The slices of lighting brightens the dark sky as it follows by the groaning thunders. The heavy rain continues to fall as Deirin is making her way to her new life.

Even she already walk a hundred meters away from their house, her heart still pounding as if her parents could still catch her and returned her to her hellish life again.

She only manage to pack few of her clothes and some of her important things to her little luggage bag.

She can't even felt the tireness of her feet to the terror she felt in thinking what her parents could do when they find out that she was missing in their house.

Deiren suddenly stop when she meet a dead end, it is an abandoned forest fotress that is covered with wires. She took a deep breathe and tries to open the gate of the fotress which created a squirting sound of an old metal door. Her hands and knees are trembling yet she still manage to examine the surroundings of the area. It was her first time to go in that place, where she is not even aware of its existence in very first place.

Tip toed she took her very first step in the forest and she was immediately taken a back by a strong wind that welcomed her. She is frightened to the oblivion of whatever is in the forest but she is more afraid of her parents. She thinks that it is much better to be eaten alive by wild animals than returning to their house again.

The rain drops felt much heavier that its usual as it stings everytime it touches her fresh bruishes and wounds she got from the beating of her father. She flinched in surprise everytime the thunder echoed in the silent forest as her body shivered from the cold wind that blows against it.

She immediately stop when she noticed a flickering light suddenly born in the mist of the dark forest. It came from the end of the trail she was taking and it is getting brighter like it is slowly moving towards to her direction.

Through her instinct she hasten to hide behind the bushes and silently observe the source of the light that is now moving closer and closer to her direction. She waited and waited until the lights fades out and passes her location.

When she thought that the vehicle already passed and the surrounding feels safe again, she stand up and decided to continue her walk. But she was surprise by the two man who block her way. They are weird looking men silently staring at her with their creepy smile and a baseball bat on their hands. On their back is a smoke engine vehicle that is pulling several luggage cart to its rear side.

She covered her eyes when the lights of the smoke engine vehicle suddenly lit up. Because of that she could now clearly see the image of the two man standing infront of her. The first one has a very round body wearing a costume of a circus clown with a circular scarlet ball-like thing on his nose. The other one has a long curly blonde hair with a weird face make up of a joker and wearing a puffy shorts.

At first she taught that it was just a dream or hallucinations becuase of her fatique from the long walk. Their looks is weirdly terrifying like the ones in a horror movies, but surprisingly she didn't feel any terror. Maybe because she was more afraid to her parents than these weird creepy people.

She tightenend her grief to her luggage bag while alternately looking to the face of the two man "W-what do you need?" she ask thinking that those people are thieves who has an eye to her luggage bag.

"nothing particular" a very casual reply from the blonde guy while taking steps closing his distance to her "just your existence" he smiled so creepy along with a hard blow of his baseball bat to her back.

Everything happened so fast that she was not even able to do anything...  She felt numb until her conciousness fades out.

"why you hit her!?"

Deiren conciousness slowly goes back as she heard two arguing voices.

"because it looks like she wishes for it"

She keep her eyes close and pretends to be asleep while listening to the arguing voices.

"what if you hit a sensitive vital part and accidentally kill her!?"

"I know the parts where I could kill her... and I wish I just hit those parts"

"We are not here to kill her, we are here to save her"

"that is what I intended to do"

"What!?" confused ask by the other man

"we could save her if we kill her, simple" a very casual answer by the one he is talking.

"How could we save her if she is already dead!? Are you even thinking? "

"She is already dead, her eyes is dead"

"You are really insane Zhui" the man just utter in disbelief to the man he is talking with.

"Thank you" answered by the man he called Zhui and she heard his footsteps going out the door.

"Such a psychotic man" said the other man and followed Zhui leaving the room and close the door.

When she hear the closing of the door, she immediately open her eyes to examine where she is now.

"j-just who are they?" she ask her self in confusion.

Deiren stood up and examined every corner of the place she was in. It looks like she was in a tent together with some weird stuffs for a circus show.

She fall to her knees when the door suddenly opened and show the face of the man who hit her back.

Her body immediately tremble like it was in an auto pilot and her brain suddenly flashes of some horrifying images of her father beating her up.

"W-what do you want from me?" she still manage to ask while her both arms covered her face like some sort of self defense.

"what a zombie, tsk" she immediately recover her composure when she heard the voice of the man.

If she was not mistaken, he is Zhui from the two arguing voice awhile ago.

She stood up and face the man who just entered the door.

Now that she is in her normal self again, she was able to examine the appearance of the man infront of her.

He was the messy blonde curly hair man with the weird make up on its face. She was mesmerized to his perfectly arranged face along with its annoyed bored expression.

"what are you looking?" the man raised its brow to her like he was really annoyed by her very existence.

When she recovered from the beauty of the man infront of her she now realized what situation she is in now.

"W-where I am?" she ask to the man and man suddenly grin showing his perfectly line up teeth.

"Welcome to Circus Paradise" he answered with those creepy smile and vow his head to her.

She croach her forehead in confusion 'a circus!?' she ask in her mind like it was the very unrealistic thing she have ever heard. Then an unwanted idea suddenly came to her mind.

"A-are you one of my F-father's people? A-are you going to return me to him!?" she asked in terror while taking a step backwards from the person infront of her.

But the man just smile to her like a creepy psycho.

"H-how much did he pay you for this? I-I will pay you double, I w-will do anything, j-just don't take me back to them" she continued until she bumb to the cabinet behind her.

"Hmmm... What a good offer" Zhui answered while taking steps towards to her.

He stop leaving only some inches away from her. Zhui lean his face close to Deiren like he was examining every inches of it then he flashes again his creppy smile. He played her hair then he wispher to her right ear "what about you life?" he ask then he leak her ears like he was teasing her.

Deiren immediately falls again to her knees in terror. She just looking him to his eyes. It is like her tounge has been cut and her mouth has sewed. She was frightened.

When Zhui noticed the terror in Deiren's face he immediately distance himself to her and blurted a  spine-chilling laughters that echoed to the whole place.

He laugh like there is no tomorrow while Deiren has been left dumb founded still not moving from her position.

After a minute long laughter of Zhui, he returned his attention to Deiren again.

"Move, they want to see you, come out" he said in very bland way then he took his exit from the tent.

When she didn't follow Zhui return and grab her wrist and forcefully escorted her to the group of people outside her tent.

There are around eight people who peacefully sitted around a fire to warm them up from the cold weather.

The rain already stop and the smell of petrichor covered the place. The soil is muddy and the grass are still wet yet the crickets manage to do their thing and serenade the whole area.

A young girl in the group noticed their arrival and immetiately took the attention of the remaining people to inform them of their existence.

They welcomed them with a warm sincere smile and a young boy vacant his sit for Deiren to sit.

Bewildered and amazed she took the space on the giant log where the boy offered and thank him for his kindness. She was surprised when Zhui suddenly sit beside her. The man noticed her reaction and look at her with 'what? Is there a problem' facial expression so she just ignore it and focused her attention to the people around her.

"coffee?" a middle age woman who sit next to her offered.

"T-thank you" she accepted it and smiled back to the woman.

"We are sorry for what happened, we are sorry in Zhui's behalf" the other man with lots of tattoo on his body opened up.

"Yeah, Zhui is a psycho so please just understand him" said the boy from before with a blonde hair wearing a blue trouser. Zhui just look at him and rolled his eyes.

"What song do you like, I could play it for you" said the man with a very curly hair with a eukalele on his lap "think of it as compensation to what our Zhui did to you"

Because of the pressure she felt, Deiren immediately think of a song that the man could play for her. She cannot stand the stares she is receiving now from the people around her so she just utter the first song that comes to his mind.

"S-sound of Silence" she said in a low voice.

"What a good song, your wish is my command milady" the man with eukalele responses and started to strum his instrument.

She was amazed by the serene voice of the man and suddenly reminded her of something that she cannot recall. She feels that she already heard his voice before. The nostalgia filled her mind but she cannot clearly remember where she heard it.

To be continued...