A/N: To my loyal readers, don't worry. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi hasn't been abandoned. I've just got really bad writer's block at the moment. Which is kind of ironic considering it started out as the story that I always turned to when I had writer's block on other things. There is a half-written chapter sitting on my laptop but, honestly, I'm not sure when I'll finish it.
This is the product of rewatching The Lost Boys recently for the umpteenth time, binging on fanfiction, listening to old school P!ATD and The Dresden Dolls, and procrastinating on finishing a 20-page paper that's the only thing keeping me from graduating from my MA programme.
Enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: Everything you recognise belongs to Warner Bros., Joel Schumacher, Janice Fischer, James Jeremias and Jeffrey Boam. Everything else is mine.
Rated 'M' for strong language and, well, vampire stuff.
After barely surviving the summer, the boys are more than eager for things to go back to the way they were; before the Emersons, before Star and Laddie, and before Max had the convoluted notion that they needed a mother. Unfortunately for them, the summer held one more surprise. Freaks, thrills, magic, and a secret Max had thought he'd left behind – the circus is coming to town…
Heathens
Edgar Frog eyed the girl who'd walked into his store with open mistrust. It wasn't often that they had customers of the female variety wandering through their doors. Everything about her was meant to catch the eye; from her flaming, bottle red hair, to the colourful tattoos covering almost every inch of skin he could see, with the exception of her face. She was also carrying a stack of flyers in her hands and something rolled up under her arms.
"Excuse me?"
He frowned. Across the store, his brother, Alan, caught his eye. They left the comic books they had been sorting through and approached the girl together, presenting a united front against an unknown enemy.
The girl seemed unfazed and smiled brightly at them.
"Hi!"
"Are you looking for anything in particular?" Edgar grunted whilst Alan returned her greeting with a curt nod.
She laughed.
"Nah, comics aren't really my thing. Remy would love this place though. Actually I was just wondering if you guys would mind putting up a couple of posters for us? And maybe I could leave some flyers too?"
'Us' turned out to be a travelling sideshow, Le Cirque des Ténèbres. The black and white posters were beautifully illustrated, boasting of such thrill acts as Ignatius the Fire Eater, Jasna the Sword Swallower and something called the Globe of Death. And then there were the more unusual attractions, such as Fillin the Wolfman, Kakra and Zesiro the Siamese twins, and –
"That one's me!" The girl pointed excitedly at the illustrated banner with the name 'Generys the Painted Lady' splashed across it. And then she pulled a face as a thought occurred to her. "It's a burlesque act though, so I don't think they'll let you guys in. But all the shows in the cirque are amazing so it's all right if you can't get into a couple."
Neither Frog brother quite knew how it happened, but between the girl telling them about her act and shooting them dazzling grins, they somehow ended up with three large posters on their hands and about a hundred flyers. She threw them another smile over her shoulder as she skipped out of the store.
"I guess I'll see you guys around!"
They never even got the chance to offer her a copy of Vampires Everywhere!.
Getting impaled had hurt like a bitch. He could recall it vividly; what it felt like as the antlers pierced through his back and burst out of his chest, narrowly missing his heart. It was the first time anyone had come close to killing him since he'd been turned, and it was not an experience he was keen on repeating any time soon.
They barely made it out of that house that night. He still had no idea how Max had survived. All he remembered was waking up back in the cave; Marko right where they had left him, surrounded by the corpses of the three Surf Nazis they'd brought to him before they'd gone to lay siege on the Emersons. Paul had looked like he'd been soaking in an acid bath. It took him a full week to recover and he was still pissed about it. Dwayne hadn't fared any better.
In the month since that fateful night, the Emersons had packed up and left town, taking Star and Laddie with them. Max had somehow recovered faster than all of them and, as much as they hated to admit it, had taken care of the four of them during those first few days when they were too weak to leave the cave to feed.
Max had managed to keep the video store running in his absence too, though he hadn't been seen in public since that night. The boys had been instructed to avoid the boardwalk and had been resorting to feeding off the drunk and high stragglers they found along the beach. No one mentioned the fact that it seemed like they were hiding.
"Fuck this shit!"
David looked up from the book he'd been reading, not at all surprised to find that Marko had been the first to crack. He had been the first to fully heal and therefore had been the one who had to contend with boredom for the longest. Paul let out a bark of laughter from where he has lying on the edge of the fountain, blowing smoke rings. Dwayne ignored them all, jerking the switchblade he'd been messing with out of the surfboard he'd been using for target practice. He'd gotten quieter since Laddie left.
"I'm sick and tired of this," complained Marko, chucking the Super Ball he'd been playing with across the cave. It rebounded violently, flying past David's head, missing him by a hair's breadth. Paul rolled off the fountain, crawled over to him, and rested his head in his lap, pouting.
"It's been a month," the blonde whined. "I'm going to die of boredom if we don't do something."
"You're immortal, idiot," said David, pushing Paul off of him. He glared at the younger vampire, flicking off the errant bits of ash that had landed on his jeans. Paul grinned unrepentantly up at him, his joint dangling from between his teeth.
"Come on, oh fearless leader," Paul wheedled. "Michael's gone. It's only those kids from the comic book store left. We can handle them! I don't get why Max is being so paranoid."
"Well, maybe it's because those would-be hunters actually came this close to killing us," David snapped.
Paul's brow creased in annoyance.
"Yeah, but they had a half-vampire on their side. And they'd booby trapped that house, man!"
"They didn't booby trap anything. They were prepared."
"Yeah, well, now it's two of them versus the four of us. Doesn't matter how prepared they are. It's not like they can vampire-proof the entire boardwalk."
"Come on, David," chimed in Marko, plopping himself down next to Paul. He reached over and snatched the joint from his lips, ignoring the other blonde's complaints.
David leaned back in his wheelchair, sighing. He looked over to Dwayne. The dark haired vampire shrugged, rolling his switchblade from hand to hand.
"If you think about it," he said, "the last time we listened to Max, we almost died. And we lost family."
David wouldn't really have called Star part of the family. Sure, it'd been nice having her around, when she wasn't being all conflicted about having to kill someone to complete her transition. She had been pretty to look at, but way more trouble than she was worth. And if he really thought about it, everything that had happened to them had been her fault too. If she had just killed Michael like he had wanted her to, the boy would've never been able to lead his little brother and those hunters back to their cave. So, yeah, Star wasn't really family.
Laddie on the other hand…
David snapped his book shut and smirked at his brothers.
"Well if that's how everyone's feeling, who am I to say no?"
Five minutes later found them tearing through the woods on their bikes at breakneck speed. David would've denied it if anyone asked him, but he'd actually missed this. Flying was all well and good, but few things beat the feel of a roaring engine between his legs.
Well, all right, he could think of two.
Paul whooped with delight as they pulled up at the boardwalk, brimming with excitement and a month's worth of pent up energetic mischief. Marko laughed as the taller blonde nearly tripped over himself as he eagerly dismounted his bike.
"Smooth, man."
Even Dwayne seemed amused by Paul's antics, coming the closest to smiling since that train wreck of a night. David felt an unconscious weight lift from his shoulders.
The boardwalk hadn't changed at all. The same old rides, same old stores, same old vendors, same old tourists; it was comfortably familiar. Music drifted over from the bandstand, somehow complimenting the shrill, repetitive jingles from the different rides. Some of the regulars had noticed their arrival and were staring with open curiosity and wariness.
"Feels good to be back!" Paul exclaimed, throwing his arms out and nearly hitting a passing tourist in the face.
Marko ran up and jumped on his back, the both of them howling in laughter as they stumbled through the crowd, heading towards the lights and sounds and a more populated area. David and Dwayne followed at a more sedate pace. Reaching into his back pocket for his pack of cigarettes, Dwayne offered one to David, unsurprised when he took two, tucking the extra one behind his ear to save for later.
"You good?" David asked around his cigarette as he lit up before tossing the other boy his lighter. Dwayne grunted, which David supposed was the best response he could expect from him.
The first indication they had that things on the boardwalk weren't quite as normal as they had thought was the lack of a line at any of the rides. The audience around the bandstand was a lot smaller than it usually was too. There were people milling around, but they didn't seem to be heading towards the usual attractions. In fact, everyone seemed to be heading in the direction of the parking lot behind the Giant Dipper. It was as they were walking past Max's video store that David spotted the poster. And once Paul and Marko realised that there was a circus in town, there really was no other option but to go check it out.
A temporary village of camper vans, tents, makeshift booths and miniature stages had been set up in the large parking lot behind the Dipper. But what commanded attention was the big top that had been erected at the far end of the lot. The enormous tent boasted green and purple stripes and had numerous flags blowing in the wind above it. All the other tents, booths and stages had been set up in such a way that they formed a main thoroughfare leading towards the entrance of the big top. It was towards this entrance that the crowd was streaming.
"Tickets please."
A giant of a man stood at the entrance of the big top, collecting tickets and pointing those without tickets in the direction of the ticketing booths. The boys grinned at each other conspiratorially and veered off the thoroughfare, ducking between two shabbier looking tents.
They wandered around for a good five minutes without bumping into anyone. It looked like all the circus folk had themselves gathered under the big top, probably getting ready for that night's show. Coming up to the side of the main tent, the boys started kicking at the bottom of the canvas, trying to find a spot that wasn't stretched taut that they could crawl under.
"Help me out here," Paul hissed at Dwayne as he found a spot he deemed worthy for their illicit entrance. Dwayne rolled his eyes but went over to help him lift up the canvas anyway. Paul had wiggled halfway through the small gap between canvas and dirt when a voice sounded behind them.
"You know there are easier ways to get in."
David looked over his shoulder to find a young boy watching them with a snake draped over his shoulders. He quirked a brow at this and, when the boy noticed, he returned the gesture. The boy snorted as Paul scrambled up from the ground, dusting himself off and glaring at him.
"So you gonna call security?" asked David.
"Do I need to?" the boy responded, scratching the top of the snake's head. He eyed each Lost Boy in turn before returning his attention to David. "You guys here for the show?"
David shrugged.
"We're just curious."
The boy nodded, as if he'd expected that answer, and turned on his heels.
"Well come on then."
The boy led them further down along the tent to a barely visible slit in the canvas. The overlapping flaps blended seamlessly with the rest of the stripes and if the boy hadn't pulled one of them to the side, they would've never really noticed the entrance, even with enhanced vampire vision.
"You want to keep to the right. That'll take you to the back of the bleachers around the ring. Mr. Belteshazzar should be getting ready for the top of the show so you guys should be fine."
"Who?" asked Marko.
"He's our ringmaster. Trust me, you don't want to run into him back here."
Paul was the first to slip between the canvas, followed by Marko and then Dwayne. David paused with his hand on the canvas flap, looking back at the boy who was idly petting his snake as he watched them disappear into the darkness of the tent. The boy grinned toothily and nodded his head encouragingly. As he ducked into the tent and the canvas silently slipped back down behind him, he heard a giggle and the boy whisper.
"Welcome to the cirque."
A/N: So what do you guys think? As usual, I love hearing from you. What did you like? What did you hate?
The rest of the chapters should be a little longer. We get introduced to our main OC in the next one, though she is mentioned in this chapter. I haven't decided on a pairing for this yet, though I'm leaning towards either David/OC or Paul/OC. Guess we'll see where my muse leads me.
Also, I'm open to title suggestions, if anyone can think of a better one. Obviously the current one comes from Never, Never Land, but I'm not really happy with that. Suggest something and if I pick it, I'll credit you at the top of each chapter in my disclaimer.
Love,
Scribbles
EDITED: 15/11/2016