— Epitasis —

Eisuke led Kaori through the hallways and into different passages up until they’ve finally exited the interconnecting tents. Fresh air once again filled Kaori’s lungs and the light coming from the moon peaked out, enhanced by the mechanical lights that flicker around the circus. They’ve walked around for a bit and Kaori couldn’t help but study the whole place as it is. It was then that her curiosity began to peak when she had noticed that a few signs were actually placed on the entryways of the different tents. Signs like, Dancing animals, Acrobatic performances, and Ethereal Enigmas tapped her curious mind making her to ask Eisuke as they’ve walked.

“Eisuke, what are those signs for?” She asked while pointing on another sign when they’ve passed through another tent.

“Oh…They are signs for the crowd if they want to see a specific acts,” Eisuke said and continued walking.

“Wait, then this is like a tour-kind of circus where people walk around and not sit down to watch a show?” Kaori asked, confused than ever.

“Yes and no. People can tour around the whole circus if they want as long as they don’t go to places that are off limits. It would provide them to see the acts, and the members of the circus up close and don’t doubt how real they are. After the tour, they’ll be all gathered to the main tent to watch the actual show. Right now, if we don’t hurry up, we might even bump into the crowd of people as the tour start in a few minutes,” Eisuke explained.

“Oh…Looking at it like that, it seems like I’m having a private tour from you,” Kaori suddenly said while smiling.

Eisuke looked behind him and grinned at the girl before turning his head again.

“Yeah. You could think of it like that. Hope I don’t bore you.”

“Nope. Not at all,” Kaori answered and kept quiet after that.

“Eisuke!”

After that conversation, a woman dressed in frilly clothes came running to Eisuke’s side with a grimace on her face. Once she got closer, her eyes flickered to the girl beside Eisuke and a look of hesitation ran to her face before shrugging it off and focused her eyes again on Eisuke.

“It’s bad! We need you in the hauling area right now. A bit…of a problem came up and one of those animals…err, uhm…got away,” The woman said, mindful of her words but the urgency on her voice made Eisuke moved without a second thought.

Things happened so fast and Kaori found herself following Eisuke and the woman before stopping abruptly when Eisuke suddenly turned to her direction with a scary look on his face. Kaori flinched from the sight and the once puppy-looking eyes of Eisuke turned into a menacing slit giving the aura of danger around him.

Seeing the frightened look on Kaori, Eisuke tried his best to ease back to his usual calm face and directed a small smile on Kaori before he spoke again.

“I’m sorry if it will take longer to help you, Kaori. I need to attend on this matter first. You just stay here and I’ll come back as soon as I can.” Eisuke gave a full smile and his puppy dog eyes came back again, calming the girl in the process.

“Okay, take your time. I can manage on my own,” She said and watched as Eisuke gave her an assuring smile before turning his back and speed walk to another tent and disappearing before her.

Kaori sighed, finding herself alone again. She walked back and forth for a minute before settling down on a barrel just located near her and started playing on the hem of her clothes before she felt awkward sitting alone there. She stood up, deciding to look around for a bit and stopped short when she heard a whimper in one of the tent.

She stared at the tent intently trying to determine if she heard it correctly but after a minute or two passed, she only heard a silence. Shrugging it off, she headed to the barrel once more but she heard the whimper.

This time, she knew she heard it loud and clear. She moved back to the tent and hesitantly opened it. Since there was no sign of off limits there, she decided to take a look and thought that maybe someone needed help.

Well, it’s not like I don’t need one too, She thought but still headed inside, pushing the heavy cloth more before she was consumed by the darkness.

If she had looked more outside the tent, she should have seen the sign that was placed in that tent.

Fearsome Beasts and Strange Creatures…

The sign said and now she was inside a tent full of frightening animals and creatures.

The lights were fairly dimmed and it took her a minute to adjust on the lighting before she moved carefully on the room. It was creepy inside; with the sound coming from somewhere she doesn’t know and the darkness surrounding her.

A body hitting the bars of its cage suddenly sounded making the girl leap to her side and stared straight into the eyes of the largest lion she had ever seen and it bares its sharp fangs to her.  Kaori unconsciously moved back away from fear only to hit another set of iron bars only to hear a loud growl behind her before she felt a sharp claw against her shoulder. She screamed in an instant and moved away only to topple down to the ground. Her shoulder stings for a moment and that was when she realized that it was grazed by the claw. She looked up only to see a weird looking animal trying to reach out to her as it clawed the air. She crawled away from it only to stop short when she heard a chuckle on her side.

“What a naïve girl to come here unprepared,” A deep guttery voice sounded. Kaori couldn’t see who had talked with all the darkness surrounding them.

“W-Who’s there?” She asked bravely but faltered as the man chuckled lowly.

“What a lousy reaction,” He said after some time. Kaori then heard, a tapping sound coming near her. The growls of the animals inside their cages as they rattled the iron bars made the tapping sound more haunting until Kaori saw a silhouette of a man just right in front of her.

“Would you really want to know who I am? You are in my territory. My tent,” The man paused from walking.

“And I’m pretty sure you knew what is supposed inside this tent,” A cold voice filled the room that a chill ran down to Kaori’s spine. She stayed motionless on the ground and didn’t utter a word as gone dry from fright. Somehow, even if the silhouette of the man seemed normal, his words struck the girl as the memories of the different people she just had seen a while ago came to her mind.

Distorted…Out of the norm figures were playing on her mind. She didn’t know what was on the tent but after seeing the two animals and with the menacing voice used by the stranger, Kaori couldn’t help thinking that she might be in the mercy of a very ominous man.

The silhouette tilted his head and a low chuckle escaped once more before Kaori realized that the man turned his back to her.

“Your expression is funny. You haven’t even seen my face but you are already scared,” He said and his footsteps resounded, moving away to the girl who was still sitting down on the floor.

“And I heed you, don’t go any further inside this tent,” A smirk formed in the man’s lips even though Kaori wouldn’t see it.

“It’s not because that there are more monsters and hideous creatures you’ll see if you go ahead, which is partly true, I guess,” He paused.

“But it is because this tent is still currently closed,” He said with an authoritative voice.

“O-Oh. I’m really sorry. I-I thought that I could go in a-already,” Kaori stammered and was about to say about a whimper she had heard but decided not to.

“It’s okay. Besides, you’ll be meeting a far scarier creature than this tent could offer,” He said with a mischievous tone. Kaori didn’t get what he said and about to ask what it was but the man waved his hand to her direction bidding her goodbye.

“I hope to see you again, pretty lad,” The man said, “Alive and well.” He whispered which the girl didn’t hear. He smirked once more and turned to a corner before disappearing from Kaori’s view.

Kaori was puzzled about the man. Surely, he was a scary person from the way he speaks but from his words, Kaori can’t help feeling that he was warning her about something far scarier than him.

She stood up from the ground and headed back to the entrance from where she came from and headed outside with her mind jumbled from the mysterious words the man had said.

Just as she opened the heavy cloth, Kaori was suddenly paralyzed by the sight that was waiting outside the tent. She could feel her heart raced a thousand folds and that her breath was caught in at the creature in front of her.

A growl…she heard a deep-guttural growl coming from the creature. A huge tiger like creature with large two canines protruding its jaw and its paws showing sharp claws and a fur as white as snow was standing just a few feet from the tent without a cage or even a leash.

The girl slowly backed away, trying not to make a sound but then the tiger-like creature sniffed the air and slowly, its head turn to Kaori and locked its eyes to the frightened girl.

Slowly, the creature faced Kaori; his face seemed like in a grimace with its canines showing. It growled once more but now it was directed to Kaori. It moved slowly towards Kaori and watching her, it only made the girl paralyzed from fear.

M-Move! Kaori’s mind kept on telling her but her feet were stuck on the ground. She couldn’t help but stare at the predator’s eyes.

Move or you’ll die!  She kept on saying but it was like her body was not hers. The more she stare, the more she felt the fear consuming her every being leaving her blank and frozen.

The creature now then crouched. Its hinds in a tense posture, ready to jump at the frozen prey.

Without warning, it jumped and all Kaori could do was to scream at the top of her lungs with her hands up as a useless barrier to the creature. Kaori knew it was too late to move. The creature was so close that she could see the inside of its mouth.

Just as she was about to feel the sharp teeth on , another creature dropped from the sky with its elbow connecting at the top of the head of the beast.

Feathers…

That was what Kaori saw in all the blurriness that was going on. A sickening crack sounded as the beast’s head dropped to the ground and it stayed motionless with its eyes voided of life.

Kaori didn’t even realized that she was on the ground again and looking at the blank eyes of the creature, blood started to leak from its head and the sight turned Kaori’s stomach into a mesh.

Soft flaps then brought her back from her thoughts and she a feather falling right in front of her face. She stretched her hands and caught it finding it soft and white. Her eyes then travelled at the source of the sound and saw standing right beside the beast a woman dressed in a beige-colored dress with her hair black as a raven as it contrasts to its white wings.

Wings? Kaori thought as she had described the woman. WINGS?!! She internally screamed and rubbed her eyes to make sure that she was seeing was right.

Then it hit her. It was really wings. Wings that are connected to the woman who had just saved her.

“A-Aah…” Kaori mumbled, her jaw slackened as her eyes stared at the pair of huge wings. The woman heard it and then directed her attention to the girl on the ground.

She had the coldest face Kaori had seen. Voided of any expression, the woman walked towards the girl with her wings finally tucked to her back.

Without even saying a word, the woman pulled the girl harshly on her feet and made her stand on her own.

“Stand,” The cold voice startled Kaori but what made her more surprise is that the woman was as beautiful as an angel.

Angel.  That was the description of Kaori to the woman. An angel came to save her from the beasts and now staring at her with those cold but beautiful dark green eyes. It would be perfect, Kaori had thought, if only the woman would smile but her face remained as passive as before.

She wondered how such a woman could kill a beast with such expressionless face.

“Kaori!”

A voice called from her and it was hard for the girl to tear her eyes off the green-eyed beauty only to see Eisuke and a bunch of other circus crew coming their way.

His eyes were full of concern but were then changed into an alarmed one when he saw the beast lying dead in front of Kaori, then softened when it landed to the person beside Kaori.

“Ma’am,” Eisuke muttered before bowing his head in respect to the woman which was answered with only a nod.

“I’m sorry to cost you trouble. This creature got out when they were trying to put it on another cage,” He explained. His voice was strong like he was trying not to show weakness to the woman in front of her.

The woman only faced them and tilted her head towards them before pointing the beast.

“Clean it, before the crowd could see it,” The woman nonchalantly said and threw a cape to her back before tying it securely in front of her.

“Yes ma’am,” Eisuke said and started ordering the crew to take away the creature with an authoritative tone Kaori would not imagine Eisuke having one.

The woman then suddenly started walking away and that was when Kaori called for her.

“W-Wait!” She said and the woman stopped from her tracks but not bothered to look at her.

“What is it?” The woman said, her voice still as cold as ever.

“I haven’t thank you for saving me,” She said shyly.

The woman then turned to her and closed the distance between them before putting her hands firmly on Kaori’s shoulder making her wince from the pain of her wound on her shoulder. The woman noticed and checked the wound on Kaori’s shoulder and the blood on her hands. A ghost of a smile grazed her lips but it was so quick that Kaori had thought her mind have conjured it.

“The moment you keep yourself down, you won’t be able to stand up,” She said. Her eyes looking directly at Kaori’s with intensity.

“So if I were you, I won’t let any human or creature sees me fall down. Stand as firm as you can, move as fast as your feet wills you and never ever let yourself be paralyzed by fear. The moment it does,” The woman then clamped on the wound on her shoulder again but this time, she purposely making Kaori feels every pain it produced.

“This will happen and in a much worse condition,” Kaori gasped from the pain and held on the woman’s arm tightly and tried to push it away but she won’t.

“Remember that,” She finally said and let go. Kaori held her aching shoulder as she watched the woman walked away with confusion.

“Ma’am! What should we do with the creature?” One of the crew called out. The woman held her bloody hand up flicked it before saying, “Bury it, burn it, whatever you see fits. Just don’t let this ever happened again. I’m sure the ring masters will be angry when they’ve known that one of their beloved creatures is dead.”

“Y-Yes, ma’am.” The crew answered and hurried up in cleaning the carcass of the beast.

“You okay?” Eisuke finally went to Kaori and noticed the new wound on her shoulder. Before he could even ask what happened, Kaori answered him already.

“I am fine and this is not caused by…that,” Kaori motioned her finger to the dead beast with hesitancy and tried to recover her lost confidence and vigor even if she could only take a small part of it.

“I went inside that tent and didn’t realize that it houses some scary animals. I’m sorry, I should have tried to look at the sign.” Eisuke shook his head and held the uninjured shoulder of Kaori before dragging her somewhere.

“It’s not your fault. Come, we’ll patch you up first,” He said.

“Thank you. If it was not for that woman though, I might not be able to see you again,” She chuckled nervously and her voice leaked the fear she had felt.

“I’m sorry I’ve left you alone. I shouldn’t have,” Eisuke exasperated but Kaori only shook her head and said it was not his fault.

“And by the way, that was Mami, the one who saved you,” He added.

“So her name’s Mami,” Kaori said to herself and can’t help but remember the coldness and harshness of the woman who saved her. Even though she had described her as an angel, a part of Mami seemed to be hiding a much darker side that Kaori couldn’t shake. Just like Tomomi, she had felt that the words that she had said to her hold a very deep meaning to Mami.

“Yeah. She’s really cold though, never smiles, never laughs. Just kept to herself and never socializes with us. All I know is that she’s very loyal to the head ring master,” Eisuke muttered and Kaori only nodded to his statement knowing that he couldn’t tell her more than that.

“Here we are. We need to fix you up first before we head to the ring masters. You need to freshen up too. I bet you need it after what happened,” Eisuke said and led her to a white tent that seems to be the infirmary in the circus.

“Yeah, I think I also need one too,” She weakly said and waited for Eisuke to get the doctor.

Events of the day slowly flooded her mind and now she couldn’t believe what was happening to her. If someone had told her that she would be finding a circus in the middle of the woods, or meet peculiar people or even come close to the jaws of death a few hours ago, she would have laughed and think that person was crazy.

But now that everything was happening, she wasn’t sure of herself anymore.

What’s going on? Why is this happening to me? She thought and confusion ran to her head. Not only is that but everyone she has met in that crazy circus except for Eisuke, was warning her about something. A life lesson might be but right now she couldn’t even distinguish its importance on what was happening to her.

“Looks like you are troubled.” Kaori stiffened after hearing that voice again. The menacing voice at the tent containing the fearsome creatures.

She looked at where it came from but only greeted by a silhouette again as she and the man was separated by a white divider.

“Don’t worry, I don’t bite,” The man chuckled and took off his bawler’s hat and motioned to bow at Kaori.

“Well done by the way in meeting that beast. I hope you won’t do that again once you’re faced with a scarier being,” He said and put his hat back before moving away again.

“Wait!” Kaori quickly stood up as her confusion was suddenly turning to anger from the man who kept on mocking her. It seems that he actually knew that she would be meeting the beast.

By the time she reached the other side of the divider, she only saw the tailcoat of the man as he walked out of the tent. Kaori instantly followed him but was only to bump on Eisuke and a man wearing glasses along the way.

“Woah! What happened, Kaori?” Eisuke asked but she desperately peeked from Eisuke’s shoulder to see the man but to her dismay, he was already gone.

“Sit down before you hurt yourself, girl,” The man with glasses told her and dragged her back to an empty bed.

“Good thing it was only a scratch. I could patch you up quickly and you’ll be out of here in no time,” The doctor said as he inspects the wound on her shoulder.

Kaori only murmured her thanks as her mind was thousands away. It goes unnoticed on Eisuke’s side and he instantly held her good shoulder to drag her from her thoughts.

“Is something wrong?” He asked but Kaori only smiled half-heartedly.

“I’m just tired,” She said and Eisuke nodded.

“Then we really have to get to the ring masters,” He muttered and Kaori thanked him knowing that the sooner she met them, the sooner she will be able to get home and leave everything behind that had happened to her that day.