A/n: I think I accidentally deleted a comment to the past chapter before I get to reply to it. Unfortunately, I did not really see the name, so I don't know to whom I should apologize. In any event, whoever you are, thank you for the comment and sorry that I deleted it. >.<

Cirque du Macabre

Chapter 3

The Reunion

Krystal screamed –but she was not the only one. The tent erupted with horrified screams coming from the audience. They tore the gazes away from the main stage; denying the truth that occurred right before their eyes.

"Oh," Tiffany murmured beside Krystal. "That was new."

Krystal was baffled at how calm Tiffany was reacting. Nana might not have been Krystal's favorite person, but she was still the one who had accompanied her all along. And in any event, an apathetic comment towards someone's death never felt justified. So with wide, terrorized eyes, Krystal shouted back at Tiffany, "That man killed Nana!"

"Relax, Hon," assured the make-up artist. "It was part of the act."

Death was not something one could act on. Krystal stared at Tiffany as if the latter was nuts, but Tiffany maintained her calm gaze towards the stage. And as if on cue, the next second, the audience blasted into loud clapping. Krystal stared at the audience –not really able to see any of their expressions due to the lack of light. Despite so, there was something unpleasant at the pit of her stomach upon knowing that people actually cheered upon a gruesome public murder like what had happened before her eyes and –

"See?" Tiffany commented as she patted Krystal's shoulders, signaling her to look up to the empty air at the center of the hall again. "She's alright."

Krystal nearly did not want to look back at the stage, but when she did, she nearly could not believe her eyes.

Nana was still there, moving. She held onto the ropes that was choking her neck and with whatever strength was stored in those thin arms, she lifted herself up through the ropes. Taking a knife from her pocket, Nana then used it to cut the ropes.

The spotlight followed as Nana's body was pulled down by gravity into the ground.

A more mortifying sound of bone crackling was heard.

Krystal did not even have the heart to scream or to even look again –but the other audience seemed to share a different viewpoint. Upon the sound of Nana's body hitting the concrete ground, another round of big applause erupted. The spotlight shone at the spot on the ground –where a broken mess that was arguably Nana laid still.

Krystal nearly hoped that Nana would be dead instead, because she clearly was not prepared to see a moving familiar figure (deformed, are you even still a human?) with bones awkwardly sticking out of places.

But Nana was cruel, and Nana, being the top performer of the Circus, always knew how to please her audience the most.

Without music, and accompanied only by the rhythmic sound of clapping from the audience –so harmonized– Nana, or her corpse, or whatever foul existence she was, stood up. What Krystal dreaded was true. Her bones were sticking out in awkward places, broken beyond repair. Blood was gushing out from the big wound on the back of her crushed head, making a fine trail through her pale legs. Nana stood up –as firm and as straight as her broken bones would allow her to – and with a big smile, she did a curtsy to the audience, before the spotlight disappeared, and the main light of the tent was lit up again.

Nana was no longer there.

Her blood still remained though.

Krystal immediately stood up from her seat.

"Hey, where are you going?" Tiffany asked suddenly

"I-I'm out of here," she announced, covering with her hand –fearing vomit would come in the way.

"Hey, calm down. It was just an act!" insisted Tiffany.

"An act?!" Krystal howled loudly. "How could that be an act?! Your boss just committed a murder! Nana was killing herself! It was a ghost! She was a demon! That was –"

"Hey, hey, calm down!" Tiffany nearly begged. "You cannot leave the show while it's still going! Heechul will –"

"The with Heechul!" Krystal screamed. "I'm leaving this place! I should have and this is a nightmare! I should have woken up by now! I should have –" her hysteric rant was cut short. Behind her, Jaejoong just pressed a point at the back of her neck and Krystal immediately lost her consciousness.

Tiffany looked back at Jaejoong –mouth silent, but eyes questioning the man.

Jaejoong calmly returned back to his seat. "Don't let Heechul knows," he told Tiffany. "I'll take care of her later after the show ends."

***

"Wake up."

The soft voice coming from the man's lips did not wake Krystal up, but the splash of water he mercilessly poured at Krystal's face immediately awakened her nerves and the girl instantly got up from her previously laying position. Startled, Krystal took a frantic look around her. She was in some dimly-lit room, but the stench of excessive sterile scent around her quickly helped her realize where she was.

Jaejoong's tent.

The thought of Jaejoong's tent drew Krystal's memory back to the main tent, to the spectacle that had been held there, to the sight of Nana –clearly dead– killing her body over and over again, and –

Krystal vomited.

Jaejoong did not look impressed nor did he look disgusted. The man waited until Krystal fully emptied the content of her stomach onto the ground, before he effortlessly lifted Krystal's body up and pulled her to her feet.

The girl stammered in his grasp, like a tiny rabbit washed down by rain. Jaejoong wanted to be sympathetic, but he failed. Nevertheless, he still owed Krystal some explanation. Briefly lifting Krystal's face so that the girl looked at his eyes, he then whispered, "You've seen what this place actually is. You know why you can't be here. There's still time until midnight. Escape, now."

But Krystal found no more strength on her legs. With a whimper she just could not control, her legs gave away again, and she sat there on the ground. Her arms s their ways to her ebony hair –clutching her head, her eyes clamped shut. "T-this is a nightmare..."

"You just woke up," Jaejoong pointed out. "And this will not be a mere nightmare if you don't escape this place by midnight."

"What the is this place?!" she howled. She tried to stand up, she really did –but there was no strength left on her legs to stand up, much less to run. Jaejoong immediately began her object of frustration. "Why did I get here in the first place?!"

Jaejoong looked uninterested. "Only those who are already dead or want to die can come here uninvited," he told her. "I've been dealing with the Deads too often. Nana could not tell, but I knew you are alive," he paused upon realizing something. "Ah, that means you wanted to die. If that's your wish, then you can stay here if you want and –"

"No!" Krystal stammered –the trembles from her feet crawled up to , and perhaps to her brain as well, because she suddenly found it hard to even think of anything sane. But the thought of her sister brought a newborn strength from within her, and with wobbly feet, Krystal forced herself to stand up. "N-no. I-I was looking for my sister. I-I just wanted to s-save her a-and –"

"Forget your sister," Jaejoong told her. "You cannot save her anymore."

"I need to –"

"Your sister is dead."

Krystal's feet gave up again. But instead of falling down, she took stumbled steps backwards –her back hitting the long shelves Jaejoong had at the back of her tent. A loud crashing was heard as several glass bottles and tubes were falling beside Krystal. The foul stench that had been around Jaejoong's place grew stronger, and Krystal realized why she detested it.

Formalin.

And the stench of rotten corpse.

"Could you not make a mess at my place?" Jaejoong commented with a sigh as he bent down to pick up the broken shards.

Krystal did not want to look down, but something about the foul stench and the realization (that had always been there, but you refused to acknowledge) forced her too.

A chopped head was resting near Krystal's shoes –rolling down after its bottle was broken by her.

"A-ah..." the panicked throttle came out from , barely forming a word. She took a step aside to avoid the chopped head, and nearly screamed when she knew her shoes just stepped on another object instead.

A hand.

What Jaejoong stored in those bottles, were indeed, humans' embalmed organs.

"Don't step on my collection, girl," grumbled Jaejoong.

Krystal wanted to move, but she was more intent on waking up. Pulling strands of her hair as hard as she could, she screamed to herself, "Wake up!"

"If I were you, I wouldn't alarm Heechul by screaming," Jaejoong suggested –still cleaning up the broken shards and the remains of body organs around. "Ah," he suddenly muttered as he picked up something. Standing up, he then carefully walked towards Krystal –who immediately flinched at the sight of him.

"Get away from me!" she screamed.

He ignored her and extended something to Krystal. Jaejoong's black eyes stared deeply at her, and Krystal was nearly vacuumed by the emptiness there. But Jaejoong cleared his throat and signaled her to take a look at the object on his hand.

Her heart stopped.

"In case you want to bring it back to your parents," Jaejoong calmly said as he extended a chopped piece of a pretty arm with well-maintained nails. "I believe this one was your sister's."

Krystal's eyes widened upon recognizing that hand. There was no way she would mistake it –the small burnt scar just between the knuckles of the index and middle finger –the burn she accidentally caused to Jessica's hand when they were playing around years and years ago.

Krystal screamed and the sight of Jessica's cleanly cut hand was just the right force she needed to move her muscles and ran out of Jaejoong's tent.

***

It was still crowded outside Jaejoong's tent –much to Krystal's dismay. The circus performance had ended, but why were there still so many people around?

If they were really people –humans.

The thought of being surrounded by the Deads alarmed her, and Krystal nearly did not know where to move. She forced herself to remember. There was a lake, no before that, a red door. Nana took her here through a red door –the red door that was located...

... right in front of the main tent.

She had to go back.

Now.

Clutching her hand on , Krystal made her way passed the crowds.

And it sure was a ing absurd crowds that she had to pass. Now that the show was over, the performers around did not care much about the thick make up that coated their rotten skin. The pair of men Krystal recognized as Kai and Taemin were passing her –holes were on their left chests; Krystal thought she also caught the sight of tousled red hair –Hyuna's, and the girl herself (or what was left from her) was inside her beloved lions' gates (after party of the undead? You put your head into the lion's mouth and let it crush yours).

She did not know how she could deny the whole peculiarities. From the moment Nana pulled her down, from the moment they entered that red door, from the moment she encountered all the weirdness and everything that never screamed human, Krystal did not know how could she be so oblivious.

            "Ah, that means you wanted to die."

She nearly wanted to stop and bury herself alive instead. But then there was a tap on her shoulders and Krystal nearly flinched when she recognized the familiar voice.

"There you are! I've been looking for you!" Nana greeted her; happy eyes and gleeful grin on her face. "Did you see my performance? Was it good? It was good, wasn't it?"

"N-no –"

Nana widened her eyes. "Not good?" she wailed.

Krystal knew better than to anger a walking corpse, so she quickly corrected herself as she forced herself not to look at Nana (the skin was rotting, her beautiful face would be decaying soon). "T-that was good. I-I was just s-surprised, a-and –"

"Was it surprising?" Nana exclaimed happily. "Oh, Krissy! I spent lots of nights thinking of a new concept so – hey, where are you going?"

"D-don't mind me," Krystal stammered as she tried to find a way out of Nana. "J-Jaejoong. J-Jaejoong said he was looking for you."

"He did?" Nana asked back –happy glint on her eyes. "Thanks, Krissy! Oh, by the way, I talked to Heechul, and he agreed to have your tent built next to mine! We're going to be neighbors!" she exclaimed.

Krystal's jaws were trembling as she forced herself to make a reply. "S-sounds great."

"Of course! Oh, catch you later, Krissy!" Nana said with an ecstatic wave as she made a turn to Jaejoong's tent.

Upon Nana's turned head (and there was that red blood still falling from her broken back skull), Krystal quickly paced her steps and aimed to the main tent.

There were still crowds outside the main tent, but Krystal was slightly glad that there was. The amount of crowds actually helped her mix around. The least thing she wanted was to have her escape known to any of those immortals.

But where the hell was that door?!

Frustration crawled back. She wanted to cry again –perhaps she already did, because her sights became blurry. I would never find that door, her conscience told her. I would never find that door, and I will forever be trapped here in this goddamn place and they will force me to break my neck like what Nana did, and Jaejoong would stitch up some ugly stitches on my skin, and –

"This way," she heard someone speaking and found her arm was pulled.

Jaejoong shoved her forward and pointed at an object that nearly gave her heart a burst –the red door.

"Just don't tell that to Nana again," he reminded her before he disappeared among the crowd.

Krystal stammered, wanted to scream her gratitude to Jaejoong, but she knew she could not waste a moment. Picking up the pace again, she pushed some other foul creatures out of her way, giving them the slightest care, because what she cared was only the red door and how to reach it and –

– a leg was lifted up just in front of the door.

"Hello, where do you think you're going?" Heechul asked; the pleasant grin on his pretty face could not even hide the corruption that he hid well behind it.

***

"N-no, there's been a mistake! Please, it was a mistake!" Krystal screeched as she tried to release Heechul's grip around her wrist. No avail. As feminine as Heechul was, he was still a man –the strongest soul around. "I-I didn't mean to come to this place! This is a mistake! Please! I am still alive!"

Heechul snickered as he continued to pull Krystal back into the main tent –vacant and never smelled as rusty blood before. "And you think I didn't realize that? But you are still here, and I am not willing to give up on a new soul."

"I am still alive!" Krystal screamed.

Heechul released his grip around her wrist and the girl stumbled at the ground inside the main tent. "Yes, but soon you won't."

"N-no, please –"

"Now, how do you want to die?"

"I do not want to die!"

"You came here uninvited. Either you already died, or you wanted to die. A painless death, you want that? I think I still have some poison around. Ah, am I not a merciful boss?" Heechul exclaimed with a proud laugh. "Goodness, I am so kind hearted."

"I'll do anything," Krystal begged. "Just let me live. Just let me return to my family –"

"Your family?" Heechul's ear perked up. "Ah, isn't your family already here? Now, where is that annoying ? Oi, Jessica!" Heechul roared to the vacant tent.

"I'm here. You don't need to shout," came an irritated voice.

And Krystal knew that voice.

Step.

Step.

There was someone coming down from the audience seat.

Someone who should not be there in the first place.

Gracefully taking the steps down, Jessica descended the stairs. Her fluffy white dress she wore on the day she died had been washed back to its original whiteness, her hair was messier than her usually neat up-dos, but those eyes, that voice...

Hello, sister.

"Now, as I assume this would be a heartfelt family's reunion, I will leave you two. I still need to find that poison anyway," uttered Heechul as he disappeared behind one of the doors, muttering something about his kind heart and how gracious he had been –things that Krystal could no longer hear, because her attention was fully directed to the figure now standing in front of her.

"J-Jess..." Krystal stuttered, hiccups present between her sobs. "Jessica..." she continued –not really understanding whether it was happiness that she felt to finally be able to meet her sister, or was it dread that she was facing another walking corpse.

"Oh, Krissy," Jessica cooed (and now Krystal remembered why she hated Nana's nickname on her). "Don't I get a hug? Don't you miss me?" the dead girl asked as she opened her arms.

Krystal stood still, crying instead.

Her sister, as complaining and annoying as she had been, had always been the most beautiful. More beautiful than her mother –whose beauty was praised by numerous magazines.

Her sister had clearly not been some ragged doll –sewn in numerous places. There had been no ugly stitches around her neck, around her arm, around her thighs. Her sister might have been irritating, but she would never fake herself with loveless words.

The corpse standing in front of her was not her sister.

"You're not Jessica."

Jessica chuckled. "Now you're denying my existence, sister? I am alive. Heechul's been annoying, but he gives me a new life. Aren't you supposed to be glad that I am alive?"

"No –"

"Krissy," Jessica moved closer as she extended her arms to hug her little sister.

Mortified with her cold skin and rotten flesh, Krystal pushed Jessica (solid, never dead. The undead) "Get away from me!"

Jessica stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. A part of her skirt was moved aside and Krystal was forced to see just another of the countless seams adorning her sister's pale skin (My beautiful sister, you used to be the prettiest).

A silent cry escaped Krystal's throat as she fell to the ground; hands clutching her hair; eyes glued to the nasty sight of her sister. 

"My beautiful Jessica..." Krystal sobbed. "What have they done to you?"

At this, a flicker of light glinted on Jessica's eyes. There was life, and a sense of familiarity reflected on them. And a scowl that was usually present on Jessica's face returned. With widened, hurtful eyes, and quivering voice, Jessica retorted.

"W-what have they done to me? N-no. What have you done to me, Krystal?!" she screamed.

Krystal laid there silenced, her lips parted open.

Jessica trembled as she clutched her shaking body. "I-I had a perfect life. I was h-happy. I was beautiful –"

"J-Jessica?"

But the corpse was blinded, and she screamed the upmost question that never left her soul to fully rest even after the dagger was stabbed to her heart.

"Why did you kill me, Krystal?!"

To be Continued

So,  I'd just like to point out that TheHonestOne has mentioned in her comment to the first chapter that Krystal killed Jessica indeed, hehe. Some others might also suspect the same, but TheHonestOne was the first to comment it, so there you go girl!