Chapter Fourteen:

A Mistake That Will Cost Them

Raz stepped out of the hallway, examining the large and disconcerting circus that stretched out before him. To his right was a small booth with a mechanical gypsy sitting in it. There were posters everywhere. Raz sighed and sat on the edge of a circus wagon.

'Now what?' He thought to himself as he rested his chin in his palm.

XXX

It felt as though he was trying to reach through a solid wall…and he could only imagine how harder it would become after he actually came to his son's mind. He was having enough trouble as it was just reaching anything at all, without having to push through Raz's unyielding psyche.

His mind was beginning to ache with the effort as he slowly staggered through the darkness of the mental world. He could vaguely touch Boris and Pasco's mind as he went beyond his trailer and through the circus tents. He held out the mental fingers of his mind and touched the barrier of his own son's brain. If he could only hold on long enough to warn him, that would be enough.

XXX

Allarick frowned and looked down at Rafael. Boris, who had pulled the man's bag over to him leaned against the wall and watched him with apprehension.

"He's using mental power."

"But I thought you said…"

"Oh the hat works. He can't harm us, and the reach of his mind is limited. He's probably trying to contact the Psychonauts." Allarick didn't give off any sign that this alarmed him. Boris however shifted in discomfort and started to head towards the door.

"Send Pasco in here while your stepping out, will you Boris?" Allarick said without looking at him. Boris nodded distractedly as he hurried out the door and down the steps of the caravan.

When he was gone Allarick looked down at Rafael and smiled manically.

"Try as hard as you wish, Raf. There is no Psychonaut close enough to help you." It turned out, of course, that he was terribly wrong.

XXX

Raz was deep in thought when the Gypsy whirred into life, making him jump and look quickly in its direction. It stood erect for a few moments, staring blindly ahead of it before it started moving mechanically.

"What the hell?" Raz said as he stood and approached the motorized fortuneteller with caution. Its eyes flickered on and off a couple times before, like searchlights they fell on Raz. From somewhere in the machines delicate mechanics a few sparks spewed forth, and down at the bottom where, in a real circus a child or adult desiring a faulty prediction would feed the machine a quarter a long ribbon of white paper started to emerge.

Raz bent down, keeping his eyes on the plastic mystic as he did and ripped the long reel of paper from the machine. He backed away as the gypsy started to squirm in an odd way and pulled the piece of paper up to read it.

XXXHelpXMustRegainConsciousness!XYOUAREINTROUBLE!XTheyAreKeepingMeCaptiveInMyTrailerXXXRAFAELX

Raz read the piece of paper over a few times before his mind could process everything. In front of him the gypsy was emitting rivers of sparks due to the psychic interference with its system. Raz dove out of the way right before it blew to pieces.

A few seconds later he picked himself up, while gagging on the wretched smell of burnt plastic. He moved away from it and cast a concerned look towards the piece of paper again. All he was sure of was that his father was in trouble (And apparently, so was he.) and that he needed to find a way out of his mind before something really bad happened. He just didn't know how.

He was thinking about it when the smoke from the machine started to drift over towards him again.

"Agh!" Raz covered his nose and mouth. It was horrible…it was almost as bad as…

Raz's eyes widened a little as he began to check his pockets. Finally his fingers closed over a smooth oval shaped container. He pulled it out and examined it.

"Wow…never thought I'd be glad to see these again." He said to himself as held up the smelling salts and, while bearing himself, opened them a crack, enough so that the horrible smell engulfed him.

XXX

Raz came to with a start, nearly falling out of his bed as he did. He gazed at an old clock on a worn table beside him and found, much to his dismay that he had been out for almost seven hours. Without much hesitation, he threw his legs over the side of the bed and stood, feeling for a few brief seconds a rather nasty spell of vertigo, which nearly sent him to his knees. He shook his head and walked carefully to his closet, noticing that his legs and arms felt like rubber.

He threw his closet open and began searching for the nearest piece of clothing he could find (That was not his leotard.) What he found was his Psychonauts uniform, which was in the back of the closet behind something that looked like a large cut out from a tent side. He pulled his uniform out, along with his goggles, which were slung over the hanger and began to hurriedly put it on.

After he was suited and he had pulled his goggles over his eyes, Raz walked quietly over to the door and stood by it for a moment. He swept the outside of his Trailer briefly with his mind before opening the door and tiptoeing out. The circus was beginning to settle down…which led Raz to believe that the show had been over at least an hour ago.

Raz made sure that no one was nearby before turning invisible and then running towards his father's trailer.

XXX

As he reached the bottom step, Boris knocked the side of Pasco's boot with the board he was still carrying.

"What you want?" Pasco said as he turned to look at the knife thrower.

"Crazy in there wants to talk to you." Boris said as he sat on a wooden box with a picture of fireworks on it and pulled out a wrinkled cigarette pack. Pasco sighed and started to head inside.

"You keep watch while I gone." Pasco said drearily. Boris grunted in response as he lit up half a cigarette and pulled a tiny bottle of something that smelled foul out of his coat pocket. He inhaled deeply on the cigarette, then took a large swig of the foul smelling liquid, then, repeated this action two more times, before it was interrupted by the sound of a quiet footstep.

"Eh, who's there?" He questioned, and then cursed loudly when the cigarette, which had become quite small, burned his finger. He dropped it on the grass and then stomped it out quickly. (It was not wise to leave cigarette's burning when they were lying next to a box of fireworks.) After it was done he cursed again and took another drink of the amber green liquid in the tiny bottle. There was a faint sound a few feet away from him.

Boris set the bottle down lightly and looked around. There was nothing. He shrugged.

He looked down at the box and carefully kicked the cigarette away, before adjusting it (The box…not the cigarette.) to his comfort again. When he looked up Raz was standing right in front of him.

Boris let out a cry and fell backwards, tipping the large crate over with him when he did. His drink, which had been sitting on the box, slid off and broke against the edge. Boris was showered with the contents.

"Oh HELL, YOU LITTLE RUNT!" He screamed as he hoisted himself in a sitting position and extracted one of his throwing knives from his jacket. He pulled it up and threw his arm out to hurl it at Raz, but when his hand came out in front of him it was empty. Momentarily confused, he looked up and to his horror saw the knife floating in mid air above his head. It sat in the air shaking a little before reeling back and with the force of an invisible hand it was thrown at the side of the trailer, where it stuck.

Raz's face was screwed up in concentration. He put a gloved finger to his forehead, his eyes locked with Boris's.

"You…" Boris said, and that was all he got out before his pant leg burst into flames. He cried out, cursing at Raz as he did and slammed it rapidly on the ground. In a state of panic he slapped the fabric until the flames went out and felt a moment of complete relief before, to his terror, he saw as the fireworks box start to go up in flames. He screamed loudly and began to crawl away from it, tripping twice before he was able to stand and run. The box went off and the first firework went whizzing over his head. The second caught him in the back and hoisted him off his feet.

Luckily there was a large pile of elephant droppings to break his fall.

When the colorful explosion died down Raz removed his psychic shield and stood up straight again. He eyed the distant shape of the unconscious Boris in amusement for a moment before laughing softly.

"Right where you belong, Boris, in a great big pile of sh-." The trailer door opened. Raz just barely turned invisible as Pasco came through, looking around wildly.

"What the hell is going on, Boris?" He said as he descended the stairs. He looked down at the ruined splinters of the box in the middle of a large patch of scorched grass. "Boris?" He asked the silence. When he spotted the man fifteen or so feet away he rolled his eyes.

"How many times I tell you about cigarette!" He said as he started to approach the man. Behind him, Raz slipped into the open door without being seen.

XXX

Tessa was staring out the window with her forehead to the glass. They had run into traffic a while back (Thoran had said it was probably people coming back from the circus, since it officially opened that morning.) and they had now been sitting between cars for almost an hour…which was ridiculous, considering that the actual distance of Aquato circus was now only a few miles.

Tessa leaned over in her seat as Thoran moved a few feet down the road before coming to a stop again. She eyed the radio clock and sighed.

"At this rate we'll never get back to Demure before nightfall." She said dejectedly. Lester responded with a loud snore from beside her as she sat back in her seat as the heat, coupled by the droning sound of the radio began to lull her to sleep.

Tessa came out of a half doze when Thoran exclaimed something loudly.

"Wha?" She said in a drowsy voice.

"I said that it looks like someone's setting off fireworks." Thoran replied. Tessa sat up and looked out the window. Sure enough a spray of badly organized firecrackers were spewing up into the sky.

"In the middle of the day?" She said as she rubbed her eyes. "I wonder why."

"Dunno, hey were coming up to the ticket booth." They slid in next to a striped ticket booth that appeared to be empty.

"Hmm…odd. Normally they have someone here all day in case anyone wants last minute tickets. I guess we wait." He sat back and put the car into park, leaving the radio to drone on.

XXX

Allarick was leaning against the wall with an impatient look on his face. Rafael, who had "woken up" fifteen minutes before was leaning his head on the side of his bed. It had been several minutes since the fireworks had gone off.

"What is taking that idiot so long."

"You employed him." Raf responded bitterly. "Although, in the circumstances I wouldn't say my judgment has been much better." Allarick straightened and headed towards the door.

"Shut up." He said as he passed Raf. He glanced out. "Oh now where the hell have they gone?" He leaned out and spotted Pasco walking away. He was about to yell something when he was knocked heavily from behind. He tripped and fell onto the grass, then, in turning got a glimpse of Raf grinning as the trailer door slammed shut.

"Razputin!" Raf said as Raz barred the door and hurried towards him, rapidly removing his ties.

"Don't worry about them, I can get them if you get this thing off my head!" He yelled. Raz removed the cap. "Now hurry, get ready, he'll be back!" Just as he said this, the door blew open. Raz spun around as Allarick Kay stomped heavily into the room, looking livid.

"I swear you'll pay for that, Raf." He stopped, however, and for a moment, lost his edge, as he spotted Raz standing in a guarded position in front of him. Raz's eyes narrowed. Allarick's gaze fell from Raz's face to his uniform.

"It's you…" He said, as sick realization sank in. "But…you're only a kid…"

Allarick, though temporarily taken aback, regained his composer quickly, and with the intent to resolve his own mistake, quickly put two fingers to his forehead and sent a mind blast in Raz's direction. Raz ducked and punched forward, sending a large invisible fist in Allarick's midsection and lifting him off his feet. He fell out the open door and landed heavily on the grass.

Raf watched his son step towards the door as he worked to untangle his ropes with a series of very small psychic fires and light telekinesis.

"Careful Razputin." He yelled loudly as Raz disappeared through the door and then, in a quieter voice. "Go get him, son."

This would have been up three days ago, but this website (Have you ever noticed you can't say it's name in submitted documents...weird.) wasn't letting me upload documents, so, sorry for the delay. I'm on Spring Break...so, I should have more time to update...unfortunately, I'm also sick...so I'll be a little slower then I woud be if I...well...wasn't. I hope you enjoy the chapter. Updates soon!