Sahed x Y/n (gender neutral) (from Marionetta Webtoon)

☆ Part 1 ☆

The show was amazing and you still had a bit of time before you had to be home so you decided to linger around the circus for just a little longer. The smell of carnival food filled the air, bright lights from around the circus made everything glow strange colours and carnival music was playing somewhere in the distance. Something about this place felt whimsical, magical even.

As you stood there taking it all in, you felt a tap on your shoulder.

"Hey do you want this?"

There was a tall guy, he had mostly dark hair except for the part right in the front, which covered his forehead and part of his eyes. He was holding out some sort of carnival prize that he had just won.

"I just like to play the games sometimes, but I work here so I don't need any more of them," he explained.

You looked at the little clown doll thing that he was holding out to you, then looked at him. Maybe it was the lighting or maybe something else, but he had the most beautiful eyes you had ever seen

"Um sure, thank you" you smiled at him. You found it amusing that you had to look up at him to talk.

"No problem, have a nice night" he smiled back before walking away

'Wait I should have asked his name or something' you thought as you watched him leave.

You stood there for a moment, as if frozen in time, watching him go towards the rows of little red and white striped tents. You looked down at the little doll in your hand, it was nice of him to give it to you. 'Maybe I'm delusional, but I feel like he could've given it to anyone else' you thought as you saw all the people around you, everyone so involved in their own world that they didn't take time to notice each other as they passed. There were pretty girls, circus workers, even children, that he could've given that doll to, but he gave it to you.

As you were having your little moment of delusion, it appeared that your feet had already come to the conclusion that you were going to follow him. You hadn't even realized that you were walking there but it seemed too late to give up now.

'Maybe he's going back to his act, then I could see what he does here' you thought as you saw him enter one of the smaller tents. He seemed so mysterious it was hard to guess what he might do here.

You entered the tent quietly, not wanting to interrupt if he was already performing. The interior of the tent looked completely different from the outside. Inside there was a wooden desk, and many wooden boxes that held random things that looked like unused decorations for the circus. This definitely wasn't a tent used for performing, probably more of a storage room or office.

"Everyone is trapped here because of you Anthonn!" The guy from earlier half shouted.

"The only way out is to die for real Sahed, you know this. Stay here and you get to stay alive forever, until you choose to end it" the other guy explained, his patience seemed to be running out as he explained it.

The mysterious guy from earlier was talking to a guy in a red coat and striped shirt, the guy sitting at the desk was dressed as a clown. They seemed to be arguing about something and you quickly realized that you shouldn't be there.

'Sahed must be his name huh?' You analyzed the conversation 'Wait... did he say live forever??' You were confused, that shouldn't be possible... not without some kind of magic, and magic was illegal.

You turned to leave from where you had been standing unnoticed in the doorway, not wanting to overhear anymore of this since it was obvious this wasn't anything you needed to know, but as you went to leave your shoe hit one of the boxes, making a loud 'thunk' and causing you to stumble.

"Wha- oooh. Oh no." The clown at the desk looked at you. His face went from irritated from the previous conversation, to confused, then to just worried.

"I thought this was going to be an act, sorry, I was just leaving" you waved your hands as you tried to step backwards towards the door.

"Too late" the guy who you assumed was 'Sahed' seemed disappointed as he said it.

"What do you mean 'too late'??" You were getting worried as you watched the clown guy, Anthonn, rummage through his desk.

"Did you know it's considered rude to follow people?" Sahed asked as Anthonn placed a piece of paper on his desk.

"I just thought I'd come see your act" you tried to explain

"Charming" he smirked.

"Alright, sit" Anthonn cut off your conversation.

You sat down in the other chair, across from him at his desk. The paper in front of you appeared to be a contract of some kind. Likely making you promise not to tell what you heard, at least that's what you thought.

"You heard too much, now you have two choices," he explained.

"Hah, you have one choice, two endings... though I wouldn't really say you have a choice" Sahed said from behind you.

"What is that supposed to mean??" You panicked, what does he mean by that?

"What's your name?" The clown asked as he wiped off his clown makeup, revealing that he was in fact, just a guy.

"...Y/n" you answered hesitantly.

"Ok y/n, here's the thing. We're all dead, I'm assuming you gathered that much from our discussion. We're able to stay alive because of the magic of the circus" he explained slowly.

"I- I didn't think it was really true though... it seems impossible, magic is illegal anyways-" he cut you off again

"I know, I know. I can explain it more later, if you so chose" what did he mean later?

"Your choices are either join us, or..." He trailed off, not wanting to say the other option. Unfortunately you were able to guess what that might be.

"Join you?? I thought you were all- oh no..." if they were all dead and you had to join them, that meant you had to die too.

"So the other option is just die, no circus right?" Your voice shook as you said it out loud.

"That is correct" Sahed said from somewhere behind you still.

"S-so that's it?" You turned to face Sahed now

"You guys are gonna kill me??" You were panicking a bit now.

"Not me. Him." Sahed put his hands up before pointing at Anthonn.

"Ugh Sahed really?" He seemed upset by the thought of it

"I dealt with it last time" Sahed said, shaking his head.

"But this is your fault..." Anthonn tried to reason.

"Thanks for taking one for the team Tonny" he smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

You watched them bickering while you thought about your options. Die forever and disappear, nobody will ever know where you went... or die and join the magic circus. The more you thought the more you realized that this might not be so bad after all.

At home you were always alone, you and your family were always busy working, it was pretty miserable. You knew the only thing you had to 'look forward to' in life was getting married to some random person you didn't even like, so really there was no point in trying to get out of this. Not to mention that meant you'd get to live in the circus with Sahed and travel the country...

[AN: yeahhh I'm kinda basing this off the beginning of the actual series...]