The Circus Comes to Town

The dorm supervisor handed over the envelope to the gathered crowd, it was all she could do as instead of being addressed to one of the gathered ladies, the envelope was instead addressed to "all in the St. Beatrix dormitories in the Pontefactual Faculty of Theology Sardinia."

Maria grabbed it first and none of the assembled disagreed, she took the lead on these sort of things. The six or seven others gathered waited patiently.

The St. Beatrix dormitories had a nickname throughout the university, Jesus' Dowry. Every student staying there was a girl studying a theological course designed to prepare them for taking the vows of sisterhood and becoming a nun. There was plenty of jokes and misogyny aimed at them but at the same time the group remained tight knit with an air of arrogance at the supposed inevitability of their deep relationship with Jesus. The dorm supervisor hung around as Maria slid her sharp nails along the envelope just in case one of the boys on campus had decided to take a unique approach to sending dick pics to the group that famously didn't carry phones.

Confetti fell from the envelope (annoying the supervisor certain that she would have to clean that up) and Maria read the sparkly gold letter to the assembled gang.

"Ladies of St. Beatrix dorm. The International Local Circus of Risk is coming to Sardinia." she began.

"How can it be both local and international?" Gabriella interrupted, looking up from her latest textbook and blowing her chestnut bangs out of her eyes.

"Let her finish and you might find out, there's a time and a place to be a nerd." Sofia retorted, staring in wonder at her heroine Maria as she continued to read.

"This circus is strictly invite only and we are prepared to offer you as many tickets as you would like for a rock bottom price of 5 Euros each, courtesy of a well-connected member of staff." the next paragraphs were details of how to book tickets and where the circus would be.

"Should we go?" Sofia asked, looking to Maria for guidance, Maria made a play of thinking deeply about the letter, to ensure all gathered were hanging on her every whim. Benedetta, the most pious of the crowd interrupted as social structures never really influenced her.

"Don't people usually wear quite revealing outfits to the circus? Not to mention there may be drinking and other immoralities going on." Benedetta fiddled with the family rosary beads she kept constantly around her neck, wincing as they caught her curly red hair.

"I think we should go, we will be exposed to a lot of sin in the world and if we go as a group we can support each other and our faith in god can only grow." Maria retorted, partially out of spite and partially because she was certain to win some allies that way.

"Well I'm in" Sofia replied immediately,

"Should be interesting" Gabriella added, before going back to her book.

"Well I'm not going." Benedetta snapped, putting her foot down, "and what's more I'm going to tell the Professor, this does not seem OK, you may want to damn your souls but you're not going to drag me down with you."

...

Benedetta fussed and objected as the gang of future nuns pushed her into the circus tent, cursing her curiosity and pushy friends. Maria handed the tickets over to the usher, who promptly informed them they were gold ticket holders and ushered them to a large booth, with the exact number of seats they had ordered, comfy and spacious.

They all took their seats while the Usher left the booth and locked the door behind him.

The girls made idle small talk while they waited for the show to start, Maria and Sofia bursting with agreement about how much they deserved this, while Gabriella buried her nose in a book, and Benedetta said a small prayer for her immortal soul; pen and paper at the ready to record any sins that would need to be confessed later on.

The lights dimmed and in the centre ring a ringmaster walked out, his grin the only thing greasier than his hair and moustache.

"Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to the International Local Circus of Risk" Gabriella shuddered once again at the contradiction. "Firstly let's have a cheer from all the gold ticket holders." Maria and Sofia gave a loud cheer, while Benedetta gave a meek chirp of support and Gabriella remained silently judging. "Now the people in the other seats know what is special about the gold tickets but I see some looks of confusion among the booths, so let me explain how the circus works. The reason this circus is both local and international, is that although the organisers travel, the performers are all local people, and for anyone holding a golden ticket, the performer is someone you know." the ringmaster allowed a moment for murmurs to spread among the gathered crowd before resuming with his opening speech. In the distance Benedetta could have sworn she heard some scraping followed by a thud.

"You see when the circus was founded in 1888, circuses were in an arms race for who could do the most risky acts, risk of injury had recently been supplanted by risk of death as standard and safety nets began being removed left right and centre. But our founder asked is there a fate worse than death that could really provide a show, how about the destruction of the life you have built? The annihilation of your professional and social standing. The dead do not have to live with the consequences of a failed stunt but our performers tonight will find one wrong move will stay with them for the rest of their lives."

More confusion spread among the booths as the ringmaster engaged in another over-dramatic pause.

"I see there is still some confusion among you, so perhaps a practical demonstration. In booth one, our golden ticket holders are all from Monsignor Primary School. They may be wondering why barriers have just been drawn between each individual in their booth. It's so one of you could sneak away to do this..." A second spotlight turned on with a pop and above the ringmaster, a middle aged woman carefully made her way across a tightrope wearing nothing but a jewel encrusted cat mask covering her whole head. The crowd erupted into gasps as she slowly made her way from one platform to another.

"First things first kitty cat. I need you to tell the audience that you took on this risk of your own free will, that nobody is blackmailing you or forcing you to do this, please give the audience a thumbs up if this is true." the tightrope walker obliged, shocking the audience into silence with her outstretched thumb. "Brilliant! So here's the genius of the show, at any other circus if the performer fell off the rope they would drop clumsily into a net or, if the show was particularly macabre, to the hard ground below. For us though, there is a small string attaching that mask to the ceiling, if our performer were to fall she will land safe and sound into the net below, but the mask is not falling with her."

"As you can imagine, someone who does this can't be allowed to work at a school, she's risking her career, her friendships and her dignity all at once. This is why she is being paid €10,000 for this act, but as a cherry on top if she falls she doesn't get a cent." The naked woman had made it halfway across the tightrope and was now starting to shake a little, partially at the ringmaster reminding her what was at stake, partially at the skipping rope being lowered from the ceiling.

"Now then, our performer here agreed to ten jumps on the skipping rope before leaving with her dignity intact." The ringmaster stated. She reached out with a shaking hand, untangling the skipping rope. Each jump was not very high but it was high enough to clear the swinging rope and make her breasts bounce in the rhythm of the skip, the crowd counting with each twirl of the rope. When she finished her skips she let out a scream of delight. She stuffed the rope into one hand and threw it into the audience in triumph.

Time seemed to stop as the jerking motion of an unplanned move shifted the performer's weight backward. She had not trained for this moment and desperately leaned forward to compensate. The crowd watched with horrified delight as the performer fell the mask twanging off her head to reveal a fleeting blur of blonde hair. As she hit the net her hands were clasped firmly over her face as the ringmaster went to help her down.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Evelina Romano, deputy headmistress at Monsignor Primary school, take a bow!" The lady's whole body was red with humiliation as the crowd cheered and the ringmaster held her hand up in triumph, directing her to bow at the booth where all her friends and colleagues were watching in shocked silence. As she staggered off to the side the ringmaster quipped, "good luck with the job hunt."

Aside from the teachers' booth, the only other booth that sat silent in this applause was that holding the girls from St. Beatrix's dorm.

"I knew it was a mistake to come here." Benedetta announced storming towards the door.

"Why are you leaving?" Maria sneered. "Got a performance to prepare for?" Benedetta froze in outraged silence.

"How dare you! I am leaving as I do not want to be a part of this circus of sin, and everyone else here should be leaving too." She shouted.

"The way I see it." Maria chimed, her words cutting through the air. "One of us here is a filthy pervert. If we leave now we will be sharing our dorm with a pervert, graduating with a pervert and will be complicit in allowing a pervert to join the most holy orders that we plan to pledge ourselves to. I do not want to be here but part of what makes a good nun is doing one's duty matter how uncomfortable it makes me. We must stay to figure out the identity of this disgraceful character hiding in our midst." She surmised crossing her arms, Sofia sat defiantly next to her and was overjoyed to see some of the other gathered ladies match.

"Going to be honest Benedetta," Gabriella interjected, "I want to leave too, but we all know the first person out of that door is going to be top of the list of suspects. Just sit quietly, say your prayers and don't look and it will all be over soon." Benedetta thought for a moment before sitting down in a huff as the stage was cleared and the ringmaster retook his post.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Now that we are all clear about the quirks of the little get-together, time to announce the second of five acts. Please bear in mind, every woman came here tonight of her own free will, looking for the ultimate rush, a risk to top any risk any other human being has ever taken. If you are looking to enrol in the circus next time we're in town our number is on the back of your programs." Gabriella actually decided to get a program, studying it for her own curiosity and to see if she could get any clues on who amongst them had decided to take such a devious risk.

"Our second act tonight is a local foster mother. She has been fostering children for some time, an ideal citizen. But tonight she has taken the night off from being a good mother to put on a show, and in her booth, everyone from the local council's fostering department. Her risk tonight is that the council would have no choice but to take away her foster children and not allow her any more if they knew what her heart desires. She has also told us that she has kept this a secret from her husband, but if they take away her foster children I'm sure they would have to tell him why. Please welcome to the stage Flashy the clown!"

From the entrance walked out a skinny woman, covered head to toe in clown makeup. Her body was paled by white paint with colourful polka dots. Her pussy and nipples the only unpainted parts. On her face she had a big red smile painted around her mouth, a bulbous red prop nose, green and blue stars painted around her eyes and to top it off a mess of purple curly hair.

"Hello Flashy!" The ringmaster announced, soliciting a smile and a wave from the clown. "Now flashy I understand you want to show everyone your unicycling talents, is that right?" The clown nodded with determination while the ringmaster picked the unicycle out of the box, in every aspect it was a normal unicycle, except for the big floppy dildo sticking out of the seat.

"So tonight flashy is going to do five laps of the circle on her special unicycle, fun stuff already but where's the risk? Well Flashy's makeup isn't like normal clown makeup, everything on her, even the curly hair wig, is water soluble. So to ensure she makes good time, we're going to have a water cannon time her laps. Too slow and poor flashy here loses her anonymity and with it her family and her life as she knows it. Once again the stakes are high, that's why Flashy is being paid €10,000, payable only if she succeeds."

Flashy began to look a bit more nervous as she took the unicycle and began to ease the seat dildo into her dripping pussy, collecting her wits long enough to hop upright, driving the dildo deep into her and beginning her unicycle ride. She started by steadying herself before cycling to the edge of the ring. Meanwhile in the centre of the ring, a cannon rose up and pointed just behind her. The ringmaster led the audience in a countdown before activating the jet of water from the cannon, beginning the chase.

As the clown pumped her thighs, it was clear that she was going to find the dildo driving in and out of her hard to ignore. She got some early distance but the cannon was not going to get exhausted and she was already starting to sweat.

In the booth, the theology students were each dealing with what was happening in their own way. Maria and Sofia sat mumbling to one another, relishing their feelings of superiority to mask their genuine interest and hope that the girl would be exposed. Benedetta had her head firmly down in prayer, but would occasionally glance upwards, before returning to pray forgiveness for giving into her curiosity. Gabriella was watching the show intently, but occasionally looking at the gathered ladies, hoping to deduce something from their reactions to what was unfolding.

By the fourth lap Flashy was looking worried, her aching thighs coupled with constant orgasms had slowed her pace, allowing the water to gain on her. To make matters worse her sweat had started to do the job for the water cannon anyway, the paint was starting to run down her body and in amongst the curly purple hair, a strand of brown hair had freed itself. As she turned for the last lap, Maria and Sofia had actually found themselves cheering for Flashy, leading to a few other girls cheering with them, while Gabriella cocked an eyebrow and Benedetta prayed for the clowns salvation (from both evil and the water fountain.)

The water splashing on her back, Flashy collapsed over the finish line, the water cannon cutting out just short of her. She lay on the ground twitching for some time before the ringmaster got her up and lead her backstage, her identity safe.

"I always love a happy ending. Let's see if our next performer can be so lucky." The ringmaster announced. "Today we have a repeat performer, last time this lady dazzled us with her skills on the trapeze. This time she has returned because, in her own words, 'that was too easy.' So tonight we're going to have her try out her latest skill, escapology." A tall statuesque woman entered the performers circle wearing a cartoonish pig mask, stood upright and unashamed of her nudity, pulling behind her a cage filled with equipment for her performance.

"Tonight we welcome back representatives from the five largest corporations in Italy with a female CEO, who will sit in that booth and think about how there is a one in five chance you're watching the head of your company humiliate herself. Now if I can have some volunteers from the audience to help tie up our performer." a few men came forward amongst the huddled masses and began tying the woman into the specially prepared straightjacket, securing her arms across her torso, pulling her breasts through the specially prepared holes.

"While she prepares I will also point out that the financial side of this performer is different. As she is already quite wealthy she has decided to perform for free. But should she fail, as well as losing her anonymity, she has agreed to pay us €100,000. What can I say, the lady is a gambler."

The volunteers were directed to surround the lady in ropes and chains, before she gingerly climbed into the cage, sitting upright with her legs stretched to the corners. Once inside the cage, the lid was closed leaving her he'd poking out of a specially made hole in the bars at the top. Clips attached to the bars by string were clips around her nipples, the audience were treated to an ecstatic groan as the string was tightened. Her feet were cuffed to the far corners of the cage and then additional clips were attached to her labia and used to pull her drenched pussy open for the audience.

"Now everyone, our little piggy here will have to escape her bonds quickly if she wants to keep the life she has made." The ringmaster announced, attaching a wire to the top of her mask that extended into the rafters. "The timer mechanism is simple, I'm going to light this fuse wire here, it will do five laps of the circle, let's say at the speed of a horny unicyclist. Once it has done that it will set fire to this bag full of gunpowder that's holding back the counterweight, when the bag goes up, the weight drops and the mask ascends." All thoughts of piety in the St. Beatrix booth had been forgotten for the suspense.

"Oh and one more thing" the ringmaster added with a mischievous grin. "We didn't have enough gunpowder to completely fill the bag, so I hope you don't mind but we also put all your clothes from tonight in there as well." This clearly shocked the performer, not only would she be risking exposure, she would have to go home naked as well, she began straining against her bonds and the ringmaster took that as an opportunity to light the fuse.

The fuse wire sparked its way around the ring as the piggy struggled against her bonds, the air was a cacophony of fizzing, clanging and groans as the bounds shifted and the clips pulled against punished flesh.

One by one the chains and rope began to fall to the ground, but the straitjacket was not shifting. As the St. Beatrix girls in the booth watched mystified, a loud rumble began to emanate from behind them, dividing walls began to move into position separating all the chairs. Before any of the girls could react they all found themselves suddenly cut off from all their friends. The next sound caught all their attention, the sound of a door opening at the back of the booth and a slight pause before it closes again. Whoever was the secret slut of the group had now left to prepare for her own humiliation. The remaining girls could do nothing but go back to watching the escapology act in front of them and it was not going well.

Unbeknownst to the audience, this performer had asked for the circus to surprise her, her clothes in the gunpowder bag were one such surprise but the clips on the cage were another and she had not practised with them. To take off the clips she needed her hands free, to get her hands free she needed to pull the straitjacket over her head and the nipple clips were not allowing her to do so. She struggled and screamed with her predicament before letting out a big sob and resigning herself to her fate.

The audience gasped as her clothes went up with a whoosh, and suddenly the pig mask whisked upwards, revealing the distraught face of a stern brunette.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Serena Rosso, CEO of Smooth Sailing Investments! Fun fact, her company makes most of their money offering low risk investment portfolios. But I guess low risk isn't everyone eh Serena?" The ringmaster quipped while members of the crew untied her.