Here we go!
Miku tried to go back to sleep after talking with Miki, but it was no use. Her mind was buzzing with new information – she couldn't sleep knowing all that she did now. When she closed her eyes, she would see still images of Luka, or Meiko, or even of a man who looked like Kaito, but she got the idea that those were her imagination rather than true dreams.
By the time the sun began to seep into the tent, she was exhausted but no closer to sleep than she had been in the night. She spent the entire day huddled in the corner of her cage, pondering all she had been told.
That day gave way to the next, and the next. Life went on. Miku stayed in her cage, scratching at the places where the new white flowers bloomed on her skin. They itched madly under the thin fabric of her dress, and she began to understand why Haruko didn't wear clothes by the time Miku had seen her. She thought she might rip her dress into shreds, if the itching didn't stop.
At night, when the circus lit up and the music started, she tried looking right in the eyes of those who gazed through the peephole, but she didn't see any compassion. She didn't blame them. Flowers had bloomed around her face and in her hair. Yellow and white gathered most heavily in her upper arms and shoulders, but they were specked all over her body, making her look alien and strange. How could those curious eyes look compassionately at something that hardly looked human?
She sang in the main tent every night. Sometimes, she would see Miki watching her from the shadows. But she stopped coming to the tent with food and water. Miku wasn't upset with her – she didn't feel hungry, probably as an effect of Meiko's magic. And she couldn't blame the contortionist for being frightened.
When they packed up to move to the next town, Miku stretched out her legs and tried to enjoy what little sun she got. Mew wandered over in her vague way. Miku was glad to see her.
"It continues," she said, gesturing to the flowers on Miku's skin.
"Yes," Miku said. "But not if I have anything to say about it. I get what you meant now … About my name having power. I want to know how to harness it."
Mew looked up at her, her expression unreadable. "The power is already inside of you. Accessing it … Is as simple as looking for the unfamiliar in your own heart. And as difficult."
Miku sighed. "I suppose asking for a straightforward answer is too much to ask."
"Nothing is straightforward," Mew said, her eyes distant. "Nothing is in order … Past, present, future, all of it is jumbled. Am I staring at the mage who loved, or the diva who bloomed? Countless others have sat in that cage; all were called little flower. They all mix and melt before my eyes – I see them all."
Miku could only stare. "I could see how that would be … disorienting."
"Nothing is straightforward," Mew said again, shuffling off. "Nothing. Not anymore."
Mew wandered away as Miku's cage was loaded into the moving truck. Who had the fortune-teller been, before Meiko had gotten to her? Miku leaned against the back bars of her cage, closing her eyes.
As the engine began to rumble, she turned inward, searching for the thing that Mew described, something that she hadn't felt before. But so much of her body felt unfamiliar, with every new bloom that broke open her skin. Still, she had to try.
With the twins snoozing in their cage and Kaito moodily gnawing on a bone, no one was paying much attention to her. No one except Haku and Neru, that was. Miku looked up to find them both staring at her.
"Can you keep a secret?" She asked.
Neru shrugged. "It is irrelevant. No one harkens even if we do speak the truth," she sighed.
"And, on occasion, we have been known to speak a lie," Haku said. "But never to you, or any of the blooms that came before."
Miku felt an ache in the back of her throat. "Thank you," she whispered.
"Such thanks seems hardly warranted." Haku's face, illuminated by the lantern, held the vague pity it so often did. Neru's mimicked hers as she continued the statement.
"Given the circumstances," she agreed.
Miku leaned against the bars of her cage, looking straight at the two women. "I'm going to do my best to change those circumstances," Miku said in a quiet voice. "But the ringmaster can't know." It felt dangerous to call Meiko by her name – as if saying it would allow her access to the conversation.
"A hearty ambition," Neru said.
"One befitting of your name," Haku replied. "Perhaps not all roses smell as sweetly."
Miku nodded, picking up a loose piece of straw from the floor of her cage. "That's right," she said. "And my name has power."
She leaned against the bars of her cage. She held the straw right in front of her eyes. She forced all of her will on it. And she spoke. "Bend," she whispered. Nothing happened. And as she tried it again and again, the piece of straw remained still.
But as she whispered to it, feeling as though she was going as insane as the others in the circus, something did happen. Something deep in the pit of her stomach … shifted. Like a snake that had been sleeping, coiled in on itself, and was only now waking up.
Miku focused on that feeling. She tried to channel it, imagining the straw bending, the feeling in her stomach clarifying the vision and strengthening it. And when she whispered again, the feeling clawed its way up through her chest, echoing out of her throat. "Bend."
The straw bent.
Miku immediately dropped it in shock. She held out her arm, covered more by flowers than it was by open skin. "Fall off. Flowers, get off of me." But although the voice was easier to use, now that she knew where it was, nothing changed on her arm.
She picked up another piece of straw. "Bend." This one snapped clean in half, now that she the hang of it. She tried enacting the same will on the steel bars of her cage. "Bend." The bars didn't move. Miku touched them, and while they may have been a bit warm, they were as sturdy as ever.
"Things have weight," Haku noted. Miku looked up in shock, but after a moment, she supposed it made sense. This newfound ability had to have limitations, just like her physical strength did.
But Miku thought of everything Meiko could do, and wondered. Miku turned to Kaito now, who was sitting with his back hunched.
"Raise your arm," she whispered, surely too low for him to hear even if he did understand her. His filthy arm shot into the air, as if yanked by a string. He looked at it with confusion for a moment before lowering it.
Miku turned her attention to Rin. "Raise your arm," she commanded, again … But nothing happened.
"Thoughts have weight, too," Neru explained. "And human thoughts are the heaviest of all."
Miku turned back to Kaito. She supposed he would be easier to influence. Whatever passed for thought in his head probably wasn't very human at all.
She kept practicing. With each small gesture, she felt the feeling in the pit of her stomach grow. By the time the truck shuddered to a stop, she was panting, with a fine sheen of sweat covering what was left of her skin. She thought that the magic in her was causing Meiko's spell to move faster – at least five flowers bloomed as she worked.
But despite everything, she felt triumphant. She felt powerful, and that wasn't something she had felt since the circus music first lured her through the woods.
"Lift your arm," Miku whispered, staring at Len … And though he still didn't obey, his hand twitched just a little too much for it to be mere reflex.
The truck door opened, and orange light flooded in. The sun was beginning to set. Squinting against it, Miku could see Meiko's silhouette.
"Now, now," she said in her calm, mocking voice. "Don't delay. We don't have a moment to spare."
The clowns sprung into action, moving everything out of the truck with superhuman speed. Miku had to grab the bars to keep from being thrown against them, she was jostled so quickly.
All of the workers set up the tents and booths. Miku could hear harsh panting from them as they worked, and when they got close to her cage for the fraction of a second it took to pick up something near her, she saw pain in their faces. Her body was not the only one abused by magic, apparently.
By the time the sun was low on the horizon, everything was set up. Only the freak tents had to be moved into their cage. Near her fortune telling tent, Mew collapsed to her knees. Lily flopped limply into the other truck, also empty, and Miki hurried after her. Miku caught her eye for just a moment before the contortionist turned pointedly away.
Meiko, the only one unfazed, snapped her fingers. "Cul, Mayu, help the clowns with the cages. Our guests will be showing up any moment."
"Yes, Miss Meiko!" Mayu, long hair frazzled, snapped to attention. Cul gave a small salute. The two of them rolled Miku's cage towards the tent, going a bit slower than the clowns.
"You're blooming nicely, little flower," Meiko noted.
"Shut up," Miku replied, her tone stony. For once, she didn't feel afraid of Meiko, not with the power she knew she held.
Cul laughed. "Oh, she's a feisty flower, isn't she?"
"Don't speak to Miss Meiko like that!" Mayu warned. It was delivered in her usual sweet tone, but there was something ominous in her eyes. "Have you tried pulling your flowers off yet? You can't, but I can. And it would really hurt, you could ask any of the others."
"If they were still alive, anyways." Meiko laughed. "Have you realized by now, little flower, that you're doomed to suffer the same fate?" She let out a dramatic sigh. "I would say it's a pity, but that would be a lie. I relish watching you wilt."
Mayu and Cul both laughed as they pushed Miku's cage into the brown tent. She clenched her fists, wanting nothing more than to rip their throats out, to make sure that they never uttered another sound.
"Shut up!" She screamed.
Mayu and Cul stopped laughing abruptly. Mayu clutched at her throat, turning to Meiko in shock.
The ringmaster's face was as red as her dress. Her mouth was open, but no sound came out. Miku had silenced her, just as Meiko had done to her countless times. Miku felt a moment of pure, unadulterated victory.
It was short-lived, however. Meiko broke through the spell in a matter of seconds. "You … You little bitch!" Meiko practically threw herself against the bars of the cage. "What did you do?"
Miku bared her teeth at the brunette. She had never felt more frightened or more exalted in her life. "What? You don't like the taste of your own medicine?"
"You dare –" Meiko's face was contorted in rage. And Miku laughed right into it, hysterically. Before she knew what she was doing, she was speaking, the words coming from that coiled snake in her stomach instead of her mind.
"Oh, I dare. And when I get more powerful, who knows what I'll do? Maybe I'll put you in a cage. Maybe I'll shrink you to the size of an ant and step on you. Or maybe I'll take away your mind, like you did to poor Kaito." Her lips were moving without her even being aware of what she was going to say. "Do you remember how he used to crawl around and let me ride on his back when we were young, big sis? He called them horsey rides. Is that why you turned him into an animal? An innocent man whose only crime was to be content loving you from afar? He would have done anything for you without expecting a single thing in return, and you destroyed him. Of course, you always had that wickedness in your heart, didn't you? Even before everything … I bet that's why –"
"Stop!" Meiko's face had gone pale. "This is impossible. You've never dreamed of him! I made sure of it!"
"Impossible? Have you forgotten my name, big sis?" Miku laughed again. "You call me little flower, but that's just because you're afraid of who I am."
"No!" Meiko snarled at her. "You will be quiet, now!"
Miku felt her throat numb up. She didn't mind. She had rattled Meiko, perhaps even frightened her, and that was what was really important.
"You will not speak another word unless I command you to," Meiko said. "Forget your performance. You will wilt away in this cage, little flower. I don't care what your name is."
She stormed out of the cage. Everyone, even Kaito, watched her go. After a moment, Mayu followed in her wake, and Cul was quick to do the same.
Those left in the cage turned to Miku. Even Rin was shocked into silence. Miku closed her eyes. She opened her mouth.
And, knowing that there was a way, somehow, she tried to find her voice.
So, Miku's getting a bit of an edge here! It's fun to write her her doing something other than moping in a cage, I must say. I hope it's fun to read, too! I can't wait to hear what you guys think.
- Jillian Maria