Welcome to the Freakshow

"Don't fucking throw things at me!"

I opened my eyes and sat up, rubbing the back of my neck. What was going on? I swung my legs over the side of my bed and grabbed a pair of crutches which had somehow made their way into my room while I was sleeping.

I walked out of my room, using the crutches for support, and came into the red room in which I had woken up in last night. This time, there were no tables, chairs, or piano laying about; everything had been pushed to the sides of the room. Minghao and Jun stood on opposite sides of the room, and they looked like they were fighting.

Jun grabbed a stuffed bear from the corner of the room and raised it above his head. I was surprised; that bear looked much too heavy for a man of Jun's size to pick up. He threw the bear as hard as he could, and it went whipping towards Minghao's head. I looked around, and realized that the other boys were cowering against the wall. I made my way over to Jeonghan, who was closest to the door.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Minghao was teasing Woozi," Jeonghan stated. "Jun is very protective over Woozi. He doesn't like when anyone is mean to him."

"I was kidding around! Look, even Woozi knows I was joking!" Minghao yelled as he narrowly dodged a flying table.

"Yeah, it's ok Jun, Minghao always jokes around with me!" Woozi said, but this only seemed to anger Jun even more.

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Jun!" Minghao said, then darted towards Josh, grabbing his arm and closing his eyes.

"No, Minghao, stop!" Woozi yelled, but Hoshi cut him off.

"Yeah, fuck him up, Minghao!"

"Stop being an instigator!" Jeonghan commanded.

"What did he just do?" I asked Jeonghan as Minghao ran back to the center of the room.

"He just absorbed Joshua's powers," Jeonghan said tensely.

"P... powers?" I asked, becoming uneasy. Was I seriously staying with a bunch of insane boys?

"You don't think we were put in the Freak Pit for no reason, do you? Were you born stupid?" Josh's voice came, and Jeonghan gave him a disapproving look.

"Ignore Josh, he has a bit of a temperament problem."

"No, I don't!" Josh protested.

"Anyways, yes, we all have super powers. For example, Joshua's power is-" Jeonghan began, but he was cut short by the piano flying towards Jun; but nobody had touched it. It seemed as if Minghao had sent it flying with his mind.

"Telekinesis and Telepathy," Jeonghan finished in a sigh, shaking his head at Minghao and Jun. "Well, there's nothing to do but let them battle it out. Come on, I'll make some breakfast."
I began to follow Jeonghan into the kitchen, and, when I reached the doorway, turned around. Woozi was jumping into the middle of the fight, but... All of a sudden, he wasn't Woozi. He had turned into a massive creature, hunching over with its shoulders touching the roof. His skin had turned light grey and almost transparent, veins and muscles bulging. His legs bent backwards, his eyes became dark voids, and long, twisty horns grew from above his ears.

"Stop!" A terrifying voice came from the creature, and I quickly hobbled into the kitchen.

"So, does Woozi turn into a beast or something?" I asked Jeonghan as I sat down in a chair he had pulled out for me.

"Close. Woozi can shape shift." Jeonghan said as he walked over to an old-fashioned oven. I watched him ball his hand into a fist on top of the element, then dropped something that had grown in his palm: the oven was suddenly lit with a fire.

"And you... Have fire powers?" I guessed, and he began to laugh.

"I can control all elements." He said, turning around to face me. "Hoshi's invincible."

"What about Jun? Does he have super-human strength?"

Jeonghan turned back to the oven and began to cook scrambled eggs. "No, actually, his strength is a natural thing he's had since birth. That's his circus act. Jun possesses healing powers. We were going to have him heal your ankle last night, but we didn't want to freak you out."

"Circus?" I asked, feeling quite overwhelmed.

"Yes, we are a circus act." Jeonghan stated, tucking his long hair behind his ear. "I can almost guarantee you've never heard of us."

I nodded. Interesting. "Can you show me your act?" I asked, and I heard Jeoghan chuckle.

"Maybe one day,"

***

"So, do you want me to heal your foot?" Jun said as I sat with the boys in the kitchen, eating scrambled eggs, sausages, bacon, and toast. I looked up in surprise; prior to this, I had never heard Jun speak.

"Um, sure," I said nervously. 'Now I can escape,' I thought, putting my last bite of bacon in my mouth. Jun stood up and pulled my chair out from the table, with me still on it. Shocked, I grabbed onto the sides of the seat to avoid toppling onto the ground. Woozi laughed.

"Give me your foot," Jun said gruffly, and I nervously stretched my leg out towards him. He knelt down, resting my bad foot on his knee, and placed his hands on either side of my ankle, closing his eyes. There was a sharp pain, then a warm, flowing feeling, as if all of the blood in my leg had turned into hot chocolate. I closed my eyes as the pain returned, worse than ever, and then there was nothing.

"How does it feel, Akiko?" Woozi's voice came, and I opened my eyes.

I looked down at my foot, still bandaged, and rolled it in circles. No pain. "Wow, it feels completely normal. That's so cool. Thanks, Jun," Jun nodded and sat back down beside Woozi.

"Come on, boys, we should all go get changed out of our pyjamas. We have a guest, after all." Jeonghan said.

"A very nice looking one," Hoshi muttered, smirking at me as everyone stood up to leave.
I sat alone in the kitchen for a few moments before I stood up and walked into the red room. How did I come in? Of course I didn't remember, I was unconscious when I arrived. I decided to take my chances and walked towards the first door I saw. I pulled on the door, but it was locked. "Crap," I muttered to myself, then moved to the door beside the first. I twisted the doorknob and it opened to show a long, dark hallway. I gulped. This was probably where the rest of the boys' bedrooms were. At the end of the hall stood a wooden door with a large window at the top; from it, I could see outside. This looked like the way out of this house.
I took a deep breath and began tiptoeing down the hall. Voices came from each door that I crept past, and I held my breath until I reached the front door. I turned the doorknob and pulled it open, running outside as quickly as my legs would allow.

As soon as I had stepped onto the grass, I knew something was wrong. For one, the pit had had a gravel floor; last night, there was no grass to be found. Second, there were no walls in sight. Was I still in the pit? How could I be, when all I could see was a field?

I looked back to the house and was shocked to see a tiny trailer in its place. What was happening? My head began to spin as I watched six boys on bikes pedal around the sides of the trailer. They all wore black and white outfits, all wearing hats, and the boy in the lead wore a black and white bandanna over most of his face. They began to bike straight towards me, and my stomach lurched. The freaks were chasing me again.

I screamed and took off down the dirt driveway leading away from the trailer. I had to find the pit. Had the boys moved me? Was I dreaming? "Wake up," I whispered to myself as tears brimmed my eyelids. "It's just a dream, wake up,"

"Stop!" Joshua's voice came from behind me, and I turned my head to see the freaks gaining on me. I yelped and tried to give myself an extra burst of speed.

"Akiko, stop! You're going the wrong way!" Woozi's voice yelled, and I began to wail. There was no way in Hell I was going back with them. They had moved me from the pit and probably drugged me; there was no way their tiny trailer was that big on the inside. I had probably imagined all of their powers during my trip too.

"Akiko, you can't run from this!" Hoshi voice called, and I collapsed in a fit of tears. He was right. I had lost my bearings; I had no idea where to go.

The bikes drove a circle around me before skidding to a stop. Josh jumped off of his bike, coming over and putting his arm over my back. "I'm so sorry, Akiko," he said, and I could tell he truly meant it.

Anger surged through me. He was sorry? It was a little late for any of them to be sorry! They were the ones who chased me until I got hurt, and forced me to go into their trailer. They were the ones who forced me to spend the night after treating my injuries. They were the ones who moved their trailer out of and away from the pit to confuse me. I shoved Hoshi away and stood up, shaking with rage.

"Where am I?" I exploded, and they all looked at each other in concern. Jeonghan went to Joshua's side and helped him stand up. "Where have you taken me?"

"We haven't taken you anywhere, Akiko, you-" Jun began.

"Well why aren't I in the freak pit anymore? Huh? How do you explain that?" I yelled, but when Hoshi tried to answer me, I cut him off. "You can't! You guys moved the trailer last night while I was sleeping and probably drugged me!" The boys watched me sadly as I continued. "This is kidnapping! And I'll have you know, you won't get away with it! The cops are probably already on their way here, coming to rescue me! So you may as well just bring me back home!" With that, I burst into tears again, sobs racking my whole body. "Take... Me..." I gasped through shuddering breaths, but all of a sudden, I was pressed into Hoshi. His arms were wrapped protectively around my shoulders, one hand holding my head to his chest.

"Shhh..." He whispered softly. "Calm down, and we'll tell you what happened, ok?" I tried to pull away, but Hoshi tightened his grip. "Trust us. We aren't the bad guys, Akiko."

After a few moments, I had managed to calm my tears, and we sat in a circle on the soft green grass of the field beside the long dirt driveway. I stared down at my crossed legs, waiting for someone to say something.

"It was the wrong door, you idiot," Joshua's voice came, and I looked up at him, frowning.

"There are two doors; one that leads to the freak pit, the one that leads to your world, and the one you ran out of." Minghao said. "You are now in our world."

"Your world?" I asked, head swimming.

"Yes, Akiko, we aren't from your world. We live in a world where having super powers is as normal as going to school." Jeonghan said.

"Of course, there are some people, some of the less fortunate people, who do not have any powers," Woozi said sadly.

"So..." I said, pulling grass out of the ground anxiously. "How do I get back home?"

"I'm afraid there's no known way of doing that," Jun said simply, and my heart dropped.

"As soon as you went out of that door, you became trapped in our world." Minghao said. "That's all there is to it."

"That's why we were trying so hard to keep you in the trailer. To keep you from entering our world." Woozi explained.

"Should you ever decide that you want to go home, you have six boys here who would be more than willing to help you find a way to do it." Jeonghan said, smiling in a friendly way.

Should I ever want to go home? What were they on? Of course I wanted to go home! I was trapped! Would I ever see my friends or family again? Would they think I was dead? Or that I ran away? I didn't want to be trapped in a foreign world with a bunch of crazy carnies with superpowers!

... Right?

Notes