Chapter Thirty-Four
Over at Circus Gothica, everyone had gone, leaving only the circus performers.
"Slaves! Center ring!" called out Freakshow and everyone complied.
The tall man in the skeleton costume pulled off the outfit. It was actually the dwarf ghost on stilts. The juggler transformed into the large ghost. The contortionist woman leaped down becoming the ghost that had turned into a slingshot, and the heavily pierced woman revealed herself to be the tattooed ghost.
Freakshow continued speaking, "For generations my family has controlled ghosts with this staff; untold power and all they could think to do was to entertain the masses, whereas I have found a much more profitable use for you minions." He pulled gold coins and different coloured jewels out of his coat pocket. "And as soon as the newest member of our cast joins us, this entire town will be mine for the taking." The orb on the staff glowed scarlet to reveal Danny Phantom's face.
The girls, Danny, and I had left Tulio behind and snuck into the Manson mansion. After what had happened at Circus Gothica, we didn't think Danny and I would be allowed back inside.
"I wanted to experience something horrific and unimaginable," said Sam laying on her back on her bed and staring up at the Circus Gothica ticket she held above her.
"We can always go to the circus tomorrow," Alyss suggested.
"That is, assuming you're not grounded," Catherine added to Sam.
Danny said to me, "And Tulio lets me within two-hundred feet of you."
I rolled my eyes at him. "Tulio does not control what I can or can't do, nor who I can and can't spend time with."
"Guess we'll have to settle for watching the tv of opening night," said Alyss turning on the giant television in Sam's room.
Freakshow appeared on the screen, saying, "Creatures of the night, unleash your dark side at Circus Gothica!"
"Unleash your dark side at Circus Gothica," Danny suddenly muttered walking towards the window.
"Danny, where are you going?" I called out to him, getting a bad feeling.
He froze and turned to us, his eyes turning red, and an eerie smile crossing his face. "Unleash your dark side at Circus Gothica..."
"Danny, what are you doing? You've caused too much trouble as it is!" Sam said with concern, sitting up.
"No such thing as too much trouble," Danny replied, "Unleash your dark side at Circus Gothica." He phased through the ceiling and vanished.
"Uh-oh!" said Catherine.
"Something's not right with Danny," I said jumping off Sam's bed, "We'd better follow him."
"Oh no!" Alyss exclaimed sarcastically, "But that would mean going to the circus!" We stared at her blankly. "Hello? Irony."
I shook my head and grabbed her hand, pulling her out of Sam's room. The other two followed and we snuck out of the mansion. In a matter of a half hour, we arrived at Circus Gothica.
"We should split up," said Sam, "The sooner we find Danny, the sooner we can figure out what's going on and get out of here."
We nodded our consent, the sisters taking off in one direction, while Sam and I went in another. Inside the tent, Sam and I crept around the back area, keeping out of sight of any of the circus performers. We even had a perfect view of what was going on inside the ring.
"Please welcome a performer who puts the death in death-defying acts... the Grim Reaper himself!" said Freakshow gesturing to the high wire.
"Ooh," I said in interest, pausing briefly to watch the dark cloaked figure wielding a scythe as he glided across the wire. Everyone gasped when he balanced on the blade with one hand.
"Aralyne, come on," Sam whispered to me.
"Huh? Oh, right!" I turned away from the ring and suddenly found myself staring at Freakshow.
"What are you doing back here?" he demanded.
"Woah! Freakshow! This is so cool!" said Sam in excitement, "Focus... Uhm, we're looking for a friend of ours who was acting kinda weird."
"Oh, that narrows it down to, oh, everyone in this tent! HA-HAW!" said the ringmaster sarcastically. The hooded figure then approached us. Freakshow then yelled at his worker, "What are you doing, dolt?! Get back out there and do your encore!" The figure pulled back the hood to reveal Danny. I gasped.
"Sam? Aralyne?" he said seemingly disoriented.
"What's that? Was that-was that free will?!" Freakshow demanded,holding his staff higher, "Obey me, minion!"
"What? You're controlling him?" Sam shouted out.
It all made sense now!
"Get them," Freakshow ordered.
Danny's eyes glowed scarlet and he raised the scythe. I quickly removed Excalibur from my back and blocked his blow.
"Run!" I shouted, and Sam took off.
"Nice try, Aralyne," Danny smirked at me. He suddenly became intangible and the next thing I knew, he overshadowed me...
When I regained consciousness, I found I was perched precariously on the high wire, a rope tied around my waist and a body right behind me.
"Aralyne? Is that really you?" Sam asked from my back.
"Yeah. What happened?" I inquired.
"Danny used you to catch me. We have to find a way out of this and save him."
I glanced down, which was a bad idea. The height made the whole room spin and I felt nauseous, almost losing my balance.
Below us, Freakshow came out into the ring and said, "Please welcome two brand new vict- talents to the high wire in their first... and final... performance." Danny, still dressed as the Grim Reaper, stood on a platform, strapped to his back was Excalibur. Dammit! There went my weapon!
"Danny, listen, you don't wanna do this! You're being controlled!" Sam yelled out.
He laughed evilly and sliced the wire with the scythe. We screamed as we fell. Honestly, I was more concerned for Sam. Since we were tied back to back, and the way we were falling, I would have crushed her. From my vantage point I saw Danny's eyes return to normal and he looked scared. He suddenly flew off the platform and grabbed us, setting us down on our feet on the solid ground. The crowd of Goths cheered.
"Danny, don't scare me like that!" I said in relief, wanting to cry.
His eyes turned red once more and he leaned forward snarling, "How should I scare you?" Danny pulled back and Freakshow took his place.
"Consider that a warning, girl," Freakshow hissed, slicing the ropes off us with a knife before walking away.
Taking Sam's hand, we ran out of the ring and into one of the tent's wings.
"Jeez, you nearly gave us a heart-attack!" said Catherine when she and Alyss caught up to us. Apparently they had seen our little high wire act. "Can we take time off from your gothapalooza and actually look for Danny?"
"That was Danny, under the hood, Freakshow's controlling him with some kind of crystal ball!" Sam quickly explained, "C'mon!"
We managed to find our way out of the tent, and when we did, we saw Freak Show, the ghosts and Danny come out. Startled, we jumped under the train so as not to get caught again.
"Get on the train, quickly!" said Freakshow, "While the idiots are distracted by the show, we'll leave now!"
"Ecto-butts in gear!" ordered Danny firing ecto blasts at the other ghosts' rear ends, causing them to cry out. They all left our sight.
The girls and I waited a few seconds longer to make sure they weren't coming back before crawling out from under the train.
"Where would they be going?" Alyss inquired.
"Who knows, but we have to follow them," said Sam.
The four of us jumped onto the train and got inside through a top hatch in the caboose. Surprisingly, we landed in piles of gold, and jewels. It wasn't as amazing as the collections I saw in the Cave of Wonders or Treasure Island, but it was a pretty good pile of treasure. And surprise, surprise, there was Freakshow's staff!
"There's the crystal ball!" I said pointing to it, "Let's grab it and-"
The four of us were suddenly blasted out of the caboose's back door and landed painfully on the railroad tracks. Glancing up through my curls, I saw Danny emerge with Freakshow beside him. The train whistle blew, right before it began to race down the tracks.
"Danny! No!" Sam shouted out.
With a sick, twisted smile, Freakshow said, "Yes, yes, please scream. A shame anyone who might help you is busy enjoying my free show. HAAAH!"
Leaping to our feet, we chased after the moving train, but it was useless.
"What are we going to do now?" Sam panted, "We can't let this happen to Danny!"
"We'll go on ahead and see what we can do," said Catherine. She and Alyss turned into bluebirds and flew after the train.
As if by some miracle, Tulio rode up beside us on a horse. We stared up at him in surprise.
"What are you doing here?" Sam said in surprise.
"I knew you were going to need help," Tulio replied looking directly at me, "Because something always seems to go wrong. Now hop on, and we'll catch the train!" He held his hand out to me, but I stared at it. Despite him still trying to help and continuing to save my life, I still stood by what I had told him out in the woods after the Ember incident.
Sam grasped his hand and he hauled her up behind him. It was only then that I climbed onto the horse's back and wrapped my arms around Sam's waist. Tulio set the horse in motion and we took a shortcut to get ahead of the train until we came to an overpass with the railroad right below us. Sam and I slid off the horse's back and watched the train head our way.
"Get back up here, and I'll find a safer way for you to get on the train," Tulio ordered.
We both ignored him and Sam said as the train finally zoomed below us, "No. We have to jump."
"Are you crazy? You can't jump!" Tulio exclaimed.
I don't know if he was talking to me or the both of us, but we both replied, "And I can't abandon Danny."
Before he could stop us, Sam and I clasped hands and leaped off the overpass. With train still in motion, we lost our balance and fell on our stomachs.
"Plus, I'll never hear the end of it if my parents learn they're right about him being evil," Sam grumbled as we stood up. Together, we started heading towards the caboose, and it wasn't long until Alyss and Catherine joined us in their human forms.
"How'd you get here?" Alyss inquired.
"Tulio," Sam simply said, which earned me a large grin from Catherine. I ignored her.
Inside the train, Freakshow and his minions heard a thump, and what could only be described as footsteps on the roof. They all looked up in wonder.
Turning to his slaves, he commanded, "What are you waiting for? GO!"
The ghosts phased through the ceiling.
We were suddenly surrounded by the ghosts.
"Danny, it's us, Sam and Aralyne and Catherine and Alyss! You're friends, remember?!" Sam said desperately when we saw him.
Danny blinked at us in confusion and for a moment I thought we had gotten through to him, "Aralyne? Sam? I... I..." He shook his head and the scarlet colour of his eyes glowed with more intensity. "I... am a... ghost. I have no friends."
Freakshow finally arrived to stand behind the ghosts, the staff tight in his grasp. He smirked at us. "Don't waste your breath, children. He's under my control now. Don't just stand there, finish them!"
The train approached some scaffolding, but the ring master didn't notice it behind him.
"Maybe you should try holding that thing up a little higher," Alyss suggested to the circus master.
And like the idiot he was, Freakshow raised the staff and a couple of seconds later, it was knocked out of his grasp as the train passed under the scaffolding. Catherine tried making a grab for it, but missed and it landed in Danny's open palm.
"Way to go, Danny!" I cheered running up to him. I suddenly froze when I realized his eyes were still scarlet and he sneered at me, raising his hand. His ghost ray struck me in the center of the chest and I flew backwards until I was dangling from the edge of the train. All of my friends screamed and called out my name. The edge was slippery, and I couldn't pull myself back up. From my vantage point, I could see two of the ghosts holding Alyss and Catherine hostage. The others were blocking Sam's path to get to me. Up ahead, I could see us approaching a bridge with a rocky gorge below it, and behind us, out of the corner of my eye, I could see someone else heading our way at high speed.
"Very good, drone. Now, bring me my staff. Come on, bring it," said Freakshow making kissing sounds as if Danny were a dog.
Danny looked uncertainly at the staff.
"Fight it, Danny! He's not holding the crystal ball anymore, you are!" Sam shouted.
Freakshow grabbed Sam and threw her aside, causing her to nearly fall off the edge of the train.
"Silence!" roared the ringmaster, "Obey me, ghost! Give me my staff. Come on." More kissing sounds.
Danny remained looking uncertain.
"I saw you up on that high wire, you were fighting him the whole time! Fight him now, Danny! Fight him!" I grunted out, trying to pull myself up, but I slipped back to dangling by my fingertips. We were just mere feet away from the gorge!
"Quiet! All of you! I need to think!" said Danny holding his head.
"Well, it's the crystal ball or your friends, Danny, your choice!" said Sam backing away from the two free ghosts. Her foot slipped, and she fell backwards into the gorge. "I didn't mean that to be so literal!"
"Sam! No!" I shouted, and at that point, I could no longer hold on to the train's edge. I fell, too, but didn't get far when someone grabbed hold of my wrist and I dangled a couple hundred feet over the pointed rocks. Surprised, I glanced up to see it was Tulio that had rescued me. He was leaning over the horse, which had stopped at the edge of the gorge.
"How is it I'm always saving your life?" he grunted, hauling me up onto the horse. I wrapped my arms around him and he charged after the train.
I heard Danny shout, "Sam? SAM!" before jumping off the train's roof. I watched as he let go of the staff and raced towards his girlfriend. Before she could be impaled by the sharp rocks at the bottom of the gorge, he caught her and flew up to the train. The staff smashed into a million pieces below us.
In a matter of seconds, we caught up to the train, and releasing Tulio, I jumped off the horse's back, landing on the caboose. From there, I climbed back up onto the roof.
"Danny! Sam! Are you okay?" I asked giving each of them a hug.
"I think so. It's all a blur. I did some bad stuff, didn't I?" he asked with worry.
"Nothing you can't fix," I replied with a grin.
"Good. Now maybe you can convince Tiny here to let go of me?" Catherine suggested.
The other ghosts blinked and looked around in confusion.
"H-huh? Where are we?"
"Are we free? Finally free?"
"Only one way to find out," said Danny turning to Freakshow.
All of the ghosts released Alyss and Catherine, surrounded the ringmaster and he nervously said, "Okay, uh, when I called you, er, minions, it was really a-a term of endearment like-like I love my minions!"
"You wanted a big haul? Try this on for size!" Catherine said, pushing aside the ghosts and punching Freakshow in the nose.
"Gah! Oh! That... quite... smarted..." he moaned, as blood gushed out from his nostrils.
"Oh, we're not finished with you, yet," I said making my way forward. I punched him in the eye and he stumbled, falling onto his backside. "That one's for Danny!" I moved in to strike him again, but said ghost boy wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me back.
"Okay, I think he gets it," said my best friend in amusement.
"No! Let me at 'im!" I shouted kicking and clawing at the air. With a sigh, Danny leaped off the train and flew over to Tulio who was still following us.
He placed me in Tulio's lap of all places and said, "Take her back to Nesidy."
I scowled up at Tulio as he turned the horse around and we headed back towards town. I was so getting back at Danny for this!