Carnival

Note:  This story takes place after Rites of Passage, but before Red Hand Rising.

Eddie looked into the eyes.  He felt fear, terror, hopelessness and a draining feeling.  He could hear the words- "So hungry.  Feed me," over and over, as he slowly slipped in and out of consciousness.  He knew he was dying, being slowly drained of his soul, or life force- whatever made him a living thing.

His last thought, as the sucking sound of his last breath disappeared into the night was, "Why did I say yes?"

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There had been three bodies in three days.    Eddie Criswell had been the third.

Sheriff Maklan knew in his gut that they were connected, but other than the fact that each victim showed no signs of physical trauma, and other than appearing to be a bit malnourished, there were no medical reasons.  The people had just died.  

The local doctor who was also the medical examiner (that's how things worked in small towns) pushed for Maklan to call in the CDC.  Memories were fresh of from the big pandemic, and no one wanted to take chances.  

When the older African American man showed up and said he was here to help, Maklan assumed he was CDC.  Man said his name was Romer, and he brought with him two kids who were his "interns."  The old guy even used air quotes.  But then the man started asking strange questions, like what the body smelled like, had there been any strange animal sightings, or if there had been anyone around acting strangely.

Maklan had laughed at that.  Then he explained, "Well, if you count carnies from that traveling county fair two towns over, then yeah- there has been some strange folk around."

One of the interns, the boy who looked about eighteen and had the look of a boy turning into a handsome young man had perked up.  Then he asked the older guy, like a kid with his dad, "Oooh- carnival?  We gotta get funnel cakes, right?"

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Eli Romer had suspected this carnival- the Sider Brothers Carnival- was up to something for some time.  Every year, for the last five years, there were suspicious deaths in the towns surrounding the carnival.  Victims had popped up- dead, but with no obvious signs why.  Most got labelled as natural deaths, some got the arbitrary coronary episode.  That meant the heart just stopped.

Eli had investigated a few times over the last couple years, but could never pinpoint what exactly was going on.  Whatever demon or monster was running with the show was too good to leave a trail.  Now he had Sawyer Shepherd and Mandy Jane with their fresh eyes to look into it.

"Succubus?"  Sawyer asked as they sat around the outdoor table, enjoying a cheeseburger from the local burger spot.

"Not everything is a succubus, Sawyer," Mandy responded.  Sawyer had assumed every monster that was not a straightforward demon was a succubus at some point in every investigation.  

"Hey, eventually, I will be right.  Right, Eli?" Sawyer countered with his trademark charm.

"Even a broke clock is right twice a day, kid,"  Eli replied, not looking up from the laptop in front of him.  He was looking into the attractions listed on the carnival's website.  "You know, twenty years ago, carnivals had no presence on the internet.  Now- I can get all sorts of information without having to set foot there."

Genuine concern was on Sawyer's face as he asked, "Wait- we are still going to the actual carnival, right?  I mean, I was serious about the funnel cakes."

Eli smiled.  "Yeah, we're going.  And we are going to have a chat with this guy."  He turned the computer around and showed them the image of a thin man with a long, thin goatee.  He wore a top hat, had dark circles around his eyes.  One eyebrow was raised in a quizzical manner, and he dangled a silver pocket watch.  Across the top of the image, in an intentionally goofy/spooky font were the words, "Horace the Hypnotist."

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At the carnival, Sawyer and Mandy were walking around, trying to blend in while scouting out for signs of anything odd.  Eli was interviewing carnival workers under the guise of being a local reporter.  They coordinated their movements so that as Eli approached Horace, they would be near enough for backup.

While Eli chatted with the guy who ran the house of mirrors, Sawyer and Mandy played some carnival games.

"Are you going to try to win me a bear, Sawyer?"  Mandy asked flirtatiously.  They were not dating- having agreed that even though there were feelings, the beginning of a career of monster hunting was not the right time to find love.

"I mean, I will if you want me to," he said with a grin.  "There really is no challenge to these things, though."

Mandy nudged him with her elbow.  "Sounds like an excuse to me."

"Okay, fine," Sawyer responded.  "Just know, I will feel a little guilty taking the prize from these poor carnie folk."  He went to the balloon dart game, and as he walked, a couple kids bumped into him, moving slowly.  The kids slowly turned and glared at Sawyer, who returned a disgusted look at them.  "Umm, excuse me?" he called after them.  They simply squinted at him and stuck their tongues out.

"Aw, you're so good with kids," Mandy laughed.

"Whatever.  Now, watch the master!" he declared as he cocked his arm back to throw the first dart.  It sailed through the air in a perfect arc, hitting a red balloon dead center... then bouncing off.

"That was pretty impressive.  You threw it so soft and dainty," Mandy giggled.

Sawyer was about to defend himself when he saw Eli was headed right for Horace's tent.  "Nevermind, we gotta go." They started toward the tent and another three kids bumped into them.  "Dude, what is it with the kids these days?"  Again, the kids turned and glared.  Sawyer and Mandy both found their expression a bit unnerving.

They got close enough to Eli to overhear the conversation, wherein Horace was explaining how he could not have had anything to do with deaths.  He had been at the carnival all night playing poker with the other workers.  "And I cleaned up, too.  Won a hundred bucks!"  Horace had a very soothing voice, a benefit for a hypnotist.  

"Okay," Eli said, smiling.  "So, how did you get into hypnotism?"

"I was a psychology major in college and we did a unit on meditation.  Went and saw a hypnotist, and I was hooked!"  Sawyer listened in, but was not getting the feeling this guy was for real.  Who goes to college and decides to be a carnival hypnotist?

The conversation went on for a bit, and Eli eventually gave a nod that he was done.  The three regrouped outside of the fair grounds.  Sawyer got straight to the point, while enjoying his longed-for funnel cake.  "Is Horace the guy?"

"Not sure.  He is definitely selling a bit, but is that just his carnie schtick or or is he hiding his real purpose?"

Mandy weighed in with, "He could be putting a suggestion in, some sort of spell or demon kill chain that causes the victim to die later on?  That could explain why he has an alibi.  Every time."

Sawyer nodded.  "Then let's come back after it all shuts down.  See what the carnival is like.  After hours."  Sawyer had a way of playing the goofball right up until time to get serious.  And when that time came, both Mandy and Eli would trust no one more than Sawyer Shepherd.

As they were leaving, Sawyer noticed one of the kids that had bumped into him getting into an SUV with a middle-aged woman.  She looked frazzled and harried.  Sawyer guessed that carnivals and having kids like that would drive you a bit batty.
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The carnival was dark, but it was not quiet.  

The raucous  laughter and merrymaking of the carnies could be heard well outside the fairgrounds.  The good news was that meant anything the trio had to investigate could be accomplished with minimal stealth.

They went straight for Horace's tent, and began to search.  They were turning up nothing when Sawyer heard a rustling coming from outside.  "I'm going to check and see what that was.  Heads up."

Sawyer popped out of the tent, and in the darkness, he saw two small shapes moving towards him.

"What are you doing here, mister?" they shapes asked in unison, with child-like voices.

As they stepped closer, Sawyer saw that they were the same kids that had bumped into earlier that night.  And then he saw what had unnerved both Mandy and him about the kids.

Their eyes were coal black.

"Aren't you kids out a little late?  Carnival is closed," Sawyer answered, a shakiness in his voice as the kids kept advancing.

"Our parents left us.  Won't you give us a ride home, mister?"  The unison was maintained, but there was an echo.  Sawyer broke eye contact and saw that there were at least a dozen more kids emerging from the dark corners of the carnival.  Each was locking their eyes on his in an attempt to control him.

"Well, that's just awesome," Sawyer said under his breath.  "Um, guys, we have visitors," he called to Eli and Mandy as he tugged on the canvas of the tent.

"What's up, Saw-" Eli started, then froze as he saw the small army of black eyed children now gathered.  Without hesitation, Eli shined a large flashlight at the kids, and they all shielded their eyes and ran for cover.

 All except one.

The one Sawyer had seen getting into the SUV when they left.

Eli shouted, "Run!"

Now, Mandy followed Eli, which made sense.  Sawyer inexplicably ran to find cover.  And the closest place was the mirror maze.  In his mind, that seemed safe.

He was wrong.  

Aside from the disorienting nature of the mirror maze in itself, it turns out that that was the home of some of the black eyed children.  

Sawyer would duck and weave, then run into a black eyed kid.  Thankfully it was a mirror, but now there were so many that no matter where he turned, there was a small demon kid.  Truth be told, Sawyer didn't know much about the Black Eyed Children, but putting "creepy" and "kid" together was never a good thing.

When Mandy and Eli realized that Sawyer was not with them, they turned and saw the children filing into the mirror maze.  They spared a glance at each other and started to run back for their teammate.  Eli coached as they ran, " They don't like light,  so use your flashlight.  There is a controlling demon, and there is an exorcism we can use to drive it out.  But...the other kids won't make it."

Mandy felt a lump in her throat.  "How do you know?"

A somber Eli remarked, "Seen it before."

When they were close enough to the mirror maze, Eli called out to Sawyer- "Use light- they hate it.  And don't make eye contact!  Or say yes to anything they say!"

"Aren't you coming in after me?"  a frantic Sawyer called out.

"Uh, no... but we will shine light in there for you."  Eli offered half-heartedly.  "On the count of three...one...two...three!"  Eli and Mandy, standing at opposite entrances flicked on their halogen flashlights.  Sawyer hit his as well.  Instantly, the trapped children began to clutch their eyes.  Sensing they were trapped, and light bouncing off all the reflective surfaces, they began to cry out in what seemed like pain.  "Sawyer, you have to find the leader, it will be the one not affected by the light!"  Eli yelled over the screeching.

Sawyer knew exactly who he was looking for, but getting to them was another matter altogether.  He could see at least three of the leader child, a red-head with a bowl cut that looked about ten.  And even though it too had black eyes, there was a strange green glow about them, all the same.  Sawyer began to move through the maze, stepping over and around the children curled into the fetal position trying to avoid the light.  And the leader was stalking Sawyer.

"Yeah, okay, when I find it, what do I do?" a now panicky Sawyer called out.

Eli was looking through the notes on his phone.  On Sawyer's suggestion, Eli had put key exorcism rites in the notes on his cell.  Then Eli shared it with Sawyer and Mandy.  His eyes stopped on an image.  "Read exorcism thirteen!" he yelled.

Sawyer pulled his own phone out and found the right passage.  "Got it!" he yelled.

Mandy looked at Eli with concern in her eyes.  "Are you going to tell him about the other kids?" she asked in a whisper.

Eli solemnly shook his head.  "No.  Because then he won't go through with it."

Inside the maze, Sawyer turned a corner and came face to face with the demon child in charge.  To be certain it was the real kid and not a mirror, Sawyer took a wadded up receipt from his pocket, balled it up and threw it in the kid's face.  It hit dead center and the black eyes blinked.  "Cool.  So it is you," Sawyer said, the nervous edge still in his voice.  

"Let my children go," the childlike demon demanded.  

"Sorry,  gotta send you to timeout, instead.  " Sawyer began to read the rite, and the demon kid squirmed.  It tried to move forward, but its steps were heavy and slow.  It began to growl, but Sawyer kept reading.  With each step, the demon moved easier and faster.  The ritual was evaporating the physical being, but that made it harder for the rite to hold it in place.  Sawyer read faster.

Outside, Horace the Hypnotist came running up to Eli and Mandy, screaming, "My kids, my kids!" Eli grabbed him before he could enter the maze, and then he saw the man's eyes.  He was not a demon, but he was the demon's familiar- a wizard or witch that had called the demon forth.  There was a tell-tale dullness that Eli had seen before.  Eli held the man tightly as Mandy worked to tie him up.

When the demon kid was just a few feet away, and Sawyer at the final line of the rite, it lunged at him.  Sawyer finished and the essence of the demon evaporated.  All of the kids around Sawyer stopped moving.  Eli and Mandy rushed in, and Sawyer saw that Mandy was crying.  "What is it?" Sawyer asked.

"We couldn't save the kids," she responded, holding back tears.

"Wait a second," Eli said.  He was looking around as the kids were getting up.  The younger ones were waking up first, and they seemed to be normal.  The older ones were taking a bit longer, but they too seemed to be coming around.  "I don't understand.  Before...last time, they..."  Then Eli looked at Sawyer.  "It's you.  You're the difference."

Sawyer, not caring that he was the difference, just wanted out of the maze.  So, he bolted.  Right into a mirror.

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The police were called and the kids were rounded up.  All of the children were checked out and found to be healthy.  Eli had of course tested them all for demonic presence before the police were called.  Horace had been using the Black Eyed Demon to take over kids and make them an army.  They would ask unsuspecting strangers for rides home, then suck their soul from them.  Those souls would feed Horace more power to do his magic.  Fortunately, Horace was stupid, so he was only using the magic to get rich off the poker games at the carnival.  But then, that was also terrible because it meant the victims had died for so little a thing.  Horace was going to jail for a long time, and there he would not be able to practice any magic.  Or hypnotism.

The kids had all been reported kidnapped- which in both the real and supernatural sense, they were.  But now, they were being returned to parents- many of whom had given up all hope.

"This ended well," Eli said as they sat on the hood of Sawyer's Camaro, watching the sun rise.  "But it shouldn't have.  The other times that rite was done, the kids all died."

Sawyer sat, rubbing his forehead where he had hit the mirror.  "I don't know what I could have done differently.  I read it as it was written."

Mandy looked at him in the dawning light and smiled.  "Maybe you're special.  I mean, the gladius that sought you out, the ancient family line.  Maybe you are, like, the Chosen One."

"Look how that worked out for Anakin Skywalker," Sawyer quipped back.

"She may be right, kid," Eli said earnestly.  "You are a part of something big.  And we may not know yet how big.  But I could not be more happy to be on the journey with you."

Sawyer smiled.  "Just as long as the path does not ever lead to another mirror maze.  Seriously, THAT?  Was terrifying."