[Mystic Caravan Mystery 04.0] Freaky Games

by Amanda M. Lee

  This part of the circus was empty. I could see the lights from the parking lot as cars moved in an orderly fashion. A couple of figures directed traffic, waving people through and sending them on their way. I knew one was Kade – I recognized the broad set of his shoulders from a distance – and the other looked to be Dolph. They worked fast. The parking lot would be vacant in five minutes.

  “Another storm is coming.”

  Mark appeared in the doorway of the ticket booth. He neither looked alarmed or blasé about the situation, merely calm as he related the information.

  “A storm or a dust storm?” I asked, my heart rate picking up a bit.

  “It looks to be a dust storm, but the forecasters are saying that it will be followed by a thunderstorm. They seem to think that’s a good thing given how dry the area has been for the past three weeks. I’m of a different mind.”

  Mark was always of a different mind. Sometimes I thought he was contrary just to be contrary. “Make sure your people are buttoned up,” I instructed. “Then get to your trailers and stay inside. Don’t come out … especially alone.”

  Mark cocked a challenging eyebrow. “Are you going to be issuing the same orders to your people?”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It’s a simple question,” Mark replied. “Your people have been running around in dust storms since we got here, saving strange women and screaming at the top of their lungs when the mood strikes. I don’t see you yelling at them.”

  Technically I was the one running around in dust storms and I didn’t think yelling at myself was the way to go. Mounting that argument with Mark seemed like a losing endeavor right now. “Just do what I say. Can you handle that?”

  Mark shrugged, seemingly unbothered by my tone. “I know something is going on here,” he said after a beat. “I’m not an idiot. I also know you put priority on your workers over mine. That’s human nature.”

  “Everyone here is my worker.”

  “Perhaps in a broad sense,” Mark conceded. “But everyone sticks with their own. It’s like middle school.”

  “Sticks with their own?” I was too tired and worried to delve into a deep conversation about circus politics, but I made a mental note to get into it later. “We’re all one people here, Mark. You should know that.”

  Mark didn’t look convinced. “Really? Would you run out into a dust storm to save one of the clowns?”

  Oh, well, that was a low blow. “Of course I would.” I said the words but couldn’t be sure they were true. I would probably risk my life to save one of the clowns. If I had to choose between a clown and someone else, though, I would sacrifice the clown without thinking twice. What? Even though I deny it and enjoy messing with Kade’s clown fear, the clowns are odd. There’s no getting around it.

  Mark snorted. “If you say so.”

  I studied him for a moment, waiting for him to scurry away and help his workers with cleanup so everyone could get indoors before the storm hit. He remained where he was, arms crossed over his chest, and stared. His weighted gaze was eerie. “What, Mark?”

  “I’m waiting for you to tell me what’s going on.”

  “What makes you think something is going on?”

  “Answering a question with another question is always a dead giveaway,” Mark replied. “Most of the time I’m happy that your little group doesn’t play well with others and you leave us out of the paranormal deathtraps that you constantly find yourselves in. But this little scenario is different.”

  I tilted my head to the side, intrigued. “How so?”

  “People claim there are glowing eyes bouncing around in the dust storms,” Mark replied. “That leads me to believe that whatever is happening has more to do with your brethren than mine. Personally, I like to pretend that you’re not all crazy freaks and stay out of your business. But if something is out … .”

  I debated how to respond for several moments and then bobbed my head as I made up my mind. “There’s at least one something out there. I believe there’s really two, though.”

  Mark waited for me to expound. When I didn’t, his eyebrows flew up his forehead and he gestured wildly. “And?”

  Under different circumstances, his response would’ve been entertaining. We had a storm barreling down, though, and I couldn’t waste time dealing with him. “I think one of the … um, let’s call them creatures … is actually trying to help. I think the other is malevolent.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that people shouldn’t wander around alone, and that whatever it is keeps happening during storms. That’s all we know so far.”

  Mark shifted his eyes to the horizon, contemplative. “The forecaster says the storm will be here within a half hour. He said that twenty minutes ago, so we have less time.”

  “Then we’d better get moving,” I said. “In fact … .” I briefly pressed my eyes shut when something muffled my senses. It was as if someone created a person-sized sock and slipped it over my head. It happened once before – in the moments leading up to a dust storm – and I knew it was already here when I opened my eyes again. “It’s too late. Get under cover now!”

  As much as he likes agitating people, Mark enjoys keeping himself safe even more. He didn’t have to be instructed to take cover twice. He hurried in the direction of his trailer, his eyes continuously flicking toward the direction of the parking lot as he waited for the storm to hit.

  The blasting heat of the dust storm washed over me seconds later, followed quickly by pelting sand as my hair whipped free from the loose bun at the nape of my neck. I protected my eyes to the best of my ability as I scanned for stragglers. Mystic Caravan workers – even the non-paranormal ones – know how to take care of themselves in a tense situation. I wasn’t worried about that. Still, something akin to fear niggled at the back of my brain, and I jerked my head in the direction of the House of Mirrors the same moment I heard Raven scream.

  My knees buckled as I grabbed my head and tipped forward. The only thing that kept me standing was the tent I careened into, the support ropes keeping me upright even though my legs desperately wanted to allow me to fall. I expected to hear pounding feet as people rushed toward the House of Mirrors to save Raven – the debilitating headache obviously slowing my reaction time – but nothing happened and I remained alone.

  That’s when I realized the scream hadn’t been aloud, or for the masses. The scream was in my head, which meant Raven was in real trouble.

  “Oh, Criminy,” I groaned, struggling to square my shoulders and strengthen my stance. “She’s being attacked.”

  Raven wasn’t my favorite person, but she needed help. Apparently I was the only one in the position to offer it. I didn’t think my night could get worse after I spent more than five minutes in Mark’s presence. Obviously I was wrong.

  I FOLLOWED the noise in my head toward the House of Mirrors, instinct telling me that Raven sent the mental emergency beacon for a very specific reason. The wind and pelting sand made it difficult to keep my eyes open, so I clenched them shut and opened my senses as far as I could.

  I was almost to the far side of the fairgrounds – the spot where we always erected the House of Mirrors and the animal tents – and smacked into Naida’s mind at the same moment I almost careened into her body.

  I wrenched open my eyes, dumbfounded, and glared. “Make a noise or something,” I growled, frowning when I realized she had sunglasses perched on her nose. “What are you … Jack Nicholson? It’s dark. How can you see?”

  “I can see better than you when you have your eyes closed,” Naida shot back. “The sunglasses keep out the sand and I can see outlines. It’s better than nothing.”

  I hated to admit it – mostly because I didn’t think of it myself – but it was a fairly good idea. “Oh, well, what are you doing here?” I worked overtime to regroup.

  “The same thing you are,” Naida replied grimly. “Raven.”

  I should’ve known that Raven’s dist
ress call wasn’t merely for me. She called to anyone straddling the psychic plane. “Then let’s go.”

  Naida gripped my hand, taking the lead because she could see thanks to her ingenious sunglasses experiment. Seriously, why didn’t I think of that? By the time we hit the House of Mirrors I was furious at myself, although the emotion disappeared quickly when I realized where we were.

  “Do you see anything?”

  Naida shook her head. “No, but that doesn’t mean Raven isn’t in trouble.”

  I reached out with my senses, frowning. “She’s inside. I would’ve thought for sure she was attacked outside. I haven’t heard of anyone being approached inside yet.”

  “Maybe she was attacked outside,” Naida suggested. “She could’ve fled back inside when she realized what was happening.”

  That was a very good point. “Let’s go.”

  Naida needed no further prodding. She kept a firm grip on my hand as we hit the open pathway that separated the back of the midway buildings from the front of the House of Mirrors. We were halfway across the pathway when I felt a presence to my left. The wind came from the opposite direction, so I could risk a look, and when I did I found nothing but a pair of floating eyes. They watched me, seemingly interested, but didn’t advance. There was no body to go with the eyes. I was certain of that despite the whipping wind. There was no steady blinking to give the eyes character. There was no mouth to give the creature sound. Whatever was there wasn’t a full entity.

  The realization struck me hard. “You’re the figment,” I muttered, shaking my head. “You’re one of the men from the mine.”

  “Who are you talking to?” Naida groused.

  “I think it’s a figment.”

  Naida snapped her head to the side, whipping off the sunglasses and staring into the whirling abyss. She made a clucking sound with her tongue as she flicked her eyes from location to location. “I don’t see anything.”

  I followed her gaze and realized the eyes were gone. “It was here just a second ago. I think the figment was formed when the miners died at the Gorgon Mine about a century ago. I saw a vision of what happened to them. There was something else in the mine.”

  “How do you know that you didn’t see the other thing?” Naida asked.

  “I don’t know that,” I conceded. “I feel it. I think we’re dealing with more than one creature, more than one being.”

  “Yeah? Well, your feelings are good enough for me. But we need to get to Raven. She’s not screaming in my head like she was. I’m worried she’s unconscious or dead.”

  Naida said it in such a matter-of-fact way that it was unbelievably jarring. “She’s not dead. We would feel that.”

  “Would we?” Naida wasn’t trying to be contrary, but I could read the doubt on her features. “We need to move now.”

  I couldn’t argue with that so I followed, both of us picking up our paces. Something occurred to me as we closed the distance to the House of Mirrors. “The figment isn’t tripping the dreamcatcher. It’s been inside at least twice that I know of. That means it isn’t evil.”

  “Or it simply means that the new dreamcatcher caused the old one to malfunction,” Naida countered. “We can’t know until we can get out there to look at the perimeter, which won’t happen until tomorrow.”

  She had a point, even though I wasn’t keen to hear it. Instead of focusing on her words, I sprinted up the steps to the House of Mirrors and wrenched open the door. The second I walked into the calmer environment I heard voices … and neither of them sounded happy.

  “Well, this is complete and total bollocks!”

  Naida and I exchanged an odd look before working our way around the corner, stopping in the entryway to the main floor room and finding Percival facing off with what looked to be a malevolent shadow.

  The creature – although it appeared wispy and somewhat transparent in the light – was focused on Raven as Percival, dressed in his clown regalia, waved an umbrella to keep it away from the lamia. For her part, Raven rested her back against the far wall and nursed her left arm, her expression displaying dislike rather than distress.

  “What’s going on?” I asked. The dark creature turned to stare at me. It had red eyes – exactly as I saw outside – but I was almost certain it wasn’t the same creature. The one outside seemed almost gentle. This one? Yeah, not so much. There was definitely something different about this … thing.

  “I was walking back to my trailer when the storm hit,” Raven replied, her face twisting with pain. “That thing came out of nowhere and grabbed me. I sensed it the second it lashed out and managed to evade most of the blow, but it broke my arm.”

  I wrinkled my nose, staring down the intrigued creature. It lifted its snout to the air and scented, its ears wriggling. It looked like a cross between a panther and a mutant clay monster that somehow managed to also be filmy. It was interesting … and completely frightening.

  “It’s scenting us,” Naida noted, more intrigued than worried.

  “I think it smells the magic somehow,” I said. “It’s confused. It went after Raven because she smelled different. It’s showing very little interest in Percival – other than the fact that he’s positioned himself in front of Raven – but he’s interested in you and me.”

  “Hmm. I think you’re right.” Naida tilted her head to the side, resembling a dog studying something it doesn’t understand or is seeing for the first time. “It’s … interesting. Is this what you saw in the memory?”

  “What memory?” Raven gritted out, her face twisted with pain. We needed to get Nixie over here with her special ointment, and fast. For Raven to show any sign of weakness must mean she was at death’s door. The woman wasn’t known for being anything other than solid and strong.

  “It’s a long story,” I replied, licking my lips. “I’ll tell you in a little bit. For now, we need to destroy this thing.”

  I wasn’t sure the creature could understand me until it made a chuffing noise at my words, as if amused.

  “I don’t think it’s worried about us destroying it,” Naida mused. “That doesn’t bode well.”

  “It doesn’t,” I agreed. “We still have to try.” I reached out with my mind, prodding the dark mass that held the creature’s memories and thoughts as I attempted to find a way in. I wanted to order the creature to stand down in case it took us longer than a few minutes to figure out how to kill it. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a way into its mind. “I can’t see what’s inside. I … there’s either nothing there or it can shield.”

  “It shields,” Raven supplied. “I tried. I wanted to see what’s in there, but I didn’t get very far before it realized what was happening. It shields.”

  “Is that how it got across the dreamcatcher?”

  Raven, her cheeks streaked with sweat, shrugged. “I have no idea. We need to get rid of it, though.”

  “I’ll handle it.” Naida took a bold step forward and raised her hands. “It’s a monster that hides in a dust storm, so let’s see how it likes the water.”

  I realized what she was going to do a split second too late. “Naida, no!”

  Water poured from Naida’s fingertips as she mustered a tempest, directing it in the direction of the creature. The monster barely reacted as the water shot through him and smacked Percival with enough force to knock him over, leaving the clown with streaked makeup and quivering lips as he murdered us with a dark expression.

  “Whoops!” Naida didn’t look all that apologetic. “I see now why that was a bad idea.”

  Percival sputtered as he wiped his hand over his strong features, what remained of the makeup splotchy and somehow creepier than the shadow monster. “Oh, this is just … bollocks!”

  “You need to learn a few new British words if you’re going to keep pretending you have an accent,” I shot back. “You can’t always use the same one.”

  “Why?” Naida was blasé. “You use ‘crap’ and ‘crud’ all the time.”

  Raven chu
ckled. “She has a point.”

  “Oh, whatever.” I flicked my eyes back to the creature and found the spot it stood in only moments before now empty. Somehow we didn’t notice that it dissipated right in front of us.

  “Where did it go?” Naida asked, whipping her head around, confused.

  “It went away,” I replied, rubbing the back of my neck as I peered into various corners to see if it was hiding. “I don’t think this thing is going to be easy to get rid of.”

  “Oh, really?” Raven was feeling bolder now that she was no longer in danger. “What was your first clue?”

  I ignored the sarcasm. “We can’t physically touch it.”

  “Which means we’re going to have to fight it mentally,” Naida said. “Oh, well, you learn something new every day, huh?”

  Percival scalded Naida with a dark look. “Yes, isn’t that great? Listen, ladies, it’s very hard for me to pretend you’re not supernatural terrors if you insist on doing things in front of me. Can we go back to how things were when I first started?”

  I widened my eyes, surprised. “You want to pretend we’re not magical even though you know we are?”

  Percival nodded as he wrung out the bottom of his shirt. “That would be great.”

  Well, that answered another question. He didn’t have hysterical amnesia. He simply wanted to be willfully blind. I can’t say I blame him. If I didn’t have to know about this type of stuff I’d be happier, too. “We’ll do our best.”

  “That’s all I ask.”

  20

  Twenty

  I slept hard despite the upheaval. At first I thought I’d be too edgy to rest, but the moment I put my cheek against Kade’s shoulder I drifted off.

  For his part, he was angry that I had taken off in the middle of a dust storm to fight certain evil. But he knew that reaction was instinctive, so he didn’t press me on it very long. He would’ve done the same in my position, and he knew he couldn’t very well order me not to help. It was something he’d simply have to deal with, and he appeared to be up to the challenge.