Three years ago a little girl woke up from a nightmare only to find that it was reality, she was never seen again. The next year, a boy went missing while walking home late at night from a friend’s house, he was presumed dead after finding no traces of him. Two years after the girl went missing, twins disappeared from their bedroom, their mother died of grief after six months of their absence. Tonight another will vanish never to be seen. How do I know all this you may ask? Frankly, because I’m the one who took them all.
Mary was her name; she couldn’t have been more than ten years old. In a minute she will awaken to find herself in a Dark Wood surrounded by pine trees silhouetting the star-less night sky. I can only imagine what she will feel then. Maybe she’s afraid of the dark and just wants to cuddle in her mother’s arms to escape the nightmare she has awakened into. But she won’t, no matter how far you run, you can never escape a nightmare. Oh, look there she awakens. I hope she finds the circus without difficulty, I tried to make it as easy as possible; her ticket I already placed in her hand.
Mary noticed the ticket right away, its golden color shown bright in the night. She read the text on it, “The Dark Woods’ Circus,” on the other side were simple instruction to find the circus, “Through the back woods, follow the little path into the dark lighted by fairy lamps.” She looked ahead at the dark forest that surrounded her and saw that some of the trees in front of her were lighted by small lamps. Seeing this she stood up, golden ticket clenched in her fist. She was lost, and the ticket told her where to go. She would follow its instructions only because she didn’t know what else to do.
Fifteen minutes later she arrived at the circus. The entrance was a row of canopies that lifted high in the sky. Awaiting her there was the Ringmaster standing ten feet tall on wooden stilts. His face hidden behind a white mask; its smile is wide and inhuman, the eyes narrowed to slits.
“Ticket please,” he said to the girl standing before him, her face wet with tears. She cowered as she handed him the golden ticket. He bent down and plucked it from her grasp.
“Where am I?” the girl inquired.
The Ringmaster smiled behind his masked, “You’re in the Dark Woods’ Circus. Come on inside, we’ve been waiting dear. Come be amazed, we have no doubt that you’ll be. Come see Dark Woods’ Circus of revelries. If you would follow me this way, I shall show the first attraction. It will be fun, so much fun.” The Ringmaster reached for her hand, grabbed it and pulled her along. He led her down a path to a small tent with a hole in it large enough to just peek into. “Come take a look and see the two-headed twins. What a glorious sight!”
“Two-headed twins?” Mary asked.
“Yes, yes. Come see,” the Ringmaster beckoned.
Mary walked up to the hole and looked through. What she saw inside was a cage. In it were two people, or was it one person? Two heads came out of one large body; he or she, (it?), wore an orange frilly dress that reached the floor. Blond hair, blood shot eyes, matching smiles that caused chills to run down her spine, they must have been just a year older than herself. What really made her stomach turn was a scar at the conjoined shoulder blades in between the two heads. When they saw her, they burst into laughter, their smiles growing wider, one was obviously male, while the other female. “Are you enjoying the circus? Isn’t it fun, just so, so fun!” they spoke in unison.
Mary fell back from the tent holding back a scream. The Ringmaster looks on at her, the plastic smile of his mask never changing. “On to the next attraction! I really love this one,” he said grabbing Mary’s arm and dragging her to the next tent, this one with an opening to walk through. “Go on inside, there are more wondrous things for you to see!” he pushed her towards the entrance.
Mary tentatively walked into the tent. It was too dark to see anything. “Hello,” she said weakly. A light flicked on overhead, blinding her for a second. When her eyes adjusted to the new found light, she gasped and stepped back from what she saw. A boy sat in a chair behind a table from which he was eating. His arms and legs were chained to the chair. Mary didn’t know what he was eating, but it smelled awful. “What are you eating?” she asked putting her hand over her nose. He looked up at her and smiled, a stream of blood running from his lips down to his chin before dripping down onto his lap.
For a second he said nothing, but when he did Mary felt like crying. His voice was gruff, as if he hadn’t drank in days. His smile disappeared as he spoke, “Why do you look at me like that? Why do you look at me like that? My skin festers; I can see it reflected on your eyes.” Mary could see his eyes quavering as if trying to hold back tears. “Don’t look at me!” he shouted and turned his head away from her. That’s when she saw what he had been eating; it was a human arm, half consumed. It was fresh for blood still leaked out of the bites.
Mary ran out of the tent and into the Ringmaster. She looked up at him, and then turned away and threw-up to the side. “Come with me,” he said grabbing her arm, “There’s one more attraction I must show you.” He pulled her over to a metal cage and pushed her against the bars. “Look and be amazed at the deformity within!” he shouted. Inside a girl sat hunched in the corner. She wore a tattered skirt and a hoodie put on backwards so that the hood covered the face.
“Is someone there?” the girl inside the cage asked crawling slowly in Mary’s direction. When she got to the bars, she stuck her head through and in a hoarse whisper said, “Kill me please. I just want to die, I just want to die. I just want to be taken away from this place.” Mary reached out and pulled the hood from the girl’s face. “I wonder if anyone would care if I were to die. Would they cry if they heard of my death?” the girl asked as Mary beheld the girl’s face, if it could even be called that. There were no eyes, the sockets were empty. The nose was missing; just slits where the nostril would have been. The lips were gone too leaving behind blackened teeth and gums. The skin sagged and was ragged of scars. “He did this to me,” she said, “He poured acid onto my face,” the girl moved her face closer to Mary’s, “You have to escape.”
Mary spun around. The Ringmaster was bent down so that his face was level with hers. The mask hid his emotions; they were ever kept in a wide smile. “The deformity,” he whispered in her ear, “The beautiful deformity.”
Mary screamed and tried to run, but the Ringmaster caught her in his arms and held her down. “Let me go! Just let me leave!” Mary screamed in anguish as tears streamed down her face.
Smiling, the Ringmaster responded, “Nobody ever leaves the Dark Woods’ Circus.”
