• "Oh, you're here, you're here!"

    The speaker - unseen by the excited crowd in the stands - boomed the message across the dimly lit circus tents. Two spotlight swung around, providing the only obvious source of light. The crowd watched in anticipation as the two points of light gave enticing glances at the still darkened stage.

    "Tonight, well be showing the sad fate that some of this world carry."

    The spotlights began to zoom across the audience, as if searching for targets. For a moment, they seemed to stop over a teenaged girl with dark hair, but it was only for a fraction of a second before they began to wander again. Music began to start in the tent, and if anyone in the crowd had been speaking, they immediately quieted. The voice continued to speak in a sing song tone, as if speaking a children's rhyme.

    "Children that God has abandoned, restlessly creeping out. Children who cant even carry the trembling limbs they were born with. Their shaking tongues even accidentally cry out."

    Somebody in the crowd screamed, appropriate to the line. As far as everybody knew this was a planned thing - perhaps somebody had just been planted into the audience. The dark-haired girl glanced around, as if trying to spot this fake audience member, but she was left disappointed. It was her brother who noticed the reason for the scream - but surely his eyes had been decieving him...

    "The crowns of their head that caress the dark clouds. They smile as they dream of their mothers embrace. Oh, the deformity!"

    Both of the teens stiffened involuntarily - the music had come to a hault, and the announcer, still unseen, declared:

    "DEFORMITY!"

    With that, the spotlights both converged onto an awful sight. At first glance, it seemed to be a simple clown with his hair and make-up done up, but upon closer look, it was evident that his mouth had been stitched together and that his eyes were nothing but hollow sockets. There was a collective gasp from the crowd, and a few people screamed.

    However, if the clown paid this any notice, he did not show it, and he began a simple juggling routine in complete silence, apart from the occasional "thump" of a woman fainting from fear. The siblings, however, remained on the edge of their seats. They did not even think to feel pity for this poor man - he was in the circus, wasn't he? Surely he was having a wonderful time.

    The other acts of the deformed circus went rather the same way - next was a mysterious woman with a lovely singing voice who seemed to have a beak and many feathers grafted onto her body. Then was a man who had several arms sprouting from his back, which swayed eerily as he stomped around, glaring at the crowd. After that came what seemed to be a woman covered in hair from head-to-foot - a twist on the bearded woman concept, evidentally. The second-to-last act was perhaps the most disappointing of all. All it involved was a timid-looking little girl who, while certainly hideously deformed(she lacked arms, and below her torso seemed to be more snake than human) didn't really do anything other than stare at the crowd with dinner plates for eyes.

    If the siblings hadn't known better, they might have guessed she was crying. But they were far away and, after all, why would she be crying? She was deformed, of course, but surely the circus was the best place to be for a child such as her. She should have been excited, happy. Not crying, at any rate.

    However, the last act did not disappoint. The ring master himself came onto stage and did an act of his own - so marvelous it could hardly be put into words. But it was flashy, fantastic -- hypnotising, even. His was the only preformance for which the crowd applauded instead of jeering and laughing as they had done with the others.

    But he deserved it.

    The audience was abuzz with excitement as it left the stands. The siblings stayed behind just a little longer, the girl being under the impression that there might be some sort of after show that one could only see by staying a bit later.

    "Wouldn't it be fun to be in the circus?" she asked after a few minutes of waiting alone. Her brother looked at her with an eyebrow raised.

    "You want extra arms growing out of your back?" he asked, incredulous. She laughed.

    "Well, obviously not," she said, grinning. "But I mean... an actual circus. With clowns and acrobats and stuff. You know, I think you'd make a great clown. You've got the nose for it..."

    Her brother hit her playfully, knowing she was joking. "Well, I'm sure you could join this one if you truly wanted to," he said, a grin on his face as well. "You're certainly deformed enough; I'm sure they'd take you."

    The two joked like this for a few minutes more, but eventually determined that there was no special preformance for those who stayed behind. It was also not entirely enjoyable to be waiting in a big, empty circus tent in the middle of the night, especially considering some of the creatures that might have appeared from behind the tent flaps.

    The boy simply knew he didn't want the hairy woman finding him. There had been something about her that had seemed... off. So it was with eagerness that he led his sister away and back out of the circus tent. They weren't supposed to be there anyways - they had needed to sneak out of the house in order to see the circus that night. He would be happy to get home and just go to sleep, even if the awful deformities decided to plague his dreams. He was just so tired...

    However, fate had other plans.

    "Hold up," the sister said, stopping just as they were about to leave the grounds. The brother turned with a frown. He just wanted to get out of there...

    "What is it?" he asked, making it clear he wanted to keep walking

    "I... I think I left my purse back in the stands. I need to go back and get it. Come with me?" she begged, pouting. He looked at the tents, still not far enough away to calm his nerves.

    "Get it yourself," he said, deciding that his own fears outweighed her purse at the moment. When he saw her abashed look, however, he added, "I'll wait right here. Don't worry, I'm not going to just leave you here. Mom and Dad would have a fit..."

    She frowned a bit, but seemed to agree that this was at least acceptable. "Fine. But you better wait. If you don't, I'll make friends with that hairy lady and send her after you." He laughed nervously, realizing it was supposed to be a joke. She simply smirked and stormed off, back in the direction of the tents.

    The brother continued to wait for his sister, watching until she finally disappeared behind a flap of the big top. He tried to envision her walking back up to the stands, searching for her purse, finding it, and then walking back down the steps, simply to work out how long it would take her. However, she didn't reappear when she should have. The boy told himself to remain calm. Maybe he was underestimating how long it would take to actually refind their seats in the stands. Maybe the purse had fallen in a hard-to-reach spot. Maybe it had been stolen, so she was looking for something that wasn't even there...

    However, as time ticked away, each of these options seemed less and less likely. He felt his heart begin to pound in his chest. Surely nothing had happened; the tent was empty.

    Movement caught his eye, and the brother turned. To his shock, he found the many-armed man standing in front of him, giving him an irritated look.

    "You gotta get out of here, kid," the deformed preformer said, glancing around as though he were doing something illegal. "If they find you, you're dead meat." The brother stood there, mouth agape. He wasn't sure if he was simply shocked by the appearance of the man or by what he was saying - both were quite alarming.

    "But my sister-" he started.

    "Is probably already a lost cause," the man interrupted him. "But there's still a chance for you, kid. Go back home to your parents. At least then they'll only lose one kid tonight instead of two."

    "But I told her-"

    "Forget what you told her!" the man interrupted him yet again, seeming angry. "Trust me, she doesn't want you following her where she's going." The brother stood there for a moment, still not completely over his shock. He needed to find his sister and get her out of the tent before it was too late... or was it already too late? Had "they" found her already?

    It didn't matter. He had to take the chance. He could never live with himself otherwise...

    The boy turned and ran in the direction of the circus tent, but the many-armed man made no move to stop him. He tried to think of reasons why they would possibly want his sister. Surely they wouldn't use her as an actual attraction - she wasn't deformed like the others were. Maybe one of the attractions was actually a cannibal... Or they were strange religous cultists... Perhaps she was a human sarcrifice

    When he reached the tent flap, however, he paused, hearing voices. He peeked in through the small gap in the cloth, trying to get a good glance without revealing his location to whoever was inside. What little he could make out was that his sister was there, though it looked as though - and he shuddered at this thought - she were tied up and gagged by the woman's hair.

    "What a lovely catch." This was the ring master's voice - the brother still recognized it from the man's preformance. "I'm sure she will make a lovely addition if she's ready. Oh, but what to do with her..." Through his small window of sight, the brother could make out that the ring master was stroking her cheek. The boy felt a surge of fury flow through his body - how dare the man treat his sister like a piece of meat?

    It was with great effort that he did not move himself. He reminded himself that it was best he wasn't known, or else they'd both be in trouble.

    "Mutilate that pretty face of hers," came a gravelly voice, and the brother realized with a start that it came from the hairy woman. He shuddered, and his sister gave out a muffled cry.

    "No, no," the ring master said in a sickly sweet voice. "No, I'm sure we can find other plans for her."

    The boy clenched a fist, turning away. He should have gone with her... maybe the two of them would have been able to escape together... He felt something building in his chest, and he bit back a sob. He couldn't make any noise now, or else she would have no hope at all.

    Crack.

    The brother spun around to find the eyeless clown staring blankly at him. From inside the tent, he heard the gravelly voice saying, "Oh, Oedipus found somebody else." The woman's voice sounded excited. The boy wondered for a moment who else had been foolish enough to remain behind, but he soon realized that he was the "somebody else."

    The clown grabbed his wrists in a surprisingly swift motion and pushed him inside the tent. Immediately, three pairs of eyes were staring right at him. His sister's eyes widened in fear, and she tried to say something to him, but her words were muffled.

    "I..." The boy had opened up his mouth to say something else, but the clown had produced a gag for him as well, and he was silenced. The ring master's eyes lit up and he strolled over to get a closer look.

    "Siblings, I see..." he muttered, grabbing the brother's chin so he could get a better look at him. "Twins by the look of it. Oh, we can make use of this for sure... Definitely." A sinister stretched across his face. "Take them off to the Back Room. I'll explain my plans later."

    The brother could see the hairy woman nod, and he could only assume that the clown holding him was doing the same. Next thing he knew, he felt a sharp, sudden pain in his neck.

    Then he fell limp and knew no more.