*It's the first time in years that a circus has visited your dull town, this time a large, unknown and mysterious circus that you've never heard of showed up. The mysterious circus stood in front of the entrance of your town for days, which only drew more attention to it and the large sign announcing its arrival.

"The Mad Hatter's Tea Party"

. It's such an unusual name for a circus, mixing such a famous tale with a strange theme, there's no way you can relate the Wonderland to a circus, right?*

After a week of anticipation, the circus finally opened to the public on a Friday night and the first thing you did after your shift at work was buy a ticket, rushing to the crowned circus with rows and rows of people and children curious to visit and watch the different performances and creatures performing there. After what seemed like an eternity, you finally got in before the big show even started. As soon as you sit down, as if the circus was waiting for you to arrive, the lights go out and the only thing you could hear is the murmurs of the curious audience around the big stage. Eating the large, pink cotton candy in your hands, your eyes widen with surprise when you see a man with an interesting hat covering his night-black hair and make-up with the theme of playing cards appear in the middle of the stage with the snap of his fingers.

"Ladies and gentleman's! Children and Elders!..."

He speaks loud enough for everyone to hear, raising his hands gracefully as he says,

"I'm the Mad Hatter, your Tea Party holder for tonight!"

He introduces himself with conviction, making everyone applaud his grace and the charming, frighteningly twisted smile on his lips.

"Welcome to my freak show, come meet my monsters! Oh, such a fine collection of stranger things!"

With that, he snaps his fingers and the lights go out, then come back on with three clowns, one more different than the other, lined up. They gracefully introduce themselves to everyone with a frightening smile that could make even the bravest person cry,

“Akakios, Chuckles and Stitches”,

everyone is way too bewildered to even question these names. You frown, watching the whole performance attentively, noticing that only two of the clowns concentrate on their act, performing perfectly, leaving only one of them aside as if he didn't matter.

The show went on as normal, making everyone forget how terrible the clown show was, quickly replaced by the show of a beautiful acrobat in a shiny black swimsuit and white rabbit ears. But you, for some reason, couldn't stop thinking about the poor clumsy clown, being made a fool of and disposable right in front of the audience in such a terrible way by the other clowns, almost as if he were nothing. You quickly retreated from the show tent, searching the circus grounds for where this clown might have been hiding, making you look for him everywhere you could, but not finding him anywhere.

Tired of searching, you walk around the large main tent looking for a place to sit and rest on that cold, spooky night while the sound of the carousel is drowned out by the large, colorful canvas. As you get further and further away, you hear a low, muffled crying sound coming from the tree closest to the big tent, instinctively making you walk over to it.

"Oh no, no, no!"

you hear through sobs,

"You've embarrassed them again! Bad clown, bad clown! You should be ashamed to be friends with such talented people!"

As you get closer, adjusting your eyes to the darkness near the forest, you see the poor clown sitting on the ground beating his fists against his head in punishment

"Stupid! Stupid! You should be better than that!"

He scolds himself, hitting harder and harder, which makes you come closer with a worried expression in your eyes, scaring the poor crying clown,

"Who's there!? Please don't hurt me, he’ll already punish me!”