it, I could feel it in my gut. This was where the piece was.
“I’ll be taking that piece.”
“The compartment only opens when it’s at the top of the wheel,” he told me, and his smile widened.
No doubt he had something sinister in store for me. But I was ready for it.
“So if I ride it to the top, the compartment will open, and I can simply…take the piece of the head? That seems too easy.”
He scratched at his face, leaving bloody marks. “Nothing is ever that easy.”
I made sure to put the backpack on tightly and walked up the platform. When I climbed into the seat, I pushed the bar down on the side I’d walked through and listened to it click into place. Then I pulled the chain over my lap and locked it. Across from me, the seat was empty, but I could see the outline of a hidden compartment.
As I leaned forward and tried to open it, unsuccessfully, then I heard Alastair scream. My head jerked in the direction of the sound, but then the Ferris wheel began to play a soft melody and it jerked into motion.
It was difficult. I gathered more and more shadows to me, pulling on my abilities, no matter how much of my powers it took. I had a plan, and I needed a lot of shadows if I hoped to survive. The area around the Ferris wheel was almost blacked out by my shadows, and only the distant light of the setting sun peeked through the shadows.
When I came to the very top, the compartment made a sound and slowly slid open. I reached forward, and that’s when the passenger car swung upside down. I cried out and grabbed onto the side of the car, the chain over my lap strained. My teeth gritted together. I could see the piece of the head tucked into the compartment. All I had to do was reach it.
Leaning forward, the eerie sound of the Ferris wheel grew louder, and the passenger car began to swing harder and harder. I could feel the metal links across my lap opening. My teeth clenched together so hard that I swear they cracked, and I stretched forward until my gloved hand closed around the piece of the Horseman’s head.
And then, the chain broke. For one minute, I was hanging by one hand, the piece of the head in the other, and then I was falling. I heard the manic laughter of the carney below me, and then I pulled on my powers.
The cloud of shadows gathered beneath me, slowing my fall. I knew it was possible to use them to fly, but it’d drain me to the point of uselessness, so I just used them to slow my fall until my feet hit the ground with barely any force.
And then, I was safely on the ground, the piece of the head in my hand. I released most of my shadows, leaving only a small cloud above me, then took my little grocery bag and put the second piece inside.
“No!”
I glanced up and saw the man. His face was pale, his eyes wide. “You cannot give that to the Horseman. He will be unstoppable. He will bring about the end of this world.”
“You don’t understand,” I said.
He moved closer to me. “You don’t understand. Good people, good creatures, they stayed in this cursed place. They let it twist us. They let it destroy us. All to keep the head from him and his followers. We cannot let you take it. We cannot let you leave. Our job is too important.”
I held his gaze. “We’re going to destroy the head.”
He froze. “It’s impossible. Don’t you think we tried that? Don’t you think we all tried to destroy the pieces?”
For the first time, I felt doubt. Was it true? Was there a whole group of creatures who had sacrificed everything to keep the world safe from the Horseman? If we took the pieces from this place after they’d tried for so long to destroy the pieces, would we really be able to do better?
My teeth clenched together. I had to believe we could. If the Horseman kept going, with or without his head, the world would be his to take. We had to try.
“I think we can do it,” I told him. “But thank you for everything you’ve done.”
He screamed and rushed me, clenching his screwdriver in his hand.
I knocked his hand away and punched him squarely in the face. He