The child, no older than six years old, approached the circus tent with a smile so full of glee that it caught to his siblings in no time. He waved his hand at the glittering, brightly-lit sign above a curtained entrance, tugging on his mother's hand harshly to capture her attention.

"In there," he demanded. A large candy in his mouth partially obscured his words, but his mother understood

Madame Cora's Creature Curiosities brought in more guests than any other sideshow attraction in the fair. The black fabric of the tent caught their attention and pulled them into it's inky depths, where Madame Cora herself awaited them. A thin, intricately decorated stick in her hand and a beautiful, glittering dress in the colour of sunrise would have been enough to entrance them, if the magic weren't so real. With a wave of the stick, iridescent creatures soared over their heads, bounded under their seats, or purred at their laps. Seated in a circle around her with no light in the tent except for the reflective beads covering the magician's body and the glowing beasts themselves, the entire thing enraptured audiences. Word of the Sideshow Sorceress spread far and wide, with crowds flocking to New York just to catch a glimpse of the woman's wonderful light show.

An early December eve in 1926 brought the Barebone family to the fair. Not used to the pleasures most found so simple, the three children were, as most were on their first venture into the park, captivated by all the different sights and sounds and smells. Their mother Mary Lou, a time-disciplined woman, gave them cause to ignore the beauty of the place as she strode towards their destination with a determination not many saw within women in those years. The children, two girls and a boy, trailed behind her, drinking in the wonderment with all their senses.

They finally reached the midnight-coloured tent. Mary Lou stepped into the long line and folded her arms. The three children stood beside her, the two girls closer to their mother and the boy further away, staring at the toes of his shoes and trying to ignore everybody around him. People began flooding out of Madame Cora's tent, chattering dreamily about their experience. Mary Lou ground her teeth together and set her face with blank expression. The queue moved up, spectators shuffling through the thick curtain into the tent. The Barebones were hit with a sickly sweet scent, the smell of toffee apples and caramelised sugar and royally iced cookies.

Another ten minute wait, and they were allowed to enter. Mary Lou positioned them in the front row of seats, parallel to the entrance. The woman claiming to be 'mystic' was standing on a raised platform in the centre of the room. She wore a long evening gown covered with glittering emerald beads and a necklace with a silver pendant. The dark shawl between her elbows, when it caught the light, threw off hues of blue and green and silver. People gave the strange-looking family a glance as they filed into the tent, but nobody said anything.

Finally, the curtain over the door fell and they were plunged into darkness. There were whispers between spectators until a tiny, almost invisible puff of glowing smoke appeared in the centre of the room. The tent fell silent. Another puff of smoke. A small child began to giggle joyously. Then, a rabbit appeared where the woman had previously stood. It was milky white and translucent, giving it a ghostly appearance. Mary Loud drew in a short, sharp breath and sat up a little straighter. Her son could barely draw his eyes away from the spectacle before them, but did so for a split second to see her pressing her fingernails into her palm so deep she was drawing blood.

"Good evening, my dears." The voice, female and sultry, echoed bodiless through the room. The accent wasn't American, but her impression was so good that nobody noticed. Either that, or the creature she had created distracted them well enough. "You are all thinking that you brought yourselves here tonight, that you saw an advertisement in the newspaper or heard a coworker telling a friend and decided to chance a visit. But you are wrong. Fate brought you here, my friends. Fate, and a little bit of magic."

Upon her uttering of the word, magic seemed to burst into life around the tent. The walls began to twinkle with splashes of stars, and the floor beneath them seemed to fade away into nothingness.

"Welcome, children of the universe, to my small part of it."

Then she appeared, the Sideshow Sorceress herself. She seemed to glide as she wove through the seats, laying a gloved hand on women's shoulder and brushing a few fingers over children's hair. She came to a stop before Mary Lou's son, but he didn't notice as his eyes were trained on his shoes. She crouched before him.

"Hello, my darling," she greeted quietly with a small smile. He looked at her, trying not to catch her contagious smile. "I'm Cora. What's your name?"

He was going to look at his mother for approval, but decided that later punishment would be worth five minutes of unadulterated happiness.

"Credence," he said softly.

"It's lovely to meet you, Credence. Would you like to help me today?" She offered him her hands and, as the years had taught him, he expected them to put a belt to his body. But they didn't, and he tentatively placed his palms on top of hers. She tugged him up slightly and led him to the centre of the room. "Ladies and gentlemen, meet my new friend Credence. Today, his mind will open to the beauty and wonder of the world around us."

"I- I don't-" he stammered almost silently, and she didn't hear him. Instead, she looked into his face and tilted his chin upward with her forefinger so he looked at her instead of his shoes.

"What's your favourite animal, dear?"

He shook his head. "I don't- I don't know."

"That's okay. I'll pretend you said a falcon," she whispered with a mischievous smile that looked right at home on her face. With an extravagant flourish of the stick in her hand, she created a beautiful, lustrous bird that perched on his shoulder. He wanted to laugh and clap at her talents, but a dark look from his mother stopped him immediately.

"As we near the end of our show, I'd like to speak to you all," she said to the audience. She took Credence's hand in her own and gave it a reassuring squeeze, as if she knew how afraid he was at that moment. The lights around them disappeared, and the tent filled with an eery, dim glow that cast long shadows across the room. "Magic is all around us, always. Whether in the person you love, the places you visit, or the memories you collect, magic will always be with you. Now, you may never know if what I did today was real sorcery or simply a trick of lights and mirrors. But for the sake of the child within us all: question not, and believe."

The curtain rose and the crowd burst into raucous applause. She smiled and waved them out, keeping a tight hold on Credence's hand.

"Credence, you were wonderful," she said softly. He stared straight into her eyes, noticing that one was a slightly different colour to the other. "If you and your company should ever return, give the gate the name Ketterstone."

Mary Lou walked to Credence and separated his grip from hers. "Are you a wicked enchantress, Ma'am?"

The magician's expression grew stony.

"Sorry, I believe I misheard you?"

"I said, are you a wicked enchantress?" Mary Lou demanded, snatching the stick from her hand. She dragged the woman outside and stood on a bench, gripping tightly onto Madame Cora's wrist and holding her arm high in the air. People were gathering around to listen to her speech. "Ladies and gentlemen, what you see before you is a wicked, dangerous member of this society! She parades like she is a higher being, some sort of mystical deity we should worship! People of her kind- of the witch kind- are bringing death and destruction to the city and they shall pay for what they have done!"

Credence almost wanted to wrench the fearful woman from his mother's grip and lead her away somewhere safe. He felt a heavy weight inside of him, a feeling of hurt and anger and fear.

"Miss, I don't know what you're saying but I can't-"

Mary Lou cut her off once more. "We will try the witches and they will be eliminated as they once were in Salem! These tents of false mysticism and public hypnotism shall be no more, and the darkness and fear in society will burn with them!"

"No, please-" the sorceress fought against the woman's grip, but Mary Lou had the crowd enraptured.

"Fight with us, the New Salem Philanthropic Society, as we bring the end to her kind's reign of terror in the Land of the Free!" She cried. Members of the audience cheered and two men seized the proclaimed witch. Mary Lou followed them from the fair, her three children trailing behind like lambs. Tears were gathering in the corners of Credence's eyes but he knew that he was facing enough punishment as it was, so he daren't do anymore than he already had.

She was fighting the grip of the men, kicking and trying to drag her arms from their grip. One of them had a gun holstered at his hip and she noticed this, growing even more agitated.

"Please, just let me go," she whispered, her voice raspy from her shouts of protest. Her eyes locked with Credence's, who gave her what he hoped was an apologetic look before staring down at his hands. "I'm not a witch, this is insane."

"Do not try to fool us, witch," Mary Lou spoke calmly, as if she weren't about to witness a woman be killed.

The 'witch' was about to scream as loud as she could, in hopes of attracting some form of authority, but she didn't need to. Credence, using the last of the confidence she had given him, lurched forward to free her. Mary Lou caught him and pushed him backward.

"My child," she said unperturbedly, forcing him to the ground with a hand on his shoulder. He began to tremble and Madame Cora did all she could to get out of the men's grip to help him, but she achieved nothing. Credence handed her his belt and bowed his head, offering his palms to his mother as the magician had done to him not half an hour ago.

"What's going on here?" A female voice broke the quiet, silencing the magician's cries and Credence's soft whimpering. "What in the name of- let that woman go!"

"Please, help me!" She shouted, wrenching her arms from the men's grip and sprinting to the woman, who had a stick similar to hers extended before her. "They were going to- they were trying to-"

"I know exactly who they are, and what they were going to do," the woman nodded. She had short hair, and a badge that read 'MACUSA' pinned to her coat lapel. "Miss Barebone, step away from that boy."

Mary Lou shook her head. "He is my child, I shall discipline him how I like."

It sounded like a whip crack in the alleyway. Credence didn't recoil, he barely flinched at the pain. The only sign that he had felt anything was in the way his eyes pressed closed and tears rolled down his cheeks.

"Oh my God," the magician gasped, attempting to rush forward. But the other woman was quicker, sending beams of light at Mary Lou.

"How- dare- you-"

Men and women wearing cloaks, each with their own stick, poured into the alleyway. Some held the MACUSA woman back, others let clouds float from their wands and into the non-magical witnesses. Madame Cora simply retrieved her wand from Mary Lou's pocket, turned on the spot, and disappeared from view. Nobody ever knew she was there except for Credence, who went unnoticed by the MACUSA witches and wizards as his cloaked, cowering figure blended in with the dark concrete floor.