Prologue
"Wake Up." 9 year old Amber Aurore Lune heard her loving older brother Adrian whispering in her ear. As she opened her eyes they were burned by the sunlight outside their tent. She rolled over and moaned in annoyance, "Turn the sun out it's too bright." "Come on Kidd, it's already noon, what are you going to do, sleep all day?"
Kidd was the nickname given to her by her older brother randomly all of her life, she never knew why he called her that, she never asked, but he never called her by her real name, she was always just Kidd. "That was my intentions." She replied covering her face with her pillow. "Ah come on Kidd, it's a nice day outside. Someone your age should be out playing, not inside sleeping all day." Adrian urged her.
"There's no one to play with." She argued now pulling her blankets tighter over her body. Adrian sneered, yanking them off of her and throwing them behind him. "Hey!" She shouted jumping up. "No more sleeping." He said sternly yet still with that playful Adrian look on his face, and as always no matter how much she didn't want to seeing that typical look of Adrian's face made her let loose in laughter which only grew worse after he tickled her vigorously.
"Come on Kidd, get dressed and come outside, we've just made camp." Adrian ordered. "Ok." She agreed as he walked out of the tent, giving her privacy. She dressed in her brother's hammy downs, most people in her time saw it as typically inappropriate for girls to be wearing pants instead of dresses, but Amber just never felt right in a dress they were uncomfortable and hard to move in. When she was younger her parents tried to force her into wearing them, but she would always just rip them off. She hated them at an early age and realizing this they decided to pass on her brother's hammy downs to her. Adele and Acelin Lune were two very good natured and accepting parents. Then again they had to be.
Outside the sun was at it's warmest and brightest peak of the day, and her eyes were once again burned to the core as she stepped out of the tent. All around several freaks were setting things up for tonight's show. "So guess where we are." Adrian said. Amber looked around her for clues, there were lots of tree's everywhere, they seemed to be making camp in a very woodsy area. Then again, this was the typical place to make camp in. Freaks were not accepted by most people. Freak Shows them-selves were actually illegal in most places in the world. Causing many of them to have to hide in secrecy.
"I don't know." She replied. Adrian smiled and took his little sister's hand in his own, "Let's go for a walk."
Beyond the woods they came to a wide opening with many grey stoned buildings around them. The aroma smelt of freshly baked bread and the air around sounded of beautiful music coming from the Paris Opera House. "You don't recognize this place do you?" Adrian questioned leaning over to look Amber in her adoring bright moon lit blue eyes. "I don't remember ever being here before, but this place, it's beautiful." She replied her voice letting off an immediate awe as she gazed upon the town in pure amazement. "Well you haven't been here since you were a baby." Adrian said, "We're in Paris Kidd, It's where you were born."
Amber smiled in astonishment, how could she have been born in such a beautiful place? Adrian proceeded on to spending the rest of the daylight hours with his little sister exploring the city of Central Paris. Seeing sights such as the Place de la Concorde, the famous Rue Saint-Honore, Place de la Madeleine, Place Vendome and the Colonne de la Grand Armee.
Bit by bit Amber became more and more fascinated with her birthplace. Her favorite was the last place they stopped by, the Paris Opera house. They didn't stay long, they just sat on the steps and listen to the orchestra rehearsing which could be heard all the way out side the doors. Amber felt a strange fascination to the music, it caressed her in a way she couldn't explain. She wanted to stay there forever. It was the most inspiring feeling she'd ever experienced.
Once the sunset came they headed back toward the cirque to help their parents get ready for the show. Their parents Adele and Acelin Lune worked for the Cirque de Mal, a traveling freak show that circled around the world. They themselves were not freaks, but their parents had a strange powers that no one could explain. Not even they could explain it. It was an odd mystery that no one could ever solve.
They returned to the Cirque right at the point in time where the moon was finally peaking out from the clouds. This meant that the show would be opening soon and the area would be swarmed with both fascinated and terrified people of all ages. There was now a banner up in front of the entrance to the long woodsy trail that lead to the freaks. It was painted black and red stripes and in blood like letters it read "Cirque de Mal." The Lune's well known old friend Quatre Yeux (an overweight midget with four eyes) stood waiting by the banner with a bottle of rum in one hand and a cigar in the other. "Hey kids." His husky voice greeted them as he took a hit of his cigar. "Hello Quatre Yeux." Adrian responded, patting the short man's bald head, "Waiting for the people to arrive I suppose?" "Yeah I'm selling the tickets." He replied.
"Seeing a sight like you right before the show might scare them all away. You think Achille would put someone with tad better features to the job?" James Morris, the rubber man himself, joked around smacking Quatre Yeux shoulder. James was known as "the rubber man" by people from different countries around the world. He was one of the cirque's main attractions. He had super stretchy skin that could stretch out over 6 feet. One of his famous acts was pulling the skin of his neck up, over, and around his entire face.
"Ah shut up." Quatre Yeux replied taking another hit from his cigar. "Adrian, Amber, your parents are looking for you." James informed the two. "Thanks James." They both said heading for their parents tent.
When they first arrived their mother was getting her make up ready for the show. Her act involved her looking as beautiful and as lustful as a goddess. Adele had a strange power and a beautiful voice. She used her voice to sing people into a trance. A trance that was almost inescapable, once you had fallen into it you were paralyzed and trapped within the walls of your own mind. This is when she intruded, seeing every precious, pure, or evil thought that you had ever considered. She performed her bit by having a volunteer from the audience come on stage. She chose this volunteer by singing the whole audience into a trance and closely examining their minds. Once she found the one with the weakest immunity to her voice she summoned them to her. After they were on the stage she went through their memories and gave a short summary of the person's entire life up until that moment aloud, turning it all into a song. A strong key element to her power was the lust men felt and the awe women did when they saw her beautiful body, it made them more vulnerable to her. So when she came on stage she wore reveling clothing and danced in somewhat sexual ways for a short while before she began to sing.
"Darlings!" Adele's voice lifted the room as she sang rushing to her children to embrace them, "Where on earth have you two been?" "We explored Paris, mother!" Amber announced proudly. "Did you?" She smiled wiping Amber's long black hair away from her shining moon lit blue eyes (that she did inherit from Adele.) Their mother gazed up at Adrian who's seven teen year old body slightly towered over her. "Do consult us before you run off with your sister next time dear." She requested, emphasizing the before in the sentence, "Your father and I have been worried."
"There they are." Their tall blond haired father, Acelin said as he entered. "Acelin could you please light this candle for me, it's a bit dark in here." Adele asked, holding up the candle. Acelin smiled and took the candle into his own hands and then gently blew a small flame from his mouth to the wick. A mystery the earth could not explain was that this was a power that Acelin had, he had all his life. The same power that got him to where he worked for the cirque, the very place where he fell in love with Adele. Strangely enough Adrian nor Amber had inherited anything of the nature from their parents. They were two perfectly normal human beings.
What seemed like hundreds of horror-hungry people crowded around the stage waiting anxiously for the curtain to rise. On most nights Adrian and Amber would not bother to watch the show, since they'd already seen it so many times. But the excitement of being back in Paris kept them awake. They sat in the front row conversing with themselves and others around them, not letting off that their parents were freaks just for the fun of it. They made up a story that they were two siblings who sneaked out to see the show. It did start at midnight and last hours on after all.
Suddenly a shadow behind the curtain stepped on to the stage and a dark, scratchy, voice announced, "Ladies and Gentleman, what you are about to see may just be the most terrifying, amazing, extraordinary experience you may ever experience. You about to encounter on some of the world's most astonishing, sickening, and beautiful people ever born. I give you, the Cirque de Mal!" The curtain rose with tremendous applause reveling the leader of the Cirque, Achille Gardien wearing his bright red suite, complete with cape and top hat. Achille was a hero among the cirque. He him-self was not a freak, but without him many freaks would have no place to call home. He spent all the money he earned from selling tickets to the show taking care of it's key components, which mainly consisted of the freaks themselves. He fed them and clothed them, and paid them the amount of money they deserved for their performances.
Achille took a bow, and then rose up to announce the first act, "Our first freak is in all words and best described as a freak of nature himself, half human, half elephant! I give you, Joseph Merrick, the elephant man!" Amber and Adrian did not applaud, Joseph was an angry old man that did not like children. He often swore at them from his cabin when ever they passed him. He entered the stage and some screamed while others applauded as they gazed upon his large tusk and elephant nose and ears. The kids rolled their eyes in annoyance but then smiled as their good friend Myrtle Corbin, the four legged girl, came on stage to join Joseph Merrick.
Then, before Joseph and Myrtle could have enough time to get into their act, a group of red cloaked people broke the doors in, intruding. There appeared to be 10 or more of them with their faces hid by their red hoods. Suddenly, before their very eyes, Joseph Merrick was shot in the chest, blood seeping out through his vest, he held his hand to it for a moment, but it was too late Joseph was a man in his late 80's he'd been performing for the cirque since it'd began, he simply was not in a good enough health to live a bullet to his heart, he fell over on the stage and died in front of the audience.
Myrtle screamed at this sight and started to run away, but she was next. The audience was next to scream in terror and run away, and the cloaked ones let them pass. The one with the gun appeared to be the leader. "You vile abominations are not welcome in this town! Your sickening and repulsive ways are therefore worthy of death. Go back to hell you demons!" He screamed, as he and his followers threw their torches in the air, everything around them caught fire and the ones in the red cloaks left. "Kidd we have to run!" Adrian said taking her hand. They sprinted frantically around the large circus tent searching for an escape avoiding the flames as best they could, but soon enough they grew larger and larger, their lives were in more danger every second spent trying to find a way out. Every way they thought of was blocked by the flames. Then suddenly Adrian looked up. The flames weren't high enough yet to burned through the top of the tent. He paused for split second and in that time had a short flashback from when he was eight years old and Kidd was born.
He remember his father telling him that he had a little sister now and he had to always look out for her and protect her, that same day, Acelin passed on a knife to him that had been in the family for generations. Ever since that day he'd carried it with him everywhere, if only he could climb to the top and cut through the cloth. It was the only escape. He searched around looking for a way, and then he saw it, the ladder hanging from the top of the stage, it was there for one of the acts. The stage had caught fire but they could get around it just to get to the ladder! Adrian pulled Amber with him to the stage and lifted her on his shoulders after handing her the knife and instructed her what to do. No later than when she reached the first step of the ladder, Adrian's leg caught fire and fell to the ground in pain.
Quickly she grasped the step holding herself up, "Adrian!" She cried out reaching her other hand out, but it was too late. Fighting back tears she knew she had to escape, she climbed the ladder and when she finally reached the last step she cut through the cloth and climbed through. Outside there was a massacre. Fire everywhere, burning the freaks life away. Dead bodies lie on the ground, flaming tree's falling on cabins and tents.
The hooded ones started an open fire, shooting everyone in sight. There was blood everywhere. Amber stared in horror, tears falling like water falls from her moon lit blue eyes. Then a familiar face came around. It was James holding out his arms, "Amber! Jump!" She hesitated afraid of a bad fall, but then looked around her, the space in which she stood was growing less safe by the minute. She closed her eyes, sucking up her tears and fear and jumped out as far as she could, landing in James's arms. He feel down from the gravitation and as soon as he did he was shot in the head by one of the red hooded men. Amber screamed and ran away. Everyone around her was dying, what was happening. Who were these people?
She ran out into the city away from the cirque. She stopped and halted unsure of her-self. Where would she go? She had to hide and fast, but where? She couldn't take too much time to think about this, what if they were coming for her? Amber lost track of though and ran as fast as her legs could carry her through Paris.
Almost subconsciously she ended up at the Opera House. She didn't know why she came here at all. There was still a late opera going on and like before you could hear the music playing outside. On the steps of the main entrance she rested, sobbing over everything that had happened. What would she do? Where were her parents, were they ok? So many questions filled her young mind that it was overwhelming her. That night sitting on the steps of the opera house, she cried herself to sleep.