A Warm Reception

"My loveliest customers," The Ringmaster intoned with his hands still wrapped around my body while the upside-down body of George remained burning behind us. The only difference this time is that we are both facing our audience. I also noticed that none of them seemed to mind the sight of the Ringmaster's hands all over my body anymore. "This marks the end of this year's entertainment section!"

The audience gave a different plethora of reactions. Some clapped, and others cheered while some were not so keen to learn that they won't be seeing more bloodshed as they gave some disapproving grimaces and boos.

The Ringmaster gave a tired sigh as he observed the people's reactions. He then wore his mask on once again before patting my head as he whispered to my ear. "Go there with Veronica for a bit, and I'll come back to you again." He said those words while he wildly dragged his hands all over my body like wild words scurrying all over the mud. "I have to talk to you about something later after I finished dealing with the purchases."

I nodded. "Mmhmm." I groaned in an act of utter submissiveness as I feel the hoarseness of my voice. I cleared my throat before continuing. "Okay."

"Good." He said with a sharp nod. "Go now. She's contacting the Janitor; maybe you can help her out a bit."

I then slowly walked towards Veronica's direction before I felt the Ringmaster pulling my hands, grabbing it like he owns it. "Tim." He simply said.

"Y-yes?" I stuttered.

"Good job earlier. You did great."

I felt every blood in my body rushing towards my head, but I tried my hardest not to show how happy those words made me feel. "Thank you," I said, clearly beaming with joy.

He then let go of me and pushed me towards the direction of Veronica, who was currently speaking with someone on her phone.

"Are you seriously still using one of those?" I said with a raised eyebrow while looking at her white, ancient-looking, thick mobile phone that still had a long antenna.

"Shh!" She said with knitted eyebrows while covering the microphone of her clearly out-of-fashion phone with her fingers. "I'm sorry that was Tim.

"..."

"Yeah. Uh-huh."

"..."

"Yeah, I know he's still a piece of shit."

"..."

Is she talking about me? "Wow. Rude."

Veronica once again directed her sharp gaze at me, listening to the person on the other side of the phone.

"Yes. Oh, sure! We'd love to see you now."

"..."

"Okay, Janitor. Oh, and don't forget to wear a mask on; we're doing a little masquerade thing right now, yeah. It's a theme, yeah."

"..."

"Oh, anything will do! Any mask at all, we're not forcing you to be too extravagant on the fine details."

"..."

"Of course, you can have your chauffeurs wear a mask too! I'm sure the customers would be glad to see them."

After a few more words of farewell, Veronica finally hung up the call and tucked her gigantic phone in her breast pocket. "Oh, that guy never learns to shut up! He always talks about this and that and ugh... I'm so annoyed about having to deal with him."

"Well, yeah." I scoffed. "It's the job."

"It's the goddamn job indeed," Veronica uttered with her hands on her waist as she stares at the far off distance with a pair of dead eyes. "Anyway, great job on your kill this year! That was a really sexy performance."

"You think so?" I replied with my hands caressing my nape.

"Yeah," Veronica quickly responded.

I then walked closer to her, so the noise of the Ringmaster talking to the audience wouldn't bury what I am about to tell Veronica. "I mean, I feel like maybe I should have done more theatrical stuff--"

"Oh, leave the theater stuff to other people." She interrupted while shaking her head. "You're really not suited to those kinds of stuff." She shrugged with an expression to show that Veronica is finished saying what she has to say.

"Yeah, I guess, I'm not, huh?" I chuckled.

"You're more of a cold-hearted kind of player, you know? You do the job without all the other BS and big stuff that gives the props team a big headache. Besides, this execution is 100% impromptu, and you pulled it off without having some dead moments. I enjoyed that little moment you had with the sacrifice too."

"Aw, shucks. Thanks. I needed that."

"What are you talking about, Tim? I told you, you did a great job! No one is bored. Remember 2010's execution? Ugh! Barf!"

I was about to further chat with Veronica when the Ringmaster's loud voice boomed even further throughout the court.

"Now that we are all ready, it's time to descend the ring finally?"

Everyone shouted to show an affirmative response. 

"Is everybody ready to buy?"

Once again, everyone responded with a shout to show that the answer is yes.

"Then come to me."

When the Ringmaster said that, he stretched his hand towards the direction of the audience above. When he did so, two metallic stairways slithered in a downward spiral from the balcony down to the stone ring as if it was a hidden snake below where the audience stood. Once the spiral stairway descended towards the ring, the people above hurriedly descended towards the Ringmaster though they were not pushing each other enough to cause a commotion for other people or to create a stampede. Last time someone pushed another person while descending the spiral stairway, the Ringmaster banned her. In the next year, he let everyone be the year's executioner by taking turns in killing her while ensuring that she would suffer a slow death in the hands of the people she inconvenienced with a little cherry on top.

 Thinking about it made me chuckle.

"Ew. You look creepy as shit. What are you laughing at?" Veronica said when she heard me chuckle. She then pulled the upper part of her body away from me.

"Nothing, nothing." I chuckled again. "Sorry, I was just thinking about George's daughter."

"Well, keep your little rape scene in your head." She scoffed as she looked at the people gradually filling the ring up while greeting the Ringmaster, forming a crowd around him. "Shit. Killing her father then fucking the child. You're really fucked up sometimes, Tim."

"Don't remember her?"

"Who?" Veronica asked with a raised eyebrow while a nonchalant expression enveloped her pretty little face.

"You don't have much of a sharp memory, do you, Ver?"

"I don't have enough place in my head to keep too much crap in store if that's what you mean."

Our conversation was once again interrupted when the Ringmaster's voice boomed around us again, implying that he intended to speak to everyone present at the ring. However, since he's only facing the people in front of him, it only means that he only wants to speak about business-related matters.

"Since the fire is still burning on the stake, we will be keeping the platform raised until the Janitor arrives, but I'm sure nobody minds."

"It lights your handsome face up, Ringmaster." A female customer beside the Ringmaster said with a giggle which made everyone laugh while the Ringmaster merely ignored with a laugh.

"The Caravan has been eagerly waiting for us behind this platform. I'm sure all of you are already dying to buy the products of your choosing!" The Ringmaster said while walking towards the direction of his Caravan. The masked customers are following his every move carefully, and a sense of sincere eagerness is painted all over their faces though I could only see a portion of it beneath their masks.

"Oh, hey, Timothy. Great moves, keep it up, proud of you." A woman who happened to see me praised before walking away towards the direction of the Caravan.

"Thank you," I replied before she left my sight.

"Your performance is great this year. I swear I'm not sure why they haven't hired you yet." A man praised as well, stopping in front of me before giving a light tap on my shoulder.

"Thanks," I replied before he left to walk hurriedly towards the Caravan.

"They're right, Timothy. Will you be doing the execution again next year?" An older woman said while nodding at me.

"Thank you, and I will do it again if the Ringmaster asks," I replied before the old woman slowly ambled towards the Caravan.

"I told you, you did great. See, everyone loved the show!" Veronica replied while hitting my arm with his old mobile phone. "I'll definitely endorse you again to the HR so that you can do a more formal execution next year."

"I would really love that, Ver." I chuckled before seeing the image of a lone woman walking towards me in my peripheral vision. I turned my head towards her, and I realized that she's the last woman who's walking alone behind everyone else, which I found interesting since everyone else is at least talking to someone else or a part of their circle of friends.

"The execution sucked so much this year, Timothy, and you should feel about it." She growled before turning her head around, leaving a trail of an obnoxious smell of an overpowering perfume.

"Well, clearly, not everyone liked the show," I said with a sigh.

"Who is that bitch?" Veronica said while fanning her hands in front of her nose with a disgusted look on her face.

"I think it's... Susan?"

"Susan? Ugh..." She scowled with an utter look of desperation on every move she made. "The executioner of 2010?"

"Oh yeah, now that you mentioned it, she is the 2010 executioner."

"Wow, the audacity of that bitch." She scoffed while now fanning both of her hands in front of her nose. "Don't listen to her. She's dumb."

"Well, as long as the right people liked what I did," I said as I looked at the Ringmaster, who somehow still stands out among all the people crowding around him.

"God, why is her smell not leaving?" Veronica said, clearly not listening anymore, while she fanned her hands more vigorously. "Smells so bad."