People. Walking. Busy, stumbling, reading, eating, talking. Living. Meiko clutches at her red balloon, bobbing up and down in the wake of passersby, tugging gently backwards, as if to escape from something in front of her. She holds it stubbornly, little eyes peering through the thick forest of legs, paying no heed to the faces of the people much taller than her.
A sudden tinkling catches her interest, barely audible above the roar of the crowd.
She glances around, but nobody else seems to have noticed.
She looks back down, searching the crowd for the source of the ringing, and a sudden flash of color stops her.
A little blonde girl, sharing a big shirt with her twin, beckons to her.
Her sick grin is chilling.
Meiko cautiously approaches her, vaguely noting that an accordion has joined the bell in playing a tune.
The blonde girl holds out a paper welcomingly, her brother's head disconcertingly close to hers, both smiling, and Meiko feels a slight foreboding chill, quickly smothered by a sense of curiosity.
What's this? A circus?
The flyer has a childishly drawn circus tent with a yellow star on the top, and the world around her seems to fade from existence as the circus takes hold in her mind.
Welcome to Machigerita Circus...
The girl dances away, brother by her side, and Meiko turns towards them, crumpling the flyer, forgetting her balloon.
They laugh happily, running lightly over the ground, never looking back, keeping a brutal pace as Meiko tries to follow them.
She doesn't stop as they leave behind the busy street, doesn't even notice when they enter the forest and branches catch at her clothes, scratch her face.
It's dark now.
The twins disappear, swallowed by the forest, and Meiko comes to a skidding halt, lost.
She takes a hesitating step forward, then another, and a big red tent rises up in front of her, yellow star perched on top, lights within burning its purpose into her retinas.
Circus.
She unfolds the flyer, holds it up to the tent, matching the images, and enters, captive to the eerie spell of the circus in the dark woods.
The ten-foot chairman watches, big eyes glittering hungrily as she enters his web.
Soon, my children.
Two legs. A billowing skirt. Tall, inhumanely so children. Long blonde hair. Grey ponytail. A tophat.
Meiko's breath catches in awe as she looks up at the figures above her, barring the way to the circus.
Oh, you're here, you're here!
Their eyes are empty.
Tonight, we'll be showing
The sad fate that some of this world carry
They part, arms welcoming her into their home, their twisted, lovely, horrific, beautiful circus.
Children that god has abandoned, restlessly creeping out.
She smiles and approaches the opening, then twists away, suddenly shy.
A hole in the side gives her the perfect viewing window.
Above it all, the ten-foot chairman stands, grinning sickly.
Now, time for the show!
Oh!
The boy and the girl from before, the ones who gave her the flyer, the ones whose eyes glittered with promise, with fantasy, with mystery, the ones who lead her to this wonderful, torturous, terrifying, lovely place!
The boy whimpers, and his sisters grin twists sharply, becoming venomous, vicious, filled with madness.
Meiko gasps.
Children who can't even carry the trembling limbs they were born with,
Their shaking tongues even accidentally cry out.
A flash of light, hurting Meiko's eyes, and she sees the shadows of the tall people who welcomed her to their broken, loving, haunting, hidden home.
The crowns of their heads that caress the dark clouds.
She turns briefly, aching for the beauty of their abnormality, and she sees a flash of grinning teeth.
They smile as they dream of their mothers embrace.
She looks back at the siblings and they clasp hands in front of their chest, garish background colors not detracting from the misshapen truth.
Oh, the deformity!
They're both clutching blue, cold hands, dead things, waving gesturing, and Meiko feels a sick smile worming onto her face, even as wet things crawl over her toes, and the welcoming warmth flees from her back.
She can't tear her eyes away.
They are attached.
Sewn together.
DEFORMITY!
The Chairman, ten feet tall, sits back, laughing.
Drop by and see him.
He watches the girl.
Drop by and see him.
A song, a voice, haunting and melodic, lyrical, lilting, mixed sadness and madness.
Meiko hums along.
She doesn't know this tune.
A pink dress, blue skin, bandages, a cage, bondage.
The circus...
Deep into the forest, far far in the back that way.
There is a circus.
She is watching,
Joining?
Perhaps.
It may be his plan.
The chairman with the big eyes
And ten meters tall
All of the cast is jolly
Their forms are rather strange.
Tall.
Twins.
What else could there be?
What else could be done, who could do it?
Everytime.
Everytime, it is asked.
And they find out.
Though they wish they did not.
But it's so fun!
She shrieks, grinning madly, spinning,
Dragging him with her.
He cries for her madness.
The dark woods circus!
One with two heads.
She's still peering, still watching, strangely drawn to this tilted, jaded, deformed, unhealthy, obsessive circus.
She is...
A deformed diva.
Her voice draws her even further in.
Meiko presses to the fabric
As if she could enter through the side.
The ten-foot chairman smiles, sitting back easily.
It ends soon.
She will join us.
A boy is carried from outside her field of vision, slumped sideways in his seat.
Straitjacket.
Blue.
He's unaware, then not, vapid smile overtaking him, relaxation setting in...
Meiko smiles happily.
He's happy.
It's alright.
A plate is set in front of him
White trickles out of the corner of his mouth.
Hands.
Hands pile on the plate, and Meiko covers her mouth with her own, feeling vaguely sick.
He eats.
A blue beats that loves to eat things cold.
The lights go out, the tent grows dark and cold.
Meiko is afraid.
She turns, seeing nothing but the blackness of the forest, and wishes for the warm familiarity of the circus.
Of the performers.
Of her family.
Them.
She sees the entrance and slips through, staring in wonder at the shadowy props and cages that fill the backstage.
So many wonderful things...!
A tearful voice startles her, and she sees the beautiful, horrible, disgusting, stunning deformation that is the diva in her cage, leaning against the bars.
About to give up.
Does anyone wish that I were alive, so undesirable I am in this body?
Hands reach through the bars, take off her blindfold, and Meiko strains with the diva to see who it is in the gloom.
The twins.
Joined at the hip.
Sewed together.
All bright colors, manic smiles, tears and seams.
The boy holds the eye covers, looking sadly at the girl in the cage.
But which of them is truly caged...?
The diva's lips part in surprise, and she draws closer to the bars.
Meiko steps forward once, afraid to break the spell.
Why do you look at me like that?
He says nothing, only stares sadly at her, and another tear slides down her cheek.
Her voice rises into panic, irrational fear setting in.
Why do you look at me like that?
She lets more tears fall.
Tears of sadness
Of pain
Of anger
Of fear
And they wash the bottom of the cage.
This face that is rotting...
Meiko hears a creak, turns to face the direction it came from...
She wished she hadn't.
A little red-headed girl hangs, noose tight around her lifeless, broken neck.
Her sightless eyes stare at Meiko relentlessly, piercing her soul.
The rot is working it's way down the girl's face, over her neck, and one of her arms has already fallen off.
Oh, the smell...
Meiko whimpers.
This face... that is rotting...
It looks like flowers.
The heads of the boy and the diva at the cage turn to face her, and she sees the rot on their faces too, almost swallowing the diva's face, around the boy's eye, and his twin simply grins sickeningly.
She loves it.
Their empty eyes, horribly full of pain...
They chill her beyond calm.
So she screams.
And screams.
And hopes someone hears her, can save her.
Dark hands close over her, muffle her cries, and eventually she calms.
The eating darkness, the chilling horror, it's still inside of her.
She can feel it.
But for now, she can hold it back.
It's painful...
The diva collapses, buries her face in her hands.
It's painful...
Her hair covers the rot.
It's painful, and it can't be helped...
The boy reaches out to grab a strand of her hair, drawing it close and holding it, closing his eyes as he remembers his home.
Home.
He shakes his head slowly, and stares directly into Meiko's eyes.
She said it.
But still, we continue this circus.
Black.
She's back at the hole in the side of the tent, watching as the little blonde girl hosts yet another show.
A freakshow.
She grins despite herself as she whispers along with the girl.
Forever!
She has seen the show many times, too many times.
She loves it.
It's where she belongs.
The silent, ten-foot tall chairman stands, ready to act his part.
It is ready...
He will carry her away.
It's fun, so fun!
The blonde girl throws her hand in the air, cackling as the circus begins to feature another show.
The crowd grins as one, an appreciative murmur spreading throughout.
The boy joins in now, throwing his arm to the other side, as the spotlight features them both.
The girl's smile fades, slightly more human now.
This circus is so fun.
Meiko's mouth forms an O as the scene turns fantastical in a new, horrible way.
There are balloons everywhere.
They're covered in rot.
So pretty...!
The little girl in the center of the tent stretches her hand out even further, and the crowd roars in pleasure.
Rotten fruit, to dissolve my eyes...
The little boy hides his face, crowd-pleasing smile gone.
My skin festers...
His eyes meet Meiko's.
Reflected on my eyes.
A noose.
Rot.
Two children now.
One ate an apple...
It's rolling away.
Rot surrounds the bitemark.
They're both dead...
So beautiful...
The diva, singing again.
Meiko holds her breath as she hears the words.
I want to die.
The boy sings now too, voice cracking with the intensity of his plea.
I want to die.
She clings to the bars of her cage, singing what's left of her heart out.
Get me out of here.
Please.
Meiko stays in front of the hole.
People filter out of the opening.
A beautiful woman in a red dress stands in the entrance.
She gestures.
The chairman, ten-feet tall, stands.
It is time.
A shadow falls across Meiko.
She turns freezes,
Turns around.
The two tall children, holding each other, dance around the tent.
Through the forest,
As music plays behind them.
So beautiful...
The body is distorted in order to bend that twisted figure
The ten-foot chairman, hunched over, treads down the path so many have traveled before.
To crawl on the illuminated street with paper lanterns.
A little figure in a red dress crawls on torn, bloody hands and knees, then is pulled back.
Five children, laughing happily, skip, leap, talk, laugh, and walk down the twisted pathway.
Everybody knows the feeling of walking down the street.
Two blonde children clutch each other in fear
Covered in blood.
A boy in blue is slumped in a chair.
His tiny body is twisted in fear.
This child has to cower alone.
The girl with the beautiful voice, the girl with the long hair.
She whimpers on the ground,
Throat bleeding, strained.
I guess the shadows reach long.
The ten-foot-tall chairman cackles, children at his feet.
Servants all.
Clutching each others throats, sick grins permanent.
A limp body in a chair, straightjacket holding him down.
Twisted blue legs, clumsily sewn to a beautiful body.
Singing.
But the friends that have their waists aligned...
You
Meiko's head rests on a steel table, body limp beneath it.
Are later,
Her eyelids flicker
And before,
She moans softly
And by yourself.
The dark circus in the woods.
Oh, you're here, you're here!
A little girl in a red dress,
Drop by and see him,
Roses around her head.
Drop by and see him,
The ten-foot-tall chairman in her eyes
Madness in her smile.
Meiko whispers to the boy.
(Drop by, to the dark woods.)
It's fun.