Fate Chapter 3

I was brought to the carnival and showed to a trailer with the words “Madam Xander” written in twirly, gold letters.

I spent the next hour going through “Madam Xander”'s stuff and noticed that all of her things looked real.

Who was this woman and what happened to her?

I was startled out of my thoughts by a knock on the door. For a wild moment, I half expected it to be Father, who had found me.

I forced myself to calm down. There was no way that he would ever suspect me joining a carnival. He probably thought I was dead on the roadside.

“Enter!” I called.

Another wave of fear ran through me as the door knob jiggled and turned. I forced myself to looked neutral.

It was only Rick.

“I thought you might be hungry...” Rick started, blushing slightly.

“And?” I promoted hopefully.

“I thought you might like to have breakfast with me. All employees eat free,” he added.

“Oh, sure,” I said. I hoped I sounded not like I really excited to go with him.

“I'll show you where the food court is,” Rick said as he flashed a charming smile at me. I felt my ears redden.

The food wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. I was used to my mother's cooking. Rick and I never seemed to run out of things to say to each other.

It was a Saturday. According to Rick and Fredrick (he insisted on me calling him Fred), Saturday is always the busiest day of the week.

I spent the day drawing tarot cards and reading palms. By order of Ms. Candy, I charged $5.00 per service. Ms. Candy stayed and watched me while I did my first customers.

I didn't like being treated like a show, but I got to keep half of what I earned. Mother taught me that I was to do a job, I was to do it well. My guesses about their past were correct and my predictions on their were real.

Within three hours, I had established a decent reputation and acquired a steady flow of customers. It was past eleven o' clock that night.

After I was done working, I went to get a light snack before bed. I had been so busy that I hadn't had time to get lunch or dinner. I made a mental note to eat big breakfasts on Saturday.

I returned to my trailer to find that the single table and ten chairs had been moved to the side of the wall and a cot with a pillow and bedspread had been moved into its place. I also noticed that a fan and a heater had been put right beside my bed.

I was suddenly very aware that it was close to freezing. I turned on the heater and pushed it under my bed so it would warm up by the time I was ready to sleep.

I was very tired and not in the mood for visitors. But, try telling that to an angry ghost.

“Welcome, newbie,” a voice said from behind me. I had just gotten into a nightgown that I borrowed from one of the acrobats.

I wheeled around to see the man in the plaid suit with the cyan colored skin and the wooden dummy. The man had pulled out a chair and was sitting on it. The dummy was sitting on his lap.

“Who are you?” I demanded.

“Is that how you greet your guests, newbie?” To my surprise, it was the dummy who spoke instead of the man. It was as if the man was mute and the wooden man was speaking for him in terrifyingly excellent voice, as if it were human.

“Don't call me that,” I said coldly.

The man continued to sit perfectly still as the dummy spoke.

“So you can see me,” the dummy said. His tone suggested that he was thinking very carefully about this factor.

“Yes, I can see you.”

“Well, well. An actual newbie who can do her job. Congrats,” the dummy said mockingly.

“Yes, I'm a psychic. Who are you?” I asked cautiously.

“An act older than you,” the dummy answered.

“I know that! How did you get in? The doors are locked,” I said.

“For a psychic, you are pretty stupid,” the dummy said, now with an ugly smile plastered on its face.

“You're a ghost,” I said slowly as it suddenly hit me why the man's skin was dark cyan. I remembered when I had entered the van. I had taught it was a vision, but they must have all been ghosts.

Why are they all haunting the carnival?, I wondered.

“You got it, darling. I've been watching you today. You know what you're doing--”

“Faltering, but what do you want?” I interrupted.

“Give me a minute to tell ya!” the dummy growled, clearly annoyed at being cut off.

“Okay, go ahead,” I said.

“I want you to leave the carnival alone. The last person that messed with us had a terrible accident,” the dummy emphasized “terrible”.

The ghost disappeared, leaving me dumbfounded.



"Fate Chapter 1" 

"Fate Chapter 2"