Chapter Five:

Troubles of The Fat Lady

It was around noon when Raz awoke to find the trailers had stopped. He rolled over and squinted at the tiny barred window, listening intently for any snips of conversation (Or thoughts.) that he could hear. Finally, after a few minutes of silence, he rolled off the bed and dressed quickly into a pair of old ripped jeans that were slightly too small for him and a faded long sleeved shirt. (All of his good clothes weren't clean; he could barely find the time to wash them properly when traveling.)

After glancing briefly at a mirror and ultimately deciding the he looked kind of funny (He had grown an inch or two in the last couple years and was getting thinner…a thing made painfully obvious by the slightly too tight pants and baggy formless shirt. Maybe he'd turn into his father after all.) He headed out into the sunlight to find out why they had stopped.

A line of wooden old-fashioned trailers lined the dusty dirt road, adding an array of disgustingly bright colors to the dull landscape. In the center, someone had started a campfire and a few circus misfits were standing around it looking frustrated.

The magician, Godric Twilight was sitting on a wooden crate next to his assistant. They passed a bottle between each other, filled with some indefinable liquid. Beside them, the bearded woman was smoking a cigarette and chatting excitedly with Baroda Van Darken, the strong man…who was apparently trying to find something to hit himself in the head with, so that he might drown out the woman's chatter.

Raz walked into the circle curiously, so focused on the current situation that he didn't notice as someone stuck their foot out in front of him. A look of surprise lit his face as he tripped over the worn hiking boot and landed hard on the road. A moment later he rose on his hands, tasting a mixture of blood and dirt, and looked behind him, annoyed.

Boris Batiks, the knife thrower. (Although Raz was always surprised that they were able to find someone willing to let the shifty man throw sharp objects at them.) He was a tall man with cold eyes which glittered with dark humor (As though some wretched and dirty joke were going on inside his mind at all times.)

"Oops." He said, grinning and brandishing a mouthful of hideously rotten teeth. "Now how'd my foot get there?"

Raz got up, glaring at him. (If he hadn't been preoccupied, he wouldn't have tripped. He was, after all, for the most part a very sure-footed young man.)

"Heard you whining in your sleep last night, crying like a baby over a bad dream." The man pulled out a knife and started to pick his teeth with it. Raz wouldn't have been surprised if he accidentally picked a tooth out by accident…they looked so decayed.

"Yea…" Raz said, smiling a little. "That's because you were in it. Your face is enough to give anyone nightmares" It wasn't a particularly creative statement, but it made Boris' eyes glitter with anger nonetheless.

"Think that's funny? Just because Rafael's been soft on you lately, doesn't mean I won't skin you like a fish, you rotten little bas-"

"Boris." A heavyset man came up behind the knife thrower and clapped him on the back. In a very quiet tone he whispered into Boris' ear. "No lo deje conseguirle. Hay maneras mejores de ocuparse de estas pequeñas maneras de los monstruos... que no nos consigan encendidos."

Boris nodded and turned to Raz, who was looking at both of them suspiciously. How he hated the knowing look in that boys hateful eyes…as though he knew everything they were thinking. He wished he could snuff it out for good…

"Away with you. I'm sick of seeing your face." He spat at the twelve year old, who turned away, unfazed. Anyone else would worry about the ease in which Boris dismissed them. They'd make sure not to turn their back on him. But that boy and his blasted arrogance!

"At least mine doesn't make people cry." Raz said quietly as he left. Boris gazed at the back of his head, wishing that looks really could kill.

After he was a little ways from Boris and Pasco, the ticket man. (A man who made almost everyone nervous because half of the circus people did not know Spanish, and therefore could not ever monitor what he was saying.) Raz sped up (Speeding up around the man might make him believe Raz was slightly intimidated by him…and Raz most definitely didn't want that.) slowing as he came to the small group gathered around the fire. His father was not among them.

"What's going on?" He asked curiously. A few heads turned towards him, regarding him wearily.

"Beth has gone on one of her rants." The bearded lady said with a hint of cynicism. "Last night she started shrieking in her sleep, and when someone finally went to see what was wrong they said she was convinced that someone had been trying to murder her in her slumber."

"Ah think she's clacked!" Baroda said loudly. "That…or it's all ove those Twinkles she ates before she sleps." Raz backed away from him a bit, as the man literally spat out his thoughts.

"What the hell's a twinkle?" Godric asked, as he took another drink of the foreign substance in the glass.

"You know…a twinkle…sugary…felled weth aycine" He made some indefinable hand motions that were apparently suppose to make the whole thing clear.

"Oh…" Godric said with a look of annoyance. "You mean a TWINKIE. All of those TWINKIES she eats before bed."

"Yah…whut ah said…a twinkle."

Godric sighed.

"Twinkie, twinkie…you twit." He said below his breath as the strong man's attention was forced back on the bearded lady.

Raz rolled his eyes and headed for the fat lady's trailer. It was four or five trailers up from his and had a picture of a ridiculously chubby woman painted on the front. Raz headed up to the door and knocked.

"I told you!" Came a males voice from the other side. "She's very upset, now, go away!"

"Dad?" Raz returned. There was hesitation from the other side, then the door unlatched and opened. His father looked down at him and silently beckoned him in.

"She's been in hysterics all morning…I can't figure out what to do with her!" He whispered furiously. "It's been hours since she woke up and I still can't convince her it was all a dream."

"Man this place smells." Raz said, without thinking. His father gave him a stern look.

"Quiet, Razputin." Raz nodded.

Beth was crumpled in the corner, holding a wretched carnival glass lamp (The sort that might give Sasha a few inconsolable nightmares.) up to her enormous bosom and whispering nervously under her breath. When she saw them, her whispering grew louder.

"In the corner, with a knife, glowing eyes, his teeth were like…" She made a few odd gestures in front of her face. " All claws, twenty feet high!" She hid her face behind the lamp. (A pitiful attempt given how massive it as.)

"Beth, this trailer isn't even twenty feet high. It was all a dream." Rafael told the woman desperately.

She shook her head furiously. (Raz marveled at how her shaking neck meats could send a person into disgusted fascination.)

"No, he was here! Mouth took up most of his face, eyes like glowing coals, hair like SNAKES!" She whimpered and attempted to hide again.

Rafael sighed and turned to his son, planning to tell him to go out and inform the others of how the situation looked. He was a little surprised to find that Raz was approaching the fat lady with a look of professional expertise printed across his face.

"So let me get this straight…" Raz said, with a touch of what might have been sarcasm, if his face wasn't full of intense sincerity. " He had a knife, glowing red eyes, sharp teeth AND claws, hair of snakes…and he was twenty feet high?" The lady nodded, frightened.

"Sounds scary." His voice was still full of that gentle sarcasm. He was speaking to her as one might speak to a small child or someone who has gone absolutely nuts.

Beth's face hardened a little.

"You all think I've lost it! But it's true. There's a mark he left. There on the wall." She pointed to a place in the corner.

Raz turned and looked. There was nothing there. He turned back towards her.

"You see it?" Raz gave her a funny look, but was saved having to answer her when his father sighed and started out of the trailer.

"I'll tell the others we're going to stay here for the night." He closed the door behind him. Raz turned back to Beth, who was looking at him pleadingly.

"It's true, Razputin. I saw him!" Raz frowned and looked back towards the wall. He still couldn't see anything. Finally, after a moment of consideration, he began to rub his temple. Beth looked up at him curiously.

"What are you doing?" She asked, slightly alarmed.

"Hold still, Miss Fermi." Raz answered.

Beth was suddenly overcome with a sensation of invisible fingers opening her mind, parting whatever barriers were there so that it felt bare and vulnerable. She felt, the odd impression that someone could easily look straight into her skull and see the inner workings of her conscience. After a moment of blankness which seemed to pass rather quickly, the inside of the trailer came back and she was staring at the thin form of Razputin. He was standing in the corner, though she couldn't remember how he got there and was running his fingers over the precise place where she could still see the mark engraved in the wall.

"You see it now?" She asked hopefully.

"Yeah." Raz answered, much to her immediate relief. His tones were normal and serious.

"You'll tell your father? You'll tell them I'm not crazy?" She asked almost pleadingly. Raz gave her a very strange look that she could not identify, then nodded and headed for the door.

"Of course I will." He said gently as he left trailer.

When he got into the open air he wondered in a direction away from his father and the other circus people. There was time to tell his father what he saw. Until then, he didn't want to involve anyone else that they traveled with. He didn't want this for two reasons. One was that although his father had accepted Raz's talents and knew of his training and his OTHER responsibilities…as far as Raz knew, no one else in the circus had any idea…and letting them in on it might prove to be a poor decision.

The other reason, the one that made Raz a little nervous and very suspicious, was that although Beth's description of the man had most certainly been wrong, or at least exaggerated…something or someone had paid her a visit the night before, and had indeed left a mark on the wall. There were a lot of people who traveled with them, some misfits, some freaks of society, ex convicts, illegal foreigners, drunks, bums…with such a colorful group of people, you couldn't help but suspect…well…everyone.

Raz was almost a quarter of a mile away from the group of trailers lined on the road. He kept walking, planning to go as far as he could without losing sight of the colorful procession. As he walked he saw something shimmering in the grass. He picked it up, and put it in his faded pockets. It would make a nice addition to Lili's necklace.

Spanish Translation:

Don't let him get to you. There are better ways to deal with these little monsters...ways that will not get us fired!

Wow, a whole chapter on Raz. Next one will have to be on Lili, so that I can get this story moving along. I also decided to add some action in it, only to make it a little more interesting.

Thanx for the reviews!