Sentenza was panting as he held his gun up. "Now where did that darned skeleton get off to?"

Bakade could be heard roaring in the distance. The fog was much thinner among the tents and stalls, but it was still there. Anything in the distance was obscured, and Sentenza grumbled as he put his hand on his side. He pulled it back and inspected the smear of red that was left on it.

"Ha...ha...ha...ha."

There was a squeaking noise that echoed around him, as Sentenza's eyes darted around. He stumbled back, as a knife sailed past him and pierced through a nearby tent. He fell to the ground with a grunt.

"Ha...ha...ha...ha."

"Man do I hate this place," he said to himself before spitting onto the ground. "May as well come on out!" he called out. "I'm all alone here after all. No point in delaying the inevitable, is there?"

BANG!

Another knife came sailing towards Sentenza, but he managed to shoot it off track. His bullet managed to knock it straight up into the air as he sneered. "What? That the best you got? My grandma throws better than that."

The only answer Sentenza got was a dozen more knives seemingly thrown all at once. In the fog they twinkled just a moment, before they came soaring towards him.

"Perfect," he grumbled as he opened fire.

His first shot knocked one knife off course and into another, effectively taking out two with a single bullet. He did the same thing with his other four shots, but there were still two knives coming for him. He tried to roll out of the way, but they were moving too fast, and both nicked his arm. He let out a grunt of frustration more than pain as he quickly reloaded his pistol.

"Ha...ha...ha...ha."

The unnerving laughter seemed like it was coming from right in front of Sentenza. Then, there was a flash of two dozen knives which made Sentenza curse under his breath as he scrambled to his feet. But, before they could even be thrown, Bakade reached out and grabbed the western assassin. He was yanked away with plenty of time to spare.

"There you are. Have you seen the skeleton anywhere?" Sentenza asked as he tried to scan the rapidly moving environment around them.

"Nnnoooopppeee," she sighed. "Cccaaannn'tt eeveenn hheeeaaarrr hhhiiimmm aannyyywhheerrree."

"He does love the sound of his own voice." Sentenza winced slightly as Bakade finally stopped before a row of wooden stalls. "Yeah, splitting up doesn't seem like such a good idea anymore."

The two of them worked to bind his wounds as quickly as they could. After all, it was clear that this was an exceptionally dangerous place.

"I had it!"

"Trizel, how many times do you need to fail to see that you can't win these things?" sighed Ted.

Trizel grabbed a wooden ring, and carefully aimed it towards the rows upon rows of glass bottles. As he let it go, the ring flew true, but as it tried to land around one bottle, it hit the neck of the bottle next to it and bounced off onto the ground.

"Oh, so close!" sighed Lulu as she shook her head and looked up at Trizel with obviously fake sympathy. "I'm sure you could make it though! If only you had a few more tries to really get how throwing those rings really works."

"Trizel, really now." Narissa said as she put her hand on his shoulder. "We've spent quite a bit of time here already. If you keep getting distracted by every new game she shows to you, we'll never get any answers."

"Answers? Ah, I see. Fine, you've twisted my arm," Lulu said with a sly smirk as she grabbed four wooden rings and slammed them down on the counter. "If you can manage to land all four of these on top of the bottles, not even around their necks, but so they stay on top. Well, then I'll tell you whatever you want to know!"

"Except you already have," Ted explained. "We've been through this like five times already."

Lulu laughed. "Couldn't be! I'd remember such rube...uh, fine customers. Especially if you came by my stall five times. Why, a girl might think you have some ulterior motives visiting her that much."

"Don't try to explain it again," Narissa said as she rubbed her temples. "Hearing that asinine exchange again is going to give me wrinkles."

"I can do it this time!" declared Trizel. "This one is my game. I shall master it and prove my skills." He lifted his fists into the air as his eyes turned starry and hopeful.

"Yeah," nodded Lulu in agreement. "I say you give the guy a chance to prove himself. He's so close too. It was just bad luck the last time is all."

"This is a waste of time." declared Sid.

Narissa groaned, "Even worse, it's just so..."

...frustrating! Death grabbed the tattered remains of his shirt as another knife neatly sunk through it and into his chest.

A white gloved hand was still holding the knife before it quickly drew it back. Death waved angrily at the hand, as if he could somehow shoo it away like a pet dog.

I really hope you can understand me. He complained. Because this is one of the most irritating things that has ever happened to me! And some kids distracted me with lame excuses so they could rupture the laws of reality itself!

Death nodded his head firmly in a huff as he turned to look at his tattered shirt. Even the bulldog on it looked almost sad as he gripped it in both of his hands. He fell down to his knees and lifted the shirt above his head as he cried out. NNNNNOOOOOOOO!!!!!! He didn't deserve this! HE was just bad to the bone like me! He never wanted all this violence!

A knife soared through the air and split the remains of the shirt in two, before it flew straight through his ribcage and embedded in the ground behind him. Death looked down at the obliterated shirt in his two hands and then slammed his fist into the ground.

WHY! He cried out.

Another knife cut through a small bit of the shirt before it bounced off of his ribcage and threw him off balance. Death fell over onto his side, and then gripped the two halves of his shirt tighter as he clenched his skeletal hands. He stood up in a huff and tied the two ends back together.

That's it! He called out as he twisted the fabric around into a sort of rope. No more Mr. Nice Death! You're about to see me become a real animal!

Death tied his shirt's remnants around the top of his head like a headband and then threw his head back. AROOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! He howled like a wolf, or, more accurately, like how a child would howl if they were pretending to be a wolf.

Then he slammed his fist against his open palm and nodded. Show yourself! He put his hands up trying to imitate a boxer, but clearly had only seen boxing from afar. Let's settle this mano a mano my man!

"Ha...ha...ha...ha."

Death turned towards the direction of the laugh and started to sprint as fast as he could. He quickly tripped over his own feet and fell flat on his face, but he quickly picked himself back up and started heading towards the sound at a much more reasonable pace.

Dang it. he complained. I hope that didn't kill my whole intimidating aura I was going for.

"Finally," Narissa sighed.

"Yes, that journey was much longer than I thought it would have been." agreed Sid.

Ted looked over at Trizel. "Sorry you didn't win."

The giant man snarled and shook his head. "It is because the games were rigged. Otherwise, we would be walking in here draped in the spoils of my victories."

"I mean, obviously they're rigged." Added Narissa as she stopped in front of a massive red and yellow striped tent. She tried to look inside, but the fog prevented her from seeing too far in. "This has to be the place, right?"

"It would appear so," declared Sid.

Ted had a strange feeling. Like he had been here before. There was just something about this tent. But it wasn't a nostalgic feeling like the rest of the carnival. No, it was some primal fear deep inside him. Like he'd only ever been here before in his nightmares. He knew they were supposed to head inside, but his feet wouldn't let him get any closer. There was something behind that entrance that he knew he didn't want to see. Oh, how he wished he was in his bed and could just cover his head with a blanket to protect him from whatever was waiting inside.

Trizel put a hand on Ted's back, and it almost made him jump. Trizel still looked angry, but he glanced down at Ted and nodded slightly. "It is time we face the leader of this carnival."

"How much do you want to bet that it's just Lulu in here again?" asked Narissa.

"I wish I could say that was unlikely," noted Sid. "However, she has sown she has a penchant for appearing every place we visit."

"Only one way to find out," nodded Trizel.

Trizel patted Ted's back a couple times before he moved to the front and walked inside. The others followed after him, but Ted couldn't force his legs to move. The rope grew taut for just a moment, and then Ted let out a surprised grunt as he was yanked inside.

The fog seemed to dissipate just inside. There were rows and rows of bleachers set up around a large wooden circle with a tall pillar in the center that seemed to be one of three that were holding up the big tent. With a narrow rope connecting all three of them on platforms far above them.

The place was absolutely empty, except for the six of them, and one other person. Riding around the circle in the ground was a clown on a unicycle. her hair was almost like a pink cloud bouncing around above and behind them. She had white makeup covering her face with a big red smile that connected to large blue dots on her cheeks. She had rounded star makeup overher eyes, and a bright red round nose.

As for her outfit, she had comically oversized shorts with dozens of pockets all over them, and they were held on by suspenders with a white and red striped shirt underneath. Her shoes were red with white toes, were ridiculously oversized, and almost as long as her arms. Along her legs, she had green and orange polka dot tights. To finish it off, she had large white gloves over her hands, with red lace on the very bottom of them.

"A clown?" asked Ted. "Weren't we looking for a ringleader?"

"Hey!" yelled Trizel. "Are you the ringleader?"

The clown stopped in place as she pointed a finger towards themself. Then, of course she fell forward off of the unicycle since she couldn't use forward momentum to balance. As she came crashing to the ground, her chest inflated to a size bigger than Ted. This rapid expansion sent the clown bouncing backwards and then with two, "pppfffftttttt" noises, the balloons under her shirt flew out and around the tent as they spat out air. As they did, the clown held their arms at as if to say, "ta dah."

It wasn't the feeling that had been bothering him before they walked in, but this clown definitely felt off to Ted. Like a reflection in a fun house mirror. It was just off. Slightly wrong in some strange way he couldn't put his finger on, but still bothered him.

"I hope that isn't a reflection of how the rest of our interaction is going to go." sighed Narissa as she rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"No need for the theatrics," Trizel said as he stepped closer. "We just need some information from the leader of this place. Now, we were told they would be here, so where is this ringleader?"

The clown tapped her foot, as she put a finger on her chin and seemed to be thinking hard. Each time her foot hit the ground it squeaked. Then, a literal lightbulb popped up above her head and she held her finger up as if to say, "Eureka!" Then, the lightbulb started to flicker, and finally went out. She looked crestfallen as it did. Then she turned towards the out lightbulb and put her hands on either side of her face as she looked back at the small group with an o face.

She reached her hand deep into her pocket and pulled out a fresh lightbulb. She unscrewed the dead one and tossed it away where it shattered much louder than it had any right to. Then she screwed in the fresh lightbulb, but it didn't turn on. She rubbed her chin as she gave an inquisitive look at the bulb before she reached behind it to grab a small string. When she pulled that, the light bulb turned on. She situated herself back underneath it and held up her finger in her "Eureka." pose again. Then she waddled over towards the group.

"So, what'd you think?" she asked in a high-pitched voice you'd expect to hear more from a professional singer than a clown.

"Of what?" asked Trizel.

The clown gave him a playful punch in the arm as she tilted onto one foot. "Of what he says, ha! Why of my impromptu performance for ya. You think it's good enough for the road?'

She sounded playful enough, but something about her made Ted's stomach sink. Up close he could feel it even more. She was smiling and joking around, but there was something wrong. It was so frustrating. Why couldn't he figure it out. It was like it was staring right back at him, but no matter what he did, he just couldn't see it. Then, she turned towards him, and their eyes locked. That was it. It was clear in her eyes. She had that same hunger he saw in his older sister's eyes. He felt so small but couldn't look away. What she wanted, he didn't know, but he could tell that this clown would do whatever she had to do to get it.