Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 7
The three of us stared at Garibaldi in horror as he continued transforming in front of us. I got a horrible feeling that this was where I was going to end up dying. But instead of immediately attacking us in a frenzy, Garibaldi grabbed me and Santiago by the arms and pulled us close to him as the small mantis legs burst from his abdomen.
“We’re going to talk in my office, you two.” His voice was distorted and a bit hard to understand. Nikolai tried to say something but before he could, Garibaldi snapped his head to look at him and let out a few chirps, which sufficiently shut him up as he dragged me and Santiago away towards his office.
Despite the fact we both struggled against his pulling of us, he easily dragged us aboard the train and towards his office car. When we arrived, he shoved us into the office and entered behind us, closing the door and putting himself between us and it.
“You two think you can just up and leave?!” he screamed at us as his horrifying transformation continued. His hands began to stretch out along with his neck as it looked like he was being stretched out like a piece of bubblegum. The mantis legs in his abdomen also grew larger along with him as he started moving closer to us.
“You can’t just leave this family! I gave you everything you could ever want! And now you’re just going to up and leave?!” He screeched and chirped as the scar on his face opened up completely and replaced his original mouth with a maw of sharp teeth. His hands completely morphed into mantis claws and any semblance of humanity began to disappear from him. With his transformation nearly complete, he began approaching me, and any ability he had to speak English completely removed and replaced with clicking and chirping.
“B-Benny,” Santiago spoke to me softly. I looked over at him and expected him to start saying goodbye to me. But instead, I watched as he grabbed one of the heavy mantis statues from Garibaldi’s desk. “Run!” he shouted at me as he threw the statue as hard as he could at the giant mantis. It landed with a loud thud against his head and got a loud screech from him. The last few traces of humanity slipped away from Garibaldi as he was completely transformed into a giant mantis.
Santiago quickly pushed me out of the way as Garibaldi jumped at the two of us, his giant wings flapping as he landed on his desk and slashed down at the two of us with his claws. I landed on the floor with a thud and quickly looked up to see if Santiago had made it. With his pigeon toes, I was afraid that he wouldn’t be able to move away from Garibaldi’s attacks. But to my surprise, I watched as the clown effortlessly backflipped away from the mantis.
“Benny, get out of here! Quickly!” he shouted at me as he picked up a chair from the floor and threw it at Garibaldi. That was the last straw for him as he quickly turned his attention towards Santiago and jumped at him, slashing downward at the clown as he effortlessly began backflipping away from the bug’s attacks. Acting quickly I ran to the door and tried to turn the knob, only to find it locked from the other side somehow. I was trapped in there.
“It’s locked!” I shouted at him, turning just in time to dodge a flying couch that crashed into the wall next to me. Santiago stared over at me with worry before again dodging a swing from Garibaldi who was getting frustrated at the clown for his effortless dodging. Santiago quickly grabbed a broken chair leg from the floor and held it in his hand, pulling down his long sleeves to be able to get a better grip on it.
When Garibaldi lunged at him, the clown swung the chair leg as hard as he could at the mantis. A sickening ‘thwack’ echoed across the room as Garibaldi’s mantis head split open and blood began pouring from his wound. He staggered around before falling to the floor with a loud thud. Santiago quickly followed this up with several more bashes to the head.
After he had given Garibaldi a few more hard whacks he dropped the chair leg and panted softly. Quickly he started to waddle over to me and began to check on me like I had just been in some horrible accident. With all he had just done he probably should’ve been the one being checked up on.
“Are you okay?” He finally asked me after manually inspecting me. I nodded at him and quickly pointed at the door.
“Santi! Benny! Are you two okay?!” Nikolai asked from the other side of the door as he banged on it. The two of us quickly looked over at the door and quickly sat up to go and meet the Russian. Santiago grabbed the doorknob twisted it and confirmed what I had told him about the door being locked.
“Niki! The door’s locked on our side! Can you get it-” Before Santiago could finish Garibaldi’s claw pierced through his stomach. I turned slowly to look at him. He looked down at the claw in horror and Garibaldi lifted him off the floor and up toward his mouth. I let out a loud pained scream at seeing the best friend I’d made at the Freakshow hurt and most likely fatally so.
The door broke off its hinges as Nikolai burst in after using his metal leg to bust it down. And he too stared in horror as his friend was impaled by the mantis. Before Garibaldi could do anything else to Santiago though he suddenly staggered on his four legs, the damage that Santiago had given him had not been for nothing. He let Santiago fall from his claw and staggered back from us as he grabbed his bleeding head with his claws.
Santiago landed on the floor with a loud crack and a pained wheeze. Like his ribs at been broken along with the gaping hole in his gut. Nikolai quickly ran to him and dropped to his knees, clutching him in his arms, and tried to stop the bleeding with his hands. Santiago turned to me and I watched him reach an arm out towards me.
“R-run…” he croaked out as his arm dropped to the floor and he let out a pained croak-filled breath. Nikolai stared down at him and began clutching his limp body in his arms. He gave Santiago one last hug before he set his limp body down on the floor. He pulled out a long bowie knife from his back pocket and stood up.
“Get out of here kid.” He told me, as he started to approach Garibaldi before running full sprint towards the disorientated mantis. Just as he was about to plunge his knife into the mantis though, Garibaldi smacked him away with his claws and sent the Russian crashing into the wall and into a pile of destroyed furniture.
Before I could stand up to run, the mantis jumped over to me and landed on top of me, pinning me to the floor and screeching at me as he leaned down his mandibles opening and closing as drool and blood dripped down from his head onto me. I lifted my arms to my face to shield myself from the horrible death I was about to receive before I suddenly found myself able to move.
Nikolai had recovered and had managed to climb onto Garibaldi like a horse. He plunged his giant knife into the mantis’ neck. Garibaldi let out a gurgled and pained screech as more blood began to pour out of his wound. Nikolai pulled out the knife and was about to plunge it back in, when Garibaldi dropped to the floor and rolled around. Nikolai was knocked from him and I stared in horror as Garibaldi grabbed him with both claws and brought him up to his head.
Nikolai shouted and screamed in Russian just before Garibaldi brought his head into his mouth and began to tear it from him. Nikolai screamed as his head was being removed from him. His voice distorted as his tendons and bones snapped and his head was completely removed from his shoulders. Garibaldi didn’t even bother eating Nikolai, instead just letting his lifeless body and his head fall to the floor.
Finally, I stood up and began running out of the office. I was crying uncontrollably and just wanted to get out of there any way I could. So I ran out into the train corridor and started running towards the door when I ran into someone at full speed and knocked the both of us to the floor.
“What the hell-” Mathieu was about to ask. I looked up at him and noticed that his destroyed mask was barely held together by a few pieces of duct tape. He looked down at me and then over toward Garibaldi’s office. The mantis was crawling on all his appendages out of his office and towards us. And I thought for sure that Mathieu was about to feed me to Garibaldi when I felt him clutch me close to me. “Hang on kid.” He said as he quickly searched his pocket and pulled out a deck of cards. Just as Garibaldi began lunging towards us, Mathieu bent his deck of cards and allowed them all to fly out of his hand and cover us.
And suddenly we were in a different train car. I looked around in terror, panting uncontrollably and about to have a complete meltdown when four familiar masked faces all looked down at me and Mathieu. I was with the Aces in their train car. Seeing my obvious distress they all quickly crowded around me and Mathieu.
“That was close.” The Frenchman sighed as he let me go and used his cane to stand up. The Aces quickly replaced him as they all quickly crowded around me and gave me hugs and pats on the head. “You’ll be safe here. My magic is hopefully enough to keep him at bay. And the Aces can double as bodyguards,” he told me as he sat down on the mattress that all the Aces shared together.
“I-I have to get out of here,” I whimpered him, tears still streaming down my face as I quickly stood up and tried to make it to the door. But Mathieu lowered his cane between me and the door. I tried in vain to get past him. My hand was grabbed from behind and I turned quickly to see Spades staring up at me and vigorously shaking his head.
“That isn’t a good idea right now,” Mathieu told me. “The way he is right now he might just kill all of us.” The illusionist leaned his head back and softly banged it against the train wall. “I’ll have to call his voodoo friend. He’s the only person who can possibly calm him down when he gets like that,” he said, grunting as he stood up.
“D-do you know how to reach him?” I asked him, as Clubs and Spades softly patted my head. I could feel like I was about to have a total breakdown but I didn’t want to do that in front of Mathieu. I just wanted to be alone, or at least alone with the Aces.
“I have his phone number for Starla related emergencies.” He sighed, walking over to the door. “I’m going to go call him and hopefully he can stop him before he rampages. Stay here with the Aces and try to get some sleep. Judging by the look in your eyes, you saw something really bad.” He said, before opening to door and leaving me alone with the Aces.
Finally left alone with the Aces I stood up and walked over to their bed. Climbing on top of it and being quickly followed by them, I curled up into a ball and began to cry uncontrollably for the loss of my two friends. The Aces quickly all huddled around me and formed a protective layer around me as I cried uncontrollably and deeply into my hands.
I must have fallen asleep there with the Aces because the next thing I remember is waking up in a cold sweat with a surprised gasp. Clutching my chest I looked around and desperately hoped that what had happened had been a dream, some horrible nightmare. It was a nightmare alright but it wasn’t a dream in any sense. I was in the bed with the Aces and Mathieu was sitting on a train bench next to the bed.
“You’re still alive.” he told me, rolling his cane around in his hands and staring at the floor. I looked down and saw that the Aces were still asleep and that all of them were still crowded around me. I sighed and rubbed the dried-up tears off of my eyes. “Breakfast is about to be served. You need to eat something.” Mathieu said as he stopped fiddling with his cane and used it to push himself up to his feet.
“I don’t want to,” I told him. All I wanted was to curl up in this bed and never leave. I had a horrible feeling that Nikolai and Santiago had died because of me. I was pulled out of that destructive line of thought by Mathieu putting his hand on my head.
“I know you don’t want to. But you have to, otherwise, you’ll never be able to live it down.” He explained to me and offered me his hand. I took a shaky breath and grabbed it. I squeezed it and he nodded as he helped me out of the bed, the Aces barely moving at all. “Don’t worry about them. They don’t need to eat.” He told me as he held my hand and we started to make our way towards the table where we all ate together.
Everyone was there except for Garibaldi and of course my two dead friends. Even Starla was there, all fixed up and staring down at the meal that had been placed in front of her. I let go of Mathieu’s hand and took my spot at the table, staring down at the pancakes in front of me and trying my best to try and eat at least a nibble of it.
“Where are those two?” Eva asked suddenly, tsking in annoyance as she yanked on Jasper’s hair as she helped him tie it into a ponytail. He winced in pain and nudged her back with an elbow to her side for doing so. “Hey street trash, you’re their best friend, where the hell are they?” hhe asked me after she had gotten done tying Jasper’s ponytail.
I stared down at my pancakes and just let my fork fall onto the plate. I couldn’t do anything except start crying my eyes out again. I think that was enough to clue everyone in at the table what had happened to Nikolai and Santiago. The mood quickly dampened with that and it got worse when Garibaldi arrived at the table. Looking up from my pancakes I saw that Santiago and Nikolai had done a number on him in their final moments.
His face and neck were bandaged and bruised badly, with blood quickly seeping into the bandages. Every breath he took was followed by a whistling wheeze of air escaping the stab wound in his neck. He took a seat across from me and I could feel those multicolored eyes of his staring deep into my soul. I stared at my pancake for a few more minutes, just not moving while everyone around me ate their food in silence.
Finally, I pushed my chair away from the table and silently started making my way toward my room. Garibaldi was about to say something to me, probably yell at me for leaving the table unexcused but his voice was barely above a whisper and it was followed by a violent coughing fit. I didn’t bother to turn around to look at him, electing instead to just go to my room.
Once there I quickly shut the door and locked it behind me. Sitting down on my bed I looked over at my desk, almost expecting my shapeshifter to be there. But then I remembered him being on Garibaldi’s shoulder. He’d disappeared after I had run away from Tony’s office and when Santiago and I had started talking about leaving. He hadn’t been my friend at all. He’d been a spy. How else had Garibaldi learned about why I’d run away from home? I curled up my fists tightly and felt like smashing them against any surface I could.
But instead, I closed my eyes and let out a long breath after counting down from ten. Anger wasn’t going to get me anywhere. So I decided to make a place. I walked over to the art station that Garibaldi had provided for me in this room and quickly began to work on a way that I could escape the Freakshow.
Grabbing construction paper and crayons I began drawing out the layout for the Freakshow. The Big Top, the train, our living quarters, the tents outside for the twins, Izara and Mac’nCheese. I also drew out myself along with a monster Garibaldi and the traitor shapeshifter. Thinking it over I started trying to work out ways to escape.
Being that we were still in France it’d be a gamble if I could even survive in a foreign country without knowing the language or having money. But anything was better than being a prisoner here. I thought about just avoiding Garibaldi until we had to board the train. Then either book it before we boarded or jump off the train once we got going. Both had massive flaws of course. One was that it was unlikely that Garibaldi would allow me to go that long without coming into contact with him. And the fact I still had no idea how the train worked. I mean it didn’t require tracks to move on and somehow we’d gone from the US to France in a train.
Those ideas were scrapped as I tried to think of a few more scenarios. A quick thought was put towards maybe enlisting members of the Freakshow to aid in my escape. But after losing Santiago and Nikolai I refused to put anybody else’s life in danger. None of my ideas seemed to be working out. And just as my frustration grew I heard a soft knock at my door.
“Benny, dear?” Abigail’s soft and sad voice came from the hallway. She was the last person I wanted to talk to at this moment except maybe Garibaldi of course. Despite not wanting to see her, I stood up and walked over to the door and unlocked it, before walking back over to my desk and starting to think of another way to escape.
Abigail walked into my room and I heard her set down a plate of what I assumed was food she wanted me to eat. But I had no intention of eating anything and I just continued scribbling off ideas that could possibly get me to safety and away from the Freakshow.
“Sweetheart…please don’t leave.” She begged of me. Walking over to me but remaining a respectful distance from me. “I can’t bare to see you leave too. Santi and Niki are gone…and I can’t bare the thought of losing you to,” she said through tears of her own. I clutched the crayon I was using in my fists and winced when it snapped in half. This simple act of inflicting accidental pain on my crayon caused me to start crying as well. But I did my best to keep it silent.
“Evey person in this circus is like a child to me, Benny. And I can’t bare to lose another person. Especially you. Please don’t leave us,” she begged, and reached out to touch me. I quickly grabbed all the materials I’d been using and quickly walked past her with my head kept down. Walking as quickly as I could and out of my room despite Abigail’s pleas to remain. I had to leave her there because if I didn’t I knew that I’d most likely agree to stay.
I elected to try and plan in Santiago’s room. The fact he wouldn’t be there to greet me would hopefully be enough to get me to focus on my escape attempt. Before I reached his room however I ran into Izara. She stared down at me with her single eye and I was about to wordlessly walk past her when she lowered her hand down to me and revealed she was holding another emerald necklace. I reached to my neck to check on the previous one that I was wearing and discovered that the jewel had been broken.
“A new charm you require.” She said to me. I nodded and took it from her. I looked up at her and saw that she had the same pained expression I imagined that I had as well. “The mantis revealed itself to you. And now you wish to escape it’s claws.” She got down on her knees and reached her hands out to hold my face in them. She wiped my tears away from my eyes with her thumbs.
“Can you help me?” I asked her, clutching the good luck charm she’d given me into my chest. She looked into my eyes and nodded. She quickly looked around to make sure no one was around before bringing me in close to whisper into my ear.
“A moonless night it shall be. The Mantis does not sleep much. His spy will surely be on the hunt, but by sneaking through the giant flower’s petals. You may have a chance.” She told me before letting go of my face and standing up to her feet. Tussling my hair, she quickly left down the hallway and left me to think over what she’d just told me.
It would be a new moon tonight. Garibaldi doesn’t sleep much and the shapeshifter would be spying on me. But if I was able to sneak out from the big top I’d stand a chance. Armed with this knowledge I nodded and quickly started making my way towards Santiago’s room. Fully prepared to work on a plan that would save me from falling into the mantis’s claws again.