Lovely, Lovely Freaks

Chapter 3

"So, we have a deal?" The red-suited man asked while stretching his hand out towards Matt. "Deal." He said as he shook it.
After that, there was a small buzz that went through Matt's body as he looked around in circles. "What did I just do?" He asked himself as he glanced at the group around him. The girl that had her arm burnt off only a minute ago was jumping around and squealing like they were all at some slumber party, and her twin just looked annoyed.
"There's no way this will work." He said out loud when no one moved. "You want to bet?" The sword swallower spoke up. "Do you guys kidnap everyone who yells a joke at you?!" Matt said, still tying to hold on to a last sliver of hope, when the ring leader glanced at one of the people in the circle. The man stepped up, and Matt was able to see that he was abnormally tall, and his body was covered head to toe in tattoos, his head shaved to the point where it was shiny. "This is Chameleon. He's going to change into you!" The bouncy girl said. She walked over to the tall man and gave him a high five. He smiled and patted the girl on the head like she was a dog. The man wouldn't speak.
"This is supposed to be me? Come on! The guy's like 6'10" and you can't see his skin. You people are nuts if-" Matt's sentence was cut short when Jethrow gave a nod to the man and he began to actually shrink. Shrink! And his skin began to change color, the tattoos moving around and changing shapes, until finally Matt stood right in front of himself.
The look alike smiled and asked Matt sarcastically, "How did I do?" His voice was the same and everything.
Matt was shocked into complete silence with his mouth still open. "Might want to shut that. You're going to be seeing a lot more of things like that around here, since you're sticking around." The happy girl leaned over to Matt and said. He hesitantly closed his mouth, still not taking his eyes off the clone. The clone looked at an imaginary watch on his wrist, Matt's wrist, and said, "Oh, jeez, look at the time! I've really got to run. Max and Fred will be waiting for me in the 'death trap.' Bye everyone. See you later!" The clone pushed past the circle of freaks and walked out of the tent, leaving everyone else in silence and taking with him Matt's hope for getting out of this giant mess. He was really stuck with these freaks.
"Well, Mathew," Jethrow said, "Welcome to the show."
The lights came back on and everyone else that had been in the audience was gone. Matt ran to the open flat and found that there were no cars in sight anywhere. With his head down, he turned around and walked back into the tent. "Come along," Jethrow said, gesturing to the back of the tent. "Our world is waiting for you.
Jethrow had showed Matt around, and showed him the little tent where he would be sleeping, but Matt couldn't shake off the feeling that this had to be a dream. This whole experience was just unreal to him, and he was expecting to wake up at any minute.
Whenever they had exited through the back of the main tent, it showed dozens of small tents with tons of cars parked by, and many of the freaks had left and were sitting by a large fire, some cooking their supper, others just talking.
Jethrow had left Matt in his own little tent, and he couldn't help but look around. It was tall, tall enough for him to walk upright in, and wide enough to where two people could walk around in it and not have to bump into each other. All it had was two small mattresses in it on opposite sides. This was Matt's new home.
He was pulled away from his thoughts when a little person, the same one that had taken his money, stuck his head in the flap and said, "Hey, newbie! Come to the fire for some grub." The little man left and Matt slowly left the tent and walked to the big bonfire in the center of the semi-circle made by the small tents.
There were several benches in a circle around the fire, and Matt sat at the one that was farthest away from everyone. Nobody paid attention to him as he sat down, and he noticed that people were laughing and talking and acting like this was just some big camping trip. He really couldn't stand any of them at the moment.
Suddenly, someone came and sat down beside him. He glanced over to see that it was the brown eyed, happy twin from before, and she was looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to speak. Instead, Matt looked over to the fire and ignored the girl, even though he could feel her eyes watching him.
"It's weird, isn't it?" She finally said. He still wouldn't look at her, but he replied, "Yeah." The silence came back and the girl said, "Pretending that none of us are here isn't going to help you know?"
"Well then what should I do?" He snapped at her, actually looking at her for the first time. The girl was wearing a tank top, jeans, and flip flops, and her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail. Her eyes shown from the fire, and her smile was still there. Her happiness was getting on Matt's nerves.
"Well, you can start by learning our names." She said, flashing yet another smile. She pointed to herself and said, "I'm Liz. Some people prefer to go by their stage names, and some don't. I like my real name just fine. My sister," she said, pointing over to a bench that had her twin, the bearded lady, and the sword swallower sitting on it, "her name is Cecilia. I call her CiCi, but if you called her that she would probably set you on fire." The girl, Liz, stopped and looked at Matt to make sure he was still listening. "You talk a lot." Was all he said, and she continued. "Yeah, but you know, you've got to know us eventually, might as well be now! You know Rapunzel, from the show, well that's all she really goes by, and the sword swallower is..." Matt stopped listening to the girl as she went on and on. He didn't really care. Sure, she was cute, but the whole tearing her arm off thing really freaked him out, and he couldn't help but glance at where her new arm had grown in. She was pointing with it, and waving it around, and there was no sign that anything was wrong with it. It was really weird.
The memory of her arm kept grossing him out, so he looked around and noticed Liz's twin had gotten up from her bench and had sat at the edge of the fire pit. While Liz was cute, something about this girl was radiant. What had Liz said her name was? Cecilia, that's right. Cecilia sat with her legs tucked under her and watched the flames of the fire reach towards the sky and then die back down. Her skin glowed, and her brown hair seemed to look auburn with the light of the fire. Her eyes sparkled and reflected the flames, and she just seemed at peace, with only a small smile traced on her lips.
All of both of the twins' features seemed dainty, like a doll's; a small, smooth nose, a small mouth that seemed painted on, and large eyes with thick eyelashes. Their smooth white skin just made them seem like porcelain dolls, like you could break them, but the look in Cecilia's eyes told you that you could not, and Matt just really liked that for some reason that he couldn't explain. The way Liz was always happy and jumping around made her seem like a little kid, and Cecilia's expression somehow made her seem too grown up, but still there was just something about her that seemed...
"Mathew? Mathew!" Matt was drawn away from his thoughts and looked at Liz as she was waving her hand in front of his face. She giggled a little and smiled, "You zoned out!" Matt just shrugged his shoulders and tried to glance back at Cecilia, but she had gotten up and was walking towards one of the tents. "You know, this has been a really weird day for you. I think you just need some rest. I'll talk to you tomorrow." Liz stood up and brushed her pants off. She turned to walk away, but stopped and said, "To answer your question from before, we don't do this to everyone who's mean to us. In fact, we've never done this before. Jethrow just said there was something really special about you." And with that she ran off to catch up with her sister, and left Matt alone on the bench. He shook off the thought of the fire breather. She was a freak. The daughter of the freak that had drug him into this. He may be stuck here for a month, but he was certainly not going to enjoy it. Matt, glanced back over at the way the twins had gone. Well, maybe he could enjoy it a little.
He stifled a yawn and went back to his tent. He had just sat down on one of the mattresses when the sword swallower pushed the flap back and stopped in his tracks. "Oh, great." The guy said miserably. Then he pulled a dagger out of his back pocket and pointed it at Matt. "That's mine. You can have the other one."
"Okay, fine." Matt said hesitantly as he walked over to the other bed, never taking his eyes off the blade. "I guess I'm stuck with you." The guy said. He was the same height as Matt and looked the same age. His hair was black and shaggy, and he wore a black, tight fitting shirt and jeans. "My name is Scar. This is my bed, that one is your's. We're roommates. Have fun." With that, Scar put his knife back in his pocket, flopped on the mattress, and blew out the candle. The tent was thrown into darkness, and Matt couldn't help but succumb to the sweet thought of sleep. "Maybe I'll wake up and this will have just been a really weird dream," Matt thought just before he drifted off. "Just a dream." And then he was asleep.