A Beginning and a Dead End

“And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for!”

The announcement rang out hollow and unwelcoming into the damp morning air. I weaved my way through the broken-down carnival machinery. The rides and attractions were stacked back away from the train tracks. Grass grew up around the rusting metal pipes, poles and draping canvas tents.

“Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Rides for everyone, games for all!”

I was close enough that I could tell where the speaker was. I knew the route that would get me there quickest, but I slipped behind a looming, blue-tarped heap of abandoned metal. I heard low voices. The two men I’d been following. I knew it. I rounded the corner in a flash, pistol at the ready.

“Don’t be shy, give—CRACK!—it a try! Everyone’s a—CRACK!—winner at the Fun Fair!”

Both of them had been crouching behind the speaker platform, one with a shotgun and the other with a pistol, aimed down the approach I’d just avoided. Now they lay sprawled in the long grass. Their ill-fitting painter’s overalls were a poor disguise for their hardened fighter’s bodies.

“And now, the moment…”

I flipped the switch powering the speaker. Bad disguises and bad bait. I dug into each of their pockets, and sure enough, a black coin in each. Pure black. The kind of black you can’t see, but you know it’s there because you’re holding it in your hand.

I clenched them in my fist, listening to the quiet of the morning. Somewhere nearby, grass moved. Without wind. Someone else was coming.