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As night fell, Toby skulked into the camp, filled with apprehension. Around the blazing bonfire at the centre of the settlement, the elves were readying themselves for a performance.
The reindeer and horses had been released into a nearby field and were grazing quietly under the close watch of an attendant. It was rumoured that the reindeer’s fame had spread to London’s criminals so precautions had been taken to secure them from thieves.
The sky was darkening as Toby passed familiar faces. He nodded to acknowledge them in a friendly manner. Just act natural, Toby, he told himself. If Nicko was the deceptive scoundrel he feared he could be, then there was no way to determine who he could trust in this close-knit community. Anybody could be in on it, if it even existed.
He waited for dusk to fall so he could gain entry to the trailer under the cover of darkness.
Almost an hour passed while he kept a lookout to make sure that Nicko wasn’t around. He felt confident that the coast was clear, since he could see no candlelight under the door. That meant that Nicko was away, probably attending to something in the Big Top.
Toby saw his chance.
Nobody looked at him when he left his tent, but he still felt like all eyes were on him as he made his way to the door of the forbidden caravan. The performers and attendants were all too busy concentrating on practicing their routines and rounding up the reindeer before the audience arrived. They went about their usual routines as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Toby wondered how much they knew.
When he was certain it was safe to approach, he swiftly climbed the wooden steps to the door of the caravan. Cautiously unhitching the latch, he entered the forbidden space, unburdened by a lock. Nicko’s privacy was so respected that the possibility that someone would breach his trust was unthinkable. Yet here Toby was, breaking that trust.
Creeping into the unlit caravan, he closed the door and fumbled for a candle. He couldn’t find one, but he did have a box of matches in his pocket. Taking out the box, he considered what secrets he might find in the dark. He hoped there was nothing, but he knew his mind wouldn’t relax until he was sure.
‘Please be innocent,’ he mumbled.
He struck a match against the side of the box. The phosphorous head ignited and shed light on the room for an instant. What Toby saw in that glimpse chilled him to his core.
He could only see for a couple of seconds, but that was enough to make up his mind. The reality of the situation was even more shocking than anything the newspapers could imagine.
The room contained a writing desk, a wooden stool, and a deep chest, like the sort placed at the end of a bed. On the table lay a body... a small body... a child’s body! It seemed to Toby in that flash that the figure wasn’t breathing.
He struck another match, again generating an instant of crackling illumination.
This time he saw that the lid of the chest was wedged open. Inside, it appeared to be lined with a thick sack. A pair of tiny limbs protruded from the folds of the material and poked out of the gap. More cadavers were visible underneath it. A crusty, dark stain covered most of the table.
The secret place that Nicko used throughout the day wasn’t there to give him peace from the worries of running The Winter Freak Show. No, it was where he cut up and stashed the bodies of his victims! He was the infamous London Monster that was baffling the police. He had murdered those children.
Toby fell backwards against the wall and dropped the match. The room was plunged again into darkness.
‘... yes, Lucy, I’ll see to it right away. Just let me get my hat.’ The words were Nicko’s and they sounded like they were just outside the door. Toby’s heart stopped. Why had he returned? Then he remembered seeing Nicko’s red top hat laid to one side.
Suddenly, he realised that he was about to be caught and exposed. Or worse. He was stuck between a ruthless serial killer and the mobile chamber of horrors he used to dismember his victims. He had been trapped before, but this man was no Snarky. He wasn’t just bad, he was evil.
The latch shuddered as if Nicko’s hand was resting on it from the outside. Toby panicked and feverishly staggered around the caravan, fumbling desperately for an escape route or hiding place. He became ever more frantic and banged his shin on something hard. There was nowhere to go. The door creaked open, but Nicko was still distracted in mid-conversation. Miraculously, he seemed not to notice the clatter.
Heart throbbing in his ears, Toby decided that his only choice was to try to make a bolt for freedom. The only thing he had on his side was the element of surprise. If he didn’t take full advantage of that then he was positive he wouldn’t make it out alive.
Pushing against the back wall, he tried to give himself the longest possible distance for a run-up.
‘One,’ he breathed shakily to himself. ‘Two.’
The door began to open outwards and a glimpse of a white beard could be seen through the crack.
‘Three. Aaaaaaaarrrrgggghh!’
Toby hit the door running, ploughing the old man out of the way as he bolted into the camp. Nicko let out an astonished gasp and almost fell over. He glanced at the inside of his caravan, then at Toby as he fled the scene. A look of confused horror was ingrained onto his plump features, then realisation dawned.
‘No, Toby! Come back!’ he yelled, more afraid than angry. ‘Someone catch that boy!’
Nearby, a team of smaller children were practicing an acrobatic routine. They were the first to see what had happened and gave chase. Luckily, they were younger than Toby and had no chance of catching him. Like a gazelle, he bounded over an elf who tried to take his legs out from under him. Then he slalom skidded around the bonfire at the centre of the settlement.
‘Zachary, stop him!’ Nicko shouted from behind.
Toby winced as he heard the command. Just ahead, a mountainous boy was gathering wood for the fire near the edge of the camp. He was more man than boy, standing over six feet tall. He was a particularly adept illusionist, and could manipulate the air with his hands. He would delight audience members by knocking gentlemen’s top hats off their heads from ten paces away.
As Toby appeared before him, Zachary was already preparing to take him down. Focusing intensely, Zachary splayed his fingers and drove a fist of air into Toby’s chest. The blow sent him reeling off course and he almost ran headlong into a tree. Thankfully, he was agile and had some tricks of his own.
Scooping up a handful of snow, he threw it into the air next to Zachary’s head. For a moment, the larger boy thought Toby had missed and grinned, readying himself to shoot another air-bullet in his direction. It was only when Toby fired a wave of his own that he worked out that he had been outsmarted. The air struck the snow and it exploded into a cloud of white powder. With Zachary temporarily blinded, Toby dodged past him and kept running.
Sprinting past the last of the camp’s tents, he loped into a thicket of fir trees and disappeared from sight. Branches slapped him in the face, and snow occasionally fell from the canopy in thick clumps, but Toby raced on and shot out the other end. It was then that he collided with a greater threat than Zachary.
‘Melvin, you have to let me pass.’
Nicko’s Head Elf had cut him off at the edge of the park. ‘No can do, Toby. The Big Man said...’
‘I don’t care what he said! He’s a killer. Don’t you see that?’
‘What?’ Melvin shifted uncomfortably. ‘He’s not... I mean...’
‘He killed those children. I know all about Nicko’s secret caravan. I’ve seen it. And I know you’ve seen it, too.’ Melvin’s face turned grey.
‘Oh, you know about that? Uh... Well I’m glad someone finally uncovered this whole mess. You don’t realise how much pressure I’ve been under. He made me keep his secret, Toby. He made me do things I didn’t want to do.’ Melvin’s voice cracked and tears rose in his eyes.
‘You mean you knew about all this?’
‘I’ve known for far too long. But there was nothing I could do. It started a few weeks ago. Something changed in Nicko. It was like he just... snapped. Of course, to everyone else, he was the same old Nicko. But I knew the truth. He told me that if I ever gave away his secret, he’d come after me.’
‘Are you going to try to stop me?’ Toby asked quickly, realising that he could use Melvin’s guilt to help him escape.
‘No,’ sighed Melvin, ‘he needs to be stopped. We need to stop him.’ He stepped aside and pushed a stray branch out of the way as a peace offering. ‘Go, Toby. I’ll tell him that you overpowered me. It’s the only way I can get out of this unharmed.’
‘Thanks,’ whispered Toby, relieved.
A rustling in the trees behind him alerted them both that the others were still chasing him.
‘Quickly now! Before somebody gets here,’ Melvin urged.
Toby didn’t need telling twice. Heading for the city streets, he left The Winter Freak Show to alert the authorities. The sounds of an argument behind him told him that a manhunt had begun, and he was the prey.
If they caught him, it would be all over. He would join the ranks of missing children, and the kidnapper would continue to prowl the streets at night. Whether it was Nicko or Toby, someone would die for this.
- Writer
