By the time Morgue and I finally wake up my living room is flooded with fire, the open blinds allowing for the rays of sun to spill across the floor. The light creeps into every corner of my home, as if its got a right to be there, as if I've been denying it part of its domain. Shielding my face I pull the curtain across the window, cutting my world off from the outside.
Morgue groans, rolling off the couch, he looks confused, as if he doesn't exactly remember falling asleep at my house. "What time is it?"
"Its like twelve," I respond, heading towards the bedroom to pull on a pair of black legging and a tank tops that has a skull painted on the front. I don't have the time to make my hair or my make-up look decent. I will embrace the bed head look.
Morgue gathers up his stuff and waits for me at the door as I quickly dump a can of tuna in Milo's dish. He meows a few more times before burying his face in the plastic bowl. Once I am assured my cat will not starve I grab my keys off of the hook and slam the door behind me.
Morgue and I basically run the distance between my house and the show. I have no idea if we are late or not but I don't really want to find out. The sun is hot, causing a few drops of sweat to trickle from my hairline down my face and suddenly I'm glad I didn't have a chance to put makeup on. I can't help but catch the eye of a few people we pass. They all look confused, as if they've seen nothing stranger than two people clad in all black out for an afternoon jog down the boardwalk.
As Morgue and I enter the Freak Show Todd, Murrugan and Brianna are discussing the upcoming sword-swallowing event.
"Morgue doesn't even consider himself a sword swallower, he a shock artist," Brianna says with a laugh.
Why the hell are these other performers poking fun at each other? Isn't the Freak Show about accepting everyone no matter how different they are? Why does it matter that we call ourselves something different? We all have accomplished the art of sword swallowing. There should be an aspect of respect there.
Morgue's smile that he had been wearing since this morning droops. His eyes cloud over, all emotion draining out of his face.
"Don't let them bother you," I whisper hoping I can build up his spirit in some way. People don't ever think about how their words affect others. They just spout shit to make themselves feel better with no consideration of those who have to hear what they are saying. It's infuriating.
"I was actually just talking to them about the sword swallowing event," Todd interjects, trying to break up the tension that is building up in the room.
"Oh yeah," Morgue says with an enthusiastic smile. "I have a few things planned. It's a surprise though…but, I can tell you one thing; it's gonna be much better than whatever you're doing."
Morgue motions to Murrugan and Brianna with his hand. I can see the challenging looks cross over the older performers faces. They hate that Morgue gets attention and that he can combine sword swallowing with shock art; that he's taken one art form and molded it into something that will keep him interesting and new.
"And then you woke up," Murrugan chuckles getting Todd and Brianna to join in with his joking. All three laugh as Morgue gently presses on my lower back, the two of us heading to the other side of the room. There is no use arguing with people who have a chip on their shoulder.
Morgue gives Murrugan the middle finger as we walk across the stage towards the back room. At least there we can be by ourselves and not have to deal with co-workers who do not support our art form.
I've almost made it across the stage when Murrugan stands, preventing me from following Morgue. He is tall than I am. I should've worn heels but I just didn't have time to grab a pair. The fire haired man stands about a foot taller than me, his body language reeking of intimidation.
"What are you doing to do?"
"It's a secret that I don't really trust you with," I respond back, trying to sound brave. I'm not really sure if it worked but Murrugan does move away from me.
"You respect us and we'll respect you, that's how it goes," Morgue says, his tone sharp and authoritative.
"Some respect is earned though," Brianna comes to Murrugan's rescue, her beady eyes set on me as if all of this is suddenly my fault. As if me coming to work at the Freak Show has suddenly stirred up some kind of hostility between performers.
"Yeah, some respect is earned," Murrugan reiterates as if worried our hearing isn't very good.
"You can't touch me when it comes to a performance."
"Dude," Murrugan says getting up from his seat and walking over so that he is standing a couple inches away from Morgue and myself, "I'm sitting here, being diplomatic…"
"You just can't stand the pressure," Morgue accuses, getting Murrugan off mid-way through his sentence.
Murrugan and Brianna scoff as if they cannot believe what the shock artist has just said. Yet, neither of them answer back, almost like they have no idea how to respond.
"What, is that too much? You don't like it?" I question, my tone accusing. I'm not gonna let them just get away with making fun of Morgue and his art, especially not after the conversations the two of us shared last night.
Murrugan's dark eyes, land on me, a look of pure hatred running up and down his face, "Don't involve yourself little girl."
At this point the tension between artists has become so thick you could cut it with a blunt knife. Todd decides its best to step in and take back control of a situation that never should have escalated in the first place.
"I don't mind the competition but let's just be prepared. I don't want any accidents. I don't want any mistakes. I want to make history."
For the rest of the day I try and stay out of Murrugan and Brianna's way. It isn't so much that I am scared of them it's just that I don't want to give Todd any reason to let me go. I enjoy this job and would really like to be able to keep preforming at the Freak Show.
My stunt is one of the harder ones I've tried and in order to get it down I have to practice without the swords. It requires a great deal of arm strength and the exact right timing. One little mistake and I could end up in the emergency room with a sword sticking out of me. It's happened before when I was first starting out and not many people thought that I would recover enough to go back to doing this stunt. Yet, I know that for this event I need to pull out all the stops to impress not only Todd but also my fellow performers and Dan Meyer the head of the Sword Swallowing Association.
The week progresses slowly. Everyone goes about their own business trying to perfect their own acts. This is a really big week and Todd is putting a lot of pressure on everyone, especially those who can swallow swords.
Just as I am about to flip back off from my hands to my feet someone comes up behind me, gently placing a hand on my back. Toppling over I end up hitting the side of the stage, a pain shooting up and down the left side of my body. Soft hands help me up off the ground, leading me over to a chair in the corner.
"I'm sorry," Morgue's soft voice fills my ears and suddenly all anger I held inside floats away. "Are you okay?"
"Probably just a little bruised," I answer back, trying to keep the sharp edge out of my words.
Morgue frowns, his eyes scanning over my face, looking for any physical signs of damage.
"I'm fine, the pain is fading anyway," I reassure him, taking in a deep breath just to make sure none of my rips are cracked. No intense pain shoots through my body so I know I am just fine. "What did you want?"
"Oh yeah," Morgue drops to his knees in from of me, his chin balancing on his intertwined fingers. "Asia asked me to teach her how to swallow swords."
For a minute I'm taking aback. It isn't that Morgue isn't good at swallowing swords. I did some research on him and the others before I decided to sign up for the Freak Show. I know what he can do and it's amazing. Yet, there are others such as Murrugan or Brianna or even myself who would have been just a capable of training her. Then again, as I put more thought into it, I remember the way Asia's eyes lit up whenever Morgue even so much as glances her way. Of course she'd ask him to teach her. The more time she gets to spend with Morgue the more they will get to know each other.
"What are you thinking Danger," Morgue questions pulling me out of my thought induced panic. It isn't that I don't like Asia, she's very sweet and I think she will be a good performer one day, but she's very young. Morgue is 23 Asia is barely 20. They just aren't on the same intellectual level.
"I need a cigarette," I answer, heading outside.
Morgue follows closely behind, allowing me to take a few puffs before pressing me again from my opinion.
I watch my cigarette smoke curl upwards to the sky as I answer him. "I think it's good she wants to learn and I'm sure she's thrilled that you are willing to teach her something like that. It's a really good bonding experience for performers to pass down acts to younger artists."
Morgue nods, "I gave her a hanger. She really wants to get it down by the event this Friday."
"Is she any good at it?"
"Not right now," Morgue kinda chuckles. "She just started yesterday though."
Putting out my cigarette out with the toe of my vans I turn back towards Morgue. I'm still not one hundred percent positive on why he felt he needed to tell me about Asia asking for his help. Sure the two of us are friends but so are they. Why am I supposed to care who else Morgue is hanging out with?
"Do you want lunch?" I ask.
"Sure."
Together we walk down the boardwalk to a sandwich place; I take a seat while Morgue orders for us. He gets basic veggie on both subs and although its not typically what I would get it's still really good.
As we finish up I can't help but ask the question that has been burning my tongue all day long, "So, what are you doing for the event?"
I get an eyebrow raise in response and if Morgue cannot believe I would actually be asking him that question. I am curious though and will not back down.
"You're not gonna tell anyone?"
"No," I answer back with a grin.
"Promise?"
Yet another eyebrow is raised a I let out a sigh of exasperation.
"Duh."
Morgue laughs before scooting his chair closer to mine so that no one in the shop can over hear us. "Okay…well, I'm gonna take a big ol' steel ball…."
I cut him off before he can go any further. I want to know every single detail of this stunt. If he's doing something big I want to be able to tell people that I was the very first one to know about it. Also if by chance the stunt goes wrong maybe I'll be able to help. "Like how big?"
Morgue makes a circle with his fingers, creating a hole about the same size as a billiard ball, maybe even a little bit bigger. My eyes grow as I begin to imagine all of the crazy things that could possible be done with something like that. "Holy crap!"
"Big ass one," Morgue grins obviously enjoying the type of reaction he is getting out of me. "Okay, and I'm gonna swallow it down and then, while it's down there I'm gonna take a sword and then swallow that all the way down. So both the ball and the sword are in my body just sittin' in there…becoming friends, getting to know each other."
My hands have moved up to my face, each once placed on a cheek. I cannot believe he is going to attempt something like this. He could get really hurt. I've never heard of anyone attempting anything like this before. I don't even know if it can physically be done.
"Are you sure about this?"
Morgue just nods his head, that devilish smile set firmly on his lips. There is no way that anyone is going to be able to talk him out of this.
"Do they touch each other?"
"Actually the sword hits the steel ball."
For a second I close my eyes, almost too scared to ask the next question that has formed in my head, making its way into my mouth, pushing against my lips, the words begging to be spoken aloud. "What happens if, you know, you can't get the ball back up?"
"Then I die."
"Serious?"
"Seriously, I die," Morgue answers before starting to laugh. My eyes must be as big as saucers, my lips slightly parted. "But, that hasn't happened yet."
My mouth opens and closes as I try to find the words to express just how much I wish he would not be doing this. How many times has it been rehearsed? Has he ever gotten hurt trying to attempt this? The questions swirl around in my brain just as the smoke from earlier had in the ocean breeze.
Morgue smirks at me, his eyes full of a childlike excitement that I have never seen before. "You're reactions are so funny."
"You're like my one friend, I don't wanna lose you just yet," I explain as we head back to the Freak Show.
"I don't know why, I usually hate people, but somehow you've managed to intrigue me," Morgue says with a slight eye roll.
"I'd apologize but I'm not really all that sorry," I respond back with a smirk.
I don't know the kind of relationship Morgue and I have formed but it goes beyond a basic friendship. I came to the Freak Show looking for a way to make money and what I found is so much more than that.
