Free Whipped by the Ringmaster by Crystal De la Cruz

 
Hellfire Circus:
Whipped by the Ringmaster
     
     
    Julie chewed her pen idly and stared at the
screen. She was supposed to be writing up an article about the new
shopping mall on the outskirts of town but her heart just wasn’t in
it. Somehow, she’d always imagined that the life of a reporter
would be so much more exciting than it had turned out to be. But
then maybe that was more the town than the job. Nothing much
exciting ever really happened in Arlington.
    Across the newsroom, the door to Mark’s
office opened and he and Thelma stepped outside laughing
mischievously. Julie glanced up, wondering what the big secret was
and just why her friends suddenly looked so naughty all of a
sudden.
    “Hey Julie,” Mark called, “will you come over
here for a second?”
    “I’m kind of busy right now,” she replied,
for some reason feeling like she should hide her curiosity. “What
is it?”
    “Just come over here will ya?”
    Mark was Julie’s editor, the editor,
the man in charge of the whole operation, as small scale an
operation as it might actually be. Thelma was a fellow reporter and
Julie’s best friend and together the three of them had shared a
certain kind of chemistry ever since they’d started working
together. In fact, she and Thelma enjoyed a flirty competitiveness
for their boss’s attention, though Julie would never in a million
years have dreamt of actually acting on it.
    “Fine,” she sighed and stoop up from the
computer, hitting the save button even though the screen was still
blank.
    She walked across the office.
    “What are you two up to?” she asked, studying
the cheeky expressions on their faces.
    “I’ve got a story for you,” Mark said, his
cute blue eyes seeming to tease her as he spoke.
    “Yeah, well in case you haven’t noticed I’m
still working on the one you gave me half an hour ago.”
    Mark brushed back his black hair and narrowed
his eyes. “Oh I think you’re going to want to follow up on this one
first.”
    “It’s super naughty Julie,” Thelma said,
grinning at her salaciously. “In fact I wanted it myself but Mark
wouldn’t let me have it…”
    Thelma rubbed up against their editor
flirtatiously and he pushed her way with a playful shove. And just
like that it suddenly dawned on Julie: they were sleeping together.
And she didn’t know how she felt about that exactly.
    “Fine,” she said, trying to push the thought
out of her head. “What’s it on?”
    “We got a tape in the mail,” Mark said, “an
anonymous tipoff you might say. It’s in my office in the player. Go
on in and have a listen.”
    “Ok,” Julie said, “and what’s on the
tape?”
    “Oh you’ll see,” Mark smiled, “all you need
to know is that it came with a note attached. Come to the
Hellfire Circus , that’s all it said.”
    “We’re going for a late lunch,” Thelma
smirked, “go on in Julie and see what you think. If you’ve got the
nerve, that is…”
     
    ***
     
    Julie stepped into Mark’s office and closed
the door behind her. She should have been happy for them, but
somehow she just felt… raw about it. She shook her head trying to
shake herself out of the bad mood. This wasn’t just about Mark and
Thelma, this was deeper than that. The truth was she’d been feeling
bored with her whole life lately. More than just bored… extremely
dissatisfied. Somehow she knew that there had to be more to it than
this.
    She went to the old style tape player and
rewound the cassette. On the desk she noticed the note that had
accompanied it. The paper seemed to be made of some kind of exotic
material and the words were inscribed in flowing, elegant
calligraphy. It was very strange.
    The tape stopped and Julie pressed play.
    At first there wasn’t much sound except for
faint voices speaking, too muffled to make out what they were
saying exactly. Julie walked around Mark’s desk and sat down. She
flicked her long blonde hair over her shoulder and pushed her
glasses up the bridge