Show Stealer

by Hayley Barker

  I won’t be a part of this performance. If I don’t see it, it’s not here. If I don’t hear what Silvio’s saying, he can’t hurt me. If I don’t react, I’ll disappoint the audience.

  The theatre vanishes, everything vanishes. I take myself to another place. I’m in the safe house, in the bedroom, with Ben. There’s nobody there but us.

  BEN

  There’s a collective gasp from the audience as something slowly appears above Hoshi’s head.

  I see her try to shift, try to jerk her head back, but she can’t move. There’s nothing she can do as the writhing, seething mass above her is lowered down to settle right there on her head.

  She’s wearing a helmet of snakes.

  There are screens either side of Hoshi now, amplifying what’s going on. The snakes are held there by their tails and they’re all trying desperately to free themselves, whipping their black and red bodies outward and flicking out angry forked tongues.

  My heart is beating so fast that I feel like I’m going to explode.

  Hoshi doesn’t look afraid though. She isn’t screaming or hysterical. Her eyes are shut. Her face is tranquil.

  “Ladies and gentlemen. The snakes were death adders! The deadliest snakes in the world! Just one bite meant certain death!”

  One bite?

  I have to get her down from there.

  “Hoshi! I’m coming!” I shout just as the cage door opens and the wolves tumble out on to the stage between us.

  HOSHIKO

  Ben’s voice penetrates my thoughts, shaking me out of the place I’ve gone to in my head.

  “Hoshi! I’m coming!” he’s yelling, again and again.

  I open my eyes. He’s still standing on the grassy podium and he’s shouting at me. The audience are very loud, though, and I can’t see him clearly enough because something keeps obstructing my view. Something flicking and moving in front of my eyes.

  I gasp as I look into a sharp, beady eye, millimetres from my head. I shift my eyes to the left, then to the right.

  There are snakes on my head.

  BEN

  The wolves leap up at me, all trying to reach me. If I go down there now, they’ll rip me to shreds. What match am I against a whole group of wolves?

  I’m not.

  I need my pack.

  I look to the wings. The rest of the Dregs are all still there. The wolves haven’t even noticed them yet; their attention is all focused on getting to me.

  Emmanuel looks up at Hoshi, then at me. There’s fire in his eyes. I look at the others. There’s fire in all their eyes. Every single one of them is bracing themselves; every single one of them is straining forward.

  They all look towards me. I lift up my hands and signal to them. One, two, three. On the third count, they surge on to the stage. They move as one, marching towards the centre. I jump down so that I stand among them and, together, we face the wolves again.

  This time isn’t like before, though. It’s not a case of both packs mutually respecting spaces. We need to get past them, get through them. We need to get to the waterfall.

  I take a determined step forward. Everyone else does the same. Step by step, we move towards them. They face us, ready to pounce. The biggest wolf snarls, right at me. I stare back at it. I don’t blink. I snarl back. Emmanuel starts the chanting and clapping this time, and everyone joins in. We chant, we clap, we howl, we stamp our feet, we stare down the wolves.

  For a few moments, they seem uncertain what to do. Then they begin to edge backwards, hanging behind the alpha of the pack. Their hackles are no longer up; their stance is no longer poised.

  As one, we slowly move closer.

  I’m still eye to eye with the biggest wolf. Its lip curls back even further. I take a deep breath and move forward. With a gentle whimper it crouches down low, its head to the ground. The rest of the wolves do the same. Every single one of them, submissive and still as we cross right through them towards Hoshi.

  HOSHIKO

  I try to zone out again, but I can’t. One of the snakes is exploring my face; I can feel it slowly moving across. I keep my mouth shut and try desperately to fight the hysteria welling up inside me.

  Below, people are on the stage while the wolves crouch down meekly, allowing them to move towards me.

  Maybe none of this is real. Maybe I’m dead already.

  The audience are quiet now, watching with a collective tension.

  No longer in his angelic position, Silvio is off the stage. He’s up on the platform, talking to Vivian Baines. You’d think she’d be happy, seeing me like this, but her face is red with rage and she’s talking to him animatedly. It looks like she’s spitting. His face looks even paler than it did before and his head is hanging low.

  There’s another sound above me and the ceiling opens up again. A basket appears, more snakes pouring out of it. One of them is huge; it’s got to be over twelve feet long. It must be a boa constrictor. It moves like liquid, flowing towards me.

  BEN

  The snakes twist around the tiny circular space towards Hoshi, their tongues flicking in and out.

  She’s rocking backwards, trying to manoeuvre out of their way, but even if she could, there’s nowhere she can go; there are more snakes behind her and with each shuffle she just gets closer to them. Each time she moves, the snakes raise their heads at the sound and move nearer to her.

  “Hoshi!” I call up. “Hoshi, listen. Stay very still. Don’t move. Don’t make a sound! They can sense the vibrations!”

  HOSHIKO

  I know Ben’s right, but I can’t do what he’s saying. I can’t stay still. Not when they’re writhing about on my head with their tongues flicking in and out. Not when I can feel them, cool and slow, slinking up my legs. Not when the huge boa constrictor is beginning to coil itself slowly around my body. Not when it’s squeezing me like this, tighter and tighter…

  BEN

  There’s no time left. I have to free her, now. There’s a huge snake coiling around her body and the smaller ones are massed all about her.

  I grab hold of the rocks around the waterfall and try to scramble up, but it’s no use. They’re cardboard scenery, that’s all, collapsing and crumpling beneath my weight as I fall back to the ground.

  What now? There are vines tumbling down over the rocks, but they’re fake too and won’t take my weight. I look around the stage. There’s nothing I can climb on. How am I going to get to her? I run to the back of the waterfall. There’s a door there but it’s locked shut. Sean’s got the set of keys we had, and anyway, there are two armed guards standing in front of it.

  I run back to the front.

  Hoshi’s covered in snakes now. Not just her head any more, her whole body.

  I look desperately at the others.

  Emmanuel steps forward, assuming command with just two words. “Human tower.”

  He bends forward and about ten of the other performers do the same, forming a circle, so their backs make a flat platform in the centre. More performers climb up on to their backs, standing on them and bending down to form another layer.

  They move into formation quickly, the heavier ones on the bottom and the lighter ones on top. The tower of people tapers inward, getting narrower and narrower so that the top layer, made up of just two people, almost reaches Hoshi.

  Nearly, but not quite. It just needs one more person.

  Every single Dreg forms part of the tower, even Maggie. The only ones left are the tiny children, all of them either crying or staring around open-mouthed.

  I move forward. I have no idea how I’m going to do this. I feel someone tugging at me. It’s Ezekiel.

  “It’s my turn now,” he says.

  “No, that’s the top of the tower. Whoever gets up there has to free Hoshi. They have to go in with the snakes. It’s too dangerous. It has to be me.”

  “The tower will collapse. You aren’t light enough,” he says. He flashes me an apologetic little smile. “You won’t even get halfway. You�
�ve never been trained and you’re not an acrobat. It has to be me.”

  There’s a groan, an involuntary one from Ravi, who’s part of the group holding up the whole tower from the bottom, their faces red and strained.

  He’s right. The tower won’t take my weight, but I can’t allow him to put himself in such danger.

  “There isn’t time!” Ezekiel says, hurriedly. And without another word, he starts to scramble up the bodies.

  Should I stop him? I should. I look up at Hoshi. She’s glaring down at me, shaking her head agitatedly from side to side. She shouldn’t be moving. I know why she is though; I know what she’s trying to tell me.

  But she’ll die if she’s not rescued soon.

  And so I just stand back and watch. Watch with the rest of the packed auditorium, while a six-year-old boy scrambles up a human tower into the snake pit.

  HOSHIKO

  I’ve never felt so angry with anyone as I do with Ben right now. He knows I want him to stop Ezekiel; that’s why he’s looking away. He’s letting a six-year-old boy risk himself to save me.

  It’s wrong. It’s selfish. It’s awful.

  I’ll never forgive him if something happens to Ezekiel, never.

  Ezekiel springs up the pyramid of performers in no time and, within seconds, he’s up here with me, grappling with my shackles.

  There are snakes everywhere now. Their heads all swivel round at once at the sudden movement and commotion he makes.

  There’s a hiss, and then another one. The boa constrictor wrapped around my body unravels itself.

  They move towards him.

  BEN

  I can’t watch. I shouldn’t have let him climb up there. I should have stopped him.

  Right at the bottom of the rising tower of people, Emmanuel’s eyes are closed tight and he’s whispering something to himself. I think it’s a prayer.

  I look back up. The snakes are all moving from Hoshi to Ezekiel. He’s already undone the cuffs and is now working frantically to free her from the brace.

  And then he does it. Hoshi is free. She stands up and throws the crown of snakes off her head. She moves forward, but it’s too late.

  HOSHIKO

  With a cry, Ezekiel falls to the floor, his body jerking, He’s been bitten.

  I crouch down and scoop him up in my arms, shaking the snakes from him. His eyelids are drooping and his breath is rasping.

  “Help him! Someone help him!” Ben’s shouting, all the Dregs are shouting. The audience are still silent: mesmerized, I suppose, enjoying the show.

  I look down, look all around. What can I do?

  Then, a cry from the royal box.

  “Benedict, I’ve got the antidote!”

  Ben’s father is hanging over the wooden balcony. He throws something on to the stage: a glass vial, spinning as it flies through the air.

  BEN

  Instinctively, I catch the bottle as it drops.

  I look back up at my father.

  “It’s an antidote!” he shouts. “I told them you couldn’t be in the show. They gave me this to shut me up, in case something happened. It’s effective, but she needs to administer it quickly!”

  Behind him, Mother’s mouth is gaping open. Francis’s face is a mirror image of hers. Sabatini’s up there with them, looking on in shock. He doesn’t know what to do.

  I turn around and throw the antidote up to Hoshi. Still holding Ezekiel, she catches it deftly with one hand.

  I turn back to face my father.

  He’s astonished me.

  “Thank you!” I call up to him.

  There are tears in his eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” he cries, while the rest of the audience look on. “I’m sorry for everything.”

  HOSHIKO

  Ezekiel is drenched with sweat now. He jerks and then turns rigid in my arms.

  I don’t stop to question. I pull the cap off the bottle and pour the whole lot into his mouth.

  His body relaxes a little and his breathing calms. His eyes open weakly.

  As if they can sense his weakness, the snakes crawl back up my legs towards him.

  I’ve used up all the antidote. How long until one of us gets bitten again?

  I lift him up in my arms and stand on the edge of the platform, but beneath us, the tower of performers has already collapsed.

  BEN

  Hoshi stands on the edge of the waterfall, cradling Ezekiel.

  “Join arms,” I tell the others. “Make a landing mat!”

  And that’s what we all do, join both hands with other people and stand there, arms stretched out, in a long line.

  “We’ll catch him!” I call up.

  Hoshi stares down at us.

  The snakes are curling up her leg towards Ezekiel.

  She lets go and he drops, right down into the middle of us.

  We’ve got him.

  HOSHIKO

  Some of the audience start cheering.

  I look down at them. How do they feel? What are they thinking?

  Suddenly, a gunshot.

  The front doors fly open.

  Dark figures, glinting metal, moving forward.

  The Brotherhood. They’re here.

  They’ve come to get us out. They’ve come to rescue us.

  In my head, Felix’s words, from before:

  Time to make your mind up, Circus Girl. Whose side are you on? Ours, or theirs?

  All at once, I know what to do.

  BEN

  We’re all bracing ourselves to catch her, but Hoshi doesn’t jump down into our waiting arms. Instead, she unravels a snake, coiled about her torso. Raising her arm, she hurls it, right over the stage and into the audience. Immediately, there’s the sound of screaming and a mass of bodies desperately clamours for the door.

  Hoshi tosses snake after snake down into the crowd.

  Then she crouches down and springs from the tower. As she soars, she seizes hold of one of the vine tendrils hanging around her cave. Arcing right across the stage, she drops down on the other side of the glass doors; the audience side.

  She pulls at them, wrenching them open.

  The wolves turn at the sound.

  There’s nothing between them and the Pures now; the screaming, hysterical Pures.

  Their terror couldn’t be more evident.

  You shouldn’t show fear to wolves. They’ll see it as weakness. They’ll attack.

  Hoshi darts neatly out of the way as the wolves spring off the stage, snarling, into the crowded woodland glade below them.

  I look up at the trees. My mother, brother, father and Silvio Sabatini are all staring down at the pandemonium.

  “Ben,” my father shouts. I can just hear his words over the screams. “I’m sorry!”

  The Brotherhood have already swarmed up on to the stage and Hoshi is down too, next to me. She grabs my arm.

  “Run!” she yells. “Out the back!”

  “Stop!” one of the armed figures shouts, waving his gun dangerously towards all the performers. “Where’s my brother? Where’s Sean?”

  “He’s dead!” Silvio shouts from above. “Just like the rest of you will be soon!”

  “If Sean’s dead, you’re all dead.” The gunman turns to face the audience. He sweeps his gun left to right across the crowd.

  Next to me, Hoshi is screaming. “Felix. Stop! Stop!”

  “Sean’s alive!” I shout. “Your brother’s alive!”

  But he doesn’t hear me.

  Below, one figure is moving towards the front, fighting against the desperate masses trying to get out. He’s holding his hands up high in the air.

  “Felix! Felix! Stop! I’m right here.”

  I hear Hoshi screaming frantically next to me.

  “Felix! Your brother! He’s down there!”

  Felix stares at her, then down into the crowd. His eyes widen as he sees his brother below him, and the hand with the gun in drops down to his side.

  Sean looks up at his brother. He’s smili
ng at him, a smile of reassurance, a smile of love. “I’m here!” he calls again, before the smile on his face freezes, replaced by shock.

  HOSHIKO

  Right at the other side of the room, there are more gunshots: a Cirque guard, firing up on to the stage. The Brotherhood wrestle him to the ground, but not before he hits his target.

  Next to me, Felix slumps down to the ground, a pool of red blood forming around him.

  Sean vaults up on to the stage.

  “No!” he shouts. “No!”

  But it’s too late.

  For a minute, the world stops turning and I watch him cradle his dying brother in his arms.

  Poor, broken Felix.

  He was so hurt by the world, so damaged by it. He wanted to destroy all the Pures, and now they’ve destroyed him: the Cirque; Silvio; Vivian Baines; the messed-up society we live in. They’re what’s killed this angry, vulnerable boy who’s known nothing but violence and heartbreak.

  If I ever get out of here, what on earth am I going to say to Rosie?

  “Quick!” one of the Brotherhood shouts. “Get the performers out now, while it’s chaos down there! That little kid needs medical treatment!”

  Emmanuel is cradling Ezekiel in his arms like a baby.

  “Let’s go!” I shout. “Let’s get him out of here!”

  BEN

  “This way!” I call out. “There’s a fire exit in the costume room!”

  I run in, pushing the lever on the door. It springs open and we cascade out into the night.

  I look back at the theatre. There aren’t many people left in there; they’ve all run out of the front doors, chased by the wolves. I look in the royal box for my family, but they aren’t there either, and neither is Silvio.

  There are sirens sounding and guards running towards us, but some of the Brotherhood are with us and they have guns too. They group around us, shielding us, weapons pointing outward.