Snake Boy and Fish Girl

By: Cookiemonster328

Disclaimer: I don't own the Cirque Du Freak series or Evra (no matter how much I wish I did. Haha (:

I glared up through the water at the lock that was hooked firmly on the outside of my Plexiglas box. If it wasn't for that stupid lock I would have run away long ago. Living in a box filled with water isn't very fun. I breathed in some water and huffed out a silent sigh then watched the bubbles that held that sigh as they drifted to the top of the box and popped. I looked over to the cage next to my box and gave the boy in the cage a half smile. His name is Evra, he has been my best friend since I can't remember when. We met at an orphanage that found him in a dumpster and found me on their doorstep. He was green and scaly and I had webbed fingers and toes and could breathe underwater.

We started off as acquaintances, we'd smile at each other in the halls and all that because we were both different and strange. But we really started being friends when the playground incident happened. I had been on the swing when all of a sudden I was pushed out of it mid-swing and I had fallen flat on my stomach. "Hey freak," an older kid spit at me. "You think just because you have webbed toes you're any better then the rest of us?" He snarled. I shook my head no, my eyes wide with fear. "Well good cause soon you won't be any different then the rest of us," he smiled smugly and pulled out a pocket knife. I tried to run but he grabbed my arm. I was still struggling and he said, "Don't do that. You're just gonna end up hurting yourself more." Then he cut the thin, translucent layer of skin that attached my pointer and middle finger to one another. I screamed, "Stop that! Shut up!" The boy yelled. "Crap." He muttered to himself as we heard footsteps that were quickly coming this way. The boy threw me down on the ground. He ran away, afraid of getting caught. The scaly, green boy appeared seemingly out of nowhere, "Hey are you okay? I heard someone screaming and-" he stopped mid-sentence as he saw my hand. "Oh crap, we need to get you to the nurse," he said and grabbed the hand that wasn't hurt. "I-I'm okay." I mumbled. I was shy and didn't talk a lot so whenever I did talk it was usually in a mumble. "Yeah, sure you are," he said with bitter sarcasm, "Do you see your hand?" By now we were at the nurses office. He knocked on the door. "Yes?" Asked the lady that appeared at in the doorway a few seconds later. "My friend hurt her hand really bad. I don't know what happened but can you fix it?" He asked. "I can try," she replied, "have a seat on that cot over there." Evra led me to the cot, I hopped up on it. "Thank you for escorting her but I can take care of her from here, okay?" she said to Evra. "Okay," he said, "see you later... Umm what's your name again?" "Kimi." I replied with a smile. "Okay, see you later Kimi." he said with a wave.

Long story short the nurse stitched up my hand and after a while it got better. After that Evra and I were inseparable for a while. Then the orphanage got tight on money. I knew that there had been people who had come to the orphanage wanting to buy Evra but I never thought, no matter how tight money got, that the orphanage would ever actually sell him. But they did. They sold Evra for money that we would have been fine without. But of course the owner of the orphanage didn't learn from her mistakes and got the orphanage in debt again. No one had set an offer on me yet. But the owner of the orphanage knew about me being able to breathe underwater and sold me to the same man Evra was sold to.

I had been so happy to see him again, I had smiled at him the first day I got to this place and he recognized me and smiled sadly at me. That first day I hadn't understood why he was sad but as time wore on I figured it out.

Foot steps headed toward my box shook me out of my flash back. "Good night my little money making freaks," said the host of the freak show Evra and I were in as he turned out the lights. He was a nasty man who was severely lacking in the maternal and hygienic departments. Eventually I feel into a restless sleep.

I woke very slowly the next morning. I stretched out, well as much as one can in a box, and rubbed the stiffness out of my neck. I smiled a good morning at Evra then yawned. I stopped yawning and did a double take at Evra's cage. Evra wasn't there. The cage was empty, the only sign that he had ever been there were the scales that he had shed, lying on the bottom of the cage. He's dead, my mind whispered to me in horror. No, Evra can't be dead. He's probably just doing a show or something. He wouldn't leave me alone.

I waited that whole day and night for Evra to come back. He never did. I cried and cried. None of my tears mattered though. Tears couldn't bring back Evra.

It has been two years since Evra died. I miss him a lot but at least now he doesn't have to deal with the caretakers cruelty. That disgusting, sleazy man only got worse when Evra died. I get fed less because with out 'The Amazing Snake Boy' he just has 'The Incredible Fish Girl' so less people come to shows which means he makes less money. Less money means less food and more getting yelled at for not being 'interesting enough' as he puts it. I hate him. I hate him and his stupid show and all the idiots out there who pay to see children put on display and made to look like freaks. So far today I've only had breakfast and I've been beaten multiple times. I look over at the clock on the far side of the room. Eight thirty, it reads. It's past dinner time. I guess I'm not getting dinner either. My stomach growls at the thought of no food and I just go to sleep so I can shut out the world and its sick cruelty.

I felt a big hand pulling me out of the water and shaking me gently. I blinked sleepily, from the shoulders up I was out of the stupid accursed box. My ears popped from the difference in pressure. I was being lifted out of the water and set on the ground. I had been in water so long that I was shaky and stumbled so I just slid down the side of the tank into a heap at the floor near what once was my prison. As my eyes adjusted and I blinked the water out of them I could see the man better. He was very tall, especially from the ground. His mouth curved downward in what seemed to be a permanent frown. Like he had seen to much of the world to be able to smile anymore. But despite the hard downward curve to his mouth is eyes harbored kindness. A comfort I had seldom known. "Hello, I'm Mister Tall. I'm going to help you get away from the man that used to be your care taker." He whispered but I had been in the water so long that I still cringed away from the small noise involuntarily. I looked behind him noticing a heap in the corner. It was the man who took care of me. No, used to take care of me. I then realized that he was dead. Living people don't fold like that. Their necks don't bend in the way that his was. I felt a bittersweet pang of happiness and guilt. He deserved it and was a terrible person but it was my fault that he died. It was because I was a freak that he had died. "I'm sorry," I muttered in a voice that was hoarse from not being used. "Sorry for what?" Mr. Tall asked me. "I'm sorry that you can't take me with you. I'm a freak. Freaks don't get to be happy. If we were happy then other people would feel uncomfortable because efforts were being wasted on mess ups." I whispered, blinking away what must have been left over water from the tank. "No," Mr. Tall said, anger coloring his words, "You're not a freak. You are just different." I wanted to believe him but found it impossible. "Okay," I mumbled not wanting to argue with this man who wanted to save me from the cage I belonged in. "Come with me," He said, helping me up and draping a jacket across my shoulders. "Okay," I said and slipped my hand into his, afraid of the world outside of my little Plexiglas box that had been my home and prison for the past four years.

I tucked my dark brown hair behind my ear, a nervous habit. Today was my first day at the camp. My mind was a huge jumble of thoughts but the one that was most important kept repeating in my mind like a broken record. It was 'Don't make eye contact. They'll think you're staring.' I knew these people wouldn't like me looking at them, they'd think I was judging them even though most of them are probably more normal then I am.

I was headed to do chores, everyone in the camp had to do them. It kept the camp functioning properly. Today I was supposed to help someone named Evra or Ezra or something get food for the little people, when I had first heard the name I had hoped it was the Evra I had known but I squashed stupid hopes like that immediately. I didn't like the little people. They bite your hands and make you feel guilty when you save your hands from being skinned by their teeth. As I said before I was going out side of the camp today but since it was my first day I couldn't really tell where I was. I looked up just in time to see that I was about to collide with something greenish. I held my hands up in front of my face to protect it, because around here you can never be to safe when you don't know what you're running into. I closed my eyes and heard an oof kind of noise. I felt something scaly and warm as I opened my eyes. "Oh," I said with surprise as I realized that I had run to someone. Someone scaly and green and who obviously thought shirts weren't necessary. I blinked and looked up into a pair of snake-like eyes. "Umm, I'm sorry," I muttered shyly as I backed up realizing how close I was. "My name's Kimi. I'm kinda new here. Do you know where I could find Ezra or Evra? I'm not sure which it actually is. I'm not very good with names," I said quickly and nervously. "Well you kinda just ran right into him, and it's Evra" He replied. "Oh, well I think we're supposed to go get food and stuff for the little people, right?" I asked with a huge smile because he is the Evra I knew. But it made me sad that he didn't remember me. "Yea," he said, "but you were going the wrong way," "Oh, oops," I mumbled and tucked my hair behind my ear. "It's okay. The gates this way," He said and started heading back the way I had come.

Okay so if you ever go anywhere and get to choose your chores don't pick to get food for little people. Or cleaning the Wolfman's cage; I heard that's not fun either. I was going back to my tent because it was insanely cold and I didn't want to be outside. I was still following Evra who had obviously lost his fondness for shirts even though it was cold enough that I was shivering and I could see my breath. He turned around and looked at me, "If you're cold shouldn't you be going back to your tent instead of following people like a lost puppy?"

"I am going to my tent, it's the same way you're going so I kind of have to follow you." I mumbled, looking at the ground and walking past him.

"Well don't get lost," he said and went into the tent next to mine. I wondered if that was his tent but figured that all the karma I've built up wouldn't let me be lucky like that and have the only guy I knew in the tent next to mine.

Turns out that karma was feeling quite nice. I later found out that Evra's tent was the one next to mine. It seemed like every time he spoke to me or smiled at something I did or said I felt something that felt like a bunch of... well squiggles that made a home in my stomach, that's the best way I can describe it. I wanted to tell him or the camp nurse about my case of what I'd diagnosed as tummy squiggles. I didn't tell Evra because every time I thought about telling him the squiggles started acting up and my face would turn red and feel feverish, almost like when I had to speak in front of the class at the orphanage but not exactly the same feeling.

I was at the campfire in the center of the tents. Lartin, his half vampire, and Lartin's new mate, Candra were all there. Loafhead, Evra, and I were also there. There were also a few others but I hadn't learned their names yet. I was sitting with Evra on my right and Candra to the left of me. She was asleep on Lartin's shoulder. I was getting tired but I had bet Evra that I could stay awake longer then him and I wasn't going to let him win that easily. During the past week of my stay we had become really good friends, but the tummy squiggles were getting worse. "Aren't you getting tired yet?" Evra asked with a smile as I yawned for about the third time. When he smiled at me the tummy squiggles went crazy. "Psh, no way. I'll stay up all night if I have too." I said crossing my arms and giving him my serious look. The bad thing about serious looks is that when people like Evra turn them into staring contests you always wind up laughing like idiots in just about a minute.

Groups were leaving the fire. Soon enough Evra and I were the only ones left and I was tired enough to fall asleep on my feet. "Hey Evra?" I asked, my head on his shoulder because I was so tired that I couldn't keep my head up anymore. Even through the mist of sleep, which usually made the tummy squiggles usually settle down, feeling his warm, rough scales supporting my entire right side as I leaned against him made the squiggles feel as if they were on a sugar high and jumping around my tummy like acrobats. "Yeah?" He replied. "Are there any kind of clean lakes or anything around here?"

"Yeah, there's one about a sixth of a mile from here. Why?"

"Cause I'm not gonna be the one that falls asleep first." I said and headed to a tent full of clean clothes and that had a few changing rooms.

"What are you doing?" Evra asked me after following me into the clothing tent and watching me pick out one of th\e few unused swimsuits in my petite, malnourished size.

I threw him a pair of swim trunks that looked about his size and pushed him into a changing room. "Just put those on and then meet me outside." I told him and walked away to find myself a changing room.

I had finally found another changing room and got into my swimsuit. I walked outside to find Evra standing there waiting for me.

"So how do we get to the lake?" I asked.

"Just follow me," he said and grabbed my wrist. There go the tummy squiggles again.

We got to the lake, the water was clear and beautiful.

I cannon balled into the lake and managed to splash Evra with some water. "Come on!" I said when I resurfaced, "The water's fine."

"No it's not, it's freaking cold." He said, only up to his ankles in the water.

"Awe, poor Evra can't handle a little cold water?" I said with a pout then smiled and went under the water. I had been down there about five minutes and he had started to freak out. I smiled and propelled myself upward. I snuck up on him from behind and threw my arms around his neck, "Rawr!" I shouted.

He jumped, "Uhm, okay so I'm pretty sure that most normal people can't hold their breath for that long. Is that why you're here? Cause you can hold your breath? Seems pretty normal compared to me." He said.

"No, I'm here because I don't hold my breath, I can breathe underwater. Snake boy meet fish girl." I said with a half smile, tucking my hair behind my ear.

We swam and talked about stuff like his snake and how I breathe underwater and how I can see perfectly underwater and about the people we shared our tents with and stuff like that. Then we got out of the lake and just laid on the grass for a while. "You seem really, really familiar," Evra said and turned on his side, looking at me like he was trying to remember something he had buried deep in his mind. I sighed not wanting to remember my years in the bad mans care either, "Do you remember the girl that was in the Plexiglas box that was next to your cage?"

"Kind of, I try not to remember that time. You kind of look like her though. She had brown hair like yours but shorter and she wasn't as tall but her eyes were the same color as yours," he said looking into my deep green eyes.

"Yea well that was me. Most people tend to get a bit taller after two years," I smiled. "But I'm glad that I finally get to see you again. I thought you died." I mumbled the last part remembering how distraught I had been when I thought he was dead. He saw the tears brimming in my eyes and pulled me close to his chest. I soon fell into a rare happy sleep.

I woke up and it was about six in the morning. Someone, probably a certain boy named Evra, had carried me back to my tent and put me in my bed. There was a note taped to my forehead. It said, "Dear Fish Girl, The lake was fun. Maybe we can go again sometime? Sincerely, Snake Boy P.S. You lost the bet. And you snore. But you make it look good :)