Chapter Text
POV: Columbina's POV
Far from everything, where God's eyes cannot reach, the monsters lived. Forgotten. Hungry. Silent. We all just wanted to live peacefully.... Yet, we couldn't even, all because we are monsters. We were starving... In a forgotten valley, not touched by humans in a long time, where even the moonlight seemed to hesitate before touching the ground, where we had once lived. We were creatures of hidden shapes, hungry eyes and hearts, starving in the darkness. But had no idea where to find food to eat. We searched high and low throughout the valley, desperate to find even a small portion of food. We were all starving, desperate to satisfy our hunger, until the man appeared. He raised a tent upon the dead earth and made a deal:
"Work for me, you hideous little creatures, and I will feed you."
"How wonderful!" We all had monsters thought, overjoyed that we were finally able to eat, and so we obeyed the strange man.
Life was peaceful and our dreams seemed like it had finally been fulfilled. Just as we thought that this would be the end of our torment, we were wrong. The man brought more men. And more.... They laughed at us while we were being tormented on stage, treated us like lowly animals, and they applauded our pain. Many people travelled from distant regions, just to come and watch our performances after rumours began to spread quickly, about a circus with monsters doing tricks and acts. As the fame of the circus grew, so did the ringleader's greed.ย
'What if I charged others to watch?' The ringleader thought to himself one night as the once nearly empty tent had been filled to the brim, with no more empty seats in sight.
So, he charged the people who came to watch a low price and the crowd loved it. As he gained more money from our suffering, he felt joy and immense joy as he began to get wealthier with each performance. We thought that he would've been satisfied by now, but the man wanted more, always more. So, he began to feed us less food, slowly draining our strength bit by bit. As the days passed, we grew hungry once more and yet, the ringleader didn't care a single bit.
'This way they'll be weak. Harmless' The man thought coldly and ruthlessly to himself.
He didn't care if we were starving, all that mattered was the money that he got paid when people came to watch the show. As more people came to watch our suffering, more people noticed me. They stared at me with hungry and lustful eyes, each of them wanting to lay their filthy hands on me.
"She's pretty, even though she one of them." I heard a man whisper to another in the crowd as I began to do my act for the night.
"You're right." The other man replied, looking at me with hungry eyes, like a predator watching his prey.
I heard each of their nasty words targeted towards me and I felt their lustful gazes upon me every time I went up on stage. It was disgusting. After I had finished my act, I went backstage not wanting to feel their gazes upon me. Looking around at everyone, I felt relief to be surrounded by familiar and trusted faces. Among our small group of monsters, there I was, a sweet flower in a garden of black thorns is what they said to me. They told me that I shaped like a gift from the heavens! I was delicate, like a petal to a fragile flower, able to wilt away at any second.
I had no claws unlike them and almost bear no fangs. I was just a gentle presence among the shadows, smiling warmly at everyone. A smile that lit up even the darkness they said. I was a gentle and delicate creature, always caring for the flowers that surrounded the little valley that we had lived in. I did my best to make everyone laugh or crack a smile with small gestures every day after everyone had finished their performance, since I knew that doing our performances was exhausting. I joked around with them, complimented their skills that they had shown during the performance or just comforted them when they were feeling not their best. And whenever I did, it was like the room's tension had instantly lightened as the creature that I had talked too felt better, sometimes laughing their hearts away or cracking a warm smile at me.ย
And it was for my tender warmth that Pierrot, the silent monster, lost himself. Every day he would watch me, my light steps, my kind words that I said to the others. And every time I gave more kindness, the closer he was drawn to me. He sighed for me, gave me the broken flowers of the valley near the tent and adorned me with all his love and compassion. Being adorned in all his love and compassion made a hidden feeling in my chest come to light... Love.
My heart started to thump loudly at his small kind gestures, and I would get flustered after every compliment he gave me. He told me sweet words and showered me in small gifts, winning my heart over, bit by bit. Then there was Harlequin, a monster with venom in his voice and his hands, who hid within the shadows of our meetings. He saw the light in my eyes when I looked at Pierrot and felt envy gnawing at him from within. The rest of the creatures knew that I was beginning to fall for Pierrot and they all supported me, all for one creature.... Harlequin
"Why are your eyes never on me? Why can't it be me?" He would ask himself, feeling jealous that you only had eyes for Pierrot.
The venomous monster clenched his claws when I slipped away from his attempts at seduction. His teeth would grind together whenever I pulled back in his presence. Every refusal from me was like a crack splitting his very being. He had fallen head over heels for me and was like a lovesick dog, craving for my love and attention. And yet, I gave him nothing, I told him that he makes me sigh too, that he makes my heart race... But something inside of him scares me. Maybe it was the way that he looked at me with obsession, or maybe the way the way that he looked at me when I looked at Pierrot with loving eyes. My heart would beat a different way for Harlequin from how it would beat when I am around Pierrot. And Harlequin knew it form the bottom of his heart that my heart didn't belong to him.
And yet, that only made his obsession with me grow stronger. He kept trying his best to win my heart over and failed every time. I would reject him and tell him that his heart was not for me and reject every small gift that he would give me. After every fail, each attempt more desperate than the last. Even though seeing him shower me with his affection and love, I couldn't accept it. For my heart had already been stolen away by Pierrot. He kept on persisting, hoping that I would finally give in to his affection. But every time, I rejected him firmly, telling him that I had only loved Pierrot. And so, his love for me had dissipated, only to turn into an endless hunger.
We had gotten used to the feeling of starving and had gotten used to the performances that we had to do every day. And, by the end of each day, we were locked inside of a cage, in a small section of the tent behind the main stage that we would all act on.
The only part of the day that we all looked forward to when we had gotten our food portions. The ringleader threw the raw meat into our cages, not caring if it went onto the dirty and cold floor. During the first few weeks, we were outraged by these actions and tried our best to lunge at the man, but we failed as the restraints that he put onto us kept us in place, behind the rusty and cold metal bars. We had learnt that if we tried to hurt the ringleader, he would take away our food for a whole week, not caring if we were going to die from starvation. So, as the weeks pass by, no one ever dared to try and hurt him again, not wanting to almost die from starvation. Since we were monsters, we could survive for a much longer time without food than humans, but only for a week was how long we were able to survive for. We had to accept this, accept that this was our new routine. He laughed at us while we rotted in our cages, swallowed in the dark. We were growing tired of this routine, and so we thought to ourselves:
"What if we became human?" Jester suggested to the others.
"We could eat as much as we want" Harlequin said, agreeing with the suggestion from Jester
"No one would ever hurt us again." Pierrot stated, feeling that this would be the best choice to make for our survival.
And so, on a moonless night, when the night sky seemed dead, the monsters realized that a sacrifice was necessary, to gain their strength back. They all didn't know who to sacrifice and all didn't want to make a decision and so, Harlequin broke out of his cage with hunger burning deep in his eyes. He made the decision on who to sacrifice since everyone else didn't have the heart to do so.
"I'm scared." I said as I shook slightly, seeing the desperation in his eyes, along with guilt and hunger,
"You're the weakest one." Harlequin stated as he advanced closer to me.
My thoughts began to swirl as I didn't want to die, that I wanted to live...ย
"Please don't." I begged him, desperate to not die. But it was too late. He came closer and closer towards me until he dug his claws into my chest, piercing his claws through me as he dragged his claws deeper into my skin, leaving a huge, large gash across my chest. I gasped for air and screamed in pain as I felt everything that he did to me. I heard Pierrot begging Harlequin for him to stop, banging on the metal bars of the cage, but it was no use. He grabbed onto my shoulders and dragged my body closer to him, biting my shoulder as he did so, my blood splattering all over his clothes and his body. I screamed out one single time as tears streamed down my face, feeling more tired as my breath began to weaken. I felt tired and exhausted, so I finally gave into the darkness, letting out my final breath.
POV: Narrator's POV
After Harlequin ended Columbina's life, he feasted on her body, smiling and as Harlequin began to laugh loudly, on the brink of going crazy, each laugh getting louder and more unhinged than the last as he did so. He still loved her deep down inside of his heart, and yet he was the one who had to end her life. Once he had finally gained enough strength, he pried open the metal bars to his fellow monsters' cages.
"Why.... did you do that?" Pierrot asked shakily, his eyes now wet with tears as he saw the love of his life dead right in front of his eyes.
"There's no turning back now." Jester saidย as he feasted on her body, crying as he did so.
"No... no... no..." Pierrot said shakily, not wanting to eat the love of his life.
"EAT!" Harlequin exclaimed in hunger and satisfaction, smiling as he was glad that they were finally able to eat and replenish their strength.
"We're so sorry Columbina... But your sacrifice won't be in vain." Jester said sadly, hoping the best for her in the afterlife, if there was one.
Everyone began to feast on the fallen angel's body, sobbing while they did. She had treated them so much kindness and care, and now they were eating her.... But they won't let her sacrifice go to waste, they made sure to make the wicked ringleader suffer. The next morning, the man returned to laugh at the monsters, but the monsters' eyes had changed. They were free. They were hungry. They tortured the ringleader, making his death as slow and painful as they possibly could, making sure that he felt every single pain that they had to go through every day. Once he was killed, they each absorbed a part of the wicked ringleader's soul, transforming their appearances to look more like a human. After everyone had transformed, they took the circus tent, their home and began to travel together, searching for a place to build it again.