The next morning, I am awoken by Manson's booming stage voice. "Good morning, my angels. Rise and shine, my freaks! It's a new day and there are things to do." He pulls back the curtain and lets slivers of early morning air into the tent.
"Grayson, Aphrodite will show you where you are to work today. You're strong, we need you." He says, signaling to Aphrodite. She nods, giddily, and slips her hand into Grayson's much larger one. He looks at her like she's a foreign alien, but follows anyway, leaving me all alone on the couch, barely able to move, with Manson hovering over me.
"Rosalie, I can't help but notice that you and lover boy didn't sleep in the same bed?" He laughs airily, amusing himself. He toys with the makeup bottles on the vanity absentmindedly, and sighs. "Is he not attractive to you?"
I visibly go into shock. "What?"
"My girl, I tried my best to find you someone desirable. I simply want to the best for my star, and nothing less. I want for you to be happy. Is he not desirable to you? I could find you another mate, really I could-" He says nervously, and I am so absurdly confused by the sudden turn of events that I almost have whiplash.
"No, Grayson is perfect," I tell him, more worried for Grayson's safety than my own. I suddenly wonder when I became so attached to someone I don't know. I suppose captivity messes with the brain.
His smile breaks through the stormy clouds of concern.
"Oh, I'm so happy to hear that. Today, I want you to meet some of my other freaks." he smiles joyfully, and he almost seems... charismatic. I want to slap myself for thinking so.
"Others?" I say, nervously, knowing that I'm getting on his good side, knowing then escape will be easier.
"Yes, my love. Come. Let me fix you up," he says, helping to my feet, his grips gentle. I'm almost scared by how calm and kind he's acting. He leads me to the chair in front of the vanity and sits me gently in the chair. He checks the bandages on my back, covering the wooden pegs that will soon be used to hold wings.
"They are healing quite nicely. Not an ounce of infection, unlike lover boy." This makes my skin grow ice cold.
"Grayson's are infected?" I ask, so nervous and worried. He notices and eyes me carefully in the mirror.
"Very much so. Don't worry, if he becomes defective, I'll get you another play toy." He smirks, pushing my blonde hair back off of my shoulders and delicately running a comb through it, getting all of the tangles out and making it pin straight.
"Play toy?" I spit, and he looks confused.
"Well... Why, yes my dear. Every starlet has play things. You and I are both very aware that you don't love Grayson, but as long he thinks you do, everything is fine. I won't tell my dear, but you're quite a fox. Sexualization fits you well. Isn't that what you wanted, Rosalie? To be the apple of everyone's eye? To be untouchable?" He asks, and I can't speak, can't talk, can't move because once upon a time that is what I wanted. My dark past keeps making reappearances. It's like a bad ex that won't leave me alone. Too bad you can't have a restraining order on your own mistakes.
"I.." I start, but can't finish, so Manson continues.
"I know you, Rosalie, know you very well. Well, someone like you. I can give you all of those things. I want to give you all of those things. All you have to do is join me. And all of this," he gestures to the glorious tent, "is yours. Notice how there were no extravagant things for the others? Only you. It's always going to be only you." He says, squeezing my hand, and I don't know why I can't make my mouth work right, and my heart is at war.
He dabs my face with makeups and potions and amazing smelling liquids and I'm being pampered and it's so nice to feel clean that I can't even move to protest. When he turns me back to the mirror, I gasp. I look like me, like I used to. But better. My blue eyes look alive again. They blaze back at me, and my blonde hair frames my face.
Manson hands me a dress made of the finest pink silk and I slide it on, in total heaven.
And then I look back at myself in the mirror, and I don't even know who I am.
"Let's go, my dear. Your friends await, and I have a feeling you'll make a lasting impression."
YOU ARE READING
Freak Show
Horror"You've already bought a ticket, and there's no turning back now." Rosalie has been kidnapped by a cat-eyed man named Manson, the owner of a popular Freak Show. What no one knows about Manson's Makeshift Menagerie, though, is that Manson doesn't hav...
