It's Not All Fun At The Fair

Chapter 3 ~ Two Big Problems

The three of them had set off, laden with snacks, water and torches in a ruck sack each. They had made it half way to the fairground when Aaron grabbed Nikki and Tristan's wrists, pulling them behind a wall.

"Ow!" cried Nikki in shock but Aaron clapped his hand over her mouth. "SHHHH!" he hissed, peeping round the end of the wall.

"What was that about?" whispered Tristan, peering around the wall as well. Leaning on a fence at the bottom of the road were two figures. "Who are they?"

"It looks like Eliesse and Zander!" murmured Aaron. He grimaced as Nikki licked his hand to make him let go. She groaned and lent her head against the wall, eyes closed. "That's the last thing we need!"

Eliesse and Zander Lewes were twins. They were effectively the bullies at the secondary school they all went to. That's how Nikki and Tristan met Archie, he had been 'chosen' by the Lewes' in year 7 and the bullying got really bad until Tristan stood up for Archie and saved him. The twins hadn't minded Tristan much but once he made friends with Archie, Eliesse and Zander began turning their 'oh-so-superior-noses' up at Tristan, then because Nikki was Tristan's friend, she wasn't in the twins good books any longer either. Aaron joined the school in year 9 and just became part of the group so naturally, Eliesse and Zander picked on him as well.

"Let's just walk past, I mean, there aren't any teachers here," suggested Aaron, "and if it comes to fisticuffs it's three on two!"

"You mean two on two," sniggered Nikki.

"No way are hanging back! Your punches are fierce!" protested Aaron.

"I didn't mean me, I meant you! You punch like a fairy!"

"You know how to wound a man's pride, Nicole Ashdown!" retorted Aaron, laying a hand over his heart.

"Well, well. Look at this Eliesse. The 'Dream Team' are fighting!" came a drawling voice from behind them. The three of them turned slowly and saw the twins standing at the end of the path.

"Wait," said Eliesse, the smirk dropping from her face slightly, "You ditched blondie?"

"If by blondie, you mean Archie, then no we haven't!" said Nikki angrily.

"So where is he?" sneered Zander, then he turned to Tristan "I thought he'd always be with you Storm, your little lap dog gotten lost?"

"Piss off you two, you don't know what's going on so don't get involved!" snapped Nikki, her face flooding with angry colour.

"Care to enlighten us?" asked Eliesse.

Before Nikki could retaliate, Aaron shouted "He ran off earlier and we're looking for him! Why the hell do you even care?"

Eliesse and Zander exchanged devious looks. "So you mean he's on his own?" asked Zander. Without waiting for an answer the two of them took off running down the hill. Nikki walked over to Aaron and smiled at him.

"Thanks Aaron." she said sweetly, but only Tristan caught the sarcasm.

He smiled back. "It was..." but before he could finish, Nikki brought her hand up and slapped him hard around the face, he lost balance and fell over.

"YOU IDIOT!" she yelled, "Why did you tell them that? You know their not gunna stop looking for Archie now until they've found him and beaten the shit out of him!"

Aaron shuffled backwards, covering his face and a looking of understanding came over his face.

"Oh."

"Yeah!" Nikki raged at him, "Next time, think before you open your fat mouth!"

"Nik," said Tristan, putting a hand on her shoulder as she raised her hand again, "Yelling at Aaron isn't going to help us find Archie." He gave Aaron his hand and pulled him to his feet. "Your going to have a nice bruise though, Aaron."

~~~

10 minutes later (about 10 to 11pm), the group reached the gap in the fence. They stood looking at it.

"Were we seriously that small two years ago?" Tristan asked incredulously.

"Well I bet I still am!" said Nikki, as she crouched down and began wriggling through the hole. "Well this is awkward." she said a minute later as her hips wouldn't fit through. Both Aaron and Tristan cracked up laughing at the sight of Nikki laying on the floor.

"Stop laughing!" said Nikki, smiling herself. "Push me through!"

The boys grabbed her ankles and pushed. Eventually they let go and pulled the wire around her to make a bigger hole. Nikki jumped up and brushed herself off, looking slightly pink from embarrassment.

"Right you next Tristan!" offered Aaron, smirking. Tristan glared at him before pulling the hole a bit bigger. Both he and Aaron were quite broad-shouldered.

Eventually, they were all through the fence.

"Okay," mused Nikki, "where do we begin?" Tristan looked around the rides.

"The Pirate Ship Swings." He said decisively and they set off towards the ride.

~~~

Half an hour later they had checked the Pirate Ship Swings, all three Merry-Go-Rounds and the Helter-Skelter and there was still no sign of Archie.

"You guys seen him yet!" shouted Aaron from the top of the Ferris Wheel.

"No!" yelled back Tristan, "and why aren't you helping?"

"Err... I'm searching from above!"

"Chicken." said Nikki to Tristan, "He's scared."

"Of what?"

"Haven't you noticed that the ghost stories have increased tenfold in the past year, and as we've not been here for two years, Aaron's nerves are peaking right now." Nikki told him as though it was the most obvious thing in the world

"Oh. No. I hadn't noticed." replied Tristan. They waited for Aaron to complete his circle and were about to move towards the empty Animal Petting Zoo when there was a cry from behind them. They all looked in the direction of the noise.

Archie wa running at full pelt towards the Hall of Mirrors. Seconds later he disappeared but was closely followed by the Lewes twins.

Nikki groaned. "How could they find him before us?"

"I don't know," Tristan said wearily, "but we should follow them."

The Hall of Mirrors was part of a row of different attractions. The Ghost Train, Haunted House and the Bumper Car stand stetched out across a huge area of ground and the Hall of Mirrors and the Haunted House were two stories high.

They reached the Hall of Mirrors and stopped at the door.

"Who's going in?" whispered Aaron.

"All of us! We'll stay together!" said Nikki grabbing his arm and pulling him in. Tristan ran in after them. He stopped at the first fork in the path where the mirrors began and looked around. They couldn't have run off that quickly? He had been right behind them.

"Aaron? Nikki?" he called. Nothing. "Nikki! Don't piss about! You said we should stay together!" He waited. Still nothing. He looked down the left path and noticed a camera in the corner. As they always had been, the little red light was on. They had used the control room to play hide and seek years ago when they brought walkie talkies so he knew how to operate the cameras.

Tristan walked over to the door again and went right into the control room. Flicking the light switch a naked bulb flickered slowly into life. He dropped his ruck sack to the floor and sat at the desk and looked at the screens. Clicking a few buttons, he brought all the fairground camera's onto each of the 50 screens piled opposite him. Despite them being so old they all seemed okay, except one of the eight in the food court, but that was on the other side of the fair.

He looked at the screens and saw Archie hiding in a corner somewhere upstairs. Tristan pulled out a notebook from his ruck sack and grabbed a pen from the pot on the desk, wrote down the time off his watch and noted Archie's location (Camera 23) and began searching for the others.