Halloween-Eve

“Char, Come on you don't want to be alone on Halloween- eve, do you?” I ask Charlotte as she slouches down in her chair.

“Halloween-Eve?” Charlotte asks with confuzzled look on her face.

“ Yeah. You know like Christmas-Eve but it's Halloween, so Halloween-Eve”. She sat in her chair for about a minute until she murmured “Mmmm Fine.” 

“What was that?” I led over to smush her in her chair.

“ Ok fine i'll go but i won't enjoy it I hope you know that”. I grin and start to think of things we can do. Suddenly I get this lightbulb idea.

“We have to ride the fear-a-lizer”. I yelled into Charlotte’s ears. She starts to plug her ears and shout lalala. Then she stopped and looked at me with a frightened look on her face. I start to wonder if I took it to far.

“I can’t ride it you know that. If I ride that even once i’ll pass out. The last time I rode that I had to go to the hospital. I was told to never ride it again. Because I was having an asthma attack and a panic attack at the same time. I can’t no matter how much you bug me about it”. I remember that night. She was so scared. And that look in her eye even scared me. 12 years of being her best friend and never seen that look on her face before.

“You were 14 that was a long time ago. You are a strong 18 year old. You probably grew out of it. I know you can’t grow out of asthma, but your immune system has gotten stronger and so have you. Charlotte Rose Beverly you are strong and if you can overcome almost dying you can go on a 90 second rollercoaster ride”. I grab her hand and look straight in her eyes and makes sure she sees my point.

“That was offly poetic, but you’re right. I need to stand up and toughen out”. She stood up nice and tall. I think in my head “That's my girl”.

After about an hour of driving we arrive at the Halloween festival. Charlotte seems oddly confident. She’s even dragging me there. She looks at the Fear-a-lizer and sighs. 

“It seems a lot smaller than I remember. This doesn't seem like it will be so bad. I'm actually excited so just get me on the ride before I change my mind.” she points to the ride and drags me to the short line waiting in front. We walk on the ride and they tighten our seat belts. The ride starts to zoom past many broken wires and brackets. All I can here is her screams and soft giggles. We walk off the ride and she has a huge smile on her face. She is for the first time enjoying herself. We go back on the ride about 8 more times until the operator yells “Girls thats enough im heading on break i'll be back in about an hour”. 

“Stace, thank you for making me go on this ride. I wouldn't have gone unless you forced me to.” Charlotte says as she squeezes my hand tight. “I wanna go again.” Char lets go of my arm and runs up to this man. He has Dark stringy black hair under a blue and pink beanie. He has a black and red shirt that says “Fire and Ice” under his Black jean jacket. I grab Charlotte's arm and whisper “Are you sure about this? I mean you just asked this random man to operate a potentially deadly ride”.

“Stace it'll be fine trust me”. I sigh and Follow Charlotte onto the ride. Its starts running and it's fine at first until I look down and see his grinning get bigger and bigger as the ride gets faster.

 “Ok Stacie I want off. Its not feeling as safe anymore”. I try to scream and get the strange man's attention but he says “Sorry can't hear you the ride is too loud”. I can't hear him but they way he smiles and his body moves, he was laughing. 

“Omg I shouldn't have asked him. We don't know him.” Charlotte screams at me as a tear runs down her face.

Suddenly the seat belts fly off the seat and they crash to the ground. My heart was pounding. My eyes start to get blurry and i see charlotte standing. I try to grab her hand but the loop is coming. We weren't going to make it. I shake my head to try and clear the tears from my eyes. Then she was gone. Her shoes fly up at me. I hear her screaming but i couldn't help. My heart broke. After 30 seconds go by I have the courage to look down below me. I see Charlotte's body flat on the floor with her head busted open with blood everywhere. I whisper under my breath, “I love you char and I always will never forget you.”   

I wipe my eyes and realize I have to think quickly.I look around to see if there is a way to climb out. I spot a lake about 5 ft from the ride. Its at a jumpable length. I know ill be ok if  i can make this jump. I just make a jump for it. I start moving. I can't even feel my feet move from the seat to the air. I start to regret jumping and i'm afraid I won't make it. I jerk my body over to hopefully make my aim better. I hold my breath.  I can't believe this was even real. Soon I hit the water. Turns out I didn't think about depth and my feet hit the bottom almost immediately. A rush of excruciating pain blasted through my body. I just keep swimming and I try to run but I can't. Luckily someone already  called the police and an ambulance.

If I would have listened to Charlotte then she would still be with me. I miss her more and more everyday.