Day 316

There's a field in my town where a travelling fairground would stay every summer.
They'd arrive with no warning and leave in the same manner.
You never saw them setting up, the rides would just be there.

Every opening day the field would be packed full of people enjoying themselves.
Sure there were rumours about the occasional death, the rides weren't totally safe.
Kids would swear they knew someone who just slipped right out of their seat and fell.

There was no proof of this of course, internet searches just turned up gossip.
I'd gone a few times, ate the awful food and gone on the childish rides - the usual.
Last year a new rumour began to spread - the fair was holding a Fright Night.

I thought they'd just put fake webs and glow in the dark ghost stickers everywhere.
They went above and beyond my expectations.
I haven't dared to go back since, nor have any of my friends.

Everything seemed fine when we turned up at 9PM and saw tacky Halloween décor everywhere.
They'd even put skeletons and "corpses" in some of the ride seats.
We thought it was great at first, cheesy but funny.

Took us a while to realise that the number of skeletons was rapidly growing and people vanishing.
We might never have noticed if one of our group hadn't gone missing.
He always wore the same shoes, the converse he drew on.

It's the only way they recognised his corpse.
His face had been burnt off, arms severed and his intestines wrapped tightly around his neck.
We ran home and told our parents but they said we couldn't possibly have gone to the fair.

It had left three days ago.
We never found our friend's body, police wouldn't believe us and declared him a runaway teen.
The fair still comes back every year... they send me letters inviting me to the Fright Night.

I'm gong to go.
I have to find him.
Prove them wrong.