Main Page Go to Short Stories Go back to Articles Go to Comics Go to Continued Series Go to Editorial Go to New Series

Show All | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 | Week 13 | Week 14 | Week 15 | Week 16 | Week 17 | Week 18 | Week 19 | Week 20 | Week 21 | Week 22 | Week 23 | Week 24 | Week 25 | Week 26 | Week 27 | Week 28 | Week 29 | Week 30 | Week 31 | Week 32 | Week 33 | Week 34 | Week 35 | Week 36 | Week 37 | Week 38 | Week 39 | Week 40 | Week 41 | Week 42 | Week 43 | Week 44 | Week 45 | Week 46 | Week 47 | Week 48 | Week 49 | Week 50 | Week 51 | Week 52 | Week 53 | Week 54 | Week 55 | Week 56 | Week 57 | Week 58 | Week 59 | Week 60 | Week 61 | Week 62 | Week 63 | Week 64 | Week 65 | Week 66 | Week 67 | Week 68 | Week 69 | Week 70 | Week 71 | Week 72 | Week 73 | Week 74 | Week 75 | Week 76 | Week 77 | Week 78 | Week 79 | Week 80 | Week 81 | Week 82 | Week 83 | Week 84 | Week 85 | Week 86 | Week 87 | Week 88 | Week 89 | Week 90 | Week 91 | Week 92 | Week 93 | Week 94 | Week 95 | Week 96 | Week 97 | Week 98 | Week 99 | Week 100 | Week 101 | Week 102 | Week 103 | Week 104 | Week 105 | Week 106 | Week 107 | Week 108 | Week 109 | Week 110 | Week 111 | Week 112 | Week 113 | Week 114 | Week 115 | Week 116 | Week 117 | Week 118 | Week 119 | Week 120 | Week 121 | Week 122 | Week 123 | Week 124 | Week 125 | Week 126 | Week 127 | Week 128 | Week 129 | Week 130 | Week 131 | Week 132 | Week 133 | Week 134 | Week 135 | Week 136 | Week 137 | Week 138 | Week 139 | Week 140 | Week 141 | Week 142 | Week 143 | Week 144 | Week 145 | Week 146 | Week 147 | Week 148 | Week 149

Neopia's Fill in the Blank News Source | 29th day of Running, Yr 26
The Neopian Times Week 114 > Short Stories > Fun and Games at the Deserted Fairground

Fun and Games at the Deserted Fairground

by mystery03

It was Halloween night, and mystery03's NeoHome was bustling with activity. Mystery's Neopets were adding the final touches to their costumes. Aura had painted his metallic body green, and had taped two green toilet paper rolls to the top of his helmet, in order to be a Grundo. Piccoro was a vampire; he donned a black cape and was chewing on a pair of plastic fangs. LittleMist was a ghost; he had gone with the "classic" look by draping a white sheet with eyeholes over his body. MoeGirl was a fly; she had wrapped her wings in aluminium foil and was wearing a fly mask. After each pet had finished their costume, they began to critique each other.

     "LittleMist," Aura said, "that is the dumbest costume I've ever seen!"

     "Oh yeah?" retorted LittleMist, from under his sheet. "At least my costume will come off tonight!"

     "What do you mean?" asked Aura, bewildered.

     LittleMist picked up a nearby green paint can and pointed at some words on the label. Aura gasped. The can said "Permanent Paint". Piccoro was watching the two and fell on the floor, howling with laughter.

     "Be quiet!" Aura said, embarrassed. "At least I'm not the one chewing on my costume!"

     Piccoro immediately silenced himself. His plastic fangs were partially sticking out of his mouth, and they had huge dents in them from Piccorro's teeth.

     "Agg!" MoeGirl said, bumping into LittleMist and knocking him to the ground. "I can't see in this mask!"

     Just then, Dr. Sloth walked into the room, causing a shocked silence to fall over all the Neopets. All of them, except MoeGirl, that is. She couldn't see Dr. Sloth and kept wandering around the room.

     "Where am I going?" she said to herself.

     "MoeGirl, quiet!" Aura said.

     "Quiet?" MoeGirl repeated. "Why? What's wrong with-"

     At that moment, MoeGirl had bumped into Dr. Sloth. Curious as to what she had bumped into, she removed her mask and stared up into the face of Dr. Sloth. She gasped and fell to the ground.

     "Foolish pet," Dr. Sloth said, aiming a ray gun at MoeGirl.

     "STOP!" Aura said, taking out a wand, and preparing to fire.

     "Wait!" Dr. Sloth said, lowering his ray gun and tugging his face off. Underneath the green skin was… Mystery! Once he had taken his mask off, he started laughing.

     MoeGirl, just realizing the trick that had been played on them, got up and kicked Mystery in the shin.

     "Ow!" he said, rubbing his wounded shin.

     "That wasn't a very funny trick!" MoeGirl fumed.

     "Sweet costume!" LittleMist said excitedly. "We thought you were really Sloth for a second! That mask is so realistic looking!"

     "Thanks," Mystery said, chuckling. "But enough chit-chat… let's go trick-or-treating!"

     "Yay!" All the pets shouted.

     "But where are we trick-or-treating at, Mystery?" Piccoro asked.

     "Hmm, that's a good question, Piccoro…" Mystery said, thinking hard. "We need a good spot. One that gives out lots of candy, and one that's really spooky!"

     Mystery stood in thought for a moment, and then a smile spread across his face.

     "I know just the place!" he said, rushing out of the NeoHome with his Neopets closely behind him.

****

The four pets and their owner ran through the Haunted Woods for what seemed like hours. They were running in and out of patches of trees, getting scratched by the branches all the while. The pets' feet were tired, and they were starting to complain.

     "Are we there yet?" MoeGirl whined.

     "Almost!" Mystery said excitedly, continuing to run, never slacking in his pace.

     "How much farther?" Piccoro asked doggedly.

     "Well," Mystery said slowly, rounding a corner and emerging from a thicket of trees. "We're here!"

     All of Mystery's pets were shocked at the sight before them. They had come to the Deserted Fairground, but it wasn't deserted. It was very crowded, decorated, and eerie looking. The usual ripped tents had been replaced by clean, dark purple ones. The clown ride was running, and screams of excitement and fear could be heard from the cars that sped along the track. Even the clown that the roller coaster went into looked scarier than usual. It was repainted and looked very realistic. The usual booths and stalls, like Sidney's scratch cards and Test Your Strength were still there as well, but they seemed so unimportant compared to the new rides.

     "Stop gawking and let's go inside!" Mystery shouted as his pets, as he stepped through the tall, rusty entrance gates and paid the Halloween Mynci for five tickets.

     "Let's go on the clown coaster!" MoeGirl squeaked at Mystery. "Please?"

     "Sure, why not?" Mystery said. He turned to the other three pets. "Are you guys up for the coaster?"

     "Yeah!" LittleMist said.

     "Yeah!" Aura said.

     "Yeah…" Piccoro said nervously, staring at the ground.

     "Okay, let's get in line for it then!" Mystery said. They were almost to the coaster when a voice nearby whispered out to them.

     "Sssstrangers," the voice said, "why don't you come here for a sssecond? Here's your chance to win big, big ssspending money!"

     Mystery turned and saw Sidney the Nimmo's booth. Sidney was sitting at a table with a big pile of scratch cards and a covered box.

     "Hey, let's give it a try, Mystery," LittleMist said. "We might win something good!"

     "Okay," Mystery said. He handed Sidney 1,200 Neopoints. Piccoro breathed a sigh of relief. His family had forgotten all about the roller coaster.

     "Give me a good one," Mystery said to Sidney.

     "I'll try my besssst…" Sidney said, smiling, as he handed Mystery a Crypt of Chance scratch card.

     Mystery nervously scratched away. He almost didn't win anything, but in the end, he got the "item" win.

     "I wonder what you'll get," Aura said excitedly as Sidney reached into his prize box.

     Everyone was silent as Sidney pulled out a squishy, brown snowball.

     "Ugg!" Mystery and his pets exclaimed as Sidney reached his hand out to give them the prize.

     "No way!" Mystery said, starting to gag. "Keep it!"

     Sidney frowned, putting the snowball back in the box.

     "You'll regret that," he said. "I put hard work into getting these prizes, and you just reject them!? I'll be so happy when midnight rolls around and all you pathetic mortals are still here… err…" Sidney stopped, noticing he revealed too much.

     "What do you mean?" Mystery asked, confused. "What's happening at midnight?"

     "Nothing!" Sidney yelled. "NOW LEAVE!" His eyes were bulging out and he was turning a deep shade of scarlet.

     Mystery and his pets left as fast as they could. They stood outside the clown roller coaster discussing what had happened.

     "What was that?!" Aura asked.

     "I have no idea," LittleMist said. "For some reason, Sidney's in a bad mood…"

     "I dunno," Mystery said. "He seemed happy at first."

     "That's true," MoeGirl said. "But enough about that. Let's go on the roller coaster!"'

     Piccoro paled, while everyone else cheered. He knew there was no way to escape now. His fate seemed inevitable.

     Fortunately, Mystery noticed that Piccoro looked pail.

     "Piccoro, do you not want to go on the ride?" he asked.

     MoeGirl snickered.

     "I hope he wants to go on," she said. "If he doesn't, that makes him a WIMP!"

     LittleMist and Aura laughed loudly, but Piccoro just got angry.

     "Just because I don't want to go on it doesn't mean I'm a wimp!!!" Piccoro fumed.

     The other pets were about to argue, but Mystery silenced them.

     "He's right, guys. Just because he doesn't want to go on a ride doesn't make him a wimp. Different people are strong in different ways. I'll tell you what," he said, turning to MoeGirl, Aura, and LittleMist, "I'll take the three of you on the ride and Piccoro can go off on his own until we're done."

     Piccoro smiled at this proposal, but the other three pets just shook their heads. They felt that only a wimp would miss the chance to ride such an awesome roller coaster.

     Mystery glanced at the long line for the roller coaster and became crestfallen. They'd be in line for a while. "Make yourself comfortable and find something that'll occupy you for a while," he said to Piccoro.

     "I will," Piccoro said as he parted from his family. He wandered over to a popcorn stall to get a snack to munch on as he pondered where to go.

     There were so many things going on. He could visit the Wheel of Misfortune. He started to walk over to the huge wooden wheel, but then he saw that someone had just spun it and their face had suddenly erupted in red blotches. He decided that the wheel was too risky. He decided to visit test his strength instead, at Arnold the Mynci's booth.

     "Welcome!" the ugly purple Mynci said as Piccoro stepped up. "Here to test your strength, little one?"

     "Of course," Piccoro replied.

     Arnold smiled and grabbed a megaphone. "Ladies and gents!" he boomed to everyone nearby. "This puny neopet is going to test his strength! Think he can do well? Let's see!"

     Piccoro blushed nervously as dozens of faces turned to watch him. He stepped up to the booth and picked up the mallet. It was heavier than he expected, and he grunted under its weight as he walked over to the target he was supposed to hit.

     "Don't trip now!" Arnold smirked.

     Piccoro ignored him and sent the mallet down on the target with all his force. He groaned when he realized he didn't even reach "useless". All the pets and owners nearby started to laugh and point at him. Piccoro blushed and his face became completely red. He started to leave quickly when Arnold stopped him.

     "Don't forget your prize!" Arnold said, and he threw Piccoro a worthless Almost Gummy Rat (Strawberry). Piccoro disgustedly threw the gummy rat to the ground, and it scampered away quickly.

     Piccoro had decided to hide in a restroom stall to think things over. Everyone seemed to think he was a weak wimp. MoeGirl… Aura… LittleMist… Arnold… even complete strangers! Only Mystery seemed to think otherwise. He smiled and dried his eyes as he remembered Mystery's words: "People are strong in different ways."

     Piccoro had finished washing up and had just left the bathroom when he sensed something wasn't right. He looked towards the big clock in the central of the Deserted Fairground. It read 11:55. Mystery and his siblings had been in line for three hours. Piccoro quickly ran over to the roller coaster and could see that Mystery and the others were just boarding one of the cars. He relaxed and realized everything was fine. He watched as his family members got strapped in and took off. They started going up a ramp right away, and as soon as they reached the falling point, he could see as well as hear Aura, MoeGirl, and LittleMist screaming at the top of their lungs. Piccoro laughed to himself. They had called him a wimp? He watched the car drop and pick up speed quickly. It went through a few loops and some more drops. Piccoro continued to laugh at the terrified looks on his siblings' faces when the clock struck midnight. All of a sudden, the car his family was in screeched to a halt, and the track around them started to collapse!

     "Oh no!" Piccoro said to himself. His mind reeled as he considered what to do, when suddenly, a huge rumble shook the ground and Piccoro fell. Piccoro looked towards the huge entrance gates and saw what was making the rumbling. Two giant Halloween Zafaras, at least 100 feet tall, with bloodshot eyes and sharp looking fangs, were quickly walking towards the roller coaster, and every time they took a step, the ground rumbled.

     Piccoro didn't know what to do. It seemed liked the Zafaras were heading for his family, and he knew he had to save them. So he did the first thing he could think of: he began to climb the steel frame of the roller coaster. He was going to reach his family and save them from the car, and from the Halloween Zafaras.

     The steel frame swayed dangerously as the Zafaras got closer, yet Piccoro climbed on. At first, he could only vaguely make out all the different pets and owners in the different cars, but as he tirelessly climbed on, he could start to make out their terrified faces. Looking around, he saw his family. They were trapped under the roller coaster car's handlebar. Mystery seemed calm, but his three siblings were crying and shouting at the top of their lungs. Piccoro smiled. They weren't so brave now. Suddenly, his eyes met LittleMist's, and LittleMist pointed excitedly at Piccoro. Mystery, MoeGirl, and Aura turned and were shocked to see him climbing the coaster frame. The three pets were shocked the most; because they didn't know their youngest brother had the courage to come save them. Mystery however, was smiling. He knew Piccoro wasn't cowardly like the rest of the pets thought.

     Piccoro smiled when he saw how excited his siblings were. He waved to them, and, unfortunately, at that moment the Zafaras had decided to run towards the coaster, and Piccoro started to slip. His siblings gasped as he held on to the coaster frame with one limb; the ground below seemed to be so far away. The Zafaras, meanwhile, had reached the coaster. They spotted Piccoro and realized he was on a rescue mission, so they slashed at him. As one of the bony arms came down to swat Piccoro, however, he jumped and bit down on the skeletal limb. The Halloween Zafara roared with rage and wildly started waving his arm, trying to shake Piccoro off. Piccoro used this to his advantage- he unclamped himself and let the force of the Zafara's arm hurl him towards his family. Piccoro slammed against the coaster car hard, but he managed to tightly grip it before he slipped off and fell to the ground.

     "Piccoro!" MoeGirl squealed. "Are you all right?"

     Piccoro picked himself up and smiled. "I'm doing fine," he said. "How are you guys?"

     "We're scared, and we just want to go home!" Aura said, rolling his eyes.

     "I think that can be arranged," Piccoro said. He then began to shoot fireballs at the handlebar that was pinning his family members down. After a few fireballs, the handlebar started to melt, and his family members began to squirm their way out of the car. Piccoro was ecstatic. He had done it! He had saved him family.

     "Let's go," he said, as he started to climb down the roller coaster frame. A giant bony hand, unfortunately, grabbed him at just that moment and lifted him into the air. The Zafaras were furious. They started to wave Piccoro around. Piccoro turned green and was certain he was going to lose his lunch. Before he could, though, a stream of bright, hot, purple lights struck the two giant Zafaras and made them lose their grip on him.

     Piccoro started hurtling towards the ground as soon as the Zafaras had let go. He was panicking, but suddenly, a swift purple blur went flying towards him. He instinctively grabbed onto it and realized it was his sister MoeGirl! She smiled at him and landed gently on the ground. Piccoro looked around and saw Aura casting Ultranovas on the two Zafaras; it had been he who had saved him from their grasp!

     The two Zafaras were screeching in pain. Apparently, the Ultranovas had blinded them, because they were rubbing their eyes.

     "Let's not wait for them to recover!" Mystery shouted to his pets. "Let's make a bolt for the exit -- NOW!"

     They all started running through the panicked crowd of owners and pets, running for the exit. Other people were pushing them and knocking down every few seconds, however. They were getting nowhere.

     "MoeGirl!" Mystery shouted over the shrill screams of the crowd. "Let's all get a ride on you!"

     "Good thinking!" MoeGirl said, as they all boarded her. She took off into the sky immediately and started zooming towards the gates. The sky, while not as crowded, was also dangerous. MoeGirl almost ran into a few Skeiths and Buzzes.

     They were almost to the gates, when, to their very surprise, the gates started to grow tall; too tall for MoeGirl to fly over.

     "It looks like we'll have to land and run through the gates," LittleMist said. Everyone agreed, so MoeGirl touched down and they started to run through the crowd once more. It was slow work, but after a few minutes of continually bumping into other pets and owners trying to leave, they were almost out.

     Suddenly, Sidney jumped in front of them and blocked their path.

     "You can't leave!" Sidney yelled at them, his face twisted into a malicious grin. "You mussst pay the price like all the other pathetic mortalsssss!"

     Suddenly, the ground started to rumble again. Mystery and his pets looked behind them to see that the giant Zafaras had fully recovered, and they were running right towards them!

     Sidney smiled. "It'sss time to meet your doom!"

     LittleMist frowned. "Not today," he yelled as he zapped Sidney with a lightning bolt. Sidney fell to the ground, and the four pets and Mystery pushed past him towards the gates once more.

     "Arnold!" Sidney gasped, as he rolled on the ground in pain. "Clossse… the gatesss!"

     Suddenly, the Mynci from the Test Your Strength game emerged from behind the gates and started to push them shut.

     Mystery and his pets ran even harder. They had to make it through those gates before they closed, or they might never leave!

     The gates creaked ever closer together. The space left between them quickly grew tighter and tighter, until there was hardly any room left…

     Mystery had made it! He jumped through the gates at almost the last moment, and his pets followed a split second afterwards. Piccoro was the last one to jump through, and his foot had barely missed being caught.

     The family looked in on the Deserted Fairground, and was shocked to see it... deserted! It looked like it usually did. All the decorations were gone, and only the usual stalls remained. The panicked crowd that they had run through was nowhere to be seen, and the gates were back to their usual height. The four pets and their owner were panting hard; but this recent phenomenon was just too much for LittleMist -- he fainted on the spot.

     Mystery looked around and saw a lot of other owners and pets, shivering in the cold and wondering what had happened. Some of them started to walk home, but others started to kick at the Deserted Fairground gates and scream. They had most likely left a friend or family member behind and didn't know how they were going to get them back.

****

Once LittleMist had come too, Mystery asked him, Aura, and MoeGirl if there was anything they wanted to apologize to Piccoro about. They all started to kick at the ground and mutter.

     "Louder!" Mystery said to the three pets.

     "We're sorry," they said in unison to Piccoro.

     "Yeah," Aura said. "We realized that just because you don't want to ride a roller coaster doesn't mean you're not brave."

     "In fact," MoeGirl said, "I think you might be the bravest one here out of us all!"

     "Yeah!" LittleMist said excitedly. "You may not be the best fighter, but you sure are the bravest! I'd never think about climbing a roller coaster!"

     Everybody laughed, especially Piccoro. But after they had all finished joking around, they realized there was something serious on all their minds.

     "Mystery," Piccoro asked, "what happened to all those people that were still in the fairground when the gates closed?"

     Mystery shuddered. He looked over at the gates and saw that some pets were still pounding them, trying to get through to the other side. Most stopped trying after a few moments however, sat down on the ground, and started to cry.

     "I don't know," he said to his pets, "but I hope to find out."

The End


Search :
Other Stories

The Stroke of Midnight
"You know what, El? You're good at telling scary stories, but what about real life? I bet you couldn't spend midnight in the mansion on Haunted Hill."

by furbyfun


Shadow
A long time ago, the land that this camp is on was occupied by an evil Dark Faerie, and she absolutely despised Neopets. It is said that one day, she found a lone Grarrl wandering about in her woods...

by ieva_kasku


The Most Perfect Costume
If one really took a good look around, they would see that in the far corner of the dining hall, sat a little blue Tuskaninny off by himself...

by beau_lis


Old Mother Charm In Trouble
"What's wrong?" Dayon asked quietly, staring at the witch. "Please don't say that nothing is the matter, because I can tell."

by arden_starr


Just Another Halloween Tale
"Whatever's in here, they must like jelly," Alie said disgustedly, wiping blue jelly from her Lost Desert Dagger. "Wait a minute -- jelly?"

by lost_desert_fan


Neopets | Main | Articles | Editorial
Short Stories | Comics | New Series | Continued Series | Search