Borrowed Time

To all who are in the audience, they are just a normal set of twins living an extraordinary life, performing in a freak show. How any of the tricks in this show are done, well the audience simply doesn't know. They just see what they want to see, and believe what they want believe.

If they heard the horror stories, if they could see behind the curtain, see into the lives of those in the show; they'd truly be terrified, they'd leave the tent and run as fast and as far as they could.

This is the story of two young people aged just seventeen. Twins, from Chicago named Patrick and Cora.

It all starts on a sunny day in mid July. As morning breaks in the Stumph household, chaos is breaking out at a stupidly early hour;7.30am to be precise. With it being summer, Patricia Stumph was sure that her youngest children wouldn't ever clash at this time of day, but apparently just because there is no school today, doesn't mean there has to be a break for the twins.

“Get out of my fucking room!” The younger of the twins, Patrick shouts; the sound of which is followed by a thud... Patricia knows that this means he has thrown one of his pillows at his sister. She isn't sure of Cora's reply, but she hears Patrick's next shout loud and clear. “I let you be born first what more do you want from me?!”

“Patrick!” Patricia raises her voice in warning now. “Cora get out of Patrick's room!”

“I'm not even in his room!” Cora shouts back. “I'm in the doorway.”

“Same thing so leave!” Patrick shouts.

Patricia just gives up now. She has to be up for work in half an hour anyway, and so she gets up out of bed, and leaves her room to head along the hall to where her daughter stands in the door way of her son's room.

“You, back to your room.” Patricia dictates as she places her hands on Cora's upper arms, and moves her aside. “You.” She calls into Patrick's room, “Quit with the shouting.”

She closes Patrick's door now, and turns to order Cora back to her room, before she goes downstairs to start getting ready for work. It isn't long however, before she hears pounding on the bathroom door upstairs; once again, she has to go and break things up.

“Okay seriously?” She raises her voice as she ascends the stairs. “It's only 8am, and you two are already down each other's throats... Cora stop banging the door!”

“I said I was going in there first, but he pushed me out of the way. I nearly fell down the stairs!” The seventeen year old defends.

“Patrick?” Patricia calls into the bathroom.

“Lalalalala I can't hear you over the noise of the shower.” The other seventeen year old calls back.

“Okay, I don't have time for this.” Patricia sighs, and so she goes along to the boiler cupboard, and turns the hot water off, much to Patrick's disgust.

“Neither of you get hot water today. As soon as I leave for work, you two are leaving the house too, I'll give you twenty bucks each, go do something without killing each other!” The twins mother raises her voice; and half an hour later, she does just that. She gives Patrick and Cora twenty dollars each, and orders them out of the house, without any keys.

After their mother has left for work, the twins are left sat on the front lawn, trying to figure out what to do with their day. At first, they sit in silence just glowering at each other, before finally, Cora starts a civil conversation.

“So, what now?” She asks. “It's summer, neither of us have work today... Kevin's house?”

“Nah, he's at work.” Patrick relpies. “So's Megan.”

“What good is it having older brothers and sisters if you never get to see them?” Cora asks, to which Patrick just laughs a little, and then notices just how pale his sister is today. Normally they're both quite pale skinned anyway, and being blonde, t really doesn't help. However Cora looks paler than normal, and for her, Patrick knows that could mean something pretty bad.

“You feeling okay?” He asks with genuine concern.

“No.” Cora replies. “Why do you think I came to your room. I just didn't wanna be alone. I'll cope though.”

“I'm sorry.” The younger of the two actually apologises. “I should've seen it really.”

Cora is about to speak again when a black motorbike comes speeding past. It's rider is dressed all in black, wearing a coat that kind of reminds her and her brother of the Matrix. It isn't that that really grabs their attention though, it's the flyer that the rider throws towards them. Without a word, they look at each other, and go over to pick it up.

“It's an invitation.” Cora tells her brother as she picks the flyer up. “To a freak show. Strictly invites only, taking place at Glenbrook north High tonight.”

“Mom's working a double.” Patrick shrugs. “Could be fun. How do we know it's even for us?”

“It says Patrick and Cora Stumph on.” Cora replies in disbelief, and then for her eyes only, the person on the flyer lifts his head, and glares right at her. His eyes are golden, and capture her into a trance, holding her attention for a few seconds, before she snaps out of it, and the picture is still once again.

“Come on.” She suggests. “If we go no perhaps we can watch them set up. It'll give us something to do.”

“You sure you're okay to walk?” Patrick asks.

“I'm okay.” Cora reassures him, “I'll be fine.”



It's just over an hour later when they reach the site of the freak show. The tent is up, and clearly rehearsals are going on. The twins approach the site slowly, and watch as they see various people walking around among the traliers. At first nobody stops, but then one person does, the one they recognise as the person who dropped the flyer by them.

“Hey.” He calls over, and comes over to the pair. He's not too much taller than Patrick, with olive toned skin and dark hair. He's no longer wearing the Matrix coat, just jeans and a t shirt. “You got the invite then.”

“Yeah.” Cora is the first to talk. “Thanks. Um, I'm Cora, this is my brother, Patrick.”

“Yeah, I know.” The guy smiles. “My name's Pete... Or Sandman, whichever you wanna call me.”

“Cora.” Patrick Speaks with an uneasy tone, he isn't as drawn in as she is, and already wants to leave.

“Would you like to come and watch rehearsals?” Pete asks, his eyes glowing gold. Neither of the twins are able to resist. As though they are out of control of their bodies, both of them nod, and then follow Pete around the site, and into the tent. Patrick can't help but feel anxious. As he takes in his surroundings, he sees one girl, an African American girl, stood against a knife board; only rather than throw the knives around her, the man throwing them throws them into her. It makes Patrick flinch, and wince. He hates pain, he hates seeing people in pain, he can't stand it. He doesn't just see pain though, he feels it, he's always been able to feel it, and he hates it. It's why he gets so concerned about his sister.

When they were toddlers, Cora was diagnosed with Leukaemia. After a lengthy battle, she beat it, however it came back four years later, but once again she beat it. She's battled with it two more times since then, and Patrick always fears it's going to come back. The last time it did, he donated his bone marrow to Cora, and he'd do it again, he'd do it for anyone.

“Hey.” A new voice breaks Patrick from his thoughts. He turns, but that's the last he sees. Everything for him just goes black now, and stays black.



“So what do you think of the place?” Pete asks Cora as they sit on one of the benches at the ring side. They left Patrick long ago, but Cora is none the wiser, she's too immersed in her surroundings.

“It looks great.” She replies, and then notices as Pete seems to argue with someone who isn't there. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah I'm fine, I just get headaches sometimes is all.” Pete replies. “Come on, I'll take you to meet the boss.”

He gets up and leads Cora out the back now, and along to one of the trailers. He knocks on the door a couple of times, and then waits to be called in, before he opens the door, and steps inside.

“Hey I thought you'd like to meet Cora.” Pete starts, “Cora this is my boss, his name's Andy; otherwise known as Donnie the Catcher.”

“Finally.” Andy says cheerfully as he stands up from his desk, and comes over to shake hands with the seventeen year old girl. “You chose well Sandman.”

“Chose well?” Cora asks, and notices as Andy goes over to lock the door. “Wait, wait where's Patrick, where's my brother?”

“Oh you don't need to worry about him.” Andy assures her, and she watches as he locks another door.

“He's in there isn't he?” She asks. “Let me in there, let me see him.”

“Control her Sandman.” Andy orders, and Cora feels Pete's rough grip on her wrist. She looks round to him, and instantly calms, she is captivated by his golden glowing eyes, and finds herself forced down to her knees.

“We've been watching you Cora.” Andy leans in and starts taunting the girl. “Your entire life we've been watching you. You've been dealt a very poor hand, what with so many illnesses, and so many near death moments. Yet you survive every single one. It's like you're a living dead girl.”

“Patrick.” Cora stutters, and Pete's grasp on her both physically and mentally, tightens.

“You want to save your brother don't you?” Andy asks, and all Cora can do is nod.

“All you have to do, is submit to us, to Pete. Become his property, his toy, be a part of our show. We can make you immortal, and take away your illnesses. You'd like that wouldn't you?”

“Yes.” Cora replies, still heavily entranced. She watches absently as Andy goes to that locked door, unlocks it, and then pulls out a gagged and bound Patrick. That's the moment that the trance breaks, the moment she lays eyes on her twin.

“No, no let him go, let Patrick go, let him go!” She cries out, and nearly screams as a knife is held at her brother's chest.

“We have a contract for you.” Andy tells her. “The agreement is that you will become our little puppet. We will remove your heart, and place half of it, in him. For all eternity, you two will be unable to be more that 25 meters apart from each other. You will belong to Pete while your brother belongs to me, and eventually both of you will make appearances in the show. In fact, you'll be in tonight's show. You're the main attraction, and the guests of honour are none other than your older siblings Kevin and Megan.

Both twins are unable to hold back tears as they hear what their fate holds for them, it's like a horror movie, and they are living in it, they are the main characters, waiting to be slaughtered or pushed to their limits.

“You both love Kevin and Megan... oh and mom and dad right?” Andy asks. Both twins manage extremely tearful nods. They want to scream, but find they are unable to.

“Sign.” Andy tells Cora as he holds one of the contracts in front of Cora. “Sign it, or you and the rest of your precious family will be killed.”

“But you're essentially killing her anyway-” Pete protests, and gets a smack from Andy. It displays to the twins that they aren't the only two who have had to sign this contracts; and so with her eyes locked with her twin brothers, Cora signs the contract. Despite Patrick's screaming through the gag, Cora has signed her life away, leaving him with no choice, he won't leave her alone here. So he too signs the contract.

“Welcome to the family.” Andy laughs, “Oh what a fun night you're both going to have.”