Are you coming?

The midway is always quieter after midnight.

The crowds thin, the lights flicker overhead, and the games take on an entirely different feeling when there’s no one left to impress. That’s when I prefer it.

I can sit behind the counter and watch the occasional stranger wander deeper into my carnival, looking for something they can’t quite name. They always seem so confident at the entrance. Somehow, that confidence tends to disappear somewhere between the first game and the last.

I never have to call anyone closer. Curiosity does that for me.

By the time you realize how far you’ve wandered, the gates are already behind you, the music is already fading, and Moth is the only one left watching.

Perhaps you should have paid more to where you were going. Maybe coughing up cash is the only way to win.

But then again, you knew what kind of carnival this was.