We jump over the short metal crowd barrier between the stage and the crowd and try to take the least obvious path there. "I really didn't want to come back here, so we better not die or I swear to all that's unholy, I will make your afterlife a real Hell."
He barks out a laugh. "That's the spirit!"
Zaphara emerges from backstage, the curtains making her practiced theater strides look like the start of an act. Rick shadows close behind her, nodding and muttering incoherently, the fucking snitch.
"Here I presumed you'd meet a similar fate to your boyfriend's."
Tobi's face mirrors my disgust. Between her abuse and managing the circus, she had no time to familiarize herself with the children she stole. She is simply the owner of the Circus, a manager. Not a mother, and definitely not our mother.
"You gross as fuck, Bitchheart," Tobi blurts once we're done puking in our mouths for a moment.
Zaphara takes a step closer to us. "What did you call me, you useless little shit?"
"You heard me, Bitchheart."
She steps closer and I hold up a hand. On my silent command, the bear behind us lets out a deep growl. She stops but smiles. "You're not going to kill me, sweetheart."
I clench my jaw. "You underestimate me, Zaphara."
"I don't." She holds a hand up to her chest. "I never have. I know exactly what you're capable of, little one, and that's exactly why you couldn't kill my dogs." She laughs. "You blame me for making you use the powers you're so afraid of, but you should be thanking me. Without me, you would've died—"
"—from hypothermia in a dumpster. Or so you've said a million times."
"Because it's the truth."
"I don't think so," I tell her. "We know you took us from the same nursery. What's my real name?"
Behind me, Tobi scoffs. "You've got to be fuckin' kidding me, Jey. This is not the time."
She lets out a sharp laugh. "You want to know your name."
"I want to find my parents. Who are they?"
"They're dead." She crosses her arms. "You killed them."
My heart races and my face burns. It might be true but I don't want to believe it...
Zaphara chuckles. "You're so adorable when you're flustered, hun, but I truly don't know their names. I didn't care for them. It was easier to kill them." She brings a hand up to her chest again, but I'm all too familiar with her gestures of feigned sympathy. "And I had no choice, really. I couldn't take your magic, and if I left them alive, they would've come for me. What else was I supposed to do?" She glances over at Rick, who gives a nod despite his wide-eyed expression. "Jey... such a sweet kid you were. You used to listen to me, you know."
"Before my conscience caught up to my brain."
"Mm, too bad about that." She reaches into the slit of her skirt to pull the gun back out from the holster around her thigh. My heart thunders in my chest as she points it at my face.
"What's going on?" a voice says. One of our security guards is standing at the main door.
"Nothing," Zaphara calls back. "Just practicing our next act."
"Since when do you use guns?" Harley asks.
"Since now. Shut up and go away."
The young watchman shrugs and leaves the tent to patrol the parking lot as scheduled.
YOU ARE READING
Deadass & Jackass
Short Story"When all goes to shit, maybe the dead have the solution." Necromancer Jey Jinxx doesn't know anything outside of the circus. After escaping, they can't stop going in the same circle over and over again. They resort to the only thing they've been kn...
