Summer Festival
Ven winds up their arm, and throws…
And hits! The doorknob panel was slow enough to be an easy target, and Aja, Rem, and Venetus are directed toward their prize: A weathered door in an alcove behind the machine.
They can only guess at what might lie inside.
⚘✾❁❀⚘
The three walk into darkness. As the door shuts behind them, all noise is cut off from the carnival outside, and the room is eerily silent. An unnatural chill runs down Ven’s spine, and a hollow rattling sound echoes behind them.
“I don’t like this,” they murmur.
“It’s fine…let’s just, go forward,” Rem says, but there is tension in their voice.
The group advances slowly, toward the only source of light: a glowing, crystal-infused radio communicator on a table. They crowd cautiously around it.
RING-RING RING-RING RING-RING
Ven jumps at the sudden noise. “Are we supposed to take the call?” they ask.
"I think so." Aja looks around the room. There's nothing but darkness, the radio, Venetus, and Rem.
"Well, don't look at me!" Rem says. They nudge Ven pointedly with their foot.
Venetus steps forward, lifts the receiver, and speaks.
“Hello?”
The voice on the other end echoes strangely throughout the room.
“Welcome, welcome," the bell-like voice says. It seems to come from just over Ven's shoulder, but when they turn to look, nothing is there.
"To pass through here and see the show, you must first demonstrate what you know.” The sing-song words chime over their other shoulder.
There is a pause before the voice speaks again, this time from in front of the trio.
“You have three attempts,” it says, and continues on to recite a poem:
Shell in shell then soft inside
A place to sleep, a place to hide
A place of salt, a place in deep
Until they grow too large to keep
“Uhhhhhmm…a riddle? OK,” Ven begins. "A place to sleep…" They look to their comrades.
Aja holds her arms up, bringing her fingers together to make a roof shape above her head.
"House. A house?“ Ven speaks into the receiver.
“That is…” the voice begins, “Incorrect. You have two more guesses.”
Venetus looks to Rem. "Salt, shell…outer shell…like a bread crust!" Rem says. "Is it bread?“
Ven moves to repeat Rem's answer into the receiver, but before they do, the voice responds from the ceiling, “That is incorrect. You have one more guess.”
It then speaks another line:
Through the sea these creatures roam
In hardened shells they call a home
Ven searches their mind, the darkness around them encroaching ever closer. "Hardened shell they call a home…sea creatures…is it…a hermit crab?" they ask.
“Is that your final answer?” the voice asks.
“Uhm, yes,” Ven responds. Their voice echoes faintly as they speak the words.
“That is…” the voice begins, “CORRECT!”
“EEP!” Aja gasps.
The room is filled with light. Tiny mechanized animals hang from the ceiling and travel around the room in cascading arcs.
“That is not fair,” Aja says, but she’s laughing now. A mechanical bird flutters overhead, brass wings glimmering.
"Can't believe I thought it was bread," Rem chuckles. Cutouts resembling foamed ocean waves move to and fro in sea-saw motions, and a ring of dancing crabs spin and twirl to musicbox melodies.
The three watch for some time, until, at last, the lights dim, and the creatures recede.
The voice is silent. The show is over.
The trio exits, emerging back into the light.