Borrowed Time

The Deal

"Nora." Pete calls over to knife girl as he finishes sewing Cora's wound. The petite girl looks up to him immediately, and heads over to him, too scared to disobey really. In this life, on this show, this, whatever it is; she knows not to disobey Pete or Andy. Of course Andy scares her most, but Pete is a close second. 

She says nothing as Pete roughly grabs a fistful of her hair and pulls her head back to slit her throat.

"What was that for?" Andy asks as he becomes distracted from Patrick for a second. 

"Just felt like it." Pete shrugs. He ignores Knife Girl while she falls to the floor and clutches her throat. She knows it'll fix, this is done to her in every show, but this is the first time Pete's ever done it. 

"You're learning well Sandman." Andy gleams, and turns his attention back to Patrick as he works to immobilise the boy. 

Knife Girl just watches from her spot on the floor, she watches as Patrick kicks out, but ultimately his legs are too weak from how tight he was tied earlier. 

"What do you think Nora?" Andy calls over. "You like the new play things?" 

"I hate you." Nora mutters. Andy just laughs, and then shouts at Patrick to keep fighting. 

That's what he said to her when she was captured. She remembers it well. The year was 1954; Nora was a member of the only Negro family found to be socially acceptable in the town she lived in. However that one night, she still came under attack. 

At first she was none the wiser. He was just there, a dashing man, a white man. She had tripped over the curb and he came to her aid, helping her to get back up. He'd noticed that she was bleeding and offered to help. Of course, that man was Andy. He hasn't helped. He'd taken her to the trucks they travelled in back then, where he tied her tightly to a table in one of the trailers, and of course had his way with her. 

"A new girl?" Pete had interrupted as he came in, trying not to look. 

"Watch me Pete." Andy had ordered. "Give her a nightmare." 

"She's in one." Pete had scoffed as he sat on his thin and scruffy mattress on the floor. He wasn't allowed his own trailer back then, he was too new. It wasn't until Pete had taken a knife out from under his pillow, that the young girl's fate became known to Andy; and he snatched the weapon away.

"Nora, Nora, Nora." Andy teased. "Our little Knife Girl." 

Knife girl flinches at the memory of the knife being brought down just as Andy plunges another into Patrick. She doesn't want to remember it, but she can never forget it. Most of it she buries so deep that even if Andy were to force her to re-live it, she'd feel like it was still 1954. 

She watches as Patrick has a seizure, and Very quickly becomes covered in his own blood. Andy works swiftly yet delicately, and only extracts half of the boy's heart. He makes a show of holding the half up, before tossing it aside, and taking Cora's no longer beating heart.

She thinks to herself that surely this won't work, but just a few minutes later, Andy is working on seeing the boy back together. When he's done, he very quickly instructs knife girl to clear away before the show. 

On the two separate tables, the two twins lie motionless and covered in their own blood. They won't wake yet, they can't yet. No, that fun gets to happen when the tent is full later, and the twins siblings are sat watching. For now, the two halves of the twins' hearts are placed into containers, and their blood is cleaned from the floor.

“Um, uh..”

“Yes Joe?” Andy asks the man known as Horseshoe Crab, who has just started stammering. “Come on spit it out.”

“How, how are they alive?” The wild haired man asks, genuinely intrigued by what he has just witnessed.

“Right now they're not.” Andy smirks. “That's where me and Pete come in. Pete's got a very special part in tonight's show. Which is why he's going to get ready now. Isn't it Sandman.”

The catcher's eyes glow green as he looks over to Pete. Pete can't help but to look into those eyes, those glowing emerald green eyes that are pulling him deep into a trance, and draining him of energy. Once Andy knows he has Pete where he needs him, he releases his hold and lets Pete fall; he catches him of course, and then takes him to lay down in the centre of the ring.

“Wh- what-” Pete sighs, but Andy shushes him, and tells him that he knows, and deep down, Pete does know. He's seen and helped Andy with this multiple times. He helped with knife girl, fire bird, Black Jack, and of course, Horseshoe Crab. He's seen and helped as Andy has drained himself of all life to feed it into them, so he knows what it means; and until the show starts – even after the show starts, he has no choice but to lay here while Andy announces to the audience just how special tonight is. He has no idea where the twins are, no idea what is going on around him; he is just very aware of the sense of fear among two of the audience member. Those are the two that matter, for those two are Kevin and Megan Stumph. He feels for them, he really does. But Patrick and Cora are going to need their siblings to be there for them through this, especially through the first year.

Suddenly Pete becomes very aware of the anxieties of Kevin and Megan rising. He is very aware of the fact that they are having to be restrained. He is also aware of the two people stood over him; the twins. To the majority of the audience, they are a completely normal set of twins, performing in a freak show. They think the fresh stitches in Patrick's chest are fake, they think that Cora's tears of blood are pretend. All of the bruises and cuts, to the audience, they're makeup. But Kevin and Megan know, they can see that the twins are being forced and controlled by the Catcher. They can see how pale they both really are, and can see what they hold in their hands. They hold the halves of their hearts, not that they're aware of it, they're currently still dead, and not aware of anything.

Pete's already seen this, he dreamt it in a nightmare. Any second now, Megan is going to scream to let them go... 3... 2... 1.

The scream comes, and in comes Andy. With his hands on Patrick's shoulders, he feeds the boy with both his own and Pete's life forces. As the seventeen year old boy grows stronger, so does Pete. However Cora grows weaker, and collapses into Pete's arms just as he pulls himself to sit. Within seconds, Patrick becomes alert. He looks around, and down at the half an organ he carries. Of course, he drops it in complete panic. He feels so much pain in his chest that he can't help but to double over; he has a heart attack, right there in front of everybody. As he does, Cora's eyes flutter open, and Pete finally manages to get up. Just as he'd expected, he feels extremely protective of the girl; much the way Andy does every time he creates a new charge. He takes Cora out of the tent, and back to Andy's trailer, as does Andy take Patrick. The finale of the show is on now; and the audience are none the wiser. They just leave after thinking they've seen a cool freak show and that the rebirth of the twins was part of it ready for next year's show. Kevin and Megan though, they're terrified, they want to call 911, but are unable to due to being restrained.

Eventually they are brought back to Andy's trailer, where Andy and Pete are cleaning the twins up. Immediately the seventeen year olds try to go to them, but their wrists and ankles are shackled. Everything that they've been through is setting in now and memories are coming back. Andy loves this part just as much as the kill. He loves seeing them try to get back to their families unsuccessfully.

“Welcome.” Andy greets Kevin and Megan with a big grin. “Did you enjoy our show?”

“You sick bastard, let them go.” Megan starts, only to be smacked across the face by Andy, which in turn made Kevin act out, only to find he couldn't really move at all.

“Your siblings belong to me now so I suggest you shut up and let me tell you what the fuck is going on.” Andy shouts, causing everyone in the room to fall silent.

“Sandman put your little play thing to sleep please.” Andy instructs, and so Pete covers Cora with a gold dust, and watches as she instantly passes out.

“What did you do to them?” Kevin asks. He's only just able to keep his composure, his eyes locked with his brother's blue and tearful ones.

"We were fighting." Patrick begins, finding that he can finally talk. "Mom went to work and locked us out. There was this guy, he gave us an invitation and we came and then we, they, we signed our lives away because we wanted to save each other and protect you." 

Kevin's anger grows at hearing Patrick's words and upon seeing him completely break, and complain of pain. The chains Patrick wear rattle and clink as he moves his hands to hold over his chest, and then moves to hold his twin sister; who is still sound asleep.

“Patrick belongs to me now, just as Cora belongs to Sandman. Granted we've never taken anyone so young before, but it should make this process more interesting.” Andy speaks proudly as he directs Kevin and Megan to sit down, and once they have, he finds that he can finally control their moods to calm them enough so he can talk.

“Look, I know what losing family is like, I know the pain of it, I know the grief and the sorrow. I had a family once. I had a wife, I had three kids and I lost them all to illness. I mean, yes I've torn out your sister's heart and half of Patrick's, yes I've fixed half of hers to his remaining half, he's her life force now. But then he always has been hasn't he? Being her twin, and with her getting so sick, he's saved her so many times, but today he wouldn't have been able to.”

“What do you mean?” Megan asks.

“Cora's illness was back, unbeknownst to you. I sensed it a year ago when we were last here. I kept tabs on her since then. I know her inside out. Over the past year she's become riddled with cancer, today her heart was finally going to give out.

“What?” Patrick asks in shock from his space on the floor. “I thought she was just getting tired a lot because of over doing things.”

“You thought wrong.” Pete cuts in bluntly.

“As I was saying...” Andy continues. “I didn't want Patrick to lose his sister and be alone, twins should never be alone. So I made the decision to get them here, and altered ready for conversion.”

“Conversion?” Megan asks, unable to take her eyes off of the twins.

“Into immortality.” Andy answers, “They're going to be here with me forever. Everyone I've brought here, well, some I see ass my children, some as brothers, some merely as pets... among other more.... adult things. Much like Cora will be to both me and Pete. But all of them , I love and adore all of them. As soon as they're converted they'll really adapt to this way of being, as will you. I'm giving you both a gift here, well; actually you get a choice of gifts. 1, you sign your siblings over to us just as they have, and in return you'll still get to see them, keep your memory of them, and you'll be in full contact. 2, you don't sign them over, we keep them anyway, and you get no contact.”

“What about our parents?” Kevin asks.

“Well, that's your choice too” Andy tells him. “Do you want them to remember the twins and go through the heart break of reporting them missing and finding the half hearts; or would you like them to forget about the twins? I can make all knowledge of the twins vanish, as if they were never born. And in return, I shall grant you the gift of your parents still together, and will grant them with the birth of another set of twins; not only that but I'll make sure that they are both happy and healthy for their entire live, which I will grant to them for 99 years.”

Kevin, Megan and Patrick all look at each other, there's no debate in it; the twins are staying here no matter what. They're going to face all sorts of torture no matter what, despite this being this sick fuck's idea of an immortal family. There's only one option really.

“If you promise to do that for our parents, we'll sign.” Kevin bravely speaks up. Patrick just nods and lies down with his sister, allowing Pete to put him to sleep, little does he know of exactly what's to come.
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Greetings from the circus I now work and live at. Sorry it's taking me forever to get things done but I have limited internet. Thanks for the patience though

Rae