"Wow, that's huge!" I say. "So this is where most of our customers go?" I say. Elijah has a laugh. "Yeah, sorry about that," he says, and then he lets me into this tent the size of a stadium.
What the...?
"Can they grow this big? I ask, "Who puts it up?" "A machine helps," is what he says.
"This is Sasha. She's the leader of my aerial hoop performers," he says as he shows me a very pretty girl with long legs.
I offer her my hand. She says, "It's nice to meet you. How about I show you a few tricks?"
I say, "Sure,"...
The girl says, "I can see why sir was interested in you. You are very good at aerial hooping, almost better than me."
I couldn't help but show a few of my own tricks, and it looks like I'm pretty good at what I do.
I've seen that the girls wear a lot of makeup... I really care.
They looked their best for their show.
Elijah puts his hand on my back to lead me to where he wants me to go. He says, "I have something else I want to show you, Doll. Come with me."
We go behind the scenes and into a room. He shuts the door, and when I hear him lock it, I turn around.
"Have you already made your choice? About staying?" he asks.
"I'm going back," she says. "No, you're not. You're going to stay here whether you like it or not. If you try to leave, a performer will stop you," he says.
"I'm not staying here," I tell them.
He comes up to me, puts one hand on my waist, and the other on my face.
"Now, Doll, listen to me right now before I start touching you. This body makes every man want to taste it, and every time you disobey me, I'll want to have my way with you."
I cough. "You let Claude treat you like a jerk, and I'm sure you don't care at all."
"But I don't want you to touch me," I tell him. "I will touch you, and you will listen to me," he says, pushing me down so I'm against the sofa.
I try to stand up, but he pushes me down again. "Let me be clear about one thing: inside these walls, I am in charge, so listen to me or I'll hit you harder than Claudius ever did."
He runs his hands up my thighs and tries to grab my chest, but I hit his hands away. Then he opens my legs and tries to move between them to lift my skirt, but I kick him in the groin with all my foot strength.
He grunts and grabs his private parts. I cover my face when I want to laugh.
"Claude may be a jerk, but at least he taught us how to defend ourselves. He even showed us the weak spot, which is right where I kicked. Have fun trying to make a kid a jerk," I make fun of him and walk away.
I was not going to let him touch me that way. I want to be touched like that by Claude.
"Honey, where are you going?" The girl who taught me some tricks asks. I lie and put on a fake smile and say, "Oh, I'm just going to get my stuff and be right back."
I pull out my phone, which I never use. "Did you call me to let me know you're staying there?" Asks Claude.
"Come get me, you jackass."
He is sad. "Told you so, maybe you should have listened to me."
I roll my eyes and hope that he gets the hint. "Pick me up or I'll kick your behind," I say. "Are we brave now? Wait until you see me, and I'll have left my mark on you all over."
I laugh and then hang up the phone. I like how that sounds, though.
I wait around for at least forty minutes, but I stay out of sight of the douche bag's Circus.
"Are you going to get in, or do I need to beat someone up before we leave?" he asks.
I'm walking to the car. "Elijah," I tell him.
He asks, "What about that piece of crap?" "He was..." Why am I getting mad now? Just now, I felt strong. I whimper, "He touched me, Claude," and he gets out of the car almost as soon as I do.
He gets me to look at him by putting his hand on my chin and tilting it up.
"He what?" he asks, and it's almost like the devil has woken up inside of him.
"He had his hands on me and tried to..." I cry into his chest, and he strokes my hair in a way that makes me feel better.
I thought I could be strong now, but I can't stop crying. After Elijah hurt me for what he did to me, I thought I would finally be strong.
He moves away from me and storms off toward the door of the Circus. I run after him. "No... No... No, Claude, please let the police handle him." I ask.
"I'll kill him," he says with a scowl. If looks could kill, all performers would be dead because of how they look.
I stop him from moving again by saying, "Please, just let the police deal with him."
"Tell me you're going to turn him over to the police?" I ask.
He helps me. "I'm going to call the police and let them deal with him because right now I want to cut him open, make him into burger patties, and feed him to his fuckwit crew," he says as he walks me to the car.
My eyes get big. "Would..." "Yes, I would," he says, cutting me off.
"Come on, get in the car," he tells me gently as he opens the door. He uses his fingers to wipe my tears away, and then I get in the car.
He walks in next to me and turns on the car. He changes gears and starts driving away from where he parked.
He asks, "Why are you looking at me like that?" "You wouldn't actually do that," I say, no longer crying because I'm more interested than anything else.
"Yes, I would. He slept with one of my performers, so I'll poison all of his meat with it."
"You're crazy," I tell him, shaking my head and hoping he's kidding.
"I'm in a Circus..." What's the point of that?"
I can only give him a smile. "I see you're happy, even though I just said that his disgusting meat cakes would make all of his performers sick.
"Aren't you even trying to be funny?" I chuckle a bit.
He says, "No, I'm serious," with a straight face.
He says, "I swear that when we get to the Circus, I'll beat the crap out of you."
I try to sound as innocent as possible when I say, "I hope it's your balls hitting my crotch from behind." This time, he looks at me like he's surprised, then back at the road.
"Calm down, Doll," he says, and his breathing is getting faster this time.
I get angry and turn away. That was so awful, but at least we're not thinking about it anymore.