Demon

Chapter 22

Hey weirdos! Sorry for the delay in updates. I got a lil caught up with life and a new story that I'm starting. The story will eventually show up here but not until much later so stay tuned if y'all are curious. That's all! Enjoy! :)

My god! Can I even think of another time where I was more excited than I am now? Unlikely... It is the day before the circus opens to the public and I'm so excited, I feel as if the carnival has already opened and I'm just waiting for everybody to come piling through the entrance. The only thing that helps me relax and calm down is when Tom offers me a notepad to scribble on or busies my hands with some task that needs to be attended.

On a different note, things have lightened up now with Precision gone. Nobody feels as if they're being treated like slaves, they're not having their days ruined by distasteful insults, and everyone is generally happy without his presence; we even manage to find humour in mocking his corpse. All in all, the performers' moods have lightened up and they're finally able to focus on doing their best.

Unfortunately, it took awhile for the performers to accept my new hairstyle; they were all reasonably outraged and a few members even spat curses. However, after a few days, slowly the artists began to like my hairstyle. In fact, the band, the tamers, and the trapeze twins actually say it suits me; although I think they actually mean that it suits my position in this place... a freak.

I still don't like the idea of me being a part of the freakshow. I know I'm not normal but I refuse to be put on display for not being normal. The other freaks try to assure me and tell me it's not actually that bad but I don't want to believe them; I've been put on display my whole life by my father and I thought I could escape that when I came here, but I guess not. I guess TomCat has other plans after all.

One thing that I find to be particularly worse than my status as a freak, however, are the excessive exercises and rehearsals Tom leads everyone through. The many days that I had to suffer from my muscles in pure agony felt like Hell, especially when we had to rehearse again after a previous painful rehearsal. It's even more excruciating for me because Tom helps me practice my contortionist act in the cabin outside of rehearsals. I'm willing to admit that I'm getting better everyday but the achiness in my muscles is going to be the death of me one of these days.

But I can't complain too much about TomCat's grueling rehearsals... he practices with us and probably suffers just as much as we do. He even gave us an entire day off to relax and rest our bodies (however the sanitation crew and the clowns were still forced to prepare the circus for tomorrow).

All this hard work that we've done has finally paid off because now we were finally going to perform for the city after 3 long, eventful months since Tom first claimed the circus as his own; we were finally going into business. Everyone is beyond anxious and excited; some are nervous, most are pumped up, a few are wanting just a few more days to prepare, but everyone is proud of where they've come and can't wait to show off their work for the city.

...

I wasted no time in leaping out of bed and hurrying out of the small shack to tell the performers to get ready. Many were already up and at 'em, eating breakfast in the cookhouse and setting up their respective attractions. Tom instructed me to wake up all the stragglers and make sure they were ready an hour before the gates opened. Oh, it felt like Christmas!

It wasn't too early in the morning, maybe a few hours till noon, but some performers were still in their beds debating whether or not to run away from the circus to avoid this very day. Excitedly, I would run into their tents screaming joyously and I would shake their shoulder until they groaned and ordered me to "piss off."

Despite their sour attitudes, they all eventually woke up and rushed to get dressed. The circus was scheduled to open at noon and that time was approaching unbelievably fast with our present hurriedness. We knew our minutes were growing numbered by the time the vendors (who Tom later inquired about and decided they could stay) arrived and began setting up their goods.