The Pit

In front of the entrance, the man in charge of taking tickets looked at Tom with a huge body and fierce eyes.

Tom showed his golden ticket and the man colored one of the ten squares on the ticket with his pen. Then he issued permission to enter the circus.

The inside of the circus was as crowded as the outside, and people were sitting close to each other.

Tom barely fit himself in the front row between two other teenagers.

Five minutes later, Victor Wallace, the owner of the circus came on the stage. He was a white man and a was little old.

After a few minutes of introductory speech, Mr. Wallace exclaimed in a loud voice:

"Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the world's biggest, most popular and mysterious magician. Theeee Juggggler!"

The sound of screams and shouts of the people shook the circus. 

The stage got dark for a minute and suddenly a green fire flared up in the middle of it. A man came out of that fire. After his appearance, the applause of the audience reached its peak.

The Juggler appeared through the flames and then extinguished the fire with a wave of his hand. He was able to attract people's attention at the beginning of his show.

The Juggler had little hair. His hideous robe had fascinated everyone. After people got quiet, he began his show. 

First, he took out a card and threw it to the crowd. The card was spinning in the air, and when it went through the whole circus, it returned to The Juggler's hand. 

The audience was shocked, and so was Tom. 

The Juggler did dozens of other performances. Tom was so blown away by his skill that the whole show was like a minute long to him.

The show was over. People while standing, cheered their favorite magician and threw flowers for him.

The Juggler came into the crowd to sign autographs for his fans. Tom took out a paper from his pocket and went towards him. Martin would pass through the people with difficulty. In the meantime, his necklace came out from under his dress. He passed old and young, male and female, big and small, and reached the Juggler.

Tom looked at him with enthusiasm and gave him the paper. The Juggler signed the paper then handed it back to Tom:

"Beautiful necklace! Is it yours?" 

Tom was excited that his legend was talking to him. He answered with stress:

"It was my mother's. but it's mine now," 

The Juggler smiled and vanished between people. Tom who has gotten his autograph, left the crowd and the circus quickly. 

On his way home he happily looked at The Juggler's autograph. It was weird but also beautiful. Tom while leaving, had held the autograph tightly so that no one could steal it.

Tom had decided to go back because Helen could notice his disappearance and tell her parents.

With a relaxed mind and a smiley face, he reached the forest park. He again had to go back the way that he came from but this time he didn't have any fear.

He entered the park. Moon was still shining dimly. Tom hadn't reached the middle of the park yet when he heard a branch breaking. He looked back in haste but no one was there.

He said to himself: "I'm sure the animals went on the branches and broke them". He continued walking.

The gray owl which he saw on his way to the circus could not be seen and instead, a huge crow was flying around. 

Tom was walking through the trees when he heard the same sound of a branch breaking, closer this time.

He looked back again. A shadow was standing behind one of the trees. A masked man in black came out and ran towards Tom.

Tom ran out of fear. He didn't know who he was and what he wanted and just ran instinctively. He was passing through the trees and looked back from time to time. The man was still chasing him. Tom's necklace came out of his shirt continuously and the sound of them colliding would reveal his location.

As Tom was running, he took off his necklace and held it in his hand. He changed his path and didn't know where he was going as he didn't have any other choice.

The man had an impact with a branch and fell. He immediately stood up and continued running.

Trees were blocking the moonlight. Tom Martin in that absolute darkness, was running while seeing nothing. He turned back to see his back for the eighth time but when he did it…

Suddenly, it got empty under his feet and he fell into the pit. He was rolling and going down. When he reached the end of the pit, his head collided with a stone, and went unconscious. The blood was dripping from his forehead. 

The man spared a moment to see the situation and then left. He guessed that Tom was dead or would die due to the blood loss. 

The black crow that Tom saw before, appeared. His loud croak was earsplitting. Tom, unconscious and alone was in the big pit and his life would end right there.

His severe blood loss would take his life at any moment. He still had his necklace in his hand. At this moment, something strange happened.

Tom slowly opened his eyes. The scar on his forehead had healed and disappeared like it never had happened.

He quickly could move and sat. His left arm was scratched due to being cut by a sharp stone.

He was looking at his hand curing in astonishment. He couldn't believe it. How is it possible?! No sign of the scar would even be seen. Tom was looking at his surroundings dumbfounded.

He thought he was dreaming for a moment. He saw his ring's blue fibers in the middle of it shining. 

A calm sound slowly escalated from the corner of the pit.

A big snake came out of the hole in the corner of the pit. The snake crawled and came closer, but Tom didn't dare to move. 

He held the necklace in his grip tightly out of fear. The snake came within a meter of him. Tom stared into its eyes. The snake got up a bit and was moving its neck back and forth. It looked like it was going to attack.

"I can't get away scot-free this time!" said Tom to himself. The snake paused and stuck out its tongue, then moved back and suddenly attacked the boy. 

Tom unconsciously put his hands in front of his face until…

A blue light was released from his ring and hit the snake. The power of the light was so great that it made the snake hit hard against the wall of the pit. The snake shrunk a little and crawled back into the hole.

This blue light was the second strange occurrence in a few minutes. Tom couldn't understand these events with any logic. He even thought maybe he was hallucinating because of the blow to his head.

Tom got up and got ready to go but his legs couldn't move. His eyelids closed little by a little. He closed his eyes for a second and when he opened them again, he was laying on the bed of the Morrison's house.

It was very strange! How did he get home?! It seemed all those events were nothing but a nightmare. 

The clothes he was wearing were different from the clothes he was wearing in that strange incident. 

Tom opened the closet door and saw that the clothes he had worn in that incident were hanging clean and ironed, and there was no sign of blood, dust, or dirt on them. 

He looked at the clock. It was almost noon. He got up and went downstairs. Everything seemed normal. As always, Helen was busy with her books at the dining table. Mr. and Mrs. Morrison were sitting on the sofa and talking while cleaning the vegetables.

"Hey boy, come here quickly!" said Mr. Morrison as soon as he saw Tom.

Tom was out of breath. Weren't those events a dream?! "Now is the time for Mr. Morrison to blame me for sneaking away." Said Tom to himself.

He walked slowly and stopped two steps away from his uncle, swallowed, and waited.

"Don't you want to help us?!" said Uncle Jeffrey.

Thanks God! Everything was just a nightmare. The Morrisons knew nothing, so it was easy to conclude that all those events were just an illusion.

Tom sat next to his Uncle and Aunt with a smile and started his work. But there was still one thing he had to do, and that was to apologize to Mr. Morrison for his rude behavior last night.