It's All Part Of The Show 'The Carnival Of Glass'

Chapter II🎪After Opening Night

Shifting from Marcus Cochran -a normal man but a normal man with big dreams and then over to Mister TopHat who had his dreams turned to monsters and to nightmares was something I got accustomed to rather quickly. I enjoy Mister TopHat, and I like my carnival, but I do miss Marcus Cochran.

I can tell you this though, TopHat and Cochran are polar opposites -To a degree.

They both share one major thing, however.

Now, I said I like my Carnival, but I can't say I love it. What I love is what I lost, but lately while my love for the 'lost' hasn't at all dwindled.

  My missing and waiting to find has done nothing but spread and grow. It continues to grow as does my rage and fury for everyone but the lost, everyone who made me like this: Unable to tell people the truth, unable to feel real feelings, unable to be human, unable to leave this carnival, and unable to die.

-Unable to know anything but the lost.

After opening night, Madison had a dream about my special Carnival coming to her town one night -
Special like her....

On the first night, the black box trucks with red lettering rolled into the lot, along with all the many pickup trucks. There were staff - all family, all dressed all in different attire -each with a different look that seemed to fit their personality.
They went about setting the Carnival up -They were moving differently... slow. Sure we were human, but they moved here and there differently. We acted different. We dressed different. Went to different towns. Set up The Circus different, but we all had one thing to share in common.... As did this once 4-year old child.

We were all connected and FAMILY.

On the second night, the trucks were parked and the train was stationary.
As bright orange flames shot up from seemingly out of nowhere as the spotlight frantically found whom it was to be casting light down upon.

She was lying in a corner covered in dirt, wounds, bruises, and fear. The poor child had been punched in the face resulting in her lip getting cut and bleeding.

She tried to sleep to forget about the reality she was bound to every day, and she did sleep. She had the same dream from the night before, only she saw me appear to her. I spoke to her in her dream:

'You may call me Mister TopHat.'
I am The Guy In The TopHat.

I knew her name already.

I visited her to make sure she was okay. The child's stomach had ceased to acknowledge its dire need for even a morsel or scrap of food, she still had the sharp feeling of hunger. While she was far from okay, I wanted to make sure she was still alive.

Out of reach of two very necessary things -Now impervious to the very thing that kept her and her soul off Lucifer's List, The Devil's Book, The Ink Man's Dark Tablet, The Reaper's Archive Of Death... it goes by many names -the name unimportant. What is imperative, is that she remain off 'the list.'
  Asa could help me do that, wherever he was now. He did it once, he'd do it again.

The third night came, I felt her nightmares -A nightmare about something, someone, or two someone's who were sinister and well, far beyond sinister...

Rainey, she never did sleep. She was still physically shaking from being struck several times with a belt. I hate the objects that are belts, that's why I wear suspenders -They're a form of kin to me.