Chapter 9

No one told Jackson Schiele not to wake someone who was sleepwalking.

Jackson Schiele strolled along the row of trailers where all the acts were fast asleep. Well, maybe, except for Thomas and Vilas, they sounded like they were wide awake with the noises coming from their little Heaven. It was a good thing to see them in love. It was a better thing to see them both willing to be open about their love. Jackson sometimes thought about love, but the idea of being in love seemed a bit alien to him. He wasn’t fully sure why the idea of love seemed off to him, and yet, when he tried his best to get close to love, it felt wrong in the depths of his half soul. He was sure his twin sister, Sophia, got the part of their soul that understood love.

                They were rarely seen apart as they were the Daredevil Twins of the show, able to create copies of themselves when they were within a few yards of one another. It made for a great show on the wires, and the stunts were out of this world, but for the moment, Jackson was alone in the night.

                It was a good idea to have a break from one another from time to time. Sophia wasn’t much of a night owl, while Jackson couldn’t sleep during the darkness as he wanted to see the moon and study the stars.

                Different parts of the same soul, and with those different parts came different likes and dislikes. They were twins, but they weren’t the same people, even if they both were unsure about the truth of such an idea. There was a good chance they might have been the same person, and somehow, when they were within their mother, their bodies became two, cutting their soul down in the middle.

                They had never truly understood how such an event happened in their lives, and, from what they knew about the world, they were the only two who had shared such a fate.

                They were also one of the youngest acts to be tracked down by Azrael himself. Most people merely found their way to Azrael, and only a few, a handful, were tracked by him, and the twins were counted among them.

                They were both thankful for it. It changed their lives forever, as they were both thirteen when Azrael came to their mother’s house, asking her to allow them to become actors in the greatest show in the world. Although he said, “In all the Realms,” neither of them understood what he meant, but they didn’t care.

                All they cared about was getting out of their hometown for a life like no other. They would return to their hometown from time to time to see their aging mother. She had a few other children with some men who never stayed.

                The twins didn’t even know their own father, but they didn’t ask, not caring about their old man, who didn’t care about them at all.

                Jackson did wonder if their father ever came to their death-defining shows and sat back, trying to understand why there were six of his children swinging on the wires far above their heads. He had always hoped that some man would come strolling out of the darkness, saying to Jackson, “Hey, son.”

                Jackson wasn’t sure what he would do in such a case. He might kicked the man. He might have hugged the man, but it never happened, and he guessed he would never find out. These were the thoughts that plagued his mind as he strolled around at night.

                Jackson and his sister were both oddly tall, with lovely faces, which made people want to paint them or take pictures, and they both seemed to love red, playing up the devilish side of their stage name, the Daredevil Twins.

                Even now, as he walked out of the custom, he wore the burning red of the man with horns and a pitchfork, a half-drunk devil in the night; these were the thoughts that stalked him. He let his mind jump from subject to subject on these long walks.

                Azrael had once told him when he first walked out in costume for the show.

                “The devil doesn’t have horns and a pitchfork,” the ring master said. “He’s a lovely man with rainbow eyes and a draper style of suits.”

                Jackson thought about changing his custom, but Sophia said no, and she was the boss. She was older by a minute, and she often reminded him of it.

                He thought about being very loud when he got back to the trailer, just to wake her up and piss her off. It was the joy of the little brother, but first, he had to finish his bottle of something. He wasn’t sure what the hard stuff in the bottle was, but he was enjoying it.

                It was doing its job as he put the bottle to his lips, but he didn’t drink, seeing Miss Hades mumbling to her and heading into the field. He watched her walk past him for a moment, eyes closed, and his eyes followed her between the trailers.

                She was sleepwalking.

                He drank the rest of his bottle before he tossed it away and dashed after her, knowing what was going on with her. Lucille, whom Jackson deeply loved as she was the funniest person he had ever met, and everyone at the circus seemed to love her as well. And she was off with Charon somewhere in the deep south, helping to find Miss Hades’s son. He wasn’t sure what was happening with Miss Hades’s son. He didn’t even know Miss Hades had a son.

                He rushed in front of her, grabbed her shoulders, and started shaking her.

                “Wake up, Miss Hades,” he said, “come on, wake up. You’re just sleeping, bad dreams, wake up, please.”

                “He’s calling me,” Miss Hades said, almost in tears. “Can’t you hear him? He’s calling me.”            

                “Who?” Jackson asked, looking around. “Who’s calling you?”

                “My sweet poor boy,” she said this time with tears falling from her closed eyes. “He’s calling me.”

                “No, Miss Hades,” Jackson said, trying to shake her awake, “there is no one calling you.”

                “He is,” she said, “and Mister Saturday. My devil lover is calling me.”

                “Just a dream,” Jackson said, “just a dream, wake up, wake up.”