Blood Moon Big Top

by Toneye Eyenot

  As the door closed, the room returned to pitch black, but Marbles detected a slight reddish tinge to the darkness, which allowed him to see, albeit barely. He didn’t realise the room was in total darkness, nor did he know the origin of the red. These thoughts didn’t even enter his mind. He just unconsciously accepted it as normal, as he gathered together a set of clothes that looked like they would fit, and clumsily dressed himself. His muscles were buzzing with pins and needles, as his blood supply replenished his veins, once again returning to a regular flow. Pulling on an old pair of faded denims, Marbles wondered how long he had been dead. The blood now coursing through his body was different from the blood that had ceased its flow three days earlier. The weak, sick blood had been cleansed and revitalised as he lay in stasis, and it wouldn’t be long before Marbles felt stronger than he ever had in his former life.

  He picked up a tattered black baseball cap, placed it comfortably on his head, and then slowly stood; a new man. And just like a newborn, he was starving. Not just “damn, I missed lunch” starving. Proper starving. His guts threatened to start eating him from the inside out, and then continue onward, in search of someone else to eat from the outside in. Someday soon, Marbles would be impervious to physical illness or damage. His healing would be next to instantaneous, and his strength would increase manifold. For now however, Marbles the clown, the drifter, was every bit as vulnerable as a newborn. Everything around him, as he stepped back into the morgue, was so intense and vibrant. His senses were in turmoil with the intake overload. He stood for several moments, swaying dangerously in an attempt to gain his bearings. A shudder of desperation set in, and Marbles was compelled to escape this tomb, and find a safe place to lie down to try and make sense of everything. He began walking stiffly across the room to the main door. He felt ridiculous, like he was learning to walk all over again. It frustrated the hell out of him as he trudged forward, step by uncoordinated step, but eventually, he made it. Marbles stood at the door and paused. He couldn’t try to make his escape, waddling through the hospital like a baby who has found the confidence to run for the first time.

  “No fucking way,” Marbles grumbled. “Fuck!” he added in supreme frustration. His voice bounced around the silent morgue for several seconds; the whole while, Marbles stood hunched and tense, pleading in his mind for the echo to stop. “You’re a fuckin’ idiot, Marbles,” he thought angrily. He started stretching and doing leg lifts, eventually bringing his knees right up to his chest. Marbles then began warming up the rest of his body, from his hips all the way to his neck and face. This worked very fast, but just as fast, his insane hunger increased right alongside. Marbles had to eat straight away. There was no way he was going to die again; not if he could help it.

  Amongst the myriad of suffocating smells that permeated the morgue, Marbles caught a whiff. It was food! He searched frantically around the room for this inviting odour, his limbs now in perfect order and primed for the task at hand. On the mortician’s work table sat a torn open brown paper bag, containing half a cut sandwich. Marbles rushed over to the table and snatched it greedily to his mouth, stopping just as the bread touched his tongue. He took it away from his mouth and opened it. A slice of cheese, some tomato, and a couple of thinly sliced pieces of ham. He picked the meat out, dropping the rest back in the bag, and threw it into his mouth, chewing greedily. He instantly regretted it. That same tasteless, mushy paper sensation filled his mouth, forcing him to expel the contents before he even got a chance to swallow.

  He let out another frustrated yell, which came out more like a growling whine, once again bouncing crazily around the room, but for much longer this time. Marbles just wanted to smash something; tear it apart and destroy, such was his insurmountable rage. A rage matched only by his hunger. He charged for the door and tore it open, glaring down the empty corridor. The sounds of the hospital reached his ears, and once again, Marbles became overwhelmed. He dropped to his knees, with his head down and arms folded up over his ears. The reverberations muffled and became bearable, so Marbles was able to focus on the multitude of sounds until he began to differentiate each individual one, even its distance. He was having fun with his new found ability, and forgot he was still on his knees, covering his ears. He slowly removed his arms, and everything became crystal clear. Marbles stood and began to trot down the corridor.

  7.

  Reaching the end, he heard a single, faint cry. His ears pricked and his stomach growled ferociously. He stopped and stuck his head cautiously around the corner to another vacant corridor. Apart from an empty gurney and empty food trolley, the corridor was barren. So where did that cry come from? There was a long, narrow window, which stretched along the top length of one wall, and several open doorways along the right. Marbles headed straight for the gurney, taking care to quickly but thoroughly scan each room to the right as he passed. He was beyond the fear he felt earlier, and was now consumed with a single thought… Food.

  In the third room along, sat a solitary humidicrib, grabbing Marbles’ immediate attention. He stole into the room, swiftly and silently. He heard the faint gurgles and coos of a baby, and looked down at the crib in horror. Siamese twins looked back up at him with curious stares. They shared the one body, arms and legs, with two hideously ugly heads. Their twisted features had Marbles transfixed. He felt a mixture of pity and disgust for the child, but his intense hunger overrode his rationale. This freak of nature couldn’t be allowed to live. Marbles would do the kid a favour, and put it out of its misery… but not here.

  He rushed out of the room and set the gurney beneath the window, locking its wheels. He then returned to the crib, opened it, and removed the baby, who didn’t make a sound. He stealthily crept back to the window, and climbed up on the gurney. He unlatched the window and opened it out, scanning the area outside, before pushing the bundled up freak baby through. He hoisted himself up and shimmied through the window, out onto the grass. Snatching up the bundle, Marbles ran like the wind for the nine-foot wire fence. His only obstacle between the hospital and freedom, Marbles chose a spot obscured from view by a large shed, and headed straight for it. The baby was wriggling under his arm as he ran, and was beginning to cry, but he blocked it out.

  Marbles reached the fence and, without a second thought, hurled the baby over it, before scrambling over himself. He picked up the unravelled Siamese twins and quickly bundled the baby back in its sheet. One head was screaming now, while the other remained silent. It was dead. Marbles ran on into the night, the waxing moon obscured by heavily cloud laden skies. He headed straight for the circus, unaware that they had packed up and moved on, once news of his death had been announced. That wasn’t relevant at this moment though. Marbles had his mind set on the adjoining forest. His hand smothering the cries of the surviving twin, he ran even faster. The further and faster he went, the more desperate his hunger grew, which in turn urged him on, faster still.

  Before too long, Marbles entered the trees in full stride. He ran until he could bear it no longer, and dropped to his knees, spilling the bundle out before him. The screaming head relented when the rabidly hungry clown gripped two fingers and a thumb around the neck of the deceased twin, just at the base of the skull, and pulled; twisting it this way and that until it tore free, pulling the spine out with it. The baby was silent now. He let the severed head hang by the spine and examined the other. It was still barely alive, but it had also shared a spine with its twin, now leaving it paralysed and on the brink of death. It was spared the agony of being eaten alive, as it no longer had feeling.

  Marbles grabbed it by a foot and under its arm, and closed his jaws around the upper thigh. Chewing and thrashing his head around insanely, desperate to fill his stomach with warm bloody meat, he tore off a section of flesh. He dropped the baby, so he could use both hands to stuff the sizeable chunk into his mouth, moaning in ecstasy as he chewed and swallowed his very first bite to eat in several days. His last meal had been a sirloin steak. His first meal was a two-heade
d baby, but this didn’t seem strange or wrong to the newly reborn Marbles. It was simply a matter of survival. He picked it up again, and bit into the already ravaged flesh, tearing off an even larger strip of buttock, all the way around and up to the stomach. The baby was dead at this point, and Marbles gorged on its remains until there was nothing left but a deformed, two-headed skeleton.

  Marbles sat back, thoroughly satisfied, and as his bloodlust subsided, he returned to his senses. Before him, lay the savaged remains of a human being. Marbles was horrified by what he had done, and knew straight away, this was what his new life demanded of him. He never really cared much for people, but never in his wildest dreams would he have killed and eaten one. What troubled him most was, never had he been so satisfied and relieved by a meal before. Whilst he sat, feeling fully sated, Marbles also felt emotionally sickened. He had regained his strength completely now, and took the remains as he got up to leave. He would have to find somewhere to bury the bones, and get the hell out of the area. They would be looking for him. The corpse who got up and left the hospital without a trace.

  8.

  Tearing through the trees, the clown headed east. The circus had moved on days ago, and east was the direction they were heading. At this point, Marbles just wanted to get back to the circus and try to resume a normal life. Who was he kidding? He was covered in baby blood, and still held the rattling remains of his meal as he ran. This was anything but normal. He stopped, and began clawing at the soft earth with his hands. He managed a hole about two feet deep and dropped the remains in, before covering the hole and standing.

  “I’m losing my marbles,” the clown said out loud. “Haha! I’m losing my fucking Marbles!” He ran on, half-crying, half-laughing maniacally through the woods. It was some forty miles to the next town, and as Marbles ran, he hoped he would get there before the circus once again moved on. He knew where they had headed, but didn’t know the next destination after that. He had been running now for hours, and showed no sign of tiring. The forest was massive and stretched for many miles in both directions. Marbles took advantage of this, and used it for cover as he kept heading east. The clouds had dispersed, and the waxing crescent moon smiled down upon him, through the trees. He cringed momentarily as he spied the moon in the sky, and then relaxed. Where once he had felt under attack, he now felt strengthened and held up by her mysterious power. His vision had that reddish tinge, which was becoming more pronounced. He had no difficulty seeing whatsoever now.

  Night began to recede, and Marbles finally felt the onset of exhaustion. He hadn’t stopped running the entire time, and as birds began to sing, the clown sat himself down beneath a tree, falling into a sound sleep. He was deep in the forest now, and far from prying eyes. He slept, undisturbed for several hours, waking shortly after midday with the return of his ravenous hunger. He wondered where his next meal would come from, and contemplated leaving the forest, in search of another victim of his bloodlust. When the hunger took hold, all guilt vanished, and humans became nothing more than a food source to him. He caught sight of a small doe, foraging several feet from where he sat. With infinite care, he got up onto all fours, and started towards the animal. His predatory eyes fixed on the oblivious target, Marbles inched closer, until he was nearly within reach. The doe continued to forage, and didn’t see the clown until he was upon it. With an unnatural strength, he leapt on the startled animal, and snapped its neck like a twig. It jerked and twitched beneath him, as he sunk his teeth into the soft throat flesh and tore. Blood sprayed all over him, and his vision turned to deep red. Marbles feasted on the carnage until he could eat no more, and once again he was up and running, leaving the carcass to rot in the woods.

  He continued throughout the afternoon without breaking pace. A lot of things didn’t occur to him since waking up in the morgue; like running non-stop for hours without tiring, or the unusual new ability to see in the dark. Marbles knew he was different, but the particulars of his new-and-improved self eluded him. Everything seemed natural, which he simply took for granted. The forest began to thin out and Marbles realised he would soon lose his cover, so he slowed his gait and allowed the day to fade to dark as he came closer to civilisation. He knew what that meant… food.

  Marbles contemplated his near insatiable appetite, as he reached the forest edge and stopped. He wondered how he was going to continue, with this new found lust for the flesh of the living. That freak baby in the hospital was doomed from the moment Marbles heard its cry, before his intent had even made itself known to him. What would become of the very next person he crosses paths with? Would he be able to control himself? The more he thought about it, the more his hunger returned. Maybe, he thought, it would be better for him to remain in the woods, and hunt the wildlife for sustenance. The doe had sufficed perfectly well. There was no reason he couldn’t survive without having to kill people. His reclusive tendencies made the concept of living in the wild an inviting one. Although he wasn’t comfortable around people, Marbles did miss his life as a circus clown. In a way, he had grown somewhat fond of some of the people who worked there. Marbles made up his mind right there. He decided he would continue on to the circus. It didn’t occur to him how he would be received once he got there, being dead and all.

  Composing himself, Marbles left the cover of the woods, and walked toward the outskirts of the town before him. Dusk was settling on his surroundings, and the lights from the town stirred in the drifter, an ominous mixture of welcome and woe. He entered the town along a stretch of road, which began as dirt, and became a sealed road as he progressed. People strolled around, and sat outside cafés and bars. There seemed to be a fairly healthy night life here. Perhaps, a little too busy to be discreet in finding his next meal. Marbles walked down the main street, amongst the sparse crowds going about their business. He felt supremely uncomfortable, knowing that at any moment, the hunger could override his reasoning mind. The air smelt like a busy restaurant kitchen, and Marbles began to wonder if coming here was such a good idea.

  Passing a quiet laneway, he heard the sounds of a man and woman arguing. His heart rate quickened, and without giving a second thought, he backed up and quickly ducked out of sight to observe. The woman was scantily clad, and Marbles figured her for a prostitute. They were arguing over money, so he guessed the man was either a client or a pimp.

  “Perfect,” he said in a whisper to himself, and walked down the lane straight towards them. They were so caught up in their dispute, neither of them saw the drifter approach, until he was only a few feet away. The woman spotted him first, her voice trailing off as she watched him come up behind the man. He turned around, just as Marbles clamped his hands down on the man’s shoulders, and delivered a savage head butt to the nose, throwing him hard into the rough stone wall of a building. The man crumpled to the ground, unconscious, and Marbles turned to the woman. A crimson aura emanated from her, and Marbles felt his body heat up, his mind beginning to fog.

  “Are you OK?” he asked.

  “I am now,” she replied, placing a soft hand on his bicep with a wanton smile. Marbles felt a slight stir in his pants at the woman’s suggestive touch. She was pretty damn sexy, dressed all slutty, with her auburn hair cascading off her shoulders and curling down around her ample breasts. For the briefest moment, Marbles entertained a completely different hunger, but then the fog started to set in. He had to be quick, if he was going to score this one without giving himself away and raising the alarm.

  “Come with me. It’s not safe for a young lady to be walking alone.”

  “If you say so,” she said with a cheeky laugh, and slipped her arm through his. Marbles led her away from the main road and further down the dark lane. “This is just too easy,” he thought, as he walked arm in arm with this pretty young morsel. Moments later, Marbles was no longer thinking. He barged the woman up against a wall and covered her mouth with his hand, pushing her head back to expose her tender throat. Without hesitation, he bit into the side of her neck and tore aw
ay at the flesh. The woman struggled for only a few moments before she was dead in his hold, blood gushing from her severed throat. The attack was frantic and inhuman. Marbles had taken things to another level. This was no helpless baby, or startled animal, and he was not in a secluded, private area. The element of risk played greatly in his behaviour, and he tore her to pieces with both his teeth and hands, shovelling her mutilated chunks into his greedy mouth as fast as he was able.

  9.

  The rabid clown hadn’t thought things through, before entering the town and heading straight for the kill. As the rage subsided and the remains of the woman lay at his feet, Marbles was covered from head to toe in blood. Night had only just begun to fall and he couldn’t stay here. He couldn’t remain in this town at all. Too many people were still out and about, and he would be spotted before long. Leaving the desecrated corpse where she lay, Marbles continued down the lane, deeper into the darkness. He didn’t know what he would find at the end, but there was no way he could go back the way he had come without being detected.

  With three very satisfying meals in the past twenty-four hours, Marbles was feeling more powerful than he ever had before; both in this life, and in the one he had recently left behind. He was completely new. There were no cravings for his old habits; not even for coffee. This didn’t even surprise him either. Once again, he gave it no thought. The red glow which filled his surroundings looked completely natural to him, as did the pitiless regard he now held for regular folk. His old life all but forgotten, his needs and desires completely foreign to those he had once held dear, Marbles’ humanity was slipping away from him with every hour that passed.

  At the end of the lane, a quiet street ran left and right, lined with quaint, picturesque dwellings. Everybody was either indoors, or still across town, doing whatever it was they were doing. Marbles stood for a minute, surveying the empty street in both directions. There had been no sign that the circus had stopped here, on his way into the town. Or, if it had, it had since moved on. He decided on turning left, the quickest route back out of town. He would leave, and circle back around the outskirts, before continuing his trek east. His stomach gurgled, as the bits of woman started to digest. His hunger had been sated, but he couldn’t help but ponder upon his next meal… his next kill. At this rate, he thought, he will have devoured a whole city’s worth of people within a year. How was he going to manage this without ever being caught?