I've always been fascinated by two things: spiders and space. I had celestial posters on my walls growing up and spent lots of time I should have been in bed looking at the night sky and counting the constellations I could find. It was clear that I was obsessed. For my eighth birthday, my parents got me a telescope that sent me into a deeper stage in my psychosis.

During the day, I'd spend hours rooting through the dusty old shed at the bottom of our garden, hunting the cobwebs for lurking eight-legged predators.

I used to drive my mum mad!

I bring up the space and spiders because they are relevant to the story that is about to unfold in front of you. I bring up the garden because that is where my story starts. It all began with a garden and a big blue box.

It was well past midnight and I was still awake. I had just finished looking through my telescope for the night and laid down to sleep. It was a school night and I knew my parents would freak out if they saw me awake.

Suddenly, a loud crashing came from outside. In all actuality it probably wasn't incredibly loud since it didn't wake up my parents or younger sister, but since I was awake and it was dead silent, the crashing sounded like an explosion.

Scurrying out of bed, I rushed to the window to see if I could find the source of the noise. To my surprise, I saw a blue police box on it's side sitting in the middle of our garden. My jaw dropped. Not even bothering to grab my shoes, I bolted downstairs and out the back door. When I got to the garden, the box was still there and it was starting to smoke. I was getting worried that it might explode when the doors flew open. More smoke flooded out of the box and man popped up out of the smoke. He was coughing and gripping the sides to the doorway tightly, as if he was hanging there, but I knew that wasn't possible. The box was shallow enough that nearly anyone could stand and still be able to peer over the top.

I stood frozen as the man pulled himself over the side of the box and plop on the grass, still coughing.

"Are you okay mister?" I asked cautiously.

The man looked up at me and smiled.

"Oh! Hello!" he said, jumping up onto his feet quickly. He reached out his hand and took hold of mine, shaking it quickly. "Is this your garden?"

He let go of my hand as I stuttered, "Uh… I-it's my parents'."

The strange man smiled. "Right! Well, I-"

He was cut off by the smoking box behind him starting to whir and screech like two pieces of metal rubbing together.

"No! No! No!" he shouted and raced back to his machine.

"What is that thing?" I asked, taking a step closer.

The man leapt into the box and disappeared for a few seconds before reappearing with rope and a few odd looking tools.I watched him appear and disappear over and over again until he jumped back out of the box. Then, I asked my question again.

"This is my T.A.R.D.I.S," The man stated proudly. The smoke had stopped pouring out of the box and it was more or less silent.

"What's a T.A.R.D.I.S?" I asked.

"It's my time machine."

I cocked my head to the side. "You have a time machine?"

The man didn't answer. He only gestured towards the big blue box.

I peered around him to get a better look. "If that's a time machine, why does it say 'police'?"

The man ignored my question and said, "Do you have any apples?"

"What?" I asked stupidly.

"Apples," he repeated. "I love apples. They're my favorite. Can I have one?"

"Uh..sure." I lead him inside and to the kitchen. I told him to be quiet so we don't wake my family up.

I grabbed an apple off the kitchen table and handed it to him. He took one bite, then spit it out. "That's rubbish!" he complained, "What is that?"

"It's an apple," I answered.

"I hate apples!" he tossed the apple back on the table and looked back over to me.

"You said you loved them," I argued.

"Ugh! I changed my mind," he said. He looked around the kitchen quickly, scanning for possible food options. "Oh! I love yogurt! Give me yogurt!"

Frowning, I rushed to the fridge and pulled out one of my mum's yogurt cups that she has before work. I didn't think she would notice if one was missing, so I saw no problem in giving him one.

I handed it to him along with a spoon from the drawer in the counter. He ignored the spoon and squeezed the yogurt into his mouth, seeming not to care about the mess dribbling down his chin. He locked eyes with me and I saw his expression shift from pleased to disgusted. It was only a few seconds before he spat the yogurt out as well, shooting it across the room. I ducked out of the way and looked at him, disgusted.

He was too busy gagging and wiping his mouth to notice my disapproving and slightly annoyed expression. "Gah! I hate yogurt! It's just 'stuff' with bits in it!"

This pattern continued as we tried bacon, beans, and bread, each getting a worse reaction than the last. Finally, as we peered in the fridge, the strange man got an idea.

"Oh! I know what I need!" He stepped in front of me and opened the freezer, scanning it quickly. Finally he found what he was looking for and peering into the fridge. "Aha! Here we go! I need fish fingers and custard!" He held up both boxes for me to see, then rushed to the oven to prepare them. Within a few minutes, we were sat at the table. He had his fish sticks on a plate and his custard in a bowl. He dipped the fish sticks in the custard and ate them. It looked disgusting but he seemed satisfied with it. We were silent for a while, then he asked,

"What's your name?"

"Darren Shan," I answered.

"Brilliant!" he said, "I love that name! Darren Shan...like a name from a fantasy story. Are we in England, Darren?"

"Yeah," I said, "just outside Manchester."

The man nodded. "So where are your parents? I thought we would have woken them by now…"

"They're deep sleepers," I explained, "they are hard to wake up."

The man nodded, continuing to eat his strange meal. "Are you scared, Darren Shan?"

I frowned. "No."

"Of course you aren't!" The man laughed, "A box falls out of the sky, a man falls out of the box, a man eats fish custard… and look at you! Just sitting there! And do you know what I think?"

"What?" I asked.

The Doctor stopped eating and locked eyes with me. He said, "You must be one brave boy."

"Who are you?" I asked.

The man smiled. "I'm The Doctor."

And that's how it started. The Doctor had to make repairs on his ship and was there all night. I stayed out there with him, but he wouldn't let me come inside. He said it was too dangerous. I spent the time looking at the sky and trying to imagine how many stars were in the sky. The Doctor came out after a few hours and brushed off his pants.

"There!" he said. "Good as new!"

He looked over and noticed me looking up.

"Darren?" he asked.

I was pulled out of my thoughts and looked at him.

The Doctor smiled. "Do you like looking at the stars?"

I smiled back and nodded.

"Good!" he said. "Do you want to get a closer look?"

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Just a moment!" he said and scurried back to his box, which was still laying on its side. "Let me just make a quick trip to turn her right side up and then you can see what I mean! You're going to want to see this!"

He leapt back in his "time machine" and closed the doors. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, something amazing happened. The T.A.R.D.I.S made a whirring noise and started to disappear! My jaw dropped. Even after the machine disappeared, my face stayed frozen in shock. A few seconds later, the whirring noise came back and the machine slowly reappeared.

The Doctor stepped out, looking smug and pleased with himself.

"How did you do that?!" I cried excitedly.

The Doctor only smiled. "Oh, you haven't seen anything yet. Step inside."

I ran up to the box and peered in. Confused, I rubbed my eyes and looked again. I saw the same thing but still refused to believe it. I stepped inside cautiously. The Doctor came in behind me and shut the doors. I looked around the room, shocked and excited.

"But its-" I stopped, unable to finish.

"Yes," The Doctor prompted, still smiling.

I turned towards The Doctor and said, "It's bigger on the inside!"

"Is it?" The Doctor replied, feigning surprise. "I never noticed. So!" He raced to the council and started pushing buttons and pulling levers. I watched him curiously.

"This machine is very special. It's a time machine, but it's also a spaceship."

"A spaceship?" I repeated.

The Doctor continued to mess around with the council for a few moments, then came back around to where I was standing. He didn't say anything. He walked past me and towards the door. Before reaching it, he turned around and gestured for me to go first. I stepped forward slowly, confused.

"You want to go back outside?" I asked.

The Doctor smiled. "Didn't you listen? This is a spaceship! We've moved."

I felt a smile creep back onto my face and I stepped up to the door. I hesitated before opening it. "What's out there?" I asked The Doctor.

"Look," he ordered, pointing to the door.

Slowly, I opened the door a crack and peered outside. Almost immediately, I slammed the door closed again. I peered over my shoulder at The Doctor, who was smirking at me. I took a deep breath and opened the door again. Outside the T.A.R.D.I.S was nothing but outer space. My eyes were wide. I felt The Doctor step closer behind me and peer over my shoulder.

"We're in space," I whispered in awe.

The Doctor pointed over my shoulder. "Look there," he said, "That star all the way over there, is the Earth."

I smiled. "We're in space," I said, louder this time.

The Doctor laughed. "Yes, we are."

I laughed too, giddy with excitement. Then I looked to The Doctor. "How are we breathing?"

"There's an air pocket outside the ship," The Doctor answered. "It's totally safe."

I don't know how long The Doctor let me just stand there, but as I started to get drowsy, The Doctor took me home, only a few minutes after we left.

We were standing outside in my backyard. The Doctor was leaning against the T.A.R.D.I.S doors with his arms crossed.

"That was so amazing!" I said, "Thank you!"

The Doctor smiled. "You're very welcome. Well, I should be off." He stood straight and turned towards his T.A.R.D.I.S and opened the door partly.

"Wait!" I said. He turned back towards me. I asked, "Will I see you again?"

"Do you want to?" The Doctor asked.

"Well, yeah," I replied, hoping he would say yes.

The Doctor nodded. "Then I guess you will. When do you want me to come back?"

"Tomorrow?" I asked immediately. "10 o'clock at night?"

"Why 10?" he asked.

I answered, "That's when my parents will be asleep."

The Doctor nodded and stepped into his T.A.R.D.I.S. He turned back towards me before shutting the door and said, "Okay. See you then Darren Shan."

The door closed I watched the T.A.R.D.I.S disappear with a wide smile on my face.

And that's how it started.

As promised, The Doctor came back at 10 and he took me away to explore time and space. He took me to see It was a change in my life that I thought was for the better. I thought my life couldn't change any more than it had while traveling with The Doctor. But boy, was I wrong! Only one month later, my best friend, Steve, and I were playing football during recess with our friend, Tommy Jones when Alan Morris ran up to us, panting and red-faced.

"Look what I found!" Alan yelled, waving a soggy piece of paper around under our noses.

"What is it?" Tommy asked, trying to grab it.

"It's-" Alan began, but stopped when Mr. Dalton shouted at us. "You four! Inside!" he roared.

We all rushed inside, not wanting to get in trouble for being late. So, whatever Alan had had to wait. We trudged back to class, sweaty and tired after our football game, and began our next lesson. Little did I know that Alan's mysterious piece of paper was to cause a change in my life bigger than meeting The Doctor. But this change would be for the worse!

It wasn't until our next to last class period that we finally got to see the flyer. It was math class with Mr. Dalton and I had passed a note to Alan asking to see the paper. At first he refused, but I kept passing him notes until he finally gave in. We each saw the flyer in turn. It was easy to pass around since we all sat near each other. I was last to see it. I watched as Tommy and Steve each looked at the paper eagerly and curiosity. Their faces lit up when they read it over. When Steve passed it to me, I soon knew why.

It was a flyer, an advertising pamphlet for some sort of traveling circus. There was a picture of a wolf's head at the top. The wolf had its mouth open and saliva was dripping from its teeth. The bottom were pictures of a spider and a snake, and they looked viscious too.

Just beneath the wolf, in big red capital letters, were the words:

CIRQUE DU FREAK

Underneath, in smaller writing:

FOR ONE WEEK ONLY – CIRQUE DU FREAK!

SEE:

SIVE AND SEERSA – THE TWISTING TWIINS!

THE SNAKE BOY! THE WOLF MAN! GERTHA TEETH!

Larten crepSLEY AND HIS PERFORMING SPIDER – MADAM OCTA!

ALEXANDER RIBS! THE BEARDED LADY! HANS HANDS!

RHAMUS TWOBELLIES – WORLD'S FATTEST MAN!

Beneath all that w as information on where to buy tickets and a message:

Not for the faint-hearted. Certain reservations apply.

I could hardly believe it. A freak show?! I looked to my friends and saw the same excitement that I felt on each of their faces. After school, the four of us met in the courtyard and studied the flyer.

"It's got to be a fake," I said.

"Why?" Alan asked.

"They don't allow freak shows anymore," I told him. "Wolf-men and snake-boys were outlawed years ago."

"How much are tickets?" Steve asked.

"Fifteen pounds each," Alan said.

"Fifteen pounds!" we all shouted.

"None of us have fifteen pounds to throw around," Steve said.

"Are we sure? How much does everyone have?"

We counted all our money and found that we had just over thirty pounds collectively.

"Well, that's that," I said, defeated.

"Maybe not," Steve said. "My mum keeps a wad of money in a jar at home. I could borrow some and put it back when we get our pocket money."

"You mean steal?" I asked.

"I mean borrow," he snapped. It's only stealing if you don't give it back."

We decided that Steve would sneak out that night and buy the tickets so we each rushed home and agreed to meet Steve before school the next day.