Welcome to the Freakshow

I screamed into the hand, flailing my arms and legs, trying to hit whoever was holding me. After a moment, there was a laugh from behind me, and the arms let go. I spun around and saw Ki, covering her mouth and laughing hysterically.

"What are you doing!?" I yelped. "How are you laughing? Nari! She's-"

"Fine," Nari's voice came from behind me, and I spun around to see her wiping blood off of her neck. "It's fake blood. We were trying to scare you."

I stood there, heart hammering in my chest, looking from Nari to Ki and back. "Are you fucking kidding me?" I hissed, feeling anger surge through me. "That wasn't funny. I hate you guys."

"Oh, lighten up, we were just trying to have a little fun." Ki said, putting her arm around my shoulders.

"A little fun? By almost giving me a heart attack? I thought I was going to die!" I yelled, pushing Ki's arm off of me. "That wasn't cool, guys. I'm leaving."

As I walked away, I heard Nari and Ki calling my name, but I continued walking, crossing my arms for warmth. I reached the main road where we had entered from and, again, saw the fair area. A warm glow caught my attention from a stand with a big, white sign reading, "Shoot the Freak: $1.50". I looked behind me to make sure Nari and Ki weren't following me before I made my way towards it.

When I had reached the stand, I took in a black paintball gun and a large pit where the freak could run around. Along the back wall of the pit were five figures, standing as still as statues. I hopped over the barrier and into the pit to get a better look at them.

Each figure wore a different coloured suit; purple, red, yellow, blue and green. I looked up at their faces and jumped back; each figure wore an eerie clown mask. My heart hammered in my chest; clowns were one of my worst fears. At that moment, the figure in purple jumped towards me, putting his hands above his head. I jumped backwards once again, twisting around, and began to run back the way I had come. As I ran, a terrible thought entered my mind; I was in a pit, one too deep for me to get out of on my own. I was trapped down here with these creepy clowns. I looked behind me; the figures wearing green and purple were chasing after me. My heart leapt. Where were the others?

As I approached the barrier of the pit, I looked to my right, and found red and blue running towards me, attempting to corner me. I hung a sharp left once I reached the barrier and felt my ankle twist, pop and give out. I collapsed to the ground, yelping in pain. 'This is no time to be weak.' I told myself, trying to get back to my feet, but my ankle wouldn't hold any weight. I sat there on the ground, whimpering out of fear and pain, watching the clowns approach me. 'Maybe this is one of Nari's tricks,' I thought to myself. Yet, at that moment, to my horror, I heard Nari and Ki's voices from a distance, calling my name. I tried to yell back, but I was petrified.
"Well, well, well, what have we got here?" A voice came as the figure in dark yellow walked in front of me. I was now surrounded by clowns, all staring down menacingly at me.

"P-please leave me alone," I whispered, trembling.

"Do you know what we do to girls who come into our pit?" the voice under the mask asked, and the others laughed maniacally.

"No... Please, spare me, I... I didn't know, I-"

"She didn't know," The clowns laughed again, and I looked up at all of them in horror. "What do you think we'll do? Rip your fingernails off? Pull your teeth out? Burn your hair off? Tear you limb from limb?"

"That's enough," A different voice came, and a sixth clown, this one in a creme coloured suit, pushed through yellow and green. "Leave her alone, Hoshi. Look at how young she is. She's afraid and she's hurt. We don't need to tease her anymore."

"An easy victim," Another voice came from behind purple's mask.

"Josh, I said that's enough. Now, all of you, either help me get this girl to the trailer or fuck off."

As creme came closer to me, I gasped, pulling myself backwards away from him, dragging my bad leg. I bumped into the legs of the clown wearing red, and looked up to see his creepy clown face staring down at me.

That's when I blacked out.

***

I woke with a start to hear a piano playing an eerie, old-fashioned sounding tune. I sat up and took in my surroundings.

I lay on a dark red suede Freudian Couch in a room with hardwood floors and blood red walls. There were antlers and animal heads hung on the walls and dead, stuffed animals sitting on each of the three tables. There were three doors connected to this room; one near my feet, which was open, the scent of cinnamon rolls wafting to my nostrils. The other two were against the wall in front of my couch, and both were closed. Behind my couch, in the right corner of the room near where my head had been, there was a large, black Grand Piano, and, sitting on the black bench and playing that eerie tune, was the Yellow Clown. But, this time, he did not have his clown mask on. He had his back to me, and didn't realize that I had woken up.

For a moment, I considered running, but an intense throbbing pain suddenly shot up my leg, and the memory of rolling my ankle came flooding back. I put my head in my hands and took a deep breath, weighing my options.

At that moment, one of the doors in front of my couch opened, and the short clown in the red suit walked in. He also was not wearing his mask, and had revealed dyed grey hair and a cute, round face. He almost reminded me of a baby.

"Hey, how are you doing?" he asked cheerfully as he sat down near my feet. I shrugged, still weary of these boys, although this one seemed nice. "Which ankle did you hurt? This one?" He asked, lifting one of my legs up, and I nodded, wincing. "Ok, let me take care of that for you,"

Red lay my leg down across his lap with my foot in the center, and the piano suddenly stopped playing. He pulled a thick roll of tensor bandage from a pocket inside of his jacket, placing it on his lap as well, and began to unlace my red high top sneaker. He loosened the laces as much as possible before slowly, carefully pulling the shoe off of my foot. He then did the same with my sock.

"My name's Woozi," he said as he began to wrap my ankle. "What's your name?"

Should I tell him? He seemed alright, and after all, he was helping me with my ankle. "I'm Akiko," I said.

"We're sorry for scaring you earlier. We're just all alone down here, and it gets pretty boring." Woozi explained as he secured the end of the bandage. "You'll forgive us, won't you?" I nodded, and Woozi's face lit up. "Good! Now you need to stay off of your foot for at least three weeks. We'll get you some crutches to help you with that."

"Thank you," I said quietly, and Woozi beamed at me.

"This is Hoshi," he said, nodding his head towards the piano. The man in yellow, Hoshi, had turned around on his stool and was now facing us. He smirked and nodded his hello. "Jeonghan will be here any minute with hot chocolate and freshly baked cinnamon rolls. Do you like cinnamon rolls?"

'Wow, he acts like a baby as well as looking like one,' I thought to myself, smiling and nodding. As Woozi continued talking, all of the clowns slowly entered the room one by one, and Woozi introduced me to all of them. First came Blue, who's name was Jun, then Purple, Joshua, followed by green, Minghao, and, finally, Creme, Jeonghan, who carried a tray with seven mugs and a heaping plate of cinnamon rolls.

Jeonghan placed the tray down on the coffee table in front of my couch, and everyone gathered around, sitting on the floor and digging in. Jeonghan watched me and, noticing that I didn't take anything from the tray, asked, "What's the matter? Don't you trust us?"

Something in his voice and the way he smiled told me I had no reason not to trust these boys, so I grabbed a mug and a cinnamon roll and took a hungry bite.

"So, what's your name?" Minghao asked me after finishing his third cinnamon roll.

"Akiko." I said.

"How's your ankle feeling?" Jeonghan asked, and I smiled sheepishly.

"It's fine, I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused..."

"Well, it was these bozo's faults, so don't worry about it. I've told them many times before not to chase people, but they never listen to me. I'm very sorry for the fright my friends caused you."

"Oh, it's... Uh... It's okay," a few moments of silence followed in which the boys shovelled cinnamon rolls into their mouths and I thought about what Woozi had told me. "Why don't you guys ever come out? Can't you figure out a way to get over the barrier?" I asked.

"Why on earth would we do that?" Jeonghan asked as all of the boys gave me incredulous looks.

"Yeah, we've got everything we need down here, sweet cheeks." Josh said.

"Seeing as you'll be staying with us tonight, you can share my room with me." Hoshi said, smirking at me.

"No, she won't." Jeonghan cut in stiffly. "Akiko will take my bed, and I will sleep on the couch."

"Oh, I... I can totally call my mom to come pick me up, you guys. I don't have to stay here." I cut in.

"Yeah, about that..." Woozi said, reaching into the inside of his jacket and pulling out my cell phone. The screen was cracked, and it was bent in a way that told me I wouldn't be making any calls from it any time soon. "You kind of broke it when you fell..."

After a moment, I said, "I know my mom's number off by heart, I can just use one of your phones!"

"We don't have cell phones," Minghao said. "And our house phone doesn't work."

My heart began to thump. Were they trying to kidnap me?

"We aren't trying to kidnap you," Joshua said, as if he had read my mind. "We'll bring you home tomorrow."

"And for tonight, you can sleep in my room, ok?" Jeonghan repeated.

"That's totally not necessary, I'm perfectly fine here on the couch myself!" I exclaimed, taking in Jeonghan's size. He was tall, much taller than the couch was long, and I knew he wouldn't get much sleep on the couch.

"No, no, I insist." Jeonghan said firmly. "Woozi, Jun, show her to her room, would you?"

Woozi stood up and held out his hands for me to take. He helped me to my feet, and I realized that he was at least 3 centimeters shorter than I was. I was surprised as Jun wrapped my arm around his shoulders and picked me up as though I weighed less than a feather.

"We'll see you in the morning! Have a good sleep!" Minghao called, and I waved, looking back to see Hoshi smirking at me.

Notes