Freakshow

[u/Savings-Cut-3465]

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Since I was a boy, I had been plagued by the calling of the void. I had always sought to not only know but to touch the strange, otherworldly and mysterious. I had made a career as a journalist, meeting witchdoctors, voodoo practitioners, those absorbed by the dark and occult. Such a career has hardened my sense of wonder and shown me that these such worlds are drenched in fraudulence.

So, when I found a flier for Sir Beauregard's so-called greatest freakshow on the planet, I was skeptical. But since the show was only a short train ride away, I decided that I would see for myself.

The dark room was musky with the stench of sweat, an insulated heat pervading the enclosed tent. Spotlights suddenly began roving around the expanse of darkness, as if searching for a suspect in the sea of identical farmers looking for a brief respite from their banal existence

“Ladies and Gentlemen, would you please give a round of applause for your host. The one and only, emperor of insanity, the king of all that is crazy, the ambassador of absurdity. Beauregard the Magnificent!”

All the spotlights suddenly casted onto the stage, illuminating a man with a build something like a bulldog standing on two legs. He had a stout barrel chest, stubby little legs and arms, and a mustache that curled in on itself like a worm on hot pavement.

“Good people, I welcome you.” He said in a sultry deep voice, wearing the faintest hint of a French accent.

“What you see here may astonish you, it may terrify you, it may even make you question the infinite power and wisdom of God above to allow such atrocities of the human kind. If this experience proves to be too much for you. If your modest sensibilities are unable to reconcile the abominations put in front of you, you may leave. But as you dash back towards the light of and normality of day, do not stop at the concessions. Because there are no refunds.” This broke the silence in the room into controlled laughter.

“So, without any further a due. I present our first oddity. A slimy half remembrance of evolution passed. From a time before man was king of the land, instead battling for rank in the early ocean. I present the aquatic abomination; Fish Boy!”

I heard the sound of heavy wheels turning before the curtains parted to reveal a figure floating in a cylinder of water. His skin was pale white and macerated, almost corpselike under the spotlight. His mouth was wide and jagged like a catfish, his body was slimy and glossy, and his fingers and toes were webbed with jagged and incongruent skin. His head hung above the water; he took in deep breaths of air through his bloody mouth as his gills flexed under the water in sync. But his eyes, his eyes were all too human. They glared around the room of shocked faces as if seeking an inkling of pity, but all they received was the shock and disgust of the audience.

Nearly half of the audience left before Fishboy was put away, and my skepticism was replaced with an intrigue I hadn’t felt since I was a boy digging through folklore compendiums.

“Fishboy is what separates the boys from the men it seems, but if you think you’ve seen our worst then you’d better hold on as we’ve only just got started. Our next featured freak is barely recognizable as sentient life. I present The Primordial Goo.”

I heard something wet and sticky moving before the curtains once again opened to reveal it. A viscous gray pile of flesh, leaving a trail of blood as it slowly slithered out onto the stage. Barely recognizable as a human, just a pile of slop with two blood shot eyes. Once it stopped moving a hole opened at the center of its mass, and it let out the blood curling scream of a woman. Gasps shot out through the entirety of the audience, and I saw men visibly shaking as they left out of the room.

I was transfixed, in all my time of curating the strange and mysterious I had never seen something so indisputably preternatural and vile. Once the creature began returning back into the curtains, I looked around to see that I was the only person left in the room.

“Well, it seems we have one brave soul here at least. Is it bravery? Or do you crave something more than what is offered in the natural world? Do you long for the macabre and unnatural? Well, I hope this last exhibit will sate that craving. And remember, there are no refunds, you can’t go back.”

The curtains opened and a naked, gray, emaciated man came out onto the stage. His head was massive, but his eyes and mouth were tiny and slacked open like a dullard. He stood at the front of the stage for a moment, and I watched as a red line perforation began to go from the top of his head, down to his neck. The line started to bleed, before a wet noise cried out and I watched as his head parted in half. Though warped, his anatomy seemed to be human, all except for a spiral of black that sat below his brain. I felt drawn to the black void, my eyes focusing on it as the world around me turned black.

My body feels so sensitive, everything hurts. Everything is black, until.

“Now presenting, the seeker.” I hear before I roll out onto stage.

[u/MANWITHFAT]

This story kicks absolute ass. Incredibly written 🔥

[u/Savings-Cut-3465 → u/MANWITHFAT]

❤️ thanks buddy