Chapter Text
10.WHEEL OF FORTUNE—Destiny, fortune, success, elevation, luck, felicity.
Candlelight flickered over my face, as I adjusted the fabric on my head.
A woman entered my tent, eyes flickering over the draped fabric and candles—an obvious fire hazard, but great for ambience.
Her eyes shone with nervous excitement, as she sat on the small stool on the other side of the table. I watched her for a second, hoping the silence would play into the whimsical element of my act.
It must have made her uncomfortable, because she broke it a second later. “I wanna know about my love life,” she stated, as if she wasn’t certain if I could do that or not.
“A special someone in mind?” I asked, making my voice huskier than normal as I held my hands out.
She set her hand in mine, throwing me a skeptical glance. “Shouldn’t you already know?”
I chuckled, before quickly hiding it with a mysterious hum. “I read your future, not your past or your present.” I flipped her hand back and forth in mine, trying to pick up on any clues.
She gave me her right hand, which is either because it’s her dominant one or because she had been spending all night staring at her ring-less finger. She seemed young, maybe slightly naive. And the man before her seemed like he didn’t even want to be here, but he smiled the second he left the tent and said something about getting the exact future he wanted.
I adjusted my position slightly, holding her hand between mine, and closed my eyes. Clearing my mind, I focused on her hand’s weight and the candles’ soft crackle.
“I see,” I started, dragging the word out for dramatic effect, “you sitting by a window. You’re waiting.”
“For what?” she asked, her voice soft as if scared to break my trance.
“It’s unclear,” I responded, to which she hummed disappointingly. “But someone joins you. They look like a man.”
“Brown hair?” she immediately asked, her voice filled with hope.
The image in my head really wasn’t detailed enough to know his hair color, but I nodded nonetheless. “He hands you something. Something small,” I said, completely forgetting to make my voice huskier.
“Small?” she echoed, not seeming very pleased.
“But valuable. Quite valuable,” I explained, the image getting vaguer the more I tried to figure out the details. My brows furrowed as I tried to come up with something else, but failed.
“And?” she asked eagerly, her hand holding tightly onto mine.
“That’s all I saw,” I responded, opening my eyes. “But I didn’t sense anything negative. Your future felt bright and peaceful.”
The woman smiled, sighing with relief. She casted a glance over her shoulder at the sliver of light passing through the curtains leading to outside. “I think I know what your vision means.”
I smiled, content that she had been so polite and that I had been able to make her happy.
She stood up and left the tent, already exclaiming something before the curtain was even closed behind her.
I waited a bit for the next customer to enter, but when none did, I stood up and stepped outside. My tent was small and with the amount of layers and jewelry I had on, getting in and out was complicated, but my legs felt stiff after staying seated for two hours and the fresh air would do me some good.
The fair was in full swing when I stepped onto the grass right outside of my little tent. Children and couples were buzzing around, going from tent to tent. The sky was clear, the moon helping all the candles illuminate the field we had set up shop on.
A melody drifted from the main stage, where a well-dressed man sat behind a piano. As he played, the candles behind him flickered on and off in a hypnotic dance that seemed to match the music. The man’s porcelain mask gleamed in the light, as a sea of people stared up at him. They were all completely silent, which was insanely rare for the fair, but not for him. The second that man arrived, he became the crowd's new favorite attraction.
It used to be me. I used to have a line so long, I would be the last one still awake so I could read everyone’s fortune. Some didn’t even want their fortune read, but wanted answers about my power of foresight. It bothered me to disappoint them each time with my very simple answer.
“I was born with my gift. I see images of people’s future when I touch them, that’s all I know.”
The boss loved me because of it. He got 60 percent of my earnings, the other 30 going to my step-brother and I received the remaining 10 percent.
Everytime he hired a new performer, he would ask me to read both their future and his. Whenever I told him I saw gold or riches, he would hire them. If there was no mention of it in my vision, he would turn them down.
I remember when he joined the fair. The boss had fetched me from my wagon one morning and brought me to a cage. He told me I could close my eyes if I didn’t want to see the monster he had captured. I decided to take him up on his offer, simply passing my hand through the bars, as he ordered the figure inside to place his hand against mine.
I flinched when he touched me, his hand feeling like a skeleton that you had just pulled from the ice. But he was calm and I could sense the fear rolling off of him even with my eyes closed. My vision was a very short and simple one: red and gold.
The boss didn’t even ask me to read his, as he walked me back to my wagon.
For a few days, all the girls I shared a wagon with shared horror stories about the new guy in the freak show, before he suddenly got promoted and started playing the piano instead.
Every night, the amount of tears spilled and gold thrown amplified, until he received his own wagon and his act got moved to prime hour.
The crowd seemed to forget that but a few weeks ago they were screaming and laughing in his face from the other side of metal bars. Which I could almost understand, while listening to the music floating through the air.
I was miles away from the stage and the melody still made me tear up. It was like his music was a puppeteer and the marionette was my emotions. He could make me feel anything from the depth of my being with a single note.
A few people walking towards me broke me from my trance, before I quickly slipped back into my tent, readying myself for new customers.
✧༚☾✧༚🔮✧༚☾✧༚
Pinks and oranges peaked at the edge of the sky by the time I arrived at my wagon. Girls in all stages of undress buzzed around in the tiny space, trying to get ready for bed.
I sat down on the floor, before sliding back into my bunk. Placing my jewelry box in my lap, I took off all my rings, bracelets, necklaces and earrings and stored them in my box.
A few girls threw me glares as they slipped under their covers, while others whispered to each other, just loud enough that I could hear my name, which they of course mispronounced.
Suddenly a hand appeared in front of my face. “This boy I like is coming to see the show tomorrow. Can you read my fortune to figure out what I should wear?”
I sighed, closing my eyes so she couldn’t see them almost roll out of my eye sockets. In the beginning I tried to explain that that wasn’t how my gift worked, but by now I had given up.
I clasped her hand in mine, actually trying to have an image in my mind. She was usually nice to me, so I’d put some effort in.
“Uuuh, blue, like really light blue. And… purple, an amethyst sort of purple,” I stated, before dropping her hand.
“Wait, I don’t have any pastels,” she pouted, before turning to another girl. “Can I borrow your baby blue set?”
A muffled ‘no’ was heard, before she walked away from me, arguments rolling off her tongue.
I had just enough time to remove all the extra decorative layers of my outfit, before the door to the wagon opened, the boss standing on the other side.
All the girls fell silent in an instant, as we stared at the large man at the bottom of the foldable stairs leading into the wagon.
“Genevieve,” he exclaimed, making every head snap towards me. “Take all your stuff and follow me.”
My heart sank to the bottom of my shoes, making me unable to correct him on the pronunciation of my name. I gathered my stuff, quiet whispers filling the space around me.
I kept my head high as I followed the boss away from the wagon. That wagon might have been tiny and loud and insanely uncomfortable, but it had been my home for two years now and the thought of being thrown out and having to return to my step-brother scared me more than anything.
“Sir,” I started, deciding to not leave without a fight, “I promise I’ll start making more again. The crowd loved me once, I can get that back.”
He barked out a laugh, but remained silent as he continued walking.
My confidence faltered, as I racked my brain for anything that could let me stay. “My brother won’t be happy if you fire me. He’s a powerful man, he’ll-
I cut myself off as we stopped in front of a dark wagon that was twice the size of the one I had just left. My brows furrowed as I took it in.
I knew what the wagon wasn’t. It wasn’t the boss’ office or the communal bathrooms. But I didn’t know what it was.
The boss turned to me and looked me up and down. He didn’t seem very pleased by what he saw, but knocked nonetheless.
A faint ‘yes?’ was heard, before he opened the door and stepped inside. I followed him, my belongings under my arm, as my mind ran a mile a minute to figure out what was going on. I almost wanted to hold my own hand so I could read my future.
“My boy, I got a gift for you,” the boss exclaimed, sounding very excited.
The wagon was ginormous compared to mine, though it was just the size of a normal bedroom. A double bed stood at the back of the room and a desk was pushed against the wall beside the door. A man sat at it, not even looking up as he continued whatever he was doing - I couldn’t really tell because he was bent so far over it.
“Is the gift a new piano?” the man asked, his voice melodic but cold.
“No, but-”
“Then you can take it back”, he interrupted, glancing up for a second, his eyes annoyed behind his mask.
I stiffened. The boss was used to people kissing his boots—this was the first time I'd seen someone spit on them.
And you couldn’t even say that it was because he was the favorite. I had been the favorite for a good year and I was still forced to show certain signs of respect.
“Erik, trust me, this gift is way more interesting than a piano.”
That seemed to catch his attention, because he finally straightened up and turned to us.
I was half hiding behind the boss as his gaze fell on me. The boss might be a greedy creep, but at least he wasn’t some freaky musical genius who hid behind a mask.
His brows furrowed as he looked at me, as if trying to decipher what the boss found so amazing about me. His eyes were the only thing not being covered by his mask and it made each look that much more significant. His gaze trailed over my face, my posture, the things in my hands,...
“As a gift for doing so well, I wanted to give you some company,” the boss explained, as we both grew concerned. “Do whatever you want with her. She’s yours now.” Before either of us could protest, he left the wagon and closed the door behind him.
That did not just happen.
I stared at the door wide eyed with my mouth open. He really just gave me to someone, as if I was a box of chocolates or a plush doll.
Erik scowled at the door before turning to me. “Don’t bother me.” Was all he said, before turning back to whatever project he was working on.
I sighed, my brain feeling like it was going to explode by how confused I was by this whole situation.
Well, him ignoring me might be the best case scenario in this situation. So I walked to the opposite corner of the room and sat down keeping all my stuff in my lap.
I was exhausted from a long night of fortune telling and really just wanted to sleep instead of dealing with the insanity that was this past hour.
Leaning my head against the wall behind me, I closed my eyes, hoping to at least sleep a few hours in this awful position. The chance of that decreased with every passing second though. The wooden floor was hard beneath me, as was the wall behind my head. The clothing pieces in my arms brought me almost no extra warmth, quickly making my teeth chatter.
But Erik told me to not bother him. And I wasn’t about to test my luck with him. His whole demeanor screamed ‘leave me alone’. His posture was stiff and closed off. He had talked to the boss as if he was a servant. Who knew how he’d treat me?
So instead, I swallowed the pain and kept my mouth open so my teeth wouldn’t make so much noise when my jaw shivered.
Erik let out a loud sigh and swiveled in his chair. “Can you stop making so much noise? Your teeth chattering sound like nails on a chalkboard,” he complained, a screwdriver in one hand and some threat in the other.
“Sorry, I’m just cold,” I responded, trying to hide my annoyance. Did he think I was doing it on purpose or something?
“Then take the bed,” he sighed, as if I were stupid for not thinking of it earlier. “I’m not tired anyway, so I won’t be using it.” He turned back to his desk, the conversation apparently over.
I stood up, placing my stuff down in the corner - which I had now chosen as my corner. I wasn’t even in my nightclothes, but what I had on was light enough that I wouldn’t mind sleeping in it.
Sitting down on the bed, I had to suppress a gasp at how comfortable it was. Damn, I never had this when my act was doing well.
I laid down, greedily pulling the covers towards me. It had been two years since I’d slept in an actual bed. It felt like heaven to have a thick mattress that wasn’t at floor level. To have a blanket with weight and that actually kept me warm.
I fell asleep almost instantly, the soft sounds of Erik working acting as a lullaby.