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The circus. A place of wonder, a place of awe, a place where dreams are re-enacted with perfect percision and timing. A place where the fantastic thrives and the mundane is scorned.

However, the circus isn't just a place of joy. It is a place of danger, of thrills of feats of immesurable courage.



The audience had reached its peak of excitement. The trapeeze artists had preformed their tricks to perfection. Their leaps, flips and tumbles had been awe inspiring. More than one child dreamed of the day when they would be able to preform like that.

Their had been a few 'near misses' and while they were still dangerous they were all carefully staged, everything was intended to make the audience even more excited. The preformers had rehearsed for nights on end, with little to no sleep for weeks to get this five minute routine amazing. Then practiced for another month to get it perfect. This was the finale. Backstage all the members of the circus is watching behind a curtain, they are all eager to see this next trick.

The duo climb to their respective platforms. The man in black on the left and the woman in white on the right. They tightly grab onto the handle of the trapeeze and then...

They soar. The man leaps gracefully into the air and swings downwards, the woman wates for a heartbeat, perhaps two before swinging down to join him. Both are moving like grace personified. As soon as the man reaches the extent of the rope he prepares for the task ahead of him. He tenses then springs straight up into the air preforming two sommursults. The crowd is so enthralled with this preformance a scarce few notice that the woman is now standing on the trapeeze with her feet as one would on a highwire. A small boy points it out to his mother and she gasps.

The centre of attention gradually shifts to the woman, just as was plannedf and she leaps into the air from a standing position, catches the man by his legs at the last possible moment and lands hanging by her legs on the previous trapeeze. Silence lasts for about half a minute. The crowd cannot believe their eyes. Then one of the members backstage starts clapping. The clapping spreads like a toxin and within moments the entire audience has reached a standing ovation. In no other circus has anything like this ever been attempted. The preformers backstage relax and start clapping each other on the back.

Then, with a sound that somehow cuts through the applause a sharp snap is heard. A cold breeze of dread passes through the audience, a shudder that would stay with them forever. More fear than you can possibly imagine from a single small sound.



The circus isn't just a place of joy. It is a place of danger, of thrills, of feats of immeasurable courage... and death.