Chapter 32: That’s Life
"If it's a really tall flag, we should be able to spot it just by riding around the circus a bit," Evelyn answered.
Bonnie thought it over for a second.
"Then let's get out there and find it."
"Right behind you."
Opening the door carefully, Bonnie scanned the surroundings. No one was outside, thankfully — though the voices of the people from before could still be heard nearby.
'There's still a chance this could be a trap, but anything that leads us closer to the cultists is worth the risk. If they're nearby, the girls probably are too… I want that to be true, but I really have no way to confirm it.'
She slipped out of the wagon and Evelyn followed her around to the back, where Capella was waiting, hidden. Fortunately, Scaramuccia's wagon was large enough to keep a full-sized horse out of sight, which worked perfectly to keep the mare hidden from the men outside.
They climbed back into the saddle and rode forward, sticking close behind the various carts belonging to the other circus performers.
━━━━━✧❃✧━━━━━
Lightning lit up the sky in sudden bursts, flickering out one after another against the distant darkness of the night. Steam City's streetlamps glowed with dim yellow light, illuminating the few civilians still out and about — while, through those same streets, Scaramuccia rode at full speed on his horse.
His makeup was a complete disaster, ruined by the torrential rain soaking through his body, and parts of his clothing were stained with red paint — probably from the smoke explosion he'd used to escape Bonnie and Evelyn earlier.
Eyes wide with panic, he kept glancing back in quick, jerky intervals, as though something were chasing him. His voice trembled, almost pleading, as he muttered to himself:
"It's always the same. Always…"
He looked like he wanted to cry, but he clenched his teeth hard, swallowing down whatever feeling was threatening to break loose.
Suddenly, a powerful bolt of lightning lit up the entire sky for a single second, striking somewhere close by — near the circus, on the other side of the city. A moment later, a great wave of warm, gentle wind swept through the streets and brushed against Scaramuccia softly. In that brief instant, the sound of the rain seemed to vanish entirely from his mind, and his eyes opened wide with horror.
"No… No, no, no, no," he protested, shaking his head desperately. He turned his eyes back to the road and wrapped his arms tightly around his horse's neck. "They did it. They actually did it… They…"
His voice cut off. A chill ran through his entire body.
"It's my fault… This is my fault."
He lifted his head, fixed his eyes on the road, and pushed his horse to flee as far from there as possible. The animal's speed surged suddenly, and a black mist appeared beneath its hooves. That mist swallowed Scaramuccia whole. A moment later, he and his horse had vanished along with that shadowy apparition — as though they had never been there at all, or as though they had become invisible to the eyes of the people around them, who didn't even react to what had just happened.
Back at the circus, Adam wasn't so lucky.
The man was searching for his daughter with everything he had — but now he was being chased by circus security. Three men on horseback, weapons raised, shouting at Adam to stop.
He didn't listen, taking the next corner sharply. Storm, Evelyn's horse, nearly lost his footing on the slick, mud-covered ground, but managed to stabilize himself thanks to all his experience as the mount of an outlaw carrying the power of a Ballad.
Adam was startled by the close call, but quickly narrowed his focus back onto his target. As little as it was, he kept searching for anyone suspicious — anyone dressed in those dark, ominous robes. Luckily, he seemed to have lost the men chasing him, so he pressed on without hesitation.
At one point, three figures moved along the side of the dirt road. Three men holding umbrellas, dressed in the kind of plain black clothing a typical priest might wear.
The one leading them suffered from albinism — short, ash-white hair combed neatly to one side, and eyes of an almost transparent silver set into a calm, cold expression. His skin was pale — unnaturally pale. He almost looked like a ghost, flanked by two men who couldn't have been more different from him. The one to his left was a young, slender man with dark skin and short curly hair, his face carrying a more lighthearted, friendly look. The one to his right was somewhat older than his companions — long dark blue hair tied back in a ponytail, skin lightly tanned, his expression carrying a look of pure boredom.
Each one carried a large black case and wore the exact same clothing. Adam passed close beside them, and his eyes met the albino's for a moment — the man seemed to know exactly what Adam was thinking in that instant.
"The Church?" Adam whispered.
He kept moving, his thoughts lingering on those men, who were clearly walking with a fixed destination somewhere in the circus grounds. Among the tents, a small black cat darted swiftly across his path. He ignored it.
But that cat had its own agenda. Independent of its summoner's direct control, its scarlet eyes scanned the shadows, taking in every person coming and going — while Evelyn's own eyes moved in exactly the same pattern, taking in everything at once.
Pushing Capella forward, Bonnie cracked the reins. The power to perceive everything around her seemed stable for now, and the sensation of raindrops against her skin — though still sharp, like needles digging in — was more bearable than before. Still, with all these heightened senses active at once, she had to sort through everything flooding her mind quickly, just to keep from missing anything important.
'A flag… There are tons of them on top of the tents. So which one is the tallest? Unless it's only tents that count — could a flagpole count too? There's something we're missing here.'
Evelyn glanced at Bonnie's face — that expression tight with pain, but also full of determination. She smiled faintly and gave Bonnie's waist a gentle squeeze.
"You're so stubborn," said Thieving Cat.
She already knew that. She didn't need to be told again, since it was a little annoying to hear — but coming from Evelyn, it felt more like a compliment than an insult.
"There they are!" shouted one of the circus sentries, gripping a club, riding toward them with clear fury on his face.
'Damn it. I thought I'd already lost them,' she thought, cutting onto the next path between the tents.
Evelyn raised her hand, glancing back. She made a gesture like she was holding a pistol and, winking at the man, said:
"Bang."
Instantly, the black cat leapt straight at the man's face, raking its claws across his skin while his pained, panicked shouts rang out — at the same time his horse started bucking wildly beneath him. Evelyn laughed at the sight, and Bonnie caught a glimpse of her out of the corner of her eye.
'Her smile is really beautiful…'
She'd seen it before, by the campfire — but searching for calm in the middle of all this pain, her attention drifted toward Thieving Cat for just one fleeting moment. Realizing she couldn't afford the distraction, she shook her head and kept moving forward. Her face felt just a little warmer than usual.
Just then, a soft, warm current swept past them. Evelyn stopped laughing and turned toward the direction where she'd felt a certain supernatural "pulse." Bonnie, speechless, had felt that same gust of air as something disturbingly familiar.
'That feeling just now was… It felt like…'
"Bonnie… Faster…"
"What?"
Frowning, Evelyn pointed toward an open stretch of street. There stood a tall pole with a red flag at its tip — the highest point in the entire circus, beside a small wooden booth. It was the place where tickets to the circus were sold, but it was empty now, a sign in the window reading: "Temporarily Closed."
"The tallest flag…"
Bonnie cracked the reins. Capella surged forward, and a few seconds later they pulled up in front of the small booth — roughly twenty square meters in size. The door had an old, rusted padlock that looked like it could be broken easily.
Evelyn dismounted, drew her gun, and struck the lock with it, snapping it off without any trouble. The people nearby began murmuring, confused.
"Bonnie. Load every bullet you have into your gun and be ready to use every ability you've got in case we need to run," said Evelyn. Her brow was furrowed, and the cheerful attitude from a moment ago had completely vanished. "We get the girls out of there. Everything else — even if you want to dig deeper — doesn't matter right now."
"Yeah. That sounds like the smart move…"
And it really was. Even so, Bonnie wasn't going to let any chance to learn more slip by — but they had a point in just focusing on getting the girls out first.
They stepped inside, though the space was tight. Still, they found a wooden hatch beneath the seat where the ticket-seller usually sat. They exchanged a glance and pulled it open. Old, rusted metal stairs were bolted into the dirt and rotting wood beneath. A few spiders crawled along the edges.
"I'll go first," said Bonnie, stepping into the darkness without hesitation.
With her arm still aching, Evelyn followed her down, and they descended roughly twenty feet underground. At the bottom of the stairs stretched a long, very long corridor, fading into the distance, lit only by a handful of oil lamps.
Cautiously, they advanced with their revolvers raised. Evelyn kept both her weapons trained ahead, while Bonnie stayed close, mirroring her partner like the first line of defense.
"You felt that earlier too, right?" Thieving Cat asked.
"Yeah. It was disgusting. Do you think it was—?"
"Someone performing a ritual, most likely."
Bonnie tightened her grip on the revolver, her expression darkening as she understood exactly what that meant. With the blurred memories of her own kidnapping and near-sacrifice resurfacing, she quickened her pace, nearly leaving Evelyn behind — but Thieving Cat matched her speed just enough to stay level with her. Still, she watched Bonnie carefully, half expecting her to do something reckless, like throwing herself headfirst into danger — something she'd already proven capable of more than once.
She wasn't that stupid, though. Making the same mistake a third time wasn't an option here.
Taking advantage of the lamps lining the walls, Evelyn grabbed one and used it to light the path better.
They moved a few more meters forward, finally reaching a set of stone steps — four steps, clearly built to bridge a small gap in elevation. The moment they set foot into the darkness beyond, the rotten stench of decaying blood nearly tore their lungs apart.
Nothing was visible yet, but Bonnie coughed hard, fighting back the urge to vomit, while Evelyn covered her nose, her face twisted in disgust.
Thieving Cat raised the lamp ahead of them, illuminating a floor of dirt and gray stone stained with blood — the kind of blood that spreads across the ground after a limb has been severed.
At first the darkness was so thick that neither of them, even with their heightened senses, could make out what lay ahead — but with the lamp's help, both their eyes finally opened to it. Bonnie's breath caught in her throat. Evelyn's grip on the lamp tightened.
"Bonnie… We're too late."
Scraps of fabric in different colors, scattered among mutilated chunks of flesh and severed limbs. Blood pooled out from the stone altar, where the heads of four different girls lay with expressions frozen in horror, hardened onto their faces.
Among all those torn, ruined garments, Bonnie recognized an orange dress, and that dark, curly hair.
It was Robin's sister.
She couldn't think. She couldn't speak. She stood frozen there, doing nothing at all. She stopped breathing. She stopped doing… anything…
She could have made it in time, if not for everything that had gotten in her way before this. She could have stopped this from happening, if only she'd had a little more time — but that wasn't how it went.
She had failed.
That was the one undeniable truth.
There was nothing left for her to do but stand there and watch in silence…
That's life, after all. That's what people say…
That's what can't be undone.
Death…
Her stomach twisted painfully. Tears welled at the corners of her eyes as the full weight of what she was seeing finally hit her. She brought a hand to her mouth, turned away, and couldn't stop herself from being sick.
The black cat moved beneath Evelyn's feet, its eyes catching something stirring against the far wall.
Thieving Cat lifted her gaze, and two crimson eyes stared back at her from inside the hood of a black-and-red robe.
"You two…" those "eyes" said. "What a delight… I was hoping to test out my new power…"
Bonnie forced her eyes up to look at the creature.
Flames flared to life inside large bronze dishes scattered around the chamber, revealing one of the Devil's Cult's monstrosities, clinging to the wall like some kind of spider. Its body… was anything but human.