Circus Freaks
For the first time since staying at Professor Chamber's house, the boys and Richard were going out somewhere that wouldn't involve preparing to battle the Old Ones.
They were off to the circus!
None of them had ever been to the circus before except Richard, and as they crossed the sand towards the large tents, they began to realise that the circus wasn't all it was cracked up to be. From a distance it appeared colourful, loud, full of life. However as they got closer they realised the shadows on the tents were actually dirt patches, and the loud music was covering up loud shouts and yells coming from inside the dressing rooms. On their way to the ring where the show was, they passed cages full of animals. The animals were supposed to be 'spectacular', but Jamie could see the hunger in their eyes, the slight poke of their ribs showing through their skins and the fear and nerve behind the way they jumped up against the cage bars.
Jamie looked back at the rest of the group. They had come to the circus to relax and take their minds of the current state of matters, but he could see that all of them felt on edge. Matt looked collected and calm, but his clenched fists gave away his agitation. Pedro looked flat out angry, and kept looking back at the cages with a sad and furious look on his face. Scott looked the same as he had since the Night Rise kidnapping, stony and silent. Richard seemed normal but every time there was a loud noise he flinched and looked around.
They entered the show ring. It was humungous and there must have been at least 100 people sitting around. The noise was ear splitting, and as the 5 found their seats, Jamie began to think maybe this hadn't been such a good idea. They couldn't get out again until the end of the show, and it was packed. Anyone could be a spy, anyone could slip something in their drinks or start a fire without being noticed. Jamie was just about to tell Richard he thought they should try to barge their way back out, when the music started.
He looked towards the centre of the ring, and felt his breath catch. In the middle of it, were several figures dancing in the smoke. Their movement were graceful and inhuman. They seemed almost to fly across the stage. He watched, captivated as what appeared to be the youngest flung herself across the stage and into a neat mid-air twirl. She landed neatly with one foot still high in the air and leaped again before crouching down to allow another dancer to move. But Jamie couldn't tear his eyes off her. She was the youngest by far he could now tell, but her movements were completely different to the other dancers. She seemed almost careless. The dancers continued to move slowly and speeding up. Jamie heard Matt murmur " are those really people?" in wonder. The 5 were all enthralled in the performance, captured by the movements.
The dancers were all wearing the same outfit, tiny clinging silver dresses that flowed and shimmered in the light. The youngest one began to move again and Jamie couldn't take his eyes away. She leapt up, jumped off another dancers back and soared up into the sky, gracefully somersaulting around, her hair (which was tied into a ponytail) twisted round her slim figure as she dived back towards the ground. She landed on her hands and bounced off them back to her feet. A broad smile slipped across her face as she proudly looked around at the audience. Then her eyes met Jamie's. Her eyes seemed to widen for a second and the smile slightly slipped. Jamie felt his heart pound wildly against his chest.
He knew this girl. He could see she knew him.
The dancers now had to go off stage. But as she ran off, she looked over her shoulder, looking confused and slightly dazzled. Jamie felt his pulse return to normal as the next act came to the stage.
He tried to sit patiently through the rest of the acts but he couldn't. He needed to go and find her. He knew he knew her, he just wasn't sure where from. But her face, he knew he had seen it before. No-one could forget that kind of face.