Note: Welcome to part 3-4 to my Cirque Du Freak fanfic! I put up a freewebs site, which you can get to by clicking the link on my profile. There isn't really anything there at the moment, but the layout I found is pretty. c:

Disclaimer: Darren Shan, Mr. Crepsley, Gavner Purl and all Cirque Du Freak Characters belong to Darren Shan.

Chapter I

The ground shook, and the earth split opened. Ariel lost her balance, and fell into the gap. She closed her eyes, feeling sick, thinking she would fall forever. But in a moment her body hit the ground, only somewhat sore. She stood, to find herself in some sort of tunnel. When looking up, the earth closed back up. There was nothing to do but keep walking. Arms reached out from the sides of the walls, grabbing for her. There was more than one occasion where they would get a grip on her arm, but she would shake them off. It seemed like she had been walking for years, but Ariel finally dropped to her knees, and accepted the tunnel never ended. The walls closed in around her, and the demons grabbed her, pulling her in.

There wasn't anything out of place this morning. Ariel threw a fit in her sleep, throwing her arms around, like the demons of hell were upon her, ready for war. She would then look around to find herself in a tent, Evra and I asleep (we were used to her noises by now), still in the Cirque Du Freak.

She threw her head up and gave an irritated sigh, then dropped back down to her sleeping bag.

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I dragged my garbage bag behind me, studying the area for any signs of food for the Little People. I kneeled down, clicked my tongue against the roof of my mouth, and a rat crawled from the garbage dump. It immediately scurried over to me, making it easy to squeeze its neck before throwing it into the bag. I sighed, feeling kind of bad for it. Rats and Vampires can get along easily, and if you call to them they'll come right over. But work is work, and the last thing I needed was hungry Little People.

"Bleh." Ariel muttered to herself, tossing some rats into her bag. She then moved aside some garbage, to find a box of kittens, and a mother cat.

She smiled when seeing the happy kittens, although cats and vampires don't get along. When she was a human- or at least when she thought she was- she had always loved to play with kittens, even though they would scratch the hell out of her sometimes, because she always had vampire blood.

The mother cat looked to be half starving, and was probably hunting for rats. It must have smelt Ariel's vampiric blood, because it gave a deep, ominous grown, then reached out it's claws and made a few long, bloody scratched down her arm.

"Damn it," She slapped the cat aside, then rubbed some of the leaking blood from her arm, and put her hand in her mouth, then continued to search other animals.

Later that night, I returned to the tent but sat outside on a wide, flat stone, then picked up a stick and started to draw lines in the dirt.

"Bored?" A voice called from my right. I looked up to see Ariel and smiled. She sat down next to me on the rock.

"I was just thinking," She began, picking up a pebble. "You know that trick Mr. Crepsley showed us a few days ago?"

"I think so," I replied, trying to see what she was talking about.

"You know, the thing were he snapped his fingers, and the object in his hand jumped to his other hand." She explained.

"Oh, yeah, I know what you mean. What about it?"

"I can't do it," She sighed, the pebble in one hand. "I was think maybe it was just an-"

"What are you two doing?" Another voice from behind asked. We both looked up to see Mr. Crepsley. I had barely noticed the sun went down.

"Nothing," Ariel replied. "I was just talking about the trick you showed us the other day."

"Oh, you mean this?" He smiled, clicked his fingers, and the pebble disappeared from Ariel's hand, and reappeared in Mr. Crepsley's.

Ariel blinked, quiet for a moment, then smirked. "Do that one more time."

He held out both of his hands, the pebble in one, then suddenly in the other. For the split second in between, I caught a blur, and I understood.

"I get it!" I shouted my face lighting up. "The cross didn't move, you did!"

Mr. Crepsley smirked, nodding. "Not as dull as you seem." He said, in his usual sarcastic tone.

"Then what's the point of clicking your fingers?" I asked.

"To distract the eye."

Ariel was about to say something, but a laugh came out instead. "What's that weird breathing noise?"

"What?" I cocked a brow to her, and became quiet.

Mr. Crepsley chuckled. "An old friend must have come to visit."

"What?!" A voice called from the darkness.

"Gavner," Mr. Crepsley sighed. "The child could hear you from a mile away."

"Impossible," The stranger muttered. "How?"

"No one in the world breathes louder than you." Mr. Crepsley snorted. "Darren, Ariel, this is an old friend of mine, Gavner Purl."

"Pleased to meet you," He said, shaking my hand. He went to shake Ariel's, but stopped.

"This is…?"

Mr. Crepsley nodded.

He immediately bowed and took her hand, touching his lips to her skin, causing Ariel to blush. "Pleased.." His voice shook.

After standing, Gavner shared a glance with Mr. Crepsley. "She's younger than I thought she'd be.. I hope this doesn't mean we'll be experiencing any trouble in the near future."

"I would hope not." Mr. Crepsley replied.

Gavner sighed, then looked down at me, seeming to be the same as he'd been a few minutes ago.

"Did you hear me coming?"

"No." I replied truthfully.

"Hear that?" He grinned, quite happy with himself. "He didn't hear me!"

"Congratulations." Mr. Crepsley replied dryly.

"As cheerful as ever." Gavner noted sarcastically.