The Great Showman (and The Mermaid in the Glass Case)

Prologue

"She is drowning. Please. Somebody help her."

     I remember the cry of alarm had gone up. The atmosphere among the spectators in the big top changing dramatically from one of wonder and revelry to one of terror and horror. This was not part of the show. 

    In the aftermath I was still standing in the middle of the stage with the large mallet in my hand. At my feet were the remnants of the smashed glass case, and some of these fragments I could see were still covered in Rosabella's blood.  Her blood mixing with the foaming water, which was slowly dripping from the edge of the stage. There was still a stunned silence in the place. The band had stopped playing,  the extravagance, the glitter and gloss subdued. The colours muted. The last of the audience members were still being ushered out, by the stagehands. Out of the big top under the dim light from the gas lamps. I could see the dark night sky outside of the tent through the gap in the canvas. The world outside the big top, such a sombre contrast to the bright buzz, and lively spectacle that is  the world of P.T Barnum's Circus. This odyssey inside a circular tent. 

     I dropped the mallet onto the floor and I heard it fall, heavy, close to my feet with a thud. That sound reverberating in the hollow silence. I began to look around frantically for Rosabella. My Rosabella, my love. I believed that she was badly injured and that I must find her. The tent was completely empty now. Where was she?  She must have gone outside, I thought, she must been ushered out with the rest of the crowd? I decided to run outside and find her, to bind her wounds, with my handkerchief, or if that would not be sufficient I would tear my shirt to wrap around her wrists to quell her bleeding. But just before I was about to make my way down the slippery steps with the water cascading down, out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw that devil. The red and black masked Mephistopheles, with the strange pipe who had jumped on top of our carriage on our way into the fair and he seemed to be laughing at me. I could only just make him out, his vague outline  in the dim gas lit shadows. And as quickly as he appeared he seemed to dissolve as if absorbed back into the obscure depths of the circus tent as if swallowed by the darkness. 

    I quickly decided that I must to get out of there and I needed to find Rosabella. So trying as hard as I could not to slide over in the flow of bloody water, I ran down the steps from the stage and straight out into the fresh night air. The difference hit me immediately. The air outside was so much lighter than the fumy mist created by the gas lamps. I quickly scoured the dark recesses around behind the tents, trying hard not to trip over the loose tent pegs in the dim dark. There were so many dark places here not lit by the bright lights from the Big Top, the centre piece of the great show Where was she? Rosabella? Alarm started to rise up inside me. I looked about me frantically. "Rosabella" I called out. "Rosie" I wondered if she had fallen down into one of these dark spaces and was lying weak and helpless on the ground, unable to cry out. 

    Suddenly from behind me I felt the crack. The feeling of something heavy pounding down,  striking me squarely on the back of the head. I put my hand up to my head. Pain seared behind my eyes  and I blinked as a my vision blurred. I tried to struggle forward but I could already feel my head swim. I felt dizzy and my legs wobbled, trembling  weak and buckled underneath me. The tents in front of me, those familiar candy striped awnings were a blur of confused lines. I felt myself falling down. Then all of a sudden the world went dark.