"Where have you been!!?? I've been looking everywhere for you!!" Greta was one of Madame's loyal servants. "Madame wants to see you.. Right Now!!" Greta spat as she grabbed Violet by the wrist and dragged her to the center tent. She threw Violet to Madame's feet, where Violet laid almost flat on the blue cheap carpet, feeling the stinging heat of fabric against her cheek. Violet lifted her head slowly, her purple eyes staring up under the folds of the Madame's double chins. "Where were you?" Madame angrily asked her but kept a somewhat calm demeanor. Feeling scared, Violet just stared down at her feet and uttered "..I was..practicing...my balance.. Mada-"
A sudden slap flew across Violet's small face, causing her to fall on her chin. She tasted blood when her teeth nearly chopped off the tip of her tongue.
"You come when you're called, girl"
Violet sat up and placed herself on her little knees and continued staring down. She was bowing to the fat woman as if she was a queen or God himself. Respecting and obeying Madame was Violet's only meal ticket and one of the many people in her small life who decided her fate.
Madame Dita's red handprint devoured Violet's cheek and the red swollen skin stung whenever she poked at it. The beatings, the abuse was common for poor little Violet, but it was something she will never get used to. The fat woman threw a box of chocolates in front of the girl. "COUNT THEM!" she screamed as Violet slowly counted each chocolate and placing each of them carefully into the box.
"17"
"AND HOW MANY ARE MISSING?!"
Violet stared down into the three empty slots where there was once delicious treats.
"3...Madame"
The woman stared down at the girl with the look of the devil in her brown eyes.
"Greta, hand me my cane and hold her down"
"But I didn't steal the Chocolat-"
"GRETA, I SAID HOLD HER DOWN NOW!!!!!"
Sometimes a slap was not enough, physical punishments were made for small crimes, like not coming when called the first time or being accused of stealing three small chocolates. Through each whip left a red mark on Violet's white skin. She was given 20 lashes, 10 for being late and another 10 for stealing. In the end, like all her pervious punishments she walked it off and hid in the animals' tent where she slipped a piece of chocolate in her mouth. This small taste of happiness was worth the 20 lashes on her small back. She savored the sweet, but bitter flavor of rich people's chocolate.
For the entire day, Violet spent her time by the small creek outside the fair grounds washing not only her own clothes but other performers's garments. It was a another punishment however.
The blazing hot sun burned her fragile milk skin, where some small yellow sun blisters grew on the white surface of her arms. Being a pale girl, she was too sensitive to the sun's embrace and due to the strange pigment in her eyes she could barely see anything where ever the light touched. Through the scrubbing and washing, the yellow blisters pained her but as always she brushed it off. Scars didn't matter.
As the sun grew brighter, she saw a traveling wagon coming up the dirt road. As her little face turned pink and the heat grew hotter, she heard distant rumors of a brand new star attraction. She wondered if that was another slave of the circus's freak show. On the side of the wagon, it read The Devil's Child. Now of course Violet couldn't read entirely, but she knew there was a creature lurking in the wooden wagon and like all little odd girls, she was curious of the weird and strange.
Night grew and this time Violet was determined to meet the new arrival. She held a candle and hid some Greta's homemade biscuits up her ragged dress as a friendly offering to The Devil's Child. She had no clue who the Devil was (in fact all biblical characters). However, she knew that this person named Devil sold their child to the gypsy fair or like Violet, was kidnapped and sold to the trade. That night, with her little candle burning she stared at the cart figuring out how she should approach her mysterious neighbour. Suddenly, a loud bang was heard inside the cage as well as the sound of a chain being dragged along the floorboards. "Hello.." she said softly and all went silent.
The loud bang shook the wagon once again.
'Why is it hitting itself?' she thought as she gained enough courage to speak again. "Hello? umm... do you understand what I'm saying?" the movement stopped. There was silence for a long period of time. She lifted her dress and took out one of the biscuits. Holding a biscuit in one hand and the candle in the other, she pressed her ear against the wagon and walked around the visible prison. The night was too dark for her small candle and all she can see was the metal bars and the darkness surrounding her. Violet panicked when a muddy skinny hand grabbed her ragged sweater and wouldn't let go. She managed to rip from its grip and watch the hand disappear. By now, her heart was beating a million miles per second. Once she caught her breath she returned to the cage with the light barely illuminating of what looked like a boy with long brown hair. However, she couldn't see his face only she heard him say rather politely "Hello?... I'm sorry I didn't mean to frighten you. I was just...." the voice had the British accent of a 16 year old boy. "Do you have any food with you?"
Violet did have food, she took a couple of the biscuits and shoved them through the black metal bars to the other side. "They are Ms. Greta's biscuits.. I'm probably gonna be beat for stealing again but they won't find out unless you tell them..... umm -" Violet was lost words, she didn't know what else to say but silence was kindly interrupted by a simple "Thank you"
Violet smiled and grinned.
"You're welcome"
"Do you have a sack or could you maybe hand me your ripped sweater?" the boy asked but with a mouth filled with smashed biscuits.
She handed him her torn sweater. "You want a blanket? It gets pretty cold at night, I can try to steal one from-"
"No, I'm not cold" he said as she looked closer Violet saw that the boy wrapped his head and face with her cheap sweater and successfully covered half of his entire face. Violet was face to face with this boy, and was attracted to his beautiful blue almost green eyes. The boy stared at her the same way, though he's never seen red hair like hers before.
"What's your name?" he asked as Violet took a nervous step forward to the wooden cage
"Madame Dita gave me the name 'Violet'"
"Like the flower? What was your name before?" The boy questioned.
"Yup and don't know, never really had one from the start." she answered cheerfully.
"Violet...That's an unusual freak name" he answered.
Like many things Violet came across in her lifetime she was clueless. There was a lot she didn't understand, it was quite common for a six year old.
"What's a.. a freak?" She stammered.
The voice went silent for another long period of time before answering "A person who is cursed, outcasted by society to eventually become their entertainment for the whole world to see" the boy said as he stuffed another biscuit in his mouth.
Maybe Violet was a freak, she was different compared to other children. Looked different compared to the common child.
"Oh...then is your name really The Devil's child? It sounds less like a name and more like a title to me" she was wondering and curious of his answer. She knew the difference between given titles and names, or at least she thought she knew.
"No, no.. it's not my name.. nor will it ever be my name! It's the name they gave to my curse, not the name that defines me entirely." Despite the anger in his voice she asked again for his name. "Then what do I call you? If you're going to be my friend, I need to call you something" Violet spoke sweetly as the boy felt the innocence in her voice.
"You want to be...my friend?" The boy asked, he blinked twice staring at the small child.
"Yes, it will be fun to sing and play with someone. The only friends I've ever had was the man on the moon, the night and the day. But they never talk back. So.. will you please be my friend?" Another moment of silence passed and the boy gave a small grin. "It's ok if you don't want to" Violet's happy expression faded into sadness. "No, no, I.. I want to be your friend. Loneliness was my only company, it will be nice to have someone to talk to from time to time." the boy smiled as the her purple eyes grow bright with happiness. "So..what do I call you then?.." Violet asked a second time, excited that she finally had someone to sing with. "Erik.. my name is Erik"
"Erik" she repeated, taking a liking to the name.
They talked for the entire night, Erik sounded smart and educated and despite Violet being young and immature, they were quite chatty with each other. Having long and silly conversations.
When Violet left Erik, he wondered about her unusual colored eyes, then soon let it go since it was dark and little light came from such a small candle. For Erik it was strange having a friend especially in this cruel and hateful world, but he was grateful that even though God had cursed him, God had finally given him a friend.
The next morning, after completing most of her chores and her rehearsal time, she decided to give Erik her own hard earn lunch. When she came upon his wagon, she saw other children poking and picking at him through the metal bars. One of the children named Nicolas which was Madam Dita's only son picked up a rock and threw it at Erik's side face causing Erik to bleed from his temple.
"HEY!" Violet threw her shoe at Nicolas's head. "Leave him alone!" The impact of the shoe hurt as it was more of a heavy used black boot and bruised the fat boy's face. The fat boy began to cry and streams came pouring over his fat little cheeks. "I'm gonna tell my Mama!! MAMA!!!" Nicolas roared from his fat body and went crying to Madame while the other children followed giggling and laughing.
Violet walked over to the cage and handed him her lunch through the metal bars. She tore a piece of her skirt and gave the boy a cloth to wipe the blood from his head. "I won't let them hurt you"
He started to gently dab the cut.
"Won't he tell the fat lady?"
"Maybe" she smiled.
"... And won't you get in trouble?"
"Yup!" She held a wider grin.
"Will they hit you as a consequence?"
Violet started at him but resumed her cheerful grin.
"Whatever 'Consequence' means, yeah they'll beat me"
Erik stared at her with half his face revealed showing a worried brow. Violet recognized this and said "I'm used to it. But one day I'm gonna fly away. And live in a field of flowers somewhere!!"
Violet stretched her arms and pretended to be a bird flapping its wings. This made Erik chuckle and smile a little something that was rare. Violet turned towards him. " ..and you can come to. Together we will fly away and leave away this place FOREVER!!"
After moments of laughing, wishing, and planning, her name was called in a harsh angry tone. "VIOLET!!!!! GET YOUR HINE OVER HER THIS INSTANT" and like that Violet fled to the voice while Erik stayed in his cage, eating.
Hours passed, and the day had died, Erik waited and waited for Violet to return. The moon and the stars were out and there was no sign of a strange girl with red hair. Erik fell asleep worried about his new friend, until deep in the cold night he awoke with a silent "hey".
Erik opened his eyes to a small candle and a child with short dirty red hair. "Violet?" He approached her glance at her face to which was blue and purple on one side. "What happened?!? What did they do to your hair?!"
Violet stood silent and pushed a sack through the metal bars.
"They cut it and sold it"
"Your face?!"
Violet lowered her head. "It's fine. I'm ok.. at least I'm not dead. But look in the sack I made you something"
Erik peeked in the brown sack to find a bag mask with ears and small holes, some biscuits and a ragged monkey. "I know you don't like showing your face so I made you a mask. And I stole some more of Miss Greta's biscuits. And the monkey..."
through her sliced lip she stilled smiled. "That's mine and you can keep it"
Erik held the doll close, and with his mud covered hand he tried to hold hers through the gate but they touched fingers. It was enough but really he wanted to hug her. But this was fine.
For the next two years their relationship would bloom and grow, until that one day their lives would change forever.
