The Circus

Prologue

Twelve figures ran across the roof tops of nearby buildings through the rain too fast for the eye to see more then a glimpse of their extraordinary forms. The only real confirmation that they were there was the spine chilling delighted laughter that followed their every step. The figures made their way to a roof of a small jewelry store. They took out their comically big hand saws that appeared to be the kind used for old magic tricks of splitting a body in half. They stabbed their saws into the roof in a perfect circle. Running around in a circle moving their saws up and down as they did .. The saws cut through the concrete roof like butter.

Not concerned with the alarm system, they no doubt set off, they began entering the store. One of them stayed on the roof calling out their names as they entered. Ensuring everyone was in before their fun would begin.

"Beast Tamer, Hypnotist, Puppeteer, Acrobat, Clown, Impersonator, Stuntman, Thrill Performer, Busker, Trapeze Artists, Contortionists."

When everyone was in the one calling names jumped through the hole with a giggle calling out her own name.

"And Ringmaster! Alright to work! Grab everything that you like and stuff it in your bags. The first to finish filling two full bags and makes it back to the main tent will be the winner!" Ringmaster called out. A wide toothy smile plastered across her face seeming to nearly split it in two.

Gleeful faces answered her back as they all began to stuff random things in their bags. Not bothering to check what they were putting in them was actually jewelry. All of them to eager to win their little game. It all came to an abrupt end when they heard police sirens outside the door. They all made a running for the hole in the ceiling. Robbing was a fun game and all but a few laughs weren't worth getting shot over.

Clown interlocked his fingers and positioned his hands close to his knee so he could toss up the others. Ringmaster being the last again.

She never left first seeing as she would never abandon her family. When ringmaster was about to be thrown through the hole four male officers and one police woman barged through the door their guns raised in position to shoot.

Clown, noticing the polices intention, pushes Ringmaster out the way of gun fire knowing they both won't survive.

"Look out!" Being his last words as his body filled with deadly accurate bullets. To Ringmaster his body seemed to fall in slow motion. Clown's face twisted in a permanent look of worry and pain as he locked eyes with her one last time. The sound of his body hitting the concrete louder than the thunder overhead. Blood splattered her wide eyed horrified face.

Ringmaster stood and walked over to Clown's fallen body slowly. Her brain not registering the police still being there. Completely unafraid of the same fate befalling her as it did Clown. She reached out her shaking arms. The pain the sight brought on became to much for her. Ringmaster's bloody hand lifted to her now expressionless tear covered face. She lifted her eyepatch covering her oddly green left eye. Placing the eye patch over her blue right eye.

The second she let go of her eyepatch. She bended over clowns body shielding her face from view. A small noise could be heard coming from her as her shoulders shook. The officers kept their distance believing her to be crying. Deciding to give her a few minutes before proceeding to arrest her. Their hardened facial expressions turned into ones of frightened confusion when they heard that she was not crying but laughing.

Her small chuckles became a full psychotic shrill as she lifted her face to the heavens. Unstoppable tears, coming only from her covered right eye, running down her chin over her blood splattered face. The overwhelming pain she was feeling hidden behind the deranged look in her one visible eye. The sound of her raspy cackle of a laugh sent shivers down the spines of everyone present. Until suddenly it stopped with her face hidden by her unnaturally snow white bangs. Face turned to the hole in the ceiling. Where she and her friends entered before for a small night of fun. Unaware it would cost them the life of a brother.

The silence surrounding them was more unbearable then the earlier insane laughter. the police raised their guns higher as Ringmaster stood abruptly. Her face still turned to the raining sky above. The hole in the ceiling making her look all the more eerie as it provided the only light from the moon. The rain coming down hard now completely drenching her body.

She tilted her drenched head to the side as if to listen to something. She mumbled what something else so lowly they could only barely make it out over the rain.

"Don't you think it's funny?"

They thought she said. The strange action put a chill through the air. She finally turned her head down as if getting confirmation to her question.

Ringmasters face broke out into a wicked smile before she lifted her head to the police. Their frightened faces causing another string of laughter to rack her body. She was nearly falling over from the intensity of it. Until she lifted her golden tip black cane at them. The pink ruby skull on the tip aimed at the people responsible for the hail storm of bullets fired into who she considered a brother. Her top hat tilted sideways as she stopped laughing but her smile only grew as she said in a singing tone the last words they would ever hear again.

"You'll pay for that."