CARNIES Chapter 6 Pt 2

Part Two (The pic on the last one was Marla FYI)
Ap, that was most certainly a compliment, lol.
**
I walked outside, eyes swollen probably, and looked at the people bustling around the grounds. We were going to perform today. I so wasn’t ready.

"You okay?" Rosa asked from behind me. I shook my head. She hugged me tight, and I felt comforted. She was one of the best friends I’d ever had. Imagine that.

"When does the show start?"

"In like an hour." She said, pulling away and looking closely at my face. "We need to work on damage control," she said, and pulled me into the tent with the costumes in it.

She pulled out a red suit set, which would look really cool with the black silks I would be using. Nick would be using red, wearing black. "Put this on," she said, and I obeyed. I looked in the mirror, shocked at the sight. My body had became so lean from the practicing we’d done every day, and it felt weird.

"You wanna wear your hair down?" she asked, and I nodded. I never put it up when practicing, what was the use now?

She sat me by the makeup counter and went to work on my face. I’d thought it was hopeless, but with some waterproof foundation, eye liner, and mascara, she’d transformed my face. She put some black eye shadow on me, and I gaped at myself. She grinned and put on her little fire proof suit.

I’d seen her practicing the other day. I was shocked. She would put gasoline on her skin and light it. Then she’d do a fire dance. It was awesome. I’d approached her afterwards and asked about the danger of it, but she’d said that it was completely safe. Her family had done it for ages. Her mom, who did the same thing, had died five years ago, but in a car wreck. Not by fire.

"This show’s a 16 and over show. Well, without your parents. We’re gonna let teens under that age in if they’re with a 16 year old. It’s gonna be cool. I can’t wait to play my music." She grinned.

"I wonder what we’re gonna play." I mused. She grinned wider.

"You never know. Nick always plays some kind of electronic stuff because it’s easier to…move to." Her grin spread. "I still haven’t seen ya’ll. It’s gonna be awesome."

I shrugged and she rolled her eyes. She put her earrings in and put on her makeup.

"Come on. Let’s go get the guys." She said and sauntered her way out of there.

---Malachi’s POV---

Nick was telling me what she’d told him last night. About her ex-boyfriend.

Evidently, when she’d seen that guy, Tony, she’d thought that since she’d known him from that time with her dad beating her, that her father would know now. Her dad had gotten mad about her dating Tony, so he’d beat her. Especially when she wouldn’t get home right after school. Her dad had gotten mad about the fact that she’d known about sex without him having that talk with her. He accused her of being sexually active. Then, her boyfriend had broken up with her because she wouldn’t let him stop her father from doing more. So their relationship ended and they never talked again. Until the last night.

Man, I thought, both of them are fucked up because of their parents. Kenna won’t let herself see her ex without having a stroke, and Nick won’t even go all the way with Kenna because he’s sure his dad would find out.

"It’s called protection. A new concept," I muttered to him, but he heard me.

"I know. But dad’s just so weird." He said, and I rolled my eyes. He couldn’t even imagine how weird he was. I was really thankful that he’d blocked all of that out, though. I couldn’t even imagine what he’d gone through.

---Marla’s POV---

"Joseph? Honey?" I said, walking to his trailer. He had a trailer. We had tents, and he got to sleep in comfort. I knocked at the door, but he couldn’t hear me.

I heard someone talking from inside, and stood on a crate to see through the window.

What. The. Fuck. I saw Nick from when he was little begging some man to leave him alone. He sat in the middle of a bed, moving away when the man let his pants drop and made a move towards him.

"No!! Stop it!" he yelled, and the man continued his way to him, touching his cheek.

I watched the rest of it in horror. What the fuck was he doing with a video of his son being raped at the age of seven?

I angrily stomped to the door, and opened it.

He looked at me, shocked, putting the VHS in a cabinet full of hundreds of others.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I exclaimed. He couldn’t have let me almost marry him without telling me about this. I could’ve gotten help.

"What?" he asked innocently.

"You. Are. Fucked. Up." I said, and turned on my heel, leaving.

I found myself walking to Nick’s tent. Kenna walked out, the tent open so I saw that Nick wasn’t there.

I didn’t hate her so much now. Why had I felt so negative towards her in the first place?

"Kenna," I called to her, tears beginning in my eyes as I saw the movie repeat on a reel in my head.

"Yeah?" she asked. She was wearing her suit, and I pulled her aside.

I told her what I saw.

"What?" she asked, horrified.

"I couldn’t believe it, either." I said, and Malachi walked up.

"What are ya’ll talking about?" he asked cheerfully.

Tears were rolling down Kenna’s face when she explained it to him. He wasn’t surprised when he heard about it. At least, not until he found out that Joseph had hundreds of recordings of it. And he watched them.

"What the fuck?" he said.

"That’s what I said." I said.

"How- When-." Kenna said.

"I was like eight. I watched something happening, and guessed right. He would always disappear with adults, mostly men, and came out crushed every time. And every time the adults had their heads held high." He said with steel in his voice.

"Why the fuck does he have videos?" he asked, and shook his head.

"Fucked up fucker. He needs to…" he said, and muttered more creative strings of profanities under his breath.

"Does he know?" Kenna asked, makeup on the verge of running even though I knew it was waterproof.

"No. He blocked it out, thank God." He said, and clenched his fists.

"Show’s on in ten!" Joseph yelled, and Malachi glared at him.

We made our way to the big tent, and Nick came out. He saw Kenna and came running.

"What’s wrong, honey?" he asked, concern in his voice.

He hugged her close, and she shook her head saying, "Nothing."

He walked off with her, and Malachi turned to me. "I’m really fucking glad that I don’t perform in this show. I wouldn’t be able to right now."

"Well, I have to go get Molly out." I said, and walked off.

---Kenna’s POV---

I walked into the ring as Joseph announced our names and looked at the silks hanging in the air. They looked so ominous. We would have to climb the ladders so we could get high enough to get hold of the silks. Everyone watched us as we walked towards them.

I climbed in record time, even though I was filled to my very bones with an apprehensive feeling. I had never performed in front of people before.

Nick caught my attention with his eyes, somehow, and I could tell he was telling me to not worry. You’ll be fine he thought to me.

I gave a slight nod, and we grabbed hold of the silks.

The lights focused on us, and when we started the routine, they moved around, matching our movements.

---Rosa’s POV---

I watched them as they did their routine. Kenna moved with a grace that I’d seen only in Nick, and they matched each other perfectly.

The silks hung so close together that when they moved they were two inches, tops, from each other. From the crowd it would look like they were touching. There was no song, which was no surprise, but they told a story from their movements.

You could tell from their movements that they had feelings for one another.

Kenna was still sad, and you could see that in the languidness of her movements.

The silks tangled and untangled beneath them, and they paused for a second, looking in each others’ eyes. I think Kenna was crying.

---Kenna’s POV---

The supports rotated above us even though we stopped moving. We were looking into each others’ eyes, and Nick could see the tears.

He tried to console me, only to make me cry harder.

He came up behind me, putting this in the routine, helping me to move with the silks and him.

He was warm and all hard muscle behind me.

He quieted my tears with the look he gave me, and I could tell he wanted me to save it for later. Just finish the routine.

I grabbed hold of the silks and flipped upside down, while moving the tails of this silks around, letting them dance.

I looked at Nick and nodded, and he shot through the silks, grabbed hold of mine, and pulled us both down.

I heard a gasp from the crowd.

We both flipped upwards at once, using the momentum to push us back up the silks and did a few somersaults in the air.

We both grabbed hold of my silks, Nick’s now abandoned, and gently released them, shooting downward.

Nick’s face was right in front of mine, small grin creeping there, and we both rotated our bodies to spin like I’d done before, spinning downwards to take the force away from us. We came upon the ground fast, and did a back flip, landing on the ground, my left hand in his right.