The Museum of Freaks

outcast

Wilbur reached the door first.

"you're a witch," he smirked.

Tommy sulked.

Wilbur opened the wooden door. It squeaked all the way through.

Tommy was expecting a big mess. But it was surprisingly clean. The furniture was neatly placed. The light from the windows showed dust and spider webs. However there wasn't much light that the windows offered.

Wilbur had found his backpack and was looking through stuff.
"Got it" he held a box of matches.

"Psycho, isn't there any electricity here?"
"What, oh no. Also we can stop using our cover names now"
"All right small W" Tommy stepped firmly inside the house. Wilbur had found a torch, which he now had lit.
"Come, upstairs is the bedroom, there we will be living for the next.. come on"
Tommy followed behind Wilbur. The lit torch casted scary shadows around the place. Even though Wilbur wasn't scared, Tommy did get an unpleasant feeling.
They reached the top floor, which was just the same as downstairs, except the rooms had beds. They all looked neatly done.
"That's weird," Wilbur started when they entered the third room.
"what?" Tommy was bursting on the inside of both fear and excitement.
"It's probably nothing, I just remember we left the house differently..." He looked around, as if trying to find clues, but he did not announce more.

They went downstairs to unpack their things.

Just as they were walking down the stairs, noise emerged from the down below.
Wilbur stopped and his face went pale, "the basement".

Without any hesitation, he rushed downstairs, and into a door Tommy hadn't noticed before.

Tommy was frozen. He was filled with the same fear as back at the museum. He just stood there on the stairs waiting. Eventually Wilbur came back.
"We have a guest Tommy. I don't know who they are, and neither do they. They don't remember anything. They said they was supposed to wait down there in the basement. When or for whom I don't know. But They did really seem out of it, I don't think they are a real danger to us.
Tommy gaped while Wilbur explained.
"I wanna meet them too"
Wilbur nodded and took Tommy's hand. They followed together down the basement stairs. The basement was huge compared to the house. And it was messy. It was filled with big chunks and boxes, assumingly, covered in sheets.
"This way" Wilbur led Tommy through a maze of junk buried under the sheets. They reached a wall where a small person was sitting on an old mattress. Tommy assumed it was a boy. He looked older than Wilbur, but not too much. He had short curly brown hair, which was held together by broken rainbow goggles. He was wearing a long coat filled with colors.
"Hi again," Wilbur said.
The man looked up. Tommy gasped when he realized the man had white pupils.
"Hello?" he asked nervously.
"Do you remember me?" Wilbur asked slowly.
"Who are you?" he said.
"I'm Wilbur and this is my brother Tommy"
"Nice to meet you guys," he smiled.

"What are you doing in this house?"
"I don't know" He looked down again.
"Who are you?"
"I don't know"
"Why are you here?"
"I don't, I'm waiting!" His face lit up as he remembered something.
"Who are you waiting for?"
"I don't know" His face went pale again.
"Are you blind?" Tommy asked.
The man turned towards Tommy.
"I- I can't see anymore. I used to be able to see. Just as I used to remember. But both things just got worse and worse since I arrived"
"Arrived where?" Wilbur broke in.
"Anywhere?" The man shook his shoulders.
Tommy looked at Wilbur, "can we stay here?"
Wilbur shook his head, "we don't have a choice"
"Hey man on the mattress, if you are blind, how come you are wearing colored clothes?"
"I am?" He was clearly surprised.
Wilbur dragged Tommy away.
"What?"
Wilbur bent over and looked him deep in the eyes.
"I know that person looks like a man, but when they don't know anything, you cannot just assume their gender. If you say they are a man, that might just be true. But what if they're not, and you just made it harder for them to remember their true identity?"

"I'm sorry. But what do I say instead?"
"You call them a person. you can still use he/him pronouns when talking about him, but if you really wanna be respectful, you use they/them."
Tommy nodded.
They went back to the person on the mattress.
"How long have you been here?" Wilbur asked.
"I don't know"
Wilbur sighed.

"How do you eat?" Tommy asked.
"What?" Wilbur stared at Tommy with a raised eyebrow.
"They make my food. But until they come back, I eat protein bars" The person started fumbling around on the mattress, and clicks sounded. He reached a pile of food, and held a bar forward. Chains were hanging from their wrist.
"Who are "they"?" Wilbur asked.
"I don't know," they put the bar back on the pile.
"Did "they" chain you up?"
"I don't know. They could have."
"Did "they" ever call you something, like a name?"
The person went silent. After some time they finally answered.
"They often say the name Dream. But I don't think they called me that. Maybe they called me Karl, but I don't remember it too well"
Tommy was already running towards the exit. The Dream had lived here. And those other two guys, whose names Tommy had forgotten.
He tried navigating through the dark maze, but ended up lost. He was back at the museum. The man with flames was standing in front of him and the alarm was going off. He tried to scream but was frozen. He tried calling for Wilbur, but couldn't because of his crying. His lounges felt small. The room felt like a tight nod only getting tighter around him. He started hyperventilating and fell to the ground.
Finally Wilbur found him. Tommy couldn't say anything, just cried more. Wilbur carried Tommy upstairs. Wilbur placed him down in one of the beds and eventually he calmed down.