Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark

Ringmaster's Tale

It was warm in the heart of England, the sky wasn't too crowded
with clouds nor the street with townsfolk. Towards the edge of the heart stood a
nice large home lined in the fanciest of materials. The owner of the large home
was Harry Allen and his wife Bethany. There was a third member to their family
but in recent development she had lost her way, and possibly her life. Because
it had been nearly a year since losing her the two decided it was only best if
they didn't stay. Instead they would travel together bringing joy to the
children of other towns in memory of their daughter. From then on they were a
traveling puppeteer duo, they gave children puppet shows and made custom wooden
dolls cheaply. Everything had gone well for the two until one
afternoon...


Bethany was in the woods collecting twigs and sticks along with
some dry brush to burn under her pot to cook with. She was met with an old woman
who asked if she could help her back to her home. The brunette happily obliged,
she really was too sweet for her own good. The older woman took advantage of
this by revealing something most terrifying to the woman: A curse. Even
through kindness she cursed the woman to forever live her days as a puppet, in
fact the very next puppet her husband completes will be her permanent body.



Frightened, Bethany ran home. She told her husband everything
she had encountered. He told her it was nothing but she had begged for him to
take her seriously. He finally gave in and they decided on making a life sized
wooden doll.


With every day they worked the brunette woman with her piercing
blue eyes grew sicker and sicker. No doctor could tend to her illness, they left
the pair baffled and upset. It didn't stop them from at least spending every
moment together. The night before the doll was completed she cooked her final
supper for him. They laughed and smiled until the time came for them to put the
final pieces on the doll. Once it was set in, Bethany laid down for her final
rest.


Harry mourned for hours sitting next to his wife. Unbeknownst to
him she sat near him as well watching. The doll the two had built watched his
soft tears stream down his rough face. She watched them fall onto the thin and
pale woman lying in the bed. For the longest time she could not move but with
the determination her soul had carried she forced herself to fall gaining his
attention.


He stared at the doll laying on the floor just beside him. The
eyes of the doll locked with his, he fell back alarmed at the eyes following his
movements. She saw his lips move, instantly she recognized the way they moved.
He called out her name. She couldn't hear him the first few time but after him
crawling over and shaking her she heard it. Bethany. He kept calling her. She
tried hard to move to prove it was her but she couldn't.



Somehow he already knew it was her and it made him too happy. He
hugged her, even though she was just a wooden doll now he was happy he didn't
have to say goodbye yet. He sobbed so long his face had puffed from the tears
and his head pounded from his mixed emotions. She made him happy.



'Happiness.' She thought to herself, 'I enjoy seeing happiness.'


She lifted her wooden arms and held onto him, she didn't know
where this road was going to take her but she knew one thing. She wanted to
bring joy even as a puppet. That was the on job she had always been good at even
through the rough times. She wasn't going to give up now.



Over timed she had learned to move completely on her own, she
had learned to speak through the puppet and even control other puppets through
these red glowing strings that came from her wooden fingertips. During the day
the two continued to travel giving puppet shows and by night he would sand out
kinks. They would still talk and laugh like they had before she was doll. They
lived as if nothing had changed but she knew they had changed. In fact her
husband had begun acting more clingy and strange up until he had become sick
himself.


She thought he had gotten sick because of his sudden obsession
over her. She nursed him carefully without catching herself on fire or
submerging herself in water to swell up. It had gotten to the point where he
wanted nothing but her, he refused to eat or to sleep. She had worried and
promised him another puppet show if he could just calm down. He repeatedly told
her he couldn't there was nothing else to him but her. He held her close until
he took his final breath then there was nothingness.



For years there was nothingness to her. She had lost the man she
loved because of a ridiculous obsession. She wandered carefully until her legs
and arms had splintered and begun to fall apart. Pieces of her body had swollen
from the elements, she had lost her left eye somewhere along with her right arm.
She was covered with bugs both inside and out and to her dismay her face had
begun to crack. She had given up all hope with herself and sat in an old
alleyway.


She was so upset, she was so mad but she couldn't express any of
it. She had no tear ducts to cry with, she had no arms to hit things with, and
she had nothing to her. She just wanted to die. She let her head fall slightly
hearing the ball in her neck crack, she just wanted it all to end. She was so
alone. Why couldn't it just stop?


"A doll?" She heard a voice just in front of her. She lifted her
head and her single eye saw a young man cleanly dressed standing before her.



"Whoa..."he took a step back watching her head moving on its own.
He then left. Her head fell down to where it was and she made a sigh like sound.



He stopped by three days in a row. They would exchange the same
interactions before he walked closer to her. She was alarmed by how brave he
suddenly had become. Surly he only came to make her into some sort of firewood
or worse, what if he was going to humiliate her.



"Hey...You probably can't move right?" He sat in front of her. She
only stared at him curious of what he was going to
do.


"You don't seem like you have an owner. I really want to know,
who left you like this?" He sounded...concerned?



"Oh well no use in continuing to let you sit here and rot. I am
taking you home."He smiled and for a moment she felt relieved. He wrapped his
arms around her and picked her up bridal style. Her legs fell off and landed on
the floor, he looked down and gave a deep sigh.



"You are going to be quite a project." He looked at her again
and smiled. For a moment she wished she could return the favor so she did what
she knew she could.


"I'm Bethany." He was stunned for a moment hearing her speak
then he walked with her to his home. He lived in a toyshop owned by his parents.



Over the course of three months he had worked on her. She had
shared herself with him and in return he shared himself. She learned his name
was Devin Richards, he was still single and in the prime of his youth. He was
supposed to inherit the store from his father but he really didn't want it.
There was something more important to him than the toy store. This made her
curious but he would never answer. He told her he would rather show her than
just say it.


He came to her one afternoon with a sundress and a platinum
blonde wig. He seemed a bit nervous putting it on her but he smiled anyway. Then
it came out of his mouth, something he had been muttering to himself over and
over again while he worked on her.


"Would you like to come see the circus with me?" He fumbled.


"I would love to." She replied in a soft cheerful tone.



Happiness.


She though as he held her wooden hands, it's the time she noticed he had only given her three fingers and a thumb on both hands.

Have I given him happiness? She watched his face flush slightly as he led her out
of the house. He walked with her down an empty path. They passed lit homes and
clusters of green, they even passed a cemetery. What is it? She questioned as they exchanged their tickets for seats and watched.

What is the happiness I give him?

She watched him as he watched the show. He saw his eyes follow the
performers and he smiled while holding her hand the whole time.



At the end they left together. He was smiling the whole time but
underneath it all she saw something else. She recognized sadness in the glow of
his joy.


"I've always wanted to be a ringmaster, Beth." He glanced at
her.


"A ringmaster?" She questioned.


"Yes, but there is something holding me from it." She saw the tears well and he stopped then turned to her.


"Why can't I be a doll like you?" he held her face and leaned
his forehead on hers."I want to live with you forever..." he sobbed, "But I don't
even know if I will make it past next week."


Her eyes had widened. This is when it hit her. Over the last few months he had a cold, or so it had seemed. He had progressively gotten worse as they spent time together. She had worried about him but had to let some of it go in order to make her caretaker happy.

It was only a matter of time before he had passed before her. Again she was left with the empty loneliness she had just escaped just a few months before. His room was soon emptied by his saddened parents and she was there resting against a wall. It was quiet and dark in the room where she sat. She had begun to collect dust and cobwebs in her lifeless wake.

She was so tired of this sadness she couldn't express. She lifted her wooden hands and stared. She watched her fingers curl and expand. Her caretaker once held these hands just as her husband did all those years ago. She had made quiet sobbing noises deep into the night. She quieted down hearing the cheers of joy from the circus. She lifted her head and looked from the window. Her caretaker had wanted to be in the circus.

She forced herself up to her feet, she was a bit wobbly after not moving herself for some time. She covered herself to hide the wooden pieces of her body and made her way outside. She traveled through the crowds of people keeping herself hidden. Eventually she stopped at the cemetery. She carefully walked in searching for the name of her caretaker. In the distance she had seen a couple of older gentlemen shoveling out a grave and laughing to each other.

As she had gotten closer she managed to see the name etched into the stone above the grave. It read Devin Richards...her caretaker.

"What are you doing?!" She screamed gaining the attention of the monsters tearing apart her caretakers resting place. Upon noticing her they crawled away from the grave to get a better look at the angry and heavily dressed woman before them.

"Would you look at this?" One of the larger scruffy men chuckled grabbing ahold of one of her arms. He gave her a strange feeling how hard her arm was. Lifting it up to get a better look under the coats sleeve he had seen the wood eyeing her in disbelief.

"What the hell?" Another thinner dirty man joined him in examining her arm. Bethany tried pulling away from him with no avail.

"You think she burns Henry?" the large one looked at the other grinning.

In a panic she grabbed his head with her other hand and as he shoved her off red glowing strings extended from her fingertips to his head. She landed on the ground and before she had known it he had fallen too. After taking a moment to examine the strings she tried to yank the strings out before anything bad could happen.

The skinnyman reached down for his partner and before he could react he grabbed hold of Henry. He looked blinded, his eyes had rolled around his head uncontrollably. Henry tried to pull away but the bigger man's grip was too tight. Bethany witnessed this and pulled her strings once more time making the man's grip tighten again.

Henry began to scream in pain, whatever she was doing to him was hurting both of the men. She was scared, she didn't want to hurt anyone. She didn't know what to do. Her wooden parts began to rattle in fear as she tried tugging the strings out one more time. At this point the strings did come out and the man let go of Henry.

The skinnyman rubbed his heavily bruised arm and inspected his partner. He was frozen for a moment and slowly turned his eyes to the wooden girl not too far away. He stumbled back away from the man and ran.

Curious, Bethany moved closer to the man. He wasn't breathing. His eyes had rolled to the back of his head as blood trickled down from his nose and ears. She instinctively covered her mouth as if she had the ability to gasp. She stood and ran.

She didn't know what she should do.

Her coat had gotten caught on the gate during her sprint out and torn a large hole across it exposing her wooden features. She didn't mind it much at this time there was more fear running over her for what she had done rather than what could happen if anyone could see her.

In her panic she had tripped and fallen just outside of the circus' tent. She sat rattling and recreating her sounds of sobs. She looked at her wooden hands not seeing the hands that had held her caretaker but instead the ones that took a life. What kind of happiness could she give if her abilities did that to humans?

Inside sat the ringmaster. He was on a small break while an act went on. In between the cheers and laughter from in the main centre he heard rattling sobs from just outside. He stood and curiously found his way outside. Before him he had seen a living doll. A wooden creature who seemed to be moving on its own. It was amazing. He had the devious thought suddenly looking at her.

"Hello Miss." He gained her attention. Her head shot up staring at the man who had entertained her caretaker.

"It isn't safe out here, would you like to join me inside?"

She was quiet for a moment before nodding and standing. She was expecting him to react in fear. She was no human, in fact she couldn't even respond as if a human could anymore. She was expecting him to scream or set her on fire. Feeling like she had no home to return to she followed him inside.

Eventually she was convinced to join the circus herself. She would have the home she needed in a place that even she could feel accepted. She wanted to give the happiness she could once give. Or at least thats what she thought she wanted.

As time went on the ringmaster had become obsessed and passed on like her husband. She came to a realization that perhaps she wasn't suppose to spread joy but instead take lives. Before she knew it she renounced her title as Bethany and became the Ringmaster and decided she was going to own the circus and live the life she was suppose to live as a doll.


This began the Midnight Circus.