The cirque of horrors

6

The place gave me chills... What Icarus said made me fear for my life much more than before, the sun was still up, I stared for a split second since the light was too strong and then just layed on the wood scaffolding, looking at some tight ropers perfoming jumps on top of a almost bidimensional string.

One of them ran to me, a small artist, with two carvings on the eyes that seemed happy, I got up with the elbows on my legs and the hands on the chin showing full attention to the little being, which had on his glove a little star, a yellow one floating near him, just like other little sparkles over his body, he was just wearing a constellation of bright colors on him, he jumped near me extending the hand with the star towards my face.

"Is it for me?" I giggled sweetened, and he nodded, as I offered my hand to the artist the star floated on my hand, and I admired its beautifulness
"Thanks buddy" I thanked it patting his head and it started to walk back again to the other little beings, I actually think this is the first time I saw cuteness inside of this cirque
"He is another error" I jumped in fear giving out a little scream seeing the ringmaster near the bench.

As I calmed down he sat near me again, watching this time the show of his errors as he says
"Why are this all errors?" I asked all of a sudden, he snapped his neck doing a 90 degree turn
"They just aren't perfect" I wasn't in the mood to ask other questions so I just sat and try to not stare at him, when he just started to talk
"You're probably asking what this creatures are? Am I right?" I didn't dare to look in his face, I silently nodded.

"You see Maciste?" I pointed my eyes to the strong man lifting weights
"Yeah" he threw his hat to the ground, and got up just to go behind it, as strings get out from the cylinder, two dolls, resembling him and a little boy appeared from it, the ringmaster started to intricately move those.

"You see, when I found Maciste he wasn't even half his size now, a weak, poor vagabond in search of a home, in his eyes there was the flame of hopeness. It was a rain day, I was walking aimlessly around the grey streets with the water drops on my skin and my clothes; everything was silent, no other sound besides the splash of liquid, and I just knew something was there, someone behind me, with a bliss soul, was walking.

I turned, seeing his frightened gaze, we stared for a while until I just started to walk again but he stopped me
"Wait sir!" He screamed trough the rain, and I stopped, looking again at him
"Do you have a spare coin? I'm hungry, please" his skeletal body sure didn't lie, and in him I saw something to work with, so I took from my hat some bread, and his look became gloomy, as the boy's teeth bite through the loaf
"What is your name, boy?" He stopped looking at me with respect, and the voice said
"I'm... Maciste" I did a facial expression that showed knowledge over the name.

"Aaah... Maciste, like the italian strong man?"
"Yeah! Exactly, how did you know?"
"I just know... But let me ask you... Would you like to be like him?" He was scared by my appearance, but still his ingenuity didn't help, so after a while I just showed in my hands a piece of cooked meat, and his eyes started to glow again of pure light
"To become strong you have to eat, and I have the right thing for you, come with me".

He followed me in the roads, as my shadow made fun of him sometimes removing the food he was eating, we walked aimlessly as I was doing before for hours, and he started to notice something was off
"Mister... Why does the meat never end?" I glared behind me, seeing the effects of the meat on him
"It's a magical meat, it will make your desires come true, just continue to eat".

When finally, after a whole day, night arrived and rain ceased, meat started to have effect on his body, the body hair grew in a grotesque way, the height as the muscles became more and more big, until the signs of youth left place to the ones of adultery on him. As he dropped the piece of meat to the ground, I casted on him the spell that claims his soul as mine, I modeled him as I wanted, making him become what he desired.

His rage flew from the eyes, thunderbolts full of revenge
"What did you make me become?!" I grinned, and then showed the meat for then throwing it away
"I just made your wish come true, but now there's a contract with me, you're basically my puppet and I will move your body as one".

After he finished, the ringmaster put the puppets of wood back in the hat, and sat again near me, but I had the urge to just run away, and never return, but still, my curiosity kept me there, I imagined the guy next to me as a cold person, but that was far too much
"Don't think of me as cold, I had an unfair destiny too"
"Do you read my mind or something?!" I panicked, while he was completely calm
"Maybe" that maybe left me scared
"You have to choose now, will you remain here or come back to your normal life?".

I took a quick look to the window, showing the sun almost falling out of sight, the pressure of his gaze probably made me speak without even thinking
"Ok then, I'll just stay, I want to see the end of this" my words seemed like the only noise because of the unexpected choice
"Good" the ringmaster snapped his fingers, and my bed appeared all of a sudden in the cirque
"Maciste! Help our guest place the bed in the dorm room".

It was just the beginning of my nightmare.