Welcome to the Underground Circus

With the Pigs

  

“This place smells worse than my puke,” said Wade as Paul slipped down to join his friends.

Steve shook his head. “No, it smells worse. Like a thousand dead skunks.”

Paul, breathless and running out of steam, said, “I don’t care what it smells like we have to find a way out and quick.”

So they ran again and Paul found himself appreciating just how large this underground complex was. And then he thought he’d appreciate it more if a bomb fell down that first slide and blew it all up.

The stench grew worse as they neared the source. Piles of dead and rotting bodies surrounded them. Literal mountains of the dead lined their now narrow path.

“Don’t look, baby,” cooed Pan’s mom. “Keep your eyes shut.”

“I wish I could keep my eyes shut,” said Steve with a forced chuckle.

“I feel like they’re all looking at me,” said Wade.

Doug pushed the guys to keep moving. “That’s because even they think your costume is stupid,” he lisped through his busted lips.

“Come on, guys, stop. We need to work together. We need to find an exit.” Paul knew that the Ringleader wouldn’t be far behind them.

“Not all of these are new,” said Steve. He kept stopping to inspect the dead, like this was some kind of beauty pageant.

Paul understood how hard it was not to look at the bulging eyes or the open cavities and missing limbs, but he also knew he didn’t want to join them. “Stop focusing on the bodies, Steve. Focus on finding a way out.”

“It’s hard,” he whined. “They’re right here.”

“I know, but we’ve got to keep going. Otherwise, we’ll end up as one of them. And I don’t want to die here, do you?”

He nodded his head vehemently. “Good point. Who wants to run again?”

“Boys, look.” The mom was pointing up where an opening had appeared in the roof. “It’s an elevator. Or a lift of some kind.”

Whatever it was it moved painfully slow. They had tracked their way to its landing point before it was halfway down and waited anxiously, all of them prepared to fight the monster that was operating the elevator. This was the finish line and no one was going to stand in their way.

“It’s raining outside,” said Doug with his face raised to the few drops that made it down into the dwelling. “Feels good.”

When the elevator hit ground, Paul was surprised to find that the operator was a decrepit old woman in rain boots and a yellow slicker and there was a large metal container behind her. She had to be at least eighty. They could easily have overpowered her but none of them did. Paul and the guys stood there blinking at her.

Her mouth was puckered and her hat was dripping and she seemed as surprised as the boys did. She grunted. “Nobody ever made it this far.”

Paul cleared the frog from his throat. “How long have you been here?”

“My whole life.”

Her reply knocked him back. He couldn’t breathe. “How – how long have they been doing this?”

She sniffed. “Don’t waste time with questions. You two,” she pointed to Pan and her mom, “get in.”

The mom didn’t waste any time jumping into the blood-and-bile covered container and the old woman didn’t waste any time pressing the button to life them up and out. The mom locked eyes with Paul and he saw her mouth the words Thank You before she was too high up for him to see.

“Almost home free,” said Steve as he wrapped him arm around Paul’s shoulders.

“Yeah,” said Doug, doing the same, “I’m never taking you anywhere again.”

Paul laughed and a few tears escaped. “That’s fine with me. Hey, how did you find out about this place anyways?”

Doug chuckled. “I swiped the flyer from some chick’s windshield. It looked interesting.”

“Okay, we’re all agreed,” said Wade. “We will no longer do anything Doug suggests.”

Paul and Steve laughed as they replied, “Agreed.”

Doug only shrugged. “Whatever.”

They waited in silence as the old woman lowered the elevator again. “Two more of you,” she said.

Paul told Steve and Wade to go first. “We’ll be fine,” he said.

Now that they were alone, Doug turned to Paul and yanked him into a crushing hug. He shook as he clung to Paul. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

Paul held onto his brother and let his tears fall. “You couldn’t know.”

“But I put you in danger. If anything had happened to you I don’t know what I would do.” Doug tried to laugh but it came out as a loud sob. “This was such a terrible birthday present.”

“Yeah,” Paul said as they released each other and wiped their faces. “But it made for an awesome Halloween.”

“Spread out and search everywhere!” boomed the thundering voice of the Ringleader.

His commands echoed out just as the old woman was landing her elevator. Paul and Doug jumped into the container, praying that they hadn’t been seen, and when they expected that the old woman would press her button and lift them to safety, she didn’t. Paul shot his brother a worrying look. Was she going to let the Ringleader have them?

Just as their fears were about to boil over, she returned… with a dead body.

The old woman was filling in the rest of the container with their leftovers. Meanwhile, the Ringleader and his posse were closing in on them. The woman said nothing. She didn’t even look at them as she blanketed them with death.

“Where are they?” shouted the Ringleader.

Paul tried not to breathe as he shivered under the weight of the corpses.

The old woman stopped piling carcasses on the boys long enough to look up. “They who?”

He sneered, “Don’t toy with me. The mood I’m in I might just take your throat.”

She chuckled at that.

Brave old woman, thought Paul.

“You can come after me. Just know that once I’m gone there’ll be no one here to clean up after you.”

“Empty the bucket.” The Ringleader was so close that Paul was afraid that he’d be able to smell them. He was so angry. If they hadn’t been inches from death, Paul might have thought the Ringleader’s irritation at losing was funny.

The woman didn’t miss a beat. “Why? Did you decide to finish ‘em off instead of feeding their rotten bodies to the pigs?”

Paul could hear him leaning over the side of the container and sniffing. The boys held their breath and prayed. They were so close to freedom.

The Ringleader must not have smelled them because he didn’t dig or remove any of the bodies.

“Told you,” said the old woman. “Ain’t nothing but the dead in here.”

He growled. “Search the rest of the room then spread out. I want them found and I want their heads on a plate before the sun rises.”

With that, the elevator took off.

 

 

 

 

The old woman unceremoniously dumped the container over and out spilled the bodies followed by Paul and Doug. “Watch out for the pigs,” she said. “They think you’re food.”

Before Paul could pull his arm away, a giant hungry pig latched onto him. Paul screamed and scared the pig off. It wasn’t too upset as it found another limb to munch on. The rain was such a blessing. Paul and Doug both stood there letting it wash the blood and the dead person smell from them.

“There you guys are! We were beginning to worry.” Steve and Wade bounded up and pulled Paul into their embrace.

“Yeah, we thought you were going to be wolf chow.”

“Almost were,” said Paul.

“You kids get out of here. I’ve got work to do,” crowed the old woman as she kicked the last bits of flesh from her container. It was as if feeding her pigs dead flesh was just like any other day. And Paul supposed for her, it was.

Paul was tempted to run to the car and never look back, try his best and forget that this night ever happened, but he couldn’t. He looked to the woman and held up his hands to stop her from pushing the button and going back into the pit. “Why do they do this?”

Her cold gaze bore into him. “They’ve been doing this for thousands of years and chances are they’ll keep doing it for thousands more.”

“But why do you stay? You could come with us. Get away from all of this.”

She shook her head and pressed the button. As the elevator went down, she said, “I belong with the pigs.”

Her face changed, revealing a flat pink snout and tusks. She let her animal shine through, giving Paul just a peek of what she really was underneath. He nodded his thanks at her before she disappeared back into her horrible world.

“Let’s get out of here,” said Paul.

 

 

 

 

The car was where they had left it and everything seemed in good shape. Or as good a shape as Doug’s rust bucket could be in, thought Paul. When he went to climb into the passenger’s side seat, Paul stopped. There was a large bag of candy and a black card sitting on his seat. It was a tarot card, from the same deck that he and his friends had picked from earlier that evening. His hand shook as he lifted it.

“The Wheel of Fortune,” he whispered. The fortune-teller had written HAPPY HALLOWEEN across the card. “She did know that we were going to escape.”

Paul felt a smile creeping onto his lips.

“Dude, get in the car,” said Doug in that all too familiar voice that told Paul he’d be left behind if he didn’t hurry.

Paul pocketed the card and jumped in. He was ready to leave. He had had enough adventure for a lifetime. And enough of circuses, thanks to the Underground Circus.

“I’ll miss that popcorn fountain,” said Wade, as they sped off into the night.

“Yeah,” said Paul, patting the card in his pocket. “It was a pretty cool fountain.”