Hole in a Field, Chap 33

A little while ago I wrote a short story for the L. Ron Hubbard "Writers of the Future Contest".  I did not win, and I know why, my story is really more horror than Science Fiction or Fantasy.  But I decided that I will post each chapter here on my blog.  There are 37 very short chapters, for a total of 15,000 words, about a fifth of a modern novel.  Here is the start.

Chapter 33:

Todd ran through the empty streets of a town which no longer looked like any town.  The store fronts were distending and growing into new shapes. Lights and new signs popped and crunched out from a once innocuous and unassuming town.

“It’s turning into a fucking carnival!”  Todd halted in the park, whose benches had been replaced with signs reading 'You must be this tall to ride' and as he looked on with terrified awe, a massive Ferris Wheel erupted up from the earth, lighting up the sky with a cascade of neon lights flashing in the dull, hypnotic pattern that all rides of their like attempted, but fell short, this was like a dream.

Miniature roller coasters curled up, tearing trenches. A gazebo morphed into a merry-go-round, and as the night turned darker all the stars faded from the sky and the moon vanished as if the whole of creation consisted of this island of scintillating color and light, hollow but for a distant laughter that filled Todd’s ears as it grew near.

He saw them then, moving in the contrasted dark shadows from the booths and the rides. From all around he heard them, the constant giggling, chittering, sometimes uproarious laughter, but one stood out. He turned back to where he had run from and there stood the hideous grin of the clown with Allison’s face.

“So,” said Todd, “Carnival’s come to town.”