afhamhoney

[afhamhoney]

Freak Show

Summary: Her life was never simple or peacful. She was used to steel glimpses of happiness here and there. Yet she still was able to save him first

Chapter 1

"GRACE"

Goosebumps travelled all over my body when he I heard his voice. For seconds, life stopped around and I wished for it to stay that way. I squezed my eyes shut for a second and turned my body towards his voice, afraid to open them believing that if I don't see him then he is not actually here.

Forcing my eyes to open, I saw his tall figure walking steadily on the theater floor and heading towards me. My heart thumped so loudly in my chest that I was almost sure that i have lost my hearing. Seconds later he was at the bottom of the stage with a look that hints of what my night will look like.

"I guess Sadie is now living in the theater, doesn't she?" James saracastically questioned as he was eyeing the place around us.

" You told me that you were having a girl's night with Sadie in her house but turns out you are here instead."

"James, please, I will explain. Sadie had got us tickets and she kept nagging me to come here and I really wanted to do so. I swear it is no big deal. WE were leaving already. I'm sorry, so sorry. I didn't mean to come here without your permission." I was hyperventilating at this point. To anyone outside the conversation, I would look crazy and overreacting to what he is doing and saying; but I was the only who knew his true colors and how he actually is when no one is watching.

After our parents' passing six years ago, it became only me and him. He very well played the role of the big and protective brother that had to carry the weight of responsibility on his shoulders after our parents' accident. The one brother who loves his little sister and does all he can to protect the only family he has left; but it was all for the show.

Inside our house, James would turn a full on monster, a control freak that could not be controlled. He was older than me with five years with a degree and a stable job, meaning he had all the financial control over me. My parents were not fully trusting of their little girl, so they signed everything off to him and to his name, thinking that he will take care of everything for me including my living expenses and my colledge funds.

James did the complete opposite. He refused to give me my money, forced me to work not only one job but two and three sometimes just so I can afford to pay of the rest of my student loan. He made my life a living hell, a prison that I've been trying to escape everyday for the past six years and I've been failing over and over again. I was stronger, with more will power to free myself from James. But, the more I fought, the angrier her gets. The more I oppose him, the more vicious he gets. All of this was one thing but it got even more worse when started to put his hands on me. The very first times were subtle, a slap here and there when he gets mad at my stubbornness. Then, things got more violent and brutual every time. Nowadays I made peace with the idea that I became his personal punching bag. I no longer was able to detect when will it happen or how violent he will get. Yet, right now I can see it in his eyes. The blazing red in his puiples tells me that the night will be long and painful. I can already see the bruises and the regret of even stepping a foor outside my room has alreadt filled me to the brim.

"No need to panic, Grace. Step down and let's get you home safe first and then we can sit and talk about what happened." He said to me while tilting his head towards the stage stairs, ushering me to get down. I knew better than to let him wait more or to even say anything else. I started to head towards the stairs. My knees were almost giving out by the time I reached him. No one spoke another word to the other as we let the silence fill the air around leaving it full of anticipation from his end and dread from mine. He placed a hand over my shoulder usering me to head start walking outside the theater. To the people this might seem like a warm and protective sheild over his sister but I swear I had felt his hand leaving burn marks over my shoulder.

Almost completely out of the theater, I heard heavy footsteps coming towards. We both turned our heads to find an old man in his late seventies, trying to reach us before we leave.

"We truly apologize about the delay of tonight's show. You came to our theater for a show and you found nothing. We never want to disappoint our audiance and we want to truly apologize about ruinig your eveining young lady. Please if you don't mind, visit us again tomorrow and you will get the show you that you came here for." The man procceeds to give us both a two tickets similar that the one me and Sadie bought.

I extended my hand to take the tickets from the old man but James was faster than me. He took the two peices of paper and shoved them in the pockets of his jacket." We very much appreciate your offer but I am really sorry. We will not be able to make it tomorrow. My little sister has a college degree to get and I have dutites to fullfill in the station so it will be difficult for us to make it tomorrow. Good luck on your performance though" James replied with a voice dries than the Sahara desert.

"We just wish for you to accept our apology and we want nothing but gracing us with your presence tomorrow night for and we swear we will not disappoint." The old man said while his eye never leaving mine. "Please young lady". His pleas were werid as it was just a show that was never important in the first place.

"Thank you for the invitation, will see what can we do." James cut the conversation sternly and started walking outside the theater ushering me with him. I took another quick look at the old man who was still standing there with pleading eyes as if his life depends on me coming to the show tomorrow night. For some reason, I took another quick glance at the statue of the man in the chair on stage and I felt a strange need to see him again.

[afhamhoney]

Freak Show

"He was looking for a purpose, She became one"

Pairing: Non-Idol Jungkook x Named Reader

Summary: Her life was never simple or peacful. She was used to steel glimpses of happiness here and there. Yet she still was able to save him first.

TW: Will be shared separately each chapter.

The theater's atmosphere felt erie as we walked through the old large wooden doors. The floor kept creaking bneath our feet and the sound of our small heels' clicking is echoing around us. It was already past five at night, the sun was already fading and only giving faint light through the cracks of the rusty old windows. No lights were on yet and judging by the emptiness of the seats around us, it looks like we might have arrived a little bit earlier that expected.

" Shouldn't have they renewed the place before the opening show!" Sadie said, walking through the tiny steps of stairs while we were heading for the front seats.

"It kind of gives the place a whole different vibe you know. Maybe that was their theme goal". I replied, while diverting my eyes between the huge ceiling and the balcon seats above on both sides of the theater. Everything about this place was unsettling and there was this voice at the back of my head that kept on telling me to just turn around, take Sadie's hand and get the fuck out of here.

"Something feels off and ...." Sadie's said but before she completed her sentence, she was interuptted by the loud sound of the doors closing. I already knew she would be demanding us to leave but something was compeling me to stay and just watch the show.

And before I started to argue or prove my point, she held my hand and started pushing me towrds the end of the theater and to the direction of the huge wooden doors.

"What are you doing Sadie, We are not going home now." I argued with angry whispers not wanting to add more echos to this place.

"This doesn't look or feel right and we are not risking our safety to watch a freaking circus show." Sadie hissed at me while trying to put some sense in my brain but it was not working. Because no amount of danger that I might face here would be matching to what I go home to everyday. A haunted theater or a freak show will be at the very end of the list of my fears.

"Grow up Sadie, this is just an old building rented by a local troupe to perform for only one week. What renovations are you expecting them to do to this place, make it a Moulin Rouge?" I fought back with a reasonable argument while having the same doubts myself. But still no freak show could have been compared to the one I had at home and no harm could have occured that night, would have been more painful to the already angry bruises attended were forming on my body. "Let's just stay for a little while to see what is the hype about and then leave !"

"Okay but the seconsd this gets any weirder I will drag your ass across the stairs and through that door. You get me?" And before I got the chance to reply to her, the huge chandlier above us came back to life and lightened the whole place as if the sun were to explod inside. Dozen of stage spots started turning on as well indicating the start of the show. We moved from the corridor to take our seats in the third row of the theater, all while my eyes were roaming around the place and were only greeted by the dozens of empty seats accross the huge hall.

How come with all the posters and propaganda that has been going for a whole week prior to the show, we happened to be the only ones who actually attended.

With no further due, the large stage curtains opened to reveal a huge empty stage with only one spotlight targeting the middle on a statue of man sitting in a wooden chair. The statue resembled a man of young age with short dark hair,non blinking dark brown eyes that stared directly into my sole. The statue was so well made that you wouldn't be able to differentiate it from an actual human being.

We waited for somthing to happen but nothing did. Ten solid minutes had already passed with no other movement on stage and with a very angry and fidgeting sadie right next to me. Yet I was so captivated by the beauty of the art standing before me under the light. I kept staring back at those eyes while wondering how can human hands create something so realistic. I was in a trance like status to the extent that I completley missed Sadie leaving my side and was only drawn back to consciousness by the sound of my ragged cell's notification from Sadie telling me that she had to head outside to reply to her parents and tell them her whereabouts.

I tucked the phone back again my pockets and stood up while heading directly for the stage. Every waking cell in body was telling me to turn around and head for the door and leave, but my feet had another decision. It was like I was not thinking straight or maybe not thinking at all. All I wanted to do was get closer and closer to him as much as possible. The more I stared at him the more he became more real and I swear to the heavens that I felt him blink at some point. My feet dragged me closer to the stage till I found myself at the side stairs. With no ounce of thought, I climbed those five crumbling steps and landed my feet on the wooden floor of the stage. I started to go slower, contemplating if I should get any more closer than this, but I was enchanted with that figure. I wanted to have a closer look on how something was so beautifully created resembling the human true form so much. He almost looked even more real as I was getting closer.

I stood face to face with him and was unable to form any type of coherant thought or word. It seemed like all my surroundings were a mere useless propes and he was the center of my existence. I kept staring in those brown eyes as if I was being hypnotized, studying how they drew the flicker of lights with such accuracy to where the actual lights were hitting. The sculptural of this amazing statue must be worshiped for creating such an amazing piece. I couldn't hold myself from raising my hands to graze the skin of his face. He was truly beautiful and defenitly a reality somewhere as no human imgaination could have created such exquisite features.

He was whimpering inside but there was no sound coming out of him. The minute she stepped her feet inside the theater he felt different, like a jolt of electricity rippling through his body. Watching her taking small steps with her friend through the theater hall, and listening to her angelic voice arguying to stay and watch the show was amusing. Too bad for her there was no show to begin with. This was not an actual circus and this was not an actual carnival. It was a cover up for him to be able to travel through small towns and meet as many people as he could get in order to break the curse. He had no idea what he was looking for and how that curse was to be broken. He had no idea if he needed to have a beauty confessing her undying love to him so he can be normal again. If this is the case, he will be eternaly doomed, trapped inside this statue as a body while going insane everyday. But that bitch of a witch never mentioned a revese curse or a potion or any type of instructions to get him out of his hell. All she did was telling him to meet as much people as he can and one day he will find it.

He had been searching for this "IT" for the past thirty years and still to no avail. He spent weeks and months in silence while he witnessing his team of servants raveshing the books of all libraries and coming up with every possible solution but nothing ever worked. Yet one look at her face and he felt like he can break those stones covering his body just to reach for her.

Again it was not enough and he had never felt more useless and paralyzed. Taking his static state to his advantage, he studied every inch of her face. Haulting to a stop at the mere sight of the purple brusis decorating the area beneath her collar bones. Coming to stand facing him, he was almost certain he found what he had been looking for. For after feeling her delicate fingure tips touching the skin of his face, he forgot all about the curse and the reason he was there. He wanted to close his eyes and just drown in her senses. She was the only one who were brave enough and got close to him, let alone touch him.

At that moment, he had this revelation that It was not love he was seeking, nor reason, purpose or a magical potion, it was just....

His thoughts were interupted by a loud bang on the wooden doors and an angry man storming inside the theater while yelling....

"GRACE".

....................................................................................................................................................................

Author`s note: This is just a trial of something I've had in my mind for a while. This is the teaser and will be writing and updating weekly if you like it.