Mark sat with his head in his hands. He had seen Sally pulled into the tent, but had heard nothing since then. The place seemed eerily quiet. Small bands of the buxom women - who Mark now knew were under the command of this 'clown' Julia told him about - roved the amusement park, trying to find Jessica.
He was pretty sure he was safe. If they saw him, they'd likely try and kill him, of course, but he doubted they'd give chase too hard when they realised Jessica wasn't with him. From what Julia said, the clown was after his busty friends, not him.
Even so, he was hardly relaxed. He has just seen one of his best friends stabbed and murdered in front of him, and then watched another dragged to her own doom, kicking and screaming. Anger bubbled up inside him, and he knew he needed to act.
The tent flap opened, and Mark froze. Peering through the darkness, he could make out shapes, and his blood ran cold as he realised one was a clown. He turned to Julia. "There he is!" he hissed, nodding his head towards the figure.
Julia moved next to him, and then slowly shook her head. "That's not him. He has a yellow costume, not a red one. That's another clown."
"There are two?" he said, wide-eyed. "I thought you said there was only one!"
"There was only one! I don't know who that is. Wait..." she started, craning her neck. "Mark, that's your friend."
He spluttered. "What?" The figure came closer, and the ice in Mark's veins melted in liquid fire. Rage filled him.
Drew
.
The little piece of shit rat-faced pervert had tricked them. He had
turned
. "He's a fucking clown too!" he growled, horror and rage contorting his voice.
"I didn't know that could happen," Julia said aghast. "The clown always seemed too demented for companions."
Mark laughed sourly. "Drew was always a little fucking creep. It doesn't surprise me. I'm going to kill him."
"Who is he with?"
Mark realised Julia was right. Not only was he with two other figures, but he had his arms around their waists. Two beautiful buxom women strolled happily either side of him. "Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. That's Sally. He's got Sally. Holy shit."
Julia reached out, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Mark. Truly. But there's nothing you can do now. She's one of them. She's... she's dead."
He looked at the brunette ghost. She was telling the truth, and he knew she was. There was nothing he could do for Sally now. Not beyond what he had decided to do the moment he had seen her dragged away. He was going to find out who was responsible for this mess, and he was going to kill them.
And that wasn't Drew, no matter how much he wanted to skin the little rat-faced pervert alive. That time might come, but for now he knew the real culprit was the clown; a man he didn't know, but about whom Julia had told him a lot. She had been very forthcoming about what she knew once she had realised she could trust him, but he supposed getting your sanity back after spending years as an undead sex slave would imbue a woman with sense of bitter enmity towards her murderer and tormentor. Mark knew where to find the clown. He and Julia would make things right.
After Drew and his thralls had disappeared on their search for Jessica, Mark unlocked the door of the rollercoaster building and slipped out into the night.
***
Kevin groaned as he lurched into the ferris wheel's tent, the flap falling down heavily behind him. Jessica patted him on the shoulder tenderly as she lowered him to the ground. He sat there, breathing in. His head ached, and he felt sick, but he was starting to recover. The pain was dulling a little, at least.
He watched as the well-stacked redhead he was with walked briskly towards the ferris wheel controls. She stared at them, biting her lower lip, before reaching out and gingerly pressing a button. The ferris wheel churned into life with a roar in the otherwise quiet night, a great clanging of metal as it started to turn. Music blared out, too, and it lit up, red and blue lights flashing wildly on its sides.
"Shit!" she said, hurriedly pressing buttons. The lights flashed off and the music stopped, but the ferris wheel kept turning.
She spun back to Kevin and closed the gap quickly. "Get up, dude, we've gotta go. There's no way we can stay here now. They're definitely going to know where we are."
"We best leave then, hadn't we?" said a sweet voice at the tent flap, and Kevin groggily turned his head as Sally strode in. She beamed at them.
"Sally!" said Jessica, throwing her arms around her buxom friend. The sight of their twin sets of hooters crushed together almost pushed any lingering fuzziness out of Kevin's mind. Almost.
Jessica glanced around hurriedly. "What are you doing here, Sally? Where are the others? We've gotta go, I accidentally turned this thing on and they're all gonna know we're here."
"It's fine," Sally said soothingly. "The others are fine. They found a way out; we need to get going now."
"Where is it?" Jessica said, moving to help Kevin up. "Let me help Kevin."
"Don't worry about him," Sally said soothingly. "Jack and Mark will get him, they're just outside keeping watch. We need to get going."
"To where?"
"They found a gap in the perimeter. Quick, we should go!"
"Well, just call for Mark and Jack and we will!" Jessica said urgently, waving towards the tent flap.
Sally grimaced. "Look, there's no time for that. We'll get them when we go past. Come on, we've got to go."
Jessica stepped away and folded her arms. "I'm not going to leave Kevin here," she said flatly. "He saved my life."
"You won't," Sally sighed exasperatedly. "Mark and Jack are just outside."
"Then call them!"
Sally took a deep breath and closed her eyes, stepping towards Jessica and placing her hands on her shoulders. "Honey, look, you know you can trust me. Come on, why would I hurt you? My boyfriend is dead, Jess. The man I loved. You need to trust me and let me get us out of here."
"When you've helped Kevin."