Wheel Of Horrors - Part One

Reading this book makes me shudder with the same shuddery feeling when in the presence of my father, bound to his arm chair, smoking a devilishly potent cigar in his study. It moves and perplexes me to the point where I have to combine my reading with some ambient whale song through my headphones. They prove a pain to remove from the pocket of my jeans, as if fastened by some mysterious super glue. I manage to get them out after a few frantic tugs and place them to my ear lobes, hoping it would counteract the sombre expirations in this terrifying read.

I am sitting in a park, where the chilly wind festers behind the abandoned swings and roundabouts. The eerie silence feels numbing to the bone, brittle and fierce on my flesh. There are no children, not so much a dog or his owner on this well trodden field. I sit alone, perched on one of the many old wooden benches. All of a sudden a bird flies towards me, almost swooping into my face with intent. I dart out of the way as fast as my body can move. Falling to the ground with a thud. The gruesome looking bird sits on top of my book that lies on the muddy grass beside me.

‘Watch it’ I shout. 

The bird looks at me with a vague look on its face. Tilting its beak to one side as if to analyse what sort of creature I am. It's eyes are jet black, its feathers scruffy. The bird flies into the sky that now flashes with the most magnificent folk lightning I have ever seen.

‘A storm?’ I question.

Before I can stand up, there in front my very eyes is the ferries wheel of death, that was so vividly depicted in the novel I was reading. Standing some 100 feet high in the middle of the park, lightning striking in the background and hundreds of those ghastly birds swooping in and out of the enormous steel supports. I catch a glimpse of a little girl in a black and white dress entering the ride, via the turnstiles. It's the same schoolgirl in my book. Am I dreaming? I here laughter as violent rain now cascades down my face, onto my jeans. Thunderbolts thrash from the gathering clouds as if the sky has just rewired itself. I watch as the wheel rotates slowly in the heavy storm.

‘Surely its not safe in this weather’ I question.

I quiver at the thought of what could happen, as I amble anxiously towards the deathly attraction. Suddenly it gains a tremendous momentum. I here screams and more screams. I stand frozen to the ground like a spike. I feel helpless yet compelled to make it stop!

‘No, no, stop, stop’ 

Now I’m the one who’s screaming…