Chapter 2: Evra Von
Darren had difficulties to follow the vampires student. She stormed out of the tent without caring, whether he was behind her or not. And to make it worse around him on the campgrounds was so much to see, he hardly knew where to look at first.
Everywhere were the strangest people acrobaticly practicing, women with red hair breathed fire, small figures wrapped in dark coats buzzing around, crippled oddities ... it was a wonder that Darren was able in all this mess to catch a glimpse of silky black hair and fluttering midnight blue dress, and he strode forward to catch up.
Out of breath he called her a "Wait a minute", but she only shot an angry look at him and did not reined in the slightest in her pace.
Darren was not able to catch her up before she stopped in front of a green tent, decorated with a pattern that reminded of snake skin.
"So ...", she drawled. "Darren ...", it sounded compelled, as if she had gathered strength on the way here to cope with the new situation.
"You are going to sleep in here." She pointed at the tent. "You have to share space with Evra Von. And with his pet. " At the last sentence she smiled wickedly, and entered without knocking.
Darren followed her with beating heart.
"Evra !", exclaimed the impatient student of the vampire, as she would more important tasks to do, than show around a teenager, who had entered the service of her master.
"You have a new roommate."
The interior of the tent was surprisingly spacious and comfortable.
Not all parts of the roof and the walls were made of canvas, there were also elements of solid curved wood, which made the whole structure stable and generous. A drum set filled the biggest space.
A boy rose up from a niche and quickly put his comics aside: "Gillian", he gasped in surprise.
"Evra", Gillian repeated a with touch of irony in her voice like she wanted to emphasize that she knows their names. "This is Darren. Mr Crepsleys ... assistant. "
The last word she said slowly, and made it unequivocally clear what she thought about it.
"Director Tall says he can stay here."
Her Eyes wandered around the room disdainfully and made it clear, what she thought of the chaos of clothes lying around; drum sticks, dirty socks and comic books.
Evra was obviously nervous in the presence of the student, and if he would be able to turn red, he certainly would have become.
But Evra Von however, better known as the "Snake Boy", had the skin of a snake, his green face showing no hint of his embarrassment.
Darren stared at him.
He had seen the Snake Boy before at the show, but now he stood closer to him than ever before. He had weird dark eyes shaped into slits. Darren also had the uncomfortable feeling that his snake was dwelling here somewhere in the tent and silently sliding around.
"Of course. Um, Hello Darren",said Evra and stretched out his hand, which Darren took reluctantly.
"Then everything is clear", said the vampires student.
"I expect you tomorrow after sunset in Master Crepsleys tent. Until then, Evra may show you around. "
She nodded slightly to Evra, who immediately agreed with her eagerly: "Yeah, I`ll show him everything, no problem ..." But Gillian ignored him and rushed out of the tent.
Evra looked after her.
"Well, then uh ... I'm probably your roommate", said Darren, a little embarrassed.
"Hm? Oh, yeah, uh, welcome. You can sleep over there. I`ll sleep here, and this here, you know, this is my drumset. "
"Cool."
"Do you play?"
"I did once. A bit. "
"Great. I`m doing this Snake Boy stuff, but what I really want to do is make music. Maybe we can play together. "
"Well, sure."
"You're Crepsleys assistent?"
Darren nodded unhappily.
"Gillian did not seem very pleased."
"No, she did´t look happy."
"Don`t worry. She is allways like that. "
Evra looked back to the exit where Gillian had left the room, as if afraid he was afraid she might hide behind the curtain and eavesdrop on them.
"Does she ... did she say something?" Evra asked in a low voice, almost whispering.
Darren furrowed his brow.
"I mean ...", began Evra. "I mean about you and me living together. Did she say something about me or so? "
"No, not really ...".
Darren began to understand, what the Snake Boy was up to.
"Nothing in particular ... only that Mr Tall decided, that we should live together. But, well, she doesn`t like to talk to me, you know, that mustn`t mean anything ... "
Evra nodded nervously and looked at his feet.
Darren grinned. "She is pretty."
Evra looked up, startled.
Darren grinned even wider. He hit the bull's-eye.
"I ... I'll take you around then", the snake boy stuttered, hoping that no one saw his embarrassment.
The assistent of the vampire smiled.
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