American Horror Story:Freak Show

(12)

Madeline's POV:

It was just a normal, regular day here at the Freak Show. Well, as normal as it can be- without cops, without murder and crime, and for it being Halloween.

Dot shouts, "Stop it! What's wrong with you all?" The music stops and we all turn to face them, "Meep is dead! Don't you care?! You're being disrespectful."

Jimmy takes a seat and I comfort him the best I could, "Look how much pain Jimmy and Madeline are in. This is wrong! We should remember Meep by working even harder. Maybe dedicating the show today to his memory."

Paul, "The show?" Evie, "It's Halloween" Ethel walks into the tent, "No freak performs on Halloween. Any idiot knows that." Jimmy, "It's not fair. They're new." I say, "They don't know." Jimmy, "About that old superstition."

Ethel, "Not superstition. It's true" Bette, "What is?" Evie, "Why we don't perform on Halloween. On accounts of Edward Mordrake." Bette asks, "Who?"

I say, "Edward Mordrake. Aristocrat who lived in the middle 1800s. He was heir to all kinds of titles." Ethel, "Could've been a Duke or a lord or some shit had things been different."

I say, "Things are never different. An Englishman of noble birth. Edward was a young man with fine attainments. He was a scholar. He was a poet. Musician of rare ability." Dot, "So, what was wrong with him?"

Ethel, "He had another face on the back of his head. Hideous as a devil. No one else could hear what it said, but it whispers to Edward incessantly of things only spoken of in hell."

I say, "He tried to kill it. Many times in many ways. But it wouldn't die." Dot, "So, what happened to him?" I say, "He went mad. His family had him committed to the crazy house at Bedlam. Truth be told, they were only too happy to have the family freak banished from sight."

Ethel, "In the crazy house, he wrote poetry. Worked on an unfinished opera. Anything to keep his mind off the demon whisperings, but he never got any relief. It was telling him to do things. Commanding him."

I continue, "One night. Edward escaped the asylum. And he ended up where we all do. At the Freak Show. They billed him as the 'Two Faced Prince.' And he'd show off all the refined skills he'd learned as the scion, of one of England's grand families. And then he'd take a bow."

Dot, "And he was happy? He found a home with others like himself" Ethel, "There was no one like Edward. But he wasn't happy. One Halloween night, Edward snapped. He murdered every freak in the troupe."

I add, "And then he hung himself. Legend has it that even in death, the demon face was smiling." Bette became sad, "So, we don't perform on Halloween night, out of respect?"

Paul, "Out of fear, darling. If any freak performs on Halloween, they summon the spirit of Edward Mordrake, and his demon half-face." I say, "Once he appears, he never leave alone."

Ethel, "The whispering face will choose one more freak to take with him back to hell" Jimmy shouts, "What a bunch of bunk! What are you trying to scare them for?" Ethel, "It's not bunk."

Ethel, "It's true. I can swear to it. In '32, when I was with Barnum." That's right, Ethel knew my father. Ethel, "They made us perform on Halloween. Well...something visited the circus grounds that night. Cause the next morning, Clyde Hendershot, the astounding human cannonball, all three feet, four inches of him was found hanging in his caravan."

Ethel, "His head twisted clean around. His dead eyes staring backwards. A smile on his face. Just like Edward Mordrake's second face." Jimmy grew pissed at his mother.