The fair bustled, and right in the middle of it all stood two carousels.

They had the same music, started up at the same time and the same booth sold tickets to both. There was the same line, but people did not wonder which one to choose when approaching. The difference was plainly visible.

One was a regular carousel, with comfortable saddles and handlebars on various pretty horses. It was large enough to be comfortable for adults, although many had children with them as well.

9 year old Vikki, however, knew what she wanted, and she was pulling her older sister's hand determinedly towards the other one. Obviously the pulling was silly - there was just one booth. But 17 year old Maia wasn't going to budge from her trajectory anyway, so the pulling was as good a means of communication as any.

Maia could read Vikki's request loud and clear, but she was hesitating. This babysitting request came last minute as their mom had to run to a job interview unexpectedly, and Maia actually had plans for after the fair... and small children weren't allowed on the ride without accompanying adults. Then again, she didn't spend as much time with her little sister as she wanted. What was one request for a ride?

"Alright, alright," Maia made the executive decision. "Stop pulling or I'll let go of your hand and you'll fall on your face!"

Vikki quickly let go. She knew from long practice that Maia did not threaten in jest, and even if she didn't pull hard enough to fall on her own, Maia would trip her up so she'd fall anyway. That would be so embarrassing!

Instead she hopped quietly on one leg then another, trying to bleed off excess energy as she stayed next to her sister. The rule was ironclad: if she was with Maia, she could ask for anything she liked, but if she wandered off without permission, they'd immediately go home, no ifs, ands and buts.

Time seemed to flow as slow as molasses for the impatient child as the line slowly wound through the booth. They made it to the next ride: in the middle of the day people would often only be able to buy tickets to the ride after the next and have to go wait it out somewhere else. It helped they were after the second carousel: it was marginally less popular, the first carousel was already sold out by their turn.

Clothes were optional on the second carousel, and Vikki dragged Maia towards the changing booths. They both undressed and left their stuff in the booth - there was no point locking it up, they wouldn't be picking it up anyway. Then they just stood naked with a crowd of other people in front of the ride, shivering in excitement and waiting their turn.

The previous cycle ended with the entire carousel structure briefly lowering itself into the ground, then emerging back up, clean and shiny as if there'd never been anyone there after several seconds - though even those felt like eternity to an excited kid.

Maia felt a lot more trepidation, but she ignored it as she headed towards the carousel. Vikki dragged her in a beeline towards a black horse with colorful stars on it, which Maia considered a pretty respectable choice. She helped Vikki climb onto it, then, wincing, lowered herself behind her.

The seat of the horse was a classic "wooden horse" setup, only metal - two flat panels meeting each other at a ninety degree angle at the top, welded together unevenly where they joined. Even Vikki, light as she was, was whining quietly as she adjusted her position on the sharp seat. Still, she kept as still as she could - this was her own idea after all. Maia was considerably heavier - what one would describe as "plump" even - and so it took her no small amount of focus to not outright scream as she put her whole weight on the setup.

The handlebars consisted of six razor blades sticking out in a cylinder. Vikki grabbed them as strongly as she could, which drew blood immediately but seemed to at least distract her from the pain in her nethers. Maia did the same, though it did little to distract her until she started outright rubbing her head on them, drawing them deeper and deeper into her fingers and palm.

The stirrups were the last part of the setup, and the reason children were not allowed on the ride without adults - they were not within their reach. Vikki's little bare feet rested on Maia's legs, as she put her own feet into the metal construction and winced as it locked around them. She would not be able to unlock it, not in her life. There were small spikes her feet were pressed into, which was actually kind of pleasant - until the ride started anyway, when they'd get electricity flowing through them alongside the seat itself.

The music started after everyone was seated, the carousel jolted sharply and Vikki squeaked as she was pressed into Maia - the metal horse seat was not at all conductive to keeping their butts in place, and the speed was much higher than on the regular carousel as well. Maia herself had to tense her arms and squeeze her hands even stronger around the razors to not let the momentum press entirely into her ankles, held in place by the locked stirrups. There were screams from other people on the carousel - not everyone was holding on properly, and now their legs suffered for it. A smaller teenager, barely tall enough to be allowed to ride on their own, actually had their ankles snap entirely as they were torn off the seat; they dragged on the metal platform under the ride - spiky for specifically this reason - for a few seconds, then the rest of flesh keeing their feet connected to their ankles was torn entirely and they were left panting and wheezing in pain, blood flowing from stumps, on the spikes under everyone else.

Maia did not have much attention to pay to the fallen kid though, as the ride continued. The horses' heads bent down suddenly, and small bamboo rods came out of the central column at chest height - what was chest height now that anyone was yanked down, anyway. Vikki knew about the trap and bent down lower, letting it pass above her head and into Maia's breasts, where it broke - and then the next one, as rods kept coming out for a while. Whap! Whap! Whap!

Maia's chest was a bleeding bruise and several less quick children - or simply those with a different idea for how to act here - were outright dead on the other horses by the time the ride evened out and the horse head came back up, allowing backs to straighten. This was when electricity came on of course, and the air was filled with a chorus of screams. With this suddenness, no-one - at least not Maia and Vikki - was prepared for the next event, which was a dump of saltwater directly on their heads. It was enough to soak them through and to conduct electricity all over their skin; those who chose to wear clothes were even worse off. It was something of a tradeoff, Maia supposed - you could either have public nudity or the full force of this trap, not both.

Her thoughts were knocked out of her body again when the horse started bucking sharply. Vikki screamed as she held on as best she could, but the razors were sharp and her feet were not secured as Maia's were - and as there were no seatbelts, Maia could not hold her without falling off herself. So she held on, providing Vikki with at least something of a railing with her arms going around her. Several people fell; several more legs were broken. Maia felt the blade between her legs strike bone as her soft tissues were savaged into a bloody mess with the rapid changes of momentum. Vikki held on, and her hard breathing as the ride evened out again told Maia everything she needed to know about her little sister's experiences with this ride. Success!

They had a dozen seconds of breather before the next surprise, as far as Maia remembered. And as soon as Vikki caught her breath, she spoke:

"HOLY SHIT! That was awesome!"

"Language," Maia murmured automatically. There was little point to the reminder, but it was ingrained in her reflexes by now.

"Yeah whatever!" Vikki dismissed, well aware of the same thing. "I'm letting go next time!"

"Alright," Maia smiled, glad her little sister chose to warn her. "Have fun!"

"Yeah I wiaaaaaa!"

This time the ride simply sped up, and angled nozzles of water started blasting the riders head-on. It was hard to breathe, barely a second between the next jet of water hit, and there was force pushing riders directly back. Still, the ride did not accelerate for long, and high speed was relatively stable, with Vikki absorbing some of the momentum of the water jets herself. Instead of bending down and letting more water pass over her, the little girl chose to stretch out and try to catch as much as she could with her little body. Her whole arms were bloody by now, little streams from her fingers squeezing the razor blade handlebars spread by water all the way to her torso; it did not spread further though, as water sprayed it all off from there, barely leaving traces behind.

The seat was still electrified, but the current was by this point barely noticable compared to the sheer force of cold water blasting the riders.

Maia had held on fine, but the ride did not slow down and water did not cease as the horses started bucking again. Vikki kept to her word and let go; she was kept in her seat and pressed into Maia for a second by momentum, then the horse moved down again and Maia helped by letting go with one hand, releasing the "railing"; the little girl flew off and, judging by the sound, impacted the central column. Maia wondered idly if she was dead yet or not for a second; then she was distracted by needing to grab on herself. She had no plans of dying from torn off feet; it was a fine exit, but there was more fun to be had on the ride, and she was determined to get her money's worth out of the experience.

The water ceased and the ride slowed down again, letting the people still on the horses catch their breath with just the electricity, the razorblade handelbars and the angled seat assaulting their pain receptors. The horses even got warmer, easing recovery from the cold water trap...

...and kept getting warmer.

The horses were entirely metal for just this reason; they kept heating up until screams started sounding discordantly. Beautiful mounts, some of them empty, many of them painted in blood, bobbed serenely up and down to the music and people started bucking and screaming on the hot grills they found themselves on. Some chose to stand up and put their entire weight on their feet and spikes under them; some let go of the razor bars. Maia did neither, willing her body to restrain itself to jerks as inhuman pain spread from her nethers.

The ride was nearing its end; next, the acid rain started. Maia had wanted to tilt her head up and let acid drops hit her open eyes, but she had no willpower left for this. She tilted her head down instead, hair serving as temporary protection.

The rain did not last long enough for the protection to be eaten through entirely; as the last trick of the ride, the horses simply turned upside down. Riders hung from the razor handles and their feet; some just from their feet if they chose to let go. Maia did not. Her hands were sliced to the bone, but there was still enough muscle left for her to stubbornly hold on.

The ride jerked, stronly enough that those who were only held by their feet got them broken; then turned over again, roughly enough that those with broken feet fell off. It was still fast enough that they mostly tore off after a few seconds of dragging.

Maia was still seated; so were a few other people. The music was winding down; those at the bottom of the ride, alive and not, were dumped down into the refuse pile where they'd be buried alive deep in the underground. Maia knew that was Vikki's dream and still had enough focus left to wish her little sister luck in having survived to this point, down there on the spikes. It would be a slow, messy death, just the way the kiddo wanted.

Maia herself had different plans. It would take too long to tear off the remaining riders from their horses, so instead everything in the carousel was made highly heat resistant.

The entire ride dropped down for several seconds - into the incinerator.

The last few seconds of Maia's life were heat, pain and proud satisfaction. She made it to the last trick.