E.N.V.Y. (Mystery, Gothic, Thriller)

1

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The moonlight spilled across the canvas, illuminating the thick blankets of snow rolled out along the streets of this valley, remote from usual circus routes.

When the people of this rundown valley had heard that a circus was coming, they were overjoyed, though it wasn't a very renowned one. They were poor with wages just enough to afford the essentials but to their delight, this tour was free and you could just imagine on the day of the performance, how overcrowded the circus tent was...

But right now, the valley was unusually quiet, the previous nights of exhilaration vanished and oddly, the streets were empty aside from a father and his daughter walking down the eerily silent roads, leaving only one trail of footprints behind the pair of them. Crunch. Crunch.  "Daddy, when will we reach home?"A ghost of a smile appeared on the dad's face but his eyes had no warmth behind them, peer with a dead fish's.

"Stay here, I'll be back." He whispered into the night air.

The girl nodded obediently, sitting down by a doorstep of a closed flower shop. "Daddy." Her voice was muffled by the howling of the cold winter breeze. And then she fell asleep. However many hours had passed when she reopened her two crystal orbs... "Daddy?" She asked aloud upon seeing a blurry figure standing in front of her with teary eyes.

"Sorry sweetie, but I'm not your daddy." A woman dressed in a tight black costume with a red scarf chirped quite too happily, her arms bare and only checkered tights to protect herself from the raging wind. Her face was painted a deathly shade of white, with shadows enhancing her sharp features.

"Are you the big sis in the circus?" A smile, an astonishingly striking yet arrogant one spread across the strange woman's beautiful face and a treacherous glint appeared in her grey eyes which reflected the misty darkness of the arrival of midnight. 

"Call me Juliet." She whispered, her voice echoing in the little girl's ears, the words popping in bursts as another voice: "As in Romeo and Juliet's Juliet..." It was audible but its owner could not be seen anywhere, a silhouette speaking in coarse, cracked, croaked apostrophes. In the girl's vision, Juliet's height seemed to spring upwards till immeasurable heights as her face stretched longer and longer into a hazy mess, the only thing which could be made out was a deep ugly red scar pierced on her pale neck that wasn't there a short while ago. She saw her mouth curl into a malicious grin as perfect pearly whites underneath unfolded in her sight.

"Come with me." A deep male voice resounded in the girl's mind as the visual suddenly changed into a vast space void of light except she could clearly make out a prince-like figure guarding a wooden door or gate. "But I need to wait for my daddy." She envisioned herself asking the handsome young man. "Follow me." The reply resonating in this imaginative expanse as the little girl took a step forward.

"Daddy!" She squealed in delight the instant she crossed over the door as she saw him smile at her gently, but where his eyes were supposed to be were two black pits though she didn't seem to notice. They were in an amusement park and the little girl played and played and played... It was probably as of the happiest and most enjoyable time of her life. She laughed. She giggled. She asked...

"Daddy, can we go home?"

And that was when the heavenly dream shattered and the cruel reality resurfaced... One last smile was offered from her dearest as she lost her last sense of consciousness.

"Rest in peace." The woman kissed the motionless girl, who's eyes now only expressing the color white, lovingly, leaving a bright red kiss mark, the scarlet red of blood on her forehead. The girl's pale lips turned upwards with great measures of difficulty, crimson spread across her mouth that was sewed together in rushed uneven stitches. The woman who went by the name "Juliet"'s eyes filled up with grief... "I'm so sorry darling..." She spoke against the little girl's bloody lips. "Just kidding." She then smirked to herself, the sorrow perished as if it was never there in the first place, indeed it wasn't. A lunatic laughter escaped her lips as heaves of high pitched giggles rose to the biting wind.

"Oh Juliet! You got one?"

"Yeah, how about you, Ches?"

"Me? Three! Hans and Grets got one too."

The Cheshire Cat brushed back his flimsy purple hair with his long slim fingers, his sharp claws digging into his scalp whilst doing so. His turquoise green eyes sparkled with an intense excitement especially perceivable on an inky night like this, devoid of even moonlight or stars as he licked his soiled palms hungrily. He flashed Juliet a flirtatious smile, showing off his pair of dimples and the two rows of sharp razor-like teeth he possessed before directing an enchanting wink, his remarkably long pinkish purple lashes curling out of his gold eye mask in the shape of a cat.