Freak Show Read online

  Freak Show

  Uncover the Secrets behind the mist.

   By J. Richards

  Dedication…

  To those who let their freak flag fly on the regular.

  Don’t be ashamed of what makes you unique.

  Copyright © 2016 by J. Richards

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Reader note: contains adult language and casual sex situation.

  J. Richards

  https://jrichardsauthor.wordpress.com/

  Editor: Avril Stepowski

  Cover Designer: JC Clark of The Graphics Shed

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing, 2016

  Tale of Contents

  Tale of Contents

  Preface…

  One…

  Two…

  Three…

  four…

  Five…

  Six…

  Seven…

  Eight…

  Nine…

  Ten…

  Eleven…

  Twelve…

  Thirteen…

  ~Bonus Short Story~

  Author Bio

  Author Links

  Coming Soon…

  J. Richards Titles Published by Etopia Press

  Self-Published Titles

  Preface…

  There are things that exist in our world that we know very little about. Things that are strange and different and dangerous. From myths and legends, we learn about these unnatural creatures and the powers they possess, but excuse them as children’s stories. As simple fables told and retold to provide us with late night entertainment. What we fail to remember is that every story is laced with truth, full of hidden secrets for the reader to discover. Whether you choose to believe in these secrets or not, is up to you.

  One…

  A few months ago a dreamlike theme park opened up in the middle of the woods, hidden amongst a rather dangerous mountain ridge in New England. The only way to find the park is by having someone who’s already been there guide you to its location. These people are hard to come by as you can imagine, but I just happen to be roommates with a girl who’s already been.

  The park is rumored to be a safe haven for those creepy crawly things that go bump in the night and the humans who aren’t afraid to play with them. Supposedly, vampires and werewolves make up most of the guest list, but they aren’t the only ‘nonexistent’ beings who play at and plague the newest hot spot. Think of a play land for freaks instead of a magical world of princesses geared toward children.

  Lust and blood runs rampant through the park and there are no human laws put in place to keep order, other than “enter at your own risk.” For this reason alone, I question my sanity for agreeing to go with the two friends currently bickering in the back of my Jeep and the one sitting beside me who has already been to the theme park entitled “Freak Show”.

  The rusted out Grand Cherokee has never let me down in the five years I’ve owned it, but its engine groans and gargles as I push it to climb up the steep roads of the mountains. Between the four of us, it’s the only vehicle that Anne insisted would make the drive to the park. The windows are wide open as I maneuver it swiftly through the winding roads at this elevation. The crisp autumn breeze floods into the cabin and blows my strawberry blonde hair back out of my face, the sun is covered by scattered grey clouds that look fat with rain, but they have yet to break open and for that I’m thankful. I hate driving in the rain and keep eyeing the sky to see when the looming clouds will break open and make me even more anxious.

  Kelly and Becca, my dear friends in the back of the Jeep, are loudly disagreeing about which ‘Other-race’ is better to have between your legs. Becca swears that vampire males have to be the most desirable lay because they can play in your brain while teasing your body and Kelly disagrees because werewolves are built for endurance.

  Mind you, neither of these bimbos have ever met an ‘Other-race’ so they are both basing their opinions off rumors. Rumors spread by Anne, our guide who’s sitting in the passenger seat, smirking and flipping through a tattoo magazine.

  Anne is our wild card, the bravest of our group, and the one most likely to make rash decisions. Her hair is bright purple and shaved on one side. She has more earrings in her ears than I can count and I highly doubt they are her only piercings. Colorful tattoos cover her left arm and most of her back, but her heart is gold and she’d give her life for me if I asked it of her, or needed her to do so without the ability to ask.

  Unlike Anne, Kelly is more like me. Her hair is a natural dull brown color that highlights her pretty honey colored eyes. She’s quiet, but curious, and secretly I think she envies Anne’s wild streak and strives to be a bit more like her every day. Becca rounds out our group by being the bubbly bleached blonde who tries to lick and touch every male who crosses her path.

  Me, on the other hand, I’m the bookworm. The girl who calculates every choice in life until the choice no longer matters. I dissect all my actions carefully to see which path will lead me to my greatest success. I’m shorter than the three of them and my body is much curvier. I, Serenity Creed, am the boring one, and I’m more than OK with that.

  “You’re both wrong.” Anne murmurs into her magazine and the two in the back shut up to look at the back of her head with eager eyes.

  “Than which one is, since you think you know everything?” Becca grabs the back of Anne’s seat and pulls herself forward to rest her chin on the edge of the chair.

  “Shifters, duh.” Anne rolls her eyes as if the reason is obvious and Becca nods as she takes in the new bit of information.

  “Ohh,” she sighs as if enlightened “I guess that makes sense.” Her hand pushes through her thick blonde curls and as soon as she pulls her hand back, her hair springs into the exact place it had been before she began poking at it.

  “But hold on,” interjects Kelly. “What’s the difference between shifters and werewolves? Aren’t they both the same thing?”

  “No,” Anne turns her body in her seat so she can face both the girls in the back. “A shifter can turn into anything, at any time. Kinda,” She tilts her head like she’s deep in thought. “Like, there are some shifters whose souls can only connect with one animal spirit and that’s the animal they can change into. And only that. Werewolves however, only change form during a full moon.”

  “Do you think we’ll meet any shifters?” Becca seems hopeful when I glance into the rearview mirror to see her face.

  “We’ll meet them all.” Anne’s voice is deep and dark like she’s delivering a threat and a spike of adrenaline filled with fear swirls through my lower belly, and my hands fist over the steering wheel tighter. The grip turns my knuckles white, but I can’t seem to ease the tension in my hands. “Oh calm down, Serenity, it will be fun.” Her voice is light again when she slaps the back of my hand, seeming to break the trance of fear I’m under and allowing my hands to relax again.

  “I am calm.” I snap, proving I’m not. “How much longer do I follow this road?”

  We left our shared
apartment in Portland, Maine at six o’clock this morning and a quick look at the clock on the dash tells me we have been driving for three hours. We passed a sign for Hanover, New Hampshire half an hour ago and crossed into Vermont shortly after that. Anne wouldn’t tell me exactly where we were going, only that I could plug Royalton, Vermont into my GPS and she would guide us from there. I guess if she gave me the damn address she would be breaking some code of the park. Some vow of secrecy that she apparently takes very seriously.

  “Um,” Anne flops back around in her seat again and her eyes squint as she peers out the window. Her magazine falls to the floor board and she makes another unconvincing sound. “I think we have like five more miles?” Her tone makes me feel like she’s asking me a question but she’s our guide and I am only the blind driver in this excursion.

  I slam my head back into the head rest while pulling my left leg up and tucking it under my right thigh, which always makes the girls nervous. My left elbow now rests on my bent knee that’s leaning against the door. With a heated huff, I drop my heavy head into my left hand, letting it brace my throbbing temple while I keep waiting for clearer directions.

  “Yeah, yeah!” She pipes with a bit of thrill in her voice. “Five more miles because we haven’t passed that big brick barn that’s all caved in on one side yet, have we?” I quickly glance in her direction to show her how annoyed I am, then bring my gaze back to the road.

  “I haven’t seen any barns. Just trees, trees, and more fucking trees.”

  “Good. We’re almost there then! You guys are going to love it.” Anne gives us all her megawatt smile and that feeling in my belly tightens again.

  “If we don’t die.” I murmur under my breath.

  The road twists sharply and I’m going too fast to take it smoothly. I yank the wheel to the right and lean my body to prepare for the turn. The girls, however, are unable to prepare and the two in the back clash into each other from the force and Anne is thrown into my side. With groans and complaints of seatbelts choking them, we get through the turn and my foot eases off the accelerator.

  “Forget Freak Show, Serenity, you’re gonna kill us before we get there.” Becca shouts at the back of my head and I squint into the review mirror.

  “Only because you guys are distracting me with your damn supernatural sex talk,” I laugh lightly to expel the extra beats of my frantic heart. I really was going far too fast because I’m so nervous over what today will bring. Something deep in my bones doesn’t feel right about going to the new theme park.

  “How long has it been now, Serenity?” Becca chuckles. “Like six months right? No wonder hearing us talk about vampires with cold fingers and werewolves who can fuck for hours is distracting you!”

  “Yeah,” Kelly jumps on the pick on Serenity bandwagon. “How wet are your neglected panties, anyways?”

  “Har Har. Very funny.” Sarcasm drips from my words. “Not everyone can be super sluts like the three of you.” Kelly and Becca laugh good-heartedly, knowing I say such a thing with the most love possible.

  I broke up with my last boyfriend seven months ago. He was the fourth man, correction, boy, I’d slept with, and it may sound cheesy, but I didn’t want to put forth the effort in trying again with someone who couldn’t blow my mind. Sex with each of them was lackluster to say the least. I wanted my sex life to be like it is in the movies or in my favorite romance novels. Hot, sticky, and toe curling. I may be a nerd, but my body still aches like everyone else’s.

  I wanted my sex life to be like an extreme sporting event and all I was getting was Chutes and Ladders. I longed for thrilling highs, frustrated burning across every nerve ending, and a release so explosive it caused me to pass out. But the only guys I was attracting seemed to be as dull on the inside as I appeared on the outside.

  After dating Tom for almost a year, I knew it was never going to get any better and called it quits. The only thing we had in common was our love of dogs and game show reruns. When we finally broke up, I promised myself I wasn’t going to have sex with anyone else unless they could get me off BEFORE pulling out their penis. Shouldn’t be too hard right? What with all the ways a man could touch a woman or please her with his mouth, well you’d be surprised just how one track minded a man, err boy, can be.

  And here I am, seven months later and all the men I’d dated since then hadn’t even come close to completing the task I had mentally assigned them. I would let them get close after a few dates, the ones who could stimulate me mentally anyway, and all they ever wanted to do was throw me on the bed and get down to business.

  No foreplay was ever initiated, so I would pretend to freak out that things were moving too fast for me and never call them back. Terrible I know, but a girl has to have standards, right?

  “Right here!” Anne screams bringing me back to the here and now. Again, I yank at the wheel and send everyone flying in order to take the turn on to the road marked by the old caved in barn. The road goes straight up, or at least it looks like it. Like we are driving right into the moody clouds.

  “You’re sure?” I turn my head to meet Anne’s gaze. “This is really far away from everything.” The last livable house we passed must have been at the very least thirty minutes back, and even those were pretty sketchy trailers that looked abandoned or like they were for the set of a horror movie.

  “I know.” She beams. “That’s the point. To be hidden from the world where the magic can thrive.”

  All of us fall silent as the Jeep creeps up the side of the mountain. The road weaves through thick trees and colored leaves float on the wind and flutter to the ground. After another mile or so of feeling like we were driving straight to heaven, the road opens up to a very large field. Rows and rows of cars are lined up on the dead grass, reminding me of state fair parking.

  “Keep going, let’s see if we can get a closer space.” Anne whispers and I nod, driving the car slowly through the packed field. The rows keep going and I have no idea how close or far away we are from the entrance.

  “Where’s the front? I don’t see anything.” I question her back in the same hushed tones she was using and Anne only points ahead. Through the window I can see a thick wall of fog hanging up ahead in what looks like the edge of the field where you would normally expect a tree line. “I thought it was huge, Anne? But I can’t see anything. There isn’t a single person in this parking lot.” I drop my left foot back to the floorboard and lean over the steering wheel to look around. “Are you kidding me?” I look back in the review mirror again and see the same second guessing expressions on my friend’s faces. Something feels really, really wrong.

  “For God sakes, Serenity, are you gonna be a worry wart the entire trip?” Anne crosses her arms under her small tits and glares at me.

  “I don’t mean to be.” I yell honestly. “It, this, just freaks me the fuck out, OK?”

  “It’s just a little fun. Like how rollercoasters are scary but that’s why we love them.” Anne says while scanning the makeshift parking lot for open spaces.

  “I’ll try to keep it together. But no promises.”

  “That’s all I ask, toots. You can do it, I have faith in you.” She gives me a wink and I return it with a roll of my eyes and a dramatic sigh.

  “At least one of us does.”

  Two…

  In the second row of parked cars from the enormous wall of fog, I find an empty space and steer the Jeep between the other vehicles. I turn the keys to remove them from the ignition and the noise of the engine dies. Without the hum of the automobile the world up here is deathly quiet. Chills races up my spine and the fine hairs at the back of my neck stand on end.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea, Anne?” I ask one more time before anyone opens the car doors. “We can just drive back home, really, I don’t mind.”

  “Yeah, Serenity. Honestly, its super fun and the shows are amazing. It’ll be like nothing you’ve ever seen. I promise. Come on,” she explains again.

  I don’t
know if I was expecting to see Cinderella’s castle or something similar but there is nothing but dense fog and a million parked cars. Anne seems so carefree and I suppose since she has been here before that if she isn’t worried, then I shouldn’t be either. If she said we were going to be safe then we should be safe, right?

  Outside of the car the world is tomblike. No leaves rustle, no creatures peep. Not even the wind blows through the field. The air feels heavy around my shoulders, almost like the world itself is holding its breath. My jeans feel stuck to my thighs and I pluck at the denim trying to give myself something to do while waiting for the girls to get out of the car and join me in the silence.

  Kelly looks like she’s sharing my concern, but Becca and Anne lock elbows and begin skipping like school girls in front of us toward the wall of fog. Kelly shrugs her shoulder in my direction and we follow suit. The others have gotten ahead of us and race through the shimmering layers of mist. I can’t see them any longer and fear grips my heart. Both mine and Kelly’s feet hurry to find our friends but when we reach the wet wall we both freeze.

  “It looks wrong.” Kelly whispers and I nod while reaching out one hand to touch the shimmering wall. My fingers completely disappear from sight and the tiny bubble of water in the air tickle my digits. Kelly turns to look at me and her brown eyes are as wide as mine feel. “We can’t leave them in there.” She mumbles. “Or should I say, we can’t stay out here?”

  A clap of thunder explodes in the air above us and I pull my hand back when we both jump. I inspect my fingers and they look exactly the same as they did before I slipped them into the mist. Another deep roll of thunder rocks the hills behind us and I look up. The once grey sky is now blotted with dark black clouds. Still, no wind ruffles our hair, but above us the sky looks as if it’s swirling.

  “I guess we go through then?” I take her hand in mine and inhale a large breath before pulling Kelly through the fog. It’s like walking under a waterfall without getting wet. For a few steps everything around us feels as if it’s shivering. A whirling sound, like the hum of an air conditioning unit, fills my ears but fades with my next step.