|Eight|

•Week Two• (4)

(A/N) I feel like people are going to hate me by the end of this book. Sorry.

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I quickly googled where the circus was, and we headed straight there. It took us at least two hours, but we had finally made it.

The smell of popcorn and peanuts greeted me, and I gazed at the huge circus tent. "So, are we just going in?" I asked, turning to Jack and Ryan.

Ryan shrugged. "I don't know, I wouldn't mind some cotton candy first."

I sighed. "We're not here for fun, remember? We need to find Annie."

Ryan frowned. "But..... Cotton candy is yummy..."

Jack butted in. "Maybe we can try asking someone where she is? Also, I feel like getting cotton candy is a must."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, fine."

~

After going to a snack shack, we wandered into the circus tent, each of us carrying a stick of cotton candy and a bag of popcorn.

Ryan lit up excitedly. "LOOK GUYS, AN ELEPHANT!"

Before Jack and I could respond, a man wearing a red waistcoat approached us. "May I help you?" He asked. He gave the elephant a pat on the leg before turning back to us.

"Well, we're looking for someone," Jack said, still chewing his snacks.

I pushed him away. "Don't talk with your mouth full," I said, then turned to who I assumed was the Ringmaster. "Yeah, a girl named Annie. We really need to talk to her."

The Ringmaster raised an eyebrow. "Of course. I'm Willis, by the way."

"Oh, well I'm..... Uh..... Brett, and these are my brothers.... Umm... Evan and Joshua." I quickly lied while introducing us. I needed to keep our disguises up. (A/N I'm too lazy to come up with fake names so I just used their middle names, lmao)

"It is a pleasure to meet you," Willis said. "But may I ask why you need Annie?"

"It's...... Complicated," I said, hesitantly. "We think she might be in danger."

Willis looked surprised. "We always take extra precautions to make sure our performers are safe and well," he said. "I can't imagine her being in any sort of danger."

"Not accident danger, more like murder danger," Jack said.

Willis looked distraught. "I assure you, Annie is fine. And she will stay safe throughout the whole show tonight."

"I don't think you understand," Ryan said. "There's murderer loose and we have evidence they'll be coming here to try and hurt Annie."

"I understand perfectly well!" Willis said, starting to push us out of the tent. "And even if the murderer was going to strike here at my circus tonight, how do I know the killer isn't one of you?"

Jack and Ryan both opened their mouths to respond, but couldn't come up with anything to say back.

I sighed a little. "Because we came here to warn you."

Willis pushed us all the way out of the tent. "A warning? It could very well be a threat, too!" He crossed his arms. "I'm not telling you where Annie is, and you should leave while you still can!"
Willis walked away and we were swept into the bustling crowd outside the tent.

"Well, that was nice, I guess." Jack frowned a little. "How are we supposed to save Annie now, though?"

Dread crept onto Ryan's face. "What if- what if we can't?" He said, sadness leaking from his voice.

I gently hugged him. "It's okay, Ry. You need to calm down. I know we'll figure something out."

Jack nodded. "Yeah, we still got plenty of time!" He said, trying to reassure Ryan. But in reality, none of us really knew how much time we had to find her. For all we knew, she could already be dead.

I didn't think about that for too long, though, I had to keep up hope. For Ryan.

"We'll find her," I said. "But maybe we should split up?"

Jack nodded. "I think it'll be safe enough. We have disguises and there's a thousand people here, we'll fit right in."

"Alright, it's settled then. We'll meet up at the Snack Shack later, okay?" I said, turning back to Ryan. I gave him a hopeful smile. "We'll save her. We'll make sure no one else will have to go through what you did," I told him.

Ryan gave a faint smile, and quietly walked off in a different direction than Jack. I sighed a little, and started off in a direction of my own.

I stumbled through the crowd of people, stepping on dropped ice cream and peanut bags. I ran into a few circus performers and asked them if they knew Annie, but they always pushed me away. Of course they would, I'm a strange man asking for a woman at her work, that is a little suspicious. But I still asked every person I saw, I didn't care if they thought I was a creep. Annie needs us, now more than ever.

I walked up to a strongman, a little nervously. The man was leaning against a pole, a dumbbell by his side. He was biting into a sub sandwich and he curiously stared at me as I walked towards him.

"Uh, sorry to bother you, but can I ask you something?"

The man merely grunted in response, and a sick feeling began to form in the pit of my stomach.

I continued on, though, stumbling a bit with my words. "Well, um, I need to talk... Um...t-talk with her if that's...." I paused for a second. "....okay?"

For some reason this man looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place where I saw him. My mind was too cloudy at the moment, but the one thing that ran through me was a warning. My body was telling me to run, to get as far away from this man as I could. But I needed to find Annie.

The man dropped his sandwich and cracked his knuckles menacingly. He began to approach me, and his hulking form loomed over me intimidatingly.

"Sure, Adam. I'll take ya to her."

Another warning shot through my body when I realized why I recognized this man, but it was too late.