She headed to the park to meet with Darren and Steve, as it was a Saturday.
"You look like hell." Steve said. "You still wanna go with us?"
"Yeah, you said you had an awesome surprise!" Kuri said. "I'm not missing it."
Darren showed her the flyer. Kuri read over it, not missing the fact that Larten Crepsley was featured.
"I'm going." Kuri confirmed, handing Steve ticket money. "I know you already bought the tickets. Lets go now and get a good seat."
The three headed to the theater, and Kuri coughed several times as they walked.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Darren said.
"Yes I'm ok." Kuri said, covering her mouth.
They all sat down, and watched the show.
Then, a dull green light glowed across the stage. Before it was empty; now there was a cage, set on wheels, in the center. There's the scraping of chain. A low guttural sound.
A white spot shined down, left the front half of the cage in light, the back half in shadow. A figure moved in there.. The audience lean forward, hoping to see when there was a roar! Several people screamed as the figure crashed to the front of the cage. A wolfman for lack of a better term, its body covered in thick, matted hair. It roared again, shook the bars. Its half-canine teeth yellow, its eyes red. A chain hung attached to an iron collar around its neck.
Kuri gasped and squeezed Darren's hand, he looked at her in shock, then back at the wolfman.
Half the audience believed it was real. The other half were amazed at how real this 'performer' seemed. As they buzz, Mr. Tall stepped out on stage. Wearing red leather gloves and hat.
"Ladies and Gentlemen. Welcome to the Cirque du Freak. We are an ancient circus. We have toured for five hundred years..." Mr Tall began.
Darren and Steve exchanged a look at this information.
"Bringing the remarkable and grotesque to generations. Our freaks are not people in masks. They are not harmless misfits. What you see tonight is real. Each performer unique. None harmless."
To prove this, the Wolfman lunged, reached a claw through the bars to swipe just centimeters short of Mr. Tall who's nonreaction showed he knew exactly where he's standing..
A ripple went through the crowd as they became aware of Truska. Startlingly beautiful. Dressed for the Moulin Rouge. Crossing the stage in a languid catwalk. Several men in the audience began to cough and shift in their seats.
Even the Wolfman took notice.
"Beauty and the beast."
Truska approached the cage, made soothing motions, her upper body swaying. The Wolfman lulled to a trance.
Two stage hands - midgets apparently, hidden by blue robes, stepped out and started to push the cage off stage.
Truska stepped toward the audience, moving in the same languorous rhythm. And then: she began to grow a beard. Hairs creeping from above her lip, curling from her chin. Some in the audience recoil.
Darren and Steve traded grins. This was great. Kuri squeezed Darren's hand again. Then...
From either wing of the stage came twin contortionists: Sive and Sersa.. They walked on their hands, their legs pulled back with their ankles cinched behind there necks.
As Truska exited, Sive and Sersa met in the middle. Like Hindu wrestlers they take turns, climbing up and down each other, look like one person with two fronts. They twisted like pretzels, getting huge laughs when they pretended to be stuck. As it goes on, Rhamus Twobellies padded out to watch. The floorboards creak under his feet. He must weigh 600 pounds. After a moment, he turned, walked toward the audience. The light left the contortionists and focused on Rhamus.
"My name is Rhamus Twobellies. And I do have two."
He tripped, stumbled toward the edge of the stage. People in the front row jumped back to keep from being crushed. Rhamus stopped short, laughed at them. He was pretending. He was practically doubled-over, resting his hands on his haunches. More blue-robed midgets rolled out a cart covered with food and lots of other stuff. Rhamus grabbed a glass bottle of soda. Instead of opening it, he bit off the glass top, chewed it and swallowed. Soon he was eating food almost as fast as he could grab it. Disgusting, but great fun at the same time.
Next, he held up a couple of nuts and bolts. Then swallowed them whole. He swung his belly around. You could hear the sound of metal shifting inside.
The crowd recoiled as he started to regurgitate, spitting out bolts, nails, bottle caps, a jackknife. They clattered on stage. Finally, a metal link appeared between his teeth.
He pinched hold of it and pulls. A chain started out of his mouth, up from his belly. One foot...two...six feet in all. With a shrug he started off stage, dragging it behind him. Darren , Kuri, and Steve broke into applause. So did the audience.
As Rhamus' chain slid out of sight, a snake slid in. An enormous Boa Constrictor. Impossibly huge. It slithered out to the center of the stage, its tongue flicking in and out. A spotlight flicked down from above. The snake stopped, raised itself several feet off the ground as it looked up, seemingly transfixed by the light. But in reality...
The end of a thick rope dropped down. And moving (headfirst!) down the rope was a boy. Very thin, his blonde hair tinged with green. This was Evra Von. He moved smoothly, twisted over backwards to set his feet down on the stage.
Evra wore a sort of cloak which he suddenly spun out of. The audience gasped... Wearing only shorts, Evra's body sparkled. He's covered in gold, blue and green scales!
He moved a vaguely webbed hand through the air, charming the snake which raised itself higher still. He slowly slid forward till he and the boa are nearly eye-to-eye.
Then Evra leaned forward and kissed the snake on the nose.
"He's as old as us." Steve smiled.
Kuri coughed and Darren nodded, transfixed.
Evra started to make a hissing sound. In response, the snake began corkscrewing around him like the stripes on a barber shop pole. Finally, it slithered around his neck, pulled back to look him in the eye. And then...
Evra bent at the knees, lay down and started to roll. Like he was wrapped in a snake carpet, he disappeared stage left. More applause from the audience.
Then the stage went dark except for a small focused spot at the center. Everyone waited, but nothing happened until... Appearing literally out of nowhere - one instant there's nothing under the spot and the next instant there was-
LARTEN CREPSLEY!
Motionless, looking past the crowd. The only difference from his pictures is he was a bit older and a scar ran down his left cheek. It stretched his mouth up on that side.
A young girl stood next to him, holding a cage in which was Madame Octa.
Kuri stiffened and breathed out. "Reiko…"
It was her sister!
Steve was staring at Crepsley in shock, but Darren had eyes only for the spider.
Crepsley disappeared! The crowd mumbled nervously. And just as suddenly he was back! On the edge of the stage, lit by the footlights. This time he held a draped birdcage.
"It's not true. That all tarantulas are poisonous. Though some can kill a man. With one bite."
Crepsley whisked off the covering in Reiko's hands. In the cage: a tarantula the size of a large man's hand. So big you can make out individual eyes. As deadly looking as it was beautiful. Darren stared longingly.
"Her name? Madam Octa. Pray that she never learns yours."
Reiko led a GOAT onto the stage. A ripple of worry runs through the crowd. Crepsley started over. The goat bleated. Reiko held it.
Mr. Crepsley flicked open the cage door with his finger. The spider set its front legs on the bars, pulled itself through. A few gasps from the audience. The goat bucked.
Madam Octa bared her fangs, poised to leap on her prey. Several audience members cried out that this should stop. Crepsley looked out with mock-theatrical surprise.
"No...? Shall it be life?"
Chuckling to himself, he looked to Reiko. She released the goat which bee-lined its way off the stage. Crepsley faced the audience.
"I wonder if you would be as shocked to see the same fate for me?"
Madam Octa moved - climbing the outside of the cage -taking a cautious step onto the hand holding the cage, then starting up Crepsley's arm. He stood dead still.
The three friends had a million questions, but right now the performance had their full edge-of-their-seat attention.
Madam Octa had nearly reached Crepsley's left shoulder.
"Though we have been together such a long time, she is no pet. I think she would quite enjoy killing me."
Crepsley calmly raised his free hand. It held a shiny tin whistle. Madam Octa had reached his shoulder.
"For her bite there is no cure."
Madam Octa bared her fangs, even longer now. Her malevolence about to be directed at her master. Crepsley carefully put the whistle to his mouth and started to play, as simple as it was evocative.
Madam Octa hesitated. Then, she moved around his throat, started to climb his face using his scar as her guide. She got to the top of his head, stood in his shock of hair. She swayed; she was dancing!
Then she leapt, landed on the end of the whistle. Crepsley kept playing as Madam Octa attaches a web, dropped down about 18 inches off the end. She started to swing.
Crepsley took the whistle from his mouth and twirled it around. Octa did a few 360s and the thread broke. She sailed up high over Crepsley's head.
He craned back to watch as down she came, legs splayed. She landed flat on his face. The whistle was in his hand.
Crepsley looked out at the audience. Looking out between her hairy legs, his eyes were wide with horror.
Without warning, the spotlight on him went out. As the stage is plunged into darkness, Crepsley screamed.
A horrible, horrible sound. The audience wait, but nothing happened. Some of them rose from their seats, peered into the gloom. It was too dark.
The sound of something being dragged. Then nothing. A light came up stage left. Reiko was walking away in the corner of the stage, smirking. Her eyes met Kuri's, her grin faltered, then she was gone.
Mr. Tall stepped out.
"Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. That is the end of our show."
"But... What happened to him?!" Someone cried.
"Don't you know? What happens to us all, can happen to any of us."
That said, there was a crack of thunder and an explosion seemingly at Mr. Tall's feet. He was nowhere to be seen.
The houselights came up. The stage was empty. Some in the audience started to clap. Others were a bit dismayed.
The three friends sat there, all in shock for different reasons.
Kuri registered the crescent Mark on Reiko's forehead and darkness suddenly claimed her vision as she went down.
Reiko was a vampyre.