The Half Lies of the Circus

Ch. 6 --- V - VI

V

              I sit in lunch between Princess and Joker, finally done shaking. I wear my fingerless gloves, having not had a chance to wash the blood off. I feel Joker's fingers sink into my arm slightly and I look to him. He has a complete expression of concern and i just lean my head on his shoulder. Prince and Caspar sit down in front of us, and they're both smiling, lost in a conversation they're having... How could there possibly be a snake in our group? We'd all die for each other. I frown but tuck the thought away to the back of my mind... He's probably just trying to lure me into a game, trying to convince me to put my head in his noose... But it won't work. I wrap my arms around Joker beside me, and listen to Caspar's and Prince's conversation.

  "Yeah, I already promised you buddy. I won't let anybody hurt you. We're roommates. I'll protect you; i promised like nineteen times Prince." Caspar says and a smile slips onto my lips. I listen to the light chatter of my friends until I can feel a cold terror grip my heart... I can just... just feel something bad about to happen... It's probably just Morgan getting to me. I snarl at myself in my head, and hold Princess's hand; comforting me that i've done at least something right. I open my eyes and meet gazes with Caspar.

   "You promise that you'll keep Prince safe?" I ask and Caspar nods.

 "I promise." He says and Joker tenses below me.

"Promises are only half lies." He mutters and I squeeze an arm around him a little tighter.

"He promised... that's enough for me." I whisper back and he nods, absently.

"Alright but remember what I said to you back in the tent... Have you solved the riddle?" He asks gently and shake my head a little on his shoulder.

"Not yet." I breathe back and he wraps a strong arm around me.

"I'm afraid you may realize it too late." He whispers to me and then he musses Princess's hair, and leans his head on mine.

"Did anything happen while I was gone?" Henry asks from across the table. I flinch at the thought of whatever Morgan was going to inject in Princess. I look over at Princess and smile as I see Beast speaking softly to her, painting her nails pink.

"Nothing huge... We're all still together, aren't we?" I ask and a childish smile plays onto his lips... A smile I haven't seen in too long. I look at Aliah who's got her head on his shoulder and she appears to be sleeping.

"How are you two getting along?" I tease and his cheeks glow with a bright red.

"I- We're fine. Getting erm... Along." He says and I grin.

"I'm happy to hear that." I tease back and look to my left to see Romeo sit down with Nick, the two talking about knives and laughing at jokes they're making. A pang of normality hits me and I hold tight onto Joker.

"They're testing on us after this." I whisper and he nods a little, like he's affirming it.

"Yes they are... But we're all going to meet up for dinner, be together like this... And we'll be the family we all are... Trust me beautiful." He says softly and I blush at the end. I watch Prince skeptically, and all i can think of is what Morgan said.

"Joker... M-Morgan came to see me while Princess was sleeping." I whisper and he lifts his head and moves my head so I'm meeting his gaze.

"Is everything okay?" He asks softly so only i can hear and i bite my lip.

"He... He told me there's a snake in our group... That it'd kill us all." I whisper and he immediately looks to Callie at the word snake. She's sitting beside Beast; talking to Princess about a flowery white nail design she's helping Beast put on now on Princess's index fingers.

"He's just trying to get in your head... None of these people... Not even our new members would betray us." Joker whispers and I nod. I watch Prince gently, thinking instead about how he's so sure something will happen to him. I bite my lip as he laughs at Caspar's joke and I close my eyes... This is all too much already.

VI

(this part is important, sorry there's not much dialogue though)

       Experiment time... Princess and I are dressed in flowy white dresses, per Mr. Dust's command and Morgan has us step into a tall tube made of glass. The bottom supplies a mesh between us and all the pipes carrying toxins. I look at Princess, who holds my hand, and her crystal blue eyes shine up at me with fear. I know if i talk that Mr. Dust will hit her to affect me so i merely give her a hand a squeeze and step into the tube with her. Morgan presses a button and the tube shisks closed. A perfluorocarbon (a liquid which you can be fully submerged in, and breathe fine, but it will be painful at first. If not expecting the pain, you may pass out but Princess and I are immune to it by now) begins to pool into the bottom of the tube and steadily rises, at Princess's stomach and my waist in only a minute.

    "I love you Princess." I whisper and the liquid comes up to cover her head and it soon does the same to me. All i can see through the liquid, is Princess's and my hair floating around, and the blurred circles that make out a human form where Mr. Dust and Morgan stand... And that's when the open tube connects to the back of my waist... At the small of all of our backs, we have a metal closed circle, where this tube/wire/cord/needle, (called FTCT which stands for Flexible Tube Connecting Toxins,) connects to our bodies and it lifts us off the floor of the tube... And we begin to float... That's when they inject the numbness agent and proceed by sending all sorts of odd toxins to check if our 'midnight phase', as they call it, still works. Princess's gold hair begins to run black, and my brown hair begins to bleed into a pure blonde from the roots of my hair. I feel the changes in my open eyes and look down at Princess, to see her gorgeous baby blue eyes go gold like a cat's in the perfect lighting. She stares up at me with a empty look on her face. I stroke her floating hair softly and I feel them finally flow the oxygen into our bodies. Princess gets a little pink in her cheeks, and only hurt strikes its way into my heart as i look at the creation they made from this beautiful little girl. Our FTCT's begin to float leisurely as we do and Princess squeezes my hand... And I know when her hand goes limp in mine, that they've given her a sedative... But sedatives when we're in this state could be fatal. I let go of her hand, and bang on the glass.

    "Take it out of her! Disconnect her!" I scream, bubbles flowing up from my lips and I feel the warmth of the sedative flowing into me now.

     "No! Stop! Give it all to me if you want! Just let her go!" I scream, hitting the glass as hard and I can only watch as Morgan comes up to the glass, and presses his hand on it. I scream, hitting it as hard as I can, but he flinches, only once. I scream until my lungs burn for air and hit the glass, weaker now, as my arms begin to get heavy. I growl as the sedative gets heavier and I feel like my limbs have gone heavy. I struggle to, but grab Princess's hand, and hold it to Morgan's hand on the glass.
 

   "Save her... Please." I cry to them, my tears mixing with the solution of the liquid around me.... And the world fades away from me, the last thing I see being Princess being lifted out of the tube and set safely on the ground outside of the the tube; her hair reverting to normal... And that's when i felt the wave of darkness crash into me, and the arms of sleep grasp me.