The Vampire's Carnival

Chapter 2

I received my paperback and hardcover books of TVC on 10/21/14! Please go check it out on Lulu.com (search K. Weikel) and buy it if you like it enough here! Comments, if they're detailed enough, will go into those books once I get enough. So just look for them! Thank y'all so much and enjoy!

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Hilda drags me into a small white tent, draped with colored ropes and nets. It looks like something a gypsy would camp out in.

"Come dear, we must get you ready."

"Um, Hilda?" I start to ask

"Yes, Rochelle?" She turns to me from the vanity she was scrounging for makeup and jewelry on.

"How did I end up here?"

She looks at me with pity.

"Oh, my, you don't remember, do you?"

I shake my head slightly.

"You must've caught amnesia. Oh, dear.

"Alright. Rochelle, the Ring Leader found you when you were young, and he took you in. He discovered you were exceptionally flexible when you turned seven, and that you had a passion for being an acrobat and a contortionist. So he added you to his act list. Ever since then, you've been known as Elastica for your stage name. You're very popular with the youngsters," she smiles wide at me and turns back to the vanity.

"But my name isn't Rochelle. It's Vanessa."

The fat woman bursts out laughing. "Honey, you have it bad! Vanessa? Ha! How absurd! Now we must get you ready. No more lollygagging."

She has me sit on a stool that spins a full three hundred and sixty degrees and that is topped with a red velvet cushion.

Hilda slaps makeup onto my face and teases my hair so high and so big, it feels like I have a poodle on my scalp. My red hair literally looks like a circular bobbing flame.

Then she crushes my ribs in a corset and a silky blue blouse. She sticks me in a gigantic tutu of the same color, and it sticks out so far that I can't put my arms down all the way.

"How am I supposed to do acrobatics with this dress?" I ask breathlessly, the corset not letting me breathe.

"No idea, sweetie. But you do! And... done!"

I look like I just stepped out of the movie It.

"Uh..." I gape in shock.

"Well, I've got to go get ready, my dear," she says happily and bounds away, her rolls of fat jiggling behind her.

I stare into the cracked and dirty mirror in horror.

"Ohh! Honey, you've got to fix that."

A tall, slender man had strolled into the tent. He wears circular glasses and a long striped outfit that reminds me of Betelgeuse.

"You don't want the crowd seeing you like this." He says.

He walks into the tent a little more. "I heard you lost your memory. The fat lady, Hilda, is such a gossiper. She's the fattest lady in the world, so the Ring Leader says. She means well, though. I am Bernard, the skinniest man in the world. Hope you remember me. And good luck fixing Hilda's mistakes." He chuckles and steps out with his long, monotone, droning sound of a voice.

"Good luck fixing Hilda's mistakes," I say in a mocking tone. "Whatever. Who does he think he is? Telling me what to do. I don't even know what's freaking going on! Ugh. Humans irritate me." I say quietly as I hit the vanity with my weak human fist. The items on top of it shake.