Chapter 13: "Ask for answers'
A crowd had gathered in front of the tent of the vampire. They were all members of the Cirque du Freak and they all had heard Gillian, Larten Crepsleys assistant, screaming in pain.
It had been terrible screams.
It had made them call for Mr Tall, the Director, and Mr. Tall had come and entered the tent of the vampire, what no one else had dared to do.
He had not come out again by now.
But the cries had died.
Then, finally, the long figure of Mr Tall appeared in the entrance. He had to bent down to get out and then came up to his imposing size again.
Immediately the murmur of the audience became louder, and they called out questions to him.
But Mr Tall calmed them down with his big hands and assured them everything was fine.
Under the protection of his big figure, Gillian slipped out of the tent behind his back and scurried into the trailer with the showers.
She badly needed a bath.
The way she looked, she could not come under the eyes of any member of the circus.
It took Gillian half an eternity to wash the blood out of her hair.
When she stepped out of the shower with a swirl of hot air, refreshed and clean, she felt like a new born person.
And she was, in a way.
She picked her old dress up from the floor, but noticed that it was completely torn and soaked with blood.
Without regret, she stuffed it with the equally tattered sweater of Steve in a garbage can, and took the flowered bathrobe of Kristina Teeth, which hang on a hook, and slipped it over without asking for permission.
Unnoticed by anyone Gillian left the camp and climbed up the near hills.
It was a warm summer night and the stars shone down on her.
Gillian the vampire sat down on a rock and looked down at the campfire and colorful lanterns of the Cirque du Freak. From a distance, she heard someone playing violin, cicadas hummed their songs around her, and the wind whispered through the trees.
For the newborn vampiress everything appeared more lively and colorful. It was as if she saw the night for the first time, as if a gray veil, which had been over the world and her heart, had been lifted.
Gillian enjoyed her hair fluttering in the wind, and dug her bare toes into the ground.
A man appeared on the hill, stepped behind the vampiress and looked with her down at the cirque.
"It's like the night sings a song, isn`t it?"
Gillian nodded without looking at the man.
"Ah ...", he breathed a rattling breath, "I remember how I felt on my first night. Indescribable. Like I would be young forever."
Gillian smiled. "But Gavner Purl, you still are."
Gillian turned to the old vampire beau, who took her hand and brushed a kiss on it. "Very charming of you, my dear. You give an old vampire the feeling to be attractive again." He was panting asthmatically.
Gillian stood up from the rocks and took the package that Gavner Purl held out to her: "This is for you."
She opened the package and one of the dresses, which the Gavner had bought for her, came to sight.
"Mr Telton assured me, that you have looked marvelous in this."
Gillian was beaming. This dress had been her favorite one.
"Put it on."
Gillian pursed her lips and smiled mischievously. She turned around and let her bathrobe slip to the ground. Since she was wearing nothing underneath, she stood for a moment naked in front of Gavner Purl, before she pulled the dress over her head.
She heard the vampire breath heavy behind her.
Gillian grinned. She had owed this to him.
Gavner Purl closed the zipper on her back, and smiled.
She turned to face him.
"Ah, Mr. Telton was right."
"Thanks," said Gillian, looking girlish in mock embarrassment to the ground.
Gavner Purl cleared his throat. "I hope you understand that I have instructed Mr. Telton to return the other dresses. You have overstretched my resources and we do not want that I'm left stranded during the next months, don`t we?"
"But ... I thought ... the credit card. The House…" Gillian was confused.
Gavner Purl ran his forefinger over his upper lip and mustache and looked peeved. "That wasn`t my house and the credit card ... well, that was, shall we say, borrowed."
Gillian stood open-mouthed.
Gavner Purl grinned. "Have I impressed you?"
"Of course. Then it was all just acting?"
Gavner Purl looked indignantly: "But no, my love. Where are you thinking. It was, shall we say ... a courtesy. "
Gillian wrinkled her nose."You tried to buy me. You wanted to know, if I still would go back to Larten, giving up on all the clothes and the gifts."
Gavner Purl smiled: "Of course. It was a small test of character. And you passed it with bravura. On the first day you fled."
"Then Larten knew about it?"
"Of course! I would never dare to steal the assistant of a vampire. And least of all, the lovely assistant of my best friend. After you pleaded me to accept you as my student, I went straight to Larten and told him of your planning. We then agreed, that I'll take you with me until you see your fault. The shopping had been my idea, however. I thought it would be helpful to break your will."
Gillian swallowed.
"Don`t be angry with me, my love. It would have not been rightful, if I had transformed you..."
"I know. You have done well."
She took a step toward him, put a hand to his cheek and gave him a kiss on the other. "Thank you, Gavner Purl."
The vampire looked satisfied.
"Tell me only one thing, vampiress Gillian: Was it so terrible with me, that you had to flee on the first day?"
Gillian laughed. "It was quite wonderful. It was just ... I have realized the wrongness of my doing so quickly. "
Gavner Purl rocked on his heels and pursed his lips, as if he was waiting for another kiss. "I also wouldn`t have been a bad master, right?"
Gillian smiled at him seductively. "No, you would have been quite wonderful."
Gavner Purl dabbed with a handkerchief some sweat from his mouth, cleared his throat, and reached behind him: "Before I forget ..."
He conjured up a bag: "You have left that."
Gillian looked in the bag. "What ...?"
But when she looked up, the old vampire beau was gone.
Gillian reached into the bag and took out what was in it: It was the boots that Larten had presented her.
"Oh ...", her heart began to pound.
She sat back down on the rocks and pulled the boots over her bare feet.
They fitted like a glove.
As Gillian went down into the camp of the Cirque du Freak, all eyes were on her.
Someone who just juggled, dropped all the clubs as she passed, and many performers of the Cirque stared after her with open mouth.
Gillian smiled sheepishly at them. It had quickly spread that she had been transformed tonight. She did not want that the circus people were afraid of her, and tried to appear as innocent and nice as possible, but her sudden friendliness, as she greeted everyone she met, confused the people, so Gillian quickly pretended to not realize, how they stared after her.
She stopped before Evras tent and hesitated.
A gentle guitar playing came from inside the tent to her.
She raised her hand and knocked.
"Yes?", the sad melody ceased.
"It`s me, Evra. Can I come in? "Gillian pushed the entrance plane aside.
Evra was sitting on a stool with his guitar on his knees and looked at her intently. "You must now ask for permission before you can enter a house?"
Gillian laughed. "No, I just wanted to be polite."
Evra looked at her from top to bottom. "But is it true what they say? Are you ...?"
Gillian nodded.
Evras eyes were stuck to her body, which was presented very well in the evening dress. He swallowed and looked away quickly.
"I heard you screaming ... Was it very bad?"
Gillian shuddered and nodded again.
"Evra ... I'm here because I want to apologize ..."
"What for? For that you have stunned me and locked in the chest? ".
"For that I have stunned you, drank your blood and locked you in the chest", Gillian whispered huskily.
Evra jerked up from the stool, and took a few meters safety distance between himself and the vampire. "You ... you ... drank my blood?" He put his hand on his green throat.
Gillian looked at him pleadingly. "Yes, but please let me explain ..."
Evra shook his head angrily. He kept the guitar in front of him, as if to protect himself.
"Evra ...", Gillian stepped towards him and sadly registered that he backed away. "I was thirsty and in urgent need of blood, and I did not have much time, I had to drink before the sun went down ..."
"That was not ok!"
Gillian folded her hands before her face, as if she would pray. "I know. But ... you've saved my life."
The snake boy looked at her in amazement. "I`ve saved your life?"
Gillian nodded: "Yes. I was attacked yesterday ... tonight." It seemed like an eternity, but it was just a few hours ago. "A vampaneze has bitten me in the throat and wanted to kill me. But he let go of me, because my blood was too bitter. So I was able to escape." Gillian preferred to keep the details for herself.
"Too bitter?"
Gillian grinned: "You taste awful. Your blood is like an animal. Like snake blood." She didn`t tell him, that real snake blood was poisonous for vampires.
"Oh great ...", Evra dropped his guitar and sat on the edge of his bed. "I taste awful."
"I promise I'll never do it again."
"Well, yeah. Because you would have to be very, very hungry for to eat something nasty like that again. "
"No, Evra", Gillian went to the bed and sat down beside him. "I really will never do that again. That was wrong. "
He looked at his hands. "Yes, it was. You could have asked."
Gillian was stunned. "Do you mean ...?"
Evra looked at her. "If you had asked, I would have given you my blood. You shouldn't have stunned me and put me in the chest. It took hours before someone found me. "
Gillian's eyes were moist. "Are you serious?"
"Yes, it took eternity until someone came and opened the chest ..."
"No, are you serious that you would have offered me your blood?"
Evra nodded.
Gillian felt her heart warming. She swallowed, and had to look away.
"What?"
"Thank you." Gillian was close to tears, but she did not want to scare Evra, because her tears would be blood-red now, so she suppressed her feelings and then looked him in the eye. "You ... you're a true friend, Evra."
He was embarrassed.
"Actually, you're my best friend", Gillian said, noting that she never had someone of whom she could say this.
"I would very much like to be your best friend", Evra said shyly. He raised his right fist and spread the little finger "So? Friends? "
Gillian smiled. She also raised her hand. "Friends."
"And no more secretly biting, without asking permission?"
"Never again!"
They hooked their little fingers and smiled at each other.
Evra pulled back his hand and smiled sheepishly. "It is perhaps fine to have a vampiress as a friend. Especially if she doesn`t like my blood."
Gillian grinned. "And of the half-vampire, with whom you are sharing the tent, you don`t need to have any fear, too."
Evra grinned back.
Gillian stood up. "Speaking of half-vampires. I go and search for Darren. There's something for which I must apologize at him, too. "
When Gillian left the tent, the soft melody on the guitar rose again.
The song sounded a lot happier now.
She found Darren behind the tent.
"Have you been listening?"
"Did not you notice me? I thought, as a vampire, you would get that. You have to be more attentive to your surroundings." Darren muttered, putting his fists in his pockets.
"Darren ... can we walk a bit?"
Darren nodded reluctantly and walked beside the vampire.
In silence, they left the camp and went up the hill.
The trees rustled and whispered and a light breeze rippled the grass.
Gillian tried to find the right words. "Darren. Tonight, what happened was my fault."
"You've lured me into a trap!"
"Yeah ...", Gillian nodded tortured. "But Steve has tricked me. He has lied to me. I did not know that Murlough would be there. He has deceived me."
"From where do you know Steve?"
Gillian sighed. The thought of the moment on the bridge when she was hanging on Murloughs arm and he had let her fall, caused her a shiver down her spine. For a moment she thought really, she would die.
"They've ambushed me."
Gillian realized only now, when she recapped the events of the past three days, what had happened.
"They have been waiting for me at the bridge where I have met Larten Crepsley for the first time. They knew, that sooner or later I would go there."
And so they knew more about me than I myself, Gillian realized astonished.
She had not planned to go to the bridge.
Not consciously.
But when she thought about it now, it was right.
Sooner or later, she would had gone there.
It has been destiny.
The vampaneze were well informed about her.
"Murlough has pushed me off the bridge, and your friend Steve has saved me."
"Only that he probably is no longer my friend."
Gillian looked at Darren. They stopped.
"Did you really want to be a vampaneze?"
Gillian frowned. "Darren ... you have to understand that ... Larten has denied it to me, I did not know what to do ... I saw no other way out."
Darren wrinkled his nose in disgust. "And you sold me for this."
"No", Gillian exclaimed appalled "It was not like that!"
"Oh no? You lured me into the theater, with the lie, that my parents were kidnapped. But in reality they were only at the neighbors ... "
"Yes. That was a lie, I just wanted to draw you from the Cirque and to a neutral ground. Steve wanted to talk to you."
"Talk. Pfff! "
"I didn`t know", Gillian pleaded. "I told you, he has tricked me!"
"What did he say?"
Gillian tried to remember. "He was very hurt. He said, that you had taken his place and he wanted to clarify that once and for all. He said, he could not go on without knowing whether or not you have deceived him. "
Darren swallowed. "But I have not betrayed him."
"I was not sure. I only knew the version that you told me and what Steve said. So I wanted ... I wanted to know what was the truth."
"And after you had known everything, you wanted to kill me!"
"No, Darren! I did not know, that Steve was up to something, I did not want you to fight! I told you, I had no idea that Murlough was there! I ... I never thought that Steve can be so full of hate."
Darren shook his head sadly. "Me neither."
Gillian saw in her minds eye Steve's face and his amazing purple eyes.
How could she had been so wrong in him?
Darren was plagued by similar thoughts.
"What happened with Murlough?" Gillian had noticed nothing of the fight after the vampaneze broke her spine and had hurled her between the old theater seats.
"Crepsley killed him."
Gillian opened her mouth in shock. "He has ...?"
Darren nodded.
Gillian's heart began to throb, and fear crept into her. Larten Crepsley had killed the vampaneze Murlough? That was no good ...
"What was that, what you did with him? I've seen, how you have burned the Vampaneze with ... a kind of shadowy whip. Mr Crepsley said, he had never seen anything like that before. And me too. "
Gillian shrugged her shoulders.
Yes, what exactly had she actually done?
She remembered to have concentrated shadows inside her and then formed them into a kind of weapon.
"I don`t know exactly how I did it. I think it was, because I had so much adrenaline in my blood."
She would have to think about this furthermore later on.
But first, another question was burning in her soul: "... and what happened to Steve?" Gillian swallowed.
She was not sure if she wanted to hear the answer.
"He escaped. Mr. Tiny has taken him."
"Mr Tiny? He was there? "
Darren nodded.
Gillian went cold. What had Mr. Tiny been doing there? How much had he seen, and how much did he had his finger in the pie?
"Darren ...".
She grabbed his arm.
"I want you to know something. Whatever happens, I'm on the side of Mr Crepsley. I'm on your side. "
"Hmmm, yes, all right."
The situation was unpleasant to him, and he eluded her grasp.
Gillian looked at him. "To be honest ... I'm glad that Steve is still alive."
Darren looked at her, because he felt the same.
"But when I meet him the next time ... Then I'll give him a slap, that his head flies off !"
Darren twisted his face into a grimace.
He saw again in his minds eye, how his friend Steve had hit Gillian so hard, that she had banged on the stage floor.
He grinned: "Me too."
Gillian grinned back.
She took a deep breath and looked up at the stars.
"I'm going to leave soon."
Darren was shocked: "But you've just come back!"
Gillian smiled up at the stars. "Don`t worry, I'm not to leave today. And not even in the next few days. But maybe in a few weeks. I must learn to get along alone. "
As she spoke it out, she realized, that it was true.
"But before that, there are so many things that I must teach you."
She smiled, and Darren understood that his training, now that she was a vampire, would not be easier at all. Nevertheless, Darren was pleased that Gillian still stayed with them for a while.
He dreaded the thought of being all alone with Larten Crepsley.
"I'm going to Larten now", she announced. "And you ... you better stay away from our tent for the rest of the night."
The vampire's lips curled into a mischievous smile and she was gone.
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