Happy Sunday!
"Help me," Miku called out for what felt like the hundredth time. "Please, anyone!"
Haku and Neru silently left the tent, crawling to fit through the small flap. Rin laughed and mocke her in a strident voice. Len muttered something under his breath. Kaito growled.
No one was around; no one was going to help her. She was trapped in this cage surrounded by terrifying creatures, and she was at the mercy of a woman with an evil glint in her eyes. Unable to do anything else, she drew her knees up to her chest and sobbed, scratching at her outraged skin and shuddering.
She didn't know how long she sat like that, crying into her knees, shivering as the wind seeped underneath the tent's edges and through the tattered holes. But eventually, the gray light of dawn started to seep into the tent.
Voices started getting closer. She recognized one voice, particularly cheerful, as Teto's. She shrank against the back wall as the four clowns burst into the tent, seeming to all fit through the flap at once. They crowded around Miku's cage in a loud clump.
"Move aside, Teto, you already got to see her," snapped Ruko.
Teto moved obligingly, unwrapping her hands from the bars. "Ohhh, but I'm just so excited! She's very pretty, look, look!"
"Not very smart, though!" Rin offered up. Miku glanced over to see her amused expression, but the only clown who paid her any mind was Tei. Then again, she had seemed more concerned with the twins' cage to begin with.
"Please leave me alone," Miku whimpered.
"She speaks," Tei noted, speaking directly to the twins. Rin ignored her, but Len stared back at her silently.
The clowns moved closer to the cage, if that was possible. Ruko reached through the bars, as if trying to grab her from her huddled position in the back of the cage. Before that could happen, though, a familiar voice at the entrance of the tent gave them all pause.
"Yes, she speaks." It was Haku. Kneeling on the ground, she still had to bend forward to look into the tent. "And for the moment, her words are still of her own making. Let her use that time as she pleases, for it runs short."
"Those tall chicks are no fun," huffed Ritsu. Still, the clowns vacated, walking around Haku as she knelt, holding aside the tent flap with one thin, spindly hand.
Miku looked at her, trembling, and scratched at the goosebumps on her arms. The burning sensation under them made them feel more like mosquito bites.
"What is wrong with everyone here? Why is everyone so happy to see me in a cage?"
"One may keep a bird in a cage, if it sings sweetly enough," Haku said in a gentle voice. "Even if you sacrifice some of the joy in its trill by keeping it from the air. After all, what use is a birdsong too high for the ear to hear, no matter how joyful?"
From somewhere outside of the tent, Neru sighed. "But the trill must be quieted until the bird is ready to be displayed. Come, my darling. Leave this one to her songs for as long as she has them."
Haku dropped the tent flap, disappearing from view. "Wait!" Miku wanted to know more. Haku and Neru, at least, seemed to find no happiness from her imprisonment. Even if they spoke in riddles at best, at least they weren't unkind.
It seemed like an eternity by the time the light outside began to dim. Miku spent this time crying, sometimes screaming. She threw herself against the bars until her body ached even more. She scratched at her skin until it felt like it would split open. It didn't do any good. Nothing would dispel the feeling of strangeness, the oddness that seemed to linger just beneath her skin.
Meiko and Mayu entered the tent at sunset. Meiko was all gloating now, no anger. She grinned at Miku triumphantly.
"Make it quick, Miss Meiko!" Mayu tugged at her sleeve gently. "Our guests will be arriving any second!"
Meiko nodded. "So, have you enjoyed your first day, little flower?" Miku didn't answer, couldn't. Meiko shrugged. "It's alright if you don't say. I don't honestly care about your answer."
She laughed, the sound strident and cruel. "What I do care about is keeping you quiet. It would do if someone noticed you before your debut! So, I'm here to tell you to keep quiet until the main act."
Miku opened her mouth to respond, but no sound came out. She grasped at her throat and tried to scream, but it didn't do any good. Her throat felt numb, almost hollow.
Meiko smiled at her. "Good." She swept out of the tent grandly. Miku heard the sound of padlocks being put in place on the other side of the tent, keeping patrons out.
After being kidnapped and locked in a cage, Miku was simply too exhausted to be surprised. She huddled in the center of her cage, scratching miserably and missing her jacket and scarf. She blamed the wind for drying out her skin.
The familiar calliope music started up, coming from the direction of the main tent. She tried to remember how alluring it had sounded as she walked through the trees, guided on by the strung up paper lanterns, but now it just sounded repetitive and taunting. She thought that if she focused on it too long, it would burrow into her head and never leave.
Unfamiliar voices started sounding outside the tent. Patrons had arrived at the circus. She heard them talking about the fire-breather, the contortionist. In the distance, she occasionally heard Teto's perky voice directing people towards the freak tent.
Even with that instruction, the tattered brown tent only had a few visitors. Miku watched as Kaito snarled at them, and as Rin and Len showed of their strange form. At one point, Miku heard two girls right beside her cage, on the other side of the tent fabric.
" 'Coming soon.' What do you think that means?"
"I guess they're looking for another act. Need a job?" Their laughter faded into the distance as they walked away, but Miku's stomach turned. She moved her lips, silently calling after them.
Coming soon.
"Looking forward to this, little flower?" Rin giggled. "It's fun talking to them, but I don't think you'll get that chance!"
"No," agreed Len quietly. "Like him." He looked through Miku's cage, towards Kaito. When Miku looked, the blue-haired man was staring at her with his flat, animal-like eyes. She shuddered.
Eventually, she heard the clowns calling for everyone to go to the main tent. As the crowd noises got further and further away, the numb feeling in Miku's throat finally faded. "A-Ah," she coughed. She tried not to let the cough turn into a sob. She was running out of tears, and her throat felt raw enough as it was.
"Help," she whispered, her voice rough. "Someone, please. Help me."
"Useless," Len muttered. He didn't seem to take either joy or sadness at seeing Miku in her cage. Rin laughed in agreement.
"He's right, you know! No one's coming to help you. No one ever does."
As if in defiance of her words, Miku heard someone undoing the padlocks on the tent's entrance.
But when a figure finally entered the tent, it wasn't a sympathetic patron – it was a member of the circus. Miku recognized the red-haired contortionist, the one who had fallen shortly after Miku had entered her tent. She kept her eyes on the floor, but she was carrying a small container and had a water bottle under one arm.
"Oh, it's you," huffed Rin, seeming almost disappointed. "You're no fun. Come on, Len." She turned her back on the two quite dramatically, Len having no choice but to follow.
The music swelled and turned comic, the music that played when the clowns began their act. The contortionist's eyes glanced to the entrance of the tent before she moved to Miku's cage.
"Please, help me." Miku moved towards the front of the bars cautiously. The redhead's eyes were cast carefully to the floor, not looking at Miku at all. She certainly didn't seem happy to see Miku trapped. Hope began to bloom in Miku's chest. "Please."
The contortionist winced, but didn't say anything. Miku remembered the girl's banner from before, and tried another approach. "Hey, your name is Miki, isn't it?"
The girl's eyes finally shot up to meet Miku's, wide and frightened. "How –" Then some recognition filtered through her features, and she sighed. "The banner, of course. I had forgotten about it."
"Is it your name? Miki?" Miku was at the front of the cage now, clinging to the bars. As Miki slipped the container and water between the bars, she had no choice but to face Miku, as much as she clearly didn't want to.
The contortionist seemed to think for a moment before speaking. "Yeah, that's my name. I brought you food and water." She gestured to the offerings, left on the floor of the cage.
Miku didn't spare them a second glance. Now that she had caught Miki's gaze, she was determined to keep it. She stared straight into the other girl's eyes. "Miki, my name is Miku. Miku Hatsune. I'm sixteen years old and I like to act and sing." She didn't know why these things seemed so important. She just knew that she didn't want to be seen as some anonymous victim. She wanted the other to recognize her as a person.
Miki, however, didn't seem to hear anything past her first sentence. "Miku …?" For a moment, she seemed almost frightened.
"Why does everyone react so strangely to my name?" If she had the chance to get answers out of anyone, it was this nervous looking girl. Miku remembered how heart-brokenly she had apologized to the crowd when she messed up her act. This girl was not a heartless monster.
But whatever had gotten the contortionist looking so strangely, she quickly shook it off. "It's probably nothing. Look, I have to –"
"Miki, please let me out of this cage." Miku's voice wavered, cracking under the weight of her desperation. "Please don't keep me in here. Please. I'm scared." Tears began to quiver in her voice, despite all the tears that had already been shed.
To Miki's credit, she really did look sorry. She did her best to hold Miku's gaze, even if it was clear that she'd rather be doing anything else. "I can't. Even if I could … I don't have the key."
Miku did begin to cry then, unable to stop herself. She wrapped her arms around herself, running her nails along the bare skin. "I just want to go home. I just want to leave this forest and never come back."
Miki hesitated, then spoke. "D – Miku, look. You have to understand … This is your home now. I know, it's not – Even if you wanted to, you can't …"
Miku looked up, gritting her teeth against more sobs. "What do you mean? Why won't anyone in this stupid circus just say what they mean to say!"
Miki finally dropped her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. "Even if you were out of the cage, it wouldn't matter. You don't have a home to go to. The ringmaster took care of that."
Miku remembered the glint that had been in Meiko's eyes, her taunts and jeers. She shuddered and said nothing.
"Besides," Miki said, "We've already been travelling for weeks. You'd –"
"Weeks?" Miku's voice cracked. "No, I … I just woke up last night in this cage! You're telling me I slept for weeks?"
Miki sighed, but before she could answer, the music in the main tent changed and became dramatic – a sign that the trapeze artist's act had started. Miki's head whipped suddenly towards the entrance. "Yes, weeks. I'm sorry … Miku." It clearly took effort to call Miku by her name, but she did it anyways. She drifted towards the tent flap. "I have to go. I hope you enjoy the meal."
"You can't! None of this makes sense!" Miku clung to the bars. "I couldn't have slept for weeks, not without eating or drinking anything! I would have died!"
Miki paused at the tent entrance. "You mean you don't know?"
"I told you she wasn't smart, Len." That was Rin, conversationally from the cage beside Miku, but she didn't spare the blonde girl a glance. Neither did the contortionist.
"It's magic." Miki said this with such utter finality, it was impossible to doubt her. Not that Miku would have been able to anyways, with the evidence she had. "Magic is what kept you alive, just like it was magic that knocked you out, or even brought you hear in the first place. It's the same magic that keeps the twins alive, or the blue beast, or the tall women …" The music swelled again, signifying some great stunt in the trapeze artist's act, and Miki looked towards the main tent. As she slipped out, she favored Miku with a final apologetic glance and piece of information – one that almost sounded like a warning.
"It's magic that makes your skin itch like that."
Miku, who had been scratching absently at her arms, dug her nails into her skin instinctively, gasping. She stared at the tent flap for a long time after Miki left, clinging to her elbows.
It was Rin who finally broke the silence. "Gosh, she has no sense of mystery, does she, Len?" Miku looked over to see the girl looking at her mischievously, even as she addressed her brother. He was staring at Miku, too, although he had no emotion on his face. "She gives away all the fun answers too soon. We could have watched her wrestle with that for days!"
"She blooms," Len said quietly. At first, Miku thought it was just a random statement, but then Rin laughed.
"Yeah, look! She even made the diva sprout sooner. Too bad. I wanted to savor it."
Miku wanted to ask what she meant, but as she looked down, she got her answer. She had left marks when she scratched at her arms. But no blood came from the lines scored across her arms by her own hands.
Instead, green buds peeked from the cracks. As Miku stared in horror, one of them unfurled, splaying bright yellow petals across her skin.
That's all for this chapter! Also, I'm pleased to announce that I've decided to update twice a week instead of once. I'll still be updating on Sundays like always, but I'll also be updating on either Wednesdays or Thursdays, depending on my schedule. So I'll see you guys later this week!
I haven't gotten a review in awhile ... It would definitely make me happy if you could leave one! Thank you so much for reading.
- Jillian Maria