The smell of whiskey and burning flesh filled the air of the small tent that I had been given by Ethel Darling, the bearded lady and - I assumed - the second in command around the camp. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to ignore the noxious odor that woke me from my sleep.

"You little bitch." My father's voice rasped from the darkness. But his voice sounded different than the one he had inhabited in life. His speech was halted; weaker, sharper. Goosebumps crept up the lengths of my bare limbs as I bit my bottom lip, trying to control my fear.

The cot that I now called my bed creaked as an unknown pressure sank into the thin mattress by my legs. I slowly, reluctantly opened my eyes and immediately wished I hadn't. My father was sitting at the end of my bed, but it was not my father as I had last seen him. His skin was charred, burned; still smoking as though he had just crawled out of the flames. He glared at me through cloudy, sunken eyes with all the hatred in the world.

When he spoke, putrid smoke poured out of his mouth and carried the scent of his dead breath towards me. "My brains...boiled...in…my head." He rasped. I slapped my palms over my ears, pressed my eyes shut and screamed.

"I don't want to hear any more!"

He laughed a horrible, creaking laugh that ended in a coughing fit. I kept screaming in a feeble attempt to block out his laughter.

He stood quickly, his pace inhuman, and leaned over my bed. I scurried into the far corner of the cot, afraid he would hit me, or worse.

"Bridget!" He shouted, and laughed again. He called me 'Bridget'. How did he know of my new identity? I had been Elizabeth Cooley when he last saw me. I screamed again, the sound ripping from my throat.

He opened his mouth, the burnt skin at the corners ripping open with the motion; large amounts of black, coagulated blood escaped his throat. It completely covered the floor of my small tent and brought a repulsive, metallic smell with it, mixing with the already toxic air.

"Bridget!" He laughed, an awful choking sound amidst the thick blood dripping from his twisted mouth. I clawed at the tent walls, begging my fingernails to be sharp enough to catch a thread and tear through the canvas. My throat was raw from screaming.

Suddenly I was shaking. Not the trembling shake of the scared; It was like I was being forcibly shaken, my head snapping back and forth on my neck.

"Bridget!" I opened my eyes to find Jimmy – the lobster boy from the show last night – standing over my bed, gripping my shoulders and shaking me like he was trying to dislodge my brain.

I swatted his deformed hands away and scrambled to sit up straight. My eyes were straining in the dark, feverously searching around for any signs of my father.

Gone was the smoke and the stench of burning flesh. There was no river of rotten blood on the ground and my father was nowhere to be seen. It never happened. I was in the tent that I was now to call home. After the German Lady – who I later learned was named Elsa – had left, Ethel made the introductions quickly before declaring it to be "getting late" and rushing me off to bed. Not that I minded – I had been exhausted from traveling.

Jimmy was staring at me with his brows knitted together in the middle, obviously concerned. I was still breathing heavily, gratefully drinking in the sudden clean air. I tried to laugh, though it came out as more of a whimper than an act of joy.

"Bad dream." I said weakly and attempted what I hoped was a smile, praying he wouldn't ask me about it.

Jimmy shoved his hands in his pockets and shook his head.

"Hell of a bad dream. I heard you crying all the way from my trailer." Crying? I had been screaming...hadn't I? My throat still felt raw, "I thought I would come in here and find you home sick," He shook his head while he continued, "But you were thrashing around in your bed, and sobbing so hard I thought you were being attacked."

I shook my head as I felt humiliated and let my dark hair fall around my bare shoulders, "What a great first night." I sighed and rubbed my eyes, they felt like they were full of broken glass.

I was embarrassed to find that my cheeks were wet. Jimmy opened his mouth to say something else but was interrupted by a sudden cry, begging for help.

"Please! No, go away! Go away!"

Jimmy and I looked at one another for a beat before we sprang to our feet and ran out of my tent into the warm Florida night. I barely had time to come around to reality. We ran wordlessly through the camp, searching for the source of the distressed call. If someone had told me two weeks ago that I would be running through a freak-show camp with a man with lobster claws, I would have told them that they were insane, yet here I was.

I followed Jimmy into a small tent not far from the big top where I had met my new pseudo family for the first time last night. I was not prepared to see Dott and Bette, the 'Siamese Sisters' from last night's performance laying terrified in their cot while a man in a suit stood over their bed, sneering.

"What's going on here?" Jimmy asked, stepping between the man and the sisters.

I took the opportunity to run to their bed side. While taking Bette's hand in both of my own, I could clearly feel her shaking. I had learned last night before I went to bed, that it was also their first night with the carnival. At least my attacker had been a dream. This man was flesh and blood and undeniably real. I couldn't imagine how scared they must have been.

"These two are my prime suspects in a murder investigation." The man protested before reaching into his breast pocket and producing a badge that he held out for Jimmy to inspect. My blood turned cold when I realized he was a police officer. Quickly, I dipped my head, letting my hair fall into my face, effectively – I hoped – concealing my identity from the cop.

"Bette and Dott never hurt anyone!" Jimmy protested, still keeping him from advancing on the girls.

Bette gripped my hand tightly, and I squeezed back.

"Then why did they high-tail it out of the hospital?" Jimmy didn't seem to have an answer to that, so the officer continued. "The way I see it, these two murdered their mother, and tried to cover it up. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they were involved in the other murders happening around Jupiter."

Other murders? I bit my lip. What other murders? I made a note to brush up on the current events of a town before I moved there in the future.

"That's a lie!" Dott screeched, indignant at the accusation. I reached over and rubbed her shoulder to silence her. It would do no good to aggravate him.

"So that's it then?" Jimmy asked, sounding every bit as angry as Dott, "Case closed?"

"Look at them!" The officer shouted, "They're monsters!"

Jimmy stiffened, and I felt the air change around us. The tension was palatable. "Don't call them monsters." Jimmy was oddly calm, but there was a threatening edge to his voice.

"I call a spade a spade." The officer scoffed and pulled out his handcuffs. The sight of the mettle glinting in the moonlight made my breath catch. I held tighter to Bette's hand.

"You're not taking them." Jimmy said, the warning tone was evident in his voice, I peeked through the strands of my hair to see the officer's reaction; he laughed.

"Who's gonna stop me?"

Jimmy whistled a low tune, never breaking eye contact with the cop. After a beat of silence, Paul – who also had tattoos covering most of his body – opened the flap of the tent and walked through, followed by the tall lady, Eve. The two flanked Jimmy on either side. The woman with no legs crawled on her hands into the tent and took her spot beside Eve. I had to admit that they painted a very threatening picture. The cop was silent as he assessed his situation. I watched him reach toward his belt and almost threw up when I heard him cock his gun.

Please, I begged silently, no more death. I closed my eyes, trying my hardest to disappear.

"Tomorrow morning I will be coming back with my boys and we are gonna run you freaks out of town."

"Don't call us freaks!" Jimmy's voice boomed across the camp, I was sure he had woken everyone who was still asleep in their tents or trailers. His face changed, his eyes darkened.

"I'll call you whatever I want." The officer scoffed, clearly not intimidated. I shuddered, thankful that I wasn't standing in his shoes. "You, frea-"

His sentence was cut short. I snapped my head up, to see what had transpired, and was rendered paralyzed when the cop fell backward, landing a few feet from where I sat, trying to console the sisters. I scrambled backward on my hands to get away from the blood that was pouring from a gaping wound in his neck. Jimmy had slashed his throat. I slapped my hand over my mouth to hold in the scream that bubbled into the back of my throat. Jimmy was breathing heavily, his eyes wild, like he couldn't believe it himself what he had just done.

"You saved us." Bette said dreamily, her grateful face tipped toward Jimmy.

He turned his attention to them and visibly softened. It was fascinating. First he came to save me – thankfully it had turned out to be a false alarm – and then Bette and Dott. It didn't take a genius to see how protective he was of the people here.

He seemed to remember me in that moment and extended one of his strange hands toward me. I grasped it tightly and let him pull me to my feet.

"What are we going to do with the body?" Paul asked.

We all looked to one another; no one wanted to say what we all knew we had to do.

I sighed and broke the silence, "Eve," I addressed the tall lady, "Help me grab a leg. Paul and Jimmy, you grab his shoulders."

"I didn't know you had it in you." Jimmy told me two hours later as he was walking me back to my tent.

We had just dropped Bette and Dott off at theirs and I was exhausted to the bone. I looked down at my nightgown. It was stained with blood and dirt. I knew he was talking about how I had taken the lead on what to do with the body of the officer. It was Jimmy's idea to give each of the people in the show a knife so that we would all have a hand in the disposal of the body, no motivation to tell.

I shrugged. "It had to be done."

He cocked one eyebrow at me, expecting me to say more. I kept my lips firmly closed and pretended I didn't see the suspicion in his eyes. Stupid, idiot, stupid, dumb, stupid. I chastised myself. I should have let Jimmy run off to save the day on his own. I could be asleep right now, not knowing anything.

We reached my tent just as the sun was coming up. I yawned and reached for the flap but Jimmy pushed my hand away.

"I'm not stupid. So why don't you just tell me who you are and what the hell you're doing here?" The sudden malice in his voice caused my doors to lock and my walls to go up.

"I don't know who you think you are," I spat, stepping forward so that his nose was level with my eyes, "But who I am is none of your god damn business."

He looked like he hadn't expected my reaction. Encouraged by this I pressed on.

"I'm not some weak little woman that you can push around," He opened his mouth to interrupt me but I raised my voice, "Why don't we just stay out of each other's way?"

He closed his mouth and regarded me though narrowed eyes. I stared back.

"Whatever." He finally broke the silence and looked away.

I win, I thought smugly. I turned on my heel and padded into my tent, leaving him standing dumbfounded outside my door.

I held my breath until I heard his footsteps move away. I deflated and collapsed onto my cot, the springs squeaking under my weight. I wondered if this is what my entire life was doomed to be like. My father tortured me in life and now in death he torments my dreams. How could I escape this labyrinth of misery that I had been stuck in since I killed my mother?

When I was a little girl and my mother was having one of her bad spells, I used to crawl into bed with her and tuck myself under her arm. She smelled like vanilla, even after lying in bed for days. She never registered the movement but I knew that she knew I was there.

Now lying in my cot, I wished so badly I had her arm around me that if I tried really hard, I could almost feel it.

A/N:
Hello! My beautiful Beta reader, Neowrella, sent Ch.4 back to me a million times better than the rough version I sent her. I am so pleased! She is amazing.
Thank you all for favoriting/following/reviewing. I had no idea anyone would even be interested in it, so I am blown away by it's reception.
THANK YOU x 100000
Reviews are appreciated!

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