Carousel of the Damned (Patreon)

Everybody is told to enjoy the carnival. The owner prides himself on it being the biggest, brightest and best in the land!

Everybody also has their vice, and the carnival is built to appeal and exploit your deepest desires for fun, fun, FUN!

In this instance, we find the Carousel.

It is big, bright and gaudy, located deep in the impossibly-huge carnival, surrounded by confusing, labyrinthine paths and disorientating noise from the sea of people enjoying their stay.

The carousel itself is just as confusing; when it rotates there seems to be an infinite number of animals to pick from, and many of them look trapped in a state of fear. The eyes themselves even seem alive, wet and moving in their hard wooden sockets to stare in horror at new potential riders.

And that is because any who should ride the carousel will find themselves eternally a part of it. Eventually the carousel will stop, letting the rider mount one of the few normal looking animals, before starting up again and jauntily blaring out an off-key tune

At first, everything will be normal. The ride will excite and delight as promised! But as the carousel speeds up, and the music gets louder, the rider will find something strange happens. How they didn't notice it, who knows, but suddenly they are not riding their chosen mount, and the pole they were once holding tight to has seemingly run right through their bodies!

Trapped by the pole, and forced now to slowly rise and drop with it, they will find stiffness coursing through them from the pole outwards into their extremities that both forces them into and then makes it impossible to pull out of the same prancing pose their chosen animal held.

Then when they are completely rigid the changes spread externally: with painted, wooden skin replacing flesh, their body being twisted and distorted into an animalistic shape, and their cries for help drowned out by the dischordant music.

And then, all that remains is their mount, now with eyes that seem just a little bit too alive and an expression of fear it didn't originally have.

And the carousel turns, deep in the heart of the labyrinthine carnival.

And nobody is any the wiser.