The sweet, warm scent of funnel cake hits me as Tyler and I enter Marina County’s annual carnival fair. My stomach grumbles, scolding me for rushing out the door this morning and only scarfing down an orange. “Can we get some food, Tyler? I’m starving”, I moan while clutching my stomach.

“Fine, what do you want, Lori? Cotton candy, funnel cake, hot dogs?” Tyler replies, knowing Mom would hear me complaining about him if he didn’t take care of his sister.  I run to the nearest food stand and order funnel cake and cotton candy while Tyler gets a hot dog.
Strolling through the carnival with cotton candy one hand and a half eaten funnel cake in the other, I notice a tent that reads, “Madame Leila’s Crystal Ball.” I wander into the tent with Tyler rolling his eyes behind me. It smells like sandalwood and jasmine as I walk over to a circular table with a young lady with dark curls and soft brown eyes. She smiles and says, “Hello stranger, how can I help you?”
“Can you see my future and tell me what’s going to happen to me?” I ask her. Hopefully, I would become a successful doctor or maybe I’d be vacationing in the Bahamas in the next five years or so.
She takes my hands and places them on the crystal ball. Madame Leila closes her eyes and after a few minutes, suddenly looks up. I give her a questioning look. “I’m sorry, for some reason, I cannot look into your future.”
“Why?” I ask. She quickly mutters sorry, gets up, and disappears behind curtains into another room.
“Crazy lady.” Tyler says as we leave. I nod as I ponder on why she couldn’t see my future.
We continue wandering through the fairgrounds, eating our food until I see an attraction named,  “The Tunnel of Horror.” I turn to Tyler and say, “Um, isn’t it supposed to be ‘The Tunnel of Love’?” He shrugs and keeps walking ahead while I stop to observe. Instead of swans, the passengers sit in various scary creatures: werewolves, ghosts, witches, and pumpkins with menacing faces. Unable to resist a good scare, I sprint to ride and stand in line. Tyler on the other hand, afraid of the smallest spiders, tells me to go ahead while he visits the “Freakiest Things on Earth” tent.
Within a few minutes I’m at the front of the line and the employee seats me in a car that’s is painted like a ghost. “Have fun!” he shouts as I drift into the darkness of the tunnel.
My heart pounds loudly, but I love the thrill. On my right a witch cackles and her face flashes briefly before vanishing. A sarcophagus appears on my left, shaking as I hear a mummy groan. Not bad, I think, although they could have come up with something more original.
Suddenly, my cellphone starts ringing, so I fumble through my purse as to turn off my ringer. My phone, stuck underneath my wallet, doesn’t come out, so I pull with all my might and it goes flying into the water as I fall over the edge, hitting my head on the side of my car and going underwater. I close my eyes and the ringing stops.
***
My eyes flutter open. I see darkness all around me.
Realizing I’m still underwater, I pull myself up and take a deep breath. I feel fine; no broken body parts or bruises. My ghost car is no longer in the tunnel, and as far as I can see, there are no other cars coming down the tunnel. That’s weird, how come no one noticed that I was in the water and saved me? I wonder to myself. I begin to walk down the tunnel to a dim light when I hear someone.
“Miss?” a voice says. It sounds like a little girl.
I turn around and see a girl, who seems to be twelve years old, standing on the platform next to the water. She is wearing a pale blue dress and has two blonde pigtails. Her eyes show tremendous sadness.
“Can you help me?” she cries. “I lost my mom and I need to find her.” Looking at her eyes, I feel as though I have no other choice but to help her.
I hoist myself onto the platform and ask, “How did you even get in here?”
“I came here just like you did” she replies.
I don’t understand what she means by that, but I am anxious to get out of the creepy dark tunnel and say, “Why don’t we look for her outside. Come on.” She walks over to me and takes my hand. Her hand is ice cold. I continue walking straight ahead until we see the dim light and reach the exit of the ride. I open the door into the carnival grounds, ready to yell at the employees for not caring about their riders. However, when I open the door, I see no one.
Still with the little girl in my hand, I circle around to the front of the “Tunnel of Horror” and see a yellow “Caution” tape all around the entrance and a sign that reads “Temporarily out of order: Under Repairs.” I ask the girl what the date is, but she doesn’t know. Looking at how dark it is, I assume that it is around six in the evening, but the fair doesn’t close until nine.
I see a worker taking out the garbage and call out to him. He doesn’t hear me. I shout out to him again, and run towards him. He doesn’t even turn my way. Catching up to him, I tap him on the shoulder, but he doesn’t feel anything. He just saunters away, garbage bag in hand. The girl comments, “Why did you do that? You know that they can’t hear you or see you.”
I am about to ask her what she means by that when I see the worker left behind a newspaper. I pick it up and begin to read the front page:

MARINA COUNTY—Yesterday, on May 14, the body of Lori Cassady,18 years old, was found inside Marina County’s carnival ride, “The Tunnel of Horror” around four o’clock PM. Cassady was at the fair with her brother, Tyler Cassady, who was in another ride when this happened. It seemed that something must have startled her, causing her to fall over into the water, and hit her head on the car. Cassady died on the spot from drowning under the water. Her family will be holding a funeral service on Sunday, May 15. The carnival was shut down after she was found, and will not open until next year. The attraction is currently undergoing inspection.
Many people have begun to question the safety of this ride. Seven years ago, when Sandra Kurtz, 38, and her daughter May Kurtz, 12, encountered similar problems on the same ride, the ride was to be permanently shut down. Sandra went to the hospital with major injuries, while her daughter died in the ride itself.

I couldn’t go on any further. I look at May, grasping my hand, looking up at me. We both know what this means.
Yet, I smile and tell her, “We can stick together from now on. You won’t be alone anymore.”