Free The Night Everything Changed by Kristopher Rufty

The wind was picking up. All week the weathermen warned of severe thunderstorms making their way into the heart of Wisconsin, but, until recently, the weather had been chipper. These early days of June had been almost perfect.
    Lightning flashed along with a boom of thunder. Rain would come soon, probably within minutes. The lingering odor of manure that usually fortified the farmlands had all but been dispersed by the wind.
    Dr. Vincent Carlson darted from his house. He’d forgotten to latch the front barn door and heard it pounding against the side of the stable. The last thing he needed was to trot all over the land during a storm and gather up escaped animals. If it were any other night, he’d get his daughter, Leanne, to help round them up, but she’d been at the carnival all evening and wasn’t here to help if the stock got out.
    Vincent implored her not to go, but she’d insisted. He didn’t like the idea of her running off to some strange carnival where the main attraction was a herd of tiny people, even if it was on his land. Not dwarves, mind you, these people were even smaller. He’d heard rumblings in town that some folks thought they might be elves.
    That was ridiculous. Elves.
    Leanne argued it was the eighties, times had changed, and people could believe what they wanted and go to any kind of carnival that they wanted without worry of being ridiculed for it.
    Vincent wasn’t the only one in Doverton who wasn’t thrilled that the Haunchies had rolled into town.
    He was sure Leanne would have plenty to say about what the other townspeople were thinking. She was a teenager and had just graduated from South Doverton High School. Of course she knew everything. Her brain was a mass of uncultivated knowledge.
    She wasa very smart girl, preparing this summer to start college near Green Bay in the fall. And Vincent wasn’t scared to admit to anyone he’d miss her terribly.
    He grabbed the barn door just as the wind gusted it open, catching it before it smacked against the side wall. Keeping it gripped firmly with both hands, he inspected the door as the wind wobbled it like sheet metal. It was a strain to keep a firm hold on it. He saw the door was already showing evidence of damage. The wood was old, but he’d hoped it would last at least a couple more years. After this abuse, he’d probably have to repair it by the Fourth of July.
    Using both hands, he pushed the door against the blustery weather, and, after a bit of a struggle, managed to slam it shut. He dropped the latch in place, securing the door closed and pulled on the plank, checking its durability. It felt sturdy enough. He hoped it would hold.
    Another twisting bolt of lightning crackled down from the sky, striking a tree somewhere deep in the woods, across from Vincent’s cornfields. The explosion made him jump out of his skin.
    Storm’s getting closer.
    He hugged himself. What little heat they’d had during this early part of the summer was gone. In Wisconsin, the summers normally felt like the fall, and when fall did come, it was nearly as cold as the winter. The weather never matched the season.
    “Leanne better be getting on home,” he muttered.
    Why hadn’t she gotten home yet? He’d told her no later than midnight. It had been steadily approaching that time when he’d last checked the clock in the house. It was probably midnight by now, but if not, it was damn close.
    As Vincent hurried back to the house, he recalled the flyer Leanne had shown him. It was an advertisement for the carnival, one of the many he’d already seen stapled to the power poles in town and taped across the windows and walls of any buildings whose owners had granted them permission.
    Written in flashy letters was:
     
    The Final Tour of the Haunchyville Carnival!
    Come enjoy it while you still can!
     
    He shouldn’t have let her talk him into it.
    When she’d brought him the flyer, she wasn’t just showing him that they were coming. She’d been using it