Madelina Part 3

For the first time in, well, ever, I was actually a little excited for this year’s fall festival.

            That is, as excited as I could ever get over a “fun” social gathering with smiling people and their smiling faces, lips taut with an expression I hated.

            Not to say I was antisocial. Of course not. I had friends. Friends who were practically born in black clothes (seeing as they wore nothing else) and scary makeup. Friends who still referred to me as “You There” or “Mean Girl.” Friends who also most likely wouldn’t be caught dead at the fall festival unless they had hatched an elaborate plan to blow it up.

            The reason for me being so excited for it? Honestly? The recent murder had freaked me out. For some reason I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I still didn’t even know the woman’s name, and yet it would not release its sharp grasp on my mind. Murders didn’t occur here. Ever. This was a quiet, some may say quaint even, little town. But the fall festival would take all that away. I could people-watch. That was always fun. In my head I could easily make some crude remark or joke about what they were wearing, how they looked, et cetera. And if they stared at me for more than five seconds (trust me, I counted) I would sometimes say it out loud. It was a very fun game and the fall festival was crawling with people just begging to be slapped into their proper place.

            My first target would be whichever moron came up with the fall festival in the first place.

            So that’s how I found myself standing alone amidst a crowd of people, wondering what to do with myself. Dad had a surgery, like always, and Mom…well, I wasn’t quite sure where Mom was nowadays.

            I noticed there was something weird about the bonfire, something…unusual. It had only been lit moments before and the wooden scupture that was burning away was not revealing what I expected—what everyone here expected.

            As I was in the middle of pondering this, I suddenly noticed a bright spark fly off in the direction of some people near me. I quickly jumped away but there were more now, fireworks all shooting out of the bonfire and at the people! Suddenly there were screams all around me, everywhere, and I didn’t know where to go. People were running away and a few were pointing at the bonfire with horrified expressions. I looked at it, still keeping my distance as more sparks flew out. I then realized why it had looked odd.

            There was a cow. No, correction, there was a cow in the bonfire. Being revealed by the burning wood as it burned too, a charred, morbid creature.

            My eyes widened in horror and I ran, ignoring the sparks that flew past me and the screams and the people. I ran as far away as I could and didn’t dare stop.