Strings Of Fate

Chapter 1

"Come one, come all to the fair.

See wonders beyond your wildest imaginations.

Feast upon our amazing spectacles

Met the hybrid people.

Part animal, part human.

Watch them perform for your entertainment.

If they enthral you,

Maybe more may come. 

Venture down to the fair!

For the wonders, you will see and meet here,

May very well change your life."

The words repeated, over and over, with the occasional word changed. Terrence didn't recognize who was speaking. The words were distorted through the loudspeaker and then through the distance between the speaker and Terrence's balcony. 

He gripped the bar tight, looking over at the bright lights and alluring sound and smells. They pulled at all around him to come and spend their precious money in the mess of tents and stalls. And more sometimes. Terrence dragged his eyes away from the spectacle. Going near it would be too dangerous, and yet something in Terrence urged him to enter the world. To revisit his past and see if he could slip passed them all. A reckless desire that would far more likely to have a chain fastened around his neck again then have him leave knowing he was free of the mistakes of his childhood. 

A flash of eyes had him buckling forward and slamming the door behind him. He curled on the floor, trying to block out the endless summons. His hands trembled as shadows grew longer. They lurked, waiting. 

Were long lashes and gaudy green eyeshadow covered eyes watching hungrily for him to return to the flock of fur and claw? 

They changed their identity every few decades, and it had been just over ten years since Terrence escaped the trap he had walked into as a child. Possibly they were still using the guise of Madame X but they could easily have shifted to a different persona now. Their servants were less fortunate. They could not change as like Madame X could.  

Even if they were not looking for him precisely, Terrence knew what the outright call of hunger was for. The lights and glamour hid the truth of the place. The call masked the warning, but it was there. A fresh chance at life for those lost and searching. The circus would feast on them. They hungered for new souls to waste away in the pit. Or possibly new playmates to help shoulder the burden of their lives. Madame X was debatable, but their servants had once been human. Loneliness haunted them the same in their altered forms as it did their old. 

It was consuming him. 

Terrence shuddered at that revelation. Ten years of hiding, and now they showed up? And on his doorstep, seemed too cruel. 

He'd been so young when they had caught his soul in the web like a fly. A bored child looking for some entertainment. Madame X enthralled him. Played games with him and promised him all he could ever want and more. He only had to say yes and it would all happen. The circus would care for and treasure him dearly. He'd never be alone again. 

They hadn't lied. Everything they promised was there. A family bound together tighter than any bond he'd shared before. Love and care washed over him until it was hard to breathe. Happiness filled his days. Laughter and joy came with every new thing he learned and with every interaction with people who wanted him. They put him to work and protected him like a treasure. As a child, it had been like heaven. Then he grew up, and the shadowed edges of it all cut in deeper. The divisions between the groups, the winter quarters and the way they stole what made people whole from them. Reality had hit cold.