14. Karma
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
KARMA
Four Years Ago
“You’re not being stealthy enough, Karma.”
The bells in my hair jingle loudly as I crawl across the ground in the centre of the show tent. Kreo is letting me out hunting on my own soon, but he isn’t confident that I won’t be caught yet. He’s been bringing me human meat after the show, but it’s not enough for me anymore.
“If I can hear the bells, then so can everyone else, including your target. You don’t want to get caught eating someone, you understand?” He reaches down and puts his hand to my cheek. “I’m trying to keep you safe. Okay?”
I nod. Kreo looks after me.
“Try again. And remember to be lighter on your feet.”
The soles of my feet are quiet against the ground as I move forward with my hands spread in front of me, and Kreo steps back to watch. My bells rattle faintly once, and when I stand and turn to face Kreo, he’s smiling. “Much better, child. Well done.”
“Am I ready?”
He blows out a breath, looking around the tent like he’s decided.
“I think you are. But you need to be aware of your surroundings. At all times. I can’t protect you if you get caught, Karma.
” I nod, only slightly so my bells don’t jingle.
“You can go out after the show tonight, but you need to be back before the hour, or I’ll be sending Spiral to find you. ”
He doesn’t realise that’s a threat. He thinks Spiral would be helping him, but that clown would be looking for me to torment.
As if hearing his name summoned him, Spiral walks into the show ring when Kreo leaves.
He has an open bottle of whisky in his hand, and my sense of smell means I can already smell it on his mouth.
Sometimes I get overwhelmed with how much I can smell or hear, especially when Spiral is around. He’s loud, rude, and drunk.
“What are you doing in here, dead girl?” He stops in front of me, sidestepping when I try to walk away to block me from leaving.
“What do you want?”
“Your head on a stick would be pretty neat, wouldn’t ya say?”
I growl and reveal my pointed teeth. “Go away.”
“No. I don’t think I will. And I asked you a question. What are you doing in here?”
“None of your busssinessss.”
He cringes, like my tongue offends him. “What happens in my circus is my business.”
“It isss not yoursss.” I take another step, and he does the same, not letting me pass.
He’s not scared of me like the others are.
He knows that Kreo has trained me thoroughly to not attack or eat the performers.
That doesn’t mean I don’t want to. If I could kill and eat Spiral—as well as Moxie, who also really hates me, and Baxter, who’s annoyingly arrogant—then I’d do so in a heartbeat. “Let me go.”
“You’re stronger than me, aren’t you? Why don’t you take me down?”
He’s goading me. He wants me to attack him so he can tell Kreo. You wouldn’t think he’s a grown man with how petty he is.
“Spiral!” a familiar, feminine, distant voice calls.
My stitched smile pulls as I grimace, and Moxie comes strutting in, dressed in her pink, blue, and yellow jumpsuit.
Her pink curls bounce with every step, but her eyes sharpen on me when she spots me standing in front of him. “What are you doing with her?”
“That’s none of your business, Mox,” he snaps, but she isn’t fazed by his reaction, slinging her arm around his shoulders. Spiral’s clowns fawn over him like he’s God. Except Dolly. Spiral seems to genuinely like her, and she keeps to herself.
“The show is starting soon. Want me to suck you off now? She’s not allowed to watch, though.”
Spiral smirks. “What if she wants to? Maybe she’s secretly a horny freak.”
Moxie rolls her eyes, offended by Spiral’s sexual teasing when it’s directed at someone that isn’t her.
She can keep him.
“I don’t want her looking at me,” she mutters.
“You usually don’t mind eyes on you,” he scoffs, pushing her arm off him.
“I don’t want to watch,” I seethe, shoving past both of them. I get to the back of the tent when I hear Spiral’s heavy footsteps chasing after me, forcing me to inwardly groan. “What isss your problem?”
He doesn’t stop charging, shoving me into the side of the stands. His fingers wrap around my throat, pinning me in place, but strangling does nothing for someone who doesn’t require oxygen.
“You are my fucking problem. Marching around here, thinking you can do whatever you want. I want you gone, and the sooner, the better.”
His alcohol-tinged breath wafts over my face, forcing me to cringe. Only when I don’t reply does he loosen his hands, holding my throat but not tight enough to cut off my voice.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
He snarls. “Oh, you will. I’m going to make your life hell until you can’t stand to be around me anymore. You’ll either leave or take your own life. Either works for me. Maybe then I’ll fuck your double-dead body.”
Present Day
My portion of the show went well, but the stitching in my leg has come loose for a second time tonight.
Snake hops onto my shoulder when I walk in the direction of the trailers, my leg dragging awkwardly, and he nudges into my neck when we pass the forbidden trailer. I don’t fight my curiosity this time.
“Did you find out the code?”
He nods his head and jumps onto the large padlock. Everyone else will be preoccupied with finishing the show at this time, so I should have time to have a peek.
I spin the numbers until he taps my finger with his hand. We repeat it three times until the lock clicks open and falls apart. Snake would have had to watch Spiral put in the code once to find it out, and the clown isn’t the most observant when he’s drunk before bed.
It’s dark inside, as always, and I leave the light off, letting the door shut behind me and throwing us into darkness. My eyes light the way, shining a faint green glow wherever I look. I pass the chained, wooden box and keep moving towards the cage, my movements steady so my bells don’t rattle.
Bright blue eyes stare back at me when I find the cage.
“You came back.” I nod and sit down, Snake balancing on top of my head. “Thank you.”
“What for?”
He laughs, slipping a hand back through his long hair, but the sound is tense. He grimaces in pain before controlling his expression. He’s very big and cramped in this little space; maybe that’s why he’s in pain.
“For not letting my mind go stir-crazy in here on my own. It’s pretty lonely.”
I can’t sympathise. Mainly because sympathy doesn’t exist for me, but also because loneliness doesn’t either. Being alone is so much easier.
He grunts, his fingers flexing.
“Are you in pain?”
“I’m fine,” he mutters, looking away from me, but something doesn’t feel right.
“What issss it?”
“Nothing.”
Soren shifts back, letting his knees fall aside to sit cross-legged, and my eyes hone in on the appendage between his thighs. I wasn’t able to see it before, but I can now, in all its glory.
It’s a lighter blue than the rest of his body. It’s huge—long and thick at the base, getting thinner at the end until it’s a rounded point. The top is smooth, whereas the underside has circles that I’m not familiar with.
A tentacle.
“Are you looking at my cock, Karma?”
I nod, pressing my face against the bars to take a closer look. “I’ve never ssseen that.”
Soren chuckles, bringing his hand down. The tentacle moves on its own, curling around his wrist and squeezing tight.
“It needs release. That’s why it’s looking to latch.”
“Isss that why you’re in pain?” He nods. “Can’t you do sssomething about it?”
“It doesn’t like my hand as much as a warm hole.”
Snake chitters before jumping off my head and scurrying into the darkness, probably going to guard the door.
“Why are you horny?” I ask.
“I get a lot of buildup. If I don’t release it often, it starts to hurt.” His other hand reaches beneath the tentacle to grab his balls. “I can feel how full they are.”
His tentacle pops off his wrist, the suckers audible, and it starts to move in my direction like it has a mind of its own. Soren grabs the bottom and squeezes, exhaling sharply. It’s erotic, and the need to touch it makes my stomach clench.
“I can help you,” I whisper, pressing my face against the cage bars. “I like sssucking cock, Sssoren.”
“You don’t understand, Karma. There’s too much cum. It would drown you.”
“I can’t drown. I don’t need oxygen.”
His eyes widen, and his tentacle twitches like it enjoys that news.
“Are you sure? You don’t have to, you know. You can walk away. I’ll be okay.”
I’ve been exploring a lot of my sexuality recently. Up until this point, I was still expanding my mind, and I’m slowly becoming desperate for more.
My fingers reach behind me for the zipper of my jumpsuit, and I slowly drag it down, letting it slip off my shoulders.
Soren’s eyes track my breasts as the material clumps at my waist. The metal in my chest and nipples glisten under the shine of his eyes, and I continue to pull the jumpsuit off until it’s in a pile beside me.
“You’re exquisite,” he whispers. His cock twitches around his hand, and he grabs it, stroking slowly.
I lean forward on my hands and press my face against the bars again, the smell of Soren’s arousal making saliva drip from my mouth. “Let me sssuck it.”
His head hangs back as he groans, and desperation fuels his movements.
He shifts forward on his knees. He has to tilt his head aside so it doesn’t bash into the cage ceiling, and he grips the base of his tentacle, letting it glide through the cage bars.
It searches for my mouth, and I slip my tongue out to wrap around the tip.
“Look at that thing.” Soren urges forward, closing in on my mouth. I let it slide in, a sweet, unfamiliar taste coating my buds, and a thick string of precum drips heavily into the back of my throat.