CARNIES! Chapter 10

Hey, everyone! It's shorter than I intended, but chapter 9 has 15 comments, so I figured I might as well post what I had so far. I know you still have a lot of questions like where's Kenna's dad? and why didn't any of the carnies help out? but I'm gonna answer those in the next (longer) chapter. Comment telling me whether or not you want me to write from Malachi's or Sara's POV, and, of course, the next one will have stuff from both Nick's and Kenna's POV. And, does Tony need a significant other, or is there already too much coupling going on? What do you think should happen with the story? Because, if not any different than what I have planned, the next chapter will be the last. (I'm going to be witing FAST because I have to go to my Great aunt and uncle's like 50th anniversary on Sat, and I'm staying with my grandmother for a week then, then, I'm going to come back for 2 days (two busy days) and go to my mom's for a week on the fourth. I'll bring the stories on a flashdrive so I can write if need be.)

Chapter 10

I passed out when Marla hit me over the head with an heirloom vase from her grandmother. If I’m not mistaken, the bash to my head was not accompanied by the unmistakable crack of the vase. That was one hard vase. Ow.
I woke up, head pounding. Looking around, I didn’t see Marla’s strange, Egyptian themed tent. Instead, I was back in mine, and the sun was down. Immediately, I thought of Nick. I bolted upright, heart racing. He wasn’t in here. No, of course he wasn’t in here. He was in critical condition, wasn’t he. Omigod. I paced back and forth, looked down at my blood splattered jeans, and back up again. I had to find Nick and see if he was OK.
I unzipped the tent, and ran right into Malachi. "Get out of my way!" I said to him, fighting his grip.

"I can’t let you go. Not right now. Just wait another hour, OK?"
"No! I can’t do that! Let me go!" I said as he was pushing me back down onto the bed. He stood up, satisfied that I wouldn’t move, and he looked at me.
"You know, I’m glad Nick found someone who cares about him as much as you do. Now, I’m gonna go wait outside your tent like I have been for the past three hours, and you’d better not try to leave again. OK?" he said and stalked off.
I laid there on the bed, crazy thoughts racing through my mind a million miles an hour. What could be wrong with him? Why weren’t they letting me see him? Why the fuck wouldn’t they let me see him? He needs me! I leapt up and began pacing. Many of the same thoughts repeated themselves through my mind and I continued pacing. I must’ve walked three miles in an hour. Finally, after what felt like five hours of barbarian torture, Malachi poked his head in and brought me out.

I walked out and was shocked at how little activity there seemed to be. Where was everyone? There weren’t even investigators peeping their noses into what happened here.
Malachi could feel the tension in my body, and lead me faster.
I walked into Rosa’s tent, comfortable to be in a known environment, and saw Nick lying on her bed, sleeping peacefully. Rosa and Kevin stood when we entered, keeping us to the living room.
"What happened?" I asked in a hushed tone.
"Well, you know what his dad did. He’s fine, even though it could have been fatal." Kevin said.

"Yeah." Rosa said, and she seemed almost exited. "I have this friend that I made up at college last year. He’s into medical stuff, and he had a new healing cream he’d developed. I had him jet over here really fast…like in thirty minutes…and he brought it to me. He’d said it was untested, but it was our only chance. Turns out, it works wonders. It’s healed completely, only a scar there. The only side effect is he needs a lot of sleep. I think it’s because his body had to work so fast to heal it. He’ll be sleeping maybe another hour. He’s only been under for about twelve hours, which is pretty good, considering."
"Well, that’s good." I said, heart still in my throat.
"Yeah. Real good." Rosa nodded.
"So, why the hell did you keep me in my tent for another our?"
Nick stirred on the bed, groaning.

"Because we knew he’d wake up when he heard your voice." Rosa grinned.
He said something unintelligible, cleared his throat, and tried again. "Kenna?" he whispered.
Hearing his voice, I knew he was OK. I ran over to him, hugging him to me. He sleepily hugged me back, then asked, "What happened?" I heard everyone leave, and told him about the cream and his miraculous recovery. He squinted, thinking, and said, "Where’s Tony and your dad? And my dad, for that matter?"
"I have no clue. Right now I just want to kiss you." I said, and he grinned, scooting over so I could lie down beside him.
"Well, I’m fine with that," he said, grinning.
Our lips met sweetly, and I smiled. He laughed, saying, "I can’t kiss you when you’re smiling like that!"

I pulled away and said, "I’m just so happy that you’re OK. You’re blood was on my hands. I thought you were gone." Tears filled my eyes, not quite spilling over.
"It’s OK." He said, thumbs brushing away the tears brimming in my eyes. He held my face like that, saying, "I’m OK now. You know that. Don’t worry."
"But if it happened once, it could happen again."
"I don’t think Joseph’s gonna try anything like that again." Marla said, entering the tent.
"What do you mean?" I asked, rolling over to face her, Nick close behind me. He put his arms around me and hugged.
"He’s gone. The authorities have him. I explained it all to them. They have him in a hospital. They told that if he lived, he’d be living as a paraplegic. I guess that’s what he gets." She said, sighing, sinking down on the moon chair beside the bed.
"But it still hurts." I said, sympathizing. Sure, the guy was a deceiving jerk, but she’d still fallen in love with his lies.

"Yeah." She sighed. She stared at the poster on the tent’s wall for about twenty seconds before looking back at me, taking deep breaths. She stood up. "You both look so cute together." She said, smiling and shaking her head. Nick kissed my neck and hugged me again.
Rosa and Kevin came back in, and she said, "Come on, guys. I think Nick can walk now. Now get out of here and let us have some privacy." She said, grinning.
"Where’s Tony?" I asked, at the same time that Nick asked, "Where’s Malachi?"
"Tony’s in his room sleeping his treatment off, and Malachi’s shacking up with Sara right now."

"Oh…" we both said in unison, smirks on our faces. Rosa practically shoved us out, and we went into the cool night air laughing.
"So, you feel as good as new?" I said, holding Nick’s hand.
"Yeah. A little sleepy, maybe," he said, and nuzzled my neck, then whispered, "but I know of something that can change that." I glared at him. "What? I was talking about playing tricks on Tony."
"Now that is a good idea," I said, but in the back of my mind, his insinuation was harbored in my mind, and I was considering it.
***
We tore open down feather pillows and poured the feathers everywhere, and that was it. I didn’t want him to wake up to a complete wreck. And feathers took a lot to clean up. So, it counted as a prank. When we were leaving, I saw a pair of my jeans on a chair. I felt my face scrunch up with a confused look, and I grabbed them before we left.
"What’s that?" Nick asked with a hushed voice.
"A pair of my jeans."
"OK, that’s a little weird."
"I actually think I remember seeing him in them the other day." I said, and laughed a little.
"OK, that’s a lot weird." Nick said, and took them from me, running off.
"Hey!" I yelled and ran after him.
"You can’t catch me!"Nick yelled, laughing.
"That’s so elementary!" I yelled back.
"But it’s the truth!"
"Shut up." I said, and stopped, feigning defeat. He fell for it, stopping and coming to where I was standing.
"So you admit defeat?" he asked, holding my jeans out. I threw them behind me, jumping up into his arms, and said, "Never," before kissing him.

OK, remember to COMMENT!! Answer the questions I had at the beginning of the Chapter, please.