Many of the children were trying to escape the circus and some succeeded, whereas others just sneak into to trapeze and hung themselves. They needed to be guarded because when alone even the acid didn't stop them trying to escape. One day the circus came upon two girls who were close friends, Haku and Neru. It was discovered that they were lesbians who feared going home because they couldn't be together as this sort of thing was frowned up to back then. They were offered a circus job but were not unusual enough to make any money from people coming to see them. So they had their legs removed, they didn't want to do it but if they didn't they be exposed as lesbians and most likely killed. To replace their legs they were given tall stilts so they would see all around them and the children wouldn't dare risk being spotted. Haku and Neru were given costumes to hide the stumps and stilts so they too just looked fun. They didn't want to stop the children escaping or be unkind to them in anyway but they were threatened too. Their disadvantage was their love for each other if Haku was defiant they'd hurt Neru and if Neru was bad they'd hurt Haku. So they had to guard the children and invite people to the dark woods circus.