She was beautiful, as most would say, her cheerful disposition lighting up any room. In the traveling circus she called home, she played the role of tightrope-walker, and was considered the best at it by the other members. She was so loved. By her fellow performers, the audience, everyone. As far as she was concerned, things were perfect.
And then he came along. The selfish, bratty one. The one who kept to himself. The one who stuck to the other newcomer, Sebastian, as if he were his father. Was he? She had never thought to ask. Their time together was so achingly short, and questions about each other's pasts had come few and far between. Now, time had long since left them, and the boy was long gone. But for all his strange ways, his icy demeanor, the walls he put up around his heart so no one would enter, she loved him and she would hate herself forever for not telling him. Now, surrounded by a mansion on fire that had taken the lives of the few people she looked up to and unable to get up due to her grievous injuries, she had a new, strange perspective. It was obvious she would not survive this; the place was so secluded, and already mostly destroyed by flame. Why not think of life, while in the throes of death? And she did just so.
Smile. That was his name. Or, his stage name at least. Everyone went by their stage name at the circus. Did he smile a lot? No, not at all; he was a thoroughly grim person. But when he smiled, it seemed like the world smiled with him, happy that its little boy had found a reason to be glad. Everyone would certainly be asking where he and Sebastian, aka Black, had gone by morning. Not to mention their ringleader, no doubt dead in the burning mansion behind her. But these things had to be taken one at a time.
Overrun by the need to preserve her memories of the young circus boy, she thought of everything: testing his skill to see if he could perform, sharing a tent with him, giving him some of her food at breakfast when he overslept and barely got any, the first time they called each other "friends", and everything after and in between. How easy it had all seemed then, before she knew everything he told her was a lie. Before he had set the circus leader's mansion on fire, stabbed her, and left her to die.
Slowly, a figure walked up to her, wearing a black, 3-piece suit that almost made him blend in with the darkness of the night. He may not have been wearing his flashy circus costume, but she'd know those glasses anywhere.
"Suit." She managed to choke out through her pain. Or William, if his real name was anything to go by. He was another newcomer, he had come around the same time Smile and Black did. Due to his incessant talk of the occult, refusal to let anyone near him, and habit of constantly carrying around a pole pruner that he called a "scythe", he had gained the reputation of "delusional freak." He was a good acrobat, though, you had to give him that.
"Greetings, Miss Doll." he said solemnly, calling her by her stage name while carrying his ever-present pruner in one hand. "Though I may say that tonight you barely represent your namesake." If she was able to do more than lift an arm, she probably would have smacked him.
"Fire." She contented herself with saying, the aforementioned flames getting closer.
"Yes, it would seem so. Though I have no need to worry about such things." There he goes, spouting nonsense again. Doll thought, mentally rolling her eyes. Didn't he care that he could die? Didn't he care that she was dying?
Suddenly, he took out a notepad from his pants pocket, and, after briefly checking it, grunted in approval, pocketed it, and looked back at Doll. Still another one of the machinations of this strange man.
"It is clear you will not make it through this night, young Doll." He said, eerily calm. Really? Anyone could figure that out. Why don't you help me? the teen girl thought angrily.
"Help." Was the only thing able to escape her lips.
"Believe me, I will." Suit responded as he thrust his pruner deep into her chest wound.
This was it. The final moments of her life. Maybe it was good that Suit had cut it short; the pain had been consuming her. Lost in a murky darkness, her life began to flash before her eyes. She did not care. She had seen it all before, and after Smile's betrayal, she was glad she would never have to be reminded after this.
The girl's body lost all consciousness and her eyes slowly glazed over. William looked at her, in a rare moment of pity. At least he had the chance to put her out of her misery. Looking on towards the fire, he knew already that the only thing this place would come to be known for would be death and pain.