As the week started everything was going well or as well as it could be when Halloween is just around the corner and your town celebrates with a Carnaval. Normally this wouldn’t be a bad thing. Nothing bad ever happens when a carnival is involved, but this is different. Both the place and the people radiate a bad aura, and when that happens it’s never good. As time got closer for the first day I got a message from each of my friends saying that they were all way to sketched out to even go through with it. 

The section I was placed in was the kids place. Nothing was supposed to be too scary, maybe just enough so that the older kids pee themselves a little but for the smaller kids a little chat with them, and that's it. This section was supposed to be kid-friendly, but nowadays the younger the kids are the more blood they like to see. This zone wasn’t anything special, but it had a few sections that included a mirror house, two rides, an area that you could rest, food stalls, and this one questionable walkway which led inside of a tent. I thought nothing of it thinking that it was just a shortcut for the tech crews in case they needed to get from one area to another without being seen, so I decided to ignore it.

 The following few days were nothing but everyone walking around exploring their zones with the map that was given to us the day we were hired, choosing our characters, rehearsing the few lines that we were given, and trying on our costumes. “ Hey, my name’s Alex.” Once our greetings were out of the way he then asked me something that stuck with me for the rest of the night, “ don’t you think it’s a little weird that they have a tent set up in this area? Also call me crazy but everything on the maps match until you get to the tent, or am i just seeing things.”   and so the conversation went on with me to realize that the tent wasn’t on our map and just to be sure I asked everyone else as well. Since no one else was paying any attention to it I decided to investigate the area close but not too close to the tent so that if anyone passed by I wouldn’t get into trouble for being someplace I shouldn’t be, though after about an hour of searching I didn’t find much. 

 Monday, October 28th, 2012 the Carnaval opened and it was time for us actors to get in place.  My spot was by the edge of the woods so that way I was able to come in for a scare and reset to do the next one quickly, but that also meant that I was by the random tent. I didn’t have a problem being that close to it, but the only thing that was holding my curiosity back was hearing the next group of scared victims coming my way. As the night went on I grew more and more curious about the tent until it got to the point that I had inched closer and closer without noticing. 

Once I was close enough to the tent it gave off a smell, one that you could recognize, a foul scent that would last in your nose for weeks. But as I was about to open it I heard a voice, one that I haven’t heard in weeks.  It was the voice of our manager.  As quickly and quietly as possible I backed up until I was hidden again. Thoughts were running through my head like why was he in the tent and why does it smell like a bunch of roadkill that was put into a pile and left to rot. The thought of being surrounded by death made me sick to my stomach. I was pulled out of my thoughts by the voices slowly coming closer until icy fingers grabbed a hold of my arm from the darkness that surrounded me. It was at that point I realized that they had seen my shadow from the lights that were hung in the trees.  I screamed as loud as I could hoping and praying for someone to hear my voice and come to me but to my dismay, no one heard, or if they did they didn’t pay attention.  The thoughts that were once racing through my head we're back again, but this time the negativity in them grew.

As I was being dragged by the arm a voice as sickly sweet as freshly spun rotting fruit said “ Welcome dear I was waiting for someone to come wandering in, but I was surprised that it was you.” As the darkness once again filled in the room I looked in every possible direction trying to find anything that could provide a light source, but there was none. Panic took over me like waves crashing on rocks. At this point I had two options: flight or fight. Alas I chose flight but the only thing wrong with that option was that there was nowhere to run to. As soon as I stood up I was thrown to the ground with a thud. Somehow it had gotten even darker than before in the room.  “ Your friend Alex stopped by earlier except he never left.” the man’s voice said. I was scared and my voice betrayed me by not making a sound. I wanted to know what happened to Alex, but something in my head was telling me that I would find out soon enough. I was so caught up in everything that was happening up to this point that I didn’t even notice that I wasn't the only one on the floor. Alex was sitting in the spot next to me was all in one piece only he wasn’t the same Alex that I remember talking to. The sight of him made me want to be sick.  

“Turn on the lights, all of them. I would like for our latest guest to see why we are here,” he said. As the lights came on I gathered my thoughts and looked around.  What I saw was so morbid that I couldn’t begin to describe it. There sat Alex missing chunks of skin and wire stitches running up and down the length of his body. 

“Come on, let’s make this fast, we have a job to do.” the other man said to the manager.  Only this time I could see the one the voice came from only I didn’t recognize him.  This man was rather large and quite peculiar looking with his rather large nose and bulging eyes and sharpened teeth,  and as for the other man he was quite small and misshapen almost as if he was taken apart and reassembled. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Alex anymore because seeing him like that made me think about all of the other people that this has happened to. 

“ This will be quick little girl, we don’t want anyone getting wind of what we are doing, but then again it would be fun going on killing sprees like we used to do before we got almost caught,'' he said. 

Now was my chance to try and get away from the two men. “ Go ahead I don’t care what happens to me anymore.” I yelled as loud as I could which caught the attention of many that were passing through the zone. “ So, before the cops come because of yelling in a random tent why did you guys kill all of these people?” “ Well since you asked. We got bored of just having this be a pop up carnival so we added a little excitement for ourselves, but soon it became a habit and we just never stopped.” 

Soon after that the cops came and arrested the clown and manager. A few weeks later they were put on trial and at the end were sentenced to life in prison for all the murders they committed. In the following months the kids were identified by their families and laid to rest. Parents take this as a warning that not everyone that offers out a job has good intentions. Some may just have killer ones.  So parents use this as a lesson to tell your kids and warn them not to trust a single soul, or at least not one that offers you a job at a carnival or at least not the ones that have half of their makeup done. Nah I’m just kidding, don't ever take a job from strangers unless they have a clean criminal record. Oh and as for me, I’m now terrified of clowns.