darkly. Collin stared than burst out laughed.

“That’s so stupid!! A riddle?” Etien eyes narrowed and I gulped. The way Etien looked right now, he looked more like a demon then a human being.

“A riddle can cost more than a couple bucks. Riddles mess with your mind.” Etien said darkly as he fiddled with a necklace I didn’t notice before. Collin just kept on laughing till I punched his arm.

“Stop mocking him Collin and just answer it so we can go!” I hissed. Etien grinned viciously. “You should listen to your pretty friend.” But of course, Collin being Collin ignored it.

“No way, we don’t have to do this.” He said and reached out towards the bar again. This time though, Sharp thorns sparng out, catching some of Collins hand. Collin leaped back behind me as his hand began to bleed. He whimpered. He was afraid of blood.

I stared in shock at the thorns. They kept growing out until they seemed to reached the top of the velvet, they preceded to grow towards us. To make matters worse, Then they began to grow around us until we were trapped in the vines. Collin gripped my shoulders as I stepped
backwards, completely afraid. It was like I was in the coils of a large snake with thorns for scales.

“I told you, you can’t come in unless you know my riddle.” Etien smirked at us. I gulped. Obviously, we have to play his way. I tried to ignore how dry my mouth was as I tried to speak. It took me a couple tries but finally I could rasp out, “W-What’s the riddle?”

Etien leered at me again. “Smart Girl…” He cleared his throat then said in a low monotone voice: “The person who makes me has no need for me The person who buys me doesn’t use me The person who is using me doesn’t know. What am I?”

Collin was quiet then yelled out “What the hell ?! How are we suppsoed to know That? That's impossible!" ” Etien’s eyes narrowed as Collin threw himself into another argument he was destined to lose. I didn’t trust Etien’s pattience with Collin for too long so I blocked out all the noise and thought quickly. Okay, someone who makes things not for themselves, so any kind of worker or craftsman… Someone who buys something not for themselves, so it’s like a gift? But who doesn’t know there using a gift? I looked around, but all I saw were thorns and the man’s empty booth. I watched as Collin argued with the man who ignored him and played with his necklace, when I noticed an odd pendent on it and it clicked.

“A coffin.” I said, catching both their attentions.

Collin stared confused. “What?”

“It’s the only thing that I can think of that someone wouldn’t know they were using.” I shrugged. Etien grinned. “You are a smart girl.” He pulled a lever and the thorns retracted back into the bar or where ever they came from and then the black curtain began to lift. I gasped at the carnival as Etien swept out his hand and said

“Welcome to El Carnival Bizarria.”