Fangboy

“Perhaps tonight you will. He’s one of the most respected citizens in existence, and if he enjoys the show, imagine the publicity!”

“I can’t perform with him in the audience!”

“Oh, now, don’t worry about stage fright. If he intimidates you, just imagine that a president or a king was in the audience in his place. The lights will be low anyway, so you won’t even see him. It’s almost time. Get focused.”

The tattooed man finished up his story and left to a smattering of polite applause. Mongrel walked out onto the stage.

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, I bring you tonight’s main attraction. When you and I gaze into the mirror, we see teeth with flattened tops. Do I speak the truth?”

Several members of the audience murmured that he did indeed speak the truth.

“But the same cannot be said for our next attraction. For when Fangboy looks in the mirror and opens his mouth enough to expose his teeth, he sees sharp, glistening, murderous fangs!”

“Oh, dear!” said somebody in the audience.

“Fear not, for Fangboy will not be murdering any humans tonight, though if he wanted to I suspect that he could end the lives of a good eight or nine of you before we were able to subdue him. Instead, he will focus his homicidal impulses on members of the arachnid family! Ladies and gentlemen, practice your gasps and cross your legs, for I present to you…Fangboy!”

EIGHTEEN

Nathan walked out onto the stage, feeling more than a little bit sick to his stomach. A spotlight shone in his eyes. The audience, who he could barely see in the darkened theatre, applauded politely.

Mongrel gestured to Nathan. “He looks like a normal boy, one you might hire to mow your lawn or fetch things for your grandmother as she writhes in the final stages of dementia. But no, behind those lips lurks a sight that will chill each and every one of you down to the soft red marrow of your bones. If your psyche is fragile, then look away, look away, for what you are about to witness will imbed deep, jagged scars upon the surface of your brain!”

Nathan thought he might be building the whole thing up a bit too much, leaving the audience feeling disappointed when the actual performance began. If he’d had any say in the way the program was arranged—which Mongrel made it very clear he did not—Mongrel would have merely announced Nathan as a straightforward juggling act, and a poor one at that, and as the audience shifted uncomfortably in their seats over the awkward sight of Nathan picking up dropped balls, having failed to complete even a single “toss and catch,” he would flash them a sheepish smile, at which point the more clever members of the audience would realize that this was not a juggling act at all, and they would scream and point, and the rest of the audience would quickly catch on, and pretty soon there’d be an entire audience of people screaming and pointing at Nathan, and it would be quite a show.

(It is important to note that Nathan did not want to encourage the audience to scream and point at him; he was merely noting that the theatrical presentation could have been made much more dramatic with relatively minor changes.)

“I must remind you,” Mongrel told the audience, “that we cannot bear any responsibility if one or more of you are to drop dead from fear. Obviously, this disclaimer only applies to death from fright over what you’re about to see. If part of the ceiling collapsed and struck somebody on the head, naturally we’d assume our proper legal obligations. But if you feel that your heart may not be able to withstand the shock and the horror and the amazement and the eerie sensation that something just isn’t quite right with that boy’s teeth, then I strongly encourage you to leave immediately.”

A woman tried to get up, but her husband tugged her back down into her seat.

“Remember that you cannot un-see what you have seen in your mind’s eye. We all have certain images we desperately wish had never been within our line of sight. Who among us has not at least once entered a room in which an unappealing display of carnal activity was taking place, perhaps involving one’s parents? So though it may seem that I’m being overly cautious, I cannot stress enough that horror awaits, and although there are no refunds I do not want anybody to see anything they are not fully prepared to see.”

Mongrel had at least another seven minutes of his speech remaining, so Nathan looked out into the audience. He couldn’t really see anybody in the darkness, just a small red glow in the front row, somebody smoking a cigar.

Could that be Charles Monchino?

No! Suddenly Nathan realized exactly who it was.

Bernard Steamspell!

Even lit only by his cigar, the orphanage owner was unmistakable. Few people were able to radiate such a strong sense of evil without actively engaging in evil acts.

Was Steamspell looking at him right at this very moment, staring at him with those cold, cruel eyes?

Well, yes, of course he was. Nathan was standing on stage. That was a dumb internal question.

But what did he want? Was it a coincidence? Was he simply here to enjoy the show? Was he coming to reclaim Nathan? Was he going to jump up on stage and start beating him? Should Nathan run?

He took several long, deep breaths to calm himself. There was no reason to panic. If he fled, he would no doubt be quickly recaptured, and then he’d be in an even worse situation than before. He could imagine Steamspell grabbing his legs, Mongrel grabbing his arms, and Kleft grabbing his nose, the three of them tugging until he popped apart.

Mongrel, seemingly unaware of Nathan’s current state of dismay, continued to warn the audience about how scary he was going to be. “Your eyes may try to leap out of your head, but worry not, for the stalks will keep them from getting far…”

Nathan tried to convince himself that it would be fine. Mongrel would never give up his star performer. As long as Nathan stayed close to his current wicked captor, his old wicked captor wouldn’t be able to get his hands on him.

“If the need to regurgitate arises, please be considerate to those around you…”

He’d be fine. For now, he’d just perform the show as planned. Maybe Steamspell had forgotten all about him.

“Behold…the open mouth of Fangboy!”

On cue, Nathan opened his mouth wide, showing off his terrible fangs. A woman in the front row screamed. The man next to her began to frantically fan himself. Several people started talking at once, and though he couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, their conversations all seemed to revolve around the idea that he was a most ghastly creature indeed.

Mongrel held up his hand. “Calm yourselves, ladies and gentlemen. He frightens me too, but rest assured that we have two different snipers ready to take him out should he make a threatening move.”

Nathan had not been made aware of that. He hoped it was untrue.

“But what does he do?” a man called out from the back of the theatre.

“I beg your pardon?” Mongrel asked.

“What does he actually do? He doesn’t just stand there having sharp teeth, does he?”

Mongrel chuckled. “Of course not. At Professor Mongrel’s Theatre of the Macabre, I wouldn’t waste your time by showing you a freak who didn’t do tricks! Kleft! The box!”

Kleft walked out on stage, placed the box on the floor in front of Nathan, then exited.

“Arachnids. Spiders. Perhaps the most frightening creatures on earth. Some may claim that snakes are scarier, but can you grab a spider by the tail and swing it around like a lasso, robbing it of its intimidating nature? You can not. I will concede that the great white shark is more fearsome, but of course we would not be able to feasibly provide one tonight, and if we did, it would certainly eat the boy, ending the show. But excluding the shark idea, ladies and gentlemen, I ask you, what could be more frightening than watching this boy use his unnatural jaws to eat spiders?”

Mongrel gestured to him, and Nathan raised the lid of the box. The mass of spiders writhed inside.