Lunar Park
District: Westheaven
City: Ravenside
Type: Amusement Park & Nighttime Entertainment Destination
Signature Attraction: The Lunar Wheel
Largest Roller Coaster: Nightfall
Admission: $20 per couple · $30 per family of four
Motto: “Where Adventure Lights the Night.”
Lunar Park sits along the brighter edge of Westheaven, where the city gives way to river air, strings of carnival lights, music, and the distant screams of people discovering they should never have agreed to the front seat of a roller coaster.
The park is one of Ravenside’s oldest surviving entertainment landmarks. It has been renovated enough to remain beautiful without losing the slightly old-fashioned character that made generations of families love it. By daylight, Lunar Park is colorful and cheerful.
After sunset, it becomes something else entirely.
Thousands of lights illuminate the midway. Neon spills across the pavement. Music drifts between rides. Roller-coaster tracks become black silhouettes against the evening sky, and the enormous Lunar Wheel glows above everything like a second moon.
For Daemon Pallid, it is precisely the sort of place he would normally avoid.
Which is why the Devil wants to take Femi there.
Visible from several parts of Westheaven, the Lunar Wheel is the park’s defining landmark.
The enormous Ferris wheel stands near the riverfront side of the grounds, its spokes illuminated in shifting white, blue, and violet lights. At the center is Lunar Park’s crescent-moon emblem.
From the highest gondolas, riders can see across the Ravenside River and deep into the city. Crown Center glitters in the distance. Westheaven stretches beneath them. On clear nights, the darker silhouette of Wolfwater can be seen beyond the water.
The ride moves slowly enough for couples to talk.
Or kiss.
The Devil considers this useful information.
Take her.
Daemon ignores it.
Little ghost would like the lights.
That is significantly harder to ignore.
Nightfall is Lunar Park’s tallest and most notorious roller coaster.
Its first climb rises high above the midway before briefly holding riders at the summit, giving them just enough time to regret every decision that brought them there.
Then it drops.
Hard.
The coaster twists through a series of steep plunges, high-speed turns, tunnels, inversions, and sections built deliberately close to neighboring structures to make riders believe they are about to lose portions of themselves.
Daemon looks at Nightfall once.
“No.”
Femi looks at Nightfall.
Then at him.
The Devil wakes immediately.
Yes.
Daemon already knows how this argument ends.
Lunar Park offers everything a proper amusement park should: towering roller coasters, swinging pirate ships, spinning teacups, bumper cars, carousels, smaller family rides, and the infamous log flume.
The log flume has one purpose.
To get people wet.
Signs warn riders.
Employees warn riders.
People standing outside the attraction visibly demonstrate what happens to riders.
Femi gets on anyway.
Daemon follows because apparently this is what his life has become.
They emerge soaked.
Femi is delighted.
Daemon is dripping.
The Devil is delighted because Femi is delighted.
Again.
“No.”
Femi points toward the entrance.
Daemon stares at her.
She smiles.
The Devil practically purrs.
Again.
The center of Lunar Park belongs to the games.
Carnival booths compete beneath flashing signs: ring toss, basketball shots, bottle knockdowns, darts, racing games, strength tests, and games that promise enormous stuffed animals to anyone foolish enough to believe the giant bear hanging overhead can actually be won for five dollars.
The shooting gallery catches Femi’s attention.
That interests Daemon.
It interests the Devil considerably more.
After watching her shoot, Daemon begins to suspect the booth attendant is going to regret handing her the rifle.
Among the prizes is a small keychain bear.
The bear wears tiny black leather boots and a miniature leather jacket.
More importantly, it has a spectacular frown.
Femi stops.
Looks at the bear.
Looks at Daemon.
Looks back at the bear.
Daemon’s eyes narrow.
She wins it.
Then she holds the little bear beside his face.
Her hands move.
It looks like you.
Daemon stares at her.
Then at the bear.
The bear stares back with its permanent scowl.
“No, it doesn’t.”
Femi’s shoulders shake with silent laughter.
The Devil examines the bear.
Long pause.
It does.
Daemon considers throwing both of them into the river.
Femi clips the bear onto something belonging to him before he can stop her.
It stays.
Food is everywhere.
Popcorn. Funnel cakes buried beneath powdered sugar. Corn dogs. Pizza. Burgers. Fries. Soft pretzels. Cotton candy. Caramel apples. Ice cream. Lemonade. Fried dough and several culinary decisions Daemon considers evidence that humanity has become reckless with cooking oil.
Femi wants to try everything.
Daemon buys too much.
She offers him bites.
He insists he doesn’t want any.
She continues offering them.
He continues eating them.
Neither acknowledges the pattern.
Night is when Lunar Park becomes beautiful.
The rides illuminate one after another until the entire park seems suspended beneath electricity. The Lunar Wheel turns against the dark sky. Nightfall races overhead with cars full of screaming passengers. Music carries through the midway while children run past clutching prizes almost as large as they are.
And somewhere among all that noise walks a man Ravenside calls the Devil.
Beside him is a little mute woman holding his hand.
There is probably powdered sugar on his jacket.
A tiny leather-clad bear with a furious expression hangs from his keys.
Femi keeps looking at it and smiling.
Daemon keeps pretending not to notice.
The Devil notices everything.
She is happy.
Daemon looks at her beneath the carnival lights.
Bright green eyes.
Midnight hair.
That small smile she gives him when she catches him staring.
Something inside him becomes strangely quiet.
We did that.
For once, Daemon doesn’t argue.
Lunar Park becomes important not because anything terrible happens there.
No blood.
No enemies.
No guns.
No one needs saving.
For one night, Daemon takes Femi somewhere simply because he wants to see her happy.
And Femi gives the Devil something it has almost never known what to do with:
a good memory.