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Welcome to the Underground Circus

The Queen of the Nile
 

“No, I don’t,” Paul replied to the voice. He leapt to his feet. He wanted to see who he was talking to – who he would be dealing with next.

A pretty, dark face surfaced above the wall. Long, incredibly black hair hung down her cheeks, dripping wet with gold decorations tied in various places. Paul thought she was stunning. She leaned over the rocks and he could see that her wrists and her neck were covered in gold baubles and chains. Antique looking jewelry. She certainly fit in with her surroundings, thought Paul, looking like an Egyptian goddess.

She raised a finger to Paul, her bracelets jingling in the silence. “Why don’t you come closer?”

Paul took a step back and gave a slight twitch of his head.

She pouted. “You don’t want to be my friend?”

Paul’s head twitched again, making her laugh.

“Do I look like someone you should be afraid of?”

Her smile told Paul no. It was warm and inviting and he should be begging to be her friend. But the weight in his belly told him to stay put. After what he had seen, Paul knew there was no one at this circus that he could trust except for his brother and friends. But just because he didn’t trust her didn’t mean he couldn’t ask her questions.

“What is this place?”

Her smile grew as she settled her head in the palm of her hand. “It’s the Underground Circus, silly.”

Paul’s eyes nearly rolled to the back of his skull. These performers really thought kids were stupid. Well, he thought, they’ve underestimated me.

He leaned back against a column trying to give the impression that he was relaxed, and asked, “Yes, but which stage is this?”

“You, my young adventurer, have found your way into Little Egypt.” Her gaze roamed the columns and the set pieces covered in hieroglyphics. Paul even saw a few miniature sphinxes on either side of her tub. “It is my home. Or pieces of my home. Have you ever been to the temples on the island of Philae? Or to the Temple of Kom Ombo?”

“No. I’ve only seen temples and pyramids on TV.”

She tsked at him, though he knew by the look on her face that she was far off and walking the corridors at one of her temples. “They are glorious. Or were. Time has a way of destroying beauty.”

“You’re talking like you were there when they were new, but those were built thousands of years ago. Is this just part of your act?” Paul couldn’t say why but the idea that he could be talking to someone who was ancient (or was crazy enough to think they were) was downright scary. Nothing about her looked menacing but if she was nuts, Paul was going to be running again. If he ever got out, he was going to have to get new shoes. A shiver ran up his body and he thought of Doug and Steve and Wade. Were they okay? Or were they dealing with a danger all their own?

“Enough about me,” she purred as she raised herself up.

Paul blushed furiously. This woman was topless. Luckily her hair was covering her up, making her almost decent, but it still made Paul extremely uncomfortable. He tried to look anywhere but at her.

“Why don’t you come over here and tell me about yourself? I’d like to know how you ended up on my stage tonight since I’m not part of the lineup. The Ringleader doesn’t think I’m scary enough for Halloween. Do you think I’m scary?”

He nodded.

She smiled, pleased with his answer. “I’m not supposed to have visitors until next week when we go back to our normal lineup. Next week we have guests coming in from Kansas. You know, people come from all over to see us. Especially if they think we’re only here for a short time.”

“So you’re always here?”

“Always,” she chuckled. “Sometimes we tour, and we have other facilities that we go to when it’s time to move on. Mostly we stay here.”

He shook his head, trying hard to understand. “Then the flyers?”

“We pass them out to different areas. We never take too many people from one place. It would arouse too much suspicion, silly boy.” Her fingers twirled in her dark hair revealing more skin and forcing Paul to look away. “You still haven’t told me how you ended up here with me.”

“Uh… ” Paul didn’t know how to answer that. He didn’t want to tell her that he had been stupid enough to chase tigers under the stage and thinking about it brought a tear to his eye. “Pepperwell… Pepperwell’s the one who brought me here.”

“Well, how nice of Pepperwell. Did you enjoy the show?”

“What I saw of it,” he coughed.

She was pulling herself out of the water and Paul was nervous. He hoped she had bottoms on. Otherwise, what kind of show did she put on?

But as she reared herself up, it wasn’t legs that curled up on the edge of the stone wall. It was a tail.
Paul’s mouth fell open. “Are you a mermaid?”

She giggled. “Not exactly.”

Paul gawked and his insides shook as he watched this incredibly heavy snake’s tail emerge from the water and coil around the woman’s waist. Flecks of greens and blues and black shone under the heavy stage lights as her lower body undulated. Paul’s hands covered his eyes. He felt so childish doing it, but this couldn’t be real. This had to be an elaborate costume run by a mechanism. Monsters like this just didn’t exist.

“You don’t like my décor. You don’t like my tail. I’m beginning to think that you don’t like me,” she hissed. Her voice was slurring and Paul could tell that she was slithering ever closer.

“You’re not real,” he said. He was frozen, his palms pressed to his eyelids. “You can’t be real.”

“Oh, I’m real all right. Stuck in this sideshow. I used to be worshipped as a goddess. Now I live in a hole in the ground, feeding off the scraps that our Ringleader deigns to give me.”

Paul could hear her sliding closer and he felt something begin to wrap itself around his ankles.

“Open your eyes,” he muttered. “Open your eyes.”

“Yes.” She was so close that Paul could feel her breath on his forehead. “Open your eyes and look at me, you tiny bag of bones. They couldn’t even be bothered to give me someone with some meat on them. But I suppose you’re better than nothing.”

The tiger’s den flashed through Paul’s mind. The blood trail and the screams. He was not going to let that happen to him. But how was he going to get away from the snake lady? He didn’t have a weapon and he wasn’t big enough to fight her off with just his hands. He needed an idea. And then he remembered the skull.

“Better than nothing,” he said.

Paul opened his eyes to find he was face to face with the woman. Great fangs were now hanging from her upper jaw, dripping with venom, and the end of her tail was snaking its way up his thin frame.

She wiped some stray hairs from Paul’s face. Her hand came away with some of his makeup on it. “Don’t worry. I’ll make this quick.”

“Okay.”

As she reared back with a gaping maw, looking ready to devour him whole, Paul crouched down and grabbed the skull, fitting his fingers into the holes just as he would a bowling ball. He stood, swinging it as hard as he could. The skull cracked against her face and she screamed. Enraged, she flicked her tail and sent Paul flying into the nearest pool. He hit the water hard and as he yelled out the rancid water invaded his mouth and lungs. He couldn’t breathe. Paul was so disoriented that he couldn’t find the bottom or the surface. He paddled his arms, hoping he could break the surface before she struck again.

“You horrible child!” she screamed as Paul broke the surface, taking big gulps of air. “I was going to go easy on you. This is the thanks I get for making your death swift? Well…”

Paul watched in horror as the snake lady attacked, crawling on her hands and using her tail to push her faster.

“I don’t usually play with my food but I think I’ll make an exception for you,” she spat as she dove into the pool.

Paul needed to get out of the water but she was too fast. She grabbed him around the waist with her thick tail and hurled him across the stage again. He hit one of the columns and fell. All the air had been knocked out of him.

There was no running from her. Pepperwell wasn’t going to stop her from eating Paul because he was the one who had sent Paul to her. He guessed that the girl in the frilly dress was meant for the snake lady but the tigers had gotten greedy. And Paul had chased them into the tunnels below like an idiot. Why couldn’t he mind his own business? It’s not like he had been good enough or strong enough to save her and now, because he had tried to be a hero, he was going to die.

The snake lady was toying with him. She was swimming and splashing in her paddling pool while Paul laid there trying to catch his breath. She was so good at throwing him around that Paul found it hard to believe that she didn’t always play with her food. He lied there, listening to her talk and giggle. He didn’t care to listen to what she said. All he could think about was how he didn’t want to be snake food. The pain in his chest began to ebb and Paul stretched his limbs out and breathed deep. When his feet hit a wall and then kept going, he paused. He wasn’t going to die after all.

Looking down at his lucky shoes, he had kicked a small door that led down. It was tiny. Even with how small he was, Paul was going to have to squeeze to make it through.

The splashing stopped and he heard the snake lady ask, “Are we ready for round three? I haven’t had this much of a workout in years.”

Paul didn’t wait. He certainly didn’t want to get tossed around like a rag doll again. He scurried toward the door, spurred on by her ringing laughter, and pushed his head through the trap door.

Behind him, the snake lady screamed, “No!”

It was a tight fit and his body hurt from hitting the column but Paul was determined not to be eaten. He reached out into the darkness, grabbing for anything, and pulled himself through. He tore his way down as she crashed through the door and when he fell out at the bottom, he turned expecting to see her right behind him. But the snake lady was still up at the door. She was too large to fit through such a small hole. Only her hand was out, groping at nothing.

Paul didn’t want to wait around for her to find a bigger doorway down to him.

“I guess you’ll have to settle for nothing,” Paul said before he picked a hallway to roam.

There was music up ahead, getting louder with each step. And he could hear the shuffling of feet. He knew he was close to Doug and his friends. He would sneak back into the crowd, get his friends, and get out of this crazy circus.
 



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