"How are you not hot?" Paradox asked in annoyance, watching his best friend balancing on the abandoned train tracks' railing.

"I am hot. Hot and sexy." Caravel replied, flashing Paradox a grin.

"Oh, ha, ha," Paradox deadpanned. "You know what I mean. How are you not overheating?"

Caravel shrugged. He then lost his balance on the train tracks' railing and flailed his arms to regain balance. Once he regained balance, he said, "Perhaps I'm a Hybrid. I mean, to be fair, my mom was a prostitute before she met my dad. What if my dad isn't my dad?" He faced Paradox with wide eyes.

"You don't have wolf ears or a wolf tail. Nor do you have odd color eyes. You run at an average speed and you're dumber than a rock. Plus, you're not that strong." Paradox pointed out.

"I broke a bed once," Caravel said. "Know Linda? She and I—"

"I don't want to hear it." Paradox said loudly, clapping his hands over his ears. "Seriously. Keep your weird kinks and sexual habits away from me."

Caravel snorted out a laugh. "Sure thing, ace case."

"I'm not ace," Paradox muttered.

It was pointless to argue with Caravel. Caravel was too thick-headed and block-headed to care about certain things, which in turn have led to awkward or dangerous situations. But it wasn't like Caravel was careless, necessarily, just…not the brightest.

The weather was now taking a turn for the worse: it was now humid. Paradox's t-shirt was now sticking to his skin and he tried prying his shirt from his skin.

"Again, why are we walking?" Paradox asked.

"Because the carnival is behind a forest, remember?" Caravel said, jumping off the train tracks' railing. He gestured in front of them. "Behind that sign, there's the forest. And behind the forest is Lumen Lunae."

The sign that Caravel pointed to was a sign that read Hypnotic in large, bolded, loopy letters. The sign itself looked old—deteriorating from bad weather—and what was assumed to be bright colored pictures of cannabis were now tarnished and gloomy.

They began nearing the forest, and once they were in the forest, the humidity seemed to have vanished and was replaced with a faint chilly breeze. The towering, twisted trees provided enough shade to nearly block out the sun's light. The light that managed to seep through the gaps of the branches casted eerie elongated shadows on the dry, dusty ground and boulders.

"Peaceful, huh?" Caravel said.

Paradox shot him a wild look. He thought this was peaceful? It was anything but peaceful. It sent the hair on Paradox's neck to stand. Something about this forest was creepy. Not in the sense of someone watching, despite it feeling like that, but in the sense of a looming darkness. Like someone wanted them dead.

Perhaps it was the fact that the forest was quiet —way too quiet. No wind blowing, no leaves crunching, no crickets chirping, nothing. Just pure silence that Paradox was flinching from the sound of his heart pounding in his skull.

If someone were to attack, Paradox doubted he would have heard them coming. He was too transfixed by his breathing and heart pounding because the silence was unusual.

A predator, was what Paradox's inner voice told him. It meant a predator was nearby if it was deadly quiet.

"How much longer?" Paradox asked Caravel hastily.

Caravel looked up from his phone. He had a bored expression on his face. "We've been walking for like five minutes, Para. We're almost there. Okay? Once you hear it, you'll know."

"'It'?" echoed Paradox. "What is ‘it’?"

"You'll know." Caravel said.

Paradox didn't like Caravel's tone: it had an edge of taunting mystery. It was as if Caravel had hinted at a secret, a secret that even he shouldn't know but discovered anyway and decided to tell Paradox.

Walking through the forest felt like forever—the thunderous silence and faint breeze was disturbing Paradox. He began walking faster, hoping that this would somehow busy his mind, but before he could determine whether walking faster was better or not, he heard a faint noise.

Like a broken musical box.

"Wait, did you—" began Paradox, but Caravel was ahead of him: "We're here!" He grabbed Paradox's wrist and yanked him with him.

The forest was widening as they went ahead and soon enough, Paradox saw a clearing. Then, the carnival.

A towering sign that read Lumen Lunae in glowing, arched red letters was at the entrance of the carnival. The sign had a drawing of a deer skull headed Lycan who was smoking a cigarette, lying on a tattered sofa. Her poison green dress fell over the side of the sofa, her black wolf tail poking out from under the dress. Behind the sign was a deserted looking carnival. Everything was broken, lifeless, and abandoned.

"Er. Are you sure—" Paradox started, but Caravel interrupted him.

"You have to pass through the entrance. Then, we'll be in the Lycan World." Caravel said. He sounded eager, blue eyes lit with joy.

"Pass through…" Paradox's voice trailed off and a wave of fear coursed through his body. Right. The Lycan World was divided from the human world. Sure, there were some Lycans that lived in the human world, but most lived in their world, Byd Cyntaf.

Lumen Lunae was one of the entrances to Byd Cyntaf.

"Come on," Caravel said, tugging on Paradox's arm. "I wanna hurry. They usually do some freaky cool shit here. I don't want to miss it."

"Ah…okay." Paradox said shortly. He followed his best friend to the entrance. He watched as Caravel entered and simply vanished. He blinked. Right. New world, new way to enter. Or something. He drew in a sharp breath and stepped through the entrance.

It was like walking through water. It was slow and dense; the air felt heavier than before. His vision was blurry but he could make out blobs of colors in front of him.

Then he was in Lumen Lunae.

"Well, lookie, here," a low voice rasped out.

Paradox looked to his left and found a Hybrid grinning at him. "A newbie." The Hybrid purred.

Paradox gave off a short noise.

"Oh, don't worry, dearie. You'll have one hell of a time here. Trust me." The Hybrid said, grinning.

Paradox had never felt more doubt in his life.

#####

Everything looked haunted, including the bathrooms. It was as haunted as it would be for Halloween, but it wasn't even Halloween. It was summer. From the constant screams and way too realistic dead bodies impaled by pitchforks that were set up as a landmarker, Paradox was uneasy and had his hand in his pocket where he gripped his switchblade tightly.

Lycans were prowling everywhere. Whether in beast form or in human form, they were at every corner and Paradox tried his best to avoid them. There were many Hybrids at Lumen Lunae as well. They were the ones who were usually offering snacks, tours, or controlling the rides.

"You lookin' kinda pale," someone said from behind Paradox, causing him to jolt in alarm. He whipped around, finding a male Hybrid grinning wickedly at him.

"I-I-" Paradox stammered, unsure what to say. He was thrown off by the Hybrid's eyes. He knew Hybrids were odd-eyed, but this Hybrid's eyes were baffling. His left eye was blank—no pupil, no color, nothing. His right eye was a deep purple. Paradox felt uncomfortable to look at the Hybrid in his eyes so he focused on the Hybrid's shirt, if he were to call it that. The shirt was torn and tattered with holes; it looked more of a crop top since the lower half of the shirt was gone.

"Enjoyin' Lumen Lunae?" The Hybrid asked.

"I-" Paradox said weakly.

"Scared?" The Hybrid teased, lifting Paradox's chin with his knuckle so they were now looking eye to eye.

"I-" Paradox said again. He couldn't speak which was frustrating because he wanted to ask the Hybrid to leave him alone.

"How 'bout I show you somethin', huh?" The Hybrid said. "Just you and me—"

"Leave him alone, Hookclaw." Caravel said, appearing next to Paradox. He was scowling.

The Hybrid—Hookclaw—snapped his head sharply to where Caravel was. "Oh, wow," he said, voice heavy with loathe. "It's Mr. Fucks With Anyone."

"Leave him alone." Caravel said stiffly.

Hookclaw hissed, "Why? He's your boy?"

Paradox looked between Caravel and Hookclaw, confused. One, he didn't understand how Caravel knew a Hybrid, and two, it seemed as if Caravel and Hookclaw had history between them since clearly they knew who the other was and they had so much hate in their tone when regarding the other.

"He's my best friend. Now go and turn tail before I rip your tail off." Caravel snapped.

Hookclaw held his hands in mock surrender: "Ooh, okay, you's mad, now? Huh? Ain't my fault—"

Caravel stepped forward, ready to strike the Hybrid, but Hookclaw stepped back, snapping, "Fine, I'm goin', I'm goin'." And he left.

"Are you okay?" Caravel asked Paradox in a rush. "I shouldn't have left you. I'm sorry. Are you—did he hurt you? I swear, if that shit hurt you, I'll—"

"I'm fine." Paradox said. "But do tell me, Caravel, how the hell do you know a Hybrid?"

A cloud of darkness shadowed Caravel's face. His jaw went tight as he said, "It's a long story, Paradox. I'll tell you another day."

Paradox was taken aback by how Caravel called him by his full name. He only called Paradox "Para". Clearly he was upset and this was a sensitive topic. But it only made Paradox wonder what happened. Perhaps the Hybrid was an ex-lover? If so, how and when did that happen? And did his parents know? But if that was the case, then why didn't Caravel ever tell him? Because it was deemed as taboo?

He didn't pry into it. It was best to leave the topic alone until Caravel was ready to open up about it. Paradox didn't want to cross that boundary—that would make things worse. So he kept quiet, trying to pretend nothing happened.

The next ten minutes were awkward. Neither boy spoke while walking side by side. It wasn't until Caravel suggested they go into the circus tent did they begin speaking.

The circus tent, despite looking small, was massive inside. The bleachers were full of Hybrids, Lycans, and the occasional human. Bright white light and soft yellow light flashed around the tent. The smell of buttered popcorn and roasted meat was lingering in the air. The subliminal music was mind draining but transfixing.

It felt like a forgotten dream.

Caravel chose to sit near the front so Paradox had no choice but to be up front. Paradox felt nervous when the lights dimmed and an overhead voice announced: "Gather 'round, young and old. Boy or girl. Whore or hoe. Everyone's welcomed, friend or foe. You've been invited to a show. Sit down and strap down, don't get so turned on. After all, you'll stay till sundown. Welcome to Seicopathig."