Disclaimer: I do not own CDF
Evra and I now had a plan. There is an hour, just one hour, where everybody is asleep in the Cirque. Even Mr. Tall was asleep during that hour. We had to plan swiftly, quietly, and most importantly, carefully. If we got caught by somebody and asked what we're doing we can say "Oh, yeah. We're going to go jump off a cliff. Don't tell Mr. Crepsley or Mr. Tall okay?"
No. We would be in so much trouble.
We had to stay up all night one night to find the hour. But we finally did it!
Mr. Crepsley usually goes to bed around when the sun rises, and Mr. Tall gets up about thirty minutes after that. But, on some nights when Mr. Crepsley is all alone (I'm going to have to pretend to be asleep when he comes into my tent to make me train) he goes to bed about an hour before the sun rises. All we had to do was get out before Mr. Tall woke up.
Easy enough. Well, as easy as it gets sneaking out of a Circus with a vampire, wolf man, and whatever Mr. Tall is.
So now we wait to put our plan in action.
***line***
Evra and I were eating lunch in our tent, waiting for the hour to come and thinking of what we should do after it tomorrow. We finished our chores as soon as we woke up to save us the trouble of worrying about it later. But as we were thinking, I noticed a flaw in our plan.
"So Evra, how will we get back without being noticed?" I asked taking a bite out of my sandwich. His head snapped up, eyes wide open.
"Um...I don't know. I never thought of that. Crap. What will we do?"
Hours passed with us thinking of what we need to do tomorrow when we come back.
***line***
The weather was important too. If it is too cold, we can't go. If the waves are too fierce, we definitely can't go. If the current is too bad, then we might as well just jump in a 'Have you seen me' poster. I went into town to check out what the weather was supposed to do. They said that the weather was supposed to be calm- perfect for swimming on the beach.
So everything was okay to go. Now, just to get past the night where I have to be asleep until the hour-otherwise, Mr. Crepsley will make me train.
When the sun was about to set, Evra ran up to me, and dragged me to our tent by my arm.
"What is it?"
"Mr. Crepsley woke up early, you should be asleep by now if he was going to be awake! Darren, there's only one way to make you skip training tonight…" Evra sighed, looking down. But you could still see his smirk.
What is he talking about-NO! NOT THAT! oh shi-
"Evra, PLEASE, not that. I can fall asleep in that amount of time, I promise!"
"No, he will still be able to see that you just went to sleep. I didn't want to do this either, but...Darren, you and I both know that this is something we have to do," he said through a gigantic smile.
He tackled me to the ground, and forced my mouth open. He then took out a bottle of something we mixed up in case it came to this. It was a full bottle of the following all mixed together: Tomato juice, vinegar, salt water, some bits of seaweed, some cooked bacon and eggs, pancake mix, octopus eggs, a sheep's eye, oyster juice, oyster itself, and some sardines. The instant puke drink.
The drink tasted absolutely revolting and I almost threw up on contact with the taste. Unfortunately, the drink worked. Mr. Crepsley must've been five feet from the door when he heard me throw up. All I heard after that was some running footsteps. Evra laughed and put the drink back under the bed.
"Good job, Darren. Looks like it worked well. Come on, let's get some sleep. Jeez, Darren. Get some mouthwash. Your breathe stinks!" he said and went to bed.
I rolled my eyes, washed out my mouth (the taste was still there a little) and went to bed.
***line***
The alarm on Evra's watch woke me up, so we could both go at the same time. We jumped out of our hammocks and put on our shorts-nothing else, nothing more. "Come on, Evra. We don't have much time!" I whisper/yelled at him.
"Yeah, Yeah. You just run faster, that's all."
So we began to run. If it took me three hours to get there walking, running should take about 2 hours. Give or take.
Two and a half hours later...
Evra and I were out of breath. Leaning on my knees, gasping for air, Evra looked up at me. "You know, maybe we should have walked in the middle of the day, and then we would at least have SOME energy left!"
"Yeah, well, good luck with that. It doesn't matter now. We're here." I got up, walked up to the edge of the cliff and looked down.
The Sea-green water glistened in the early morning sun. The waves were barely splashing around, and the best part: It looked refreshing. We were sweaty, hot, and tired. One jump would never hurt us.
"Okay, Evra. Ready to cliff dive?"
He nodded and ran up next to me. "The better question should be: 'When am I going to see you down there, Darren?'" and jumped off the cliff, and into the ocean. The waves splashed as he landed, and he surfaced. "Come on, Darren! You have no idea how good this feels!" he said, laughing.
"Hey, Mommy! Look at the cliff!" I looked up at my mom.
"Yeah, it is a pretty cliff huh? Oh, Darren. Your dad is calling me. I have to go, but I will be right back okay?" She smiled sweetly at me.
"Okay Mommy."
The cliff was similar to this one, it had water over the edge, and I went to go play over near it. I thought that it was safe, that nothing could hurt. After all, people swim in it right? People drink it right? So nothing bad could happen.
So there I was, playing by myself with my toy truck, when it rolled off the edge, and into the water. I couldn't leave it there, so I jumped in after it. The truck floated down, farther and farther into the ocean. I swam after it, going down, deeper into the water. Suddenly, my chest and throat began to feel very weird. They were feeling like somebody had wrapped their hand around them, and squeezed with all their might.
What's going on! I thought to myself.
I stopped going after my truck, and opened my mouth to scream, letting the rest of my oxygen supply go. I didn't know what to do, so I just floated there, holding my chest and throat. Begging them to stop hurting.
Somebody grabbed my arm, and pulled me up towards the surface of the water. I gasped in fresh air.
"Hey, kid. Are you alright?" A guy with blonde hair asked me in concern.
"Yeah, but my toy truck. It's still down there," I said looking down into the water, trying to see if I could find it.
"Well, if that's the case, it's probably gone then. I'm sorry."
"DARREN!" My mom screamed over the edge of the cliff. "ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?"
"Yes mommy!"
"Can you help bring him up here?" My mom asked the strange man.
"Sure." He jumped out of the water, and got a hold of a few rocks on the side of the cliff. "Hold on tight, kid," he said as he began to climb up the cliff. Once he reached the top, my mom and dad helped him up.
"Thank you so much! You have no idea how much we are grateful for you."
"Oh it's no problem, I assure you. Still, this late at night he should have been asleep, not playing with his toy."
"Okay, then… We don't even know your name."
"Oh, it's Kurda. Kurda Smahlt." He smiled a little smile, and left.
"Darren Shan. You must promise me you will NEVER do that as long as you live. You hear me? Grounded for two weeks..." She rolled out a punishment for me, but I wasn't really listening. I was thinking about my saviour, and how he saved my life. When I watched him leave, for some reason I didn't feel the need to say anything. It felt like it wasn't goodbye…
"Come on, Darren! What, are you scared?" Evra taunted from the water.
Well, I was dead to her. So I guessed the promise wass broken anyways.
"HA! You wish!" I yelled back to him.
I backed up a few steps, and ran off the cliff's edge, into the sweet, refreshing cold water.
It felt so good after running for two hours!
I broke the surface, breathing in the fresh ocean air.
"Haha, so. Guess you're not a chicken after all."
"Haha, why would you even think that!" I said, splashing water on him.
We laughed for a while, splashing each other.
But then, something happened that terrified me and Evra down to the bone. Blood spilled out from out feet and ankles, causing the water to turn a red color.
"What's this?" Evra shouted.
"I don't know. Check the water!" We splashed around, seeing if there was anything.
"Hey, Darren! Come check this out!" I swam over to Evra. And gasped at what I saw.
Metal wires were everywhere, about five feet under the surface.
Not only was there wire, but it had COLLARS to it too. It looked like it was used to drown people or something. The wire was barbed, so if you tried to escape, your hands would get cut. Like our feet and ankles.
Great. Just what we needed to get back to the Cirque. Blood feet, scraped ankles, all of it. Thanks.
"Come on, Evra, let's go," I said, starting to swim towards the cliff.
"Um, Darren? There's a problem with that," Evra said, not even moving from his spot.
"And what would that be, Evra?" I said through gritted teeth, stopping.
"How are we supposed to be able to climb the cliff if we can't use our bloody feet?"
I stopped completely. How were we supposed to get back to the Cirque? We didn't bring anything but our shorts. This was really bad. If we didn't get back before somebody noticed we're gone...
"Crap! Evra, we need to swim around, CAREFULLY, and see if there's a beach or something we can get out on. If that doesn't happen, we'll have to climb back up the cliff."
For the next three hours we swam around, looking for a way out of there without the cliff. We did finally find something-a beach. Just what I was hoping for.
Evra and I raced out onto the white sand, and inspected the damage to our feet. Evra's wasn't that bad. It was just scraped up, some scales got some red scratches, but other than that and bruises he was fine.
I, on the other hand, got the worst of it. My feet were bloody and had a lot of skin sticking up from cuts. It was going to get infected, you could tell. If we didn't get help for them, I would have two infected feet.
"Darren," Evra said in a quivering voice.
"What is it, Evra?"
"Where are we?"
I looked up, shocked at what he had said, and found he was right. None of the area looked familiar at all. We were lost. And bloody. And tired. And hungry. Worst part? The sun was going to set. And because we were in Hawaii, it sets really early at six forty pm. We left at six am. Raced here in two and a half hours, arrived at eight thirty am. Swam for about thirty minutes. Nine am. Looked around for about fifteen minutes for what made us bloody. Nine fifteen. Three hours searching for a beach. Twelve fifteen.
We had six hours to get back to the Cirque, do our chores, get our feet looked at, and make sure it didn't get infected. All of this before Mr. Crepsley woke up.
The clock started then, as Evra and I shared a glance and sprinted into the unknown forest of Hawaii.
***line***
The trip back was horrible. We got lost three times, had to stop and take multiple breaks from running/the pain in our feet, and the worst part was when we found out we had been running for about an hour in a gigantic circle. Many swear words were yelled.
But, we did make it before sundown. Good news, we get about thirty minutes to do our chores. Bad news, the only way in without being caught was going by the wolf man's cage. Everybody was looking for something. Or... more likely, us.
Carefully, we tiptoed past the wolf man's cage. It looked like he was asleep, and I really didn't want to wake him up. Evra went first, so that way I could get a faster getaway. But I told him that he had to go first because I was still scared of the wolf man.
We walked ever so slowly and quietly past the wolf man. We were so close. Just a little more...just a little more... just a little more...just a little-
"FRICK!" Evra screamed, falling to the ground. He stepped on a pointy stick with one of the cuts from the fence. The wolf man's head snapped up and he howled into the sky, like he was about to be strangled or something.
"There they are!"
"Over here. Found 'em."
"FINALLY!"
"Oh, thank goodness they are all right."
The cirque performers exclaimed-hearing the Wolf man's howling had attracted them to us.
Evra and I shared a look. We're screwed!
Mr. Tall came over, looked at our feet, told us we had to go wash them, and took Evra. Apparently, as his 'mentor' he could give Evra his punishment. Whereas I had to go and tell Mr. Crepsley what I did and ask him what my punishment was going to be.
I made my way across the Cirque, feeling, in a word, anxious. Mr. Crepsley is not happy when I do something wrong, and makes that clear. His punishments range from physical to cleaning. Most of the time, it's a cross between the two. For about a month, maybe four.
***line***
I knocked three times before I stood back and heard Mr. Crepsley come out. "Darren. What do you want? I'm very busy right now." He scowled, looking down at the ground.
"Mr. Tall wants me to tell you what I did today and ask for my punishment."
He "Hm'd" and let me in. I sat on his coffin, got comfortable.
After I told him everything, he just nodded.
"Don't do it again. Your punishment shall be to do today's chores and tomorrow's chores. Now go," Mr. Crepsley said so quietly and fast that I had to strain my ears to hear what he even said.
But once I caught what he said, I bolted out of there. I wanted to get out before he would change his mind.
I was half way across camp when I realized something. WHY DID MR. CREPSLEY USE A CONJUNCTION? NOT ONCE, BUT TWICE! WHAT IS UP WITH THAT STUFFY OLD, BAT?
Be careful what you wish for...
Well, there you guys go. The second chapter. Hope you guys liked it!
Please review!