It's Just a Ride

1

Chloe could not believe this. How could anyone in the group want to ride this cyclone rollercoaster thing? 

It didn't matter if some weird fortune-telling machine told them to get on it, the ride looked so old and dirty and unsafe. Unfortunately, the whole group wanted to ride it already, and it looked like there was no way she would be getting out of this. 

"Come on, Chloe." Christine, Chloe's best friend, tried to reassure her as they headed over to the rollercoaster. "The cyclone is fun! Rollercoasters are super cool."

"Besides, you heard what that weird fortune-telling thing said." Michael said with a smirk, waving his hands slightly around as he spoke as if he was some allmighty being. "We have to ride the cyclone!" The boy continued to walk as he said this, going a bit slower than the group so Jeremy could keep up.

"Not scared, are you?" Rich then commented as he turned his head to look at Chloe, smirking at her and adjusting his baseball cap that looked like he had for some reason washed it too many times. 

Chloe quickened her pace. "Of course not! It just.. oh that cannot be sanitary." She said as they now stood in front of the rollercoaster. Despite the protests, Chloe followed the group up to the line. 

Christine had thought going to the carnival would help cheer everyone up after such a terrible opening night for the school's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

How Michael managed to somehow accidentally play Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson instead of the right music, how Rich broke a (very expensive, Chloe might add) lightbulb in the stagelight, or even how Jeremy managed to somehow get the entirely wrong props Chloe would never know. She shouldn't have let Christine convince her to be stage manager. 

The carnie looked half-ready to pass out as Chloe and Christine boarded the ride, then Rich, and then soon after Michael and Jeremy. It took a second for Jeremy to get in, Michael having just left Jeremy's crutches with the carnie.

Christine almost seemed to scoot up closer to Chloe in the seats, looking down and away from the carnie guy. Weird, but okay, Chloe thought as she just let it happen.

Everyone strapped in and accounted for, the ride began. 

The rest of the ride was a blur to Chloe Valentine. She remembered screaming and the sound of what sounded like Christine's laughter before sparks, part of the rollercoaster coming off (the axel?), and everything fading to black.

At exactly 6:19pm, Jeremiah Heere, Chloe Valentine, Christine Canigula, Richard Goranski, and Michael Mell were all pronounced dead at the scene of the Cyclone Ride.