"Agh! Alright, alright! Stop poking me…what day is it?"
"Never mind all that geek! Get going you know how the Ring Master doesn't like being kept waiting! Phew! You smell even more disgusting than usual! I guess that's one way to keep Ajax from killing you, he'd probably vomit his guts out before he could lay a hand on you…then you could lick it up for the rubes! Ha ha! Move it Geek!"

Charley prods you with a sharp stick periodically on your way to the Ring Master's trailer until you arrive at which point, Atlas stops the both of you.

"Stop! What business do the both of you have here?"
"Goddamnit you fuckin' one eyed freak! We go through this all the fucking time and its getting REALLY old! You just saw me come out of the Ring Master's trailer earlier today when he sent me to get the Geek, you know damn well what we're both doing here!"

Ignoring Charley's comments Atlas looks down at you and points.

"You may enter, but the Ring Master doesn't need to see you again, so you may not."
"Yeah, whatever enjoy the smell." Charley says and mumbles something to himself while leaving the area.

You barely make it up the little steps to the trailer, but you do. You're finally starting to gather your wits together; your head still hurts though and you've just realize you haven't had a drink yet. What a terrible feeling. You open the door.

"Close the door, you're letting all the sunlight in." the Ring Master orders from behind his desk. She's siting in his chair, but has her back turned to you.
"Uh you wanted to see me?"
"Of course…(Sniff sniff) you really haven't been taking care of yourself. If anything you've become even more repulsive than when I first took you in. Remember that day?"
"Um, yeah I think…no, no I don't. I mean kind of… I forget things."
"I'm not surprised; you're constantly drinking that swill Charley makes. I am surprised you haven't gone blind yet though. Oh well what you insist on doing to yourself is of little concern to me, all I require is your obedience. You are thankful for all I have provided for you aren't you?"
"Oh yeah. Sure I am."
"You seem to be one of the few nowadays then. There are some though that are ungrateful for things I've done for them, they plan to betray me and everything this carnival stands for. They plan to change the natural order of things. Can you imagine what might happen to this carnival if I wasn't here? What might happen to you?"

You attempt to think about this scenario, but instead you just stand there because you can't really form anything in your mind because it hurts really bad, you've been sober too damn long, and it's about to get even longer as the Ring Master seems intent on bombarding you with talk as he finally swivels around in her chair. That pale androgynous face of the Ring Master's is displaying a look of seriousness as usual.

"Nothing good I can assure you. Which is why I'm putting YOU in charge of this task."
"Huh? What task?"
"Why ensuring the survival of the carnival of course."
"What!? Me?! Why? How!? I'm not qualified! Can't you or Charley do it?"
"I fear I've done all I've can. I mean I've provided all of THIS to everyone here. I've given them purpose and a life. If that isn't enough for them, then my words aren't going to make a difference at this point. And as for Charley, well…I'm sure even in your usual state of drunkenness you're aware that he has his own plans for this carnival."
"I guess…but agh, it's too early for all this…why me? I mean what am I supposed to do? I'm just the Geek."
"Yes, and that's exactly why I'm choosing you. You have no motive, you have no agenda, you have no friends, and as such you would probably be the best candidate to convince others to resist change and keep the status quo."
"You have to be joking! Nobody's going to listen to me! I'm the fucking Geek!"
"You might be surprised, you have far more potential than you give yourself credit for…perhaps you'll even change some perspectives, or maybe not. The choice is yours, because the fate of THIS carnival is resting solely on your actions, you can no longer afford to hide from the world in a bottle and a cage if you wish to keep your current life. It is time for you to take some responsibility, its time to repay the debt you owe me. You have until show time."
"But…"
"Now leave me, I wish to be alone."

The Ring Master swivels his chair back to its original position. You head back outside, where upon Atlas blocks it again with his massive body.

Never before in your life have you been put in this kind of position of responsibility, (Not that you can remember anyway) but you're going to have to do something, the question is what exactly?

You do something else

This mission that's been given to you by the Ring Master has gotten you all shook up. You don't want all this pressure, yet you're too scared to leave. This is the only place that accepts you somewhat.

You're too distracted to even get a drink! You'd rather not have to deal with Charley or especially Ajax right now either. Sometimes you just wish you didn't have to live an utterly pathetic existence.

While you're attempting to find some place dark to crawl into and hide, you literally bump into Remarkable Randal.

"Oof! Watch it you smelly, ugly, Geek! Honestly it's bad enough this Carnival has Freaks and criminal Midgets, but honestly having YOU here defies all logic. If I ran this Carnival things would be different! What are you doing out of your cell anyway? Doesn't the Ring Master usually keep you locked up until show time?"
"Oh, um he wanted to talk to me about something."
"She did? What about?"
"Oh about my act, and uh…doing…um…something."

Randal's normal distain for you changes to one of interest. He studies you for a moment before speaking.

"So the Ring Master has entrusted YOU to save this place? Hah! She MUST be desperate!"
"Huh? What? How did you know?"
"Madam Orbec has been teaching me how to contact the spirit world and read into people's souls. And yours is an easy read indeed, such as it is…perhaps our meeting has its purpose however. After reading your soul I can see something within you that may be worth saving. I never thought it possible, but I think I may be able to help you and your situation Geek."
"I don't understand."
"Yes you do. Maybe you try to block it out of your mind with that swill you drink from Charley, but deep down you hate what you are and your retched life. And you should. You're a sorry excuse for a human being, in fact you aren't really even human anymore, you're sub-human. However, you have a chance to regain your humanity back, and even become a useful member of this Carnival again. And I'll help you, if you help me."
"How am I supposed to help you?"
"A simple task really. All I want you to do is go get Madam Orbec's black book. She keeps it by her bed. You'll know it when you see it."
"What?! You want me to steal from her? I thought she was supposed to be your mentor or something!"
"Shhhhh! Keep it down Geek! Look. Madam Orbec IS my mentor and I'll always be grateful for what she's taught me. I've always believed in magic, but without her teachings, I wouldn't be a magician, I'd only be an illusionist."
"There's a difference?" you interrupt.
"Oh yes, Geek. Oh yes. Anyway, you're not stealing the book, I just need to borrow it for awhile because its time for me to learn more. I think Madam Orbec is afraid I'm not yet prepared to learn the secrets that lie inside her black book. But I know I am, and its time for me to prove it to her. She'll be so proud when she sees what I'll be able to do."
"So what're you going to do with it?"
"I'm going to use its powers to help me take over the Carnival of course."
"What?! I'm not helping you do that! I'm supposed to be helping the Ring Master anyway!"
"Why? Seriously, what has the Ring Master really done for you? Given you a job? The Ring Master is exploiting you for his own personal gain. She cares nothing for you. He just saw a useless dreg of society and turned you into something that could somehow make money for her. Assuming you helped the Ring Master and were even successful, think about it, you'd just go back to your living your miserable life. Is mere existence just enough for you? Isn't it time you wanted MORE out of life?"

You're quiet. You don't think anyone's even asked you that question, even before you became a geek, and you're really surprised to hear it coming from Randal. Someone who has nothing, but distaste for you.

"I dunno, I think I'm pretty bad off. I don't think there's anything I can do to improve myself at this point."
"Nonsense, there's always a way and your first step is by helping me. Look. Maybe you are what you are and I don't like it, but I do see that underneath it all you ARE a Normal. You should be on my side anyway; I can help you be something more than a geek. With magic anything is possible! Retrieve that book for me and I'll turn this Carnival into something much more than what it is and I'll turn you into something much more than what you could've thought possible."

Something about Randal makes you believe him. You can understand why people do tend to want to follow him. Maybe things would be better if he took over. He certainly seems more caring than the Ring Master and a hell of a lot better in general than Charley.

"Okay, I'll help you, but I dunno how I'm gonna ste…I mean borrow the book."
"Well I leave that up to you, but make sure you get the book to me before show time and don't come back to me until then."

Randal leaves you to it, but you're still not sure how you're going to go about this. If Randal can read your intentions then Madam Orbec will certainly be able to read yours. It occurs to you, that you might need some help from the less "moral" people here. And you can't ask Charley to help you for several reasons.

You could go to Pervus for help. If murder and sexual deviancy is no problem for him then surely a little theft won't be either. And he's usually up for doing anything remotely illegal.

You could also go see Salina. Besides prostitution she's known to be good at theft as well, though her helping you is a real long shot.

You go see Pervus

You decide Pervus would be a better choice. Probably not the safest, but he's more likely to help you.

You're hesitant to go anywhere near the clown tent to get him though, however for once luck is with you and you see him around the animals talking to a horse.

"Hmmm, yeah. You're a pretty filly. Yes you are. Let me tell you what I'm gonna do…(sniff) you smell different than usual." Pervus then turns around. "Oh it's you Geek. What the fuck do you want? Can't you see I'm with a lady?"
"Hey um, Pervus I need your help with something."
"Oh do ya now?"
"I need to borrow a black book from Madam Orbec, and I need you to distract her."
"Hmm, normally I wouldn't help you do shit, but I'm kinda in the mood for some OLD pussy right now. Yeah I'll distract her, I know exactly how to distract her." Pervus say while stoking his crotch.
"Um hold on, you're not gonna rape and kill her are ya?"
"I won't kill her…oh fine I won't rape her either. Probably won't be necessary anyway, I've always had a way with the ladies…sorry old girl, but I'll have to be fucking you some other time." Pervus remarks and pats the horse on the head before following you.

You both approach Madam Orbec's tent which has an air of creepiness about it. Pervus has a look of crazed lust in his eyes. He's starting to breathe heavily and doing a lot of slurping.

"Oh fuck yeah, this is gonna be soooooooo good."

He said he wasn't going to do anything excessive, but now you're not so sure…

You continue with the plan

All that really concerns you is getting that book, because if you don't get Randal's help, the Ring Master is certainly going to kill you when she finds out you've turned traitor.

Pervus enters the tent and you sneak around back and begin trying to lift up a small portion of it to crawl in.

You hear a lot of noise and some protesting, while you're doing this, when you finally get in, Pervus is having his way with Madam Orbec, completely oblivious to you and Madam Orbec isn't making a sound…you don't like the looks of this.

You turn to your left and see you're right by her bed, next to that is her dresser which has the book on it. You grab it and crawl back out as quickly as you can. You run and don't look back.

When you get back to Randal he wonder's why the hell you're so worked up.

"(Pant) I got the book."
"Phew! Well don't breathe all over me, just gimme the thing! Excellent. I'll study what I can tonight before show time and then afterwards we'll see who the new master is! And what's wrong with you Geek? Why are breathing so heavy and looking around…you didn't let Madam Orbec see you borrow this did you?!"
"No, not at all. I'm just winded from trying to get out there without her seeing me!"
"Well you better make yourself scarce until showtime anyway. I'm sure you wouldn't want to run into the Ring Master before hand. Relax, I will keep my end of the bargain. Now go."

You leave and linger around the edges of the Carnival, staying out of sight until show time. What happened back at Madam Orbec's tent still has you unnerved a bit. You know it's only a matter a time before everyone finds out, before Randal finds out. She was basically like a mother figure to him. You didn't think Pervus would kill her, unless he didn't mean to and more likely he was just so overwhelmed with lust that he didn't care at that point.

In fact you're a little worried about being here by yourself with no one around. You half think Pervus is going to leap out somewhere and kill you too to shut you up. It would be exactly like him to do something like that. In fact now you think its weird to you that he HASN'T shown up to kill you.

You've got a lot of potential enemies right now, Pervus, the Ring Master, not to mention plain old Ajax who always wants to kill you. Randal is pretty much your only hope for survival now.

Eventually you wander back to the Carnival around show time. Everything goes as normal with a few exceptions. The Ring Master looks pre-occupied, Randal's act seems to be a lot more spectacular than usual, the clowns nowhere to be seen and all throughout the show you have a dreaded feeling that something really bad is going to happen.

And you just may be right.

You because the real show occurs afterwards

A dark moonlit night.

Charley confronts the Ring Master with his army of midgets behind him as well as Ajax. The Ring Master has Atlas, and looks around for his usual allies, the Freaks, and to the surprise of everyone Randal appears with most of the Normals behind him. You attempt to hide directly behind Randal figuring that will be the safest place.

"YOU? You're attempting to take over? You must be joking! Go take your fairy dust and
prance off somewhere, this is between me and the she male freak!" Charley spits.
"No, you malignant midget! Your time and a criminal ways are at an end here today! And you too Ring Master! No longer will this Carnival be run by an exploitative tyrant!" Randal retorts.

The Ring Master sees you and shakes his head.

"I'm very disappointed that you decided to betray me here today Geek. You will learn to regret that fateful decision."
"Enough, of this fuckin' talk. Let's see who's gonna fuckin' run this show once and for all! Attack!"

Charley and his midgets begin the assault, and the other two sides follow suit. The fighting is furious and brutal. All you do is crawl away and try to hide under a trailer and hope Randal wins, which he looks like he's doing.

Randal has the upper hand in every way, he has numerical superiority for one thing, and the other thing is he's casting actual magic spells. A couple of bolts of lightning fry Ajax and Charley. Another spell strikes down Atlas. All looks good for Randal…until Pervus and his clown crew show up.

When you first see them, they look like they've already been in a fight. They're walking in a shambling motion and have wounds on them. When they get closer those wounds look like mortal one. In fact they are.

Pervus and the clowns are no longer among the living.

It takes awhile for anyone else to recognize this. Randal just thinks he's got more allies until they start biting other Normals (as well as some remaining Midgets and Freaks). Upon seeing this, he tries to cast another spell to destroy them, but is stopped when one of the previously dead bodies on the ground rises up and bites his leg. When he cries out, he sees another familiar face. Madam Orbec, who while dead, looks obviously displeased by the theft of her book.

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO USE THIS BOOK! NOW SUFFER ALONG WITH THE REST OF US!" she shouts and bites a chunk of Randal's throat out. He falls to the ground to be consumed by more of the dead and the book goes flying out of his hand.

All of the bodies have risen now. They're attacking everyone living, you take this as your moment to escape, when you scramble from under the trailer you feel a very strong grip tighten around your shoulder. You look up and see the Ring Master.

"My poor sad Geek. I told you that you would learn to regret your decision to betray me. I have to thank you though, while my Carnival may be no more, perhaps it was time for a change, and with this book (The Ring Master shows you the black book that Randal lost) I think I can make a lot of them."

You try to struggle, but its no use. The Ring Master has an unnaturally strong grip on you. He walks directly towards the zombie horde, dragging you along.

"Why?! Why aren't they attacking you?" is the last thing you cry out.
"Silly Geek, haven't you at least figured that one out by now? Zombies don't attack other undead."

With a sharp fang protruding in a grinning smile at you, the Ring Master hurls you to the zombies, who eat you alive.