The Ringmaster’s voice echoed like a warbled melody through the tent, sharp and sweet like a broken music box:
“You dont know your name and how perfect.”
“But rules are rules.”
He waved a gloved hand with a sharp snap! and from above, a scroll unspooled like a snake made of stars, letters flickering like flames in the dark.
The names began to whisper themselves.
“Caelum... Isen... Lysair... Nox... Elian... Vireo...”
Each name shimmered and swam in the air, glowing and fading like a fever dream.
“That one,” he said, pointing, his voice barely a breath. “Elian.”
The Ringmaster smiled. “Very well! Elian, the boy with no past. A new name for a new life.”
Behind him came a honk! and a cascade of confetti as a bouncy figure burst through the curtains.
“Waaahoo! Newbie alert!”
“I’m Milo, your neighborhood clown—funny by design, tragic by profession!”
Milo’s painted grin wobbled as he leaned in and slapped Elian’s back with a puff of glitter.
“Welcome to the family, Elian. Wanna meet the rest?”
From the mist emerged silhouettes, their eyes glowing, their movements unnaturally smooth:
“I’m Milo, your neighborhood clown—funny by design, tragic by profession!”
Milo’s painted grin wobbled as he leaned in and slapped Elian’s back with a puff of glitter.
“Welcome to the family, Elian. Wanna meet the rest?”
From the mist emerged silhouettes, their eyes glowing, their movements unnaturally smooth:
Selene – The aerialist.
Jax – The strong man.
Ivy– The fortune teller.
Finn – The fire breather
Luna – The contortionst.
Orion– The magician.
Eira– The beast tamer.
Caius– The ring master.
Zara – The shadow dancer.
Milo spun like a wheel, arms wide open.
“And now... meet Elian, the Lion Tamer! Only he doesn’t remember ever taming lions! Isn’t that cute?”
Elian,” he said softly.
“My name is Elian now?”
“Perfect,” purred Caius, straightening. “Elian it is.”
Suddenly, a clown with red pom-poms and a lopsided smile did a cartwheel into the center ring. Milo, grinning ear to ear.
“Now that we’re all sparkles and sunshine,” Milo said, “shall we explain the rules?”
“Rules?” Elian asked, but his voice felt far away.
The others formed a half-circle. A drumbeat pulsed from nowhere —
ba-dum... ba-dum... ba-dum.
Caius raised a single white-gloved finger.
“Each new performer must join the game. It is tradition. A rite of welcome.”
A whoosh of smoke burst beside him. Out stepped Zara, all shadows and grace, twirling a black ribbon like a whisper.
“Someone among us isn’t who they say they are,” she murmured. “One of us has already been chosen.”
Finn, balancing a flame on his tongue, smirked. “It’s like ‘Among Us,’ you know that game? Except the stakes here are... fatal.”
Elian took a step back. “You’re kidding.”
“Not at all,” said Eira, stroking the mane of a caged beast behind her. “One wrong guess, and you vanish. Like smoke in a windstorm.”
A glowing, ethereal screen appeared in the center ring, listing names:
PLAYER 01: ELIAN
PLAYER 02: MILO
PLAYER 03: EIRA
PLAYER 04: ORION
PLAYER 05: ZARA
PLAYER 06: FINN
PLAYER 07: JAX
PLAYER 08: IVY
PLAYER 09: LUNA
PLAYER 10: ???
VILLAIN SELECTED
GAME STARTED
THE CIRCUS DOESN’T SLEEP.
Caius’s voice rang out like a bell:
“Welcome to your nightmare, Elian.
Find the villain, or fall into the dirt smiling.”
“Let the show begin.”
A gust of wind cut through the tent, snuffing out several lanterns with a sharp flick-flick-flick.
The remaining torches cast long, wavering shadows across the sand. Everyone turned as a figure stepped from behind Caius, silent as a ghost, moving like fog rolling off a grave.
He looked exactly like the boy from Elian’s dream.
Hair the color of bleached bone drifted over his forehead, and his skin was pale — not delicate, but undead, like snow pressed against marble. His eyes...
His eyes were bottomless.
Completely black. No whites. No pupils. Just liquid obsidian that shimmered faintly under the firelight.
He stood behind Caius like a shadow stitched to him — not touching, not speaking, not even blinking.
Elian’s breath caught in his throat.
“Who... who is that?” he asked.
Caius turned his head ever so slightly, not bothering to hide his crooked smile. “Ah. You’ve seen him before, haven’t you?”
The boy tilted his head at Elian, just a fraction — like a raven watching a wounded mouse.
“He’s just my assistant,” Caius said softly. “But he has other names. Many, many names.”
The boy's lips curved, slow and sharp like a knife slipping under silk.
A sound like wind chimes made of bone echoed in Elian’s ears.
“You can call him Noct,” Caius continued.
“He never speaks. But he sees everything.”
Noct blinked once, and Elian felt it — something shifted inside him. Like someone had cracked open a door in his mind just wide enough for something ancient to look through.
To be continued
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Comments
BL&Yaoi lover ♾
Oh my gosh, this sounds like a horror show. These are some very scary characters. I mean, that clown gave me the creeps when he just came up behind my boy with a creepy smile and I don’t know why, but I gave him a creepy voice in my head, it only fits perfectly for him. It just seems like every character here is untrustworthy, my goodness. I just hope that not all of them are psychopaths, like I’m thinking they are.😅
2025-07-31
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