Hello!...Hello everyone!
Thank you so much for the positive reviews, you make me so happy!
And for those who think that some stories are good enough to be a full one. I'd like to say that at the end of this challenge I will look over the stories again and choose the one that you think it's good enough to be a full story or at least a short one.
Without further of due please enjoy this one!
30 AU Challenge:
4 – Monster Circus AU
The sounds of people cheering in an excitement filled the tent as the acrobats waved to the audience before leaving the ring.
"That was quite the performance from our talented acrobats!... Let's give it to them one more time!" Said the Ringmaster and the audience cheered louder. The Ringmaster was a fat old with such a lovable expression. He lifted his hand up making the audience clapping quite down.
"Now ladies and gentlemen, for our final act of this night would be performed by our circus's pride, our star…" The drums played as the lights all turned up and focused on curtains as they slowly opened, but when they did a sudden red light shone for a moment as if it was a red star making the audience close their eyes for a moment. "Seras Victoria!"
When the light-toned down, the audience got a better look at the performer and they all gasped. The woman was Breathtaking. She was blonde, her pale skin lightly tinted with pink, and even though the audience was setting far they could see that her eyes were bright blue. However, her face showed no emotions. Her dress was red with a sparkling pattern, which explained why they were blinded by it when the lights focused on her. The neckline line was off the shoulder with straps, the dress was also very short reaching her mid-thigh, but what cached their attention the most was the fact that the dress hugged her figure tightly that it almost left too little for the imagination.
"Around applause for her everyone!" said the Ringmaster pulling everyone from their trance almost forgetting that they were at a show, the audience started clapping for her. They all stopped when six men started pulling a big cage that was covered with a black blanket, hiding its content but the sound of deep growling was a sign that whatever is inside was not friendly. The six men used ropes to pull the cage each one of them keeping their distance. When the cage was placed in the center of the ring, one of the six men came too close to it, causing whatever inside to sneer and growl louder, shaking the cage with it. The man let out a startled scream and ran to one of the five other men that were close to him. The audience gasped in fear, whatever was inside it wasn't a normal animal.
"Pull yourself together man!...let go!" the man that he clung to whispered harshly as he shoved him away. The man yelped and was attempted to go back again when he caught Seras look at him, even though her face was blank, her piercing blue eyes made the man blush before standing up straight in a failed attempted to look brave in front of the little lady.
"Don't be fooled by her innocent and sweet looks, everyone." Said the Ringmaster." Our Seras here had done something not even the bravest man can accomplish!" The blond walked towards the cage that was still shaking with no hint of fear. She clenched the cover and pulled it off revealing what was inside. Few screamed at what they saw and parents covered the eyes of their children.
It was a beast. A monster that looked like a black wolf that was the size of a bear with red eyes, it sneered and growled and shock the cage even more in an attempted to break free. However, what happened next left everyone amazed, Seras reached inside the cage and placed her hand over the beast muzzle then in an instant the beast was silence and leaned in more to her touch. Everyone let out a sound of absolute amazement at her. The Ringmaster grinned at their reaction and his expression became less friendly and more sinister.
"That's right everyone, our Seras was able to tame such a ferocious beast." He said voice full of pride. "Look at how he submits at the slightest touch from her."
The beast kept nuzzling against her hand that it made him look less than a beast and more like a pet yearning for his master's touch. The six men were mesmerized by the little blonde that they forgot what they had to do next.
"The cage!" Said the Ringmaster harshly making the men all look at him. "One of you open the cage already you dimwits!"
One of them nodded as he walked closer to seras and the beast. Upon sensing the man getting closer, the beast pulled away from the blonde's touch and to the man staring at him. The man froze in his place for a moment afraid to come closer, but seras quickly caught him and pulled him to her.
"It's alright." She whispered to the beast in such a soothing voice. "No one will harm you."
The beast calmed down again at her words. Seras looked up to the man and nodded to him, as a signal that it was all right to come closer and do his part. The man jumped up the cage then kneeled down to hold the bars before pulling the cage door up. At the first sign of freedom, the black wolf darted out of his cage and jumped at his trainer. Everyone let out a loud cry of fear and the men were ready to pull the beast away from her but stopped when he started to lick Seras's check making her giggle. The audience was awed by the scene that played in front of them, but the Ringmaster didn't like that, this wasn't the reaction he wanted to see.
"Isn't he adorable?" He said with a grin on his face." Little Baskerville looks more like a kitty cat than a wolf, doesn't he?"
The audience laughed at that and the beast didn't like it. He pulled away from his tamer and glared at the Ringmaster who returned his glare with an evil grin as his eyes shined red for a moment before turning back to the audience. Seras placed a hand over the black wolf making him look up to her, and when he did, he was greeted with a reassuring smile that calmed him. And just then a big cage was lowered around the ring, Seras was not fazed by it, but her companions were, some of them almost looked petrified as if they knew what was coming next.
"Just a little something to keep our darling audience safe in case anything went bad so don't worry!" Chirped the Ringmaster.
Seras Reached to her right side where she kept a whip and unclasped it. She looked at Baskerville who was looking back and cracked her whip to the ground. He immediately ran to the center of the ring and sat on a stand. The men who were with seras took a step back from the beast and just stood there as the show continued. Seras raised her hand up and cracked her whip again, the beast slowly started to stand up on his hind feet showing how big and tall he actually was. The audience clapped and cheered, the Ringmaster, however, looked displeased. Seras cracked her whip again to get her pet's attention and did a circular motion with her arm then cracked her whip again. Baskerville jumped backward and landed gracefully on his stand again. The audience cheered louder they were truly amazed by the performance, the Ringmaster almost crashed the microphone under his hand right then and there, his eyes were glowing red with anger but grinned when an idea came to his mind. He covered the microphone and turned to one of the closer men to him who stood inside the cage with seras.
"Young man…" He called causing him to turn and look at the Ringmaster who smiled to him. "What are you doing just standing there, do you think that you'll become a star beside Seras just by standing there like an idiot while she does all the work?"
The young man frowned as he looked back at Seras who was being loved by the audience. The Ringmaster smirk widened.
"If you want to be the star with her then act like it and I might just give you the title." He needed to say no more as the man marched to the other side of the cage shoving the other men from his way.
"What gives!" one of them shouted at him but he was ignored.
The foolish man took one of the big round balls and started rolling it towards where the black wolf was performing. Seras stopped and stared at the man in bewilderment but said nothing. He stopped the ball beside the beast who growled at him, he ignored it as he went to seras and roughly snatched the whip from her hand, making the beast growl even more at the man.
"You'll see!" the man yelled at the Ringmaster who just smirked as he stared at him, the audience started to murmur among themselves wondering if this was part of the act or not. The man smiled like crazy, as he looked back to seras who took a few steps back away from him. "You'll see too, I Will be the star and we can be together forever."
Seras didn't reply to him or said anything just stared as she held her arm in a tamed manner. The man had a small blush. The girl was too beautiful that he couldn't wait to have her. He turned to the beast and tensed when he saw him glare at him with red eyes as he kept growling at the man. The man swallowed, feeling fear build up but pressed it down, he then collected himself before continuing. He cracked the whip and pointed at the ball.
"Go stand on the ball!" he ordered but Baskerville didn't move a muscle. The man gritted his teeth in frustration and cracked the whip again. "Come on you dump animal!... I saw you do it in my home town and I order you to do it now!"
The man made the terrible mistake on cracking the whip again but not on the ground but at Baskerville's muzzle injuring him. Baskerville let out a sneer as he tackled the man to the ground and began tearing him to shreds. The man let out an ear-piercing scream as he was being eaten alive. Everyone in the audience screamed at the horrific scene in front of them. Seras stood there with her hand on her mouth, she took a step forward to stop Baskerville, but one glare from the Ringmaster made her stand her ground and not interfere.
One of the men decided to do something, he ran towards the beast to try and save the other man. However, his plan failed when Baskerville turned around fast and used his clawed paw to slash the man's torso. The man let out a pained scream as he ran backward, he looked down and stared horrified as his guts started to spill out, he tried to frantically return them only to faint from blood loss and die. One of the other four men decided to be smart and arm himself, he ran to the side of the ring where other circus items sat and took a set of throwing knives. He was shaking as he started to throw the knives towards the beast only to miss each time, one of them went over seras who ducked down. Baskerville saw that seras was almost hit with one of the knives and was enraged. He charged towards him, which caused the man to rapidly throw the knives still missing, unfortunately, one of the knives flew over Baskerville and hit one of the men who were left standing, on his throat before he was tackled down by Baskerville who went for his neck.
The poor man who was stabbed on the throat started to chock on his own blood and looked around for help, unable to speak. The one who stood on his right moved away to stand with Seras seeing that he would be safe from the beast if he was with her, leaving only one man who was the first to cower in fear.
"S…s…stay away man!...d.. don't touch me!... Stay away!" he ran the other direction towards the Ringmaster, who looked unamused. "L..Let me out!...get me out of here!"
Unfortunately for the man, he didn't see the knife that was laying down on the ground, he slipped on the handle and fill forward, his head smashed against the corner of the ring and snapping his neck, his body laid there twitching. Through all this the audience was unable to look away or do anything, a lot of them wanted to get out of the tent already but there was some kind of power over them that told them to stay until the end. Seras looked around with tears in her eyes, she looked miserable but even in her misery she still looked beautiful. The Ringmaster hid his grin pleased by the outcome of this performance. He quickly replaced his grin with a saddened look as he took off his hat and turned to the audience with tears on his eyes.
"Dear guests… This… is such a tragedy." He began his voice full of grief. "Our Circus is facing a crisis! Our most talented members have passed on due to several accidents which you all have witnessed, leaving only our pretty but broken-hearted Seras and only one assistant to help her," he said pointing towards Seras who was crying in her hands, but not for the reason that the Ringmaster had claimed. He turned back to the audience and stretched both of his arms out.
"So everyone…please! Have a heart and Save us!" he pleaded. "Is there anyone from the crowd who is willing to join our circus trope? We could use your help to rebuild our famous act and give our circus another chance to stand tall again!" Everyone in the audience either looked at him with pity for his loss or confusion by his request. Did he really think that anyone would join after witnessing many horrific deaths? Of course, they won't. And he knew, that's why he tried his best to hold back a smirk at what he was about to say next.
"As long as you have talent You could be part of us! And if you become our circus star…" he gestured towards the still crying blond." You can take seras as your bride!" A loud chatter broke among the audience at his offer.
"What?... We can take that beauty as a bride just like that?" one man said.
"Just by becoming a star?"
"I'm in then!"
"Me too!"
"I don't want this," Seras said quietly to herself as tears started to run down on her check.
"Seras!" She looked to her left and saw that it was the only man who was left standing calling to her. "Come on, Let's escape while he is distracted."
Seras shook her head no.
"I can't escape from him it's no use." She said her voice low. Looking away to where Baskerville was, he just sat there, his muzzle bloodied from his meal and his red eyes held a mix of annoyance and sympathy towards her.
"What are you saying?...you need to stop that." He held her arm and started pulling her with him. "Didn't you tell us that he was using you for the benefit of his circus to grow?... Come with me and we can escape together away from him."
Unknown to the naïve man the Ringmaster was listening in on this entire conversation. He glared at the boy, his eyes then shifted upwards. There was a pole that was held up by a rope, however, the rope was slightly cut from the previous careless knife throwing. He hid his grin as his eyes glow red in mischief. A dark shadow grew from one of the dark corners and started to cut the rope even further. The rope snapped causing the pole to fall straight down and hard on the man cracking his skull and killing him instantly. Seras gasped at what just happened and stepped away but was stopped by a heavy body. She turned and saw that it was Baskerville. More tears gathered on her eyes as she turned completely and hugged him seeking comfort. That only pleased the Ringmaster, as it will only make more humans come and join his circus. He turned to the audience with a crazed look on his face.
"So?... What's your decision?"
It was the middle of the night where the moon shone brightly. Coming from one of the animal cages was the sound of someone humming a melody. Inside it was Seras and Baskerville. She was treating the wound that was caused by the man who carelessly whipped him. Baskerville sneered and pulled away when the medicine came in contact with his wound.
"Alucard stay still or I won't be able to heal you properly." She lectured him. The beast let out a huff as he laid his head on her lap giving in to her treatment so when seras dabbed the cotton, which had alcohol, he flinched at the sting but did not move away this time. When seras was finished, she looked down at the wolf in her lap and started petting his head.
"Would you tell me what is upsetting you love?" she asked gently combing her fingers through the black fur.
"You did it again." Said Alucard his baritone voice filled her head.
"I know…..I'm sorry." She knows saying sorry isn't enough but it's the best she can offer for now.
"You acted as if this was the first time we do this." This time Alucard started to lecture her. "We have been over this my dear. If we stopped now then we will be trapped under that demon with no means of escape, serving him for eternity or until he gets bored with this circus play and even then do you think that he will let us free?"
Seras didn't say anything for everything that her lover is saying and will say next was true.
"I know Alucard, but…" She chocked on a sob. "It's…it's too much… to see innocent people come over and over again thinking that they will become the next star only to die a horrific death."
Alucard reached up and licked her tears away then placed his head on her shoulder. Seras wrapped her arm around his neck as she cried more.
"I know my darling flower." He said in a soothing voice. "Witnessing those deaths over and over again must have been hard on you but we can't stop now."
Seras pulled away and looked at her lover who was forced into becoming this beast who sat before her.
"We have been doing this for 568 years." He said with a pained voice. "568 years of doing this, 568 years of trying to buy our freedom that demon, 568 years of not being able to hold you in my arms as a lover should."
Seras said nothing as she looked down at the ring that hung by a necklace around her neck. It was a beautiful silver ring with red sapphire on it, she smiled when she remembered the night her lover promised her to love her forever. Alucard looked down at the ring as well, feeling sad that he couldn't fulfill that promise he gave her.
"Seras." He called sounding serious, seras looked up to him. "We only have to go through this for a few more decades and we will not only be free but immortals as well. We can live for a thousand years by each other side and doing everything to make up for the happy times that we have lost here."
"We can finally be truly together," Seras said with a hopeful smile, that made Alucard smile he leaned forward to nuzzle her neck.
"Together forever, until this world burns down and becomes nothing."
So I hope you guys liked this one, please leave a review and tell me what you think!
And please don't forget to check out "Oxford Not Brogues" version of this AU!
Bye bye!
Next story: Imaginary friend AU