Phantom Act

Dark Beginnings

"Get up, Lilac. It's time for warm-ups." Newt's voice cut through Lilac's dark sleep. Lilac moaned in irritation and turned over, hoping to go back to sleep. Her eyes stayed ruefully awake. Thin remnants of a dream started to come to her, fuzzy around the edges. It left her confused and unsure of where she really was. It took her longer to recover from that.

"Lilac, Newt wants you to get up," he urged, referring himself in the third person. Grudgingly, Lilac opened her eyes slowly. The tent she temporarily lived in came into focus, the brown hide in the place of walls closed in around her. Small beams of the early morning light filtered through the eaten material, illuminating areas of the tent.

Newt stood over Lilac, showing off his pure height and was uncomfortably close, his coal black eyes staring intently into her dull gray ones. He playfully prodded her cheek. Spikey red hair laid messily on his head, several strands floating in the soft breeze in his eyes. Once he noticed Lilac was staring at him with eyes of abhorrence for awakening her, he flashed a cocky grin. His scale-pattern vest rose and fell along with his breath, nothing but his toned chest underneath. Any member of the elite women of the Victorian London hierarchy would be offended, but Lilac was not a member. She found the sight calming.

Even though it was a chilly and damp on the London Fairgrounds, Newt didn't seem to mind. For a circus, always in the elements, the gloomy weather of England didn't affect them. Lilac was one of the many members of Jacobs Ladder, Newt one of her partners.

"Okay, okay. I'm up." Lilac sat up, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand. When she pulled her hand away, blue and gray smudges speckled her knuckles. Lilac dimly remembered going into her tent after three performances back-to-back. She didn't try to gather the energy to wash her face free of paint. She only put on her nightgown and cap. Her circus costume laid on the ground covered in gravel, in a crumpled shape next to Newt's sheepskin-clothed foot. Lilac yawned widely, still not wanting to move.

Newt rolled his eyes and shook her shoulder, urging her out of bed. He laid his other hand on the wooden headboard. The pads of his fingers lit up and a thin strand of smoke billowed from the cut wood.

"Sod off before you burn the entire place down," she groaned, pushing him off. Newt could create flames on any part of his body, but that often leaves him with burning the tent and cots. Big Brother, the ringleader and foster father, made him sleep alone in a special flame-retardant tent because of his tendency of burning things without meaning to.

"That was one time!" He whined, like a child, his body becoming heated to where small bursts of bright red flames curl along his bare chest. With a sigh of exasperation, Lilac pushed him out of the tent before closing the flap. Lilac grabbed a small mirror and looked at her reflection shamelessly. What looked back was a true circus performer. The butterfly wings she painted on the night before thrown together on her cheek was smudged beyond recognition, the blue and gray mixed together in a grotesque line. Her hair was a silvery mess, wavy strands framing her delicate face. The nearby dresser beside her sat a candle blazing bright and red, wax drooling down the sides. Newt must have lit it up whenever he came into the room.

When Lilac took the mirror up to her face once again, she let out a cry. Someone was behind her. It was a tall, thin man with black hair, golden eyes, and an albino lion pelt thrown carelessly over his shoulder. In her surprise, Lilac dropped the mirror on the ground, her eyes wide with surprise and horror. She knew that man, only through rumors and descriptions. The lion pelt, however, was unaccounted for. What was draped over his shoulder?

The harsh clang of a metal spoon hitting a metal pan rang through the air, signaling the five-minute warning before warmups. Still troubled, Lilac quickly grabbed a stained rag and dunked it into the basin. Everyone had to be ready as if they're doing their performance. It gave the sense of reality to the warmups, making everyone take the tedious practice more seriously. There was only one main act that was performed again and again, Lilac a part of that act. In fact, she was the most famous member of the circus.