archiveofourown.org/works/61120402
20k words
11th - 12th grade reading level

This took 2 years to write. Many thanks to CJ the X for parasocially bullying me to finish this. You're a real one, CJ.

From the long dead and forgotten goldish in the dirt and gravel, to the spinning wildly out of control ferris wheel which barrelled through the center of the fairgrounds.

The screams and the heat were also caused by the fact that the sizable county fair, with all of its heartwarming Midwestern American charm and nostalgia, was currently on fire. All of it. Literally everything was on fire.

And the corn sweat. The corn sweat was fucking awful this year.

The weight of the heat was only made worse by a sea of sweaty bodies undulating together under the somewhat intense late afternoon sun and the plethora of unairconditioned food trucks filled with hot oil and flat top grills clustered towards the front end of the fairgrounds.

The established heat of the late afternoon seemed to be reluctant to break despite the looming promise of nightfall and the chill that came with it.

The late afternoon sky was beginning to turn towards dusk, blazing reds and golden yellows blending into burnt oranges as the sun began to dip lower beyond the horizon.

It layered thickly with the pungent aroma of animal manure and a tinge rotting garbage, the combination of which formed the eau de parfum of the quintessential all-American Midwestern fair and carnival.

When children yell with excitement at the questionably safe rides, or bellow with the kind of rage that comes with being misled by a rigged game of “skill”. The scent of cooking onions, bell peppers and deep fried something was in the air.

autumn. It was the time in the shifting between seasons that called for carnivals and fairs - where the fruits of summer labour were put on display for the judgment and enjoyment of neighbours and community for the autumn harvest.

The sky that late afternoon was thick and heavy with the combination of humidity and heat that hung in the air. It was typical late summer weather for the midwest of the US, where the days were thick with moisture and blazingly hot and the nights were beginning to take on the crisp chill of early