OMG! It has taken me SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO long just to get this up!
If you want to shoot me: go right ahead. I have finished EVERYTHING now regarding this story, so I might update fortnightly.
*waits for 'BANG!' from gun*
A-anyway, I have to thank you all for sticking with me, even though I don't update regularly. Now that I have finished writing this story (but not finished updating it) I would like to ask you which of these Vocaloid related ideas you would like to see more:
Servant of Evil series (starting off with Adolescence even though I know the song isn't related to the series)
Synchronicity series (will go as far as the second song, unless there is a demand for more)
How Vocaloid Should Have Ended (taking the 'How it should have ended' idea and putting them to vocaloid music clips that just make me wonder how it would work if applied to real life)
That's what I'm working on at the moment as future projects. I'll put up a poll on my profile and you guys can choose. Otherwise, I'll just go with the one that has gone the furthest.
Chapter 17 –
The days swayed into weeks, and the weeks rolled into months. And before Fay knew it, a year had flown by her without even leaving a trace.
She hadn't seen Viv and Nick since that day all those years ago, and not once was she allowed to meet Shan or Fly. She was kept isolated from everyone, even from knowing the fate of her brother.
But she had grown used to being alone again.
She looks to her side where a thick green ribbon lay, as she laughs at it.
"Look at you." She says to it as she stretches out a hand to pick it up. "You're quiet the pathetic thing, aren't you?"
Her hand closes around a chain instead as she drops it, her face looking sullen and down cast.
She didn't want to see the crowds that she would be singing to, knowing that it would all be under a false light. So she had found a sharp stick and had blinded herself, all without the circus staff knowing.
She smiles at the memory.
No matter how many times they tried to recover her eye sight, it never came back. It seemed that there were some things even an adapter couldn't heal from. She had laughed at their attempts, claiming that she preferred a world that she couldn't see, and jeered at their countless failed attempts to restore her sight.
Now she was left alone most of the time, left to think of her past memories and where everything had gone wrong.
If she had of remembered sooner, if all of them had reclaimed their memories when they reached the circus, then all of this could have been avoided.
But even if that wasn't the case, if she had listened to Shan in the first place, then things would have been different as well.
It didn't change the fact that she was the cause of everyone's misery and pain, and the reason why they were all trapped in the circus now.
The scuttling of a rat catches her attention as she smiles and tilts her head to the side. "Hey there little one," she says as she hears it run over her chains. "If you're hungry, there is a bowl to the side with food. I'll share some of it with you if you keep me some company."
She had grown accustomed to being alone, but that didn't stop her from striking up conversations with animals and inanimate objects. She sometimes found these conversations to be exhilarating, as it allowed her thoughts to be put into words, which allowed her to remember certain details and come to terms with events past.
"You know," she says as she hears the animal begin to nibble on the crusty bread. "I was just thinking about my brother, Aaron. I was wondering if he was alive or not, and then I started to think of Slate. He was at Koo Island with us, and must have come to the forest with my brother to rescue everyone. So if that is the case, what's happened to him? I wonder if he is alive as well. Ah, but if they caught Aaron, then they must have found Slate as well. I guess they're both dead then, since they took me away from this place.
And besides, Slate's a traitor to the circus; why would they show him any mercy? But then… what did they do to Lucinda then? What was her punishment? If we had of met when we were younger, then I am sure she would not have allowed this to happen to me, to everyone. But she didn't know me, I'm sure of it. I'm sure Mr. Peak didn't tell her who I was, only what I was. A mumbling fool, was it, Aaron? Heh, I guess she did grow up."
She feels tears streak down her cheek as she places a fist to her watering eye. She laughs at her self; at how weak she actually was, as the sound of someone entering her tent startles her.
She sits up, turning towards the sound, as she rat scuttles off.
"Yes?" Fay says to the stranger.
"I was told you can't see." The stranger comments, surprise evident in their voice.
Fay smiles. "Yes, I blinded myself the first chance I got. But that doesn't mean that I am unable to detect things such as sound, and certain images. I can see, but I am blind more than anything else."
"Ah."
Silence follows as the stranger remains standing in the tent. It wasn't often that Fay got visitors, and only then were they men to take her to the big top. She once got a rare visit from Mr. Peak, but that was only after she blinded herself. Ever since, he chose to steer clear from her tent.
So this rare visit was a treat to the teen.
"I just wanted to say, I'm sorry."
Fay looks up, startled, as she hears those words. "Excuse me?" She asks in disbelief.
"I said I'm sorry."
"I heard that and I repeat; excuse me?"
"W-well… I felt that… somehow… that this… this was my entire fault somehow." Fay could imagine the woman, now that she heard the stranger speak more, fidget where she stood as she looked down at the teen in the cage.
"Lucinda?" Fay asks.
"Yes?" She responds.
"The only thing you can be blamed for; is for getting caught. If you had of left all those years ago, then there would be no reason for you being here."
"I had overheard that you were Marita Young, but that was only after they caught and experimented on you. I had no idea."
"That was the whole point. You weren't meant to."
"I'm sorry Marita, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry." Lucinda begins to cry as she kneels down beside Fay's cage. The teen stretches out her hands and wraps then around the woman's head in her own sort of comfort.
"Can you tell me what's happened to the others at least?" Fay asks.
Lucinda nods her head as she sits up straight.
"The twins, Viv and Nick, they're being used to lure customers to the circus. Every now and then, though, they catch the unsuspecting victim and lead them to the circus. Those unfortunates are then experimented on and become a part of the circus. But this is only possible due to the genetic coding we have extracted from you. Otherwise, they would end up like the countless failures that had occurred in the past.
Shan has gone into a reclusive state of mind due to all the torture the circus has inflicted on him. I was surprised, at first, seeing him there, that I did believe he was someone else. Only now do I recognize him. He was subjugated to more mental torture and quiet a bit of physical too, mainly electrical shock therapy, as they call it. He doesn't respond to his name anymore, and the only thing he is capable of now is eating, sleeping and breathing.
Fly is being forced to join the acrobats high up in the tent and throw wilted flowers down to the patrons below. But her arms and legs have become far worse than they were a year ago. Last night, during her routine, a bandage fell off and parts of her rotting flesh fell off her body and into the audience. They're now thinking of getting rid of her, since she is now becoming a hindrance to the circus.
Senz and Izabellz are forced to dance at the entrance to the circus now. The pair are quite beautiful dancers, I must say, but it doesn't change the fact that they look broken and tired now days. They sleep all day and can only dance for the night before going straight back to sleep. Mr. Peak is finding it troublesome, and are looking for replacements amongst the patrons.
Aaron… I heard what happened to him, and I'm sure you would want to know too. He… he was… I don't know how to say this to you exactly, Marita, but-! No, there's no easy way to tell you. Marita, I'm sorry, but he's dead. They lobotomized him first, before proceeding to extract his brain, then killed his body and dumped in the swamp for any poor soul to find. They're trying to extract information from his mind on how to conduct even better experiments than before.
And they found Slate, Marita. They found Slate at the swamp. Shot him down, they did. They pulled a gun on him, a defenceless man who would have come quietly if they had of told him of what had happened. They shot him at the swamp, in the dead of the night, and left his body there to rot. And the one who shot him… was me. They forced me to, Marita. And the worst thing about it, the worst part of it, was his expression.
He was smiling sadly at me, before I pulled the trigger."
Fay sits where she is quietly, thinking over what she had just been told.
So her thoughts were right: Slate and Aaron were dead.
"Was that your punishment then?" Fay asks. "Was your punishment, for letting us escape, to kill Slate, and Aaron?"
"Yes." Lucinda replies as she bursts into tears again.
"I see." Fay says as she smiles sadly down at her hands.
She had become so numb to everything now days, to emotion, to memory, to the air that she breathed and even to the words and tunes that she sung.
She was numb to the world.
The Dark Woods Circus brought out the horrors of the human heart, presented them as freaks to the greater population, paraded them around to showcase what every human was capable of.
No one was safe from the circus, for even just the mention of the name determined your fate. Never knowing of it, of that dreadful circus hidden inside the Dark Woods, was the only way to guarantee your safety.
'It's painful, it's painful, and it can't be helped.
She said it, but still, we continue this circus.
Forever.'