The ring master leaves you to unpack. Momentarily you lie down on the sagging bed and take a deep breath, slowly realising how immediately bored you are. Instinctively you reach for your phone only to realise it was left at home-as Frederick ordered. It seems odd and almost terrifying as this is probably the first time in your life where you have been completely and utterly cut off from the world. No Tweets. No Youtube videos. Not even Facebook. 'I could probably do without that for a while anyway,' You think with a sigh before listening to the wind flapping your tent outside. A chill seems to come over you at the sound and you move to open your suitcase and fish out your dark blue jumper. 'It'll probably get chilly later.' You think as you wriggle it on. A pad of blank paper and a few pens fall out of the inner pocket and you remember promising your parents to write as soon as you arrived. "I'll do it later…" You say lazily, shoving your suitcase to one corner without zipping it up and leaving your tent.
The growing dark makes it difficult for you to even spot the food store trailer. Not to mention that it felt like someone was behind you every step of the way. With that weird man watching from the shadows before, you weren't sure if he was still doing so.
Eventually (quite by accident) the trailer comes into sight and you rush to it to gain some kind of shelter from that creeping sense of someone stalking you. Slamming the door loudly behind, you release a breath of relief to have not met any other weirdos that may reside in this circus. Only certain crunching sounds alert you to the fact that you are not alone. Your eyes widen and body stiffens and flattens against the wall at this realisation. Blindly, you grope the wall for a light switch. After a few more moments, your fingers find something resembling one and pull it down. A few seconds of darkness pass before a feeble bulb blinks into life, casting a dim light for the entire trailer and you detach yourself from the wall. The crunching and clanking of pots continues without pause. You dare a few tentative steps. The noise continues still. Feeling braver, your feet attempt a creeping step and you hope that it is just a rat or some other small animal that would provide no real threat. Approaching the counter, a small tuft of bright blonde hair is visible. At least it wasn't the man from earlier. "E-Excuse me!" You attempt to sound confident.
The person freezes and looks up at your voice. Their eyes seem to be the cutest, most innocent blue eyes you have ever seen and peer nervously over the counter. They have long, dark eyelashes that blink slowly in surprise.
"You shouldn't be in here." You say, attempting a firmer voice.
With the air of a guilty child, the person stands. You see that it is a young girl with short, bobbed hair (though a part stuck up at the back) with a freckled face that only seemed to add to her overall cuteness. She has a light yellow dress with puffed sleeves and a bouffant skirt. Evidence of the food she had eaten already stuck to her face in an endearing way. She didn't look much older than 17. "I sorry," She mumbles in broken English, "I hungry and no food yet. So…so I eat from here."
"Yeah, I was just coming to start cooking and I'm running late. Could you show me where the food for cooking is and help me to get things running?" You ask, looking around for the food store, thinking about making some kind of rice dish if the ingredients were available. "I'm guessing that you work here, right?"
The cute girl gives a bright smile, "Of course Chica works at Circus. Chica is fire eater."
You raise an eyebrow. Of all the roles in a circus, you didn't imagine her eating fire.
"Let's go to work!" She exclaims with a smile, and begins to pull out pots and pans ready for cooking before you ask for her to locate the rice, vegetables, spices and meat. Working with Chica is surprisingly easy, she is chatty and cheerful with a charming eastern European accent. She describes in detail about her set, her costume and the places she has visited since starting at the circus.
"Chica has been in lot of countries," She says as she pours the curried vegetables and meat into a large bowl, scraping out the last of the sauce, "People always amazed to see tiny girl breathe fire like dragon."
"When did you start working here?" You ask conversationally as you pour the rice into a large serving bowl and the smile momentarily drops from her face.
After a few moments she regains her smile and beams, "Oh it such a long time ago, I can't remember!"
With that she sweeps from the room out to the front of the trailer with the food bowl, ending the conversation. You stare with a confused expression after her, wondering if you'd offended her somehow, and follow her outside with your own bowl in hand. You find yourself in a small quad, covered by a tarpaulin to prevent everyone getting soaked in rainfall, with a couple of rickety plain picnic benches. A long table with numerous spoons, forks and knives (Chica had got them out earlier) sat next to plates and the pot of food. Placing the rice alongside, you look at the others sat at the benches. A dark skinned woman with vibrant purple hair and make up to match sat glaring at you with her head resting on her hand in boredom. On top of her head sat a pair of equally purple rabbit ears, which made her seem like a playboy bunny more than a circus performer, given her outfit. It was a black skin tight leotard with a red bow tie in the middle of it and fishnet tights wrapped around her legs. She also wore white cuffs at her wrist (which seemed a little pointless since they didn't attach to anything on her outfit) with red cufflinks.
"About damn time you got food served up," She huffed, standing up and stomping over to the plates and cutlery, "What took you so long?"
"Newbie was lost and didn't know anything so Chica helped." The younger girl chimed in with a smile before you could say anything. "Be nice to them Bunny."
"For the thousandth time, my name is Bonnie!" The other woman snapped back, spooning a large portion of rice and curry onto her plate.
"Then why do you look like bunny?" Chica asked sarcastically, flipping a piece of her blonde hair from her face.
Grumbling under her breath, Bonnie moves away with a scowl and places the plate down roughly on the table before she begins to eat her food. Chica grabs her own plate and food and sits opposite Bonnie. The two seem to share a relationship similar to siblings from viewing the way that Chica openly teased Bonnie.
You notice someone stood just in your peripheral vision and look up with a smile to hand them a plate. A shudder comes over as you see who it is. The wild-haired, hook handed man from earlier. He's now gained an eye patch to cover his right eye and now he's closer you can see more details of his face. There are more scars than the large vivid one on his right eye that seem to cluster in twos or threes all over the visible skin you can see. His mouth is open slightly, you can feel his breath on your face as well as see his sharp teeth. Your body stiffens as you wonder what on earth is wrong with this man. "Can I be getting some o' yer grub?"
You blink in confusion. Was this guy speaking like a pirate? "Uh…Ar?" You say uncertainly, giving him a plate and letting him help himself to the food.
Behind, Bonnie is making a "crazy" sign at you while Chica looks on with a slightly saddened expression.
"This will be just fine fer a servin' o' hot food." The man says with an attempt at a smile with his misaligned jaw before moving over to the second table and tucking himself at the back of the table, away from everyone else. You mouth 'Who is he?' to Bonnie and she mimes that she'll tell you later.
The final member to come is Frederick, his large belly appearing in the tent just before he did. Though his deep laugh seemed to precede him by a couple of minutes. "Ah good, are we all fed and watered?" The ring master asks, helping himself to his own plate and large serving of food. It was much larger than anyone else's.
"Yeah, the newbie did good," Bonnie said, still eating her own food.
"Chica helped!" The other girl announced with a bright smile.
"Aye, ye found a fine whelp te cook in the galley, Freddy." Came the odd pirate accent from the partially shadowed man.
"That's a compliment from Foxy, probably the nicest thing he's ever said about new staff," Frederick whispered to you before taking his seat by Bonnie. The bench seemed to tilt to his weight as he sat. Getting your own food, you choose to sit by Chica, feeling a little sorry for Foxy but still feeling cautious about him too. Chica seemed about the only one you seem to be able to trust.
The group eats mostly in silence, except for the loud chewing coming from Foxy and Frederick. After several minutes, the weird man stands up and climbs from the bench to leave without a word. Several lumps of half-chewed meat and vegetables remained on his plate (and some even across the table). "Get some rest, Foxy," The chubby man calls after him, food spraying out of his mouth and hitting Chica as he talked. Foxy did not respond at all.
"Foxy?" You ask, feeling a little confused (wondering if it was some sort of nickname).
"No one knows his actual name," Bonnie explains with a wave of her hand, "I doubt even he knows. He's so messed up."
"So the pirate thing…?"
"He's had injuries over the years, they've had a…lasting effect," explained Frederick, "Several animals have taken him down and given him a good chew. I think that the last incident was…"
"When Leo hit Mr. Foxy!" Chica said with a slight sadness, "Leo broke his jaw and Mr. Foxy was dizzy."
"He was screwed up even before then." Bonnie stated without sympathy with her mouth full of food.
Bonnie's statement silenced everyone else and you had to agree that she was probably right. Everyone resumed eating in a low mood. Despite being the last to arrive, Freddy finished before everyone else. You had to question whether he'd actually eaten the food or inhaled it. "You're definitely a keeper," He said, patting his stomach and gesturing to you with a wink. "Keep it up, newbie."
You give him a smile, still annoyed that he seems to be unable to recall your name but also the fact that you seem to have picked up a new nickname.
Bonnie and Chica share a giggle at your surpressed annoyance as the ringmaster leaves. "Now it's official…you're Newbie." The rabbit-girl gives a wry smile. "You're gonna be Newbie for the rest of the time you're with us."
You scowl back at her with good humour.
"You looking forward to show tomorrow, Newbie?" Chica asks almost excitedly.
You nod slightly.
"You can help Chica get ready!" She adds before finishing off her food and giving you a big hug. "Night Newbie! Night Bonnie" With that the girl disappears out of the quad, presumably to head back to her tent. Bonnie merely waves her fork slightly.
"Good night," You call after Chica before turning back to Bonnie, "What do you do in this place?"
Bonnie swallows the last of her food. "Now, at least let a lady keep some of her secrets. You'll find out tomorrow anyway. Come to the big top at eight and you can help me get ready too."
Her saying that makes you check your watch. "It's 10! I'd better get cleaned up." You rush to pick up the dirtied plates, feebly trying to pick up Foxy's half-chewed leftovers from the table with disgust, before waving bye to Bonnie. Now alone, you feel a little bit better. The circus members were certainly interesting characters and now you're a little less nervous. They weren't the psychos you expected. Well, except Foxy. But even Freddy said that he seemed to like you.
"I still wouldn't trust him," You mutter aloud to yourself as you run the tap for the sink and scrape off the remaining food.
It's well past 11 by the time you'd cleaned the tables, wiped the counters and placed everything away. 'So long as I don't make any noise no one will notice.' You think, almost immediately tripping over a raised stone and making a startled "Ah!".
In the darkness, it's near impossible to navigate the tents and there are no landmarks visible except for the big top. 'Tomorrow I'll tie a ribbon onto my tent…' You think, continuing to stumble and trip. Smothering a yawn, you hear a twig snapping behind you. With a jump you turn to look back. Squinting into the darkness for any movement you see nothing and cautiously carry on walking. Then whispers seem to come from nowhere. They were spoke so quickly and quietly that it was impossible to hear what was said. You look again as your heart begins to pound in your chest slightly. Trying to swallow, you move on. Footsteps this time. There is no point in trying to walk anymore-you have to get back to your tent before someone finds you. Breaking into a run you zigzag among the tents, only turning with some certainty when you spot what you think is your tent.
Ripping the zip up, you step inside and pull it down as swiftly as possible. Taking a few steps backwards you notice that your heart is banging against your ribcage. Feeling like a scared five year old, you don't bother undressing and dive onto the bed, grabbing the covers and pulling them tight around you. Your eyes peer fearfully at the shadows outside your tent, hoping that whatever was following you doesn't know where you are.
Only the sound of tents flapping in the rising wind make a noise. Slowly, you begin to calm down. Closing your eyes momentarily you feel grateful to be in somewhere warm and safe at last.
Then the sound of whirring and footsteps makes them snap open with a jolt. There, outside the tent, is the shadow of someone tall and thin. Your eyes widen with fear. You can hear every breath they take. The person gives a couple of jerks with their head and arms. They mumble jibberish and whisper things that you're only glad you can't hear. Their arm seems to spasm and you see the vague shadow of a hook. It's him again!
Frozen to the spot, you daren't move. You don't entirely trust Foxy to listen to you and go away. All you can do is hope he leaves by himself. You hear more whirring and whispers though you're not quite sure who is making them as Foxy does not move. It seems like a long time before your eyes begin to droop slightly despite Foxy still being out there.
They droop once more and suddenly something startles you awake. Only a bright light blinds you once you open your eyes. Cringing, you realise that it's morning. You stare in disbelief. Surely this must be a dream. Checking your watch, you realise it is half past six in the morning. At least you're still alive.