Industry & Intrigue (15 page)

Reese stood back and folded his
arms across his chest
. “It doesn’t look like it’s even capable of
feeding itself in the condition it’s in. Let alone able to bite off
a hand.”

The man walked closer to
Reese
and
said, “So you think it’s a poor beast do you?” He threw back his
head and laughed. “That’s exactly what these creatures want you to
think. You put your guard down and then…bam! It’ll
strike.”

To prove his point, the man pulled a
wooden baton out of his belt and shoved it between the bars of the
cage. At lightning speed the insectoid scattered over and its
mandibles bit into the end of the baton. The animal master laughed
as the Arc made chittering and growling sounds while trying to bite
the wood. “See what I mean boy.”

Reese still wasn’t convinced.
The Arc
had
intelligence, aggression was a natural reaction to being caged, no
matter if it was smart or not. He couldn’t be bothered arguing
further with the man and he walked across the grass to a large
stall, where Michael and Cassandra had wandered.

They were being entertained by
an elderly man with spectacles that took up half of his face. The
sign above his head said
Alvid’s Alchemy
. Behind him on several crooked looking
shelves were row after row of glass bottles with labels like
Muscle
Builder
and
Energizer
, clearly describing their function.

“
Well young
man
,” the
man asked Michael. “Are you interested in bulking yourself up with
little effort? Or if you want improved mental speed to help you in
your studies? I have therapeutic chemicals for anything you can
think of.”

Michael had a skeptical look on
his face.
“And how do I know these work?” he asked.

“
Of course
,” said the alchemist. Reese
guessed that this was Alvid. “You need demonstrable evidence you
can see with your own eyes. Fear not, I shall give it to you.” The
man turned and picked a particular brown bottle off the middle
shelf.

“
Observe my metal melting
formulation,” he said with a dramatic flair and placed a piece of
steel on the wooden bench in front of them. He poured only a few
drops on it then closed the bottle back up.

“
Now
,” he said. “You must wear these as
the metal melts too brightly for our naked eyes to safely look at.”
He handed each of them a pair of darkened lenses. They put them on
and he said, “Take a step back, for it will become incredibly hot.”
He struck a match and flung it on the steel.

The effect was instantaneous
and ev
ery
bit as impressive as he had described. The entire stall lit up in
hot, white light, brighter than a summer’s day. The top of the
metal was burning with an intensity Reese hadn’t thought possible.
If he wasn’t wearing the lenses, he would’ve had to turn his eyes
away, lest he go blind.

The metal burned for several
minutes
before finally extinguishing, leaving only a few wisps of
smoke. He removed the lenses and looked down where the steel had
been, there was now only a layer of molten metal clinging to the
wood.

Michael, now excited by the material, was
abuzz with questions “How does it work? What’s in it?”

Alvid waggled his
finger
. “I’m
sorry but if I were to give those secrets away, then another
chemist could go and replicate my formula. This particularly
concoction sells big with the mining companies. Let’s them get down
wherever they need when the digging equipment isn’t up to the
job.”

“
What else do you have?” asked
Michael. Reese could see his chemistry instincts kicking
in.

“
Haven’t we seen enough?” asked
Cassandra. “The main show’s going to start soon, if we don’t go
there now, we’ll have to sit right at the back.”

She
was impatient to get through
everything in the circus. Odd, since it had been her idea to come
in the first place.

“
I will be here all
night,
if
you want to come back after. You shouldn’t miss the main show,”
said the older man.

“
Yeah
, ok,” said Michael
glumly.

“
C
ome on,” said Reese and clapped his hands
on his friend’s shoulders. “We can come back here
afterwards.”

They walked
t
owards the
main tent along with most of the other circus-goers. The main show
was the big event so there weren’t many willing to miss it. The
walkways between the stalls became more crowded closer to the tent.
When they reached the end of the walkway it thinned out as the
crowd dispersed into the series of entrances. The main tent had
lighting all around it, and loud orchestral music was playing from
an unseen band.

There were clowns manning the
entrances and checking tickets. Reese saw Cassandra shiver.
She must have a
phobia of clowns, too bad for her
he thought.

***

Cassandra handed the
tickets over to the
clown that was manning the entrance of the tent. They passed
through and he clipped them and handed them back. She shivered, the
clown’s painted smile did not look at all friendly.

They sat down on the
fourth
row
of seats from the front. Cassandra took the aisle seat after the
other two sat down. Reese noticed her discomfort and asked, “Are
you alright?”

She shook her head and smiled weakly.
“Upset stomach, must be the food here.”

Reese chuckled.
“It’
s not
exactly wholesome. Give me fair warning if you’re going to throw it
back up so I can dodge out of the way as best I can.”

“
No problem
.” She hated lying to him, but
she hadn’t known whether he would have even come if she had told
the truth. There were circus workers inside the ring, putting the
last finishing touches on setting up. Cassandra scanned them to see
if she could find who she was looking for and her true purpose for
coming here.

She had no luck.
M
ost of the
workers were wearing costumes and make-up. It was impossible to
identify them, but they were definitely all men. Then the room went
dark with the exception of a bright spotlight highlighting a tall
man in the center. He turned around and opened his arms out wide.
He was dressed in a black and white suit with a tall, black top-hat
on his head.

“
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen,
boys and girls, to the Night Circus!” he shouted and the audience
cheered. “I am Pyrus Valus, Master of the Circus and your host for
the evening. For our first act, I would like to introduce the
fearsome fire-eaters of the west.”

The man spun around in a quick
dance and removed himself from the arena
. More lights turned on and focused
on new figures entering the arena. They had wooden masks covering
the top half of their faces and rainbow colored plumes sprouting
from their heads. They were dressed in dark leather, and were each
holding aloft a brightly burning torch.

They danced around the arena
in
a frenzy,
swirling their torches every which way and creating an impressive
display of spinning fire, while a fast drum beat played. Several of
the dancers at the front took their torches into an upside down
position, tilted their heads back and placed the fiery end into the
mouths to the many gasps of the audience. They removed them again
to the clapping and cheering of the crowd and continued to
dance.

This continued
on for several
minutes until the music and moving lights reached a crescendo and
suddenly stopped. The dancers lined up, swallowed the fires of
their torches all at the same time and the lights went out. The
audience cheered even louder this time and then all of the lights
came on again.

The circus master
emerged, twirling a
blue and red baton. “Let’s give them a big round of applause ladies
and gentlemen.”

Everyone clapped
as the performers
took a bow. Cassandra suddenly recognized who she was looking for.
In spite of the mask and dark clothes, it was her. The short
honey-blonde hair and cute dimples were instantly recognizable. She
gave a loud gasp and Reese looked over at her concerned.

“
Stomach trouble?” he
asked.

Cassandra looked at him and
stammered
.
“Ah. Ye…yes. Oh, I think I need to go and-,” and she put her hand
at her stomach.

“
Go, go. B
etter outside than in here,”
and he waved her off. “I’ll watch your things, don’t
worry.”

Cassandra
nodded and put her bag on the
seat next to Reese. She needed to find Clarissa. She quickly walked
down the stairs to the bottom row and left via the nearest
exit.

She
looked around the sides of the tent
and noticed a sign above a smaller tent attached to the back of
main one. There was a sign that said
Performers Only
. She strode across the dirt and
grass determined to find her.

W
orkers were milling at the entrance, so
Cassandra snuck round the side and slipped in through a small
opening. She looked around; there were circus costumes and props
lying around. The tent had a multi-room layout, she opened the flap
to exit and one of the fire-eater performers brushed past
her.

“
Excuse me
,” she said, but he ignored
her. “Hello? I’m looking for someone.” He continued walking as if
he had not seen or heard her.

That was odd
she thought.
What is going on at
this circus?
She had felt something innately wrong about this place
since arriving.

She decided to follow him.
H
e walked
through the tent corridor all the way to the back and into another
room. She followed him through and emerged into a large room. She
was surprised to see so many people in here. They were all circus
performers and were dressed in their costumes but they were as
still as statues. It was an eerie sight. The man she had followed,
stopped, turned around and assumed the position as the others.
Cassandra didn’t care about him anymore, she saw who she had come
to find.

“
Clarissa!
” She ran between the other
performers to get to the girl. Clarissa was still in the dark
leather outfit but her mask and headdress had been removed. When
she came face to face with the girl, she stared in horror. It was
definitely Clarissa, but her bright blue eyes were now white, all
the color drained from them.

“
What
have they done to you?!” she
screamed. She grabbed Clarissa by the shoulders and shook her but
there was no response. “Clarissa. It’s me Cassandra!” she said,
tears spilling down her cheeks as there was still no response. “Say
something! It’s Cassandra. Come on, you know me, it’s your
Cass!”

“
I’m afraid that won’t
help
,” said
a deep voice and she turned around in surprise. Standing at the
flap was the circus master.

Cassandra pushed past the
performers to confront him.
“What the fuck have you been doing to these
people? What have you done to Clarissa?!” she shouted.

“
Something
you wouldn’t comprehend. I
cannot allow you to tell anyone else about this, which means you’ll
have to be joining my circus,” he replied.

“
I don’t fucking think so,” said
Cassandra, anger dripping off her voice.

“
Oh don’t be so
negative
,”
he said. “Look at this way, you’ll get to be together with your
little girlfriend there,” and he laughed in a sinister tone. He
looked behind her and said to the stiff performers, “Take her to be
processed.”

They sprang
to life and reached out towards
Cassandra, even Clarissa. Pyrus was laughing as Cassandra backed
away from the menacing performers. She clutched out with her hand
for anything she could use as a weapon. She picked up the first
hefty object her hand touched, one of the torches. She spun round
and smashed the circus master over the head. He bellowed in pain,
clutching at his head and she ran out of the room to find her way
out of the tent.

She heard him yell out at his
minions
.
“Catch her and anyone she reaches. Whatever it takes. Even if we
have to slaughter the entire audience!”

As she ran down the tent
corridor hands burst through the fabric to grab her. The performers
had turned a
sickly-green color and large growths had appeared on their
skin. She shook herself free and kept going. As she backed away she
watched in horror as the growths burst with vines and leaves. The
green tendrils poured out and coated the performers with a thick
growth.

***

Reese was
getting worried, if Cassandra
only needed to throw up she should have been back by now. He said
as much to Michael.

“
So she’s taking her time.
She
must’ve
been distracted by something, there’s plenty of stalls still
operating while this is on,” replied his friend. “Sit back and
enjoy the show, she’ll be back, when she’s back.”