Delusions of the Mind

Day 10- Finding A Marker

“How do you expect us to find out whose blood is here?!” Emilia questioned, looking at me in disbelief.

“I expect us to go around finding out who is still left. There are people here who talk to each one of you, while I can observe the others from a safer distance, seeing as they don’t wish to be near me.” I replied.

“Fine, we’ll take care of that while we also try to find markers for the woods.” Keylan grumbled.

Watching the three of them take off, as I headed towards the truck sitting in the middle of the warehouse, something hadn’t been right since finding the bloodied sheets. We were missing something, every time a death had occurred, the body had been left behind, so why not now? Why suddenly did the body go missing? What was Gabriel’s point taking the body this time, was the person not dead?

“They’re not dead, but you won’t find them.” Came Gabriel’s voice.

Spinning around, trying to find out where he could be, what was with him always appearing when I was alone? Was his presence to the others that much of a problem, “What do you want now?” I asked.

“Just a friendly reminder is all, you can’t use items from the circus to help you escape. That includes making a trail to find a way through the woods.” Gabriel taunted.

“Why the hell not?! You said we couldn’t use tools from the circus, you had never said anything about food.” I retorted angry he had decided to change the rules to his liking.

“I said you couldn’t use anything from the circus which included tools and props. Obviously, one would see this would include anything else around you. Every item here has some connection to the circus.” Gabriel laughed, “If you mark the path in the woods, this game of cat and mouse will be too easy for me. Do you not care about saving their lives?”

“Of course, I care about saving their lives, why the hell else would I not?!” I shouted.

“It just doesn’t seem like it from my standpoint.” Gabriel replied, shrugging his shoulders.

“How can it not?! I’m attempting to work with them to find a way out of your f*****g maze, a maze in which you put us in, and informed us that the company you work for is using us as lab rats.” I remark.

“Who are you arguing with?” asked Ben, as he came jogging around the truck.

“No one. I was talking to myself, wondering if all of this could be some form of sick joke being played on us.” I replied, shaking my head, Gabriel obviously wasn’t about to be caught, as he slinked around the opposite side of the truck and out of sight.

“If this is a sick joke, whoever is doing this is absolutely out of their mind. They shouldn’t be toying with human lives. Are you coming to help us figure out who’s missing?” Ben replied.

“Yea, I just can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong. Why isn’t there a body left behind like the previous murders? Why was it just the bloodied sheets?” I inquired, sharing these burdens with Ben may help ease my mind.

“I wondered about the same thing, it does make you believe it to be a sick joke, seeing as this body wasn’t left behind. How do we know for sure someone didn’t spill blood all over the bed to see our reactions?” Ben inquired, rubbing his chin lost in thought.

“I don’t think they spilled random blood across the bed, but I also don’t think they killed someone this time either. Whoever is doing this knows we’re getting suspicious and wants to throw us off their trail probably, but the worst way to do it, would be to leave the bloodied sheets and take the body.” I replied, shouldering past Ben, walking towards the cotton candy stand.

“I have an idea of what we can use to escape, but I don’t think it would work.” Ben replied.

“What is your idea?” I asked, curious to know if he had thought of something outside of the circus.

“What if we break tree branches to mark the trees we have gone by?” Ben asked, taking a cone off the stand, biting into it, covering his face with pink and blue sugar crystals.

“It would work, we aren’t using anything from the circus, and we could always snap a branch low enough on the tree we could see it.” I replied, “We should inform the others of this and see what they say.”

“Do you think they will agree? If not, what else can we use?” Ben asked.

“If they don’t agree, why don’t we remove the bark from a tree that we pass every so often?” I suggest, taking my own cone, and biting into it. I had never understood what little kids seen in the cotton candy stand, as all they made were pure sugar webs. It was never a fascinating process to watch someone spin a cone around a circular bowl collecting the strands.

“How would we remove the bark if we can’t use anything from the circus including the knives?” Ben asked, reminding me that we couldn’t even use those to mark the trees.

Shaking my head, sighing in defeat, Ben’s idea really was the best idea we would have, the others would probably agree. “You’re right, your idea may be the best we have for now unless someone else comes up with something better.” I state, looking around at the crowd of people huddled over by the dart game.

There was a giant stuffed animal missing from the prize selection. No one was that good from our group of performers to win one of the giant animals. Nodding my head in the direction I was starring asking Ben, “We don’t have someone who’s brilliantly skilled at playing the dart game, do we?”

“Not that I know of what do you notice about the stand?” Ben inquired, starring it down, unable to spot what was missing.

“There’s a giant stuffed animal missing, only someone who can pop most of those balloons can acquire one.” I remind Ben, “Someone else either tried and finally succeeded or someone stole one of those giant animals.”

“Why would any of us want to steal something from the circus we work for? That’s asking for Antonio to fire us.” Ben stated.

“I know, but why else would one be missing?” I inquired, meeting his eyes, starring at him for a couple of seconds.

“Good point.” Ben replied, , scanning the other stands around us, checking to make sure nothing else was missing, “It seems to be just that stand, could it be that the operator of that stand was the target?”

“They could have been, we need to find the others and see what they have come up with.” I replied, heading towards the opposite side of the big top, scanning the crowd around us looking for Emilia, and Keylan.