Just Shut Up And Write! (ROUND ONE: CLOSED!)

[HemptressTemptress]

"Should I tell him?", she thinks to herself as she lays underneath her ratted blanket, staring up at the stars. "Everyday I clean his tanks, shovel his elephant manure, blow up a thousand balloons for that damn dart game no one will ever win...ugh...I've done everything for him. But the one thing I can't bring myself to do...is tell him the truth.

"Wake up! Time to slop the pigs, beard the lady, fish the boy, and dunk the tanks!" Carnie Mike is up early this morning. I rub the sleep from my eyes and slowly roll out of my cot. I head toward the Killer Klowns ride and set up the mechanics. My late-night thoughts haunted me still throughout the busy day. I absent-mindedly handed out the wrong size prizes to each winner (and loser). I couldn't stop thinking about this pain in my heart. How do you tell your boss, the man you LOVE (though he is 42 and I am only 16...in human years, that is), and the man who gives you shelter and food something like this. It has been the hardest burden I've had to bear in all my life. For in the past 3 months I've been passing time at this dirty carnival I've fallen deeply in love with this crusty, gawking, bearded old man whose only goal in this universe is to run a rickety carnival in the middle of ******** nowhere. My parents always told me I deserved the best in life...my parents...I wonder where they are...who they are...

I've shifted myself a thousand times since I first hit puberty. My parents left me when I was only 10 in human years (to "make me tough," they would say), that's when I ran away to the carnival. I shifted into what I thought of as an attractive body. I gave myself flowing red hair that glistened in the sunlight, made sure that my eyes were electric green, like the eyes of a witch's cat, and I gave myself a sweet peachy complexion with a few freckles dotting my human nose and cheeks, and I gave myself a full figure with thighs that extended for miles and an achingly perfect set of breasts. I figured that if I looked both unique and beautiful then I could find a nice man to take me away and make my life something more than it is. How am I to tell this beautiful, creaky, cranky, son-of-a-b***h that not only am I in love with him despite the fact that he's poor and seemingly unattractive to the untrained eye, but I'm also a 280 year old shape-shifting fairy!? I almost don't believe it myself. I've been in the realm of humans since birth, so even I have learned to fear, misjudge, and close my mind to the unknown or the strange. Yet, here I am, the awkward, inhuman creation of a fairy mother and shape-shifting father who chose to leave me alone to figure this world out all by myself.

When children would look at my wings while I was still too young to fully control my cloaking powers, they would laugh...or cry...or scream and run away. I was labeled "freak" and "monster" and even "witch." As IF! If someone thinks -I- look like some filthy swamp witch, then they must SERIOUSLY need their eyes checked. Well, now that I've found a body that is aesthetically pleasing to the eye and soft to the touch...I thought I could win over any man I wanted. I didn't know I'd meet a dirty old man only a mother could love and fall head over heels for him. "I have to tell him! Tonight," I whispered to myself firmly.

After all the stages were swept, the animals were back in their cages, and the water was leaked out of the dunk tanks, I went up to Mike to get my evening's pay. But this night it was different. The stars glowed a little brighter, the wind blew more fragrant and softly, and Carnie Mike looked down at me like he had been holding the same pain in his heart that I had in mine. "Mike, I have something I need to tell you. You won't believe me. You're going to think I'm insane. I know the way humans think...they all think I'm crazy, but I'm going to tell you anyway. My mother was a fairy; a wood nymph to be precise, and my father was a shape-shifter. I am not at all who you think I am. This red hair, these emerald eyes...they're all just bits and pieces of other humans I've seen in life and I've shifted myself into. I'm not nearly as beautiful in my natural form. And--" I stop speaking as I've noticed Mike has begun smiling and there was a sweet twinkle in his eye. He wasn't talking back or yelling at me or calling me a freak or trying to send me to an institution. He genuinely believed me. I looked up at him, and I shifted back to the way I really look. Ice-frost hair, silver eyes, pale skin, and thin but strong silver wings outstretched to their fullest. I floated above him; I didn't want him to look me directly in the face. It was so ugly compared to my beautiful human facade...

I floated back down to where Mike was now sitting and giggling to himself as he looked at me like I've never been looked at before. He still said absolutely nothing. But I could tell...I could feel it....he loved me too. "Mike," I whispered gently in his ear, "I...I love you. I have since the moment I met you. I know it seems like we're ages apart, but I'm immortal. There really is no age-appropriate limit for an immortal." Mike looked at me, held me close to him, and he kissed me. It was soft, slow, sensual...it sent tingles through my entire body. His aged, dry lips grazed against mine so perfectly. His hand slowly slid up my thigh. My wings curled at the feeling. I opened my eyes to watch the way he was going to make love to me. I wanted to see it all, but what I saw was a sickening surprise. His face twisted into knots, his eyes burned demon-red, and he still had the same smirk that had been on his face this whole time.

"Finally, a kiss from a fairy. You know what this means, right?" I shook my head nervously, "no?" "It means that you've given yourself to me. Mind, body, and soul. A kiss from a fairy is like a human marriage. I've been planning this since the day you showed up. I saw your wings several times. You really lacked stealth when you were off your guard in the late evenings. Guess you didn't think I was watching. Oh, I've been watching each and every day. I have been waiting. VERY patiently. And now that you have given yourself to me fully, I may take all that you have, including your powers, your everlasting youth, your life.

I did not know that night would turn out the way it did. I did not know that I had lived a lie for no reason. And I did not know that with these words, my very last breath would be taken from me. "I will always love you...no matter...what..." And with those final words the life left my body and entered his. We were finally one. He may not have loved me back, but I gave him everything. And he took it gladly. I have given myself for the sake of unrequited love. And I don't regret a thing...of course, it's hard to regret anything...when you're dead.

[Luna Vox]

This seems like quite an interesting prompt. I MUST DO IT.
And in the course of the events, I may even end up pushing someone over a cliff.

[HemptressTemptress]

HemptressTemptress:
Indelible:
Unsure:

Sorry, my entry is on here, I just forgot to put this with it. I feel like a total idiot. Sorry!

[Vatilla]

Username: Vatilla
Title: The Bird
Word Count: 2045 words, 6 pages
Additional Information: Death involved, I don't know if some would find it disturbing or not... Some graphic language. This is my actual entry, I'm not going to edit anymore of it. I've been editing the last while.

The Bird

It was the bird.

It was the damned blackbird sitting in the high arches of the Big Tent. I felt a growl slip from my mouth at the sight of it.

“Shut up!” snapped Kieran, the Ring Master. Or the Smuggler From Hell as the circus folk called him. My eyes flashed to the man I so wanted to rip apart, I so wanted to see gasping on the floor, begging for mercy.

“What if I don’t?” I said threateningly, slinking into a crouch and feeling my body begin to tremble. “What if I growl, snarl, and howl for all to here, you righteous son of a-”

“And what if I throw you back on the streets? Let the cops get you, and return you to your mother? Hmm?” Kieran said with a devilish grin of victory. My veins were ice. He had that over me. The fear of my own mother, who, if she found me, would surely kill me. A snarl ripped through my throat, and a hand smacked across my cheek. I felt the lingering tingle of his flesh on mine, the small amount of pain it caused. But it also caused a huge amount of red-hot fury to seep through my no longer human body.

I was suddenly high above Kieran, roaring, smoking a massive paw across his now brittle frame, before again small and weak and human. He stood from where he had landing, clutching his chest as if unable to breath. Hell, he probably couldn’t.

“Now you listen here Kirsty. You get your a** out on that stage and wow those people, or else it’ll be more than the threat of your mother that you have to deal with,” he told me, his eyes on fire. I growled and slunk out into the middle of the Big Tent, my eyes always on that bird. It stared back at me, all too intelligent for its own good.

I looked up as the audience clapped and cheered at my entrance. My small body was running in a crouch across the vast arena, feeling as if it were flying. And, at the thought, I burst into an Eagle, flying high above the crowds, cawing my sudden freedom, and looking at the bird with delight.

When I was one of his own species, I felt no resentment to him. I felt no fear of him, nor any type of feeling other than the agreement that we were brother and sister in harmony as he joined me on my suddenly victorious flight.

I looked and saw her. I saw the little girl, yet again. I turned my head to see Kieran, staring at her, hunger in his burning eyes. I again felt the fury. The bird looked at me. His eyes screamed Save her!

I dove, and before reaching the bottom, I grew heavier, lost my wings, grew my arms, my legs, and somersaulted to a stop, breathing heavily. The audience burst with applause, chanting Magnificent! Magnificent! Magnificent!

It was the name I had adopted; Magnificent. Because, according to Kieran and those who watched my flips, spins, and Transformations, I was Magnificent.

I took a bow, the appropriate thing to do under the circumstances. I quickly fazed into a tiger and bolted out of the arena, roaring at the tent flap that would lead me to the side wings/dressing room/makeup room. Kieran hardly noticed me, his burning eyes fixated on the little girl as they had been on me months ago.

The circus, Amazing Wonders, was in town for a week. Everyday so far this week, that little girl had come. She had always stared in utter fascination and amazement at my performance, and I could feel that she was special. Too special for Kieran to resist. And I knew that I had to anything possible to keep him from taking the kid, because I knew what it was like with him.

It was a living hell each and every moment.

I turned my tiger’s head to look at his burning man’s eyes. I growled, and his eyes flashed, the anger he had for me with them. I felt smug at my defiance, but also a little frightened. He had power over me. Too much power.

Kieran exited to announce that the show was over, and that we would be leaving town on Friday, tomorrow. I shifted back to human and slunk away to the outside, where I saw the little girl exiting. She turned towards me.

Our eyes met.

She walked over, grinning, and I felt paralyzed, not a good feeling. “Hi!” she said cheerily. “My name’s Ellen, but everyone calls me Elsie. I loved your performance! How do you do it?”

I gulped. “It’s magic,” I said, forcing a smile at this beautiful child. Her hair hung in chocolate ringlets to her waist, matching her beautiful eyes. I was surprised at how pale her skin was, almost a white ivory like the tusk of the elephant we had. Her cheeks were dimpled, her lashes long. She was small and petite, but there was a burning fire inside of her that I could sense.

I wanted nothing more than to protect her.

“Can you teach me?” she asked, dazzling me with a brilliantly irresistible white-toothed smile. I couldn’t help but smile back. I opened my mouth to speak when I felt a hand clap my shoulder.

“Nice to meet you, Elsie! I’m Daemon, the Ring Master of this show! Would you like to come backstage?” Kieran asked Elsie, introducing himself as others knew him- Daemon. It was a type of demon, which I knew he was. I growled.

“Kier- Daemon, perhaps the young lady would like to go home instead?” I interrupted, trying my best to keep my cool.

“No! I wanna go backstage!” she insisted, her eyes glittering. And I didn’t want to stop her- she seemed to genuinely happy, so glowing with utter contempt, that I couldn’t refuse her. Kieran smiled in triumph- I lowered my head in shame.

“You see, Magnificent?” his face was smug, gloating. “She would like a private showing.” And with that, Kieran led the little girl back to the Big Tent. I stood frozen in place.

I felt the eyes burning my back.

I turned.

It was the blackbird, staring at me accusingly.

“What am I supposed to do?!” I yelled at it, throwing my hands up. His eyes pleaded with me. “Please, Jonathon, I don’t want her to end up like us!”

The bird continued to stare.

“Answer me! I know you can!” I sobbed, ignoring the people around, staring at like I was crazy. I was beginning to think I was.

The bird always stared at me, knowing what everyone else didn’t. Knowing his own identity. Knowing who we both were, and knowing what I kept from everyone else around us.

He remembered that he was my brother. He remembered that I couldn’t save him.

And so I flung myself around, charging back into the Big Tent, determined to stop them. I felt myself shrink, yet grow as I again became a tiger.

What I saw made the tiger’s anger die on site, made the fire inside me extinguish, made me feel like I had lost hope.

Kieran had her. Kieran had the little girl, and I could never help her, no matter what I did. She was as lost as I had become when I entered this world.

The blackbird cawed, and I knew, at that very moment, that I would never see my brother again for as long as I lived.

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“Welcoming Magnificent and her daughter, Enchanting Elsie!” Kieran announced, and, with a sweep of his arms, Elsie and I ran into the Big Tent smiling.

He had gotten to her. I hadn’t been able to stop it. But I could help her. I took her in as my own, even though I’m only eighteen myself. She’s only seven.

We found out, after months of testing, what was so special about her. She compels people. It doesn’t matter if you hate children, it doesn’t matter if everything about the world despises you- you have to love Elsie. There just isn’t an option.

With Elsie around, it was a little more bearable to be with Kieran. But she was always asking about her mother, her family, when she would see them again. No matter how many times I told her, she refused to believe that she would never see any of them again. She always had faith. It was something I had too, a long, long time ago.

Recently, though, Elsie stopped asking for her family. She stopped asking to go back. She started calling me “Mommy”. I became her parent, and everything about that sickened me yet brought me the brightest joy imaginable.

I cleared my head, rewriting the smile that had disappeared from my face. I burst into a black horse, Elsie jumping onto my back and standing up, waving to the cheering crowd.

I shifted to a tiger, not missing a beat, Elsie riding me around the stadium. As I became an Eagle, Elsie dropped to the ground, standing with her head down.

As I looked into the crowd, I nearly dropped out of the sky. There, in the crowd, was what looked to be Elsie’s twin if she was an adult.

Kieran had died her hair bright blond, and she wore silver contacts when she was in the ring. We weren’t even at the same place where we took Elsie from, but her mother was there.

I dove to the ground, becoming human again, and cart-wheeling into the wings with Elsie. I shooed her away and turned to Kieran.

“Her mother is here!” I told him frantically. He shook his head, his eyes on fire.

“Well what are you going to do about it?” Kieran asked. My mouth gaped open.

“Excuse me?!” I demanded.

“Do you really want your daughter taken away?”

“She’s not my daughter!”

“I think she is, and so do you. If you want her gone, get rid of her. I have no further use for the child. Do what you please.”

“Will you set me free too?”

“No.”

He had me, and he knew he did, as I shoved past him. Elsie was standing near us. Her eyes watered, and she was shaking. I held my arms out to her, my eyes pleading and begging for mercy.

“What do you mean, she’s here?” Elsie demanded. I didn’t say a word. Elsie pushed past me as I had done to Kieran, and ran from the wings. I saw her heading from the Big Tent, following the crowd outside. I snapped out of it, and saw that Kieran was gone.

“NO!” I screamed, and became a Cheetah, running full tilt towards the exit, letting out shrieks of anger. I saw Elsie running to her mother, and Kieran just behind them.

A shriek escaped my throat as I lunged for Kieran, everything red in my vision. Just as Elsie was about to embrace her mother, her back arched.

Her eyes only showed hurt. She was hurting because I couldn’t save her, I knew. It was all in slow motion. I was still lunging towards Kieran, the shriek still erupting from my opened mouth. People in the crowd screamed. I saw the determination in Kieran’s burning eyes.

“AHHHHHHHHH!” screamed Elsie, her fingers curled, her hands clenched in an open fist. Her body started glowing, and exploded in a wave of heat and sunlight. I tackled Kieran, going for his throat, but he waved his hand and I was flying.

I gasped on my side, my breath leaving me. I became human, and groans mixed with screams and shrieks came from my lungs. Elsie’s mother stood motionless, probably in shock.

It was the bird.

It was the damned blackbird sitting on the wire of a telephone pole. His eyes burned into my soul. “I TRIED!” I screamed at it, sobbing and crying. People were scattering, screaming, trying to help me or Elsie’s mother, some whipping out phones.

“GET UP!” Kieran demanded, gripping my forearm and yanking. I was limp, still screaming.

No one leaves the Circus. Not alive, anyways. Not Elsie, not me, not Jonathon. No one leaves the Circus.

[AshtenD]

I think I shall jump onto this. It might be a little late but BAH! 22 Days is more than enough! Just have to start now >:3 I have a really interesting plot in mind! First writing contest, so wish me luck!

[Heroes_Twilight_Lover]

AshtenD

I think I shall jump onto this. It might be a little late but BAH! 22 Days is more than enough! Just have to start now >:3 I have a really interesting plot in mind! First writing contest, so wish me luck!

Oh, It's never too late! Good Luck!

[Hikaru Seishin]

I'm interested in the prompt and having someone really look at a story so that they can give them feedback. You can definitely count me in! I should be able to finish my entry in...a week? Maybe less? xD

And I'm thinking of being a judge for future JSUAW contests...that is, if you'll have me? emotion_c8

[Muddy Rawr Waters]

My first language is spanish and I've never written anything in english, but I'll give my best.

[Psychotic Maniacal Sanity]

Dude, this is awesome. I've been very inactive around the WC lately, but this just might be what sparks a new constest entry. Thanks for hosting!

Fun fact: my entire NaNo novel this year basically revolved around your circus prompt. xd

[Mairose]

HEY GUYS!!

I know I haven't posted for a while, but I didn't forget about y'all! I had to switch internet services after the holidays, but everything's connected and order has been restored!...Sort of.

To everyone who joined while I was away, welcome!! There is STILL plenty of time to submit an entry! 17 days remain as of now! Those of you who have already submitted an entry, you still have 17 days to edit if you wish to do so!

I hope everyone had an awesome holiday, and I look forward to seeing what the newcomers post! biggrin

[xxhottie-2000xx]

im in...i love to write...gonna kick some a**

[KillwerEddie]

MIND CIRCUS

Who are you?
"I am no one else then you are"
That can't be true...
"Why not?"
Because, If you are me, then who am I?
"You are you"

Where am I?
"Look around, my little dear"
I can't, the darkness burns my eyes
Please do tell me... please.
"we are in your mind, where it is all like a circus"
"We are in the Mind circus, where every choice is made",
"and comes out like a surprise"
But, I don't understand.
What do you mean?
"Your family never knew, if you were happy or angry"
"you got violent, you would smash things and scream"
"And then, you would stop and forget, what you had done"
I don't believe you... i don't believe you
"Then where is your family?"
"Maybe they were trying to protect your little sister?"
From who?
"YOU"
.
.
.
no, you are lying
"I would never lie, and I saw it too, your mother, your father, and even your
little sister, They are all dead",
NO! YOU ARE LYING TO ME
YOU ARE A LIAR
YOU MONSTER!!!!

"The only monster I can see here is you".






I hope you like it, even thou it is short and probably stupid.

[Crochet Hearts]

Fun fun~ heart

Username: Crochet Hearts
Title: Ilona
Word Count: 1,406 words
Additional Information: Story is found on DeviantArt on my main account: Ilona

[Chevix]

I just stumbled upon this contest and it does sound intriguing. I started plotting out characters and stuff but as I started to write I realized it would work better if it started when the main character trying to join a traveling circus? is that all right? by the end of it he will obviously be a member, but for most of the story he won't be, just trying to convince them to let him join....does that still count as part of the prompt or should I scrap that idea and work on a second?

[mahouu]

I am SO doing this! This sounds like fun and the prompt caught my eye.