Love and Madness: a demon's desire

Crazy Carnevil

After I had my discussion with Bierce about Malak and what he had meant a few minutes earlier before leaving, I then jumped into the next nightmare portal that just opened up. This time I saw the murder monkeys not too far from the entrance of the portal. "Looks like Malak's left one of his hideous monstrosities to guard the entrance. It reeks of desperation, don't you think?" Bierce stated to me. I decided not to answer, in fear of alerting the monkey to my presence. "Just have to scare it off. Go and stare into its eyes and convince it that you're the bigger monster here, it works. Just ask my late husband." Bierce said. I was genuinely curious if that would actually work, but before I got the chance to test it out, Bierce said, "haha just joking! You wouldn't stand a chance against that thing without a little boost! Come back and go to the ring alter." I rolled my eyes at her snarky remark about the situation and went back to the ballroom. Once I got back to the ring alter, I was given a new power called 'primal fear.'

I went back and used the power onto the monkey, sending out a massive shock wave that caused the monster to be stunned. I then ran past the monster guard into the entrance, not wanting to find out how long it lasts for. Inside, I saw that I was in a circus-like area with walls filled with posters promoting this world's circus attractions. "Ah, the circus, those were pretty popular in my day. Such great talent and showmanship. As a young girl, the performance never failed to fill me with wonder and excitement. Watching them back then, I wanted to become a star too. And now, children just sit around and do what? Watch other people play video games. That sounds absolutely boring if you ask me," Bierce explained. I looked around and saw that most of the circus posters had the same creepy looking clowns on them. But to me one poster stood out more than the others, a poster hidden amongst the creepy clowns. The text of the poster almost made me want to rip it down just from the memories. It was a poster promoting a section of the park that reminded me of how I was treated in my new school. Every day I had to wipe these words off my locker in the mornings, the words only smeared or faded but remained due to consistency. I really was a 'freak show' to them at the end of the day. Someone different, no matter what I did I stood out, with or without my mask.

"This place is really giving me the creeps." I said as I opened the front gates. As I walked ahead, I saw strange looking stands and cage wagons that had images of the previous monsters I had encountered before. In the center of the area was a giant turned off merry-go-round. Suddenly, as I was walking forward, a yellow colored clown car came speeding by me and honked its horn loudly. I covered my ears from the loud honking, I swore I could hear sinister laughter coming inside the vehicle. The car then drove off into the opposite direction and towards the big circus tent. "Hm, let me guess, coulrophobia?" Bierce asked me, even though it sounded more like mockery. Truth be told, I did have a bit of fear of clowns when I was little. Due to this, I had avoided many circuses or even birthday parties because clowns would cause me to run in fear or hide away from their presence. Lucky, my dad taught me a special technique that he learned from his uncle to help with this fear. Now, whenever I saw a clown, I just had to walk by with a straight face on. Remembering this, I decided to do the same and calmly continue my walk down the path that leads to the big top. As I arrived at the entrance, I saw the same clown car parked in front of the entrance, as if it was waiting for me to show up. And just like before it sped off into the big tent before I could get closer to it. "I think they are inviting you in. Are you ready for the big top? Bierce asked me.

"Um I guess you could say that." I said even though I knew that I didn't have a choice of going in or not. I then walked inside and saw that the tent was empty, except for a bunch of cardboard cutouts of the various foes that I have met on my quest, all lined up around the bleachers and it felt like they watched my every move inside. As my eyes scanned the room, I saw one of those 'test your strength' carnival games in the center of the room with a single spotlight shining onto it. "Huh?! How on earth did this get here?" I thought to myself as I approached the contraption. I picked up the mallet that was leaning up against the game. "Go on, hit it. I know you want to live a little." Bierce insisted as I used the mallet to hit the button as hard as I could, I was shocked as soon I hit the button causing it to hit the bell on the top so easily.