Chapter Twenty One
Free falling out a window was not a very pleasant experience. Anxiety tightened my chest and I felt as if I couldn't breathe. Time slowed down as Evra and I were falling, as if it were slowing down for us to experience all of the emotions that one faced falling off of a building (or out a window, in our case). Our time with Melanie came flashing before my eyes, from the day we found her to what had just happened right now. I realized then how eerily similar the current events were to how we saw Melanie's parents die. Before I could think of anything else, I hit the ground.
I gasped as I woke up from the coma that I was put into by Alexander to take us to his nightmare world. Evra, who was apparently already awake, had been trying to wake me up.
"Darren!" he shouted as my eyes opened. I immediately sat up, making myself feel light headed in the process.
"What's the matter? What happened?" I asked, still a bit scatterbrained as an after-effect from the coma.
"Melanie's and Alexander's bodies are gone! A giant burnt house is also outside the tent, too. It looks like Melanie's!" he said frantically. I sat there taking in his news, paying particular attention to what he said about the bodies being missing.
"Evra… Do you think that means…" I stared to ask him the horrid question, not having the heart to finish it. Evra, knowing what I was asking, nodded his head sorrowfully.
"I think so, buddy," he mumbled, his voice filled to the brim with woe.
"Darren! Evra!" shouted a voice. I instantly recognized the voice that belonged to Mr. Tall. He burst through the trailer with other cirque members following close behind to see us sitting there. He had gone out to search for us when our bodies apparently disappeared. Looking around and finding no Melanie, he got serious.
"Where is she?" he asked, not really wanting to hear the answer. Evra and I were silent for a bit, but Evra decided to tell him.
"Mr. Tall… She risked her life to save us. We seem to think that she was lost in the raging flames."
"Raging flames?" asked Mr. Crepsley, who had arrived with Mr. Tall and the others, "What are you talking about?" We then told them all about what we had just endured. After we finished, there was a silence in the trailer, as if everybody had something on their minds.
"Dead," said Mr. Tall after a while, voice mournful. "My beautiful little spider is… dead?" Evra and I had answered with silence, knowing that words were not needed at this point. Since Mr. Tall was sitting down, Mr. Crepsley was able to put his hand on his shoulder.
"What will we do with all of the debris outside?" asked Rhamus Twobellies, one of the performers.
"We're looking through it," said Evra, with determination.
"What?" asked Mr. Crepsley.
"We're looking through it," repeated Evra. I nodded in agreement.
"If we're able to find Melanie's body, I think that we should find where she had her parents buried, and bury her near there." Mr. Tall thought for a few moments, and then he nodded slowly.
"I agree with the young ones. We must give Melanie the burial she deserves." Everyone else had started to agree, and since the sun had already started rising, they had decided to start. As we walked out to the mass of wood, brick, and ash, I heard something move.
"What was that?" I asked aloud. The noise, being a bit louder this time, had gotten everyone's attention. There were boards moving in one spot.
"What's happening?" asked Rhamus. Nobody dared move, being prepared if it was Alexander returning from the grave. The boards had finally move from their spot and there stood up a figure. That figure turned out to be the very battered, very bruised, but very alive Melanie Juniper Lee Ramm.
"Melanie?" I gasped.
"Oh my gods," gasped Evra. Melanie attempted a few steps forward, but she fell to her knees from fatigue. We all ran to her, Mr. Tall going first to hug "his" beloved child.
"Melanie? Is that really you?" he asked, leaning back to look into her eyes. Melanie gave a weak smile.
"Yeah… Father. It's… me." She quickly hugged Evra and I, Evra's hug lingering for a bit.
"We thought you were dead," Mr. Crepsley said honestly, receiving a hug from Melanie.
"You're not getting rid of me that easily, you salty, old vampire," she replied with much affection. We all shared a laugh.
"If you think about it," Melanie said finally, "Evra wouldn't be alive if I had died, now would he? You do recall that I am his life-line."
"Oh yeah," Evra and I mumbled in unison. Melanie laughed.
"Like I said, you're not getting rid of me that easily."
Afterwards
After that, we all brought Melanie to the infirmary, where she healed herself with her magic. As all went back to normal, things had started to change. Melanie and Evra started dating about a year later, right after our encounter with Murlough in Mr. Crepsley's old town. They dated for a good long while, too, and Melanie had even become a Queen in the world of Spiders. But, things had started to change as the War of Scars settled in. She helped out a lot in the War of Scars as she grew older, and she was with me until the very end. But those instances are another story. This is the end, my friends. This is the end of the tale of how I had befriended Melanie Juniper Lee Ramm, the Spider Queen.
I feel really sad finishing this story, considering how long it had taken me to make it. I don't know if I have ever mentioned this, but this story had taken me a good year and a half to finish. I really had fun making my own sort of AU Cirque Du Freak story. Just a note: If there are requests for me to make short stories about the later years that Melanie had spent with Darren, Evra, and the Cirque, I will surely do that! Thank you to all that have faved, story watched, and commented! I really do appreciate all of you reading this! I love you all!
~DejaVu971