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“What happened back there with Dustin?”

“What do you mean?” Troy asked as the group turned to face her.

“You were there, you
saw
him
freak out.”

“Yes,” he nodded.

“Well?” Aire asked.

“Well what?” asked Melissa.

Her brow raised under wide eyes, her hands turning to fists in her pockets. “Well what? Well what! I mean, people don’t go around
smashing their faces into a pulp like that
, and they most
certainly d
o not
do
things like that because they’re excited.”

“It’s okay,” Melissa said. “That happens every once in a while. Now the Army will recruit him and that’s a good thing. Just enjoy the night, Aire.”

She stood up from the boulder and walked several paces across the black earth littered in stones. She grabbed the first smooth one she saw and hurled it at the water. It skipped a dozen times, causing the others to rain down compliments on her deaf ears. She fervently snatched up rocks and pummeled them at the silver water one by one. If no one spoke of bad things, she thought, then neither would she, not tonight. Better to play the game than be the outcast on a
propitious
night with a handsome boy.
If they could turn a blind eye, (she shuddered at the thought, an image of an eyeless Dustin flashing in her mind) then so could she. Why should she be the only one to feel disturbed? Why should she alone be the only one to question everything? Where was it getting her? In trouble and cast out, that’s where.

She chucked rocks at the water until her arms throbbed,
and was
panting when Gary finally called a halt to their game.

“It’s nine-thirty,” he said.

“Yeah, we should get going,” Troy said. He brushed against Aire’s shoulder as they made their way home, his hand sneaking in to interlace with hers.

They walked together through the park, down Bourbon Street and past
City Hall
until they reached
T
he Meeting Tree at the end of Roanoke Street. The two couples
said their goodbyes
as they went their separate ways to walk the girls home. Troy squeezed Aire’s hand tighter when they rounded the corner.

“I kind of freaked out
back there with Dustin,
too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Troy said as they stepped behind the oak tree in her front yard. “I mean, yeah people get upset and act weird sometimes, but
that? That was just bizarre
. It was so obscene I’m surprised
Mike
handled it so well.
Who knows what would have happened if he hadn’t stepped in.
”

“Thanks,” she smiled
, feeling a weight slip from her shoulders.
She
wasn’t
alone.
Relief rushed over her as she stepped closer to him
. “That makes me feel better.” Her eyes stared into his and she felt that strange warmth begin to spread throughout her body again. Fizziness began to swell in her stomach as she
took another step towards him
, raising her face to meet his. “I’d really like to kiss you.”

“Okay,” he said, inching his face away from her. “Why? You only kiss little kids on the head until they’re nine.”

Her lips pursed as her eyebrows smashed together in frustration
, that feeling of aloneness rushing back as quickly as it had gone
. “I think it would be different if it was a mouth kiss. It seems like it would feel great.”

“Oh,” he said, frowning as he took a step back.

“Don’t you ever get strange urges like that? To reach out and touch someone like no one else does?”

Troy shook his head. “No. Holding hands and giving hugs is all we do with others.”

Her eyes moistened
,
and
she looked away,
her voice strained as she fought to keep her composure. “Really? You
don’t ever feel strange around me? You don’t want to do anything more than hold my hand?”

Troy shook his head. “I’m sorry, I’m not trying to upset you, but, no, I don’t ever feel like that. And,” he said, lifting her chin to make her look at him. “I’m not judging you either, just like you didn’t judge me.”

“Okay,” she nodded.

“Come here,” he told her, and wrapped his arms around her. “Don’t be upset. I don’t think you’re a weirdy. See you tomorrow?” Aire nodded. “Ok, have a good night.”

“You too.” She watched him from her porch until he disappeared around the corner, tears slipping down her cheeks as she stood alone in the darkness.

***

The clock ticked its way closer to midnight as Jenkins paced across his home office, swirling his third glass of scotch in his hand. He’d been drinking more these days, something exceedingly hard to do in a place where alcohol was forbidden. He chuckled at that. Ironic that liquor was illegal in a town that had a main road named after an 80 proof whiskey. So far he’d managed to cover up the occasional hangover with excuses of stress, fatigue, or allergies on the really bad days when his eyes were still bloodshot well after lunch time.

It wasn’t just the hangovers he had been worried about as of late. It was what
they
would think. He could be discharged from
his position if he didn’t rein
in the habit.
He gave a shiver at the thought. There were still five years left on his contract. “Only five years,” he said to himself and shook his head. Had it been worth it? At the time it seemed like a good deal. Thirty years of service with a retirement house in
Aruba, or ten years in prison with a dishonorable discharge. Now he wasn’t so sure he’d made the right choice.

He raised the glass to take another drink. Only a few watered down droplets and bits of melting ice met his lips.  “Damn.” He went to the desk to refill his glass, his feet beginning to fumble as he walked
across the room
. There was only half a bottle left, and he couldn’t order more until Monday due to the Moto. He frowned as he poured the bottle. He’d been certain he had another one left in the cabinet. He couldn’t have gone through three in the last week, could he?
Maybe he did. This damn place was beginning to take its toll on him, haunting him in his dreams and driving him to drown the demons of the past, and those which he knew were still to come.

Jenkins pulled the key to the fridge hidden under his desk and squatted down to unlock it. No sounds of rattling glass were heard as the door slammed against the
wall
to reveal the empty shelves inside.

“Damn,” he mumbled again, and swung it shut. He didn’t know if he could hold out until Monday, especially after the events of the last few days. Maybe he could make a special request to Mike Hadley and have him place a stat order early tomorrow morning. The boy was new to the job and would probably go ape shit over the important task. Mrs. Jacobs had done such things for him before. She’d started to become suspicious of why he was ordering his “special water” in such large amounts over the last few months, but he didn’t have to worry about Mrs. Jacobs anymore. No one did.

He shuffled across the study and sat down in his easy chair. Mrs. Jacobs. He could understand Mrs. Jacobs having to be taken. She was older. The older ones were bound to be taken at some point, and they hadn’t had an incident in nearly a year. But the boy tonight? It didn’t make sense for the younger ones these days. It was like in the old days
in the beginning
, and the old days had been bad.

He ran a hand through his salt and pepper hair and sighed. Something had to be happening. They shouldn’t have had to
take two within a week. In the beginning
, though it had been stressful, it made sense. John’s Town was still struggling to gain its foothold then
, though it had been operation for fifteen years before he made that deal
. But it had been peaceful for years
since then
, and now to have two
in a week
? He shook his head. Something was very wrong, he could feel it. Taking a pen and pad of legal paper from the end table next to the chair, he jotted a note to himself to request
a
report first thing Monday.

Chapter Ten

John’s Town

In the beginning…

In the beginning John’s Town did not have The Moto. It did not have anything. But just a short time after its founding it was decided that something was needed to occupy the people.

In the beginning it was thought that security, peace, and friendship were the only things needed to keep the people happy and content to stay in the city. But it wasn’t enough. The weekly disposal of crispy, rotting bodies tangled in the electric fence surrounding the city proved that.

They came up with the carnival.

The thinking at the time was that if they could give the people something to look forward to every year, then there would be less of a desire for them to leave since there was an event to spring hope. For a short time it seemed to have been effective, and over a year period the body count along the fences had been reduced by seventy-five percent. Brenda McAllister and Jenny Rockford changed that.

The carnival came to John’s Town the second week of June, and for that one week out of the summer the entire town shut down its mundane day-to-day and came alive with enchantment.

What had once been the woods of Duck Park that had been burned down by the fire started by Ronnie Tillman several years before was now a sprawling, grassy meadow to
the west of Duck Pond. It was here that the carnival would be set up. Flood lights, yellow lights, blue lights, red lights, green lights, all colors and sizes and shapes of lights would blaze across the meadows at night, lighting the tents and game booths and rides and side shows. Tilt-a-whirls and ferris wheels and fun houses with croaking witches and comical zombies would light the park ablaze. Carnies called out amidst the sounds of laughter and aw, urging passersby to toss rings over milk bottles or ping-pong balls into fish bowls. Smells of corn dogs and fry bread hung thick in the air. It was all so enticing, so intoxicating, that Brenda McAllister and Sarah Rockford just couldn’t help but get lost in the magic of it all. It was the unicorn that ultimately did them in.

Brenda and Sarah were wide eyed at the magic of the carnival, just like all the others. It was the third year of it, and they were celebrating ending their last year of “baby school” by eating as much cotton candy as they could stand (Sarah had three puffs already, Brenda five) as they looked with the bright eyes of youth towards their new future as young adults in the realm of high school. Yet even with their changing bodies and heightening awareness of the world around them, childhood had not yet forsaken them, and they were still enchanted by the little girl fantasy of the unicorn.

They passed by the ring toss booth and through the open space between the rollercoaster and sea dragon on their way to the side show booths when they saw the sign. Both looked to each other with their blue and sugary mouths wide open.

“We have to go,” Brenda said, her eyes glittering from the luminescence of the lights and from wonder.

“Definitely.”

They hooked arms and scuttled across the grass towards the blue and gold striped tent. Both sucked in their breath as they stepped through the entry way and rounded the corner.

The unicorn stood quietly behind the makeshift wooden fence, and the girls found themselves alone with the mythical
creature. Its albino white body looked shimmery silver under the tinted bulbs strung above its pen. Blue flowers were pinned in its thick mane and braided tail. Its eyes were soft and brown as they stared at the girls from beneath its two foot horn. Brenda’s eyes sparkled with tears. Sarah’s hand covered her mouth.

“It’s so beautiful,” Brenda whispered.

They stared at the animal for a long time, mesmerized by its majesty.

Sarah reached out her fingers to stroke its velvet neck. “I wish we could stay with it.”

“Me too,” Brenda nodded, reaching out her own fingers to its neck. “I wonder how they caught it. All the books say unicorns only appear to young maidens. Do you think it was tricked?”

“No. Unicorns are too smart to be tricked.” She tilted her head to the side in ponderance as she scratched at the animal’s withers. “We could, you know.”

“We could what?”

“Stay with it.”

“How?”

“Tonight is the last night of the carnival. We could sneak out before the sun comes up and hide in one of the trucks. We’d be long gone from here by time they noticed us missing.”

Brenda turned to regard her friend, her face strained in puzzlement. “But when they do find us they’d probably bring us back home anyway. What good would that do?”

“Where is your sense of adventure?” Sarah asked as she whipped her head around. “Brenda, it’s a
unicorn
for cryin out loud. Don’t you think spending your life taking care of a
unicorn
is worth getting into a little bit of trouble over?”

“True.”

“And look on the bright side. They might actually want us to stay and take care of it.”

“Why would they want us to do that?”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “Because the carnival is run by a bunch of big stinky men and unicorns need a lady’s touch. Duh.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true too.”

“So really, we’d be doing them a favor by being around. It would help keep the unicorn’s magic. Why wouldn’t they want us to stay?”

“You’re right,” Brenda smiled. “We should do it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “Let’s do it. We could meet by the hidden fishing rock in the morning and figure out how to sneak onto the trucks from there.”

Sarah let out a squeal and clapped her hands. “Okay, we’re gonna do it. We’re going to run away with the carnival to be unicorn keepers.”