The Town Fair

As the nights grew shorter, and the days flew by, the most notorious night of the year had arrived yet again – Halloween night. Roseville may be a small town, but it comes alive every October, houses beaming with orange lights and children screaming with excitement over their spooky outfits and the sheer thought of buckets full of candy. Each year, every adult and child put on their elaborate costumes to go on their trick or treating escapade, followed by a session of coma-inducing candy eating; evidenced by the mountains of the wrapping paper found in every household’s rubbish bin on November 1st. Once the sun goes down, everyone rushes to the annual Halloween Fair for a dose of scary rides, music, food, and the main event of the evening – the Haunted House.

The theme for the Haunted House changes every year, as the town organisers brainstorm how to surpass the previous year’s theme, and the scare actors prepare their tactics to get everyone to run away screaming. This year’s theme was circus – but make it freaky. It wasn’t the most original idea, but there’s nothing better than a classic to get people’s heart rates soaring. The preparations start immediately after the Fair closes at midnight on October 31st, as there is no time to waste for the town’s largest celebration. This year was no different, as there was even more festival games for the children to be kept busy with as their parents struggled to keep their delirious sugar high under control.

It is at one of those new game stands that the night begins for a young boy accompanied by his grandma. The game is the one where you must throw balls into a clown’s mouth, while his head is propped up on the wall. The sceptics might say that those games are rigged, but that boy was determined to get that big dinosaur stuffed toy hanging at the side of the stand, waiting to be claimed. His eyes gleamed as he jumped up and down, while he kept on asking his grandma for more quarters to buy more balls.

“Please grandma, just one more, I’m so close to winning the big prize!”

But to the boys bad luck, it seemed that the grandma had run out of quarters. She turned around to face the park – it was fully dark now, and the place was filled to the brim with all the town people, running up and down. She was overwhelmed with all the scary costumes and loud noises in the distance, as the music blared through big speakers on every corner of the park.

“I’m sorry darling, I’ve run out of quarters and I can’t see anywhere I can get more coins from.”

The co-ordinator of the game couldn’t have been much older than a teenager, but he felt terrible as he watched the disappointment in the little boy’s face. He knew he wasn’t supposed to leave his post, but his good intentions overtook him as he leaned down to the boy’s level and said:

“I’ll make you a deal, if you look after the stand for me, I can run inside the main office and get some change for your grandma’s bill.”

The boy’s mouth tilted to a smile, and as he was dressed in his superman outfit, he put his hands at his sides and swore to bravely man the game stand as he was instructed.

Things happened very fast, as the co-ordinator sprinted to the main office to fulfill his side of the promise, but tried to lie low as he did so, because no one was supposed to go in that office without authorization. He quietly pushed the door open and swiftly moved towards what seemed like a register that held all the money collected at the end of every night at the fair. He put in the note he held in his hands, and took out some coins in exchange and turned to head back to his

2 / 3

post. On the right side of the office was a huge switch board, which effectively controlled every function in the park. He didn’t even realize what was happening as he tripped over a cord that was on the floor, and he put out his hands to grab onto the desk that was on his left. The attempt to save himself from falling only resulted in him knocking over a cup of coffee that was forgotten on the desk. He panicked and decided it was best to leave as quick as possible before anyone realized he was in there. He ran back to give the money to the grandma and child that were patiently waiting at the kiosk. The game kept on going, and the boy landed all his shots perfectly, but just before he was handed his long-awaited dinosaur, every light at the fair suddenly went out. As it turns out, the coffee that spilled in the office, slowly made its way to the switchboard and electrocuted the entire system. The budget for the fair wasn’t huge this year, and a back-up generator was not a priority for the organization, so there everyone stood in complete and utter darkness, and it only took one second before the screams erupted across the entire fair.

.

.

.

The Haunted House was designed to go into lockdown in the case of an emergency and as the lights went out, so did the ability the ability to leave. Every single person inside started screaming as most of them thought that this was part of the experience. They were surrounded by demented clowns and distorted freaks who seized the opportunity to create the most memorable Haunted House that the town had ever seen. They surrounded the trapped victims who started hastily trying to make their way to the exit. The only sounds that surrounded them were distant laughs from the nightmarish actors, and chainsaws that somehow were scripted into a circus themed night. The single source of light they had to guide them were some neon laser pointers that shone on and off around the tight space for visual effect. Many took out their phones and turned the flashlight on in a desperate attempt to figure out where the exit it supposed to be. Eventually, a group of teenagers dressed in zombie outfits, ironically, were the fastest to find the marked exit door. They started pushing it and looking for a handle but when they realized it wasn’t budging, they started screaming even louder and passing the message to everyone.

“We’re trapped!”

Panic spread like wildfire and then youngest children among the crowd started crying – the comfort that their parents provided was to no avail as they were overwhelmed – the actors, the lasers, the chainsaws, the screaming crowd – it was truly haunting….

Simultaneous to the lights going out, the festive music that sounded across the place, also stopped. It created the perfect deafening silence that was about to be replaced by the screams of everyone in the haunted house. The people outside could not see what was happening, but assumed the worst from the distressed cries of those locked in the Haunted House. The organizers were lost as to what they were supposed to do to save the situation, when they realized that some of the big scary animatronics around the park were malfunctioning and freaking people out even further in the broad darkness that gave no break, since the park was in a remote area of the town and no external light entered the space. They had the idea to light every candle they could find, if only to just make sure that people don’t start trampling over each other or children don’t get lost. Candles started popping up everywhere, making the bone-chilling costumes of everyone around even more menacing, making more kids cry out and seek

3 / 3

the comfort of their equally confused parents. Naturally, a fall night such as that, eventually became increasingly windy – flying leaves from the ground into everyone’s faces, and just when you thought that people would have lost their voices from all the screaming, a new wave of shrieks entered the air as the leaves scared everyone into thinking they were being touched in the dark. It was the mildest thing the wind would cause, as to everyone’s dismay, one of the candles that was propped up in one of the stands was blown towards the tent that was holding it up. On that side of the park, there was a momentary relief as some of the festival-goers gained some light, followed by utter despair at the realization that that light was coming from the stand that quickly was engulfed in flames. Those who gathered what was going on, started running the other way, and those who didn’t realize got swept up by everyone else. In a span of 15 minutes, the town’s biggest party, turned into complete, and utter, uncontrollable chaos.

Some found their way to the gated exits and spilt out to the roads yelling for help, outshined by their kids’ constant cries, as they were no-doubt getting traumatized for life. Relief swept over the attendees of the event, as they saw blue and red lights in the distance – facing them as they got closer to them. The police and fire trucks had luckily been alerted, and were quick to enter the area with flashlights, determined to put an end to the chaos that could be heard from the centre of the town; tens of kilometres away. With the help of the organizers, the police was led to the main office, where they found the mug on the floor and the coffee that had spread around it. As they went to assess the damage, as if out of a miracle, the lights turned back on, the music started filling the air, and the sounds of screams started fading out. It seems that the coffee that reached the switchboard had dried, and the operating system was running again as per normal.

The doors of the Haunted House was spilling with people running out of it, and everyone stared at each other, lost for words as to what had just occurred. The fire was contained instantly by the firefighters and the music stopped again as the speakers magnified a male voice:

“On behalf of the Fair organizers, we apologize for the short circuit in our operating systems. Everything is under control and we hope you can all continue to enjoy the night. Happy Halloween!”

The park emptied faster than it ever had before, and the night was officially declared the biggest failure in the Fair’s history. The party-goers had silent car riders home, as they considered whether they would ever enjoy Halloween again. Everyone walked out until the only ones standing in the middle of a ransacked park was the organizers. Smiles spread across their faces as one of them looked around and exclaimed:

“We did it! We scared them more than last year!”

They all laughed maniacally as the clock in the middle of the town clock struck and the bell echoed all throughout.

It was midnight. Time to start planning for next year’s Halloween Fair.