Chapter 3 – Mirror World
There are dozens upon dozens of legend and tales of people stumbling into different worlds such as; a crystal world, a wonderland, alternate dimensions, and even Hell itself. Another common tale is of the mirror dimension, but what all these stories tell is that you can never find your way to these lands. You stumble across them or in this case, they find you. The Circus of Misfortune is traveling to another country since many travel great distances to see them. Roger will sometimes bring the circus to them at the request of large audiences or influential people. They unknowingly pass through an invisible barrier along the road that takes them to a world that’s nearly identical to ours.
The road takes them to a circus similar to theirs. The circus is already set up as if they were expecting Roger’s circus. Curious, the Circus of Misfortune see what this mysterious circus is like. A sign on top of the main circus tent labels the circus as the Circus of Fame and Fortune. The color of the letters and how they are written are extravagant and appear to be made of fire. There are many different kinds of performers who do the same kinds of tricks and daredevil acts as Roger’s does until they notice they’re being watched.
“Oh! We have guests! Stop your warmups and give them a show worth watching!” an unseen announcer says.
The performers start doing tricks once thought unimaginable by Roger’s. They give them a round of applause and praise. Once the performance is done, fireworks go off and the two circuses talk to each other about where they’re from and how they bring happiness to people. The other circus’ animals come out too and some of them are animals never seen before. Some of them appear to be of a species unknown to Roger’s circus while others look like creatures only found in Greek myths.
Ebony doesn’t know how to feel about all of this. She sensed something strange before unknowingly entering this realm. Now all she feels is her feelings reflected back at her or something akin to staring at yourself in a mirror. Riley, on the other hand, feels nothing at all. Right now he’s actually talking to another mouse who is like him except this one has black hair while he is white.
The circus ringleader steps out from the crowd to introduce himself to Roger. The man’s skin is incredibly pale covered with various tattoos and makeup to mask it. His outfit is a dark pink with black buttons and purple lining.
He does a little bow then says, “It’s an honor to meet the man behind the infamous Circus of Misfortune. My name is Remus, and this is my Circus of Fame and Fortune. I’m a big fan of yours.”
Roger does a little bow as well then responds, “I’m glad to hear that, but I haven’t heard of your circus at all I’m afraid. Do you just perform here?”
“We perform wherever we’re needed. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of us since we’re popular around our parts, but I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for that. We knew you were coming through here, so I thought we’d set up and put on a show for you. I’d love to see the performances that make you so famous.”
“You heard the man people! Let’s show them what the Circus of Misfortune can do!”
The Circus of Misfortune puts on their best possible performance for their fellow performers. Even though they don’t think they’re as extravagant as their peers, the Circus of Fame and Fortune is impressed and gives them the same reaction Roger’s circus gave them. The two groups of performers compliment each other then decide to practice with one another to teach them their moves. In the group of animals, Ebony finds a strange silvery elephant with two trunks.
He smiles at her then says, “My name is Ellie. You’re the famous ebony elephant named Ebony, right?”
“I am. Who are you?”
“I just said it. Ellie!”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know elephants could have two trunks.”
“We don’t. I have a mutation but that doesn’t mean that I can’t do anything. People from all over the world come to see me do tricks that a human can do just like you!”
“Show me what you can do.”
“Okay, if you show me your tricks.”
“I will.”
“Let’s have fun then!”
Both circuses show each other their moves and do what the other is doing.
Remus talks to Roger again once start taking a break. He says, “We told the people in our lands that we were meeting you here. They should be here sometime tomorrow afternoon. You don’t mind putting on a performance given our late notice, do you?”
“Not at all…as long as we get a cut of the profits. Haha.”
“Hahaha! Of course, but how about we make the spilt a little bit spicier. We will let the audience decide who is the superior circus. Whoever wins gets the most. It’s free money for you either way.”
“You don’t have to convince me. Even if we don’t gain anything monetary from this, it should be a good challenge for us. I accept.”
Roger holds out his hand with a smile. Remus smiles brighter and shakes his hand.
“Spoken like a true man of honor.”
Both circuses rest for the night in their own tents. Since everyone is asleep, Ebony decides to find out where her strange feeling is coming from.
She wakes up Riley. “Riley, are you awake?”
“No.”
“I thought you were an animal of the night.”
“Not right now I am. What’s wrong?”
“I have a strange feeling about this place, don’t you?”
“Not really no.”
“I’m going to go check this place out. Do you want to join?”
Riley fakes being asleep.
“Oh, I guess he fell asleep,” she thinks to herself before moving out of her tent.
Ebony sneaks around the tents and peaks her heads into the darkness within them. Everything around her feels off but there’s no source and nothing seems out of the ordinary. That is until she enters the sleeping tents of the other circus. She hears noises that sound like voices coming from it. When she heads inside, the voices get louder and they’re all around her. Looking into the performers, she sees cracks in their skin. Taking a closer look reveals eyes, mouths, and skin that almost seem to form multiple faces that seem to be screaming silently. A sudden noise gets her to jump and hide in the shadows. A performer passes her by and lays down in bed. When Ebony looks back at the performers, she no longer sees the cracks nor the faces within them. The screaming also seems to have been silenced.
She thinks to herself, “Must’ve been my imagination.”
She then heads back to her tent to rest for the night. During the morning hours, a few performers from each circus have gone missing. Ebony rushes outside to hear all she can so she can go look for them. She thinks to herself that the faces and screams she saw might have something to do with the missing people.
Roger asks Remus about this and he says, “The boys and girls didn’t tell you they were going to a bar in town?”
“A few did but I didn’t take them seriously. Do you know where they went?”
“Only the best bar in town. They’re serving breakfast now, but a couple famous fellas like us could get a couple drinks early in the morning.”
“No thanks, I’m not going to fall for that. I want to be completely sober when the show starts tonight.”
“Aw, my plans are foiled. Haha.”
Roger and Remus go to the bar in town and attract a lot of attention. They dodge it and pick up their wasted performers. It turns out that they went there to see who could drink the most and it turned out to be a tie. Both Roger and Remus complained to their performers about not winning especially since they have their secret contest tonight.
“Ah what can you do about it?” Roger says.
“Don’t worry about it, Roger. You may not have it, but here in our land, we have a drug that can cure them of their drunkenness.”
When they’re brought back to the circus, a helper has what looks to be a plant of an unknown color and makes tea out of it. She gives it to the performers and they get up as if they just woke up from a good night’s sleep.
“The stuff you have here is amazing,” Roger comments, “Can we bring any of it with us?”
“I’m sorry, but this stuff is expensive. You could, of course, buy it with your earnings.”
“Fat chance.”
The performers and helpers don’t know about what Roger and Remus are talking about, so they shrug it off and get ready for tonight. When the show starts at midnight, both circuses put on their best performances. The audience is wowed by the circuses and their unique performances. After the show and the votes are taken, it is revealed that Roger’s circus won by a small margin leading him to take sixty percent of the profits. Despite losing, Remus and his circus celebrate with Roger and have a big celebration for such a grand event.
Near the end of the party, Remus says to Roger, “It’s amazing that you were able to beat us.”
“We didn’t really beat you in a legitimate test of skill. It was just a popularity contest.”
“You don’t have to be humble with me. I was just going to say that it’s strange.”
“What’s strange about it?”
“That a circus of misfortune beat a circus of fame and fortune.”
“I guess so. I forget about the misfortune part of our circus every now and then. There have been so many blessings in my life that I’ve thought about changing our name to something similar to yours.”
“And that’s a strange thing too, isn’t it? A circus of misfortune brings nothing but happiness and entertainment to the people they perform for. We do the same thing and haven’t gone out of business since and yet, you still beat us.”
“People like the underdog.”
“Right…It’s like you’re from a mirror dimension. A folklore legend that’s contradictory nature somehow gives it strength.”
“I’ve encountered my fair share of folklore legends. I doubt they try to kill each other.”
“You never know. I was thinking that we could join forces. One good ringmaster with another who will bring double the joy to people.”
“Sorry, but I’ll have to decline.”
“I know you’ve had your fair share of bad deals but think about it.”
“I did already when I saw all our hard workers performing today. We’re better off separate. Besides, we work better when we have competition.”
“…Okay. I understand.”
“We’ll be heading out early in the morning. We still have an audience waiting for us in another country.”
“Then get your rest. You still got a long way to go.”
The two smile and nod at each other before Roger leaves to go to bed. Again, Ebony gets up at night to find out what’s causing her a weird feeling, which makes her feel even stranger today. She goes back to the performer tents and finds them empty for some reason. When she goes to check the rest of the circus ground to find them, she finds nothing. When she goes back to her tent, her fellow performers and friends have disappeared including Riley, but Roger is still in his bed, so Ebony wakes him up.
“What is it, girl?”
Ebony leads Roger to the beds to show him that everyone has disappeared.
“Did everyone go out to drink again? Let’s find them, Ebony.”
Once they head out, they find themselves surrounded by the performers with Remus standing on a stage. The bodies of the performers are hollow, but they have somehow have the bodies of other performers in them who are screaming out for help. These performers are more like dolls now rather than people. Even Remus appears to be a doll with other ringmasters crammed into his body. He has strings connected to the other dolls that connect to his head.
“We want you part of our circus, Roger and Ebony. If you combine with us, then we can make the ultimate circus to bring happiness to people,” Remus says in a unified voice as his body opens.
“Fat chance buddy. I ain’t looking to live in another man’s body,” Roger says as he takes out his pistol and takes out the sword from his cane.
“You will join us.”
Ebony and Roger fight off the various performers and animals but the flesh within the performers give them durability to take their attacks. They’re trying to fight their way to Remus since he appears to be in control, but they can’t manage to gain any ground as the other dolls close them in their circle. Ebony is the only problem because of her nature so Ellie absorbs her. She tries to fight back as she roars and struggles. Ellie’s body fiercely fights against Ebony and it appears that he is overwhelming her.
“Ebony!” Roger says as he gets absorbed by Remus.
Roger fights against the many hands in Remus’ body that try to get him to merge with him. He hears the voice of his family calling out to him. The voice of his daughter rings the loudest. Roger sees her hands pierce through Remus’ body and hold his hand. He holds her shining hand and she pulls him out.
Once he’s outside Remus’ body, Roger sees that he’s grabbed Ebony trunk.
“Thanks for saving me, Ebony. Let’s destroy this circus of freaks,” Roger says as Ebony and him both attack Remus.
Ebony’s attack is the only one that counts as the light that comes from her destroys Remus and the other performers while freeing the souls trapped within the bodies of the dolls. Glass cracks in front of them and Roger, Ebony, Riley, and the other performers of the Circus of Misfortune appear back on the road where they crossed into the other dimension. It’s as if no time has passed and nothing happened, but everyone remembers what happened. Ebony and Roger are thanked for saving the circus and a celebration is given to them at the next town they pass. The mirror dimension becomes another story with a folklore legend they tell others that they can’t prove.
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