Desired Life

Chapter 12: How to Create Your Own Circus (Instructions Not Included) (Part 3)

It’s already 7 PM, and we need to start. I take a peek from behind the curtain just to check how much people have arrived to see us.
  “It’s a full house,” I announce to everyone else.
  “Oh, crap,” Grindel mutters. He seems terribly anxious.
  He starts rubbing his hands together and then breathing on them. We all stand backstage, but we can still see what’s happening, since we have cameras pointed at the stage, where Louise is giving a full presentation.
  “Is Security in their places?” I ask.
  “Yes,” Koran, another of the Safe House Outsiders, assures me.
  I nod, and then I hear Louise announcing Grindel’s act.
  “And now, let the show begin!” she calls.
  Grindel steps onstage as Louise is coming back backstage.
  “My name is Grindelwald the Magician, and I am here to commence your night full of wondrous and astonishing magic. ‘World of Magic’ is honored to have you here, and, as the name says, it will be your own personal world of magic that you will see,” Grindel says to the crowd.
  He nods at the people handling the lights. The lights dim, and then one single beam of light focuses on Grindel. He has his head bowed, staring at the ground. I can notice his anxiousness and his nerves on edge by the way his shoulders are slouched. He relaxes, and then he stares up front.
  He starts walking around the stage and he produces a vast amount of colorful handkerchiefs from his sleeve. He presents it to the crowd and then he waves it; as it snaps on the end, suddenly he appears holding a cane on his hand. The crowd cheers him on. He smiles at the crowd and then bows.
  He stands there, the cane poised end-to-floor. He releases the cane and walks away. Surprisingly, the cane is still standing up. The crowd cheers him again.
  How did he do it?
  He moves around the place and takes hold of the cane again. As he twirls it, it transforms into a cape. The crowd keeps cheering him.
  Grindel asks for someone from the crowd. Orson is sitting there in the crowd, waiting to be picked. Grindel picks Orson and announces, “I’ll turn this man into a beast right in front of your eyes.”
  The cape covers Orson’s whole body, and as Grindel moves it slightly to make waves in it, he then retrieves it and Orson, using his powers as a Lunar, is transformed into his werewolf form. He growls and howls. The crowd, first scared, now claps and whoops, totally entranced by the act.
  I can see Penelope sitting in the front seats. She insisted that if she was coming to see us, she would pay for ticket, supporting our cause. She beams at the act. She knows what’s happening, but she acts as if she doesn’t, and she looks truly amused.
  Grindel waves the cape back in front of Orson and Orson turns back into his human form. He acts as if he were amazed by what happened to him and then goes back to his seat.
  Grindel bows again and heads back off stage to where we stand. As Louise goes back front stage and calls for applauds for Hansel and Annabelle –they decided to call themselves the Hubert Dancers; don’t ask me why- and then Orson appears backstage as well. Louise steps off and Hansel and Annabelle (or Hubert Dancers if that’s how you want to call them for now) appear onstage.
  They are holding hands, all ready to start dancing. The song plays. It’s a slow song, to which they dance slowly, close to one another. It seems boring, but it only lasts ten seconds.  Then, the song changes to a rock song and Annabelle pushes Hansel away from her as she moves backwards, staring at him all the time. Then, they both jump, and as they fall, the song changes again to electronic. They start dancing wildly, yet it’s still somehow organized and beautiful to look at.
  The song changes again, this time to death metal. As soon as it starts, Annabelle and Hansel both ascend into the air, somehow. The lights turn off and the music stops. Annabelle floats about three meters above the ground, and so does Hansel. Suddenly, it’s as if all the light was sucked in and thrown on top of Hansel. He’s the heart of a gigantic blinding shape of himself. Annabelle doesn’t seem to have changed in the least, but then a gust of cold air blasts inside the tent. It’s as if the darkness had gone away from the world. And then, Annabelle stands there, same as Hansel, except she’s in a void shape of herself.
  Giant Hansel and Giant Annabelle reach out to hold each other’s hands. As soon as their hands meet, a blast of warm runs through everything, followed by a sudden coldness. They seem to be waltzing around the place, and then, Hansel throws Annabelle up in the air. As Annabelle falls, Hansel raises his arms to grab Annabelle.
  Giant Annabelle touches Giant Hansel’s hands, Hansel managing to hold Annabelle by her abdomen. He slowly brings her down and places her on the ground.
  Then, six-meter Annabelle kisses six-meter Hansel. A beacon of light and dark, both intertwining, rises high up inside the tent. It looks like the tent’s ceiling is more than thirty meters up, since the light-dark ray ascends about twenty meters and then skims the ceiling, exploding in a shower of beautiful lights.
   Now, normal-sized Hansel and normal-sized Annabelle descend slowly to the ground, bowing toward the crowd.
  The crowd cheers, crazy and ecstatic with the act. Hansel and Annabelle beam at the crowd, bowing once, twice, and then a third time, at the crowd.
  Then, they walk out of the stage and come backstage.
  An excited Louise heads back onstage, saying words of approval about the “Hubert Dancers” act. And then, she calls up Diane. I wish her luck as she heads onstage. Louise comes backstage yet again.
  Diane bows to the crowd. She snaps her fingers and her hand catches fire. The crowd falls silent, and I notice that they seem scared. Diane releases a blood curling scream. I rush upstairs and offer her a glass of water. She accepts it, and as I am leaving the stage, she gives a wink. It is quite unrecognizable, but I manage to notice it from the corner of my eye.
  Back off stage, I stare at the screen. She scrambles for the glass and drops it. Her hand is still on fire, and I notice that the crowd is going haywire. But then, Diane does a quick motion with her hand and the water that she dropped with the glass rises up in the air. She massages her hand with the water and smiles at the crowd.
  The crowd falls silent again, and then Diane raises the water a couple of meters in the air, and then, she suddenly spits fire at it, evaporating the water in the way.
  She laughs and then composes herself. All of this is part of the act, but she makes it seem as if it was just a mistake.
  She closes her eyes and furrows her brows deep in concentration. She breathes in deeply, holds her breath in, opens her eyes, and releases her breath. With it comes a column of fire which takes shape of a dragon. The fire dragon flies around the tent. Diane moves her hands, controlling it. The dragon breathes fire and as it continues breathing fire, it turns into a dragon fledgling. The baby fire dragon goes back to the stage and falls asleep, touching ground. But as soon as it lands, bright fire shoots up into the sky. A column of water rises along, and there’s a struggle between them. Finally, both water and fire settle down and Diane is trapped in a vortex of fire. She screams for a while, and then the fire disappears. Diane no longer stands there.
  She appears high up in the sky, stepping on top of an apparently consistent block of ice.  The block of ice suddenly melts and Diane is hurtling to the ground. A blast of water surges from the ground, catching her in mid-air and placing her on the ground.
  She smiles and bows to the crowd. The crowd booms with applause and laughter and cheering.
  “Do have in mind that this was all planed. Don’t try to do it at home,” she announces, a bit out of breath.
  Diane steps off stage and comes backstage. She runs at me and hugs me tightly.
  “That was scary,” she whispers in my ear. “I wasn’t sure if I would actually burn or anything.”
  Then she looks at me and smiles. “But well, at least it’s over,” she adds.
  She laughs and I laugh as well. Louise steps up onstage and then calls for Maia. She makes an astonishing appearance, appearing out of thin air. First her head, then her whole body shimmers into existence.
  So she decided to start with illusions. Perfect.
  “Allow me to try and call up some of the people in the crowd. What I’m about hasn’t been done ever,” Maia tells the crowd. “Now, I need some volunteers.”
  Plenty of people in the crowd volunteer, yet Maia only calls three to the stage.
  “First, I’ll try to read his mind,” she announces, pointing at the man standing right in front of her. She calls Louise back onstage and Louise asks for the man to write the first thing that he thinks of on a piece of paper. Hastily, the man writes it down and Louise takes the paper away.
  “I asked this man to write his first thought on the paper. He did as I told him. And now, I will try to search in his mind what he wrote. Please have in mind that I didn’t have a chance to glance at the paper, not even once. This is real magic,” Maia tells the crowd.
  Maia concentrates hard on the man and closes her eyes.
  I want beer, I can hear the man’s thought in my mind, somehow. Apparently, Maia’s mental connection hasn’t yet been severed for this act.
  Maia starts to mouth the words. And then, she says it out loud, “I want beer.”
  In a screen above the stage, a picture of the paper the man wrote says “I want beer” in the man’s writing.
  He looks up at the screen, first amazed, and then embarrassed about having those thoughts. The crowd laughs and cheers.
  Then, he goes back to his seat.
  Maia asks the second volunteer, a woman, to step in front of her.
  “I’ll make her act the way I want her to act by the art of hypnotizing,” Maia announces.
  Maia stares at the woman in front of her deeply in the eyes. She snaps her fingers and the woman’s head lolls backward, her eyes closed.
  The crowd gasps in amazement.
  “Act like a dog,” Maia commands.
  The woman bends down and starts barking and running on her hands and feet.
  “Cat,” Maia tells her.
  The woman stops and then starts licking her hand, staring up at Maia.
  “Horse,” Maia commands.
  The woman neighs and kicks her left leg behind her.
  Maia snaps her fingers again and the woman snaps out of her daze. She looks around and stands up after noticing that she was on the ground.
  The crowd cheers again.
  Maia calls the third volunteer and she nears Maia. Maia smiles and I already know what she’s about to do.
  She’s going to make the woman look like a fool with her illusions.
  Maia looks at the woman. She seems clueless about what Maia’s going to do to her. She makes the ground beneath the woman seem to shift. She starts scrambling away from where she is, trying to get away from the shifting ground. Then, Maia makes a frightening illusion man stand in front of the woman. She looks at the man, afraid of what he might do. And then, he starts running toward her. She lifts her arms up to fend herself. The illusion disappears.
  “Fears are powers that have significant force. This is what I just showed you,” Maia announces. “Now give a round of applause to this woman.”
  The crowd applauds Maia, and I guess they also applaud the woman at Maia’s request. Maia sends the last volunteer back to her place, and then Louise runs onstage, while Maia hurries offstage.
  “And now presenting a one-man orchestra, give a round of applause to Ken, the Sound Master!” Louise announces.
  Ken runs onstage, bows, and then makes as if about to conduct a band, then opens his mouth and starts. Melodious music starts coming from his mouth. I first recognize the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song. He starts moving his hands and the sound starts fluctuating and improving by the second. Then, he quickly changes it to Claire de Lune by Franz Schubert and he continues swinging his hands wildly, creating a beautiful mix of music. The Legend of Zelda theme song continues the symphony and then, he slowly starts changing it to the Harry Potter movies theme song and ends it beautifully.
  Most of the people in the crowd give him a standing ovation, but there are still some people who apparently aren’t that impressed.
  Could’ve been a DJ or something, envious people might say, but we know better than that.
  Barry is called up, and he asks for people to give him things to create. He also receives a roar of applauds and cheers. Ryan, his brother, is called up minutes later, and he is also applauded for, though much less people than the rest.
  And then, the clock strikes 9:30. It’s my turn to end this night perfectly.

  I walk upstairs and stand behind the curtains. I am given a microphone so that I can talk a bit before actually starting the act. I can hear smoke machines producing the fake smoke and releasing it into the air. Louise, standing right at the edge of the curtains, signals for me to start.
  “It has been a pleasure to have you all this beautiful evening. We came to give you a good time, and apparently, you have enjoyed it.
  “Now, this show has yet one more act to present you before you can head to your homes. It would be my pleasure to present myself to you. My name is John Adams, and I am able to control things with my mind.
  “On this night, I will show you that everything is possible, like you have been proven with the acts before this one. And to end it all, I will promise you that ‘World of Magic’ is what this night will be to you all.”
  The lights outside dim, but the smoke machines keep working. I teleport onstage and the lights turn on again.
  The crowd gasps as they seem me standing in front of them, bowing down deeply. I stand straight and look at them.
  I feel nervous and very excited at the same time. I trust you can do this well, I hear Maia tell me telepathically. A smile breaks up in my lips.
  I slowly start lifting myself from the ground with my telekinesis. I am now floating a meter above the stage, the crowd staring silently at me.
  “I can make this night magical, and I will. But first, let me show you that I’m not faking it.”
  Grindel comes out from behind the curtains, brandishing a sword in his hand. He swipes the sword beneath my feet cleanly, and then, just to leave the crowd doubtless, he swipes it above my head.
  He twirls the blade in his hand and a cloak appears instead of the sword. I return to the ground and Grindel throws the cloak on top of me, covering my whole body. I start changing into a small white dove, but I use my powers to maintain the cloak at the same shape it was when I was in my human form.
 Grindel assumes that I’m finished and takes away the cloak. Everyone gasps at my bird form, wondering where I went. Grindel turns around and leaves the stage.
  I take flight and give a few rounds around the tent; just enough to make the crowd believe that I’m truly gone. And then, I dive down back to the stage. Just as I land, I start transforming back into my human form.
  Luckily, whenever I turn into my animal forms, I manage to retain my clothes when I turn back, so it doesn’t trouble me. It’s almost as if my clothes adapted to me.
  The crowd releases another gasp, and then they start clapping. I hold up a hand, commanding silence. They seem to understand, because they fall silent. I smile at them and then slowly rise again.
  I close my eyes and start moving forward. I open my eyes slowly and then hurtle at the crowd, flying around. The crowd shouts and whoops, clapping and gasping.
  And then, snow starts to fall. The audience goes crazy. I land before the time I had expected to land, because the snow disconcerts me.
  First of all, there is no way that Honduras will have snow, since it’s a tropical country, basically. And second of all, we hadn’t planned to have fake snow raining down on us.
  I touch it and feel it. It amazes me how real it feels, almost as if it were actually snowing inside.
  But how... Wait... There’s no way they could’ve gotten inside... But this is the only explanation...
  All the people in the audience suddenly stand up and give me a standing ovation. I feel myself fluster, blood rising up to my cheeks.
  I call everyone from the crew up and we all bow to the crowd. They keep cheering at us and then they slowly leave, one by one.
  After a couple of minutes, the tent is nearly deserted, except for us and Penelope, who stands beside me.
  “Hey, congratulations! It was mind blowing. And the fake snow? That was a nice touch,” Penelope tells us.
  “Penelope, we didn’t plan to have snow in here. And I don’t think it’s fake snow,” I reply.
  “What do you mean?” Penelope inquires.
  “What I mean is... I think we’ve been ambushed,” I answer.
  “Ambushed? But how? And by whom?” Maia asks.
  “There’s only one person who could’ve done this,” Diane says, finally recognizing our problem.
  Out of the darkness comes out a very familiar shape. It’s the second time that she comes to torment us.
  So the peace treaty’s already over. The Corporeal Hybrids have come for us, after all.
  I turn to stare at her, and I already feel anger boiling deep inside me.
  “What do you want, Roschelle?” I ask her.