I walked out of the tent, eyes squinting in the bright daylight. I shivered at the cool morning air, and prepared for my first full day at the Cirque.
"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty." I heard Evra sneer.
"Excuse me?" I hissed. I remembered 'Sleeping Beauty' blurrily. Even I was a tyke, there was a nice old lady who lived near where my circus was the time. She read me a few fairy tales, including 'Sleeping Beauty' and 'Snow White.'
"You've been asleep for about 3 more hours then the rest of us." He answered. "Come on-we have work to do. Crepsley put Darren to work and Rebecca's working on your costume for the show, so I need someone to clean out the Wolfman's cage for me." He led me towards the cage.
"Cage?" I asked.
"Don't worry. I won't lock you in it." He cooed. "Most likely." I sighed, and rolled my eyes.
After the wonderful fun of cleaning out the cage full of trash and, err, waste, we had to collect food for the Little People. I wasn't expecting having to carry dead mice. I thought we'd have to catch rabbits with our bare hands, which sounded like more fun.
"Where did you live before?" Evra asked as we carried the 'feast' to the Cirque. I bit down on my lip. I ad been extremely angry, but that anger had morphed into acute sadness. For the first time, I felt tears well in my eyes.
"In a traveling circus." I whispered. I didn't want to go into much detail, so I kept it flat and expressionless. I felt blood flow into my mouth from the cuts on my lip. I kept walking, cold as ice, to the Cirque.
Later that day, Mr. Tall told me he had an act for me, and Rebecca had finished the costume. I had to jump from some higher place onto the stage, growl, and look all scary, then Evra's snake appears around my feet and then he appears and I leave. Nothing too interesting, but to people who've never seen a Tiger Girl, it's probably decent.
I went to the trailer to get my costume, which Rebecca said she finished. When I opened the door, I noticed Evra and Darren standing there. I raised an eyebrow at Rebecca.
"A second opinion." She smirked. "Besides, you'll want to appeal to the teenage boys in the audience…and guess what they are?" I didn't really care, until I saw the costume. "I guessed that since you'd be doing a lot of flexible 'cat stuff' you would want something you can move in easily."
It covered just barely more then a two-piece bathing suit. The top was low-cut on the top, high-cut on the bottom, showing some of my midriff, and the bottom was just a skimpy shirt that hardly reached my mid-thigh. Oh, and it was shiny and gold.
"Really, Rebecca?" I groaned.
"I thought it wasn't that big of a deal, since you have fur instead of skin." She shrugged. I grumbled, and went to try it on.
I can't believe I'm going to be wearing this every night. Where did my common sense go? I mean, really, I'm half-naked and covered in fur. I love my life so much. At least I have my sarcasm. Sarcasm makes me happy.
I felt extremely awkward until I saw their reaction. Rebecca looked at me with pride. Darren blinked. Evra had that look. I smiled to myself. I felt beautiful, which is something that would probably come rarely to me. I enjoyed the looks on their faces and knowing that I could control them.
For the first time, I didn't feel self-conscious, and it felt amazing.
I stalked closer to Evra, walking with cat-like (pardon the pun) grace, with an evil grin on my face. I was so close, I could feel the heat from his skin, and study the yellow irises of his eyes.
"I see you like the outfit?" I chuckled. He nodded, with a dark half-smile. He placed his hand on my knee, and traveled up my thigh. Chills shook through my body. Rebecca cleared her throat.
"We won't have a show until tomorrow, so…" she trailed off.
I changed back into regular clothes, but still felt Evra's hand. Every time I thought of it, I shuddered in pleasure, and I couldn't stop thinking about it. I had never felt this way about anything. I guess I never got the chance.
There was an air of awkwardness between Evra and I afterwards, but it made the atmosphere more alive, crackling with enegry. There was a silence between us, until later that night.
I was laying in my hammock, fast asleep, when dreams tormented me.
The click of a lock sounded through the empty campgrounds, echoing eerily.
"You hear this sound?" he asked, purple eyes glowing. "This sound means you will never get away. You will never escape. You never can, never will. It isn't possible-we control you in ways you can't comprehend." I growled loudly, snarling and animalistic. Who did he think he was? You can't own people. He doesn't control me.
His evil laugh hit my ears. "You think you scare me?You are just a kitty cat. You look dangerous, but you can't hurt me." I snarled, huddled in the corner. "You belong to us now. You are our caged animal, our pet. Even if you leave this place you will not survive."
Pure animal instinct took over. I flung myself forward, pushing my arm through the iron bars, using my long claw-like nails to attack him. He hissed in pain as I sliced his flesh, putting long claw-marks on his face. He seemed more annoyed then angry though. He grabbed my arm, and yanked it through the bars dangerously. My shoulder was sticking out, and my body was being compressed. Horrible pangs of stinging pain coursed though me as I screamed.
The man then dug his nails, which were smaller then mine but much sharper, and dug them into my stomach, going deep as he dare, and wrenched them down my torso. I was crying, screaming, begging, but he just chuckled, and let me wither in the cage.
He returned the next day, seeing if I were broken, but I wasn't. I attacked once more, with the small amount of remaining strength I had left.
It was a blur. I felt pure agony all around my body, and couldn't focus my eyes. Everywhere, I had cuts, and my blood dripped onto the straw, and I sobbed wildly. There was so much blood I couldn't think. My head was light from the loss and hurt. The man raised his arm up once more, and I let out the shrillest, loudest scream I could muster.
I bolted upward, screaming, breath heavy. My heart raced. My mind was still back in the dream, begging for mercy, but my eyes saw the white tent. Wild cries escaped my throat from reopened wounds and remembered pain.
What I didn't know was Evra was currently awake at the moment of my terror, bent over a piece of music with growing frustration. When he heard the scream, he forget about the music, and raced up to find the source.
He heard soft sobs coming from my tent, and came in, biting his lip. It must have been a shock seeing me, the sarcastic Tiger Girl, sobbing in her hammock, curled into a ball. He sat down next to me, and I fell into his arms, crying in his chest. At that moment, I didn't really care what he thought or did, but I needed something to pull me from the dark pit I was falling into.
He stroked my back, and shushed me, but I would not be quiet. I couldn't. The untamed sobs couldn't be stopped, until the last tear was shed. It took about 7 minutes, but I finally calmed down.
"Ok…and that was about…?" Evra asked. I wiped the tears from my eyes.
"Before I came here, I was part of a traveling circus." I bit down my lip. I had promised to never tell anyone, and here I am, revealing my life's story to some guy I hardly knew. "They kept me locked in a cage for ten years. My mother had sold me to them when I was five. I was there caged animal. People flocked to see the 'Tiger Girl' and stare in disgust." I felt renewed tears come into my eyes. "For so long, I was treated like a dumb beast…at one point, that's what I had become. I was purely animal, and had lost any humanity I had." I took a deep breath. Evra had his arm around my waist, holding me close, but gently, as if I were glass. "But one day, I saw a couple kissing, and I felt jealousy…jealousy is a human emotion. I remembered that even though I had fur, I was still human." A smile crossed my face. "But even that didn't heal the wounds, or make the scars go away." I looked down at the long scars on my torso. Evra tranced them with a soft finger, and I shivered.
"I…I don't know what to say." He admitted. "How about this-insert suave, sexy comment that makes you laugh and then everything's ok." He smiled half-heartedly. I laughed softly.
"Thank you, Evra. I don't think anyone else would understand." I gave him a hug, and spread back out in my hammock. "So why were you up? I don't think I screamed loud enough to wake someone."
"I was trying to write some music, and failed." He admitted with an exasperated expression.
"You're a musician?" I asked. He scoffed.
"Depends on your definition of 'musician'." He talked for a few minutes while my heart rate slowed. After about 15 minutes, he decided he should leave.
"And, Amber." He said just before leaving. "I was trying to find inspiration for a song. I found it."
With that thought in mind, I fell asleep easily, and thankfully, uneventfully.
I always imagined Evra as kind of pervy…that will come out in the later chapter ;)
-Hannah
