Just a Leech, Huh?

Nadia sat outside the tent. Shivering. Weeping. A fucking mess. Xiao Mei by her side.

“W-What happened?” Xiao Mei said.

“M-My ex-husband. He came and tried to shoot you…” Nadia said.

“What?!” Xiao Mei said, “How? What the fuck?!”

Xiao Mei gasped. It was when she was chosen. A sparkling butterfly on a chair. Centerstage target to be shot. Someone had orchestrated the whole thing.

“I stopped him… I stopped him…” Nadia wept.

“Okay… You are not making any sense dude…” Xiao Mei said.

She lifted her up. Nadia was heavy. They booked an Uber back. Expensive. But Xiao Mei figured Nadia wasn’t in a state for the bus.

Xiao Mei was concerned as fuck.

Nadia, melting.
Like she was sick.
Put to bed weeping.
A wet pillow.
Sweating.
Pale.
Shock.

Nadia drifting into a dream.
Squeezing.
Strangling.
Suffocating.

She was back in The Pony. The smell of disinfectant. She was cleaning the toilet. Xiao Mei was there too.

“Cheeeeese caaake…” Xiao Mei said.

Alice humming in the background. Nadia’s head following the noise.

“BANG! BANG!”

“No!” Nadia screamed.

Nadia ran downstairs. She needed to make it to the back door. Alice…

Neera caught her leg. She was long and snake-fanged, “Just a leech huh… You can’t save her…”

“Just a leech, huh?”

“Just a leech, huh?”

“Just. A. Leech.”

“HUH!”

Nadia screamed and kicked Neera’s hand away. She ran out the back door. Breaking through.

“ALICE!”

She fell into a black void.
A giant Iron Wartog looking up at her.
Opening its mouth.
Nadia free-falling.
Consumed.
NO! YOU MONSTER!

Nadia woke up. Cold sweats. Xiao Mei lying in bed next to her fast asleep. Quiet. Wearing Nadia’s pajamas. Damp hair. She must have washed her hair.

Nadia got up out of bed. 8 AM. Grey and overcast. A whole New York Cheesecake left on the counter. Two-thirds remaining. Xiao Mei must have ordered it.

Nadia wasn’t hungry. Not right now…

She had made a fatal mistake. She left Greg alive at the circus.

The circus staff had found Greg rolling around in sorrow. In a metal mask. One stepped on the glass and saw the fragments of a needle.

“It looks like a druggie… But what’s with the pig mask… I don’t think he is one of us?”

“Should we call the police?”

“Dumbass! And have them snooping around – most of our staff are illegals…”

“So what do we do with him?”