END

Susie's eyes opened.

She sat up in bed, feeling her heart pound, doing her best to collect herself as the familiar walls of her bedroom swam into view. It had seemed so real. She could still smell the popcorn, and hear the clatter of the rides, the carousel music and the mocking laughter of the crowd. She could feel the air in her skin as she ran, squealing...

But it had been a dream.

Nothing more than a classic naked-in-public dream. The kind she had all the time.

She had to laugh at herself. It seemed so ridiculous. An evil carnival where every ride, every attraction, every situation was designed to make beautiful women as naked and embarrassed as possible? Where even the very laws of time and space bent and buckled to ensure maximum nude humiliation for its unfortunate victims? Who would come up with that? It was like something out of a bad science fiction novel where the author had very obviously worked his fetish into it.

Her subconscious had to be trying to tell her something. She wasn't sure what.

She got out of bed, stripped off her pyjamas and stepped into the shower, still thinking about the dream. She was no stranger to the old-fashioned nudie nightmare. Accidentally going to school naked, walking down the street when all your clothes fell off, finding yourself interviewed in the nude on live TV...

But this one had felt different. More tangible. Almost like it was trying to impose itself on her reality. Silly, of course. Still, even as she made herself breakfast, tied her shoelaces and skipped out the door, she couldn't get it out of her head.

After all, Susie thought as she walked down the street on her way to Pinkwhistle High School, it was true that she was very, very sensitive about the idea of anyone seeing her naked. She didn't even like getting changed in front of Bonnie, and Bonnie was her best friend. She couldn't imagine anything more mortifying than one of her dreams actually coming true in real life.

Or what if they all did? What if the carnival dream had been so powerful that it actually reshaped reality, and now everything worked the way it did in a nudie nightmare, where it felt like the whole universe was conspiring to embarrass you, and no matter what you did, you could never escape?

Susie shivered, a tingle running down her spine, skin feeling strangely cool. It was Halloween, after all. Maybe on Halloween, a dream like that would have enough power to break through?

No. But it was an interesting idea. She'd have to write a short story about it. Changing the subject of the dream, of course. She wouldn't want anyone to think she was awkwardly working her fetish into it.

Yes, what a great idea for a story! Maybe this was the one that would finally make her famous. Heads turned in the suburbs as Susie, smiling, strolled onward to school.