Maleficium: Duo (Devil's Playground 2)

“What’s she talking about?” Dion asked me directly.

Grace was looking at me in a way that said she would tell him if I didn’t. So much for being on the same page as each other.

Mel gave her a look I couldn’t read before nodding at me as if to say it was okay. I sucked in a deep breath and then quietly let it out as I removed the folded photograph from my back pocket and stretched it towards him.

“I found this.”

He took it gingerly. I gave him a minute to process and looked out towards the carnival. Without the fireworks going off screams could be heard from all the way where we sat. Not all of them seemed to be from terror, though. A Ferriss wheel turned slowly, the blinking lights like a welcoming beacon. Or in this case a warning sign.

“When…where did this come from?” Dion spluttered. “I mean I felt like I knew you, but I can’t remember ever meeting before.”

“You felt like you knew me?” I parroted. This was one of the last things I expected him to say.

“It’s mutual,” Mel interrupted. “I thought the same thing. None of us remember meeting you or your girl, though.”

What? Since when did she feel like she’d known him?

“Who are all these other people?” he asked.

“We don’t know. All we can agree on at this point was that we all knew Sainte,” Grace replied.

“The same Sainte who just tried to kill us, so then you chopped off his head?” he clarified.

“That would be the one.”

I was lost among the conversation. They were mixing lies with the truth and there was already more than enough deceit to go around. We clearly needed to have a discussion but finding the time to sit around and do so wasn’t easily presenting itself.

“It’s weird, right? How we all forgot whatever night this was,” I contributed.

“It’s strange, but not impossible. That’s what makes it disturbing.”

“What do you mean?” Mel asked.

“Someone fucked with our heads,” I answered matter-of-factly. It was the only plausible explanation and knowing we all came from a founding family made it even more realistic.

“We’re back to the overall question then. Why is this happening?” Dion stated.

“Pretty much,” Grace quipped.

“Then what do we do now.”

I puffed my cheeks, letting them deflate as I reached for the door handle. “We go find out why we needed to come to a carnival.”

Once back on solid ground, I brushed myself off and stretched my muscles while the others got out.

“Your hand okay?” Mel asked, walking with me to the back of the truck where Grace and Dion were waiting.

I examined the side of my palm and nodded. “It’s just a flesh wound.”

“There’s a lot of cars here,” Dion observed.

“People have probably been here awhile.”

“I’m sure more than a few of these are for decorative purposes like the ones on the street,” Grace added.

Traversing through the parking lot, we approached the entrance of the carnival just as a group of three people disappeared inside, going through a tall gate covered by a tarp. The entire fence surrounding the place was covered. Someone wanted to prevent anyone from openly seeing in or out.

A ticket booth was set up on either side, two panda headed figures waited for us to get closer. One lifted a hand and cupped the side of their head as if listening for something, lowering it once we were practically right on top of them.

I wondered if they were part of the group from back in the ballroom.

Leading the line, I was the first to be handed a mask, by a masked leather bunny. They reached down and grabbed for it, offering it to me.

“The mask gives you entry,” she stated simply.

I was cognizant of my movements as I accept it from her. I studied it for a brief few seconds before placing it on. It was pure white with smudged coal black eyes and a deep red line on either side of the mouth.

And a perfect fit.

The mask slid on like a second skin, almost as if it’d had been made for me specifically. I could see out of it fine, slightly bothered by the smell of plastic. Mel was next. Her mask was also white but had black squinted eyes and a sinister laughing mouth.

Gracelyn followed with the most random one I’d seen yet.

It was bubblegum pink with an embossed band-aid above the left eye, which matched the right as a black circle. It’d also had been given rather sensual lips. Theirs too were a perfect fit for them and oddly, these masks fit our personalities. Dion on the other hand was given one like we’d seen a dozen times before, black with blue LED lights.

The panda on the right hit a button and allowed us to enter the carnival through the same tarped gate the people before us had.