Chapter 10
Several weeks passed, Adele grew without hesitation, her mind and body becoming more mature each day, but still remaining in the form of a ten year old girl. Eric had started teaching her more pronounce Swedish, which Adele soaked up like a sponge. As soon as Eric came over for the night Adele would immediately switch from English to Swedish and it took nearly three hours to get her to talk normal.
Wednesday nights though, Adele would walk with Sam or Sookie across the woods that led to Bill's house, and Adele would get her piano lessons from Bill who had become more of an Uncle than an actual father figure. That still left Eric, Sam and Alcide to fill the gap, but slowly each one was becoming something different to Adele.
Sam was her main father, teaching her the differences between right and wrong, while Eric taught her valuable things like art and books. Alcide had proven to be her ultimate protector, his manner and love towards her like a knight in shining armor.
But out of all the males in her life, Adele was always loyal to one female.
Her mother.
Sookie was Adele's whole world, the two talking to each other verbally and mentally about just anything that would come up. Sookie kept no secrets from Adele, and Adele kept no secrets from her, except one.
Late at night, when Adele knew nobody was awake and the vampires had gone home, Adele would creep over to her window and gently lift it open for her friend.
She would hear the flutter of wings, and then he would be there sitting like always, his tan face and bright eyes smiling down at her from the window sill.
"Raphael" she would whisper with a smile.
"How are you Adele?" Raphael would say softly, talking to her like an adult.
And then, for the next few hours, Adele would tell Raphael about all the wonderful things that had happened to her that day, and each night she would beg him to tell her about more of the world.
"In time" Raphael would always say.
And then she would go to sleep, knowing he was outside watching and protecting her till morning.
On Saturday Adele awoke with a big yawn and looked down at her body hurriedly.
No change.
Good.
Adele walked over to the mirror and looked at herself for a moment, examining her features like always.
Sam blue eyes, same hair, same nose. Everything seemed normal.
So why did she feel so strange?
Adele put on a red summer dress her mother had picked out and slipped on some black shoes. She could hear her mother talking excitedly downstairs and hurried to find out what was going on.
"Morning!" Adele said walking into the kitchen.
"Morning Adele" her mother said as she put her hand over the phone "Breakfast is on the table."
Adele went over and sat down, happy that her mother had made her favorite french toast. She munched and listened to her mother talk on the phone.
"Well I think she'll love that" Sookie said with a smile "Tonight sounds good, Sam and I have the night off. Alright, love you Jason, bye."
"What's Uncle Jason doing?" Adele said swallowing her food.
"Well" Sookie said sitting down "There's a circus in town and your uncle wanted to know if we would like to join him to see it."
"That sounds like fun" Adele said smiling.
The rest of the day consisted of watching TV, reading time, and working on school work. Sookie had researched some home schooling material and found it pretty helpful. Adele was now at a seventh grade level of schooling, her mind taking up the material like a plant takes water. Sookie was sure she could get a GED, even a college scholarship, if she kept up at it.
The sun started going down and Adele heard the rumble of Uncle Jason's truck come up the drive way. She remembered being afraid of Jason for some reason when she was younger, but now he was just like anyone else to her.
Adele walked out the door and came skipping down the steps.
"And how's my favorite little lady?" Jason said hugging her tightly.
"Good, but Dad's not here yet" Adele said looking up at her uncle.
"That's alright" Jason said "I'm sure he'll meet us there."
Sookie came out after locking up the house and smiled at her brother.
"Hey Sook" Jason said giving her a kiss on the cheek "You and the young'en here are lookin pretty good."
"We should be" Sookie said smiling "We spend half the week outside."
"Sun's always good for our kind" he said giving her a wink. Sookie rolled her eyes, knowing he was referring to the fairy in them.
They all piled in the truck and sped off down the drive and onto the highway. The circus was a pretty big deal for the town of Bon Temps, seeing as how nothing really came to their small town except trouble. But as the line of cars started to crowd on the street, Adele became even more excited. She hadn't been around a lot of people, just the usual crowd at Merlottes every now and then, but in this moment, she seemed just like every other excited kid that ran up to the bright lights and huge tents.
Jason paid for the parking and stopped in an empty field where other cars were piling in by the dozen. Adele nearly clawed her way out of the truck and went scampering through the fields towards the red and white tents.
"Adele hold up!" Sookie said grabbing her purse from the truck.
Adele heard her and stopped immediately, but still felt the pumping of her blood rushing through her veins as the excitement took over. Jason hurried over to Adele as Sookie tried to peel through the crowd to get to them.
"Man, what a crowd!" Sookie said huffing.
"I love it!" Adele said looking around and listening in to everyone's thoughts "So many people! And they are all so happy!"
"Well they should be" Jason said "This is a perfect place for this kind of deal."
They walked steadily, following the herd of people towards the grand tents. Adele watched and looked at everyone, hearing their thoughts and seeing the images of ideas floating in everyone's heads. It was all so much, and she was loving every moment of it.
Soon they made it to the tents and paid their admission. Taking their seats, the lights of the circus started to go down around the three circles that the crowd sat around. Sookie offered Adele some popcorn but she steadily shook her head, too excited to eat anything.
Then, the music started playing, and the show began.
A man with greased black hair and mustache entered the middle of the stage, his costume and posture like something out of a movie as he introduced the circus and waved his hand for the first act to enter.
Adele saw clowns jumping and whirling out from the crowds, their bright costumes and painted faces laughing and giggling at her as they honked their horns and waggled their tongues. Adele clapped her hands and watched as they did a funny slap stick act for the crowd while performers started going out in the middle of the circles, blowing fire and dancing with dogs.
Then the trapeze artists came out, nearly defying gravity as they tossed and rolled in the air like magic. Adele could feel her body wanting to go up there with them, wanting to feel the air move through her body. Sookie watched as Adele started to float from the seat and steadily put her hand on her daughters shoulder to wake her up before she floated to the ceiling of the tent.
The acts continued and followed as people on motorcycles raced around a metal cage and exotic animals were brought out with lovely women riding them. But finally the lights dimmed down and a single person stood in the middle of the biggest circle.
"And now ladies and gentlemen" the announcer called out "The Lady or the Tiger!"
The lights came back on and a gruff looking man stood with a dirty jacket draped over him, the stubble of his jutted chin out as he watched the crowd with slanted eyes.
Adele did not like this man. She felt it the moment he looked her way. She could see a deep darkness in his heart, something cruel and twisted that wriggled inside of him like a snake.
She felt herself push back against the seat, watching the man carefully as a box was brought out in front of him while a volunteer was picked from the audience.
"Oh this is a good one" someone whispered from behind "The volunteer has to choose whether a women or the tiger is inside the box. It's mostly just a suspense act."
But Adele watched closely, seeing the young man they had picked looked around the box and tap it lightly. A tapping came back at him and the young man got a cheeky smile on his face.
"It's the lady" the young man announced.
The gruff old man gave a wicked smile "Are you sure?"
"Well of course" the boy said "Tigers don't tap back."
The gruff man opened the box and the roar of the creature surrounded the circus tent as people gasped. The tiger got out of the box and circled the boy, who clearly had been wrong and was now paying dearly for it.
Adele felt something then as she watched the tiger. It moved gracefully like a tiger, looked like a tiger, but Adele felt it was not really a tiger. She tried to probe the tiger's mind but she was too far away to really get anything.
"You see" the gruff man said "It's always going to be the tiger if you keep thinking the way you do."
The tiger suddenly turned and snarled at the gruff man, but he was prepared as if this happened often.
"Dumb son of a bitch" the gruff man huffed and slapped the tiger's jaws. But that only made the tiger angrier as he swiped at the old man. The gruff man produced a long black stick that buzzed horribly. He lunged the stick at the tiger and Adele could hear her voice screaming "NO!"
But the tiger went down, and attendants carried the beast out from the tent and into the shadows.
"Well that was something" Jason said feeling weird about what he had just seen "I ain't never seen nobody treat an animal that way. Not even a damn dog."
"Jason" Sookie hissed "Adele's right here."
"Oh sorry Sook" Jason said shaking his head "It's just a shame, beautiful thing like that tiger..."
Adele didn't hear anymore of what her uncle was saying, she was too focused on where the tiger had been taken. Nothing like that should get hurt to her, and Adele felt a swelling in her chest. She had once tried to squish a spider in the house, and Sam had came in and told her that not all bad things need to be killed (as he picked up the spider) but simply need to be set free. Adele had watched Sam put the spider outside, and later on that spider had made a beautiful web that Adele had cried over when her mother had finally swept it away.
This tiger was like that spider, and she had to do something about it.
As they started to leave their were outside attractions to keep people paying and staying and Jason insisted they look around for just a little bit longer. Sookie agreed and Adele watched carefully, planning her slip away fast. She had promised her mother she wouldn't wander off, but sometimes desperate times called for desperate measures (she had heard that in a movie once.)
Sookie had gotten distracted for a moment as she watched a fire dancer spin rings of fire in the air, which was exactly when Adele took her chance. Her feet rocketed across the crowds of people, right behind the exhibits and shows that were being put on, and straight into the backstage of the circus.
She ducked and hid behind boxes as circus members walked on past, and soon she heard the undeniable sounds of animals. She crept slowly across the field until she saw the cages. Animal after animal were tucked in the steel cages, and soon she saw the orange and black stripes of the tiger. His cage was on top of various other animals, too high for Adele to simply just walk up to.
Adele could tell now that it was a male, a young male tiger, and his cage was not ordinary metal, but silver.
Adele crept up and slowly lifted herself up to get a good look inside the cage, her feet planted nicely on top of the two that held the tiger's.
"Hello?" Adele whispered to the back of the tiger.
Groggily the tiger lifted it's head and turned to see Adele, it's yellowed eyes getting wide at the sight of her.
"I'm here to help" she said quietly as the tiger turned around clumsily towards her.
Adele looked into the tiger's eyes, it's mind opening wide for her.
This tiger was a shapeshifter, a young shapeshifter no more than twenty-two years old. His name was Tommy...and he was in a lot of pain.
Adele suddenly saw images, horrible images. This young man had been beaten since he was little, mostly by the gruff man from the circus, his father, he had been locked in this cage for months now, and he had been made to fight people...he had killed a lot of people...even...
"Oh no" Adele whimpered as she looked back up to the tiger "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry about that."
The tiger looked at her with such sad eyes and moaned as it laid it's head down, like it just knew that it would never get out of this awful place.
"I'm going to get you out" she whispered feeling her body swell with magic "I'm going to save you."
The tiger looked up at her, his eye's getting wide as he watched Adele's little body begin to glow. Her hands glowed white as the silver bars of the cage began to melt around her. And then with a slight pull, the bars gave out, sending Adele sailing back and hitting her head on the ground hard.
Before the darkness overtook her, Adele heard the roaring of the tiger, announcing it's freedom to the world, as if nothing could stop it.
And then, Adele heard nothing.