The Midnight Circus

III

     Mr. Scream was a tall and slim man. He had shoulder length, neon green hair that was pulled back into a low ponytail. He wore a black and silver ringmaster's uniform, completed with a black top hat and silver mask that covered everything above his Cupid's Bow with a crow-like hook. I had to ball my hands into fists, my fingernails digging into my palm, to keep my anger at bay. This was the man who murdered me. He was the reason for the scars that lined both my wrists. He looked me up and down in silence as everyone anxiously awaited his opinion from the doorway of his magnificent office. My blood was ice in my veins as I was numbly led through the maze of corridors and curves.

     "You turned out perfect." He whispered. Relieved smiles appeared on everyone's face, except mine. My blood was growing warm in my veins. "Now. I know you're anxious to know you're name and position here." He continued, I said and did nothing. He smiled. He examined me for a long while, inspecting me like I was a specimen under a microscope. "Dolly." He whispered, his voice dripping with unsettling kindnes. I felt a shiver crawl up my spine.

     "Well she is perfect like a doll." Jack mumbled a little too loudly. Scream's head shot up as he bore onto Jack with a deadly glare.

     "Pardon?" Scream purred but I couldn't help but to sense a hidden threat in his words. Jack went deadly still.

     "Nothing." He quickly said, very focused on the shiny floor. Scream smiled and turned back to me. "I think you'll fit in just grandly here. Now go get dressed for dinner." Scream looked at everyone as they crowded in the doorway. "All of you. Tonight," he paused for effect. "We shall celebrate."

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     Olivia looped her arm through mine as I made my way to my bedroom.

     "This will just be the cat's meow, will it not?" She chirped in her smooth voice, her pefect teeth sparkling as she smiled her beautiful smile.

     "I sure hopes so." Émillie replied, falling into step on my other side.

     "You will look just darling!" Olivia continued.

      "Even the papillons will be jealous!" Émillie exclaimed. I lifted an eyebrow at her. "You know, papillons? The pretty bug-thingy's that fly?" She pinched her lips to the side in thought.

     "Do you mean butterflies?" I tried. She smiled and snapped her fingers.

     "Exactly!"

     "While that sounds fun and all, I'm not really a fashion expert." I replied.

     "But we are." Olivia giggled, ushering me into my room.

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     "Jeez, I look ridiculous." I muttered to myself as I focused on trying to walk down the stairs without triping over the dress. Émillie and Olivia did a great job, I won't lie. They picked out a dark purple dress that was flowey but not flamboyant with a long, black train that just began to hit the stairs once I was nearly, halfway down them. Olivia had curled my hair to perfection, which wasn't that hard considering how easily it was to do my hair, the corkscrew curls fell down my back and tumbled down my sides. Émillie and Olivia had already headed to the dinning hall, telling me to wait five minutes for an "entrance".

     My glass heels, as fragile as my own delicate porcelain, clicked across the freshly waxed floors as the arch that led into the grand dinning hall came into veiw. At the head of the long, mahogany table, facing the arch, was Scream. There was an empty seat to his right, followed by Émillie, Olivia, and Melanie. To his left was another empty chair, then Travis, Jack, and Cameron. At the opposite end of Scream was Blair, the one who hadn't uttered a single word to me. Émillie and Olivia hid their giddy smiles as I flowed into the room like sunshine when you first open your curtains in the morning. My blood grew ice cold as Scream's cold, blue eyes landed on me, followed by the boys'. I slowly and steadily walked around the table to take my seat at Scream's right, lightly sitting down as my dress fluttered around me.

     "You look great, Papillon." Émillie whispered, giving my hand a small squeeze before returning her attention back to her plate of food that sat in front of her.

     "Why don't you all tell Miss Dolly a little bit about yourselves." Scream purred, his voice as smooth as silk yet as sharp as a blade. Melanie leaned forward in her chair to make eye contact with me.

     "I'm Melanie Smith. Mistah' S found me with my spine shattered in a ditch on the side of I-73." Melanie said as if she were discussing dresses, the corners of her lips permanently tilted up. My eyes grew wide. "Mommy didn't mean to! Daddy just wanted peace and quiet and Mommy wanted Daddy happy." Melanie quickly added, laughing as if it were a fond family memory.

     "Oh." I quietly replied.

     "She was the hardest to fix." Scream chuckled.

     "You sure? Remember when you found Cameron?" Travis replied. My eyes grew wider, and I grew more naucious by the second as they happily discussed the horrific circumstances of how they arrived here. Cameron was stuck in the orphanage he lived in that the Sisters poured gasoline in and burned to the ground, burning him alive. Émillie and Travis' mother hung them in the attic after their father left her for another woman, before being admitted to an asylum. The three girls that bullied Olivia pushed her over the railing and into the tiger pit at the zoo during a school field trip. Jack was beat to death by his drunk father after he tried to protect his mother. Blair said nothing the whole time, glaring at me from one end of the table while Scream admired me from the other.

     "What about you, Lamb? How did you end up here?" Cameron asked. I silently cursed him as everyone's eyes landed on me, I had their attention, even though I didn't want it.

     "I...uh..." I stuttered, unable to retell my arrival. At a loss for words, I just held out my wrist where the deep cuts still held as ugly scars.

     "Oh." Cameron replied slowly. I pulled my wrist back and clasped my hands together in my lap.

     "I'm so sorry, Papillon." Émillie whispered, her voice cracking slightly. Someone gently held my hand. At first, I thought it was Émillie. Then it hit me. My head shot up towards Scream. He smiled like a child who was thinking of a bad trick to play. I shuttered. I felt my blood run hot, boiling in my veins with anger. The loud screetch of wood scratching wood echoed around the grand dinning hall. All of our heads snapped towards the end of the table where Blair was standing. Both of her hands were gripping the edge of the table, so hard her knuckles were snow white, her head down as her black hair covered her expression. She looked like something that crawled out of an Asian horror movie. I just noticed her dress. It was completely black with a high waist and layers that flowed around her like smoke or shadows. The giant, crystal chandelier began to flicker, as well as all of the other lights.

     "Blair," Scream said calmly and slowly. " Stop this right now." He continued sternly. The lights began to flicker even more. A thin layer of black smoke poured in from the edges of the doors and windows, covering the floor in a thin coat of fog.

     "Why do you love her?" She whispered. It sounded as if she whispered in my ear, her voice layered with many other voices.

     "Blair! I demand you stop this nonsense right this moment!" Scream thundered. The shadows of her dress swirled eerily as she gripped the table tighter, long spiderweb cracks racing along the thick mahogany. Before I could blink, the shadows in the room raced towards me, pushing up, up, up. The air was forced out of my lungs as her shadows shoved me into the celling, holding me into the white wood. I opened my eyes and felt faint, I was nearly three stories in the air, held up only be a clearly insane and unpredictable demon.

     "Blair, put her down right now!" Scream bellowed. The lights flickered even more. Each time the lights flicked back on, Blair had lifted her head more and more, one frame at a time, until she was smiling brightly at Scream, her pointed teeth sparkling in the chandelier light.

     "If you say so." She purred quietly in her many voices.
     Then, I was falling.