Awaking in the Healers Cave, Dorotea is alone. Sounds of water flowing intrigues her. She explores a little and finds an underground stream, opening into a large chamber with natural light coming down from a hole in the cave above. The Revolutionaries grow herbs and healing plants here. Its been so long since she went swimming, she steps into the pale blue water that is warm to the touch.
Dorotea feels a ferocious need to escape. Like a possessed spirit she dashes into danger. Plunging into the caverns waters up to her neck. With out knowing how to swim she sinks down over her head. Arms scrambling for something to grab onto. Feeling a miraculous guiding hand, she pops up to see a bizarre vision. Dorotea sees her sisters in a dark room also full of water, but this room is unpleasant, full or rats and roaches climbing over dead children.
Dorotea cries out, The Gypsy Medium runs in and pulls her from the water. Helping her back to the room where she slept. The Gypsy Woman knows the suffering Dorotea has tried to suppress. The true nature of H.T. Barstowe and his Circus is the trafficking of women and girls to wealthy Americans, but there is a worse truth. The Gypsy Woman helps Dorotea lay down and with a silver locket puts Dorotea into a trance to bring up the hardest memories for some kind of catharsis.
Her head full of laughter and the evil spirits of confusion. Swirling into a memory, Dorotea remembers being dragged away from her life. She remembers the Circus looking half collapsed from a hurricane. Torn tents and leaning poles that were never bothered to be fixed after the storm season. Inside the Tents were moldy walls dripping dirty water. She hears angry sounds of animals being mistreated. Sounds of violence and suffering.
Dorotea remembers being in a wire cage meant for chickens so small she had to curl up in a fetal position. Many other girls were in other cages of various sizes. In the room wealthy men walked in, inquiring on girls and being told prices. In the shadows beyond H.T. Barstowe sits like Lucifer in Paradise Lost, brooding, unblinking and full of malevolence. The disparity in the room is stark, Barstowe on red velvet and gold rococo couch surrounded by extravagant candelabras filled with dozens of candles. The other side of the room, rusted iron and dirty wire like a slaughterhouse.
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Cages were taken away into horse carts, others were brought in. Dorotea’s cage and several others were carried into a train car. She is panicked but feels so drowsy, they must have drugged her with Opium. She can just bring her self to muster the strength to kick open her cage. Feeling some give to the door. She kicks it over and over until her cage spills onto the floor. She can hear moaning and sees light coming from a curtain at the back of the train car.
Dorotea creeps up to the curtain and peering inside sees a group of 5 Clowns surrounding a girl a few years older than her who looks half asleep. Dorotea feels dirty just looking at it, too quick a glance to understand the mechanics of what is taking place. Just how unnatural it seems. Like a dying cow being appraised by butchers who don’t care its still alive when they begin cutting off hunks of flesh.
Dorotea slides behind the curtain to the other side of the train. There are more of these profane shadow puppet shows going on. Seeing another antechamber with light and groans within, she peeks. This room has several skinless victims in a pile of corpses vomiting on each other, covered in maggots, snakes and spider webs while horrifically scarred men in top hats and tails work a movie camera.
She feels sick, something worse is going on in the back of the car. Skipping several other curtained horrors she moves to the back of the train. Here she hears a kind of violence that made her shudder. As she pulls back the curtain H.T. Barstowe looks like a wild man, matted hair and chunks of meat and sinew in beard. Surrounded by Dead Girls equally feral. Covered in blood and looking directly at her with eyes like a snake, and teeth like a Lion. He has butchered these girls and collected their blood in a bucket that he is drinking from. He leaps forward and thats when her brain short circuits and after that nothing.
In her minds eye, she sees lightning striking a Watchtower, lighting its wooden core ablaze. The Structure that held her life burns to the ground. She thinks of Moran farm, its on fire, her sisters are in danger and all around her forces against her are building strength, while unforeseen helpers are called by the universe to cross her path.
She awakens knowing she must save her sisters…