I am back! Enjoy the latest chapter.
Miku looked towards the tent the cheerful girl had pointed towards. Compared to the other tents, it was tattered and worn. The holes in the fabric – the ones meant to be looked through – blended with the natural rips and tears made by time.
Miku paused for a moment, considering. The performers in the tent were probably bored of their act by now, so close to the end. Should she even bother them, at this point? Or was it better to just wait for the main act – or call it a night altogether?
Then again, this was a strange circus. If they would excel at anything, it would be something like this. Besides, the unique approach to the display was intriguing.
She walked around the tent slowly, inspecting it. There were only three peepholes along one broad side. Two of them were even, uniform little circles. The one furthest to the left, however, was cut jagged and a little higher than the others, like it had been torn. Miku had to stand on her toes to peer into it. As she pressed her hands against the fabric of the tent, she felt thick metal bars supporting her weight.
Sure enough, the hole was set between the bars of a cage, pressed against the side of the tent. Even though it was dim inside, what Miku saw made her heart beat a little faster. Scattered all along the floor of the cage were bones, snapped in pieces, some of them still bearing chunks of mangled-looking meat. She couldn't tell what sort of animals had been in the cage – the remains had been torn apart beyond recognition.
What made these mangled carcasses? Miku strained her eyes, but the cage was empty, at least as far as she could see. She strained her ears, but couldn't hear a sound other than the other patrons, who sounded distant and unreal.
As if to confirm, she looked away from the hole for a moment. Yes, the circus was empty, other than a few quiet patrons in the distance. People were busy in other tents, or waiting for the main act, but no one was even close to Miku.
Frowning, she leaned forward to press her eye against the hole again, leaning against the side of the cage within. And that's when she heard the sound of something sliding along the tent wall. Something warm pressed against her knees from the other side of the fabric, and it growled.
All at once, it uttered a feral cry, like a predator finding prey at last, and it leapt. A confused mess of bloodstained teeth and matted blue fur obscured her view of the tent, throwing itself directly at her eye.
She could feel the heat of its breath in the moment before she stumbled backward, falling clumsily on the hard packed earth. The force of the fall made the scream in her throat come out as a shocked whistle. Scrabbling backwards on her hands, she stared at the tent with wide eyes.
The fabric bulged outward in strips where the bars didn't protect it. Then a bloodstained finger poked out of the hole, almost attempting to claw at it with a short, dirty fingernail.
The finger was undeniably human. How on earth was that possible? She hadn't gotten a close enough look at what was inside the tent, but she had heard the sound it made. And when she had gotten a glimpse of the teeth, she swore they were filed to points.
Perhaps going back to that hole would give her some closure, but Miku had no intention of looking again. She went to the uniform hole on the right instead, giving that jagged one a wide birth. She looked into it cautiously, ready to pull back at the first sign of danger.
But she could see the occupants of this cage, at least partially. They were sitting on the far side, in the shadows, but she could see their silhouettes, two figures leaning against each other. A high, cheerful humming came from one of them.
"Eyes," mumbled a voice that was almost familiar, and the humming stopped.
"Oh? You're right! Shall we go introduce ourselves, then?" The owner of the singing voice gave a happy chirp, and the two got to their feet in unison. Something was off in the way that they moved, but Miku didn't understand what it was until they got closer.
It was the twins from before, the ones who had handed her the flier. But they weren't wearing long skirts anymore, and they weren't standing shoulder to shoulder. They wore one pair of pants, and didn't have really any shoulders to press together.
"Eyes," the boy aid again, his voice lower than the shrill hum that had come from his companion.
"You're right! I'd know that color anywhere." The girl addressed Miku directly. "Well, Miss? How are you enjoying the circus? What do you think of us, with our costume set aside?"
The girl raised her right arm, as if gesturing for Miku to feast her eyes. The boy looked at her, then raised his left arm in an identical pose. Between the two of them, that was all they had. Their other shoulders bore thick black stitches, binding them together. Their legs were in the same state, although baggy pants obscured what must have been stitched together there. They seemed to be attached right down the middle, turning them into a strange, two-headed creature.
"Well?" The girl on the right tapped her foot – the one foot she had to her name – impatiently.
"I … Don't know." Miku didn't know how she could respond to that. How could she focus on anything but their strange, obscene shape?
The boy sighed, looking to the left instead of at Miku, as if he were looking at the cage in between him and the one that frightened her earlier. "Sad fate," he said, almost in a voice too low for Miku to hear.
"What do you mean?" Miku wondered if this was all part of the act, and if maybe this was an elaborate costume of some kind.
The girl laughed, but the sound didn't have any humor. "It's what we promised you, isn't it? To show you the sad fate that some of this world carry." She leaned a bit closer, eyes wide and somehow conspiratorial. "Do you think our fate is sad, Miss?"
Miku frowned. "I don't know you. Are you sad?"
The girl gave a smile so wide, it looked like it might split right across her skin. "I don't think I'll ever know true sadness. Compared to you, that is."
"What are you talking about?" Miku didn't know if the girl was merely toying with her, but her voice shook nonetheless.
"Why don't you look in the last hole? If you hurry quick, you might get a clue." She made shooing motions with the one hand she had, making little noises to urge Miku on.
Miku backed away from the hole, feeling as though she was dreaming. She approached the middle hole without even thinking about what she was doing. She ran her hands along the fabric below the peephole for a moment, wary of another scare like the first one. But she didn't feel anything leaning up against the bars, lying in wait. In fact, she didn't feel bars at all.
Sure enough, when she looked through the peephole, there was no cage waiting for her against the hole. Instead, it was being wheeled away by two figures, towards the tent flap that had been padlocked earlier.
They opened it, and for the first time light flooded the tent. She got a glimpse of the two carrying the cage, dressed in bright, primary colors. And inside the cage, she saw flowers, yellow and white blooms all piled on one another.
Then the tent flap closed, and the cage was gone.
"Has the little flower enjoyed our garden?"
Miku let out a small, breathless scream, spinning around. The two tall women from before were standing behind her. The blonde one was staring at her with interest.
"You – You frightened me," was all she could think to say.
The white-haired woman shook her head. "We bring no harm on our own."
As if continuing her train of thought, the yellow-haired woman nodded. "We bear no ill will in our hearts. You need not fear us."
"Only our sad fates," concluded the other, taking off her impossibly large top hat and pressing it to her chest. Her face remained as vacant as before, but the gesture looked to Miku like one of mourning.
"Why do people keep saying that phrase?" Miku should have known better than to try and get an answer from these two – trying to carry on a conversation with them was like trying to read badly translated poetry. But the meaning felt so close – just barely out of reach of her fingertips.
The two women looked at each other, high above Miku's head. It was the yellow-haired woman who answered, although her golden eyes never left the red gaze of her companion. She spoke in a voice that was oddly gentle. "Because that fate … It is not exclusive property."
The white-haired woman nodded slightly. "'Us' extends beyond two."
"Can't you just say what you mean?" Miku meant for the words to come out gruff, perhaps even a little bit condescending. But what it really sounded like was a plea.
The two women finally broke their gaze, looking down at her. Although their features looked nothing alike – the white-haired woman had paler skin, sharp features and high cheekbones, while the blonde had a round face and eyes that were close together – they looked related, somehow. Miku wondered if it was because they wore identical expressions, outwardly stoic and unreadable just beneath the surface.
"We speak the truth as we know it," the white-haired woman told her gravely.
"But you might say that our sense of the truth has been stretched," her companion said, as if she were conceding something.
The white-haired woman nodded. "Like our home, for example." She gestured at the tattered tent behind them. "We don't spend much time in it. But that does not make it any less ours."
"Who else calls it home? That, too, will be stretched." As if on cue, the two women looked in unison towards the main tent.
"Time," a voice behind Miku muttered. She spun around with a gasp, but there was only the tent. "Time, time, time." After a moment, Miku recognized the voice. It was the boy – the one sewn to his twin.
As if to confirm her recognition, the girl half of the duo began to laugh. If Miku had peered through the eye hole, she surely would have seen the two of them in their cage.
Instead, she turned back to the two tall women. But they had their backs to her, and were already walking away, across the hard-packed dirt. Miku had a strange urge to call after them to wait. As cryptic as they were, they really did seem like they wanted to give her information.
Before she could do anything, however, a high pitched voice called out through the circus. "Time! It's time!"
And then the place came alive. Once it happened, it really registered how unnaturally empty it was before. Miku looked around as people poured out of tents and filled the grounds with chattering and normal sounds again.
And all through the crowds, figures in bright clothes were rushing around with megaphones, chorusing. "Time! Time! It's time for the main act!"
The crowd allowed itself to be ushered towards the big tent in the back. Miku watched as it happened, until a girl with familiar curly pigtails paused and looked at her. She lowered her megaphone, and Miku saw that in addition to changing into a bright clown outfit, she had painted her face with white greasepaint and lined her lips with a large red smile. A heart was painted on each cheek.
"Hey, hey! Hurry up, or you're gonna miss the main act!" She gestured towards the tent, hurrying Miku along. "Trust me, friend, you don't want to miss it!"
And before Miku could say a word, the crowd converged around her, and she became part of it. She walked with the masses towards the main tent.
Hello again, guys! I know it has been awhile since I've updated, but I'm going to start taking this story more seriously. I've been working on it every day this week, and I'm already well into Chapter 4! I hope to update regularly until it is finished. I have it all outlined and think it's going to take somewhere between 20-25 chapters to tell this story ... But I have the arc all planned! I hope you all are looking forward to seeing this unfold as much as I am.
I am a little blocked on Going Viral at the moment, so that story will be on hold. I'm giving all of my attention to this story, instead. Please, please review! I'm determined to finish, but it makes it so much easier to work on when I know there are other people invested in what I am doing.
I look forward to seeing you all next chapter! I'm going to be introducing the rest of the "cast" then, so I really look forward to seeing what you guys think! Thank you so much for reading!
- Jillian Maria