"Oh." Bradford said, snapping to. "Did I say that?" He asked. Then he sighed.

"Ughh." He sighed again, hands loosening, unclenched. "Actually, I knew I said it. I was just...lying. I knew I said it. I did. Does that make the pact bad? I mean, I didn't really break it by asking if I asked it, even though I knew I asked if all the people should go."

"Maybe you're right. I mean, I know you are. I'm probably just, I don't know, upset. I mean, Shawn is actually pretty fun to hang out with, I think. Or at least he probably would be fun."

"Most kids are fun." Bradford said, second thinking his original diagnosis of the world.

"What! You can't lie! You promised not to! That's not fair!" Delilah pushed Bradford, then stomped around her room as she paced around the tea table. "And right after you did a blood swear, too! That's real bad. Oh, brother, I don't even know how bad. You crossed your heart and hoped to die. Do you wanna die?"

It's a good thing they didn't promise with "Stick a needle in my eye" or else Bradford would be done for. Not that Delilah could bring herself to do that to the kid. Nothing made sense anymore, unless...

"Did you have your fingers crossed? Are you calling Backsies? And cancelling the whole thing?"

"No!" Bradford exclaimed. "I mean, yes! I mean...No!"

"Yes, I lied. But that's part of me telling the truth, right? To know when I just did and stop it from doing more."

"So yes. But no I didn't continue. And no, there's no fingers crossed? And no Backsies."

Bradford wiped his brow.

"Geez. This is harder than I thought."

Delilah crossed her arms with a huff. She stared at Bradford for a long, silent moment.

"Okay," she grumbled. Her temper soothed somewhat. "But you better do it right from here on. And yeah, it is hard. But you can't quit just because something is hard to do at first. If you do, you'll be a chump for life. Okay?"

"ugh." Bradford sighed somewhat annoyed. "Oh-^{kkkkkkkkkkkayyyyyy}----uh." He agreed in a peevish voice. It was clear he wasn't upset by Delilah as much as what she was saying. She was reminding him of 'responsibility' and that he had failed to live up to it. He didn't like the reminder.

Because it was true.

"I don't want to be a Chump." He confirmed, voice self-berating.

"Nobody wants to be a chump, but there's plenty of 'em anyway." She scratched at her nose. Her tone was lighter now. It was an apology without her having said the words. Delilah kicked the broken china shards under her bed.

"Hey, Bradford? Can I ask you something?"
This message was last edited by the player at 04:24, Mon 12 Mar 2018.

"Yep!" Bradford responded, suddenly more chipper himself. "You can ask me anything, I'm in the pact!" He said all smiles and optimism.

"Okay." She propped herself up on her elbow at the table. "How come you and Mr. Clayton picked me? I mean, I know I'm the best pick, but how'd you guys know? Why not somebody else...nicer?"

Delilah trailed off, but her thoughts turned to Jody. She wondered what happened to all the other kids she left behind in Hogwash's tent. Jody was nice. And Esther and the ones that helped catch her were the worst. She was glad it wasn't one of them living in a dream mansion, but she wasn't exactly ready to trade places with Jody, either.

"Well, um, it's not really me. Or Mr. Clayton that did that." Bradford clarified. "You see, Mr. Cherrywinks, the Clown that is.." Bradford cleared his throat as if to begin a longer story or explanation.

"Mr. Cherrywinks started attacking kids. I didn't have any control over being chosen as one of those kids than you did. He was taking kids souls so that he could help build the Circus. Each soul he took he used to bring back something that would help the Circus get started. But then the Fortune Teller came back too. And then she started taking souls for the same reason because whoever gets the most souls at that point is in charge of the Circus."

"I was sort of forced into the Fortune Teller's side, because....well, because I didn't want to die and that was how I survived. And because they were going to protect me from Mr. Cherrywinks. And when I got there, to the Fortune Teller's Order, Shawn was there too."

"They offered him the choice to be a Magician or the Circus' Ventriloquist. And he chose to be the Magician. That's how I got paired up with Mr. Clayton. Mr. Clayton really wasn't anything until I started to listen to these cassette tapes about Greater Ventriloquism that the Tattooed Lady found. I found out they had long, forgotten knowledge."

"So really what Mr. Clayton is trying to do is to set things straight so we don't have to do this whole thing all over again and so that kids don't die like I almost did. And like you almost did."

"So really, I didn't do anything or choose any of this. And actually, neither did Mr. Clayton. We're all sort of forced into this."

"Now it's your turn. But you better hurry before Susan tattles on me for throwing her out."

Susan could be tattling right now.

Sorry! I did it again. I lost a post.

"OK" Bradford said. "What's....."

"What's the worst thing you've ever done?"

Delilah went quiet. She looked at one of the trophies lined up on her shelves.

"I put itching powder on a seat Leslie Bowen sat on." She quickly took a defensive tone. "She didn't die or nothing. And it wasn't like it cost her a win. She just wasn't any good. She was on the team because her parents signed her up and paid for all the classes and private lessons and stuff. But she was fat and slow. And we had this meet coming up. And we had a new girl, Sonya Liotta, who was real good. But she signed up too late. So I put the itching powder on the bench at the meet right when Leslie was gonna sit. She fell off the beam later, but she only got a sprain. Sonya got an ally-bye. So we won. And Fat Leslie quit the team. So we kept winning. So not like real terrible, but some people were mad, yeah."

spelling and stuff
This message was last edited by the player at 09:50, Thu 15 Mar 2018.

"Itching----powder." Bradford repeated. Then there was a long silence.

Suddenly Bradford broke out into a cacophonous laughter. He doubled over and slapped his knees. It was genuine, deep mirth. Not the kind that could be interpreted as making fun of Delilah, but rather the kind that thought the event was genuinely something. Something that was a really good prank.

A giggle slipped out from Delilah.

"I guess it was pretty funny."

She couldn't laugh about it that day. She had to keep a straight face for the good of the team.

"Ha! That's funny." Bradford said in an amused tone. Then he straightened up. "So, what are you going to do? I mean. About the the whole Circus thing? Is it over for you?"

Delilah's eyebrows rose.

"It can be over? HOW?"

If there was a real escape, she had to know.

"I don't know." Bradford said. "Mr. Clayton says that he's trying to end the whole thing. He said that there's a way to end it."

"If he finds out, do you want me to let you know?"

Delilah nodded eagerly.

"YEAH! You gotta tell me when."

She crept closer to Bradford. "Is he gonna kill them? Hogwash and the clown and all of them?"

"I dunno." Bradford replied. "But I think I'm gonna find out. I don't know if its safe to talk too much about it." He moved his head left and right to check his surroundings.

"It has to be a secret. I mean, I guess you can tell anyone else who knows about the Circus. Or maybe not. You never know what would happen if the monsters in Circus found out that Mr. Clayton and us were planning to stop them all."

"Mr. Clayton told me that there's this instrument. It's like a flute. If you go down to the Circus, and then you travel to somewhere, and you get it. If you play it, all of the Monsters...they just...I mean. The whole things ends."

Delilah was taken aback.

"You can go there? Whenever you want? Is that how you get the flute?"

In her mind, she saw herself pulling off a heist.

"Yes!" Bradford said, suddenly. He was full of optimism and a bright, happy face. Then it soured slightly.

"Well, actually, since we said we were going to tell truth, I really don't know if it is true. But when I found out about it, it sounded really like it could be true. And, there's no other way that I know of. And Mr. Clayton said there's no other way that he knows of. And I don't want to be in the Order anymore, or any other part of the Circus."

"So, even if I don't know about the whole thing and I'm not sure...I don't really have any other ideas. So what I mean is that...."

"I hope it's true?" Bradford offered, this time decidedly less confident.

"Then, I hope it's true, too. And if it is, then we're gonna find it."

She nodded twice with a grim determination.

"Alright." Bradford said, getting up from the small table. "I have to get going so I can practice with my dummy." He said. "Everything is dumb and everyone is a dummy." Bradford recited.

"I have to practice in front of the mirror for hours to make sure I hear the loud sound and to make sure my lips don't move."

"I'm not a dummy," Delilah said quickly.

She opened the door to let Bradford out. If he said anything else, she missed it. Her thoughts were focused on getting this magic flute without getting caught.

"Maybe not." Bradford said. " I haven't really listened to all of the steps of the cassette tapes that help me study Greater Ventriloquism. Maybe there's something in one of the next steps that explains you, or has some kind of exception to the other step." Bradford allowed.

And with that, Bradford left, a little bit happier than he had arrived. There was a little bounce in his step.

OOC: end scene
This message was last edited by the player at 21:45, Mon 19 Mar 2018.