Chereads / Terror Park / Chapter 2 - The Park

Chapter 2 - The Park

"Hey, mom!" I said, pouncing at my mom. "Hey, sweetie." My mom said, catching me in a hug. "We're going to the carnival! It's going to be awesome! I heard this one is better than -insert popular theme park here-" I said, climbing on my mom's back. "Ok, let's go! We have to go pick up your friends," she said, strolling to the car and throwing me into the car.

"I'm so excited! I can't wait until I ride all the rides! It'll be even more fun with everyone else too!" I exclaimed, bouncing with excitement in my seat. We arrived at all their houses and I was pretty excited to see them. I hugged all of them and we all had to squeeze in. There are only 2 seats in the back of my mom's car so I had to sit on the floor in front of my friend James. He's a lot bigger than me and he's the oldest, 16 1/2, so it makes sense that I'd sit there since I'm the youngest, 15 3/4, and kinda small. Anyway, we were all talking and being silly when my mom said, "We're here!" and we all rushed out of the car as fast as we could.

The carnival was empty so at the time I thought that it was better because we'd be able to get on the rides quicker. We got to the register and... I was really embarrassed. I got red because I was one of the shortest there. James was taller than me, Jessie was a little taller than me, and even Lane was taller than me! We all were super excited about this. My mom told us to stay together, so we all did, reluctantly. I get why, though, because it was foggy, and the rides were run by dead-looking employees. The actual roller coasters and other rides themselves looked fine though. We got to a pretty intense looking roller-coaster and I said, "I call Lane as my seat buddy for this ride!" and I grabbed his hand and dragged him into the coster line.

We ran through because it was empty and we all told the machine operator we're going on so he woke himself up. It was a spooky one because it was near Halloween, hence the fog machines, so we were ready for a scare. Lane was already gloating about how he was going to tough it out and not get scared while we're screaming like babies. It never happens though. The operator said the usual, and someone else came out of a booth and checked our seats. I held out my hand and told Lane that if he's scared, he can hold my hand. He got mad, but he reluctantly took my hand anyway. We were all jumpy and we all giggled gleefully while he counted down.

At 1, the roller coaster zoomed through the track, swirling around and at this point, Lane was already squeezing my hand. It had jumpscares, and they were pretty good. I screamed a little, but of course, Lane stayed strong and fought the urge to scream or cry. His eyes were watering though so he didn't fool anybody. There were a few more jump scares, and at the last jumpscare, Lane screamed at the top of his lungs. He was already shaking and leaning on me but after that last one, he full-on screamed and hugged me, on the verge of tears. After the ride, I asked "Are you okay?" and he said "I-It was s-so scary!" and then he buried his face into my hoodie, whimpering. I snickered while patting his head.

"Well, let's go to that one next then," Jessie said, walking towards a water slide. "That's a good idea," I said, following her. "Wait! It's October, we are not doing that and getting ourselves sick. What about that one?" James suggested, pointing to a very loopy ride. "Sure, but first, I need to use the bathroom," Jessie said, heading to the bathroom. "Me too," Lane says, also heading to the bathroom. "Bye!" I say, waving bye to Jessie. It was silent for a few minutes, then James poked me on the shoulder, grinning. "Hey, wanna play a game?" James said. "Sure, what game?" I said, turning to him. "It's a little game I thought up just now. You said you like wrestling, right? Why not try and see if you can beat me in a friendly little match?" James said, smirking. "I know that look! You think I'll lose just because you're a higher weight class than me!" I said, glaring at him. "That's 'cause I'm right!" James said, rushing at me. We had an intense battle, and I actually held up pretty well. I almost won, but James ended up beating me by a hair.

"Heh, guess I really was right. You know what happens next, right?" James said, getting up. "N-No, no wait!" I say scrambling to my feet. "Nope, you can't escape this!" He said, rushing up to me and grabbing me. "Noooo! This isn't fair, you're bigger than me!" I said, squirming even more. "Time for your... PUNISHMENT!!!" James said, tickling me. "HAHAHA!!! No! Stop! Hehe! I can't breathe!!!" I say, dropping to my knees and laughing. "Accept your defeat! I heard you were talkin' crap about me the other day so you knew this was coming! Now face your punishment! Mwahaha!!!" James said, putting on an evil villain voice. He let go of me and backed up while I struggled to my feet. I needed a little time to recuperate but in the meantime, James was laughing his butt off at me. It was so embarrassing, my face must have turned bright red because James laughed even harder.

Lane came out and he saw James laughing and me glaring daggers at him, so he asked "You tickled him, didn't you?" while walking over to us. "Yup! It was pretty fun this time!" James said. We went on a few more rides when Jessy came out, but then after the 5th ride, one with a long tunnel of complete darkness, James and Jessy were gone. "James! Jessy! Where are you?!" Lane and I shouted while running through the park. We held hands so that we wouldn't lose each other. We saw a light coming from a booth and we sprinted to it, but it was just a man that greeted us. "S-Sir, please help us! We lost our friends and we don't know where they are! C-Could you tell us where the front entrance is?" Lane explained between catching his breath. He looked at us and took off his hat. He looked like a nice old man with a grey beard whose nametag said, Dan Konno.

"Um, I don't know where your friends are, but I can help you with finding the entrance. Also, why are you out here all alone? Isn't a bit dangerous to be in an amusement park when there's a guy going around kidnapping kids?" Mr. Konno said while signaling us to follow him as he walked very slowly so we can catch up. "Well, sir, we thought he was in another city? I said, inquisitively. "No, no. That was a week ago! Now he's in this city and he's terrorizing people here too. I've never had an encounter with the guy, but from the pictures of what he does to some of the children, I know that he must be a pretty nasty guy. That's why now we have to wear bulletproof clothes and carry a knife and a gun with us everywhere." He explained, visibly worried. "Well, once we find our mom, we'll definitely be able to find them," I said as we got to the front gate.

We found my mom, but she couldn't help us anymore...