(Freak Show
& Stars)

this is a house of old
constellations and dreamers

Tyler

Times slips with each shatter of glass, each crash on the floor, breaking and cracking, thrashing and smashing, into a future unknown.

I crash and crash until there is nothing left, every corner is scratched and missing of glass. Until my hands break every mirror hiding the wicked deliriums of Phantom.

The metal pole slips from my palms and then to the floor, clashing against the pile of broken mirrors on my feet.

The sound was music to my ears. For a second I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. The darkness seems to take me to a different time, one where I was the one making the glass and not breaking it, handling the red strings around my fingers with care.

The glass is called Fear.

All around us, the Phantom's shelter for torment. Breaking it means breaking their rules right?

It seems like I just called out for ruination.

and there goes the sirens...

oopsies

Within a second the room is emerged in red lights, and I spare a glance at my poor playmates and their terrified faces.

sorry not sorry.

'This is a call for SHUTDOWN.
The Carnival closes in 30 seconds.
Thank you for your contribution in the Oblivion Games.'

It's the same lady's voice,
a little frustrated I guess.
(Now Die Losers)
I think she wants to say.

Because I know it's gonna happen if we don't,

"Runn!" I yelled as everybody immediately sprinted off from their frozen states, hurrying to save their lives.

Then my gaze traveled to her, something uncertain groping me as I stare at her. Her eyes; the shallow blacks going from shocked to terrified, as she starts running as fast as she can in those crazy heels.

I followed her with Leo and Sabrina beside me. Grein was already out of the Carnival grounds and Archie was behind, a little behind from dying.

Now this is what I call Fun.

The glass crush beneath my feet, crumpling into nothing but dust as the Christmas lights
flickered on and off, on and off in that creepy way of horror movies. Heavy piles of metal crashes to the ground as I run, all the rides going down.

Everything was so fast, like a hurricane of bodies trying to make it alive, their feet sprinting desperately while all around us was just complete destruction.
I smile knowing the destruction is because of me.

'SHUTDOWN Ending In...
10

the ferris wheel goes down, shaking the earth.

9

there goes the Circus. all colors and clothes deceased.

8

fuck, I think I scratched my leg with some broken metal. But no worries. I wrapped my hand around it.

7

wondering were the wonderland is? down the drain. Mutilated.

6

Grein got to the station first.

5

Then Leo my boy.

4

Sabby passed.

3

Princess, You truly know how to run. The doors opened and she jumped in with the others.

Then,

2

I grabbed the metal bars, pulling myself up and then catching Archie on my leg. I reluctantly pulled her up by the broken arm.
She screamed.
Sorry girl, You arm or your life.

1

Then the mf Carnival brust into embers of fire as the door of the train closes. All smoke and metal and five pairs of eyes ready to kill me.

How Lovely.

"What everyone's alive,
You are welcome." I smiled shrugging off their stares and dusting my clothes.

Not for long.

"Son of a ***** ", Grein cursed as he held the steel pole, debating whether to strangle me first or take the living breath.

I grinned at him and took a seat on a metal chair. Princess sat beside me, her dark eyes glaring and not at all debating to kill me.
My eyes landed on the sliced skin of her neck that I slashed my knife, along with some scratches of glass bleeding red with blood and I stilled.

I didn't plan on doing what I did.
It was all her.

I don't know how, but when I saw her there in that mirror house
trembling over her own reflection. Something got over me, something mad, like an impossible urge to destroy everything.

Like fucking everything.

She was so terrified, so weak.
Why was she scared?

"You are unbelievable. You could have killed us all." She shakes her head at me. Her black hair is a mess from the wind and fight, and I catch her hand tremble a little under my black coat that she is still wearing.

I smile and inched the space between us, whispering in her ear as my index finger trails down the length of her wrist and that metal bracelet,
"No baby, Thank me when I actually do kill you all. Until then enjoy the ride with me. And I promise, I am goona be so much more than unbelievable."

She slaps my hand away, but I didn't miss the sudden intake of her breath. Then eyeing me with her sharp gaze she says,
"Not when I kill you first."

I just smile at her,
Dear Phantom,
She is gonna be more than unbelievable too.

Happy Killing Princess.

-------

'the glass, the light,
six players won the fight.
crossed the fire and blood,
the oblivion nulled in space ___
The chosen one saved by the grace,
the threaten a treason yet to behold.
the season of death wishes you all the best, with some gifts and walls for you to take.
Rest and Eat,
until the next kill!
(cause the next Oblivion is gonna be your worst test)'

The words flicker thorugh the screen of the sub wall as I yawned and entered the metal doors of my chamber.

Just a minute ago, A siren blew in the air and the screen came alive with red lights. Telling us that we are getting our own rooms.
And fucking beds!

I twist the knob and stepped inside, my nerves humming with delight as I hop on the bed, only to get disappointed by the hard metal.

The bed is covered with white sheets but other than that everything is made up of metal.
The space is small but quite nice,
the ceiling is decorated with green mesh lights and camera and shit, a black screen is stuck on the front wall, like some sort of alarm clock.

There is a blue frosted window beside my bed with a desk and a hanger with piles of clothes.

And to my relief, they are not white. Instead they were all mine,
the same pairs that I wore in my NY apartment. Cause of course,
they went inside my apartment and took all just for me.

How generous of them.
So this is what they meant gifts.
But I know better, it's just their way of telling me that this is my new home. That the Oblivions is all I have now. My old life was always in their control and so will this be, bla bla bla.

I rolled my eyes, Privacy is something they will never learn.

But they are coming for me,
I know it for sure.
They wrote it down,
a straight target;
the threaten a treason yet to behold.

And they are gonna enjoy it as much as I do.

I close my eyes sighing, debating myself, that whether I should jump in that shower through the door beside the desk or just sleep for a while.

Fuck Shower, Sleep crawls my vision anyways and I sink into the bed, surrendering.

The labs of Genesis had always been white, stark white that burns the eyes when looked too long.

Ice made the mistake of staring at it for too long and cringed as to why would someone choose this color for walls? It's too uncomfortable.

He was dressed in white rags as usual as he waited for his father in the small closed room that the doctor's gave him to sleep in.

They called it a Ghost Chamber.
It consisted of a bed and four walls of boredom. There was a table and an i pad which have no games he liked, he had played all of them.

It had been his first week in the Genesis Building and he was already hating it.

His Dad said he would like this transfer. There would be kids like him but he hadn't met anyone yet.

But then Ice being Ice, wasn't the one to keep quite for long. He pressed the red buzzer in the wall
continously until a nurse rushed to him through the white painted door.

"What ya want boy?" She asks him in her thick Texas accent.

"I want people!" Ice demands, gritting his teeth. "And some Ice-cream."

"You aren't allowed that." She rolled her eyes, she wore a clean white dress and a crisp hat that keeps hair away from her face, but there were few visible strands fussed like she was sleeping.
She was blond, just like his mother.

"Then take me out!" He jumps of the bed running towards the chamber lock. She scowls at him, locking it with the card. But she didn't stopped him from pounding on the door. The nurse knew better to touch him and letting him waste his energy was better for doctors anyway.

"Open the damn dooor!" He kicked his feet, "I want out! Dad!"

"Fine, I will bring you your Ice-cream. Just go to your bed." She told him, hoping the bribe will please his tantrums. But Ice was smarter than that, he kicked her shoe and climbed up to her skirt pocket to retrieve the card and swiped it in seconds.

"No need, I will get it myself!"
He yelled at her and ran out the door giggling.

The nurse screamed and ran after him, "You little shit! Come back!"

His white hair flew as he ran down the corridors barefoot. The nurse on his back long gone to report his nuisance, a siren blew in the air that he escaped, they will find him but it will take them a while to catch him. He was fast at hiding.

He ran to another white corridor and saw a lift, This new building was much more fancy than the last one. And a child's curiosity is as it is, he tapped on it and went inside. It was empty and there were numerous buttons too tall for him to reach. But there was a stool with some boxes and he climbed on it.

51 floors.
The Genesis has 51 floors.

He clicked the top one going straight up, thinking if they had something more to eat.

The metal doors swapped open,
he knew doctors wouldn't be there, his Dad said they work mostly underground so he was free to explore.

It was empty and nothing like his Ghost chamber. It was an apartment and the walls were painted pink. Like someone would live in there. On the top floor?

There were pink curtains and stuff toys on a huge yellow bed with fairy drawings. A soft music sounded in the air, and he saw a musical box with a dancing ballerina kept on a table beside the bed.

The room looked so alive to Ice, there were coloring books on the carpet with crayons of so many colors. He sat down on the carpet and picked a red one, just then he saw a blueberry cupcake kept in a glass plate, half eaten.

Without hesitation he picked it up too and took a bite, the taste was heaven.

Just when he was about to take another bite, he eyes flew to a small figure standing beside him.

She was a girl.

A small girl, the same age as him. She wore a beautiful pink dress,
a short tutu around her waist and white socks and shiny dancing shoes same as the ballerina in the box. Her hair was dark with a silver tiara on her head, her skin was pale but cheeks and lips red.
She looked at him with terrified black eyes as he takes another bite out of the cupcake.

So there were kids his age after all.

"Who are you?" Her soft voice trembled as she backed away from him, "How did you get in my room?"

Ice just looked at her, his blue eyes popping out in surprise,
"It's your room? You live in this big and you have COLORS?" He looked down to the red crayon in his hand.

She looked at him puzzled as if she had never seen another kid,
not so pry like him anyway.
"Yes it's mine but who are you?
What is your name?"

He chose to eat the last bits of cupcakes before answering her with a welcoming smile, "I don't know my name."

She blinked, "You don't know your name?"

He shrugs, "I don't have one."
Then his face scrunches,
"The doctors calls me in numbers, it changes every month with the level I get.
Though nurses call me little shit and scumbag. Dad just calls me Son."

She blinked at him again, suprised but relaxed a bit as he continued talking. She wasn't used to talking with people much.

"You really don't have a name."
She looks at him and to his ice blue eyes and white hair,
he looks like winter.

"Can I give you one?"

She asked as she sat beside him,
"All my toys have a name, you deserve one too."

"Okey but I am not your toy.
I am a human." He said.

This time she smiles at him and he froze. He had never seen someone smile at him, especially a Girl. "That's the same thing."

"I will call you Ice." She said looking at his face, "Your eyes are blue like the glaciers of Alaska.
I like your eyes."

"Ice? Hun?" He had no idea who Alaska was and what glaciers are,
but he liked the name. Liked that she liked his eyes. His mom didn't liked his eyes said they were too cold for a child.

"I like it. It's unique." He said beaming. "What is your name?"

She stilled and the small smile from her face was gone with his question. She looked down,
"I am not allowed to say my name."

"Really?" He asked and she nodded. "Then I will give you a name too."

Ice thought of all the things he liked with a finger on his chin,
then, "Ava!"

He exclaimed at her, "I like Avocados, My Dad gave me one last month when I finished my exercise. You are nice like Avocados."

"Ava." She smiles at him a full nice smile, "I like it too."

"Ice and Ava." He muttered and smiled at her, "It sounds like a team."

"Like Friends? I never had friends." She asked.

But before Ice could answer another voice boomed around the room, a heavy male voice,
"What the hell is he doing here?"

Ava stilled as the man stood at the door looked at Ice, his dark eyes like pits of shadows scowling at him,
"Get away from him!"

Ava immediately stood up and looked down, her small hands folded on her tutu shaking nervously, "Sorry Father, I don't know how he came inside."

The man, Ava's father kept his eyes on Ice, disgust lacing his tone as he asked, "Where is your father?"

Ice just shrugged, "Don't know,
maybe looking for me."

Just then the metal doors opened again and Ice's father came inside huffing, "Son, Here you are."

He wore his black rimmed glasses and lab coat, his blond hair in a mess as he was working days after days without any break. He smiled at Ice, his light blue eyes crinkling, "I swear, You are gonna get me killed someday."

"Anderson." Ava's father looked at him, his tone unwavering,
"Keep you boy in check."

Ice's father nodded at him,
"Yes Sir, Sorry Sir. He is just not used to this palce." He then walked to Ice, "Come on boy, I have got you your Ice-cream."

Ice stood up from the carpet and walked back to his father, looking at Ava one last time before the elevator doors closed again. She didn't look back at him.

"You are a trouble aren't you?"
Ice's father laughed at him, but he didn't paid attention to his question and instead asked,
"Who is she Dad?"

Ice's father furrowed his eyebrows looking down at him,
"Why do you ask?"

Ice shrugged knowing he had made a friend, that Ava had made a friend.

"She is pretty."