Disclaimer: I do not own or take credit for any of the characters, settings, or references directly from the Cirque Du Freak series. The Cirque Du Freak series belongs to Darren Shan and his affiliate's. All Original Characters and settings belong to me.
I ran through the woods as fast as my feet could possibly take me. Every step that I took only caused me more pain; It felt like my lungs were going to explode from within my chest. I only kept running away from those things. They would always chase me through the woods; every night for as long as I can remember they would always chase me. I could hear their bone chilling screams; they were getting closer.
Like every other dream I have had I eventually come to a dead end. I'll be out in the open with nowhere to run or hide. They would come at me; with their corpse like bodies. I could never describe them very easily; no two ever looked the same. Some would have missing limbs, eyes, or even parts of their heads. They would usually have open wounds that never seemed to heal, and no matter how much you ran, they would always catch you in the end.
I came to a dead end, like I always do. I sharply turned around hoping the creatures did not follow; they were moving in around me. I tried to back up but meet only cold stone. The creatures kept moving in until they were completely on top of me.
I shot up in bed, gasping like a fish out of water. I was shaking like a leaf and was covered in cold sweat. I glanced around my room just to make sure nothing had changed since I had fallen sleep a few hours before. I relaxed slightly and wrapped my blankets tightly around me. Every night I had the same dream; I would run, the creatures would chase me, and then they would get a hold of me and kill me. I have always had the same dream for as long as I can remember. It scared the living hell out of me, yet I could never figure out what caused my dream.
I stayed sitting up the rest of the night. I didn't dream again. Morning came and I ended up falling asleep sitting up. The door to my room opened and I shot awake.
"Did you have the dream again Ashton?"
I looked over at the door and found Sophie staring back at me with caring eyes. I nodded and stared at the blankets where my feet were.
Sophie sighed and came over to my bed and placed a comforting hand on my shoulder. "I'll see if Emma can see you today, okay?"
I just nodded and continued to stare off into space. Sophie sighed and brought in my breakfast. I glanced at the tray that was put in front of me. I poked my fork at the waffles that were on my plate.
"Alright, now the doctors gave you an extra pill today because you protein count is a little low." Sophie informed me as she put my pills on my breakfast tray. "I'll be back in a little bit. Make sure you eat everything on your tray."
I ate my breakfast and stared out the window. I couldn't remember when the last time I had been able to go outside on my own. I sighed and sadly stared at the walls of my room until Sophie came back.
"Ashton, Emma said she can see you after lunch today. Is that okay?"
"Yeah that's fine."
"Take your pills dear." Sophie muttered; she handed me a paper cup full of apple juice.
I took all the pills in one hand and popped them into my mouth all at once and drank half of the juice.
Sophie took the cup back and wrote something on my chart. "I'll come get you when Emma is ready to see you." She pushed her cart out of the room, but left the door open.
I glanced at the door contemplating if I should just stay in bed all day. I decided to get up anyway and walk around for a while.
I looked around at the other patients who were leaving their rooms as well. Most were children ranging between five and eighteen years old; there were more young children then there were older children. I was one of the oldest children on the floor; since I was suppose to be turning sixteen again on Friday.
I stopped and stared outside at the falling snow. I had not been outside since I came back to the hospital, I missed having freedom. But I missed being able to see the stars the most; I could see the stars from my room every night. Ever since I moved back to the hospital I cannot see the stars since all the lights from the city make it to bright.
I sighed and kept on walking towards the common area. I entered the common area and shuffled over to the window where I spent most of my time. I leaned against the cold glass wondering if I was ever going to be able to get out of this place. That seemed very unlikely to me at the time. I had already had my taste of freedom from this place a few years ago; unfortunately, I just ended up back where I started again.
"Ashton!" A shrill voice called.
A young blond haired girl came up to me. "What are you doing over here all by yourself?"
"Hey, Ursula."
She sat down next to me and glanced out the window. "Don't worry one day we'll be out there again. And when we get out there we'll be the ones telling everyone else what to do."
"Yeah, I know, I'm just so sick of being stuck in this place."
"You and me both Chicke; won't be to long now until we get out, even if we have to fight our way out."
" For you maybe." I laughed.
Ursula was your typical American girl. She had short blond shaggy hair and bright blue eyes. She was one of the few friends I had; therefore, she was my best friend.
"So what are we gonna do today in our down time Ash?" Ursula chuckled.
"That all depends, what did you have in mind?" I smirked at her.
She thought for a moment before a smile crossed her face; "We could sneak into the nurses' station again. They usually have good stuff in there."
I pondered over the idea. "Ehh, why not, maybe then I can get the stuff they keep confiscating from my packages.
Minutes later we are hiding behind a cluster of large potted plants that sat across from the nurse's station. I peeked out of the plants like an experienced spy; Ursula followed suit. I glanced at her and she crept out of the plants and moved into the crowd of hospital workers. No one seemed to take notice of her and kept going about their business.
Ursula gave me thumbs up before she took a deep breath before she let out a loud and ear slitting scream. Everyone's head flicked to Ursula and the nurses hurried over to her to try and calm her down.
As Ursula continued crying and screaming, I snuck into the nurse's station and closed the door before opening the closet. I saw the usual items, homemade and probably stale desserts of multiple kinds, notebooks, paper, pens, books, and even porn magazines. I grabbed a porno magazine and flipped though it with mild interest; after a second or to I dropped it back into the box and kept looking.
I found a pen set that I was absolutely positive that Annabelle had sent to me; I quickly pocketed it and kept on looking. I found a large box filled with different varieties of candy and chocolates. I grabbed handfuls of loose candy and pulled out a couple boxes of expensive chocolates. I found a few comic books and even snagged few porn magazines just out of interest. After taking numerous other random objects, I grabbed and empty bag from inside the closet and filled it with my spoils before slipping out of the station.
Once outside I gave Ursula the signal and headed back to my room.
Ursula stopped her fake crying and crazy rants almost immediately. "I feel much better now." And she skipped off down the hall leaving behind a very confused nursing staff.
Once back in my room we began to look though all of the stuff I had grabbed.
Ursula was greedily sucking on a lollypop and looking though a male porn magazine. I had found a box of Pocky and munched on a few sticks while reading The Grapes of Wrath that I had grabbed.
Ursula flipped through the porn magazine till she found a pull out page and she looked at it and snorted. "Can you believe guys actually get off on this crap? I mean seriously is this sexy?" She shoved the page into my face. It was a vaginal shot of a large breasted brunette; her legs were spread wide and she was rubbing her hand along her pussy, while her other hand was groping her breast.
I glanced at it and shrugged before returning to my book. "Whatever gets you off." I didn't really care that much about porn at the moment. I only grabbed it because sometimes there would be woman's porn within the contraband items; but this month nothing, I mainly grabbed it for laughs or if I just felt horny later on one night and needed something to get the juices flowing.
Ursula continued to look though the porn magazine and she kept flipping back to the pullout page with the brunette. She eventually called dibs on the magazine and looked through the rest of the items.
I read a little more of my book before I got bored with it and grabbed the pen set and put it into the nightstand next to my bed. I looked through the magazines and found a copy of Cosmopolitan I grabbed it and flipped through it to the main article.
Ursula let out a laugh and I glanced up at her. She was holding a box of condoms. "Wonder why these are hiding amongst the candy?" She smirked and quirked and eyebrow.
I laughed and went back to the article; 'Give your man the best orgasm he has ever had', I read the article before I snorted and tossed it back into the pile. I glanced at Ursula to find her playing with one of the condoms; stretching it to the farthest of its capabilities.
"There's really nothing all that good in here this month," Ursula complained.
"Sorry, I was a little bit crunched on time. That was the worst crying fit I have ever seen you pull."
"What! No it wasn't!" She cried, trying to defend herself.
I gave her a skeptical look.
"Alright it wasn't my best performance, okay?" She admitted. She grabbed another porn magazine and flipped through it.
I shook my head at my friend and grabbed a porn magazine. I flipped open to the middle of it to find a collection of naked men. I quickly stuffed that one into my nightstand before Ursula noticed.
After a while we got bored with the spoils and tossed most of the rest of the magazines, books, and stale candy into the trash can in the common area.
"Well that was kinda a waste of time." I mumbled more to myself.
"Yeah," Ursula agreed, "At least we killed some time, oh and you better let me borrow the magazine you took." She smirked at me as she saw my expression.
I blushed slightly but nodded my head. I silently said goodbye to the porn magazine that I had tried to save for myself; whenever Ursula knew I had porn she would take it from me and end up not giving it back. I never bothered asking for any of them back, half of the time I didn't think I'd want then back.
I flopped back into my usual seat and stared out the window again. Ursula sat down next to me and leaned back; staring at the ceiling.
"I wish this place wasn't so goddamn boring" I groaned.
"Yeah, seriously."
As if a switch had been flipped the hands of destiny started to move. I could have sworn I had heard a horrid ticking noise in the back of my skull as that person walked through the door. Time seemed to stand still as I truly saw this person for the first time. This person would not only shape my destiny but he would also help to destroy it as well. Who would have thought that by meeting that one particular vampire, my life would change just from one encounter?
My world would never be the same after that moment; I just didn't know it yet.
