May Day AU: Scariest Place on Earth Who: Eden and Mike (at least mentions of others? Maybe? I don't know yet.) What: Cheating Death. Where: At the carnival! When: Sometime in June (school's out for summer!) Rating: I'll put this at fairly high for the possibility of blood, gore, and death. Status: In-progress
The sun was shining and the rain had decided to stay away for the weekend. It should have been one of the best days of Eden's life. She'd decided to take her brother, Ja'von, to the carnival and get him out of their parent's hair for the day. She knew that it would take a lot to wear the eleven year old boy out, but the amusement park seemed like a brilliant idea.
Ja'von had tried to talk her onto the roller-coasters from the moment they walked through the admissions gate. Eden had laughed and told him that he could ride anything he wanted that his wristband would get him on, but that she'd stick to things like carousels. Maybe he'd be able to talk her into getting on the ferris wheel, but roller-coasters were strictly out of the question. Once, about two hours into their escapade while eating a cinnamon sugar scone and listening to the young boy plead, she wished she had an excuse. I'd love to go on the Cyclone coaster with you, Ja'von, but I'm pregnant and I shouldn't. Instead, she was a single woman in her late thirties with no hope of a relationship in sight.
The young boy's persistence eventually paid off. After riding a bunch more rides, Eden found herself in line for the park's fastest, and tallest roller-coaster.
"You know, that's really high," she leaned in and told him as she looked the ride over.
"It's alright, Edie. It goes by so fast, you don't notice how high you are."
"How many times have you ridden this?"
"This is my first time, I'm finally tall enough," he replied, leaning on the railing to wait for the line to advance.
Eden's gaze traveled from her brother to the coaster again, watching as the latest full car started to creep it's way up the initial incline. "That right there is enough time to realize how high you are."
"Really, Edie. Stop worrying. It'll be fun, you'll see. We'll get to the end and you'll want to jump back in line to go again."
Their banter went back and forth through the rest of the queue. Eden found herself secured in the seat to the right of her brother, her stomach doing flips over the anticipation of the thrill ride to come. She had convinced herself that she was going to hate it, but after they got over the first incline, she had begun to let go and enjoy the ride. The snot nosed brat was right.
All was well with the world until their car came to a stop at the mid-ride brake point. There was no question in Eden's mind, this was not supposed to happen. Her thoughts immediately jumped to the possibility that the ride hadn't been put together correctly, or that there was a mechanical malfunction that had caused the stop. And while she tried to keep herself calm-- remind herself that these rides had been around for a while, and that they did routine checks. The feeling in the pit of her stomach convinced her that something terrible was going to happen.