Circus of the Dead: Book 1

by Kimberly Loth

  “Watch me,” I say.

  The ferry bumps up against the dock, and I run for it. My vision blurs, and my head spins, but I won’t stop until I’m safely on a boat. I leap toward the ferry, and everything goes black once again.

  I come to in Benny’s arms. He’s carrying me down the path to my houseboat while birds fly all around us. The air is heavy, and his body is sticky next to mine. No one else is around.

  He glances down at me. “Told you. You almost landed in the water. You’re lucky I was around to catch you again.”

  I push against his chest with my sweaty hands. “You kept me here. Put me down.”

  “I did not. You passed out, and I caught you.”

  “Take me back to the ferry.”

  “It’s already gone.” He adjusts his grip, and I flinch as water drips down on me from the trees. I can’t believe I missed it again.

  I deflate, maybe finally accepting my fate. “This isn’t fair.”

  “Just make the best of your time here.”

  He sets me down on my porch, and pink colors the sky.

  Then he disappears into thin air.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Later that morning, my mind is clearer than it was the night before. I don’t know why I couldn’t get off the island, but I’m determined to find out how. Being stuck here has to be some sort of illusion or something. I’ve seen magic shows where they did things that felt impossible, but somehow the magicians make it seem real. The island has to be the same way. So, if everyone thinks I’m buying it all, they’ll mess up and reveal something they don’t mean to, and I’ll be home free.

  Also, I’m going to stop drinking anything Benny offers me. Obviously, it makes me hallucinate.

  I step onto my porch to watch the rain. I love the sound on my roof. I planned to go meet Samuel for breakfast, but the weather put a damper on that. Even though breakfast sounds fun, I’m not about to get soaking wet. A figure moves through the rain, and I have to squint to see who it is. I’m hoping it’s Samuel, but it’s Luke.

  “Hey,” he says and steps onto my porch. He shakes off the rain and settles in one of the chairs. We haven’t really talked much. He’s my uncle, but he’s downright weird. A little scary, too.

  “Hi.”

  “Sit. We need to talk.” He’s showered at some point, or maybe it’s just the rain. All I know is that he doesn’t smell like he usually does.

  “I’m supposed to go have breakfast with Samuel.”

  He rubs his face. “This is about Samuel. He can wait. You weren’t going anywhere in this rain, anyway.”

  I want to argue with him, but the rain comes down harder now, and he’s right. The sound is soothing and makes me want to take a nap.

  “What’s up?” I sit in the chair next to him.

  “It’s also about Benny.”

  “What about them?”

  “I saw you talking to both of them, looking a little too cozy.”

  “So?” Benny is the last person I want to hang with, but I don’t need my crazy uncle telling me who I am allowed to talk to or hang out with. Especially not Samuel.

  “They’re dangerous.”

  I’m so sick and tired of everything being dangerous. Like I’m supposed to just walk around in fear of being killed at any moment.

  “Yeah, I gathered that. Lorena says Benny is a ghost. And Juliette keeps telling me Samuel isn’t what he appears to be.” I lean forward so he knows I’m serious. “Look, if you just wanted me here to lecture me like some kind of parent, that ship sailed a long time ago.” It’s a low blow, but I can’t help myself. He wasn’t exactly friendly to me when I arrived.

  He lets out a breath. “I know. But please just give me a chance. I didn’t know how to handle things when you showed up. I had no idea you were coming.”

  “Mom said you guys talked about it before.” Why would he act like he had no idea? Mom said he wanted me here for the summer.

  “It’s been years since your mom and I spoke. She…she…was angry with me. Thought I threw my life away. And in a lot of ways, I did. But she didn’t realize I had no choice. Not really.” He clenches and unclenches his fists. Surely he and Mom talked before I arrived, or she would’ve never sent me here.

  “Why did you act so weird when I got here? I mean, you wanted me gone, and then you wanted me to stay.”

  “Of course I want you off the island, but as soon as I heard you drew the eight of swords, I knew you didn’t have a choice. Escaping is dangerous when there is no chance of getting off.”

  “That’s not true. I can still leave.”

  Everyone on this entire stinking island seems to think they are stuck here. It’s like they’re all under some sort of hypnosis or something.

  “No, you can’t, and you’re just going to hurt yourself trying. You’re trapped here like the rest of us. You need to accept that.”

  I cross my arms and stare out into the rain. “No.”

  He lets out a sigh. “Maybe I should tell you a story. It’s scary, but you need to understand what you are up against. Would you like to hear how I ended up on the island?”

  Do I? It will be another horror story for sure, but the more I know about what supposedly happens to people, the better chance I’ll have at escaping myself. They are all under some massive hallucination or something.

  “Yes, I would.”

  “I was doing graduate work at Louisiana State University.”

  “What were you studying?”

  He seems so, I don’t know, uneducated.

  “I was going to be a veterinarian. I had one more year of school left. A few buddies of mine and I went down to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.”

  “Party animal.” Picturing Luke as normal is bizarre. I stare at his lined face. Mom has never been normal, so maybe Luke isn’t either. But Mom managed to marry one of the hottest fashion designers in Hollywood, so maybe her eccentricities are simply explained away because everyone in Hollywood is sort of weird. But those eccentricities are downplayed.

  Luke went just the opposite…to a place where his oddities are celebrated. If Mom had found a crazy circus, she might’ve run away with it as well.

  He grins. “Yeah, I guess. We met Benny at a bar. He was doing card tricks. One of my buddies, Steve, was an amateur magician, and he found Benny’s tricks fascinating. We must’ve spent hours with him, buying him drink after drink, trying to get him drunk enough to tell us how the tricks were done. In hindsight, that was stupid. It wasn’t possible to get him drunk. He’s a ghost.” Luke shakes his head. “Anyway, near the end of the night, he asked if we wanted to see more. Course we did. He gave us tickets to the circus and told us where to go to catch the ferry over.”

  He pauses as if he’s remembering the night. I’m still not sure I believe the whole ghost thing, but I’ve seen stranger things since I’ve been here, so maybe. A snake slithers into the water where the dock meets land. At least it’s too far down to reach me.

  “That doesn’t seem so bad.” I don’t want to think Benny put me in that tiger cage on purpose, because that will mean he’ll try again. And I don’t want to fear for my life. The idea that dozens of murderous men run around the island sounds like a literal nightmare.

  “My story is far from over.”

  My chest tightens, and I know I’m not going to like the rest of this. The air has suddenly gone chilly. “Okay.”

  “In the end, just Steve and I went. The others wanted to take another stroll down Bourbon Street. Those tickets should’ve been my first indicator that something was off. Cirque de la Mort. We just thought it was some clever name. Once we got to the circus, we couldn’t find Benny right away. The acts were gruesome and gross like they are now, but I think they continue to get worse and worse. I didn’t like it, but Steve was desperate to find Benny. We didn’t know what kind of act he would have. As the end of the night neared, we finally found him standing outside the acrobats’ tent, chatting with Samuel and a pretty acrobat.”

 
; My heart quickens at Samuel’s name. He’s a good guy, and I don’t like him being in the middle of Luke’s horror story. I rub my fingers along the edge of the porch swing, the rough wood threatening splinters.

  “’Told you they’d come to us,’ he said. I had no idea what he meant. He took out his cards and beckoned us forward. Steve eagerly approached. Without warning, Benny had him flipped around with a razor-sharp blade at his neck. The acrobat screamed, and I looked over. Samuel had her in the same position. Benny sneered at me. ‘This is the death circus. You decide. Who lives?’”

  This is a bunch of crap, but I have to look for clues in the story. For one thing, if this happened when Luke was in college, that had to be ages ago, and Samuel couldn’t be older than nineteen or twenty. Benny either. He’s making this all up. But why?

  “I thought it was some sick joke. I didn’t even take it seriously. I picked the girl without hesitating. Any gentleman would’ve. Before I knew it, Steve was on the ground, his head separated from his body. I stood there, shocked. Benny and the acrobat were gone, and Samuel pointed to the ferry. ‘Last ferry, you better hurry.’ Of course, I didn’t. I just stared at the body, and the ferry left without me.” Luke chokes up and stops for a minute.

  I look off into the swamp. A bird dives and grabs a fish. The swamp roils for a second, and I look down at my hands. I don’t want to see what’s out there. The stench of the swamp suddenly seems more pungent.

  Could what he is saying be true? I swallow. If so, this is bad. Not only did Benny kill Luke’s friend, but he made him choose and made him watch. And Samuel helped him. That is a whole new level of sick.

  “How long have you been here?”

  “Eighteen years.”

  “That’s not possible. Samuel isn’t that old.”

  Luke is lying to me, spinning tales for who knows what reason. The same as everyone else in this effing place.

  “Surely by now you’ve accepted the island keeps people trapped and that time is different.”

  Anxiety bubbles up in my chest. This can’t be true. None of it.

  His eyes are begging me to believe him, and I grip the edge of my chair. “But why didn’t you leave on the full moon? Why are you trapped?”

  He drops his eyes. “That is a story that has nothing to do with Benny and is really none of your business.”

  I stand up and pace on the porch, staying far away from the edge. “Geez. Thanks.”

  “Sorry, that came out wrong. I just don’t like talking about that, but I wanted you to understand exactly how dangerous Benny is and to stay away from him.”

  “What about Samuel?”

  “What about him?”

  “Is he dangerous too?”

  Luke stands and hovers over me. “I hope you’ve been listening to me. He’s worse than Benny.”

  “Didn’t you just say you watched Benny slice the neck of your friend? If you wanted me to stay away from him, maybe you should’ve switched the characters in your story.”

  Luke frowns. “You don’t believe me.”

  “No.”

  “Then explain why you’re still here.” His nostrils flair, and I back away. I can’t. I’ve been trying not to think about it. I don’t say anything.

  “That’s what I thought. You want to know why everyone is trapped on the island? Ask Samuel.”

  He storms off into the rain.

  A sickening feeling settles in my stomach. Instead of Luke’s story explaining everything, he’s just left me with more questions.

  Chapter Fifteen

  I go back inside and sink down onto my couch. It’s too late to have breakfast with Samuel. Maybe he thinks I got out of here. I grab a bottle of water out of my fridge and welcome the cool liquid. The air conditioner has sucked all the humidity out of my boat, leaving it freezing like the early dawn hours.

  I have zero answers.

  But before I can even catch my breath, Juliette barges in and flings herself down onto my couch, getting water everywhere. She shakes her head, sending more droplets flying. She stares up at me with puppy dog eyes, and I remember the deal we made last night. That seems so long ago.

  Juliette wouldn’t be here if she needed a throat punch, so she must’ve talked to her vampire. I shiver, imagining Juliette getting her blood sucked out of her. Are they real? That’s actually possible. Not vampires, but a bunch of psychopaths biting each other and drinking blood. Ew.

  “What’s up?” I start my coffee maker, figuring we’ll be here for a while. Juliette could spin tales better than Maddie. It would be better than dwelling on what Luke just told me.

  She slumps farther into the seat. “It’s awful.”

  I chuckle, grateful for the distraction, and sink down next to her, avoiding the water. “Does he know your name now?”

  “Yes, but I made such a fool of myself. He’s got a ghost girlfriend. As I was fumbling with my introduction, she slithered over and snaked her arm right around him. Looked down her nose at me like I was scum.”

  I pat her arm. “Guess you’ll have to find another vampire to love.” Everyone here seems to believe it. Maybe everyone here should be locked up in a mental institution. Shame because I like Juliette. Samuel, too, for that matter.

  She shakes her head vigorously. “I just need to figure out how to break them up.”

  I dig out a blanket from my closet and hand it to her. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. I mean, aren’t the ghosts murderous?” I didn’t do a great job pretending with Luke, but I’m going to start now.

  “Yeah, but they can’t kill us.”

  This is good to know. She believes she can’t die. “Why?”

  “I don’t know. Mama just said her kids are safe. I asked, but she told me it was none of my business.”

  Looks like Amy is the next person I have to talk to about the supposed ghosts. This is like a puzzle or mystery, and when I solve it, I’ll be off this island.

  Juliette and I drink coffee, and I tell her about my night. She sighs and gasps in all the right places, but then she chatters about Victor again, and I let my mind wander.

  I pretend for a moment that it’s all true. Ghosts. Magic. Everything. The only thing that ties all of this together is that I’m stuck here because of that fortune Lorena read.

  If it’s true, and if Lorena “undoes” my fortune, then theoretically, I can leave and forget this nightmare of murdering ghosts and hot ringmasters who are apparently older than I thought. All I have to do is play along with their stories.

  Juliette finally takes a breath, and I take advantage of her momentary silence.

  “I need to go talk to Lorena. You want to come?”

  She looks at her watch and shakes her head. “I’ve got to help Mama. But come over later, okay?”

  I nod. Once she leaves, I rush over to Lorena’s boat. The rain pours down, and I keep a close eye on the area around me. I almost stop when I see the green light again, but I don’t want to get wetter than I already am.

  I make it to her place in record time and pound on the door.

  Lorena opens the slider, glass of wine in hand. “Goodness gracious, girl, what’s this all about?”

  I push past her and stand dripping on her floor. She lets out a breath.

  “Stay here.” She disappears into her bathroom and comes back with a fluffy towel. I pat myself off and rub at my hair. Fairy lights hang on her walls, and the whole ceiling sparkles.

  “Nothing makes sense.”

  She raises her eyebrows and sets another towel on the floor. “What do you mean?”

  “I can’t leave the island. What the hell is going on here?”

  “I already told you.”

  I flop onto her couch. “No, you told me freaky supernatural stories that can’t be real.”

  Lorena perches on a stiff chair across from me. “Are you saying you don’t believe me?” The rain hammers the roof, making it hard to hear her.

  “I don’t know what I believe anymore. If it is all true,
then the fact that I can’t leave has something to do with that fortune you read. So if you undo it, then I can leave.”

  She gives me a sad smile and runs her hand over her polished black hair. “Unfortunately, that’s not reversible. You agreed to have your cards read, and that is your fate.”

  “Fine. Let’s do it again and again until I draw a card that allows me to leave this place.”

  She snorts. “You don’t want to do that.”

  “Why not?” I cross my arms and dare her to convince me. I’m getting sick and tired of all of it.

  “Well, for starters. No such card exists. But even if it did, you would be bound to every card you drew. As it is, you’re already bound to two.”

  I falter. “What do you mean two?”

  “The lovers card.”

  I keep forgetting about that one because, duh, it doesn’t mean anything. Though, lovers. My stomach flutters a little. I wouldn’t mind being lovers with Samuel.

  What the hell am I thinking? He’s apparently effing old, and I’m stuck on this effing island. No way am I going to give him my first kiss.

  “And? What’s the lovers card mean?”

  She wiggles her whole body. “It means you get to have some fun while you are trapped here.”

  “Right. With a man who is probably twice my age.”

  “Who said it was Samuel? It could be someone else.”

  I snort. “Well, seeing as how Juliette’s brothers are little kids, and the next youngest man on the island is probably in his thirties, we’re going with Samuel.” I don’t mention Benny even though his face floats in my brain.

  She chuckles. “You’re probably right. But when the circus comes to town, there are plenty to choose from.”

  I ignore that statement. “Please. You have to get me off this island.”

  “I can’t. I don’t actually hold that much magic.”

  I roll my eyes. Right, magic.

  “So, who has the magic to release people?” At some point, someone will help me get out of here.

  “That would be the Obeah man. He’s the one who traps them here.”