The Carousel-Net

On the evening of January 3rd, 2010, I was sitting at home alone in my computer chair, the old CRT monitor blaring in my eyes. I had been browsing some archives of the then-recently deceased GeoCities and laughing at old weird sites. But suddenly, I found a strange web ring.
If not for the clown themed web ring being on a site about aliens from Star Trek I wouldn't have thought much of it. But it caught my eyes, and I decided to fall down the rabbit hole because of the comedy. It featured a 3-frame GIF of a spinning carousel as the image to represent the ring, and the name was simply "The Carousel-Net." Stranger still was the next website was a historical account of prisons in the US. The page I landed on was a heavily edited and redacted account of a specific unnamed prisoner.
I clicked the next page... It was a page all about old timey county fairs. Sounds more normal now! Except there's some strange wording and bizarre roundabout ways to explain things. Otherwise, pretty normal so I clicked to the next page. Beasts. Monsters. Bigfoots. Cryptids. Still the same web ring.
Next page took me to a child's page all about clowns and circuses. Pretty boring, next page. It's the Star Trek page again. I go to the next page just to check I'm not going crazy. I'm on the jail site again. I was about to get off this ring thinking it was worthless till I noticed the text changed on the page. It now sounds like someone sharing personal gripes with this unnamed person. So I decide to move along to the next page. It's on carousels. And carousels. More carousels. The entire site is now about carousels. Next page. Beasts. Monsters. Bigfoots. Cryptids. Next Page.
The child updated their site with a journal about a fair. He seems like he's doing it while at that fair. Next page. Star Trek is still unchanged, that's good. Next page.
The picture of the prisoner is no longer censored by a black bar, but scribblings across his face. The text is more petty and ranting about things he has done to the narrator. Next page. The carousels are all spinning in unique ways. Some in 2 frames, some in likely 60. Many in between. Next page. Still, beasts. Monsters. Bigfoots. Cryptids. Next page. The kid is gushing about carousels.
Star Trek, still the same. Prisoner, picture more ruined with childish drawings and petty statements. Carousels, spinning. Beasts. Beasts. More beasts. The kid is worried. Star Trek greets me with kind words. Prisoner greets me with a photo of him beat up and chained. Carousels spinning ans warning me. Beasts are getting antsy. Child is scared. Star Trek.
Prisoner is calling for help, he is beat up in his photo and screaming yet still covered in art of devil horns and other insulting art. The carousels stop me. Next page, they're still here. They tell me to continue if I want to run or stay and have fun. Next page. They beg now. Next page. They command me. Stay here. Stay away from the beast. We will protect you, it will be fun. And yet, next page.

THE BEASTS HAVE ESCAPED.


Next page. The child is running and in fear of something chasing him. Next page. He's begging for help. Next page. He's screaming. Next page. He's asking me to stop. Next page. He wants my help. Next page. He pleads for me to stay and save him. Next page. He's crying. Next page. Nothing. No text, but one photo. His body lays on the ground, the beasts standing above him.

FOUND YOU.


Next page. Star Trek is gone, the web ring vanished. All that remains is a space background and one bit of text.

The Final Frontier.

    !!!    

    I HAVE SADLY NOT FOUND A WAY TO TREK THROUGH THE STARS, MY WHIMSICAL INFLUENCE DOES NOT YET REACH BEYOND THIS REALM'S ATMOSPHERE