“The Beast, It’s still chasing us!” screamed Bruno the strong man, as he was running through the living area of the circus. He was about 5’9, was extremely well muscled, and had light brown almost blonde hair.

“It’s catching up to us; let’s duck into my trailer.” shouted Kim, one of Circus Contraption’s tight rope walkers. She was about two inches shorter than Bruno and had a very slim frame, which is to be expected with tight rope walkers. No sooner had they locked the door they heard The Beast go barreling past.

“Where’s Alex when you need him.”

“I don’t know, but maybe he knows what is going on?” said Kim.

“He is the only person who seemed to know about The Beast.” said Bruno “He sure knows a lot more about it than us.”

“Speak for yourself. I know plenty about The Beast.” retorted Kim.

“So now you’re an expert, what do you know about The Beast that’s so important?” challenged Bruno.

“Well I know that it is half human half lion, runs on four legs, is six feet tall, and it has razor sharp claws.” Kim said triumphantly

“Since you are an expert on it, how do we stop it?”

“I don't know.”She mumbled.

“Alex probably knows if only we could –“

“I got it, Alex was muttering about a special sword that would solve all of his ‘animal’ problems.”

“We should check his trailer maybe he kept the sword there.”

“Good idea.” said Kim as she sprinted off towards the ring leader’s trailer.



















Kim was patiently waiting outside Alex’s trailer for Bruno. He arrived about a half minute after her and was about to keel over from lack of oxygen.

“Did you take long enough to get here, or would you like to go back and get some cotton candy?” Kim shouted as soon as she could see Bruno.

“Ha ha very funny, now would you quit shouting so the beast doesn’t find us.”

“Let’s hope either the sword or Alec is in here, otherwise I don’t know what we will do.”

Kim goes in first and Bruno follows her. The first thing they see is blood everywhere. It dripped from the ceiling and was all over the carpet and bookcases. They searched for Alex or his body but found neither.

“Look up their!” exclaimed Bruno as he pointed at the top of the bookcases.”Don’t you see it? It looks shiny and gold.”

“I see it, now why are you standing there? Go and grab it.”

Bruno pulled up a chair, grabbed it by the handle and waved it above his head triumphantly.

“Now we can kill the beast!”

Just as they were about to leave the trailer they heard a bloodcurdling roar followed by a scream.

“I think that was Alex we had better go help him.” said Bruno as they ran in the direction of the scream.

They sprinted to the entrance of the circus. They saw monkeys bears and even tigers running loose. They saw Alex standing at one edge of the entrance the beast moving slowly toward him.

“What should we do?” whispered Kim as she stepped behind Bruno.

"Well, we could try to distract it."

"How do you suppose we do that?" Kim asked sarcastically.

"I thought you could make some noise and get it to chase you around the circus. since

you are a lot faster than me." shot back Bruno.

Kim spotted one of the balls the tigers play with rolling by and picked it up.

"Maybe we can use this?" asked Kim as she tossed it to Bruno.

"Yeah I can throw it at the Beast and knock it out."

"Ok hero lets not just jump right into action. Let's think over our options before we take action. How about we try to get Alec away from the Beast first."said Kim.

"I can throw the ball behind the beast and hope the noise will distract it long enough for Alec to run to us."

"That's a good idea Bruno!" said Kim shocked.

"Thanks for the compliment, but I think Alec is starting to run out of time." Bruno said as the Beast started to close in on Alec. He threw the ball with all his might. it bounced once right behind the beast and then it kept going with the Beast right behind it. Alec saw who threw the ball and sprinted over to Kim and Bruno.

"Thanks, you saved my--"

"Save the thanks for later, the Beast is coming back" Kim screamed.

They ran for the nearest trailer which belonged to Jack the circus's animal trainer. It was small the three of them could barely fit. They sat down wherever they could. Alec and Kim sat at the table and Bruno leaned on the wall across from them.

"So Alec, I think you have some explaining to do." prodded Bruno.

"What do you want to know."

"Well let's start with why the inside of your trailer is covered in blood?" Kim questioned.

"I'll start from the beginning. I was in my trailer reading when I heard Jack at the door. He said it was urgent so I let him in and we talked. He told me that some of the smaller animals had started disappearing. As soon as he had stopped talking we heard scratching outside. I told him to stay put and I tried to find the sword. I had just found it a few weeks ago when we first set up the big top. the scratching stopped and then became a pounding. I panicked and forgot about the sword. We bolted to the other door and just as I was sprinting out I heard the scream."

Alec had a sudden realization.

"Jack died because of me."He sobbed.

Alec got a gleam in his eyes. He snatched the sword from the shelf behind Bruno and rushed out of the trailer. the last thing they heard from him was his battle cry as rushed the Beast.