Let's see, we're already on chapter 14! So now, let's wind down.
Ready? Go!
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Masquerade in the Night
by Green Phantom Queen
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Chapter 14-Pavo, The Peacock
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By morning, Ken was amazed to see everyone having a nice time at breakfast. He was never used to this type of company, so he didn't know how to react when...
"So, Ken." said Maria. "What do you know about this Lord David?"
Ken nearly spat out the milk he was drinking when he heard that. "Well," he said as everyone was staring at him. "He doesn't show his face, but all I know of him is that he's usually seen wearing this long black coat and has long blonde hair similar to your ringleader. He wants to summon Darkness, but for what reason I don't know. He knows what's going on and the fact that you defeated Lucifer and got Leonard's blessing. What he doesn't know is who the Vessels are."
"And this helps us why?" asked Shannon.
"We have an advantage over him if he can't figure out which member out of the Dream Circus is a Vessel." Ken explained. "And since there are 16 members of the Circus, then there are small chances for each one of us to be a Vessel...all I know is that all 6 Vessels are actually 6 members of this Circus."
"But what's going to happen after that?" said Prince Jeri, clutching his Sphinx cub in his arms.
"That I don't know." Ken replied. "I know that he lives around the region of Nexus, the same place that Darkness fell. That is the same place all 6 Vessels must be in if they want to free Gaea."
"Do we have a deadline for this stuff?" said Adam, in a hint of sarcasm. "Like we have 80 days to travel all of Harmonia before Darkness comes?"
"No," said Ken. "But you want to get a head start before the next agent of Lord David comes in and tries to stop you."
Suddenly, they heard a cooing sound. Everyone looked down to see a peacock stare at them, a letter in its mouth. What was different was that it was a black peacock, with black feathers with pink eye spots on them.
"PINK!" Prince Jeri cried, hiding behind Jay. "Why does everything have to be pink?!"
Ashley pulled out the envelope and opened a letter, which had golden lettering. "Come to the Masquerade that will be held tonight from 8 PM to midnight. Come prepared in your best outfit, and there will be food, music, dance and prizes for the winners of our contests." She read aloud.
"Neat!" said Mickie. "A masquerade!"
"And look at this!" said Jeff, pulling out a second letter that fell to the ground, reading it. "To the Dream Circus," He read. "Due to help shedding light on what really happened, I will allow you to pick out a couple of special items from the Treasury, It is a small token of my appreciation for what you have accomplished."
"A dance and treasure?" said Matt, with a small smile. "This will be a fun night."
"Um, are you all not forgetting something?" asked Gangrel. "We're leaving for Vivace today!"
"Aw, come on." said Brian. "King Bret is holding a masquerade and we're allowed to go into the Treasury. We need a break, Gangrel...we didn't get a lot of rest after being locked in the Treasury last night."
"Can we go then, please?" asked Paul as both jesters gave him sad looks on their faces.
"Yeah come on 'Grel." said Jay. "Let us have one night of fun."
Gangrel started to get pissed off on Jay giving him some sort of nickname, trying his hardest not to give him a punishment like cleaning up the horse stables. After a while he sighed and said, "All right, we'll go to the Masquerade tonight. But first, I want all of the chores done before go anywhere."
"YAY!" Everyone, minus Ken, shouted.
Gangrel brought out a list. "Let's see," He muttered. "So Paul and Brian will take care of cleaning up todays breakfast dishes, the ladies will help put the tent down..." Once he had finished the list, he got up and said, "And speaking of Masquerade...I propose a little challenge."
"Challenge?" asked Randy. "Like what?"
Gangrel grinned at his idea. "We're going to have a contest of our own, and we will try to see which member of the Circus can go the longest without being caught. A Masquerade is to be known for people to become unidentified, and guests try to find out who is under the mask. The ones that I cannot identify do not have to do chores tomorrow."
"I'm in!" said John, his transformation during the Witching Hour died off in the early morning. "This will be so much fun."
"And here is what happens." Gangrel continued. "I will try and find out who is whom in the Masquerade tonight. Anyone who is caught must then help me find out where the other members of the Circus are at. Wigs and makeup or hair colors are allowed, but under no circumstance is magic allowed when you enter the ballroom. And if I am able to identify you correctly, you must remove your mask so I can see your face. If I'm wrong—and I only have three chances to guess your identity—then you are free to leave."
"No chores for a whole day, huh?" said Jeff. "This will be exciting."
"What are we waiting for?" said Ashley. "Let's get these chores done!"
Ken just stared at the black and pink peacock. "Who's bringing the bird back to the palace?" he asked, despite everyone not listening.
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The Dream Circus was already going through their costumes to find anything or everything needed for their costumes for the ball. It was sure to be exciting, plus the money they received from the King for the mission made it more sweeter. Because everyone wasn't allowed to know what they were wearing—but changing their hair style, color, wigs or adding makeup was permitted—then it was permitted to for them to go shopping.
Randy and John were currently in the Treasury of the Hart Palace—the others would come in later—trying to look for something. King Bret made it specifically clear that anything minus the Goblet of Purity and the coins in the room was off limits, but they were allowed to get some of the jewelery there.
"I've got something!" said John, pulling out two rings. One was silver with blue sapphires studding it, the other was also silver but with emeralds.
"Wow..." Randy whispered. "These are going to be our engagement rings, right?"
John nodded his head. "Yep!" He said, grabbing Randy's hand. "And in three months time, we'll be married..." He then placed the sapphire ring on Randy's ring finger. "Sapphires make you more radiant...after all the sapphire is the birthstone for April...and we were born on that month."
"And I joined the Circus on my birthday." Randy murmured, recalling the day Gangrel came on his horse-drawn cart and asked him to come with him. "The emeralds on your ring must remind you of the forest..." He gingerly placed the emerald ring on John's finger.
John soon gave Randy a bone-crushing hug. "If I had to, I would want nothing more than to be by your side forever more." He whispered. "I acted so carefree, so innocent, all to hide my true feelings for you...not realizing how much you had to go through...my life was my own little Masquerade."
"Stop it," said Randy. "Don't say such mushy stuff like this. No seriously, there are guards outside hearing this."
John released the hug, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "You're right, and we need to get those costumes ready. But that doesn't mean I'm telling you what I'm doing."
Randy smiled. "Wouldn't have it any other way."
It took them only a few minutes—and a couple of questions and answers—until the made it out of the palace and met up with everyone at the famous costume shop in Twili. It was a beautiful building with the door having two harlequin masks on the front and the inside had many costumes, accessories, masks. It was known as the Hall of Masques and due to the invitations, there were more people than usual trying to find the best costumes that were there.
Randy was currently in the wig section, trying to find something that could hide his hair from the rest of the crowd. That's when he found it, a wig of silver long hair, reminding him of John's transformation to his true form. He immediately grabbed that and placed it on is head. Seeing himself in the nearby mirrors, he nearly gasped when gazed into his reflection; it didn't seem like himself at all.
John was trying on hundreds of outfits, but none of them seemed to fit with his cape. He then paused for a minute; if he used his new cape, then people would immediately find out who he was. He then placed his cape in a bag and immediately found an outfit similar to a warlock's...an idea came to his mind as he immediately grabbed for it.
"Hey." John turned around and saw a teenager with brown spiky hair—too small for a mohawk, but not enough to cover his head—dressed in a grey shirt that had the yin-yang symbol on it and black pants which also had the same symbol on each leg, although both were consume with flames. A smug grin was on his face though.
"Hey!" said John with a smile. "So you're also going to the Masquerade, right? I'm John by the way."
"The name's Mike." The other boy said as the two shook hands. "I saw you a couple of night's ago when you performed. You're the aerial silk acrobat, right?"
"Yeah." said John, as the two walked to the mask aisle, many masquerade and carnival masks were peering down at them. "I may not look like it but I have a lot of strength from training I did in my youth." He stopped and found a black mask on a pole, the mask had golden swirls decorating around the forehead and eyes, and it also three black feathers at the bridge of the nose. Grabbing it, he stared at Mike's attire.
"So, you're going to be doing a yin-yang thing?" asked John, placing the mask in his bag.
Mike shrugged. "Not sure, actually." He replied. "But I heard there's a contest being held at the Masquerade...it's supposed to be a scavenger hunt and the winner gets 200 Clefas."
"Sweet!" said John. "I'll notify the rest of the Circus and tell them about it!"
"Hey John!" John turned around to see Ashley, Mickie and Maria coming up to them. "So this where you were!" said Maria, giving the aerial silk performer a hug.
"And it looks like you got your costume ready." said Mickie, seeing his shopping bag. "So what are you going to be?"
"I can't tell." said John, waving his hand in front of his face. "But if you can't see me at the Masquerade, then I know it's working." The girls just laughed at him.
"Hey," said Mike, coming up to Ashley. "What do you say we go out and have some fun around town?"
Ashley looked at him for a minute. "Um...I'd love to...but I have to go back and meet up with everyone else at the Dream Circus." She then walked off with the other three members of the Circus, leaving Mike behind.
"So, Ash," asked Mickie as the four were heading to the cashier. "What was Mike asking you?"
"Something about going out for a date." She muttered. "But he wasn't my type anyway."
Mike only stood there, anger boiling in him as heard Ashley say those words. A dark aura was surrounding him as he pulled out a small purple orb.
"This is M," He whispered to it. "This just got personal."
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Gangrel was already trying out his outfit: a blue-green suit and pants and a dark blue mask that was covered in peacock feathers covering his eyes. A pair of white gloves covered his hands and a cape patterned to look like peacock feathers was on his shoulders. He also had a blue tailored coat fastened with golden buttons and black dress shoes were on his feet.
"Excellent," He said as he saw himself through the mirror. "I look...I look..."
Suddenly he gripped his head and closed his eyes. He gasped for breath as some sort of memory came into his mind.
The older boy stared at Lestat, dressed in a blue-green suit and peacock feathered mask. "You look very nice in that outfit, Lestat." He said.
The young boy smiled. "Yeah!" said Lestat, gazing into the older boy's eyes. "This is the outfit that I'm going to wear when we make the circus. I'll be...I'll be..." Lestat paused for a minute, trying to gather his thoughts. "I'll be known as The Druid!"
"'The Druid?'" asked the older boy. "But druids are associated with trees, not birds."
"Then maybe I'll be a Bird Druid, because birds live in trees! The peacock is known to be the king of birds...isn't that right?" Lestat questioned.
"King of birds...that sounds interesting."
Lestat smiled at the answer. "So, who are you going to be, David?"
Gangrel opened his eyes, finding the voices had stopped. But the last sentence echoed in his head. David...who was this David? It couldn't have been him, could it? He stared into the mirror, trying to see if anything out of the ordinary was there...but there wasn't. He shrugged his shoulders, grabbing a blue ribbon to wrap around his hair into a small ponytail
"Perfect," he murmured. "This should do it."
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It was late at night when people started to head into the palace, music floated into the hallways along with the aroma of food that was being served. The ballroom was already overflowed with many people dancing away, all of them in fancy clothing and masks. Everyone was having a good time, laughing away and looking at the lists they were given for the Scavenger Hunt. Children were laughing and giggling away, all playing a game of "Masquerade Tag" where they tried to grab each others masks.
Matt and Jeff were already eating hors deurves: jalapeno poppers, tuna tartar and marinated olives were on their plates. Matt was dress in a black shirt and pants, with a red star in the middle of his shirt and red flames on his pants while his eyes were covered by a black mask with three feathers on the side—the middle feather being red and the top and bottom ones being black—while there was red tips at the end of his black hair. What made him really freaky was the red wing design creeping onto the arms as if they were made out of blood.
Jeff's outfit was a mirror image of his brother's, except wherever there was red there was black and vice versa. He had died his hair bright red and the tips of his hair was dyed black. His face was covered in black make up with red stripes going down his cheeks and lips. He swallowed a jalapeno popper while many of the girls stared at him.
"Um," Jeff said, staring at them. "What is it?"
"It's just that," said one of the girls. "We found one of items on the Scavenger Hunt list!" She showed it to Jeff: next to a check mark the sentence read "Two people wearing the same outfit but with alternate coloring."
"What are the chances of that?" said Matt.
"So now," said another girl, handing Jeff a sugar egg. "Will you accept this gift?"
"Candy!" said Jeff as his hand inched out to get it. Unfortunately he was beaten by Matt. "Hey!" Jeff cried out. "Give that back!"
"Do forgive me ladies," said Matt. "But me and my brother must talk in private." He grabbed Jeff—whose hand was clenched onto his platter of food—and brought him to one of the balconies.
"What was that for?" Jeff said in loud whisper.
Matt looked back at the ballroom, then turned back to Jeff. "If Gangrel was there and saw you eat that sweet, he'd knew instantly that was you." He explained. "So for tonight, I'm you and you're me. That means, you cannot have any candy...or else I'll feed you Whispering Fate nectar mouth-to-mouth for the whole ballroom to see."
Jeff gulped, imagining the scene of Matt giving him his medicine through a kiss. A red tinge was on his face as he shook his head. "All right." He said. "Eat all the candy you want."
"Sweet." said Matt, biting through the sugar egg.
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Ashley, Mickie and Maria were chatting lightly while eating. Cucumber rolls, stuffed mushrooms and tapernade topped crackers were on their plates. They were talking about the excitement on Randy and John's sacred wedding that would happen in three month's time.
"This will be so exciting!" squealed Maria, eating a small cucumber roll. She was dressed in an elaborate array of colors: she was wearing a dress that was bright red with orange and yellow gems decorating the bottom, and was wearing an emerald necklace around her neck. Her mask was a bright shade of robin egg's blue with purple lines decorating around her eyes. Instead of many feathers, she only had three feathers on the left side of her mask that were colored like the rainbow. "I wonder what it's going to be like?"
"Not sure." said Mickie, rubbing her eyes behind her purple mask. It was decorated with golden swirls while it had three feathers on the right side: one green, one yellow and one purple. Her dress was a beautiful shade of purple with a green sash wrapped around her waist and she had a necklace of gold around her neck. She also had green, purple and yellow face paint swirling around her left cheek. What was also interesting was that her hair was split into the same three colors. "But whatever happens, I hope they'll be happy."
"They better be." said Ashley, staring at the dancers waltzing around the ballroom. She ran her hand through her blonde hair which parted with some black star hairpins. Her dress was a dark black, decorated with glitter to make it look like stars. She had a pair of crystal earrings in the shape of stars and her mask was a dark black that a white star on the middle of her forehead. She even had a ring on her right hand that had a star sapphire on it. "After all of this Darkness thing is done, we need to be happy."
"Really now?" The girls turned around and saw Gangrel dressed in his peacock inspired outfit, a smirk was on his face. "So let's see..."
He pointed a finger at Ashley. "Ashley Massaro." He said, while Ashley removed her mask.
He then pointed at Maria. "Maria." Maria sighed removing her mask.
"Mickie James." Mickie groaned as she removed her mask. Gangrel smirked as he found three of his Circus members in front of him.
"You know the rules." He said. "So put your masks back on and help me find the others."
"Can we at least finish our food first?" Maria begged, showing her plate full our food.
Gangrel pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine," He muttered. "But as soon as you're done, you're going to help me find the boys."
The girls nodded their heads before swallowing any leftover appetizers on their plates.
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Randy was standing at one of the corners of the ballroom, a plate of pita chips and watercress dip in his hand. His silver wig fell down his waist and pair of wolf ears were on top of it. A white tuxedo and pants draped his body and it was accented with gold thread. He even had a long silver fox tail and a white mask that was accented with golden spirals covering his eyes. Munching on a chip, he looked around, waiting for someone.
"Excuse me," a voice said, as Randy lifted his head. The necromancer's eyes widened as he saw the person: It was someone dressed in a black wizard robe decorated with silver smoke with a black witch cape draping down their shoulders. Along with the sword that was in its sheath, the person was grasping a black mask attached to a wooden pole which had golden swirls and three black feathers on the bridge of the nose. "I'm sorry, are you waiting for someone?" The person asked.
"Um, I..." Randy tried to say something, but he couldn't keep his eyes off that person...his mind suddenly became blank as he fell into the arms of the stranger while his plate of food clattered onto the ground. The man smirked as he carried him away.
"There, there." The man whispered. "Once I take care of you, then you can just forget...and know what it is like to work for the darkness."
As he left, John immediately ran to that spot, wearing a prince's outfit that was half black and half white. His mask was also half black and half white with he was also wearing a pair of yin-yang contacts.
"Darn it," said John, rubbing the back of his head. "I accidentally took Mike's clothes and he took mine. And I told Randy to wait for me here....and Mike said he'd wait to get our clothes exchanged...wonder where they are?"
"Are you that dense?" John turned around to the person saying that. He was wearing a blue prince's outfit with a silver rapier at the side and a blue cape. The person had a blue mask covering his face with a silver music staff filled with notes floating around the eyes and forehead. "Someone took him away; that person might've been sent by Lord David!"
"Ken?" John asked at the person. "What's going on?"
Ken grabbed John's hand and whispered into his ear, "That Mike guy you met at the Costume Shop? His real name is Mike Mizanin, although he's mostly known as 'The Miz'. He has similar powers to mine...but while I can turn people into puppets, Miz can charm people and make them fall in love with him...and the worst part? He's got Randy...if you don't save him soon, Randy will be a pawn for Lord David to use."
John immediately grabbed Ken's arm. "Lead me to this Miz."
Ken smirked. "You have no idea how much I want to punch that guy." He smirked. "But we need some reinforcements."
"Excuse me?" Ken and John turned to see Prince Jeri and Molly stare at them. Prince Jeri was wearing a white tunic with a golden belt wrapped around his waist and sandals. He also had a golden collar wrapped around his neck and kohl—an eyeliner made out of minerals—around his eyes. Some sort of golden burial mask was in front of his face while his cat ears were twitching at the vibrations all around them. "Is something wrong?"
"We heard some sort of commotion." said Molly. She was dressed in a simple yellow dress with white lace at the end of her sleeves and at the dress itself. Even though she still had her feline features—like her paws and tail—she also had a yellow mask covering her eyes that was surrounded with golden glitter. "Is something the matter?"
Ken brought out a scroll containing his Lunati puppet. "Let's head outside the ballroom." He said. "You'll find the answer to your question there."
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Adam and Jay were currently working on the Scavenger Hunt; both twins looked at the list and found that they only needed one more item on the list. Despite the fact that the instructions said that the winners would be the ones who could find the majority of the list—since there were high chances that everything couldn't be found—the hunt encouraged that if all items were found, a special
"Let's see," said Adam. "The only thing we need is the person that represents balance."
"We've gone through everyone in the ballroom, Adam." said Jay, staring at the list. "What are the chances for finding someone like that?"
"How about finding out that we were items on the scavenger hunt." said Adam, staring at his outfit. He was dressed in a green shirt and pants with a cape patterned like leaves. He even had a crown that had emeralds circling around his head along with an oak longbow and quiver of arrows. His mask was a shamrock green with the edges of the mask being a bright yellow.
"Yeah," said Jay, recalling the memory. "The minute we entered the ballroom, we were immediately bombarded by girls. To think we were able to get some of the last outfits in the store." As he said that he stared at his costume: a blue prince's top and puffy pants that went past his knees, along with a pair of brown dress shoes on top of his feet. His long blonde hair was put into a ponytail while his eyes were covered with a blue mask that was decorated with silver glitter at the side and three blue feathers on each side.
"Adam. Jay." The twins looked at where the voice was coming from, gulping to see Gangrel and the divas staring at them. "Take off your masks."
The twins groaned and removed their masks...it was also at that time that they saw Ken, Prince Jeri, Molly and John running out of the ballroom; they were mostly paying attention to John's yin-yang inspired outfit though.
Adam stared at his list. "Wow, that's everything." He muttered.
"Really?" said Ashley, staring at the list. "Damn, you guys are good."
"They're thieves, Ash." said Maria. "Thieves need to know their surroundings, so it's easy for them!"
"Wish they were there before Gangrel found us out though," Mickie muttered under her breath.
"We don't mind," said Adam. "It was either get caught, or lose our chance to get 200 clefas. Pick your poison."
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"Ouch!" said Brian as Paul stepped on his foot. "Watch where you're going, your boot just stepped on mine!" He stared at his partner: Paul was wearing a black diamond patterned jester outfit, and a jester hat with one branch of the hat being black, the other white. The tips of the branches had a white diamond or a black diamond on it while his mask was completely black with a white diamond in the middle that was covering his face.
"It's not my fault that you don't have rhythm." Paul whispered as the two were waltzing around the dance floor. As the two danced to the beat of the music Paul gazed through Brian's attire: A white tuxedo, with the back of the coat having three red slashes at the back along with black dress shoes. His blonde hair was combed and had the scent of honeysuckle while his white mask covered the upper half of his face, three red slashes decorating it. "But you also smell nice."
"Really, now?" asked Brian as the two spun to the beat, their fingers laced together. "How about we kiss?" Paul just smirked as the two kissed, their bodies leaning against each other, feeling each other's warmth.
"Um, guys?" A voice said. They ignored it as they wrapped their arms around each other's waist, while Paul gave a small trail of kisses down Brian's neck.
"HEY!" Paul and Brian stopped and looked at Shannon...or at least his attire. Shannon had a purple/black prince outfit with black puffy pants lined with gold. What was also strange was that his shoulders and sleeves had small spikes on them, and to make it even stranger, the purple mask covering his eyes had black ovals surrounding the eye holes and a line going through them. There were even black and white feathers going on top of his head, making it look like some sort of mohawk.
"Guys," said Shannon, pinching the bridge of his nose. "The music has stopped, you're in the middle of the dance floor...and people are staring at you."
Paul and Brian shot glances at everyone who were just either staring at them or whispering to each other. Some of children were peeking through the small sea of dancers, trying to see what was going on. The jesters soon ran through the crowd while Shannon just sighed once more.
"I'm surrounded by idiots." He muttered to himself. He pushed through the crowd and sighed, running a hand through his hair. Grabbing a glass of punch, he was about to drink it when he saw the reflection of someone in the drink. He was about to say it was John—remembering seeing the Lupin prince getting that costume, but noticed his eyes.
"Sorry." said Shannon as he whirled around, pouring his glass of punch into the man's eyes and punched the person right in the face, causing his mask to fly off. It fell to the ground as the person tried to wipe his eyes off the punch with his hand. Shannon smirked as fangs grew from his teeth and grabbed the man's wrist.
"Night night." He said, biting into the wrist, the person couldn't say anything as he started to feel drowsy and fell asleep. Shannon removed the fangs and returned to getting a fresh glass of punch when Ken walked up to him.
"Did you just beat him?" He asked. "That guy was 'M', one of Lord David's agents." Shannon shrugged his shoulders as he drank a glass of punch.
"So?" He asked, grabbing a stuffed mushroom and munching on it. "I sensed he was bad and gave him what he deserved. On the upside, I injected a venom into his bloodstream that'll make him unconscious for a couple of hours. I won't kill him unless Gangrel decides what to do with him."
Ken just stared at him. "What kind of freaks do you have in that Circus?"
Shannon immediately whipped his head at Ken, his eyes starting to glow in anger. "Take that back." Shannon snarled. "We're not freaks, we're human beings. For me to be called a freak is the last straw!"
"What is your deal?" asked Ken as he placed Mike in an upright position near a wall.
"My deal?" Shannon repeated. "Before the Circus came around, there was a demon snake known as "The Killer" which was killing people left and right. I was able to tame it, and she bit me...only now I've realized that her venom mixed with my bloodstream, thus I'm able to grow snake scales, inject venom and have a craving for mice every now and then. But that's not the point; the point is that after that incident, people called me a Snake lover and bullies would pick on me because of that. One day, one obnoxious brat called me a freak...it was so bad that I killed him with a deadly venom that came from my body. I guess you can say that after that, I blocked out all the memories of me having this power..."
"So, one day about two or three years ago, Gangrel waltzes in and takes me in as a part of the Circus. And after so many years, I made friends..." Shannon smiled sadly at the memory that passed in his mind. "And then when we fought Leonard, everything came back...sure it's coming back in pieces but..."
"I understand." said Ken. "Sorry about that whole 'freak' comment."
Shannon smiled at him. "None taken." He then stared at Mike's sleeping form. "So, what's going on with this guy?"
"He has a special ability known as Charm." Ken explained. "He was going to make Randy join Lord David, but thanks to the combined efforts of John, Prince Jeri, Molly and me, we were able to break the trance from Randy before anything bad could happen. You should've seen it; Molly got really pissed and brought out at least 10 daggers from her purse and pinned the guy to the wall and threatened to kill him if he didn't go silently. Then John—from out of nowhere—brings out a strand of silk and wraps Mike's wrists together and Jeri has a sword with him to slice him into pieces! Then Mike disappears, while John slaps Randy silly to get him out of his trance."
"And you asked us about what type of people we have in our Circus." said Shannon, rolling his eyes.
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It was soon midnight, and people were soon traveling back to their respective homes. Fortunately for the Circus, the animals were in good shape thanks to the maids and servants taking care of them, and everyone felt a bit richer from the experience....particularly because Adam and Jay got 200 clefas from the Scavenger Hunt.
"So," said Gangrel, once everyone was in the Circus tent. "The only ones not doing chores are Ken, Prince Jeri, John, Molly, Shannon, Randy, Paul and Brian. Everyone else has to do chores."
"Finally, a break." said Shannon. "And it keeps Jeff from gorging on candy."
"Hey!" Jeff cried out. "That's mean!"
"Speaking of mean," said Randy, staring at Mike's body. "What do we do with him?"
"I say we give him a truth serum." said Maria. "I'll brew one right now!"
"I say we hang him from the trapeze." Ashley suggested.
"No! We can feed him to the sphinxes!" said Adam. Stryker, who was on his shoulder, mewed in agreement.
"We'll wake him up and make him give information on this Lord David." said Gangrel, placing a hand on Mike's forehead. "If he's in league with this man, then we'll get some information out of him." A soft light blue glow soon came from his hand as Mike's eyes fluttered open.
"Man...what happened?" He asked as he stared into the eyes of the 16 members of the Dream Circus. "Ah, crap..."
"Hi Mike." said Ken, staring at the boy. "How you doing?"
"You!" Mike said, standing up and pointing a finger at the puppeteer. "What the hell are you doing siding with these guys?!"
"I lost a magic duel, and had to abide with the deal that was made prior to it." said Ken. "And whatever is said before the magic duel starts is law. A Shade who dishonors that very promise is said to be stripped of his magic power, and I intend to make sure I have all of it when I fight that bastard. Besides, you know the reason I went to Lord David; what's yours?"
"Because I was bored." said Mike. "Yeah, things get boring and when a person gets bored, they'd do anything to have a thrill."
"And you think charming a boy with your magic is fun?" asked John. "You're lucky you're not dead yet."
"You know," said Brian. "I know what we can do with him."
"And what's that?" asked Paul.
"We'll ask him to join the Circus." asked Brian.
"WHAT?!" Everyone yelled at him.
"Are you crazy?!" asked Matt. "Last thing we need is this guy charming the divas and making them his personal harem!"
"Don't worry!" said Maria, bringing out her Rain Bow Staff. "If he tries to make us his harem..." Her staff soon transformed into a glass mace shimmering in many colors of the rainbow. "I'll just smash this in front of his face!"
"Um," said Molly, pushing Maria away. "No violence, please."
"Can he charm animals though?" asked Prince Jeri, Lestat in his arms. "I don't want him to hurt my friend."
"Don't worry," said Matt. "If he tries to hurt Lestat, Jeff and I will burn his skin off."
"Not that point!" said Jay. "The more agents of Lord David in our grasp, the more information they'll give up on Lord David, and the more we'll be more prepared for him."
"Look." said Mike, turning away. "Thanks for your little offer...but I'm better alone. Later." He soon walked off, his back to the whole Circus.
Shannon stared at him. "Hey!" He cried out. "If you ever want to find us, we'll be heading to Vivace!"
"Shush!" Everyone said to Shannon.
"I'm just saying." He replied.
"Well," said Gangrel. "It's midnight. Time for bed."
"Yeah," said Paul, stretching his arms. "I need to hit the hay early."
"What for?" Shannon teased. "So you and Brian can have some time playing tonsil hockey?"
For that Shannon got tackled by both Brian and Paul.
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In Vivace, a young girl was cowering in an abandoned house. She whimpered as someone started to beat her with a baseball bat.
"You stupid piece of shit," The person whispered in her ear. "You don't deserve to live!"
The girl shrieked a bit as the bat hit her arms. Then a sickening blow hit her back as she yelled louder. She then heard the bat fall with a clatter as she was yanked onto her feet by her long chestnut hair.
"Any last words?" The person said, as they brought a switchblade near her throat.
The only thing the girl could do was scream.
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Around 6 in the morning, the Masquerade Circus started to pack everything up into the chests, hauling them into the horse drawn carriage or placing any small items into sacks to carry on their journey. Gangrel was staring at the map heading to Vivace before clicking his teeth.
"This is exciting." said Prince Jeri. "We're almost to the next Temple."
"At the rate we're going we'll be there by sunset tomorrow!" Molly cried. "I hope it's not too cold."
Ken was currently seated with Randy on the black panther. "You know, speaking of Vivace, I heard that there was some kind of siren there."
"A siren?" asked Maria. "What she like?"
Ken shrugged is shoulders. "Not sure, but I hear that anyone who hears their song never comes back alive...and that her voice is only heard at night."
"We'll have nothing to worry about," said Jay. "I mean, what could possibly go wrong?"
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Who was the young girl being attacked?
And what about the siren?
Will Mike join the Circus?
And what could possibly go wrong?
All this and more in chapter 15!
Until then, read and review!