The Demon's Angel

Chapter 21

Elizabeth
I was starting to really dislike Werner. He was full of himself, more so than even Lance. He spent a large portion of the day grooming and pampering himself and refused to share a trailer with anyone, making the circus buy a new one for him. He thought that all of his ideas and opinions were the right one, even though they were usually not. He wasn't the brightest, either. He was good at acrobatics, sure, but to do the show well, everything had to be explained in much more detail than actually needed. It made the work much slower and more tedious. I especially felt bad for Kurt, who was the one who had to demonstrate for him.

Speaking of Kurt, he seemed to not like Werner, either. Not only was it probably extremely frustrating to teach him new tricks, but he acted incredibly guarded around him, as if he were waiting for something bad to happen. Amanda's obvious infatuation with him didn't help. As long as she was around, no one could escape him, even when he wasn't there. Lately, all we had heard out of her mouth was, "Werner thinks..... Werner would.... Werner did the funniest thing today..." Werner, Werner, Werner. It was getting old.

Everyone was in an irritable mood. We couldn't perform "Quand les anges et les démons tombent amoureux" in Canada because the man required us to create a new show for the tour, and work on the new show was going terribly. Lance was practically to the point of ripping his hair out: he had no ideas that everyone liked. Whenever we almost made an agreement on a show, Werner voted against it, pointing out every insignificant flaw in the plot. Amanda always voted for what he voted for, and since she always used to have a good eye, the other performers would begin to doubt it and eventually revoke their support of the idea. Time was slowly running out. We were going to leave for Canada in less than a month, and we still had no show.

One morning, Lance came into the bigtop acting strange. He looked thoroughly exhausted, and he refused to take his eyes off of the ground. Everyone quieted down upon seeing him, waiting expectantly for his next idea. Kurt leaned forward and whispered to me, "He looks awful. I hope he's ok." "He's probably just stressed out," I answered reassuringly. Lance cleared his throat, and we looked up. As his eyes swept across the crowd, it was obvious that he was avoiding everyone's gazes. "As you know, we've been discussing what our next show should be for the past month. We've gone through idea after idea, and nothing has seemed to fit. Well, I'm out of ideas. You've dried me up. We have no more options." He shook his head sadly. "Except one. We revert back to our old show, where the Devil is defeated by angels." Kurt froze next to me, and my anger flared. "You can't be serious!" I growled angrily. "We had a good reason for getting rid of that show. Why would we bring it back?!" Several people around me nodded their heads in agreement. Kurt just sat numbly, not responding to the conversation around him.

A voice spoke up from the back. "I don't know. That sounds like a good idea." I whipped my head around. Werner had stood up to speak, and Amanda was seated beside him. "None of the other shows made sense. It was stuff that no one would understand," he scoffed. "All that symbolism and stuff just doesn't work." Only you didn't understand it," I muttered. "This one is simple," he continued. "Good defeats evil. Add some catchy music and flashy costumes, and everyone will love it. The end. Besides, we have the perfect Devil, anyways." When he gestured at Kurt, Kurt flinched and looked down, his cheeks flaming. My wings flared slightly, but I gritted my teeth and folded them back up neatly. I grabbed his hand and squeezed, whispering, "It's ok. He's just an idiot." People nearby looked at Kurt with concern and turned to glare at Werner. If I had learned anything about that circus in my years there, it was that almost everyone there loved Kurt, and they wouldn't take kindly to someone insulting him. It was no different in this circumstance. Everyone, including Lance, who had suggested the idea, although he obviously hated it, turned to glare at Werner. The only two people not burning a hole into Werner's forehead was Kurt himself, who was still staring at his feet in embarrassment, and Amanda. Werner looked back at the crowd, obviously not aware of the fact that he had hurt and insulted Kurt with his previous words. He continued, seeming to think that the people were unsure of the show because it was an older one. "If you're afraid that it's too old, that won't be true, since you've never been to the Americas. Plus, everyone loves stories like these. The beautiful angels rescue a young woman from the hideous monster and save the day." Kurt winced, and his blush deepened. I jumped up angrily, wings flaring. "You realize how inconsiderate you're being, right? Kurt isn't just some circus animal you throw into the ring to do tricks. He's a valued performer in this circus and a fellow human being. You're belittling and insulting him over and over, so just shut your big mouth, before I shut it for you!" My face had turned bright red, and my chest was heaving. Werner stared back stupidly. I made a move towards him, but Kurt gently pulled me back down into my seat. "He's not worth it. He's just an idiot," he murmured, repeating my own words back to me, but it was obvious that Werner's words bothered him. I huffed angrily, but didn't stand back up.

Werner began talking again, unfazed by my outburst and the continued glares of the other performers. "It's not like we have any other options." Lance sighed. "As much as I hate it, he's right. Unless we want to do a classic circus act and risk a large sales drop, we need to do this." No one responded. Everyone was torn between the feelings of their friend and the fact that we needed the money. Lance eventually said, "How about we vote? All in favor of using the old show, stand." No one moved, except for Werner, who instantly stood. Kurt turned around to look at Amanda, who looked away. She slowly stood. "I agree with Werner," she said quietly. Werner beamed at her and grabbed her hand. Kurt's shoulders slumped, and he turned away. My feathers ruffled angrily. Of all people to support him, Amanda was the one I most expected to do so, but obviously, her new boyfriend's approval was more important than her brother. Eventually, more and more people stood. Lance sat down to show his disapproval of this plan. He sighed when no one else stood up. "All opposed?" I stood, along with Lance, Rose, and a few others. Kurt looked down and stayed seated. In fact, most of the performers didn't vote at all. Lance shook his head and announced. "It looks like we'll be using our old show for the tour in Canada. Everyone's dismissed."

Before I could even look over at him, Kurt was gone, smoke drifting lazily towards the roof of the tent. I sighed. Most of those who voted to use the show stared guiltily at his empty seat. Werner didn't even glance over, and it was obvious that Amanda was carefully avoiding looking anywhere near me. I, however, was not so courteous. I glared at her angrily before stalking out of the tent. I went to the trailer to wait. Kurt obviously wanted some alone time. He would be back when he was ready.