When I woke up I found myself in an uncomfortable bed in the infirmary, I was confused and disorientated and for a moment I thought I was back in high school, in the nurse's office after I had passed out from one of my many frequent beatings. I shook the thought away as I saw Nancy walk in, she saw me instantly as I was the only person here.

"Oh, you're awake. How do you feel?" She asked cheerfully coming closer to my bed.
"Um...fine I guess; why am I here?" I asked slowly.
"You don't remember?" She asked sounding shocked, she pulled out a small notebook and a pen from her pocket and scribbled something in it.
Nancy wasn't a real doctor, at least not legally, she went to medical school and everything but left before she could finish and graduate, technically she was still learning so every new piece of information she wrote down to be studied later. Despite this she was still good at what she did.

"I don't, no." I answered her.
"Well, amnesia isn't uncommon for what happened to you-"
"What happened to me?" I cut her off, looking at her and silently pleading that she would tell me. She took a slow breath.
"You had a seizure, a very bad one too; what's worse is that you were conscious during it which is very strange because people normally black out just before they have one; I guess it's a good thing you forgot having it." I looked down at my hands that were resting on the sheets; what happened to me?

"Is there any reason why this happened?" I asked her.
"Not that I know of right now, I'll have to look up some information, but it seemed to have started from a nightmare, you were screaming pretty loud in your sleep before it started. What were you dreaming about?" She placed the notebook and pen on the bed and took out a small torch and shone it in my eyes.
"I...I don't remember..." I said truthfully "Which is disappointing because it was really important,I can feel it." I continued.
"Hey it's alright; the whole reason we dream is to protect us from the bad things our unconscious mind invents, so it's probably a good thing you don't remember." She said putting the light away.

"Okay..."
"Okay. Now this is going to sound silly but I need to perform this test to make sure there is no permanent damage. So number one, how old are you?" She asked and picked up her notebook and pen again.
"I'm 26"
"Okay, number two, day of your birth?"
"October 31st, Halloween."
"Name of the city we're in?"
"Um, oh I know, somewhere over the rainbow.
"Really Frank?"
"Sorry. Somewhere in New Jersey?"
"Good enough...Okay, last one, What did you do yesterday?"

"Um, I worked in my tent doing the readings, during my break I helped a detective, and then I continued with the readings until I went to my caravan, the last thing I remember was falling asleep. You know the rest better than me." I told her in practically one breath. Nancy was taking notes on everything I said but suddenly stopped.
"Wait-what detective?" She asked.
"He was here yesterday morning, he needed help finding a little girl, nothing new really." I sighed.

"Okay, well...you seem perfectly fine, I guess you can leave. If at any moment you start feeling dizzy, nauseated or anything, just come straight back here. Your shoes are right by the bed." I slowly moved my legs over the bed and slipped down on my shaky legs.
"Um" I stuttered making Nancy turn towards me and wait for what I had to say. "Will...will this ever happen again?" I asked.
She opened her mouth, paused, and then said "I honestly don't know, I mean, I don't even know what this is." I nodded my head in understanding.

As soon as I walked out of the infirmary I was attacked by practically the whole carnival staff in a giant hug and multiple questions of "Are you alright?", "What happened?" and "Why isn't anyone working?" Everyone sprang apart, and freed me in the process, at the sound of Ryan. Everyone looked a little guilty including me since everyone had been waiting for me.

"That's okay, thanks guys, I'm fine I really just want to get back to work." I said and people started filing away, not before giving me encouraging pats on the back.
"Actually Frank, I'm giving you the day off. You do need it and I don't remember you ever taking time off." Ryan said.
"I've never had a day off because there was no reason for me to; besides, what am I supposed to do?"
"I don't know, anything. Why don't you try leaving the carnival grounds for once and visiting family?"
"I'm going to let you figure out what's wrong with that sentence."

He sighed and rubbed his eyes, I guess I wasn't the only one who hadn't slept well this past night.
"I know Frank, I don't know what else to suggest, but you do need to rest, it's for your own good." I was about to protest but he kept talking. "And I'm not taking no for an answer!" And with that he walked off ending our conversation and leaving me alone.
"Fine." I mumbled to myself.

I looked around, not knowing what to do. It was a relatively nice day, maybe I could just sit outside somewhere; so I made my way over to the gift-shops area. For once in a very long time I felt like another visitor again, just being part of the crowd made me feel almost human; though it didn't last long, I kept thinking about the seizure I had last night and what I was dreaming about. Would I dream it again? And if I ever did, Would I remember it this time?

After mingling about and killing just 40 minutes of my free day, I found myself sitting at a wooden table, flipping through an old newspaper that someone had left, somewhere close by a radio was playing some jazz station, it was quite pleasant.
"Let me guess, you're on a break?" Said a familiar voice, I looked up and lo and behold, it was detective Way, standing in front of me just as he was yesterday.
"Actually, I got the whole day off." I said as he made himself comfortable and sat on the bench opposite mine, so that we were facing each other, just like yesterday.

"Really? What for?" He asked. I didn't answer for a few seconds, I noticed he didn't have his briefcase with him, though he was dressed almost exactly like yesterday.
"I thought I asked you not to come back." I said instead.
"Yeah, I hose to ignore that." He smiled.
"Clearly." I rolled my eyes. "Did you find your missing girl?" He seemed a little surprised that I had asked but quickly managed to recompose his professional poker face.

"Yes we did. As you said, up north in Freehold. We found a witness that had seen the truck driving around there and we found a log cabin in the middle of the woods.She was in one of the bedrooms, the back of her head had been smashed in. The coroner told us it took about half an hour for her to bleed to death." He stared at a spot on the table, I listened to him, eyes wide; he knew I had been right and just like me he wished I wasn't.


"It was actually just 27 minutes..." I said after a pause. His eyes flicked over to me. "Why did he do it?" I eventually asked. He bit his lip, deciding weather or not to tell me, eventually he took in a deep breath.
"He was actually hired to take her by someone else - we caught them too y the way - and he was supposed to just hold her for ransom. They couldn't have picked a worse guy. He was crazy; when she cried he would beat her to silence her, that's where the traumas and concussions came from, until one day he had a metal pipe in his hands."

As he talked his voice gradually filled with malice and hate.
"what was her name?"I whispered.
"Alice." After that the silence dragged on, I guess we were in some way mourning Alice's death,though it looked like he was killing himself inside. In the silence we could clearly hear the radio that was playing, the previous song finished and the next one started.

I recognized it, it sounded old by the amount of static in the background; it was a short tune played by guitar, with a slight Italian note to it.
"I like this song." I said as it was playing; detective Way looked at me as I broke the silence. "Fun fact about it's origins, in 1939 an Austrian radio broadcaster wrote several different tunes on the theme of love: happiness, tranquility, jealousy...romance, and he would put them on the radio for people to hear, to have some sense of hope. Unfortunately during the war his radio station was bombed, they say that the song that was playing when it got destroyed was this one, Romance, and since then you can still hear it as some kind of ghost track.I've heard it before and it always reminds me of something, I don't know what though."

I rambled, as I was talking the song ended to be replaced by simple static.
"Why don't you remember?" He whispered, he sounded so sad at that moment, and he looked almost heartbroken, I wondered what was on his mind. The way he asked the question, it sounded like he was asking something else, something much more important.
"I don't know." Was all I could answer.

Once again we were enveloped in silence, this one was uncomfortable, he kept staring at me in a rather helpless way and I tried my best to avoid his gaze.
"Um, shouldn't you be getting back to work?" I asked the first thing I could think of to relieve the tension. He seemed to snap out of his trance - again - and just like that everything went back to normal and he regained his poker face.


"You could say I'm taking some time off."
"Well why did you come here?" I asked bewildered.
"I like it here" He said looking around. "I think I might come over more often." He smiled.
"...I don't know how I should feel about that." I said, I mean, I still remember the way he spoke to me yesterday.
"Oh come on, it'll be fun!" He smiled wider.

Oh god, what have I gotten myself into?

Notes

I'm tired it's like really late
but here is the next chapter so please comment it makes me so happy