TROUBLE IN PARADISE

Part 2

It’s been three days of order and tranquility in the Paradise, and Keto was starting to lose his mind. He hadn’t smoked a joint in that period, which was the longest he’d gone since he started smoking. Marley and Lucas no longer cared about getting stoned; the only thing that mattered to them was their tasks as that was all they talked about whenever Keto tried to have a conversation with them – nothing else interested them. Keto used to get his weed from Lucas, but now that was a dead end. Voodoo had been gone for three days, and no one seemed to notice or care about that. These were the thoughts running through Keto’s mind as the alarm snapped him from his thoughts.
“Another day in hell.”
Kudi was already up and preparing for the morning chores when he heard his brother’s grumble.
“I actually like the way things are now, except for the lack of joint.”
Keto looked at Kudi with a disgusted look on his face, but Kudi only smiled in return.
“Today’s show starts in the noon, which means we gotta hurry up and complete our tasks before then – keep everywhere sparkly.”
Just then, Lucas walked in.
“We must complete today’s task within the shortest possible time.”

Keto was disappointed.
“Good morning to you too buddy. Just when I thought you’d come to your senses and came to invite me to get stoned.”
Lucas ignored Keto but instead faced Kudi.
“I’ll clean the arena; you guys handle Horace and Alena’s quarters.”
With that, he turned around and left the tent, much to Keto’s chagrin.
“Something is definitely wrong.”
A while later, the two clowns headed to Horace’s tent to clean it. As they entered the tent, they were greeted by a strong smell of wax and smoke.
Can you smell that Kudi?”
“Yea. What is it?”
“Fuck if I know. Horace is an old weird fella, best not to imagine the kind of weird stuff he has in here that’s giving off that smell.”
“You’re right. Let’s just do our job and get the hell outta here.”

LUCAS

HORACE

The Clowns cleaned the tent in silence until Kudi pulled the bed frame backward to sweep the area. As he did that, a wooden box that had been under the bed came into view, and the smell that had occupied the room got even stronger.
“Erm… Keto, I think the smell is coming from this box.”
Keto went over to Kudi and saw the box.
“What do you think is in there?”
Kudi shrugged.
“Only one way to find out.”

Kudi opened the box and they both gasped at what they saw. There were little dolls inside wax; it was like melted wax was poured into the wooden box and the dolls were then placed in it before it solidified. What shocked them, even more, was the fact that the dolls had pictures of the faces of the circus members pinned to them, which indicated that the dolls represented each of them and they were somehow being controlled by voodoo.
“Don’t touch that, it’s strong voodoo.”

“Who do you think is behind this? Could it be Voodoo? No one has seen him for days now, he could be responsible.”
“That was my first thought too, but if he were really the one then he would have assumed control of the circus. I don’t see how all this benefits him. My money is on Horace – he’s running the show, his word has been law since all this started, plus we found the box under his bed. All that can’t be a coincidence – he probably kidnapped Voodoo and is forcing him to do his bidding.”
“Would he also do that to Alena, his daughter, and his two allies – Mathew and Molly?”
“Alena is his adopted daughter; they might have a dysfunctional relationship for all you know. And as for the Rhinos, who needs allies when you can have puppets? What I’m really curious about is why he didn’t include us in the voodoo enslavement.”
“Our dolls could be further down in the box, beneath the ones on top.”
“Really? Do you feel like you’re under a spell?”
Kudi stared down to examine himself and finally shook his head.
“So what do we do?”
Keto thought about it for a while, he paced about the tent while brooding. He acknowledged Horace’s plan to be a brilliant one and wondered why he hadn’t thought of it first. Well, now that he knew better, all he had to do was locate where Voodoo was being kept and get him to control Horace in addition to the others, and make everyone do his bidding – now was his chance to take control of Paradise Circus and fulfill his dream. He was too engrossed in his thoughts and didn’t notice Kudi cut out the dolls from the waxwith a silver spoon. By the time he noticed, Kudi had already cut out two dolls.
“Whoa! Stop! What the hell are you doing man?”
“Freeing them from the enchantment?”
“Why the hell would you do that? And who told you that’s how to break a voodoo spell?”
“Sure it is – you cut it out with silver and the person will be freed.”
“Again, who taught you that?”
“My grandfather – you wouldn’t know him.”
Keto smacked him on the head.
“We’re twins, dumbass. We have the same grandparents.”
“Oh yea, that’s true. But why don’t you want me to free everyone? I thought you hated the way things are.”
“I do, but I figured out how I can use this to my advantage.”
Kudi was still rubbing the spot where he had been smacked.
“How?”
Just then, they heard Horace's voice from a distance.
“Quick! He’s coming here, we gotta bounce.”
Kudi dropped the dolls he had cut out back into the box – the dolls had Marley and Lucas’s faces pinned to them. The box was closed and the bed was pushed back to its original position to cover the box, just the way it was before. The clowns hurried out of the tent.