Chapter 11, Part 1. Carnivals, clowns, rollercoasters, and mutant pigs.

Lonely hated carnivals, and clowns, and rollercoasters, and mutant pigs. His aunts used to force him to go to the state fair every year. He looked at the sign hanging over the front entrance and wanted it to disappear. 

"Carnalavilia, let all truths be told, whether on your own or forced from your lips.". Lonely looked over at Eos, who looked on the verge of throwing up the granola bar she had eaten before they had landed. She was staring at the sign. Lonely looked back at it and knew why Eos was about to throw up. There was a small frame around the wooden board. The letters were crusted and dried, but clearly blood, and the frame was made of...

"Those aren't....?" Lonely gagged, Eos responded by throwing up in a nearby trash can. The sign's frame was made out of lips that were nailed to the board; all of them looked like they might have been screaming. The doors opened slowly on their own, and eerie carnival music floated through the air. Lonely watched as Eos wiped her face and marched past him. He followed her. 

"I'm really going to need a therapist if I survive all these trials." He thought as they walked through the front entrance. By the front entrance was a merry-go-round and a drop tower, and further down the path was a Ferris wheel and a few roller coasters. 

A laugh floated through the air, and the doors behind them slammed shut; then they heard them. The thundering of hooves and the squeals coming their way. Lonely grabbed Eos's arm and ran to the merry-go-round.

"Climb!" He told her, grabbing one of the outside polls. He started climbing to the roof, and Eos followed him. "I guess P.E. class was a little helpful." He muttered, pulling himself onto the roof. She was there a second later.

 It didn't take long for the pigs to show up. They were the size of a punch buggy car. They had oozing green boils and jagged teeth. One had deer antlers. They didn't have eyes, but they had empty eye sockets that slowly dripped blood. Eos muttered something that sounded like Latin, but Lonely didn't know what it meant. The pigs started ramming into the ride, and it made Eos step back. Lonely heard something click, and before he could shout out to her, a net scooped her up. It started to rise into the air, and Lonely tried to grab at it. He managed to get a hold of the rope net with one of his hands, but as the net lifted higher into the air, he realized he would fall. He didn't have enough upper-body strength to pull himself up to hold on better. Eos tried to help, but found that when she shifted, it moved the net too much and would cause him to fall. Lonely watched below him, trying to find something that was closer to him that he could land on, and then he could follow the net on foot.

They passed over a roller coaster with a tall metal awning where the guests would get on the coasters.

"I'm going to find you, I promise," Lonely said.

"Wait-" Eos started to protest, but he had let go. It was only a few feet below him, but he had miscalculated. He landed and fell backwards into the coaster's cushiony seats. He sat up, and the lap bars pinned him to his seat. He fought against the bar until a voice called from the speaker.

"HOWDY THERE, FOLKS!" A high-pitched voice sang out, making the speakers squeal like the mutant pigs, "NOW PLEASE STAY INSIDE THE RIDE! YOUR DOOM WILL BEGIN SHORTLY!". 

The coaster lurched forward towards a 478-foot hill that dipped down into the earth.

"Well, this is just fantastic," Lonely said sarcastically to no one in particular. He rested his wrists on the lap bar that pinned him to the seat, and metal cuffs popped out, restraining his arms so he couldn't block his face from whatever was about to come up next.

Chapter 10, Part 2. The Bloody Carnival

Eos remembered the broadcast vividly. She decided that she had to push all of her fears aside as she tried to stop her hands from shaking. No need for fear now. She couldn't show any weakness; she'd be done for. They were landing on the most dangerous planet in this galaxy; they'd be lucky if they made it out alive. 

The carnival lights flashed from behind the front gates. A Ferris wheel spun slowly behind the large wall that surrounded the park. There were empty spaceships in the parking lot, their owners long gone.

"This place looks creepy." Lonely muttered.  Eos rolled her eyes. He had a way of pointing out the obvious, which was irritating. 

"Before we go in, you want to leave a letter or something? Just in case we die and the ship gets looted by scavengers?" She asked, standing up. It felt good not to use the crutches; they were annoying. Her leg still hurt a bit, though.

"Nah. They probably wouldn't read it anyway; they'd probably trash it." He said jokingly.

"Or maybe they'd eat it." Eos chuckled. 

"Or cover it with spit and throw it at the windshield.".

"What if they fed it to their young?" 

"Ewww!" Lonely laughed, his smile genuine. Eos felt strangely happy, especially since they were probably about to die. She would die with someone who saw her as a regular starling, not someone to be scared of. She felt thankful that she met Lonely. If they survived, maybe they could be friends. Maybe they were already friends? Eos didn't fully know; she had never had a genuine friend before. Her thoughts drifted for a second; she didn't know anything about him. That would have to change, and maybe she could learn more about Earth, too. She always forgot how vast the universe was and how little she knew about those who resided in it. 

"There's an atmosphere we can breathe here." She turned off the engine and made her way over to the closet. 

"What are you doing?" Lonely asked, following her. 

"We need weapons." Eos opened the closet and pulled out a long star rifle. Lonely made a face of discomfort and was fidgeting with his hands. She knew what he was thinking about; her leg had been healed slightly in ancient geese, but it wouldn't take long for it to finally kill her. She knew that he had found out about this, even though he didn't say anything about it; he knew. 

"You don't have to carry it if you don't want to, L, it's ok. And don't worry about my leg right now, we have a job to do.".

He nodded slightly, and she handed him a dagger.

"If she picks you up or grabs you, use this. I have a feeling I know where the key is, but it's going to be hard to get it." She sighed as she stepped out of the ship. Lonely followed her to the front gate. 

"Ready?" She asked.

"Ready." He nodded, and they walked through the gate into Carnalavilia.

Chapter 10, Part 1. The Bloody Carnival.

Lonely sat in his seat behind Eos. He was mulling over his thoughts. They all jumbled inside his head. A princess, Foe, death, and his Aunts. Oh, his Aunts wouldn't miss him. They blamed him for his mother, and they blamed him for all the trouble that befell them. 

"I know your name. I know how to help the girl. Just make a deal with me." The eerie voice in his head whispered. Lonely felt his heart skip a beat, his breath hitched. His name. The one that his aunts had refused to use, the name he was never told, the name that was given to him by his mother. He wanted to know so badly. His heart ached to know, his head was pounding with desire, but he shook his head. Lonely had seen what happened to Emily Grace, the ghost of Whispwood, and he had seen how angry that giant goose was. Was that goose once normal? Or at least not as big? 

"Are you alright back there?" Eos asked from the captain's seat. 

"Your leg isn't really ok, is it?" He dodged her question with another question. 

"......No, no, it isn't. I suppose I have a lot to tell you. I suspect that Eros told you about....about my status?" She choked out the last word. 

"Yes, look, you don't have to go into it if you don't want to. It's ok." 

"I-....I will when I'm ready. I'm not used to sharing stuff like this with others." 

"Me neither. Take your time." Lonely smiled slightly. He was getting somewhere with the star girl. It didn't seem like she hated him; she still wasn't sure about him, but it was something. 

"So...what is Carnalavilia?" Lonely switched topics.

Eos took a shaky breath, "It used to be run by a mother and her daughter. It was the most popular fun park planet in this system, until they slowly started losing business. A bigger park opened in the next solar system over. The little girl didn't want to give up their park, she grew up there. It was her home. Her mom was selling it to Newslater when it happened." 

"When what happened?" Lonely was scared to ask.

"The rides. Right as the mother was about to sign the papers, screams were coming from all around the park. It...It was broadcast to all of Carnalavilia's neighboring planets by the daughter, who was cackling the entire time. The rides grew blades and saws, the house of mirrors spouted out shadow doppelgangers that strangled you, the carousel leaked liquid heat seeking gold that burned skin and suffocated you. The daughter didn't look like a little girl anymore; she looked like a puppet with a keytar that shot sound waves that melted your flesh. Her mother was the only one she let escape. I was just a kid. I saw it all from a screen. If there's going to be any place that has a passkey, it's that horror show.".

Lonely felt like he was about to throw up and ruin his pants at the same time. "Lovely," he muttered, "Foe sure gets around. That poor girl..." 

"You won't be saying that when you meet her." Eos monotoned, "We're here."