The Circus Narrative and Storyboard

Int. Seminar

Emma J. -Part 1

Ael P. -Part 2

Lujain -Part 3

 

The Circus

Part 1:

The entrance to the small circus looked impossibly colorful, and it was lit with a warm light that made the entire thing feel very cheery. Walking in I could hardly contain my excitement, the ferris wheel twirled and performers milled about. The circus was old, and was clearly a little worse for ware, but there was a certain magic in it. The place was like a maze, with so many tents of different sizes, I could of been lost in there forever. The red striped tents were patched and repatched, and the glowing signs had been painted and repainted, the performers walked with a certain tired step, and the grass had long worn away to form dirt trodden paths, but there was a warmth to the place that you could feel. I took in the scene, children with their families, couples walking about, and the circus performers mixing with the crowd with importance. They all looked so otherworldly, like nothing I had ever seen, it was all so new and exciting I was spellbound.

I ran ahead to a cotton candy cart, dragging mom’s arm. I watched with wide eyes as the spun sugar seemed to materialize out of thin air and wind itself onto of the paper cone, it looked like magic. Mom and I walked further into the circus. We passed fire eaters, and a bearded lady, a magician, a fortune teller, and even a bear on a bicycle. I wiped my sticky fingers on my jumper, leaving a small smear. We walked towards a large tent, and peeked inside. It was a huge performance, Mom and I slipped into the tent, sitting in the back row. The ringmaster tipped his large hat to start the show, and a huge elephant came trotting out with an acrobat on its back.

Encrusted in glittering sequins and gold thread that sparkled and shone under the spotlights of the circus tent, she was beautiful. Her costume was made of pink silk, and her hair swirling around her face held up by gold pins. The acrobat stood upon the elephants back with amazing poise, and reached up to grab the handle of the trapeze. Effortlessly heaving herself up she swung twice and did a flip, standing on the bar of the trapeze, she climbed higher. She continued to swing and flip, and finally she climbed impossibly high and dove into a clear pool of water, we cheered. Looking across the ring and into the crowd I could see a clown. He was tall and lanky, his back hunched over, his hair was red and wilting, his makeup melting slightly. He looked all at once friendly, and sad. He waved, but I didn’t wave back. Something made me freeze, I stared at him for a moment.The lights went dark and mom and I slipped back out of the tent. We walked for awhile, and finally came upon a hall of mirrors, I went in.

The hall was long and covered in mirrors of every shape and size, and at the end one wall was almost entirely covered with a very old, long mirror, with a gold frame. As I walked foreword the air seemed to leave the room, and i felt almost as if I was falling asleep. I went further. My ears rang. I felt a pull towards the large mirror, almost like magnets, I went right up to it. When I touched it it turned almost to liquid, my hand sank into it, and it pulled me forward, it was like diving into a pool. Liquid hands grasping my face and swirling around me, folding me into a liquid prism.

Part 2:

I enter this new world, my eyes running around trying to take it all in, I find myself in a beautiful circus and a clown to greet me. I am overwhelmed with curiosity and anxious to understand where I am but the clown does not speak to me. Maybe he does not want to.  I decide to discover this world by myself. The clown follows me from a distance, I feel like I should be scared of him, but I quite enjoy his presence. I walk towards the first tent, I see some glares of blue through the entrance. I get closer, I feel a pulling sensation, I go in. A room filled with long, luscious blue hair that resembles an ocean. All the walls are covered, it is moving but there is no sound. I am hypnotized by its color, texture and flow. Suddenly, the hairs seem to gather in the center of the room, leaving behind the walls painted blue. As it gathers I see a creature. It is bigger than me, and certainly weirder than me. The Blue Hair stands in front of me for a moment, as it examines me from head to toe. Without warning, it begins to wrap itself around me like a soft tornado. It spun around a couple of times, swiftly and elegantly. I did not feel a thing. Next thing I know, it covered the walls again. The Blue Hair disappeared. All I was seeing was blue, an infinite space of blue. I felt a cold shiver go through my spine after a brief moment. I felt like a robot as I was turning around to exit. I could feel myself not acting normal, but I still had full control over my actions. My eyes were wide open, my posture was straight, and my movements were concise. The tent was small but walking out felt like it took forever. There was no sense of dimension in the room anymore and I could not see the exit but, nonetheless,  I knew where to go. I finally reach the outside and meet with the clown once again. He stares at me for some time, touches my hair and nods down in disappointment. When he touched my hair, I saw in the corner of my eye that it was blue. Was I still dizzy from being in this blue room? Or was my hair turned blue by The Blue Hair? I feel like the clown is trying to tell me something important, but I do not know what it is. Did I do something wrong? Should have I said something? I am even more confused than I was when I first entered this circus world. I need to find a way out, or someone who can help me.

Part 3:

I entered a nearby tent, looking for answers of what this suspiciously spacious circus is. In the tent, I saw a lady. From her layered tacky clothes that are covered with golden studs, her big curly red hair seeping from her pink studded scarf that is wrapped impulsively around her head, and thick copper jewels hanging heavily from her neck, she must be a fortune teller. I asked her if she finds this circus a little bit odd, and whither she knows that weird clown that keeps following me. She ignored my question. With her hands covered with chunky shiny golden rings, two on each finger, she waves them around her purple crystal ball with gleams of different colors it shines, and asked if I would like a prediction of my future. “No! I just want to get out of here!” I shouted, but she predicted anyways. Waving her hands around the purple crystal ball and mumbling her magic in a language that shall not be understood by anyone but the mysterious force she’s talking to. Purple smoke comes out of her mouth as she mumbles her spells, and out of her nose as she heavily breaths and it covers the whole space around us, isolating us, creating a crystal ball around us, that holds the air in, trapping me. As her extremely dark reddish brown irises are slowly showing from beneath her eyelids, covering most of the white of her sclera, she looks at me and with sharp words she pierces me “You’ll be trapped in a mask that can never show who you are. You’ll be trapped in a toy’s box, and you’re the toy. Perhaps you shouldn’t have crossed a gate.” As she swirled her gleaming smoke around me that she controlled with her hands carrying big heavy bracelets on her wrists. I ran out of the tent, but she already got me, her gleaming smoke is wrapped around me. But I need to keep moving, I need to get out of this evil circus!

I could see bears on unicycles and monkeys roaming around outside the tents staring at me, as if they’re sending shivers my way. I rushed into a tent as soon as I saw it. Shadow has swallowed the inside of the tent. There was nothing in there but a box. I stepped a little closer to see what’s inside, as I leaned, there was a man curled up inside the box, with a crazy wide smile that could stretch out around the moon, he was looking at me and weaving. I jumped in fear. The man slowly stood up, he was bigger then the box, he was bigger then me, and bigger then the air in the room, it felt as if the oxygen is not enough for both of us. He looked at me with his googly gleaming dead eyes, and pulled up a deck of colorful cards. He looks like a magician with his big wrinkled hat that matches his purple-blue washed with copper strands suit. “pick a card! Any card! One card! Just one!” with his yellow teeth he spat out to me. I was too scared to pick anything, so he started to throw the cards at me, one colorful shiny card at a time. I started running to the exit, but one card hit me, and it turned me into a clown, the clown that was following me earlier. I went back to the tent looking for the magician, but he wasn’t there. I checked the box, but he was already gone. He casted his spell and disappeared. Outside the tent, I saw the clown again, with his still figure and sad smile, he was looking at me from afar. As I was running towards him, he disappeared, leaving me there turned into a clown just like him, trapped in this loop of a nightmare of an enjoyable moment that I thought I had, and endured it thinking that it’s just a continuation of that joyful moment that I had in the real world. But now I’ve been cursed into a looping nightmare I chose to ignore its warnings.

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