Chapter 14: County Fair

Sept. 17th, 2015

“For the record, I think this is a horrible idea.” Harry said grimly as he and his girlfriend loaded up their car with a few supplies.

“Well I don’t know what else to do. It’s not like her parents would just let us run some tests.” Emille said rather sourly. “And besides-we don’t want to involve too many people. We’ll just get some information from her and then move on. Done.”

Harry still did not seem swayed.

“I still don’t like this.”

“Well then you don’t have to come! I’ll do it myself!” Emille yelled, slamming the car door shut and stomping over to the driver’s side. After a moment, Harry got into the car with her.

“Look babe-I’m sorry. I’m just scared. I’m scared of what’s going to happen if this goes sour.”

Emille’s face softened a little.

“Harry, this might be the only opportunity I have to save-I mean, we have to save… the world…”

“Are you talking about that thing that happened when you were a kid?”

Emille did not answer. Quietly she put a hand on his and turned to him.

“Harry, I love you. Can you please just trust me on this?”

Harry stared into her eyes and squeezed her hand.

“Of course babe.” he said softly as he kissed her.

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“Cadi!! Get your shoes on!! Let’s go!!”

Cadi zipped around the house, looking for her worn out sneakers. Finally, she found them and met her brother at the door.

“And where’s your jacket? It’s supposed to get chilly tonight.”

“Oh yeah!!”

Without further ado, his little sister sprinted off and then came back with her pink jacket.

“Ok Mom! We’re off!” Rick yelled, grabbing the car keys.

“Ok! Have fun you two! Don’t forget to pick up Juno!”

“You really think Cadi would let me forget that?”

Cadi hopped from one foot to the other, feeling super excited. The county fair was in town, and she wanted to ride all of the rides and pet all of the animals and eat all the food and-.

“Come on you dork.” Rick said, rolling his eyes and going into the garage. “And don’t sit in the front-cause I’m picking up Jessica-remember?”

“Oooooooooh! Are you taking her on another date?!” Cadi teased as she hopped in the backseat. She felt victorious when she saw him blush.

“N-no! She just-agreed to help watch you guys at the fair! That’s all!”

“Ooooh! The fair-how romantic!” Cadi said dramatically, laying down in the backseat with a hand on her forehead. Rick’s face became redder as he pulled out of the driveway.

“Are you going to kiss her on the ferris wheel?”

“Oh shut up!!”

Cadi laughed all the way to Juno’s house, and then when Juno hopped in, she immediately blabbed and told him that Rick was going on a date at the fair.

“I am not!! She’s just helping me babysit you two babies!!” Rick told them, his face flushed.

“Ewww! Awkward teenage stuff!” Juno teased.

“Shut up!!”

Finally, they pulled up to Jessica’s house. Rick turned around in his seat as soon as he parked the car.

“Ok. Listen guys. Don’t make anything weird. No teasing, no comments, no anything. I’m serious.”

Juno and Cadi giggled.

“Ok.” they said in unison, snickering. Rick narrowed his eyes suspiciously and then got out to knock on her door.

Come to think of it, Cadi didn’t really know much about this girl that Rick liked so much. She knew that she had dirty blonde hair, a sweet bubblegum voice, and was on the varsity cross country team. Other than that, she knew nothing.

But one thing she did know, was that Rick really liked her. He’d had a crush on her for two years, and finally worked up the courage to ask her out.

“Juno, I think we should let him have this. Like he said. No teasing. He really likes Jessica.” Cadi told her best friend seriously. Juno nodded in understanding.

“But, I know a way we can have fun with this without ruining something.”

“How?”

“Does Rick know any spanish?”

Cadi smiled as she saw where he was going with this.

“Nope. He’s taken german.”

A few minutes later, Rick eyed the two eight year olds in the back suspiciously since they kept snickering.

“Well, uh, Jessica, you know Cadi, but this is her friend Juno.” he told her as he started up the car.

“Nice to meet you Juno!” Jessica said in her bubblegum voice. “And nice to see you again Cadi!”

“La piña está en el espacio!” Cadi trying her best to imitate what Juno had taught her.

“Las langostas aman papas fritas!” Juno said with a smile in perfect spanish.

“Wait-what are you guys saying?!” Rick demanded as Jessica regarded them with interest.

“Rick le encanta aspirar la alfombra!” Cadi exclaimed.

“What are you saying about me?”

“Don’t worry Rick, I don’t know much spanish.” Jessica giggled. “Although, I think they said that you love something?”

Rick cast a glare into the rearview mirror, causing the eight year olds to freeze.

Oops.

This plan may have backfired.

“She only said that you love to vacuum the carpet!” Juno said in a rush, trying to save themselves.

Rick looked about ready to pop a gasket, until Jessica started to laugh.

“Oh I get it! They’re just teasing you! Are you nervous for this date Rick?”

“HA! I knew it was a date!” Cadi blurted with another glare from her older brother.

“It’s ok. There’s no need to be nervous. It’ll be a fun night-I promise.” she smiled. Rick gave a nervous swallow. Cadi and Juno gagged subtly in the back.

All this romance stuff was disgusting.

“Well, we’re here!” Rick said hurriedly, parking the car with a jolt and jumping out.

Juno and Cadi smirked as they watched him awkwardly get the door for his date.

“This is super funny to watch.” Juno snickered.

Cadi silently agreed.

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For the next hour, Cadi and Juno had the time of their lives. They forced Rick to let them try all the cool rides first, and then they screamed at the top of the ferris wheel.

“Riiiiick! Can we go through the funhouse?!” Cadi asked, jumping up and down. Rick rolled his eyes.

“Fine. We’ll be standing here waiting for you when you get out.”

At this, Cadi and Juno fist pumped into the air and handed the guy at the front their tickets.

“Hey Juno-I’ll race you through!” Cadi grinned, getting ready at the front of the door.

“Winner gets first bite of the next elephant ear?”

“Your on!”

“Ok. Ready, set, GO!”

Cadi and Juno took off into the funhouse, going through barrels and trying not to crash through the mirror maze. They were neck to neck until Cadi tripped on one of the styrofoam covered bars that she was trying to jump over.

“Oof!!” Cadi hit the mat underneath her a bit hard, getting the breath knocked out of her. Juno did not seem to notice as he raced ahead until he was out of sight.

“Aw man!!” she groaned, standing up and wincing a little bit.

A little bit shaken up by her fall, she continued forward a little bit slower than before.

“Cadi…”

The little girl stopped.

“Cadi!”

A voice she did not really recognize was whispering her name. She looked around in confusion.

“H-Hello?” she called out hesitantly, only hearing the muffled sounds of the carnival on the outside of the funhouse.

Suddenly, a hand reached out of the shadows and grabbed her. Cadi went to scream, but a large hand clapped over her mouth.

“Now calm down Cadi. We’re here to help you.” a woman’s voice soothed.

Bull poopies!!

If they really wanted to help her, they wouldn’t have grabbed her from the shadows. And she didn’t even need help for anything! She struggled, and immediately tried to scream when she had a little window. Unfortunately, there were so many people screaming with all of the rides, that even if anyone had heard her, they wouldn’t have known she was in trouble.

“LET ME GO!!” she yelled, thrashing around. The people from the shadows were taking her out behind the funhouse-she could she the door as they moved towards it.

“Cadi, we just need to get a couple of things from you.” the woman’s voice said.

“How do you know my name?!” the little girl cried as they dragged her out the door.

Her eyes grew wide as the night sky illuminated the two people she was struggling against.

It was Ms. Emille and Mr. Harry.

The mad scientists.

“We’ll let you go in a moment little girl. Now hold still.” Emille demanded, pulling out a little bag and unzipping it. Cadi’s heart jumped into her throat when the woman pulled out what looked like some kind of syringe.

Cadi was terrified of needles.

“NOOO!” she shrieked, thrashing around even more.

“Calm down kid! It’s just a blood sample!” Harry told her, squeezing his arm around her. Emille roughly grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her arm down.

“If you stay still, it won’t hurt!!”

Cadi closed her eyes and desperately reached for the bubbles in her stomach. Immediately, the world around her grew silent, but she still felt the squeeze of the people holding on to her.

“So I guess your theory was right Emille. If we’re touching her when she pauses time it affects us as well.” Harry said in awe.

“I guess you didn’t think of that huh little girl?” Emille sneered, pulling her arm down again. “Now no one can hear you.”

But Cadi had thought of that.

With all of the noise of the fair, no one could hear her anyways. But when time was paused, there was always one person who would always be able to hear her.

“RIIIIIIIICK!” Cadi screamed.

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As soon as time had paused, Rick knew something was wrong.

“Uh… Cadi?” he called out hesitantly. In the silence of it all, he thought he heard something, which was weird in and of itself, and then suddenly…

“RIIIIIIIIICK!” Cadi screamed from somewhere nearby.

“CADI!” he yelled back, sprinting off towards where he heard her, his heart pounding. He ran behind the funhouse and then screeched to a halt when he rounded the corner.

Before him were the two scientists-holding onto his little sister, who was struggling desperately. Harry and Emille stared at him in shock.

“H-How-?” Harry stammered. “She wasn’t even-.”

Click.

They all turned to see Emille holding out a gun, which was pointing at Rick.

“Woah woah woah! Emille! What are you doing?!” Harry exclaimed in shock.

“Plan B. We have to take her with us now. The brother too.”

“What? Why?”

“Duh Harry. A eight year old is harder to believe. But an eight year old and her teenage brother? They’ll go to the police!”

“I promise we won’t!! Just let me go! Please!” Cadi sobbed.

Yeah right I won’t go to the police. Rick thought silently to himself.

“But we don’t really need the brother do we?” she said more to herself.

Rick held his hands up as Emille cocked the gun threateningly.

“C-Cadi?” Rick said slowly, his voice changing an octave for a split second. “Remember what we practiced?”

Amidst her tears, Cadi thought she knew what he was talking about. So she focused hard on the gun. She reached for the tingles in her stomach…

“What in the world?!” Emille exclaimed as the gun started to rust out of her hand and disintegrate. Rick took this as his chance and charged as Cadi unpaused time, bringing back the whoosh of sound. He closed his hand into a fist and was about to punch that smug blonde in the face when he was tackled by Harry.

“Cadi! Go get help!!” Rick exclaimed, trying to punch the guy in the face but only getting his shoulder. The eight year old tried to run, but Emille grabbed her by the wrist.

“Emille! This isn’t going to work! We can’t take both of them at once!” Harry yelled as Rick grabbed him by the hair.

“Then leave the boy. We’ll be back for him.”

“You aren’t taking my sister anywhere!” Rick raged, punching Harry with all of his might. He stopped when Cadi screamed. He turned, and then in horror, saw that Emille was holding the syringe up to his little sister’s neck.

“NO!”

“If you tell anyone who took your sister, we’ll hurt her. Or kill her. Guess it just depends on how I’m feeling.” Emille threatened as tears streamed down Cadi’s face. Rick let go of Harry.

“Please-don’t hurt her!” he begged.

“Then don’t come after us.”

WHAM!

Rick had been so focused on Cadi that he had forgotten about Harry for a moment. The man punched him square in the face, sending him to the ground. He could taste blood in his mouth and could hear the echoey sound of his sister screaming his name. He bit the dirt hard and saw stars. Feeling dizzy, he tried his best to get back up again, only to fall back down.

“C-Cadi…” he slurred, struggling to push himself up off the ground.

In his daze, he watched as the two adults disappeared with his sister.

“No…”

Rick felt tears burn his eyes as he collapsed back on the ground.