Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6
Finally arriving in Santiago’s room, I was surprised it wasn’t filled with clown items like balloons or streamers. It was pretty plain and only really had personal photos to decorate with. But he had plenty of photos, as they covered an entire section of his wall. It was him with every member of the circus. From Nikolai and Abby to even members I’d never seen before. Members I assumed had met the same fate that he and Nikoali had faced. Gripping the materials I’d brought close to my chest, I quickly laid them across the floor and began setting up the plan I had hatched.
Taking Izara’s advice into my plan I had to find a way to both ensure that Garibaldi fell asleep and that I could get past the shapeshifter. Setting out my map and props, I tried to think of a few ways that could ensure that I could escape. The idea of fighting Antonio one-on-one wasn’t viable after I had seen what he had done to Santiago and Nikolai. So I had to think of a plan that played to my strengths. The most important thing was to make sure the Garibaldi fell asleep. The fact that tonight would be a new moon probably ensured that he would be on high alert.
As I pondered on some ideas, I was interrupted by knocking. I held my breath as several more knocks quickly followed the first one. I was worried by what lay behind the door, but the French accent on the other side quickly dispelled some of the fear I had growing inside of me.
“You’d better open the door before they bash it down,” Mathieu said. I quickly shot up to my feet and opened the door. And was quickly tackled to the ground by the Aces. They all hugged me and clung to me. They had been worried for me after I had left breakfast in such a bad mood.
“Seems like you’ve been busy.” The Frenchman walked past me and the Aces and over to the crude map I’d laid out on the floor. I finally got the Aces off of me and quickly closed the door so we wouldn’t have any unwanted eyes on us.
“I’m planning on leaving tonight. It’s a new moon and it’s going to be my best chance.” I told him as the Aces followed me over to the map. All of them looked down at it inquisitively and moved the little monster Garibaldi model I had made around the map. I smiled a little at them and was glad that they could calm me down as much as they did.
“That’s probably for the best,” Mathieu said as he sat down on Santiago’s bed and tapped his cane on the floor. “I take it by the look on your face, you’re snagged on something?” He asked me, his voice muffled behind his barely held-together mask. I nodded and sighed as I knelt and took the Garibaldi model out of Club’s hands.
“I can’t figure out how to make sure he falls asleep tonight. Izara told me that he barely sleeps, and I figured tonight he isn’t going to sleep at all,” I explained to Mathieu. He nodded and tapped his fingers on his cane in thought.
“I’ve got something that could help.” He sighed and stood up from the bed with a pained grunt. He reached a gloved hand into his pocket and pulled out a prescription bottle. He tossed them over to me and I caught them in surprise. “My sleeping pills. I’m in pain constantly because of my condition so those help me sleep at night. Find a way to get him to take those and they should knock him out cold.”
I nodded and looked down at the bottle filled with pills. I could somehow get Garibaldi to eat them, the best way was to somehow get it into his food. Of course that was going to be difficult, but I at least had a way to ensure he fell asleep tonight.
“Thank you,” I told Mathieu to which he brushed it off and started heading towards the door to leave. As he reached the knob he stopped and turned back to look at me.
“It’s best for you if you run as far away as possible from here and don’t look back. If you dwell on it, it’ll be as if you never escaped.” With those words of advice, he opened the door and left me alone with the Aces. I looked down at them all because they were all staring up at me. I figured that they’d guess that I was running away and they were divided on how they should be feeling.
“I’m sorry you guys. I…have to leave.” I told them and all of them looked down at the floor in obvious sadness. All except Spades. He approached me and pulled down his long sleeve. I stared at the skeletal hand that stared back at me. It was bleached white and looked almost like a fake skeleton that they use in classrooms. But despite that, I didn’t take too much notice of that. Instead, I looked at the bag of marbles sitting in the skeletal hand.
“For me?” I asked Spades hesitantly. He nodded and extended his skeletal arm out further for me to take them. I reached out and took the bag. Opening them up I took a peek inside and saw that each marble had an ace symbol on them. I smiled and could feel tears welling up in my eyes as I closed the bag and reached out for a hug from them. They all quickly pounced on me and shoved themselves into me. I gave them all a tight hug and finally realized why all of them had felt so lightweight and thin. They were literal skeletons underneath their costumes. But that didn’t matter to me anymore.
They waved goodbye to me and as one final trick, they all held hands and formed a wheel to roll out of Santiago’s room. I couldn’t help but giggle at them and wave goodbye. Now with the means to ensure that Garibaldi would fall asleep, I had to tackle the problem of the shapeshifter. Knowing his power and what he was capable of, he was the next biggest obstacle to my escape. I somehow had to get him separated from Garibaldi and away from him.
I figured that while I was thinking about how to get the traitor out of the way, I decided to make my way to the kitchen to spike Garibaldi’s food with Mathieu’s sleeping pills. Slipping out of Santiago’s room I quickly closed the door behind me and started making my way down the halls. Before I got very far though I was quickly grabbed from behind and yanked into one of the spare rooms. I was about to bite down on whoever was grabbing me, but they suddenly let go of me. Spinning around to see who it was, I was relieved to see that it was Starla.
“You’re all better now,” I said thankfully, quickly wrapping my arms around her in a hug though being careful not to break her in half. She nodded and reached over to the table near us and handed me a glass jar with a lid screwed onto it. I stared at it and then looked back up at her. “What am I supposed to do with this?”
She pointed at the floor behind me. I looked at her and then followed where she was pointing. It took me a while to figure out what she was even pointing at since at first I figured that there was nothing there. Then I realized that she was pointing at my shadow. And that’s when I figured out that she was giving me the jar to trap the shapeshifter in.
“Can you…not talk anymore?” I asked her. She stared back at me from behind her mask and softly shook her head. I clenched my hands around the jar so much that I thought I was going to break it. It seemed like since I had joined the Freakshow I had only succeeded in getting other people hurt. Ezekiel, Santiago, Nikolai, and Starla. It all felt like it was my fault.
Before I continued down that line of thinking, however, Starla wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a hug. Although she couldn’t speak it made me feel like it was her way of telling me that it wasn’t my fault, that it was up to me to get out of here. I shoved my face into her differently colored torso and worded a teary apology to her.
She left the room first so we wouldn’t be seen leaving together. Garibaldi was probably already suspicious of her after she had told me to go into his office, so it was a good idea. I waited a few minutes before leaving with the jar and heading towards the big top. From there I quickly moved past Eva and Jasper as they practiced a new routine. They were so busy arguing with each other that they paid me no mind as I went into the room that led to the kitchen.
I’d never been back in the kitchen so I didn’t know exactly what to expect. It looked like any giant kitchen might look. Sort of like a diner’s kitchen just equipped with more items like an espresso maker and a deep frier and other appliances. I had to figure out what we were even eating tonight and which plate would be Garibaldi’s. As I started wandering around the kitchen I heard someone approaching from the big top and instantly started panicking. Thinking quickly I opened one of the ovens and crawled my way in. Just as I did so, I nearly let out a surprised shout as I saw something moving inside of the oven. It was that burnt piece of toast with human eyeballs inside of it. The eyes were looking in all directions and before I could even figure out which eye to look at, it quickly hissed at me and scurried out of the oven. I left the door open just enough to hear what was happening.
“If he tries to leave again I won’t go easy on him. That’s final.” Garibaldi’s hoarse voice entered the kitchen once the door finally swung open. His voice which was scratchy already beforehand was like nails on a chalkboard now after the injuries to the neck he had taken during his fight with Nikolai.
“Antonio, please. He’s only a child.” I heard Abigial’s pleading voice follow him into the kitchen. I took a peek from inside the oven and watched as she followed him. Her makeup was ruined by tears and it made me feel terrible for having hurt her feelings so badly.
“He knew the rules!” Garibaldi shouted, smashing his hand on the table next to him and sending silverware flying everywhere. “No one leaves the freakshow, and that’s final!” he screamed at her, sending him into a dry coughing fit into his hand. As he did this he chirped a few times and clutched his chest as he tried to gain composure over himself.
“I…understand,” Abigail said in defeat after a few minutes of silence broken only by Garibaldi’s wheezing breath and coughs. “I’ll start working on your dinner, sir.” She told him with a sigh. He didn’t say anything for a moment before turning to leave. I waited till I heard his steps leave the kitchen before emerging from the oven.
“Now do you get why I have to leave?” I asked her. She was startled by me and nearly dropped the bowl of flour that she had picked up from underneath the kitchen table. She stared at me and then over towards the kitchen doors almost like she was expecting him to come running in now that I had suddenly appeared.
“Benny…please don’t leave.” She tried to convince me again, but I could tell her heart wasn’t into it anymore. I think in that moment of Garibaldi’s anger and my desire to leave finally broke through to her that I had to leave. “What are you even doing in here?” She asked me after taking a few minutes to wipe the tears from her eyes.
“I was hoping to drug his food or something so that he goes to sleep,” I told her and reached into my pocket to show her the bottle of sleeping pills. She looked at me with surprise and was probably wondering where I’d even gotten the drugs in the first place. But she looked over at the items before her and then back at me.
“Putting them in his food won’t work. But maybe in his wine.” She told me as she reached out for the pills. I hesitated in giving her them as I still didn’t know if she was truly trying to help me escape. But that sad look in her eye told me that she did want me to escape. So I handed her the bottle and watched as she walked over to a nearby wine rack and picked out one of the bottles.
“I’ll pour him a glass laced with pills and then also spike the bottle for when he gets a refill. If the first glass doesn’t work then hopefully the next ones will do it.” She sat the bottle of wine next to her ingredients and sighed. It looked like it was physically painful for her to be doing this. Given how much she loved and cared for us all, it was hurting her. I fully climbed out of the oven and wrapped my arms around her and buried my face into her plush body.
“I wish you could’ve been my real mom,” I told her as I clutched her tightly. It was the truth. I truly did wish that she could’ve been my real mother. That started the tears again for both of us as she fell to the floor with me and we hugged and cried into each other for a few minutes.
“Go. Before I change my mind and beg you to stay,” she said after she finally pulled herself away from me. I nodded and quickly picked up my jar from the oven and exited the kitchen. I stopped only one last time to look back at her and wave goodbye. She did the same to me and I exited the kitchen.
The last obstacle that needed removing was the shapeshifter. As I walked back towards Santiago’s room I entered and closed the door behind me. While I thought about how to trap him I looked again at all the photos that Santiago had on his wall and one of them caught my eye. I plucked it from the wall and looked down at it. It was one of Nikolai and Santiago looking at each other with nothing but fun and enjoyment with each other.
“I’m sorry you guys…” I told the picture as if they could hear me from behind the photo. Taking the photo with me I looked around Santiago’s room some more and found one of the hats that Santiago wore. Along with that, I found a couple of knives in his wardrobe which no doubt had come from Nikolai. There was one last thing I had to do before I could escape. Taking the items I again left Santiago’s room, this time for the last time.
Sneaking out into the open air I walked some distance from the tents and knelt in the grass. Taking out one of Nikolai’s knives I plunged it into the dirt and put Santiago’s hat on top of it. I gathered a few rocks and used them to prop up the photo of the two against the knife. I didn’t know what Garibaldi had done to their bodies but I doubted that he would give them a proper burial. So I decided to do it myself.
“You guys made me feel like I belonged here. And when I needed you guys most…you were there.” I whimpered as tears started falling from my eyes again. “I’ll miss you guys so much,” I told them and I kissed my finger and tapped the picture of the two of them. With my final goodbye to them said, I headed back into the tent and straight to my room. I started packing a few things, though I didn’t exactly have anything to take with me from my arrival. I packed some paper and pencils a couple of snacks and the bag of marbles the Aces had given me. I looked over at my desk and noticed a book had been left there.
I walked over to it and saw that it was an English-to-French dictionary with a note attached to it. “For the boy who defies fate.” It was signed by Izara. It seemed that everyone in the Freakshow wanted me to escape. And I was sure that I would get away from here with all their help. As I tucked the book into my bag an idea suddenly popped into my head. I grabbed the jar and looked over to the door to my room. If I didn’t attend dinner, Garibaldi would have to send someone to come and fetch me. And if he suspected anybody of trying to help me he would only send one thing to come and get me.
I finished packing and quickly hunkered with the jar next to the door and waited. I could hear people walking around outside when dinner time finally arrived. But I didn’t move an inch from my position and continued to stare at the gap in the door from the floor. I don’t think I’ve ever waited so patiently for something like that in my life and I sometimes wonder if I fell asleep sometime in the middle of it, but suddenly I heard footsteps that didn’t seem to belong to a person. They sounded more like the pitter-patter of a dog.
The shapeshifter arrived at my door and stopped in front of it. He took a few minutes to sniff at my door and even tried clawing at it after a while. I held my breath as I slowly opened the jar and held it out in front of me for the right moment. That moment soon came when I heard the unmistakable sound of him transforming into something. Suddenly a spider emerged from under the door and I swooped in to quickly shove it into the jar. As quickly as I could, I slammed the lid on top of the jar and spun it shut.
“I got you,” I said with glee and a big heap of malice in my voice. This thing had pretended to have been my friend this whole time, and all the while it had spied on me and relayed that information to Garibaldi. And now I had him captured. The shapeshifter stared at me with all his spider eyes for a moment before he dissolved into a puddle and suddenly started growing larger. It was there that it occurred to me that he could simply grow into something bigger and just break out of the jar. I began to panic as he grew and began to shake the jar, and yet he didn’t break through. In fact, he couldn’t break through. He tried several more times before he gave up and returned to a spider form.
“It’s magic.” I marveled at the jar. Try as he might he couldn’t break out of the jar and with his capture, my escape plan was finally set and prepared. I walked over to my bed and sat with the jar in my hands. I wanted to say so many things to the shapeshifter and yet I decided saying nothing to him was better. I watched him try in vain to escape and I’ll give him props for stubbornness because for several hours he bashed his head against the jar in whatever form he could think of.
When night finally came I still decided to wait. I didn’t know how long the sleeping pills would take to affect Garibaldi so I figured waiting some more would only help me in my endeavor. I had to find ways to stop myself from falling asleep since several times throughout the night I could feel myself drifting off. Needless to say, slapping yourself hard is a pretty good way of staying awake. I looked over at the clock on my wall and saw that it was 2:30 in the morning. It was now or never.
I picked up the jar and stared down at the shapeshifter. He had exhausted himself and was lying down as a little black mouse with red eyes. I took a deep breath and sat him down on my bed. “Bye.” Was all I told him as he frantically again tried to escape from the jar. I opened the door and exited my room for the last time. The tent was completely pitch black so for a minute I stood in the hallway till my eyes adjusted to the darkness. When I could finally see the outlines of things, I started making my way towards the big top.
The entire Freakshow was quieter than a cemetery and I felt like if I made even the slightest bit of noise it would alert everyone to my escape. So I tied my backpack close to me and kept walking forward as silently as I could, every time I made even the slightest noise I froze in place and waited to see if I could hear anything suddenly coming my way. Finally I managed to make it to the big top. It felt like it had taken an hour and I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had taken even longer, but I could see the exit just across the giant tent.
Before I could make those steps towards freedom though I was suddenly blinded as every single light in the big top suddenly lit up. I shielded my eyes in pain as it felt like my eyeballs were going to melt right out of their sockets. When at last I felt like I could bear to lower my hands I did and I felt like I might throw up right there.
“Buonoasera, Benny!” Garibaldi’s hoarse voice greeted me as I finally adjusted to the bright lights of the big top. A combination of electric and gas lamps were used to light up the entire tent and after coming from the pitch black it felt like being on the surface of the sun. “Cute trick you did there, slipping those pills into my wine.” He chuckled as I noticed that the bandages were removed from his face and he appeared to be completely healed, only a nasty scar was left behind where Nikolai had stabbed him.
“I guess it didn’t work, huh?” I said as I reached into my pocket and pulled out the other knife I had taken from Santiago’s room and held it out in front of me like it was a sword. Garibaldi gave me a sad chuckle and started approaching me. I took a few steps back as he did and he seemed crushed by that action.
“You want to leave too, don’t you?” He sighed, removing his hat and running his fingers through his long white hair. “You know…when I told you how me and Lucille wanted to make a family it was the truth. I truly did want a family with her, and when I couldn’t I did the next best thing. But every time it seems like I just lose the people I love so much,” he said with a pained sigh. It would have been almost believable if I hadn’t seen him eat two of the people he considered a part of his ‘family’.
“Is that why you also ate Lucille? Is that how you treat your family?” I asked him, gripping the knife tightly and trying to act like it was some kind of protection against him. My words caught him off guard as the pained look on his face suddenly turned into one of anger.
“Do you think I wanted to do that to her?! She was the love of my life! I tried so hard to keep this curse from harming her and yet I couldn’t!” he shouted at me, stomping his foot on the floor so hard he split open his facial scar and revealed the teeth hidden inside it. “You try controlling a curse like this and then tell me how you like it!” He chirped as he tried to get himself under control.
“I saw all those people in Santiago’s picture wall. A lot of people I’ve never seen here. You ate them too didn’t you?” I asked him. Staring as he was losing his temper at me. “You never cared about any of us, you’re nothing but a monster,” I told him which suddenly got me a slash across the cheek by his clawed hands.
“You’re right about one thing, Benny.” Garibaldi chirped as his humanity faded and the mantis began to take over. “I am a monster.” He cackled as he lunged at me in full mantis form. I scurried away and onto the benches where the crowd usually sits. He hopped over me and was suddenly again in front of me swinging with his claws. I quickly ducked and at last, noticed that I was bleeding from the claw slash he’d given me earlier.
Remembering something Santiago had taught me I quickly curled into a ball and rolled under him as he slashed again and just barely missed me. Underneath him, I tried stabbing up into his abdomen but my little stab wasn’t enough to pierce his exoskeleton and he simply hopped away, fluttering his massive wings and blowing me into some more benches. Now separated a bit from him I quickly reached into my backpack for something that might help me. I didn’t get much time as the mantis jumped back over and took a few more swipes at me, which I managed to block with my backpack.
The only thing I had managed to grab was the bag of marbles and it didn’t seem like these could help me in any way. I tried picking up some broken pieces of bench for another weapon besides the knife but all of them were too heavy for me to lift. It felt increasingly like I wasn’t going to make it out alive. As I was running away from him and he continued to swipe at me, I suddenly got an idea as I stared down at the bag of marbles in my hand.
Using my knife I quickly cut open the bag of marbles and allowed them to spill out onto the big top’s floor. Garibaldi hadn’t been expecting that as he stepped over the mass of falling marbles and suddenly began to wobble and lose his balance. Before he could fully regain it I stopped and turned around running back at him and using my backpack as a sort of mini shield and slamming myself against the giant mantis. That sent him tumbling over and onto his back and I watched with a smile as he thrashed and screeched around on the floor. He swiped and flung every appendage that he could to try and get himself back on his legs.
As he thrashed around and screeched he knocked into the main tent pole of the big top. And knocked over a bunch of the kerosene lamps that hung from it. In a matter of seconds, they landed on the floor and broke open unleashing a blazing inferno. I stared in horror and watched as Garibaldi continued to thrash uncontrollably and knocked into the main pole again, causing it to snap and break.
With the tent on fire and collapsing I turned around and started running. I dropped the knife and sprinted towards the big top’s entrance. I reached it and took one last look back to see that Garibaldi was pinned beneath the big top’s main tentpole as the entire structure began to catch fire around him. Satisfied that he couldn’t follow after me I ran off into the darkness of the French countryside and didn’t once look back towards the burning inferno that the Freakshow had become.
I ran until the sun at last started to rise. I collapsed on the side of the road and was soon taken to a French police station. With the help of the dictionary, I came up with some sort of excuse to tell them. That I was from America and that I had been kidnapped. And before I knew it I was back in the States. Instead of returning to my abusive father, I learned that my mother had worked up the courage to leave him. She was given sole custody of me and I stayed with her and my grandparents.
It’s haunted me for years, not knowing if anyone survived that fire. Although my time in the freakshow was short-lived, I cared deeply for every member, cherishing the memories I made with the first people who loved me. However, as I got older I’d forgotten all about the freakshow. They seemed like nothing more than a distant memory or a simple dream. That was until a few months ago when I received an intricate red envelope in the mail. Inside it was a note that read,
‘Benny! Or should I say, Benjamin? It’s so good to see that you managed to return to the US. I must say, long hair does suit you. I almost didn’t recognize you at first when I laid eyes on you again. Glasses, facial hair, and even a smoker. Almost like you’re trying to hide from me. I’m sure you’ve forgotten about me, but I’m sure this little trinket will jog your memory. See ya soon~’ Signed A.G.
I stared at the letter and suddenly felt my hand shiver uncontrollably as I dug into the envelope further and pulled out a golden praying mantis lapel. The same one that Garibaldi wore on all of his suits. I allowed it to fall to the floor and looked around in terror.
He’d survived.