Blame

The Show

Like Mister Afton had said it would, the train arrived at their next stop the morning after.

Elizabeth, once again, didn't really sleep all that well. But she wasn't allowed to be tired and out of it during the five to seven days they would stay at one stop, so she ended up drinking four and a half cups of coffee while they set up.

Both the crew and performers were obligated to help with set up because the task was so large.

On this particular day, they started at 5:30 a.m. and finished by 1:30 p.m.

After that, they went through rehearsal up until people were allowed to start trickling into the big top.

The show was going to go on from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

The seats filled quicker than they usually did.

All of the talking that happened amongst the audience while they waited used to make Elizabeth anxious. It was never really that loud, but it was to her, and she'd feel as if she was drowning in all of the muddled exchanges, although she knew they had nothing to do with her.

But now it was just all white noise to her, hardly even registering in her head as she waited around for Mister Afton's voice to fill the space.

"Hey, clown, are you trying to break the world record for knuckle cracking or something? You've been doing that all day."

Elizabeth turned and found herself looking into two black button eyes.

Bon-Bon.

She immediately looked back to the floor and tried to stick her hands into her pockets, but then remembered she didn't have any.

"No. Sorry. Nervous habit."

"Do you think you could try to find a nervous habit that's less obnoxious to listen to? Because --,"

"Aw, l-l-leave her alone Bon-Bon! It's-not that b-b-big of a deal."

"Actually --,"

Freddy started to walk off with Bon-Bon as the two started to argue, and Jesse appeared in their place, twirling around one of the many swords tucked into the sash around her waist.

She always talked to Elizabeth during the last five minutes before the show.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to Afton & Emily's Twisted Circus!"

That was Mister Afton, the ringmaster, finally starting his introductory speech.

Elizabeth had heard it so many times that she had memorized it long ago.

She would always mindlessly mouth it along with him.

Be thrilled at the daring acrobats, laugh at the clowns, be on the edge of your seats as you witness death-defying feats, marvel at everything the performers do, yada yada... and most importantly, enjoy the show!

Despite the fact that they added something new to their show rather frequently or switched things up, it pretty much always felt the exact same to Elizbeth.

But perhaps that was because what the clowns did never really changed all that much.

When things needed to be moved around in between acts, they would come out and entertain the crowd with their jokes. Often, they would poorly imitate whatever act had just finished and/or purposefully be clumsy.

Smile, be an idiot, get laughed at, and wait for the acrobats to come out... or the strong men, or the dancers, or the sword swallowers, or the jugglers, or the acro dancers... you get the point.

When it eventually ended, after the crowd had finished slowly dispersing (and after they had finished their short break), they all cleaned up and helped get things ready for the day after.

"Where the hell are my keys? I thought I brought them with me... Elizabeth!"

She flinched (again) and paused the sweeping she was in the middle of.

"Y-yes, Mister Afton?"

"I think I left the keys to the concession stand on the train. Could you go get them for me?"

Elizabeth nodded and gingerly propped the broom against one of the seats.

"Of course."

Whenever Mister Afton had forgotten something, he, for some reason, almost always asked her to go get it.

She supposed she didn't mind.

Elizabeth squeezed her way past Billie, Blaine, and Ethan, who were three of the acrobats.

"Pardon me."

She ducked under the large barbell Yenn Enderson, the strong man,  was carrying.

"Excuse me."

And upon exiting, she nearly ran straight into one of the dancers, who was also on her way out of the tent.

She felt another unpleasant tingle at the abrupt and accidental physical contact.

"Ah, sorry, L-laura!"

Laura was a rather nice French woman who was almost entirely blind.

They didn't talk all that often, but Elizabeth had still taken a rather strong liking to her.

"It's quite alright, hun."

For some reason, the walk over to the train felt absurdly longer than the walk from it in the morning.

Elizabeth must have entirely checked out during it because when she finally stood in front of the keys, she felt like she couldn't remember half of the trip. Shaking her head, she grabbed the keys and headed back. 

"Here y-you go, Mister Afton."

The ringmaster was standing outside of the tent when she returned.

"Ah, thank you."

He passed the keys straight to one of the crew members, telling them to lock up the concession stand so that they can start heading out.

Elizabeth continued to awkwardly stand beside him, even once everybody did start to leave.

She was never quite sure if she found him intimidating or not.

He watched every crew member and performer as they passed through the cheap metal folding gate they had set up. Once everybody but he and Elizabeth were gone, he frowned.

"Elizabeth?"

"Y-yes?"

"Do you know where Laura is? I didn't see her pass through the gate."

She shook her head, "Last I saw her, she was leaving the tent when I was heading out to retrieve the keys for y-you."

"Hm..."