The Demon's Child and the Phantom

Prologue

Narrator's POV: 

Two of the gypsy show men from the Romanian caravan had been going over the show calls for each of their oddities and freaks that would perform. The light in the tent was coming from only a few candles as they went over a few new calls, rephrasing or changing them to make them more appealing to the audience members whose money they loved so much. From appearance alone they seemed nothing more than a few traveling carnival workers.

Cleaner than most carnies, and well spoken when the time came. But if their souls could be seen, then the evil that they contained would be more monstrous than anything they could ever put on display. As the late night began to grow only later, they began to discuss their last pet and the call that Salin had created only hours after their last show this evening. 

"COME SEE THE DEMON'S CHILD! EYES OF HELL FIRE AND COLD ICE!!! EYES MARKING HER AS A SEED OF ONE OF THE DEVIL'S OWN DEMONS!!!! COME AND SEE THE MONSTROSITY THAT GOD HAS SUFFERED TO LIVE!!!!!" (Salin)

"Well it has a certain appeal to it doesn't it cousin." (Malik)

"Aye it does, but there's the problem that when they see the sniveling little creature they see only a child and demand a refund." (Salin)

"Hmmm yes........perhaps we should make her a larger part of the show. Show them that she truly is the child of a demon." (Malik)

"How so?" (Salin)

"I think a bit of hot iron disguised as cold could be very persuasive, don't you?" (Malik)

"And what of Florica?" (Salin)

"Leave her to me, but now a toast to a prosperous year with our beast and her tears." (Malik)

Two men laughed and toasted to one another and the blood stains on their hands appearing darker in the light of the candles as they drank. Their plan would be put into affect at tomorrow's show and even Florica would not be able to stop them, they were sure of it. They had nothing to fear, unlike their pet in the cage only a few feet away. 


Rosella's POV:

I heard them both laugh as I cowered in the corner of the cage just outside the tent. They had beaten me again tonight because I didn't pull in enough money for them. I had been gawked at by most who walked past my cage, but their stares and harsh words barely touched me anymore. Rather it was the whips and beatings from Malik and Salin that I feared more. I was supposed to be released to go to Florica's wagon after the show, but I passed out when they started to beat me.

I fear that they will start the beating over again when they come out and see I'm awake. I watch my tears mix with the blood on the ground as they both fall in heavy droplets. I was turning nine today. Florica said we'd celebrate after the show, but now I'm fearful that they won't let me go to her and I won't get to celebrate. I hear their footsteps leave the tent and walk towards the door of the cage before it creaked open.

"Alright little demon, run off to her. But don't think this means we've forgiven you for your pitiful wages tonight. As punishment we'll be making you a star in the show tomorrow." (Malik)

I gave a soft nod as I stood and shakily walked past them, hearing them laugh as they tripped me one last time on the way out the door. I quickly climbed up from the ground and sprinted to Florica's wagon, ignoring the pain that was shooting through my body. I was through the door in a flash only to have her turn towards me with a soft smile on her face. It soon fell away as she saw my tears and the blood running down my arms and back.

"Oh my little bloom, come here flower. First, we will take care of these. Then we will see what surprises I have for you today." (Florica)

I slowly shook my head as I walked over to her, allowing her to turn me around and remove my tattered shirt. A few moments of stinging from the alcohol and the cold water she dabbed over the wounds and I was given a freshly mended shirt from a previous night's beating. I smiled as she gently ran a comb through my hair as we sat on her bed. Florica was the only Gypsy at the camp that cared for me at all. The others wanted me to spend all my time in the cage but she wanted me with her whenever we weren't doing a show.

She was the eldest person in the troop and was feared by the curses she could place on you. She was the only one that Malik feared and would listen too at times concerning me. I wished once when I was younger that she was my mother, but when Malik heard me call her that he beat me for a day straight. I then only called her mother in my head, and in rare instances after I woke from a nightmare.

I started to hum the tune that was stuck in my head as she gently pulled my hair back. My hair was as black as the sky without any stars, with the exception of a bright red streak running through my curls on the right side. The streak matched my right eye in color but my hair was the one thing I liked about myself. My skin already had scars on it from the beatings and my eyes were cursed by the demon who gave rise to me, but my hair was perfect curls.

"Now little bloom, close your eyes." (Florica)

I did as I was told as she stood up from the bed and walked to the other side of the little wagon before setting something down in front of me at the little table. I heard her strike a match before the swish of her dress and her scent of lavender and sage told me she was next to me again.

"Little bloom, open your eyes. Make a wish and blow out your candles." (Florica)

I did as I was told and smiled as I saw the little cake in front of me. She knew I liked chocolate and that I was almost never given any, but she always made me a chocolate cake for my birthday and for Christmas. I closed my eyes but could think of nothing to wish for that would come true for a demon's child, so I simply blew out the candles. I turned to face her smiling as I saw her eyes were closed.

"Florica?" (Rosella)

"Yes little Flower?" (Florica)

"Did you make a wish too?" (Rosella)

"I did, but first tell me did you make one?" (Florica)

"No, wishes don't come true for monsters like me." (Rosella)

"You are no more monster nor demon's child than I am little bloom. Let me tell you my wish, for I already know it will come true. I wished for you to one day meet a prince with a fire in his eyes as great as the one in your own, and for you to be forever happy with him away from this place. I know this will come to pass one day little bloom." (Florica)

I smiled as she hugged me and kissed my head before cutting the cake for us to eat. She let me play on the little piano before going to bed and I was finally able to get the tune out of my head as I played. I fell asleep on the bed next to her after she finished praising me for the simple tune, she only ever praised my playing and her praise sent me off into a dream of music rather than a nightmare of realty. It wasn't until I heard them the next morning yelling at each other in Romanian that I hid.

Florica had taught me English and we were working on German, French, and some Romanian as it was the language they most commonly spoke among each other. But on this morning they were yelling to quickly for me to understand anything they were saying. I slipped off the bed and crouched low in the corner as it seemed to finish. A few moments more and Florica walked back into the wagon shutting the door behind her, tears falling down her wrinkled face. She looked at the bed and then towards the corner where I most often hid, before she forced a small smile on her face even as she cried.

"Come here little flower." (Florica)

I did as she asked and sat next to her on the bed as she pulled me closer to her in a hug. She ran her hand through my hair as I sat next to her, trying to think of why she would be crying. I had never seen her cry before, not that I could remember. I had seen tears grow in her eyes plenty enough when treating my wounds but I had never seen her let the tears fall. She finally loosened her hold on me a bit as she looked at me.

"My poor flower, I could not stop this from happening though I tried. You are allowed to stay with me all the time now except during shows, then someone will come get you and take you into the main tent. I am sorry I could not do more for you, but you must promise me. Promise me little bloom that whatever they do, whatever you hear, you will not let it break you. Promise me that!" (Florica)

"I promise Florica." (Rosella)

"Thank you little Flower." (Florica)

The sadness she carried with her the rest of the day was something I couldn't understand. I played the piano for her several times in an attempt to cheer her but though she smiled, her eyes remained in mourning. It wasn't until Salin came for me and carried me into the main tent that I began to grow fearful of what was to come.

"Look here ladies and gents! The Demon's Child! She may look like an ordinary child but see her eyes of hell fire and demon ice! And look, we will show you how a cold iron cross will burn the little beast because of her sinful nature!!! (Malik)

I didn't know what was to come but I fought Salin's tight grasp on me as Malik approached with the Iron brand in the shape of a Cross. The sleeve on my shirt was torn off and then I felt the touch of the iron cross on the skin of my arm, and it burned as if it I had put my arm in the fire. I let out a shriek followed by pleas to stop that it burned but no one listened, the audience members either withdrew as they watched or they cheered. But no one came to help as they burned me with the iron brand.

I woke a few hours later back in Florica's wagon and found her crying as she bandaged my arm, and soon I joined her. It wasn't a one time performance that night, it was two to three times a week. My arms, my legs, my stomach, and my back were soon riddled with cross shaped scars. By the age of 12 I began to show signs of the growing insanity that they had created in me and by 13, they had to chain me down to restrain me for shows.

This only pleased them more though as they offered the chance to 'beat me into submission' for a few francs. It never worked though, I was simply beaten unconscious. The only thing that saved me those nights were not receiving the iron cross, as my insanity seemed enough proof for the crowds of my demon heritage. Though there were moments when Florica would be treating my many wounds from such a night, where I wondered if the iron brand was better than a beating.

It also seemed that once the insanity took hold it simply had to run its course or I had to be beaten into unconsciousness. Florica discovered that one night as I woke screaming and took refuge in the corner of the wagon. Fighting her off whenever she tried to comfort me, I simply didn't recognize her. It was only a few hours before sunrise that I finally seemed to snap out of it. She never told the others, though it mattered little by then because I realized they were right. I was a monstrous demon's child.

By age 16, I showed few emotions on my face anymore, and the threat of violence towards me only made me tense or freeze in my actions. The screams that once flew from my mouth to stop had ceased and only extreme beatings made me scream or cry, unless the insanity took hold. It was at 18 that Florica told me I had to run away and that she would help me escape. Her plan was as well thought as anything she ever did and we might have succeeded, had fate and Malik not had other plans a few days before we were meant to leave.

I woke from my punishment from the night before, after Florica had saved me from Malik yet again, in the back of a wagon. I knew without being told that the newest burns I had been given last night had been cared for by Florica. I also knew in that moment that I would never see her again when the wagon began to leave the Gypsy camp with me in it. It was the first time in nearly 6 years that I cried for a reason other than that of a beating, as she ran to me and hugged me goodbye. I knew in my heart that I would never see her again and she must have known too.

"My little bloom, one day you will find your prince of darkness and he will save you I know it. Never forget you are a beautiful rose in a garden of weeds. I love you my little bloom." (Florica)

"You will always be my Mother in my heart and I-" (Rosella)

I tried to say the words back but I had so much hate in my heart I couldn't tell her I loved her, even though I did. I felt the tears fall steadily from my eyes as I tried once more but was still unable to say the words I wanted her to know so badly. She smiled as she nodded in understanding of my lack of response before taking off the small silver cross necklace that I had never seen her without and slipping it around my own neck.

"Remember your promise little flower, don't let them break you." (Florica)

I nodded just once as I watched her smile at me with a few remaining tears falling from my eyes as the wagon began moving away from her and the only world I had ever known. My gaze stayed on her even as she grew smaller and smaller, until the distance made her completely disappear before me. It was the first time I was free of the gypsies only to be in an unknown fate. Little did I know that I was escaping one hell and exchanging it for another.

I was to be sold or given away to five families in the next 8 to 10 years, the exact amount of time that passed having been lost to me. Time having been lost through numerous beatings and periods of insanity, with days and weeks blurring together and disappearing entirely. At the age of 26 or maybe even 28, I was yet again facing the prospect of going to a new family to serve and to be beaten by. After all, I was the child of a demon, a monster, an unlovable creature,  and nothing more.