Excerpt: Freakshow

Mercurial was a bit of an outcast even amongst the circus crew. It wasn’t that he was unfriendly. But he certainly was a strange sort. A solitary figure, he weaved mischief into the fairy tale classics. Using handcrafted puppets dangling from long marionette strings, Mercurial was perched above the colorful box tucked into the open side doorframe of his trailer. With deft fingers he made the wolf try and pounce Little Red who just managed to escape thanks to the cries of warning from the children gathered.

So what was so demented about Mercurial’s version? You had to look closely, but his Little Red was a cross-dressed boy. Anatomically correct, too. And despite one incident when a child discovered this fact while handling the doll when Mercurial was distracted, the puppeteer only faced a small docking of his pay by Vydden. After all, he drew large crowds even without being part of the main show.

As Hadyn neared, Devyn gasped and clapped his hands as well when the Woodsman puppet brandished his tiny but realistic looking axe. The kids joining him for the show certainly seemed to believe it to be as well for a slow building ooh rose from the dozen or twenty gathered.

“Psst. Devyn,” Hadyn murmured trying not to interrupt Mercurial’s show.

The injured of the two turned his head, looking for who might be calling him. An immediate frown crossed his face and he held up his hand to wave his brother away. He turned his attention back to the Woodsman who he’d missed cutting the Wolf’s strings and collapsing into a furry heap at the bottom of the box stage.

Disappointed he’d missed the confrontation, he groaned and begrudgingly went to join his brother who’d begun walking away. “What is it?”

Hadyn paused in his steps. Turning back to look to his twin, he then absently licked his lips. He wasn’t exactly sure how to begin, so he just started with the obvious, “Vydden is going to dock our pay.”

“Vydden can suck my cock. That bastard only cares about one thing: Money.” Despite Hadyn wishing otherwise, it seemed that Devyn’s mood hadn’t improved any since the night before. “You know what, Haddy? I get that you were mad at me. I get that.”

“Dev…” Hadyn began but a jabbed finger to his chest stopped him short. He fell back a few steps. It was only a quick arm to brace him up against the back of the Test of Strength tower that kept him from falling over. “Hey!”

“You pretending to be me with Kyle was cold. But you admitted what you’d done and if you say he’s coming back today then that’s cool, fine, whatever. I don’t fucking need him anyway.” The rage bubbling within Devyn was palpable, but what was hidden was just how deep rooted it had become over the last several hours. “But you pretended to be me with Erin too, Haddy!”

The other boy swallowed and looked away from Devyn. He had forgotten all about that. To him she was just a misguided girl. He didn’t really understand Devyn’s relationship with her and for his own sake had actually tried to bury what had happened in the encounter. As he awaited more of his twin’s wrath, he saw Kyle coming toward them from the main gate.

“You told her that I only loved you?” Devyn’s voice was as angry as he’d ever sounded. “Look at me, Haddy!” He reached over and grabbed his very slightly younger brother’s mouth. Fingers tightly clinched together caused Hadyn’s lips to purse in the painful hold. “Look at me! You let her think that you were me and you told her that I only loved you!”

Mercurial’s performace nearby was over. Loud music and applause from the children rose up from the peculiarly shaped tent. Skyward, there was a slow dull rolling thunder that seemed to go on for ages from the darkening afternoon sky. Finally, Kyle, still several hundreds of yards away started to call out to both brothers in greeting by each of their names. “Hadyn!! Devyn!!”

“Look at me!” Devyn screamed at his twin when Hadyn’s eyes did not lock on his brother’s as they normally would have. Once the green pair met with the other, he snarled. There was so much fury in his eyes, Hadyn dared to break his unsteady gaze. He’d never feared his brother, but something strong stirred within his chest as he was being verbally and physically assaulted by him.

“I told you no with compassion, with love in my voice last night on the way up here. You remember? Look at me!!” The other hand reaching to grab at his brother’s collar, the t-shirt tearing at the shoulder with the violent grabbing of the clothing.
“And even though I shouldn’t have I did give you a little. You remember why? Because you were pitching this big fit in front of everybody! All you said you wanted was a little bit so I gave you a little bit. But that wasn’t enough. You went and told Erin, pretending to be me that all I love was you.”

Hadyn trembled in Devyn’s grasp.