The Devil's Carnival

Primal Instincts

The acrobats swung back and forth from the string of silk almost hypnotically. Their audience sat with sheepish expressions laughing to themselves and slowly clapping their hands but it was clear not allot of what happened around them were sinking in. They didn’t even notice that the ring master had taken his leave. It was a slow process but Allen found himself becoming more and more conscious. Once he had control of his senses again he found himself at a loss. What the hell was he doing? Still a little dazed Allen looked around at the tent and its occupants. The acrobats and the tiny clowns now seemed unimpressive and he questions his sanity for ever thinning anything different. “This is s**t. Come on, let get out of here.” Allen didn’t care who heard him but when he wasn’t given any attention he slapped the back of his hand against Michael’s chest. Still nothing. Now annoyed he turned to look his so called friend square in the face. “Did you not hear me?” He clearly didn’t and neither did any of the others. Seeing then so in traced freighted him just a little but not enough to cause a stir. “Don’t bother. They can’t hear you.” Just like no one had noticed the ring master’s disappearance Allen didn’t notice his reappearance. He sat with one leg crossed over the other, hands placed on the head of his cane and smiling like a special kind of mad man. Allen leapt up from his seat and stared at the crazed looking man but the ring master kept his eyes on his performers. “Why struggle my boy?” He slowly turned to stare at a trembling Allen. “I told you no one ever leaves here of their own free will.” Allen stumbled backwards but lost his footing and tumbled down the pavilion and when he hit the ground he knocked his head as well. He was dazed but still of the mind to know he had to run. Before he could one of the clowns leapt from its unicycle and onto his chest. It laughed like crazy and the more it laughed the wider its mouth got. The wider its mouth got the better Allen could see its rows of sharp teeth. He tried to move, tried to scream but couldn’t. He was trapped in his own body at the full mercy of this thing that held him down. Thinking that someone might at least snap out of it long enough to hear it growling Allen looked over its shoulder but his companions were all blissfully unaware. “I will never understand your kind’s sentiment towards creatures such as this.” The ring master slowly descended the stairs leading down the pavilion. “For longer than you have existed monsters such as these have dawned the colourful make up and played their tricks, all for entertainment. Just so they may try and win your trust, to pull you in and get close to you.” The ring master placed a hand on the creature seated on Allen’s chest and as he did the thing regarded him with a strange kind of affection. Cleary those demons adored him. “They have a taste for flesh but as you can see it isn’t as easy to get to you. You would run away faster than they would be able to catch you. So improvisation is required.” Allen was terrified beyond belief and he could feel the sweat run down the small of his back and the hairs on his arms and neck stand on end. What the hell was he going to do now? “Please don’t bother struggling. Even if you do manage to get fee, you won’t get far. Either they will catch up or something else will kill you.” Allen watched in terror as the tiny menace and its nightmarish teeth inched closer to his face. “We aren’t unfair. We only take out fill, we aren’t glutens.” The ring master got back to his feet before he turned to leave. “It’s the way of nature.” The ring master slowly walked away, the sound of his cane hitting the ground fading gradually into the sound of the audience’s applause. Allen felt his heart race and as it did a new found strength pumped into his veins. He didn’t know if it was the threat of death of a deliberate lapse in control or his will to live but he managed to move his toes. The sensation moved up his legs, into his torso, into his chest and then his arms and fingers. With all the strength he had he grabbed hold of the creature’s bright costume and tossed it off of him. One he was free he didn’t even bother seeing how much of a gap it had given him, he simply took off running. There was a stomach churning growl behind him but he didn’t dare look to see. He just kept running towards the exit, or rather what he hoped to be the exit. As it turned out he hadn’t paid half as much attention coming in as he had thought and no everything looked the same. It was worth a mention that by ‘the same’ he more specifically meant the walls of the tent. There had been an entrance, of that much he was sure. The thing was that it wasn’t there anymore. He ran his hands along the walls but found no way out and that included going underneath. As he frantically looked for a way out he could hear those creatures rally behind him. He didn’t want to know how many there were by now and he didn’t care for his so called friends still laughing behind him. He was getting out and it was happening now. “Come this way.” A delicate voice with just a slight hiss called out to him from somewhere to his left. He stopped his crazed search for just long enough to look and see the woman in the white dress and wild red hair. She stood in the door way he had so frantically been looking for and waved him closer. He needed no further encouragement.