- 812
- #1
Then the circus leader (or she supposed that he was the ringleader, really) appeared. The guests were left to their own devices and the haunted house attraction was officially closed. Kandy turned in one of her food vouchers for a caramel apple and had returned home for the day, to write down everything that she had witnessed from the haunted house. She tried to recount everything she'd seen in the haunted house - including the mysterious ghost from the trap door. However, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was missing something, so she resolved the next day to return to the haunted house. It had to be open by that point, right?
It wasn't. In fact, every day she returned following, the haunted house stayed shut. She picked up some of the rumors sprouting from other circus goers. Alastor, was that the name of the ringleader?, had gone missing. The ghost actor wasn't an actor after all, but a real ghost! The haunted house was a cover up for a series of murders and this entire circus was in on it and its members looking for new victims! She'd outright laughed at that last one - these outlandish rumors would only get more so. There was no inclination that anything was actually wrong. Maybe something had broken in the haunted house game and they had to do some manner of clean up. Alastor was probably heading the operation of whatever clean up that might be.
It wasn't until the unicorns from the Unicorn Council appeared. Rock Kandy had shied away from them initially - she always got a little jumpy around magic users like unicorns, but it became apparent that at least for the time being they were there to stay. She spotted a hooded cloak from the spring region entering the haunted house and one from the winter sector leaving it. She wanted to ask them what they were finding, but... That seemed so disrespectful. Those on the Unicorn Council were on another level! She was merely a kelain, her people had only shown up recently... She eventually turned her mind back to the rumors.
The rumors about murders and secrecy were gone now that the unicorns had arrived. Surely they were going to protect any of the patrons of the circus - they could only be here to help, right? Kandy chose to believe that narrative, rather than the conspiracy theorists that claimed the Council was in on it too. Honestly, she was all for the imagination that came with the hard work of the circus workers, but when it came to ridiculous rumors it was just that: ridiculous.
Kandy turned her attention to other activities, but she kept an eye on the Unicorn Council members and the haunted house from the corner of her eye. She played the test your strength game and won a stretchy hand trinket. She used her food vouchers on a mix of caramel apples, candied nuts and cotton candy (popcorn was never much her style, even if it was dyed green for the spooky season.) She would talk to other ponies, but find an excuse to leave if the topic ever became too severe or the rumors came up. Was this all an elaborate prank that the circus and Council were playing on its patrons? Or was it something more serious? At the end of every day, she would look at her notebook containing details about the haunted house. Oh Dreamer... what could she possibly be missing? Surely there would be some manner of epic conclusion soon and Kandy certainly wasn't going to miss it! During her favorite season of the year - she was going to go back to that circus every day, no matter what revealed itself!
