Lost Smile and Strange Circus

first half

There was a girl named Noah, who couldn't smile, laugh, or express anything about how she felt.

"What a pitiful girl. I heard she was abandoned in the alleyway."

Chatters.

"Really? How did she survive for fourteen years?"

Murmuring.

"I don't know, but those are probably just lies to have our pity."

Rumors.

"Why do we even care?"

The truth. Why do they even bother to mingle into the affairs of one insignificant individual?

Noah, with her wavy, light brown hair and large grey eyes, snuggles into her red scarf as she breathes the cruel air of the busy town.

Her steps recede into the alleyway, which she has considered her home. Her plain, brown dress, handsewn and patched up with similarly dyed stray materials, billow around her fragile frame as she breaks into a run.

She breathes.

Again.

And again.

And again, and the revolting smell that the sewage emits is her daily perfume.

The run-down stone pathway is like a guideline for her, as every crack and dent has been imprinted into her skull.

Make a turn after the chipped wall.

Go to the left side of the weathered pavement.

Past a dump. . .

"Do you want to come with me, kid?"

A hand landed on her shoulder, startling Noah as she skidded to a halt. She clutched her bag of apples in her arms tighter, growing cold at the sight of a stranger towering over her.

"It seems that you're lonely."

The shady man said, in his voice that sounded out nothing but trouble. His breath smelled of tobacco, and his clothes were free of any kind of crease.

"Why don't you come with me? You'll meet friends. You won't be forced to live in such awful conditions."

Noah shook her head, first slowly, then furiously.

The man tried to coax her into the temptation that the free homage had to offer, but she had a memory.

No, memories.

She remembered songs. Songs that couldn't make it clear into her head, yet she could manage to interpret these melodies free of struggle.

She couldn't leave this alleyway.

Something was here.

She ran, turned back, away from the man and utilized her knowledge of all the routes that lay in this damp and dark spider web.

It was a labyrinth, but for someone who has recognized this as her home such as Noah, it was a walk in the park.

Her small, boot-clad feet padded over the stones and concrete.

Her stocks started to fall, tumbling down the dirty ground as she ran and ran and ran. . .

Until dizziness had come to her, and the collision with a brick wall had been inevitable.

Her vision red as the apples that fell and the muffler that she donned, she hit the ground hard with a very loud thud. Noah's consciousness blended with the sickeningly sweet taste of blood, and her eyelids dropped as a pattern of red dyed the ground.

Has it finally ended?

"Human child."

She blinked.

"Noah."

It was a voice, though, it didn't belong to the shady man. Though their exchange was brief, she was pretty sure it wasn't the same person.

But who was it?

And how did this one know her name?

"Noah, don't let the darkness drag you in."

Darkness?

Was it the darkness of death?

Was she dead?

"Noah, take my hand."

She searched.

The girl latched her mindset on to the hope of finding a beautiful light, and the black fog started to clear the way for her. Red. . . Violet, no, gold. . .

She caught a vague glimpse of peculiar clothing, and moved towards it, which then came closer, and scooped her in its arms.

The figure reminded her of something.

It was the plague.

"Noah, I am Oddman, and I will show you what it's like to live in a land of never-ending happiness."

***

I swear, I'll improve xDDD

Here's a picture from the real thing;

That's Noah and Oddman. BAI