\*Jacob’s POV\*

The carnival closed a few hours ago so my friends, James, Jake, and I went to go check it out since it looked cool at night.

We arrived at the carnival around midnight and we climbed over the wall on some trash dumpsters we saw so we could get in.

“Guys, we should go into the tent and see how it looks at night!” Jake suggested. I

smirked and started heading to it with the boys.

We then walk into the tent. It’s very dark so we took out the flashlight we brought and turned it on. It flickered.. Flick, Flick….. Then it turned on, causing the room in front of us to illuminate. We looked around and found a staircase at the back of the tent that goes far down. We point the flashlight down the stairs, but it is too far so we can’t see the bottom. It's pitch black past the light of my flashlight.

“Guys.. Are you sure we should do this?” James asked, I can hear the concern in his voice. I rolled my eyes and continued down the stairs. He wasn’t much of a horror or adventurous person, but he followed in my footsteps anyway.

When we got to the bottom there was a very tall, heavy door. We pushed it open and walked in to see.. A bunch of cages and some skeletons. We all went pale as we felt a rush of wind on our backs and the sound of a creaky door slamming closed. I whipped my head around and saw one of the clowns of the circus there with his fake hammer prop. It had black and half white hair, plus it wore clown makeup.

“Hey dude, sorry, we didn’t mean to-” Before James could finish, the clown hit him in the head with the hammer. But instead of it squeaking, like we thought it was going to do, we heard the smack and squelching of blood, then felt the blood hit Jake and I’s faces. We were quiet for a second before we started screaming. He hit Jake in the leg and I heard the crack of his bone and I saw it. I saw the blood pouring out, his bone was showing. I yelled louder and I ran down a pathway. I could hear the clown's laughs, Jake’s screams, it was horrifying. I ran until I ran into something and fell. I looked up and saw a giant, buff clown that had curly hair in two pigtails to the side, half red and the other half blue. Then it injected me with something and I passed out.

I can't breathe, or, that's how it feels. My head is a pounding sensation that sends shivers over my whole body. All I can think of is how the last thing I said to my mom was "I hate you", and that I can't change my words.

*Evan’s POV*

I was breathing heavily, barely being able to breathe because of how fast I was running. I hate gym so much.

“Evann!!” I heard my sister, Harper’s, whiney voice behind me. She is 2 years older than me but she is very overprotective of me. She got held back a year, so she is in her senior year, I’m in my junior year, and I’m 16 years old.

“Come on, I’m picking you up early!” As she said that, the speakers came on.

“Hello everyone. I am guessing you noticed James, Jake, and Jacob were not here today, and that is because they went missing last night. The police are searching for them as I speak. That is all.” The speaker, as in the principle, said. I wasn’t too surprised since they snuck out a lot and wouldn’t come back in the morning for a while after that.

“Damn, they snuck out again?” She said, rolling her eyes. They were held back with her, so she had at least one of them in all of her classes.

“They’ll be back soon enough" I said, dismissing the topic.

“Let's go” She said and we left. I've been living with my sister for a while. It's not like my parents are dead, we just don't have the best relationship. We get in her car and she starts driving. The car ride was silent for a few minutes, until she turned on the radio.

“So.. how was school?” She asked awkwardly. I sighed and laid my head on the window.

“I’m glad you picked me up, some bitch said he was going to fight me after school” I said with a shrug.

“He’s going to start a fight tomorrow, not that I care” I rolled my eyes, crossing my

arms. She sighed. I always get in fights, I even had to switch schools at one point because of fighting.

“Oh come on, Ev-” I cut her off.

“Just.. I don’t want to talk..” I responded and she sighed again.

“Okay.. I’ll let it go for now” She said. The rest of the car ride was silent other than the quiet music going off in the background on the radio.

Once we got home she drove in the driveway and parked the car. I got out and walked into the house, closing the door behind me. I went up to my room and I plopped down on the bed with a long, exaggerated sigh.

After a few minutes I sat up and grabbed my hoodie that was laying on the bed next to me. It always comforted me when I wasn’t feeling the best. I took off my shirt and pants, then changed into shorts and a t-shirt. I then put on the hoodie and laid under the covers, curling up in a snug position. My dog, Syrin, laid next to me and softly sighed. I wrapped my arms around him and nuzzled his back as he leaned against me in a loving way like he always does when I’m feeling down or not in a good mood. I love him so much, he makes everything better. Anyway….

******

“Dude! That’s so not fair!” My best friend said in his British accent. I laughed and put down my controller. We were 1vs1 each other and he kept losing to me, so he’s getting a little mad. “Aww, what’s wrong? Do you need some tea and beans on toast, old chap? Or a bottle of water?” I responded, doing a fake British accent at the last two sentences to mess with him. “Ha ha, very funny” he responded, rolling his eyes with a little smirk playing on his lips. We always joke like this. After a few seconds, we laughed it off and went to his kitchen to get some snacks. His mother greeted us with a cheery smile and her warm, very British accent.

“Oh, hello Evan and Theo! Do you want me to make you two something?” She asked, her voice sweet like honey as she asked politely. I nodded my head and sat at the table. “I want jelly on toast” I said and Theo nodded. His mother rolled her eyes at Theo’s nod. “Words, Theo Smith” she said and Theo sighed.

“Yes, mum. May I please have some jelly toast too?” When he said that she smiled. “Yes, you may.” She responded and put the two pieces of bread into the toaster. “I have a new video game we should try out. It’s a zombie apocalypse game, we can build, break things, and a few other things. We can even join other people and interact through game chat or voice chat.” Theo said, he had excitement in his voice as he said it. He was kind of a nerd when it came to new video games.

“Yeah, of course,” I responded with a grin. He giggled and blushed, then covered his face. I know he has a crush on me, the way he acts, and how he flirts with me. I act oblivious to it, because I don’t want anything to ruin our friendship because of some puppy love that won’t be important in the future, and we’ll break off, then hate each other like my sister's old relationships. Anyway, after we ate, we went back up to his room, and we continued to play video games.