Dangers in the Dark

Brawl at the Circus 16.1

Third Person POV

Barbara's Penthouse

Hair knotted and tangled, sticking up all across her head, Barbara stumbled shoeless back into her apartment that was bathed with no light, just pure darkness. Feeling her way around the familiar settings of her home, Barbara found the lamp and turned it on, sighing deeply as she shut her eyes for a moment.

"Jim?" Barbara called out to the darkness. No response. "Holly?" Still no response.

Walking around into her living room, Barbara stopped, her face furrowing in confusion as she saw two girls sitting in her home, neither one of them Holly.

"Hi," Barbara said uncertainly. Selina rose a hand in a small wave while Ivy said nothing. "Where's Jim?"

"He dropped off his keys, like, last week," Selina told her.

"So screw him anyway, right?" Barbara responded, half sad and half pissed off that he hadn't even left a note. "And Holly?"

"She's with Jim. She stayed here a while, though. I think she was waiting for you to come back," Selina answered, making Barbara feel a surge of guilt. "But she moved out properly last week when Jim left his keys."

Barbara nodded her head, briefly glancing over to the stairway which had led to Holly's room. She knew that if she were to go and look at it right now it would look the same, emptier, and colder but the same. And that was something that Barbara couldn't bear to see.

"So, who are you guys?" Barbara asked, looking back between Ivy and Selina.

"Friends of Holly," Ivy told her. "She said we could stay here for a while."

"I think she'd begun to think you weren't coming back," Selina said. "Told us to help ourselves to anything we wanted, stay here for as long as we needed."

Of course, she'd said that. Barbara smiled softly at the thought that Holly had held onto her hope for so long about her and Jim being back together. Maybe there was a chance that Jim had still got feelings for her. Surely, that would mean Barbara still stood a chance of redemption in Holly's eyes.

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Holly POV

Haly's Circus

After everything that had happened with Jonathon a few days ago, it was nice to be out of that hotel room and actually doing something exciting, something to clear my mind. Dad had brought me along to the circus with Lee, who had managed to get tickets for us.

As far as first impressions go, I'd say that so far Lee was excelling. She was great! She'd even gone so far as to get us some popcorn for the show. But the best part about it was I could finally see dad actually happy again. That was a nice thing to see. How he laughed at the things he said, smiled at her even when she wasn't looking at him. Just that was enough to make me think that Lee was probably one of the best things that had happened to dad in a long time.

The circus music was loud over the speakers as people around me cheered when one of the trapeze guys threw themselves across the tent. I'd love to be able to do something like that but I had a feeling that if I tried I would end up faceplanting the ground. The trapeze artists were called the Flying Graysons, if I remembered correctly and the way that they flew across the tent was just incredible as though it were nothing more than everyday walking. And then, when they let go, relying on one another to catch each other ... it was incredible!

"Popcorn?" Lee offered me the bag, making me smile and take a handful.

"Thank you," I said.

I noticed dad smile at the simple interaction but I had a feeling that he was nervous about this meeting. He probably worried that I still thought Barbara was coming back to us but I didn't, not anymore. I had accepted that Barbara was gone for good.