I'm sorry for this pour excuse for a chapter. I know it's short (like, really short) but it was all I could think for the moment, and to be honest: it's not really that bad.

The plot is thickening, don't you agree?

I'm going to try and update as frequently as I can, but don't expect much if I don't update often.

Anyway, here's the next chapter. I working on the next one right now.

Enjoy~!

Chapter 7 –

Fay was still in the garden when Lucy returns, a glass of lemonade in her hand.

Looking up, the teen smiles at the older woman and takes the glass from her hand with a quiet 'thank you' before sipping it.

Lucy looks the girl up and down again, when she notices Mr. Peak walk towards them. His smile was happier than usual, and Lucy could tell that something good had just happened. He may smile all the time, but those at the circus were the only ones to know when their ring master was truly happy.

"Lucy!" He bellows, making the teen jump in surprise. "And our little Fay! How is work going?" He asks.

"The gardens coming along quiet well." Lucy comments. "Our young Fay here has been doing a remarkable job."

Fay gives a nervous laugh as she rubs the back of her head. Looking up she meets the ringmaster's eyes, her smile fading. "Shan walked off, a little angry. I was wondering if you had seen him today."

Mr. Peak forced the smile on his face to remain cheerful and innocent. He didn't want his new test subject to catch on.

"I'm sorry to hear about your argument, but I haven't seen Shan all day. We've been busy, getting ready to welcome paying customers and all."

Fay lowers her head and nods it solemnly. She wanted to apologise to him, but she didn't know what for and why. She just wanted to see him again.

Izabellz had sunk out of her tent again, trying her hardest not to be seen, as she watched the scene before her unfold. She was being tricked by Mr. Peak; she could tell that from the smile he wore. He always used that smile when he was keeping something hidden.

Lucy was looking like she hadn't seen the slight change on the ringmaster's face, although everyone at the circus had become accustomed to how he worked. Even Izabellz had to admit that she was getting used to the ringmaster's ever changing moods.

She needed to get to the girl alone, and tell her of the dangers she was facing.

The teen lifts her head slightly, as if hearing the tall girl's thoughts, and gazes at her with glazed eyes.

Izabellz stifles a gasp.

She had been drugged. She couldn't hear what was going on around her, and soon she would fait, fall into a dead like sleep. She would end up waking as a different person. Izabellz couldn't allow that.

Even though she knew it would amount to nothing, Izabellz began to speak to the girl without the use of sound, mouthing each word as if she was conducting a normal conversation.

"You have to get away from this place." She mouths. "You are in terrible danger."

As if Fay could understand what the tall blonde was saying, she frowns and replies in the same fashion "Why should I leave?"

Izabellz was surprised at the response; not just for the fact that the girl was conscious enough to respond, but also because she didn't see the danger right before her. "This place isn't safe."

"It's the only place we can be?"

We? Izabellz thought. There are others here?

"They are a lost cause." She mouths back. "You can't save them."

Fay's frown deepens as the effects of the drug begin to wear off. "How can you be so sure?"

"Trust me: if you came here for a haven, you're better off in the woods."

"Why would you say something like that?"

"Because before I came to this place I was a normal girl. I came here by accident and they used my innocence as a tool. They stretched my legs and only my legs." Izabellz slowly stretches out a leg. The reaction on the girls face was all she needed to know that Fay was now intrigued. She brings her leg back and hides once more. "They will do worse to you if you don't hurry and leave."

"But how can I do anything? Why would they do something like that?" Fay mouths. If she was using her voice, it would be tinted with panic: shaking uncontrollably with an unknown fear, a fear that grips her very being.

"Because you bare the mark." Izabellz manages to say before she hears an alarm. She looks around to see a group of people running towards her. She had been spotted.

Lucy and Mr. Peak look around to see Izabellz. The girl's eyes widen in horror as she begins to run away. Turning to Fay, Mr. Peak smiles down at her before leaving both Fay and Lucy alone.

Fay knew she had to play innocent, to pretend she didn't exactly see the girl in order to find out some facts. "Who was that?" Fay asks.

Lucy shakes her head before taking the glass from Fay's hand. "She's no one important. Don't worry about it."

"But that alarm, why did it go off?"

"Well, it's just letting us know that one of our attractions has gone missing, that's all."

"So what is she then? Is she an attraction?"

Lucy locks eyes with the teen, and in that moment, the answer was given without a word having to be said. Fay now knew the truth.

Walking past the woman, Fay stalks towards the tent where the girl was standing. She wanted to find some answers, and she wanted them fast.