Blood Circus

Chapter 10- Lionhearted

Sylvia made her way into the Animal House. She slipped through the steel door. It was pitch black inside. She made an attempt to find a light switch on the wall, but to no avail. She had to take a moment to rethink her method, the dark only complicating things. She listened closely for any noise. In the back of the room, she could hear a faint growling sound. Kind of like a lion...

A thought occurred to her. She reached in her pocket and pulled out what she guessed was her phone. Flipping it open gave a small light, but she had a better idea. She switched on the torch that Liam had built in for her. The room instantly lit up more. But it wasn't quite enough to reach the back of the room where she could still hear the growling. She carefully took a step closer, holding her gun out as she did so. A pair of eyes reflected back at her. A loud growl erupted from the creature.

It pounced at her.

She watched as the lion came within inches of her, before it fell to the ground. She finally spotted a light switch on the wall and flicked it on. She turned her torch off and returned her phone to her pocket. She looked at the lion. It hadn't got up. Instead it just lay there. She kept her gun out and moved closer. The lion never got up and she was able to kneel down beside it. It watched her with it's amber coloured eyes full of sadness. It had stopped growling. She noticed the large metal collar around its neck, attached to a thick chain, that then attached to the wall. The collar was held together by two simple screws. That explained how it wasn't able to reach her before. She ran her hand gently through its sandy brown mane. The hair was matted and untamed.

" What happened to you?" The lion gave a purring-like sound while she clapped it. She examined the room. It was quite small, a small bowl of water lay near the lion and a dull red mark on the concrete floor showed evidence of some sort of meat. Other than that, not much else was there. She felt a pat on her lap and saw the lion had placed his paw on her. The paw was stained with dry mud and she noticed it had been declawed. Gently, she stood up, and the lion still did not move. It gave a sigh.

Suddenly, it sat up. It watched the door intently, and so did she, knowing animal instincts were rarely wrong. She was right. The door slowly opened, and the lion started to growl again. Sylvia waited to see who came in.

It was Liam.

He rubbed his arm as he came in. First, his face lit up with relief when he saw her, but his expression changed quick when he saw the lion. The lion made the same mistake he had with Sylvia and tried to jump at him, but was again pulled back by the chain. Liam still jumped back. She watched the lion collapse to the ground once more, and Liam never moved.

" Liam, are you alright?" she recognised Jerry's orange hair as he slipped in beside Liam. Liam still wouldn't move. Jerry saw Sylvia and he backed up a little.

" Okay, he ran after you, so it wasn't my fault..."

" It's fine." She started looking around the small room.

" What are you looking for?" Liam had finally found his voice, though it was shakey. She opened a small cabinet that was in the corner of the room. Inside she found what she was looking for. A screwdriver. She took it out and headed to the lion's side. Ignoring the questioning looks from the two guys at the doorway, she started unscrewing the metal collar. It took her a minute because the screws were so rusty, but she managed to get them out. The collar fell off the lions neck and clanged onto the floor. The lion stood up and shook itself. It rubbed it's head on her shoulder gratefully. She laughed when she saw Liam had backed further out the door.

" Why did you do that?!" he squealed.

" Because it's cruel to keep him locked up like this."

" So you're just gonna let it run around the circus grounds? What if it hurts someone?!"

" There are worse things in this circus besides him." She stood up and led the lion to the door. It followed her closely. Outside, she watched it sniff around and it looked at her. She smiled at it and nodded for it to go. Instead, it disappeared back inside the room, then emerged again with something in it's mouth. It looked like a piece of paper.

She took the paper from it, and the lion gave her one last nuzzle, before it bounded away out of sight. She unfolded the paper. Liam and Jerry moved next to her to see. On the paper was a large number written with black marker pen.

4.