One month writing challenge!

Life's a Circus (Day 21)

This is a rewrite yet it reads worse than the original (I swear I've improved) and it's not even done. I wonder if it's from burnout or if I just peaked with the original. Fun fact, I wrote a play for a club I was in and this story was one of the ideas I had that we didn't use. I'm the dark-skinned woman AKA the mysterious figure.

 Maybe going to the playground wasn't the most fun idea, especially on a Wednesday morning. Without my friends digging holes so big we could jump in it or roleplaying that we're mythical creatures just, the park was pretty bland, well more depressing actually. I don't even know why I'm here. The slides are basically as tall as me and swinging alone can only be so interesting. It was peaceful at the least with kids at school, parents at work, people having better things to do. If you ignore half the playground being a wreck due to "reconstruction" that's been going on for three years now. I should probably be going now, how long have I been here anyway? An hour?

Then I see something move. Before I could even process that someone else was in the playground, it was on me.

"Another person! I'M OUT I'M FINALLY OUT! YOU... you have to get out of here! She- that thing is coming after me! She'll get you too..." It was a woman, her voice raspy, in a frenzied panic. She grabbed me by the shoulder, her grasp on me tight with desperation, pushing all her weight onto me. I tried to push her off but she wouldn't let go, panting between words.

"What are you doing! GET OFF ME! Stop! SOMEONE HELP!" I yelled, struggling against her iron grip. She was crazy, talking about some monster, pulling me in the opposite direction. Where was she going to take me? Am I getting kidnapped? No one was here. I don't have my phone on me. She was going to get away with it. Someone, help me.

She froze.

As the woman's grip loosened, I pushed her off, only to see someone else, a hand on the woman's shoulder. It was another woman with wavy blonde hair and two top hats, the smaller one stacked on top of the other. She wore a black blazer with sky blue tails on the back, adorned with gold and silver patterns, and bells on the end jingling with every step. She smiled at me, it was friendly and reassuring. In her presence I felt safe, if she didn't come, what would the crazy woman have done to me?

Then I finally turned my attention to my captor, who looked like an absolute mess. She had dark skin but the bags under her eyes were even darker. She had braided black hair in a mess, when was the last time she took care of herself? Her eyes were tired, soulless, like she had lost all hope, in abducting a defenceless child most likely, I thought angrily. I had almost pitied her, almost.

"Hey, are you okay? I'm so sorry for this girl's behaviour, she's been having night terrors recently and has been out of it because of them, right?" She said, her voice smooth and like honey, yet it was laced with some sort of feeling I couldn't describe. The woman with two top hats' grip seemed to tighten and the other flinched, nodding weakly, causing her smile to grow even wider. Then she looked at me and a weird look of comfort and anxiety washed over me.

"It's um fine actually. I was just a bit freaked out, she didn't hurt me," I lied, though I don't know why. I was terrified, that woman was mad, yet the night terrors thing didn't really hold up. The way she completely froze when the woman with two top hats found her, the way she flinched. The desperation on her face and voice when she was pulling me away. Night terrors had to be an excuse. Yet, for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to blame her, she was too nice, too inviting, too perfect, like I could follow her everywhere, forever. It was that woman's voice that snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Again I am terribly sorry for the trouble this little thing's caused, it's partially my fault I'll admit. How about I make it up to you. I'm actually the ringmaster of a circus not too far from here: Circus ad infinitum!" She stopped and struck a pose and then tipping her top hat, "How about an invite free of charge?"

(705 words)