Free Dark One: One for Sorrow... (The Khiara Banning Series Book 1) by Sydnie Beaupré Page B

to, “It’s part of the job,” and walks off.
    I get out and sit with Cara, who doesn’t bother to ask why I changed, because she saw the whole thing.
    When the ride starts, the queasy feeling doesn’t go away, as it should. It gets worse by the minute. I’m okay now, there’s nothing gross about this particular seat, I think to myself. But for some reason, I can’t stop looking at the seat that I was sitting in. It’s mocking me, which is stupid, because dirty puke-filled Tilt a’ Whirl seats can’t mock well, anything, and I know that. But there it is giving off this terrible feeling.
    Next to me, Cara laughs away, oblivious as ever to what’s going on inside of me right now. I wish I could explain it to her, but I wouldn’t know where to begin. Somehow, “That twirling purple chair made specifically for the amusement of people is terrifying me with its evil vibes,” doesn’t really sit well with me as a proper explanation.
    All of a sudden, the chair starts to spin faster than all of the others, and I watch helpless as it starts to spin out of control, smoke rising around it. The ride suddenly stops, and we’re ordered by the control guy, Brandy, according to his nametag which I only just bothered to notice, to get off immediately. That one chair keeps spinning, and smoke keeps rising all around it until I notice the telltale orange flames of a fire. Come to think of it, I never saw any puke when I was sitting in it, which brings up a very confusing question.
    What the hell is going on?
    “Sheesh,” says Cara as we stand back and stare at the ride, “You have the worst of luck. It’s a good thing the control guy…”
    “Brandy,” I inform her, and she shrugs. “Whatever. It’s a good thing he noticed or that would have been you in there. Thank God .”
    “Seriously,” says Tristan, as he wraps his jacket around my shoulders, even as I try to fend it off. He looks upward and smiles, “Thank God!”
    “Maybe we should go home,” Cara begins to say, but I put my hand up in a gesture for her to stop. “I’m fine. We should go on at least one roller coaster. It’s not late enough for us to go home.”
    Cara frowns, “We have school tomorrow, Khiara. I actually want to pass math class this term with more than the minimum mark. If I don’t, you know I’ll have to go to summer school, and I’m not really into that sort of thing. I like freedom . So that I can you know, do stuff over the break. Plus if I want to get into nursing, I need to get serious, which has been exactly as hard as it sounds.”
    The fact that she even bothered to study kind of surprises me, though I know she’s wanted to be a nurse since I fell off of my bike when we were kids. “How much have you studied for this test?” I can’t stop the apprehension from leaking into my voice.
    She blinks at me, once, twice, three times, until she says, “Actually, for once I’ve studied a lot; remember my convo with Paul? I plan to pass, and I will. But you’re right about the time; it is too early.”
    Frowning, I say, “I didn’t know how hard you’d studied for the test. Sorry…”
    Cara smiles, hugs me and says, “It’s a rare occasion that you are an asshole and I am willing to forgive you, since you seem to be all shook up – to quote Elvis. Now let’s go ride the Minotaur, and forget we ever had this awkward moment.”
    Tristan grins from the sidelines, “That’s my favourite ride. I like the tunnel it takes you through before the big drop.”
    When we get to the roller coaster, the line is quite short, there are only about ten of us waiting and soon enough it’s our turn. The Minotaur is the biggest coaster at Monster’s Domain, and during nice days the line is packed with people. It’s based upon some cheesy horror movie about a Minotaur that attacks a whole bunch of tourists in the woods while they go camping. I’ve seen it practically a million times with Cara and each time it gets funnier and funnier to