"I would die for you..." A voice said out of nowhere.  Ali Dixon turned around in the throngs of people that surrounded her, hunting for the voice to no avail.

    "Did you hear that?" She asked her friend.

    "Hear what?" Cara replied.

    "I heard someone say 'I would die for you'." She said, still scanning the faces in the crowd like she'd be able to pinpoint him.

    "Creepy." She replied in a sing-song voice.   "How do you know they were talking to you anyway?"

    "I don't."  Ali said, forcing herself to stop looking for whoever he was.  "But it's a pretty weird thing to say to anyone, don't you think?"

    "Not in this day and age!  Besides, any conversation taken out of context can sound weird!"  Cara said with a shrug.  "Are you sure we want to do this?"

    "It's fun, I promise!" Ali said, as the girls neared the front of the line-up for laser tag.

    "Maybe for kids, not for twenty something year old women!"

    "Look around, there's more than just kids here!   Seriously, if you don't have fun, the next time we go out, you can make me do anything you want!" Ali promised, as the man running the carnival attraction helped her put on a game vest.

    "Oh please, you'd do that anyway..." Cara sighed with a cocky smile, taking a laser gun and stepping into the dark tent.   The two girls crouched down as they began the game, trying to see in the haze filled room, their eyes adjusting to the black lights.   It wasn't long before both girls were fully engrossed in picking off children one by one, and eluding those who got too close.  "I'm gonna go that way, and try to get that little bastard we keep missing!" Cara whispered.  "If I can't find you again, we'll meet at the cotton candy stand if one of these brats finally gets us!" Ali nodded with a smile, and watched as her friend stealthily ran around the corner of the maze like structure.    She went in the opposite direction, wiping the bead of sweat from her forehead, and carefully watching for anyone else she could shoot.  You could hear the voices of people both inside and outside the tent, mixing with the pulsing techno beats that were playing in the speakers.    She found a good spot to keep an eye on who was coming in her direction, and crouched down to wait for someone to come closer.

    "Look out!" Ali heard suddenly as a man jumped in front of her, knocking her onto the floor.  "Oh, god...I'm sorry!" He said, as he helped her back to her feet.  "That little 13 year old punk was about to get you.  I couldn't let the only other adult in here be taken out!"

Ali laughed, "Well, sadly - it looks as though you were hit!" She said pointing to his vest, who's green lights had turned red.

    "Dammit!" He proclaimed with mock anger.  "Well, at least I've fulfilled my 'saving a damsel in distress' fantasy.  And well, I did say I would die for you before we came in here."

    "That was you?"  Ali said with a shake of her head.  "I thought I was crazy.  Why would you say something like that and then disappear!"

    "I was trying to be mysterious." He shrugged.

    "Frankly it was creepy!" She smiled.  "But you did in fact die for me, so I guess I can look past it, and forgive you."

    "Jake." He said, extending his hand towards hers.

    "Ali." He took her hand in his own and kissed the top of it.

    "Well Ali, I am dead, so off I must go!" He smiled.  "Please avenge me!"

    "I will!' She laughed, as he walked away towards the exit.  She watched him until he was out of her sight, and continued on, looking for the kid who had killed him and who had almost gotten her.  Her thoughts however, weren't into the game anymore.  She couldn't stop smiling, and she had butterflies in her stomach that she hadn't felt since she was in high school.  Her thoughts were so clouded by the lingering feeling of his kiss on the top of her hand, that she didn't notice someone come up behind her.

    "Ha! Gotcha lady!" The same kid who had killed Jake said.  Ali, looked down at the red lights on her vest and sighed with dejection.  She walked out of the tent, handing her gear to the man running the game and saw Cara standing at their promised meeting place.

    "What's wrong?" She asked, when she saw the pout on Ali's face.

    "Some kid just called me lady."  Cara laughed, and handed her a bag of blue cotton candy.

    "Here, I've eaten too much already.  I've been waiting forever.  That little blond bastard got me like a minute after I left you."

    "Yeah, he got me too.  Actually he almost got me like 15 minutes ago, but somebody saved me."

    "Someone saved you?"  She asked with a raised eyebrow.  "Explain."  Ali told Cara all about her knight in laser tag armor, as both girls walked around the carnival.   They spent the next hour looking for Jake, at Cara's insistence,  while playing  games and enjoying the contrived flattery of the carnies who beckoned everyone who passed by them.  Ali had put up minimal resistance over looking for Jake, mainly because she knew that Cara wouldn't quit until she won, and she really wanted to see him again.

    "Oh, the zipper!" Cara said excitedly, pulling her friend towards the ride.  "C'mon, this was my favorite ride when I was a kid!"

As Ali and Cara spun in dizzying circles, laughing uncontrollably as the ride flipped upside-down, Ali's smile grew even wider.  Standing near the exit, watching her with every flip of the cage they sat in, was Jake.