Disclaimer: OH CRAP I FORGOT TO PUT IN A DISCLAIMER LAST CHAPTER!!! Nah, probably no one will notice... well, Count Cain belongs to Kaori Yuki, not me. No suing, please.

A/N: gods, I remember the time when the Count Cain section only had 19 stories... now it has almost 60. Times sure have changed... well, sorry for this v. late update. I was too busy drawing and feeling pissed off about how everyone else was so much better than me. Well, hope you like this!!

Le Cirque Anormal

Chapter 3

By Birdie

Cassian walked down the streets, grumbling and cursing as he kicked his way through puddles, mud, randomly placed rocks and stray cats. In one hand, the brunette carried a bag made of newspapers, it contained the food he brought, and in the other hand he held a dusty pink sugar cube, which the "nice" shop lady gave him.

"Oh don't be so polite! All little boys love sweets!"

The knife-thrower growled under his breath: he was not a little boy! Cassian wished Jezebel was here, so he could disembowel that nasty old lady, but "conveniently", Jezebel was attending a seminar held by the deranged John Eliot.

"Stupid John Eliot..." the brunette muttered, popping the ancient-looking sweet into his mouth. Cringing, he fought the urge to regurgitate the sugar cube and throw up on a passing toddler.

"Cassian!" called a voice, running down the road. Jezebel stopped beside the brunette, panting slightly.

"Oh, hello Jezebel." Cassian said coldly, not looking at the blonde man. He spat out the disgusting cube out of his mouth into the gutter, waking up the tramp who slept in it.

"Cassian, are you still mad at me?" the doctor asked weakly.

"Yes."

"Aww... Cassi, please don't be angry at me."

"Hmph." Cassian huffed, ready to walk away any minute. Don't call me Cassi in public...

"CASSIAN!!" Jezebel grabbed his minion by the arm, stopping him in his tracks. "If you thought there was something between John Eliot and me, it's over. Technically, nothing ever existed, but if you believe there were, he's gone."

The brunette turned to face Jezebel, eyebrows raised. "So.. does that mean...?"

The doctor smiled sincerely (a strange thing for him to do). "He's gone from our lives, never to return again."

Cassian let out a grin which he couldn't suppress any longer. He hated it when he acted out of character, but it always seemed to happen when he was happy.

Jezebel took his minion into his arms and kissed him softly. "Hmm..." he purred, taking the bag out of Cassian's hands. "Do you think the Ring Master would mind if we're a few hours late...?"

The knife-thrower's eyes widened and a crimson blush formed his face. "DOCTOR!! I WILL N--"

But another kiss from Jezebel drove Cassian weak on his knees, and the little minion knew that there was positively no way he could walk back to the broken mansion in this state, so he sank powerlessly into the blonde doctor's arms.

~*~

Sunlight shone through the stutters and onto Cassian's face. He grunted, rolling onto his side and pressed his cheek into the Jezebel's soft, willowy hair. He yawned, reluctantly sitting up before reality hit him.

"JEZEBEL WAKE UP!!" he screamed, jumping down from the bed and putting his clothes on.

"Too much noise... too much noise..." the blonde doctor groaned, pulling the covers over his head like a man with a hangover.

"OH GET UP AND LET'S GO!!!" Cassian shouted. "WE'VE BEEN HERE TWO DAYS!! OUR COMRADES HAVE PROBABLY TURNED INTO SKELETONS BY NOW!!!"

Realisation hit Jezebel too. "Oh my God, you're right..." he muttered, sitting up. Then he thought. "No, wait. Alexis would probably be still alive..."

Cue Jezebel's mental image: a healthy, normal Alexis is sitting on the floor of the old, crumbling mansion, surround by Ida and Michaela's bones. The ring master picks something out of his teeth and cackles. The two girls have obviously been eaten by the demented ring master.

"That looks like fun..." Jezebel grinned, an evil look on his face. Cassian hit him over the head with the handle of his knife, and Jezebel began to get dressed promptly to see if his image was reality.

Unfortunately for Jezebel (or rather, fortunately for Ida and Michaela), no one was eaten. But sure enough, Alexis looked healthy and normal, but strangely, so did the two women.

"Ida! Michaela!" Cassian greeted, running forwards. "You haven't... starved to death...!"

Ida nodded. "Yes, " she told him. "We're still alive."

"You're so useless Cassian!" Michaela cried, grabbing him by the collar and shaking him. "We were almost at the point of death! If we hadn't found all the food hidden up the chimney we would have been eaten by—!"

Jezebel perked up beside Cassian.

"—all the birds in the attic!!"

The doctor let out a sigh of disappointment.

"Ah! Jezebel! Cassian! There you are!" Alexis called, striding across the marshy land. Cassian bit his lip, tightening his grip on Jezebel's hand: he feared what would happen next.

"You've been away for two days!" the ring master said, toying with Cassian's anticipation. "Do you not remember rule number 5?"

"No one is to leave without the Ring Master knowing." Jezebel quoted.


"Exactly," Alexis raised his eyebrows, as if reminding them of the punishment that laid ahead.

Cassian, not wanting to be whipped, beaten, etc. cried in his defence: "But you knew we were going away! We were only umm... two days late because we had a..." the brunette went a little red, unable to finish his own sentence.

"We had no time limit." The blonde beside him finished.

Alexis growled menacingly: his minions have sneaked their way from a beating! Damn and curses! The ring master was looking forward into taking his anger out on some one ever since the girls found out about all the food stuffed up the chimney. Well... there was always Cain when he got here.

The Ring Master took out a pen, the roll of parchment with the rules on it, then scribbled down:

6) There is always a time limit of three hours unless the Ring Master tells you otherwise.

Suddenly, the sounds of horse and carriage was heard from not far away. The ex-DELILAH members looked up to see a man in dark colours driving a leather carriage pulled by two strong, black horses. It stopped promptly at the gates of the crooked mansion, dropped it's passengers and left.

"CAIN!!!!" Michaela cried, running forward to hug her obsession.

Cain yelped and back her off with his walking stick. Michaela pouted and glared at him. "What a nice way to greet your future bride!" she huffed.

"I told you! I'm not marrying you!!" the young man screamed, all ready to lunge at her neck. Riff put a hand on his master's shoulders, calming him down.

Alexis walked over and pulled Michaela back. "Ah! Cain! We were just expecting you!" he lied.

"We were?" Ida asked quietly to her master in confusion.

"Shut up!" the ring master hissed to his bodyguard. "We can't let them know they're one step ahead of us..."

Ida shrugged, unaffected. She then realised something. Nudging Jezebel, she pointed to a young lady next to Merryweather. "Doctor, you recognise her?"

Everyone turned and looked at her. She blushed and smiled sweetly.

"My name is Charity Cotton!" she introduced.

Cassian blinked blankly; Jezebel studied her as if she was a new species of insects; Ida continued to look unaffected; Michaela glared at her, somehow knowing she was a competitor in her quest to get Cain; Alexis sighed and pulled Cain away from the others by the arm.

When they were a few feet away from prying ears, Alexis spoke up: "What is she doing here?" he asked, his voice dripping venom.

"She blackmailed me into it..." Cain sighed, ashamed.

"How?!"

"She said she'd tell the police about your whereabouts unless I let her join." The Hargreaves' count showed his father the telegram she sent.

Alexis laughed bitterly. "What makes you think I'd let her join?"

"That's what I am hoping you wouldn't do." Cain muttered.

The ring master rubbed his temples as if he had a headache. "Just get rid of her, Cain," he muttered. "I've got a freak show to run."

Walking back, the ring master forced his face into the calm, sadistic look it usually has. He address the entire group, and said: "Right, we have not completely finish sorting everything out. Here is the plan: Riff, Cain, Jezebel, you can learn how to pitch the tents, and when you're done, here's some other things."

A piece of paper was handed to them, with tiny writing and almost a hundred bullet points. Cain shot his father a sarcastic smile of thanks and walked off with the other two men.

"Ida, go sort out the costumes, and sew anything back into it's place if you need to," Alexis gestured to his bodyguard. He looked around. "Get Charity to do it with you." He added.

Ida groaned under her breath, taking Cain's maid by the hand and storming off.

Alexis knelt down until his was eye-to-eye with Merryweather. "Now, you three children..." he addressed the remaining people.

Cassian coughed then glared.

The ring master rolled his eyes. "Alright, you two children and you... non-child, you three can paint the wagon we're using." He handed them pots of sticky green paint, much resembling cat's sick, and told them to get on with the work.

Alexis himself however, did no work and decided to sunbathe under a cloudy sky that threatened to rain but hey, when you're the boss, you can do whatever the hell you want, right?

~*~

"What's that, may I ask?" Charity pointed to Ida's face, frowning. Behind them, Jezebel held three poles together while Cain tried to them together as Riff read off the instruction written on a scrap piece of newspaper.

"What's what?" Ida asked, stopping her clothes sorting. So far there was three piles: broken clothes, nice clothes and crappy clothes.

"That... thing on your face."

Ida felt the mask on the side of her cheek. "It's a mask." She explained, rather annoyed. This girl is really nosy...

"I was curious..." Charity muttered. "So what's behind it?" Behind them, Jezebel accidentally dropped the poles, Cain shouted and whacked him over the head with the instructions he stole off Riff. Bad move.

"Love bites from my boyfriend." Ida lied, smirking. Shouting arose behind them as Jezebel flared up and started chasing Cain around the room, trying to crush him with a pole. Cain was running around in circles, trying to hide behind Riff.

Charity paled at Ida's response, whilst looking like she just bit into a lemon. "I'm going outside..." she muttered, stepping neatly out of piles of clothes and walking outside.

Cain's maid walked to the back of the house, and into a weed-infested garden. There, in the middle of dandelions and thistles, was a wagon covered with a sickly green. Cassian was oiling the wheels as the two girls painted the sides.

"Hello!" Charity beamed, walking over. "I'm Charity! What's your names? Well, apart from Miss Merryweather. I know her!"

"Cassian." The boy responded curtly, not looking up from the wheel. He disliked the girl, thinking she was over-cute and too sweet.

"I'm Michaela," replied the brunette. "I'm Cain's future wife!"

Charity felt an urge of jealousy rise inside her chest. "You're not getting Cain!" she cried.

"Oh? Why not?"

"B-because you're too young! And... and because... I'm getting Cain!" she added proudly.

Cassian cast them both strange looks, as did Merry. They stopped what they were doing. "......"

"Cain is mine!" Michaela shouted.

"No, Cain is mine!" Charity shouted back.

"Cain is Riff's," Merryweather replied calmly as Cassian sniggered behind his hand. "And frankly, he's the only one that deserves my big brother."

Michaela growled, unable to beat the truth. Charity turned paler than she already was. She spluttered and trembled. "I-I'm going to make some tea..." she muttered, leaving quickly.

As soon as she walked inside, she was confronted by Riff calmly bandaging Cain's head while Jezebel tended to the cuts on his arms. The two men growled at each other, almost threatening to start another fight. Charity smiled nervously, before running to another room as fast as she could.

There people are a weird bunch...

~*~

A few hours after sundown, the circus members sat down by the fire, eating toasted bread and drinking soup. It was eerily silent: no one was talking. Michaela and Charity shot death glares at each other, Cain looked solemnly at his food, hating the fact that two women were fighting over him. Ida groaned, picking up her guitar and tuning it.

"Ah! Sing us a song, Ida!" Charity beamed, almost begging with kick-puppy eyes.

Ida gave her a strange, frowning look, but picked up the instrument and started to chant in the most shrilly voice she could muster. Everyone screamed and shielded their ears. The masked girl stopped, smirking broadly.

"You know, I'm going to bed..." Charity said, much to the delight of other people. Suddenly, she pulled Cain up with her. "Master Cain, I need to talk to you."

Cain looked bewildered but stood up anyway and walked off with her. Riff gave the maid the evil eye.

"Bah, she's not going to him." Michaela said, tearing up pieces of bread.

"So what do you think of her?" Merry asked, pulling up grass.

"She's very pretty, I must say." Said a voice on the roof. It was Owl, who usually appear at night, randomly standing on rooftops playing the violin. He removed his shades, put them in a hidden pocket of his long dark coat, and jumped down gracefully to sit by Ida's side.

"I agree with reluctance," Riff muttered bitterly. "She also makes a damn good cup of tea."

Merry patted Riff on the shoulder with sympathy. "You'll always make the best tea in our tastes." She told him soothingly.

"Her stitches are very neat too..." Ida said, poking the flame with a stick. She threw the sick into the fire and glared at it, as if the stick was Charity.

"What sort of a name is 'Charity' anyway?" Cassian asked.

"A puritan name, methinks." Alexis answered, stroking his chin almost pretending he had a beard.

"What's that mean though?"

"It means her parents are religious nuts."

"So to sum up," Michaela declared, holding up her hand. "She's beautiful," the little drama-queen ticked off a finger. "She can sew, she can make tea, she's a religious girl who would probably end up in Heaven, and she is nice, right?"

"Too nice..." Alexis muttered.

"So umm... what does this all mean?"

Jezebel spoke up for the first time that evening. "It means she's a Mary-Sue." He confirmed with an air of knowledge.

Everyone stared at him with raised eyebrow.

Cassian rolled his eyes. "Ignore Jezebel, he's being brainwashed by a mad researcher."

"John Eliot, right?" Alexis smirked knowing smile.

Cassian nodded guiltily, sighing.

"What's a Mary-Sue?" Merry asked innocently.

"Someone who must be destroyed." The doctor muttered under his breath, standing up and ready to walk back inside.

It was just then that Cain came back, taking each step slowly and with accuracy, as if he was going to trip over any second. Jezebel stopped in his tracks: Cain's face was ashy in colour, his eyes were emotionless and they looked tired.

"Cain?" Merryweather asked, running forward and holding him. "What's wrong, big brother?"

"Charity asked me whether I liked Michaela, her, or Riff the most. I said Riff meant the most to me, out of complete and utter honesty, because that's what she asked me to say. Then she started crying and shouting at me. I guess that was it." Cain looked solemn. Riff took his master into his arms and kissed his forehead.

Alexis stood up, brushing the dust off his clothes. "I guess... we should go to sleep," he announce. "We might as well leave tomorrow morning."

The others agreed. Cain told them that Charity was in a room upstairs, and she should not be disturbed, so the members of the circus crept quietly along mouldy, creaking floorboards to their blankets and pillows.

In the middle of the night, Alexis woke up to sounds of footsteps. He didn't know who they were from, but they went upstairs and then there was soon silent for a good few minutes. The ring master wrapped the blankets tighter over himself, glancing from one side to another suspiciously. The footsteps got closer and closer: the person was in the room next to his! But then the noise died down again and all was peaceful... a deadly silence.

~*~

"EVERYONE GET UP!!!"

Alexis' minions bolted up from their sleeping places, wide eyed and frightened. Conversations broke out of what was going on. Alexis hushed them.

"Last night, I heard footsteps going up stairs," he told them ever so calmly. "It came back downstairs, went to this room," the ring master pointed to the floor to emphasis the point. "and all was silent."

There was no talking. Everyone listened attentively.

"This morning, I decided to go upstairs and see what was going on. I searched a few rooms, and then I found..."

Silence. The suspense lingered in the air like a heavy cloud.

"I found Charity dead in her bed. I checked her pulse, there was nothing. Blood was on the sheets, so much that I couldn't see where the wound was. Now," Alexis looked each and every member of his group directly in the eye. "The murderer is someone in this room, and I will find out who it is!!"

To Be Continued...

REVIEWS!! (only two reviewers...... *sweatdrop*)

Antoinette Veronica: thank you for your email as well. I agree: those shows are cruel. Well, John Eliot will never appear ever again, so that's one confusing subplot down. Basically, he was just a loony who Jezebel looked up to. This fic actually tests Alexis' intelligence, 'cos we all know Cain is intelligent: but what of his father? I like the bride/bridesmaid idea! Hmm... more cross-dressing... XD All apologies accepted, by the way.

Countess Asaya: bah, post your work anyway. You'll never know whether your good enough until you get people to review you. Just give it ago, even if you already have. By the way, what's your two favourite Count Cain pairings? Riff/Cain and Jezebel/Cassian? Bai bai too!

Thanks everyone for reviewing!!!