Slidescope.
EARLIER

Becky’s gown was simple but beautiful. There were flowers in her hair and soon there would be a ring on her finger.

The audience in attendance was turning to watch her walk between the chairs set up in the field as her bare feet padded softly in the dew-covered grass. On the groom’s side all the carnies were watching her. They didn’t look friendly, but Becky knew they were just jealous.

The bride’s side was empty.

As she approached her future husband his hair caught in the wind. His shirt was unbuttoned to the mid-chest and as he eyed her his lust and adulation was clear. He stood before the alter beneath an arch of small saplings in front of a large lilac bush in full bloom.

He looked magnificent.

The ceremony was blissfully brief. She couldn’t wait to take him inside her and consummate their wedding.

The faceless priest had them turn to the attendants. She positively radiated victory and beauty as the clergyman announced;

“Doctor and Mrs. Celestine.”

It was a wonderful dream.

*****************************************

Calliope’s face twisted and she struck a minor chord, purposely missing the 3^rd. The result was a dissonant chord that shot out into the carnival.

*****************************************

A tent rope snapped near Celestine and the rope whipped from the tension, striking him in the face.

Doc froze, wincing, and clenched his fists, sucking a long breath between his teeth. He could already feel the welt it was going to leave. He slowly turned toward the big top and looked at it down the midway, seething.

“Wow did that have to sting!” Davey from the guess your age, weight, (and bra size after dark,) came running up to Doc. “Geez, oh man! Are you okay?”

Doc didn’t look at him. He didn’t move at all. He just continued to fume silently, staring at the big top. There was a stark intensity in his gaze that made Davey uncomfortable.

“Doc, you all right?”

Celestine touched the side of Davey’s face. “Here. Hold this for me.”

Davey screamed in pain from the welt appearing on his cheek as Celestine marched to his trailer.

*****************************************

Calliope pulled her hands from the keyboard. It continued to play (it always did) but she was more interested in the emotion that had motivated her to lash out so.

A shingle was one thing, but the rope…

Perhaps it was time to take a walk.

*****************************************

Envy couldn’t have been more pleased.

Before Bloody Mary Black had left and the freak show’s new master had arrived she had enjoyed her existence as an independent; The Dark Maiden., tormentor of Celestine and promoter of his suffering.

What an amateur she had been.

She wondered if Wrath was having as much fun playing with Celestine.

*****************************************

Man? Woman?

As Doc left, Wrath considered staying with Davey to give him a little poke, but following Celestine was just too much fun. Besides, Wrath had yet to determine it’s shape to continue to goad the Master’s Master into a real “Wild Bunch” moment

Man? Woman? Man? Woman?

*****************************************

Celestine shook his head as he marched to his trailer. His display of anger bordered on the cruel. It wasn’t completely out of character, but still, undeserved.

He would need to re-examine the happenings at his carnival, but after he dealt with… distractions.

Throwing open the door, he strode into his trailer, preparing a deliberate yet succinct preamble to facilitate Becky’s leaving via confusion and double talk. Nothing would stop him from brushing her off quickly and firmly.

He underestimated the staggering stopping power of barely 16 year-old breasts.

“Take me,” Becky said, standing naked and moist from her bath. “My love.”

*****************************************

Lust was hacking a lung from laughter.

*****************************************

“I can’t stand it anymore.” Said Becky, pulling Celestine’s coat from him. “You’re holding back. Believe me, I can handle it.”

Doc wasn’t even looking at her. He was staring down and off to the left, at nothing. It looked as if he was mugging for a camera that wasn’t there. His mind was a frantic blur.

Go on, old man, said the Incubus in Celestine’s memory. You’re only as old as the woman you’re feeling. Is not carnality, the goal?  The great desire to be human, no matter how much the god-like creature you seem to be?

*****************************************

Man? Woman?

Wrath’s new mouth formed first, a twisted, savage smile. The rest of the body filled in and innocent yet hateful eyes sparkled with inspiration as Wrath took it’s new shape.

“Child.”

*****************************************

As Becky unbuttoned his shirt, removing it, she kissed his chest, down to his stomach. On her knees, she looked up at Doc, eyes full of desire and submission. Celestine finally snapped out of his stupor and looked down at her.

“It’s okay.” She said. “Daddy made sure I was ready.”

The entire trailer shook as if hit by a bus.

******************************************

Wrath was wracked by an almost orgasmic shudder at Celestine’s rage. The sight was discomforting as it looked as though a ten-year old boy had just achieved a very public climax.

*****************************************

Inside of Celestine’s trailer was a nexus of frustration, confusion and rage made manifest. Becky’s naked form hung before him, suspended by his will, her consciousness shut off blissfully saving her from his existential outcry.

Celestine himself was decaying. His flesh was rotting and falling from him, black, corroded bones peeking through the dismal gore.

How… can they… DO… these things…?

His voice was his will made manifest as his jaw finally dropped to the floor from his rotting face.

Celestine’s opinion of mortal, earthly, fleshy, humanity was making itself apparent. He hated flesh. He hated humanity. He hated.

Suddenly Becky fell to the floor. Celestine rushed into the darkness of his trailer. Reality folded, as it always did, revealing one of the many walls of jars.

This wall, however, was different.

DaVinci’s Design of Man was carved into an oak cabinet face. Upon opening it, he gazed in at the many jars he had collected that he felt most defined humanity.

He quickly grasped the small jar labeled; compassion.

Just then, there was a sense of Stevens, his hand on the door.

Celestine quickly returned to Becky. (And his physical health.) Picking her up from the floor, she regained consciousness. Celestine looked her in the eyes. “You have to go.”

Becky kissed him full on the mouth.

*****************************************

Stevens got to Celestine’s trailer faster than he could have beleieved, and opened the door…

Celestine pulled Becky off him. He stood there, half out of his suit. Shirtless, he was holding the shoulders of a very wet, very naked, very young woman. It was the girl, Becky.

“Um. This… well, shit.”

“You know what,” Stevens growled, “I think I’ll take care of this little catastrophe. You’re obviously busy.”

*****************************************

Wrath watched Stevens storm out of the trailer. “Hey Mister!” He yelled.

Stevens stopped short and looked at the boy. “What?” He blurted rather curtly.

Wrath kicked him soundly in the shin, stuck his tongue out and ran behind the trailer.

Stevens blurted an unintelligible response and continued on his way.

*****************************************

Back inside Celestine’s trailer, Doc was still staring at the newly slammed door and a low, deep rumble started in his belly.

Becky turned his face to her and smiled. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”

Celestine opened his mouth and in her father’s voice, said to Becky; “Go, Becky. Now.”

She didn’t need to hear it twice.

*****************************************

He didn’t so much have a real name anymore. All he knew is they all thought of him and referred to him by the same name.

Runt.

His legs were long but too skinny, his paws big, but he just didn’t seem to be growing into them. His snout was shorter and his tail scraggly. His coat had a strange frazzled look to it.

He looked beat up, and there was a reason. He was at the bottom of a long list of pack-mates. And they all throated him at least once every couple days to remind him he was exactly what they treated him as.

Runt.

They all followed the alpha but he had a special kinship to the big grey one. There was a word for what he called her, but he just didn’t know it yet.

Right now he was so distracted he could hardly contain himself. The sights, the smells, the sounds… this place was an explosion in his senses.

Runt started looking for something to pee on.

*****************************************

As he watched her leave in a huff, he spat on the floor. Normally, a glib ‘bad taste in my mouth’ remark could be expected but he wasn’t in the mood. He looked down at hi naked chest and spat again.

“This will not do.”

Celestine wanted new clothes on. And so they were.

His jacket, normally a flamboyant red was black and plain. It still came to his knees and the trim was coated in silver studs.  His gloves were missing, revealing his broken hands, bandages long stained with blood. His mock-collar shirt was a deep maroon and the top two buttons were unbuttoned. His vest was leather and seemed to move slightly of its own accord. His pants were leather as well and widened at the base to allow for frighteningly aggressive boots. The right leg was covered mid-thigh to mid calf by a hinged iron harness. His eyes were covered by perfectly round sunglasses. And his top hat was slid slightly forward. His cane had a sharp barbed point at the end, and the dragon figurine on the handle flicked its tongue and slowly moved its tail.

He strode out his trailer and walked o the center of the midway.

No one got in his way.

Planting his cane firmly in the ground, he leaned on it. “Now then…” he said to no one in particular yet all of them at the same time. “What the fuck is going on?”

He opened himself and sensed everything in his carnival.