Circus Freaks chapter 19

Circus Freaks chapter 19

"Well?"

Dim light, as always, blue and florescent, cast down on CC's face. Ringmaster tapped his cane against the ground impatiently while Jinxx squeezed the demon's hand. A chubby lady in a nylon nurse uniform held a stethoscope over the boy's chest. She moved it slowly over  his thin and tanned figure with a look of deep concentration on her aged face. She ignored the question from Ringmaster and set the stethoscope ears around her neck, pulled out a clipboard and scribbled a quick note on it, shooting the orange suit man a glare.

Jinxx watched her carefully, refusing to let go of CC's thin hand. She ran her hand over CC's face and pulled his lips open, checked his teeth. She pulled back his closed eyelids only to scoff in frustration at his completely black eyeballs.

"Gracious sir! You changed him so damn much I can't even tell what the hell is wrong with him!" She scalded Ringmaster in a heavy Scottish accent.

Ringmaster stamped his cane and stood up from against the pole he was leaning on. "Celia, you know I can't reverse the spells without losing his character! Just figure out what the hell is wrong with him. The boy up and fainted over 10 minuets ago."

His burning blue eyes shifted over to Jinxx, who was looking terrified. His wings quivered and his hands trembled in CC's limp ones, but he refused to move away from him. He carried him to the medical tent himself, with close guard of Ringmaster and 5 strongmen, of course. Celia clenched her jaw and ran her fingernail gently against his forearm, finding a white scratch line of dead skin left in it's wake.

"The boy's malnourished, Augustus. His teeth look like hell and his skin is flaking worse than dried paint! He'll be coming down with the Black Plague if we don't do something soon." she looked up at Ringmaster. "You got the boy ejaculating 6 or 7 times a show and only feed him some fancy water it's no wonder he fainted! I want to check out wing-boy here too, he looks frail as well."

"Well just fix the damn thing up and come on!" Ringmaster demanded. He didn't have time for this.

"You've always been a fool, Augustus." she spat "I can't just 'fix him up' he's gotta lay down for a bit first. Feed him actual food, not just vitamin water and Viagra."

He sighed in annoyance again. Why couldn't he just up and kill the poor bastards and put them out of the way? No. They're a popular show, and because he had to get in a cockfight with that damn Purdy kid he wouldn't be in this mess. If they went missing from the act, people would get suspicious. "Fine." he sighed. "Check out the Angel too."

~

Later that night, Ringmaster had brought an old, threadbare hammock and hung it on both ends, interucting the still anxious Jinxx and groggy CC to sit on it and eat their food. At first, CC didn't know what to do until Jinxx showed him how to eat properly. They ripped large slabs of meat off the roasted chicken he had given them and downed the soup and water like it was nothing. CC began to crunch the bones before Jinxx snatched it away from him and shook his head no.

"You need to lay down for a while with these over your foreheads, it'll help you feel a bit less queezy, dear." Celia carefully held out two cold rags to the boys, Jinxx took them and sat both of them on CC's forehead.

Celia sighed heavily. "Angel, I need you to put one on your head, alright?"

Jinxx shook his head and pointed at CC, then made a gagging motion and shook his head again.

"Look." she checked behind her to make sure Ringmaster had left "I know you love him, but what is he going to do if you get too sick and Ringy hasta put you down? I'm sure he'd rather have you than any other angel."

Jinxx shook his head again. He pointed at himself, stuck his fingers in a gun shape and tapped the underside of his chin with it, bending his thumb like it the gun went off. Celia sighed sadly and reached through the bars, laying her hand on Jinxx's ankle.

"He needs you, boy."

Jinxx looked down at her hand. Blinking, he slid down next to his mate in the hammock and removed the second cloth from his forehead, placing it on his forehead before laying down. Celia smiled and patted the side of the cage.

"You're going to sleep the rest of the night, no getting up." she told them. "Now you get better or Ringy will have a cow."

Jinxx fell asleep wondering why Ringmaster would would get a cow because he wasn't well.

~

Tap tap tap tap

The soft tapping sound slowly coaxed Jinxx from his slumber. He blinked his eyes and was greeted by complete darkness, the cool rag that was on his head now a warming room temperature dampness between his eyes and hairline.

tap tap

It was coming from the side of his cage. He blinked again, trying to adjust to the darkness when it came again. The tapping noise, like a finger against metal. It wasn't CC, he was too far away from the metal bars and Ringmaster always took a lantern or his cane with him when he visited them.

This was something different.

He slowly sat up, hearing around for any kind of breathing, heartbeat--that wasn't his own--something to tell what it was, but all he heard was tapping. He rose off the hammock and fluttered over CC, landing silently on the ground in front of the cage.

tap tap t-

"Hello?"

Jinxx jumped back at the sudden voice he didn't recognize, it was so loud in his ears that hadn't ajusted to noise yet. "Hello?" it said quieter.

"I don't think they're in here." A more familiar voice came, that one--healthier sounding, not as demonic,--he'd recognize anywhere.

Is it....?

A scraping sound cracked the air and a small flame appeared from the tip of a small stick. A match, he thinks, was lit. he looked down to see two shadowed faces of the men who had been talking. Looking up, the one with the match passed it off to the other and held out his hand.

"It's okay. We're here for you two."