All around was dust and sand. It felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, in some God forsaken desert, even though we were only a few miles from the little town of Merchantville. My fellow performers and I sheltered in our trailers trying to find relief from the blazing sun, and mind numbing boredom, while the drivers and riggers set up the tents for that evenings show. It was the summer of 1934. A long, hot and cruel summer. The summer during which Le Cirque de Diamant would tear itself apart.

My name is Maggie Egert, but my stage name is Midge, and I am a performing midget in the freak show of Le Cirque de Diamant. My parents sold me to the circus when I was five, that was twelve years ago, and the acrobats taught me to juggle and walk the tight rope. My mother and father had four other children besides me, and I was the only one who was different, so when the Manager, from the circus, offered them $300 for me how could they refuse? I don't hate them for what they did, nor do I blame them. To tell you the truth I don't even remember my parents.

The was twenty of us in Le Cirque de Diamant, including the Manager, the nine riggers and drivers, and me. The others were my fellow performers. Alfie, Sandy, Peg and May, the acrobats who took me under their wing and taught me to perform. Then there was Herb and Walt, the clowns who performed under the names Coco and Rollo. The Siamese twin dancers, Dora and Cora, with whom I shared a particularly good friendship, what with us all being freaks. Our newly acquired fortune teller, Kendall. And, finally, my reason for living, our strong man and sword swallower, Hank. He was more god than man. A real Adonis. I had been in love with him for going on two years. I didn't know how he felt about me, I was sure he just saw me as a little kid, but I was determined to show him I was a woman, and, more than that, the woman for him.

Laying, sweating, in my trailer, I decided tonight was the night I would tell Hank how I felt. I dared not tell anyone else my plans, for fear they would try to talk me out of it, or, worse, laugh at me. I had to get Hank on his own. If he were to turn me away, I didn't want anybody else to know about it. I may be a circus freak but I still have my pride and my dignity.

As the sun went down, everyone started to venture forth from their trailers. I hesitated by my window, waiting to catch a glimpse of Hank striding past. My patience was rewarded. He strolled past on his way to rehearse, I raced out of my trailer and tugged on his sleeve to get his attention. He looked down at me with his big blue eyes.

" Oh, hi, Midge. What can I do you for?" He chuckled.

" You can call me Maggie, for a start," I quipped.

" Okay! Maggie," he replied, raising his hands in mock defence.

" I need to talk to you, Hank. In private," I said, touching his hand.

" Sounds serious," he laughed, as he sat on the steps of my trailer.

I checked that no one was around, then stood close to his shoulder, our faces only inches apart. He turned to face me and I spoke while looking straight on his eyes.

" I'm in love with you, Hank. And, I want to be your woman."

I stood in silence, trying to read his face. Then, all of a sudden, he burst out laughing. I knew then, from the look in his eyes, his laugh was a laugh of mocking.

" YOU'RE in love with ME? YOU want to be MY woman? You've got to be kidding. You're a freak, I'm normal. Are you stupid as well as deformed?" He bellowed.

The rest of the circus had heard his laughing and shouting, and had come to see what was going on. When they caught what was happening, they all started laughing too. I began to shake and cry. They became a jeering swirl. I had to run. I had to find someone who understood. Who knew my pain and humiliation. Someone who could help. Who could help me channel my shame and anger. I went to see the mysterious new fortune teller. I went to consult Kendall.

"Come in, my child. What is your desire?" Croaked Kendall, as I lingered in the doorway of his trailer.

He was a wizened old man, sitting on a chaise lounge, smoking on a hookah. As I entered I started to feel calmer.

"My desire is revenge and beauty. Beauty that never ends, that never fades. To live forever and see those I despise whither and die."

I hadn't realised my own desires until he asked me. But the words flowed forth so easily and with such conviction.

"Then, I have just the thing to help you."

As he spoke he placed an ornately engraved black box on the table.

"How much?" I asked.

"Take it. Think of it as a gift."

I walked towards the table beside him, and put both my stunted hands onto the box. It was cold and hard to the touch, but I picked it up and hurried out of his trailer, not daring to look back, in case he changed his mind.

I was glad to find, when I got back to my trailer, that everyone had gone back to their rehearsals. I went inside, placed the box in the middle of the floor, drew the curtains, lit some candles and put a chair in front of my door. I got a cushion and sat on the floor with the box in front of me. I stared at it for a while, then decided to pick it up and examine it. I ran my fingers all over it's surfaces.

Then with unseen movements, the box opened. The light outside turned blue. My door cracked open, and there, bathed in the eerie light, stood two figures. Both were dressed head to toe in leather. As they came further into my trailer, I could see them more clearly. One was female. The skin of her face had been pulled into the middle and stitched into place. Her only visible feature being her mouth. The stitching also ran down covering both her ears and carried on up over her head.

The other was male. He had no skin on his face and head, save for the flash he had roughly stapled onto himself. I guessed his hands were the same, as he looked like he was wearing loose skin gloves. It was he who spoke first.

"Ah, and what do we have here? A performer, if I'm not mistaken?"

"Yes. And, a willing student. Mould me, teach me. I am at your mercy," I said.

"Excellent. Then we shall begin. Come. We have much to teach you," he said.
And, they led me into the light. Into their realm.

Once in the Labyrinth, in their domain, they set to work with me. They tore and changed my flesh. Shaped me into a new being. They cut off my hands and replaced them with wire forearms and hands to make my arms longer. They stripped the skin from the rest of my arms and bound them in leather. They peeled the flesh of my chest into a diamond shape and stitched lines into my torso. Then they stitched my eyes and mouth open. My transformation was complete. Now I was one of them. I was a Cenobite. And now my lessons could begin.

They took me back to Le Cirque de Diamant. My lesson and revenge were to be one and the same. Everyone was in the main tent. The nights show were over, and I was conspicuous by my absence. They had called a meeting to see if they would work out where I might be, and whether they should form a search party to find me. That was when we arrived.

We were surrounded by the eerie blue light, and accompanied by the clanking of chains and the far off sound of some demonic horn. The chains whipped through the air at my unspoken command. They tore through the flesh of the riggers and drivers, cutting them in two, from the middle. That was when the rest of them noticed us. They tried to scream, they tried to flee, but they didn't stand a chance. They slipped in the blood and tripped over the body parts left from my first onslaught.

I targeted the twins next. Hooked chains pierced the flesh where they were fused together. Tightening, the chains ripped them from each other, blood gushed from them as their lives ebbed away. The acrobats, I bound in chains that squeezed until their blood flowed and their bodies were crushed. I decided to enlist my fellow Cenobites help, to bind the Manager and clowns to the spinning wheels, so I could throw the bloody, rusted knives, the Cenobites carried with them, at my former owner and colleagues. The male Cenobite seemed particularly please with my choice torture. He said it showed creativity, and that I would do well under his guidance. The Manager and clowns were soon covered in blood, both bleeding to death and drowning in blood, as my every throw hit their flesh. Now all that was left was to have my fun with Hank.

We took him, crying, to the Labyrinth, where the ultimate punishment waited to be inflicted upon him. With the other Cenobites help, Hank was transformed from a strapping, handsome man, into a grey, shrivelled baby-like creature, that was completely dependant on me. He became my child and my pet. And, I loved him more than ever.

The End.