“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Mia!” he shouted, his voice cracking through the tent. “I said, take her away!”
She moved toward me quickly. “Come on, dear.”
She slipped her arm under mine, guiding me gently. As we started to walk out, I looked back just in time to see him hurl another knife at the wheel, his growl echoing behind us.
“I don’t know…” I whispered to her, my voice breaking. “What did I do?”
She gripped my arm tighter, walking faster. “It’s not you, dear,” she said quietly. “It’s him.”
I wiped my face, looking at her. She kept her eyes ahead.
“He grew up having everything he ever wanted,” she said. “But the one thing he wanted most, he never got.”
We hurried through the narrow path between the tents.
“And what’s that?” I asked.
“Love,” she said, almost smiling. “Someone who grows up without a heart can’t love.”
She released my hand and stepped ahead of me. “You can’t fix him,” she said over her shoulder. Then she stopped, turning back. “You coming?”
I followed her.
The carnival sounds faded behind us until the music was only a hum. The lights blurred into the distance, and now in front of us were the stands selling sweets and popcorn. On one, balloons were swaying just right next to the mirror maze tent. The Ferris wheel turned slowly, purple and green bulbs almost hypnotising me.
We didn’t climb the stairs of the main house; instead, she led me around the back. She unlocked a padlock and pulled open a small door, stepping aside.
“You have to go in,” she said.
My voice trembled. “What’s in there?”
She smiled. “Nothing good.”
I didn’t ask again.
My body froze at the doorway, something heavy pressing in my chest. But she grabbed my hand and pulled me inside. The stairs creaked with every step we took down, and when we reached the bottom, she flipped a switch.
The light buzzed on, and the smell hit me. There was something rotten clinging to the air. I gagged, covering my nose. There was something around, on shelves and on the floor, all around. Mannequins. Their painted faces stared from the corners, looking so human to make my skin crawl.
I didn’t dare to look too long.
My heart pounded, my hands trembled, and as I stepped further in, I saw the chains.
She pushed me forward, and I fell to the ground. My palms hit the cold floor.
She knelt beside me, “People here have no soul,” shewhispered. Her voice was soft. “No heart.”
She offered me her hand, and I took it. But as soon as I did, she pulled me upward, yanking my arm high above my head. The chain clinked, and cold metal hit my wrist as she locked it in place. Then she took another chain and fastened my other hand beside it.
“You’re too innocent for this place,” she murmured. “Too pure.”
I swallowed hard as she moved behind me.
I heard the faint sound of metal sliding free. A knife. She drew it from the corset pressed tight against her ribs.
The blade’s edge slipped under the ties of my corset and sliced them clean. The corset loosened and fell, pooling at my feet. My breasts bared to the air, skin prickling as the chill wrapped around me.
