Susie sneaks out

The air was cool on Susie's bare skin. The stars glimmered in the night sky, high above her head. She stood in an empty, grassy space behind a row of tents, sheltered from the carnival's crowds. Which was good, since, as previously mentioned, she didn't have any clothes on.

She scampered across the grass, peeping into the rear flaps of tents. A shooting gallery, a ring toss, a popcorn stand, all of them crowded by people. What she wanted was a storage room where they might be keeping a costume of some kind. Even a clown outfit would be better than what she had on now.

But she couldn't find anything. All the tents were full of people. There was nowhere for a nude girl like her to hide.

Susie took a deep breath and steeled herself, drawing upon hidden reserves of courage she didn't know she had. Okay, it wasn't the best situation. Here she was, stranded, naked, in the hidden back alleys of a carnival that she was beginning to suspect wasn't entirely on the level. But she wasn't going to let them win. She was the smartest girl she knew, and smart girls like her always found a way out.

At least in the books she read. In her favourite detective stories, girls like her never got caught.

She heard, from behind her, the tiniest little noise.

Susie spun around, and saw a clown. A handsome clown, in a creepy white pierrot costume with black pom-poms down the front. He wasn't saying anything. Just standing there, totally silent, smiling at her.

She looked down, remembering that she was still completely naked, and said, softly, "Eek."