I have my usual black and green jumpsuit. Katrina is in her dark grey and red outfit; I guess it’s hard to change super hero suit colors, there's not exactly a store for it. Angelique kept her pink corseted outfit, but added a bow staff. The heavy hitters followed behind. Astoria had become like a living boulder opal, the patches of eczema becoming brilliant spots of shifting color while the rest of her body looked like polished stone. Luma’s patches of hair gave way to huge spiked crystals covering the back of every appendage. She grew sharp teeth and also bore a spiked mallet. Francis came out last, donned in a fully automated armor suit. It wasn’t the most perfect gadget; it was clearly made out of old circus cages and broken equipment, but for what it was, I was pretty impressed.

Walking out in our superhero group, we see a large space has cleared in the fairground. A few bodies had fallen to the ground, as some of the girls previously marked with Red’s tattoos were standing, twitching and looking completely unhinged.

“Well well well, looks like the little witch and quicksilver have made some new friends.”

We turned, and from atop the circus tent stood the man of the evening, or whatever he was. He was exactly as described, like a moving silhouette in a red suit, only visible against the night sky because of the fair lights.

“Are you gonna Soliloquy now, finally tell us why you did all this?” Dissonance, or Katrina, says.

“I didn’t realize I suddenly needed a reason. You didn’t ask me much before, just asked me what to do and when to do it.” He tipped his hat a little. As he talked, his white teeth flashed through his shadowy appearance.

“Well, I’m past that whole blindly following bit.”

“How noble of you, going from blindly following me to blindly following a pretty girl that catches your eye.”

“That’s not why I’m doing this!” Katrina growled.

“We are doing this to stop you from taking anymore people into your control. Whatever your plan is, it stops here,” I say.

“Well then, I guess if you don’t want to face your friends undying need to serve anyone who shows her the slightest bit of affection,” he launched himself up, landing firmly on the ground in front of us, “Or your own self indulgent need to save others because it makes you feel better about those who you have failed to save in your career, I suppose we should just fight.” He let out a whistle, and suddenly girls around the town were clawing and crawling to meet his call. We split up, Francis and Katrina carried the already injured out of harm's way. Angelique did something with her mind to distract a pocket of the girls, then swiftly knocked them about with her bo staff. Astoria sends chunks of rock hurtling out of the ground, throwing girls into the air while her sister knocked others away from the fleeing crowd. I sprint toward the crowd, taking out as many girls as I can at the knees before they injure civilians. I get circled by 5. I cut one's leg while another jumps on my back. I speed shake it off, but another grabs my leg just as quick and bites down. I wail, and the girl is dragged backwards by her own shadow. Katrina swiftly blows back the other two.

“Do you have any idea how many teenage girls we have to fight?” I ask her.

“About 80 I think, unless he got more from other towns, which is looking more likely by the second.”

“How do we break them out of this weird trance?”

“I don’t know. My only guess is to use a siren song like how I lured them in, but Red won’t let me stand still long enough for that to happen.”

“So we have to take down a being of darkness that we’re not positive even has a physical form?”

“Yes.”

“And we have absolutely no idea how to do that?”

Katrina thought, but her thoughts were cut by another group of girls. I took cuts at their legs and arms. Katrina took a few and flicked them back into the fair stands. Francis comes back to pick a few up and carries them off to store in the animal cages.

“What if we trap him in something?”

“Like what? We can’t exactly cage him.”

“You can’t go near the church, right? What if we got him inside something and then put religious symbols around the outside so he’s trapped?”

“That’s better than any idea I have. If you guys can get him inside the circus tent and trap him, I’ll take care of the girls.”

With a nod, I dashed off to find other girls to help. Astoria and Luma were the first, with rocks and clobbering hands knocking girls back.

“Hey, how do you guys feel about dismantling parts of a church?” I ask.

“If it’ll help take care of this, then I’ll do it gladly,” Luma Growled.

“Alright, I need you to go back to town, grab whatever crosses and pictures you can, holy water too if possible. We are gonna trap the big guy with ‘em.”

“What are we gonna do with him once we have him trapped?” Astoria asked.

“We’re gonna un-trance these girls. After that, we will improvise.”

“I can work with that. Let’s go.” They floated and bounded off in the direction of the town. Next, I find Francis and Angelique, who I don’t think are gonna be super jazzed about their part in this plan.

“I need your help. We have a sort of plan to trap the red guy in the circus tent. The sisters are going to find a bunch of religious things so he won’t be able to pass out of the tent when we get him inside, but I need you two to help me get him inside.”

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“How are we supposed to do that?” Francis asked.

“Well, he likes how Dissonance can control the minds of others somewhat. I thought someone who can get inside people's heads even more efficiently would really peak his interest.” I say, looking at Angelicque, “Shouldn’t you be signing this to her?”

“She can read your mind. It’s faster in a combat situation.” Francis responded.

“Fair enough, are you ok with this?”

Angelicque nods her head.

“Thank you, I promise I will learn sign language when all of this is over. Now let’s get to the center of the fairground.” I dash off into the fray, knocking girls aside as I try to make my way. Angelicque runs behind, knocking girls back to try and get back up. Francis flies over head, almost overriding my pace.

Reaching the center, the sound of the battle starts to fade away. I look around to see the girls slowing and getting confused at the lack of sound. The closer to the center we drew, the farther away Angelicque made the noise sound. I don’t understand how she can do that so gradually and so accurately without hearing it. We ducked inside the tent. The silence was clawing. A few confused girls crawled in after us. They stared as the lights began to flicker and dim. Sound came back as Red flew through a gap in the ceiling and landed with a heavy thwack.

“This is certainly an interesting development. Trying to get my attention with the silent treatment, are we little Riot? Or should I say Athena?”

Oh good, he is about to soliloquy. “You don’t deserve to call me anything, just like these girls don’t deserve to be used like attack dogs for whatever the fuck you are trying to do here.”

“Yes, yes, of course they don’t. No one thinks they do, they only feel it. All of these girls felt they deserved me.”

“What, you’re here because some kids subconsciously believe they should get powers or think there are demons in the world? It’ll be easy enough to convince them otherwise after all this.”

“Oh, no one believes in me because they want to. They do it because it is their nature, just like you believe you could work harder to save the people around you,” he turns to Francis, “Just like you believe the people you love would come back to you if you just weren’t an emotional burden.” He turned to Angelique, and the world became dark, projecting the image of a gun firing near an ear, “Just like she believes she could get her hearing back if she just learned to hone her powers more precisely.” He turned to me again, “Just like you believe if you just learn how to be strong enough on your own, those you love would stop getting hurt. Depending on others has brought them nothing but pain. Your fellow heros, other victims, your parents; if you were just faster, stronger, tougher, if they didn’t think they needed to help you, they would still be here right now. And that’s why I was here, am here, and always will be here. I thrive off your disbelief, in your doubts, in the little fears of failure you have in everything you plan to do. I am the demon of doubt, the personification of everything you don't want to be but think you truly are. You will never outrun me.”

In the darkness, we were all blown backwards. I push myself off of a circus bench, jerk forward, and ram into someone. Then I'm pulled back to the ground. The sharp feminine gasp let me know that this wasn’t my target. I lunge again and my wrist is caught in an iron grip. I swing my other bladed hand low to cut at his hips. I hit nothing. He wasn’t corporal. He can touch me, but I can’t touch him. I was trapped, but so was he.

“I’m not trying to outrun you. I’m here, facing you. I’ll learn to live with you. I will overcome you, and eventually beat you. And I got all the time in the world to do it cause you can’t leave.”

“What exactly are you on about?” He says to me, his voice containing the slightest amount of uncertaity.

“You aren’t corporeal; holy relics don’t just hurt you, you can’t pass them.”

I felt the grip on my wrists release as the blackness of the room drifted into a core at the center of the pit that eventually became his body. He rushed the door, but bounced. He rushed the ceiling, but he dropped before he could even make the fabric ripple.

“You can’t just keep me in here forever!” He scalded.

“Why not?” I prodded, “What’s one more creepy circus with a no trespassing sign on it? We can walk out of here at any time. You can’t.”

“Someone will move an object and let me out. Humans will always fall to their curiosity eventually. All I have to do is make sure you don’t make it out of here to tell them otherwise.” His arm lashed out in a huge extended arc, reaching Angelique and smacking her into a support bar and rocking the tents foundation. Francis ran to her side. I darted, trying to hit Red low on his side. My knife hit his coat as I felt him grab my suit and chuck me backwards. My spine cracked against the wooden seats. With a whoosh, Francis charged his head. The metal of her fist cracked against his head as his hat flew back. He brings his head back up to reveal his eyes, wide and white with pinpoint pupils staring daggers at us.

Francis flung for a second pass. Red grabbed her by the arm and ripped the metal casing from it. His razor teeth extended and ripped into her flesh. Francis was thrown backwards with a screech. I pry myself up. Through the pain, I sprint towards him. He grabs me by the neck and hoists me above his head. I struggle against his hand, feeling my vision darken.

“Or, even better, I’ll give you an ultimatum. I can take one of your bodies, I can leave with a little trouble. Give me one of your bodies for escape or I will rip you all limb from limb. It would be a real shame if we were all trapped here together forever.”

I stop being able to feel my legs, as he creeps back into my head. I can’t do this. I’m in over my head. I’m going to die here. I’m going to be one more person that left Katrina behind. I will die here, but I won’t give him what he wants.

He rips my mask off my face, “Are you ready to never know safety again?” He whispered to me.

“I’ll help you.” A voice echoed in through the tent as I dropped to the ground. I gasped for air as my vision focused back up to see Jess standing by the tent entrance.

I try to gasp out a ‘no’ as Red heel turned to kick dirt in my face. “Well, well, well, what makes you want to help an old spirit like me,” Red cooed.

Jess made eye contact with me as she walked closer to the Spirit, “This town never did anything for me. I never felt wanted, and when I thought I found friends, they turned me away. I never felt like I was irreplaceable to anyone. I want to make them feel the same way.”

“Very well. Let’s get on our way then.” Red leaned towards her. As he comes within inches of her face, his form melts over her. A black cocoon forms around Jess and swirls for a moment. I stammer to my feet, only to be hit with a blast of the shadow bursting open to show the new being. They stood over 6 feet, in the blood colored suit Red was so well-known for. The jacket was open, with a mesh shirt in the place of the previous button down. Long black hair flowed past their waist as they examined their hands.

“A bit odd,” a split voice echoed from the new beings mouth, “But I can get used to it. It’s been fun kids, but I think I’ve gotten everything I need from this town. Some new followers, a new form, and a little fun. I’ll make sure to come back and visit soon.”

I staggered towards them, but before I could make it. They were out the tent door and with a bang, they teleported away. The girls went with them. The carnival was left in terrible stunning silence. Eyes peered at me, and at Katrina, and our new friends as people processed what had just happened. We made eye contact, and then we ran.

It was all we could.