Chapter Text
“Everything that happens before Death is what counts.”
Red.
Yellow.
Blue.
They all blurred together with a background track of children laughing and screaming in fun. It could either be a setting of delight or the macabre. It all depended on one’s mood.
Agent Bering raised her sunglasses and squinted her eyes.
Dark red overtook the garish display in front of her. Round and round the color blurred, overpowering the rest. A particularly high squeal that could only come from the depths of child’s endless vocal chords pulled her out of her reverie. The sunglasses slid back down and she looked away from the Ferris wheel in front of her in the far distance. The colored lights twinkled in the mid-morning light despite the sun that was shining brightly on the over-crowded fair spectacle. Every booth and ride blinked, twinkled and swooshed. It was making her nauseous.
Stepping back from the gate of entrance, Myka’s eyes scanned the parking lot. Car doors slammed as children rushed to get to the gates. Parents scrambling after them with bottles of sunscreen and hats grasped in their hands and mild warnings of good behavior on the tips of their frazzled tongues. One kid just missed running into Myka but she side stepped the wide-eyed boy easily. An apology was not left in his passing.
It was going to be a long day.
She pulled her jacket around her tighter. Her hands shifted up into the sleeves.
“Mykes! Mykes, guess who got us primo passes?” Pete Lattimer bounded towards her, his feet sloshing in the tall grass, his hands gripping three pink fluorescent arm bands.
Half a smile formed on her face in response.
“Pete, all carnivals have the same passes, unless you are a child or a senior,” she paused. “Actually, did someone mistake you for an eight year old boy? Did we get a discount?”
A second set of footsteps approached.
“A common occurrence I’m sure for Agent Lattimer, but this time his height gave him away when he purchased the passes and there is the shadow of stubble on his chin,” a soft voice called from behind him. “Despite his maturity level, these things tend to give him away.”
The smile tightened on Myka’s face as Helena joined them.
“Hey, now, not my fault I didn’t have time to shave this morning before Artie sent us out on this ping. I barely even had a chance to grab breakfast.”
“You mean a second breakfast,” Helena interjected.
“Okay, sure, I may have already had a bowl of cereal, but then Abigail brought in donuts she picked up and before I could even-“
“You had one, you grabbed one of the powdered monstrosities on our way out. It was all over your jacket.”
“Yes, thank you for that, Detective Wells, okay, so maybe, I wasn’t able to get all the donuts I wanted, it basically counts as not getting breakfast.”
“You poor unfortunate soul.”
Myka stood still during their exchange. Her fingers clenched around her arms as she folded them against her chest. She could almost feel her nails digging through her jacket.
“As nice as this little routine is, did you happen to see anything strange at the ticketholder booth?”
“Nope. And when we asked about the missing person’s reports, the guy selling the ticket’s acted like he didn’t know what we were talking about,” Pete replied. “And I already put the passes in one of the neutralizing bags to check, but they’re fine.”
“It has been in the local news that three adults have gone missing since the carnival opened this week in town,” Helena said.
“Yes, I read the report.”
Helena nodded at her slowly. The flashy smile that had been present on her face during her exchange with Pete started to fade. A delicate finger reached up and rubbed a patch of skin between the silky scarf she was wearing and the loose blouse.
Myka looked away.
Pete cleared his throat. “So far the police aren’t taking it seriously. One of the guys was Jacob Roads and he’s apparently known as the town drunk and for disappearing randomly. Melissa Freeze was a university student from a city over, who came two days ago with her roommates. They claim Melissa said she was going back to their place on her own but so far no one has heard from her. Story floating around is that she went to visit her parents a state over, seems fishy, Claudia is trying to contact them to see. And finally, Bill Cornwell, a eighty year old guy who has no extended family, but is supposed to be staying at a retirement home just down the road, but hasn’t been seen in three days.”
“Think his disappearance is connected? Couldn’t he have wandered off from the retirement home not entirely aware of his surroundings? That does tend to happen with elderly-”
“Shh,” Pete interrupted and leaned forward. “Don’t talk about the elderly like that in front of H.G., she’s sensitive about being a senior. She wouldn’t even let me get her the senior discount on her pass.”
Helena frowned at him but remained quiet.
“Seriously, Pete, why would he have been at the carnival on his own?”
“I don’t know but going on the trend Artie was following of this carnival’s travels based on what the fish picked up, people disappearing is a common occurrence. Can’t rule out any coincidences. See anything weird on your perimeter check?”
“Nope, just an abundance of fun,” she replied sharply. Too sharply. Pete blinked rapidly, the lashes on his face flinching with action. Helena glanced at her and then turned away. Myka could taste a bitterness in her mouth and tried to swallow it down.
Holding in a sigh that was caught somewhere below her shoulders, she cleared her throat and fought for a smile to smear itself across her stiff cheeks.
“Anything in there could be making these people disappear. I’m not particularly happy about the idea of spending forever here,” she said, trying for a lighter tone.
In a flash Pete recovered and smiled at her. He held his hand out and waited. Rolling her eyes she held her wrist out towards him. With his eyes shining he wrapped one of the bands around her wrist and handed one to Helena. The last pink marker was clasped around his wrist and he bumped his against theirs. Myka nodded at him and his antics, it was best to focus on that and not how he’d had to basically double the band over her bony wrist.
Helena was eyeing the crowds in the distance. Briefly, she wondered how a modern carnival would compare to Helena’s past experiences but then again, there were months the time traveler had been living the family life with Nate and Adelaide, and Myka found she really couldn’t gauge what surprised the newly reinstated warehouse agent about the modern world anymore.
The skin on the back of her neck felt cold and clammy. Reaching up she rubbed her hand against the bare skin of her neck; her short curls just barely touching her fingers.
A giant arm reached for her and she found herself being pulled into Pete’s shoulder.
“Come on Mykes, I’ll let you beat me at bumper cars.”
As much as Pete’s exuberance could be more of annoyance, especially of late, Myka found his charm briefly working. He always knew what buttons to push.
“Ha, like you could beat me anyways. You’re on.”
“That’s the spirit! And hey, I’ll play one of the booth games and win H.G. a giant teddy bear and everyone will have a good time while…you know we look for missing people.”
“I can assure you, I have no need for a giant teddy bear,” Helena remarked dryly. “Nor, would I need your assistance in winning one at whatever game of skill.”
Pete put his other arm around Helena and leaned his head back. “My independent ladies, I get it, but come on, let’s get in the spirit a little, I haven’t been to a carnival since college. I’ll buy you a cotton candy H.G!”
“I’m quiet sure I’m well off without one-“
“And you, Mykes,” he interrupted. “You know I’ll save the Ferris wheel ride for you.”
“Please don’t, Pete.”
“But it’ll be all romantic and stuff and we can see if that old spark between us flares to life when we reach the top and look out all over this vast and wondrous world of –“
“- of a parking lot.”
“Get in the mood,” he teased. “Maybe we should give these things a second chance.”
Slipping out of his grasp she started to make her way into the entrance and turned around to face him again with her arms up in the biggest declaration of no.
“There is no chance, our very short and brief, and limited and minute, and basically non-existing-“
“Love affair,” Pete added with a sly smirk and a wiggle of his eyebrows.
“Sorry, what are you two implying with-“
Helena’s words were immediately cut off.
“Nope, we aren’t talking about it. It was an artifact related incident.”
“Are you sure?” Pete asked with far too much sass for the time of day.
“Yes, Claudia is the one who figured it out in between all the and I quote ‘vomiting and extreme emotional distress of having to see all that’. Although, I’m still not convinced you weren’t having a mid-life crisis,” she said with a turn and carried on.
“Mid life crisis my ass.”
“Two words, your haircut,” she called back over her shoulder.
Pete’s shoulders caved in and he glared after her. A hand reached up and swept through the locks of hair on his head. The action was more of a nervous tick as he checked that the locks were standing up right more than once. His feet started to advance with a pace that implied further arguing was to be on the horizon.
“Come on, H.G., we need to go kick Myka’s ass at bumper cars.”
Helena, for her part, was not in motion. She stood still, blinking in confusion, her mouth gaping.
“H.G.,” Pete whined and stepped back, giving her a push. “Let’s go!”
“Did you just say…” she surprisingly stuttered. “Love affair…” she next gasped. “Between you and Myka-“ Her words had lost all their usual elegance.
“Uh huh, but it only lasted like a few weeks, we didn’t really have time to explore it at the time with the Warehouse crisis happening and not realizing we’d been whammied, so you know only a few hot and heavy make out sessions -“
“I’m suddenly aware of what the vomit and emotional distress is in regards to and as a writer I have never been so sure of an adequate use of words.”
“Everybody is a critic,” Pete murmured.
The two of them walked through the entrance gates joining Myka.
Myka glanced up as they crossed over, a large flashing sign spelling out “Mr. Electro’s Carnival” hung in an arch above them. Two pinwheels dazzled on either side of the sign, their colors flashing and twirling in a wind that wasn’t felt.