Cirque de l'abattage

H

Hounds

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Original poster
Cirque des Merveilles

promotional flyer​

"Welcome to our wonderful circus, here you will find amusement beyond your wildest dreams we put our lives on the line to bring you the experience of your life. Enjoy the our wonderful trapezist as the dazzle you with their high flying acrobatics, be amazed by our lions tamers as they continue to battle back and forth with man eating lions and tigers, tremble in fear by our master illusionist as they take you into the dark abyss, and become awe struck by our master knife throwers as they expertly work their knife skills. As for all you night owls out their we have a very Special performance set aside just for you! Yes, at Cirque des Merveilles is so amazing some would say it's to die for"

Yes Cirque des Merveilles is a wonderful place to have a great time, be sure to bring the whole family for a wondeful time see all the atractions and have fun, because as you know this is the last time you'll ever be with them.......Cirque des Merveilles is a traveling circus that moves from town to town through out Europe, they mainly stay near old abandoned buildings or in large fields miles from the city limit. They only ever stay in town for one night after that they mysteriously disappear as if they were never there to begin with. Yes they put on an amazing show, but that's only the tip of the iceberg the night show is where the real fun begins. Those dumb enough to stay for their late night show are hunted by the performers and killed, these blood thristy side shows freaks have no remorse for what they've done. Each coming from a life more horrible than the last, these people are psychotic, deranged, and murderous people will stop at nothing to spread their misery to others. So sit back relax and enjoy the show, because it'll be the last thing you ever do.

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The morning air smelled of pine needles and moring dew, the sun was just barely beginning to make its way across the sky. Colors of orange, blue, and purple painted a beautiful image along the horizon, men and women alike were at working stacking wood in the middle of a field to side a man stood giving order as to where each piece was to be stacked. "Come on now build it nice and tall, we want this to be seen from space....hey hey hey you put more on the left side its starting to sag. Straighten up the right side as well its starting to fall." The man began to hum to himself and wave his hands as if directing a symphony, "Yes, yes much better....there that should be good enough now everyone grab a bag we need to get this taken care of quickly, we still have a schedule to keep there are plenty of others waiting on to see our next show." The man picked up an oldly shaped bag tied in rope, he lifted it over his shoulder and began to make his way towards the wooden stack his stride becoming alittle uncoordinated all along his feet more bags laid strewn one next to the other. There were atleast thirty or fourty bags, the others started to make their way over and pick up the bags as well.

After a good ten minutes they were able to load them all on to the stack, the man who had been giving orders then bagan to douse the wood in gasoline along with a handful of others making sure it was throughly drenched. Once he was done he turned to adress the others around him "Now my dear friends its time we depart from this lovely city, we've got a long way to go before the next so make sure you've got everything tucked away nicely." The man picked up a rotted tree branch and lit it on fire, he let the flame build before tossing it on to the stack of wood it soon turned into a blazing inferno. The group had finish packing in a matter of minutes and was on the road to the next town. This is Cirque des Merveilles or less commonly known as Circus of Slaughter, filled with freaks and murderous monsters, moving from town to town dazzeling people with their amazing acts only to kill them afterwards. Yes this was circus of slaughter and now it was moving on to its' next set of victims.


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"You there -yes, you, stop gawking, please-, move aside. I said move aside, please. MOVE." A young woman stood in the center of a sea of people, all bustling about with planks of wood and colored fabrics. Well, all except for one; one silly man with an oversized hat on his head and a shiny camera around his neck, clicking away at the goings-on around him. Luella Dalue sighed. "SIR," she began, stepping off of the box on which she had been perched, "I have a VERY TESTY pet here who does NOT appreciate your presence." From behind the box waddled a huge reptilian beast. Its mouth glittered with teeth as it rumbled its clear disapproval.

This got the man going. He backed up slowly, then more quickly, until he was practically running out of the circus area. "Thank you, sir! You can take as many pictures as you want at the show later tonight!" Luella called after him, her lips curving in a smile. The illusionist remained smirking as she turned on her heels, patted her gator and headed over to her neck of the circus, where workers were just beginning to set up her things.

All around Luella, the circus was alive and moving, blooming like some exotic flower. The main tent had been set up already; she was in it now. Sand was being dumped on the floor and raked in smooth lines, only disrupted by those walking across it. The stands still had a ways to go, however; they were barely being unpacked now. The girl sighed. The sooner they were up, the sooner the circus could start, and the sooner the fun would really begin.
 
Emelia gave a short, high-pitched laugh as she watched Luella's alligator chase after the wannabe spectator. She always loved seeing someone get scared out of their wits by the beast, and she was happy to have its owner on-board. Luella was quite the interesting person, and Emelia felt she could relate to her, at least if the rumors of her family issues were true.

The black-haired girl's obstacle courses were already set up, so she didn't really have much to do except watch and check in on everyone every so often. It wasn't like she had any interest in helping them, of course; she just liked to see how things were going. She couldn't wait for the show to start. What better way to spend the evening than to perform for everyone and then get some fresh blood on her hands? She chuckled to herself at the thought, wondering if she would find anyone who'd scream real loud for her.

"Those goddamn shutterbugs, am I right?" Emelia called out to Luella, chuckling. Perhaps the younger girl would prove entertaining while they waited for things to get set up properly.
 
Nolita was in her space where they got ready. Everything was bustling that day, considering they had just arrived at the scene and people were setting up everything. Workers were of course working their asses off to get everything prepared for today. As she was playing with one of her knives she threw it in the air as she was juggling it on the tip of her left index finger. Catching it her ears perked up hearing voices, or well a voice. Stepping out of her tent she saw Luella trying to get a pest of a photographer out of the circus area. She cracked a smile seeing how her pet gator was eager beyond anyone's belief to just chow down on that poor unfortunate man. As he scampered off she followed suite.

Weaving in and out of the crowd of people who were busy making their way towards different parts of the circus place to get everything set up she headed into the main arena. Spotting Emelia and Luella she let her lips crack into a smile as she made her way towards the females. "It's very entertaining to watch them though. If they ever sneak their way into the area." She took a spot on a box that was going to be used later for the show. Despite being the youngest with the circus she very rarely swore, but it wasn't to say she was a goody-two shoes. Though young, she was one hell of a killer. All of them were, and none of them ever cared. It was double the fun for them, giving off a stunning performance and having the grand finale afterwards. That was where the real fun began.

Nolita enjoyed her dysfunctional circus family. They all had their individual stories that each member could relate to some way or just took them for who they were not caring about their past. All that mattered now was that they were all together and had their fun at night. No one judged them within the circus, it was their own way of surviving in a sense. And they all cared about one another even if sometimes they never showed it in the most "loving" manner that other people showed to those they cared for. Like the girl said, dysfunctional as fuck, but all lovely in their own specific way.
 
"Now ladies surely you all can't be done already? Why don't you guy go help out the others I'll make sure none of the early birds cause too much trouble." the ringmaster patted both Emelia and Leulla on the back as an emphasis for them to get to work, he hated it when the performers in his circus didn't help each other. After all they were supposed to be one big happy family, atleast that's what it looked like on the outside the reality was that they were all blood thirsty murders. No one knew this better than Erik after all he thirst was the greatest of them all, he had the luxury of being born into the circus so his bloodlust had been nutured from an early age and to him killing was as much second nature as breathing. "Nolita your welcome to come into town with me if you want, I was planing on handing out flyers to the local residents." He liked Notila she was young and could still be molded into an excellent killing machine unlike the others who found their way into the circus later in life, to him they were a lost cause already trapped in the limitations of their minds; they had no creativity when it came to killing. Emelia and Luella were alright they had more style then most others in the circus.
 
As the younger girl kicked her legs in the air her she was just listening to what the two females were talking about. In a sense she was sort of a listener than a talker, but she did have her times where she did join in conversations. She began throwing her throwing knife into the air and catching it at the blade. Her ears perked up hearing the Ringmaster's voice as she caught the knife again and she smiled up at him. Upon his entrance to the tent he had asked for Luella and Emelia to go help out the others with finishing setting things up. The Ringmaster was the one who founded the group, not to mention the one who thrived for bloodlust the most if one could put it that. Though the age of 16, Nolita knew better than to really cross the male. Never witnessing when he got extremely mad, she had a sense of knowing never to cross him.

The female was about to go help out as well until she heard him ask if she wanted to go with him into town. Perking up at that she smiled happily. "I'll help hand out flyers as well!" Enthused about heading into town, she'd be able to check out the people that were living there. To her, she made it as a game of cat and mouse. She was the cat, while the townspeople were the mice and she could pick out her victims one by one and made sure she recognized them. Just in case they came to the circus. Jumping down from the box she dusted herself off and smiled up at the Ringmaster. "I'm ready whenever you are!"
 
"I wanna come too!" Emelia chimed in eagerly. Doing chores around the gradually-blooming circus sounded like the most boring thing in the world to her; it was a rather bad habit of hers to shirk off her duties and spend the time before the show chatting it up with her female coworkers. She never did get too close to Zacharias, for no particular reason. It might've been because he didn't seem to really have fun with the art of the kill the same way she did, like he took it too seriously, but she couldn't be sure of that. It wasn't like she'd spent enough time around him to really get to know him, after all. Maybe she just didn't like to hang around guys? No, that couldn't be true, she had Kelkov, and they were the tightest pair of psychopaths you ever did meet. She certainly wasn't avoiding him because she liked him, of course, that was impossible. She wasn't even into men, after all.

The black-haired teen snapped herself out of her odd train of thought and made a mental note to scare the ever-loving shit out of Zacharias during the final act, just to see how he reacted. It was an excellent way to test someone's character, in Emelia's experience. She hoped she could put that test to good use out in town; just like Nolita, she hoped to memorize a few faces and maybe learn a bit about what makes them tick. That was, by far, the best way to kill someone: exacerbate their fears, then kill them slowly. Torture them. Break them down. Play up a little psychological warfare before you struck the final blow. It was just so much fun.
 
"I'm sorry Emelia but there's still much to do beofre we open and I would perfer it if you stayed here and helped out, if you guys finish before the opening show I'll let you and a few others go out to pick your own until then chop chop." With that he led Nolita to one of the near by vans for the long trip into town, normally they didn't do this the circus was already well known by now they hardly ever had to bother with advertising anymore. If anything this was just to get some fresh air before they had to start the show, and maybe pick out a few personal target for the later showing. Once they were in the car Erik turned on the radio trying to find something decent to listen to while they sped through the barren outskirts of town. When he found nothing worth listening he just decided to mute the damn thing for now "You mind getting the map out Nolita, I'm not that familiar with this town, try and see if you can somewhere there might be a lot of traffic. I wanna make sure we get enough people for everyone."
 
"But--!" Emelia started to protest, but she stopped in her tracks. Her pleas would fall on deaf ears; the ringmaster had made up his mind. She sighed, crossed her arms, and pouted indignantly, watching the pair leave, slamming the window of the perfect entertainment opportunity right in her face. She hated working with the roustabouts. They were like...commoners. Beneath the performers. Doing manual labor hadn't been in the job description when she signed up, unless you counted taking care of her dozen or so ravens. Letting out another sigh, she looked off to the stands, noticing they were barely constructed. That wouldn't do. She needed those so people would have something to hide under, trapping themselves while she drew ever closer, listening intently for every sign of life she could detect.

"Hey, Luella!" she barked, walking towards her chosen area of work. "Come help me set up the stands. I need someone to talk to or I'm going to fucking lose it."
 
The illusionist growled after hearing a voice address her from behind; she turned, blond hair swinging like a curtain as she faced Emelia. "Yeah. Goddamn," she muttered. Unlike others, Luella had no love for her circus bretheren. Sure, they all had the same morbid aptitude, the same twisted past- but for the eighteen-year old, having a family was like keeping a snake in your pocket. Unadvisable. Especially if that snake knew how to kill you in more ways than you could count.

And here was another one. Luella frowned as Nolita walked up; the kid was barely sixteen. Barely old enough to hold a knife ... but boy, could she hold 'em- and throw 'em, too. The illusionist had to respect Nolita's talent, but she didn't respect anything else about the young performer. To her, Nolita was just a baby. Even if they were only separated by a scant two years.

Before Luella could muster a passing glower, the ringmaster appeared and hassled her and Emelia to get to work- while simultaneously offering Nolita a way out. Goddamn is right. That little butter knife-juggling whelp thinks she can just ... And the ringmaster, walking around like he owns the goddamn circus. Well. She supposed he did own the goddamn circus, but that was far from the point, anyways-

Luella was snapped from her private insults as Emelia hollered at her; an instant's worth of displeasure crossed her face to be quickly replaced by a smirk. "Of course." No one bossed around the master illusionist like that. She had control now, control over herself and over others, unlike in the past when mother would come with the carving knife, her eyes filled with alcohol and murder-

But, for now, Luella would avoid conflict. Gator following at her heels like a good dog, she stepped on over to help with the stands.
 
The younger female felt a little bad for Emelia and Luella. She knew no one really enjoyed working with setting things up. But the faster things were done, the faster everything could be taken down and they'd be off to another town. And more victims to add to the list. She thought to herself. As Erik led her towards the car she shot the two females an apologetic smile wishing they wouldn't have to get stuck setting things up and could come with them. The knife thrower always had a feeling that the female illusionist didn't take a liking to her, but she didn't mind. People in the circus had their feelings towards one another and that was just how it was meant to be. Nothing could be done and nothing would change it. They were all brought to the circus for one reason or the next and it was just the end of that.

As both of them entered the van and drove off Erik started to mess around the stations to see what was on. The trip was going to be a long one, and music would be nice. It didn't take long enough for Erik to not find any decent music to listen to till he muted the radio. It was a bit frustrating to know nothing would be listened to, but beggars can't be choosers. Nodding her head the female did as she was told and started to look around the map. She wasn't sure why Erik wanted to advertise the circus, it wasn't like it wasn't well known at all. Everyone knew about it or heard about it from other people. How word quickly spreads. But because of everyone knowing it made the circus boom for people to appear. Taking more of a look at the map she saw a good place. "Here. There's a four-way where traffic shows the most." When she was looking at the map she noticed that the areas where the roads led never seemed to have many places where traffic flowed. With that particular four-way though was the key point for it all. "Judging by that spot the traffic flow is greater than the measly two-ways. So it must be where there are the places people need to go for their daily routine in a way."

With the four-way in mind there would be plenty of people to spot out and choose her targets and memorize the faces for her next victims, and for the other performers. It was always the excitement to perform, but the best was yet to come. The audience would never know what hit them till the ending finale that they would all put on for the defenseless people. Awaiting in the shadows all the actors would strike and have their feast. And that would be when the real show would begin.
 
Emelia's mouth upturned into a barely-contained smirk that she shot at Luella for a split second before forcing her expression back to a more neutral one. She knew Luella hated to be bossed around, and that was the way Emelia liked it. Luella was a strong young woman. She didn't take shit from anyone. And yet it was still fun to push her buttons every once in a while. It was a bit of a bad habit, Emelia admitted to herself, to automatically seek out another's weaknesses and exploit them whenever possible, even when the other is a friend or an ally. She didn't really care if people hated her for it, as long as she kept herself in control over them.

Idly, Emelia wondered if she could ever learn a thing or two from Luella about the fine art of illusion. What a handy skill that would be, to cause a person's greatest fears to manifest right before their eyes with a thought, or a wave of the hand, or a few words, or whatever it was that Luella did. (Emelia never paid much attention. She was usually too busy watching the spectators' faces.)

"Hey, does that gator have a name?" Emelia asked, her train of thought suddenly taking an odd turn. She'd noticed the illusionist's pet trailing behind her like always, and suddenly found herself curious. She hoped he had a cool name, not something cliched.
 
Men shouting to each other, crates being lifted, the animals growling and snapping at the passerby that went by their cages...all that noise and mess didn't help the stout trapeze artist to concentrate about what he was doing. Of course, the noise should help him in concentrating, seeing as that whenever his act was up people never stopped gasping in terror, yelling at him to stop or even just screamed their heads off. Anyway, he would never let any noise disturb him when he practiced, and that was most of the time. Zacharias had left the place the circus decided to settle in as soon as they had starting unloading all the equipment. Silence was his most prized company, not really liking groups at all, especially after all he had gone through as a child. He walked in a circle in a clear he had found, the grass stayed to the ground, making a perfect spot for him to practice. With a snigger and a twirl of his spear, Zacharias stabbed the ground with it, burying the tip and starting to run around it, a hand still gripping the letal weapon. He let his feet leave the ground and replaced the hand he was gripping the spear with them. He may have looked like a maniac as he spun around on the spear, looking as if he had broken the laws of gravity and physics; a maniac he was, but he only liked to do that when he wated to focus his mind. He wasn't that fond of the girls he had to work with, but at least they shared a past, something that held them together. Families were like that, right? Held together by something in common. "Well, this family is seriously a fucked-up one." Zacharias mumbled to himself as he crossed his legs over the spear and came to a halt.

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"...it's all right mom. I can go to that circus you talked about alone...no, I promise I won't ditch it...okay, okay. Bye, love ya." Amelia let out a sigh as she closed her cellphone and slid it into her pocket. She looked around to recognize in waht street she was in. People were already bustling around, busy enough not to look twice at each other and mostly not at her, though she had the pepper spray ready in her jacket pocket if any pervert dared go near her. Amelia spotted a coffee store on a corner, one of the less busy places of the four way she was in and made a run to it as the light switched between red and green.

She tapped her fingers on the table for two she sat in as she waited for her latte to arrive. She later had to meet her mother to go to a circus of the sort she had heard from a friend. Amelia was only interested to go because of all the circus acts she knew a circus performed, the tamers were her favourite ones. The way a single person could tame a mighty beast was fabulous. She licked her lips and took a sip from her beverage as it arrived to her.
 
"Caimon," the illusionist said curtly, and the beast next to her responded with a questioning rumble. 'Caimon' meant 'alligator' where she used to live in the south- that being said, this particular gator didn't really have a name. Emelia wouldn't know that, though ... Not many would. Since joining the circus, Luella had worked hard to mask her thick Cajun accent. She didn't like the way people looked at her, how they didn't understand what she was saying. Nowadays, the New Orleans girl only let her accent slip during the night show.

After a couple minutes longer and a few extra dozen hands, the stands were complete. Shaking her curls out behind her, Luella stepped back and admired her handiwork. The bleachers were clean -miraculously- and empty. Soon enough, she knew they'd be sprawling with curious people, and later, with corpses.
 
"Awesome," Emelia remarked while the group worked. She wasn't aware of the double meaning, so to her, it was indeed a suitably cool name to give an alligator, and nothing more or less. She always had a soft spot for people who gave their pets unique names. All of her ravens had rather flowing monikers, much like the names common to her own family, and while the birds didn't respond to their names, Emelia had long since given them all small, barely-noticeable markings that allowed her to tell the ravens apart, at the least.

When their job was finally done, Emelia stretched out on one of the seats with a satisfied sigh. Finally, that work was over with. (Not that she had really done all that much to help. She was working with deliberate slowness practically the whole time, solely in an act of passive-aggressiveness.) She shot a smirk down at Luella for no particular reason and leaned back, grinning at the thought of the screams that would soon fill the tent.

Just then, her cell phone rang, the slightly low-quality song playing, muffled, from the pocket of her smooth pants, jolting her out of her daydream. She rolled her eyes, shot her hand into her pocket, and answered without even checking the caller ID. "What the fuck do you want?" she answered, though her annoyance faded quickly enough. "Oh, Kelkov! What's up? Yeah, we're still setting up, I hate helping out these losers..."

Kelkov was a very trusted friend of hers, one of the few people she thought she could really count on. They'd met at school when they were kids, back before Emelia was quite so...active. She didn't have an outlet for her resentment towards her father. When they were forced to work together on a group project, she quickly realized he wasn't going to cave in to her rapid-fire insults and bitter attitude. She found herself interested in just how he could stay so cool-headed under pressure, and the two became fast friends. There was a gap in their lives when they fell out of contact, but after Emelia was forced out of her house, she turned to her best bud for help and comfort. Not that she'd ever admit she needed it.
 
Shawn had woken up slowly to the sounds of his parent's saying happy Birthday.. He streache and then got ready for the eesmingly boring day. Once he was ready he climbed into the car with his parents. He wasn't stoked about going and places like the circus wasn't on his agenda but he decided to go anyway. Once there his parents insisted that he go and explore. Shawn looked around watching peopke move about and somehow it made him a bit uneasy. Walking around he spotted a coffee shope and he waljed in egar for a drink to calm his nerves.
 
"I see you are enjoying the job here, ladies. That's something nice." Zacharias smirked as he looked at his act companions through lowered eyelashes. Their laziness amused him so much, it could almost make him laugh. Almost. He ran his tongue through his teeth and circled the seats, making some marks here and there with his spear, already picking out the places where people would later sit on and he would have a pleasure in cutting open. Emelia and Luella weren't exactly the type of girls he would be with, but they intrigued him; the way they cut their victims, the slowness of the job...it was an art, the killing, he had to admit it, but his work was more focused in making it quick, clean (well, the most he could do) and mostly in coming at them with the surprise element. He looked around, not finding the Ring Master and the youngest of them all. "Hey, babes, where did the boss go?"

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Amelia sighed, already bored with playing Tetris on her phone. She was already on her second drink, a croissant had been between this one and the first one. With her head leaning on her hand, she watched the cars go by, wondering if her mother would make it in time to catch up with her, the chance was a very slim one, considering she had left Amelia in town and she had to go to some business elsewhere for a couple of days. The door opening to the café made her turn her head. A tall young man was entering. She bit her lower lip and moved her gaze from him. He's a handsome guy. ​
 
"He ran off to stir up publicity in town with Nolita," Emelia said to Zacharias without even looking at him, a slight hint of bitterness in her voice as she said a quick goodbye to Kelkov, snapped her phone shut, and stuffed it back in her pocket. Yeah, she was jealous. It was obvious. She had reeaaalllly wanted to go with Erik and Nolita. Distributing fliers and whatnot was one of her favorite parts of the job, since it played such a handy part in the final string of murders that closed every show. It wasn't any fun if she couldn't figure out their fears. Then again, the circus sometimes played a handy part in that, especially when it came to people who arrived with significant others. Ohh, how she loved to break up couples and families. Killing one of them in front of the other, especially in a way that kept their face intact, was one of the best ways to break down hope. That final look of terror and despair in their eyes...she almost giggled at the thought. Almost. She was still feeling a little too bitter for that.
 
Shawn walked into the coffe shop and ordered himself a drink. The shop was empty except for a female sitting looking at jrt phone and then at him. He took his drink and paied the lady before sotting down and looking at his phone breifly. His gaze shifted tword the girl and he grinned slightly. She was beautiful and no girl usually caught his eye but today seemed different.
 
"Perfect! we'll start there then move up through the city before we make our way back to the others." He grabbed the map and began tracing an outline of their route, "If we go like this we should be able to make it back so the others have time to look around town" soon after the pair had arrived at their destination. Erik started handing out flyers to the crowds making sure that everyone got one, each time telling them where they were and how to find them. After a while of handing out flyers Erki decided it'd be best for them to head back to camp to make sure everyone had finished with the setup. Also he was fairly sure that Emelia and Luella would kill him if they took any longer getting back, he grinned at the irony of something like that happening. A killer taken out by a fellow killer he woundered how something like that would work out, two blood thirsty monsters going head to head. It would surely be something to see.
 
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