'The world is in the scrunch of her nose'
Anyways hey y'all. Been a while since I wrote but I got his the inspiration and my wife wanting this is a great motivator. So this is a story that takes place in the same world as the story I'm writing. Names have been changed and this was posted with permission. This is part one of probably two so enjoy.
The sound of an engine revving down mixes with the regular noise pollution of the boardwalk. Flipping down a kick stand and stepping off his bike Marko turns to his date for the night. Her blonde hair sticking to her lipgloss and sticking out from the wind whipping through it. When the authors talk about that feeling of falling in love. Like it’s a slow descent into that realization or like a train that throws into knowing you are in love. Marko never quite thought those descriptions fit. He had never been in love sure, but how could love be so divisive? For some it’s soft and kind and others it’s brutal and painful? He never quite understood that feeling of love, never thought he could understand. Until right now.
The shine of neon lights in her eyes. The wonder that sits in them too. The joy in her smile. He had seen her before. He knew her and certainly liked her but he realised now that love for him wouldn’t be something like laying down in bed after a long day. Or like jumping off a cliff. Realizing you’re in love isn’t something you control.
For Marko realizing he’s in love was like a stake square to his chest.
Something about coming to know you love a person was like a great pain that rips you apart. That causes you agony unlike anything you could imagine. But knowing you would endure it again and again and again. No matter how brutal or unkind, you endure it because you don’t want to know what anything would feel like.
“Can you help me off?” Alison’s voice cuts through the haze of revelation as Marko reaches his hands towards her to assist her off the bike. ‘Is it weird to think her skin is really soft’ he thinks to himself, before her hand pulls away to situate herself before the walk towards the boardwalk can begin.
“Are you ready cuore mio?” He says extending his arms out for her to hold onto as they walk down the packed boardwalk. She smiles and links her arm with his. “Absolutly. And I have no idea what that means.” “It means hot mama.”
Their walk down the boardwalk takes them first to a stall with milk jugs stacks and small red panda stuffed animals hanging from the canopy of the stand. Their conversation interrupted by yells of a carny for prizes galore in three tries. “OH it’s red pandas! I love red pandas!!” Alison exclaims, stopping abruptly to admire the cute plush creatures. Typically Marko would just grab one and run but he felt like he had to impress Alison. She deserved him trying to earn a three dollar toy that you wind up paying $20 for. For her to get this toy the right way.
“I got you tesoruccia.” His arm slides out from hers to grab her hand and lead her towards the booth. “Step right up my dear boy. A dollar a try. Perhaps you can win a prize for this lovely gal here.” The way the carny looked at Alison really rubbed him the wrong way and if the way she started to retreat behind Marko was any indication, she felt it too. Part of him wanted to pull her away from this freak and remember his face for later, but the other part. The other part just wanted to see her smile again.
He pulls a crumbled dollar bill from his pocket and slams them right next to the carny’s hand, perhaps harder than necessary. “Good luck young man.” The carny says placing a ball on the counter before standing in the corner. “Kiss for luck?” Marko picks up the first ball and holds it out towards Alison and smirks. “Aww that's cute…. But I'm not putting my mouth on something literally hundreds of hands have touched” she says before stepping out of the way and giving him room for his throw. “I meant me but can’t blame a guy for trying right.” He says readying his throw.
One of the best parts of being a vampire is strength beyond what a normal human of his size could achieve. The downside is you don’t really get to use it in scam games like this because it looks suspicious if your baseball dents the milk jugs. He reaches back and takes a moment to control his power and line up his shot before launching the ball forward in a perfect arc. Time seems to slow down around it as the ball shoots forward in the center of the jugs and with a crack,
“OH! Better luck next time dear boy.”
The jugs didn’t fall. It was a perfect shot. The jugs didn’t fall.
“Wait what the hell?” Alison says, sharing in Markos shock. “Ah well. Better luck next time dear boy. WHO’S NEXT TO THE PLATE? STEP UP AND WIN A PR-” The carny begins his spiel once again before Marko slams a couple more dollars down on the counter interrupting the man's calls for more customers. “Let me go again.” “Alright dear boy. Looks like you’ve got four more tries” The carny says, placing four more balls on the counter and walking back to his corner “Take your shot my friend”.
Marko grabs another ball and prepares another throw before throwing a callus “Not your friend dude” at the carny before winding up and making another throw. The ball arcs through the air and hits the stack perfectly once again, but his throw was still not quite good enough for these jugs apparently because they stay perfectly in place.
Frustration grows between the pair as the carny only grows smugger watching Marko's throws. The blonde boy tries again. This time throwing a little wilder due to his again and this time he knocks the top jug over. Before the carny can even walk to the back to set the jug back on top Marko grabs another ball and gets ready to throw. Alison grabs his arms before he can take the guys head off and end their date early. Maybe date night can be ripping the head off a scammer some day but not right now. “Chill out. Maybe I can take a throw while you figure out how not to jump the counter. Kay?” She says before he nods and moves to trade places with Marko.
“Ah. You’re stepping up my dear?” She nods, reaching for another ball. Marko doesn’t need to look into her mind to know she is extremely uncomfortable with how this man has spoken to her. “Well then, good luck deary. Don’t feel too sad if you don’t quite get it, but I have faith in you.” The carny says with a wink before walking back to his spot. Only someone with a very keen eye or enough spite would see the slight difference in how the carny stood between this try and the previous ones. Alison winds up and reels her arm back, throwing as hard as she can. She knows this is rigged and if Marko couldn’t take the jugs out she probably wouldn’t but it couldn’t hurt to try. At least to give him a moment to cool down and prove its not just him getting screwed-
“WE HAVE A WINNER” The carny exclaims while lights begin to flash around the booth.
Somehow, some way, Alison's first shot had knocked all three jugs down, clean. The carny moves towards the rack of toys he has and takes one down. “Here you are, dear girl. One red panda for the lucky winner!” He says handing her the stuffed animal as both blondes stand in front of the booth with their jaws hanging wide open.
“Thank you for playing my dear girl. Perhaps you will play again soon? Yes? STEP UP AND WIN A PRIZE! A DOLLAR A THROW” The carny starts his calls for action again as Marko and Alison turn to look at each other. “I got this for you” Alison says smiling through her look of confusion at the present situation. “Thanks cara” He sighs out grabbing the soft thing and holding it by the neck. “I’m gonna name it Pablo” He continues looking at it and trying to bring some kind of levity to the situation. She giggles a little at the name but something in her face just sits wrong with him. “You know I'm not mad right? Certainly not at you. I’m just confused. I’ mean I hit the thing dead on three times and it only budged once but you get it in one shot? I mean you had a really good throw carissima but they for sure should have gone down before.” He ponders and she grabs his hand “I know you’re not mad. You know the things are rigged. It’s probably some kind of thing that can turn on and off depending on the person so it’s still possible to win and people keep playing.”
Marko’s muttering something to himself when he looks at the ball that's been left on the counter that he hasn’t gotten to throw yet. “One second” he hands Pablo over to Alison and steps back towards the carny. “Hey I paid for four throws. I want my last one.” “Are you sure dear boy? Your date here has already won you a prize. Do you really want to risk that embarrassment again?” The carny whispers the last part to him and Marko simply stands there waiting for the carny to move and put the jugs back into place. “Suit yourself boy.” The carny sets the jugs up and moves into position. He gestures towards the jugs with a teasing smirk.
Marko didn’t give a shit about the ‘embarassment’ in front of Alison. This was purely about wiping that smirk off the face of the scam artist that had taken far more money than he should have given him. He begins to feel something like fire start to course through him again. Power started to shoot down from his shoulder to his fingertips. That idea of honor in earning this stupid prize is long gone and replaced by a blood lust just without the blood.
He launches the ball forward and the crack echoes through the air of the boardwalk. It goes eerily silent as people begin to question if this sound is coming for them. As the silence goes uninterrupted for a few moments the hustle begins to return to the boardwalk and noise follows suit.
The milk jugs that earned this carny hundreds of dollars every weekend were not just laid out on the ground. One was dented so badly the entire jug seemed to bend in half. The second has a gaping hole like it’s been ripped open by an animal. The third one lays sadly on the ground. The carny’s shock and awe distracts him from the hole in the tent behind the stand that shows a second and third in the table set up behind his tent and the wooden fencing of the boardwalk that leads to the ocean. Maybe 30 years down the road someone will find that ball after he washes up on the shore again.
Marko reaches up and grabs one of the animals hanging from the canopy and hands it to Alison with a look of smugness only rivaled by the previous look of the carny. “I got this for you babe.” He says smiling at Alison while she tries to hide her joy behind fake confusion. “Well, Thanks for the game sir. Have a great night” He says, throwing an arm around Alison and beginning to walk away with the confidence only found in a man who knows his girl thinks he’s the shit.
“So, want me to win you anything else tonight?” Marko says while Alison looks at the second panda in her hands. “God no. I don’t want anyone else thinking there's a gun shot going off. I think I'm gonna name him Tyrone.” She says before looking at Marko and continuing to walk down the boardwalk. He just smiles at her and continues walking forward before asking “You think they’ll let us take our children on the coaster with us?” “We’ll smuggle them on”
They look at each other for a moment before breaking into laughter. The world around them is still a blur of flashing lights and screams of joy and happiness. But to Marko the world is her laughter at the concept of smuggling 2 stuffed animals onto a roller coaster. The world is the scrunch of her nose and the twinkle of her eye. His whole world was right here in front of him.
He grabs her hand and starts to lead her towards the coaster, both laughing and hollering all the way.
