Red Circus

by Michelle Al Bitar

  “Don’t speak of matters that do not concern you, Red.”

  “They do concern each easterner. It is easier letting them live in the dark, isn’t it? It is easier to plot everything behind the walls of this rotten kingdom so no one could oppose you.”

  “Get out,” Jonathan said in a calm voice.

  “I have been blinded by my love for you enough to ignore everything you have done so far. Not anymore… my king.”

  “I said get out!” His voice echoed in the large room.

  For the first time in her life, Riley turned around without arguing. She bowed her head to the king, and silently left the chamber, leaving Jonathan to drown with his own demons.

  Once the doors closed behind her, the royal guards who were shielding the king’s chamber formed a circle around her. Without resistance, Riley let them arrest her and lead her to the underground dungeons.

  Chapter 35

  Henry entered Charlotte’s room, his eyebrows tied into a knot.

  “She had not moved since her husband died. She wouldn’t talk to anyone but Lord Walter,” he informed the doctor. As her personal guard, it was his duty to report any strange behaviour on their assigned member’s part.

  “Charlotte… this is Doctor Adrian. Can you hear me?” Doctor Adrian approached her and slid his hand into hers to shake it. Gently, he wrapped his fingers around her hand and pressed his thumb against her knuckle.

  Charlotte’s mouth twisted. She looked at the doctor nodding. Lazily moving her eyes from the doctor to the aghast Henry then at the door, a voice whispered in her mind.

  It’s time.

  A sea of phoenixes spread seven miles away from the castle. The kingdom looked small and the grounds harder to cross. It had been years since they had been planning for this moment. The soldiers were ready to fight to the death just for their nation to rise, just to bring down that rotten system.

  Gabriel turned around and looked into each of their eyes.

  “Reynolds, I know you’ve said goodbye to your family to fight for this cause. Your daughter will live in a beautiful world and a fair country. I promise you that.”

  The old man’s blue eyes watered but twitched in an effort to keep the tear inside.

  “And you Sarah…” Gabriel smiled painfully. “You’ve had a difficult life fighting cancer. Choosing to fight for your country instead of changing alliances and moving to the West is the bravest deed I’ve ever witnessed.”

  The woman with the charcoal black hair smiled widely. “My life has a purpose now, my king. At least if I die, I know my death will mean something.”

  “You don’t have to die,” Gabriel told her. “But if any of us does, I can assure you that your name will rest in poetry and will be carved on those walls for eternity. The new kingdom will bring justice to your families and all future generations.”

  “We want to see Jonathan burn on the stake,” one of the phoenixes shouted.

  Gabriel looked down feeling the burn in his throat rise back again.

  Keith noticed his anguish.

  “All those responsible for the woes of this nation will pay.”

  The phoenixes cheered loudly.

  Gabriel turned around, the lights of the castle almost blinding him.

  Keith looked at Mathew who was watching everything and nudged him.

  “Brothers in war?” he asked him with a wink.

  “Brothers in war,” Mathew repeated.

  The two great sides of the Symposium doors clicked open. The chatters of Assembly members like a beehive came to an abrupt stop. Their heads snapped towards the intruder. Charlotte grinned. She frowned then grinned then frowned in a matter of seconds as if she were losing her mind. The black rings under her eyes added to their suspicions of her questionable state of mind.

  “How did you—” Charles Arnold rose from his seat, the vein in his forehead almost exploding.

  “Breechers.” She covered her mouth giggling.

  “What are you talking about?” Arnold was about to flip the table upside down. “Get out. This is a private meeting.”

  “I will get out whenever I want to.”

  “I will call the guards and I promise you will not live to see the next sunrise.” He started walking towards her.

  “I will live enough to see you bleed from your eyes you son of a bitch.” She gritted her teeth.

  “Wh—” He turned to General Juan Portland. “ALERT.”

  Charles screamed, but the emergency call for backup was not activated.

  “You think you can still control me, Arnold.” Charlotte walked carefully closer to her nemesis. Flashes of her husband being dragged away from her came before her eyes as they twitched. She took a deep breath and spat at his shoes. Her legs were shaking as she waited and waited…

  “You whore!” Arnold lifted his hand to strike her. He was left dumbfounded.

  In a matter seconds, the glass windows of the Symposium broke into pieces. Twenty Spiders jumped into the large room. All the members’ heads turned with panic and scare. A mini war zone was taking place inside the soundproof undetected chamber.

  Charlotte’s hand lifted in a straight line. Her eyes were watery and her vision was hazy. Her throat was dry. With a cry of pain she pulled the trigger. The bullet flew like a reaper and sliced the back of Charles Arnold’s head.

  He fell to the ground motionless.

  Louise Summers and Dan Wyatt crawled then sprinted to their feet to catch the assassin. Charlotte was able to run out of the doors. Within the small crack, she saw them jumping after her like zombies, but she managed to shut the door behind her. Her legs then failed her and she fell to the ground. Screams and cries for help died with the barrier between her and the massacre.

  “You watched everyone die including yourself, but you weren’t able to do shit about it just like I couldn’t save the love of my life. Reap what you sow, Arnold,” she murmured under her ragged breaths.

  Two knocks followed by one more sounded behind her.

  When she opened the door, the room was full of multi-coloured powder and corpses. The blood turned thick with the chemicals, and it gave an awful stench.

  One of the Spiders walked out immediately and shut the door behind himself.

  “You should not smell that,” he said behind his mask. “They were resisting and fighting. We had to spray them.”

  “What is this?” she asked frowning.

  “It’s for paralysis. Killing them becomes easier.”

  Charlotte nodded. “Let’s get to work.”

  The damp prison was not the same as the one she was imprisoned in before. She was locked with the killers, rapists, thieves, and all kinds of vicious outlaws. Riley knew they were not all guilty. Each background was checked. The innocent who were rotting in prison to take the blame for crimes they did not commit were not staying there for long.

  The one behind the bars in front of her buried his head in his hands, legs crossed. Riley watched him play with his hair. He tore a hair every five minutes and laid it next to him on the ground. He named one of the royals he hated with each hair. When he was done counting, he took two rocks he got from God knows where, created a small flame and burned them.

  He had done that about five times. Riley’s eyes were fixed on him.

  “Three, two, one…” she whispered.

  The cell doors of the wrongly accused clicked open, including Riley’s. She pressed on the small button at the back of her new ring, emitting a green light from it.

  “Now!” she screamed.

  The prisoners burst from their dungeons, jumping on the guards and slaughtering those who tried to stop them, with their own weapons. Blood tainted the walls of the prison. Heads were flying around.

  Riley walked outside her cell and stepped over a corpse. Her body faded among the raging criminals until it was impossible for anyone to see her escape.

  “What is happening?” one of the royal guards spoke to his friend. They were standing in front of the main entra
nce gate of the castle.

  “What?”

  “Don’t you hear something weird? It’s like it’s coming from the underground.”

  “I don’t hear anything,” the other one said. “You’ve been bitching about your nightmares for weeks, Hank. And now you’re hearing voices?”

  “Don’t make no jokes about this. I’m damn serious, listen.”

  “Hush, you two. Be quiet or Laurence will complain about us again,” the one, two guards away, whispered to them.

  A few buzzing sounds shut them all up.

  “What is th—”

  The men in-between the original guards lifted their blue iron swords and gored the ones next to them. With a click at the bottom of the weapon, the iron blade released three more blades inside the men’s guts, killing every chance of survival.

  No voice came from the gate. A swarm of screeches rose inside the main hall. The prisoners were breeching the royals’ rooms and murdering every living person that came their way. They were shouting the name of the queen loudly with each life they took. The Whisperers finally took off their royal guards’ costume and remained in a black suit where the orange phoenix was painted on their backs.

  Chaos rose like a goddess in revolution amidst the demons of the country.

  The Anons broke into the castle through secret doors that were meant for the king to escape. One of them entered the bedchamber of one of the important princes of the West. The room smelled like sweat. Prince Ford was covering one of his whores with his naked body and humping her unstoppably. At the sound of the door bursting open, he turned around. Before he could make a sound, the Anon’s dagger sliced Ford’s neck in two. The crying whore was shouting thank yous to the person in black. He pulled her harshly off the bed and pushed her outside the room naked.

  “Run,” he said in a low voice.

  Four Anons entered the main laboratory of the castle. There were three dimensional representations of each country of the East. That was where the kingdom planned its wars. Screams rose as the infection of war crept into their flesh leaving them helpless, and begging for mercy did them no good.

  They killed them all.

  Closing her eyes and colliding against the wall, Riley cursed under her breaths. She had not witnessed this amount of violence in her life except when she saw her parents getting slaughtered by the Serpents. No one saw her as she moved and crept between the Fightlings and the royal guards. She had to find the king, or else, the battle would all go to waste.

  All the screens and electronic devices of Noteram were invaded by the Breechers. The symbol of the flying Phoenix came to life and its anthem started playing. People from their houses, getting the notice from the secret mails, collected their hidden guns and ran in the streets murdering every officer that held the name of the king.

  “Take the gun!” Keith screamed at the top of his lungs for Lord Walter to switch weapons.

  “You need it more than I do,” Lord Walter shouted back and blew up the head of a lion-stamped soldier.

  Keith decapitated one sturdy royal who tried to shoot a phoenix from the back.

  “There’s so many of them! Fuck your king!” Keith shouted again and kicked one in the face, breaking his crooked nose. Suddenly pain struck him when another one punched him on his cheek.

  “Son of a—” He took his gun from the back of his belt, shot at the man’s head, and kept kicking him until he made sure he was dead.

  “Keith!” Lord Walter’s voice was feeble but heard. Keith turned around and saw him on the ground near the ledge, stripped from his weapons.

  His wrinkled eyes closed in pain as several kicks broke his bones. “Walter!” Keith ran towards him.

  A few shots took the life out of the attackers, but they were getting numerous.

  A man in a prison suit suddenly stepped onto the roof looking around.

  “MAY THE KING DIE AND MAY ALL HIS MEN PERISH IN THIS DEN OF DEVILS!” he screamed at the top of his lungs.

  Keith’s eyes widened at the grenade in the man’s hand.

  “No!” Keith screamed.

  “Jump!” Lord Walter held Keith’s leg. He was unable to move. Keith looked down at him. His bones were broken, and his ears were bleeding.

  “No…” Keith whispered.

  “GO FUCK YOURSELF JONATHAN!” the prisoner screamed. As his finger was working against the red button of the grenade, Lord Walter screamed again.

  “JUMP!”

  Walter moved Keith’s leg until the latter fell and the fall seemed endless. Water of the second-floor pool wrapped his body and cut him like knives. Keith swam away from the falling stones of the lion faces carved on the roof of the fourth tower.

  He pushed himself to the surface with aching legs and shoulders and inhaled deeply. The adrenaline was pumping through his veins, but his head was about to bust open, and tears were uncontrollably falling from his eyes.

  “Walter…” he whispered as he watched the floor above him burst into flames, his body burning with it.

  The sound of the war faded with the ringing in his ear. For a few minutes, Keith stood still in the waters.

  Gabriel was surrounded by four royal guards who murdered the Fightlings protecting him in the undergrounds. He punched as much as he could. He kicked with a force he did not know he had. He remembered his mother with every strike against the guards around him, imagining them as her killers. But he was outnumbered. He could not fight forever. He was getting weaker with the thuds on his face and ribs. One of his shoulders was broken and he could not feel anything except the inner fear of losing this war.

  When the bodies of his attackers started falling down and dead one by one, he thought he was losing his mind. Out of nowhere and without making a move, he was defeating them until there was no one alive except for him.

  Gabriel frowned and looked around.

  “Riley?” he finally whispered.

  “Boo!” she said against his ear. Gabriel turned around and was finally able to perceive her.

  “How did I not see you?!” He laughed with relief.

  “First, you’re welcome. Second, you’re too weak to resist my illusions.” She looked down at the bodies with disgust and stepped over them.

  “Did you hear about Jonathan?” he asked her.

  “No. I’ve been looking for him. Did you find him?”

  “I got a brief that the Breechers could see several Jonathans running around the castle. He’s finally mastering his powers, Riley.”

  “Shit.” She frowned. “And we don’t know which one is real.”

  “No… We need to split up and find him.”

  “I’ve been studying the underground for a while now. Let me cover this area and I’ll inform you if I see anything.”

  “Wait.” Gabriel walked closer to her. “Are you sure you’ll be fine alone?”

  “Aren’t you the bruised one?”

  “Yeah, but I’m stronger than you, Riley. If the guards attack you, they’ll smother you. And what if they r—”

  “Now, I am officially offended. Who’s just saved your ass? I mean… Who’s just done their duty towards their true king to preserve his life, your majesty?” She bowed down.

  Gabriel laughed and touched her by the chin to lift her head up.

  “Are you sure about this?”

  “I am more than ready.”

  The underground was darker with the electricity cut off from some of the halls. Riley walked forward in her small flats. Blisters started hurting her feet and her bare shoulders were getting colder. Whenever she heard a sound, she would turn her invisibility back on. It was taking so much of her energy that she was barely able to make it last longer. Eventually, she walked fully exposed but in silence, saving her powers for the right moment.

  Finally, she heard the footsteps of someone running above her. Riley immediately took the ladder next to her and climbed to the upper floor to catch whomever was on the run. Her heart fell and the fine hair on the back of her neck rose. She thought
she would find Jonathan and a part of her wished it was him.

  Charles Arnold’s icy blue eyes widened at her sight. She tried to create the illusion that she was disappearing, but nothing worked. It was as if the fire she felt whenever she activated her powers froze.

  “I tried my powers on you, Red. They did not work,” he told her with a crooked smile.

  “You are supposed to be dead.”

  Charles laughed loudly. “Dead? Did you honestly think that was really me in the Assembly? I sensed danger long before you attacked, sweetheart. And I took my precautions.”

  “How could you create an illusion when you’re miles away?”

  “Just like you can when your customers fuck your other self.” Arnold approached her. “I thought you knew how tricksters work.”

  “You are a dead man.”

  “I believe it’s the other way around.” Charles lifted his gun to shoot her, but his head burst into pieces of bloody flesh.

  Keith dropped his laser gun to the floor and looked at Riley. He was wet and his eyes were redder than her hair.

  “Keith… what happened?” she breathed out about to fall down.

  “Don’t tell Charlotte she didn’t kill Marcus’s murderer. Let her believe she did it,” he told her in a raspy shaken voice, walked past her, and disappeared behind the walls of the Underground.

  Mathew was throwing the guard to his left when another one attacked him. His right hand felt feeble after applying too much pressure on it. His death was one second away as the guard was pressing on the trigger, but that man fell on top of Mathew instead. Fay stood behind the guard with her boa around her shoulders.

  “Fay—” he started but was stopped by a cough of blood.

  “Just shut up for once.” She was shaking with fear.

  Keith stepped outside the Underground and dashed between the towers, looking around. He couldn’t leave her behind. He couldn’t lose someone else tonight.

  “Keith!” Mathew called him faintly.

  Keith turned around to see Mathew’s hands drowned in blood. His stomach made a strange sound.

  “Who are you looking for?”

  “Where’s Océane?” Keith asked him.

  “Charlotte, Océane, and the twins are boarding the plane to the Amazon. They are safe.” Mathew tapped him on the shoulder.