Circus Read online

  I rummage further through the huge drawer. Far in the back, I find a pair of white gloves. They are small, maybe belonging to a ten- or eleven-year-old. One of the gloves is a bit heavy. There is something inside. I delve into it, and I find a small cell phone.

  I push the ON button and look through the contact list. It’s the first thing that comes to mind. But there are no contacts. So what’s the point of it being in there?

  Did I miss something? Finding the gloves in the drawer, and the phone inside, is enough evidence that I am following the clues the way the Hatter planned.

  Then I hear a beep. It’s a message. No, it’s a picture. I tap my feet impatiently, waiting for it to load while I try to keep an alert ear in case one of my sisters decides to enter the room all of a sudden.

  While the picture loads, the phone shows a rabbit late for an important date, running around a green garden.

  I have only six minutes to go.

  The picture finally loads.

  When I see it, I clap my hand on my mouth, suppressing a shriek. My stomach churns. I can’t believe what I am looking at.

  Chapter 16

  Downstairs, Alice Wonder's house, 7 Folly Bridge, Oxford, 10:56 a.m.

  Down in the open kitchen, Edith Wonder was chopping carrots to make salad. She almost cut herself when her phone rang. But Edith didn’t worry. As long as she wore her plastic gloves, it was unlikely she would get hurt. She had always used those gloves when chopping. They helped protect her from cutting herself. Or, at least, they lessened the wounds.

  Edith pulled her gloves off and picked up her phone. She read the message. Her face began to twitch. Having seen a lot of mad things in her life, surprising her wasn’t easy anymore. But this message was different. Calling it scary was an understatement. It meant that someone knew one of her family’s biggest secrets.

  Edith put the phone down and watched Lorina breathe on her recently manicured fingernails while watching TV. A reality show about teenagers aspiring to become professional models.

  Looking over Lorina’s shoulder, Edith sighed. She was staring at an invisible memory. A seven-year-old Alice Wonder standing by the door with a glinting knife in her hand, blood trickling from her dress.

  A recurring and haunting memory.

  Usually Edith couldn’t see Alice’s face clearly in this memory. She always wondered why. Maybe because she wanted to suppress that horrible event and leave it behind.

  The easiest way to deal with maddening events had always been neglect, as if nothing ever happened.

  Edith snapped herself out of it, still remembering how Alice had tried to fool her last time, when she sent that girl from the Drury Lane Theatre to search her room for clues about the bus accident. Did that girl find anything important? It was unlikely. Lorina and Edith had cleaned the room of major clues years ago. They had only left Alice's clothes and toys, at the request of their too sentimental mother.

  Alice was looking for clues of her past in the wrong direction anyway. But it still bothered Edith—it wasn’t exactly the accident that gave away the truth; it was an older memory suppressed under the burden of shock therapy and medications in Alice’s mind.

  What if Alice found out the truth? Lorina’s mind was churning.

  Alice Wonder was meant to stay in the asylum, busy with her shock therapies, drugs, and sessions. She wasn’t supposed to have enough strength—or time—for detective work. How did she even get out of the asylum? Someone must have been helping her. But who?

  And now, there was this message Edith had just received.

  “Lorina?” Edith said.

  “Hmm?” Lorina was still watching the show while waving a small fan at her fingernails instead of breathing on them.

  “I just received a strange message.”

  “Delete it,” Lorina said nonchalantly. “Unless they’re messages from cute boys—I delete messages all the time. Mum’s on top of the list.”

  “This is different,” Edith said. “You need to pay attention.”

  “I am.” Lorina pointed at the TV. “Did this girl really think she could become a model? In a barn, maybe.”

  “The message says”—Edith shrugged—“‘I know about the Event.’”

  Lorina stopped whatever she was doing. Turned around without the slightest hint of worry. Lorina had always been the opposite of her sister. “Just that?” Lorina cocked her head.

  “What do you mean ‘just that’?” Edith began chopping carrots again, trying to silence her inner sirens of anxiety. “Very few people know about the circus.”

  “It says 'the Event' but not the other word, right?"

  "Are we supposed to wait for the other word? Why would someone send me such a message?”

  “Hmm... Do you recognize the sender’s number?”

  “Anonymous.” Edith chopped faster. “Can’t call back. It’s weird.”

  “It could be a prank.” Lorina shook her shoulders.

  “It seems un”—chop—“like”—chop chop—“ly.” Chop chop chop.

  Edith accidentally cut herself. She wasn’t wearing the gloves this time. She dropped the knife but didn’t care to wash her hand. The pain could wait.

  “Cut yourself, sis?” Lorina smiled.

  Edith neglected her younger sister’s sinister curiosity, and began rinsing the bleeding finger under the faucet. When she turned around to look for a handkerchief, she found none. But there was something hung on the wall. Something she could use. A dress. One she had long forgotten about. It was of a small size, and it looked old. Dried bloodstains still stuck to it. Edith didn’t want to see that dress. It had been always Lorina’s morbid idea to keep it. Edith sighed and used it to dry her hands, then turned and faced Lorina again. “I think someone knows,” she told her again.

  “Knows what exactly?” Lorina said impatiently.

  “Someone knows what really happened to Alice.” Edith shrugged.

  Chapter 17

  Upstairs, Alice Wonder's house, 7 Folly Bridge, Oxford, 11:00 a.m.

  The picture is actually a live video of a young girl, wearing an Alice-like dress. The girl is sitting among her friends in what seems like a kindergarten. She is holding a white rabbit in her arms. Other kids surrounding her are playing and patting the cute rabbit.

  When the rabbit hiccups, it glows slightly red. However, the children seem to think it’s cute. They’re infatuated with the rabbit in the absence of teachers.

  I grit my teeth at the Hatter’s cruelty. How can he do this to the children? It’s only five minutes to explosion. My heart sinks into my stomach. I feel this unexplainable haze in my mind, pressuring me again. Should I have taken my medication before leaving the asylum today?

  It’s only a moment before my phone beeps again. A written message this time. The sender’s name: the Hatter.

  The kids will explode in about five minutes from now. I can reset the bomb, give you another 24 hours to find the bomb, if you do as I say.

  Without even thinking, or consulting the Pillar, I message him back. My hands are trembling as I do. The picture of the kids about to be exploded by a rabbit already haunts me.

  Stupidly, my phone slips from my anxious finger. It drops to the floor and scatters in pieces. Looking at it, I feel my jaw hurting from the tension in my body. I have screwed up.

  What have I done?

  The clock on the wall says it’s 11:02 a.m.

  Chapter 18

  Downstairs, Alice Wonder's house, 7 Folly Bridge, Oxford, 11:00 a.m.

  “No one knows what we’ve done, Edith.” Lorina picked up a mirror and checked her carefully drawn eyebrows, still sitting on the couch. “Boy, I hate my eyebrows. I mean, I love my eyebrows, but not enough not to hate them. Ugh.”

  “How can you be sure that no one knows?” Edith pressed against her wound.

  “It’s a mad world, sis.” Lorina plucked a stray hair away. A smile captured her lips, as if she’d conquered Rome. “Even if someone knows, who’d believe them?”
r />   “I don’t know.” Edith sighed, frustrated with her sister’s carelessness. “But...”

  “But what?” Lorina was done with her eyebrows. “Listen, sis. You need to get yourself together. Actually, you need to go out on a date, but we’ll talk about that later. Right now, we don’t care if anyone knows. Besides, even if someone does¸ it’s not like we’re alone in this. A lot of people have got our back. Do you think this mirror is a bit foggy?” She wiped the mirror with the tips of her fingers.

  Edith said nothing. She only stared at her younger sister. Outsiders usually considered Lorina the airhead, boyfriend-hungry sister, who’d trip wearing her heals in a party. Little did they know that Lorina was the cruelest creature in the world, even compared to Edith.

  “So I shouldn’t worry?” Edith said.

  “Damn this mirror.” Lorina plowed it against the wall. She looked like a maniac for a second, but then returned to her Barbie-like look again. She stood up, rubbed her middle finger gently onto her lower lip, and approached Edith. “Sis, you can count on me.” She rested her elbows on the kitchen table, facing Edith. “What we have done in the past stays in the past. We’ve done our part. Others will do theirs. Soon it will all be just fine.” She pulled Edith’s hand up and smoothly wiped the blood away. “Is that the knife?”

  Edith nodded silently.

  “Well, aren’t you sentimental, keeping such evidence at hand.” Lorina rolled her eyes. “Shouldn’t you have destroyed it about twelve years ago?”

  “It’s a good knife,” Edith argued. She had no idea why she had kept this knife so long, sharpening it every few months. “You still keep the dress.”

  “Ah.” Lorina looked at it. “The housemaid dress. But fair enough. Each of us is keeping a piece of the memory. Blood on the dress. Blood on the knife.” She snickered. “Which reminds me.” Lorina clicked her fingers. “Did you get rid of the girl’s body from last week? The girl from Drury Lane?”

  “I did.” Edith snickered, influenced by her sister’s morbidity. Sometimes, Lorina’s ease at doing horrible things was the best way to bond the sisters together.

  “Chopped her to pieces?” Lorina raised an eyebrow.

  Edith nodded, eyes wide open.

  “Good, sis.” Lorina patted her. “Sorry I couldn’t help with the chopping. I had just manicured my fingernails.”

  “It’s okay.” Edith rammed her knife through the carrot again. “I love chopping.”

  Both girls laughed and forgot about the message.

  It was a short-lived moment of happiness, though.

  Lorina’s face changed all of a sudden. “Did you hear that?” She cocked her head upward. “I think Mother dropped something upstairs.”

  “Mother isn’t in the house, Lorina.” Edith’s face dimmed again.

  Both girls stared at the ceiling until they heard something moving upstairs. They lowered their heads and glared at each other. “A stranger is in the house!”

  Chapter 19

  Downstairs, Alice Wonder's house, 7 Folly Bridge, Oxford, 11:02 a.m.

  I pick up the pieces of the phone and put them together again, cursing my clumsiness and irresponsibility. Thank God the phone wasn’t smashed. I just need to put the battery back in and clip it together. As I press the ON button again, my heart is racing. I could be responsible for children dying in some kindergarten somewhere. It seems so random, but even though I know none of these children, I have to save them.

  The phone is on, and I message back:

  I will do whatever you want, just restart the bomb!

  I click send and stare at the clock on the wall. It’s almost 11:03 a.m. Did I miss the time? The wait is killing me.

  My personal phone buzzes in my pocket. I pull it out. It’s the Pillar again. Why would he be calling me while he is watching my sisters downstairs?

  The other phone beeps again. It’s an MP3 file. I click it open.

  Playing the file, I realize I am listening to a conversation between my sisters. Strangely enough, I don’t recognize their voices immediately. Only when they start talking about me. What is this? I hear them talking about an “event.” A secret event no one’s supposed to know about? But that’s not the harsh part. I hear them talking about “what happened to me.”

  What does that mean?

  I feel the haze closing in on me again. My mind is spinning. Then the phone beeps one more time. A message from the Hatter:

  I will reset the bomb once you pick up the next clue. It’s a housemaid’s dress, hung in the kitchen downstairs. Good luck with confronting your sisters!

  On the other hand, the Pillar keeps buzzing my personal phone. Too many things happen at one. The clock on the wall says it’s 11:04 a.m. A surging sting rushes through my body. Hate. Anger. Insanity.

  I tuck the gloves and fan in my back pockets of my jeans. I have a feeling I will need them later.

  I open the door and dash down the stairs. Since the Hatter can see and record everything around me, I assume he is nearby. But I can’t waste time looking for him. I don’t even know what he looks like exactly. I do this to save the children—and to confront my sisters.

  Chapter 20

  Downstairs, Alice Wonder's house, 7 Folly Bridge, Oxford, 11:05 a.m.

  At the foot of the stairs, I see Lorina and Edith staring back at me. They’re appalled at seeing me. I’m appalled to see them appalled to see me. One happy, appalled family.

  Without hesitation, Edith waves a glinting knife in my direction. It’s as if she has seen a ghost. The look in her eyes suggests she wouldn’t hesitate killing me. How is this possible? Isn’t she my sister?

  Still stiffened by the heaviness of the moment, I turn and look at Lorina. Maybe my Barbie girl sister will be kinder to me. But she isn’t. She looks upon me with pursed lips, as if I am unworthy of her gesture.

  Previously I knew my sister rather mocked my insanity and blamed me for killing my classmates. I have been thinking about it for many a night in my cell: what have I done to them that made them hate me this much?

  “Look what the cat dragged in.” Lorina almost sings the words, as if she is Waltraud making fun of me in the asylum.

  “I think we should get rid of her.” Edith’s face is a bubble of hatred and evil.

  “Kill her, you mean?” Lorina asks.

  “Chop her like carrots and then kill her.” Edith snickers.

  I can’t believe my ears. I must be insane—if I had a shilling every time the thought crossed my mind. This can’t be how the world operates. My sisters can’t be so cruel. It must be me who’s gone Willy Wonka.

  “What have you done to me?” The words escape my mouth ever so slowly. “I heard you talk about me. What is this event you’re talking about?”

  Then I see the dress hung on the wall behind them. I shouldn’t be wasting my time asking about me now. I shouldn’t be this selfish. My priority should be to get the dress and stop the bomb. But I can’t help it.

  “You heard us talk. About the Event? How?” Edith grimaces, and her chubby cheeks bubble out. I watch her face redden. Her anger leaves me paralyzed in my place. It’s so imminent I forget I need an answer to my question.

  “How are you not in the asylum?” Edith says, as she hurries toward me with the knife, about to stab me.

  It takes me a moment to realize that my sister is about to kill me. But it also helps that I don’t really remember her. We don’t have anything in common. No childhood memories. No secrets shared. Not even fights. In the back of my mind, she doesn’t mean anything to me.

  I duck, and let Edith swing her knife and slice the thin air atop of me. Then I kick her sideways in the knees. Nonsensical jujitsu style. My fingers tighten together and my hand is straight as a rod.

  Edith trips and falls on her face. Her head bangs against the foot of the stairs. She is aching. Cursing me. There is a moment when I want to lend her a hand and apologize, but I don’t do it. She tried to stab me. She tried to freakin’ stab me.

  I
close my eyes for a fraction of a second and breathe in. This is the first time my None Fu skills actually work. I read in the book that I should be yelling “yeehaa” or something while fighting. They call it an “anchor call.” A word so strong to you that it gives you strength. The only word that strong to me is “Jack.” But I can’t even begin thinking about him, or I’ll start crying. I figure I can do without that word.

  With my eyes still closed, I see the book’s pages flap before me. Page 82. Line 12. It reads: “A true None Fu Warrior never take success for granted. If you bring your opponent to the floor, don’t expect them not to come back to life. Finish what you started. Long live None Fu!”

  Following the book’s instructions, opening my eyes, I kneel down and hit Edith with the back of my elbow, making sure her curses turn to moans then a hissing snore.

  I’m Alice’s cruel and nonsensical world of madness.

  I step on Edith’s hand, pull the knife and grip it, then turn to face my other sister. The dizziness strikes again. I don’t know why. It’s as if my mind is ready to daydream or envision something but it’s still too weak to do it. I should have really taken my medication this morning.

  I am Alice’s sense of blurring realities!

  I have to admit it. I feel insane. And I love it.

  Lorina stands casually by the table, sucking on a strawberry. My Barbie sister pretends she is cooler than cool. A sinister smile on her heart-shaped lips gives away her real intentions. “None Fu, eh?” she says. “Where did you learn that?”

  “You know about None Fu?” I grimace, waving my knife, eyes on the dress behind her. I don’t know why, but looking at the dress intensifies my dizziness. I look away, for now.

  Lorina lifts her chin and chews on the strawberry. “Know about it?” She stretches her arms and knuckles her slim fingers. “I have a black belt in None Fu, little doll.” She suddenly runs across the hall like an acrobat in a circus. She runs backward then somersaults, landing on the couch. She arches her body in some martial arts position, stretching out her hands and calling the fight. “Let’s play.”