The Night carnival was not dangerous. At least, that was what I thought. Sure, you may be driven mad due to obsession with the games and illusions, but what were the chances of it happening to you? One in a million, to be exact.

It was just smoke and mirrors. Magic and forces. A mystery created by Night. What could possibly be dangerous there?

                                                                                       ***

Srisha and I were standing outside the dark smokey entrance gates. My 5 year old sister was trying to catch a frog that seemed determined to not be caught. It was nice, seeing her so innocent and carefree after so long. 

"Arni," she whined, tugging at my shirt. "Can we see the play? I'm bored."

"What happened to the frog?"

"It ran away," she said, pouting slightly. I gave her a hug. 

She was my sister. She was all I had. I would do anything for her. 

"I think Emma and Anubis can find us," I said, brushing a strand of hair away from her face.

"You think so?" She asked, gazing at the huge crowd both in front and behind the gates.

"I know so."

She grinned and tugged at my hand. I let her lead me through the crowds and mazes of stalls set up by pedestrians, to the familiar stage.

Every time the Night Carnival came , we had a tradition of watching the play of the Beginning. The story of our world. Of us. Where we came from.

Srisha attempted to push through the throng of people, but was unsuccessful in her endeavours. She looked at me with pleading eyes. With a sigh, I picked her up and placed her on my shoulders, from where she could easily see the stage.

The deep rich red curtains were still drawn. The throng was still growing.  

Elder Sharita came up on stage and started speaking in her clear musical voice. She was not that old, in her early forties, with greying hair and eyes that still retained their dreaminess. She thanked the Primadorial Night and recited a speech, that I suspected was written by Warrior Goldbark.

Srisa started braiding strands of my hair and humming. 

"ARNIKA!" A voice half yelled while shaking me. I focused on my best friend, Emma. Her blonde hair was messily tied in a ponytail and her signature grin was not present. 

"Whew, I was so scared. You really zoned out there." Her Chesire grin returned. "What were you thinking?"

What was I thinking? I closed my eyes to remember. Blue. Deep and calm. Swirls of pink, purple and deep green. Endless ocean of serenity sprinkled with twinkling spots.

"Emma!" Srisha shrieked, waving her hands around and knocking a headdress off an old lady next to us.

"Hi Sri, how are you?" Emma almost cooed. If I loved Srisha, Emma positively doted on her.

"I take it that you found us easily," I said, changing the topic.

"Well, its kind of hard to not spot a five foot ten girl with her sister on her shoulders, even in a crowd, isn't it?"Anubis asked, tilting his head. His long dark hair was tamed, and he wore his usual colour scheme of black. His amber eyes scanned the crowd around us. "Watch out, play's about to start."

Srisha almost cricked her neck while looking up at the stage. 

Eight performers trooped on stage, dressed as the eight Primadorials: Night, Light, Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, Moon, and Star.

They started dancing in a circle formation while waving their hands as though they were casting spells. The younger kids from our town ran around and within their circle,  long gauzy lengths of midnight blue, rose pink and dark purple cloths trailing behind them.

The children ran off, and a man appeared in the middle of the circle. He stood on his feet and spread his arms . The Primadorials chanted and tendrils of glittering smoke wrapped themselves around him. The gifting of the Talent to the first man. He held an obsidian dagger in his hand. The first Source, the instrument through which you can channel your powers.

A woman stepped out from behind him. The splitting of Man. She held a bow of Eral, the metal of the Primadorials. The second Source.

Srisha gripped my hair a bit too tightly.

The  performers vanished from the stage, replaced by an explosion of smoke and magic. Sparks and light. The smoke twisted itself to form a piece of land where our Mother Tree stood, tall and ancient. Creatures of starlight and stardust ran out from its roots and canopies. The formation of our realm, the Earth realm. 

The illusion changed again, revealing the battle of the Primadorials against their father, Dark. The first man fell in battle, and became Death. The first woman rose armies of the living and became Life. 

Srisha relaxed her grip on my hair as the Primadorials trapped Dark in the Void. The smoke dissipated, leaving behind only memories and dreams.

The crowd stirred for a while, as though in a daze, before they started moving away from the stage.

Emma, Anubis and I (With Srisha on my shoulders) pushed our way through, towards the food stalls. 

"Arni, can I have an ice cream?" Srisha asked, gazing longingly at the stall. My heart sank a bit, because I didn't have the money to buy it.

"Here Srisha, " Emma said, pressing a few coins into her hands. "Buy some ice cream with these."

My little sister's eyes widened and she scrambled off my shoulders before running towards the stall.

"Emma, you didn't have to do that," I protested, torn between relief and guilt.

"I can Arnika," she said, rolling her eyes. "Sri's also like my sister."

I opened my mouth to protest. "Come on Arni, please?" Emma looked at me with puppy eyes.

"I swear, I would probably kill you if it weren't for those eyes," I muttered.

"I know," Emma said brightly. "Its all thanks to these," she said, pointing at her eyes, "that you're not cracking my head open with a book."

I rolled my eyes, while Anubis chuckled. 

"Well, well," said a familiar voice. Emma stiffened, Anubis let out a snort and I openly gawked.

Our archenemy, Daphne, was with her group of 'minions', aka friends. She always tried to be this cool girl but was really a very nice person. She knew she was nice, and sometimes, ok most of the times, went overboard with her 'cool popular teenager' act. 

Like then.

It honestly looked like an expensive rainbow exploded on her.  She wore literally every trending clothing item. An orange shirt with a red cardigan, an indigo skirt with yellow pants, topped off with violet highlights and a green beanie.

"Jealous?" she asked, trying to raise an eyebrow. She ended up scrunching her face. I let out a snort of laughter.

"What?" she asked, her face turning an interesting shade of red. She kept glancing between Anubis and me. 

Anubis' eyes widened with realisation and he made a poker face.

"What are you doing here?" Emma asked, hands on her hips.

"Can't I stop to say hi?"

"Hi," I said flatly. "Now go."

It was kind of funny, her having to tilt her head all the way back to look at my face, even with heels.

"And asking someone to hang out?" she continued, like I hadn't said anything. She fluttered her eyelashes and shot an overdone smile at Anubis. Instead of the reaction she expected, it only served to make the poor boy startled.

By now Emma and I were clutching each other while tears of laughter rolled down our faces. Anubis shot us an annoyed look. We almost fell down onto the ground in laughter.

Anubis sighed and muttered something that sounded like 'girls'. He smoothened his expression and turned to Daphne. "Thank you for the invitation," he said without a hint of emotion.

Did I imagine it, or did Emma stiffen for a moment?

"But I'm afraid I'll have to turn it down," he continued. Daphne's eyes widened and she opened her mouth.

SPLAT!

She shrieked as a horror stricken Srisha stood behind her. Daphne let loose a volley of swear words while trying to get the gooey blue and pink ice cream off her beanie and hair. She accidentally stubbed her toe against a vendor's stall and let out another shriek. She hopped on one foot, while screaming and using her hands to both grab her foot and wipe the sticky sweet stuff off her hair.

I temporarily stopped laughing and took the opportunity to grab Srisha and run away from the scene, Anubis and Emma right behind me.

We ran deeper into the Carnival where the mazes ,labyrinths  and the original games and illusions by Night were there. The crowd was thinner here, but still congestive. 

We stopped to catch our breaths.

"I'm so sorry Didi," Srisha finally cried out. " I tripped and it fell on her head."

"It's ok Srisha," I said, wiping her tears away.

"Yeah, you just saved Anubis," Emma added, elbowing the boy.

"Oh yeah, you did," he said, partly genuine.

"I . . . saved someone?" Srisha whispered.

"Yes," I said, taking her hands. She grinned and her eyes widened. "Look at that!"

She ran towards a statue of a stallion in the mouth of a maze. Before I could blink, a haze of darkness shot out, engulfing Srisha and dragging her inside the collapsing maze. She screamed and I ran towards her. No, not my sister. Please, not her.

Her scream was cut off. I just stood there. A numbness spread through my body, before my chest burned. I screamed.

My head, my chest, it hurted. Anubis and Emma were trying to drag me away from the mass of darkness that had started capturing other people. It was the shock of seeing another girl's mother being ripped away from her, and the girl almost being sucked in, that kicked me into action.

No, no more families were going to be ripped apart. Not on my watch. I ran around with Emma, huddling everyone we could possibly reach into a group.

Soon, the darkness had formed a circle around us, trapping the survivors. I one fluid motion, the darkness grabbed most of the adults and sucked them in.

People cried as their loved ones were sucked into the blackness. Those who went after them were sucked in as well.

Emma and I held back the kids, and we drew them in closer into a circle as the Blackness closed in upon us.

Another tendril shot out, grabbing my shoulder. It started sucking me in. It was cold but it felt like nothing was there. Like air.

I dragged my feet into the ground, but the Blackness came closer. A feminine hiss came from the Blackness as a wall of jet black flames erupted in front of me. I scrambled back to see a circle of flames surrounding us.

What was more shocking, was Anubis. His hair stood on end, his amber eyes glowed golden and the same back flames encircled his arms. Emma was watching him, frozen with her mouth slightly open. I ran over to her and held her hand. She squeezed it until I couldn't feel my hand. The survivors watched in awe as the flame ridden boy made the walls go higher.

The feminine voice from earlier whispered from outside the wall.

"Greetings, Son of Death."