Freakshow (9 page)

“I’m impressed though,” I said, “you clean up really nice.”

“Thanks, new girl,” Carl gushed and preened. “You don’t look half bad yourself.”

He told me to go help Alexi with the big cats and other animals, given my ease with them the other day. As I left, he appeared to almost float above the ground as he buzzed with nervous energy and shouted directions at anyone who crossed his path.

I found Alexi in cool control, the opposite of Carl’s organized chaos. “I was sent to help you,” I told him when I approached. He was grooming one of the tigers and singing softly to the great beast.

“I don’t usually need any help,” he replied and stopped brushing the animal. “Most people are frightened of these lovely kitty cats.”

“I’m just following orders,” I said, “Carl told me to come here. I think they’re just trying to keep me out of the way because I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“Carl is just following Orion’s instructions,” Alexi said, “which means Orion wants you here. It’s no problem though. I’ll gladly take the help. Just be careful around them.”

“How many are there?”

“Just two this time, the rest of the animals are staying behind. It’s difficult to cross the border with too many creatures.”

“I can imagine,” I replied, “so what can I help you with?”

“Hang tight here with Lucille, and I’ll be right back. I have to get Desi into his cage.”

“Lucille and Desi?” I asked, “I like it.”

“After the greats,” he replied, smiled, and left me alone with Lucille. The tiger was collared and tied to a crossbar, obviously something she was used to. I was nervous however, having never been in charge of something so fierce and wild before. On the farm, I’d been kept away from most animals with the concern that they could hurt me and I’d never know.

I’d defied my mother once, when I was ten. I’d taken the old mare out for a quick ride and gotten stepped on. It wasn’t until my foot was swollen three times its normal size, blackened and unmoving that I had to admit my mistake to my mother.

I’d been walking on a shattered foot for over a week by then.

The doctor had had to re-break the bones in order for them to set properly. My lack of pain had definitely been more of a blessing than a curse that time.

“Hey Lucy, can I call you Lucy?” I asked quietly and reached out to touch the cat’s fur. I was fascinated; it looked like velvet this close up. I touched the soft coat and stroked the fur, amazed that it was happening. I was touching a motherfucking tiger, and nobody was here to see me. I decided I needed photographic evidence of my badassery.

I looked around, pulled my phone out of my pocket and decided on just one selfie for prosperity’s sake. What harm could there be?

I held my phone up, checked Lucille for any signs of stress. The tiger was calm and almost purring, like any housecat. And cats usually loved me, I couldn’t forget about that.

I got as close as possible and moved my thumb to the circle at the bottom of the phone to take the shot. Seconds too late, I wondered if I’d turned the flash off.

The light flared and Lucille jumped, she jerked away from me, and whipped her head around in a lightning quick motion. I felt pressure on my arm and the phone dropped from my hand. I couldn’t control my fingers; they wouldn’t follow my intent. It was then that I noticed that my arm was pinned in the tiger’s mouth.

“Shit, Lucille, please...let me go,” I said in a hushed voice. I was utterly mortified that my stupid idea to take a stupid selfie had landed me in this spot. I tried again to wiggle my fingers and managed a little movement. My arm didn’t feel broken, I’d had enough broken bones over the years to recognize the familiar grinding of bone on bone.

The skin was definitely broken, blood poured through Lucille’s jaws and dripped onto my jeans as I tried desperately to negotiate with the tiger.

“Please, kitty kitty. Good girl, let’s get your mouth open,” I said and tried to pry Lucille’s jaws wider with my other hand. It just served to make the cat chomp harder, probably doing more damage.

“Shit. Fuck, what am I going to do?” I whispered to nobody in particular. I hated the thought of Alexi finding me like this, unable to trust me with even the simplest of tasks.

“What is going on in here?” he demanded from behind me.

Speak of the devil, dammit. How the hell was I going to explain my way out of this one?

“She’s just playing around,” I said and moved to the side to allow Alexi full view of my arm in the tiger’s mouth. “It looks worse than it is.”

“Lucille!” Alexi barked and produced a short bullwhip. “Release,” he demanded and snapped the leather tip at the tiger. She let out a low growl and stubbornly gripped my arm tightly.

“Come on,” I said and tried again to pry her teeth apart with my good hand.

“Lucille, release,” Alexi repeated and snapped the whip again. I could feel the air move beside my face, the whip was so close.

The tiger finally let go and I drew my arm back carefully.

My skin was a mess of blood and puncture wounds. There would be no easy way to hide this injury.

“Oh dear god,” Alexi said, “that looks bad. Really bad.” He produced a walkie talkie from his hip pocket and hit a button.

“It’s seriously not that bad,” I said and held up my hand. I wiggled my fingers and said, “See? It doesn’t even hurt.”

“I’ve got a bite, and she’s clearly in shock,” Alexi said into the radio. “Bring a medic, ASAP.”

“I should go,” I said and started to back away, “I can clean it up in my trailer. I’ll even bandage it myself. We don’t have to tell anyone.”

I was terrified this meant I would be fired. After giving everything away and not telling a soul I was leaving, I might end up bounced out of Cirque before they left town. I really would be homeless. I had no money to my name. Not enough for a damage deposit and rent at least. My heart started to race and I felt panicky.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Alexi insisted, “this is much more serious than you think. You’re in shock, so you can’t feel anything yet. But when that wears off, this is going to hurt like a son of a bitch.”

“I know myself well enough to know that this isn’t too bad,” I protested and started to back away from Alexi even faster. Alexi was too busy trying to get Lucille back into her cage to come after me. “I heal fast too, and with a travel day, I’ll have plenty of time to get ready for work. I’m just going to leave.”

“The hell you will,” Orion commanded from behind me, “show me your arm.”

I froze on the spot, unable to follow his simple command. This was the worst case scenario, he was my boss and would ultimately decide my fate. He already didn’t seem to like me, this sealed it for me. I was going to get fired.

I turned and held out my arm, unable to think of any way to get out of this. Orion set down a first aid case and took my hand in his. His hands were softer than Cairo’s, but warm and dry like his son’s. I couldn’t help but react, it felt good. Not as good as Cai, but strangely seductive in the same way. As though the vibrations she picked up from Cairo were diluted with his father.

“Does this hurt?” Orion asked as he moved my hand from side to side. I couldn’t feel a thing, which meant I had been correct. No broken bone as far as I could tell.

“No,” I said, then remembered my current identity as a normal person among the freaks. “I mean, a little.”

“You are in shock,” he said, “let’s sit you down.”

He led me to a small bench at the side of the tent and yelled, “Full lights!”

I didn’t know who had responded, but the tent was suddenly flooded with light. Alexi was already gone, he’d taken Lucille into the back to her travel cage. I hoped the big cat wouldn’t get into trouble because of my stupidity.

I remembered something. “Shit, my phone,” I said and looked over Orion’s shoulder. I saw it on the ground a few feet away, it was covered in blood.

“I’ll get it in a moment, until then you can live without it. You young people and your obsession with live tweeting every damn moment of your lives,” Orion grumbled. He pulled back, looked at me and scanned my face. I wasn’t sure what he was searching for, but he didn’t break his gaze. “You should learn to
live
instead of
telling
people about your life. There’s a huge difference.”

“I guess,” I said and fell silent. How could I defend myself? It was true, trying to show off on Facebook had landed me in this mess. It had also most likely cost me a job.

“Can you feel this?” Orion asked and I looked at what he was doing. He had a damp cloth and was wiping the blood from my arm carefully.

“A little,” I said and added, “ouch,” for dramatic effect.

“You’re handling this very well,” Orion told me and continued to clean the wound. The blood had stopped pouring out and had receded to a slow ooze. I had two large puncture wounds on the top of my forearm, and two below on the other side. Lucille had really gotten me good, but at least she hadn’t torn the flesh too badly, only punctured it.

“I’m a tom boy, I’m used to getting hurt,” I said. I carefully kicked off my sandals, keeping my eyes on Orion so he wouldn’t notice, and dug my toes into the dirt floor of the tent.

I fought the urge to squeeze my eyes shut and envisioned myself drawing energy up from the ground, flowing from deep in the earth and into my body. I felt my cells healing and my flesh knitting together as we sat there. I hoped he didn’t notice the very slight blue glow along my flesh as my magic rose to help me.

“I can see that, you’ve got scars all over the place,” Orion said, seemingly not noticing what was going on from my toes up. Thank god for long pants and bright lights, they hid the energy seeping into my body.

“I grew up on a farm, it added to my injuries.”

“I can imagine,” Orion replied but his eyes were narrowed and he was examining me, as if looking for clues.

“This might hurt,” he said and drew a bottle out of the case. “It’s antiseptic, it will sting. Look over my shoulder, don’t look at the wound.”

“Okay,” I replied and winced when I felt cold liquid hit my arm. I screwed my face up into a pained expression and squeezed my eyes shut.

I felt pressure along my flesh and opened my eyes wide. Orion had a razor sharp blade held to my inner arm and had opened my skin in an expertly applied slice.

“What the fuck,” I cried out and jerked my arm away. Fresh blood flowed from the thin cut and I held it against my shirt to stop the bleeding. “Why did you do that?”

“You can’t feel pain, can you?” he asked, his eyes piercing through my façade to my very core. I felt like a bug wriggling on a pin, I was caught and I had no way out. If I hadn’t given up my apartment and given all my shit away, I might have stood up in indignant protest and marched out of the tent right then and there.

But I had, and I essentially had nowhere to go if I stormed off. I was stuck, he was right, and he knew it.

“What makes you say that?” I asked, drawing the inevitable conclusion out even longer. Why didn’t he fire me right on the spot? If he’d suspected my condition, why had he allowed me to decide to follow them?

“I’ve been watching you over the past two weeks. There was something special about you Liv. I have a sixth sense for these things. I knew it, and it wasn’t just your beauty. You have a certain...energy about you.”

“There’s nothing special about me at all,” I said and held my arm out when he motioned for it. He was tender this time, cleaned up the new slit and applied a bandage to my entire arm to stop the bleeding.

“Take these,” he said and gave me a couple pills with a bottle of water. “They’re antibiotics. And you are wrong by the way, you are extremely rare.”

“Are you allowed to give these to me?” I asked and took the pills. I swallowed them with a swig of water and handed the bottle back to him. I felt as though I was about to make a deal with the Devil, and the more I took from him, the more I would ultimately owe.

“We treat our own around here,” he replied. He then paused, looked at me again and added, “I saw you with my son. At first I was angry, all new hires chase him like bitches in heat.” When he saw my wince at that, he said, “Don’t flatter yourself, he’s out of your league. He might play with you a little, but he knows his place. The Cirque isn’t a world for outsiders, and even though I am going to make you a star, you will always be an outsider.”

“I don’t think you have the right to make that decision for him,” I replied quietly.

“That’s not up for debate. He is my son and he will do as I say. You have entered into a world older than yours, our people have lived this way for thousands of years and one small girl is not going to change that.”

“I’m not chasing him anyways. We’re friends,” I said, miserable in my predicament. Nowhere to go, and now not a single chance with Cairo, the man who made my heart flutter and my pulse race. Not if Orion had anything to do with it.

“That’s neither here nor there. You are forbidden to him, and he to you. I have been watching you though. I saw you with him one night, you had a nasty cut on your knee. When he was around, you limped, but you forgot a couple times which leg it was supposed to be. When you left for home, you walked as though nothing had happened. I started to wonder about you, and I see I was right.”

“So I can’t feel pain, what’s the big deal? I can still work, it’s not exactly risky to sell tickets.”

“You are no longer going to sell tickets,” he said and closed the first aid case. My arm felt squeezed, he’d done the bandages a little too tight and I could feel my pulse in the wounds. It was an uncomfortable reminder of my oddity.

“Are you going to fire me?” I asked and slid a finger under my bandage to loosen it.

“Oh no, dear, we won’t let you go,” he replied with a dark grin. “Like I said, I am going to make you a star.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Your condition...we’re going to make you famous. I have to figure out an act, but until then, you are not to work. I will have our physician visit you to start you on a supplement routine to promote rapid healing, and I will figure out the perfect thing to showcase your particular talent.”