Watching over Xero and Paulus all night,
I spotted a little birdy in flight.
But it did not stop at that,
For there was another, Cathy most fat.

Q. Marlsborough smiled smugly at his latest masterpiece. His words immediately riled the circusgoers into mayhem.

"LEEEEROY wants some gizzards!" Leroy said, salivating and rubbing his hands together, as he gazed at Patty Sue's bountiful meat.

"im shore we alll agree bout the pengwin bein crumb lmao" Spenser declared.

"SQUAWK! SQUAWK!!" Patty Sue protested emphatically.

Meanwhile, Cathy slumped against a nearby tent, catching up on some much-needed sleep.

Finally, a voice of reason spoke up. Rusty cleared his throat.

"You see, people, humans...we're a lot like microwaves. Sometimes they're just bad, bad news... but other times, they're just flat broke. Broke and confused, waiting for an able appliance repairman to lend their gentle hands and help them. My point being--"

BANG

Rusty looked down at his chest, where he saw a steady stream of blood fountain out. He stared his killer dead in the eyes before going limp, crumpling lifelessly to the ground.

The circusgoers shot shocked looks over at a man, standing in front of Rusty's corpse with a smoking gun...
































































It was Brother Claude.

Neither Scotty nor Xander spent their intermission hour sleeping. Neither of the two roommates in the first tent trusted each other enough. Scotty paced back and forth on his side of the room practicing campaign speeches and slogans.

"Vote for Scotty!" he said to himself in the dresser mirror. "A vote for Scotty is a vote for.....", Scotty brainstormed.

"MURDER? CRIMINALS?? TYRANNY??" Xander yelled out to him. "HOW DO THOSE WORK! HOW ABOUT THE TRUTH FOR ONCE!!"

Scotty shrugged him off, straightened his tie, and fixed his perfect hair while gazing into the mirror. Xander was flipping through his binder full of newspaper clippings, headlines, photos, and theories that he had scribbled down on whatever he could find.

As Scotty pulled the knot in his tie upwards, he felt a strange sensation in his throat. He coughed a few times to try to clear it, but the more he coughed, the worse it got.

Xander peered up over his binder, interested in what twisted plot this crook was cooking up now. "Playing jokes now?? ARE YOU? YOU THINK I'M A JOKE!!" he said as he rose to his feet.

But Scotty wasn't joking. He tried to loosen his tie but nothing was working. He fell backwards, smacking his head on the dresser mirror and shattering it. He collapsed down beside his cot as Xander took a few steps over to him.

"GOOD. GOOD!! YOU'RE ONE OF THE MURDEROUS MONSTERS WHO ORDERED THE DEATH OF 2977 OF GOOD AMERICANS ON THE 11TH OF SEPTEMBER! YOU KILLED THEM! YOU DID!! I DECLARED THEN AND THERE THAT YOU WOULD NOT WIN. THAT THE PEOPLE WILL WAKE UP AND YOU WILL GET WHAT IS COMING TO YOU."

Scotty reached his hand upwards at Xander as he began to puke violently.

"AND THAT DAY OF RECKONING IS TODAY MY FRIEND! NOW YOU WILL PAY! YOU WILL SEE HOW IT FEELS TO BE HELPLESS AND SQUIRMING, ALONE AND AFRAID, AS ANOTHER STANDS ABOVE YOU AND REFUSES TO HELP. This is the end for you. But you are but one drop in an ocean full of crooks, tyrants, and monsters. THERE IS WORK TO BE DONE! AND I, XANDER DORSETT, WILL BE THE ONE TO--"

With one swift move, a long blade sliced through Xander's neck, severing his head from his shoulders entirely. A ponytail of Xander's beard fell to the ground as Xander's head was flung across the room, colliding with the heavy canvas and falling onto his binder of conspiracy theories.