Cole's Journey: Amusement

[Laraqua]

There's a sound that twitches at his ears. A drawn out and warped musical sound like a music box smashed underfoot, still barely managing to revolve and fill the air with its broken noise. It reminds him.... It takes him back.... Back to those times when he had managed to steal enough money for the fair when it had come to town. A good day. That had been a good day. His body aches, his head hurts, and his vision splits into a blurred dual screen that slowly resolves itself. Patches of light and darkness. Glaring lights like neon. A dark night. A ... a ... something wraps around his hands and ankles. Roots, rough roots.... He can slip his limbs loose of the bonds but it still rubs the wrong way. How long has he been lying here? Long enough to have plants grow across him?

Looking up and around, he finds himself on the dirt by a fairy floss stand near a giant pink bunny rabbit with a bloody mouth. Wait ... that's of a size to have someone inside it. Could the mascot actually be dead? There is the buzzing of flies though that could just be maggots among the rusted fairy floss stand. Maybe.

Not far from his right hand lies his gun.

That's something, at least.

[Garrett]

"Where the hell....?" I mumble out as I yank myself upright, still a little out of it. Oh I'm at the fair, that's nice, I remember I promised Mary we could go on the Ferris wheel, and then the carousel, and then get cotton candy. Do we have enough money for all that? Of course I just stole that silent hill book, we got plenty of money. Oh Mary will be so happy... I think grinning to myself as I remember the way her face lit up when I told her we could go this year. I scan the area around me while trying to blink the fuzziness out of my eyes and remember where I am, that's when I see the gun and immediately snap back to reality. Quickly snatching it up, I check the clip for bullets then go through a mental checklist. Does my body feel okay? Do I have my knife? My tazer? My book? Is it wet or damaged? I shake my head a bit as I come back to reality. Putting together a plan I poke my head into the fairy floss booth, if it looks safe I call out "HELLO? IS ANYBODY HERE?" Before quickly ducking behind the counter and hiding.

[Laraqua]

Silence.

He seems to be in a small cobbled courtyard surrounded by stalls with another man-sized Robbie Rabbit with a wet bloody mouth sitting on a bench. A large map of the Amusement Park stands faded, held up by two rotted wooden posts. A set of wrought iron gates leads further in. Another set of wrought iron gates would lead out but it looks oddly sharpened.

[Garrett]

Well it's not like I was going to try and leave yet anyway. I think to myself, proceeding to the map while keeping an eye on the bloody rabbits and a hand on my new gun. "Lets see, the postcard said first they went on the ferris wheel... I guess I'll head their first." I mumble out while glazing over the map, trying to find the quickest way.

[Laraqua]

The map itself is quite faded but Cole can, at least, see the right direction to go. There seems to be a carousel, tea cups, lover's lane, amphitheater, haunted house, even a pair of rollercoasters here. In the daytime, if this place weren't so rusty, it'd probably be quite nice to visit.

[Garrett]

I shake my head a little, coming back to reality, before setting off in the direction of the ferris wheel, keeping a sharp eye out for anything that catches my attention.

[Laraqua]

The side gate creaks with rust and disuse as Cole pushes his way further into the amusement park and enters a courtyard whose middle section is a gaping hole into nowhere, ringed with old park benches. There's a smell here of sickly sweet fairy floss from the clump of pink goo in the stained and cracked glass floss machine. There's the stink of rot and decaying meat from the hot dog stand. Dry old popcorn crunches underfoot from yet another machine. Those machines ring the yard to the left.

There's a souveneir shop to his right, full of the kind of touritst odds and ends that his sister would have loved. Magnets and bookmarks and teddy bears and postcards, no doubt. She always loved the idea of collecting things from all the places she had once expected to travel once upon a time. She used to stick her face against the glass of such shops, reciting which ones she wanted and how much you'd need to buy it all for her, before she'd get shooed away by the store owner.

A gate leads away on the other side, heading further in to the amusement park and toward that ferris wheel.

[Garrett]

I poke through the shop while I'm here on the off chance there's a postcard lying around.

[Laraqua]

There is another postcard sitting on a box of chocolates (there's wrappers beside it). Written on the back in a child's big handwriting are the words:

DeAr Brother

i think you wood lik fishing
wiv me wood you lik to fish
i like sweet floss

[Garrett]

"God damn it Mary what are you talking about?" I mumble out reading the newest message. As I start on my way to the ferris wheel my mind involuntarily starts imagining the worst. What if she's not really here, what if these messages are just another sick joke by whatever cruel God is controlling all this? Just another carrot to dangle in front of my face now that I don't care about my own life. I shake my head hard. Whatever, I can't risk it. She might really be here, so I gotta try and find her.