Vera wanted to turn around and give the middle finger to the car that was being completely obvious about following her. But she wasn't going to give them the satisfaction of admitting that she was tired or irritated, so she kept walking at the same even pace. Her glasses slipped down the bridge of her nose, and she had to shove them back up just to keep them on. If either of twins were wondering about her wearing glasses as it was getting dark out, neither of them let on.

Vera didn't want to appear crazy by seemingly talking to herself, but that didn't mean she couldn't summon a ghost just for the company. It was chilly, and she was wearing nothing but a bloody dress over a stranger's tee-shirt. Admittedly, she'd had weirder nights, but this was definitely one of the top ten strangest.

A moment later, a young man with unruly brown hair appeared next to her. His large glasses gave his eyes an owlish appearance, and his vest and slacks made him look out of place. Luckily, no one else could see him. The man raised one eyebrow. "Hey, is everything okay?"

The girl decided that if she talked quietly, the two in the car wouldn't know the difference. She sighed. "Well, my favorite dress is ruined, as you can clearly see. And a pair of mutants is following me. And apparently there's a mutant nearby who can detect the presence of other mutants. But I don't think he could detect me. Like I'm dead, or something."

The man shrugged. "Well, maybe when you play with the dead enough, it really messes with you."

Vera rolled her eyes. "Well, I'm certainly glad that you've figured everything out. Now I have all the answers, and everything is so perfect. Thanks, Dad."

He let out a sound of exasperation, but Vera could tell that he wasn't actually bothered. "I feel like this isn't the level of respect that you should be showing your father, dead or not."

Vera shrugged. "It's not like you have any way of enforcing the rules."

The man tried to look insulted, but the corners of his mouth twitched up as he gasped dramatically. "Ouch, that hurts. That really hurts me, you know. If there was any possible way for a person to hurt their ghostly father, then it would be in the way that you just hurt me."

Vera rolled her eyes. "See, this is why I have the advantage of other teenagers. Other people my age are stuck with their parents, and that's just how it goes. But me, I can banish you and bring you back whenever I want. So go ahead and keep up the attitude. If you want to go to timeout, that is."

The man laughed. "Geez. If I only I had met you sooner. I would have been able to raise you so much better than this."

Vera shook her head. "Are you crazy? For us to have met sooner, you would have had to have died sooner. And I get the bizarre feeling that dying wasn't exactly on your 'to do' list."

Roger nodded. "Admittedly, that's true. But I don't know. I can't help thinking about it sometimes. I think that if you had needed me enough, I would have been willing to die for you."

The teen sighed. "Are you dumb on top of being crazy? If you knew me enough to know that I'm your daughter, and that I needed you, wouldn't you have just approached me on your own? While being a living, breathing human being?"

Roger laughed. "You get that attitude from your mother." A small frown appeared on his face as he contemplated the past. Apparently Vera was more similar to her father than she had ever thought possible. When the mutant had found out that he got his human girlfriend pregnant, he had immediately broke up with her and ran away, in order to protect her and the child. He just hadn't expected the child to take more after him, and become a freak who would have to run away to protect her mother.

The man stared wistfully down at his hands. "I was once able to tear holes in the fabric of space."

Vera let a soft smile plague her. She had heard the stories a thousand times. About how her father had been able to create black holes, but they were so dangerous, he only ever made three in his lifetime. And luckily they had all been small enough that he repaired them before any real damage was done.

But even in a mutant loving community, that would have made Roger feel that he was too dangerous to be around other people. If he ever got too emotional, there was always the risk that he would lose control of his powers, and create an anomaly large enough to suck in an entire town. Or maybe even an entire planet. It was hard to say for sure what the exact scope of his powers were.

But Vera wasn't dumb. She knew that despite the fact her father recognized how dangerous his power was, he still missed those euphoric moments where his hands had changed something about the universe, in a way that almost no one else could. But the teen wasn't in the mood for teary eyes and a conversation about tragic losses.

So she blinked, and the ghost of her father was gone. Vera walked in silence the

rest of the way back to the fairgrounds. By the time she had arrived, everything had already been shut down, and she had to go through the employee entrance out back to get inside. Vera made her way to her trailer, carefully making sure not to bump into any of her carnie family.

At first, Donovon, the resident ringmaster, had been reluctant to hire on the young girl. But she had proved that she had talent, and besides that, she fit the one other requirement that everyone else in the circus did. None of them had families, and all of them were lost in some way or another. So after the initial awkwardness, the friendly group had taken her in, and she became a part of the family. They all looked out for each other, and cared for each other, and they made the perfect family.

Luckily though, there weren't many people still out. Mostly just the technicians and such, making sure that all of the lights and rides were properly turned off, and a couple people going around to clean up all the trash. Vera hurried back to her trailer, and slammed the door shut behind her once she was inside.

She tossed her sunglasses onto her dresser, and rubbed her eyes tiredly. The teen debated just collapsing onto her bed immediately, but that wouldn't really do. She peeled off her favorite dress, which was now caked with a fine film of reddish-brown dried blood, and let it fall into a crumpled heap on the floor. Then she yanked off Peter's tee-shirt, and let it fall on top.

Even though she had showered just a little over an hour ago, Vera hadn't been very thorough, and she hadn't had any of her own shower products to use. So she hopped in, and scrubbed herself down completely.

Once she was done, and dressed in her own cozy pajamas, Vera stared at the discarded clothing lying on the floor. She didn't appreciate how it messed up the otherwise neat looking trailer, and she also didn't want to hold onto those reminders of this crappy city.

So she scooped the clothes into a small bag, along with a bottle of nearly scentless perfume, and a box of matches. She stepped into a pair of flip flops, and went outside. She left the circus grounds, not wanting to get caught, or get anyone else in trouble. She went down to the waterfront, and dumped the offensive items out onto the gritty sand.

Sadly, just throwing the stuff away would make it look like some crime scene gone wrong. And at least this way, no one would be able to track her. Vera unscrewed the top to the perfume bottle, and dumped the entire contents over the shirt and the dress. Then she lit a few matches at once, stepped back, tossed them at the fabric mound, and left. She was already tired, and if she wanted time to sleep, then she wouldn't be able to watch the clothes burn completely. But it would be fine, because the circus would be gone soon, and Vera would move on, and everything about this town would be nothing more than a bad dream.