The ride attendant rolls the purple energy ball over their arms and behind their shoulders, twirling it between fingers and tossing it into the air, catching it without even looking once. Instead, their inscrutable eyes rest solely upon the pair of dik-dik that struggles against the mechanical skeleton pulling them towards the shallow tunnel.
“I told you that you would face terror here in our tunnel,” the jester operator says, “But you failed to let it come from simple tricks and cheap showmanship.” They squat beside the two, snickering.
Lovemore holds onto his dear Lerato with all the grip he can muster with his dik-dik hooves, digging into the floor and stepping back, fighting the unliving strength of mechanical might.
Lerato grips the bony hand that holds onto her, fighting with her mechanical gloves to pry the monster from herself and free her from its terror.
“Are you really feeling it now, you two?” the operator asks, voice rising in a crescendo of sadistic delight. “Let it flow through you, like the pride that flowed through that useless husk over there.”
With a wave of their hand, the operator motions to Hunter, laying with his gaze empty but steadily rising and falling from his chest.
“Some people say it’s great to live without fear,” the operator says. “And there are others who live their lives so dangerously and so horribly against others when they lack fear themselves. What we offer here is a place that will quantify your terror and rip it out of your screaming bodies.”
They rub their chin, giggling with a cackle of delight.  “Tell you what, let me know if you’d like to live your life without fear before you can’t make a choice. Imagine not having any inhibition due to societal expectations. Not holding back because you are afraid you’ll harm someone, going through life without a care for your own personal safety, losing body parts, losing loved ones, all because the fear response that keeps you from doing stupid things is taken away from you!”
Lovemore’s hooves slip, and the two splash into the water. Lerato lets go of the skeleton and grabs onto the side, her grip tight enough to keep the skeleton from pulling her in. But Lovemore’s hooves scrape across the platform's edge as he splashes into the water.
Lerato snatches his wrist, pulling him up enough so he can breathe, the disturbed water lapping at his face and threatening to make him sputter and cough.
“You’ll let us go if you take that fear!?” Lerato asks, her eyes wide with that panic.
“Not necessarily. You know too much. But I’ll let you live, even as our prisoners.”
“We’ll be together?” she asks, her arms straining, her muscles tensing.
“I’ll grant you that much.”
“Do it!” Lovemore shouts. 
“We don’t need fear to do the right thing by each other.” Lerato continues, staring the operator down with grim determination.”
“That’s right!” Lovemore adds. “We have each other, and as long as we love each other, we can overcome any muting of our senses or emotions.”
“Oh, but this won’t be muting,” the jester says, holding a hand. “Grab my hand, and I shall extract it all from you, just like I extracted all the pride from the supervisor.”
Hunter’s eyes dilate, and he snarls, suddenly springing to life. He pounces on the operator, knocking them down.
The skeleton lets go of the two deer and stands up, lumbering toward the hunter, whose claws tear and scratch at the piebald motley, sending shred sand bells all over the place.
With its bony hand, the skeleton punches the hunter in the side of the head, sending him tumbling and splashing into the water.
“Are you ready, dear?” Lovemore says, getting to his feet, half-submerged in the water.
“Ready as you are, my love,” Lerato responds.
She cups her hand on her hubby’s tush and, with a hefty grunt, pushes him forward and up into the air, aiding his jump.
Lovemore thrusts his hoof forward, a glowing blade of arcane energy slicing vertically upwards at the skeleton, breaking open part of its mechanism.
Inside is a tangle of wires and gears, working in unison to give the skeleton life. The thing roars with the grinding of machine parts as it turns toward the two tiny creatures. Lerato is already up at its exposed mechanisms, adjusting and tinkering with various wires and screws, and knobs.
The creature smokes and sparks and grinds, its movement halted with loud pops and snaps. Lerato hops off of it, turns to her husband, and holds her hand up.
He finishes the action, slapping her glove with his hoof. When their salutation is complete, the skeleton crashes to the ground, water flooding the rest of its systems.
The ride operator scrambles to their feet, an arm covering their chest while a gloved hand holds onto the tatters around their waist. Deep dark humanoid skin with subtle curves shows off their form. With an angry growl, they snap.
“You’ve gone and damaged carnival property! Now, you’ve really done it!”
“Leave’em alone!” the caracal growls, stumbling to his feet. “They’re just a couple of young lovers looking for fun.” He rubs his head. “You and I are going to talk this out, nice and slow,” he says, chuckling and slowly stepping toward the jester.
“N-now, wait a minute. Let me give you back your pride. You need it to function properly, certainly.”
“Pride?’ he scoffs, licking his lips. “Without that, I’m out of fucks to give.”
Lerato tugs on Lovemore’s arm and the two dik-diks look at each other, nodding, and rushing out the entrance, finally free of the wretched Tunnel of Terror and leaving the operator who brought them here to fall to their own trap.