Eh, why not. Story concept I had.
Mc who found an artifact on time traveling which only has two charges: one to go to the time period you want to visit and the other to come back to the present time. Mc uses it to prevent Columbina's death.
On the moonless night, an hour before Harlequin breaks out, a masked figure enters. They're neatly clothed, appearing as an individual of business, and is currently dragging something in their gloved hands. A man, the ringmaster, is tied up and gagged, yanked across the ground.
He's placed in front of Columbina and the stranger stands in-between her and the man. They reach to their belt, take something off of it and hand it to her. A ring of keys.
Once she takes the keys, the stranger turns and steps over the man, approaching the exit, then faces the monsters and bows. "Enjoy your meal," an almost sinister, disguising deep voice breaks the silence. They leave.
Mc is back in their current time, or to be more specific, before they meet Pierrot. Now everything is different, will he still chase after them if they were to help him?
It plays out like normal, offering their hand to pull him up and offer a bandage for his cut. The day plays out like it was that day, but there's no pink ticket, a beige ticket is offered to them. They decline, already knowing the trick by looking at the fools in beige.
That night, there's no Pierrot. Oh, how heartbreaking. Now he has Columbina, he doesn't need poor little Mc. It seems they need to buy a ticket. The circus doesn't feel different, still giving off that creepy sensation.
They enjoy themself, watching the performances each tent has to offer. Though, they didn't look forward to TT and Doctor's tents. The pink tent raises questions when their eyes land on it. They can see a beige tent, their instincts telling them that's the dangerous tent, the pink tent is a normal tent like the others. But they are afraid, they can't chance it.
So after they watch every show, they turn to leave and never see the circus again. Then they saw her, standing outside of her tent and smiling to the guests who watched her performance. She is beautiful, a lovely monster among naive humans.
A guest bumps Mc's shoulder, taking their attention away from her. When they look back, she's right in front of them. She apologizes for scaring them and compliments their outfit, beginning small talk with them.
Once the conversation is over, Mc leaves and returns home, satisfied with their mission being a success. Columbine is alive and a part of the freak circus. Pierrot didn't come to them after they helped him. He's not interested in them.
Mc smiles, ready to continue their average life without looking over their shoulders for monsters. They collapse in bed and wrap themself tightly in the blankets, slipping into a deep sleep.
"Angel... We finally found you..."
They awake inside of a tent, a pink tent. They jolt up and find their limbs are bound in rope. They panically look around to find the monsters surrounding them.
"My, what a pretty face they have."
"And how wide their eyes are, they're desperate for the light to pierce them."
"Oh, my dear, I'm so happy to see you again."
"How interesting, never would I have expected our little angel to still exist after all of these years."
"Hm, now we have them, what are we going to do with them?"
"What... What are you talking about? Where am I?"
"No need to be so afraid, angel. We're not going to hurt you."
"Why am I tied up?"
"We didn't want you to run away, not after we finally found you."
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh, don't play dumb. You're the human who freed us, are you not? Your scent is the same as that human."
The slight shift in their eyes is all Jester needed to know this was them.
Their scent, they remembered their scent. And they have been looking for them ever since they helped them. What have they done?
[Part 2]
