Archive of Our Own

***

The theme park seems to have always been there, with it’s peeling brightly painted murals and old cracking entryway arches made of concrete. Pink and blue ropes of bright LED lights wrapped around the arches so that at night it glowed glaringly from miles away through the rest of the dimly lit city.

There was a giant stone dragon that sat atop this archway like some gargoyle, posed with wings outstretched frozen mid beat and a single taloned paw raised defensively. 

The inside of the dragon was wired with the same LED ropes of light so that it too glowed fiercely blue through its eyes and mouth like it was breathing some cerulean fire into the air.

The entire spectacle was hard to miss, you couldn’t find anywhere else in DEMA that was nearly as colorful or fun looking from the outside.

It was pretty big, the park, stretching across a few hundred acres of ground. It never closed for the weather or for any sort of maintenance. It appeared almost mystical in the way it operated so seamlessly without strings.

The place had a way of wonder about it that drew every single citizen in from miles around, it was a place to escape from the dull grey of normal contained life; into a winding maze of dirt roads filled with the smell of cotton candy and glinting twisting metal roller coaster rails.

It was the highlight of most citizens' lives and the place never failed to be filled with people. Even late into the night, although everyone still had to adhere to certain district curfews.

Tyler and Josh loved it endlessly.

It was their favorite place to go after school. They went there as often as they possibly could, tearing through the hallways of their academy, shedding their monochromatic gray jumpsuit uniforms they had to wear during public activities.

The theme park was the only place where things were bright. You could wear bright colors, you could be loud and messy, you could laugh and have fun.

Fingers entwined into the other’s they whooshed through the rotating turnstile to their little paradise away from the regular drone. 

There was no admission fee, which made the park far more popular. No one really knew how they kept up with any of the expenses, but most assumed it existed purley from the goodness of the government’s heart.

It had everything a person of any age would want from an amusement park: a hall of mirrors where you walk into a huge red gaping mouth of a laughing clown, a spinning room where you were spun so fast gravity pressed you against the wall so you could stick to it like a lizard. A carousel, bumper cars, a corn maze, a ghost train, a roller coaster and then there was the lightning fast dragon tunnel.

Tyler and Josh had their routine. 

Once they entered the park they were greeted with the center of the operation, which in the very middle, had a large fountain, gushing out bright almost fluorescently blue water. Tyler always had to go over to it and dip his hand into the water, almost ritualistic in habit. You weren’t supposed to, but Josh would never tell on him.

The circular square was lined with different stands that sold confections and fun things like candy, popcorn, hot dogs, giant stuffed animals, glow sticks and funny velvet hats with huge feathers sticking out of them.

The only rule was you could never take an item from inside the park outside into the rest of society. 

That went against vialism. Everything that happens and is purchased inside the park was to be consumed or enjoyed only inside the park, or risk it being destroyed before returning to society. Or worse.

Josh had a friend who tried once to smuggle some candy out of the park. This kid was kind of a hyper character, one who wouldn’t sit still well in classes and often tried to cause some sort of disorganization.
The bishops were not happy with him, he was known as a trouble maker. Josh hadn’t seen him for nearly a week after the candy smuggling incident and feared the worst for him until suddenly he was back in classes again, but looking glazed, distant and empty. 

He was never the same kid after that. It terrified Josh.

Tyler was horribly competitive, and he would always insist on trying his luck against the most undeniably rigged carnival games. 

Josh often found this part of the adventure boring, he wasn’t competitive against anyone but himself, and he could care less about high scores and prizes, that is until Tyler actually won something and gave him a cute stuffed golden retriever to hold.

Josh always wanted that toy, even when Tyler offered other prizes to him, Josh requested the golden retriever to hold, just for the time being, inside the park.

A jet of water shot hard against the plastic mouth of a clown, causing a bright neon yellow balloon to expand to the point of popping, spattering water all across the back of the boards.

“Yes!” Tyler yelled and whooped, pumping his fist into the air. 

Josh didn’t understand how it was so exciting to prove yourself against a stupid machine, but Tyler seemed to love shooting at fake animals with an air gun until he surpassed the old record he had held.

“Oh c’mon Josh! At least play one round with me!” Tyler would plead with stupid big brown eyes.

“Tyler, let's just get to the rides already.”

Tyler just stared back, knowing that Josh was far too reliable of a friend to say no to him.

Josh sighed begrudgingly and reluctantly set his large stuffed dog down onto the dirt beside the game stand.

“Okay fine. One round.” Josh rolled his eyes and entertained Tyler by picking up the air gun neighboring his.

They shot at the little cardboard cutouts for a few minutes, but Josh’s aim wasn’t the best and he felt very self conscious of his skill against Tyler’s.

Tyler won, naturally and Josh just huffed a puff of air out of his mouth and tossed the gun down half heartedly on the wooden bench for the next person.

“Josh, it isn’t about the competition.” Tyler said as his gun rang loudly with a fun little chime and printed out some patterned tickets.

“Yeah but I suck.” Josh groaned as he picked up his golden retriever toy again and crushed it tightly to his own chest while pouting.

Tyler patted his friend’s back and smiled at him. “You don’t suck. C’mon let’s go get cotton candy now.” Josh didn’t really believe Tyler’s words, but the promise of bright pink fluffy sugar melting in his mouth convinced him enough to follow Tyler’s lead.

***

The cotton candy stand man wore a baby blue hat with pink plaid patterns across it and an apron that matched. He smiled at them with a painfully white grin behind his equally as white cotton candy cart.

This was the best way to start a day at the amusement park - a sudden rush of sugar to the brain.

“Hey, could we get two cotton candies please?” Tyler handed him tickets, blue pieces of paper dappled with golden scales, the man behind the cart didn’t say a word, simply moved his grinning face and hand down to open the case and handed them both a brightly colored fluffy ball on a stick.

Josh took the pink and Tyler took the blue.

“Thanks.” Josh says to the counter man with a smile and a small wave, but he simply stood without a word, grinning wider still.

“Don’t you think they are a little creepy?” Tyler asked as they walked away.

“Who?” Josh responds sluridly, teeth sticky with pink dyed sugar.

“You know,” Tyler gestured around the main square. “All the sales people in the park.”

Josh made a skeptical look and said, “Tyler c’mon! Just be grateful we get to eat this kinda stuff, we would never be allowed this back in the districts!” But truth be told it did creep Josh out, deeply and viscerally, everything about life around them was unsettling, always living in a state of not knowing who or what to trust.
It seemed like constantly there were people pulling at strings behind curtains and causing things to happen right in the periphery of their perception. Everyone was claiming they knew much less than they were truly letting on.

But Josh certainly did not want to think about this too much in regards to the amusement park, that meant ruining the only single handedly innocent, fun and non monotonous thing about their days and he couldn’t bring himself to do that. He desperately needed to suspend his own disbelief. For his sake and for Tyler’s too.

“Just enjoy being here, dude.” Says Josh, shrugging it off and holding his golden retriever toy up to his face to playfully offer a bite of cotton candy to.

Tyler bit into the cloud-like blue mound and chewed.

“I know…” He says rather thoughtfully, gazing at the sky. 

Even the sky was bluer here, or so it seemed. Tyler thought similar to Josh, and yet, Tyler wanted to understand what the untold secrets were that happened around them everyday. He felt like he could never possibly ignore the uncomfortable atmosphere of his own life. 

This should have depressed and horrified him, and indeed it did, but it also made Tyler desperately want to peel back the layers of reality to find out what was living underneath.

Back in the rest of the world, they had to be civil, organized, monotonous, everything they did had order and simplicity, right down to the very food they all ate.

Their school lunches were almost always potatoes, beans, vegetables and milk. Sometimes they were allowed some bread and jam or a small piece of fruit, even at home everyone’s parents were only allowed to feed their children and families what each district allowed.

Some of these ‘District Approve’ food items were little packets of powder or gel that one would mix into warm water and let coagulate. It was pretty disgusting and mostly flavorless, but had every pre approved amount of exact protein, calories, carbs and sugars the government told them they should be consuming each day. 

It made life easier, really. Or rather, it made life incredibly dull.

“Didn’t you get apples in your district, Josh?” Tyler asked as he licked at the inside of the paper cone to get to the last remnants of sticky blue sweetness. 

Josh nodded, “Yeah sometimes if we we’re really lucky, and sometimes we could even drink apple juice too.”

As Josh says this, he stumbled around a small child absentmindedly running into his knees. Josh dropped the rest of his cotton candy with a sad plop straight into the dirt ground.

The mother grimaced, “Sorry.” To him before scolding the child and shooing them away.

“Awe man…” Josh moaned and scooped the now brown colored pink cloud into his hands again. 

“That sucks.” Tyler says empathetically.

“Bananas were your District Approved sweet, right?” Josh asked as he sadly tossed the cotton candy into a trash can and wiped his hands onto his shorts.

Tyler groaned heavily and squinted his eyes in disdain. “Don’t remind me, I freakin’ hate bananas.” He remembers all the times his mother tried to force him to consume them because they were “The only sweet thing you will ever eat young man.” 

Simply the smell of them made his stomach twist to this day.

He hated being told what he could or couldn’t do.

“Do you wanna go to the carousel?” The question tore Tyler away from his brooding. And in Josh’s eyes there was a twinkle of mischief that Tyler loved to see.

“Race you.”

***

Stripes of white and pink twirled up the poles that held the plastic animals in place around the giant light up podium that was the carousel.

Each animal was unique: a blue dolphin, a white unicorn, a red seahorse, but Tyler’s eyes searched for his favorite. 

The yellow spotted cheetah.

Their world contained none of these creatures, not even pets were allowed in the districts. The only animals one would ever see were livestock specifically engineered for consumption that were kept in factories, or the vultures that flew above the gray perimeter walls that were terrifying, bearing an uncanny resemblance to the bishops who governed each of their districts with their dark cloaked feathers and piercing black eyes.

Children learned about animals in their academic studies through texts, photographs and videos. But none of these existed in the world they lived in anymore, at least not to anyone inside DEMA, what lay outside DEMA, no one could know and no one would tell.

Josh loved dogs, with their big friendly eyes and wagging tails. He wished that he could have one of his own, and so of course he sat on the animal right in front of Tyler’s which was a joyful looking dalmatian.

The two boys inserted a ticket into the machine and climbed up onto their chosen steeds. A faint whirring sound stirred from the belly of the machine and music began to play. Slowly all the animals began to rise up and down on the poles and the entire carousel began spinning in a giant circle.

It didn’t go very fast, but boy was it fun.

You were never allowed to go fast in the districts, you couldn’t even run across the schoolyard grass unless you wanted to be caught by a teacher and reprimanded.

Tyler liked going fast. That’s why the cheetah was his favorite. They were so cool to him, an animal that galloped across the ground at a roaring speed of 80 miles per hour. 

What Tyler wouldn’t do to have that power and run far far away from this whole place.

The wind whipped at both of their hairs, Tyler threw his hands up and yelled with glee, Josh clutched his toy still and stuck his tongue out, shaking his head like he himself were a dog too. 

The carousel began to slow but Josh clumsily slipped off and ran to the ticket machine to slip it another entry to ride, so that the ride never slowed. They would do this almost 5 times in a row, annoying some other kids that wanted on too. Nothing mattered here.

Soon the two of them were stumbling back down the steps and giggling like mad. They were both so dizzy they could hardly stand. 

The next logical ride to go on was the spinning room, as if they weren’t dizzy enough.

Josh loved this one because even though it was scary, he felt okay with it being scary. A way to overcome his fear, if only for brief moments.

At least he got to pretend he was a lizard.

Tyler was a little less joyful as his face turned an ill shade of green while exiting the saucer shaped room. 

“You okay dude?” Josh asks and Tyler nods quickly, trying to expel any evidence of weakness. “Yeah m’fine.” He mumbles through his teeth, but Josh knew better as he watched him run straight to a trash can to hurl.

“Let’s maybe hold out on the s-spinning things f-for a bit.” His voice sounded tinny against the inside of the trash bin. Josh agreed with a gentle pat on his friend’s back.

They stopped by a stand that sold hot dogs to refill their recently emptied bellies (in Tyler’s case). Josh spilled mustard all over his white shorts, staining them yellow. The man who gave them the hot dogs looked nearly identical to the cotton candy seller. 

Tyler eyed him rather cautiously.

Josh rubbed furiously at the yellow stain, mumbling something about it being a good thing these were just rentals.

“Hey-hey, let’s go to the fun house now Josh.” Said Tyler in a whisper, nudging Josh with an elbow to his ribs. Josh abandoned his attempts at wiping his pants and they entered through the laughing clown mouth that read “Sacarver’s Funhouse” into a spinning tunnel.

***

The inside of the clown’s mouth looked like a candy cane, swirling red and white stripes that gave the illusion of melting down and away from you slowly. This entire tunnel would slowly rotate as you entered. It was absolutely disorienting. And it made Josh very anxious.

“Almost there, Josh.” Said Tyler as he led his friend through the swirling entry tunnel by a tightly held hand while Josh shut his eyes and cautiously crept across the floor.

Josh trusted Tyler wholeheartedly, trusted him more than anything else in his life.

He could have led him blindfolded across a bridged pit of lava and he would trust that Tyler would make sure he was alright.

“Okay, we’re clear.” Tyler tugged on one of his fingers gently as they stepped down the steps into the funhouse building.

Josh opened his eyes tentatively and shook his head, holding his toy dog preciously.

“I really hate clowns.” He muttered. “And swirling hallways.”

Tyler laughs gently and Josh frowns, retorting, “If the tunnel had bananas in it, you wouldn’t be laughing at me.” But Tyler did even harder.

The ground shook and waved underneath them as the two friends tried to traverse the obstacles of an ever shifting room, they were doing fine until Tyler slipped on his ankle, crying out. But Josh knelt to his aid and grabbed him by the shoulders to hoist him upward onto the more stable ground above.

The hall of mirrors was warped and the two boys crashed into one another, thinking they were going the right way only to see a double image of themselves. Tyler thought he saw the exit but he ended up smacking his own face hard against a mirror that appeared to be non solid.

They finally exited the building with a few sore spots on their bodies, but nothing out of the usual.

It was beginning to get dark by now, a maroon and pink twilight burst of colors flooding through the sky.

Tyler stops for a moment to look up, unblinkingly, to what lay above their heads.

Josh copies him, letting out a little, “Woah.”

“I love the sky here. Have you ever seen so many colors?” Tyler whispers, as if it was a secret.

“No.” He whispers back.

“It’s time.” Whispered Tyler even quieter. Josh eyes him quizzically. “Time for... what ?”

He points towards the large purple wooden sign that reads, “Nico’s Ghost Train”.

Josh grimaced and said, “Oh man, just one scary thing after another huh?” 

“Come on, you’ll be fine.”

Tyler took his hand again, this time without Josh needing to close his eyes and drug him over to the train ride. Josh let him and clutched his golden retriever still.

They stepped up the wooden sagging steps of the platform, inserted a ticket and heard a faint “ Choo ” sound emanate from the train cart. There were a few kids already in the front of the train, so Josh and Tyler had to sit in the back.

The big long hunk of metal lurched forward along the tracks, it was the oldest ride there and seemed to be the scariest for multiple reasons. There were spooky things that popped up alongside the train carts, animatronic animals and ghosts, which always made Josh squeal in fear, and the fact that the train cart always felt like it was about to either break or spill over the side of the rails.

They entered a tunnel where fake stars glowed, a giant vulture hung it’s head glaringly and spooky laughter could be heard. 

Tyler always liked this part, because he enjoyed pretending that the laughter was the vulture, trying to tell the kids how to get out of DEMA. Josh did not like this part.

They rounded a bend and a big white ghost popped up out of nowhere, causing little kids in the furthest train car to cry out in horror. “Glad we are back here.” Said Josh, holding onto his dog and burying his face into it’s plastic fur. Tyler laughed. This ride was kind of old to him, he’d been on it enough, but it was always fun to see Josh get scared.

“Can we do the maze now?” Josh said as they exited the Ghost Train. 

“Sure.” Tyler nodded. They both really enjoyed the maze, every single day it was changed around, no one knows how or by whom, because there never seems to be anyone working on it, but every new time you entered, it was completely different than the last. It made things interesting, and boy did Tyler like a challenge.

The maze was rowed in dried corn stalks, the path was dirt and small pebbles. The entrance was a big red wooden arch, hard to miss. The two friends looked at one another in an exchange of determination and nodded their heads.

The two stepped onto the pathway, it seemed to lead straight ahead but soon enough two forked ways made themselves plain to see. Tyler looked left, and then right and then looked to Josh. Josh pointed to the right, seeming sure of himself, so right they went.

Around a bend the two boys turned, only to come to a dead end. “Shoot.” Josh hissed under his breath, and the two turned back around to go left instead this time. Except, when they arrived back at the fork in the road, neither could remember which way was which.

“Tyler, was this other path here a moment ago?”

Tyler stood, looking as perplexed as Josh felt, scratching the back of his head.

“Uh...I dunno, let’s go this way.” Josh followed close behind.

The maze turned and dipped and twisted in what seemed like circles. Josh was sure they wouldn’t get out, until finally they came to something different. 

It was a clearing, with stamped down hay littering the ground in a wide circle. There were many paths, maybe nine by Tyler’s count, that flowed out from this circle.

Tyler made an annoyed sound, and turned to look at every path. “Well this is helpful.” He humphs and sits down on the ground. 

Josh stood beside him, eyeing all the different options before them which all looked terribly the same.

“This way.” Tyler finally said and rose from the dusty ground to set off down a path.

The sky above them threatened to turn to dusk soon, the quiet comprehending of the ending of the day hanging heavy and low above the corn stalks.

Josh and Tyler rounded a bend, coming upon the very same circle they had just left. 

Tyler yelled in frustration and stamped his foot upon the ground. There was another kid, walking out of one of the other paths. She held a big rainbow dripping lollipop in one hand and looked at the two of them. 

“Any luck that way?” Asked Tyler. She shook her head dejectedly and sucked on her candy.

Tyler beckons Josh over down another route, while the little girl walks down another. Josh watches her go, wondering if she knew better than Tyler or he did.

Tyler was almost starting to panic, if they didn’t get out of this soon, they would waste all of their time here and be past curfew.

Soon they end up once more in the same nine pathed circle and Tyler doesn’t make a sound, but sits down exactly in the middle again.

“I don’t get this! We went in every direction!” Tyler exclaims to the sky.

“We didn’t go that way.” Josh points down a path. Tyler looks at him skeptically. “How do you know that?” Josh walks over to the bending cornstalks and points to a small shimmer of something against the gravel. “Because-” He points down at it. “That little girl went this way, see, she dripped some of her candy here on the path.” Tyler leapt up from the dirt and came over, looking wide eyed at the ground and then to Josh.

He grinned almost maniacally.

“Josh! You’re a genius!” Tyler clapped him on the back and tugged at his shirt. “Let’s go!” He cried. Tyler was sure this was the right way out, it had to be.

Josh ran to keep up with Tyler, who was spurred on by anxiety and the need to complete a task.

Suddenly Josh rounded a bend and slammed full force into Tyler who had halted.

“Oof--What’s the --” Josh started to ask but Tyler turned to him and shushed him loudly.

Josh sees a flash of movement down a pathway of corn stalks to their right and he turns his attention down there. For an instant, Josh thinks he sees the little girl again, but something red and fast moving suddenly swoops through the green and yellow stalks and everything in Josh screams run.

He doesn’t even hear Tyler say it, but he does anyway, feet slipping on gravel and soft over-walked on dirt, he nearly slips but Tyler grabs furiously at his shirt collar and tugs him up and forward.

Tyler feels his own heart in his head as he runs, only looking back to make sure that Josh was behind him.

The two boys come crashing through the exit of the maze, which was a similar red wooden archway and tumble to the ground.

Gasping for air, Tyler mumbles, “You okay?” Josh looks at him with huge eyes but nods his head.

“What was that?” He whispers to his friend.

Tyler goes blank for a moment, eyes seeming to unfocus and then focus back in on Josh’s face. “It had to have been a…” Josh knows what he was going to say, but he puts his hand out against Tyler’s mouth to silence him.

“Don’t say it! I don’t want to talk about them here!” Josh didn’t want to bring their reality into the fantasy they had.

Tyler shakes his head, looking flustered. “I dunno what I saw Josh, but it certainly scared me better than the Ghost Train did.” He laughs and gets up, dusting his clothes off, seeming to try and brush it all off, circumstance and all.

Josh glances back into the maze they just left, frowning.

“What’s wrong?” Tyler asks.

“I lost my golden retriever.”

Tyler rubs at Josh’s arm gently. “I can win you another.”

***

The two boy’s eyes would light up for the big wammy to end the evening’s escapades.

The best ride of the whole park, the fastest ride of the park.

The two stood in front of a huge blinking neon sign that read “DRAGON TUNNEL ” with blues and pinks. Underneath there was a smaller glowing sign that stated, “Feel The Saturation! ”

They waited in line, this one was always the longest as this was the most popular ride of the entire park. A small boy cried off to the side because he wasn’t old enough to enter the Dragon Tunnel yet. Tyler and Josh edged closer, anticipation buzzing through their bodies. They had almost forgotten about the events in the corn maze.

They finally reached the loading dock onto the roller coaster, metal silver railings gliding along the ground like shining snakes that disappeared into a gaping black hole.
A cart rolled up to them with a squeal, it was a large plastic dragon, bright blue and frosted over with small plastic icicles pointing out of it’s back to make it look like it was icey to the touch. But this was a mere illusion for the cart itself was actually warm from running through the tunnels so quickly.

The right wing of the dragon automatically lifted itself up as an invitation to enter and sit inside it’s glossy pink interior. It was plush against the seats and Josh and Tyler were almost too large to fit comfortably in one cart, but they made it work. The wing lowered itself again and with a click, they each fastened a seatbelt.

Neither boy had a chance to take much of a breather before the cart shot fast into the dark tunnel. It was freezing cold, wind whistling in their ears. Josh squealed and instinctively gripped onto Tyler’s hand beside him.

The inside of the tunnel was just as pitch black as it appeared on the outside. Sounds echoed harshly off the cement walls.
Everything was nothing until suddenly a blindingly bright light flashed like a flare around them. Even though they knew it was coming, they both screamed in surprise. It was white, almost with a hint of blue. And then suddenly the roof above them was ringed with all kinds of lights, pulsing and flashing like light up veins of some giant animal they were inside.
It swirled and shifted from blue to pink to white to yellow and back again.
It was a dazzling display, the cart taking them so fast below it that it appeared to be dripping from the ceiling and pushing out against the walls.

The cart slowed down then and suddenly a TV screen was above them, a bright design of colors swirling and flashing so rapidly it nearly made you sick.

They never saw this many colors at home, and certainly not all at once. It was always grey and blank, so this was such an excitement: to be overloaded with so many differing hues of saturated tones.
The only glowing lights one really saw were the bishops little glow blue vials of light that they made, which everyone uses for energy resources.

The two kids just stared and felt their heads begin to hurt. Tyler fixated on a swirling white point that went round and round and round again never seeming to reach its middle. 

The pattern was oddly calming for him. He wished he could just swirl into it and dissolve away into color.

All of a sudden the cart sped off again, squealing and turning sharply on a curve of tunnel, feeling like it was just about to throw them off.

This was likely the closest thing they would ever have to danger in their world. DEMA was always sure to make things safe for everyone, that meant also taking any thrill away that was possible.

Josh liked this kind of fear, this kind of fear meant that he was alive.

And just when the boys thought their heads might be whipped away into the tunnel by how fast the cart was running it slowed to a grind and eventual halt, making them both lose wind from the sudden change in gravitational pull.

The both of them wished the Dragon Tunnel would keep driving and driving forever until it transported them to another world outside of their own.

***

Back outside on the park grounds, Josh and Tyler looked up at the massive towering ferris wheel, swaying gently in the slight breeze.

They usually didn’t go on, because Josh was horribly scared of heights. 

Tyler knew this and Josh didn’t want to seem uncool, but what Josh didn’t know was Tyler was also scared of heights, he just never showed it.

“Let’s go.” 

Surprisingly, it was Josh’s voice that suggested it and Tyler felt unable to deny him the chance at being brave. Tyler hummed an okay and they inserted tickets into the entry for the platform.

It was rather silly, really the rollercoaster should have seemed much more intimidating, and yet the two of them stood stone still, side by side, waiting for the other to take the first step up into the ferris cabby.

“You first.” Tyler murmured, motioning inside and trying not to seem afraid.

Josh took in the sheer height of the ferris wheel and nearly chickened out but instead took a deep breath and stepped onto the floor of the cab.

Tyler followed stiffly beside Josh and shut the door behind them. 

“Ah!” Josh yelped out as the door clicked shut, his arms shooting out dramatically to balance himself. “What?” Tyler asked, startledly turning around to Josh. “N-nothing, the cab just shook when you did that.” Josh looked warily at the seat, but sat anyway.

Tyler took the seat across from him, trying to keep his composure as he felt the giant wheel beginning to crank and gently lifting them up and away from the ground.

The wind was colder up here and Tyler shuddered, trying his best to keep his eyes on the grip tape flooring of the ferris cab. Josh’s eyes were wide, looking nervously over the edge of the ever increasing height of the surrounding park. 

Tyler’s knee was bouncing up and down rapidly.
“Tyler.” Josh whimpered. He tried to ignore him. “Tyler?” He whimpered again. Tyler dared look up in case he saw how high they were.
“Huh?” Tyler felt a gentle nudge against his shoe and glanced up to see Josh’s foot pressing against his. “I’m cold.” Tyler looked up for just a moment. Josh’s eyes were frightened and pleading, he patted the space beside himself on the seat. 

He wanted Tyler closer for warmth, yes, but more than that, for safety.

The two of them were the only people they ever knew that they could trust so openly. Tyler had many times held Josh to his chest while he had a panic attack, and in turn Josh had caressed his back when he would be sobbing into his embrace.

No one other person seemed as willing and open to understand as they did. Not even their parents ever saw them as vulnerable as they were with one another. Adults seemed oddly detached and how could anyone trust somebody who didn’t seem completely there?

It was like Josh and Tyler could look into one another’s eyes and see themselves instantly reflected back a passionate fire, innocent and kind, scared and angry at their own world and desperate to escape it. Everyone else felt empty, deflated, broken and like they had given up long away.

Tyler rose from his seat and shakily crossed over to the other side to sit beside Josh.

Tyler watched from the corner of his eye Josh scratching at the yellow mustard still caked onto his shorts.

“Tell me something you wouldn’t tell anyone else.” Josh suggests.

Tyler felt himself stiffen, an instinct within himself to instantly avoid any vulnerability or weakness. But Josh’s hand ghosted over his back, wrapping around him to bring him closer. And he was warm, so very warm.

Tyler swallowed and searched his mind for anything that wouldn’t be too emotional.

“I’m scared.” He finally says.

“Of what?” Josh tilts his head towards him.

“Of heights.”

Josh laughs. “Oh come on, you’re just trying to make me feel better.”

“No, really, it’s scary to admit because like...I mean you’re okay with people knowing you’re scared of something but for me it’s like…”

He watches the shadows move over the grip tape floor between the poles of the wheel, feels the shudder under their feet, feels the blood rush to his head.

“It’s like I have to take down every single piece of armor I’ve ever put on to survive here in order to just say I’m afraid of the dark.”

Josh’s fingers curl around his shoulder ever so gently. “You’re scared of the dark too?” A whisper of a question.

Tyler laughs awkwardly. “There is a lot I’m scared of Josh.”

Josh hummed and squeezed his arm.

There was a loud squeal all of a sudden as the ferris wheel stops it’s accent and both boys jumped in unison, quickly pressing against one another. Silence fell and Tyler listened to the wind whistling through the poles around them. He felt cold and he wished Josh would hug him tightly, but he didn’t want to ask.

“Tyler, look over there!” Josh said rather suddenly, pointing out across the expanse of the cab’s side.
“That’s not funny, dude.” Tyler grimaces.

“No! I’m serious, what is that way over there?” The promise of something, somewhere outside existing piqued his curiosity enough to finally look up and out at the world around them.

At first Tyler didn’t understand what he was seeing, it was all blurry, vast and wavering and it instantly made him sick. But then he followed Josh’s pointing arm to a spot far off on the horizon, beyond the gently glowing Neon Gravestones and the high grey walls to a place that existed beyond the world of DEMA.

It was green. It looked soft, it looked wild. Mountains, hills, rocks. Wilderness.

“What is that?” Asked Josh again in Tyler’s silence.

“I don’t know.” He squinted, trying to see clearer realizing that something was moving way out there on the green hills.
It was a bright color, easily recognizable even though it was very far away. It was yellow, glowing gently with an orange light. It looked like a warm light, unlike the blur vial light they were used to seeing. It glided across the hillside slowly as if something or someone was carrying it. The thought made both of the boys shiver as they watched fixedly.

“I thought there was nothing beyond the walls.” Josh begins, grip tightening on his friend’s shoulder.

“I think…” Tyler speaks. “I think there is a lot we still do not understand, Josh.”

The ferris wheel jerked violently all of a sudden and the two of them yelled, Tyler wrapping an arm around Josh’s waist out of reflex. Josh held Tyler close to him like he had his golden retriever toy.

The two did not want to part as they lowered back down, faster than they had come up. But slowly Tyler feared that this kind of closeness was inappropriate, being accustomed to monitoring all his actions back in DEMA, so he scooted to the side away from his friend once they reached a spot in the ride where they could see the park grounds again.

Neither said a word about any of the strangeness of the night, but something felt more tense and more eerie than it normally did.

Josh wished he had his stuffed toy to hug again as he stumbled out eagerly from the ferris wheel.

***

The night was crisp and warm still.

“Please can’t we stay here forever.” sighed Josh. Tyler yawned widely and stretched as they sat together on a nearby bench.

“Man I wish. But you know the curfew for kids our age.”

Josh rubbed his brown neon light stained eyes blearily. “Well being a kid sucks ass.”

Tyler looked at him quite startledly. “Careful.” He said, leaning back against the bench. 

Josh rolled his eyes tiredly and copied Tyler’s yawning. “Or what? One of the district leaders will get me? C’mon Tyler, the leaders aren’t here. They don’t even exist in the park!”

Tyler gave him a skeptical look. He knew Josh was attempting to fool himself. “Yeah we don’t ever see them here, but it doesn’t mean they can’t hear what we say.” 

Josh just poked a tongue out at Tyler and turned away, but still he shifted a little nervously in his seat, thinking of the flash of red in the corn maze earlier.

Stars shone brilliantly above, echoing the neon glows of the theme park below.

“Tyler.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Yeah Josh?”

And another.

“Could we…”

Tyler could feel Josh press into his leg with his own slightly.

“Could we go on the Dragon Tunnel again? Just one more time before we leave tonight?”

Tyler gently laughs. “Yeah man, sure.”

***

Nothing was out of the ordinary when they walked up to a now empty line at the Dragon Tunnel and so it came to no surprise that the dragon cart rolled up on its track of silver, lifted its wing for the two kids to sit down onto and then sped off down the tunnel of darkness as before.

It did however come as a surprise that after the first display lights flashed above them, and they zoomed off around a bend there was a piercing shriek like metal bending and breaking as the cart came to a sudden violent halt.

It was utterly pitch black. Unlike the moments ago of blinding screens that had flashed into their eye sockets.

They both blinked a couple times. Tyler heard Josh let out the tiniest squeak beside him, like a scared little animal and felt him squeeze at his arm slightly. This wasn’t part of the ride.

“Wh-what happened? It isn’t supposed to stop here..” Josh whispered in the faintest voice Tyler thinks he had ever heard from him.

“I...I dunno.” He answered truthfully. “Maybe something broke.”

Josh shuddered beside him. “Broke? Nothing ever breaks here, you know that.”

“Well I don’t know dude, maybe something finally did.”

Josh adjusts against Tyler’s side “Oh and of course we had to be on the ride that did.” Josh whimpers. “We are so gonna die.”

Tyler wraps an arm around Josh’s shoulders and holds him tight to his side in an awkward kind of hug.

“We are not going to die. It’s okay.”

Tyler felt Josh relax into his embrace, leaning into him. His breath slowed gently against the little hairs of Tyler’s neck. There was a light sensation against Josh’s hand as Tyler absentmindedly traced a finger against his skin in a slow pattern.

Truth was Tyler was just as scared as his friend was once again. But he wouldn’t let Josh know that. He had to be brave for him.

“Where is your face?” Asked Josh in a nervous muffled voice. 

“Here.” Tyler responded with a murmur. Josh tentatively pressed his forehead against Tyler’s temple, nudging his nose along his jaw line. Tyler can feel his friend’s breath against his cheek now, lips resting against his own skin.

“T-Tyler?” Josh asked into the stark expanse of darkness, hearing his own hesitancy and fear. Whether it was fear of the ride breaking down and being in the unknown or fear of having his lips so close to Tyler’s own he really wasn’t sure.

“It’s okay.”

Tyler answered to both possible fears.

He moved his head slightly to the side and felt Josh’s breath stop for a moment against Tyler's mouth.

The kiss was soft, unsure, reserved as Josh’s lips awkwardly pressed to the left most corner of Tyler’s mouth before readjusting to the center.
The two of them shook ever slightly and Josh felt himself almost begin to cry. Tyler observed all of his fear and toughness leave his body as the contact spread safe warmth throughout him.

What happened in the park, stayed in the park. And they most certainly were not allowed to do this back in DEMA.

There was a sudden loud bang beside them, sounding like a door being slammed open forcefully. Both of the boys jumped, parting lips rather clumsily. Tyler stubbed his toe on the inside of the dragon cart and had to bite his tongue hard to not make a loud shriek.

There was movement somewhere on their left, a faint illumination showed a dark figure shuffling along what seemed to be the side of the tunnel. The two stayed as still as possible, baiting their breaths and counting their own heartbeats.

Who was that? Someone who worked on the ride? A bishop?

Another creak and a door seemed to open and then close once more.

They were in the total dark again. for a few moments they waited, unsure whether the ride would leap back into life or not.

Tyler stirred uncomfortably in the cramped cart, the moment of freezing fear now over with.

He needed answers. Even as scared as he was, he wasn’t like Josh who could just pretend and know that things weren’t right. Tyler had to know.

“Where are you going?!” Josh hissed as Tyler slowly rose from the cart and put a hand out.

“I need to see what’s going on here.”

Tyler carefully hopped out of the ride and onto the dark ground below. It looked like he was standing in a black abyss. He held his hand out, one still on the dragon and one searching the dark for a supposed ledge to climb up onto.

Josh whimpered somewhere beside him. “Tyler don’t.” He kept mumbling.

Not able to see it, but knowing it must be there, Tyler hoisted himself up onto an invisible platform.

Tyler blinked, trying to see the door in the non existent light. He shimmied along the passage, using his feet and hands to feel himself forward against the wall.

“Tyler!” Josh pleads. Tyler himself turned and had to squint to see Josh’s pale face looking scared in the dark dragon cart.
“Are you coming?” Tyler called out to him. Josh whimpered again. “Tyler…” But as he struggled with whether he would prefer to stay where he was, all alone in the dark cold dragon tunnel, or follow Tyler into some unknown danger beyond his own reasoning, he immediately knew the answer.
Just like the creepy clown tunnel, Josh puts all faith in Tyler and blindly follows him into the unknown.

Grunting, Tyler heaves Josh up onto the step and holds his hand gently.

“Stay close.” He whispers. Josh doesn’t reply, but bites his lip and shutters, grip tightening on his fingers.

Tyler feels the cool metal of a handle in the nothingness and twists it, hoping it will open. To his surprise, it opens easily, swinging out and leaking a meager blue light out. The door revealed a stairway leading down into what neither of them could see.

Tyler blinked and looked to Josh. “C’mon dude…” Is all Josh said. Tyler doesn’t respond, just tugs his hand gently and begins the uncharted decent of the stairs.

***

The tunnel led down deep into the ground below. It was freezing cold and was barely lit with small lanterns affixed to the walls, glowing a familiar blue.

As they steadily made their way down, it seemed to never end, stretching another set of steps into forever darkness.

There was something different, rubbed away pink scratches under one of the lanterns they approached.

“What is this…?” Tyler asks no one in particular as looks up at what was writing.

The scribbles read:

“SAI IS PROPAGANDA - Clancy”

Josh frowns. “What is S-A-I?” He asks in a small voice.

Tyler shakes his head. “I have no clue Josh.”

They follow it deeper still, Josh trembling in Tyler’s vice grip. 

“Dude, you’re crushing my hand.” He whispers. “Oh. Sorry.”

They finally reach a landing with a long corridor.

It expands out in front of them into a hallway with a metal door at the end.

The door looked ominous as anything. Tyler approached it, placing a questioning hand on the knob.

Josh was going to attempt to ask Tyler to once again don’t do it, but he knew that by now Tyler was intent on doing whatever he was doing.

The door was another hallway, with small rooms on the sides. The two walked tentatively forward. 

The rooms were dark, but they peeked into one that had a glowing light. “What is it?” Josh asked. There was a seat with straps on the arms and legs sitting in front of some sort of screen that looked similar to the one in the Dragon Tunnel ride. “Dunno.” Tyler says truthfully. 

The screen was flashing the same colors that the dragon tunnel ride had, making it hard for Tyler to look away from. Josh tugging his sleeve tore his attention elsewhere.

“We really really should go back Tyler, like, this seems really wrong to be here.”

“We gotta see what else is down here though Josh, I mean, this is really nuts that there’s an entire underground place beneath the theme park!”

Josh just shook his head and followed Tyler still.

At the end of this hallway there was some sort of closet door, Tyler attempted to open it but it was locked, he tried the adjacent one and it slid open stickily, like something had glued it shut.

Tyler peered in, but couldn’t see a thing.

“T-Tyler. L-look.” Josh blubbered. He pointed to something in the corner against a wall covered in shadow.
It was hard to see, but the two could just make out a figure slumped there. Tyler jumped in fright, thinking it was a person. But he realized that what he was looking at was some sort of giant doll. Tyler crept forward, trying to see better in the dark closet space.

“Be careful.” Josh warned.

He crouched down and poked a finger at the human figure’s shoe. It moved but didn’t stir. “Holy shit…”

Tyler looked to Josh, a wild look in his eyes like he had just discovered something incredible and horrifying.

“Josh...it’s the cotton candy man.”

Josh trembled, not wanting to believe Tyler. He dared to inch forward, staying well out of the room itself but trying to see inside it.
Josh’s hand shot up to cover his own yelp of horror as he realized that yes that doll looked just like the man who had sold them hot dogs and cotton candy earlier that day. With the same brightly striped apron, hat and all.

The face looked blank, no life behind it’s eyes and yet the sockets were gaping open and the horrible wide grin was still plastered on his face.

Neither of them knew what this meant, except that Tyler had been right, there was definitely something going on here that no one else seemed to know about.

Josh stepped back, nearly losing balance as everything around him closed in, he felt like he might puke. Tyler crouched still, staring at the blank eyes and gaping mouth of the giant puppet, trying to make sense of anything.

Finally he stood back up and exited the closet room, shutting the door tight.

“Okay, let’s go back now, we’ve seen enough.” Josh turned, attempting to persuade his friend to leave this spooky tunnel and return to the ground level.

“Let’s just see what’s behind this last door, Josh, it’s gotta be something good…We might finally uncover the secret to what everyone in DEMA seems to not talk about! This could be the biggest thing we will ever see. This could be the answer to everything.” Josh knew he would hear those words and the best he could do was whimper and anxiously bite his tongue as he followed Tyler once again.

***

The next room was huge. Dark blue metal lining it’s interior, ceiling stretching so high above them it was almost dizzying.

What looked like control panels sat along the far right side, an overwhelming mess of tv screens, turn dials and monitors buzzing with activity. As the two kids walked past, they noticed that the tv monitors showed every ride in the park, some from different angles, there were some for the inside of the dragon tunnel and the corn maze.

For a moment Tyler feared their kiss had been recorded on camera, but as he scanned the video feeds he didn’t see any that matched the area the two had been trapped in.

Tyler then looked at the control panels, wondering what any of them did.

Rows of what looked to be giant glass beacons sat upright along the opposite walls. Most of them empty inside.

But something blue colored was glowing on the far end. The two boys approached it slowly.

They saw it was a single illuminated beacon, just like the rest but filled with something.

As they snuck along, they both realized in horror that inside the beacon there seemed to be…a person.

The person looked small, little enough to be a young child and they seemed to be hooked up to an elaborate assortment of black tubes, feeding out of the beacon and down into some compartment below.

“What the…” Tyler gawks, trying to find words. Josh, beside him just holds a hand up to his own mouth and whimpers little words beneath it that neither of them understand.

The kid’s face is calm looking, almost peacefully asleep inside the tube that contained her.

Josh recognized the kid to be the little girl they saw in the corn maze, but before he can mention this to Tyler, they both see something else too.

The little girl was connected to the tubes which were connected to a large vial of bright blue light. And these vials looked just like the vials of light the bishops craft in DEMA, the exact same lights that surround all the districts and are known as Neon Gravestones, which powered the city and is what residents all became when they died.

But this didn’t make sense. This child didn’t look dead, just...frozen.

Tyler felt a tugging on his sleeve and bumbled, “What?”

Josh was repeating one phrase frantically fast under his hand. It took him a moment to decipher what it was he was saying.

“Weneeleafmow. Weneeleafmow. We need to leave now.”

Suddenly a door burst open and in the doorway stood a red cloaked figure. A bishop.

Their face was shadowed in dark, covered by black gauze as they often are in public, hood obscured most of the upper part of their face, so they couldn’t tell which district this bishop ruled. They stepped into the room, red robe fluttering thickly like the ill sound of vulture wings.

The two boys leapt behind one of the beacons, crouching against each other as best they could to seem inconspicuous.

The bishop glided up to the child connected to the tubes, just about a few feet from Josh and Tyler.
They watched them click something on a box near the beacon and pluck the little blue vial off of the feeding tube. A small door opened in a cabinet and about fifty of those small vibrant containers swung out. The bishop, with their black hands, carefully placed the new tube in with the rest.

Then they took a new empty vial, placing it back onto the end of the tube and shutting the compartment altogether.

Josh made a sound.
Tyler turned to him, trying to tell him to be quiet, but also made a similar noise when he saw Josh was staring at something terrible. There was another cotton candy man, but this one was up right against a wall, and from his terrible grinning mouth oozed a blue light that looked remarkably like the blue vialed light that the bishop was just harvesting.

“Tyler, oh god they use them..They use people for their light, for their power. That’s what vialism is. They, Tyler they--” But Josh couldn’t finish his garbled wordage, for suddenly the cotton candy man screamed a horrible wail and raised a hand to point to the two of them. Tyler whipped around to watch the bishop fix their blood red eyes upon them.

Instincts kicked in and Tyler grabbed onto Josh and pulled him upward as hard as he could. Fingers curling around one another’s they both ran to the other end of the room and out of the entrance swiftly. They ran faster than when they ran to the park that morning, faster than when they ran out of the corn maze too.

Death was on their heels, Tyler thought he could feel the bishop breathing red hot down his neck as he leapt up the long stairway as fast as his legs could carry him.
They tripped, Josh wailed in pain as he broke the skin of his knee against the concrete. “C’mon!” Tyler yelled at him, grabbing his friend’s arms and practically dragging him up the rest of the stairs.

They burst back out into a pit of darkness, disoriented and full of utter panic, neither of them knew where to go. Just as Josh and Tyler feared the worst, a sound of something roaring underneath them trembled the ground and Tyler yanked on Josh’s arm hard.

“Jump on!” He yelled, referring to the dragon cart, still sitting patiently in the dark tunnel passage.

Tyler leapt down into it, turning back with his arms outspread.

But Josh couldn’t see, and he feared jumping and not making it onto the cart.

“You can do it Josh!” Urged Tyler. “I’m right here. Just trust me!”

So Josh jumped, one foot slipped on the lip of the wing, but Tyler grabbed him quickly by the waist.
He came crashing down against Tyler, all in good timing because neither of them had a chance to buckle in before the bishop tailing them plunged through the door way and headed right for them. Josh’s scream was cut short as the dragon suddenly and with a metallic screech, lurched forward into life and bolted down the railway it was meant to follow. 

Tyler and Josh clutched eachother defensively in hopes neither one would actually fly out of the cart this time.

***

The dragon approached the loading dock and both boys desperately scrambled up and out of the ride, feet finding solid ground and not thinking twice about waiting around.

Josh would have liked to talk about what had happened in the darkened tunnel, his lips against Tyler’s, but he also knew that what they had just seen was rather distracting at the moment. He wished that that kiss was the most exciting event of the evening.

How unfortunate it was that their world wasn't more simple. They didn't have the luxury of being allowed to feel the pink seeping in of blossoming emotions.

A bishop suddenly swept in from the side, gliding like a ghost across the park grounds, heading for them. Josh yelped and lunged, nails digging into Tyler’s shirt for dear life.

They raced through the dirt pathways, once more hand in hand like they had just this morning. There was no one else in the park now, it was simply pitch black night sky above them and all they could do was hold onto each-other for dear life.  

“I can’t Tyler—“ he thinks Josh is giving up running so Tyler tugged him harder in encouragement, but Josh gasped out, “I can’t go back—“ as they tumbled to the grassy ground just outside the park entrance.

Tyler heaved in huge breaths of air, fingers still wrapped around his friend’s arm in a desperate lifeline.

Josh spoke through his crying, tears pouring down his face.

“Not after—not after what we saw—I can’t —I can’t go back out there. I can’t live in DEMA anymore!” He desperately gasped through sobs.  

Tyler stared at him intensely, still finding momentum with his lungs sucking in oxygen properly again.

They sat right under the giant archway which glowed with that same sickly blue light, trying to catch their breaths.

The dragon seemed much more formidable above them now, all air of wonder and fantasy absolutely eradicated forever.

“No…no we can’t just leave.” Tyler shook his head, spit dribbling from his own trembling lips.

“We don’t know what is out there.” He gestured quickly towards the hills beyond their city. “We don’t even have a plan.”

Josh just cried, shivering and shaking against Tyler’s hands.
They had to move again soon, they couldn’t stay here forever. They’d be caught and it would be all over for the both of them. They still had a chance to get away.

Tyler forced his breathing to slow and sucked in a shudder of air. “You have to promise me something.”

Josh’s eyes smeared with neon tears, he turned his gaze to look at Tyler for a moment as he wiped his face with a shaky hand.

Their fantasy was finally totally shattered. This was it, the truth they had both gone searching for, they found it.

The escape they once had, this fun park, these rides, the candy and the colors, it all melted into a horrifying sludge of corruption and treachery.

Into the darkness Tyler had led Josh. Into the darkness of truth where he didn’t want to go, and where Tyler needed to be. Tyler trusted Josh in the same way Josh did him. Trusted him more than the shifting reality of their existence in this place. 

If nothing else was true, they both knew that they were true to each other. They could trust each other as being real and that wasn’t something either would ever risk to lose.

Tyler rubbed a thumb against Josh’s soft damp cheek to be sure that he was still here with him and turned his face gently to meet his own.

“Promise me.”

Tyler repeated more steadily this time.

Tyler gripped at Josh’s shoulder, pressed his own forehead against his as he looked at him.

“Whether it’s you first, or me, or us both. Maybe when we are older, but one day we will leave this place. Together. You hear me?”

Tyler brought his friend against his chest in a crushing hug, tangling fingers in his curly hair and repeated the words, “We’ll do it, promise.”

Josh cried into his neck and held Tyler to him like he was the prize toy. “We’ll make it out of here Josh, we’ll do it, we’ll do it I-I--”

And this time Josh finishes the sentence through a choked sob dripping in conviction.

“I promise.”

***