The Black Tent

Chapter 2

I gulped and slowly turned to my brother. "Circus Of Death."

Zach stared at me with unease. "That's not funny Justin. I haven't taken Spanish at school yet, what does that really mean?"

"I'm not joking. That's what 'Circo De La Muerte' means." I replied. "Isn't that kind of weird that death is the name of the circus?" My brother added.

"Yeah, I guess. What's with all the questions?" I snapped my head back to him, getting annoyed with the numerous questions.

"I'm just a curious boy." Zach shrugged and ate some cotton candy.

"Got that right." I couldn't help but chuckle. "Just enjoy the show Zachster."

The Ringleader, his wife, and the rest of the performers exited the stage, the only ones that stayed were the four clowns.

The clowns were performing a fireman themed skit and were pretending to save the clown named 'Troll' out of a burning building. They had water splashing everywhere from the hose and then were tripping over each other on purpose.

'Troll' then jumped out of the cardboard building and onto a large net that the other three clowns held out for him. Instead of landing in the net, Troll fell on top of the clown named, 'Chaos'.

The entire crowd busted into laughter, including Zach. The Ringmaster led the clowns off stage and then announced the next act.

"Next to perform, is Catherine the magneficant magician!" He cheerfully announced. Catherine walked out onto the stage and began asking for a volunteer from the audience.

"You should go Justin." Zach nudged me. "No, I'm good." I shrugged. "You should put your hand up Zach." I added.

"Too late." My brother replied and pointed to a little boy that was walking down the steps and onto the performance floor. He looked like he was only 7 years old.

He had a mop of blonde curls on his head, green eyes, and chubby cheeks.

Catherine greeted the young boy and then played a couple of card tricks for the crowd's amusment. She asked the boy to pick a single card out of the huge card stack without showing her. Within seconds after choosing the card, the boy hid both sides of it with his hands.

Catherine correctly guessed his card with ease. "Woah, how'd she know?" Zach grinned.

"She's a magician, she does tricks like that all the time." I reply, completely unamused. I unlock my I-Phone and started to play games.

"You didn't think the card trick was cool?" He asks. "Nah, It's lame." I simply answered.

"Why do you hate circuses so much?" He narrowed his light colored eyebrows.

"Because." I said, not looking up from my phone screen."Because what?" He urges. "Because I just don't." I groan.

"That's not a reason-"

"Damnit! I just don't alright. Stop with all the questions." I snap at my brother and shut my phone off.

"Sorry.." He mumbles.

I sighed. I felt bad for being mean to him when he was just curious. "No, i'm sorry Zachster. I just don't wanna talk about it, as long as you like the show then that's all that matters." I gave him a small smile, trying to make him feel better.

He simply smiled back and then looked back to the magic show.

After twenty minutes of guessing every card right, the magician then
made the young boy stand on top of a large crate. "Now for my final trick, I will make this boy dissapear before your eyes."