Circus Of Seven Sins

Chapter 4: Dealing With Nuisances.

When the sun rose the next day, the only person awake was Jack and Alexander. Both were quiet, the only sound breaking their still moment together was the breaking of stones under the wooden wheels of their wagon. Occasionally, a grunt would be thrown in from Jack himself whilst throwing Oliver off of his trouser leg; it was annoying how he only ever dreamed of food.

The small snuffles/snorts from Cards could be heard around the wagon. He couldn't help but find them cute, but only if they came from her; she was his little-ish sister, after all. Of course she would never know that. That would be far too embarrassing.

When the rest of the cast had finally woken up, they were a little short of five minutes from their destination. Flynn was the first, rolling over twice before almost falling out of the wagon and having to be saved by Jack, Oliver came soon after, but tried to sleep again before being kicked in the stomach. The twins came out of their "Deep sleep" when they heard him yelp like a kicked puppy. Then, they saw him start to shake Jack in anger from his cruelty and continuously yell "Why? Why d'you do it!?" Finally, this all managed to wake up Cards, who only blinked once, twice before joining Alexander at the front of the wagon.

"Did Jack kick him again?"

"Yup."

"Just checking."

They parked, as usual, in an area that looked as though it was infested with criminals and other "vermin" as many well-educated-in-literature-folk liked to say. Alexander excluded. What nobody knew, was this "infected" place, was the safest place to be in any town. If you entered any of these houses with bricked up windows, or boarded up doors, within you would find a small group of beggars or a large family, at least. Nobody dared set foot in it, including criminals and thieves. Only the homeless stayed here.

Alexander walked away from them and it didn't take a genius for them to know where he was going. It wasn't something the Cast thought of as "acceptable", but nothing they had said would stop him, or even slow him for that matter. He didn't seem to care that it made him smell, or that he could get one of those "filthy women" pregnant. If anything, he seemed to want to search for their "establishments" more.

The thought of it made Cards green, especially when referring to her Tarot cards. She occupied herself by setting up for the next day's performance and polishing her staff, but it was missing and she felt too tired to look for the time being. She changed into a dress almost identical to her former (only it held no sleeves) and, instead, she donned dark leather gloves that barely reached her wrists. Her old dress needed a good wash, after all.

The rest of the cast member's only changed clothes because they grew tired of smelling like three day old sweat, wet sand and dust. Oliver hobbled over to her, struggling with his gaudy left shoe, and gestured with his head to the front of the wagon. Jack stood there, waiting and tapping his foot in a show of impatience. She followed him, now walking straight. 

"Why did we move so fast?" The question was blunt, straight to the point and left Cards completely unprepared. She was silent for a maximum of thirty seconds, contemplating, before she finally checked for the twins. They had go to feed the horses, still smiling to each other. Cards inhaled deeply before opening her mouth; she knew that Alexander wouldn't be happy.

"Those... people are back. They were near the place we were performing in our last town." She studied their expressions. First shock, as both of their eyes had widened beyond what was considered normal. She saw fear flicker in their eyes for a split second, but the anger that replaced it made her believe her eyes were playing tricks on her. The anger on Oliver's face turned into concern, whereas it remained on Jack's face, growing like a flame in a dry forest with each agonizing second of silence.