The next morning Cross felt sore. His Chara was casting him a blaming look as he pushed himself up from the bed, immediately groaning at the pain he felt in a certain area of his body. He laid back down.

Dust was nowhere to be seen and Cross was alone in the tent. Well, not completely alone since his Chara was there. Dust's absence informed Cross that the curfew had ended.

"Just so you know: you have traumatised a child. You should be ashamed," his Chara snapped at him, sounding disturbed.

"Stop making such a huge deal," – Cross stopped to cough, his throat felt a bit sore as well – "out of it. That wasn't the first time you heard or saw that happen," he groaned. His voice sounded a bit hoarse.

"Be glad these walls are soundproof, otherwise you would have awakened the whole circus last night," they scoffed before turning their back to him and floating out through the wall.

Cross watched after them before proceeding to push himself up from the bed, his legs giving in the moment he tried to stand. He hit the ground with a thud and let a wince slip between his teeth. He couldn't recall when he had last been this sore, but he also couldn't recall when was the last time he had been the one getting wrecked.

He gritted his teeth and forced himself to the flap, limping the whole way. He spent a few minutes trying to get used to the slight pain before finally pushing the flap open and stepping outside, only to immediately slip and fell back on his ass.

As an aftermath of the rain last night, the ground was wet and muddy. The whole ground seemed to be on the level of an ice rink. He highly doubted that he was the only one who had fallen while getting out of their tent.

"Ey, I wasn't the only one fallin'!" a familiar voice exclaimed, sounding really amused. Cross looked up to see Killer grinning at him from a few meters away. It didn't go unnoticed by Cross that Killer, too, had his clothes covered in mud.

"Is it always like this after it rains?" Cross groaned as the managed to push himself up. The fall combined with his previous aches wasn't really great. Now he felt even worse.

"It 's. The ground 'ere does that," Killer explained, kicking the mud with his boot, staining the lighter brown with the dark colour of the mud.

"Do many people usually slip.?" Cross inquired. He really wished at least half of the circus would be walking around with mud in their clothes so he wouldn't feel so embarrassed about his own clothes being badly stained.

"Oh, don't worry 'bout it! Everyone knows this place's a walk of death after rain." Killer casted him a grin. "But tell me, why'd you sound so weird today?" He tilted his head. Cross silently cursed his sore throat.

"Probably just a cause of the cold," he shrugged, glancing around the still cold morning where the sun was still hiding deep behind the horizon and the only lights were the fairy lights that were connected to the tents, creating the still dim ocean of light.

Killer looked doubtful and was about to say something to comment on it, but someone called out his name, making both of the knife throwers turn around to see who was coming.

"Killer!" Ink exclaimed again as he rushed towards them. Cross was kinda surprised how well he ran on the slippery ground.

The artist stopped next to them. He tilted his head and looked between them, as if he was waiting for one of them to tell him what was going on. Then he perked up and pulled his scarf in front of him.

"The Ringmaster wants all the performers to the Big Top to discuss the next show," he informed once he found the right writing from the fabric. He raised his head and looked at Cross, "You also. You won't be performing yet, but the Ringmaster wants you to know how it works."

"Thanks Ink, we'll head there immediately." Killer nodded to the artist, offering him a grin before turning to look back at Cross. Ink nodded and rushed off, falling face-first into the mud.

"Let's go. Nightmare won't be pleased if we're late," Killer said, gritting his teeth after mentioning the Ringmaster's name.

-----

       Cross followed Killer to the Big Top. He was glad Killer didn't look behind to see how he was slightly limping. It wasn't really noticeable, but he bet Killer would have noticed after walking with him for so much during the past few days.

There were only a few skeletons in the tent. The Ringmaster by himself hadn't arrived yet. Cross could recognise a few faces, but the were also people he had never seen before.

"And we're early after all," Killer groaned as he looked around. "There are probably many faces you've never seen before, but I'll introduce you to 'em after this." He gestured almost unnoticeably towards the skeletons Cross didn't know.

Cross took another look around to see how many familiar faces he could recognise. Almost immediately his eye lights landed on Dust, who flashed him a small grin that informed Cross he had noticed the way he was limping. Cross immediately raised his turtleneck to hide his face better, trying to stop the purple blush from creeping to his face.

"Nightmare usually takes forever to arrive, but then sometimes he decided to be a complete bitch and show up five minutes earlier, only so he can punish everyone arrivin' after him," Killer explained with a bitter tone. Cross pried his eyes away from Dust and looked back at Killer.

"Watch your mouth, you never know when he's behind you," Reaper warned from behind Killer, making the knife thrower jump forwards, knocking Cross over as well.

They both clashed on the floor with a clatter of bones. Cross let out a cry as he hurt his sore body even more, slowly starting to regret what had happened last night. Killer winced too as he hit his head on the ground.

Reaper let out a chuckled, seeming amused and proud of what he had done. Cross had no doubts that Reaper had planned this to happen.

"What the fuck?" Killer cried out, turning to stare at the reaper. "Ya could've given some kind of warnin' before creepin' behind my shoulder like that!" he exclaimed, pushing himself up from the ground.

"That wouldn't have been as hilarious as watching the two of you fall on the ground." Reaper grinned, turning his gaze back towards Cross, who had yet to get up from the ground. "Everything okay there?" he asked as Cross gritted his teeth.

"Yeah.." Cross groaned, pushing himself up. He tried to ignore the pain it caused. That was the second time he had landed on his ass today, and it was starting to feel along with the soreness from last night.

"You shouldn't be messing around like that," a new soft voice joined in, snapping the heads of the three towards the owner of it, "The Ringmaster can enter any minute now, and you don't want him to see you doing something like that. He'll get mad," Lust spoke quietly, his arms crossed in front of his chest. He had a tired and weak smile on his teeth.

Cross could feel that he was still mentally hurting, but the emotions weren't as terrible as before. It was also a sign of the fact that Lust had gotten used to it. There was shame hiding behind all the horror and sadness. It told that Lust was ashamed of his own actions. From everything Cross had heard and felt, he could tell that Lust hadn't fought back with all his will. A part of him had really enjoyed it, as horrifying as it had been, but a part of him still longed for something sexual every now and then, so the Ringmaster's forbidden actions weren't completely unwelcome. Though, it was easy to tell that Lust would have preferred someone else over the Ringmaster, someone who wouldn't hurt him and ignore his useless attempts for screaming the safeword.

"Are you..?" Killer trailed off, not being sure how to word his question. Lust refused to look him in he eye sockets, turning his head away.

"Don't worry.." Lust whispered with a cracking chuckle. "You know how it is.." He smiled sadly, having accepted his fate of what came upon him in the circus.

Suddenly Cross felt a wave of worry push through him from behind. He spared a quick glance to check out who was there, and noticed Error staring out of the sound booth.

"Why are we here?" Cross snapped his attention back forwards upon hearing the familiar voice of Ink, who was standing between Lust and Killer. His head was tilted to the side and he had a huge grin on his otherwise confused looking face. Cross tried to held back the shiver as Ink's weirdly empty aura hit him. It was again the unreadable and confusing aura that wasn't empty in a nice way like Dust's.

"Ink, darling, you were the one who collected us here!" Lust sighed softly. "How can you have already forgotten what you've been telling people for the past ten minutes or so?" he asked, keeping his tone soft and a bit concerned.

"Was it something important?" Ink cocked his head before his eye lights landed on Dust and he visibly perked up at the sight of him, immediately getting distracted from the previous topic. "Dusty! Don't stand there all alone! Come here!" he whined and hurried to wrap his arms around the other skeleton's left arm, pulling him to the group.

There was a silent look shared between Killer and Dust as Ink buried his face into Dust's shirt. No one mention anything about it, Cross didn't know if they knew, but it wasn't his business. He just had happened to learn the very surface level of the drama going on. He didn't know much, but he understood why the look was shared. Though, the look didn't contain any hard or bitter feelings. Whatever was going on between them was clear and accepted by all of them, and Cross didn't want to get involved in it any worse.

-----

       Cross immediately noticed the Ringmaster's entrance. The cold and negative aura sucked all the positivity out of the tent in seconds as the flap opened. Fear began soaking through the calm atmosphere when everyone's attention moved to the goopy figure, who walked firmly to the middle. A satisfied grin remained on his teeth as he inhaled the reactions he had gotten from everyone, it was exactly what he had wanted.

His smooth voice echoed through the tent in a darkly enchanting way. "You all have already heard that there will be a show next week. You know how it goes, don't you?" His tone was taunting as his eye light ran over every single person in the tent. "We are doing our usual signature show. Do not disappoint me with your shit performances," – his eye light stopped on Killer – "and Killer, you will show Cross how it works." Killer nodded coldly, Nightmare grinned and moved his eye light to Cross. "And Cross, you won't be performing yet. You have to watch at least this one show to learn how it all works. This circus is really complicated, but you will get used to it." If a stare could burn, Cross would be on fire. The Ringmaster's full attention was on him, and it sure as hell wasn't pleasant.

He offered the Ringmaster a shaky nod, and for a moment he thought it wasn't enough as the gaze didn't move. Then the judging eye light left him and he let out the breath he hadn't known he had been holding.

"Well, as I said: 'do not disappoint me'. You are dismissed." The Ringmaster casted one more look around everyone before heading back to the flap and disappearing.

To Cross it felt as if someone had just snapped away all the fear and anxiety that had been pressuring him, keeping air from his nonexistent lungs. It felt really relieving, despite only most of the tension having disappeared. There were still a lot of negative feelings in the air as many were afraid the Ringmaster would return.

Slowly and hesitatedly everyone started to scatter. Cross turned to look back at Killer. The other knife thrower gestured for him to follow him out of the tent. All the tension had made the monochrome skeleton's own little pain long forgotten.

-----

       Killer led him outside of the Big Top to a more peacefully place between some tents that's names Cross didn't remember. There was a target board waiting for them.

"Now we're gettin' to the real business," Killer announced, making a gesture towards the target board. "Ya haven't shown me your real skills yet, and I've been dyin' to see 'em. Wontcha show me?" He tilted his head and made another gesture, waiting for Cross to say or do something.

Cross glanced at the target board, taking a second to examine the distance. Then he snapped a few red knives into existence, Killer perked up, seeming even more curious.

With one movement Cross sent all the knives flying towards the target board. One hit the bullseye and the others made a nice circle around it. Killer let out a surprised, yet amazed gasp.

"That was amazin'!" Killer exclaimed. "Almost as good as me," he added with a smug smirk, making Cross hold back a chuckle.

"I have quite a long history with knives, therefore I know how to handle them as I want to," Cross said before snapping the red knives out of existence.

"Can ya work with our prop knives? Don't think it's possible for you to use your owns durin' the shows." Killer pulled out his own knife for demonstration. Cross could easily tell that it was sharp and could easily kill or badly injure someone.

"Won't be as easy, but shouldn't be a problem," Cross hummed, accepting the knife from Killer and throwing in into the bullseye while still facing the other. Killer's eye sockets widened.

"Ain't gonna lie, that's pretty amazin'," Killer admitted, walking to the target board to examine how well the knife had hit the bullseye. "I bet Nightmare'll be pretty happy with it, which technically just means that he ain't gonna lock you up into a tent and let you die alone.." Cross stiffed, he turned to look at Killer in shock.

"..What's that supposed to mean?" he dared to ask, but still he wasn't sure if he actually wanted to know the answer.

Killer turned cold again. He stuffed his hands through the holes in his trousers where his pockets had one been in. Yet, he didn't turn to face Cross when he spoke, "Sometimes there'll come people who know what they wanna be, but don't actually know how to do it. They say they'll be good at somethin', but when they demonstrate, they fail. Nightmare doesn't like that a bit, he says it's just wastin' his time. Those who can't prove themselves worthy, they get thrown into an isolated tent where they rot alone 'till they die."

Cross felt the already cold temperature drop even more when Killer turned to look at him. He looked almost emotionless. But what he said next made Cross' spine shiver: "But betcha already figured that out."

"Our of curiosity I have to ask," Cross stared, Killer raised a browbone, but kept his cold look. "If you really despise this all so much, why did you come here.?" Cross inquired, trying to carefully meet Killer's eyes sockets, but the other turned around.

"This place used to be actually amazin', magical, dreamlike, but two years ago it all was taken away in a blink of an eye. That's when the darkness fell. Everyone who arrived after that knows nothin' of the time before.. They think it's always been like this.. But Ink, Lust, Error, Geno, Reaper, Fresh, Dust, Asy, Fell and I know the truth behind the closed curtains.." Killer finally met Cross' eye sockets away. Cross was stunned by the new information he had gathered, and the date two years ago would have made sense if he's calculations had added up.

"What... What happened two years ago..?" Cross barely managed to spit the words out of his mouth. He needed to know.

"I've already said too much." Killer's tone was cold. "Let's forget 'bout it and continue with the trainin'. Nightmare ain't gonna be happy if he learns we ain't doin' anythin' 'ere." He turned his back to Cross and aimed the knife towards the target board, pushing the ocean of suffocating emotions away from his mind, letting Cross finally breath freely.

Words: 2826

[16.6.2022]