Red Circus

by Michelle Al Bitar

  Her heart began to beat loudly and her brain felt blurry. Fury rose through her.

  Suddenly, she grabbed the woman by the collar and pulled her somewhere isolated. The empty space behind the detergents’ aisle seemed perfect. She was fuming with anger at the mention of the accident and the fact that the woman knew her name.

  “Who do you think you are to remind me of my past? How do you know me, you crazy bitch?” she spat.

  “So much anger... misplaced anger.” The woman’s voice did not falter. It was serene and calming.

  “You’re an idiot.”

  “I’m a psychic, Riley Red.”

  At first, Riley did not know what to do. She thought about punching the woman or thinking her words through. But her insides were tickling her and the next thing she knew, she burst into a fit of laughter and covered her mouth.

  “Okay, I didn’t see this coming.” She released the woman and caught her breath.

  Suddenly, the woman’s features turned serious and not so amused anymore. “My intentions were not to make you laugh, my dear.”

  “Oh, really?” She raised an eyebrow and walked catlike towards the woman when she stepped away. “Let me tell you something, whoever claims to have seen the future is a fraud. So, you can take your stalk-like attitude and leave me alone.”

  “There is a prophecy about the king.”

  Riley stopped in her tracks.

  “Well, I hope it includes him choking on his own food.”

  “We all despise him, but he is our king after all. He rules us and we live to serve him.”

  Riley’s eye twitched. “Where are you going with this?”

  “There is a prophecy that the king's son is going to replace him, and that son is leading a rebellion against his father. If he reaches the throne, he will change the world and the East will rise again.”

  “And?”

  “I am nothing but a mere messenger, Riley Red. You are the one to take action.”

  “Are you implying that I should kill the king?” Riley laughed and shook her head. “All this voodoo must have really gotten to your head.”

  The woman did not reply. She smiled disturbingly instead and left Riley alone to ponder.

  Chapter 4

  After signing off their names from the arena of their last show, Cirque Et Feu departed on its way to Noteram. It was going to be a long drive with that awful weather. By the time the tour bus took off, the rain was already clapping against the windows. The damps and dews of the night made driving the vehicle more difficult. Mathew drove slowly, careful not to let the tires drown in a gigantic puddle.

  The performers were singing their lungs out and playing guess games.

  Back in the corner of her tiny bed, Riley Red crouched and contemplated the amazing masterpiece. The drawing intrigued her greatly, but what made her question the lad she had met at the bar was the little drawing by his name. She already knew the true meaning behind that symbol: Resurrection after death. In some light, it was familiar and had a carved place in her memory. Only she did not remember where she had seen it before. Eventually, she threw it back into her never-unpacked bag and sighed.

  “Red.” Rufus poked her.

  She averted her gaze towards him and almost gasped at his appearance.

  He looked frail and about to crumble to the ground. A gush of sympathy and sorrow over the dying man washed over her. She couldn’t believe he had been perishing in front of her and she did not even notice.

  “Yeah?”

  “We're passing by Maryland. Do you want to meet your deliverer and give something to your grandparents?” he asked her lowly.

  “We’re already here?” She frowned and looked through the window.

  The sea had disappeared and they were heading towards the mountains. The green grass of Maryland covered the land along with trees and the misty wind.

  “Yeah, I figured you’d want to know.”

  “Yeah, thanks.” She avoided looking into his eyes and getting herself worked up again. The thought of losing Rufus, the closest she had ever gotten for a family, was unbearable.

  He nodded silently and left.

  Riley bit on the inside of her cheek and brought her phone. She blinked twice to unlock it and said in a clear tone “call Charbel.”

  After only two rings, he answered.

  “Ahlen,” a man spoke.

  “Hi C. Look I'm passing by Maryland. Do you mind meeting me to give my old people some money?”

  “Oh, you know I have no problem with that darling, but I'm not in the county now,” he said apologetically.

  “Oh, come on. Can’t you make it?”

  “I have someone who does the same beneficiary services. I can tell him to pick up the money.”

  “I don't trust anyone with that big of a sum.”

  “But I trust him. He's a very nice gentleman. Where do you want to meet?”

  She sighed. “If I hadn’t been desperate, I wouldn't have agreed but okay. I'll be there in”—she looked out the window then inside the bus again—“half an hour. Let him meet me by the restaurant behind my grandparents' home. What does he look like?”

  “I'll tell him to wear pink. He’ll say marhaba when he sees you. It sounds really funny with his Regitan accent.”

  “You're cruel,” she chuckled. “Tell him to hurry up.”

  “You got it.”

  Riley stepped out of the loo. As soon as she made her way to her minuscule bed, she noticed Fay Waters lying there and staring at a used canvas. It was the black and white drawing Stranger had offered her.

  As if a precious possession had been stolen, Riley rushed to the eighteen-year-old’s side and snatched it from her hands, then threw it inside her bag again. Her eyes moved to the bag at once. The tip of her precious blueprint was still safe inside.

  “Who granted you the permission to touch my belongings?” she asked the girl heatedly.

  Being the imprudent gal that she was, Fay rolled her eyes unaffected by Riley’s irritation.

  “It is a nice drawing. Who did you sleep with to get it?” Fay asked her and sucked on her cigarette.

  “I get free stuff without doing that, unlike you.” Riley smirked.

  Fay sighed. “I need to know what’s your secret.” She crossed her legs under her.

  “There is no secret. Get off my bed.” Riley shooed her off. That under-bred girl had been on her tail ever since she joined the circus. She would not be surprised if she found out one day that Fay was learning Black Art.

  Fay puffed the toxin out again then sat on Mathew’s bed opposite hers.

  “You can get any man you want, without even trying. How do you do it?” she persisted.

  “Why are you always questioning me?. Why do you want to be someone other than yourself? I've noticed how you’ve always been trying to get a haircut like mine, trying to get into Mathew's pants even though you know he is not interested,” Riley pointed out, reluctant of the possibility of hurting the girl’s feelings.

  “So, you are with Mathew. I knew there was something odd between you two.” She gritted her teeth.

  Mathew was just her friend and now that he knew her secret, he would probably be more of a brother and someone she would rely on, but she did not wish to discuss her personal life with Fay. She only adored teasing her.

  “It's a pity you only focused on that part of the conversation.”

  “I will uncover your secret, Red.”

  “Good luck with that.” She winked at her. “Now, shoo. I don’t have time for kids.”

  “You're only three years older than me. And I’ve turned eighteen this month, so practically I'm an adult,” Fay defended sheepishly.

  “You’re still here.” Riley gave her her famous cynical smile then shut it off immediately entailing Fay’s departure.

  “Why is Riley such a bitch?” Fay sat in the passenger seat.

  Mathew raised an eyebrow as he glanced at her and tried to hide his smile. Fay always had a sharp tongue, and
having heard of that sentence before, it turned more amusing than insulting.

  “I haven’t hear that today yet. I thought something was wrong,” he mused.

  “She's always rude and when she's not, she's drunk and flirting around with strangers in clubs.” She stared outside the window. The trees were coming into her visions like green shadows.

  “True, but she has her reasons,” Mathew defended.

  “Like what? Losing her parents? That was a long time ago. She has the circus as her family now.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “You know, she doesn’t appreciate it. All of this. The circus treating her so well and all the respect. I thank God every day that Rufus found me and got me out of that hellhole of a house.”

  “I did not know that,” he admitted.

  “Yeah…” She sighed and turned to look at the window again. “My parents hated that I was diverting from their plan. They wanted me to be a lawyer and take after my father’s company.”

  “And I’m guessing you refused?”

  “I hated science and law! I wanted to be a performer. I raised a boa since it was small, and with time I started to dance with it.”

  “Boas dance? I thought th—”

  “Mine did. I don't know why, but it just did. And I liked that. You wouldn’t believe it.” She laughed. “I used to sneak out of the house and go practice my dance moves at school, then come back, lock myself in my room, and take the boa out of its glass cage.” She stared at the seemingly endless road as if reminiscing her younger years.

  “That's why they call you the Dancing Reptile.”

  “Yep.”

  “Aren’t your folks lookin’ for you?”

  “They gave up after I turned eighteen. I don't want to be an Elite, and they can suck on it.”

  “Fay, your parents want the best for you. If Rufus hadn’t found you, it would've been hard to land a job as a dancer.”

  “Oh, but I did find a job, a home.”

  He nodded. “True.”

  “What about you?” she asked him all of a sudden and adjusted her position so she was facing him.

  “What about me?” he repeated after her a little bit confused.

  “Why did you come to the circus?”

  Mathew clenched his jaw abruptly irritated.

  “Did someone die?” Fay immediately asked him, as if she saw through his eyes.

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  They both retained the once dominant silence for a short period of time, before Fay planted the conversation again.

  “You would go out with a girl younger than you within... three years maybe?” Her posture was steady, but her voice exposed how desperate she was for Mathew’s attention.

  “We already talked about this, Fay,” he said sternly.

  “You’re not interested; I know. But a hook up wouldn’t hurt anybody.”

  “I’m not going out with you.” He directed his words at her, like a teacher to a student. “You should meet a guy your age and you can fall in love and all that shit.”

  “You’re talking as if there is a thirty years of age difference between you and me! Why do you have to complicate things?!”

  “Enough!” His voice rose to an authoritative tone.

  Fay grunted and looked out the window again. That was humiliating. What did she expect of someone who had his heart belonging to someone else?

  “Your loss,” she muttered.

  Through the thirty-minute drive, Riley surrendered to slumber. At the feeling of someone shaking her hand gently, she fluttered her eyes open.

  “We're here. Rufus said you needed to do something before we continued to Civilus,” murmured Mathew.

  She swallowed, rubbed her eyes, and nodded. Quickly, she got up, washed her face, and threw the nearest jacket on.

  “It’ll take a minute,” she informed Mathew and jumped off the bus.

  She walked in the coldness of the autumn breeze. Bracing herself, she clicked her heels towards the backyard of the house next door. When she spotted her grandparents’ humble farm house, a genuine smile painted her frozen lips. The happy look on their faces when they received the money was what kept her going. She would have another home when everything was over.

  Five minutes later, she distinguished from afar a man in a pink chemise, but she couldn’t discern his features clearly in that blinding darkness.

  When he approached, she heard him utter, “Marhaba!”

  The more he approached, the less excited she was.

  When he stepped close enough to face her, his and her smile disappeared.

  She squinted and believed she was out of her mind. It could not be that much of a coincidence to reunite with the lad from the bar. Even though the night was blindingly dim and half the streetlights were broken, she could still discern his cerulean blue eyes.

  She was surprised, definitely, but not alarmed.

  “I didn’t know you were into helping people,” said Riley.

  “What gave you that impression?” he answered her, even though he was as astounded.

  “I don’t know.” She bit on the inside of her cheek. “I just assumed.”

  “Then you shall be surprised.” His face relaxed into a smile.

  She had been despatched to the heart of Civilus in order to finish a business. There was nothing on earth that could distract her, not even the friendliest of faces.

  “Look,” she began sternly, “you take this sum. I want to watch you deliver it into their hands. If you lose so much as a one dollar bill, or even consider stealing, this would be the last time you ever see the moon.”

  She placed the heavy white and sealed envelope in his hands.

  The man blinked several times, surprised at her hostility.

  “For some unknown reason, I feel like the threat is real.”

  She smirked mischievously. It did not matter how handsome he was, or the good impression he had already marked in her memory, she was not going to give him her trust too effortlessly. He looked like a gentleman and a nice lad, but he was merely a stranger and strangers were not to be trusted.

  Seeing she did not blink or utter a single word, Stranger sighed and nodded. He did not speak either. Carefully, he strode towards her grandparents’ lodging. She was obviously extremely aware of whom she placed her trust in, and he did not need a distraction at that crucial time-being either.

  When he was a few yards away from her, she approached him a little, but stopped at a safe distance.

  “What’s you name?”

  “Gabriel.” He kept walking

  “What does the phoenix mean?”

  Gabriel didn’t turn around, but bent his head then lifted it. He looked over at her above his shoulder with a stern face on.

  “It’s just a drawing.”

  Riley fixed herself in place and attentively watched. As she lurked in the darkness, Gabriel’s body minimized in the distance.

  For some reason, I don’t believe a word you say, she thought to herself.

  The figure of her grandfather opened the front door and took the envelope she had already given Gabriel.

  She could see the old man’s lips muttering something like ‘bless that’—incomprehensible word— ‘soul!’. Hearing him bless her, even anonymously, she rejoiced with a kind of elation she rarely felt. It was the happiness of knowing that she was not alone.

  When all of this ends, I will come live with you. The world will be a better place, I promise, she whispered in her head, sending that silent message to her grandfather.

  After a while, Gabriel came back empty-handed.

  “Money delivered,” he spoke in a tone rather professional than friendly. “You can ask Charbel to check again.”

  “No offense, I just don't trust anyone. It’s nothing personal,” she replied. A little twinge in her heart told her she was being discourteous and a little off limit with the chap, but she shut it out and focused on Gabriel the delivery man, not the attractive man she ha
d met at the bar.

  “I’m not a stranger,” he replied, his lips turning into a thin line.

  “We only met once,” she reminded him challengingly. She was starting to get amused by the conversation, because Gabriel did not seem to want to give up.

  “And now it is the second time. Do you want to make it a thrice?” He squinted and a ghost of a smile appeared on his lips.

  “If that is your way of asking me out, you're a bit out of practice.”

  “How do you always manage to shut me down so smoothly?” He folded his arms wondering.

  “I live for that.” She pursed her lips. “Now, I have other plans to be anxious about.”

  She did not bid him farewell. On the contrary, she turned around and started strolling towards the bus.

  “What?! No thank you?!” he called after her.

  “When you save the world, I’ll thank you!” she shouted back smiling and kept on walking.

  Even though she refused to give Gabriel a way to contact her, she did not regret it. Besides, she felt like that would not be the last time she would see him.

  Chapter 5

  The sky was polished with dark clouds of dismay and fright. The base where the West forces settled was a secure haven to protect the soldiers against the assaults of the Amazonians. The cold sands of the desert crept into the hardly visible holes in Mathew’s black boots. There was no sound except that of the eerie sharp-cold wind. The enemy had been detected in secluded areas in the north, and they were not making any move.

  Mathew had just finished his shift in guarding his mates’ tents and was heading towards the bare base, a white stained tent. Inside, stood the most amazing woman his eyes had ever set on. She had the face of an angel and the heart of a fighter. She burned with passion and bathed in beauty. The first time he was injured during his initial battle, she was the nurse who healed his wounds.

  At that particular moment, when he watched her set her tools alphabetically on the miniature stools, he smiled. He was hesitant about that abrupt decision he had made but would occasionally pat himself on the back for the wisest of all decisions.