The Giggler Learns to Dance - Shortlisted - Open Novella Contest 2020

Chapter Five - Topher

Chapter Five

Topher

The Mance clapped his pale, thin hands together once. Alice noted that his pointed nails were painted a pristine, gleaming black. The sound boomed throughout the Square, causing the children to clamp their hands over their ears. Several begin to cry as the sound caused a resounding pain in their eardrums, tucking their faces into the waists and necks of older children.

The Mance smiled wickedly, taking a moment before drawing his hands apart. It seemed as though he held them all, captured and caged in each infinitesimal move of his fingers. The magic spell broke only when he pulled his hands apart and the crowd began to immediately disperse.

Alice found her legs moving of their own accord, as if a stiff wind was forcing her to take each step. A single horrified glance at the Giggler told her that he felt the same as they both walked toward the closest exit of the Square. As they joined the crowd beginning to file onto the main streets of the town, flanked by the slowly dancing adults of their lives, desperation seemed to take hold of Alice.

This time, no one ran to their parents, but only looked at their vacant eyes in fear. These people, these half-dead beings were both strange and dangerous.

"Run! Find my hat, poppets!" The Mance's voice echoed inside their minds.

A single glance backward, told Alice that he had disappeared into thin air. The bandstand remained however, the lanterns were still lighting and swaying in the wind. The inescapable music was still following them, each note seeming to spike the children's anxiety. The band members were moving in time with a melancholic rhythm, though the dancing troupe of adults - whom Alice thought of as the Dancing Dead, at the sight of their decomposing skin - barely lifted their feet in time with the music. The intensity of their movements seemed to be dimmed without the Mance's presence.

"What are we going to do?" Alice hissed, anxious and tense, to the Giggler. She wasn't sure when during the past hour or so they had become a we, but they were undeniably bound to one another now.

The Giggler was fiddling with some loose strings of fabric at the end of his suit sleeve, his lip wobbling. It occurred to Alice that he truly was child-like. Perhaps this was why he was the only adult still conscious and outside the claw's of the Mance's enchantments. That, or maybe it was his magic healing powers protecting him.

Regardless, Alice decided that they didn't have time to ponder this. 

Alice reached up with her newly healed hand and gripped the Giggler's shoulder, squeezing it tightly until he trained his cloudy eyes on her. Tears were welling there. He simply let out a single, sad whimper in response.

Just as Alice was struggling to come up with some words of comfort, she spied a child behind the Giggler, being buffeted by the hurrying crowd, who moved with urgency to find the damned hat. It was like a humongous game of hide and seek, they were dispersing in all directions.

It was a little boy, he was dressed as Shrek, his face painted slime green and his hair dyed bottle green, though all that remained of his costume was an oversized off-white T-shirt and a pair of patched brown pants. The crowd moved around him, though he remained completely still, arms wrapped around himself. He couldn't be any older than eight or nine, Alice guessed.

Before Alice could think of a good reason to stop herself, she marched back through the crowd, dragging the Giggler by the sleeve with her. She stopped in front of the boy, but he didn't look up until the crowd had thinned, flooding out onto the neighbouring football pitches and market streets. His hazel eyes full of a fierce kind of anger. Alice has expected fear, shock even, but not rage.

"Are you alright?" She asked, crouching to his level. The boy ran his eyes over her face, pausing on her short hair and twice-pierced ears for a moment. He glanced at the Giggler for longer, his gaze assessing them with an undeniable intelligence.

Before the boy could answer, Alice's hand was ripped from his shoulder as she was thrust backward.

Rebecca Farrell, the girl who had injured Alice's hand in school, stood staring down at the boy with furious eyes.

"Stop running off, Topher!" Rebecca hissed in the boy's ear, her voice cruel and venomous.

Alice had barely registered her feet moving backward as she stepped away from her new classmate, only stopping when her back met the Giggler's chest. Her heart had begun to pound with a fear that was, for a moment, far more real to her than the Mance's threats.

The boy, Topher, shrugged Rebecca off and Alice realised that they were siblings. They shared the same high cheekbones and small upper lip, though the boy was dark-haired and paler than his sister.

"He was alone, I was just checking he was okay," Alice supplied, a little lamely. If she could sink through the cement beneath her feet, she would have done so gladly.

Rebecca set her icy gaze upon her, her eyes flashing toward her hand. All irritation vanished for a moment as she took in Alice's unblemished skin. Her breathing hitched and caught in her throat. Rebecca said nothing. She couldn't, without implicating her own bullying behaviour.

"That's not your problem," Rebecca said to Alice coldly, eyeing the Giggler with suspicion before looking back at her brother. "Come on, we're going to look for the hat with my friends."

Topher scowled and Alice heard the Giggler emit a tiny giggle.

"I'm not going with you, I'm going alone," The boy, Topher, crossed his hands over his chest.

Alice had to admire the child's determination. This didn't last long when Rebecca muttered a sharp curse under her breath and turned on her heel, telling the boy to suit himself and precisely where he could stick his independence.

Alice made a quick decision, perhaps one that would invaluable in time.

"Come with us. I bet you're good with clues and we could use the help," Alice tried to sound friendly and non-threatening, gesturing between herself and the Giggler, acknowledging that they were not a dream-team for a Halloween night of tricks and horrors.

For the first time since she had seen him being shoved by the crowd, Topher smiled. It was small and far from kindly, but Alice felt a sense of triumph all the same.

"You'll have to keep up," He said, his eyes wide and tone serious.

Both Alice and the Giggler nodded, the former somewhat bemused, the latter simply baffled.

The music's tempo increased by a single additional note. The beat was growing more erratic and urgent, like a clock that was skipping ticks and doubling the speed of tocks. With this, the Dancing Dead skipped toward them in unison, hopping on one foot and clapping their palms together.

As one, the remaining children who had yet to disperse flinched, staggering away from the crowd who was filled with once-loving parents. Topher reached for Alice's arm, dragging her away. Instinctively, Alice grabbed for the Giggler's hand.

"Come on, I have an idea," Topher whispered, breaking into a run as the children disappeared in all directions, talks of top hats flying through the air.

With a single second of linked hands, the Dancing Dead had locked them out of the Square, forcing them to move into the town, to search. The Giggler danced nervously on his bare feet.

As they ran toward the Court District of the town, the street lamps seeming bright and sharper than usual, a voice echoed through the night air.

"Run, little bunnies, play my game and you might just see the dawn."

Word Count: 1354

A/N

Hello, darlings,

I am slowly publishing the first 8K of this ONC entry and enjoying the process (and the excuse to write) so much! I hope your stories are going well if you're also taking part!

Jen x