G.A. was using a hose near the animal stalls to clean off his face. Either the “partner” had done his homework or he had just got lucky. G.A. has said before that he would stand in the sun and watch his skin bake and burn to dust before he’d wear sunscreen. Especially on his face. It was just a “thing” he had about it. No sticky stuff on the face. G.A. was remembering as he was washing….

***********************************************

Have you ever been in a dream, and then just SLID into a different character? Different scene? Different dream altogether? Yeah, me too. G.A. as well. He could feel those blood vessels bursting in his eyes. He could feel his heart trying to tear itself into about five distinct pieces. He could see the blood that he was coughing up. Yeah, G.A. knew he was dying. He had risked it all on Dr. Celestine not being real, on being a figment of his imagination, and had tried to wrest control of the Carnival. Needless to say, it hadn’t worked.

G.A. was dying.

Then a fat man in an all-black suit knelt down in front of him, holding his Golden Ticket. G.A. could almost hear the Carnival laughing at him. He could almost hear it taunting him for thinking it was his creation, and not something alive in its own right. He could almost hear its grim satisfaction in taking his life in return for his hubris. Almost. The light of the dusk sun glinted off of the dragon pendant that hung from the man’s neck, and he was reminded of Dr. Celestine’s cane in that moment of dying.

Then the fat man tore his Ticket in half. And G.A. slid.

He was standing outside the entranceway of Dr. Celestine’s Carnival of Souls. His heart was beating normally, as it only really ever did in dreams. He was not in pain, and actually felt a sense of light-heartedness at being at a carnival. The sun was rising. G.A. looked through the gate, and saw the man in all black (Skippy?! He was supposed to be in Lansing, not here in Caro.) sleeping on the steps of Dr. Celestine’s trailer. G.A. gave the Ticketmastyr his normal ticket without thinking, and entered the Carnival of Souls for the second time and for the first time.

He was hungry, and could use some breakfast, so he headed to the mess tent.

***********************************************

Songflower stopped screaming as she blinked, and her husband’s face was her husband’s once more. He looked up at her in a dazed, what the fuck, kind of way, and she just about collapsed with relief. She assured him nothing was wrong, it was just her, and they both went back to sleep.

***********************************************

I kept fiddling with the At-At, waiting for the Doctor to return. I know I’m missing something.