The Sinful Circus

Chapter 3: Have fun and arrival

“Ria Look!” A tall red-head yelled out, running to Astoria and shoving a poster in her face.

Astoria gave a small, sideways smile before grabbing the paper and glancing over it. It was a poster for some circus that would be coming within a brisk two days. “Sinful Circus” the poster read, depicting a wicked and sinister carousal in front of black and red tents and statues of demonic gargoyles… and provocative half-human women in impossible twisted positions.

“Gabby….I don’t think this is very appropriate or proper for us to attend.” Astoria sighed as she handed back the paper.

“Aaaww! Ria come on… for once in your life just ignore that you are the pastor’s perfect angelic daughter and have some actual fun!!!! You’re 18 and have never even done anything except perform for our theater. Live a little please!” Gabby pleaded, giving Astoria her best big green puppy dog eyes.

Astoria looked with uncertainty back at the girl. On one hand Gabby was right, Astoria had never done anything more than dance and sing for first the church--and now for her Schools Opera house. On the other hand something about that poster rang warning bells in her head and made her a bit scared, it seemed a little too dark and mature for her taste.

“I’ll think about it Gabby, but I won’t promise anything, okay? I just don’t have a good feeling about this right now. Besides I have a performance on that day a little before it starts, and this one will be open to the public.” Astoria replied softly while looking off to the side, pulling a blonde wave of hair behind her right ear.

“All I ask, Ria, is for you to have fun that doesn’t include you performing and enchanting the audience at the cost of your freedom and energy. A slave to the stage! And besides, according to the time listed on this poster, we would be able to finish your performance, leave to get dressed, and still have plenty of time to get there before it even opens,“ Gabby said as she carefully pulled the smaller girl in for a hug.

Astoria just nodded her head against Gabby’s collar bone, not having much more to say because she already knew that she, her best friend and dorm mate, had already won this battle. Still, that lingering sense of doom did not reside, and made her wary as Gabby pulled her down the halls of their school.

Two days passed, finally, and the castle roared to life and lit an eerie blood red as it settled into town, seemingly perpetually eager and starving to engulf every poor naïve soul within. Tired and fatigued, the raven black horses ran to a nearby pond to hydrate, and a small circus troupe with animals appeared in the center, rehearsing and conversing quietly in the middle of the circus alongside the freshly set tents and chairs.

“EAAAHAHAHAHA!” honking his nose, a clown with a split expression of both excruciating pain and absolute ecstasy and excitement permanently embedded into his face began to blow balloons and impressively shaping ten animals into one, all the while riding a single tricycle in circles around a shivering basset hound wearing a top hat, and shaking his dumpy ass[1] .

“Let’s prepare for the show of a lifetime, a show worthy of being the last this town shall ever see, “ominously spoken by the clown between balloons with a wink,

“What do you call a belt made of watches anyway?” he shrugged.

Music echoed throughout the town as items and people began to fill the circus and attached castle entrance, almost as suddenly as the circus had arrived in in this sullen town.

“Nobody survives and nobody leaves, “chuckled the clown,

“a waste of time “he spat out while tilting his head to the side, before wiping a single tear that escaped his left eye impermissibly.