How to Keep Him from Falling

Chapter 7: The Secret Beneath the Circus

The manager ignored the woman's pale expression and gently patted her wheelchair.

"Thank God Emily has finally found her biological brother. Do you remember what I told you all before? We are all here because our families abandoned us."

"Mike's mother—my sister—gave me five thousand francs and entrusted him to my care. We all knew what that really meant. She didn't want him anymore," the manager said. "I found Emily at a train station. Polly's mother was insane. She nearly stabbed him in the eye with a pen."

He let out a faint sigh and continued, "Even Erik, a once-in-a-century genius, was rejected by his own parents."

"But I made you all a promise. If one day you find your family... or someone willing to take you in, you are free to leave at any time. I will never force anyone to stay."

As he spoke, he turned toward Emily.

"Isn't that right, Emily?"

Emily said nothing. Her face was as expressionless as if it had been sealed in wax.

Yet the manager seemed to take her silence as agreement. With a smile, he happily announced that there would be a celebration that evening to commemorate Emily reuniting with her family. He even promised to hire a band to play music for everyone to dance.

The entire circus erupted in excitement.

Everyone cheered, clapped, and stomped their feet in celebration.

Polly had originally planned to use this opportunity to carefully observe the people in the circus. But just then, the little boy from yesterday squeezed through the crowd and stopped her.

"Polly, the manager wants me to go with you to the storage room to move some things!"

Polly could only reluctantly pull her attention away. She turned around and walked beside him.

On the way to the storage room, the little boy lowered his voice and spoke in a mysterious tone.

"Do you believe it? That man is definitely not Emily's brother. She must have paid someone to pretend to be her family."

Polly thought of Emily's pale, frozen expression and frowned.

"...Why would she hire someone to pretend to be her brother?" she asked.

"Are you stupid?" the boy said. "Of course it's because she's a 'freak.' She doesn't have to do anything—she just has to stand there, and the money comes pouring in. There was even a freak in London who got to meet the Princess of England!"

Polly played along and agreed with him a few times, but deep down, she felt that there was more to this matter than what appeared on the surface.

The circus manager was a greedy man who cared only about profit. How could he possibly let go of such a valuable source of income so easily, just because Emily had found her family?

Just yesterday, he had still been encouraging two children to kill each other.

Wait...

She had almost forgotten.

Erik wasn't that old. At most, he was only sixteen or seventeen.

...She had actually been frightened into helplessness by a wounded teenager.

But the moment she remembered him slowly approaching her, the cold and empty gaze behind the white mask, the blade hovering above her cheek as if it could pierce her throat at any moment, she couldn't stop a shiver from running through her.

He was nothing but a beast incapable of understanding human emotions.

If she had a choice, she truly wanted nothing more to do with him.

The "warehouse" the boy mentioned was actually just a covered wagon.

The moment Polly stepped inside, she was hit by the unbearable smell of dampness and decay. Wooden crates were stacked everywhere, and cobwebs had already formed between them.

A thick layer of dust covered the shelves. On top of them sat a row of wide-mouthed glass jars, each containing animal livers of different sizes preserved inside.

Moving the supplies was exhausting work. Polly and the boy remained silent, and for a while, the only sound was the creaking of the wagon floorboards beneath their feet.

When only the last crate remained, the boy suddenly made an excuse that he needed to use the restroom and disappeared without a trace.

Polly waited for a long time, but he never came back.

With noon approaching, she had no choice but to open the crate herself and began taking the items out one by one.

Inside were what appeared to be strange exhibition pieces—things meant to shock and horrify.

There was a mermaid skeleton, a giant's hand bone, a cursed painting, a doll said to be possessed by an evil spirit...

And among the final items she moved, Polly found something that made her freeze.

A preserved fetus.

It was smaller than the palm of her hand, its tiny body smooth and slick, as though sealed inside a layer of transparent gel. The outlines of its facial features had already begun to form, and it looked as if it might open its eyes at any moment.

Polly didn't want to look at it any longer. She was about to close the crate and carry it outside when she suddenly noticed a label attached to the jar.

"The child born from Emily, the 'Four-Legged Woman.' We are grateful for her permission to preserve this specimen, allowing the world to witness the wonders of God's creation. Even a malformed child is capable of bringing forth life."

Polly felt a chill spread through her entire body.

Thinking back to the boy's words about how popular "freaks" were, she couldn't help but imagine the darkest possibility.

Emily had become pregnant and no longer wanted to remain in the circus. So the manager had used some method to force her to lose the child, then turned the fetus into a specimen for people to admire.

If that was true, it explained everything.

Why Emily's face had been so pale.

Why she had remained silent the entire time.

Most importantly...

The manager valued profit above everything else. He hadn't even spared Emily's unborn child.

Would he really allow Emily to leave?

Or rather...

Had he ever truly allowed anyone in the circus to leave?

The specimen jar was tightly sealed, yet Polly felt as though the liquid inside had somehow seeped through the glass, soaked into her fingers, and crawled through her veins.

It seemed to wriggle beside her ears, whispering.

Several seconds passed before she finally realized what she was feeling.

It was fear.

A fear so intense that it had completely taken over her body.

Stay calm. Stay calm.

Polly forced herself to suppress the panic rising inside her and treated everything before her as if she were trapped in a terrifying survival game.

Objective: Escape the circus.

Known characters: Manager, Mike, Emily, the little boy, Erik.

The manager was a ruthless psychopath driven entirely by profit.

Mike was his nephew.

The little boy appeared mature on the surface, but in reality, his mind was still painfully simple.

Emily's situation was heartbreaking. Not only had her unborn child been turned into a specimen, but she herself was most likely being sold off by the manager.

That tall, thin man was definitely not her brother.

However, Emily had limited mobility. No matter what, she couldn't help Polly escape from the circus.

After going around in circles, the only choice left to her was Erik.

This circus was far too strange.

Relying on herself alone, there was no way she could escape.

She had to bring Erik onto her side.

Even if he was the "Phantom of the Theater"—a dangerous person who could fall into a killing frenzy at any moment—she had no choice but to force herself to approach him and try to win him over.