You may think this is heaven -- it’s not that at all...

[playonforever]

On the midway, tucked between two tents - or rather, rearing up between them - there is a building that looks like a wooden palace. It's almost four stories tall and exploding with color. Across the front run depictions of heroes of the Wood, fae and humans, fighting monsters and mostly winning. Statues, perfect in likeness to the things they

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[lovethissuit]

Peter is just about to strangle something. Really, and truly he is.

Neal's not back for twenty four hours before running back off again without so much as a freaking carrier pigeon. Damn it, they had literally just gone over this. The conversation they had to the effect of why something like this was a tremendously bad idea is still pretty clear in Peter's mind unless it was an exhaustion-induced hallucination. ...Or unless this whole thing is just one big nightmare.

So when he realizes Neal's gone haring off again, and when he sees the full moon hanging in the air and the invitations falling and the lights twinkling, Peter knows exactly where he's gone off to. And although he's still practically falling on his feet and scabbing over from demon bites and more tired than he's ever been in his life, he still makes it to the carnival, never mind his vision swims from time to time and his knees are quietly shaking.

Of course, it's not as if he could leave his other people behind while he tried to track down Caffrey (for the umpteenth time), so he was forced to bring Nill along. But he'd specifically gone over how they needed to stay together - seriously. There had been finger pointing and slow words and he'd made sure he was understood.

Peter wonders why no one listens to him anymore. He used to have a whole department of trained, capable agents who'd follow his every order. What happened to that.

...Oh right. Fucking fairies.

His rueful questions get shoved aside when he sees a quick flutterflash of yellow on white at the gates to... Something castle-y. He tries to push through the crowd to get there, but the press is too much and he's too weak to make that much headway. All he can do is yell out after her.

"Hey! Nill!"

He has a baaaaaaad feeling about this.

[playonforever]

The attendant - a middle-aged, handsome man with a trim beard and pale white eyes - chuckles and offers a hand to help her into the car. "Of course, small one. This is for it and its friends. All of it."

He gestures to the carnival as a whole before moving to snug the lap bar of the ride down. "Hang on. It's a bit scary at first, but the end is worth the fear."

[mutings]

Nill eagerly climbed into the car and wiggled as she settled in, grasping hold of the lap bar as it was pulled down. There was still a good bit of room between her body and the bar, and she frowned down at that, and was paying so much attention to the bar that she didn't really catch what he was saying about the ride being scary.

It was a nice looking castle. The prospect of it being scary didn't even enter her mind.

[playonforever]

The car jerks and rumbles forward. The brightly-painted doors into the funhouse swing open, and as soon as Nill is over the threshold the music and sounds from outside cut off. The doors slam shut, the car stops for a moment in complete darkness - and then shoots forward again, horribly fast, into the whistle of bombs and the smoking towers of buildings going up in flames, people screaming, blood and limbs spinning through the air.

Children packed in a basement, waiting to die as a city goes to hell around them.

[mutings]

Oh wait! She thought she had heard and seen Peter! Maybe he could go on the ride too? She struggled against the lap bar as the small car began to move, and craned her head to look back at the man she thought of as a parent. Since it seemed to be too late to get him on the ride with her, she only smiled wide and waved eagerly to him. The smile on her face lasted only as long as it took to get inside the funhouse, and as soon as the music and noise from outside is gone, there is a wary grimace on her face instead. She slouches down in the seat and clutches hold of the lap bar. The doors slamming shut cause her to jump in alarm, and the darkness is already too much for her to handle.

It only took that little bit before she started shaking, but she didn't have time to really do more than that before the car rocketed off and her mouth dropped open in a soundless scream. Horrified, she squeezed her eyes shut as she recognized the sound of explosions and buildings crumbling, and peeked just long enough to see a woman that looked like Naoto explode. As an arm went flying by both eyes were squeezed shut once again, and she slouched down as far as possible while still holding on to the lap bar.

As the car banks a turn she slides across the seat and is forced to open her eyes, and immediately regrets her choice to do so, as she is brought face to face with the terror that she had been experiencing right before arriving in the forest. 'No!' Her mouth moved to scream the word, and she pried a hand off of the bar so she could reach out to the children that she knew probably wouldn't be saved.

Whatever this ride was, she had quickly become lost in it, and all thoughts of Peter waiting for her back at the entrance were long forgotten.

[playonforever]

The car jolts to a stop before revealing the fate of the children in the basement, the lapbar rising and allowing her to step out onto an idyllic looking path through a pretend forest. There's a cutout of the Arch, one of the barracks...

Surely nothing could go wrong here.

[lovethissuit]

He sees Nill being ushered into a car, waving and smiling as she goes before being swallowed up when the doors slam home. Pure, unadulterated worry flashes across Peter's face like ball lightning, ping-ponging into a determined grimace as he tells his body that it'll suck it up and do as he says, goddamn it.

Catching himself before he can stumble and fall up the ramp, he glares at the attendant as he makes his way to the next car. There's a million things he wants to yell at this guy, but as most of them are only applicable to normal people, who'd actually give a damn about letting a young girl on a ride like this by herself... He clamps his mouth shut, instead only growling at this new bastard.

"Bring her back. Now."

[playonforever]

"He cannot bring it back," the attendant says, grinning at Peter. It's obvious now that the man's eyes are white-irised. "Though it might follow, if it wishes."

[lovethissuit]

Peter stiffens as the attendant's eyes are made obvious, fists clenching at his sides until his knuckles pop softly.

He knows he's out of his league here because White Eyes made that so very clear last Carnival, didn't he. And the part of him that recoils at all this magic voodoo crap, the part that says that none of this makes any sense, it can't possibly be real - that part just wants to turn and leave this place and keep walking until he gets home again. That course of action is seconded by the memory of being painfully pushed and pulled into a half-dozen forms and made to trot around like a show pony.

But that's Nill in there, and he'd promised Neal he'd look after her. Never mind that even without that binding him, it's a lost, scared, little girl being set up for who knows what as this bastard's plaything.

...There's also the stubborn part of him that wants to punch White Eyes' teeth in and then make him eat the better part of a clip.

"You son of a bitch," he snarls viciously before stalking to the next car and yanking the bar down into his lap. Yes, he knows he's barreling headfirst into the lion's den. As if there's any other choice that he could possibly make here - at least not any choice he could let himself live with.

[playonforever]

White Eyes laughs merrily. "Ah, how creative it is. Please, let it greet its two trapped foundlings for him. And may it enjoy the ride."

He bows, and the cart rattles forward into the dark.

[lovethissuit]

He whips his head around to ask what the hell the bastard's on about now but the car bucks forward on the track, causing the bar to jab into his gut painfully. By the time Peter has enough breath back in him, the doors are already shut and leaving him in the quiet and dark. Yeah, he knows that even if he'd gotten the question out, the chances of getting an actual answer were slim to none.

Then there's the sound of glass shattering, echoing and repeating all around as the car spins fast enough Peter feels his stomach wrap around his spine. He swallows back the taste of bile as images of the Russian Heritage Museum come into focus. Neal, covered in shards of windowpane still sticking to his suit staring down Fowler - slightly caricatured except for the unhinged look in his eyes and the revolver in his hands, all punctuated with desperate thuds from behind a too-thick door. Peter can't help the "NO" exploding from his throat as the car lurches away and five rapid gunshots boom behind him.

Then it's the antiques shop, only instead of a small Asian man left sprawled on the floor, it's a slick suit with a too thin tie in a pool of blood and Peter ducks his head down and squeezes his eyes shut before he can see the face that goes with it.

This isn't real, it's not real, that's not--

And then he's being pitched forward to land painfully in an ungainly heap to the sound of the car continuing on down the track. Slowly, shakily, he gets up with a groan, cracking open an eye to... The Arch. Looking around at the rest of the simulated Wood, he snorts, his mouth a grim line. "I've seen better in a shoebox diorama," he says with a sneer (because he needs to hear something in here, something to distract from he'd just seen, something to focus on as he keeps going).

Which he does, striding purposefully through the 'trees' as fast as he can. It's not as if he's going to go back through that. Hell no. So when the way behind is closed... "Half a league, half a league, half a league onward," the agent mutters to himself as he shoves aside a fake branch.

[mutings]

By the time Peter steps out of his car, Nill is already far ahead of him, cautiously stumbling her way through the fake trees. She's scared to death, and can't stop her legs from shaking, but she knows that turning back and just hiding inside the car isn't an option. She also really doesn't want to know what would happen to her if she chose to do that. So moving forward was her only choice, but no matter how tightly her fingers wound into the skirt of her dress or how often she stopped walking and just closed her eyes, the fear wouldn't go away.

She had gotten herself into a terrible mess this time. If she had only waited for Peter, things would have been easier. At least if he were here, he'd be able to tell her if any of this was real or not. She wanted to believe that it was, but knew that a ride couldn't just spit her out in the middle of the forest.

None of this made any sense, but she supposed not many things here ever did.

[lovethissuit]

Peter forces himself to keep going, focusing on one foot in front of the other, and making himself go faster and faster. He's also completely ignoring the darting things behind the trees he can see out of the corner of his eye. ...Or at least he's doing his best with that. How well he's doing there is a matter of opinion.

Considering he's already got his Sig Sauer out and the safety clicked off, said opinion's not so hot.

Gritting his teeth, he breaks into a brisk jog, telling the stitch in his side it can go screw itself right now, he's got a job to do, damn it. Pushing himself on, he just manages to catch a snatch of blond through the branches.

"Nill!!" he yells, pouring on an extra burst of speed, smacking aside branches dangling in the way, and telling himself he's only running to get to her and not away from whatever's chasing him.

[mutings]

Just faintly, she could hear her name being called out, and unsure who was the man doing the calling from so far away, fear inspired her to move faster. Her bare feet moved lightly across the ground, as tears formed in her eyes. By the time she stumbled into a clearing, they were pouring freely down her face, and she was so consumed in wiping them away that she didn't see the mirrors before her. So she bumped into them, a bit roughly, and slid down them to rest on her knees.

She rubbed at her head and let out silent whimpers of protest, none of this was fun! She just wanted to go back and find Peter, and go back home. Then they could sit with Neal and not have to be outside ever again.

But -

As she continued rubbing at her forehead, she felt something inside of her tugging. It started at the pit of her stomach and moved upward, until it felt as if something inside the mirror was tugging on her heart. She paused in tending to her head in order to clutch at her chest, and very slowly she reached out to try and grab at that something inside the mirror that was pulling her in to it. She couldn't explain it, and it made no sense to her, but she just knew that there was something more waiting for her on the other side.

Maybe a way home?

The last thing she heard before giving in and falling face forward through the mirror was Peter's voice calling out her name.

[lovethissuit]

"Shit," Peter mutters under his breath as he loses sight of her, scraping at reserves he didn't even know he had at this point to go faster. If he can just catch up, if he can just get her in view again, if she'd just see him... Then he can stop for a minute. Not until then.

Half-jogging, half-stumbling forward now, the agent does indeed catch up, the twinkling play of funhouse lights on mirrors giving him another boost to get the hell out of this forest and whatever's in it.

"Nill?"

The relieved, tired smile on his face as he exits the not-Wood quickly turns into shocked disbelief as Nill (and there's a small flash of fear of her curled in on herself on the floor, the antiques shop all over ag- that didn't happen) is literally sucked into a mirror. Panic and adrenaline carry him across the room to beat and pound against the glass with all his might.

A few moments later, he's slumped against the glass, not even able to crack it - and that was with his whole weight behind it. Breathing hard, he forces himself to breathe, because with breathing comes calm and focus and then he can figure out what to do.

More motion out of the corner of his eye, and he whips around, Sig out and aiming at his own reflection, dressed to the nines in a tailored suit and fedora pulled down over one eye. It's obviously giving him a nice, sarcastic slow clap as it winks and grins a little too wide to be considered sane.

"...Okay, that is really friggin' creepy."

[playonforever]

Inside the mirror, Nill will wake in a comfortable bed in a modest room with well-kept, quality furniture. There's a ledger on the desk, with ranks of tidy numbers and notes.

Soft, familiar voices drift up from downstairs; early morning light drifts in the open window with a light breeze. A white puppy is curled up on the base of her bed, with a fancy decorative collar and a gold name plate declaring its name "HEINE" in curled script.

Back in the hall of mirrors, Peter can see Nill's room quite clearly, flanked on either side by reflections of himself.