Dimensional Circus

(Warning: Violence, Topics of Sexual Abuse, Abuse, and Suicidal Topics. Please steer clear if you are scared by these things. Have a wonderful day, beautiful people!)

Truth's were never real. In reality he was alone, right? "Kintur? Kintur where are you?" he called out. His voice only carried for so long. The day Ben gave him the book. This- This cursed book. "Wretched thing" he muttered, slamming it to the dirt. He looked around the area, sniffling. This was no way to be a man. Ugh. "Stop acting like a baby" his girlfriend whispered, walking over and grabbing his hand. "It's Ben's fault. His stupid enchanting gave you that book. All you need to do is curse him back" she whispered into his ear. He nodded, then kissed Kintur's cheek and slipped off. "Benjamin!" he yelled out into the woods. Hearing a faint laughing. They were almost 14 now. Ben didn't have a downside. Ben was perfect, his mother born with no powers and his father with enchanting, this made him have enchanting with no downside. It was unfair in the least. Jake opened the leather laced book and ran his fingers down a page, then beginning to write. He read aloud as he saw Ben's blonde hair. "Benjamin Gardener, may you have a demon inside of you, may you as an enchanter become a monster made of your anxiety and anger, killing those you love and haunting you with the very things you fear that you are made of" he said, his voice breathy and dragging.

Ben turned and smiled at Jake. "Hey dude! How is the book coming along? Is it working correctly? I saw that you were writing in it!" he smiled, so easy to hurt. So easy, to hate. "I'm wondering if I did the enchantment correctly. You said you wanted to write things into existence, and now I wonder if it's tied to the book, or to you" he droned on and on. Then Aria looked over Jake's shoulder, her fiery curls of hair hanging low over her face.

"You!" she hissed, tackling him from the elevation of the tree.

Jake yelped as he hit the dirt, his skin the same color as the mud. "What did you do to Ben?!" she demanded, holding his throat down. Alex, their green haired friend was running up. "Hey! Let Jake go!" his squeaky voice said. Alex looked over at Ben, touching his shoulder. Ben felt something stirring in his gut, a voice fading into his mind. 'Aria went insane, she's going to hurt Jake. You're like his older brother. Protect him' it said. Ben's tan arms grew pale as purple vines grew along him with pink thorns digging into his skin. Blood rising into the surface in little marks. Aria was screaming now, Jake's face bloody from her beating him into the dirt. Then. The weight of Aria on Jake was gone, Ben's arm on her throat, and her back to a tree. "B-Ben" she stuttered, tears rising.

His form changed, broken limbs and a snout forming, like a coyote, dragon, human. Was there, it's claws wrapped around Aria's throat. "Die" it whispered, the claws puncturing her neck. Soon, she was lifeless, stuck to the tree with branches through her eyes and hands and ankles. The demon turned to Jake and pinned him to the dirt. "You made me kill Aria" it said, it's voice static and far away. "She was my true love" it said, Jake felt Ben deep inside. "Benjamin! Get out of there!" he whimpered, realizing what he had done. Alex grabbed the demon's throat and leaned in close, holding a dagger to his own throat. "Get out of Ben or I slit my throat"

***************

'Hope is a thing with feathers, 

When it has seemed to fly away it has stayed. 

For it can't fly as fast as minds do. 

It hides in the back of your soul, Singing it’s sweet tune.

Speaking it’s wise words,

Until you listen.

Then you learn again

Hope is a thing with feathers, 

Like a bird,

Or a phoenix, rising from the ashes of our doubt.

It continues with it’s soft voice,

And we listen,

Listen close my friend.

Hope is a thing with feathers.

An animal I suppose.

Not to be considered a person.

Because in our minds we are smarter,

Then the phoenix who has risen many times.

Hope is a thing with feathers,

And we are things with skin,

Wanting to fly like that bird,

And rise from the ashes,

But we cannot,

We can watch it’s close relative,

Faith.'

Memories, they clouded his mind now. Sitting on the bridge, he repeated the poem, over and over again. Alex had taught him it. Alex wasn't here right now though. He was off somewhere with a new boyfriend. Ben was alone, staring at the jagged rocks as they shook from the water. "Hope is a thing with feathers" he whispered. Trying to remind himself of it. His hands clenched against the metal, the rust sticking to his hands in that odd way. Like when children would put glue on their hands to pick it off slowly. Alex had, had a friend. An author, unlike Jake though this girl was even more difficult to be around. She was sarcastic and rude, and a mind-reader. All things that Ben hated. He fiddled with one of his earrings. He had failed, he had gotten Aria killed. Missing posters were around the woods, the school. Everyone suspected it was Jake. Maybe it was, maybe Jake had lied to Ben about what happened. Then why did Alex agree then? Jake and Alex never saw eye to eye, Alex was very controlled, other than his continuous statement about the looks of men. Something Ben didn't understand.

"You look depressed" a person commented.

"Leave me to wallow in self pity." Ben pleaded.

"I'd rather annoy you off the bridge" the person's voice could be heard with the wind blowing against their teeth. They were probably grinning. A pair of black and purple shoes slid by as a girl's face smiled, her right arm covered in what looked like bite scars, and burn marks along her hands. He looked up at her face, she had long brown hair and a book beside her. "Go away Hannah" "Fight me" she replied, and looked out at the water. She stared for a moment, like she was questioning to jump as well. "What do you have to jump for? Your life seems so perfect! You got to leave your family and come here and you literally are never talked to! It sounds amazing!" he exclaimed.

Hannah looked over at him, her grin turning to a grimace. "I don't understand why any woman would lower her standards for you" "You say that just because you're a lesbian" "I am not!" "I saw you looking at my sister's butt" "Shut up" she hissed, her eyes questioning if she should shove him over the edge. He laughed softly and moved away from her, she was anything but small. With a wider build and curves. Really unattractive in his mind, but maybe that was because she was muscular and didn't really like men in general. Only as friends. She was twirling a pencil between her fingers, which Ben knew that was because she played guitar, it loosened up the fingers for grip and picking, or 'Chicken Picking' as she liked to put it.

"Don't jump" she murmured, "It isn't going to help anyone. You'll find someone again, an she'll love you and whatever" she shrugged. "You don't know that" he murmured. "Yeah, I do" she smiled and stood, out of the corner of his eyes was a shadow. With blue eyes and a peaceful gaze, Hannah didn't seem to notice, and Ben turned away.

*********

The whispers of thousands told tails of hope, truth, lies, and much more. The whispers of thousands were positive, and negative. The whispers of thousands, were almost always, inhumane. In a sense, Jake was one of the whispers. Mingling in a sense of desperation and doubt. "Please" he whispered, just like the voices. "Shut up. Be quiet" Kintur hissed, grabbing his collar. She let go for a moment and walked to the door, locking it. Once she had came back she was fiddling with her buttons. Jake closed his eyes, wishing she didn't take his book and give him that downside. Making him physically not be able to break promises, and then having him promise that he wouldn't hurt her and would never let others hurt her. What she had done. Everything he saw.

**********

'What do you do for fun?' people had asked a lot. 'I write' she would answer, people always looked at her weird for it. The shadow still followed her, "What are you doing?" it demanded, grabbing her wrist. "Going to go home" she answered, shoving it back. The shadow's image flickered and the blue eyes turned red for less than a second. Switching back to the calming sea color. 'What do you write?' people would ask. 'I write books, short stories, and poems' she would reply. 'Oh! I wanna read one novel! You should publish it!' 'I don't believe you would like my books' 'Oh come on, you're just scared! I bet you don't even write that well, I bet you just sit in bed and eat snacks you fat-' "Stop listening to them" the shadow said, flickering behind her now. "Easier said than done blue eyed freak" she murmured. "Hannah. You are not what they assume you are" it said. "You say that just because we're the same and you want to feel better about yourself. News flash, we both suck" "No we don't" "Yes we do, we're sarcastic and mean, and aggressive. I got in so many fights when I was you" Hannah growled, the shadow laughed. "I got in more fights than what you believe. You just believe what our mother was told. You believe your own lie. It's pitiful if I'm being honest" the shadow shrugged softly.

Hannah glared at the shadow, and was replied with: "You think you scare me? I fear no one" "You fear Chris" she countered. They both froze, and the shadow grabbed Hannah's throat. "Say his name again and I will throw you through another building" it hissed. Hannah tried to shake away, and the image showed in her mind. Chris, her old stepfather, shutting a door and locking it. Whenever she tried to cry he would grab a candle. She looked down at her hands, the burn marks she kept. Along her arm were the scars from dog bites. Then the scar from cutting her collarbone, then the green mark from when she tried to hang herself. "Stop pitying yourself. You have people to protect." The shadow said, "How, you're me when I was younger... So how did I handle it? How did I-" she felt tears slip down her cheeks, and the shadow turned to a girl. Her light skin glinting in the light, she wore a flannel around her waist and she had shorter hair. "I had to be tough for my friends" she answered. "And for my brothers." She finished, looking back at Jacob's place. "You know damn well you don't like that man, why do you let him hit you? Do you think you deserve it? Just because of that stupid Jake deciding you would be his play thing for his anger and his book?"

*********

-Hannah Robinett-

{Jake was wrong about one thing, he wasn't the author. Nor was I, it was that shadow. The whispering one, he grew attached to the book, to his girlfriend. To his playthings. It was disgusting to look at him any longer.}