Voodoo Doll

“Do you actually not know where we’re going?” I finally asked after 40 minutes of driving. I couldn’t deny it had been fun. The music was great and so was the weather. It was like a road trip with both of us singing along very loudly and very badly. Well, I was singing badly, but Michael actually had a somewhat amazing voice.

“No. I said this. If I knew where we were going then it wouldn’t be an adventure, just a trip.” He sighed, “You’re not very good at this are you?” He smirked.

“I’ve never done anything like this.” I admitted. I’d never really had the chance. Welly wasn’t really a fan of driving long distances and I couldn’t afford to learn.

“You have yet to live.” He smirked, turning up the volume on the stereo. We continued to drive for what felt like forever but in reality it had only been half an hour. It was only half nine and I wasn’t sure what we were going to spend the rest of the day doing because I was sure that Michael had no intentions of returning home any time soon.

“I know where we’re going now.” He shot me a mischievous look. I tried to ask him what he was planning but he just kept shaking his head. It wasn’t until fifteen minutes later that I spotted the sign telling me exactly where we were going.

“I have no money.” I hadn’t planned on needing any, and honestly, even if I had planned on needing it, it wasn’t the kind of money I just had to hand. I frowned at him, but he just kept smiling.

“It doesn’t matter. I feel like I owe you this. I’ve spent four years treating you like crap, and this is my way of beginning to make it up to you.” I tried to argue with him, but he was having none of it and by the time we got to the car park I realised it was a little too late to bother.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked as we queued.

He stopped and laughed, looking at me, “Are you scared of big rides?” He asked. We were stood beneath the sign for Thorpe Park. I hadn’t been here since I was 9, but when I was nine I was barely tall enough for most of the rides. I hadn’t had my growth spurt until I was about 13.

“I don’t know.” I answered honestly.

“Have you never been to Thorpe park?” He asked as he handed over his card to pay for the tickets.

“Michael…did that just cost you £100?” I gaped. Ignoring his question completely.

“You didn’t answer my question.” He pouted, taking the tickets from the woman.

“No. Now answer mine?”

“It’s not that much. It’s fine.” He shrugged and I wanted to argue, but honestly I was just so flattered that he was willing to spend that much money on me. No one ever had before, not really.

She followed him through the crowd of people. It was amazing. I could feel the buzz of the people as they all rushed around trying to find the ride that they wanted to go on most.

“What do you want to go on first?” He asked, turning to face me. “I mean I’d say the Saw Maze but so many people are already there…so we should come back to that later. Do you want to start small or go for the biggest scariest ride first?”

“How about the biggest scariest ride first?” I suggested. I was completely buzzing. I wanted to go on everything. I wanted to experience everything, because doing something like this was out of my price range and doing something like this with Michael was completely out of my comfort zone. I’d never have imagined this was where we would have ended up.

“Are you sure? Rita is pretty scary.” He smirked, challenging me.

“I am not scared Clifford. I’m fearless.” I smirked back.

“Alright, whatever you say, Edwards.” He replied, throwing his hands up in retreat.

I followed him through the crowd of people, and as we got closer I began to realise what Rita was. I was suddenly feeling a pit in the bottom of my stomach. I wasn’t expecting I to be quite this big or scary.

“You sure about this?” he asked as we began to queue.

I nodded. I was completely unable to speak. My throat had closed up. I could hear people screaming and suddenly my feet were planted very firmly on the floor. The adrenalin that had been coursing through my body only moments before was gone and I was filled with the very strong urge to flee.

“We don’t have to do this you know…” He whispered gingerly.

I shook my head. I had to do this. “I’m fearless remember?” I whispered as it got caught in my throat.

“I won’t let anything happen to you.” He nodded certainly. Slinging his arm loosely over my shoulders. There was something extremely comforting about it and I could feel my nerves ease slightly. The queue was moving forward slowly and I just wanted it to be our turn already.

The closer we got the closer I got to crying. I’d felt the colour drain from my face ten minutes before it was our turn and as we clambered into our seats all I could do was slam my eyes shut and grip the harness so tight my knuckles turned white. I could feel how erratic my breathing was and I was sure I was about to have a panic attack when I felt Michael grab my hand. “You’re going to be okay.” I heard him call and all I could do was nod because no sound was coming from my mouth.

The ride jerked forward and all I could do was scream. I could hear Michael laughing but all I could do was scream and close my eyes. I just wanted it to be over. The ride slowed and for a second I thought it might be over, but when I opened my eyes we were still at the top. I looked down and nearly hurled but before I even had a chance to we were moving again, hurtling towards the ground at unnatural speeds.

This time when the ride stopped it was for good. The second the harness was up, I was out of my chair and exiting the ride. Michael was calling after me but I just needed to get as far away as possible.

“Annabelle!” He called, weaving through the crowd to get to me. “Belle, seriously, are you okay?” He asked when he finally caught up with me, placing both hands on my shoulders and looking me in the eyes.

“I…wow.” I managed to choke out. “Can we just not go on that again please?” Now I was off it, it wasn’t too bad, but it had been terrifying and I didn’t really want to feel like that again.

“You’re okay?” He asked, and I nodded. His expression lightened, “You should have seen your face.” He laughed. “It was like you thought you were going to die.” He was laughing at me and I wanted to be mad, but I couldn’t because if I was honest in his position I would be doing the same thing.

“I did!” I laughed. “Nothing should move towards the ground at that speed.”

“How about something smaller?” He offered.

“Well I don’t think that’s going to be hard.”

I followed him through the crowds of people again. According to Michael it was dead here, but I couldn’t imagine how. There were people every where and I imagined it was because of the nice weather we were having.

“It’s so hot.” I complained. It was 29 degrees and I wasn’t really dressed for the weather. Michael’s t-shirt was absorbing all the heat from the sun and my black jeans weren’t helping.

“You think this is hot? Remind me never to take you back to Australia. This is cold.” He laughed at how pathetic I was being. I couldn’t imagine living over there. I mean, I was fine with spiders and snakes, but the heat…I might die.

I spent the rest of the day following Michael around various rides. The amount of times people commented on how cute we were as a couple was beginning to make us both feel a little uncomfortable and after the second time we stopped protesting and just thanking them.

“So how long have you two been together?” A woman asked as we queued for the Saw Maze.

“Oh, five years this September.” He joked. I rolled my eyes and I was going to object but the woman looked so happy to hear it that I didn’t have the heart to tell her he was just being an idiot.

“Oh that’s adorable! Are you at university together?” She asked and I was going to tell her that we weren’t really together because it was unfair to keep up the lie, but Michael was already talking.

“No. We go next year, and I just don’t know what I’m going to do if I don’t get to see those eyes every day.” He sighed, looking me dead in the eyes. His eyes were so intense that I could feel my heart hammering in my chest and I couldn’t bring myself to look away.

“Oh, I’m sure you two will figure it out. Anyone can see how in love you two are, and you’ll make it work, because a love like that is worth fighting for.” She smiled and I finally managed to tear my eyes from his.

“Uh…thanks. I…” I was trying to form a coherent sentence but nothing was coming.

“Our turn love.” He smirked and I wanted nothing more than to slap him. My head was still cloudy and I wasn’t really sure what was going on. The man was explaining to us what we had to do, but I wasn’t really paying much attention, all I heard was that we had to put our hands on the shoulders of the people in front.

“Are you okay?” Michael asked, and I could hear the smirk in his voice. I mumbled an ‘all good’ before following the person in front of me. The room went black instantly and it took a moment for my eyes to adjust. The noise was so loud I could barely hear anything over the clanging of chains. My grip on the shoulders of the person in front of me tightened. I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye and there on the ground was a man with his guts spilling out. I screamed. I wanted to run but there was no where to go.

“What pretty hair!” A voice whispered in my ear causing me to scream again. My heart was hammering in my chest and there were tears beginning to pool in my eyes. I just wanted to get out of there and go home.

Less than a minute and several scary men and women later I could see the light for outside. Tears were streaming down my face and I was shaking violently. I wasn’t sure why people would go in there for fun. There was nothing fun about it.

“Hey! Hey! Belle, are you okay?” Michael asked, noticing my tear stained cheeks.

“I’m sorry.” I mumbled. I hadn’t meant to ruin it for them. “I just…I get scared.” I admitted, sobbing a little as he pulled me against him and wrapped his arms around me.

“Don’t be sorry.” He whispered, stroking my hair. “Let’s get out of here. I’ll treat you to dinner.” He suggested as I pulled away from him. I was starving otherwise I would have objected. I nodded him following him out of the park.

“Here.” He said. Handing me the bag of candy floss he had bought on his way out. “Fairy floss.” I giggled at his name for it. I loved that he called things weird names. It was quite cute. I also preferred the name fair floss, it made it seem much more magical.

“Thank you Michael. I really mean it. Thank you. Today was amazing, and I’ve never had someone spend so much money on me. You’ve done so much for me over the past few days, and it means more to me than you could ever imagine. I’m not sure what brought on this change, but I like it. I really like this Michael.” I admitted after we’d been driving for a while.

“Thank you for believing in me when no one else did.” He replied, not taking his eyes off the road. “Thank you.”