Today, I've decided that I want to tell you a story. I've already told you another one here, and some of you seemed to like it. And I enjoy being able to actually post them somewhere. This one is set in an abandoned amusement park. I have a thing for those, and if you want to see my inspiration, you can do so on my pinterest board. I wrote it as part of my creative writing class at university. Any feedback, good or bad, is appreciated!
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| Not my picture, view it here. |
Neverland Corroded
The sky was overcast and my hair was billowing in the wind. I let my fingers trail over the rough stalks of grass, careful to lift my feet over plastic rubble and discarded pieces of metal.
“Hey, check this out!” Liz’ voice echoed, too loud and alien. I didn’t call back. This place was ominous and forbidding. I slowly made my way around a wooden building with a half-collapsed roof towards the sound of her voice. Weeds overgrew everything, nature was taking back what had once been wrenched from her. Turning my head, I saw the rusty structure of the Ferris wheel, dark against the light gray sky. It was wrong for a wheel to be so still.
Rounding the corner, I got a glimpse of Liz climbing into a giant teacup. It was part of the most complete ride we’d found so far, a carousal inspired by Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Tea Party. I leaned on the decaying railing around the platform, taking it all in. The cups had once been colorful, but the sun had cracked and bleached the paint into a ghost of itself. The nozzle of the tea can had broken off. If the mad hatter, the march hare or the dormouse had once been part of the display, their figures had long since left. I liked the idea of them loosening their bolts and just taking off in the dead of night, questing for a more populated and brighter place.
“Make it turn!” Liz cried, her head surfacing over the lid of the cup.
I scoffed. “How? There’s no power. And no, I’m not gonna push it. You know I have no muscles.”
Liz pouted, but her eyes were sly under the dirty bangs of her hair. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
I did. But I felt unsettled already, I was annoyed and exhausted. I didn’t feel like humoring her. This place gave me the heebie-jeebies. Why had it been left like this? Whose genius idea was it anyway to build an amusement park in the middle of nowhere? Letting my eyes roam the place, my notion of wrongness and foreboding deepened, but I couldn’t put my finger on the cause. I took in the crashed carts, the horses fallen from the merry-go-round, the swan gondola bobbing on a murky pond. It was a dead dream, that’s all.
“C’mon Liz,” I called. “We should get back on the road. Miles to go and all that.”
“Not before you make it turn.” She retreated into the cup, but I could hear the pout in her voice. The wind was picking up, rattling chains and making hinges whine as they tried to turn despite corrosion and age.
“I’m tired. I have a headache already. I don’t feel like performing. I don’t like it here. Lets. Go.” My whole body was tense, my fingers cramped around the railing to the point that rust was flaking off and staining my hands. I licked my fingertip, it tasted of iron like blood.
“You’re such a killjoy! You could light up this place like the Vegas strip, get the music sounding, the cogs turning! It could be our little paradise. But you only ever use your gift for stuff that you want. You don’t care about me at all.”
I told myself that Liz was just a spoiled brat lashing out, but the words still stung. My temper flared, and I heard the faint rumbling of thunder. The sky was darkening, its blue freedom imprisoned by storm clouds. We really needed to get back to the car. “Liz. Get out of that thing. It’s gonna start pouring any minute. You’ll be drowned in a cup.”
She laughed, as I’d hoped she would. “Just imagine! You’ll have to tell people about the girl who choked in a cup of rainwater,” she giggled. “I suppose it beats drowning yourself in the bathtub. It’s got a better sense of style, don’t you think?”
I made a non-committal noise, my eyes scanning the wind-whipped grass, the swirling clouds, the ominously lit rail structures and carriages of the rides. The swan was bobbing more violently now, droplets of black water splashing high like oily sparks. Liz vaulted over the railing and the metal groaned pitifully. She didn’t seem to notice. Her white dress was stained with grime and dirt, her hair a tangled wilderness. With her dark eyes, she was both beautiful and terrible at that moment, in a forgotten place under an electric sky.
“Come on,” I urged her. Lightning sparked closer now, blue flaming forks stabbing at the grounds. My ears were filled with the groaning of metal, the roar of the wind, Liz’ hysterical laughter. Thunder made the earth tremble, but there was no rain. I couldn’t be sure, but I think I heard Liz yell something about the angels driving bumper cars in the clouds before she dissolved into cackles again. For a moment, I regretted that I hadn’t done as she asked and let this place, or at least the teacup ride, come alive for her again.
We were nearly at the Ferris wheel and I could see the car not too far behind it when I felt a charge in the air that filled me with such dread that I choked and felt my heart stutter. Lightning hit the wheel, thunder felt like it would split my skull. I turned to Liz, but before I could speak I saw another bolt snaking from the sky. I shoved Liz, and then I was ablaze from within, my powers blooming even as I felt hair sizzle and skin crack. It was more energy than I could contain, and though I imagined my nerves as wires, sending it to the ground, I knew it wasn’t enough. I opened myself to the current, and the plane lit up as it hadn’t been in years. The Ferris wheel turned and sparkled, and as my vision blurred into nothingness, I believed I could hear faint, tinny music.
I hoped Liz thought it was beautiful.
So... that's it. Your thoughts? Would you like me to post more stories in the future, or should I go back to posts about life and travelling and stuff?
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