Only one more after this and that's it! No more 'Dark Woods Circus'.
I'm still a little shocked that I've finished writing this. It's taken me so long and been really enjoyable.
Now all I have to do is focus on my next project :/ *sighs* Time to watch the music videos... again :)
Just a reminder: this is an alternate ending, where it ends happiness and with smiles and such. I just wrote this one cause giving them a sad ending didn't seem fitting enough: they needed to have both in my opinion.
Anyway, one more chapter and then were done. I'll see whoever is still reading in the last part.
Enjoy~!
Chapter 17 (alternate) –
"I can't believe we're doing this." Fly says as she walks behind Fay who was following Aaron.
The teen stifles a laugh as she grips Shan's hand tightly, the young man walking alongside her as Viv and Nick cling to Fay's other free hand.
"Wait here." Aaron whispers to the small group as he steps out of the shadows into the moon light.
They were still in the circus, choosing to cling to the shadows in order to make it easier for Fay to move, which in avertedly made their escape longer than necessary.
Lucinda looks to Fay, still a little shocked at the revelation that the teen was Marita, as Aaron returns. "There are a few people up ahead, but if we make a quick dash across, we won't be seen. Marita, get on my back and I'll carry you."
"Right." Fay says as Shan grabs her hand and pulls her back.
"No way." He says. "There is no way in hell that I'll let you carry her. Think of another way."
Aaron frowns down at the young man and sighs. "Fine, if you insist."
"You don't need to worry, Shan." Fay says, as reassuringly as she can muster. "He's my brother, and I trust him. All you have to do is trust me." She then turns to her brother and nods her head. "Quickly take me across."
Aaron nods his head as he bends down low for her. Quietly, she climbs onto his back, before looking over her shoulder at Shan and the others, and smiles. "See you when you get across." She says as Aaron quickly scuttles across the distance.
They weren't noticed as the man slowly places his young sister to the ground. "They don't trust me." He says with a sigh as her hoofs land on the ground.
"Can you blame them?" She replies. "The false memories I implanted, and the instructions I left, were to make them not trust you and lead us to this place. But they're following us back, aren't they?"
"Only because they trust you."
"Then that's all that matters." She replies as Lucinda and Shan quickly cross the gap. Shan immediately returns to Fay's side, grabbing her hand, as his frown drops at noticing that she is safe and unharmed.
Fly and the twins are the last the cross, quickly closing the distance between them and safety, when they hear a noise coming from the group ahead of them.
Fly urges the twins forward as she ducks into the shadows as the sound of feet rush towards the gap.
The small group quickly slips into the woods as the circus folk look around the area they had previously occupied, before grunting in disapproval and returning to their post.
"I didn't remember this much resistance last time we escaped." Fay says, a little out of breath.
"Last time, they didn't expect us to escape." Aaron replies as he proceeds to lead the way again.
"We're in the wood, that's the main thing." He says. "But we're on the wrong side. We need to make our way towards the boats which are to the west of the swamp."
"Alright." Fly says. "So explain to me what happens when we get back to Koo Island?"
"Well," Aaron begins. "We'll give you the antidote to your condition, while Marita returns your memories to you, if you want them back that is."
"Fay." Fay says.
Aaron stops walking and turns back to her. "Marita." He counters.
"Fay."
"Marita."
"Fay."
"I'll call you the name mother gave you when you were born, the name I helped choose. Marita."
"You chose my name?" Fay replies in shock as they continue walking again.
"I was there when you were born." He answers. He turns to help her over a fallen tree as Shan quickly jumps over so that he was beside Fay again. "Or have you forgotten that I am thirteen years older than you? Well, more than that now." He smirks over his shoulder. "What? Didn't you think I would be there?"
"Well, not really, since its mother we're talking about here. I thought she would have tried to keep you away form me."
"Marita, back then, they didn't know. She treated you like any mother should treat her child."
They walk in silence for a while, Shan still holding tightly to Fay's hand, while the soft whispers of Viv and Nick could be heard over the sound of their feet steeping on dead leaves and fallen twigs.
The silence was finally broken by Fay who directed her question to Aaron. "Do you know how our parents are doing?" She asks.
"No, never thought to check up on them, and don't really care to be honest." He replies.
"I see." Fay says without much thought to the matter.
Shan looks at the pair in shock. "How can you say that?" He asks them both.
The siblings turn to Shan in shock as he looks at them in horror. "I mean, coming from you, Dr. Slur, that's something that I expect."
"Hey!" Aaron replies. "Watch what you say, kid."
"But from you Fay…? These are your parents! How can you say that?"
"Easy," she replies. "Let's see, where shall I begin? Well, they locked me up in a hospital when I was eight and didn't let me outside ever, not even to see my friends again. They didn't let me get an education and claimed that I was sick, using that reason to keep me in the hospital so that they could inject me with many viruses and vaccines in order to cure diseases. They sold me to the hospital, in a way, and when Aaron saved me from that place, and went to the circus, we soon found out that they had sold me to the circus as well. Now answer me this, do they deserve your sympathy at all?"
Shan stares at her in shock, before look up to Aaron, then back to her. "But… Viv and Nick are your niece and nephew then, and his children. And you saw how he treated them."
"Shan," Aaron says, startling the young man by using his name in a tone so different to what he used back on Koo Island. "For starters, Viv and Nick aren't my children. I'm not sure whose they are, but we were asked by Lucinda and Slate to take them away from the circus, and that is what we did. Second of all, my behaviour towards you all was so that you would come to hate me. Do you know how hard that is, when for five months I lived with you all and we shared out pasts to one another, to act so unkind to you all, to my own sister who means the world to me? When I found out that Marita had been raped by those men, I was so enraged!"
Fay blushes at the memory as Shan begins to shake with rage. Fly hears this last comment and gives a sharp shriek as Viv and Nick rush towards Fay and hug her waist.
"Oh my god that's what happened?" Fly says as she looks at Fay.
The teen nods her head as she feels the grip on her hand tighten. She looks up at Shan who stares at Aaron. "Where are these men?" He asks the older man.
Aaron smiles at him. "You want to punish them as well?" he asks.
Shan looks at him, a little in shock, before nodding his head.
"I've kept them in the good hands of Slate. I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to exact your revenge before Slate toys with time."
"I gather he was angry as well." Fay comments.
"Course he was. He sees you as a sister as well." Aaron replies.
"Funny, cause I thought he saw me as someone else." Fay replies with a sly smile.
Aaron scoffs at this. "Careful now, Marita. You have Shan at your side right now, don't go switching to Slate."
"Would you mind if I was with Slate instead?"
"Course I would. Still don't like that guy."
Fay laughs as Shan looks at her in alarm. "You have another guy?" He asks.
Fay stifles her next wave of laughter as she shakes her head. "No, Shan. It's always been you, trust me on this."
Still not looking very reassured, Fay smiles and kisses his cheek as they reach a clearing in the woods, just on the bank of the swamp waters.
There are two boats lined next to each other, one in better condition than the other one which seemed to have been left to the weather for quiet some time. Standing before the first boat was a man, around the same age as Aaron, wearing a white lab coat that was drenched in what looked like dried blood. He has large goggles that covered his eyes, to which he removes to reveal eyes that were dark yet full of life.
He smiles warmly at the sight of Fay to which the teen beams towards him.
"Slate!" She yells as she hobbles towards him.
The man meets her half way to help prevent her from hobbling any further as he wraps her in a warm hug, smiling warmly all the while. "It's good to see you again, Mari- uh, I mean Fay."
Fay laughs before kissing his cheek. "Marita is fine, but only with you, Aaron, and Lucinda if she chooses."
"I think I might stay with Fay, since that is who I know." Lucinda replies sheepishly.
Slate stares at the woman before breaking out into a wide grin. "Why, if it isn't Lucinda! You look well."
The pair welcomes each other with a hug as Lucinda begins to cry into his shoulder. "I didn't think I would see you again." She says though her tears. "I mean, when I failed to distract them long enough, I thought all was lost for me."
"Silly," Slate replies. "How could we ever forget you? Aaron's been talking about you non stop!"
"Have not!" Came a reply from the man standing beside Lucinda.
The woman turns to Aaron who looks away as the signs of a soft blush grace his cheeks.
"Anyway," Aaron says as he turns to the man. "Have the others arrived yet?"
"What others?" Slate asks in confusion.
"He means us." A voice says though the trees off in the distance.
Slate looks up and gasps as he notices two looming figures walking towards the group.
Senz and Izabellz walk into the clearing, the youngest of the pair smiling when she notices Fay before letting a shrill cry escape her lips when she notices the teen's legs and the horn upon her head.
"Fay! Look at you!" She says as she kneels before the teen. "You're legs! You're poor legs!"
"It is good to see you again, Slate." Senz says as she notices the man.
Slate stares up at her in shock, before turning away in shame. "Such words should not be directed my way, especially from you."
Senz smiles down at him before placing a hand on his head. "You may believe that is so," she says. "But I believe you deserve it. After all, I have been allowed to see you again."
Slate pushes aside the woman's hand before staring up into her eyes. "Senz, I apologise for when I was younger, and I vow to return you to normal."
"Can such a thing even happen, though?" Senz muses with a coy smile on her lips.
Slate returns the smile as he nods his head. "Of course it can. With Marita here to help, and Aaron as well, both you and your young companion can return to your original height."
Senz sighs at this as she imagines it. "Yes, that would be nice, thank you."
"It's the least I can do, since I am the reason you are like this in the first place."
Fay laughs at Izabellz, receiving a surprised look from the teen before her, as she smiles at her. "I'm happy that you're worried about me, but it's alright, really. We'll all be able to return back to normal. We'll all be fine."
Izabellz seems reassured by these words as she smiles at the teen, nods her head, and returns to her feet. "Well then," she says as she pats her knees, brushing aside leaves and dirt that has clung to her skirt. "When do we leave?"
"Right now." Aaron replies as he points to the boats to his side. "Izabellz, Senz, you two will take the large boat. Lucinda, you go with them too. The rest of us with go in the smaller boat. Understand?"
Everyone nods their heads in unison as everyone begins to pile into the boats.
Viv and Nick were the first to clamber onto the boat, followed by Fly then Shan who was urging Fay to get on as well. On the boat next to theirs, Izabellz takes a tentive step into the boat before sitting down as Lucinda follows closely behind. Senz stands at the side of the boat as Slate hops in his one, sitting next to Fly as he sighs a little in relief, the woman glancing at him briefly, before watching as Aaron hops in next. Fay continues to stand on the swamp bank, still thinking there was something she was forgetting.
"Wait!" She calls as she looks down at her legs. "Where are my human legs?"
"What, you don't have them?" Slate calls out in alarm as the teen shakes her head. "Sheesh!" he says as he shakes his head. "So who's volunteering to go back on a suicide mission to get her legs?" He asks as he looks around the group.
"No one is." Aaron replies as he points to a black bag in Senz's arms. "Before I rescued them, I went to the circus's operating tent and got her lags back. But you have to be quick about it; they're still fresh since it happened this morning."
"Good ol' Aaron; knows how to do all the dirty work." Slate comments with a sly grin. "So does that mean I get to do her operating?"
"It will be a long day in hell before I allow you to operate on her without me there." Aaron retorts.
Fay sighs as she quickly hops into the boat as they drift off to the island.