Thread: Carnival: Shadows And Whispers Under The Big Top (Dane Stalling & darkangel76)

Barker Clive grinned at Ava and his gold tooth caught the glare of the flood-lamps. He was a man with his eyes open, and profiting from it. All was right in his universe just now. He called out to Ava as she crossed the yard to her trailer. A wager, Miss Sparrow? Half what Albert paid me says he wasted all of what he paid me. It was a rash bet, wild, but glittering luck spun out from his fingertips, wafted out of the aether to gather around him. He felt it embrace him, it made him invulnerable. Come now, he pleaded, Give a poor jabberjaw a bit of sport. ---- Callum could feel the blood pulsing through the girl's veins, her heart pounded and he was surprised he couldn't hear it. He knew as soon as she let him take her arm that she was an innocent, the bag was hers. No thief would allow herself to be boxed in so. A thief would have invented an excuse to leave, then sneaked in the back for another go at the bag, but never this. He was ashamed of the dirt on his knuckles. He kept clean when he wasn't working his cage, but a little mud and dust helped thrill the crowds. Holding her white wrist, his hand looked dangerous and sinister against her pure ivory. He was about to release her when the tent flap slapped open. ---- Unhand her, monster! Albert yelled, grabbing a thick tent peg from the ground. The monster had her neck in his gnarled grip. The line from the stage melodrama worked as Albert remembered and he girl fell back, shrieking, but free of the monster. A dashing entrance, indeed. He beat the cage with the tent peg, rattling the bars. He swore at the monster, jabbed the sharp club at him as he cowered to the back of the cage, his hands over his ears. You're evil enough without enticing young ladies into your filthy den! He said, Go back to buggering the livestock, monster! They're your equals. He dropped the tent peg and swept Felicity off the straw floor into his arms and strode out of the tent to the applause of the wide eyed crowd outside. ---- Callum opened his eyes to see Albert carry the girl off, separated from her bag again. He pushed it back further so it wouldn't be seen, and backed into a corner. He knew what was coming. The first spectator in after Albert left was a bully boy, seventeen maybe, and thick. He picked up the tent peg and beat the cage around Callum, yelling at him in the same manner as Albert had. The attendant had to come in and make him stop, it was the next spectator's turn. ---- The Doctor stood back from Callum's tent in his still way, his eyes blank white discs behind his round spectacles. He wore white, a spotless long surgeon's smock, white pants, white shoes. He was dazzling when the sun was out, and even now in the dark of the wee hours, he shone in the flood-lamps. He rubbed his sore wrist and watched the crowd pay their coin for a cage rattle. Men, women, children paid, then yelled and screamed and beat at the cage, and when their turns were done, some of them joined the back of the line to do it again. He could hear Callum bellowing and weeping clear back at the end of the line. It had been like this for hours. That Callum was a genius. Coin flowed like water into the monster's safe box. The Doctor would give him a pretty bonus for this. He sighed then, and went to the tent flap attendant. Finish out the line and shut down for the night. The other performers are complaining that they can't sleep. The attendant pulled woollen plugs out of his ears. Sorry sir? Finish. Yes, sir. He put the plugs back in and put a saw-horse behind the last person in line.