Page 1
Prologue
They say The Carnival was born from love.
Not the love told in stories, or sung in songs — not gentle, not kind.
The love that claws into you,
burrowing into the fabric of your soul.
The love that refuses to die even when it should.
The fog always appears just before The Carnival, curling around the abandoned streets and the edges of the skeletal trees which no one dares to enter. Those who wander too close even claim to hear the faint strains of music, tugging at something dark inside of you. The songs of longing, of desire, and fear.
Every seven years, The Carnival returns, The Ringmaster at its center. The tents rise from the earth like black petals unfurling beneath the moon. Lanterns sway without wind, hooking their claws into the dirt that never asked to be disturbed. Shadows flicker along pathways that exist for one moment, and disappear the next. No town welcomes it, but those who visit never leave untouched.
Within the Big Top, performers move as if the music is not a separate entity, but deep inside their veins. Masks may conceal faces, but their eyes show secrets too dangerous to speak. Acrobats twist through the air without any safety equipment. Illusions shimmer, folding reality into a world where desire and dread mingle together like flames.
It has always been this way, as far as history goes. The Carnival thrives on what is taken and what is agreed upon.
It consumes those who dare to breach its gates. Some vanish. Some remain. Some ... become a part of it. Everyone knows the rumors of The Carnival, and yet ... the thrill of the unknown is irresistible.
The Carnival does not ask. It takes.
Beneath the Big Top, shadows await those beckoning to be embraced. Hands reach through mist, gentle and cruel in turn. Eyes watch, always, seeing more than most.
And in the center, where the moon’s light filters through the canvas, The Ringmaster beckons.
Welcome, and come on in.
The show is about to begin.
When Shadows Learned To Dance
Long ago, a Dream Spinner and a Shadow Singer built a world together.
A kingdom of color, smoke, and wonders unseen.
Until sickness stole a lover’s breath.
In grief and desperation, a pact was made in the echoes of heartbeats.
The grief tore through the Big Top, and the darkness clung to the rope of ribbons and bones.
A fire scorched the Earth that night.
When the sun rose, not even the ashes remained.
Chapter 1
The carnival lights cut through the fog like neon ghosts, beckoning my converse covered feet forward. Seven years of searching for a cryptic hashtag, thousands of dead-end forum posts and finally — I stand at the entrance to The Carnival.
Evelyn’s face stares back at me from the crumpled photo in my hand. As my sister, she sports the same dark hair as mine as she drapes her arm across my shoulder. We were both smiling, her dimple on the opposite side from mine. That detail always made our friends we had in school laugh, saying that we were two sides of the same coin. Evelyn was only two years older than me, which made us both best friends and enemies.
Until I no longer had her.
I flip over to my text messages, which I’m still thankful were uploaded to the cloud. The last message she ever sent me was right before she turned twenty-one.
“Found it, Emmy! The Carnival’s real! Going tonight with some friends. Will tell you EVERYTHING tomorrow! Love you!”
