Carousels and Nightmares (Part VII)

Connie

The carousel sped up, and everything outside of it became a blur. Connie didn’t know about her husband or her daughter, but it felt as though she was sitting still. Is the carousel standing still and the outside world spinning? Then a bright dash of sunlight glinted, and she found herself atop a live horse and racing through a vast countryside. She clung to the reins and leaned in over the front of the saddle. A glance this way and that told her she was alone.

What about Sheila? If she herself was alone, then her 3 year old daughter rode alone, too. “On no!” Connie shouted into the wind. This is all real. The clown wasn’t telling stories. That means the twin horses Sheila was riding on was in fact a duplicator. “Stop! Stop this instant. I want to get off.”

The black stallion slowed and came to a stop, turned his head, eyed Connie, and said, “Is there a problem?”

“What? Wait. What? You talk? Get me out of here.” She lifted her right leg to dismount, but an invisible wall prevented her from doing so. “Why can’t I dismount?”

“You chose to ride, so you must finish it,” replied the horse.

“But my daughter…..”

“It matters not. Here we go.” The horse took off racing through the field once more.

She wanted to yell to her husband but didn’t know if he could hear her being that she couldn’t see him. She called to him anyway. “Tom!” Nothing. “Tom!” Again, no answer. A loud, echoing laughter shot passed on the dashing wind, as she rode. It wasn’t Tom’s laugh. It was the clown’s.

Then all went dark and the horseback ride continued. The clown’s face floated in front of her and bobbed from side to side, dancing this way and that. Connie gasped; the horse ran faster. She teetered. Instinct forced her to hug the horse around his neck. Her breath sucked in gulps of air the faster the horse went. “Stop!” she yelped, her voice hoarse.

“Ha ha ha ha ha ha…..teeter totter teeter totter.
The faster you run,
the more the fun,
in blackness you will whither…”

Connie’s eyelids drooped, her arms fell loose, her body lolled to the side, and the horse continued to run.

(To Be Continued)