Chapter 036 - Eerie Night Fair 08

  I hesitated for a moment before offering a small smile. "Tell me, how do you sell your balloons?"

  The clown’s grin stretched impossibly wide, his painted lips curling at the edges. "Oh, it’s simple. You trade me the thing that matters most to you."

  A cold chill rippled through the group. None of us had any money—so what else could we offer except our lives?

  "Oh! Almost forgot to mention," the clown added, his tone light and teasing, as if we were discussing carnival prizes instead of a twisted bargain. "My balloons are part of the amusement park’s attractions~"

  With an effortless flick of his wrist, he cast aside the lifeless woman he had been holding, letting her crumple to the ground like a discarded puppet. Then, from within his oversized coat, he produced a punch card machine, the kind you'd expect at a casual arcade—utterly out of place in this nightmare. His voice lifted into a singsong lilt. "Buy a balloon, and you get a game~~~ Hee hee hee~"

  I scanned my surroundings, taking stock of the situation. Unlike the silent, mechanical marionettes we’d encountered before, this clown was different—more animated, more aware. He was one of the few entities in this twisted amusement park that could actually communicate with us. That alone made him dangerous.

  So instead of answering his offer, I turned the tables. "What are the conditions for clearing this stage?"

  The clown’s exaggerated red eyebrows shot up in mock surprise. He tilted his head, as if no one had ever dared to ask him that before. Then, with a delighted giggle, he began to bounce on the balls of his feet, twirling playfully around us.

  "When night falls, when the park returns to what it was meant to be...

  When innocence fades, when wicked desires consume what was once a pure land...

  This amusement park will vanish."

  He stopped suddenly, fixing me with an unsettling stare before adopting the overly enthusiastic demeanor of a carnival barker. "So! Before that happens, how about a few balloons to celebrate? Limited-time offer!"

  Elliot and the others remained stiff with caution, their silence heavy with distrust. No. 137 visibly recoiled, his eyes flicking between the clown’s painted face and the limp woman at his feet.

  I felt my patience thinning. With a sharp frown, I said, "No, thanks."

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  To my surprise, the clown didn’t push further. He simply shrugged, grabbed the lifeless woman by the arm, and dragged her away, his voice trailing off in a sing-song murmur. "Such a shame, such a shame…"

  We moved on, clearing the carousel together. By the time we stepped off, the countdown timer had dwindled to a mere three hours.

  I took the lead, guiding the group toward the last attraction that seemed remotely safe—**the seesaw**.

  Yet even as I walked, my mind kept circling back to the clown’s words. What was this amusement park originally meant to be?

  The park was divided into two zones—A and B—perhaps to separate the difficulty levels of the attractions. In Zone A, a grand statue of a prince stood tall, a longsword gripped firmly in his hands. Meanwhile, in Zone B, a statue of a princess held a delicate bouquet of flowers.

  Compared to the ominous air of Zone A, Zone B was undeniably safer.

  "Still thinking about what the clown said?" Elliot’s voice pulled me from my thoughts. At some point, he had walked up beside me.

  I nodded. "Yeah. He said, ‘When wicked desires consume what was once a pure land.’ I don’t understand what that means."

  Elliot, dressed in his usual neat yet effortless student attire, had left his collar unbuttoned, giving him an air of casual confidence. He thought for a moment before replying, "This place was never a ‘pure land’ to begin with. There’s danger everywhere. But when he mentioned ‘wicked desires’… I think he meant something that directly contradicts childhood innocence."

  "Innocence is pure and harmless. Violence and bloodshed are its opposite."

  "But beyond that?" He furrowed his brows in thought. "In Catholicism, the Seven Deadly Sins are pride, envy, wrath, sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust. If we were to strip away everything that makes this place ‘pure’ for children, which of these would be the first to go?"

  "You can’t single out just one," I admitted. "Any of them could be the answer."

  Our conversation was cut short when No. 9, the elderly man, lost his balance on the seesaw and fell. It wasn’t a fatal drop, but he had clearly hurt himself, gripping his cane tightly as he struggled to stand.

  I stepped past Elliot to help him up. As I did, my gaze landed on the stuffed bear dolls lined up around us, their glassy eyes staring blankly ahead. Something about them stirred a memory, and then it hit me—**the Mickey Mouse figure I had seen at the park entrance.**

  I stopped in my tracks, my pulse quickening.

  Turning sharply to the others, I asked, "When you entered the amusement park, did you notice the sign above the gate? And that mouse’s head?"