She's in the Lion's Cage, I'm in the World

The crowd screamed, some pulling out their phones to record, others shouting, This is so thrilling!

My mom covered her eyes, too scared to look.

But I stared hard at the woman in the cage.

That face, that curve of the profile, that mole behind the ear.

Exactly like my mom's.

I turned to look at my mom in the passenger seat.

She was muttering, "It's so cruel."

My hands were shaking so badly I could barely hold the wheel.

My mom reached over from the passenger seat and patted me. "Honey, what's wrong? You're so pale."

I jerked her hand away.

Who is she?

And who is my mom?

......

The cars behind me were laying on their horns, and someone stuck his head out and cursed, "Are you sick or something?! If you can't drive, pull over!"

I couldn't hear any of it.

The woman in the red dress had been bitten on the leg, and blood ran down her calf and dripped onto the ground.

When they dragged her out of the cage, her eyes kept turning toward me.

I could feel her gaze locked on me.

My mom kept chattering beside me. "That was terrifying. Look at how badly that poor girl's leg got bitten. I wonder if they even have insurance. That circus troupe is inhuman..."

Her voice was exactly like always.

But all I could think about was that woman in the cage.

I took a deep breath and pulled into the parking lot up ahead.

"Mom, I'm going to run to the restroom. Wait for me in the car."

"Sure. Good timing, I'll answer a message. Your dad's asking where we are."

I got out of the car and ran toward the circus troupe.

The show in the predator area had already let out, and the onlookers were heading out, a few of them cursing.

I ignored them and went around to the back of the performance area.

A guy was crouched on the ground smoking. When he saw me coming, he stood up warily. "Who are you looking for?"

"The woman who got hurt in the show just nowshe's someone I know."

"You know her?" The guy looked me up and down. "What do you want?"

I pulled three hundred out of my pocket.

"Sir, I just want to see her, to confirm whether she's someone I know."

The guy reached out and took it, then jerked his chin to the side. "That car all the way in the back. Don't stay too long, or the boss'll chew you out."

I ran over and pressed up against the window to look inside.

The woman was sitting on a quilt, hugging her legs, wiping the blood off her leg with a scrap of cloth.

She looked up, and I froze completely.

She looked at me, opened her mouth, and mouthed two words.

"Get out."

Then she suddenly shrank back, because the car door was being pulled open from the outside.

The guy who'd been smoking earlier stuck his head in. "You done? The boss is back. Get going."

I was shoved back out.

I ran back to the parking lot.

When I opened the car door, my mom was looking down at her phone. "Why'd that take so long?"

I looked at her face, and it was exactly the same as that other face.

I have no fucking idea how I got the car home.

Mom nagged the whole way, going on about what to make for dinner, where Dad had dumped his socks this time, what gift to get for my cousin's wedding next week.

I couldn't take in a single word of it.

My head was full of that face, and those silent lips mouthing, "Go, now."

When I got home that evening, Dad was cooking in the kitchen, and I slipped into Mom's bedroom.

I went through her drawers.

ID card, household register, bankbook, all kinds of receipts, and my award certificates and photos from all through my childhood.

I pulled out that family photo, the one taken when I was three. I'm sitting in the middle, Mom and Dad on either side, both of them holding me.

Mom was young back then, and her smile was lovely.

I flipped it over and checked the date: May 2003.

I took out my phone and scrolled to the video I'd shot today.

Mom's face and the face in that photo, twenty-three years apart, were exactly the same.

Something was wrong. Something was seriously fucking wrong.

Dad called me to dinner, so I put everything back and went out to eat.

At the table, Dad rambled about stuff at his office, and Mom chimed in, just like always.

Watching them, I suddenly felt like they were strangers.

Were these two really my parents?

After dinner I ducked into my room and messaged my childhood friend.

He works at the police precinct, and his beat happens to cover the area around that wildlife park.

"Do me a favor and look up a circus troupe called the Glory Circus Troupe. See if they're registered, and whether they've ever had any trouble."

He answered fast: "What's up? You want to watch a circus?"

"Cut the crap and just check."

Half an hour later, he sent over a bunch of screenshots.

"This troupe's got problems. Their registration is fake, their plates are fake, and they got busted in the next province over last year for suspected animal cruelty. Somehow they slipped away after that. Why, did you run into them?"

I sent another message: "Do you have ID info on any of the people in the troupe?"

"No. Outfits like this hire everyone on the fly. Sometimes they even grab people off the street. No real contracts."

I set down my phone and lay on the bed staring at the ceiling.

Who was that woman, really?

Why was she in a place like that?

Why did she look at me with the exact same eyes as my mom?

I didn't dare think any further.

The next day I took the day off and went back to the park.

There was no circus performance in the predator section today. I asked a staff member, and they said the troupe had left yesterday, and they didn't know where they went.

I wandered around and found the spot where that man had been smoking yesterday. There was a pile of cigarette butts there.

I crouched there and looked for a long while, and found a cigarette pack with a lighter next to it.

The lighter had the name and address of a little convenience store printed on it.

I took a cab to that convenience store.

I asked the owner if anyone from a circus troupe had come by to buy anything recently.

She thought for a while and said, "Yeah, a few days back some guys bought a whole load of instant ramen and water. Why, they owe you money?"

My voice got worked up: "Do you know where they're staying?"

"How would I know? But they headed north. There are some abandoned factory buildings out that way, plants that shut down years ago."

I thanked her and headed north.

After almost two kilometers, I came upon an abandoned industrial lot.

The gate was ajar, so I pushed it open and went in.

There were several vehicles parked inside.

And there was that same box truck from yesterday, with "Glory Circus Troupe" stuck on the side.

My heart was pounding up in my throat.

I peered in through the crack in the window.

Inside, a few men were playing cards around a beat-up table.

One of them griped, "Damn, lost another two hundred today."

Another said, "Serves you right. Who told you to go running off after women last night?"

"Women, my ass. Just those old broads in the troupe, ugly as sin."

"What about the new one? The one whose leg got bitten?"

"Locked up. Boss says let her heal a couple more days, then she's back performing."

"Where'd the boss get that woman anyway?"

"No idea. Boss brought her back. Who knows what backwater he scraped her out of."

"She's not bad looking, though. Just got something wrong in the head. Doesn't talk, mute as anything, day in and day out."

I edged back, my foot slipped, and I stepped on a chunk of broken brick, making a noise.

"Who's there?!"

I flattened myself against the ground, too scared to move, while someone stood in the doorway looking around.

"There's nobody. You're jumping at every little thing."

"I heard something."

"Stray cat, probably. Place is crawling with them."

The man looked around once more, then went back inside.

I waited until they started up their card game again before slowly crawling backward.

I crawled to the other side of the factory building, where there was a small room, and a person crouched in the corner.

I gave the wooden board a light tap.

The person looked up. It was her.

When she saw me, her pupils shrank hard, and she shook her head desperately.

But she said those two words again:

"Get out."

Before I could react, footsteps came from behind me.

"Damn, there really is someone!"

I turned around, and a man came rushing at me.

I broke into a run, and the man chased after me, cursing the whole way.

I ran out of the factory grounds, out onto the main road, and flagged down a taxi.

When I got home, my mom froze for a second when she saw me come in. "Why are you back at this hour? No work today?"

I looked at her face.

My mind was a complete mess.

"Mom." I sat down beside her.

"Hm?"

"Do you do you have any long-lost sisters? Like a twin?"

My mom went still for a moment, then laughed. "What's gotten into you today? I'm an only child. Grandma only had me."

"Then do you still have photos of yourself from when you were little?"

"Sure, they're in the photo album."

I dug out the album and looked at the pictures one by one.

From age three to twenty, the face in the photos had barely changed.

But these photosthe one at three, the one at thirteen, the one at twenty.

It was like the same person, just in different clothes and hairstyles.

I closed the album.

"Mom, I'm going out for a bit."

"Where are you off to now? Dinner's almost ready."

"I'll be right back."

I went downstairs and called my childhood friend.

"Help me look something up. That abandoned factory area over by the Starlight Chemical Plantis it under your precinct's jurisdiction?"

"Yeah, it is. That place has been empty for ages. What's up?"

"Can you check who owns those factory buildings, or who's renting them, whether there's anything on file?"

"Okay, I'll look into it when I get to work tomorrow."

"Can't you do it today?"

"My guy, do you know what time it is? I'm off the clock. Besides, that factory area's been derelict for over a decade. Who's going to rent a dump like that?"

I hung up the phone.

My mind was full of that woman's eyes.

Who is she?

I've lived twenty-three years, and that woman I call "Mom" every single daywho exactly is she?

On the third night, I went back to that factory.

It was past one in the morning, and the plant was pitch black.

I felt my way to the back of the little shed I'd seen during the day.

I gently pried open a crack in the wooden boards.

By the moonlight, I saw the woman still crouched in the corner, seemingly asleep.

I tapped lightly on the glass, and she jerked her head up.

When she saw it was me, she mouthed those same two words again: "Go, now."

I took out my phone, typed a line, and held it up to her through the glass:

"Are you my mom?"

As she read those words, her tears started to fall.

It was like everything inside me had been drained away.

So the woman at home really wasn't my mom.

I typed another line:

"Is it true? Who is the one at home?"

She read it, and her eyes filled with hatred.

She stretched out a finger and wrote a few words on the ground:

"Go, hurry, get out of here!"

I froze. Was she really my mother or not?

Just as she finished writing, there was a sudden noise outside.

Someone had gotten up to use the bathroom, and footsteps were coming this way.

She quickly wiped the words off the ground, waved at me, and told me to leave.

I got home at three in the morning.

The living room light was on.

My mom was sitting on the couch. She heard the door and turned to look at me. "Where have you been this late?"

I looked at her and said nothing.

She was still waiting for my answer.

"I went out drinking with friends," I said calmly.

"A girl shouldn't drink too much, it's bad for you." She stood up, her voice gentle. "Are you hungry? Should I make you a bowl of noodles?"

"I'm not hungry."

"Then get to bed early."

She headed toward the bedroom.

I quietly followed and peeked in through the crack in the door.

She sat down on the edge of the bed and picked up the photo on the nightstand and glanced at it.

That photo was a family portrait of me, her, and my dad.

It sent a chill down my spine. Who exactly was she?