Le Cirque Des Cassés

Chapter Three: Whisper

"Paranoia; An unrealistic distrust of others or a feeling of being persecuted."

Whisper quickly shut off the PA system after making the announcement. She knew the others would listen and head to the main tent.  She looked to her right to find her lovely girlfriend standing there. "Come on Dancer, let's get to the main tent before we get in trouble." Dancer nodded in agreement. Whisper took Dancer's hand in her own and headed to the main tent, her girlfriend walking beside her. 

"Wait up!" Blade shouted from behind him, dragging Target with him. Target seemed annoyed with being dragged. 

"No! Catch up!" Whisper laughed out, her and Dancer breaking into a sprint to mess with their friends. Blade and Target also started to run, together the four of them ended up sprinting into the main tent, Dancer almost tripping over Voice. 

Dancer smiled and bounced on her heels some, laughing in her own silent way. She gave a nod to Voice as an apology, which he waved off, not upset by her stumbling. Whisper was laughing as Blade glared at her, smiling some himself. 

Whisper and Blade were like brother and sister and everyone knew it, meaning that Whisper was one of few girls Target would allow close to her boyfriend. Slowly Target was adjusting to everyone in the cirque around Blade, but she trusted some more than others. Target usually gets possessive of Blade around Snake and Doll since they were a similar age to her. However, over time Target is mellowing out.

"Do you know what this meeting is about Whisper?" Target asked as Blade wrapped his arms around her. 

"Yeah. A newcomer," Whisper said, she noticed Target's small growl, "a young girl. Ringmaster and Snake named her Child." 

"Oh. A child. That's alright then," Target said softly.

"A child or not she could be a threat. Everyone is dangerous when given the chance." Dancer calmly set her hand on Whisper's shoulder, a silent reassurance that she wouldn't allow Whisper to be hurt. "I know Dancer. Ringmaster trusts her... maybe I should too..."

The others of the cirque started to file in, Whisper took into account who was with who. Lion and Wolf walked in together, the twins were with each other, neither of which was a surprise. Bite and Poison walked in talking about something. Cut was sitting on one of the benches, examining a knife. She noticed Doll and Blind walked in together. She looked on to see Flame and Switch walk in, and then she paused. She looked back at Doll and Blind and froze. Usually Snake was with them, currently Snake wasn't, meaning one of two things, either Snake was skipping the meeting, and if so Whisper would send Lion after Snake. Or, the more likely scenario, Snake was with Child, preparing Child to meet them all.

"You noticed her absence too?" Lion said he had moved to stand by Blade. Whisper jumped, interrupted from her thoughts. 

"For fucks sake Lion! Do not sneak up on me while I am thinking like that!" Whisper said to Lion. Lion merely shrugged. Everyone around was just talking, most were seemingly curious about what was going on. It surprised Whisper that not everyone had heard of the new arrival yet. 

The room fell to silence when Ringmaster walked in, Snake close behind him holding a small girl wearing a pink dress. Whisper kept her eyes on the new girl, wanting to notice if the girl was a threat at all. She had long brown hair, it was braided and resting on her shoulder. Looking at the braid it occurred to Whisper that Snake had braided the Child's hair. 

"Snake really likes that pipsqueak huh," Blade whispered to the small group there. 

"No shit," Lion replied. Whisper shrugged and looked around the room. She noticed that Switch was watching the girl with rapt curiosity. Whisper wondered why, until she noticed the girl talking to herself in short mumbles. 

"Dissociative disorder?" Whisper quietly said, Lion and Blade turned to look at her. Then they realized why Whisper said that. 

"Everyone, I want you to meet the newest member of our Cirque. Her name while here shall be Child. She ran here to escape an abusive situation. She is a selective mute, and rarely talks to anyone besides herself, and uses a notepad and paper to communicate with us," Ringmaster started explaining.

"Another mute, really?" Lion mumbled. Dancer glared at him and stomped by his feet, almost stomping on him in an expression of anger. Lion rolled his eyes in response. 

Ringmaster continued, "Snake has said she will care for Child, however everyone will be expected to treat Child with the same respect you would treat the others around here. She is one of us now, and you are expected to respect her as such."

Everyone nodded or replied with a simple, "Yes Ringmaster." Satisfied with everyone's answer, Ringmaster nodded to dismiss everyone, and then made his way toward Whisper and the other cirque veterans. 

"I'm sorry I didn't consult you all for her arrival this time unlike normal. Between what she has told us and what we have observed, Switch and I both believe this girl might have some form of OSDD or DID."

"I realized you two believe that," Whisper said, "Switch was watching her very closely. It seems Snake isn't the only one attached to her."

"She likes hiding," Lion offhandedly mentioned, surprised when the Veterans all turned to look at him, "while me and Wolf were feeding Sasha and Fiona we found her hiding out by the fridge for the animal food, she was just sitting there thinking. Snake was looking for her so we sent her off to the serpent."

"I'm more surprised Snake likes a child, usually they aren't the most organized or cleanly of humans," Target stated. 

"Child is overly cautious, and very smart. Even though she is young, we suspect she is 7, she knew what OCD was, and almost seemed to recognize it in Snake," Ringmaster said, fixing his hair in his ponytail. 

"I don't trust that," Whisper stated, she never hid when she didn't trust someone or something from the veterans. 

"It is suspicious for a 7 year old to understand that," Blade said, his way of showing agreement with Whisper. Dancer looked at Whisper for a moment, in silence. 

"Dancer thinks it might be possible that Child was overly exposed to mental illnesses," Whisper spoke for her love. 

"Maybe. I'll ask Snake to try and figure that one out." With that, the others were all satisfied. Whisper noticed it was 11:26 am. 

"Come on Dancer, we need to prepare lunch. Bite is probably waiting for us," Whisper said, leading Dancer down the hallways to the kitchen. Her, Dancer, and Bite were the only ones allowed to access the kitchen. Not even Ringmaster himself had a key to the room, it was to keep people away from the cooking utensils, and to keep people away from the blender.