Chapter 4 (Mayhem at the cirque)
It was Alice, the lovely women who would allow me and Mr. Crepsley to drink from her when we were too far from civilization to obtain fresh blood. There she was helpless on the floor. Her blond hair covered in her own ruby red blood, her left arm dragging along the floor lifeless next to her. I jumped off Mr. Crepsley's back and we both ran over to her. She struggled against us at first thinking we were her attackers come to finish her off, but when she realised who we where she cared down, she grabbed Mr. Crepsley's shirt and pulled him down so he could hear her final words. "Vamp…vampaneze…attacked camp…couldn't hold…them off." She looked at both of us with pain filled eyes, it was unbearable.
"Be still now you are safe, we will get you help." Mr. Crepsley tried to pick her up but she pushed him off. "It's too late…for me. Please… end this Larten." I didn't quite understand at first, I thought she was telling Mr. Crepsley to end the violence at the cirque, but when I saw him nod and make a small cut on her neck then clamp his mouth around it, it all became clear. I didn't say anything I knew she was in pain and that she was very close with Mr. Crepsley. I never really did find out if it was strictly a friendship or something more, I guess I would never find out now.
In the night silence you heard one more last breath come from Alice and with that she was gone. Mr. Crepsley closed her eyes and placed her under an old oak tree, she seemed at peace now, out of pain. "We will return for her body when we have disposed of those scum vampaneze." And he marched towards camp. I took one last sad look at Alice "Thank you for everything."
We reached the outskirts of camp, and hid behind the giant trees surrounding it. It was far too risky to attempt to reach Mr. Crepsley's van and collect some weapons, we would surely be seen. "What about David's tent, it's full of swords and throwing starts." I whispered into Mr. Crepsley's ear making sure only he would hear. "I do not like the idea of stealing… but I guess we have no chose." And with that, he led the way around camp to where David's tent was. However it seemed the luck of the vampires was not working in our favour tonight.
David was standing outside his tent, 2 swords strapped to his back, only the Gods knew how many throwing stars he had attached to his belt, and in his hands a bow with a collection of arrows to the side of him. "Come on now; just move out of the way. All we want is what's rightfully ours human." As that voice hit my ears my insides froze, "I know that voice." I stared over to Mr. Crepsley who put his finger to his lips to tell me to be quiet. "You seem to have journeyed all this way for nothing. You see nothing here is rightfully yours and if you dare take a step closer I will kill you. " David threatened, and drew back his bow string aiming for the hooded assailant's heart. "Now you see, from what I've heard, your pretty dame hard to kill, you could say people have been trying for an eternity. I'm going to enjoy testing that rumour." The assailant just smiled and whispered into the ear of the vampaneze to his right who signalled his men to advance on the tent. "Wither I kill you now or later it doesn't really matter, I'm still getting that pine box." Reality hit me with so much force I almost fell back, Mr. Crepsley had to catch me and drag me over to him. "What is wrong with you; you could of blown our cover!" he was whispering but I could tell he was angry.
"Mr. Crepsley I know that voice, when I first heard it I couldn't place it but I know who it is… its Steve." Mr. Crepsley said nothing the look on his face said everything, he was pissed no other word could describe it. "Darren you need to sneak to my van and get my chest from under my coffin." I looked blankly at him and in return he poked me. "Do you understand Darren?" he said angrily.
"Yes, chest under coffin got it." And with that I ran off silently leaving Mr. Crepsley and David behind.
Surprisingly there was no vampaneze anywhere else around the camp. All the other cirque performers didn't seem to know what was going on. I would have told them but I didn't want to blow my cover and continued to Mr. Crepsley's van. I was trying to be as sneaky as I possibly could; I was dashing behind tents and under vans until I reached Mr. Crepsley's. I looked around to make sure the way was clear, and then made a frantic dash for the door. I dived through into the darkness and kicking the door closed behind me. not the smartest of moves I stayed very still and very quiet and when I believed I hadn't been heard or found out I completed my mission. I crawled under Mr. Crepsley's coffin and found his weapons chest. It was red with funny makings on the sides, but I didn't have time to be admiring the chest I had to get a move on, no telling how far away dawn was now. I grabbed the chest and headed out of the door and started my long mission back to Mr. Crepsley.
After 10 minutes of sneaking around, I reached Mr. Crepsley who hadn't moved an inch. I handed Mr. Crepsley his chest, and took a sneaky look over to David's tent, I was overcome with shock. "How in paradises name had he managed that?" Mr. Crepsley tapped my shoulder and I turned to see what he wanted. "There is a lot about David you do not know Darren." He said passing me his clock. Then he carried on emptying his chest.
David had managed to kill 6 vampaneze whilst I was gone, their bodies surrounding his tent. I noticed 4 had throwing stars lodged in their chests, 1 had an arrow implanted in his head, and the final 1's head was missing… ouch I was snapped out of my amazement by Mr. Crepsley thrusting 2 short bladed swords into my hands. "Do not move from this spot. And only use these if 100% necessary." I was about to complain, how was I supposed to just sit here and watch Mr. Crepsley and David fight, but before I could even open my mouth he kissed me on the forehead, pointed to the ground where I was, like I was a dog being commanded to stay, and he ran off to potion himself behind, I decided not to follow him, I couldn't fight with my fists let alone with a sword, so I watched from behind the safety of the tree.
David had loaded 2 more arrows in his bow and sent them flying into the sky. All the vampaneze laughed and took one step closer, a very foolish mistake. As they got closer to David the arrows he sent soaring into the sky came plummeting down to earth, smack bang on the centre of the 2 closest vampaneze. There lifeless bodies fell in heaps on the floor. By which time David had already loaded 2 more arrows in his bow. 'Clap…clap…clap', "Very impressive. If you don't have to kill you I might have hire you for my personal entertainment." I looked over to Steve and noticed he was standing in the middle of a crowd of vampaneze, the coward. "Why not come here and say that, instead of hiding like a child." David gave a daring smile hoping to anger him so he stepped closer to him. "Oh please I'm not that stupid. If I come anywhere near you I'm as good as dead. Nooo thank you."
"Arr, what a pity, I was so looking forward to wetting my blade with your blood. Some other time then."
"What, when you come seeking revenge because I've stolen your beloved pine."
"And how do you plan on getting it, you or any of your 'men' come within a meter of my tent and your dead, simple. So you might as well leave."
"Know you see, I can't do that. My master really wants it, to me it's just a box full of some guys stuff, but to him, it's so much more."
"ENOUGH!" David pulled back on his bow string and sent 2 more arrows into the hearts of the vampaneze either side of Steve. That's when all-out war started.
"Do whatever you need to just kill him! And take his stupid box by force!" with Steve's orders implanted in the minds of all the vampaneze, that charged straight for David, he didn't even seem a little worried, he just dropped his bow on the ground, drew his 2 swords and readied himself for attack. Steve was only protected by 4 vampaneze now, but you could tell they were itching to get into the fight, "For Gods sakes just go." Steve instructed, "But my lord who will protect you?" a young vampaneze looked up at him. "Oh please, Creepy Crepsley isn't even here, Darren is probably tied to his waist, and the other freaks are being watched by our inside man, so who is going to attack me really. Now get out of my site and bring me that dammed box." With that said the 4 remanding joined in the blood bath.
David was doing really well, he didn't look like he had a scratch on him, but I wasn't surprised the speed in which he moved his swords where unbelievable. I was finding it hard to keep up with him and I was a half vampire, how would a human manage? Hold on if he can move quicker than me and his not a vampire. What is he? My thoughts where interrupted by a detached head rolling next to me and hitting my foot. I think I'm going to be sick I kicked the head away as quickly as possible and put my attention back to the fight at hand. David was slicing through the vampaneze like they were made of wet paper, but where was Mr. Crepsley?
Steve was watching with horror plastered all over his face, as David mowed through the waves of vampaneze with very little effort, until only 3 remained. That's when Mr. Crepsley made his move. Jumping from behind a bush covered in blood, he sprinted over to Steve, clamped his hand around Steve's mouth, and knocked him out cold with his breath. Once he made sure he wasn't going to wake up for a while, he threw him up a tree. David had noticed what Mr. Crepsley had done and finished the remaining vampaneze off with his throwing stars like it was child's play. "Took your sweet time didn't you Larten?" David laughed, bent down and cleaned his blood soaked swords off on a dead vampaneze. "You cannot rush perfection David; I ran into the reinforcements. I hate it when there is something that repulsive getting in my way." He slapped David on the back victoriously, and then looked around.
"Wait until vampire council hear about this, there shall be hell to pay, I will make sure of it." Mr. Crepsley looked back at David who gave him a sheepish smile. "Don't be silly, the last thing you need is all the questions this would be brought up. If the council wish to start poking their noses into this business; just say I killed them all, and that you had nothing to do with it." David was still pleading with Mr. Crepsley to keep out of it while he collected all his throwing stars back, occasionally curing when one had gone blunt or worse broken on impact.
Mr. Crepsley just shook his head at the curing David and started walking over to my hiding place and noticed I was just standing there, not blinking. Did they plan this all along? When I heard Mr. Crepsley shout my name I slowly walked out into the open looked at all the dead bodies littering the area and throw up. Mr. Crepsley rolled his eyes and laughed but rubbed my back.
"First time on the battle field?" David asked, I looked over at him just in time to see him dislodge an arrow out of a dead vampaneze eye, and I throw up again.
"He is young and not yet had to go into battle. It is the mixture of dead bodies and the over welling stench of the vampaneze discussing blood." Mr. Crepsley spat when he said there name, as did most of the older vampires I had met.
"Well hopefully he won't have to experience any more, even in his long life time, it's never a nice business really. I am however extremely grateful I don't have your sense of smell." Mr. Crepsley just laughed, he must have been through many wars, I know he was alive during both world wars, maybe that's why his use to it.
"Well you are more than welcome to rest a while in my tent; once you have stopped throwing up you can come in to Darren." Both Mr. Crepsley and David started laughing and left me outside. "Thanks a lot guys, I'm fine really you go on and rest up, just leave me out here with all the dead bodies, that's fine." I muttered to myself slight uneasy. "Come on Darren, they're only dead bodies, you use to see tons of dead bodies in your video games, what's so different." I stood up, wiped my mouth, looked in the direction of David's tent, and ran for my life.
I was standing in the doorway of David's tent, forcing myself not to look back outside. I couldn't see Mr. Crepsley or David at first. "Larten, help me lift this." It was David's voice, I just couldn't see him. I walked into the middle of the tent just in time to see the last of Mr. Crepsley's red cape vanish behind a wooded screen. I walked over to it slowly not sure if I should go behind it or not. *smack* I rubbed my head and yelped out in pain. I looked around the floor to see what had just hit me on the head and noticed a fist size piece of rock lying on the floor. I frowned at it accusingly then looked back at the wooden screen again rubbing my head. I walked over and vanished behind it hoping to find where it was thrown from.
Mr. Crepsley and David where struggling to lift a broken lid off what looked like a silver coffin, "Darren, grab that end." David ordered, sounding out of breath, I stood there for a time confused at what I had just walked into but David snapping his orders at me again brought me back round. Without any questions I jumped to where I was ordered and helped as much as I could with this rock. With me helping we just about managed to move it just enough to be able to see inside. David let out a sigh of relief and smiled over at myself and Mr. Crepsley to show everything was ok. I stood there even more confused than before and with twice the amount of questions.
David looked into the silver coffin again and placed a large sheet over it when he was confident everything was alright. He walked over to us and I could have sworn he looked like he had aged with worry. Whatever or whoever was in there must be very important to him. He ushered us back into the main section of his tent and flopped down on his chair. "Well that was the single scariest time of my life." He laughed at my confused face but didn't offer any answers.
Once we was all sat drinking blood David had offered, he and Mr. Crepsley started talking about the battle they just had, laughing and joking like war was an everyday occurrence to them and I didn't like it. I knew the vampaneze was our enemies but it still wasn't right to make a joke of death, but there again maybe it was a way of dealing with it. I hoped I would never have to find out personally either way. I looked around the tent not really paying attention to the conversation; I was admiring a strange painting but an artist I had never heard of when something occurred to me. "Why didn't any of the other performers come and help you?" I was still looking at the painting and not really aware I had asked the question out loud until Mr. Crepsley replied.
"I truly do not know, perhaps Mr. Tall kept the other performers away for their own safety." Mr. Crepsley looked at David who was sat puzzling over something.
"They have someone on the inside who must have known about the coffin." David gave us both a worried look.
"But who would do such a thing; we are all a close family here, why would one of our own betray us?" I could tell Mr. Crepsley was hurt at the thought, I knew how much the Cirque meant to him.
"I know it's hard to take in but that's what their leader said, that their inside man was keeping an eye on everyone making sure they didn't intervene."
"I do not trust anything that comes out of that Steve's horrid mouth, he would lie and cheat anyone, and it would not surprise me if he just made it up to worry us." As much as Mr. Crepsley was trying to believe what he was saying, I knew he had his doubts.
"Well that maybe but we need to make 100% sure, I don't like the thought of someone in the family being a rat to the vampaneze but it could be a possibility. So have either one of you heard anyone mentioning anything about the coffin or acting strange." We all stopped to have a think, Mr. Crepsley didn't really interact with many people considering he was only up and about during the night, but he was able to tap into the memories of Alice and see if she had heard anything but nothing came up.
After a while of thinking my face went pail, who out of everyone had been acting the strangest, running around hiding under vans, avoiding David at all cost and wanting to break into his tent to see what was in a crate. "Evra." I whispered.
David looked over to me not quite sure what I had said, "Did you say something Darren?"
"Evra; Evra has been acting strange the past couple of weeks; it only became really noticeable when we first came here to this clearing. He was avoiding you at all cost and he was planning to break into your tent to see what was in the crate we carried in here, then we had our 'fight'." I had a horrible feeling in my stomach, I could have been laughing and joking with a vampaneze spy for ages and not even realised.