Circus of Silence

Forever Song

~*~

You don't remember when Hecate left you. 

You blinked

She was gone.

Surprised and confused, you look around for something to do.

Your eyes find the Carousel.

~*~

            Because Whisper couldn't scream, as she couldn't bang on pots and pans or ring bells to call for help, no one bothered being gentle with her. No one thought of her as one of them. They thought of her as something separate- something Other. 

The snake charmer whistled loudly, shrilly- and he let those awful snakes slip through the bars to hiss in her ear. Quite often, Whisper wished she'd been made deaf instead of mute. Instead of Silent. That way, Shula wouldn't have been able to use those accursed flutes on her.

Whisper opened her eyes. Her brother stirred beneath her head, snarling softly through his slumber. He didn't have to wake up for another hour or two... and if her guess at the time was correct, neither did she. Whisper curled back up between her brother's four warm legs, throwing the blanket back over the both of them. It was her only way of telling Shula to leave them be.

"Whisper,"  the snake-man hissed, his accented voice a melodic lilt. Whisper turned away again- knowing it was no use- but doing it anyways. Shula had it easy enough already, as the Witch's favourite. She buried her nose in her brother's furry pelt. "Whisper!"

Had she been willing expose her impressionable ears to the charmer, Whisper would have bitten her thumb at him for the nerve. Night. She got only the night and the early morning to spend with her brother in peace. For what reason did he think she'd let him take those few precious hours away from her?

The snake charmer pulled out his flutes, and it was over.

Whisper went limp, her ageless body surrendering completely to the soothing song of sultry sin. Pied Piper, they called him during his shows. And yet they don't know how far the talent truly goes. Don't know that the Circus Everlasting is not just a show.

Shula's fingers danced across the holes, playing a song that never got old, despite the fact that he'd used it on Whisper almost every day for the last fifty years of their lives. Timeless, just like the Forever Song. Just as lethal.

           Halfway through the chorus, Whisper was forced to her feet, her back arched and her arms hanging dead at her sides. Shula kept playing, forcing her to pull on her dress and her stockings and lace up her boots. He played to the end of the song, his eyes gleaming as he entered the final stanza, forcing Whisper to reach down her blouse and pull out the brass key to her brother's cage, stick her arm through the bars like she had when she'd locked herself in here in the first place. It had been many decades, but the girl could still feel the bruises she'd received from Shula's mistakes. But that had been many years ago. 

Shula didn't make mistakes anymore.

The rusty iron bars creaked open, and the Pied Piper waited for her to accompany him wherever it was he wished to take her.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" He asked that every time, like Whisper was in any position to answer him. Shula just chuckled a bit to himself, and whispered softly to force her to walk along beside him. The two of them were almost out the door when the malicious melody was broken by a feral growl.