The night was cold, and quiet. Wind howled loudly, rustling the leaves of trees in the distance. It was dark, with only the moonlight for guidance.
Four people stood in front of a tall metal gate, which loomed over them like impending doom. Two of the people were boys, the other two were girls.
"I'm not so sure about this.." Lesley murmured, clutching her camera tightly. Her hands were already clammy, but she did promise to go, so..
"Aw, don't be so scared!" Luna patted her on the shoulder, blood pounding in her ears. She was terrified, yes, but it'll be fun, right?? "I don't think we'll find anything, we're just checking anyway."
"Let's go in already! I'm tired of waiting!" Philip jumped up and down, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "It's just 5 minutes early! I can climb over the gate!"
James sighed, rubbing his temples. "No, we should wait." He walked over to Philip, tearing him off the gate. "We don't know what's in there, or who's in there."
"But—" Philip started, frowning.
"No. We must wait." James instructed, narrowing his eyes at him. "Please."
It was 11:56 pm as of now.
Philip groaned, and stopped trying to climb over.
So they waited, growing more and more worried until it was 12:00am. Then, the gates creaked open.
"Why did we have to wait anyway?" Philip asked the others as he entered first, his arms behind his head. "It's not like we die if we go in before midnight."
"We can never be too sure." Lesley replied, walking in next. "C'mon guys, we don't have all night." She says to Luna and James, as they exchanged looks.
"This is not going to be good." Luna mumbled.
"I know." James said back, as they both set foot beyond the gate, and into the circus.
As soon as all four of them were inside, the gate creaked shut behind them, making Lesley jump a little.
"Oh God." Lesley cussed herself for acting so paranoid. It's just some stupid gate closing behind her. Nothing serious.
In front of them, they could see a ticket booth, with a normal looking teenage girl. She was smoking a cigarette, which was dangling from her lip.
The tip of it was glowing bright purple. She was also staring at her phone. The girl had long dark hair and was sporting dark casual clothes. She had a name tag that had the name 'Hayley' written on it in neat, blocky handwriting.
She glanced up, then said, "Ticket, please."
"Ticket? Oh, we don't have—" Lesley was about to answer, but the girl Hayley interrupted her.
"You either buy a ticket, or you're not going to get in." Hayley inhaled some smoke from her cigarette, then blew it out in front of Lesley's face, so she threw a coughing fit.
"Hey! What gives?" Luna questioned, furious with Hayley. "That was rude of you!"
"Buy a ticket or get lost. Simple."
"Just let us get through, please." Philip pleaded, patting Lesley on the back as he said so.
"No. No ticket, no entry."
"Guys, let me handle this." Luna shoved everyone else aside, and pulled out her pepper spray. She sprayed a good load into Hayley's eyes.
Hayley let out a string of curses, as the four sprinted past her, finding themselves gaping in shock. The circus was alive, not deserted.
Fairy lights were strung around the game booths, and performers of all kinds were there. A mermaid with a bubble pipe, a person with wings, hell, there were even zombies in the mini shows.
"I'm going in one of the tents!" Philip squealed with delight, entering one of the circus tents.
"Philip-! Wait—!!" Lesley followed him, along with Luna.
"Oh God, I'm not sticking around for this.." James darted to another tent, not wanting to see what'll happen to Philip.
Once Philip was inside the tent, he was temporarily blinded by a shining light from above.
"What the—?!" Philip shielded his eyes with his arms, wincing at the light. When it subsided, he gazed up to see a gorgeous lady with wings. Too bad he's not into women, though.
"Excuse me," Philip called out, getting the lady's attention. "Why do you have wings? Are you an angel?"
The lady, whose name was Evangeline, scoffed. "I'm not an angel, I'm a Nephilim." She flew down to Philip, squinting her eyes at him suspiciously. "You're not supposed to be here, so I'll put it kindly: Get out."
"What? No!" Philip shook his head, furrowing his eyebrows. "I'm just hiding from someone."
"You're still not allowed here." Evangeline glared down at him with much disgust. He's at least 5'3 feet, and she's 6'1 feet.
Angry from her expression, Philip brought out his phone to snap a picture of her. To which, she wasn't pleased about that.
"Hey-!! Delete that picture, right now!" Evangeline growled, balling her hands into fists.
"What'll you do, crush me?" Philip joked, snickering at her reaction.
"I will, if you don't delete that picture right now." Evangeline cracked her knuckles, and Philip knew he screwed up.
A high pitched shriek of terror came from the tent as Lesley and Luna followed Philip inside, worried for his safety.
They saw him getting chased around by Evangeline, and, with blood pumping in Lesley's ears, she yelled at her.
"Stop it!" She screamed, but it seemed like Evangeline didn't hear her. It did attract other performers.
"What's going on?" A seemingly normal human with mottled skin inquired, her lips forming a thin line when she spotted Lesley and Luna. "Why are they here?"
"Want me to burn them to a crisp?" Another human appeared, but this time she had scaly skin and sharp talons.
"No, Madam Dynamite won't be that happy."
Luna and Lesley left before they even noticed.
On the other hand, James walked in on a performance, and saw two people.
One was a little girl, and the other was a young woman.
The little girl had filthy hair that reached her ankles, and was wearing a frilly black dress along with a beret that was similar to the colour of her dress.
There were thick, very old goggles on her forehead, and there was a fat cigar clenched between her teeth.
She was about to enter a ridiculously large cannon by the woman, who's supposedly the mastermind behind everything.
The woman was a young petite woman with bluish pale skin. Her hair reached past her waist, and covered one of her eyes.
She seemed to be unbothered that a literal child is going to disappear into the night sky by a cannon.
James watched every second of it. Of the girl lighting up the cannon with her cigar, the crowd was whooping and cheering, excited to see her get shot out of it. They were chanting a name, they were chanting Melanee, which is supposedly the little girl's name.
And so, there was a loud bang. Like a gunshot, but louder.
James saw the girl get blasted out of the said cannon, becoming a twinkle in the night sky.
"Oh God." He whispered to himself, locking eyes with the lady.
She seemed startled. Why is this man here? He's supposed to sit in the seats like the others, not barge in like some sort of barbarian.
After a heartbeat, the little girl went crashing down with a splat. The crowd went wild, instead of being disgusted, they all were happy.
James was.. Horrified, to say the least. This woman had killed a little girl. An undead little girl.
The lady was displeased to see him still gawking like an idiot.
Soon, he took notice of her expression, so he turned around and left.
While running, however, he didn't watch where he was going, so he bumped into a young girl. Or, well, passed through her body.
She could be hardly seen. The girl wore a witch's hat, and underneath that hat was her long fluffy hair. She had sleepy eyes, and some freckles scattered across her face. She wore thick round glasses and a poofy old-fashioned dress.
The ghost girl was around the other girl's age, to say the least.
James's heart jumped to his throat, but decided to not stay any longer, since the girl, who was named Cecilia, was starting to realise that someone was staring at her.
He abruptly went in a random direction, hoping to whoever's up there that he won't run into any more performers.
••••
"So, what's our plan?" Luna desperately questioned Lesley, her panicked look more than enough to inflict pity in Lesley's chest.
"Plan?" Lesley raised an eyebrow. "Our plan is to get the idiots, and get out."
"But what if they got caught or something??" Luna was trembling, but she took a moment to catch her breath. "What if they died?"
Lesley hugged her tightly. "They'll be fine."
"What if—" Luna started, but got interrupted.
"Shut up." Lesley furrowed her eyebrows, trying hard to not cry. "Just shut up."
"Lesley, I—"
"We are going to get through this, a'ight?" Sne shook her gently. "They're not dead, they're just as scared as we are."
"Yeah.. Yeah, you're right." Luna cracked a small smile, nodding her head in agreement. "I shouldn't have freaked out like that.."
"Good."
Lesley paused.
"Now, let's go find those bastards."
••••
Philip was freaking out.
Wait no, that wasn't the right word.
Philip was fearing for his life.
He's being chased by a Nephilim, and to make matters worse, he couldn't find his friends anywhere!
At least he got out of that strange tent, though. ... Even if he is still being chased.
"Someone, help me!" He cried for help, as Evangeline was trailing close behind. He's going to die, isn't he.
Then suddenly, a hand reached out and snatched him into another circus tent.
Evangeline followed, but couldn't find him because he was hiding behind the seats.
"James?" Philip was more than surprised. How did he find him? And more importantly, how in the hell did he know he was getting chased?
"Shh." James pressed a finger over his lips, obviously scared. "She'll find us if you don't shut up."
For a while, there was the sound of wings flapping around the tent, then it faded away.
"Is she gone?" Philip stood up from his hiding spot. "Can we go now?"
James peeked out, checking for any signs of movement. "Okay, we can go." He got up, leaning against the wall. "God, you gave me a heart attack."
"But—"
"Please don't say another word, I'm getting a headache."
So, Philip shut up.
James exhaled sharply, pinching the bridge of his nose. "What are we going to do now?"
"Get out of here—"
"Yes, I know that." He huffed, crossing his arms. "How will we locate the others, though?"
"That is... A good question." Philip closed his eyes, deep in thought.
"Let's go find them."