Brief encounter 2
Another old story. Not so much mind control as a clever use of illusions, but the effect is the same. I toughed this one up as well while thinking about writing a new chapter.
*****
Brief encounter II
By Strega
June 22nd, 2005
Running away with the circus had been her teenage dream.
Katie smiled as she sat next to Tim. The elephant act was up now, and she cheered with everyone else as the great gray animal hoisted an acrobat as though she was a matchstick. Tim passed her the popcorn and she munched happily, reliving her fantasies about joining the circus. At 20, she wasn't much past her teens, but she had a good job as a secretary for the local realtor. She'd showed such a knack for the business that once she finished her night classes he'd promised to give her a chance with the firm.
Soon the elephant had done its thing and the magician's act was up. Katie had been to a dozen circuses in her life, but this was the first with a magic act. It included animals, as befitted a circus act: the white-clad magician made a huge, handsomely striped tiger disappear from one box and reappear in another. At the same time, a sequined female circus performer disappeared from that box and appeared in the tiger's old one. Katie liked to think she knew a bit about magic, and she watched for the misdirection - the 'look here, and don't notice this over here.' She couldn't figure out how the magician did it, though. The two boxes were ten feet apart on the same sawdust the elephant act had occupied. The circus couldn't have built tunnels strong enough to support that weight in the day and a half they'd been in town, could they? The boxes were only a little bigger than the cat; was there even room for mirrors?
The tiger stood in its new box, staring through the plastic walls at the crowd and roaring on command. Its pale-yellow eyes swept across the bleachers; for a moment she was sure it was looking at her.
After the magician, the acrobats came out again, and after that the clowns, and the finale was lions and tigers with their tamer. The tamer was the magician, again - different clothes, but the same man. The tiger was there, too, such a huge and magnificent beast that he must have his pick of the lionesses and tigresses. All through the act the tiger's uncanny training - or perhaps innate cleverness - was showcased. It climbed ladders, walked down double ropes (one under each side's paws), rolled itself around on a red plastic ball, leaped through flaming hoops, and more. Other cats performed the same feats, but the big cat seemed to be the only one to perform them all. The most amazing thing happened when the tamer had the cat sit back and open its mouth. The man stuck his head in without even holding it open.
The last cat leaped through the last hoop, and the ringmaster rang down the curtain to thunderous applause. Tim and Katie leapt to their feet, joining in, and then became part of the crowd headed for the exits.
"That was the best high wire act I've ever seen." Tim exclaimed. "I thought they were going to fall half a dozen times!"
"I liked the cats," Katie countered. "Did you see the big tiger?"
"Eh, cats," Tim said. "I don't like cat acts. Did you see how small their cages are?"
The circus had a gift booth, and Katie led Tim over. "Ooo, they have plushies."
"Katie, we could get those at the toy store for less...."
"No, we couldn't. They have ones named after the cats! There's one of the tiger...Sihar, his name is."
Tim sighed, and watched the people file by. "We're going to be the last ones here at this rate."
Katie was trying to talk the roustabout's price down, and didn't seem to hear. After a few minutes they really were the last ones there, save for the circus people. Finally Tim lost patience.
"Katie, I need to use the bathroom."
"OK, honey."
When she left the booth a few minutes later, there was no sign of Tim. Shrugging, she took the bag of plushies and walked over to the exit. "I guess I'll wait here...my boyfriend will be back soon." The roustabout sweeping the floor shrugged and carried on. Soon she was alone, and that's when she saw it.
'Join the circus!' the sign said. 'Magician's assistant wanted!' The sign was fastened to the top of a painted plywood tiger, shown face on. The snarling mouth was shoulder-wide, and beyond was a chute lined with red satin.
"'If you can fit through the tiger's mouth, you could be the next magician's assistant!'", she read. "'Only applicants over age 18 accepted.' This must be the width of the tunnel between the cages. You have to be able to fit through to do the disappearing trick."
Katie looked around for Tim, but there was no sign of him. "Oh, why not." She poked her head into the plywood tiger's mouth and looked down the chute; it was rectangular, lined with the smooth red satin, and about three feet long. At the far end, it emptied onto a half sheet of plywood covered by more red satin. It was a cute model of a tiger's throat, if much bigger than was realistic.
She reached above her head, sliding her arms down the 'throat', and pushed her shoulders in with only a little effort. The satin was slippery enough that her own weight sent her sliding deeper; her breasts bumped up against the plywood tiger's lower jaw, then flattened and slid in as well. The posture she had to take to slide herself in was easy at first, then progressively more awkward, until finally she had to lean so far forward she lost her balance.
"Oof!" Her thighs bumped against the tiger's painted face as she fell forward, and she slid all the way to the hips in the gaping wooden maw. Luckily the satin was smooth enough that she didn't get a rug-burn on her elbows, but now she was stuck. At least, she couldn't back out now if she wanted. It was a good thing the far end of the satin-lined chute was only a foot past her hands.
She wiggled deeper, pushing one hip and then the other past the plywood tiger-mouth and into the chute. Now her feet couldn't touch the floor; propped up by the lower jaw, her legs kicked in the air. Simple enough to fix that - she squirmed deeper. After a moment, the satin lost its hold on her hips and she began to slide deeper, smoothly descending toward the end of the chute and the plywood sheet.
As her thighs slid into the wooden jaws and her knees followed, Katie smiled. Sure, she wasn't going to apply for the job, but she met all the requirements. She could try out for it if she wanted.
Then she noticed that the end of the chute didn't seem to be getting any closer. She was sliding down the satin 'throat', up to her ankles in it now, so her arms and head should be emerging - but she still hadn't reached the end. What's more, the light at the end was fading. Were the circus lights being shut off?
"Hello?" Katie kicked her feet into the wooden tiger-mouth, and slid entirely into the velvety 'throat'. "I'm still here! Tim, are you out there?" The light was completely gone now, and she slid toward - and through - utter darkness. Were the satin-covered walls getting...wet?
"Uh, hello? I seem to be stuck--" Katie wiggled in the satiny 'throat', which was definitely getting wetter by the second. What's more, the walls were flexing. This part of the chute must be lined with rubber, not plywood, because it was conforming to her shape. She slid now through a smooth, wet tube that caressed her every contour and even seemed to push her deeper. It rippled, squeezing her legs and ass while leaving her upper body loose in its embrace. The difference in pressure forced her along the smooth tube, adding to gravity's pull. There was a sudden strong contraction in the walls, then another, squeezing her along, and her rate of progress doubled.
Finally, though, she was getting somewhere. It's just that the 'somewhere' wasn't where she thought she was going. Instead of sliding out onto the satin-covered plywood sheet, she emerged from the wet, pulsing tunnel into an equally wet and squishy space. Smooth, warm folds of something that felt like skin slid over her as the ersatz tiger-throat pushed her out of it and into this new place. Soon she rested entirely in a rubbery pocket, surrounded by the wet, warm softness of its walls.
"What is going on?!" She thrust her hands at the walls, trying to find the opening she'd emerged from, but there was no sign of it. The room lurched suddenly; she was curled in a ball by the tight space and couldn't fall, but the sudden movement dizzied her. First the forward lurch, then the room began to sway heavily from side to side. All the while, the walls were getting wetter and warmer.
When her shopping bag full of plushies suddenly appeared, pressing against her belly in the darkness, Katie was near panic. The little room was sloshing now, a quarter full of thick, warm fluid, and she could swear she felt a tremor starting in the walls. Her little room wasn't just swaying now, it was pulsing with a strong, rhythmic beat, like a great, slow heart.
Dizzy from the swaying, and worried at the way her skin had begun to sting, Katie cried out: "This isn't what I wanted!"
"What you wanted," the rakshasa said amiably as it worked its lower jaw back into place, "Isn't important now, is it?"
With a pop the "tiger's" jaws re-hinged, and he sat back, licking his chops. He'd only had to swallow a couple of times to finish the job Katie started; she had climbed down his throat quite willingly. Now the young woman lay squirming in his stomach, her struggle making his bulging flanks twitch. Seven hundred pounds of "tiger" sat there full and self-satisfied, but no one saw him.
Karie had seen only what he wanted her to see, just as Tim saw only the wall behind him when he emerged from the bathroom. The rakshasa bit down on the belch that struggled to emerge and crafted another illusion: out in the parking lot, just visible to Tim through the tent flap, Katie waved and got into a van. By the time the man made it out into the lot the van was gone, and the tiger grinned a whiskery grin as he let that illusion die. Things were almost too easy sometimes.
The great, striped beast, the tiger centerpiece of the cat acts - though that wasn't his real form, naturally - turned toward the shadowy interior of the big top. No one saw him pad away from the tent entrance; there was, of course, no plywood tiger-head where he'd been standing. There was just himself, and his padded feet carried him silently onward, even with a heavy, swaying bulge of a belly. There was enough noise from the roustabouts in their cleaning duties that no one heard the muffled, fading cries from inside that bulge, and no one heard the long, rumbling belch he finally let out.
He padded past the big cat cages, and thus past himself - in one barred wagon was a familiar sleeping tiger. Mere air and light, that one; he would take its place when he felt like sleeping. Coming and going from a locked cage was no challenge for a creature of his nature.
Past the cat wagons was another, the home of the tamer/magician. Siharath - that was the rakshasa's name - looked to see that no one was watching, then pulled the door open with a paw. As he entered and saw that only the tamer was there, he dropped the illusion that rendered him unseeable.
"Oh, God." The tamer, a thin but muscular balding man, dropped his head into his hands. "I thought we agreed you wouldn't...."
"I was hungry," the rakshasa said evenly. "Horsemeat can last me only so long. From time to time I need a real meal."
"Please tell me you didn't rape this one."
"I never rape," said the rakshasa with a bit of bite to his voice. "Every woman I have ever taken has come to me willingly."
"After you fooled them into thinking it was some fantasy of theirs--" the magician said in a rising voice. He cut himself off, looking at the closed wagon windows and continuing in a lower tone. "The police are not stupid. Sooner or later, they'll connect this string of disappearances to the circus. They may already have."
"It will not matter if they do. I am no simple fleshy beast - they will find no trace of my meals, no matter if they comb my droppings and cage. Flesh and bone, body and spirit are consumed to feed me. What passes on is changed by my shape so it's no different than any other tiger's leavings."
"They will still suspect. They will come, and they will ask questions, and--"
"And you will talk?" The tiger padded up to the magician: sitting down, the man's eyes were on a level with his own. "I have made you what you are today - magician and tamer. I have kept my end of the bargain. If you betray me...I prefer women, but I will make an exception if I must."
The breath came quick and shallow in the magician's chest. "No, I won't talk. You have to stop eating people, though...or at least, take a break. Wait a few months before you take your next meal."
"Very well." The rakshasa turned toward the door, but as he did, he sensed the nervous, twitchy state of the magician. The man was even more frightened than he'd thought. So while it was his paw that pushed the door open, it was a mere illusion of him that left the wagon, and the creak of him going down the steps was equally unreal. Impalpable, watchful, the tiger-thing stretched out on the floor of the wagon facing the man.
Only the continual gurgling from his fat belly might give him away. It had been weeks since he had a proper meal, and his latest conquest was being digested with fearsome rapidity. He would not be genuinely hungry again for days, but soon his belly would be empty.
It seemed it was time to move on. There were always other zoos and other circuses; as he had with this traveling circus, he could find such a place, consume one of the cats, and take its place. There he would continue his habits, using his illusions and other powers to take what meals he desired. Once or twice he'd even taken human form, but he far preferred shapes close to his natural one.
As he lay on the wagon floor he watched the sweating magician. The man was working on some mundane bit of paperwork, perhaps ordering more horse-meat for the cats. There was a sense that he had more than that planned for tonight. The rakshasa-tiger used the quiet moment to pry into the magician's thoughts. In this way he often learned enough about his prospective meals to craft an appealing illusion. It was also useful in ferreting out those who would betray him.
Fortunately, the man's nerves had given him away before things went too far. He had not told the police anything, but was to meet with them later tonight.
Siharath listened to his belly. Much of his meal was already gone; there was, perhaps, enough room. He worked his jaws to loosen them, and considered the magician.
Tonight the lion tamer would put his head in a cat's mouth one last time.