A Day At The Carnival: All Of The Lights

As the night came by, Dante finally had a chance to take his little sister to the local city Carnival. Dante was much older than his sister, and that day in particular he was exhausted, his day was filled with repetitive work that always made him feel as such his life was on auto-pilot. Never really experiencing anything new, the duality of his life was as simple as a leaf on the ground, dry and wrinkled on one side, the other side somewhat still glossy but torn apart. His life only regarded two things, work and being alone in his apartment. This time however, he had an opportunity; to give himself an experience that he never had as a child. And together with his little sister, this one was especially fond for him.

Dante and his little sister, Aurora both walked pleasantly to the entrance gate holding hands in excitement and joy. He looked down to see her face and she was exhilarated by all the carnival sounds of fun music, the fresh smell of popcorn and hot dogs everywhere. Aurora was a small young girl, and she wore a comfy red dress with shiny black water-proof boots too. When she spoke, the manner of her innocence always spat out protect me at all costs. But even for her petite size however, she was quite smart for her stature, and was even able to have witty conversations with her older brother, Dante.

“Big brother, I want to play a game and win a prize! Can we do that pleaseee.” said, Aurora with her gentle voice.

“Yes, of course we can! Why don’t we find a place where you like the prizes and then we can play for that one. Sounds like a plan? I’ll follow you.”. Agreed, Dante as he pushed Aurora gently to go ahead of him. She giggled and smiled. Seeing her happy made Dante’s life feel somewhat fulfilled; but somehow deep inside him, there’s always been an empty void of limbo in his chest, like a part of him was missing somehow.

After a while of walking, looking at all the lights, playing other little games, grabbing popcorn and a soda, Aurora finally yelled out, “Dante! I want to play that one! I want to get that prize, can you win it for me please.”. Dante looked at the price of how many tokens it costs and saw it was worth 5 tokens. He pulled his hand out of his pocket and saw he only had 5 tokens left for the night. To Dante’s dismay, he knew that perhaps they could play other games that cost 2 tokens instead, and maybe, they could be there a little longer at the carnival. He took a deep breath and kneeled down to ground level to his sister, explaining that if they went somewhere else it could be more fun. But she disagreed and persisted that this is the game she wanted to play. To Dante, this seemed a bit odd but he simply smiled and said, “Okay, anything for you lil sis.”

Night At The Carnival: Three Pocket Rocket Socket

They walked to the game and it was called, Three Pocket Rocket Socket! The stand was the most unique looking in the park. It was colossal, with red, gold, and black outlines and a multitude of small, Las Vegas styled lights framing the entire stand. There was a young gentleman at the stand holding up a flag and waving it all over the place festering about how fun the game is, and even if you loose, you still get something for playing the game. For Dante, now it didn’t seem like such a bad idea playing the game. A win-win, situation either way. The young gentleman said, “Step right up folks and play the best game the carnival has to offer! Three Pocket Rocket Socket! You two there, are you up for the challenge?”. Dante looked at Aurora and she nodded her head at both of them in agreement. “Okay folks here’s the rules: You have three pocket rockets, which are just small bean bags. If you hit all three targets you get the biggest prize! If you hit two, then you get a medium, you hit one a small, and finally of you don’t hit any you get the extra small prize! Are the rules clear?” Both Dante, and Aurora nodded their heads and stepped up for the challenge.

Aurora stepped up first to the plate, a small bean bag was given to her in her hand. She looked at the targets and they were all small-fist-sized clown faces. She turned around and nervously looked at her brother with fanatic joy. “You got this! Just focus on the target.” said, Dante. He smiled and waited for her to take her first throw. Behind him, he felt a very cold gust of wind hit his neck, he turned around and immediately his whole world was muted. There were large displays of televisions going, 100 feet up in the sky all around him in a circle showing images of him walking alone to the carnival, him buying popcorn by himself, and sitting alone with no one next to him. A screen right in front of him showed: him playing the game that his sister is supposedly playing at the moment. It was silently cold, even his breath appeared before him. When he looked down; there were wires all connected to him— his entire body was covered in wires and tubes — he was hanging from something too but he didn’t know from what. His entire body suddenly ached in misery. He looked up again at the screen, and saw himself throw a bean bag to a pitch black hole in a wall, but this time, he was the bean bag; he heard a terrifying loud scream with a ticking sound in the background.

“Dante!!!” yelled, Aurora. “Did you see me hit it! Did you see me!!”

“What the fu-”, Dante turned around immediately.

“That’s one clean hit little lady! Good job, here’s your second pocket rocket!” Said the game teller, with an innocent smile.

Dante looked around quickly and looked at Aurora, he took a deep breath, “Th-That was a nice hit Aurora, I can’t believe you got it on your first try. Do it again!”. Dante was baffled by, what he thought he saw behind him. It was like if he was in another place at the same time but completely different environment.

“Brother, I want you to throw it this time, make the second shot!” Said Aurora.

“Okay, here I go.” Dante stepped up to the plate, and Aurora gave him the bean bag. He stared at the faces of the clowns; he took in all the noises from the park and tried his best to shut them out in his head. “Focus…” he told himself, took a step back and threw the bean bag as hard as he could!

“That’s a miss!” Said the game teller, “Last shot here you go!”

“Aw man,” Aurora sighed, “…that’s okay, just try it one more time big brother, regardless we already won one prize because of me hehe!”

Dante looked at his hands disappointed, and swayed his head side to side. “Okay little sister, imma get this next one just watch! I promise I won’t miss, you’re getting the medium prize for sure!” He took the last bean bag and starred at the target with tunnel vision focus. Nothing was gonna stop him now. He squinted his eyes real hard and took a step back to perfect his stance. He stared again at the clown faces looking back at him, now noticeably determined, he took a deep breath and launched the pocket rocket as hard as he could!

Bang! The game made a loud winning sound with bells and trumpets making music; all the lights brightened as the clown face came back up to reset the game. “I did it!” Dante, turned around to look at his sister, but now she wasn’t there. No one was there and neither was anything else either, everything was lifeless, with just the game lights on as the only source of light. Like the world was blind and sucked out of humanity. Black empty machines everywhere, with nothing but silence and shadows in sight. “Aurora! Where are you!?” Dante began to panic, serious waves of fear engulfed him; all over his body and unravelled in his head. “Hello! Anybody here?” Dante, screamed out as loud as the sound of his voice could.

Depth Of Field: Where Am I

Dante turned back to look at the game stand and wondered why it was the only thing that was turned on? How were the lights still on, on this game but no other game? He got off the platform stand and observed the game around. Absolute silence, piercing everywhere. The sound of nothing was becoming louder than anything he’d ever heard before, he had absolutely no clue of anything that was happening, and he wanted out. He took a couple of steps behind he game stand and saw large thick wires connected to the back of the game stand. Just a couple feet away there was the power bank with the connecting wires.

Now he noticed there was a small humming sound emitting out of the wires, it sounded like a whirl pumping the energy. “Hmm strange. Even the crickets are silent…” said, Dante. Suddenly, he saw a small flash of white light brighten the sky, like the kind that you see before a firework explosion. It happened right behind the power bank. “What the—” Dante turned to look at the power bank, and strong bright lights began to beam out of the small skinny slits of the door and edges of the small structure.

Dante, knew that this somehow meant something, he had to investigate what that light was and and where those large wires lead down to, what in the world was inside that small power bank? Something inside of him told him, find me. Perhaps it could’ve been his sister telling him to look for her there. He yelled out his sister’s name one last time before walking closer to the bank, and the beaming lights echoed louder in the thick cold air. The once before small humming whirling sounds now sounded like it was responding to Dante’s call; a call for rescue. A call for help and need. Dante took instinct and ran to the power bank and opened the heavy metal door.

Depth Of Field: Plot of Stairways

Inside the small structure laid a long stairway going far deep underground, the wires were all laid down to the sides of the stairs. And the walls all looked like they were made out of plain stainless steel. The plot of stairs looked in fact, so far deep that the visible light completely vanished along the way. He wondered to himself where did the beaming lights come from? There was only one light inside the power bank, and that was the light to shine the entrance just above behind the door. It was dead quiet inside there too; inside of Dante’s mind, he was falling into a rabbit hole of pure darkness and worry of whereabouts his sister could’ve been. He looked back one last time behind him and saw everything looked exactly the same.

With a bit of fear and a valor, he carefully stepped inside the structure and proceeded to walk down the stairs. He had no phone, no lights, nothing to see or guide him to where this thing leads to. Just pure gut instinct. After a couple of steps down the stairs, the door behind him shut closed by itself causing a loud boom in the tight hallway; it echoed and scared Dante a bit. He grabbed the walls now to maintain his balance, and made sure he followed the wires on the ground with his feet. In the midst of his journey down the stairs, he continued to hear the whirl of the wires getting louder as well. He said to himself, “I’m going to follow the sound, maybe this leads somewhere? Aurora! Where are you!”

He kept walking down but the fear of the unknown was swallowing Dante entirely now. He was so scared that he could feel his heartbeat getting louder by every step he took. Suddenly he felt something push one of his hands off the wall and he let out a small scream! Something sounded robotic coming out of the wall; a small slit on the wall opened from where his hand was, and a small light appeared. Then the same thing happened over, and over, and over, like a chain reaction going all the way down the stairs. Finally saw the stairs end at the bottom.

“Finally some light in here!” Dante, took a deep breath of relief, “But where the hell is my sister?” He kept pursuing the never-ending walk down the stairs until he noticed the wires were smaller now, and they were no longer wrapped up together in a spiral anymore. He wondered what this meant or what it could mean? Once he reached the bottom, he saw a long stretch narrow hallway that split in two; the wires also split in the middle dividing in a perfect half down each stretch. He didn’t know which way to go, so he screamed out his sister’s name hoping that something might happen like the lights did in the beginning. “Aurora! Where are you!!” He yelled. No answer, just the same whirling sound from the wires transferring energy, until he heard a strange ticking sound?

Tick, tick, tick. The sound was getting noticeably louder, and faster as it was getting closer. Dante had no clue to what this could be, he heard it coming from the right side. Immediately he screamed, “Aurora!! Is that you can you hear me, I’m coming for you just stay where you are!” Dante took a deep breath and ran as fast as he could down that hallway. The ticking sound was getting louder and faster with every step he took down the hall. And every step he took echoed more intensely in the tight hallway. Until suddenly, the ticking sound stopped.

The Monster: What Are You?

He was running out of breath, and he also stopped running. He put his hands on his knees and looked up, he saw a tiny figure moving strangely in the near distance, he squinted his eyes really hard to see what might there be but all the lights around made it hard to concentrate on what it was. Finally, in the distance what he saw scared the life out from his body. He saw four thick strange looking arms stretching to grab each edge of the hallway, each arm looked like a robotic tree trunk, inhuman like. And each was spilling black and red fluid on the ground from where the hands were supposed to be. In the very center of the creature, it  appeared to look like a huge face, a very, very familiar face. His own face. The creature opened its mouth and screamed in ticks like the sound of a whale hunting. The ticking sound now hurt Dante’s ears, to him it sounded like concentrated thunder with each tick; even covering his ears didn’t do a thing.

Dante boggled in disbelief and his eyes widened like never before, he covered his ears tighter and took a couple steps back; he tripped and fell. “No! No! It can’t be!” Dante, screamed and the creature raced faster towards him, rapidly grabbing the walls from every side and edge of the small tight narrow stretch, spilling immense amounts of disgusting sticky black and red fluids all over the walls and floor. Everything behind it looked like a monstrous-alien-like-murder scene. The creature finally reached Dante, and he looked at it with overwhelmingly disgust and terror. “What do you want from me! What are you!!”, he screamed as he was trying to crawl away from the hideous creature.

The creature stopped ticking, and it’s center moved independently closer to Dante. He stared at the creature in dread and disbelief; he saw his enormous face with his eyes rolled back all the way, his mouth was open, but there were wires all going inside it connected to its arms. “I am you.” It’s voice sounded like multiple voices talking at once. “You tried to escape again, but like we said once before. Creating false memories will not serve you anymore… Subject 179.”.

“Nooo! What did you do to my sister! Where is she you monster!” Dante’ screamed—his voice carried a heavy tone of fear and failure, like a father failing to protect his family. Or a mother failing to save her only child—“I’m going to kill you!” Dante stood up as fast as he could, sprinted to the robot and tried to punch the center of it’s face. But it was too late.

In less than a split second, one of the arms of the creature released from the wall and pierced, Dante in the center of his body. He was frozen in agony and shock. Blood splat from his mouth, and blood with black fluid oozed from his eyes. “Subject 179, you never had a sister. You created a false collection of memories to attempt to escape your simulation.” said the mysterious creature. Dante, slowly dying looked down at the ground, and saw the wires on the ground disconnect from each other. And like snakes moving to kill their target, they pierce the sides of his body.  Flashes of strange white lights appeared all around him like lightning—appearing and disappearing. The monstrous creature began ticking as loud as it could. Dante looked at his arms, and they had black and red wires pumping fluids into him, coming from the creature. Alas, he passed out.

As his aching body was being carried away by tubes and wires, Dante’s consciousness was slipping in and out of itself, the last thing he heard was, “We’ll make sure your soul never finds its body. We will find you, even in your dreams. We will see to it, it never happens again: Subject 179.”

The End.