The 76 years old 'Merry Circus' hadn't changed much since it was built. The walls, originally as red as a ruby, had lost its color with every year that went by and looked more like something brown at the moment. Several old coffee stains that couldn't be washed out were visible on the soft floor and the ceiling that was supposed to be white had been gray for a long time already, because of the spider webs. With every step one took it made a cracking sound, so sneaking up on people was not very simple. The performers would stay in a very long hallway with rooms that, without the personal stuff, all looked exactly the same with one small window that had a view over the nearby park of which the trees, flowers and other plants were well taken care of. But the places inside of the circus where the audience was allowed looked a lot better, cleaner and more modern, so that they wouldn't want to leave before the show had even begun. Those places had to be able to attract people to them.
That day the sun didn't come out in the morning like usual. The sky looked very dark with some raindrops that had already fallen down. Most of the people that lived in the city stayed inside their homes and wished that they didn't need to leave. The circus would probably not have many customers that day. The owner - a very old man who looked even older then he actually was, had a black mustache, not much black hair anymore and who always wore a very decent costume - had given a speech to the performers at 6am that they would have to go outside at 7am to spread the word that there was a show the same day at 1pm. Some had come to say to him that no one would be awake that early in the morning to hear about what they had to say, but the owner wouldn't listen and also wouldn't give out orders for how they would advertise the circus, so everyone had to decide themselves how they would do it. But the owner would check if everyone would be outside of the building at 7h30 and everyone who wasn't, would be punished.
Most of the performers were preparing themselves: choosing out nice clothes, checking their hair and how they looked in the mirror. Others were talking to each other about what they would do as advertisement, but it was very clear that everyone was still tired and annoyed that they were awake at that hour of the day. Suddenly a very soft voice, clearly a woman, was whispering something not understandable. It sounded like someone nice, but it wasn't loud enough so one could understand the words and stopped after some short minutes. Most of the performers seemed to ignore it and go further with what they had been doing before they heared the unknown woman.
