Phase I

     Zico and Suzy stared at the sight before them. 

     A circus park unfolded infront of their eyes. Animal people walked past, holding balloons in the shape of human faces. Suzy looked to the side and breathed sharply as a food stall sold human eyeball sticks dipped in caramel, with what seemed like blood as a side drink. 

She could hear faint screaming of humans in the air, fading out with the grotesque laughing of animal humans.

"What is this place?" Suzy hissed.

Zico grabbed her hands tight and looked straight ahead, slowly walking. "Do NOT let go of my hand, and NEVER look into an animal human's eyes."

"Why?"

"Hyponsis," he said lightly. "More than five seconds of eye contact with an animal human will get you under their hypnosis." 

Suzy nodded silently and looked straight ahead, following the marble path that led them to nowhere. 

     Suzy looked to the side and gasped in horror. There were stacks of metal cages with  little human children locked up inside, desperately screaming for help. There were tears streaming down their faces as another cage was stacked on top by a cat human who whipped the children inside the cage. Suzy breathed heavily as a little girl passed out from the hit and other children stepped on her for more room in the cage.

"We need to help them Zico," Suzy whispered.

"There's nothing we can do," Zico breathed. "Those children have fallen under the hyponsis of that Circus master."

"You mean that catman is the Circus master?"

"I've seen him a few times when we were called up to the North," he said. "He.." Zico hesitated.

"What?"

"I'll explain later," he murmured and walked through the pebble road. 

     On the left side was a large spinning dart board with a teenage boy tied up in the center of the round board. The frogman spun the circle as the teenage boy screamed hysterically, staring at the giraffeman standing behind the white line with a swiss army knife in his hand. The man threw the knife and the knife pierced through the boy's stomach as he screamed in pain and coughed out blood. 

"Oh my god," Suzy shivered in terror. 

"Look straight ahead," Zico whispered in her ears as they walked faster. 

     After a while, all the grostesque booths and stalls were gone. They were walking through a thicket with a single pebble path leading into a faint light in the distance. Suzy's hands were shaking after seeing those disgusting images of people being slaughtered. 

Zico glanced at Suzy and sighed, stopping.

"Come on," he walked over to a large boulder in the side. "We'll take a small break."

     Zico ped his bag and slipped out a bottle of water, passing it to Suzy. She sipped the water and stared at the ground, trying to erase those memories out of her head. Young children and teenagers were being held captive for such despicable reasons, and there was nothing she could do to stop them. 

"How did those children get there Zico..?" Suzy asked softly. "Children that young weren't at Rubicon.."

Zico sighed. "It's uh," he paused. "I can't tell you."

"What?" she looked into his eyes, her eyes filled with sorrow and fear. "I've seen just about everything a human can't handle, what more is there?"

"You remember that catman earlier?" 

"Yeah?"

"He.. knows how to control the fabric of space and time."

"What..?"

"Do you remember the Gang-dong district kidnapping incident in 2009?"

"Yes," she nodded. "Isn't that where more than 100 children were kidnapped in the same area.. But how do you..?"

"I remember nothing from back there, but that's the only thing I remember about back home."

"How.?"

"Because.. I was one of them."

Suzy dropped her water bottle, staring at Zico who looked into her eyes with shock. 

"That night.. out of all the children that were kidnapped, there was one teenager.. that was.. you?" Suzy asked, unable to believe this situation. 

"Each hour, fifty children are slaughtered here because of this.. Midnight Circus." Zico pointed to the faint light at the end of the pebble pathway. "The war between humans and animal humans in this place ultimately switched our places. All the animals we've abused and killed for our entertainment in circuses, all the fur coats and bags we've made for our luxury, all the meat and delicacies we enjoy for each meal, they've had enough. When us humans lost that war against animals, it was the biggest crisis in human mankind. They began revenging on us the same way we treated them; using humans as circus animals, making clothing out of human skin, and eating human organs as their delicacies."

Suzy's body shivered in fear. 

"But there was one thing the humans at the time failed to recognize."

"What..?"

"Do you know how I was able to escape to Rubicon when I was kidnapped up north?" He pointed to his eyes. "Escape the hypnosis."

"It's just avoiding eye contact.."

"If it was that simple, why do you think hundreds of children are being held captive over there?"

"They're children of course-"

"Children have weak souls. Every time he looks into our eyes, he connects himself with our soul. And when they're linked, you're under his control. The stronger your soul is, the more likely he can't control you."

Suzy went silent and looked up at the sky. She wasn't ready for any of this. 

"When we get there," Zico pointed to the light at the end of the path. "Prepare yourself."

"For what..?"

"Midnight Circus," he said. "What you saw earlier is just an appetizer."

Suzy grabbed his arm in fear. She wasn't ready for any of this, and she just wanted to return to Rubicon.

"Let's go," Zico stood up and helped Suzy get up. "We can't waste any more time." 

     The two walked along the pebble path until they reached a large circus tent lit with small lights. There were food stalls outside the tent that sold delicacies, and as expected Suzy could feel the animal humans trying to look into her eyes. She bit her lips and kept her eyes on Zico's foot as they walked closer to the tent.

The closer they got to the tent, the louder the chants got.

Zico stopped in front of the tent door and faced Suzy, looking into her eyes. 

"Don't scream like an idiot and don't try to run out or they'll shoot you-" Zico babbled but stopped as Suzy's hands shivered so much that her entire body started shaking along. Her eyes were stuck to the pebbles on the floor and her lips trembled and almost seemed to be in the shade of blue.

"O..k." was the one word that escaped out of her lips.

"Suzy.." Zico placed his hands on her shoulders and raised her head. "Don't be scared."

He then grabbed her hand and walked into the tent, seeing the other contestants lined up across the room. 

     Suzy looked around in terror; all forms of animal humans charged up the bleacher seats, screaming and cheering in their grotesque animal shrieks and the stench of wild animals punctured her nose so bad she could throw up any moment.

There were blood stains all over the floor and pieces of eyeball rolled across the floor. 

     As Suzy and Zico walked closer, they saw a box chalked on the floor scribbled 6. All the other contestants who survived stood in their respective numbers, staring at Zico and Suzy who walked toward their box.

Zico stood inside his box, staring at the large bush that overgrew all the way to the ceiling.

"Now every contestant has arrived!" the fish man shot his gun toward the ceiling and silenced the crowd with the loud bang. 

The cheering died down as the fish man continued talking.

"Here are our runners-up for our centennial maze run!"

Maze run?

Zico thought under his breath.

"The task is simple," the fishman said with a heinous laugh. "The first duo to get on the merry-go-round at the end of the maze wins this round~!"

Zico raised his eyebrow; there was no way this game could be this simple. 

"You must stay on the merry-go-round until it finishes spinning the number of times of your chalk box~!" the fishman giggled crazily and the rest of the crowd began to laugh along.

Zico and Suzy looked down at the number beneath their foot; 6.

Zico looked around and saw other people's boxes; one duo had 10, and across the line, Joohyuk had 2.

The fishman clicked his fingers and the entire tent went pitch dark, and the bush was concentrated with all the light.

The contestants watched as the bush started parting in the middle and opened up to reveal a maze with bush walls. The further end of the maze was hidden by heavy fog, and before Suzy knew it she was running into the maze alongside Zico, throwing herself into the maze.

Zico and Suzy continued running until they reached a cut and was separated with the other duo.

Suzy looked back and watched the bush closing up, leaving only a bush wall in the place.

"Lower your footsteps," Zico breathed lightly. "We can't be heard." 

Suzy looked around the maze; her entire surroundings were blocked by the tall green bush and the grey sky didn't seem to help at all. 

"Can we even get out of here..?" Suzy croaked, stopping in her track.

Zico sighed and walked toward Suzy, looking at her in the eye.

"I told you," he said quietly. "We can't be heard. I know you're scared but-"

Suzy looked into Zico's eyes but her eyes followed the figure afar, behind Zico.

It was a tall figure yet unrecognizable in the fog. 

Suzy's eyes widened as the figure came a little closer and revealed himself; Joohyuk stood from afar, slipping out something from his pocket. 

Before Suzy could open , a hand knife slipped out of his hands and flew toward Zico's head. 

3 seconds before the knife penetrated his head, Zico wrapped Suzy in his arms and threw himself to the floor, the knife landing on the floor right in front of his face.

Zico sighed and pulled the knife out of the dirt, grabbing it firmly in his hands. 

Suzy couldn't believe what Joohyuk had done; she didn't want to believe that Joohyuk had just thrown that knife.

She rubbed her eyes and looked once again, her entire heart crashing down.

Joohyuk was staring right into her soul, the warmth no longer there.

Hi everyone.

I haven't updated in years it feels like. I was so busy with College and finals just ended and I visited AFF in a really long time and realized I left this story hanging for too long. This story is finally getting to its core so there is so much that will be revealed from now on. 

Thanks for reading my story even though I take forEVER to update.