The Carnival Saga:
?Well, actually,? Jim said. ?I do have a few ideas . . . ?

He was gratified to see everyone pause, waiting to hear what he had to say. It made him feel good to see how his friends valued his ideas. "To start with, I'm going home. I need a shower, and some fresh clothes before I do anything else around here. Mike," he added, "do you want to ride with me?"

Mike was still staring at the place where Dante had vanished. He was scowling, and Jim had to ask him again before he grunted an affirmative.

"Secondly, we need to find G.A. This is his brainchild, and I think his head contains the key to fixing all this."

"Don't you mean stopping it?" Dave asked, warily.

"No. I mean fixing it. If Celestine wanted the Partner stopped, he'd be stopped. I don't think this is about damage control anymore. It's about making sure nothing like this can happen again. Maybe even making it so that nothing like this happened in the first place."

Marci looked at the table and frowned. Dave looked over his shoulder, feeling a strange sort of second-hand guilt. Mike hit the table, glaring at Jim, and snarled "What do you mean by that? Dammit, this is no time for riddles!"

"I mean we make it so that Jacklyn, Drew and Stacey, Murph, Clay, Steve..." his voice trailed off, and he looked away. Jim's expression was that of a man who'd suddenly realized something bad.

Without looking up from the table, Marci finished his sentence. "Ginger, Big Dav, and the rest of them. We make it so they never died in the first place."

"We can't do that! How are we supposed to do that?"

"Jim died last night, Mike. Remember? But he's here." Dave watched his friend carefully. It wasn't like Mike to be so...volatile.

"We aren't supposed to do it." Marci whispered. It was a terrible responsibility Jim was dropping on her shoulders. A terrible price. And he knew it. "I am. I used Stephan's hat to bring Jim back."

Jim rejoined the conversation, grabbing Dave by his ears and staring deep into his eyes. "Dante, you pissant, I know you're in there! Pay attention, dammit! Where's Steve? Celestine fired Stephan! He wasn't part of the equation anymore...so why did the partner kill him?"

Dave gaped like a fish, shocked first by being grabbed by Jim like that, shocked again by the words that came from his mouth without his permission. "Maybe he didn't want Stephan to come back?"

"No..." Marci looked up, her eyes wide. "He used too much power killing people. The deaths of the others all empowered the Carnival somehow...including the Partner."

Jim nodded, releasing Dave's ears. "Right. He wouldn't have killed anyone if there wasn't something in it for him. So where did Steve go?"

"I don't know. Maybe to the Big Top, or in the Top Hat..." Dave slapped his hand over his mouth, annoyed.

"The Hat is almost empty." Everyone stared at Marci, surprised. "Well it is! Stephan sort of 'charged up' at the performances, and then used the extra energy to move the Carnival. He'd just moved the Carnival to Florida, and they'd had three shows with piss-poor audiences. Then I used it for Jim. There's not a lot of juice left."

"I need to think. I'll drop Mike off, then I'm going to get a nap and a shower. I'll pick you up around four, okay Mike?"

Mike scowled, still. "Whatever."

"And we'll come back here." See you guys then, okay?"

Mike and Jim departed via Molly, leaving Dave and Marci alone in the now almost empty mess tent. Dave looked around at the mess the Partner had made. "Why do you think he didn't kill me?"

Marci shrugged, hiding the cold knot in her throat at the very idea. "Maybe he can't."

"He scared us, he tried to interrupt our meeting...but he appeared out of nowhere. He could have had a brick in his hand and done any one of us in before the rest realized what had happened."

"I know, sweetie."

"I wonder if it was just a distraction. What? What do you mean by that?" Dave looked a bit odd, debating with himself. "Are you sure that was Jim?"

Marci felt herself shiver. "But I used the Hat..."

"You're not a Carnie." Dave added, "You couldn't use the Hat at all, unless you were the Ringmaster..."

Now she felt downright cold. "The Partner and Mr. James left, I watched the fight outside, and with the Hat I pulled Jim back... At least, I thought I did."

"Jim looks a lot like the gambler."

"Yeah."

"And when you were talking about how Mr. James was working with the Partner, it was Jim that gave us second thoughts..."

"Yeah."

"If the Partner had a spy in our midst, Jim would be the perfect choice. And did you notice? He hasn't been mourning his wife since..."

"Since he died. Shit."

Dave raised his hand. "And where did Jim get keys for Molly?"

"Shit." Why was everything so damned complicated?