Author's Note: No promises that this will ever be finished, but I might be able to throw out a few more chapters. Honestly, I am shortening them and sort of getting to the point quicker, I think, but if I am going to finish the story, hurrying it is the only way for me at the moment. I have 300 fantastic readers that I wouldn't like to disappoint, but nontheless: No promises. I always wish my own original stories would ever be received positively, and hence relying on Disney's work for any of my writing to be read is rather sad I guess XD
Still, having 300 people read anything I wrote at all is pretty amazing. I'm glad you like the story, and I hope that if it continues, it continues to your satisfaction.
Chapter 14
Lights on
As a young bunny, Judy had enjoyed circuses, yet nothing loomed quite as tall or dark as a circus at night. The red and white tent stood before them with its opening folds drawn apart, revealing a mound of darkness that welcomed them inside.
Trailers stood around the ghost-quiet square. Occasionally the rustling of a bell tingled in the air, startling both the rabbit and the fox with dooming imaginations of panthers and cougars lightly asleep. For the first time in his life, even Nick hoped that the monsters hidden inside their metal cages were collared.
Despite their fear, and the constant, nagging, tingling sensations in their backs, the two small mammals proceeded with undeniable bravery. Ducking under ropes and past crates on the inside of the tent, they quickly hurried across the ring. Nick wiped away their footprints in the sand with his tail as he went, and soon, unnoticed, they hoped, they passed through yet another opening into the back stage area of the circus.
"Don't circus people get up early for practise or something like that?", murmured the fox, doing well in disguising his panic. They both started roaming around the area on the lookout for something suspicious. "I don't even know what we are looking – uah!"
Judy nearly screamed herself at the fox's exclamation, but when she turned he was standing frozen before a Bobo doll that had jumped up at him out of the dark. Nick had his arms raised defensively, looking comically like an actor in a kungfu movie, and he relaxed reluctantly when the bunny quietly giggled.
"Poor fox. Do you need me to hold your hand whilst we look?", she teased and he huffed, dismissing the fright still shaking his bones.
"There is a reason I opened a theme park, and not a circus…man, look at all this stuff."
With some dread Judy watched him pick up a set of juggling cones. She covered her eyes when he began to throw them, expecting them to drop at once. The noise would surely give them away. But to her surprise, the fox's nimble paws caught the cones easily out of the air and passed them on again. "Pretty impressed, huh, carrots? I have a lot of talents you don't know about."
"Bragging being one of them? Stop playing around, Nick, we have a job to do."
He gently put the juggling cones back, feinting disappointment. The rabbit officer returned to her work, eagerly shifting through open crates and weighing others. Every box contained another threat to their stealth – squeaky toys, a fake nose, a flower that spit water, trumpets and drums and clattering plastic teeth. She was quite fed up with her search by the time Nick had pulled out a large and colourful looking ball and jumped upon it.
"Look at me, Carrots! Ha! This is easy, I could do it for hours!"
Indeed, his feet held their balance on the ball quite well, his tail shifting behind him to assist in shifting his weight. Judy, reluctantly smiling, raised her paws to clap. The fox, quite encouraged by this, straightened himself and went to bow when his balance failed him after all. A few seconds of hurried tripling and stepping followed, but nothing could stop both fox and ball from going off into an unwanted direction. Right in the back of the tent, Nick crashed into a row of boxes covered in white linens, and before Judy could hurry after him to soften his fall, he had landed with a terrible clatter.
She stood by the broken crates and looked down upon his frozen figure – startled, but otherwise unhurt. Neither of them moved as they listened intently for steps or voices, anything to make them believe that they had been found out. But the night remained quiet, the shadows unmoved. Judy helped Nick off the floor and stared down at the boxes as the fox dusted himself down with considerable embarrassment.
"There's nothing in here either", Judy sighed. She had plucked away at the straw for ages before, finally, something rolled out of the sorry remains of the crates. It was a blue ball, no larger than a blue berry. One sniff however confirmed that the resemblance to the fruit ended with its looks.
Nick bent over the mysterious item beside her, equally mystified. "What the hell are these for?"
"I don't know. But they smell sort of familiar."
"Don't know what you mean, Fluff. I don't smell anything remotely recognizable. From the shape alone I'd have said they were bullets. Maybe they have an act…you know, like knife throwing? Just with pistols."
Judy dropped the blue bullet with a disinterested sigh. "Maybe. But that's nothing useful to us… if they take off their collars, they must keep them somewhere. Let's try to find them."
Suddenly, light flooded the darkened back stage area. The two mammals raised their hands to shield their eyes from the blinding light, caught too abruptly by the sudden illumination. With the light came steps, silently at first, then heavier. As though whoever had kept themselves hidden before had suddenly dropped all intention of being unnoticed. The fox and the bunny shifted together closer before they reopened their eyes, both of them frozen like a deer in headlights.
"We don't usually allow visitors backstage…", said a voice. There were predators all around them. Collarless cats, cougars, panthers, the silent hunters of the night circus. It took Judy a while for her eyes to adjust and then pinpoint the speaker. But she found him soon, standing tall amongst his companions. A tiger with flaming red fur and thin, precise stripes, a strong snout and glistening teeth. His neck, adorned by a collar, shun an even green light. Whilst most predators around them wore either costumes or pyjamas, the tiger that had spoken wore a suit of black.
None of this, not even the pistol in his paw, shocked Judy as much as the fact that she recognized him. Almost simultaneously, Nick and Judy spoke in disbelief: "Mayor Striper?"
"Ex-Mayor", Edward Striper corrected them generously. There was a lazy arrogance to his voice, as if every word he directed their way was a generosity, a result of virtuous patience. "It seems there is no need for introductions", he smiled warily. "Officer Judy Hopps and Nicholas Wilde, is that right? Now here's a famous fox if I have ever seen one. I'd say it's a pleasure to have you here, but… we must have missed you announcing your visit."
"What's going on here, striper? Why are these predators not collared? What are you hiding here?", Judy burst out at once. Her face had set in an expression of angry determination, and she had stepped forward with her small paws clenched. She would have taken another step had Nick not picked her up under her arms and drawn her back reflexively.
"Wow. Ex-Mayor. It was a real pleasure meeting you. Looks like you're doing really well for yourself. Made a few friends, I see. Charming fellows. Hi. Yeah. We best be off then!" As if to illustrate his point, he yawned loudly. "It's getting a bit too early in the morning for me! Best be off and get a bit of shut eye, right? And I am sure you gentleman have a lot to do…"
With the struggling bunny in his arms, Nick had already moved towards the only opening he saw in the circle of predators. But that circle closed soon, and the mammals, most of them armed with crow bars or baseball bats, rose their weapons with mischievous glints in their dark eyes.
"Why in such a hurry? Stay", Striper offered. With open arms he took a step towards them. "You have gone through such trouble to come here. I would love to show you around."
He wasn't far from them now. Nick bared his fangs, reluctantly releasing Judy. The bunny made herself small next to the fox. Something about striper's expression rung alarm bells in her head. He had the eyes of…well, a predator. A hunter. Every step he took made Judy's heart scream for survival. She could not shake the feeling that those white, sharp teeth, had tasted blood, and were about to do it again. And when Edward Striper turned towards Judy specifically, the inviting smile widening on his lips, there was a mutual understanding of his murderous intent in their silent communication.
"Why don't you stay for breakfast?"
All at once, the creatures in the tent broke into motion. The predators clutched their weapons tighter as Edward Striper launched forward with his claws extended towards the rabbit.
In her mind, Judy was screaming at her muscles to move, but she was frozen with fear. She was grabbed by the collar by a familiar paw, and before she could catch her breath, Nick had hurled her up into the air. "Run, Fluff!"
The clawed paw that had been meant for her struck Nick instead. The fox went down with a howl, and Judy idly noticed whilst still in the air that the collar around the tiger's neck had not once changed colour during his violence. Judy almost missed the rope hanging from the ceiling, but at the very last second her paws closed around it. She found herself swinging and climbing at the same time, eventually reaching a support beam at the top. The predators below her were growling and howling with laughter, murderous joy shaking the tent.
Judy jumped back down into the sand behind the circle of enemies, her back facing the way they had entered. It was only a few meters away, ready and waiting for the bunny's escape. But she could see them closing in on Nick, baseballs bats swung through the air, the red fur of her friend disappearing behind a wall of ever moving bodies. Striper has grabbed him by the tie and torn him into the air, and the fox was kicking, struggling, his collar blinking yellow, then red, whilst Striper's was still green, green, green. And Nick turned towards her, his teeth clenched and his eyes wide, and the only word he screamed before he was thrown down onto the floor was "RUN!" and he was still screaming it when Judy turned, obeying both him and her instincts, and bolted for the door.
No one followed her. She escaped into the cold night air, her fur sticky from nightmare sweat. There were figures by the trailers, leaning against them with crossed arms and patient smiles. No one followed her. Their smiles were knowing and all mighty.
It didn't occur to Judy, not until she was on the motor way, waving her paws desperately for the attention of a passing car. Not until she was seated, half asleep, in the back of a truck that took her towards the city centre. Not until she dropped before the police department that was due to open in just half an hour.
They had never wanted her in the first place.
They had wanted Nick.