chapter 6.

I was curious as to why the organizers of the fair would push one of the booths so far from public view, and with such a dimly lit sign that barely caught the eye. I wasn't sure what exactly had drawn my eye to it, seeing as how it looked vacant to start, but I felt compelled to go to it. There wasn't anyone around, just the booming music of the live band and the sound of chatter in the distance. For a moment I felt like I was walking into the scene of a horror movie, checking over my shoulder before gently swiping the drapes aside to step inside of the tent. The outside of the tent was not in the least bit misleading, inside was just as small and crowded. There was a table with two chairs on either side and some string lights keeping the place lit, while a strange woman occupied one of the seats. She had a smile on her face, almost knowing that I was going to be there, her fingers laced together in front of her. I couldn't help but notice that the left half of her face was speckled with pale pink scars, not matching the rest of her beautiful mahogany skin. It took me a moment to realize that her left eye was also glass, the pupil unmoving as she motioned for me to sit down.

"I just came to check on you to see how things were going. I don't get why they pushed your booth so far in the corner --- I almost missed it myself," I said, opening the drapes slightly to look back outside.

The woman smiled wider, her top row of teeth completely missing. Whoever had booked this woman really went above and beyond to find someone creepy. In fact she really didn't fit the atmosphere of the fair at all, had it been the Autumn Fair I could understand her presence, but she seemed out of place.

"Have a seat," She said, once again pointing to the empty chair in front of her. "We both know you didn't come here for that reason."

I pulled out the chair and sat down without thinking, questioning why it was that I had. "Oh, I get it. They must give you a hefty pay to not break character, right?"

She ignored my question and immediately reached for my hands, her calloused fingers slipping around my own as she rubbed her thumbs against my palms. For a moment I could have sworn I felt electricity being pulled from my body and into hers, hearing her hum softly to herself as she closed her eyes and allowed her head to tip back. I wanted to pull my hands away from her, feeling as though she was overstepping her boundaries, but I couldn't seem to do anything besides stare at her. She nodded a few times, not bothering to say anything until she exhaled deeply, smoke gently wafting from her mouth. I blinked a few times, finding it rather strange that she was so in her character, and wondering to myself how she managed to exhale smoke.

"You're inquisitive," She mumbled, shifting her shoulders from side to side as she continued to stroke my palms. "You search for meaning and depth in shallow waters."

"I suppose," I said, knowing fully well that she was just doing the typical mystic spout off a lot of hogwash until something sticks act.

"But you've tapped into a spring beneath the pond, and the fresh water is trickling through," She said, again exhaling a tiny puff of smoke that was nothing more than a wisp into the air in a few seconds. She paused, her eyebrows furrowing before her eyes opened. "You don't know how it happens, do you?"

I leaned forward, shrugging my shoulders. "How what happens?"

In an instant, horror struck her face and she ripped her hands from mine, leaving them dangling in the air as she gasped. I could see she was visibly shaken, making me feel uncomfortable. Whoever had taught this woman her shtick really knew what they were doing, given the fact that I hadn't even exchanged any money for her services. In fact, I wasn't sure I even saw a price on the sign in the first place.

She leaned over the table, her lips pulling into a thin line as her eyes widened. I was unnerved by how scary her appearance was; she had long graying dreads that hung in knots around her slender face, her clothing was tattered and almost looked as though they had been hand sewn, and she had the longest fingernails that were yellowing at the tips from what I could only assume was years of smoking tobacco.

Goosebumps were visibly raising on her bangle-covered arms, once more touching her fingers against my hand. "If fate makes it so, you cannot interfere."

For a moment I felt as though she had seen my premonition for herself, but I knew that was impossible. I was just thinking too far into it, there had to be some way she was reading my emotional responses and using it for her own act. Instead of playing into her scheme, I shrugged. "I have no idea what you're talking about, lady, but this is pretty good. You must come from a long line of actors."

In an instant she dug her nails into my hand, causing me to flinch as I tried my best to pull away but she wouldn't allow it. "At least respect the ashes of the one who died for you!" She shrieked, breaking the skin on my hand. I snapped my hand away from her tight grasp, seeing a small trickle of blood appearing. I grabbed my hand, shoving the chair back so that it fell onto its side.

"You just cut me! Are you out of your mind?" I yelled, nursing my hand as the blood oozed softly from the new wound.

She stood up from the table, smashing her fists down on it, causing it to crack beneath her. Her eyes were wild like a hungry animal that had been woken up from a long winters sleep, her mouth pulled open to expose naked dark gums. "He will die! He will die! He will die!" She chanted over and over, her voice cracking with every word.

I stepped further away from her, my back opening the drapes as I stepped out of the tent. She, in turn, stalked towards me, exposing her decrepit bare feet as she tried to breach the distance between us. I put my hands out in front of me, searching over to my right to see if there was anyone nearby to help. "Stay back or I'll scream!"

She lunged towards me, but I dodged out of her way, quickly losing my footing and falling backwards as she, once more, jumped at me. I managed to roll out of her fall line, quickly shoving myself up from the ground. "What the hell is wrong with you? This isn't funny, I'm going to make sure they never hire you again."

With a deadpan look across her face, she stared at me as I carefully backed away from her and made my descent towards the crowd. I couldn't take my eyes from her, still feeling as though she was, as weird as it may sound, inside of me. As soon as I was far enough away from her, I quickly ran towards the main fair hall. I couldn't shake the feeling as though she was still watching me, that she was reading my thoughts and inserting herself into my head. As much as I didn't want to admit it, I hated how accurate everything she said was, even if it all didn't make sense. How was she able to say what was exactly going through my head? I tried to shake off the feeling she left with me, but I couldn't. My hand was still oozing slightly, wondering if I would have to go get some sort of needle to make sure she didn't infect me with God only knows what kind of disease. I was definitely going to have to talk with Jannie about whoever decided to hire this woman, especially since there were a lot of children around and who knows what kind of criminal record she has. The cut wasn't terrible, but it was annoying to say the least. As soon as I found the nearest washroom, I went inside to wash out the wound with warm water and soap. It didn't bleed for very long, so I wouldn't need to put a band-aid on it. Suffice to say I wasn't going to bleed out any time soon, it was merely a knick.

I looked at my wrist-watch, seeing that I was late to the pageant. Jannie had wanted my help making sure that each of the girls were ready to go on stage, but clearly I had missed a majority of them for their first walk up. I rushed to the hall to meet Jannie behind stage, who looked like she could use a bottle of water and perhaps a nap. It wasn't often that Jannie looked flustered, I envied her ability to look poise and flawless. She had such big beautiful blue eyes that were lined with heavy black lashes, while her face was scattered faded freckles that donned her nose and cheeks and the sweetest beauty spot on her top lip. She didn't need make-up because she had been blessed with the kisses of nature, each defining mark more beautiful than the last. But tonight she looked disheveled, clearly not everything was going according to plan.

As soon as she looked in my direction and saw me jogging up to her, she sighed with relief and her tense shoulders caved in. "Nicole Harriet can't keep down her dinner long enough to get on stage, I don't know how I'm supposed to get her out there. She's supposed to be crowned Harrow Hall County Princess in less than half an hour, but she couldn't even make it to her first walk up."

"Where is she now?" I said, scanning around the back of the stage, my eyes finally landing on the eight year old who was hugging a bucket near the back while her mother gently massaged between her shoulders. "Did she take any Pepto or something to calm her stomach?"

"Apparently her mother believes that it's better out than in, but if the kid doesn't stop ralphing soon, then she won't be crowned Princess," Jannie said, looking over her shoulder at Nicole.

I leaned in to Jannie, keeping my voice low. "Would that be such a bad thing?"

Jannie scoffed, shrugging her shoulders. "At this rate, I don't think it would. We could just make the original runner-up the Princess instead."

"So why don't you?"

I could tell she was mulling it over, glancing back at Nicole once more before peeking out at the judges that were seated facing the front of the stage. "I mean, I could...but I could get in a lot of trouble for it."

"If she pukes on stage, I'm pretty sure that would be worse."

"You have a point," Jannie mumbled, watching the events on stage for a moment. She turned to look at me as though she was trying to figure something out, but shook her head.

I quirked an eyebrow. "What's up?"

"Oh, it's nothing. I just heard you left the concession."

Damn Jerry, I thought, what a nark. I shoved my hands into my pockets, watching the Queen hopefuls as they each took turns walking up to speak into the microphone. "Yeah, I went to get some more popcorn and ran into John."

She perked up. "Oh yeah?"

"Mm-hmm," I acknowledged. I didn't want to nag her, but I felt it was also important to bring up Atheson and Hadley. "Yeah, he took me up on my offer to come tonight. He was already going with his cousin, so that worked out both ways."

I noticed that she went silent, obviously trying her best to hide the secret that I was now fully aware of. I cleared my throat, shifting on either foot. "So it turns out Hadley is Atheson's girlfriend."

She bit her lip before releasing it, looking over to me apologetically. "I didn't feel like it was my place to say anything."

"If it's anyone's place to say something, it was definitely yours. But I'm not mad, Jannie, just confused why you wouldn't tell me about it before."

"You seemed to be handling the break-up so well, I didn't want you to get caught up in his drama. And now that I know she's related to John, I really didn't want you to find out."

"Why? I'm an adult, I can keep myself in check enough to be polite. Besides, he seems happy with her, and in the end that's all that really matters," I replied, though I wasn't entirely sure if I believed what I was saying.

Jannie didn't look convinced whatsoever, standing on the tips of her toes to see out over the crowd. I knew fully well that she wanted to believe I was a secret blubbering mess over Atheson, but I really wasn't. I wasn't comfortable with the idea of Hadley being the woman he left me for, but it didn't make a difference who it was. Atheson chose to break-up with me to be with someone else, that was his decision. I wasn't going to spend all of my time moping over him when I had better things to do, especially given the circumstances with John.

"You can ask me how I really feel about it, Jannie, and I'm not going to lie to you," I said, eying the crowd as they clapped for one of the contestants. Jannie didn't reply, instead she chewed at her lip nervously. "I'm not upset about him, I promise. I didn't run off crying when he left me and it doesn't make any difference now that I know who he's with. Is it weird that I like his girlfriend's cousin? Yeah, it's a bit awkward. But I'm a big girl, and I'd like to think I can act like one for the sake of something better coming into my life."

Jannie snapped her head over to me, a coy smile prying against her mouth as she narrowed her eyes at me. "You like John?"

My cheeks flushed, trying to hide the fact that I admitted to something I wasn't entirely sure about yet. John was definitely nice, and he certainly made me feel all sorts of mushy things, but I also had to face the fact that I knew he was going to die in only a few short months.

"But," Jannie pondered, the smile wiping from her face, "what about – the premonition?"

I didn't know how to answer her, because I didn't know what to make of any of it. Which brought to mind the strange oracle that I had an unpleasant experience with just a little while ago, trying to steer the conversation away from John.

"Say, whose idea was it to hire the freaky fortune teller?" I questioned, watching as the contestants made their way off stage and into the back with us.

Jannie helped the girls down from the stairs one by one before looking over to me, confusion marking her face. "What fortune teller?"

"The one that was pushed into the corner by the stage?"

She shook her head. "I don't know what you're talking about, we didn't hire a fortune teller. That's more of a fall fair activity, anyhow."

"That's what I thought, too. She was crazy, she grabbed me and dug her dirty fingernails into my skin. Look what she did!" I said, showing the tiny cut from the woman. Jannie shrunk away, looking at me as though I was now infected with some contagious disease. "That's disgusting! Where did you say her booth was set up?"

I explained to her where I saw the tent and what the woman said to me, but Jannie was clueless to who would hire someone like her, especially since no one had discussed her booth in any of the county board meetings that she had attended. She mentioned that she would take a look into it with one of the senior board members after the pageant, but right now she wanted to focus on this. It was almost time to crown both the Harrow Hall County Fair Queen and Princess.

I looked at the line-up for the Queen hopefuls, noting just how much they all looked like beautiful dolls with their hair done in tight curls and their glittery dresses and long evening gloves. I knew most of the girls pretty well because of my coworkers and having been in Harrow Hall for much longer than I wanted to admit, but one face stood out from the rest. Little did I know that Rechyl from work was one of the contestants, she barely resembled how she looked at work. That was saying a lot because Rechyl was often done up in a full face of make-up and her hair perfectly contained in an Instagram-worthy ponytail, but tonight she looked like a true queen. I knew fully well that she wasn't the winner, because Jannie had divulged the spoilers a few weeks back, but part of me wished that she would win. I could tell how excited she was by the way her face was plastered with a pristine smile yet her teeth were gnashed tightly together, waiting for the moment that they were all called back up on stage. Even though Rechyl wasn't my most favourite person on the planet, I still wished her well and wanted nothing more than to see the joy on her face as the crown was placed on her head while the shimmering sash was wrapped around her slim figure.

Jannie broke my thoughts as she grabbed my wrist to look at the time, turning around to the contestants to snap her fingers for them to line up at the stairs again. They lined up, primping themselves as they all hummed with excitement, whispering back and forth. Jannie got the signal from someone on stage to get the girls to go out, ushering each of them up one at a time. When the time came for Rechyl to pass by, I reached out to wish her well, but as my hand met the soft skin of her arm, I was suddenly snapped into another time and place.

I could barely see as my eyes were filled with tears, noting the loud boom of the car stereo as I felt my chest wheeze between my cries. I realized quickly that it wasn't me, noting the painted fingernails that I was having a premonition of Rechyl. She was very upset, weaving all over the road as she cried and smashed her fists against the steering wheel, causing her car to drift every so often across the yellow line. She was able to correct herself from time to time, but was clearly too emotional to be driving. At one point she screamed so loud that I thought her eardrums were going to burst. She punched the steering wheel, causing the vehicle to swerve onto the shoulder of the road before she quickly tried to stop herself from going into the ditch. But she over-corrected too fast, sending the car into panicked swerves all over the road until she slammed on the brakes, the car skidding to the side and quickly flipping over due to the speed she was going. I felt her body release from the seat, noting that she hadn't bothered to wear her seat-belt, and quickly she was ejected from the rolling vehicle, killing her almost instantly.

I snapped back into the present time, my hand still grasping Rechyl's arm, but squeezing tightly. She quickly ripped her arm away from me, snarling at me as though I had purposefully tried to hurt her. "What the hell is wrong with you? Don't touch me, freak."

Jannie snapped at Rechyl, having overheard what was said, quickly making eye contact with me to figure out what had happened. I could feel that I was pale as a ghost, my stomach churning with anxiety once more. Tears swelled in my eyes, choking them back as the last of the girls made their way onto stage. Jannie didn't have time to attend to me, and I was glad that she didn't. I didn't want to repeat what I had just seen, praying that somehow I had gotten it wrong.

I watched the rest of the pageant and as Brianne Morley was crowned Harrow Hall County Fair Queen, gleaming from ear to ear as she accepted each of her prizes. In the midst of it all Rechyl grinned and bared it, trying her best not to cry. Surely a title like Queen wasn't so important that Rechyl would get herself recklessly killed, there had to be some way to warn her.

When the show was over, the girls came down from the stage and were greeted by loved ones. The back of the stage filled with people, making it hard for me to navigate my way towards Rechyl. If I could do anything to stop the horrible from happening, it had to be this. I quickly pushed through the crowd until I approached Rechyl, who immediately rolled her eyes at me as I walked up.

"I'm sorry about before, but I need to talk to you," I said, keeping my voice hushed.

Rechyl faked a smile, looking over to her friends and family who were gathered around her. "No hard feelings, Ellion, but I'm a little busy. We can talk at another time."

I shook my head, wanting to reach out to pull her away from everyone, but immediately recoiling before I made the same mistake twice. If she wasn't going to listen to me, then I had to at least say something while I had the chance. I leaned in, but she awkwardly stepped away. "Wear a seat-belt," I whispered to her.

She nodded, raising her eyebrows in the way people often do when they are uncomfortable. "Whatever you say," She replied, avoiding me from there on out.

It wasn't much, but I had hoped with everything I had that maybe it would make a difference. Only time would tell.