Song By Unreality

Chapter 22

"Do you like risk?"

"Only justified and within reasonable limits. I will not put my own or someone else's life in danger for the sake of thrills. But for the sake of my own or someone else's salvation, I'm ready to jump off the bridge at least."

(from Rina's interview for the Constellation portal)

With a loud snort, the bus moved off, and Rina clutched the cold handrail in horror.

"Come on, sit down," the conductor giggled nastily, exposing sharp fangs and sniffing. "Sweet, lively girl..."

Rina pressed her shoulder blades against the door, but the creature, although it did not take its carnivorous gaze off her and grinned predatorily, kept at a distance.

Cutting through the twilight with the dim light of the headlights, the bus drove forward, taking Rina from one terrible place to another. Her mouth was dry from fear. It seemed that all the words stuck to the larynx. However, don't shout, who will help her here? Here is such an inglorious ending to her short life – as a reckoning for what she has done.

The conductor did not take his eyes off Rina all the way, but he was no longer grinning, but for some reason worried: he moved his nose and fiddled with his long yellow fingers with a pot-bellied bag made of cracked dermatin.

"Sweet girl. Sweet. The grapes are green," he muttered rapidly, fidgeting in the seat, then trying to get up, then leaning back in the seat again. Rina didn't understand what was happening, it seemed that some force was not letting the conductor to her. He began to get angry and no longer just glared at her, but also growled like an animal.

"Amusement park!" the driver announced in a squeaky voice, like unoiled hinges. The bus braked with a loud groan. Rina barely had time to recoil from the doors as they swung open with a bang.

"Have fun, girl. Take a ride," the conductor growled goodbye when she had already jumped to the ground. The doors slammed shut, the terrible bus started moving, and Rina exhaled noisily.

However, the hope of salvation was not justified. As soon as she stepped into the park, the gates slammed shut by themselves. And no matter how Rina pulled them, they never gave in. She had no choice but to go to the place where the rides worked, laughter and music sounded.

Rina walked along the dimly lit paths and couldn't get rid of the feeling that someone was sneaking behind her. But looking around, she didn't see anyone. It was as cold here as in the town. The darkness hiding the lawns seemed alive. Rina, shivering not so much from the cold as from fear, walked forward along the path, afraid to get off it and be dragged by invisible monsters. Out of the fire and into the flames! Besides, the wrong world, like a vampire, pulled the remnants of her strength out of her.

The path led to the center of the park, and Rina seemed to be on a brightly lit stage. At her appearance, the crowd of idlers suddenly parted, laughter and voices stopped at once. The eyes of adults and children were directed at Rina. Hunger was clearly visible in their sparkling eyes. But no one dared to approach her, on the contrary, when she walked through the parted crowd, they recoiled from her. And even though these creatures were muttering, sniffing and grinning, Rina realized that they wouldn't touch her. She got the feeling they thought she was dangerous.

She reached the Ferris wheel, which, at her appearance, suddenly trembled and began to move. Rina went behind the fence and climbed into one of the booths. The creatures remained below, no one followed her, and Rina, closing her eyes, exhaled with relief. It seems she got a little break and time to try to open a new portal. She had almost no strength left, so she had to act for sure. The booth was slowly rising, and Rina, looking down at the park from a height, imagined it to be different: deserted, silent, with signs destroyed by bad weather and attractions frozen forever. The way he was in reality. If she gets out into that deceptively terrifying abandoned park from this-scary-festive, inhabited by the undead, she will be saved. The wheel made almost a full turn when Rina finally gathered the courage for the last jerk and imagined how she took off the safety chain and stepped out of the cabin onto the cracked asphalt, through the cracks of which tree sprouts were making their way. She imagined that there was no one behind the rusted fence, the wind nearby was fluttering a half-torn signboard, and a sparrow was jumping on a broken bench. Rina visualized the park so clearly in its unsightly real form that she really saw it that way – through the gap that appeared between the parallels. But at the same second, the wheel suddenly shuddered and froze, as if it had been abruptly stopped. Rina looked down in fright and saw that it was several meters to the ground - there was no way to jump off. The crowd of undead below became excited. Realizing that she had lost her only chance of salvation, Rina moaned in despair.