Circus Darkrai : Alive

The month of January brought about a chill that left ones bones rattling in their skin. The constant wind helped none. January had a certain special cold to it, and some would say it was one of the coldest and most miserable months of the year. The snow could be unpredictable; starting with a light drift of powdery snow in the morning hours, changing to a blistering storm in the afternoon, then ending the day with a sideways flurry that sent the morning powder into spirals, and moved the cold of the afternoon to every crevice of the land. The ice that hid underneath the snow lay there like a prankster in waiting, biding its time until someone would be sent tumbling backwards in the most comical of ways. January was cold, and there was ice.

But this blistering chill was nothing compared to the ice and cold running through Tally's blood at this very moment.

It was right after closing hours in Circus Darkrai, and minimal souls could be seen wandering around the circus grounds. None were customers, for closing time had come and gone. No, these souls were employees. Security had begun making their rounds a short while ago, and clean up crew made themselves busy tidying up the daily mess of the excited audience. Anyone not hindered by these jobs were busy making themselves warm and cozy inside the Circus Darkrai train. Work was done, it was time for rest. That's how it should have been, anyways. But the reality of this winter in Circus Darkrai had been so much worse. A winter of destruction, violence, and fear. An unknown group of monsters had begun to circle the circus, tightening the circumference with every passing day. The circus employees were trapped in this ring, and they were losing breathing room at a dangerous pace. Nobody knew what they wanted, and nobody dared asked. These lot were slippery, and not even the constant work by Circus Darkrai's personal police force could stop this hoodlums in their tracks. Fighting back was getting harder and harder, and was almost becoming impossible with how violent these monsters were becoming.

More violent, and more brave. No longer were these monsters content with destroying property and raising minimal hell. No, these monsters wanted more out of their time in Circus Darkrai. They wanted to make everyone hurt. They wanted to make everyone understand their power. And they wanted compensation for their work in the form of whatever they could get their grubby hands on. Circus Darkrai had become an easy target for them, and nothing was working to drive them off. Nobody was safe from the wrath of these monsters.

Not even the resident Feral Girl, Tally. The distorted little girl had seen the destruction from afar, and thought herself lucky that none of her personal items had been caught in the crossfire. None of her friends had been hurt, though many of her fellow employees had not gotten off scott free. Tally kept her head down, and moved with haste to her destinations in hopes of not joining them. Tally wanted to just go about her day with as little conflict as possible. If she seemed small and worthless, maybe she would be left alone. This plan worked for the longest of times, but as the carnage moved closer and closer to the train, Tally grew more and more hesitant to leave her room. Not for fear of herself, but for fear of her pet being put in peril, and not being able to defend himself should he be faced with conflict. Munchkin the Spoink was blind, and his psychic abilities were lackluster. He would not stand a chance against a powerful right kick to the nose, and the thought of losing her little friend had Tally scooping her pet up and taking him with her whenever she traveled long distances, or whenever she knew she would be away for more than an hour. The first few times she did this, things had been fine. Tally kept Munchkin on the small of her back, and in between her mutated arms jutting out of her shoulder blades. The little Spoink held fast to his master, and travel was kept swift.

But then...the eyes began to follow her.

Perhaps it was paranoia, but Tally doubted this. Someone began to tail her. They kept a great distance at first, and that lead Tally to believe she was just being twitchy. This assumption was the reason Tally didn't tell a soul about this stranger. This would be a big mistake. The week went on, and each week the stranger grew closer and closer, and became less and less interested in hiding their location. Tally found her arms shaking as she crawled forward, and she couldn't tell if it was from the cold, or from fear. There was a shadow around each corner, and it was impossible to tell if that shadow held hostile intent. A mantra would always repeat in Tallys head when the eyes locked onto her. Just keep walking. They won't hurt you if you keep walking. They won't hurt you.

Oh, how wrong she had been.

Tally had never felt her heart plummet into her stomach so fast when the hulking mass of a man stepped out of the shadows, blocking her path. But her heart would clog itself in her throat when all six of her eyes locked onto the jagged knife the man toyed with. Even during the night hours, Tally could make out a red color staining the tip. She couldn't gulp, because her heart wouldn't allow it. The man spoke in a slimy tone, and Tally felt unclean just being in his presence. She didn't want to hear a single word he said, and yet, she heard it as if he had spoken right over her shoulder.

”Hand over the Spoink!”

These words had been the slap in the face Tally needed to return to reality. She ran. What else could she do? She couldn't fight! She was not strong enough to take on a monster of a man wielding a knife with a glint of death in his eyes. But despite her quick escape, the man was right on her heels. Tally was not losing ground, but was not gaining any either. It would be a matter of who tired first, it seemed. But no, fate would spit at the small child tonight. Tally rounded a corner, and to her dismay, found it blocked off by a tower of crates. Should could climb over, sure, but she needed more time. And the moment this thought registered, she ran out of time. The man cornered her, and Tally shrunk herself into the boxes as small as she could. The man issued a warning to her. She could either give up Munchkin willingly, or he'd make her regret it. Not only could Tally not even think of giving up Munchkin, but she could not think at all! It was an odd sensation. Her mind raced with a thousand thoughts, but at the same time not a single thought was coherent, and it all blurred together in a stream of white noise. The only thing that punctured this static had been the sound of harsh boots clicking against the snow-less ground. Tally couldn't hold back her tears as the blood covered knife hovered inches from her face. One thought finally entered her mind, which she latched onto with the severity of a starving fish being thrown a line. Protect Munchkin. All she could do was hold him away from the knife, and let it continue to sway in the direction of her neck. If this was how she was going to die, then she at least wanted to leave this world doing something good.

But it was not her time that would come to an end.

The brightest of white lights burned through the dark night, causing Tally to flinch away. Though she dare not close her eyes and turn away from the knife. She continued to look on, and her fear turned to confusion when the monster of a man stepped back and pulled the knife away from her face. But something was wrong. His movements were broken, like a puppet with tangled strings. He had the most uncomfortable frowns on his face, and it conveyed that something was not right. His body began to glow with a terrible pink a moment later.

Then the knife traveled to his neck.

Tally couldn't understand what the man said as the tip of his blade punctured skin, but she would realize what he said later that day. A single drop of blood leaked from the cut. Her eyes widened, and despite all better judgment, she tried to reach out to the man. Arceus, she tried to save him, but she moved in slow motion while the world around her kept spinning. She choked on the words she had hoped to scream to save this mans life. She failed to stop him, and as a result, was forced to watch as the man ripped his own throat in half. There was a wet, sloppy sound, which Tally mistook for her stepping in a pile of slush. But no, it had been the sound of a spray of blood slapping the ground in the most gory of tidal waves. Tally watched as the life of the man in front of her faded, and he crumpled to the ground as if someone had turned his ability to stand off. Tally continued to stare forward, even as the little bundle in her lap began to shift and move. Tally only half realized that the fierce white glow was coming from Munchkin, and it was only when he slid out of Tallys arms did Tally manage to rip her eyes away from the corpse to her pet. What she saw could've been described as amazing any other day. Her Spoink grew almost triple in size, and his body shifted and morphed with it's growing power. But the one thing Tally noticed above all else, even above the fact that her pet was evolving, was the fact that Munchkins eyes were the harshest shade of pink she had ever seen. The same shade of pink...

When the glow faded and silence returned to the land, a Spoink no longer stood before her. Her pet had evolved into a Grumpig! The pink in Munchkin's eyes remained for a few moments longer, before fading away just as the white had. Tally caught sight of eyes that were cloudy gray. It was where color would be if Munchkin had not been born blind. But this spectacle would end when Munchkin closed his eyes.

All was still. All was quiet. All was wrong. Tally kept her eyes trained on Munchkin. She did not move, did not blink, and almost did not breath. Tally knew she was not the smartest girl, but even she could figure out what had happened here. Her pet; her tiny, fragile, frail, blind, little Spoink, had evolved just in time to use his abilities to murder a man. And Tally had been forced to watch every second of it. Every movement, every glow, every drop of blood would forever be stained in her mind. Tally wondered with all her might if this would change her. Would she ever be able to be a normal girl again? If not for the circumstances, Tally could've laughed out loud. She had never been normal, but the life she lived was as normal as she could make it. And even this strange life was at risk of teetering over the edge. Tally thought she would be shaking right now. Or that she would be numb. But it was quiet the opposite. Despite the cold that flowed through her own blood, Tally felt very aware of everything around her. She was aware of the pressure of the boxes against her arms, and how uncomfortable it felt. She could feel the cold of the night air tingling on her exposed shoulders, and traveling up and along her arms.

She could smell the fresh scent of blood upon the ground, and how it mixed with the gravel to create a small that Tally would only describe as death.

But despite being so keen to her senses right now, Tally let out a screech and sudden jump of fright as a pressure was laid against her arm. Her head whipped back and forth as her body attempted to scramble backwards, with her only reward of bending her arms further and making her flinch in pain. The pressure on her arm had vanished, and when Tally managed to regain her mind, she realized it had not been the corpse of the man coming back to life, but Munchkin reaching out to her. Tally looked hard at his face, and her eyes almost seemed to look through him. Munchkin looked...sad. He looked very sad. But it was not sadness for what he had just done. It was sadness at seeing his master in this state. And it was sadness at having to have been the one to rip the last shreds of her innocence away. There was no regret at having killed this monster, and there never would be. Once more, Munchkin reached toward Tally, but his movements were searching. Tally had moved from her original position, and Munchkin could not find where she now sat. His expression changed at that point, and conveyed the smallest bit of fear. And Tally knew right away that it was fear of abandonment. She had held that same expression so many times in her life, that it was one of the daily masks she had to pick from when it came time to decide what emotion she wanted to feel for the day. It was the mask she never wanted to wear, and would rather bury it in the farthest corner of her mind and forget it existed. But every once in a while, the mask of abandonment would disguise itself, and Tally would reach for it before pulling back. She was no longer abandoned. She had a home here at Circus Darkrai. And she had friends. She had a family!

A family that wouldn't abandon her, no matter what she did.

Tallys movements felt mechanical as she reached out towards Munchkin, and she let the tip of her claw brush over the edges of his finger tips. Munchkin's hand curled around the claw, and Tally brought her pet closer to where she sat. Tally tried to speak, but her throat was still swollen where her heart was lodged. When Munchkin was close enough, he snuggled himself into the side of Tally, and the little girl wrapped her arms around her pet in the weakest of hugs. Tally wanted to leave. She wanted to run back to the train kart and forget this nightmare ever happened, but her head was swimming with such violent force, that she was certain the waves of thought would send her body swinging back and forth, should she try and stand. She had to regain herself first, and it seemed Munchkin understood that as well. So the two sat in each others somber company for an unknown amount of time, letting the world spin around them as they entered their own pocket of void.

In this void, Tally became less and less aware of her surroundings. But her senses did not return to normal. Instead, they seemed to fade away. She could not smell the blood. She could not feel the rise and fall of her Grumpigs stomach, or the warmth he produced. Tally was in a void, deep in thought. But only one thought clouded her mind at this time. How could a creature like Munchkin do this? How could someone so small and fragile be capable of an act so dark as murder? Sure, Tally had heard the stories of mothers lifting cars off their children, or people outrunning packs of feral animals, but those were life or death scenarios that didn't involve killing someone else! But...did that really matter? This had been a life or death scenario. Someone today would've died. If Munchkin hadn't done what he did, the corpse that flickered in and out of Tallys void would have been her. But she was still alive because Munchkin had acted. Did it really need to be this way, though? Why did there need to be a corpse at all? Tally knew she had reached out to save the man before he had taken his own life, and now she scrutinized this action. If she had been given a real chance to save this mans life, would she have taken it? If she had slapped the knife away, then what? Would the man reconsider his actions and leave Tally alone? Would he have thanked her from the bottom of his heart? Tally thought and thought, and the conclusion repulsed her. No, the man would've picked the knife back up, and gone straight of Munchkin. Though the man would've been after more than just the gem at that point. Tally looked at the problem from every angle, and every ending ended up one of two ways. Either she was dead, or the monster was dead. Munchkin had acted on that same belief; that one of them would die. And Munchkin had chosen to keep Tally alive. And Tally was alive.

This thought echoed throughout her mind, clearing out all others. I'm alive. I'm alive. I'm alive.- Over and over. She didn't realize her body had started to shake, or that her hold on Munchkin had increased. She just let the mantra repeat over and over again.

I'm alive.

I'm alive.

I'm alive.

Munchkin continued to hold Tally close. His ear was close enough to her heart, and the sound of it beating against her chest was the most comforting sound he had ever heard.