They finally got out of that damn alley, and were now wandering the streets back to the gates as a strangely detached group of 4. YV trailed right beside Rubie, while Mitzi strayed behind the two by just a bit. Dawn willingly took up the rear, but was walking so far behind everyone it looked like he was a total creep following them. The air was bitter and completely still, it was like the 3 of them had signed some sort of temporary peace treaty to end a cold war but she swore if she listened close enough she could hear the blatant lingering fuming rage emanate from their cores, steaming up like a kettle.
On another note, however. Rubie had started to notice that the buildings and streets around her were starting to look more and more unfamiliar. Crap- she hadn't noticed how up in her own head she must have been… She was so stuck in thinking about what just happened that she wasn't even looking where she was going- It looked like they'd managed to find themselves in a completely different street off of the main road, there were less Lunaris decorations here, less lights too…
She stopped in the middle of the path, halting the other 3 as they all noticed her action, YV and Mitzi looked at her weird, almost as if waiting for some sort of reason behind her stopping. Oh come on– she could have collapsed from exhaustion right then and there. It didn't seem like any of them had noticed just how lost they were…
"Where…" she started to speak, making sure to let this information down softly "where… are we…?"
It took a moment for the situation to fully register in all of their minds, especially after something so vile. But all of a sudden, it seemed like the others had it all click in their brains too. This place was unfamiliar, it looked like they just teleported here from the bright lights and cheery festivity of main street. Mitzi looked around, scoping out the buildings before coming to the conclusion that they'd stumbled onto a street left from the main avenue, a street that YV thankfully knew the layout of, for good measure, Dawn pulled out the carnival map he'd snagged from one of those stands that offered information to first time visitors just in case they got lost again.
Miraculously, it started to feel a little less suffocating with the four of them together, Dawn and Mitzi had stepped out from basically trailing the group, and YV was certainly a lot less tense than when they started walking, sure- it was a little weird, and just a tad awkward still- With the help of 4 brains navigating the Lunaris roads, it seemed as if they'd actually be getting out of here on time to reach campus before the gates closed on them.
Well, that was until they'd reached a road that was completely blocked off– ugh… right. They usually did this around Lunaris time. Multiple roads would have been blocked off so members of staff, like volunteers, show performers, and vendors, could all have a spot to rest and reconvene, they must have stumbled into one of these spots by accident…
The others seemed to share the same revelation, eventually coming together to genuinely rack their minds for a solution before YV spotted a tent in the distance with light leaking out through the flaps.
"Hey– the lights are on in that tent!" YV looked to the rest of the group, scanning their faces to check their responses, "if workers are in there they could point us to the right direction– It's worth a shot, isn't it?"
He eyed them all, but Dawn spoke up first, doubt clear in his voice. "Well, sure. But what if there's no one in there? Roads are empty, they probably just left a light on."
…He'd made a good point, it was nearing 11, there was barely any sound coming from inside the tent, and the streets were barren. Chances were that no one was going to be in there anyways. After a while Mitzi shrugged, casting her gaze to the tent before looking between the group.
"Well. it's not like I see any other way out from here… it's worth a shot."
A wave of unanimous agreement rippled between them as the four of them started to walk up to the tent. YV led the way, mildly complaining about how "tired his legs were!"as the others trailed behind him equally as eager to finally get home. None of it seemed too suspicious, well- there really wasn't a reason for it to be suspicious anyways, but that thought was quickly cut the moment the 4 of them got closer to the tent.
Music, there was music coming from inside there. And not your typical rock or pop- or any genre that'd play on the radio. But ghastly, haunting chants– the type of thing you'd hear in video games or horror movies. At first Rubie thought she was just imagining it. Part of her thought that it was all just because of how rough the past few days had been on her, maybe she hadn't gotten enough sleep to pay off the sleep debt yet? But the moment she looked over at the others she instantly knew she wasn't crazy.
The same emotion was plastered on Dawn and Mitzi's faces when she looked at them. Confusion, curiosity, fear…? It wasn't like it was coming from a screen or a radio, no… it was far too loud for that. It was deep, layered– almost like the sound had a body of its own, meshing voices like a school of fish and acting as a singular vessel.
Mitzi hung back, frantically looking to see if anyone would address whatever they were hearing and Rubie stared back at her, shooting her a look of understanding as she watched Mitzi's face shift from panicked fear to a settled dread. Dawn had noticed too, looking between the two before sharing the same look. They weren't crazy. They were all hearing the same thing.
"Hey, what's with the holdup? Is something the matter?"
She felt her blood run cold for a second at the sudden noise– God. YV's voice was so bright and loud it practically scared the life out of all 3 of them. Mitzi spoke first, stumbling over her words as she asked the singular question they'd all been wanting to say the moment they caught wind of the noise.
"Do you…hear that?"
YV's face scrunched in confusion. "Hear what?"
"That… singing. I-if you could even call it that..?"
They all went silent, the 3 of them were watching YV's reactions intently. "That low whistling…? That's just the wind from the high altitudes right? The "Song of Lunaris" right? It always gets freaky sounding this time of year-"
Dawn interrupted him with a sigh, his voice tinged with a growl– flat and straight-forward.
"God Damnit YV- use your brain, Why would 'winds from high altitudes' be blowing from the fucking circus tent in front of us?" She watched YV's expression shift, uncertainty crossing his eyes almost as if he'd known his explanation was total crap anyways.
"Oh, come on. People do weird things all the time- there must be some…other reason why the tent's making weird sounds, alright? We wanna get home don't we?" he raised a brow, almost testing everyone's cowardice and, well, to some extent he was right. Was it really a good idea to let some baseless assumptions keep them from getting home?
…That sentiment was enough to let the suspicions go, Rubie looked at Dawn, then at Mitzi, before the three of them decided to give in and follow through with the plan. Sure, whatever this was was horrifically strange, but it wasn't worth getting locked out of school for.
They continued heading over to the tent, the chanting– or rather, the 'whistling of the wind' was getting louder and louder the closer they got. At that point they were barely 3 feet away from the thin fabric curtains that served as the only barrier between them, and whatever was going on inside.
Honestly, thank god for YV's level head and rationality… if it were up to just her, Dawn and Mitzi, chances were that they'd all rather rot on the streets than confront whatever that sound was. Even now, just by standing next to them Rubie could tell the same uneasy feeling weighed heavy in their gut. YV pushed the curtains open, clearing his throat and preparing to ask whoever was inside for directions before his voice cut short, and every hair on his body stood upright.
This wasn't a circus tent.
YV had only opened the curtain about a quarter's way, just enough to let all 4 of them gaze upon the sight. White chalk markings carved into the ground, bending, twisting and stretching into what looked to be a giant symbol etched into the bricks. It was mostly dark, the light they'd been seeing from outside must have only been from the wads of candles stuck in strange places and formations around the lines of the symbol. There were people, all dressed in dark robes like evil wizards from old low poly games, the only thing that made it possible to even identify them as humans and not just as dwindling shadows were the masks plastered on their faces, the same masks that were being sold at the festival just a few hours ago, and interestingly, the same masks the acting troupe ensemble wore.
They were all standing in a circle, it was becoming clear to them, to all of them, that this was the source of that noise, they were all chanting. Rubie glazed her eyes around the room, countless floating masks stretched on into the depths of the circus tent, making it look 10 times bigger than it actually was. Were those all people…?
Then her eyes slowly traced to the centre of the tent, following the white lines of the pentagram until the white chalk stained red. Crimson red. She saw the legs of a chair, then a pair of feet, and her eyes wandered upwards until she pieced together the figure of a young man slumped over on the chair, one hand tied to the backrest, another dangling off the edge like a corpse. But it was odd, there were really no words to describe how horrifying it was. He didn't have a face.
An old, wooden cross was hammered where a face should have been, nails drove through his chin, his eyes, and his forehead. You could only tell the red paint stains on the wood were blood by the nauseating smell of rotting metal. Chanting, chanting, chanting. These people were chanting at the sight of a man with a cross for a face, and that was all you needed to know to understand that they had done this. That was all you needed to understand that you were in danger.
Someone crept out to the middle from the shadows, their movements were completely obscured by the darkness of their robes, she wouldn't have been able to catch their actions if not for the way the moonlight glared off of the silver dagger they held in their hands. Rubie watched in bated breath, watching as the hooded figure took hold of the man's hand, raising it high as the chants crescendoed, and swiftly, with one swell movement, cut the man's hand clean off his arm. He groaned in agony, the body with a cross for a face made a sound- the man was alive. The man was still fucking alive.
Her vision blurred, and all of a sudden it felt as if the weight of reality came rushing onto her skull, her head pounded, like a drill was being forced into her brain. She kept watching, for as grisly and gruesome as it was she still kept watching. Streams of dark crimson liquid poured out from the stub on the man's body, echoing groans and cries of pain slowly getting lost in the chanting that had almost become white noise to her. The smell was ungodly, the wretched stench of freshly severed flesh filled the air as she finally, finally turned to look at the others.
They were lucky YV had only opened the curtain about a quarter's way, just enough to let all 4 of them gaze upon the sight, because any more than just a quarter's way through would have gotten them caught much quicker. YV was completely frozen in shock at the sight of the scene, Dawn looked about ready to run off in the other direction and Mitzi was totally sick to her stomach. Rubie took a step back, wanting so badly just to get the hell out of there, unaware of the dead leaf beneath her shoe.
Crunch!
It stopped. It all stopped. The singing, the screaming, it all stopped. What may have been a hundred porcelain white masks turned around, slowly, slowly, coming to face them. A hundred murderers all looking right at the 4 of them. Shit-
The hooded figure quickly drew their blade, pointing at all of them, and that was the signal to just run, YV dropped the curtain, grabbing onto Rubie's hand and nudging Dawn's shoulder to follow his lead.
"Run- everyone just run!"
With the sudden rush of adrenaline and grueling image of blood and snow white masks still fresh in her mind, Rubie had absolutely no objections just doing as she was told. Her legs were tired, that entire day had drained the life out of her and she was running on less sleep than she ever had in her entire life. But by God if she didn't start running right then something else probably would've gotten to her first. She was barely conscious, barely managing to run side by side at YV's pace as Dawn and Mitzi trailed somewhere behind the two of them. Please, please, please- God, the last thing she wanted was to have to look behind her and find the two of them gone and cast astray, instead replaced by the haunting porcelain faces of whoever was in that tent.
Her heart leapt out of her chest, her ears echoing her heartbeat up in her head as her guts caved into her ribs and her vision tunnelled. There came a point she couldn't even see YV anymore- she was just blindly following the sounds of his jewellery and the patterns of his outfit as she forced her legs to keep going and going and going and going and-
She only stopped when she tripped over a loose stone on the ground. Almost falling face flat into the brick ground if not for her quick reflexes saving her in the nick of time. YV had stopped too, and thankfully, Dawn and Mitzi were right beside them, they were at the entrance. Fuck– they…they'd made it…
Mitzi keeled over just as Rubie ran over to check on her, retching her guts out all over the floor while Dawn loitered around the edges of their little group as if the others wouldn't be able to catch the panic on his face from afar. Rubie watched YV flip out his phone and dial a number as she held Mitzi's hair back. It wasn't good to be eavesdropping, but there was only so much you could do to block out the sounds of pure rotten anxiety rush out of your friend's raw throat.
YV's chauffeur was on the way. 11:00 sharp, they had missed light's out.