Description
Our Truth Kyle suddenly realised that he’d spoken aloud and clamped his hand over his mouth, but it was too late. The woman looked at him, and a blush came to her cheeks.
“You are too kind,” Tian Quing She smiled at Kyle, and he felt the heat of his own blush spread across his face. Mr. Tzin took another step and led Tian Quing She with him as he brought her to the middle of the gathering. “We are not unlike you,” he said to the crowd. “We, too, yearn for the day when we can walk amongst others and not be seen as outsiders. Sadly, now is not that time. But… we can take comfort in each other. We can draw strength from one another. Not a single one of us needs to wear a mask to celebrate our Carnival of Secrets. Let others delude themselves into believing in masks and costumes. Let us share our secrets and our truths with each other.”
Tian Quing She moved forward to stand a little way apart from Mr. Tzin and looked around the crowd. She scanned their faces, looking at each one in turn. Then she lowered her eyes to the ground and spoke. “I am as you see me because my mother is a dragon,” she said. “She made love to a man, and I am the result of their passion.” A murmur began within the crowd, and Tian Quing She raised her voice. “You do not have to believe my words, but perhaps you will believe your eyes.” She reached out to one of the tables in front of her and snatched a knife from its surface. Before anyone could act, she pulled open the top of her kimono and thrust the knife into her chest. A woman screamed. Two men rushed towards her while everyone else stared. She pulled the knife out and held it up in the air where it caught the sun. The blade was clean. The wound in her chest that it had left behind didn’t bleed and, as they all watched, the sides of the stab wound moved closer together, closed, and then it was gone. “Dragons are immortal beings,” Tian Quing She finished, and dropped the knife to the ground. “And so am I. That is my truth.”
Mutters and whispers emerged from the gathered people. The spectacle had unsettled many of them, but one among the crowd stepped to the front in the middle of the tent – a woman with long, dark hair and a small scar on her forehead. She looked around at the others whose attention was now drawn to her.
“You all know me,” she said. “My name is Sibyl L’Estrange. I’ve been with our carnival for nine years now. My parents were religious, God-fearing people and, when I was born, I was seen in their eyes as something evil… because of this…” She closed her eyes and as she did so, the scar on her forehead parted to reveal a third eye beneath. It glowed with an eerie green light. It moved from side to side and looked around at the people before it closed again. Sibyl reopened her two eyes once more. “They told me every day that I was a devil-child… a daughter of Satan…that I was possessed. You see, the fortunes I tell… they are real. I can see the past just as easily as you can see yourselves in a mirror. One day, when I was thirteen years old, my third eye opened and showed me that my father was having his way with another woman. I didn’t understand what I’d seen. My parents never told me about love and sex. I told my mother what I saw, but she called me wicked. She locked me in a closet until my father came home. She made me tell him what I’d seen and, when I did, he beat me. Then he forced me into his car and drove us away from our home. We travelled for hours. When I cried he would stop the car and hit me again. Eventually we stopped. He pulled me out of the car, left me at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, and drove away. I never saw him or my mother again. It was only thanks to my third eye that I found the carnival and was taken in as one of your own. Had it not been for all your kindness, I know… I know that I would have died. That is my truth.”
Sibyl took a deep breath. “Sometimes, I see the future, too,” she added. “It’s not always clear, and it hurts when I try to focus on it, but I see it. I’ve seen this day in my dreams many times… the arrival of a wonderful Chinese magician…” she gestured towards Mr. Tzin, “…the beautiful Dragon Lady…” she moved her hand towards Tian Quing She, “…and the little man with the big heart…” she smiled at Gu Yan, who broke his stolid expression and allowed himself a brief smile back. “I feel like I know them already. I believe what they say because I have seen it, along with many things I didn’t understand before. Perhaps, now, I will.”
Rick had slowly edged closer to Sibyl while she talked and, as her story came to an end, he wrapped and arm around her and held her close while she wiped a tear away from her cheek. She appeared to take some comfort from his closeness.
Meanwhile, in the silence that followed Sibyl’s story, Khonsu looked around the crowd, then took a step forward.
“I’m Khonsu,” he said to the gathering, which drew their attention towards him, “but you all know me as Connor. I’ve only been with the carnival a month so I know I’m the newest guy here, but… anyway… I was born this way.” He gestured at himself, his muzzle, his hairy face and his ears. “My folks are from Egypt. They couldn’t have kids. They tried for a long time, they prayed, they went to all kinds of doctors, but nothing could be done. It just wasn’t meant to be. They even came to America to see if Western medicine had any answers, but none of the doctors they spoke to could help. They were on the verge of giving up and going home when they got a call from… some guy… I don’t remember his name. He said he was a fertility specialist, and that he’d been researching some… procedure… that might help them have a child. Well, as far as they were concerned it was a no-brainer, right? They jumped at the chance. It cost them a lot of money, but my dad’s a diplomat and he’s not short of a dime, so they were happy to pay.
“They went for the procedure, and a couple of months later my mom was pregnant. They were so grateful to the guy. The way my mom tells it, he was just as happy for them. He was real interested in being at the birth, too. Dad promised to fly him over to Egypt when the time came. Anyway, my folks flew back to Egypt and seven months later, true to his word, Dad arranged for the guy to be there when I was born.
“The thing is, when I was delivered and he saw me with this face and shape, he was all disappointed. He told my dad I’d probably develop all kinds of physical deformities when I got older, and maybe mental problems, too. He suggested they let him arrange for me to be adopted, and they could try again, but that just pissed my dad off. The guy got angry when Dad told him ‘no’, but Dad kicked him out. He made a few phone calls and, the next day the guy got deported back to America. See, the thing is… I was born during a full moon. And, because my parents were raised in the Old Ways of Egypt, they saw me as a gift from the Old Gods. They even named me Khonsu after the Egyptian Moon God.
“Anyway, Apart from how I look, I developed just like any other kid. I learned to walk and talk at the right age, and there was no sign of the problems Fertility Guy thought there might be. My mom thought about getting in touch with him to tell him, but Dad forbade it. Said he’d be long dead in the ground before that man ever sets foot in Egypt again. Growing up wasn’t easy, what with me being different from the other kids. Some of them made fun of me, but there were a few whose folks were also brought up like mine, in the Old Religion, so they were okay with how I looked. I was home-schooled, mostly, and I got a real interest in the West. What I really wanted was to go to a high school, make friends and live the dream. When my Dad got a chance to work for the Egyptian Consulate in the U.S. he brought me with him and even enrolled me in a school but… well… you can guess how that turned out. I tried to stick it out for a while. The Phys-Ed coach there wanted me on the track team because I could run and jump better than anyone else on the team, but the bad stuff at school outweighed the good, so dad pulled me out and I went back to Egypt.
“Dad would still let me come over here for visits. This one time after I turned eighteen I was out on my own and I came across this place – the carnival. I met Sibyl and Travis, Reggie and the O’Shaughnessy brothers… no-one looked at me like I was a freak. I came back day after day, ‘til the place started closing down to move on. I told Dad I wanted to stay and be a part of the freak show. He wasn’t pleased at all, but he knows I’m old enough to make my own choices, so here I am. I guess that’s my truth.”
Two tall men in jeans and grey t-shirts with boot logos on the front stepped out of the crowd to stand on either side of Khonsu. One of them, with longer hair that draped over his face put an arm over the young man’s shoulders and pulled him into an affectionate hug while the other patted his back. Another man from the crowd came to the front. He was a little taller than Khonsu, with receding hair and a short goatee beard on his chin. He wore a sleeveless denim jacket and a black vest that hung very loosely on his extremely slim frame. Even his jeans looked as though they were many sizes smaller than was normal for a man of his age. His exposed arms were skinny to the point that the bones were clearly defined. His cheeks were sunk into his face and his head looked more like a skin-covered skull. It was clear from his hesitance that he was not used to talking to a crowd but nevertheless, he swallowed and began to speak.
“You all know me,” he began. “I’m Reggie, the ‘Living Skeleton’. I’m like Connor… I mean Khonsu… I was born like this. Well… kind-of… maybe I was a normal baby, I don’t remember. I think I just got thinner as I grew up. It’s not like I’m starved or anything – I eat… a lot… I’m always hungry, but I don’t put any weight on. I’ve been to doctors about it and they can’t fathom why I’m all skin ‘n’ bone. It cost us a fortune. Eventually we couldn’t afford any more doctors. Mom and dad had to work hard to pay off all the medical bills, which is shit ‘coz, apart from me being skinny, I’ve never been sick in my life. The debt just kept on growing. Dad got desperate… robbed a gas station. He got caught and now he’s doing time. That left Mom with all the worries of paying everything. That’s why I came to the carnival – it’s the only place I could get work. I’m not all that strong, ‘n’ I don’t read or write too good, so this is about the only place I can earn some cash. I send most of what I earn here back home to Mom. That’s my truth.”
A few people in the crowd wiped their damp faces as Reggie’s story came to an end. It felt daunting to Reggie that everyone’s attention was focused on him except, he noticed, for Mr. Tzin, who had leaned close to Tian Quing She and whispered to her. The lady nodded in response to whatever Mr. Tzin had said, and the Chinese man smiled. Reggie wondered what had passed between them, but had no time to consider it as one of the men beside Khonsu stepped forward and began to speak.
“My name’s Aedan,” he said with a broad Irish accent. His voice was directed more towards the newcomers than to the crowd, but everyone listened, regardless. “My brother there’s Bradan. We’re the O’Shaughnessy brothers Khonsu mentioned. We’ve got a truth and some of you ain’t gonna like it. We joined the carnival because of these…” He curled his lips back and pushed at his top lip with his thumb to show his teeth. The canines were long and sharp-pointed like fangs. “The boss billed us as real-life vampires. Our truth? We’re real-life vampires.”
A few mutters rose again from the crowd. Several people snorted with laughter or derision. Someone muttered “they’re always pranking someone… pay ‘em no heed.” Bradan, the brother with shorter hair that was spikier than Aedan’s spoke above them.
“It’s true,” he pressed. “It’s like Mr. Tzin said… we’ve been hiding in plain sight… We don’t want to hurt anyone, we just want to be as normal as we can be. We’ve been moving from one side show to the next since 1921. By your standards we’re old.”
“Really old,” Aedan confirmed. “But we don’t age.”
“On account of us being dead… you know?” Bradan grinned. Aedan frowned at Bradan, but the brother merely shrugged in return. “What? It’s the truth!”
“That’s why we keep moving from one show to another, so no-one notices,” Aedan explained.
“Here… check this out… find my pulse, if you can,” Bradan offered, and held his arm out towards Sibyl. She tentatively laid her fingers against his wrist and felt around for a pulse. After a few attempts she shook her head and pulled her hand back.
“No pulse,” she said quietly, “and he’s cold… so very cold…” Her third eye suddenly opened as the other two closed, and she spoke again, only slowly and in a monotone. “Neither of them has had a heart beat in…” the third eye slammed shut as her others opened wide, “… in over nine hundred years!”
“Nine hundred and forty-four, to be exact,” Aedan corrected.
“Not that I’m counting,” Bradan quipped.
“We don’t feed. Not on blood, anyway,” Aedan said quickly. “We’ve not drank blood for a long time. But, since we’re all sharing…”
Bradan turned about and addressed the whole crowd, “It’s like Aedan said, we don’t mean anyone any harm. We just want to be like everyone else, and this is the best place for us to do it. But if we’re no longer welcome here, we’ll move on…”
“Don’t go,” Khonsu said suddenly, and grabbed a hold of Bradan’s arm. “You’ve been like my brothers since I got here! I don’t want you to leave! Please don’t!”
Bradan looked down at Khonsu with a sad expression and then looked around the crowd who were all now eyeing the brothers either with suspicion or fear on their faces. Mr. Tzin took a step closer to the brothers and they watched as he studied them, his eyes deep in thought. Suddenly he asked “You are not the first of your kind I have met, but I must confess that you seem to be the most… human. But even you need sustenance. It is in your very nature. So… how do you feed?”
“Iron,” Aedan replied without hesitation. “That’s what vampires need to survive. Iron.”
“It took us a while to figure that out,” Bradan added. “It was one of your people that taught us that, mister.” He looked over his shoulder at the crowd. “I bet you all wondered why we only eat mashed-up spinach and kale. It’s funny really… you’ve all wondered, but no-one ever asked us why.”
“That’s what we love about carnie life,” Aedan told the crowd, “no-one ever asks.” He turned back to Mr. Tzin. “As it turns out, blood is a piss-poor source of iron anyway so there’s no point in drinking it. And since we’ve been on the pureed greens, we’ve never felt better.”
“Well,” Bradan shrugged, “we felt better when we were alive, brother.”
“You know what I mean, you arse-hole,” Aedan said to Bradan.
“Anyway,” Bradan addressed the gathering, “that’s our truth.”
Another voice came across the tent. It drew the attention of the crowd away from the brothers with its familiarity. It was rare for Travis to talk to anyone, let alone a gathering, but he spoke anyway.
“I know what they are,” he said. “It doesn’t bother me. They leave me alone… I leave them alone… I say let ‘em stay. They were here before me, ‘n’ I’ve been here thirteen years. No-one’s ever gone missing or ended up dead since I joined this shit-show.”
“They were here when I joined, too,” Reggie added. “That was eight years ago. I always wondered why they never got any older, but they never did me any harm. Shared their brandy and a night of cards with me, sometimes. Even let me win a few games.”
“We didn’t let you, Reggie,” Bradan smiled, “My brother’s just shit at poker.”
“Anyway, my truth’s my own,” Travis spoke over the conversation. Everyone turned to face him again. “And I ain’t in the mood for sharing.” He looked away from the crowd. “Not… not yet.”
Mr. Tzin nodded. “That is your choice, Travis,” he said, “as it is for everyone here. This is your home. Your safe place. All we seek is to preserve that…”
“What’s your truth, Mr. Tzin?” Kyle asked suddenly. “My dad’s been a Carnie all his life. I was born into it. Like Aedan and Bradan, we’ve moved from one show to another – dad as a Tattoo Man and me as… well, I’m not part of the side show, but I can ride a motorbike like the devil himself’s on my tail, and I can outrun the old bugger, too. Not much else to tell there. But what about you?”
Mr. Tzin looked around the gathering and his expression saddened. “My tale is a sad one. A terrible one. I was forced into a world of strange and horrific things,” he began…