Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Chapter 1


The sounds of my footsteps were one of the only distinguishing sounds I could hear in the ally. I made a splash in a puddle from time to time. I had just run out of the house to avoid another confrontation with my dad. I did this often when he was in one of his moods. I thought I’d go down to the bridge under the highway where I usually do, the local hobo, Doug, usually is ok to hang out with me till things calm down at home. He made a small home like nook where we talk and he helps me get over things.
“What was it about now?” asked Doug as he saw me coming.
“Same old crap about how I supposedly never help him around the house” I replied as I sat down next to him by the small battery powered heater, “and you know well that I work on the house all day while he’s gone and when I get too tired from the cleaning and all that crap and I fall asleep, so I’m on the couch while he comes home but it’s not good enough!” I started to shout as I dug my face into my hands.
“Things will calm down as time goes on, here” he said patting me on the back and handing me a bottle of water and a hankie.
The night went on and I vented as I needed to do so I wouldn’t explode. The clock on office building down the street blinked on and off, as it did when it was getting close to midnight.
“Thanks again for letting me vent Doug, you know you’re one- no the best friend I have in this neighborhood” I said getting up and giving Doug a hug before going home.
“It’s never a problem, now go before your dad tries to call missing persons on you” he said patting me on the back and nudging me to go.
I walked in the door and the lights were all off, so apparently dad had gone to bed.

I woke up to my radio saying something about a new circus coming to town, but I didn’t pay any attention to it. I slowly sat up and changed into some different clothes. I had a funny feeling as I went downstairs, I don’t know if it was from my dad singing ‘Staying Alive’ in a horrid tone or from the fact he was in nothing but his tighty whities, but something seemed, off. I grabbed some waffles from the stack that dad was making, grabbed my bag and went out the door. I usually carried a bag of some sort with me. It had what I needed to stay safe in my part of town. I had numerous things I there such as a switch knife, some spare cash, a small bat, an umbrella and those kinds of small things. I could hear music coming from down town. I walked toward where it was coming from; it had a pleasing yet haunting sound, almost like it was drawing me in. I was completely unaware of where I was going or what my feet were doing. When I realized I was running I was almost there, the music so loud and clear; it was nothing of this earth, it was almost like a hellish cry. I almost wanted to sing and cry along with it.
I stopped. There was a large black and red tent standing in front of me. There was a chain link fence that was blocking me from getting me to my target. I saw something out of the corner of my eye. A large black poster with multi-colored neon print, which read:

For Your Entertainment Only, A Once and A Lifetime Event!
Cirque du Mon
A Spectacular Freak Show of Wonder!
Featuring human wonders of the world:
Aurora the fan dancing magnitition!
Sota and Sora, the fire dancing acrobatic twins!!
Raggedy Andrei, the voodooist of a life time!
Aveugle the blind bow staff master of the century!
Sou, the water working contortionist!
And more….
In town March 14-20 starting at 5 P.m. come and see it while you can.

I could tell that it was all closed but I didn’t care. At the moment it felt like I was under a spell, I had never been under a spell before but I had a feeling this is what it felt like. The tent was striped but the stripes weren’t going in any specific direction, they were all going different ways. Each stripe was either black or a different shade of red, and each red one had small spirals in them that weren’t particularly visible until you got about a few feet away from the tent.
The music stopped and I paused. I peeked in an opening int the tent, there were a few large black boxes on either side of me. I looked at one on my right side; the box was larger than a full sized man and covered with dust. I wiped away some of the dust and saw some writing on the borders of it. The writing looked like scribbles on a first graders first writing lesson only it was carved in and it looked much more beautiful.
I heard some voices behind me. I could just make out what they were saying, a man was talking about how their ticket sales were low, and a woman was giving her ideas. My heart started pounding when they all stopped talking.
“Ahem” said a voice behind me.
“Oh crap, I’m busted” I thought closing my eyes as hard as I could. I couldn’t find it in myself to turn around.

((please tell me how it is so far))