Delusions of the Mind

Day 9- Another One Down

The screams that filled my ears, jarred me from my slumber. Who was screaming this early of a morning and why? What would have happened over night to warrant this rude awakening. The rustling of clothes, blankets, and sheets around me, as everyone jumped out of bed. This was apparent that no one would be going back to sleep now. The ear-piercing scream had yet to stop, it was coming from the other side of the warehouse. Climbing out of bed, pulling on my own clothes, simply to have something to cover me, making my way with the group to the ruckus.

Blinking the sleep away from my eyes, to ensure I don’t trip over anyone in front of me. Yawning, stretching my arms above my head, while exchanging curious glances with Ben and Emilia. Both were wondering the same thing I was. What was this important to raise everyone at six in the morning, just at the break of daylight, after the events of last night. I hoped this wasn’t another murder as we haven’t had time to put Mavericks body into a decent grave yet.

The shock wave making its way through our small crowd as each of us arrive at the scene of commotion. Someone had already taken away the screaming person who had been here prior to us. It was another murder again, the blood splatter over the white sheets used to divide the warehouse into separate rooms for each performer was gruesome, this time though there was no body to dispose of only a bloodied note lying in a pool of blood on the bed. The deep red liquid soaking into the white paper making it almost impossible to read. Whoever had done this, was now taunting us, trying to lead us to him, or trying to throw us off the trail completely. What was going on in this f****d up scenario?

Dearest Performers,

His medication has run out, you still expect him to be civil. Those who hear things aren’t to be trusted, can he prevent the hallucinations much longer? What will it be like if you all turned on your own people? Would an all-out war be waged, if not would you survive or escape? You all blame him for the last two murders, yet I am here to tell you, it is not him. If you can’t stop the bickering long enough to work together, my game just became more fun. For each of you who ostracizes him, another will die this is your only warning, I suggest you take my advice.

The note being unsigned didn’t make much sense to me, whoever this was, wanted to taunt us. They wanted this note to be found, yet they didn’t even sign Gabriel’s signature. He was the one behind the game we were playing so why not at least sign his name.

“Where’s the body?!” Someone shouted from behind me.

“There isn’t a body! Why wasn’t a body left?!” Came another’s voice.

“Without the body how are we going to know who he killed?!” shouted another.

“Easy, we simply gather and whoever is missing, is the one who was killed. However, if none of you trust Evan, then there is no need for this conversation to continue, as the note says, if you keep excluding him, another will die.” Ben stated, looking around at the crowd, “Who of you are willing to work with him to find a way out of this place?”

The group suddenly growing smaller as people began to leave at the mention of working with me. Why did the not see fit to help us get out of this place alive? Was their pride that important to them? The only ones left around me were Machia, Keylan, Ben and Emilia. Were these the only ones who would be willing to put their lives in danger to figure out this puzzle we were left with? Why did everyone see fit as to risk something as precious as others lives. They were selfish, and becoming a pain in our sides, the didn’t realize how right the note was. I was now out of mediation after this morning, how long would it be, before the hallucinations started? How long before my own mind turned against me and made me out to be the killer, or worse made me think someone else was and fight them off?

“Guys, whoever wrote that note is right. I’m out of medication and were the only group of people who suffer from mental illness in our troop. What do we do if they refuse to work with us? What happens when I can’t get my medication? I can’t find my blue pins anywhere, and they had any extra medication I carried around with me. If worst comes to worse, I’ll have to be killed to prevent me from losing it on you guys.” I stated, starring down at my feet.

“You can make it through this, you don’t need to be killed to survive your mental illness. We must keep you occupied to the point it doesn’t affect you. We all know what living without our medication is like.” Ben replied, patting my back trying to console me.

“Ben’s right, if we can keep your mind occupied, we can keep your illness under wraps, without medication.” Emilia agreed.

This was the first time her and Ben had ever agreed on anything. This small group of people would ever be the only ones to understand the trials we all faced. Our worst fears, our nightmares, even the need to be accepted by those around us. To have society learn that we are people too no matter the imbalances in our brains. If we could get people to understand this, we could be productive parts of society, without having to hide away in the remotest parts of the world, doing the jobs no one else wanted to do. We played freaks in the circus, or took up jobs within one, to appear normal. We felt a need to surround ourselves with others who were considered freaks. After this experiment would we be treated any differently? We were being used as lab rats at this very moment, without anyone else realizing what was going on, if only I could tell them, make them understand that what were going through wasn’t normal by any means.

“Why don’t we continue to try to find a way out of this place?” Keylan suggested.

“We can try, but you said last night there’s no way to escape in the woods without going off the beaten path.” I stated, looking at him confused.

“I did say that, but I never said we shouldn’t go off the beaten path without the others. If one of us can find a way out, and mark the path for us to find again, when we gather everyone, I don’t see why we can’t escape.” Keylan stated.

His idea held merit, but what would we mark the path with? We weren’t allowed to use anything we could use for the circus. There was always some type of food like popcorn, or the apples we sold, but we ran the risk of those being eaten by any animals that may be within the woods.

“What would we mark our away with? Anything food related could be eaten by the animals within the woods, causing us to lose our way. We can’t use anything within the circus to tie off the route.” I wondered out loud.

“What about the sheets, or blankets?” Emilia asked.

“It’s a good idea, but then the others would get mad if we left them without privacy. We need to think of a way to mark a way out, that’s absolutely going to work, remember we only have one shot at this, but who is going to wonder the woods to figure out our path?” I inquired.

“We can draw straws; the shortest straw gets the honor to wonder around in the woods.” Ben suggested.

“Is that really a fair way to do things though?” Emilia asked.

“It’s about the fairest way we have. If we draw straws its indisputable who would go, but we would need someone to cut the straws who’s not biased towards any of us here.” Ben replied.

“Who would we get to cut them that doesn’t have a favorite here? I mean no offence, but half of our people have refused to even work with Evan. They may cut one extraordinarily short just so he goes into the woods, hoping we have gotten rid of our killer.” Emilia stated, she had a valid point, anyone we got would cut the straws so short that they knew, and when we picked, I would get the worst end of the deal.

“We can shoot hoops at the basketball game, each time someone wins they are eliminated from the round and considered safe. Highest number of points would win each round.” Keylan suggested.

This option would be the best, as it would rely on pure luck, considering our games were always rigged to ensure the circus goers always spent more money than what it was worth for the giant stuffed animal toys we had hanging up. However, right now we could play for free, and they wouldn’t be rigged if we explained the circumstances to the person running the ball stand that day.

“Then its settled, we will find a way to mark our paths. Once we find a way, we will meet up at the basketball toss game, and settle it there as to who goes into the woods.” Ben stated.

“Alright, but right now we need to figure out whose blood this is on these sheets, if we can figure that out, we will know who all is left that we are working with.” I replied.