I was sitting at the local cafe' reading the paper. Over the past few days a Mysterious Circus set up at the old Davison farm and it was the opening night. No one seemed to know about the thing, but it did have all the proper permits to be there. Most of the town had made their way out there, but there were a few holdouts in the place.

Samantha Hood, the local Vet sat in the corner talking with one of the most attractive females I have ever seen, Rosalie Schubert. They apparently had been friends since childhood and although the two had completely different interests, Rosalie was a trashy romanace novelist, the friendship endured. Nearby a Sailor back home on leave, Jimmy was pretending to watch the television nearby while really just staring at Rosalie. Likewise the local ambulance chaser, Rodney Brunelle, was just staring while smiling with all the preppie-boy charm he could muster.

Gribble, the owner and the geekiest Live Action RPGer I've ever met, stood behind the counter reading the latest issue of a Sword Collector's Magazine. While he bought swords constantly (and displayed some in the shop), he could barely swing one. I've frequently been in the shop when his friends were making fun of how quickly he died in their games.

Everything was quiet, and the sun was starting to set. It was just about when I was getting ready to call it a night that Victor Staub, a 19 year-old man trapped by a 10 year old mind, came bursting into the shop. He looked like he was about to go into hysterics, and with his size that could be a bad thing.

“Someone needs to help me! Marguerite is missing! She ain't at the cirus, or home, or anywhere else! Momma is going to be really mad at me if I don't find her. Please help!”

It was with this start that my night would get a whole lot more interesting...

Samantha eventually got Victor to calm down enough to get more details out of him.

“Momma let us go to the circus. We were going to go see clowns, tigers, and el-e-pants. But there were no el-e-pants... I really wanted to see el-e-pants... But there was tigers behind cages. Marguerite wanted to go inda the tents. I didn't wanna so she left me by the tigers. I waited and waited and when she didn't come back I went inda tent. There were these clowns but they weren't happy and they didn't see Marguerite. So I went home and momma got mad because Marguerite wasn't with me. So I been lookin and lookin and I canna find her.”

At this point, Victor started to break down and Samantha had to soothe him. She then looked up and told Gribble to make Victor a cup of chocolate milk while she phoned the sheriff's office. In her absence, Rodney had made his move on Rosalie. While the Sailor now looked more concerned about what Victor was saying. I sat there quietly waiting to see what unfolded.

After a few minutes, Rick Bodie walked into the shop in full uniform. He listened as everything was retold and then frowned.

“Tonight is a bad night for a little girl to go missing. Most of the force is out helping with the forest fire burning on Black Mountain. It's only me and Ken here in town, and one of us needs to stay on the desk to answer calls.” He paused to think, “I will call in to see if I can get help back here, but they are at least an hour away and we might not have that much time.”

He then pointed at me, Rodney, Rosalie, and Gribble. “I want you four to start searching the town. It won't be much of a search party, but perhaps we will get lucky. I will go up to the circus and have half the town searching in no time, both there, here and everywhere in between. I am going to call in the state boys and see if they will start watching along the roads.”

He then looked at Jimmy, “I want you to take Victor home and explain what is going on to his mother. Stay with them and call the sheriff's station if she shows up.” Victor started to protest but the look from Bodie cut him off before the words came out of his mouth. “I don't want you within 100 yards of that home until this is over. The last thing I need is for you to put ideas of lawsuits in her head. In fact, give me your cellphone. You can have it back when this is over.”

After the brief argument that brought, he finally looked at Samatha. “I will need you to go with them,” point at us, “and be in charge. I trust you to make the right choices, and while I pray otherwise, she might need treatment until paramedics arrive.” She just nodded in agreement.

“Everyone that still has cellphones keep them on and call the station if you find something. Ken can relay any messages to me if needed.” At that he left. Jimmy quickly and quietly got Victor moving out the door a few seconds later. And the rest of us just sat there a second until Samantha told us to get moving. She called another friend that was available and asked if they would go with Rosalie. Rodney and her would work together. That left me and Gribble to work together.

We were to go search by the old repair yard. The kids liked to play hide and seek among the junk there.

I told Gribble I needed to grab some stuff from my apartment across the street. I quickly ran across and threw two flashlights, a collapsible baton, and on a whim I the gun that now seemed to be useless into my backpack. I put on a jacket and was back out the door. Gribble looked at me funny until I handed him one of the flashlights.

The Repair Yard was only at the end of the street, so we walked there. On the way, Gribble tried yet again to convince me to join his LARP group, “The Knights of Darkmoor.” He had seen me practicing Kendo in the park and was dead-set to get me to join. I once again politely said no, and tried hard to direct the conversation in another direction.

The place was run by a drunk by the name of Jim Steward. The place probably would have been closed down years ago had Jim not been smart enough to pay his assistant, Richard very well. So while Jim generally drank any profits past expenses, Richard kept business going with his ability to fix almost anything.

The place was surrounded by an old wooden privacy fence, but the entrance was wide open. There was a gravel road that led up to a trailer that served as both office and home for Jim. Normally the place would be locked up and the only sign of life would be the dim light of a television in the bedroom. Tonight the screen door looked like it had been pulled from the hinges and the front door was partially open. The light from inside spilled out into the yard, lighting up the piles of junk around the trailer.

I paused long enough to put the baton in my hand, and quietly said to Gribble, “Something is not right here.” I could not have been more correct in my assessment...

I slowly approached the trailer and with the baton pushed the door the rest of the way open. The place looked like a wrestling match had taken place, and Jim was laying on the floor. I quickly noticed that while he was unconscious, he was breathing. I glanced around the room and saw that there was a money box with the top ripped off and Jim's prized collection of Cuban Cigars had been raided. Seeing that Jim wasn't in immediate danger, I walked back out and told Gribble what I saw.

He of course freaked. After getting him to calm down a little, I had him call in what we found. While he did that I heard a noise in the back of the junkyard. Thinking it might be the little girl, I started that direction.

The noise got louder as I moved that way, and looking back I should have been more careful as I went. However, at the time it sounded like someone was trying to rip the door off a refrigerator and I had visions of a little girl suffocating in a freezer running through my head. All of that changed when the ball of flame came rushing towards my face.

I dove to one side and rolled, letting my backpack drop to the ground behind me. Bringing the baton to the ready, expecting a follow up attack. Instead from the shadows I heard a voice.

“Titan, hurry up and get that part out of there. Take the whole damn thing if you need to, otherwise the Mistress will be mad. I will take care of this unwanted visitor.”

At this there was a terrible noise of metal grinding on metal. I didn't get to see much of the figure that emerged from the darkness, just that it was big and bulky. It seemed to be carrying what looked like an engine under one arm. But before I could confirm what my mind was telling me was impossible another ball of flame jumped my way.

I couldn't really see the thing sending the fire at me, just a slightly less dark blurry spot, because my eyes couldn't adjust to the rapid changes in brightness. I also didn't see Gribble come running into the area swinging a pipe, just heard the war cry he screamed. There was another blast of flame and then I heard Gribble cry out in pain. While what he did was stupid, it did give me a chance to close ground with our attacker.

I saw a blurry man that looked to have a red face and black eyes. The clothes were rags and he held a bottle in one hand. When he turned towards me again, he tried the swing the bottle at me. It missed as I ducked down to tackle him and we went down in a heap. The bottle smashed as it hit the ground and I could smell the alcohol it once contained. Before I could do anything else though, I found myself flying through the air as it used my own momentum to send me off of him.

I tried my best to recover, but by the time I got back up he was gone...

I quickly looked around to make sure he wasn't hiding nearby, but there was no sign of my attacker. However, Gribble was crying out in pain so I rushed over to him. Where his hair was, there was just a smoking, stinking mess. Apparently the fire sent at him caught his hair product on fire, and he was rightfully in a lot of pain.

I quickly pulled my cellphone and called the sheriff's office. I quickly explained what happened and asked how quickly an ambulance could be sent out. Fortunately, one was already on the way (Gribble had called to tell them about Jim). Knowing help would be there soon, I grabbed my flashlight and quickly looked around to look for any clues as to who attacked me.

It didn't take long for me to find the spot where the noise was coming from. Apparently the being known as Titan had ripped the engine out of an old van and carried the entire thing off. The thought of that fact made me pause as I never thought such a feat possible. I then noticed the remains of a cuban cigar on the ground nearby. A little more searching netted me a security card that must have been dropped when I tackled the other one.

The card had Douglas Warehousing & Self Storage on it along with the address. I pocketed it as the ambulance pulled in, and quickly moved over to the entrance to greet them.

It took about 30 minutes to get both Gribble and Jim taken care of, and to answer the questions I was asked to the best of my ability. By then Samantha and Rodney had made their way over, having finished searching the park. The lights from the ambulance seemed to put an extra twinkle in Rodney's eyes.

However, the driver did bring the latest news from the circus. It wasn't just one girl missing now but three. All of the friends or family that went to the circus had similar stories. The girls went into a sideshow alone but never met back up with the parents. The owner of the place was cooperating and had ceased everything so a full search could happen. Despite this effort there was still no sign of them.

It wasn't long after hearing this that Rodney slipped away into the night. Most likely to go try to stir up some business. The driver didn't have much more to say, just that the two would be alright. They loaded them up and headed towards the closest hospital, which was 15 miles away.

As an excuse, I told Samantha that I wanted to finish searching the place since we were interrupted before. She agreed and started in the other direction. I headed back to where the engine was pulled out. The sight still amazed me. I could see where the engine mounts or the metal around them buckled and then gave from whatever force pulled on them. I again saw the cigar and I remembered the missing ones from the trailer. Titan must have been a fan.

Next to the van was the footprints I figured I would find. With the added weight of the engine on top of what ever Titan weighed made sure the dirt picked up a good impression of his boots. The feet looked like they were size 20's and the stride was almost twice mine. Whoever Titan was, I really did not want to cross him. Yet I had this overwhelming feeling the fire breather and Titan were somehow involved.

I had Samantha call Officer Rick directly this time. Others could continue a search at the circus, but only he had the power to arrest the two and question them. We agreed to meet at the site.

The warehouse looked like it had been badly abused by the children of the town over the past 50 years. There was not a single window that wasn't boarded up or broken. There was only a single light over the metal doors leading in, although the light from the street lamps made it possible to make out a bay door and a rear entrance in the gloom. The fence around the place was new, as was the security box on the gate.

Officer Bodie walked up to where we were at, having left his car a block over. We quietly exchanged information and it was decided that all three of us would go. Bodie would be there as the law enforcement, Samantha there in case of injuries and me as an extra set of hands and eyes. We were to follow Bodie's lead and instructions. With that decided we made our way to the gate.

When the key was swiped the magnetic lock released without a sound. The gate was well oiled and opened easily. As we approached we could hear the sound of metal being slammed into metal, but there was no light on in the place. The footprints started up again in the spots where the gravel was missing from the parking lot. They appeared and disappeared right up to the bay door.

Bodie decided on the direct approach, and I guess that is the advantage of having a badge. He strolled up to the main entrance and banged on the door. The banging inside stopped, but no one answered. He waited a little bit call out who he was, but again there was no answer. Finally he started to pound again when the door opened. At first I thought no one was there, but then I noticed a well-rounded, bearded man with wielding goggles on. I missed him because he looked to be only 3' tall.

After he and Bodie exchanged words, he agreed to let us into the warehouse to look around. In his words, “I ain't got nothin' to hide and I want no trouble from police. I was jus' trying patch hole on my bus.” With that we entered the place.

The bus turned out to be a volkswagon bus that was sitting in the middle of the warehouse. The hole he referred to was a gaping rust spot on the back of it. There was a piece of sheet metal sitting there with wielder's tools. The rest of the place was empty with the exception of a shed on one side. There was no sign of a giant man nor was there anything resembling a van engine. After 20 minutes of looking around Bodie was ready to leave, but Samantha called us over to the bus.

“There is something underneath this thing. It sort of looks like a pit or hole. I can see where the concrete is broken.”

As soon as she got the words out, the little man bolted. He didn't get far before we had him though, and shortly thereafter Bodie was handcuffed him around a support beam. He quoted the little man his rights, but the man knew them because we couldn't get a peep out of him. Once that was done we moved over to the bus. The bus's windows had been tinted until they let no light through, and a heavy curtain kept us from looking in the hole. Using his baton, Bodie moved it slowly to one side.

The seats in the back were missing and there was a metal bars wielded to either side. A handcuff set hung from locked to one of the bars. Other evidence in the bus told us quickly what we probably were dealing with, and it sent a new surge of urgency through us.

Looking underneath the bus we could a gaping hole that opened up, but the vehicle made it hard to tell what was there. Bodie went back over to the little man and searched him, finding the keys we needed. It didn't take long to move the vehicle and see what was underneath.

The hole opened up to a tunnel, and the footprints started up again down there in the dust. The engine was discarded to one side, parts of it ripped out with little care. It was then that we heard the sounds of a little girl crying faintly from down the tunnel.

I didn't wait on Bodie, I just dropped down in...

Samantha whispered to us, “I think there once was a tunnel system around here, I remember being taught in school that it was part of the underground railroad. They would go into one house and use the tunnels to get into town or out to another location. I seem to remember there were storage rooms down there to in case they needed to hide for a while first. When I was little they sealed them all because a little girl got lost in them.”

I shined my light down on the footprints and suggested that was the way we needed to go. Bodie took the lead, followed by Samantha, with me bringing up the rear. Bodie had his gun out this time and we went slowly.

The trail broke in different directions a couple of times, but the footprints showed us where to go. As we went the sounds of sobbing grew louder. Eventually a dim light could be seen ahead and we turned the flashlight off. We crept up slowly until we got to the edge of the light. Here the tunnel opened up to a naturally forming cave of sorts.

We were looking down into a large open chamber, the path winding down one side to it. On the other side, the floor of the cave gave way to darkness and the sound of running water came up from deep below. Sitting in the middle of the place was a makeshift table made out of three folding tables. Handcuffed together and chained to each table was a little girl, crying. Underneath the tables in a powdery substance was a circle of sorts.

The large man was there watching all of this silently, standing next to a collapsible cage full of small animals. There was also woman holding a book in one hand, a knife in the other. She was dressed like a gothic witch and had fire-red hair. She was talking to the red man in rags.

“I don't care what happened up there, we have to finish the rituals to make them be bound to me and then we can perform the ritual to make us all disappear. Once we complete that it will not matter what happened up there.” At this she turned and started chanting something from the book.

We slowly backed away from the opening to figure out what to do next.

In the end the plan we quickly decided on was quite simple, but turn out to be a big mistake. Bodie, being the law of the area, would go in first with gun drawn and attempt to arrest/stop what was going on. Once the situation was somewhat stable, I was to help restrain the suspects while Samantha checked on the children.

At first everything went according to plan. Bodie went in and froze them with the gun pointed mainly at the big man. The woman backed away from the girls and dropped the knife, and the freak in rags even put his hands behind his head. We was called in and I started handcuffing everyone. I got the woman down on the ground and in cuffs without issue, but that was all that went smoothly. The big man seemed to be standing there in a daze, oblivious to everything.

As I was putting the woman onto the ground I heard a odd phrase come out from the freak in rags. Instantly everything went south. The big man's face changed from one of blank stupor to one of blind rage. He smacked Bodie across the room before he could react and turned towards Samantha. I quickly used the restraints I had been given to hog tie the woman, and noticed out of the corner of my eye that the freak had ran down a tunnel.

The giant was closing on Samantha. She was giving ground quickly but was running out of room. The ledge to the blackness below creeping up slowly behind her, and her other escape cut of by the bulk of the man chasing her. Bodie's gun rang out three times (at least I think it did, I couldn't hear much after the first shot went off), but the giant seemed unfazed by the bullets that hit it. I reacted without thought pulling the prop from my belt and concentrating hard. I saw the muzzle flash of three more bullets (all the service revolver carried), but all it did was stagger him a little.

Samantha was out of room, and it would take Bodie too long to reload. I could only hope my idea worked...

After a few seconds that made me think I had just caused the injury or death of someone innocent I felt the connection. I had already taken aim, so I double-tapped the trigger. I had on purposely aimed high because of his size. I was sure that way I would miss the person behind it.

The prop in my hand jumped, but no sound came out. The giant lurched as the force slammed into him and the gore sprayed just the same as if bullets had gone in. In his pause, Samantha ran around him but at this point the giant was unable to tell the difference. The body lurched sideways a step and I double tapped again.

This time the force pushed his upper back forward and the bulk fell into the wall opposite the ledge. Because of it's size it stopped there for a second, the gore streaking behind it, and then gravity got a full grip on it. Slowly and terribly the body was pulled into the darkness below. Eventually we heard the thud, splash as it hit the bottom.

I turned back towards the opening the red faced freak went into, but he was gone. I looked at Bodie and saw him slowly and painfully getting back up. Just the expression on his face made me release my grip on the prop. It clanged to the floor. I glanced at Samantha who was visibly shaken, there was an expression of gratitude there briefly before the terror of it hit again. Then we all heard the sound of the children realizing it was okay to cry.

We checked on them and Samantha made sure they were alright. The first aid kit in my bag treated the small cuts. Other than that they were alright. As I helped Samantha with this, Bodie picked up the prop gun that was sitting there. I watched as he popped the clip and opened the chamber. The look of disbelief and confusion on his face was almost comical. I guess he wasn't fully briefed on me.

I smiled at him and said, "It's just a prop, can't even work. He must have slipped on something and fell. Besides, don't you need to call in the other one and get after him?"

Not much happened after that. The next hour was spent in silence as we waited. I looked at the book the woman had, but couldn't tell up from down in it. It did however make me feel dirty after holding it. Not dirt dirty, but like it was darkening my soul.

They never found the red face man, and the little man in the warehouse was gone when they got there. The woman like the little man never spoke to the police, she was found dead the next morning in her cell. No signs of violence except the look of horror on her face.

Likewise, there has been no explanation either on how the four of them came into town or left it, there were somehow no records on who they were. The fingerprints didn't match anyone in any database. It was like the came in out of no where and left the same way. The circus turned into a dead end also. Somehow after being shut down by police and the people ordered to stay there they seemingly vanished into the night. This was accomplished with all roads into town being watched. The newspaper here started to have a field day with that fact, but stopped the stories because of the ongoing investigation.

I don't know what exactly to make out of the experience myself. I am glad that no now was seriously hurt (even Jim recovered without much difficulty). One that that does makes me shiver a little is to think where those girls could have ended up had I not found the security card.

I didn't mention this yesterday, mostly because the post was getting long. I went up to the spot where the circus was. I got that same odd feeling out of it, only about three times worse. Sort of felt like ice water down your shirt on a hot day that left you feeling like you took a bath in dung on the inside (sorry best way I know to describe it).

Out of curiosity, we (Samantha, Bodie, Gribble and I) met at the coffee shop and spent the better part of an afternoon trying to find any trace of the circus online. We figured there had to be a writeup for it somewhere. No trace of anything official, but there were similar stories to ours. Unfortunately, in most of those the young children were never found. But the circus appeared and disappeared just the same in them.

I wonder what happened to those children, and where are they now. I am glad that we stopped it here, but does that mean it will just move on to the next unsuspecting community?

I've been to one of those "circuses" before...lucky to leave it alive. Not everything that moves and thinks moves and thinks the same as everyone else.

InTheDark wrote:I've been to one of those "circuses" before...lucky to leave it alive. Not everything that moves and thinks moves and thinks the same as everyone else.

Yeah, makes me sort of glad I didn't go up there. I can only wonder what strangeness was left behind by that passing of that thing.

Usually some sort of disturbance, either a void or enhancement to the local natural energy of an area. It depends on where they went, where they came from, and what they did when they were here. I think we'd be foolish to assume they are all the same types of creatures. From just the description given us, I would think there are at least three types of beings involved in the kidnapping. This also leads to three types of consequences for the victims. Either they are used as a food source, which would enhance the area by the release of their life energy, they are transformed into another sort of creature (some non-human creatures breed that way) or they are enslaved. The last two would take the victim's energy away, either for it's own use in it's new "life" or the new master would feed off the connective earth link from the person who was taken. Either way, not a good thing to say the least.