Date: Saturday, September 2nd, 1922.
Time: 10:33
Location: Ms. Maisy’s Marvelous Wonders
The circus is mildly chaotic today.
This isn’t normal, of course. Usually, it’s extremely chaotic, with so much chatter and music and joyful screams that Angela wonders if she lost the voice in her head.
But today is different. There’s considerably less people and it is far more hushed. The sounds that are there are the adults whispering to each other hurriedly. Angela strains her ears to listen, but she’s too far away, and they are careful to keep her from getting too close.
All of this because Ms. Maisy didn’t come to work today.
“It feels weird not doing anything,” Angela says, absentmindedly stretching out the the right, reaching for her toes.
Shuffling is heard next to her as Wendy cleanses her cards. “We can’t very well open a circus with a missing owner,” she says as she spreads the cards out on the floor and put them back in a neat pile. She’s been shuffling for over an hour.
“I wonder what all the commotion is about,” Angela says, reaching across her other leg. “Surely, Ms. Maisy’s just sick. Isn’t that the usual reason people don’t come to work?”
“Sometimes they don’t come because they’re dead.”
Angela twists to Wendy. “Is she dead?”
“How would I know?”
“Ask your cards.”
“No! You don’t ask about death. That’s one of the first things about the occult. You know that.”
Angela does know that. Wendy has explained the occult and divination and such many times, always kind and patient. One shouldn’t ask about death. One shouldn’t ask about love. Be sure that before you ask, you actually want to know the answer. This one is important, Wendy had always told her, as many things should not be known.
But this is Ms. Maisy. Their boss and caretaker. If something did happen to her, Angela and Wendy would both be out of jobs and homes, along with so many others. Not to mention the only mother figure Angela has really had.
“Maybe we should check on her,” Angela suggests, sitting up straight now.
“Henry made it clear that ‘everyone under 17’ stays inside for the time being.”
“When have we ever listened to Henry?”
Wendy looks Angela in the eye. “Angie, think about it. The owner of the circus is already missing. How do you think the adults are going to act if two kids go missing as well? They’d panic, maybe get the cops, and we’re both in trouble.”
“I suppose you’re right,” Angela sighs. “So you’ll cover for me, then?”
“Of course. I already have a lie thought up.”
“You’re the best, babe.” Angela winks before getting up and, making sure she isn’t being watched, she creeps out of the circus and into the streets.
I’ve been wanting to repost this story for a while! I actually first wrote this way back in 2021—it’s one of the first Call of Cthulhu games that I played by myself that I then posted on to Wattpad. I haven’t used Wattpad in years though and very much want this story in a place where I have more control over it, so finally making that switch over!
Obviously, it will be unfinished. I have no plans to pick this up again and the story honestly got far away from me (I relied way too much on dice rolls and random events and not enough on the writing). But I still very much enjoy the story and characters and want to be able to read it again easily, rather than having to dig in my Scrivner files every time, haha. Who knows, maybe I’ll rewrite this in the future or reuse the characters somewhere else.
This was written using Paul Bimler’s Solo Investigator’s Handbook, which I highly recommend!