The first day, I didn't go on with the others. The performances had been switched to single acts, and I hadn't thought of what I was going to do. Instead I helped do the odd jobs around the Cirq, content to be busy behind the scenes than in front of them.
On the second day, I finally decided on what I would do. Mr.Tall managed to schedule me in. It was meant to be a simple act, to calm people down after the Von family's snakes. Truska had given the performance outfit from the opening day to me for keeps. I quickly got dressed as it got closer and closer to my turn.
Evra passed me, being the last one to be off the stage. After my name was introduced as Evonne Illusiona, I walked out. People looked at me strangely, as if I was going to lash out at them. I stopped in the middle of the room ignoring their stares.
"As you heard, my name is Evonne Illusion. I'm sure that all of you are curious about what I can do, but first I need a volunteer." I said as I stood, my eyes searching the audiance.
Most of the hands that were raised were male, many of them young. I looked around for the perfect victum for my show. My eyes landed on a group of guys. One of them, who looked very rotten and ornery, was waving his hand around like an idiot. His friend next to him seemed the more sensable, shaking his head and keeping his hand down.
"How about...." I hummed before choosing the one I had already picked out."You." I pointed at the dummy's friend.
The two passed a look between each other, but the guy stood up. His friends shoved him out of the aisle, laughing as he made his way down the stage.
"Welcome, Andrew." I greeted him as he stood beside me. His friends gasped as I 'guessed' his name. The boy himself looked stupidly at me. In truth, I hadn't guessed. His idiot friend was just a loud mouth. Even without super hearing, I would still be able to hear him from here."Tell me, do you have any fears?" I asked.
He glanced between me and his friends and muttered."....I'm afraid of heights."
That triggered his friends to start snickering uncontrolably up in the audiance. In annoyance, I called his dumb friend out."Perhaps you'd like to join me down here too?"
His friend grinned and then stood up, walking down to the first row at his own pace. He stood on my other side."My name's...." he began with a smirk.
"...Benjamin? I know." I said a bit snappy, causing him to go silent in shock as it was his turn to be laughed at by his so called friends."Do you have any fears?" I continued before he tried anything else.
He smiled devilishly."No mam." Ben also shook his head in emphasis.
I sighed and turned back to Andrew."You're afraid of heights, is that correct?" I confirmed.
He shook his head.
"Then, I'd like you to go climb up onto that balance beam over there and walk back and forth on it." I ordered him, looking dirrectly into his eyes.
A few people coughed in the audiance, and others just continued to stare. I knew what I was doing though. Andrew obeyed my command without a second thought and made a bee-line for the beams set up behind me. He couldn't fight my hypnotiszim.
Many people looked on in wonder as he clambered up upon it and started walking back and forth, back and forth, without freaking out. He was in a daze, only fixed on the task I had given him. I ignored his friend for the meanwhile, and chose another volunteer.
"Would you like to come up?" I asked a woman in the front row.
Her eyes glanced between her husband and me, before she slipped her purse off of her shoulder and handed it over to him. In her high heels, business-like skirt, and sweater top, she walked over to me and stood uneasily by my side.
"And what is your fear?" I asked her.
"I'm deathly afraid of fire." She said, shivering at the words.
"Why is that?" I asked curiously.
The woman took a while to bring herself to say it."My family's house burnt down when I was nine. I've been frightened ever since...." she trailed off in horror.
"Relax Candace." I told her. As I did her pupils relaxed and went milky."Your on a tropical island at a luau, and you're a fire dancer."
She froze in fright for a while more, but then slowly my words over-rided her fear. The woman walked over the nearest one of the fire baskets and picked up two of the unlit torches. Candace dipped them in a fire and returned to the center stage. At once she began to do an exotic fire dance as if she was at a luau.
I checked with a glance that Andrew was still on the balance beam. So far he hadn't lost his footing or came out of his trance. I turned my head back to view the audiance. Their attention was taken away by the woman who had pronounced herself afraid of flames, yet there she was dancing before them. I think what made it even more believable was that her husband's eyeballs looked like they were going to pop out of his head.
My next victum didn't know that I had been backstage watching the show closely. During the Von family's act, I had seen Ben freak out as the snakes were discovered among the audiance. I'd asked Savannah to ask Lilia Von to stay behind with her snake Cuddles.
"Don't think I've forgotten about you." I said as I swung around to face the idiot teen."Stay put." I ordered him as I walked away.
I went over to where I had entered. Cuddles slithered out from back stage and followed me across the floor obediantly. The people in the audiance shuddered and tried to make themselves as small as possible as I walked by with the snake right behind. Ben's eyes started to bulge out of their sockets as I approached, but he found that he couldn't move. I had ordered him to stay put, after all.
He started to panic as the snake drew closer and closer, and a cold sweat broke out on his skin as Cuddles slowly started to wind herself around him. When she was done, he looked like he was rolled up in a giant yellow carpet. The only thing of him you could see was his face, which was twisted in fright. I made sure to tell the snake not to squeeze to hard so I wouldn't kill him.
I let the crowd admire the seperate acts on the stage before ending them."Alright, I want the three of you to line up beside me."
At once, Andrew jumped down from the beam and joined me. Candace put her torches back where she got them before walking back and Cuddles released Ben so he could relax. They stood for a while, still in trance before it broke.
The three volunteers blinked, then completely fell out of their trances. They looked around confused, as if they'd just come out of dreaming.
I took a bow after dismissing them back to their seats. I earned a good amount of applause from the audiance as I left.
Else where in the world
"Remee, come set the table please!" My mother called from the kitchen.
I dashed from the livingroom to help here. Laura wasn't my real mother, but she was just as good. I helped get out the white lace place mats and put them at their respective spots. As she started setting the dishes of food on the table, I laid the silverware out. Lastly, I got the glasses of water.
My father, Bruce, sat at the head of the table like he always did when he anticipated a good meal. I knew that Luara had baked his favorite for tonight so that he wouldn't join us halfway through. Mat, being his lazy self, sat himself down at the table without helping his mother. He's nineteen years old, out of highschool, and doesn't have a job yet.
Callie, the youngest in the family, always tries to help Luara but her mother ends up shoeing her away. She's eleven, but drops things constantly. I don't blame our mom when she asks her to just sit down at the table and wait. Once everything is set, both of us kitchen workers can sit down.
My place is right beside Callie because, unlike Mat, we get along well. She was too young when I was adopted into the family to know that I'm not really her older sister, so she innocently believes I am. Luara had to strictly talk to her older brother when Mat tried to tell her otherwise. He's stayed silent so far, but I know sooner or later he'll tell.
Bruce says grace before the dishes are passed---although Mat manages to sneak a few bites while mom and dad's eyes are closed---and we eat. I take a roll, a few spoon fulls of mash potatoes, corn, and a slice of meatloaf with some carrots.
When dinner is over, we place our dishes all in the sink. Luara lets Callie wash dishes with her as long as she's carefull. The family watches tv together in the last few hours before bed time. Since Callie is in fourth grade, she still has to go to bed early. I go by choice because I want a good night's rest for tomorrow. Mat stays up in his room until it's nearly mid-night, playing online computer games.
I change into my pajamas and lay in bed with my eyes open, waiting for sleep to take me. It comes quickly, so fast that I don't even recognize that I've nodded off.
When I wake up, I'm in a completely different setting.
I'm in the hallway for some reason. It's strange. I don't remember waking up to go to the bathroom. I know I wouldn't get up to talk to Mat, and mom and dad are out of the question. At this time at night, they're still downstairs watching late night tv shows. Plus, I've gone the complete opposite dirrection of their bedroom.
In an instant, the answer hits me. I must be dreaming. There's no other explanation for it. My mind further convinces me that this is a dream when I spot the walls and they're splattered in red. Usually this would make me panic, but since I know this is a dream, or rather, a nightmare, I'm not afraid.
It unsettles me when I realize that the red is especially heavy on the white door to Callie's room on my left. There's even the hand mark on it. My head snaps toward the sound of whimpering when it drifts to my ears. At the end of the hall, where the only room left is Mat's bedroom on the right, is the figure of a person who has collapsed to the ground. They're in their pajamas, and their skin and clothing is splattered in the same red on the walls. It doesn't look like they were injured at all, more like the blood was flung onto them.
Blood? That's funny how I know what the red stuff on him is. Him? At once, I realize that the person is Mat sitting on the ground in terror. He's backed up as far into the wall as he can, his feet still scrambling to push him back farther from me.
"Lea...leave me a..a..alone." Mat stutters quietly.
His voice has cracked, which any other day I would have made fun of, but seeing the look on his face causes me to take a double take. For some reason, my eyes pan down to my hands which are entirely coated in the crimsion liquid. I'm beginning to doubt this is a dream, but when I rub my thumb and finger together and felt the gooiness, I know that it is certainly not one. You don't feel anything when you dream, because it's not real.
I stumble back in shock, staring at my hands. Something at the corner of my vision attracts my eyes, so I look to see what's on my left. The hallway mirror hangs there and on the surface is my reflection.
The person looking back at me has red eyes.
Eyes of blood.