Dan looked around the roller coaster section. The rollercoasters were as run down as the stages and they ran with no one on them, much like the shows.
"Pie-eyes!” he shouted into the screaming of the rollercoasters. They sounded like they’d been running for years, like any minute they would just crumble around Dan leaving him surrounded by a steel graveyard.
“Pie-eyes!” he shouted again. He could hear Sam shouting too, like an eerie echo that called just late enough to not sound like an echo. An echo with a body. That was all Sam was, he latched onto whatever Dan did and made the audience laugh at him. Dan told the jokes and then Sam stepped out and took all the credit. An echo with a body sounded just as terrifying as it actually was. And he thought he was misunderstood. That was something worth laughing at, Sam being misunderstood. Didn’t he see that the fact that everyone recognized him as misunderstood meant he wasn’t? No. He didn’t.
“Pie-eyes!” He could tell he would soon find himself back in the central tent again since he and Sam had realized that if you walked far enough you somehow ended up back there.
"Pie-eyes!” he shouted one last time before he turned around. Merry-Go-Round music distracted him from his thoughts about Sam and made him think about his first time here, The Point of No Return.
Back at the circus, before any of this had happened, before he had thrown that water balloon onto the ground of Sam’s tent, he sat in his own tent. No makeup. No afro. The man behind Delightful Dan. He had been thinking, similar thoughts as the ones he was having now, when he heard music and laughter. At the time he didn’t realize this laughter was coming from the hellish mirror maze he had now been through at least twice. Standing, he made his way toward the music. Soon, the laughter and music had seemed one, a song that, when put together, became more wonderful to Dan than either the music or laughter alone. A merry-go-round, the source of the music, was running in the dark with a large gutted clown and a pie tin faced clown on it. Pie-eyes and Silly Samantha.
“You!” Pie-eyes called out, “How would you like to help me with something?”
“With what?” Dan found himself asking rather than asking an expected who are you, what are you doing here, or simply telling the clown they were closed.
“I’ve kidnapped your friend here, not to mention several other clowns from here, to get the attention of a clown named Sam.” Dan now recognized the pie tin faced clown as Samantha. “Unfortunately, none of these have gotten his attention. Should I kidnap you too?” All the while Pie-eyes voice continued to get louder and quieter as the ride continued to spin.
“No, he wouldn't care if you kidnapped me. But I might be able to help.” Pie-eyes got down from the merry-go-round and approached Dan, who now noticed his eyes. He was smiling and the purple makeup around his lips helped make it more apparent.
“Can you now?”
“Yeah. I’ll go get him. But, what happens when I bring him to you?” Pie-eyes laughed.
“That’s the surprise.”
“Okay then. I’ll do it,” Dan said. He wondered if Samantha could hear him from the spinning merry-go-round Pie-eyes had left her on.
“Good then. Come with me and I’ll explain a little more,” Pie-eyes said handing Dan a water balloon. “You’ll need this. Don’t break it.” Dan took it carefully. He was in the midst of a mad man, and he loved it. The feeling that someone needed him.
Dan found himself back in the central tent. He realized, coming out of his thoughts, that his bodiless echo had been silenced. He moved toward the freaks section to find out why.
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