Blood Moon Big Top

by Toneye Eyenot

  Nearing the town limits, ducking into shadows at each passing car, Marbles kept pace. He was still heading in the general direction of the elusive circus, the reasons for which were themselves beginning to elude him. Re-joining the circus didn’t seem as important to him as it initially had. What kept him on this course was the promise of such a smorgasbord that would be on offer once he arrived. Leaving the town and travelling on along an empty, winding road, all this thought of carnage stirred his hunger once more. Remembering the contents of his bag, he left the road, slid down a short embankment, and removed his bag from his back. He leaned back against the incline and turned his eyes to the moon, rummaging through his pack for the thick slices of flesh he had stashed. He quickly scoffed a large piece of the stiff, chilled meat and immediately plunged his hand into the bag for another. He only had to decide for a brief moment, before pulling out the third and final piece, devouring it as well.

  He was about to get up and resume his journey, when a high pitched giggle danced along the gentle breeze to his ears. It was closely followed by the amorous laughter of a man. Marbles remained where he was and listened for more voices.

  “Hey! What are you doing there?” Marbles went stiff, as a shockwave rushed through him at the sound of this new voice. He’d been spotted!

  “Oh, nothing,” came the cheeky reply from the woman, followed by her playful laughter, a joyful squeal and more uncontrolled giggling. Marbles relaxed when he realised the question hadn’t been directed at him. The red began to overtake his vision, his heart began to race, and Marbles rolled onto his stomach to peer over the rise. Three people; two men and a woman walked along the quiet road from the opposite direction. Two of them were obviously lovers, while the third - well, he was plainly the third wheel in this little trio. He carried a large pack on his back, and was sneaking sidelong glances at the flirting couple as they all walked together. He looked kind of pathetic, as if he were wishing he could be anywhere else but there.

  Marbles knew he wasn’t going to let these three pass. He felt it in his chest and in his guts. He saw it in the air all around him… all around them. That crimson haze, which dominated his sight and stirred his blood, got deeper each passing moment, until he couldn’t stay still. He pushed himself up to his feet, and stepped over the embankment onto the bitumen as they approached. The three stopped as this shadowy figure emerged from the darkness, to stand before them in the middle of the darkened road.

  “Hello there. Sorry, you gave us a bit of a fright. Can we help you at all?” The man speaking put his arm in front of his lover, gently ushering her behind him when the stranger didn’t reply. The third wheel stood still where he had stopped, visibly shaken by Marbles’ sudden appearance. “Hello? Sir?”

  “The name’s Marbles, not Sir,” replied the demented clown, and started slowly toward the nervous trio. Third Wheel laughed. It was a nervous laugh, but Marbles was unimpressed by his outburst. “Do you find something funny?” he asked.

  “No. Well, uh… Well…” he paused, and then seemed to gather some courage. “Well, what the fuck kinda name is Marbles anyway?”

  “Ooh, this one is gonna get it.” Marbles felt his blood boil as he walked faster towards them, causing them to back up along the road – and then he charged. Loverboy and his little blonde piece stumbled over each other’s feet, as they turned to run. Third Wheel was already making his swift escape, running for his life and leaving his friends behind. Marbles was upon the two within seconds, and smashed their heads together with superhuman force, killing the woman instantly and splitting the skull of the man, leaving him comatose with no hope of any kind of recovery. He wanted that mouthy prick. He couldn’t let him escape. Aside from wanting to teach him some manners before he became Marbles’ meal, he didn’t want him alerting the authorities. The woman in the alley, two towns back, was a bad mistake. He should never have taken such a blatant risk with so many people nearby, but he simply had no control over his urge to devour. The family in the last town would soon be discovered, and that right there would be the vital clue in the trail of death he was leaving behind him, to the direction he was headed. It was suddenly imperative that Marbles catch up to the circus, before the police caught up with him. What was more pressing, however, was to catch and kill the fleeing Third Wheel.

  Leaving the man and woman in a twisted heap, he took off at high speed down the road. Third Wheel had disappeared into the darkness, but Marbles could smell him. He could smell his fear; the pungent aroma of sweat, with the faint ammonia scent of urine, and even his halitosis breath. The odour fast turned to stench as Marbles gained on him, and he could see him up ahead in the dark, running through a volatile mist of crimson. Effortlessly, Marbles doubled his pace, decreasing the gap with each footfall. Whatever was in that backpack must have been incredibly important to Third Wheel. It was hampering his escape, yet he refused to drop it as he ran. His pace slowed drastically, while Marbles’ pace only increased. The fleeing man was gasping for breath as his legs looked like they were about to give, until finally he dropped to his hands and knees in exhaustion. Marbles slowed as he approached the prone man, on the ground and with his back to his soon-to-be killer.

  Third Wheel was in major distress, coughing and gasping for precious air. Marbles walked up to him casually. The chase was over, and this man looked to be having an asthma attack. He reeked of piss and armpit stench, and Marbles decided right there, he wasn’t going to be dining on poor old Third Wheel. No, he was just going to kill him, and take great enjoyment in the deed. His appetite had been undeniably quashed, inspecting the pathetic wimp at his feet. Third Wheel spun around and fell on his backside. Reaching into his jacket, he produced a pistol and pointed it shakily at the predator towering over him.

  “Fuck off, man! Get back! Get back or I will shoot you fucking dead!” His voice trembled and hit a few falsetto notes in his little tirade. His gun hand shook violently, as he tried with all his might to keep it trained on the killer. Marbles didn’t move. He didn’t retreat or advance, only stood looking down at this joke of a man with an expression of disgust.

  “I mean it, man! I fuckin’ mean it! I will shoot! Please, just fuck off! Just leave me alone!” His woeful threats only enraged Marbles. Loverboy had been polite, and look where that got him. Why in Hell would he let this one live? He took a step towards this human garbage, and Third Wheel pulled the trigger. Ripping agony engulfed Marbles, as the bullet entered the right side of his abdomen, dropping him to one knee. Third Wheel fired again, this one smashing straight through his collarbone, passing dangerously close to his throat and exiting out the top of his shoulder blade. Marbles gagged and fell forward onto his hands, and Third Wheel got up, firing off three more wild shots, all of which missed their target completely. Circling wide around the fallen predator, he began running back to where he had left his friends to die.

  The pounding of footsteps faded, replaced by the pounding of blood in Marbles’ ears. He couldn’t believe he had been shot. Most probably fatally. He remained there, on his hands and knees, viewing himself as if from above. The tables had turned on him, and he imagined he now looked like that pathetic Third Wheel, kneeling forward and struggling to regain his composure. Burning pain in his gut and all through his neck, shoulder and chest caused Marbles to drop to one elbow, his other hand planted firmly on the road, and yell out in rage. His shattered collarbone and shoulder blade made a series of cracking sounds and began to shift around, slowly reforming and becoming whole once again. His guts contracted and jerked, and Marbles felt the bullet working its way back to the entry point, until it exited the wound and fell to the ground. The pain subsided almost instantly, and Marbles returned to his feet, immediately turning to again give chase.

  Up ahead, he saw his prey, kneeling by his fallen friends and going through Loverboy’s pockets. He left the road and continued alongside it in the dark. Murderous wrath consumed him and he broke into a sprint when he saw what Third Wheel had been searching for. He had
Loverboy’s phone and was dialling frantically, no doubt calling the police.

  “My friends! Murdered! There’s a murderer! He tried to kill me too but I got away!” Third Wheel was babbling hysterically into the phone. He was silent for some moments while the voice on the other end spoke, trying to calm him. “He said his name wa…” He didn’t see or hear Marbles run up behind him. An open palm slammed against the side of his head mid-sentence, lifting him off the road and sending him at least ten feet through the air, clearing the road entirely to roll down the embankment, dead.

  “Hello? Hello, sir? Are you there?” The voice on the line continued. Marbles walked over to the phone and stomped down hard, smashing it to pieces under the heel of his boot. He then turned to the couple laying on the road and reached down, grabbing them both in each hand by their hair, and dragging them over the embankment to join their dead friend. He stood amongst the corpses, looking back onto the road at the destroyed phone.

  “Fuckin’ Hell!” Marbles exclaimed. Turning to Third Wheel, he began kicking the shit out of the deceased body, blind rage overtaking him. He hadn’t been on the phone long enough for the cops to trace the call, but a murder had been reported, and soon it wouldn’t be safe to be out in the open like this. He berated himself, as he continued to violently lay the boot in. He should’ve stayed put beside the road. This was a monumental fuck up on his part. This cursed hunger was out of control. He stopped kicking the broken body and mentally counted the number of kills, alongside the time elapsed between the morgue and now. Nine in only a few days! Marbles: Drifter, clown, murderer, cannibal… Fuck, a serial killer! And what in Hell’s name happened back there on the road? He had been shot. He should be dead, but instead, he was once again whole and without any trace of injury.

  He sat down next to the woman, and lashed a boot out at the twisted Third Wheel one more time. Shoving the body away from himself, and the two he was destined to dine on. He looked down at the pretty corpse beside him, and the tears began to well. “So this is what I have to look forward to,” he thought to himself. “At least when I was nothing but a drifter, I didn’t have to live looking over my shoulder. I guess it was only a short matter of time before the body count gained attention.” He choked back a sob, his hand lightly stroking down the dead woman’s thigh to her knee, and then his grip suddenly tightened. His melancholy turned to self-disgust, turned to anger, and then quickly escalated to that now all too familiar raging hunger. With a miserable howl, he leaned down and bit into the soft flesh.

  Marbles ate the entire woman, innards and all, but left her pretty, dead face. He poked absent-mindedly at the shattered side of her skull, her blood-soaked hair getting tangled in his fingers, as his attention moved to Loverboy. He was a short, stocky fellow with plenty of meat on him. Marbles wondered whether he would have room to fit him all. Third Wheel could just lay there and rot for all he cared; rude, smelly little cunt that he was. Loverboy however, was an entire meal unto himself. He decided to leave the other two there by the side of the road, and take Loverboy somewhere a bit more secluded. They were pretty well hidden from the road, and unless one was to actually leave the road, there was a good chance they would remain undiscovered for a good while. At least long enough for Marbles to be far from the scene.

  Picking up Loverboy, and effortlessly throwing him over his back like a large sack of potatoes, Marbles took off into the darkness, away from the road and towards a nearby forest. He would gorge on this one until he had his fill, and then perhaps stuff as much surplus into his bag as he could fit. He felt quite certain, after devouring the girl, that he wouldn’t finish Loverboy in one sitting. Once again, Marbles was head to toe covered in blood. He would discard these clothes in the forest, and change into a new outfit, thus making a bit more room in his bag for whatever would be left of Loverboy. He had no tools, but Marbles had acquired ridiculous strength over the past several days. He found it easy to tear limbs from their sockets with nothing but his huge hands and powerful jaws. Marbles entered the forest, travelled a fair way in, and then sat down to eat.

  13.

  Marbles lurked in the expansive, dense forest for days. After eating the last of Loverboy, the abundance of wildlife kept him fed, but not satisfied. The encounter back at the road had given him a bit of a shake up. There was still a small sliver of humanity somewhere in there, and he felt vaguely remorseful for all the lives he had brought to a sudden and violent end. All except for the last. That one got what he deserved, in Marbles’ opinion anyway. That was the other dilemma. The police were now most definitely looking for him. The woman in the alley had been his first blunder, and he was determined to make Loverboy and his friends the last. From now on, he would kill and eat with careful discretion. No more acting on his impulses. No more succumbing helplessly to his insatiable bloodlust. If he was to continue, he would have to do so much more selectively.

  The ever increasing moon wasn’t making his resolve easy, however. As each day turned to a new and more brightly lit night, the forest became less and less appealing. Soon, he was going to have to return to civilisation for something a lot more satisfying. All the while he was in the forest, Marbles had been gradually continuing east, but at a much slower rate than the previous week and a half. If he was to catch up to the circus any time soon, he would have to stop balking and return to more traversable territory, regardless of the risk. The very moment this thought came to him though, so did the distant sound of a siren.

  “They’re onto ya, Marbles. They’re lookin’ for ya.” Being a loner, talking to himself was a common and regular occurrence, but the voice that spilled from his mouth sounded nothing like him. More deep and gravelly than the voice he was used to.

  “Aaaaaa. Rrrrrr. Fuck. Kill. Bloody, bloody, bloody. Rrrrrr.” He experimented with this new voice, intrigued by the drastic change. He pondered on the possible reasons. Was it his change in diet, or perhaps his rough living maybe? Whatever the reason, Marbles liked the sound of it; much more menacing. His mind had become a lot more muddled over the days in the forest, brought on by his lack of proper sustenance. Rabbits, snakes and deer just didn’t give him what he needed and he knew it. He needed human flesh and blood. He was finding it difficult to retain rational thought, with fewer and fewer extraneous notions occupying his mind. All thoughts eventually returned to hunger and the desire to devour. He hadn’t exactly ‘made up his mind’, as much as followed an instinct, as he discarded the now empty bag, and started to run. A slow, steady canter at first, gradually increasing to a full sprint through the forest, still heading east. Always east.

  The trees thinned out as night once again fell, and the moon above shone with an incredible brilliance. In two more days, the moon would reach full, and Marbles the Clown – Kendrick the drifter, would be no more. He would become what he had been reborn to become, though he didn’t know what that was yet. All he knew was, he was starving and struck with the maddening need to kill. He saw lights ahead, through the diminishing trees, and doubled his already high-speed pace. Houses…people…food. Marbles charged ahead, his stomach screaming at him with raging hunger, and his mind narrowing to a single thought.

  He burst from the forest before he even realised he had reached its limits, and skidded to an abrupt halt, panting heavily and salivating profusely. He squatted and placed a hand on the ground to steady himself, as he gazed hungrily towards the scattering of houses ahead. Beyond these dwellings, sprawled a vast city. The myriad of sounds blasted his ears from afar. This place, he could happily get lost in. His previous aversion to crowds was now a covetous longing to be amongst so much prey. His temples throbbed, his throat tightened, his muscles twitched in anticipation, and his stomach rumbled like an oncoming storm.

  Slowly, he stood and began stalking across the open way, towards the nearest dwelling. He looked like a Wildman. His hair was matted and littered with small twigs, leaves and clumps of dirt. His face and thick, shambolic beard were smeared with dirt and caked blood. His nails, thick
and blackened by blood and soil, and his muscular arms and large hands covered in coarse, dirty hair. His eyes had a crazed, animalistic glaze to them; a hypnotic stare that would freeze a victim to the spot as he had his way.

  Approaching the house with a natural stealth, Marbles moved to the nearest window, crouching low as he arrived at the sill. It was closed, but Marbles reached up and gave it a little upwards push. Though it was locked, the latch snapped with ease and the window slowly and silently slid up. He sensed that the house was unoccupied. A dull silence permeated the dwelling, and the scent of human was vague at best. Marbles decided to investigate anyway, and swiftly pulled himself through the widow.

  Once inside, Marbles became certain the house was empty. He went from room to room, checking beds and listening intently for the slightest sound. A large, open plan lounge and dining room ended his hunt through the house, but there was one thing which caught Marbles’ eye. On the counter, was a large, garishly colourful flyer. It looked terribly familiar to him as he walked over and snatched it up.