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AMIRA
Ihad almost finished sweeping the empty room inside a tent when Krin, one of Madame’s bracks, carried in a huge wooden crate. A truck had delivered it earlier that morning and unloaded it in the yard while bracks were having breakfast.
“Get out of the way,” Krin hissed at me.
I scurried closer to the striped canvas wall as he maneuvered a massive metal frame out of the crate.
A large creature was chained to the frame. It was upright, its arms and legs spread like a sea star, ankles and wrists locked into metal manacles.
Over the years, I’d seen many peculiar animals join Madame’s menagerie. The bracks hunted and trapped them in Nerifir, the world where Madame and the bracks had come from to Earth. Madame could not return to Nerifir, Radax had told me. But her bracks traveled between dimensions, bringing marvelous things and magnificent beasts from the magical kingdom.
This one appeared disturbingly human-like, however. His distorted proportions made it look like the most grotesque version of a man.
It was most certainly a he—a huge penis dangled between his muscled thighs. The creature was partially covered in black fur. There was not enough of it to conceal his entire body, though. Patches of fur sprouted on his wide shoulders and narrow hips, some of his crotch area and thighs, leaving his gray skin bare in other places.
“Where does Madame want him?” Krin asked another brack, Dez, who followed him in.
I hadn’t seen Dez for the past few months. He’d been away from the menagerie, but not in Nerifir. Madame had mentioned once that Dez was taking care of a beast in another location in the country for her. I wondered if this creature was the beast Dez had been guarding.
Dez shrugged. “Put him right here for now.”
The beast snarled, snapping his needle-sharp teeth. Saliva dripped from his fangs. It sizzled and steamed when it hit the packed dirt of the tent floor.
“Easy, voukalak.” Dez shoved a fist into the ribs of the animal. The beast snarled and clacked its teeth, narrowly missing Dez’s arm. “Easy!” The brack jumped back, then noticed me as I tried to hide in the shadows by the wall. “Hey! What are you doing here?”
Madame had ordered me to sweep this room for the crate’s arrival. She’d mentioned the creature would be her new VIP exhibit. I’d finished and was on my way out when Krin had blocked my escape route.
I lifted the broom in my hand, explaining my presence in the room to Dez without words.
Dez made a face as if he’d stepped into a gum on a sidewalk, harmless but annoying. Except for Radax, the bracks didn’t care much about me. For them, I was mostly a nuisance they had to share the space with. No matter how much I tried to keep out of their way, it wasn’t always possible to avoid them in the small world of the menagerie.
“Get out of here,” Dez dismissed me, jerking his head toward the exit.
Clutching the broom and dustpan in both hands, I hurried to the exit when Krin yelped in pain. Leaping away from the frame with the beast, Krin slammed into me. Blood dripped from the deep scratch on the pad of his thumb.
I staggered backwards, trying to regain my balance.
“What the fuck are you still doing here?” Krin shoved at my shoulder, knocking me to the ground.
The broom and dustpan tumbled out of my hands. I painfully slammed my tailbone against the hard ground but swallowed the groan of pain. There’d be no sympathy from the bracks. My cries would just irritate them further.
“Fucking voukalak!” Krin punched the chained creature in the head. The beast howled and thrashed in his restraints.
“What did he do?” Dex moved toward the animal, his fists at the ready.
“Scratched me with his claw.” Krin sucked on the wound on his thumb.
Dez huffed a laugh and landed a blow in the animal’s ribs, then turned to Krin. “Lucky for you, it was his claw. If it’d been his fangs, you’d be dead.”
Gripping the broom handle, I collected the dustpan, then scurried behind the fabric partition into the narrow passage behind it. Only once I was out of the bracks’ sight could I draw a full breath.
The morning was steadily running away from me. Many chores remained to be done, but I hurried to one of the storage rooms located in the bowels of the interconnected tents.
Despite being with the menagerie most of my life, I had no room of my own. Madame used a travel trailer or stayed at a hotel if she found one to her satisfaction. The bracks shared a few trailers between themselves. I usually remained in the tents.
I didn’t need much space, and there was always a bundle of rags or a pile of bags for me to sleep on. Neither did I have enough clothes to require a closet. I wore what the bracks wore—black t-shirts and hooded sweatshirts. Their clothes were several sizes too big for me, but I didn’t mind. They were warm and easy to hide in.
Besides that, I picked up lost things on the fairgrounds sometimes. That was how I’d gotten the gray scarf I now wore day and night. It was made from thin but soft material, wide and long. I loved how warm it felt coiled in thick folds around my neck and how I could bury my face in it by drawing my head into my shoulders. It made me feel safer somehow.
After putting the broom and the dustpan away, I found a dark place behind another large crate in one of the stuffy little storage rooms in the maze of the canvas walls. I wedged myself between the wooden side of the crate and the dusty canvas partition.
Cleaning Madame’s trailer was next on my list of chores. But maybe she wouldn’t notice if I took a moment?
Leaning with my back against the crate, I drew my head into my shoulders, buried my chin into my scarf, and hugged my knees, taking as little space as possible. Here, in this hiding place, I could pretend I was invisible.
The man at the ticket booth, one of Brad’s friends, had called me a ghost. And sometimes I wished I were one—invisible, untouchable, ethereal. Impossible to hurt.
My tailbone ached, and I shifted into a slightly more comfortable position. I released a long breath. It came out shaky, but without tears. There was no point in crying. I learned long ago, tears never changed a thing.
A scratching noise came from the crate behind me. I jerked away, startled, then settled back down. Animals scared me far less than people.
This crate had been traveling with us for quite some time now. For whatever reason, Madame had been holding back from displaying the creature inside it to the public. Judging by the size of the crate, the beast must be big, maybe the size of a lion. But it was just another animal from Nerifir. Contained in the crate, it wouldn’t harm me. I leaned back against the wood.
Of all the otherworldly beings in Madame’s menagerie, I preferred the company of her animals. Bracks were heartless and often acted cruel.
Except for Radax. Had Radax been around when Krin pushed me to the ground, he would’ve certainly confronted Krin—punched him in retaliation, most likely. Then Madame might’ve ordered him whipped again.
All my life, Radax had been watching over me, but it came at a price. Madame detested the attachment between him and me. I believed that by punishing him, she tried to pry us apart. And in a way, it worked. I kept away from Radax whenever possible. I thanked the stars he had been busy elsewhere that morning. But there were so many other times…
“Where is it?” Madame’s sharp voice sounded just outside of the room with the crate.
Panic rushed me, chased by icy fear.
Was she looking for me? How long had I been sitting here? Too long?
