Silence

Realization

[Pt. 3. 1357 words]

Phillip woke up to the sounds of sirens and yelling outside his window, multiple carriages rushed past his apartment. This wasn't an uncommon thing, a lot of the drunkards at the bar would often cause fights with each other to the point that the cops were necessary, or fires would erupt from the new bakery downtown every other week or so. You could tell they clearly didn't know what they were doing just by walking into the little shop, though the effort was always heartwarming. But this time he knew it was something different. Something important. Phillip recognized muffled shouts of 'Barnum's place, the showman, the man that runs the circus' amongst everything else.

In a new state of panic after sleepily hearing this, not even sure if that was what he heard, Phillip threw himself out of bed and into the cold street with no second thought. He stood there in only his pajamas, a few curious bystanders peeked their heads out of their doors to see what all of the commotion was about. Sure enough, the carriages we're headed towards Phin's place. "Oh, what has he done now?" Phillip muttered under his breath as he rushed down the same pavement that only hours before he and Barnum walked along. He could feel his heart beating in his throat as scenarios of what in the world Phineas could've achieved at this hour. Did he set his kitchen on fire again? Or maybe he just fell down the stairs or something. It could've been that serious, right..?

Well, he was wrong. He pushed his way through crowds of people surrounding P. T.'s house. Nothing so minor could draw this many people's attention. Phillip glanced all around him but he couldn't see Barnum anywhere. All that he could were people who seemed to be crying and holding onto each other, the majority he recognized as friends to the small family. "No," Phillip protested, eyes darting across the scene but still, there was no one there that he knew, not even Charity was around. "He ca- he can't be-"

Phillip shoved through another small crowd of people, his search for the showman growing more frantic. He stood at the foot of the steps up to the large front door. From his new perspective, he could see yellow tape encircling a small patch of ground right along the wall of the building, a puddle of a red liquid stained the beaten and cracked asphalt within it. Blood.

"Phineas?!" Phil called out for the man he ran all this way for, praying that whoever endured this terrible injury wasn't his Phin. "Phineas!!" He got no reply to his shouts, but a few yards across the sidewalk he noticed someone crouched down next to a carriage lead by two huge, black horses. Phillip darted in that direction and in seconds he could tell it was his Barnum. Instantly, he could feel a weight lifted off of his shoulders upon seeing P. T. okay, it was like he could breathe properly again. His heart still filled with the concern of what occurred as he slowly sat down next to Barnum. "Phin..? What happened here?" Phillip asked in a soothing tone that disguised his still partially panicked state, tilting his head over to gaze at the man next to him. Phineas' head was buried into his hands but he didn't look to be crying. Probably just in shock from whatever happened at his house tonight. He looked up.

"Charity... she's dead." Barnum muttered into the night, his breath showing as a small cloud of vapor against the cold. Phillip's stomach dropped. All the pieces started to click together, how he hadn't seen his wife even once since he'd been here, and their neighbors and friends gathered around grieving. "You're... you're kidding right..?" Even though Charity never was really that fond of him for... obvious reasons, she was still a sweet person, and he honestly liked her a lot aside from the entire divorce situation. Barnum shook his head. "No. She fell off the roof. Died on impact."

P. T.'s words came out blank. Emotionless. Like he didn't care that his wife had literally just died. That or he wasn't sure how to even react. "I'm... so sorry Phin.." Phillip leaned his head onto Barnum's shoulder, his body heat warming only one cheek. It felt nice against the frigid breeze. His eyes shut. "It's alright Phillip. People come and go." With a sigh, P. T. buried his face into Phillip's hair. Only a few moments passed before Phillip's eyes shot back open, widened while he looked out at the thinning crowd.

Barnum was smiling.

He could feel the huge grin form against the top of his head, hidden from the rest of the world.

"I'll take care of it, Phillip, okay?" Snippets of their conversation from hours before strung together in his mind. He couldn't have.

He wouldn't have.

Would he?

Phillip lifted his head back up and whipped it around to look at Barnum. The smirk plastered on his cheeks had already disappeared. "Did- Did you...-?" Phillip's voice cracked, wanting so badly for the answer to be no. It had to be no. Barnum turned his head. His expression was blank, but something in his eyes proved Phillip's theory right. A certain glint of something he'd never seen before in him. Craze. Power. Not his Phineas. "Did I what, Phillip?" His demeanor sounded so innocent and sweet. There's no way he could've done that to Charity.

Phillip could only stare. He felt as if his heart skipped a thousand beats at once. "Kill Charity, do you mean?" Barnum added on to his last statement. "Of course I did! All for you, darling." Nonchalantly, these words rolled off of the showman's lips as if they were nothing, that smile reappearing on his pink, familiar face. But this couldn't be his Phin, it couldn't be him he was talking to right now. He refused to believe it. Phillip shot up to his feet. "N-No! You- You couldn't have!" He shouted down at the man, drawing unwanted attention to them. "You couldn't have killed her! You're lying!"

Tears threatened to spill from Phil's eyes as Phineas stood up to meet his height. "What're you talking about honey? I told you I'd take care of it, remember? Aren't you glad?" Carlyle couldn't breathe, his skin crawled with an emotion he'd never felt like this before. Disgust? Anger? Disbelief? He really didn't know.

"No, no, no," Phillip repeated over and over again, shaking his head frantically back and forth. "No!" His hands balled into fists. It couldn't be true. "Please tell me you're lying. Y-You wouldn't do something like this Barnum, please!"
The only thing P. T. did was toss his head back and laugh, the sound coming from deep within the middle of his chest. He found genuine amusement from this, it was almost revolting. "Why would I lie about something as authentic as this? I did it to be with you, Phillip. Just like I promised!"

In a hazy few moments, he barely noticed two men approach behind Phineas. They grabbed his wrists and began to yank him away from Phillip as warm tears finally streamed down his face. "No, wait! He didn't do it, please!" He desperately begged as he chased after them. All he could do was scream, but nothing happened. Nothing changed. Nobody could hear him.
"Phineas!!"

Barnum waved a hand in front of Carlyle's face. "Earth to Phillip? What did I do, love?" He blinked a few times. He was sitting back down on the pavement with P. T. still next to him. He realized he had only imagined this. "...Nothing, forget it." Phillip plopped his head back down onto Barnum's shoulder. He just wanted to go back to bed at this point. Forget all this happened.

"Well, I'd rather not stay here tonight, Phil, for multiple reasons. May I stay with you?" Barnum's words were soothing, enough to make him take a deep breath and calm down. He nodded. "Great. Let's get you out of the cold then, hm? You must be freezing."

hey, I hope you liked the new chapter! I'll try to get one out every three-four days, since I've been finishing a chapter everyday so far. i have one more full one at the ready so stay tuned for that one! :')