The Black Tent

Chapter 5

"Where are you taking him!" I cried out.

Pain slowly turned around, grinning at me. "The black tent."

"What, no! Don't please! He's just a kid. Leave him alone and take me!" I added, gripping the metal bars.

"What's the black tent?" Zach nervously asked and raised an eyebrow.

Despair let out a chuckle as he held my brother. "It's the happiest place on earth. You'll love it."

I narrowed my eyebrows. "No Zach! They're going to hurt you!" I warned as they continued walking away with my brother.

Zach's eyes widened and turned around. "Justi-" He began to say until Despair put his large hand over Zach's mouth.

"Leave him alone!!" I yelled.

The clowns dragged Zach away into the darkness as I screamed for them to just take me instead.

---

It must have been hours since I last saw my brother and the wicked clowns. I, along with the other prisoners sat helplessly in our cages in the back. I stayed still in the corner of my cage and held my head down.

It was completely quiet.

...Until a shrieking scream disrupted the silence.

It came from the direction where they dragged Zach...

The screaming kept going on and on forever.

"Leave him alone!" I began to hysterically sob and bang my fist against the cage. I hated that I couldn't do a thing about it.

The screams wouldn't stop and with each sound I felt myself dying inside. I bowed my head back down and continued to weep until I heard someone near my cage.

I quickly turned around and saw Bridgette. She was staring at me. "What the hell do you want!" I barked at the brunette.

"Shh." She brought a finger up to her lips and then took out a key from her pocket. I stayed quiet as she unlocked the cage. I waited until she finished opening the cage door and then jumped out, pushing past her.

She grabbed my arm. "Where are you going?"

I didn't reply and instead started rushing towards the black tent. "No, you can't do that!" She informed and ran after me.

We kept arguing back and forth until we heard footsteps. Out of the darkness, entered Lionel, the animal tamer. Bridgette stood in front of me when Lionel noticed us.

"What is he doing out of the cage?" The animal tamer narrowed his brows and crossed his arms. "He is injured and Ringmaster put me in charge of him." Bridgette replied in a serious tone.

Lionel pursed his lips and scoffed, walking away. I was about to start running towards the black tent again when he turned his back away from us.

Bridgette grabbed my arm again when Lionel suddenly turned back to us. "By the way, have you seen Catherine?" He asked.

"...Um yeah I saw her walking to her tent a couple minutes ago." She quickly said with a slight smile.

"Alright, thanks." Lionel said and continued to walk away. Bridgette snapped her head to me. "Come on." She ordered, still holding my forearm and pulling me in the opposite direction I needed to go.

"Let go." I said, irritated and yanked my arm away from her. She glared at me. "I need to take you to the medical tent for your eye." She replied and tried grabbing onto my arm again.