One Night Only

Once in a while, when you’re walking down the street you may see an advertisement for an event to happen. Whether it be a music festival, magic act, Nightclub, whatever it may be, there is always a date, time and address.

Now if you’re looking for some strange entertainment that will blow your mind, keep your eyes peeled for a specific advertisement. It will be a red color saying One Night Only, with a date and address, but no listing of what the event actually is. If are interested then you may walk to the sight ahead of time to see where it’s taking place. Wherever the address is located will be random, but there will be one thing in common, they’re all parking lots.

If this concerns you, or turns you away, then the event wouldn’t be to any of your liking, you wouldn’t be open enough to accept what will happen.

However if you are perfectly fine with this strange location, then attend if you feel like it.

Make your way down to the parking lot that this is taking place, there should be about Fifteen to Thirty people there already. Once it reaches the time listed, you may notice some of the surroundings begin to change color. Spots completely changing themselves, even creating mysterious patterns, the lights will even be oddly colored.

About five minutes into this spectacle, a man will appear, he’ll be dressed as a ringleader, one from an old circus. He’ll call everyone to gather, follow his instructions, once you have all been gathered he will clap his hands shouting “Let the show begin!”

The room will go dark, and then lights will come on with all of you sitting. You’ll find yourselves located in a circus tent with purple and blue stripes, in the center, the ringleader smiling proudly standing on a pedestal.

He’ll clap once commanding the show to begin, and then his hat will fall on him, then flip as he has disappeared. The show will begin like a normal circus, you’ll have your lion tamer, acrobats, even some clowns, but after that, the next performers will be less than normal.

Next you’ll have a short and round pig like creature walking on two feet with five orbs following it. The creature will begin controlling the orbs, juggling them, dancing with them, even floating with them. It will even begin having a few audience members take to the sky. After that, a box will appear on stage, slowly you’ll hear the tone of a Jack in the box, as the final note strikes the lid will explode off. At first nothing will appear out from the box, but then a brown fabric humanoid will be lifted up from the box by wires. It will dance around laughing, then large claws will pop out if its hands and it will begin cutting the strings until there are none left. It will fall down onto the dirt ground, but then lift up and dance while cutting objects which fall from the ceiling, after a minute it will retract its blades and jump back into its box. The third creature will appear in a jesters costume, it will begin to juggle with three orbs, which will then multiply themselves into six, then nine until there are thirty  in the air then he himself will jump into the air and the orbs will converge around him forming a sphere which begins to change color and revolve around the room. After doing this it will return to the center exploding into a fury of confetti. The jester will land with the two other creatures at his sides and the ringleader.

The four will look at the audience, and then the ringleader will speak, “This is what the circus is about,” He’ll begin to say. “Coming for an experience of confusion and chaos. Being surprised and have no expectations about what you will be seeing. One should only be driven by curiosity!”

The group will laugh, and the three strange beings will disappear leaving the ringleader on his platform. He will remove his hat and bow, then bid you farewell, he will then lift his hat above his head and everything will be sucked into it. The audience will be left spinning in the air and then you will all land back in the parking lot.

You are now free to on with your life, perhaps talk with your other audience members about what has just happened.

If you were wondering, all of the ads will be gone and any trace of the circus vanished. Well, until it’s back in town, but that is a very rare occurrence.

Perhaps, the unexpected and untried aren’t so horrible after all.

Through the Crack

While walking through a city, one may rarely encounter a wall with the center looking cracked as a windshield would. If you stumble upon something like this, be very careful of what you do. Though harmless looking, this by far is one of the most dangerous devices in existence.

Do not approach it, run away as fast as you can. If you do that then you’re safe, perfectly safe. But if you disregard this warning and approach then whatever occurs is on you. If nothing happens, then congratulations this is one danger you shall never be concerned with, however if you see a light, then good luck.

Without warning, you’ll begin being pulled towards the wall. You can’t escape, nothing can. As you’re absorbed into the wall you’ll find yourself in a room with a door sitting down at a table. If you try to stand then you may find yourself extremely disoriented, this will wear off shortly though. Approach the door and open it, there you’ll find a room the size of a closet, step in.

As you enter the floor shall fade away you’ll begin to drop. You’ll also start to hear whispers, you can attempt to listen to them, but as hard as you may try you just won’t be able to hear the words they speak. You will fall for a good three minutes before landing in a graveyard. It is here where you’ll see people again, they will range in age, from twenty to sixty. You may ask where you are, but they have the exact same question. People should start to leave the graveyard now, follow them, after all where else are you going to go?

As you exit, make sure to leave your sense of reality behind, it will only drive you mad here. You’ll come into a forest just like at home, but everything will look strange. The sky will be a different colored, the trees a single hue, the bushes all exotic colors. The only thing dreary looking here will be distortion in the sky, an odd gray and black swarm which will be slowly traveling away from you.

You have now reached, what some call the ghost earth. All the geography and landscapes will be the same, along with the cities and towns which can be found in their proper places. However about ninety percent of the land will be differently colored and most of the residence are either people dead or missing. However as it appears that no one beyond the last hundred years exists, the only explanation is that this place is young.

As you get to the edge of the forest there will be several boat men waiting. Approach one and he will ask you where it is you wish to head. You’ve come this far now, you might as well continue on with your journey. Name someone you wish to see who has gone missing or has died, if they are here, then your boat man will take you. His vessel will begin to levitate and you shall set sail, riding along the wind.

As you travel, ask your driver what the time is, he’ll tell you without needing to look on a watch. Ask him how he does this, and he’ll tell you to close your eyes and focus into the dark. There you’ll see little numbers which are displaying the time, make sure you ask him though, otherwise it won’t work and you need to know the time you arrived and are leaving! It’s imperative that you do this if you want a chance to return home! Don’t bother looking for a clock, there are none and if there was it wouldn’t work, time and space have a different relationship in this place.

As your boat arrives at your destination, tell your guide to wait for an hour at most. Any longer and he’ll leave once you have gone for your meeting.

Now, meet with who you seek. Reconnect with an old friend or family member, talk with someone important perhaps or even a controversial figure, just don’t waste your time.

Converse with your partner for as long as you can, but don’t extend your visit, for your guide will not wait past the hour. Once you can no longer stay say you must get going. They will try to get you to stay, beg you even. Don’t listen you must get to the boat, if they try to use force then fight back.

Once you have returned to the boat, ask your guide to take you back to the island, he’ll take you, don’t worry about him, he’ll do as he’s told. When you arrive you’ll see a pillar of light, before stepping into it, be sure to check the time. Once ready, enter it and you will travel up, back into the closet.

Step out into the room and man will be sitting there with papers in his hand. He’ll ask you for your personal details, then for who you saw and what you discussed. Answer honestly no matter what, finally he’ll need your departing and returning times from the graveyard. If you don’t know you’ll be kicked out of his office and never to return to the graveyard or home. If you do then he’ll write them down and smile, then he’ll stand up and tear open the wall behind him revealing a hallway full of the strange distortion that was in the sky. He’ll simply tell you that you must go up the hallway without looking back, no matter what don’t look back.

As you begin to walk everything will seem fine, but about halfway through you’ll hear your loved ones and friends, from your world, start to call out to you, ignore them. The farther you go, the more desperate the voices will become, by the time you reach the end they’ll be begging beyond belief. If you turn around at all, you’ll find yourself dropping from the distortion and falling through the sky. You will land and survive but where you land will be your tombstone. Your body will be found on the other side, cause of death unknown. You’re application for permanent residency on this ghost earth, has just been accepted.

However if you made it through the hallway, once more congratulations, you’ll awaken in your home. If you try to contact friends, family, or anyone you heard in the hallway, they won’t pick up or want to see you… ever again. Any other relationships you have with someone will last only a few months. On top of all this, out of the corners of your eye you may see the person you talked to, or discoloration in the environment.

The curses of meeting the dead… unless you’re dead also? But the world is still the same as how you left, isn’t it?

So many variables to think of, the only important one though is to watch out for cracks now… you might fall through, and this time it’s going to be a permanent visit.