The cirque of horrors

2

I have my hands dirty... Dirty of blood, my audience laughs in front of me, as there's a sign, my sight is blurry and I can't focus on the letters, but once I'm close enough I see the cold truth
"You're a failure" a voice sharp as a dagger stabs me, as the demons from the last night devour the poor jester.

"Hey! Boss!" I woke up stirring the fire of hell in my hands, almost toasting Maciste's face, I calmed down, and put the legs out of the bed, putting the hand between the black curly hairs
"Boss, it seems like a jester disappeared, did you see him?" I sat watching the abyss of my destiny go even more deeper in failure, when I came to my senses again, clenching the fists
"Call the others, now!".

My order wasn't questioned, my right wing gathered everyone in front of me, as I found the strength to say what happened publicly
"Fellows, it's with great displeasure that I inform you that the last night, because of my lack of attention, one of the jesters got a... Quite close look to a demon's mouth" and as my last word was said panic came among everyone, I opened the arms showing the palms
"Enough!" And to my command everything stopped.

One voice stood out
"Well boss, it wasn't quite clever of you to let our room open, wasn't it?" My most disobedient creation, the one that is most likely to backstab me even though he's nothing without me, Icarus, my first attempt for a jester, far bigger then the little guys I did, a little taller than me, not that I'm so tall either but still, gloomy green eyes with red pupils, a flexible body and the costume far more complex then the ones I gave to the others.

I sighed in displeasure to see who was to sow discord, but I had to stand my ground, and besides, I'm sure he wouldn't mind to sacrifice one of his chums to attack me, and make my power fall, so that they can be free, but it's not likely to happen.
"Well, Icarus, someone left the doors open, and be it me or you, the juice is that one of the jesters died, it's an irreparable mistake from all of us, so what I ask is to be more careful from now on".

"Hey guys! The boss wants us to repair his mistakes! What a total failure!" Everyone laughed... I rose my arms up to the pavilion pointy ceiling, making everyone breath disappear, Echidna with the head on her cage, Maciste resisting knowing it's not his fault but still accepting the punishment and Icarus... Still laughing and coughing out of air. When everyone almost got killed I left my arms fall down and so everyone in the room did.

"I don't want to hear all this bullshit from you, get back to your normal activities, I'm going out to clear my mind" as I turned my back to them I heard the steps of everyone, but Icarus, who I knew wanted to pierce me with the look, but to assert my authority I added a thing related to him in my speech
"Ah, Icarus! Come here" I turned to him, and I started to squeeze him
"If I hear another FUCKING word from you today, you're going to get beaten up so bad I'll make you crawl for the rest of the month, understood?".

He grinned back, not wanting to surrender, I stopped first putting him to the ground
"Fucking!... Waste of time" I walked away, facing instead the outer world, seeing the beautiful nation we live in, despite my uncomfortable mansion of horrors, I still find it great once in a while to go out and admire the streets... The streets where people are normal, do normal things and live a normal life... I envy those who can live it.

A little girl bumped on me, her eyes were teary and full of despair, I felt a sensation forgotten long time ago, she hugged me as if something of terrible happened, I could sense it
"Help me please" her tiny voice begged me... A refusal of the society, the last person to talk with in a normal life
"What happened?" She pointed a man, with a knife under the sleeve, taking a woman to a more hided alley.

I knew what I had to do, but I didn't want to show out of the stage how I was, it would have looked like I'm a freak, I looked at the girl's eyes maybe making her afraid a bit
"What's your name darling?"
"J-joy" she whispered and then continued
"Why do you have a spiral in your eye?" I tried to smile, but I'm not used anymore so the grimace I did probably wasn't welcoming
"You see, I lost my eye due to a bad, really bad event, but now Joy, just wait for me here, eh? Mommy will be ok".

She nodded, and I got near the attacker, almost giving the sharp point of the knife in the woman skin, but I stopped him, and as the victim fainted I looked at that fucker, inferior even to me because of his actions
"Who are you kid?!" He responded surprised
"Are you willing to let the female in peace or do I need to make you willing?" We stared for eternal moments, when he tried to stab me... Poor choice.

My face deformed, the eyes became large, my teeth fangs, the finger claws, the man skin color became pale like a ghost, he started to run leaving the scene, and I quickly got to my more presentable form again, I whistled Joy to come near me, and when her mother woke up she hugged her, and I leaved her sight, I snapped my finger becoming a shadow and just disappeared, but I stayed a little more just to hear what Joy would have said.

"Joy dear, are you okay?"
"Yay mommy, a man helped us"
"Who are you talking about?"
"A man that seemed a freak, but in reality, he was kind"
"It was a miracle" the words comforted me and made me remember the cold truth that I'll always be a freak, but still, the world is a cruel place, and making it worse won't help.