September Short Story Collection

Circus Closed

September 8, 2019

I followed behind my girlfriend, Caroline, as we made our way to the enclosed circus up ahead.

"Caroline, what are we doing?" I asked, still slightly intoxicated from the party we just left.

"Okay, this is a stupid thing, but on my bucket list I've always wanted to break in some place after hours and just walk around." She said, leading me further into the dark. "And the circus is here until Monday so now is our opportunity!"

"You want to break into the circus?"

"Yeah! Maybe we can see something crazy!"

I laughed, following behind her.

Caroline was way out of my league. I loved her, something I hadn't brought myself to say yet, but I did. She was incredible. She was fearless and so caring. She brought out the best in me.

We made our way behind the circus where it was the darkest. All that surrounded the large tent and the booths was a chainlink fence, easy enough to climb over.

"Hey look!" Caroline said, pointing at the fence. Where she pointed was an already made hole in the fence, big enough for us to get through. "I think it's fate!"

Caroline climbed through the fence with no hesitation. I climbed through afterwards and it felt like a stone dropped in my stomach. This felt wrong. Not just wrong for trespassing, there was something else. Something dark.

"Come on slowpoke!" Caroline called as she made her way towards the big tent. I ran after her, not liking the feeling I was getting.

"Caroline, maybe we should go. This doesn't feel right." I said, voice my concerns.

"Oh, don't worry! No one's here we'll be fine."

"I don't know..."

"Okay, let's just go to the tent and then we can go. Alright?" Caroline looked at me with her big, kind eyes.

"Alright."

Caroline jumped up and headed to the tent. It was very quiet, there weren't even any crickets out for the hot august night.

Finally we made it to the tent. It was tall and stood like a particularly garish cake. Blood red stripes stood out against the pure white stripes. The entryway was open and seemed strangely welcoming.

Caroline took my hand and led me inside. It was impossibly dark inside, far darker than it was outside.

"I can't see anything." I whispered to Caroline.

Just as I said that, the room seemed to light up. All around us were lightening-bugs.

"Oh my god." Caroline breathed out as we stared in awe at the sight before us.

Hundreds of lightening-bugs lit up the entire tent. They floated around the tent, seeming to defy the laws of gravity.

"It's beautiful." I whispered, reaching down and taking Caroline's hand in mine.

"It is, oh my god." She repeated, taking a step forward. She let go of my hand and stood in the center of the tent.

Lightening-bugs floated around her, giving her an angelic glow and it made my heart beat faster. She was beautiful. The most beautiful girl in the world. And I loved her. I loved her so much in this moment I just couldn't contain it.

I walked up to her, looking around as the lightening-bugs seemed to spin around us.

"Caroline," I started, getting her to look at me. I took a deep breath before speaking. "I love you."

I held my breath as I waited for her to reply. She didn't say anything though. All she did was smile, it was the biggest smile I had ever seen her give. She leaned forward and kissed me.

My world seemed to spin, it was like fireworks were going off all around us. It's what I believed the love in Disney movies probably felt like.

She pulled away after a moment and said, "I love you too."

Word count: 636

It's funny how you can start writing and think 'I know where I'm going to go' and then as you start writing some more your story just takes a complete 180. Because that's what happened with this story. I was gonna have it be a creepy horror story (or at least attempt), instead it turned into a pretty cute little love story. So, yeah, writings weird.