It is almost dawn, and the guests of the night circus are leaving. The circus is closed, and the performers are quickly checking the tents to ensure that no person was left behind before the gates are closed and locked for the day. Raven sits in her corner of the ice tent and hopes that they will not find her. She gets the feeling that the last night of the circus is soon, and hopes to be taken with them. She breathes a sigh of relief as the performers checking this tent leave, and as the bustle outside dies down. The tents have been checked. She is the only one here. She has hidden herself here among the wintry plants with relative ease- she is a small girl with deathly pale skin and long, curly white hair. The only thing she possesses that are not white are her eyes- which flicker back and forth between red and orange, giving the distinct and disturbing impression that her irises are on fire. Even her clothes are white, rags though they may be.
Raven thinks about her life, and everything she is running away from. She knows that this solution- leaving with the circus, that is, cannot last forever. She knows that at some point she will be forced to face her past. But right now, she cannot do it. She hides from everything and everyone as the dawn breaks, filtering in through the roughly woven canvas of the tent and illuminating the ice, striking light through the cold. Raven stretches. Not knowing whether or not she will be allowed to stay once discovered, and she is sure she will be discovered at some point, for the circus must be packed up before it can be moved to the next city, she prays to a God she is not sure even exists. she begs to be allowed to stay. She is not sure why, but she knows that her life depends upon it.
When Raven finally wakes, she is greeted with the sight of a young woman in a long dress staring at her. No, through her. The young woman in the long dress was definitely looking through her. The mysterious girl rises in front of Raven, and Raven notices the translucent quality of the girl. Raven blinks- the girl is gone.
She falls back asleep