"𝐂𝐢𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐬"

𝟑𝟒. "𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐥"

★ Grace P.O.V. ★

Jerome forced Bruce and me into a van, but he didn't tell us where we were going. He said I knew the spot, but I had no idea what he meant by that. I didn't want to ask him about it. I didn't want to talk to him at all. And so I sat as far away from him as was possible. Bruce was right by my side, and Jerome was glaring at us from the other side of the car.

"I'm really sorry about this, Bruce." I whispered to the boy.

"It's fine. It's not your fault." He whispered back. I chuckled humourlessly.

"Maybe. But I'm still going along with it, right?"

"Well, what else can you do? He's going to kill you too if you try anything." He glared at the ginger.

Jerome's face filled with rage, but before he could say anything, the car stopped. He grinned maliciously, grabbed a black sack from the floor, came up to Bruce and me and lowered himself to our level.

"This is a surprise for both of you, but I'm just going to bag you." He told Bruce, pulled the fabric over his head and forced him to his feet. I shook my head and looked at the floor.

"Well, get up, Thumbelina. I would hate to have to put a gun on you too." He rasped to me and pushed my curls behind my ear. I swatted his hand and jumped to my feet.

"Don't touch me." I growled and pointed my finger at him.

"You're ballsy." He grinned and raised his eyebrows. I scoffed and folded my arms on my chest.

"You're not as scary as you think." I hissed. He tilted his head and handed Bruce over to one of his followers.

"Maybe not. But the guns should scare you."

"There isn't one on me."

"There could be." He squinted at me. I copied him.

"And then what? You're going to kill the only person around who isn't a mindless sycophant? I'm sure that will be fun for you." I forced a grin, walked past him and hopped out of the van.

Everywhere around me, Jerome's lunatics were running around, screaming and shooting guns at the sky. And they were all heading to a door shaped like a clown's face. I started having a pretty good idea as to where we were going. Suddenly the ginger stepped right next to me and looked down at me with cocked eyebrows.

"If you're so mindful, where does that lead?" He pointed to the clown. I inhaled deeply and pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Your mum." I grumbled and began striding forward.

"Good one." He giggled and quickly caught up to me.

"You knew her, didn't you?" He grinned down at me.

"Sad to say." I sighed. He let out a few croaky chuckles.

Then we finally passed the clown's mouth and entered a carnival, just like the ones Jerome and I used to live in back in the day. Only that one was completely swarmed by psychopaths. They were all running around and torturing people purely for their own amusement.

Jerome took a few steps away from Bruce and me, leaned on a steel railing and began watching me as I looked around. I shook my head to compose myself, turned to Wayne and smoothly pulled the bag off his head. His eyes widened with surprise, and then they swiftly shot down at my face.

"I'm right here. Just look around. That's what he wants." I whispered to him. He nodded, rubbed his eyes and started staring at the chaos around us.

"Get him! Squash her!" Jerome called suddenly and pointed to a whack-a-mole game.