You expected fluorescent lights and bright colours, stalls selling tacky merchandise. What you get is very different. The lights, while some hurt to look at, are softer than most, more inviting, mysterious and hopeful. Hopeful? How can lights be hopeful? Somehow, the question doesn't seem very important just now.

Everything is in black and white; the only colour to be seen comes from the clothes of the other visitors – clouds of blue and green, dark pinks and the occasional yellow. And there is most certainly nothing tacky about the circus.

You stand in the courtyard, clutching your umbrella in one hand, the other feeling for the stone disk in your pocket. Everything is extraordinary; everything fantastical. You don't know what to do or where to go first. Eventually, you spot a booth selling hot chocolate, and you tag on to the end of the queue. When you finally purchase your drink, it is piled high with whipped cream and is topped off with chopped walnuts. It tastes like a cosy evening, and you feel yourself relax.

Something brushes your leg, and you glance down. It is a cat, its coat curiously ticked with black and white fur to give a strange, shimmering effect. You bend down, reaching out a hand tentatively. The cat responds eagerly, nuzzling into your palm and rubbing its jaw along your fingers.

After a few moments of this, the cat suddenly darts away through the crowd. You stand up, just in time to see it slip down a lantern-lit pathway. You have to start somewhere. Gulping the last of your hot chocolate, you hurry after the cat, passing tent after tent in pursuit of it.

Finally, you stop outside a small, somewhat shabby looking tent, which sits squeezed in between two larger ones. There is a small, scratchily written sign pinned to the black and white fabric of the tent. You squint at it, managing to make out the words

"Secrets Swapped".

You glance around, unsure of whether or not to go in. No one seems to be nearby – and you're sure the cat went into this particular tent …

Pushing aside the tent flap, you step inside. All is dark, except for a pinpricking of lights at the corner of your vision, which turns out to be a small hole in the side of the tent. All of a sudden, light flares at the centre of the tent.

You are startled to see a woman is sitting behind a small table, a gauzy vale draped over her head so that her features are obscured. The light is coming from a white flame that dances inside a glass bell-jar, creating flickering patterns that dance across the walls and ceiling of the tent.

The woman beckons you forward, and you feel obliged to obey her. Carefully, you take your place across from her, sitting on four-legged stool. There is a pause, and you wonder if she will say anything. Instead, she holds out a deck of cards and gestures for you to take one. Hesitating only slightly, you take a card and flip it over. Instead of the usual suit and number, there are words on the card. It says:

Offer me a secret, I'll accept no lie,

My job is not to spy nor pry,

So in return I'll give you,

One secret – nay, I'll give you two,

One you know of old,

The other, unknown to you until tonight you're told.

You glance up, wondering how you can possibly give away a secret without speaking. The woman waves a hand delicately towards a fresh stack of cards which lies beside you on the table. You pick them up, shuffle them, and pick one at random. You breath a sigh of relief; it's not a very important secret. You hand it to the woman, who takes it without a word. Again she holds out the pack of cards to you and you take another. On one side is written your full name. You feel the hairs on the back of your neck rise up, but still you flip over the card. You stare at the words that are written upon it, and a shiver rattles down your spine. It is in this moment that you know that the magic of the circus is real. You look up to thank the woman, and find yourself plunged into darkness.

It is only later, when you have seen many more wonders, that you remember the strange-looking cat and realise that you never did find it again.

Hello, hello, hello! It's Tabs this time, with chapter two! :) We hope you enjoy it - wasn't Em's chapter amazing? Also, please review ... pretty please ...

Tabs ~