Like Sheep
A/N: Sorry this update has taken so long, but I hope this makes up for it.
Chapter Three
Amber held her breath, checked her clock on her phone, and steeled her resolve once more. It
was Wednesday: in less than twelve hours her mission would be complete. Then she could leave
this god-forsaken place.
The blonde tucked a strand of her short hair behind her ear and headed back to secure the
saddles on the riding ponies that circus-goers could ride for ten dollars each. Amber knew the
ride was a rip-off. The ride consisted of two laps around the small enclosure at a snail's pace,
while an unenthusiastic circus employee supervised the riders for their own "safety". Everyone
knew these animals had been broken a long time ago and were of danger to no one so the
precautions were more useless than the existence.
After checking on the ponies, Amber's ears pricked as she heard the first wave of customers
pouring in the front gates, their laughter slightly ominous to her fragile nerves. She licked her
lips nervously and hurried to find Nathaniel. They were both in charge of taking the baby
elephant out and walking him around the ring at three different times throughout the show. The
baby was a distraction while the performers scrambled to get their next act together, and the
crowd loved him.
Nathaniel was in the main animal quarters, with his shirt off. Amber skidded to a stop, a blush
forming on her round cheeks.
"S-sorry," she stuttered and made to leave.
"Hey, it's okay. I'm just getting into my costume. You don't have to go anywhere," Nathaniel
called over his shoulder.
Amber hesitated in the doorway before finally stepping inside the tent. She averted her eyes and
sat down on a stack of crates.
Nathaniel turned to face her as he tugged his shirt over his abdomen. "Aren't you going to get
dressed?" he asked.
The blonde started, staring at him dumbly for a moment, before she came to her senses.
"Oh….yeah, I just….forgot."
He frowned. "Hey are you okay? You seem a little strange today."
"I….didn't sleep well last night. Guess I must be a little tired."
Nathaniel frowned at her and tossed her the skimpy dress she was required to wear during
performances. "You better get this on. The first crowd has already started filling out the seats,"
he said quietly.
Amber nodded as she tried to get a grip on her emotions. "I know. I heard them coming in."
She headed out to go change in the performers' trailer, shaking her head as she went.
"It's almost over," she told herself.
"Having trouble?"
Amber whirled around. Peter came towards her, wearing his simple workers clothes and his
bull-hook strapped to his jeans, a sandwich in his hand.
"Hey," he smiled. "You look a little nervous."
"Not feeling well," she mumbled. She needed to leave: she didn't trust herself around this psycho
maniac.
He offered her the sandwich. "It's barbeque pork."
Amber couldn't help herself: her nose wrinkled. "Uh, no thanks."
"It tastes real good," Peter tempted.
"No. Thank. You."
His smile faded, and he looked at her appraisingly. "I guess you wouldn't want to eat if you're
not feeling well," he said finally. But there was a sudden sense of recognition in his eyes that
made Amber's heart beat faster and her hands go cold.
"I have to go get changed," she quickly said. "See you later."
"Be seeing you…Elefanti."
Amber almost stopped. Peter never called her that. Never. And she didn't like the way he said
her nickname: it frightened her.
After she had changed, her fingers failing to clasp the buttons even after three tries (fourth
time's the charm), Amber reemerged from the dressing room and trotted towards the elephant
tent. Her dress barely reached her mid-thigh and there was a circle cut out of the bosom of her
dress that exposed much of her breasts. It made her feel even more self-conscious, but she was
thankful it at least covered a good fraction of her collar bone. Nathaniel was already there,
hooking the baby elephant up to its tether. He smiled at Amber, who returned the smile.
"You ready?" he asked her.
She nodded in affirmation. She plastered a smile on her face and followed Nathaniel, who was
leading the baby, toward the big top. They waited outside the flap for five-minutes before
the crowd's applause and roars reached their ears. They took that as their cue to enter the show.
The bright lights blinded Amber momentarily, but she kept the fake smile on her face as she
walked around the ring with Nathaniel and the baby. They exited the ring shortly after, nearly
colliding with Bonnie-and-her-dancing-poodles. Amber breathed a sigh of relief when they
reached the sanctum of the animal quarters.
"Good Sudesh," Nathaniel cooed. "That's a good boy."
"What did you just call him?" Amber said, disbelief in her voice.
"Sudesh," Nathaniel grinned. "It means "strong" in Indian. I figured since he didn't have a name
yet, I'd name him myself."
"It's cute," Amber smiled. "Let's take Sudesh back to his mommy."
Nathaniel's smile got wider.
The rest of the day passed in much the same way, although for Amber it passed agonizingly
slowly. She was almost faint with anxiety, and whenever she saw Peter it increased tenfold. She
couldn't help worrying that he knew more than he was supposed to. That look he had given her
earlier had set her hair on edge and she found she couldn't relax. Despite her anxiety she put on a
brave face and suffered through the rest of the day. As the first show ended, and the crowd got
lost in the throng of the next incoming group of specters, Amber felt her weariness creeping up
on her. She was so tired that it was difficult to remember that she would need her energy in the
next few hours when her mission would end. It had taken her months to get all the necessary
information, the correct video clips, that would eventually incriminate the workers in the circus.
Those bastards were going down for animal cruelty. And Amber would be there to watch.
Max, her friend from her time in high school, was the leader of the group of radical animal
activists, and had offered Amber a chance to help the animals she had been fascinated with since
she had been a child, the elephants…..before her father had disappeared. It had been one of the
last things Amber had done with her father: they had gone to the circus and he had asked the
ringmaster, an old college buddy, to allow them to ride the only male Asian elephant the circus
owned. It had been different than what Amber experienced now at Petrofsky's circus, and that
was because her father's friend hadn't abused his animals.
One month after their day at the circus, Amber's father disappeared. He suddenly moved out of
the house he had been living in and left for Mexico. All Amber remembered of the incident was
that the night before her father went away, her parents had argued for hours, and when the
yelling was finally over, Mr. Riley crept into his only daughter's bedroom.
"Amber," he whispered.
She stirred from her bed, removing the pillow she had been clutching over her ears.
"Amber," Mr. Riley said again. "Why were you hiding?"
"I don't like yelling," Amber replied.
He gave her a sad smile. "Neither do I. I love you, very much."
"I love you too, Daddy."
And with that he stood and gave her a small, sweet kiss on the forehead. He quickly left the room, and Amber never
saw him again.
Amber never had a desire to see her father again, as she didn't really remember him, and her
mother never spoke of him. It had been quiet growing up, with no excitement. Until Max came
along. Amber and Max immediately became friends, and shortly after he asked her to join his
organization. She had accepted, and soon rose through the ranks to start going on undercover
missions to expose cruelty to animals.
Just as she was doing at Petrofsky's circus.
Amber was so nervous that day that she didn't eat anything as she awaited Max's arrival, and
she was feeling weak by the third show. She obediently walked around the ring, a forced smile
on her face, with Nathaniel and Sudesh. Sudesh trotted around like a young pony, throwing his
uncoordinated trunk up in the air and giving weak trumpets every now and then. The audience
applause seared Amber's eardrums. She walked quickly back out of the ring.
"Hey, you alright?" Nathaniel called.
"Yeah," she yelled back. "I'm going to go get some water."
She headed towards the main gate where the drinking fountain was located. She glanced over
her shoulder into the blackness of the night but kept going.
Amber reached the fountain and bent her head to get a drink.
"Amber," came a whisper.
She gave a small yelp and whirled around, clutching her chest.
"Victoria?"
"Hey," the pink-haired girl grinned. "Are you gonna let me in or what?"
Victoria was on the other side of the padlocked gate, which was locked during each performance
so people couldn't sneak in and vandalize the property, as some kids were known to do.
"Uh, sure," Amber stuttered. "Where's Max?"
Victoria shrugged. "Eh, he got arrested last night."
Amber didn't have the chance to find out why because soon Victoria was signaling more people
to come through the gate. There was soon a group of twenty people standing around Amber and
Victoria, looking to the blonde for instructions.
"So, what's the deal?" Victoria questioned brightly.
Amber blanched. Her friend was just too casual about what they were about to do.
"There's ten minutes till the next act begins. There's a five minute intermission time for the
performers to get their stuff together: you should be able to start getting the animals-,"
"We can't," one guy piped up.
"Why?" Amber asked.
"The police aren't here yet," Victoria said quietly. "They got held up downtown. They'll be here
in about thirty minutes."
"Well then what are we going to do till then?" Amber sighed.
Victoria grinned deviously. "Oh….we have a few ideas."
Amber shook her head. "Whatever. Just- I'll show you to the animal quarters, but you'll have to
hide."
The group followed her as she trotted across the lot towards the main animal quarters, and next
to it, the elephant tent. Soon after she showed them a place they could hide, sandwiched
together between the Bearded Lady's caravan and the Alligator Man's quarters, and split them
up into groups. Victoria, however, followed Amber anyway.
"What're you doing?" Amber asked warily.
"Max told me to make sure you were okay. This is your first undercover op, and people get a
little nasty when things go down. Trust me on this: you should have seen how berserk people
went when they realized I was undercover at the rodeo…."
Amber sighed again. "Look, you can't follow me around, they know you don't work here-,"
"Amber?"
The blonde froze. She turned her head and saw Peter standing behind her, a bewildered
expression on his face.
"Hi, Peter," Amber said breathlessly. She saw with dismay that he took a few strides closer.
"Who's this?" he asked suspiciously.
Amber couldn't think straight. She was paralyzed with fear; luckily, Victoria was one step ahead
of her.
"Hi, I'm Victoria," she smiled, putting her hand out for Peter to shake. After he did, she slipped
her arm around Amber's waist. "I'm Amber's girlfriend," Victoria continued. "I just wanted to
stop by and see her. Is that okay?"
Peter's nose was wrinkled as he regarded Victoria, after he thought her to be a lesbian. His eyes
darted to Amber disbelievingly, before he answered Victoria.
"We typically don't allow visitors," Peter said quietly.
Victoria didn't miss a beat. "I'll leave soon, I promise. I just wanted to see her before…I went out
of town tomorrow."
Peter nodded at them, and then addressed Amber. "Make it quick," he said icily.
Amber gave some sort of verbal reply, and when Peter walked away, it was Victoria's arm
around her waist that kept her upright.
"I need to get out of here," Amber rasped. "I think he knows, he saw one of my text messages,
and-and-,"
"Amber, calm down," Victoria said gently. "It's almost over, and then you never have to see these
people again. We'll go somewhere, anywhere, for the weekend and just relax, I promise. You just
need to keep it together for a few more hours."
Amber looked up at her dear friend with watery eyes. "I just…..don't want anything to happen."
"Nothing's going to happen," Victoria promised with a gentle smile. "Trust me."
The blonde was quiet for a moment and then said, "There's three minutes till the intermission."
Victoria looked around her. "Okay, we, uh, we need a megaphone."
One of the boys from Victoria's group stepped forward from his hiding place. "I think there's one
in that tent over there, the one with the monkeys."
"Whatever you're going to do, do it quick," Amber ordered.
She watched them head off toward the big top with a swiftness in their step.
"Stay hidden," the blonde warned the rest of the group before going to gather her things from the
main animal quarters. She knew that after things went down she wouldn't have time to run
back and get her bag.
But as she began to start stuffing her oversized T-shirts and her books on animal psychology,
Nathaniel ran to her, breathless and confused.
"Nathaniel, what is it?" Amber asked.
"You've got to come see this," he rasped. He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the big top.
Dread filled Amber: she had a feeling Victoria was behind this.
"…..is cruel and inhumane. These animals deserve a better life than one spent in chains and fear!
Petrofsky's Wonder Circus needs to be shut down, and the animals be taken to sanctuaries!"
Amber couldn't believe what Victoria was doing. The pink-haired menace stood in the middle of
the ring, the megaphone in her hand, with a few of her followers as she addressed the crowd.
Amber shook her head in disbelief. Her eyes roamed the audience, trying to catch their reactions,
and caught a few of them looking absolutely terrified; furious; shocked; and a few looked
amused.
Amber turned away. "I can't be here right now," she muttered to no one in particular. Nathaniel
gave her a strange look.
"El, what's going on?" he asked.
"You don't need to know," she told him before quickly leaving the big top. She looked to her
right and saw the flashing lights of police cars. She quickened her step to the main animal
quarters to get her bag. Her group of animal activists were heading toward the gate to let the
police in, which meant they would soon be able to start rescuing the animals. She got the sudden
urge to go see the elephants one last time.
Amber grabbed her bag and sprinted over to the elephant tent, glancing furtively over her
shoulder as she went and her skirt billowing. She didn't have a lot of time before the elephants
would have to be moved, or before someone from the circus caught her.
She entered the tent and looked around, sniffing the air. It seemed that no one had bothered to
clean the elephants' stables since the day before and the stench was horrible. She was glad that
they were going to be getting a new, better home. All of them.
She put down her bag and walked further into the room. She gave a yelp as something hard, and
solid, hit her back, and sent her sprawling onto the floor.
"Hello, Elefanti," a voice hissed.