THE CIRCUS

part 1

"Hey, you. Heyy, " a feminine voice called out to him. She gently taps his cheek till he comes to "ah! Good. You're alive, " she smiled gently at the boy, "come on, get up, can't let you lay on the ground like this anymore, " she gently helped the boy up to his feet. "So what's your name, darlin?"she asked while laughing. The boy stared at her in disbelief.. her makeup, her attire, her hair.."You're a clown..?" She seemed annoyed. "i ain't a clown im a jester. Get it right, " she said with distaste. "Alright, alright, Jester got it," he said nervously. "Now. What's your name?" She asked, sighing slightly. "My name? Oh! Yes, my name is..." he stumbled on his words."My name...its.." Unable to remember his name, he slowly starts to panic "whats my name.. w-whats my name??" He slowly begins to breathe faster and faster."WHATS MY NAME WH-" he gets cut off by the jester "yeesh calm down. You dont remember your name. Big deal. We can use a placeholder in the meantime. How bout that, huh?. Sound good?". "Uh, okay..whats my placeholder name going to be?" He asked nervously. "Hmm.. how about.." she looks around and stares at a cut piece of log "Tim..cause Timber" she points to the cut piece of log to tim "see Timber, tim, timber, tim" she point between the log and the boy each time she spoke. "Oh..uh alright then tim..suits fine" he spoke with a tone of relief in his voice. "What's your name? Ms jester?" Tim asked curiously. "My name? It's Jack." She answered with a smile, her pearly whites contrasting with the black heart covering the left side of her face. "Jack? Your name is jack?. Isnt that a mans name?" He asked, quite confused. She looks at tim quite condescendingly "its short for Jacqueline. Jacqueline hearts." She says with a sweet smile. "Now come on, let's get you somewhere safe. The night isn't kind to newcomers.." "especially to the travellers.." she says the last few words in a whisper. "Not kind to who now?"
Tim asks, puzzled. "Not important now come on. I'm getting late. NOW MOVE IT!" She grabs tims hand and starts dragging him to somewhere safe. "HEY, HEY, I CAN WALK YOU KNOW." Jack hears his words but ignores it and keeps dragging him along.

She drags him along to a giant circus with the canopy well over a hundred meters... its sheer size is baffling to the boy. "Come on, let's go in. i have performance to give."
Jack flings the curtains, closing the entrance open, revealing a blinding light. As soon as tim laid eyes upon the light, he began to twitch violently and started foaming at the mouth. "Tch, forgot this does to you folk" she grabs Tim's cheeks with one hand and uses her other hand to snap her fingers twice which immediately stops the twitching and makes him sleep in a second. "There, better. Now it's time to carry you to the back. HUUP. there, " she exhales as she tosses tim onto her shoulder like a ragdoll and enters into the circus..

"Ugh, what the hell happened?" She muttered, eyes still closed. "What do you want, I'm tryna sleep here," she said,swatting away the hand trying to wake her up. "JACK WAKE UP IM SCARED. JACK" tim grabs Jack by the shoulders and begins to shake her violently to wake her up. "GOD, WHAT DO YOU WANT?" She sits up in her bed, her eyes half open, staring at tim. "WE'RE MOVING AND EVERYTHING IS DARK. JACK IM SCARED, " He responded between sobs. Jack looked at him with a soft gaze and stretched out her arms. "Come here, just follow my voice.. just follow my voice" ...she held her arms open, yet no one seemed to fall into them.."Tim..?" She called out to now just an empty moving caravan." TIM? THIS IS NOT FUNNY, WHERE ARE YOU?" She yelled into the darkness. "TIM WHERE ARE YOU??" She yelled louder into the ever growing void, unable to put her hands down..still open waiting for an embrace never to come. "S..sis..ter.." a thin frail voice spoke out from the void freezing jack in her place with a cold sweat dripping down her forehead down her brow."No.. you can't be.." she spoke weakly. "Sis..ter..why?" The voice spoke out again."No.. no.. no no no no no no.. you can't be back no please oh god, please no.." her arms start to slowly wrap around a mass of the void as she begins to slowly cry. "No please, i beg you dont..please I BEG YOU" her words are out of pure desperation as the mass of void slowly begins to form into a crude shape of a small boy with the face of her brother..his eyes plucked out from his skull his mouth filled with a black liquid that pours from between his teeth. He smiles at Jacqueline and hugs her tightly, not breaking eye contact even if he had none to look with. "YOU'RE NOT REAL YOU'RE NOT REAL HE IS DEAD MY SWEET BOY IS DEAD. LUCIEN IS DE-" Jack screams out as the boy who is not her brother keeps hugging her and, with a few words, completely shuts her up "hush sister..keep quiet". The hair on the back of her neck stands up at those words reluctantly, keeping quiet. "Please..leave me alone.." she begs once more.."please lucien..please" the tears flowed down her face like a river

As soon as he appeared, he disappeared, replaced with the sight of tim resting his head on her lap sound asleep. Her hand trembles as she slowly strokes his hair. The tears fall onto her hand as she coddles tim in her arms, rocking slowly back and forth.

A loud voice calls out her name, which makes the room shake slightly. A cold sweat runs down her brow as she slowly puts tim back into the bed and walks towards the door. She opens the door and
Steps in uttering but a single word "father..?"