Circus of the Beast

10

Keelia kicked at the dust around her. She might as well have burned down with it all. She had abandoned her family in a great time of need, and she would never forgive herself. She had been selfish and hid away like a small, timid child. Her mother, father and older sisters were now gone forever, along with a good half of Keelia's heart. Despair weaved into her every thought, even as she tried to maintain a mask of indifference for Lorcan who had been watching her for the past half hour. Keelia had been searching the rubble for any signs of the instigators, but had come up with nothing.

Lorcan watched as the young lady dragged her feet through the ashes. He couldn't help but fear her stepping on something sharp and cutting her foot. He should have gotten her to wear something, at least. How had he been so careless?

"Keelia?" he called to her. "How about we head back now, it's getting quite late."

Keelia looked up at him with a tear stained face. "I can't give up, Lorcan. I have to find something" – she bent over and pushed a log out of the way – "I have to."

Lorcan watched as Keelia was moving things around in a most obsessive manner. Her eyes were wide and her face was paler than usual. Her breathing was raged and she didn't care if she received a splinter from the charred wood or not. Lorcan walked over to her and snaked an arm around her waist, knowing that she'd never leave if she had her way. And her way was quite destructive for her sanity.

Keelia felt the strong grip around her middle and instantly began thrashing against Lorcan. Her arms were elbowing him in his sides while her heels kicked at his shins. But Lorcan took it, letting the poor girl vent her frustration at the scene before her. Lorcan could understand. If he ever saw is circus burned to the ground, then he'd be acting the same way, if not in a more violent manner.

"They're gone," she said as she suddenly went limp in his arms. "I'll never see them again." Her voice held such sadness and bleakness; it made Lorcan miserable standing there. "What's going to happen now?" she said in the barest of whispers.

Lorcan turned her around, his amber eyes staring down at her, forcing her to look into his irises. "You will stay with the circus until you get your feet firmly on the ground again." Lorcan didn't want her to go, at all. Time was running out and he hoped that by the end of the summer she would have fallen for him. He wanted to see her brilliant grin each morning until the day he departed from the world. He wanted to be the one she shared all her secrets with and the one he stayed up all night with to settle an argument. It pained him to say these next words. "Once you feel like you are ready to leave, I will help you into town and settle in with your uncle."

Keelia whipped away a tear trickling down her pale cheek. "Let's head back. There's nothing here anymore."

***

From deep in the bushes, crouched over and kneeling on the ground, was Thomas spying on his niece and the ugly beast standing next to her. His face was marred with marks and sores that looked to have been painful when first inflicted. Thomas wondered how Keelia could bare such a sight of the hideous man. Wasn't she the one complaining since she was just a small girl that no handsome gentleman would ever want to court her, and that she would end up an old maid married to the ugliest man alive? Thomas sneered and thought to himself, Looks like it happened after all...

The sound of shuffling feet came from behind him and he instantly told the men to hush. Thomas had been a busy man and gathered up a few of the townsmen to venture out into the forest to scout out the terrain. He wanted a huge upper hand on the group that had his niece. And now all he had to do was follow the departing figures, thanking the lord that they decided to walk back to the circus grounds rather than teleporting themselves.