Cora looked up at the woman with a raised eyebrow. “The Faire was here in 1992? That was two years before I was born. I remember my dad taking me here when I was little, and it looked like it had been abandoned for years. He never mentioned it being back.”
“It always looks abandoned when we’re Inverted.” Amanda said it like it made perfect sense. “And a lot of times there’s no record of us coming or going. It’s only when we’re here for a long time that it leaves enough of a mark that people remember. Otherwise, we’re wiped from their minds.”
“I…don’t…understand.” Cora was going to get a headache from this.
“I know. Not yet. But you will.” Amanda gestured for Cora to keep eating.
Cora took another large swallow of her coffee. She hoped it wasn’t drugged. But the caffeine was worth the risk. “Magic is real. I accept that. I can’t deny it anymore. I’ve seen too much weird shit this week. But I…I can’t accept that I’m trapped here. I need to try to get out. I’m not one of you. I can’t be. I just can’t.”
Amanda and Donna looked at each other for a long moment.
Amanda nodded.
Donna shook her head. “No. It’s too gruesome.”
Amanda shrugged. “It’d get the point across.”
“What’d be too gruesome?” Cora shifted back in her chair.
“Oh, it’s an old trick to break people in. Coming back from the dead usually does it. I was going to see if you wanted us to break your neck.” Amanda smiled sweetly, like it was no big deal at all. “It’s not so bad. Doesn’t hurt.”
“No!” Cora shot up from her chair and went for the door. “That’s it. I’m out of here.”
“Wait—”
She didn’t know which of them shouted for her to stop. She didn’t care. She threw open the door and bounded down the stairs. They were going to hurt her! Everyone here was a murdering psychopath—
And she ran right into a tall, skinny wall of red and black stripes. “Good morning, cupcake!” He beamed cheerily down at her, a smile plastered on his face. But, like it always was, it was filled with cruelty and edged in madness.
Simon.
“Fuck, no!” She pushed away from him and went to run. She made it ten steps before her limbs froze in place mid-stride. She sobbed in defeat.
“Where’re you going, Cora dear?” He sounded honestly confused.
“Let her go, Simon!” Amanda shouted from behind her. She twisted her head to watch.
Simon bowed. “Oh. Hello, ladies. I didn’t know you were here. I see you beat me to it. I was going to take Ms. Glass to breakfast.”
“Let her go,” Donna snarled angrily at him as she stormed down the steps. The little woman stood close to the Puppeteer, trying to get as much in the face of a man who was well over six feet tall as she could from more than a foot lower. Simon only smiled like he found it adorable. “Whatever sick games you think you’re going to play with her, I won’t allow.”
“Sick games?” He put his hand to his chest in mock hurt. “Me? Hardly. I can’t touch her now, as well you both know. Someone has to show her around. Teach her about her new life. I figured it might as well be me. She is mine, after all.”
They were talking about her like she wasn’t there, stuck in mid-running-stride, frozen like she was only a frame of a piece of film. “Hey, ass-clown!”
All three looked over to her. Simon sighed. He flicked his hand, and whatever was holding her like that—his strings—dropped her to the ground in a heap. She groaned from the impact. When she got up, he was already standing there next to her. He placed a hand on her shoulder. “I’m not the Clown, darling. I’m the Puppeteer. Did you hit your head last night in your pathetic attempt at escape?”
She yanked free from him, and backed away slowly, not turning her back on him. “I’m getting out of here. Screw this. Screw you. Screw all of you.”
“Careful what you ask for. They’d probably take you up on that offer.” Simon shrugged. “All right, well, I’ll find you when you tire yourself out.” He gestured like he was shooing a child out of the room. “Go on. Do your best.”
She didn’t need to be told twice. Ignoring the calls from Donna and Amanda to stop, she turned and ran. Again.
She was going to find a way out of here.
She was going to go home.