The circus. It had been her yearly dream and one wish; to see a endearing circus. When she had been going to school less than a few months ago, rumors had passed to and fro the children about the circus and its extreme acts. Only the rich kids could afford to actually go to see the alluring acts of the circus; the rest of the children sulked in with the background, longingly letting the enriched praise of the circus paint vivid pictures in their wild imaginations. The daring ringmaster with his sparkling top hat and his thin black mustache, curled slightly at the very tips. The beautiful, petite ballerinas with their baby pink tutus and this graceful hand waves and twirls. The tightrope walkers in their enchanting leotards and their breath taking stunts of tip-toeing on a single strand of wire. And the most enduring performance of all: the clowns. They were too mysterious to connect entirely with. Underneath all the layers of makeup was a poker face with feelings and a queer sense of humor, but when put up with an audience that had brought an on edge personality than his sense of humor had a way of tackling the crowd.

When her parents had cut off school, she was devastated. Always hiding in the shadows of her low self-esteem, she'd eavesdrop on the conversations of the kids who had a memory of the circus and daydreamed in her world if she would be ever able to go. If she did go, her life would change dramatically. She'd be able to feel like it was okay to be in this world. The people at school would sharply swivel their heads around to look at her if she had uttered a single word about it. Imagining herself going and watching the exquisite craft of a magnificent life; that was merely a fantasy.
And finally, one day, it happened. Her prayers had been answered. Maybe a little too late, considering that she wouldn't be able to share the wonderful experience with anyone but at least she would cherish every single moment of it.
The afternoon light trickled through the open window and had danced on the wall of their partly damaged flat. With every small step Laneya took, the wood creaked in pain and the dusty oak walls had trembled every time someone yelled or decided to be physical. And that happened a lot.
Laneya had finally conquered up the courage to do it. She finally had the courage to ask her mother a question. She paused in the alley of the doorway, hiding partially behind its silhouette.
She couldn't breathe. Eyeing her mother from afar was scarier that she imagined it would be. The young lady positioned herself in the corner of the old kitchen , somewhat making use of the broken coffee table by leaning on it and scanning through the pages of a magazine from the 1980's. Her eyes narrowed at the minuscule words and her messy blonde updo was puffed into a fashionable hairstyle. She was dressed in a pair of nearly fully-ripped jeans and wore a plaid cardigan topped off with six-inch heels. Whatever money Laneya's mother could find whether it was stolen from an unguarded cash box in the store or edged out sneakingly from her Laneya's father's wallet, the first place it would go was to the nearest boutique or salon.
Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves she quietly went over her brainstorm session that took place in her room, which was rather an empty food pantry.
"What's the worst she could do to me?" she considered to herself. "It's not like she'd kill me."
She quickly glanced around the kitchen. Thank the Lord. No spare knives.
Laneya inched closer and closer to her target. Every step further increased the feeling of heavy lead in her ratty pair of dusty grey shoes. She could do this. She knew she could. Finally, she took her stance at the edge of the coffee table. Too many questions would trigger the uncontrollable nerves of her hot-tempered mother. Luckily, her mom hadn't noticed her. It was not like she ever did anyway. That was the way things ran around the place; Laneya tried hard to respect the ignorance that her family gave her, no matter how hard it stabbed her in the heart.
Laneya felt her heart pound strongly against her chest. Her subconscious mind had already started to envision her grave.
She could and would do it, "Now to start off with a friendly conversation," she thought.
"K-Kylie?" the words came barely out, even as a squeak. She waited, the blood running cold from her hands as she suddenly felt her air pipe closing in on her.
Her mother hadn't paid attention. Laneya watched as her mother continued flipping the pages with her newly done, manicured nails and was staring at them with her icy green eyes and frowning through her thin, penciled eyebrows.
"Kylie?" she whispered again. Laneya was afraid her mother had gone deaf. She waited patiently and a sudden relief and disappointment surged inside of her. Kylie wasn't going to look up.
Laneya was about to back out when suddenly Kylie's stiff neck sharply snapped up. Laneya's body froze in terror as her fists clenched together so tightly that it turned white. Her back began to feel strangely sweaty and the question she was pondering on the past few hours was drained quickly underneath all the fear. Kylie's violent eyes were looking at her. The anger and malevolence in them started to make Laneya's lip quiver, but if it was one thing Kylie definitely hated, it was fear.

She continued to stay temporarily frigid, desperately trying to retrieve the words she wanted to. Her wrist began to suddenly ache. Her mind chilled with the tension as she remembered what had happened the last time she had angered her mother. It was just like yesterday. The screaming, the bloody eyes, and the tightly wrapped around around her wrist, cutting off her blood-circulation. The snapping pressure that Kylie had caused in her wrist was so intense that the whole arm allegedly collapsed. A rapid spark of pain shot up her arm and through her body from the memory and caused her to wince.
"Oh God," she thought, "Please not now. Whatever it is, not now." Kylie's top lip curled back in annoyance and her eyes shot like lasers through Laneya's soul.
"Yes?" Kylie asked, with a voice as soothing as honey but as nefarious as a poison dart.
A frog was caught in her throat as she perilously tried to force it the words out of her.
"I can't let her win," she said to herself. Laneya cleared her throat, loudly and boldly and attempted to stare back at her mother the way she was staring at Laneya.
"I was just wondering," said Laneya in her normal voice, "Who I was named after?"
Kylie's eyebrow shot down as it began to twitch. The fear swallowed up once again, but she fought to put on her mask of confidence.
Kylie threw her magazine on the floor in one movement. She looked at Laneya like she was a little child uttering pure nonsense as she reluctantly answered.
"You were named after the stupid girl next door," she spat, "She almost got run over."
A twinge of anger ran through Laneya, she took a breath in and remained calm. Kylie moved around the deserted kitchen island and walked around like she was a busy mother who at least partially knew her children's full names.
Kylie's eyes moved in circles for something. Laneya gulped.
"Please say we're out of knives," she silently prayed. Kylie swiveled around to face Laneya and the butterflies in her stomach fluttered around nervously.
"Why are you still here?" she lashed out, the anger and volume of her voice getting louder.
"I just have one more question, that's it," Laneya said quickly, "One more--"
"You know how I hate questions," Kylie threatened loudly, her teeth bared, "And you know that the number one rule is that you aren't even supposed to be talking to me!"
Laneya felt like running that very moment and locking herself behind the door, scurrying into her closet.
"Can't I go to the circus?"
Kylie's enraged words had suddenly ceased as she chewed on her daughter's question. She seemed momentarily stumped. Then she shot back up.
"The circus?!? she yelled, "What are you? Six?"
"I'm seven!" Laneya's persistent voice escaped her as her fear and temper began rising.
"Please!" Laneya heard herself say, "It's in town and it's my only life desire! I swear on my life that I will never, ever talk to you ever again!"
Kylie's voice had lowered down. Laneya could see that she was thinking about this bargain. Kylie bored her soul into Laneya's. Her piercing eyes stared at Laneya, scanning through her secrets and whispers. Kylie was petite and slim. Observing her mother carefully Laneya thought of how beautiful her mother could be if she wasn't as cruel and evil.
"Fine."
Kylie gave in and pushed past Lanyea, Laneya almost tumbling to the ground.
"But you're going to have the steal the money needed by yourself," she said thinly, "And take Nicholas with you."
And just like that she was gone. Laneya was left in the lonely room and stood there, speechless as a cold draft was tossed around. She could've almost cried in laughter, but mostly, she was in denial. She had won. She was going to conquer her dream. She would finally see the circus and nothing, nothing was going to stop her.














***
Clenching her fists the whole night had made her palms greatly perspiry. But if Kylie or her dad, Christian, had known that she had money they'd mug her even before she had the chance to go.
The past few days it had been hard to persia Nicholas into coming. She would have easily gone alone, though she well knew that in the area kidnapping was common for little girls if either an older boy or man wasn't with them.
Shad had finally promised Nicholas that she would pry out whatever money she could from Christian and never, ever in Nicholas's whole life ask for anything to do with helping her again.
Money tightly stuffed in her tiny palm, she changed into a decent pair of jeans and a leather jacket that she had never dared to wear except for if it was for something very, very special. If this wasn't special, she didn't know what was.
In her room, which was rather a food pantry, a little crack in the wall had let a single ray of light enter inside, and it stood neatly on the ground next to the standing mirror.
"What I've been dreaming for my entire life is finally here." She whispered to herself unbelievably, "It's finally here." She would've just stood there the rest of the day murmuring how lucky she was. But before she could, her senses came back to her as she slinked through the tiny door and gently locked it shut.
She hadn't told her mother what day she was going. Crashing into her parents was probably one of the most hazardous things she could ever do.
"Now to only find Nicholas without bumping into mom or dad," she thought, thrusting the folded bill into her jean pocket.

She raced through the barren hall, careful not to trigger the creaking old boards. It was a bit hard for her to navigate to her brother’s room since she had never dared to cross any limit beyond her room. Turning around in a full circle, she tried to reason out which one of the closed doors would be her brother’s and how exactly she would approach him. She was right in the middle of her own circumstances when it was right then that she smacked into something. Without even turning to see who it was, fear instantly paralyzed Laneya.

Mom or Dad.

Straining to breathe and heart pounding ferociously she had the nerve to slowly turn around.

Sighing at the sight, she let out her breath and wiped her sweaty palms on her knees. The boy standing in front of her was a blonde, with his hair a messy-neat combination and the fringes sticking out on the sides. His brown eyes blinked at Laneya and his lips were pressed in a tight line. HIs hands were stuffed in his black hoodie as he glared at Laneya.

As Laneya caught her breath and her pulse began to slow down, Nicholas rolled his eyes as he started to walk forward.

“Watch your way, you idiot,” he muttered under his voice.

Laneya ignored him quietly as they walked side by side to the front door. It was partially splintered and was literally hanging on a single hinge. Laneya pushed the wobbly front door open and held it as Nicholas passed right by. Laneya and Nicholas continued as they walked further away from their house into the secluded area. For miles and miles it was just plain dirt and yellowing grass with no houses or civilization as far as the eye could see. The only sight of people would be a thirty minute walk, but luckily the circus wasn’t smack in the middle of the city.

A thin breeze of air hovered near Laneya as she unknowingly shivered and wiggled her hands into her jacket pockets. She couldn’t remember the last time she went outside. It was probably a few months ago before she had ceased to go to school because of her family’s lack of money. Her heart throbbed in recall of the memories as she walked alongside Nicholas through the dirt walkway. It wasn’t fair for her. The only time where she was near people that actually talked to her got taken away. “If my family didn’t want to talk to me they should’ve just left me there in the first place,” she thought bitterly.

Suddenly her agony was distracted by a shape in the horizon. It was a dome. A big, inflated dome over the hill with a dinky sign next to it. She didn’t need to read the sign to know what it was.

“The circus,” she said excitedly, skipping a bit as she walked. Her older brother continued to block her out until they finally reached the mere picture beyond the horizon. Laneya’s chest pounded with anxiety as they approached closer to the entrance. The sign that she couldn’t read from afar was now at the tips of her fingers as she read it intently.

It was quite at attempt to spell “Circus.” The writing on the board was scribbled sloppily in black paint and had the ‘r’ written backwards. It didn’t seem as professional as she thought it would, but that didn’t deflate her hopes. The billowing entrance of the circus’s closed arena awaited the two as they paced themselves towards it. Laneya positioned herself in front of the entrance. She couldn’t hear anybody-- rather anything.

“What happened to the long lines?” she questioned out loud, “And the ticket-seller?”

Craning her neck around, she stood on the tip of her toes to see if any crowd was approaching. None whatsoever. So Laneya and her brother continued to stand at the entrance patiently. None of them said a word to each other but none of them objected whether what they were doing was right or wrong either.
“C-can we go inside?” she whispered to her brother.
He bit his lip but didn’t answer. Truthfully, we didn’t know what to do.
Clunk. Clunk.
Laneya’s head spun around to the direction of where the queer noise was coming from. She could see nothing, but the noise seemed to be gradually getting louder. Nervously, she turned to look at her brother. He too seemed dazed as his hands twitched inside of his pockets. Laneya turned back to look at the billowing entrance and suddenly a short man stood in front of her. Laneya gasped, taking a step back as the tension in her body erupted.
“He flew in just like air,” she thought, “Just like circus magic.” For a minute, all Laneya could do was stare at the strange man.
His skin color was pale and he had a long unibrow that stretched over his head. A mop of black hair sat in a forlorn island on top of his head and his eyes were that of a black shade.
“H-How much does it cost?” Laneya finally stammered, reaching into her pocket. The man seemed puzzled as her gave her a blank expression, but when he saw the small lot of bills in Laneya’s palm, he raised two short fingers.
“T-Two,” he stuttered, staring at her continuously.
Laneya stuck out the ten dollar bill. The man took the cash in a slow movement and opened the curtain for them.
“Can I have my change?” Laneya asked.
Once again the short man pulled the curtain wider, staring at them with big eyes. Nicholas strolled inside and Laneya hesitantly followed as the man closed the curtain behind her.
“If Mom figured out I didn’t get my change she’d have my neck wringed.”
She shivered under her skin on the thought as she stood to observe the area. It was a dim place. No light seeped through the area and it wasn’t as big as she had expected either. There was merely a little circle, no bigger than the size of a jacuzzi. She realized it would be the performing area. About twenty chairs were spread around the circle to make it seem wider. Laneya stared at the chairs. All empty. Laneya looked once again and figured that she was wrong. A figure who had a hood over his head sat at the very edge, sullen and still. This was definitely not the circus she had come for. She turned around to see a fluttering entrance curtain, but the strange little man had long gone. Warily glancing around she took her seat at the chair closest to the entrance and sat beside her brother.
No crowd, no laughter, no food. What was this? Were the kids at school making these tales about the circus up? Before Laneya went deeper into her confusion, a light suddenly infused in the middle of the circle. Laneya blinked to adjust to the light and found herself staring at a candle into the center of the arena. The show was about to start.
Her stomach panged and her body began to tingle. She was suddenly not sure whether she had made the right choice. She had the feeling that something wasn’t going to be right and when she had the feeling, she was usually correct. She snuck a peek at Nicholas who was sitting cross-legged with his arms tied tightly together in front of him. She couldn’t tell how he was feeling at the moment with that look on his face.
She could leave right now and she’d be safe. Yes, that was what she would do. She began to stand up and opened her mouth, but looking at Nicholas she forced herself back down. If she had made them leave, the whole way back he’d curse at her and keep repeating about how stupid she was for dragging him here and what a wimp she was. She clenched her jaws and folded her arms. She’d sit and watch the show like a mature adult.
All of a sudden a bang echoed through the room. Laneya jumped in her seat as she clutched the edges, her adrenaline rushing.
She could get out. She could be safe from what might happen. Stubbornly, she negotiated with herself and crossed her legs. She would do this. She stared into the center of the circle as she blinked.
There was a straight figure in the center. Startled, her breathing grew harder as her firm pout jotted downward. When she blinked a second ago, there was nothing. Absolutely nothing. She was certain of it. Rubbing her eyes, she looked back at Nicholas who didn’t seem the least bit surprised.
The object in the center of the room began to seem more and more visible. It was visible. It was tall, about six feet or so and whoever it was, whatever it was, was wearing baggy striped pants and a loose white cloth of tie-dye colors as a shirt. Laneya couldn’t seem to make out its facial features, but with puffy hair and white, painted white skin, she realized what it was. A clown.
It seemed to be approaching closer and closer to Laneya and her brother. It walked slowly. Very slowly, like it had gum stuck on the bottom sole of its shoe.
Laneya glanced to the corners of the arena to take a look at the other chairs. All empty. Even the one figure that sat at the chair in the edge was gone. It was their private show.
Watching the clown take its slow steps seemed to take forever. Laneya’s eyes drooped with every fraction of a second.
A twang of string snapping, rather opening, brought her back to the moment again. The clown from the center was nowhere to be seen and the string opening was a black cord dangling from the top of the dome with one end attached to it and the other loosely hanging. Actually, more like the clown has attached to the side which was dangling.
Without asking, it flew around the arena, but flew slowly, taking its time and flying a few feet off the ground going around and back again. The second time the clown flew around slowly and Laneya squinted her eyes as it came only a few inches away from her face.
Her heart dropped and her breath stopped.
It was those eyes. The anxiety in her came back once again and she tried to gasp, but couldn’t find the strength to move or talk. As she blinked the flashback of a few seconds ago passed through the air. The clown had flown through the air as slow as an adult’s normal walking pace and Laneya felt the moment in slow motion when its face had lined up to her’s.
The curly amber wig and the stiff white face. The tiny bump in the middle of its face signified the nose and thin lined lips were almost as the skin itself. But what stood out most were the eyes. Laneya had never seen eyes like those before. If she didn’t know any better she’d think they were lifelike dolls.
When face to face with the clown her blood ran cold and she instantly forgot how to breathe. They were enormous, those eyes, taking up most of the space on its face and were glinting red. They shone violently and the gold flecks in the center of them stretched in and out as they stared at Laneya. Kylie’s malevolent eyes suddenly seemed normal. But this, this was nothing like Laneya had ever seen, or imagined. It was like it was coming out of a child’s nightmare.
“Being a child or not being a child I have to leave,” Laneya thought, making up her mind, “Even if I have to hear Nicholas complain about it all the way home.”
She stood up in her seat and cleared her throat to inform Nicholas about her abrupt decision when a loud sound, like a bunch of objects cluttering, echoed through the dome. Laneya’s question was left hanging in the air as her attention was diverted to the corner of the enclosed arena. The clown was now lying sprawled on the ground, with its head faced down. Laneya’s lip quivered as she glanced up to see the black cord ripped in half, the edges singed, still hanging from the top of the dome.
“Is he--” her voice came out meekly.
“Dead?” Nicholas answered stiffly. For the first time since they were at home he looked at her. “Let’s beat it.”
Without any objection Laneya scrambled out of her seat and followed Nicolas out quickly, taking one last peek at the clown. Still lying on the floor, its face was now turned to look at Laneya, its eyes wrapping around her and watching her as she made her way out of the dome.
Once they were fully out of the dome, Nicholas took the chance to fire at her.
“What type of stupid place is this? What’s with you?”
“I didn’t know the circus would be this terrifying,” she shot back, “The kids at school must’ve made it all up.”
“Yes, well that’s very smart of you to believe everything they say like a helpless little puppy,” he said cruelly, “Twerp.”
Shoving her to the ground, Laneya watched him helplessness as her elbow burned from the pressure of trying to save herself from hitting the ground. Nicholas rolled his eyes at her weakness and glared at her.
“Let’s go now.”
“I’m not going!” Laneya’s voice shook with anger and fear. She was sick of being pushed around.
Nicholas stopped mid sentence and shrugged. “Then you can get lost with these creep of clowns,” he said harshly, “Good luck trying to find your way back home.”
And with that Nicholas turned the other way and began to walk farther away , leaving Laneya silently sobbing to herself on the ground. The tears in her eyes stung and the anger inside of her swelled up even more. “I’m basically on orphan,” she thought bitterly, “They treat me like one.”
Sitting in the barren fields with the stalky grass and surrounding woods exactly where Nicholas had shoved her down, grew increasingly tedious. Five minutes seemed like an hour and the sun glaring down at her didn’t seem likely to move any second. Laneya sighed pitifully as she cradled her arms around her knees with the sun beating down on her back.
The circus was nothing. Nothing at all compared to how she had imagined it. She grew angrier and angrier thinking about all the lies the kids at school had blabbered. Twisting with her life and toying with her. But she couldn’t stay mad for long. She tried to but within minutes she had already given up on it. The afternoon seemed to stay the same and time seemed to have frozen.
“I wonder what these clowns are upto,” she suddenly wondered. Instead of fear, curiosity had been replaced and the clowns that had tried to somewhat put on a show seemed to bug her. Quietly standing, she tiptoed over to the side of the dome and breathed silently, carefully making her way to the back of the dome where she assumed all the clowns would be. As she finally reached the rear end she figured she had assumed right because in the back of the dome was a mini-tent that was pretty tall. Tall enough for at least five or six clowns at most.
Laneya, still hidden by the side of the dome, remained still, torn by decisions. She could go as close as possible to the tent and peer into the lives of the freakish clowns, or she could be knowingly safe without having a fear of getting captured by them.
Feeling caught, Laneya knew what her decision would be. If she didn’t go it would haunt her for the rest of her life, keeping her up in the middle of the night, wondering what would’ve happened if she took that chance.
A memory of her brother calling her a weak puppy flashed through her. Putting on a face of steel she cautiously walked, taking one careful step after the other until she was at the side of the mini-tent in which there was a tiny gap, good enough for her too see. Inhaling a steady pulse of air, she decided she would hold her breath until she really knew it was safe. Then, blinking in the pure light, she peeked inside.
The clowns were there alright. Laneya counted about seven huddled around in their own positions. But they weren’t doing anything. Each of them were a few feet away from each other, just standing and gazing into the walls of the tent, neither blinking nor moving. Laneya shuddered at the sight of those red eyes. It was like crystal glasses filled with blood, except of course for the shimmering gold flecks in the middle.
The next few minutes passed like that and Laneya was getting bored though she still had the determination to believe that something fishy was going on with the clowns. The anxiety she had at first slowly drained away with every second that passed. She decided finally, that there was nothing interesting to spot in the clowns and she was about to pivot and put her foot down when something happened.
A clown opened its mouth. It was in the center of all the others and its face was tilted enough for Laneya to see its distinct features and recognize it. The one side of its cheek and head were a dusty pink from where it had fell off the cord.
Laneya watched inquisitively as its mouth continued to hang open. Its throat stretched and tightened as it tried to put force on it. And that was when it dawned on her.
The clowns couldn’t talk.
She continued watching as the rest of the clown stared at the clown in the center who still had its mouth hanging open. Having no eyebrows, it was hard for Laneya to tell how the rest of the clowns were feeling. The question puzzled her, yet the way they looked at the clown in the center, it seemed that the they really didn’t care. Reluctantly, the clown shut its mouth and continued to stare away when suddenly its head began to turn, very slowly but steadily. Laneya didn’t have a good feeling about it. She looked at its head as it continued to turn to the side until it stopped and was directly staring at her through the gap in the tent.
Laneya was so taken aback that she didn’t exactly know what happened. She only remembered the banging sound of drums in her head and the pounding of her feet as they swiftly hit the ground. Panting, she fell to her knees when she had reached the spot where Nicholas had pushed her. Heart in throat, she warily stared off in the distance at the dome to see if the clowns were back for her.
After sometime, her theory didn’t seem as promising as it did ten minutes ago. And Nicholas was gone so that left her only in the miles and miles of grassy fields. She could go back when she was ready; the way back home wasn’t too difficult to find, but the invisible dagger that stabbed her made her stay put as she wandered back and forth around the fields. Every step was exactly the same scenery, so things got very predictable. While thinking about absolutely nothing and pondering deeply, a sudden noise filled the air. Laneya’s nose scrunched as she rose her head in confusion. Was that the sound of her imagination? That, she knew, was quite a realistic possibility considering the fact that she had imagined all these details about the so-called circus.
But the sound didn’t go away. In fact it seemed to be coming closer. It sounded… like something big was running away. She had never heard anything like it before, so she couldn’t tell what it was until she saw it in the near grass. It definitely wasn’t something big, because whatever it was, was shorter than the stalky grass but the munber of whatever it was thundered so much that the grass shook.
Laneya wouldn’t have exactly minded except for the fact that it was coming closer to her. And at times of pressure, Laneya’s curse was that she could never move. It was weird, her body always froze up in times of tension and watching a big number of something cornering her was definitely a time where she froze under all the pressure. So that was the final decision: she was going to have to stand through it. Her pulse came quickly as it came closer. But she was going to live through it, that was certain. It was just the curiosity and anxiety that killed her.
Finally, she thought she had seen it when it was out of reach of only a few feet. Specks of white and brown were dotted all over, but what really shocked her was the amount. From where she was standing, she saw from her view that it had stretched through yards and yards of grass, endlessly running.
Her first instincts told her to run, but since that wasn’t an option, she did exactly what came to mind next. Scream.
She shrieked at the top of her lungs as they pushed passed her and squirmed their way through her legs. They tickled very much as the creatures swarmed around the soles of her feet.
It was an abundance of cockroaches and rats. Realizing the fact, Laneya screamed even harder until she was out of breath but by that time the load of tiny insects and rats had gone pounding its way farther and farther away from her.
That didn’t seem at all usual. It had never happened before in the history of her experiences and never had she even heard about it once. What were they running away from? She shivered through her skin thinking about it. Something very wrong was about to happen.
Scrunch.
Laneya gasped sharply, spinning around to see who stood a few feet away from her.
“N-nicholas?”
Her brother stared at her with his brown eyes and frowning eyebrows.
“Nicholas, what are you doing?”
“I’m watching you.”
A twinge of happiness and love piped in Laneya.
“You waited for me? W-why?”
“Because I’m your older brother. And I care.”
No matter how startled Laneya was, she couldn’t help from smiling at her brother. Someone cared for her.
“But d-did you see that? The cockroaches and rats?” she spluttered. Nicholas’s face became suddenly stony as her came closer to her.
“Laneya, something is very, very wrong. I-I can feel it, we need to get out of here now--”
“I have nowhere to go!” Laneya answered desperately, “Nobody cares for me! My parents wish I weren’t born and curse at me! They want me gone, they hate me!”
“They don’t hate you,” Nicholas ushered, “They just have a hard time expressing their feeling towards us.”
Laneya gave him a sarcastic look. “Sure.”
“Look, Laneya, we can talk about this later, now we just really need to go--”
All of a sudden, a fierce ghast of wind blew over the fields. And it didn’t stop there. It continued to get harder and harder until everything in sight was blowing and shaking in reverence to it. The fear on Laneya’s face was plastered on her as she looked helplessly at Nicholas.
“Nicolas?! W-what’s happening?”
“Laneya!” he shouted over the wind, “We have to go!”
Thump.
Laneya’s heart stopped as she looked out in the beyond.
Thump.
The sound was soft at first as the Earth shook under her feet.
Thump.
Laneya panicked as she lost her balance and toppled over. Another thump was sent racing out in the grassland as she clutched her body. It… it was like the Earth was breathing, like its heart was thumping.
“Nicholas!” Laneya yelled as loud as she could through the tears of desperation.
“Laneya!” Nicholas shouted, assuring to her as he fought to find her, “Laneya, I’m coming!”
Laneya closed her eyes as the heavy gust of wind blew at her and that was when Nicholas’s strong grip clutched her. Pulling herself up she stared out on the horizon when she saw something that made the situation very, very troubling.
It was a clown.
And it was staring at the two siblings with its beady, gleaming eyes.
In the first time since the show, Laneya felt her mouth drop when suddenly the clown smiled. Not the friendly smile that made you feel safe, but the exact opposite. Its nefarious grin made Laneya’s insides feel like jelly. To keep support, she held onto Nicholas’s jacket, trembling greatly.
Then, all of a sudden, the clown thrust its head upto the sky and screamed. Of all things it could do, it screamed. But the scream in fact was so blood-curdling and terrifying that it had an effect on her like nothing did. She could no longer feel herself as her breathing became thicker and thicker. The Earth thumped louder and the wind blew more. It felt and looked exactly like what the end of the world would be.
And that was when it happened. Along with the clown’s another person’s terrifying scream filled the air and Laneya understood it was coming from the person next to her.
“N-Nicholas!” she shrieked, “N-Nicholas what’s happening?!”
Laneya’s grip on Nicholas loosened when she realized that it was not her grip that she was losing, but Nicholas himself.
Nicholas was vaporizing.
“Laneya! Laneya, what’s happening to me?!”
Nicholas’s body transparently billowed in the air as Laneya stared helplessly at the clown and back at Nicholas. The clown was causing Nicholas to disappear. It kept screaming and the tears in Laneya’s eyes flowed as she reached out to keep Nicholas from disappearing.
“Nicholas! Nicholas!!”
Her eyes widened as she screamed and tried snatching at the pieces of air to pull him back as she looked in Nicholas’s terrified brown eyes one last time. And he was gone.
Laneya continued screaming as her body burned and her tears stung. The wind swiveled and howled in fright. And then, everything was normal like nothing had happened.