“Prepare for the mystical.”
His mouth didn’t move, but the words came out like he’d said them. Then the crow on his shoulder laughed in the man’s voice. That’s not scary or anything. A talking crow being creepy on a mystery man’s shoulders.
The lights came on and there were suddenly performers everywhere! Trapeze artists flew above, leaping into each other’s hands, swinging back and forth. A woman on a tightrope jumped and danced along the thin wire. A smaller elephant with a small boy sitting on top of the elephant’s back, lifted its body up onto a ball and walked around slowly. It was a spectacular show of all the various arts in performing. But there seemed to be something different about this circus than others I’d seen in the past.
Every player on the stage had an iridescent glow to them that did not come from the lights. The shimmer made their skin, hair, and clothes glow. The ringleader moved around the stage, working magic and orchestrating the acts in perfect synchronization. An eerie feeling enveloped me as I realized I’d seen that glow before.
“Do they always shine like that?” I whispered to my enraptured friend’s ear.
“Always. They are so shiny, they almost look like ghosts.”
Then it hit me. This was no ordinary circus. Emily was right even though she didn’t know it.
This was a circus filled with ghosts. But how?
Chapter Two
Selene
I watched the ringmaster as he moved about the stage. He watched each performer doing their job at the right moment timed with the music. Somehow, he could see them or maybe even control the circus ghosts. I was so confused about what was happening that the more I tried to figure it out, the more I was lost.
“It’s so magical.” Emily sighed in awe beside me.
It was. If I wasn’t so blind to the notion there were ghosts on the circular stage and everyone saw them, I would have had parted lips and a slack jaw like she did.
The ringleader’s presence demanded everyone’s complete attention. Every move he made was precise; every impossibility he created was pure magic. The acts around him were magnificent and perfectly executed, like they’d been doing this for many more years than I’d been alive.
So many questions.
The tingle in my skin increased; pin and needle-like feeling pricked all over my body. Death was near. Was it the ghosts that gave me this sensation? They were dead, and this was not an uncommon feeling around the dead.
An ear-piercing scream echoed throughout the room. The horrifying noise was not part of the show. The ringleader ceased movement, his eyes on the crowd to my left. More people from that area began to scream, shouting for help.
“I’ll be back!” I yelled at Emily, the room becoming louder in the panic. Through the crowd of hysterical people, I waded toward where the screaming had started. A shimmer—two shimmering forms could be seen, but then the crowd got in my way as it tried to get away from the dead. One of the deceased had vanished, moving on to the afterlife with a collector spirit like myself or had been a spectator.
A woman stood above a dead body, an exact mirror in looks. She was confused, as many are when they gaze upon their former body. No one else could see her . . . just me. Everyone else who stayed near us were either crying or calling 911. One person applied pressure with her sweater on the blood oozing out of the woman who was already gone.
“I don’t understand.” Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper. Her gaze lifted up, finding mine on her.
“Do you know what happened?” I probed, and she shook her head.
“I had just come back from . . .” She paused, her face scrunching up as she thought hard about where she was or what she had been doing. It happened a lot—the memory loss after death. People were already so distraught and confused that they tended to forget their last moments unless it was important. Wherever she had been wasn’t important, and I doubt she knew the identity of her killer.
“Is that me?” Her shimmering face looked down at the bleeding body, while her hand went to her mouth in shock.
“I’m sorry.” I offered my condolences, but there wasn’t anything I could do to fix it. I could only take her onward. My body hummed since I was so close to her. The feeling calmed me and gave me peace like it always did.
“Are you death?” She looked up at me and I shook my head.
“I’m not death, but I am a reaper. I’ll take you on to where you are supposed to be, where you can be at peace.” I smiled and reached my hand outward. I wasn’t going to get much information from her in this confusion, and I’d already been drawing too much attention to myself standing by the body talking to what everyone else assumed was the wall instead of a ghost.
“I’m not ready to be dead.” She pursed her lips and looked back down at her body, already turning pale from the blood draining onto the red carpet.
“You can choose to stay but you will become a lost soul, and trust me, you don’t want that. Moving on is where you belong. It’ll be OK. You will be OK, and everyone you love will be happier with the thought that you’ve found peace in death.”
Her hand raised toward mine. I felt my body lightening, like I was becoming one with the air, feeling that nothing else in the world could touch me and I was as close to heaven as I could get.
“What’s your name?” I asked, as her shaking hand clasped onto mine.
