"Wow!" I gasped, my eyes widening as the ground seemed to shrink beneath us. The Ferris Wheel hoisted our chairs higher and higher, sending exhilarating gusts of cold air through the top of the passenger cars. I couldn't help but laugh, my hands pressed against the protective glass that separated us from the dizzying hundred-foot drop. Was this what it felt like to be a bird, soaring above the world?

"I like Six Flags," Grace giggled. Her little brown curls bounced up and down as she kicked her legs back and forth on the comfortable seat. She held Mother's hand while sucking on one of the small lollipops that had been used to bribe her into good behavior.

I inhaled slowly as the air brushed my hair out of my face and sighed at the wind's cold touch, which was refreshing against the flaming hot Los Angeles sun. The small golden watch on my wrist sparkled under the sun, reflecting a beam of light onto the seat of the Ferris wheel cart. 

I glanced back at my Father and pointedly looked down at the watch. He nodded with a smile. He was well aware of how proud I was of my watch. I had worn it almost everywhere for a few years now. It had been a gift from him.

"I do too," Mother chimed in, her voice warm and smooth as she poked Grace playfully. She was a comforting presence in the midst of the bustling amusement park.

"Stop it!" Grace squealed and squirmed away from her, putting me between Mother and herself. I narrowed my eyes at her as she obscured the beautiful view.

Grace's rosy cheeks were smeared with sticky blue goo from the lollipop, and her hair was messily pulled back with a small pink hair band that she had insisted on putting on herself today. I cocked my head and frowned. My old view was better.

"Sit down, honey." My Father scooped Grace up and lightly sat her on his lap, resting his chin on her head with a chuckle.

"I didn't know we could go up so high," I marveled, ignoring them. I pressed my face against the glass and watched as it fogged up, obscuring the scenery below. How could they be so distracted when they could see how amazing the world looked here? We were so high up!

"But you've been on an airplane before," Grace pointed out, leaning comfortably back onto our Father's chest.

"It's nothing like this," I whispered as I watched the masses of people scurry like ants through the amusement park. Long lines ran from each ride, the hubbub of the idle chatting crowds so loud that it penetrated through the glass hundreds of feet in the air. Kids ran through the crowd, clutching a variety of sweets and other unhealthy foods. They squealed in excitement as their mothers and fathers raced through the crowd in a vain attempt to catch them. Wonderful music blasted faintly from below, reminding me of the one time we had gone to the circus. I shivered. Clowns, I hated clowns.

"Looks like the ride's almost over," Mother observed as she craned her neck to see out of the window. A strand of brown hair fell in front of her eyes and my Father tucked it behind her ear with a warm smile.

Reluctantly, I turned my attention back to the ground, only to find it looming closer, the once-fuzzy scenery now coming into sharp focus. "No!" I protested.

Mom leaned forward. "We can have snow cones once we get back to the ground," she whispered this conspiratorially as if it were a secret between the two of us.

I perked up and caught sight of the large, pink snow cone shop. I imagined the cold ice melting into my mouth. "Really?"

She leaned forward and stuck out her lip in a fake pout. "But only if you sit by me before the ride ends."

That was good enough for me. I plopped down next to her as the ride slowly descended and eventually came to a complete stop. "Don't get too far ahead of us," Mother murmured, squeezing my hand.

"Hmm," I mumbled but didn't nod. I had no intention of waiting for them; my parents were slow. As soon as the door creaked open, I bolted out. I ran past a man in uniform until a huge crowd stood before me, like a wall between me and the little pink shop.

"Snow cones!" A voice yelled excitedly from behind me. I spun to see Grace on my heels, an equally silly smile on her face. I grinned, grabbed Grace's hand, and pushed my way into the crowd, pulling her behind me as we weaved through the towers of tall people.

"There!" Grace pointed to the left, a pink pole with a flag sticking out of the crowd. Arctic Treats reads in bubbled pink and blue letters.

I changed direction towards the pole and pushed past another group of people before we broke through the largest group and stared up at the cute little pink shop. A woman stood behind the counter with a snow cone and joy plastered across her features. Grace's eyes grew even more expansive in excitement as she made eye contact with me. We stepped forward.

"Wait up, girls!" My Father broke through the crowd's edge and gave us a crooked grin as he passed us.

"No fair!" I protested although I wasn't mad. "You have longer legs."

"Yes, I do." He circled around and reunited with Mother as she jogged with an amused smile after our procession.

She raised an eyebrow at me, "Since you're in such a rush, I'll get the snow cones while you find a spot to sit. It is crowded!" She knelt down to eye level, "What flavor do you want?"

"Watermelon, please." I beamed at her.

"I want a watermelon too!" Grace squeaked.

"Do you want any?" Mother looked up at my Father, who still had a childish grin.

"How about a watermelon?"

"This family sure loves watermelon snow cones." Mother laughed before standing up and disappearing into the crowd.

"I love you, Dad," I laughed, hugging him tightly. I smiled so wide that my eyes squinted and obscured my vision. I imagined the soothing cold watermelon flavor flowing down my throat.

"You're just saying that because I bought you a snow cone." He knelt down and scooped me into a giant bear hug. I cringed away from him as an unfamiliar whiff of metal and smoke washed over me. He worked as a doctor, which usually left a slight tang of hand sanitizer on all his clothes, but today, an unfamiliar smell clung to his shirt. 

I wheezed as his tight embrace took away my breath.

"I love you too." Grace peeped as she wrapped her arms around his leg. He set me down and wrapped his other arm around her.

"Snow cones!" Grace quickly detached from his hug as the watermelon snow cones were revealed through the crowd. Mother's colossal smile was brighter than the smelting sun above us.

"Watermelon for everyone!" She announced. Mother bent down, gave me the first cone, and turned to give the second one to Grace.

I balanced the snow cone precariously and licked the top ice off.

My Father hugged my Mother as she gave him his snow cone. "You are the best woman in the whole wide world."

"I know." She laughed and licked the top of his snow cone.

"Hey!"

"I bought it," She fired back. A huge smile was on her face as my Father kissed her on the cheek and relinquished the snow cone.

We sat on one of the sticky, blue benches, contentedly licking our snow cones. The hot sun caused the ice to drip down over the cone and onto our fingers quickly. My mind started to wander back to the Ferris Wheel. It was so beautiful. I glanced around the park and swiveled my neck, trying to see the different colored shops we'd spotted from so high up.

"Oh no, Grace."

I looked over curiously as my Mother fished inside her purse and pulled out a napkin. She licked it to get the sticky red watermelon juice off Grace's face.

"I'm going to go clean Grace up." She sighed and stared at the sticky stream of juice slowly descending from the front of Grace's shirt. Mother pulled Grace away from us, ignoring her complaints. She hauled her off into the crowd, and they disappeared into the mass of people.

I sat contentedly slumped against the bench as I carefully licked up ice. I shivered with joy as the watermelon flavor ran down my throat. "How can something taste this good?" I murmured, closing my eyes.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

My Father laughed as he licked it. "It's not as good as our kind in Portland."

"We get shave ice in Portland. This is a snow cone. They're different." I said this as a matter of fact.

I stared down at my snow cone and watched in fascination as it melted. The roasting sun made the ice gather into a red pool of flavor at the bottom. I wiped some of the juice that had gotten on my fingers onto the already sticky bench and squinted as an odd shadow slowly crept across the bench toward me. I looked up.

"Dad, look!" I pointed up at the sky. Clouds were slowly snaking their way across the sun, almost unnaturally fast.

My Father stared at the sky. As soon as he saw the shadows, his eyes grew wide. "Lexy, we need to-"

"Hey!" I jumped as a voice erupted from the steady murmur of the people waiting before each ride. "Everyone, get on the ground!"

I searched for the person who had spoken. The crowd cleared a space around a man with his head held high and a sneer plastered across his face. I could barely see him through the crowd of people.

"Is this a part of Six Flags?" I asked nervously. I scooted closer to my Father. I didn't like the way the sky had gotten dark so fast.

"No, sweetie, I don't think it is." He stood up in front of me. Father's usual smile vanished, his eyes darting around in fear. He tightened his grip on my hand, his knuckles white. My Father was brave; he wasn't afraid of anything. Yet, somehow, he seemed scared of whatever was happening right now.

The mysterious man with the booming voice stepped forward and raised his hands. A person rose from the crowd. I stared at the tiny woman that hung from the long black tendril. Her body dangled without moving, and her neck was twisted at an unnatural angle. What was wrong with her?

"Dad?" I whispered. I couldn't stop staring wide-eyed at the man– If it really was a man. His eyes had darkened into two different abysses, four black tendrils snaked out of all four limbs, and as he opened his mouth to speak again, a dark steam started to rise out of it. A cloak of darkness wrapped around him as he lifted his arms. His human figure was swallowed. He looked like a villain from one of my storybooks.

None of it seemed natural. The crowd stayed silent, shocked and amazed. Was this part of the theme park? A new elaborate show? 

Time seemed to slow as the shadows reached into the sky. The woman's dangling figure was swallowed by the growing darkness around the man, almost forgotten as the shadows stretched into intricate shapes above. A booming shout echoed from the blackness, so loud that I covered my ears and shrank away. As the sound faded, all of the shadows stiffened, and then, like a synchronized execution, they snapped in every direction toward the scrambling crowd.

As if the crowd was one unit, it uttered an ear-shattering scream and shattered like glass, pieces breaking off in every direction. People ran over each other and shoved each other down to get away from the man first.

One of the tendrils grabbed a nearby woman by the ankles. She bolted with a surprised shout, only to be stopped abruptly as the shadows tightened. Much like a string being pulled taut. I leaned forward; somebody had to help her, but I felt my Father's hand tighten in my grasp.

Screams seemed to merge into one shriek as the shadows sought new victims. The woman before me looked around desperately at the shadows, clutching her ankle.

"Somebody he-" Her cry was cut off as she was lifted. The shadow swung them high in the air, letting go as she was flung so high her height surpassed one of the ride's neon signs.

I tried to scream, but no noise came out. She was going to hit the ground. She was going to die. This woman would be killed right in front of me. I wanted to close my eyes, tuck myself into the crook of my Father's arm, and pretend like nothing was happening. I wanted to go home.

But I couldn't look away as she shrieked and fell 30 feet, 20 feet, and then 10 feet. Her arms flapped helplessly as if she could slow her descent.

"Dad?" My voice was no more than a whisper. The tendril caught the woman just as she was about to hit the ground, and in one harsh movement, it tugged her into the darkness. The blackness engulfed her screams, swallowing them completely. I could feel my Father pulling on my wrist.

My hands started to shake as I looked toward the dark sky. The silhouettes of bodies in the air, lit eerily by the theme park's neon colors, littered the sky like stars. Everywhere around me, people were dying. Their shrieks echoed in my ears, and I couldn't seem to move.

"Dad?" My voice broke.

"Lexy." He only said my name, not what to do, not that it would be alright. He didn't explain what was happening or tell me this was an elaborate joke. All he said was my name, and he said it with so much grief that it shook me to my core. We were not alright. This was real, and we might die.

My heart thumped loudly in my chest, and my lips trembled. Mom and Grace were nowhere to be found. They might already be dead, too.

I hadn't realized that my Father was pulling me out of the seat. His fingers were wrapped around my wrist. He was telling me something. I looked up at him with a trembling lip, scrunched brow, and tear-glazed eyes.

Hurry.

He was saying that we needed to hurry. I nodded shakily. Too shocked to say anything, I let myself be pulled forward into a run. His grip was so tight in my hand that it hurt.

Blood pumped in my ears and drowned out the screams as I ran faster and faster. I didn't know if the screams belonged to others or were mine. We passed the snow cone shop, then the Ferris Wheel.

"We need to g-" His shout was cut off abruptly. His warm hand tore from my grasp as we were yanked backward, tumbling along the ground. I tasted blood in my mouth.

"Daddy!" I screamed; in a daze, I stumbled to my feet. A shadow had yanked Father backward and had pulled me with him. It was pulling him back by the ankle towards the slowly growing abyss of shadows that surrounded the horrifying monster. 

Blood started to drip down from his eyebrow into his eye. He must have hit his head when we were pulled backward.

Tendrils of darkness continued to drag people into it. Their screams were cut off as they disappeared into the shadows. No longer were the shadows throwing people into the air, like some sick game. The shadows seemed hungry now. Lethal dark whips snagged people and dragged them into the abyss. It was as if the darkness itself was swallowing them.

"Lexy, run!" My Father shouted. He clutched his leg, which had tiny black tendrils slowly slithering up it.

What was happening?

I couldn't seem to breathe; my chest was so tight it hurt, and my heart was beating too fast. I couldn't think. I couldn't move. All I could do was shake helplessly and listen to the screams. The crowds around me were thinning as more and more people got dragged into the shadows or ran away. No bodies were lying around. The darkness had consumed all of its victims.

"Lexy!" The fear in his voice drew my eyes back to his. He was being dragged towards the shadow monster. He needed me.

I stumbled through the stampede of frantic people and to his side. I collapsed beside him, my hands still shaking as my mind spun. Shadows continued to consume his legs. In a daze, I tried to get the shadows off of him, but my hands simply fell through them, and my fingernails only found the skin on my Father's leg. 

Warm tears ran down my face. Where was Mom? Where was Grace? What was happening? I was hiccupping and couldn't stop the tears running down my cheeks.

Desperate people ran in every direction, running each other over to get away from the deadly shadows. I screamed over the shrieks. "Help!"

Nobody listened.

"Leave me!" Father grabbed my arm, and I froze. His eyes were so large, so scared, so sorrowful. Blood continued to drip down his face from his eyebrow. Fear clenched my heart so hard that I let out a gasp.

"This isn't real." I sobbed as desperation started to replace my fear. He was slowly being dragged towards the monster. It was going to kill him. I tried more frantically to claw the shadows of my Father. The shadows felt cold as my hands fell through them like mist. They wouldn't budge!

"Run! I'll catch up as soon as I can." Father pleaded, once again pushing my hands away. He was kicking at the shadows and trying to scramble out of it. He tried to hit them, to do anything to disrupt them, but nothing was working. They started crawling up his torso.

"I'm not going to leave you." I whimpered and tried again to peel the cold shadows off of him. They had to let go. My Father had to come with me.

"You have to." He looked into my eyes with a small, reassuring smile. "I'll be okay. Go!"

I screamed as I felt something snake around my ankle and tug me harshly toward the ground. My world spun as the side of my head met the concrete. The sickening crunch sent stars across my vision.

"No!" My Father's roar pierced through the throbbing headache as I tried to squirm away from the shadows. I screamed as I felt it tug my leg again, yanking me away from my Father.

The shadows snaked further up him, and a tentacle of shadows started to slither its way around his neck.

"I'm going to free you, and you need to run!" My Father shouted to me. He was fishing for something out of his pocket when he gave another hoarse cry. The dark tendril yanked him farther away from me.

"I can't leave you!" My whole body shook as tears of fear streamed down my cheeks.

"Find Mother and Grace and run. Protect them. Don't let the shadows catch you!"

I shook my head as another whimper escaped my lips, and my bottom lip trembled uncontrollably. He smiled sadly at me. "I love you so much. You're stronger than you know. Never forget that."

The shadow clamped around my knee. They snaked their way up my leg as if it were consuming me. My heart clenched with fear. I didn't want to die.

I closed my eyes tightly and tried to erase this nightmare as I was lifted off the ground. I hung there, an eerie cold surrounding me.

I forced my eyes open. I didn't want to die in the dark.

I stared into large, inhumanly red eyes; terror stopped my heart in its place. It was like staring into hell itself. The sight sent a shiver up my spine and made me cry out from the pure horror surrounding me. Bodies hung next to me, each one dangling with their necks snapped. Their empty eyes and crooked composures were the only indications that they were dead.

The shadows seemed to stalk around me, darting closer and backing off as if playing with their prey. I screamed as I felt the shadow creep around my neck and tighten. I was going to die.

"Go!" My Father shouted from somewhere. A long, sharp ringing buzzed through the air.

The darkness bellowed and revealed the murderous man within the shadows. The man had short ginger hair and glowing red eyes. He looked so normal, so weakly human. I barely saw him before a cloak of darkness once again enveloped him. The shadows holding me disappeared. I crashed to the ground and screamed as a sharp sensation tore through my leg. I had fallen on the edge of something. Sticky blood started immediately trickling down it.

"Run!" My dad shouted as tendrils snaked towards me again, quicker and fiercer. It was murderous.

I scrambled away from the shadows and cried out as I put pressure on my bloody leg. I didn't dare look down at it as I took one last desperate glance at my fighting Father. I couldn't leave him.

He was trying to shout something to me, and his face was screwed up in pain. I couldn't hear him over the crowd screaming as they tried to escape the darkness. I stared at his lips and tried desperately to read what they were saying.

He wanted me to run. He was screaming at me to run. My legs felt like they had turned to stone, and my head throbbed terribly. I couldn't leave him.

Run. The shadows crept towards me again, and I felt warm tears streaming down my face. I wasn't brave like my Father.

I didn't want to die.

A cry escaped my lips as I turned and ran away from the horrible scene and my Father as fast as possible. I tore around the corner. I looked back seconds before I saw the wall of darkness rise around my Father's figure.

"Daddy!" I shrieked, and my voice broke horribly. I was a coward.

Coward, the words repeated in my head repeatedly as I cried into my hands. My breath was ragged, and my heartbeat uncontrollably fast. I wasn't strong, I wasn't brave, I was a coward. I ran away as fast as I could.