It was that time again.
Blaine had gone to sleep with the heavenly smell of spring in his nose, in his dorm in the Dalton Academy. His dorm looked out upon a large clearing. The last he had seen before his eyes had fallen shut was a small rabbit making its way over the large patch of grass. Now, when he woke up, all he could see was a tent. A big top to be exact. A big top that looked very very familiar. That was when he noticed the big letters right on the side of the cart on the other side of the clearing.

New Direction Circus.

His heart immediately skipped a beat. Had it already been a year since the last visit? Apparently it had. He jumped out of his bed, ignoring the fact that it was a mere six in the morning, and darted across the room. He was looking for clothes, the few pennies he had left, his guitar, everything so he could go and buy a ticket to the Circus. He all but fell down the stairs in his hurry to reach the front door, sprinting outside. There was no line yet, so Blaine positioned himself in front of the entrance. He laid out his hat and took his guitar. While he was idly strumming and tuning the instrument, a man walked by. He stopped in front of the boy with the guitar and Blaine looked up through his eyelashes.
He saw a man that was positively towering over him. Blaine knew he wasn’t the tallest of all men but this man was definitely something different. He was tall and lanky, but his face looked friendly as he gazed down on Blaine.

“What are you playing?” he asked with a hint of curiosity in his voice, as it is heard often with small children.
“Uhm. I’m just playing some scales right now. You know, to get my fingers warmed up.”
It might have been spring, but that didn’t mean the weather was beautiful already. Blaine’s fingers were tingling with the cold seeping through the fingerless gloves he was wearing and the wind bit his ears and made him shiver in his thin sweater. The giants face scrunched up.
“Are you cold? My mom says that if you see someone being cold you have to give him or her some love, because love warms the heart and the heart warms the rest of you. I’m Finn by the way.”
Blaine smiled. Besides being really tall, the gia- Finn was sort of good looking.
Blaine had known he liked boys from the moment that Michael Jones had kissed him in the shed behind the school, three years ago. He didn’t tell anyone though, in fear of being chased, beaten up and mocked.
Finn was still looking at him expectantly, and Blaine answered hurriedly.
“No, I’m okay, but thanks! I’m Blaine. What are you doing here actually, the ticket stand isn’t open yet, so I don’t think you’re here to buy a ticket.”
Finns grin grew wider.
“I don’t need a ticket, silly. I’m on the show.”

He got to hear the whole story. How Finn and his mother Carole had joined the Circus in Lima, Ohio because the people were taunting them. People looked down on them, because Carole had never married a man but had still gotten Finn. They saw Finn as a son of the Devil because he was so tall, he was a freak of nature, and all of it was a punishment from God because Carole had had intercourse without being married. How the Circus had welcomed them with open arms. How they didn’t have to hide in the Circus.

Blaine heard it all with his eyes wide open. Could it be? A place where he could just be Blaine? A place where no one would call him names or beat him up for liking other guys? It sounded impossible to him, but yet here it was. The living proof. Finn looked at the sky with a dreamy look on his face. He stared at the birds flying over and suddenly his face turned serious.
“Oh I have to go, or Kurt will be mad at me. Bye! I’ll see you at the show!”
Before Blaine could ask who this Kurt was Finn had already turned on his heels and started walking. The guy was enormous, so there was no way Blaine could keep up with him. He shrugged and started strumming his guitar again, thoughts of the Circus and its habitants floating through his mind.
‘What if I could join. What if?’

After a few hours, the people started coming in gradually. His hat filled up with pennies and nickels and soon enough there was a half a circle formed around him. People were shouting requests at him and he gladly played what they wanted to hear. After all, he needed the money to buy a ticket.
He kept playing, until a booming voice sounded from the ticket booth and every person within hearing distance turned their heads as if an invisible puppeteer had moved them all at the same time.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is The Ringmaster and I would like to welcome you all… to the New Direction.”
On top of the cart stood a man. He wore a blue, glittering jacket with two slips of fabric that extended from his back; the lapels bright red and a red top hat was perched onto his head. He was large, but not like someone who eats too much everyday. More like someone who spends his days lifting heavy objects, cracking his whip and commanding people. He looked exactly like the ringmaster he had first seen so many years ago.
Everyone looked spellbound by his words, but as soon as he was done talking the spell was lifted and all Blaine could see were legs, running to get to the ticket booth as soon as possible. Blaine got up, his hat clutched in one hand and for once, he was happy to be small.
With the agility of a cat he avoided trampling legs, waving arms, grabbing hands, and he made his way over to the front of the line. There were only three people in front of him. He smiled contently.

Some fifteen minutes later he was back at his dorm, ticket hidden carefully in his sock drawer. His classes started in five minutes but he couldn’t care less.

Tonight, he would go to the Circus.

A few stars already flickered in the dark blue of the night, as Blaine made his way to the big red and white big top. He still had more than an hour before the actual show started, but he didn’t want to be late and he still wanted to see the small shows and warming ups the performers did before the show.

A new trailer caught his eye. In all the years he had been to the Circus, he’d never seen this one. He could name all the others. The black one with the yellow dots was for the clowns, the one with the purple for the three acrobats, two pretty blonde girls and a darker type, the red one with black stars painted on it for the Asian Magician, the green one for the freaks. And the deep blue one, the exact color of the night in the hours when the sun has just set and before it’s completely dark. . The Ringmaster.

There was something off about him, that aura of silence and obedience that always seemed to hang around where he was. With two words he could command a whole crowd and with a cracking of his whip even the most ferocious animal would crawl into its cage, yelping.
The Ringmaster was the only person in the Circus Blaine had ever seen changing. Changing, yes, but not aging. If anything he just kept getting younger. Odd.

Blaine walked to the tent slowly, just enjoying the buzzing and humming of the atmosphere around him. All of the excitement of the day, the smell of the popcorn, the sound of the stalls and booths on the clearing, next to the big top. It wasn’t anything like any other Circus you would ever go to.
A low humming sound whirled through the crowd and everyone looked as if they were mute all of a sudden, their attention completely absorbed by the figure in deep blue and red that stood on top of the big top. Blaine couldn’t help but wonder how he had even gotten up there.
“Ladies and Gentlemen. May I have your attention please? In a few moments we will start the show, so please, make your way to the centre of this Carnival in a calm way. Thank you.”
The voice of The Ringmaster sounded over the whole clearing and it bounced off the trees, made the leafs send out a sound as if they were whispering to each other just like the people standing under them.
The next few seconds the Circus went dead quiet. No one dared to say a word, much less move a muscle. The whole crowd was in absolute silence.

Blaine was the first to snap out of his dazed condition. His sight was blurry, but clear enough to slowly make his way to the giant tent in the middle of the Carnival. The sound of the cracking and rustling of the twigs breaking underneath his feet seemed deafening in the utter silence that the place was drowned in. Even the birds and the insects seemed to have stopped buzzing and chirping. He shot nervous glances sideways, but all he saw was people still staring at the man on top of the tent, standing so still he thought they were frozen in the middle of conversation. He looked straight ahead at the entrance of the tent and suddenly a cold blast of air sucked him in. He was standing in the middle of the big top, right in the centre of the big circle of sand where every performance took place. The place was pitch dark, but suddenly one spotlight shone down on him. He looked up, his eyes squinted against the sudden bright light, trying to figure out who was moving the spotlight, but he couldn’t see any kind of human form. No one was to be seen on the tribunes, and no sounds from outside came in. He looked around wondering where everyone was when he heard a voice chiming through the tent. It was a mere whisper, but he could hear the words loud and clear.
‘Come with us.’
His breathing hitched in his throat for a moment, and for a minute he thought he had imagined it. But then in sounded again.
‘Come with us…’
He looked around, searching for the source of the voice. He turned around franticly, his eyes darting around the inside of the big top.
‘Come with us…’
The voice sounded right in his ear, and he all but screamed. He looked around but he couldn’t make out anything because of the bright light still shining into his eyes. A soft giggle came from somewhere near the top of the tent. He whipped around, looking bewildered. Suddenly, a tall, slender figure appeared next to him.

“Boo.”

Blaine almost jumped two feet in the air, but he whipped around and looked into the most vivid blue eyes he had ever seen.