The Little Devil By Bamfing Bob

"And here's the big tent", said the large man with a shaggy beard and a strong Hungarian accent. He was walking with a slightly shorter man with a similar beard wearing a dirty torn trench coat and they were both completely soaked from the storm outside. "You can stay here for the night, brother. It's not the warmest place in the world but it will keep you dry for the time being."

At that, a bolt of lightning struck, soon followed by a deafening crash of thunder. A pair of glowing yellow eyes floating in the air suddenly opened in the darkness that was the Big Top. The shorter man uttered an obscenity under his breath at the eerie sight. The creature to which the eyes belonged did a somersault and landed some 20 feet from where they appeared.

"Donal, who is your friend?", asked the mysterious voice that slowly walked into the light. He seemed like a demon but the mannerisms of it seemed harmless. It's skin was slowly becoming visible into an indigo and had striking features on his hands, feet, and face. It had fanged teeth like that of a canine and ears that end in a sharp point. His feet looked like a birds, with two toes in the front and one in the back, and his hands had only three fingers. It also had the tail of the devil himself, swaying as he walked cautiously toward the two men. He wasn't a day older than fifteen.

"This is my brother, Randel. Randel, I would like you to meet our circus' top acrobat, Mr. Kurt Wagner. He usually sleeps hanging from his feet on the trapeze. I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all. I just hope you're not contagious. Ha ha."

"I'm not diseased, you asshole! I'm just different okay! God!", yelled the now pissed off Kurt as he quickly climbed up to the highest trapeze in the room, disappearing from view.

"Way to be polite, Randel. Don't you think he's a little sensitive about his looks? Kurt's a great guy. Get to know him before you run off at the mouth again, okay?"

"It was just a harmless joke!", he yelled as Donal dashed out of the tent, "I meant nothing by it!". Randel laid out his bedroll, took off his dripping coat, and tried to go to sleep but he couldn't because those yellow eyes were looking straight down at him unblinking all night long. The guilt of his comment slowly crept up and down his spine. He wondered how it must feel to be an outsider; different from everybody else in the world. To be truly alone.

"Wake up." Randel groggily rubbed his eyes as he straggled through the mud toward the common tent for the breakfast he could already smell from a distance. The flaps of the tent were already tied open and he could see a dozen or so people at a long table covered in dishes full of eggs, sausage, pancakes, and orange juice which the people were grabbing at furiously.

"Everyone! This is my brother, Randel. He will be staying with us for a few weeks while his house is being rebuilt. It was in a fire Tuesday afternoon so treat him as you would want to be in his situation. He came in last night during the storm. Randel, this is Stephan, Hans, Jaime …", who all waved accordingly," David, Margali, Rochelle, Amanda, Moira, Basil, Rochen, and I believe you've already met Kurt."

At the sound of his name, Kurt looked up from his plate and quickly stared back at it in disgust. Randel sat down and started to load his plate with all of the persuasive leftovers of the performers who surrounded him. He felt like his life was falling apart; first his wife and kids deserted him, then his house burned down, and now he was visiting a circus where he felt … less than welcome, at least by the little teen demon who silently sat next to him.

"Kurt, I'm sorry about last night. I didn't know you were so offended by your looks and I've been under a lot of stress and I was trying to make light of an awful situation and…"

"What? Sleeping in the same room with a freak? Apology not accepted."

"I just want to…", started Randel.

"Start all over?", finished Kurt. "You can't change the past, just the future. If you want my friendship or acceptance or whatever, you'll have to treat me like everyone else and think about what you say before you say it." Then, he got up and hastily paced out of the tent without bothering to give his dishes to Margali, who was scrubbing the tableware with an SOS pad.

"Think nothing of it… Randel, wasn't it?" asked Margali. "He's always been the moody type, you know, sitting in the corner and ignoring people. Once he gets used to you, you'll feel much more welcome here, just wait and see."

"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! Boys and girls!", announced the booming voice of Hans, " Presenting, the world's greatest acrobat, at only fourteen years old, the great Kurt WAGNER!"

At this, the crowd of less than a hundred cheered with no restraint as they gazed to the top of the circus tent to see the boy in the red, white, and black outfit and covered in blue makeup. Kurt waved and leaped into the air as if he were flying. He did a double back flip, twisting and turning in a way that no ordinary person could do. Grabbing the trapeze bar with his feet, that must have been twenty feet away from the platform, the audience roared with suspense, for even though they know he wouldn't fall, their stomachs still lurched at this spectacle. His performance was unlike any Randel had ever seen, even disregarding the fact that Kurt held on to the bars with his feet and tail. After all the autographs were signed and the crowd started to disperse, Randel approached the star of the circus.

"Kurt, that was incredible! Whatever you're doing, don't stop." Kurt chuckled at this but quickly remembered his feelings toward Randel.

"Wow, I didn't know you could smile! How come the sudden change in attitude?"

"When I perform, I get a natural high from the reactions of the audience. They think I'm just wearing makeup so no one is scared or judges me and stuff."

"Well, anyway, you were phenomenal and I'm glad you are so happy when you fly through the air", said Randel, who began to walk away.

"Hey!", called Kurt to Randel, who turned around in mid-stride. "Thanks."

Kurt was on his way back to his trailer when his attention was called to a figure silently following him. He whipped around to discover a beautiful older girl who giggled as his tail smacked him in his face. "Hello, Kurt Wagner. I just want to tell you that I loved your performance and that I was wondering if you wanted to go somewhere with me." She had long black hair and the most captivating green eyes.

"You know that I'm fourteen, right?"

"And I'm sixteen. What's your point?"

"Okay. Let's go to my trailer so I can change."

They started to walk together to his dressing room when Kurt asked "So, what's your name?"

"Eva. How did you do all that up there? I was absolutely stunned by the performance."

"I don't know. I've always been more flexible than the others, but I guess just working at it make me 'the world's greatest acrobat.'"

Eva giggled again as he entered his room to change. As he dressed, they made small talk through the door. "What kind of music are you into, Kurt?"

"Anything dark. There's a certain amount of irony in that, isn't there?"

"What do you mean?"

"What do you mean 'What do you mean'? You've met me haven't you?", asked Kurt as he stepped out, now in blue jeans and a sweatshirt.

"I don't understand. Why haven't you taken off your make-up?"

"What make-up? I'm not wearing any make-up."

"You're kidding, right?

"Nope. This is the way I look. I thought you knew that."

"Oh my God, I can't do this!", screamed Eva as she ran away from the boy she had grown to like as a friend, and maybe more. Perhaps this is why she was so afraid - the realization that someone who lived like everybody else could look as horrible as this was too much to handle all at once.

There he sits. Alone in his corner. All alone. With no one to comfort him for nobody knows what it is like to be forever in the midst of bigotry and hatred in the way he does. No one even knows he's there, even though you can hear the faint weeping of a child who has so often heard the gasps of horror upon looking at him, but never has he felt so depressed. He wishes that he were dead. So, he goes into his stepmother's room and gets her gun. Still crying madly, he cocks the handgun and points it to his left temple. BANG!