LUMINOUS’ PYRRHIC VICTORY

Luminous Mist traveled all night until he reached the middle of nowhere.

(Four hours by sand-mobile away from any major cities, if you must know.)

Once there, he took the suitcase from the vehicle and placed it on the ground.

For a moment, Luminous just stood there smiling as he watched the rising sun making the vintage patterns on the valise come to life and spell the four marvelous words he had given a small fortune to possess:

WINGED VICTORY

ATOMIC CIRCUS

Then he pressed the clasps on each side at the same time and opened the suitcase.

Inside there was nothing but fog.

Luminous frowned.

The suitcase made a whirring sound and all of a sudden a tiny black unicorn began to emerge from the fog.

The unicorn was holding a note in its mouth.

Luminous read it:

A sad clown roams the barren night

in search of a new electric circus.

His heart keeps unfastening, expanding and collapsing,

making eerie sounds at all the wrong moments,

like the haunted accordion

the bearded woman used to play.

He misses the old freaks.

“What is this?” Luminous asked the unicorn. “Did I just travel all night to the middle of nowhere to read a poem or whatever this is about sad clowns, accordions, and bearded women? Where's the circus?”

“It's the end of the world as we know it,” said the unicorn, before turning into a moth-like Pegasus and flying away.

“And I feel fine?” cried Luminous, finally remembering the vintage song. “‘And I feel fine?’ Is that the password to activate this thing? I feel fine! I FEEL FINE!”

But the sun had already turned weird-Pegasus into onyx motes.

Luminous looked down at the case on the sand, open-mouthed like a dead animal.

“I paid a pretty sum for you, you know? Angel is going to bury me. For real, this time.”

The fog inside the suitcase seemed to curl into a grin.

Luminous didn’t feel like smiling. He knew who the sad clown was.

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