Chapter 5

Note: This is a fan work based on Kibadoglover45's webcomic, "Circus of freaks". The characters and their world belong to Kiba

The sound of that slamming door and the encroaching darkness had happened so suddenly that neither boy really had time to process it. It was in the darkness that a low moan, filled within despair and terrified expectation had begun. This sound was coming from Igor, who strangely that this time was almost looking outside himself, "was that noise really coming from me?", was that first thing that had sprung to his mind. He was overcome by a numbness that was almost paralyzing while Blake was merely shouting," What the fuck", in various levels of volume and tone.

Then out of the darkness came a voice, "Well gentlemen, and I use that term loosely", if there was ever a voice that truly captured the idea of sneering disdain then this voice would surely be it. "Welcome to my humble little hideaway." Blake was the first to speak, "W-w-what t-t-the f-f," "Charmed to meet you tooI should think," the voice interrupted that a tone that oozed with sarcasm and ironic detachment.

It was at this time that Igor was able to identify that the voice was usually high; it was clearly either a child around their age or perhaps a woman's voice. "W-who are you?", Igor was finally able to get out; he hoped against all odds that this was all simply a twisted prank of some sort. The voice then started to giggle, it was icy cold and sent shivers down Igor's spine.

"Who am I ?" the voice echoed back, "Let's just say I'm a chap who likes to entertain themasses," it stated smugly, "To bring a little vigour into the lives of the mediocre general public. In short to give them a show to remember, and you my miscreant chums," referring to the twins, "Get a private showing".

"We don't want a private showing," Igor snapped back, "We want our cousin back! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HIM?", Igor's mind was racing, this nutjob had their cousin! How knows what his planning, he guessed from the voice that the culprit sounded around their age which was frankly the most bizarre thing about the whole situation. "At least", he thought to himself, "We'll be able to beat up this creep when we have the chance.", this flippant thought was supposed to make himself slightly more comfortable with the sequence of events. In reality it provided the boy with very little actual comfort.

"Besides," Blake chimed in, "We've seen your show, not very impressed with it mate.", despite his nerves he give a cheeky smile, "Not exactly a night at the opera, is it?". In response the voice simply give an insulted "hmph", "That", it explained huffily, "Was simply the pre-show, the real performance," the voice all at once slid down an alarming number of octaves and snarled, "shall began... VERY SOON!".

Igor have a sharp gulp when he heard the demonic change in the voice, "we're in shit," he thought, "we are in deep, deep, deep shit". Gathering his thoughts, he decided that maybe a politer direction might be the way to go forward. It was a long shot; but anything was worth trying to this point, "Um...look, no doubt you've got a good show lined up. But...we don't have the time to see it. So could you could ...uh... please... give us back our cousin...If you won't mind?"

Igor was thankful that they were in total darkness, it would mask Blake's no doubt incredulous expression, "Very intimidating, I bet he's quivering, right now". "Shut it!", Igor hissed back, "As usual it's your fault we're in this mess. At least I'm trying to find a solution out of this. What are you doing? You're antagonizing him and just making things worse". The acidic tone in Igor's voice caused Blake to lash out with equal venom, "My fault? Funny, I didn't see you make much of an effort actually go against the plan. If you were really smarter you would have come up with the plan yourself!", he wasn't done yet however, "And besides, do you really think that's the best way to do? To be all wimpy and sweet and hope that a kidnapper would back down if you spoke to him politely ?!".

"Listen, you-", Igor snarled, there was no doubt he would have said something quite vicious and foul mouthed before the voice had cut him off, "As endearing as this is my friends", the voice sarcastically replied, "I think it's time to take things up a notch", it was clear that the voice was annoyed that attention had been drawn away from it. "LET THERE BE LIGHT!", the voice bellowed and in a spilt second the room was swamped with light.

The presence of a flood of light in the room, caused both brothers to squint and blink in the surprise. When they're eyes fully adjusted, they were gobsmacked at the sight before them. The ceiling of the room, in spite of being in a small wagon was impossibly high; stretching so far up that Igor had to crane his neck to see how high it really was. However, the sight alone had caused him to feel so dizzy that he had to look away and get his head together.

The room was packed high with shelves; shelves filled to the brim with puppets which were both glove and wooden in form. There were puppets of every kind of race, gender and occupation. A lawyer puppet complete with wig and robes was lying under what appeared to be a tramp, with ragged clothes and painted stubble face on its face.

The stand out pair of puppets where what appeared to be conjoined twins, one was very thin and the other appeared to be very overweight. This caused their body appear both awkward and bulky; the expressions on this puppet were striking too. The tubby one had docile expression on its face; even for an empty-headed puppet there was the suggestion there nothing going on between the ears. The marked difference between the thinner one was alarming, with their face contorted into what appeared be an almost animalistic fit of rage with blazing painted eyes and bared snarling teeth. It gave the impression of they would happily attack anyone who got unfortunately close enough to it. Igor absently let his mind focus on the puppet, wondering off hand how a puppeteer could operate such a complex object; his second thought was to scold himself for focusing irrelevant details.

Another thing that was bizarre to say that least, was the fact everything single puppet was missing something, it might have been an arm, part of the head or a leg. Every puppet for as far as the eye could see were in this state; even the conjoined twins were missing one eye each, the left from the tubby one and the right from the skeleton thin one.

"What is this?", Igor asked, he was filled with so many emotions right now; fear, confusion, frustration and despite of everything, curiosity. "What does anything of this, mean? Is that some kind of game? Some kind of test? WHAT!?". After taking a few deep breathes, he thought his next words carefully, "Actually never mind, I don't care.", he craned his neck up again, as perhaps the voice could hear him more clearly from that direction, "Look, we're not the mood to piss arse around! Just give us back our cousin and then we can leave; thus, meaning that everyone can move on their lives. If you think for one second, that we're gonna put up with this shit any longer, then you are sadly mistaken!".

"Well,", the voice finally spoke up, it was unclear if the voice had taken genuine offense or was simply pretending to so for a joke, " I guess it's true what they say about Northerners. That's the way you feel, then all you have do to is walk through the door,". Igor became puzzled, "Door? You mean one we came in through?".

The voice give an irate sigh, "No, this door", at that very moment at the corner of a room, a door that neither Blake or Igor had noticed had swung open, the room connected to the door appeared to be in total darkness. The Morgan twins looked at each other, weighting up their options, which they both were well aware where depressingly few in number. "So, what you're saying is that all we have to do is walk through this door and all this shit will be over?", the voice chuckled, making Igor's blood turn cold, "In a sense, I suppose."

"Okay," Igor whispered, "This is dire, very dire. Whatever this bloke has planned, it will not be pretty." In response Blake shrugged, "I guess. I mean...is there really any other way that we can handle this? I mean we could go back through the door we came through in the first place," the voice in response, "Yes, yes, you could do that. But you would be abandoning your cousin. A fact that you two would have to live with for the rest of your lives".

Igor turned to Blake, "He's right Blake. Charlie's our cousin, he's three. I...I... honestly couldn't handle that kind of guilt", tears began to form in Igor's eyes and Blake pulled him into a hug," Don't cry, please don't cry." trying to calm his brother down. "We will find Charlie. We're not going to abandon him", he that thrust his head up and shouted, "You hear that you smug shit !", referring to the voice, "We're up for anything you can throw at us!"

The voice's final words before both brothers stepped into the darkness was, "We shall see my friends," unable to keep the manic glee from creeping into it's tone, "WE SHALL SEE".