Chapter Forty-Nine

Welcome to …

Sitting in the small restaurant, Mika eyed Juliet as she ate heartily. Her eyes had sparkled when she'd seen the sign for the place and she'd muttered the word 'chilaquiles' with such longing Mika shivered, before pulling him with her. Mika was rather unfamiliar with the cuisine, so he'd allowed Juliet to order for him and as he looked at his plate, already cleaned, he inhaled the lingering scent appreciatively. "Chile Relleno." He tested the words and Juliet nodded approvingly. "I'll have to eat this again."

"I told you you'd like it." Juliet said as she finished her plate. The waitress had been so surprised when Juliet ordered in fluent Spanish, she'd dragged out the cook and owner, her grandmother, and Juliet and the two ladies had talked for an hour while they waited for their food.

"Your man is so handsome!" The grandmother said, returning to take their plates, Mika smirked.

Juliet smiled politely. "And he's free. You know you could win his heart with this cooking of yours."

The old woman laughed heartily and pat Juliet's cheek with her free hand muttering something. "You two, food is free. You're so wonderful!"

Juliet and Mika both shook their heads. "No, no, abuela, I'll pay. I'll pay extra. Next time I'm in town I want to eat here again!" Juliet smiled and took out her credit card, walking with the woman to the register where her granddaughter rang them up. "My new favorite restaurant. Please don't ever stop cooking!" Juliet hugged the elderly woman and ushered for Mika. He bowed appreciatively and the two women tittered with excitement. They waved as they walked out, promising to return.

Juliet was smiling as they began walking back to their motel room and Mika sighed contentedly.

"What are you so happy about." She said, stretching her arms as they walked, a cool breeze ruflled her hair and she scratched her, head irritated.

"This isn't what I expected when I promised to help you figure out your past." He stated.

"Being in the actual past? Yeah, same." She huffed.

Mika shook his head, knowing she understood what he meant but didn't want to talk about it. Their camaraderie. Something he never thought they'd have back, they'd fallen back into it so easily. "You're very easy to get along with." He commented.

"I know. I'm pretty chill."

"You always were."

They walked in silence. As they approached their motel, Juliet pulled the key out of her pocket. "You know we never talked about our next move." She sighed, then cursed as the key fell to the ground.

"I know. It's one of the reasons I was so hesitant to go through that door. We have no leads." Mika bent down to pick up the key, and so did Juliet. They knocked heads as they both leaned downwards.

"Dammit." Juliet said, bracing her hand on the ground. "And I thought I was hard headed."

"Apologies." Mika muttered, scraping up the key and offering Juliet his hand. She accepted and he pulled her to her feet. "What's that?"

Juliet looked at her other hand, a flyer had stuck to it from where she'd set it on the ground. "Oh, gross" she sighed and began peeling it off.

Mika watched as she peeled and peeled, the flyer's words becoming more and more visible.

K

"Juliet, hold." He said. Juliet paused, looking at him.

"Really, but it's so sticky…" she sighed.

"Let me see the flyer." He pried it from her hand, careful to read it. "This is for the Cirque du Freak." He said.

"That sounds familiar…" Juliet mumbled. She wracked her brain. "Didn't Darren and Mr. Crepsley tour with them for a while?" she asked.

Mika nodded. "The ringmaster, Mr. Tall, he can supposedly see the future."

"How do you know that?" Juliet looked at him skeptically as they continued walking to their room.

"Larten spoke of it once. Darren confirmed it as well." Mika unlocked the door to the room, giving the flyer back to Juliet.

"So what are you thinking?" Juliet asked. "If he can see the future-"

Mika nodded. "Perhaps he can see the past?"

Upon further examination of the flyer, Juliet and Mika found out the name of the city they were in. And that the cirque was in town for

"One more night." Juliet said. "According to the date on this cell phone. Tomorrow night is their last night in town, unless they've already left." She was sitting cross-legged on her bed, using the cell phone to scour the internet. "There's nothing about the cirque on the web, though."

Mika trusted her with the 'web'. He had walked down to the office and picked up a map of the town from a nicer employee and was scouring it at the small table. "There is no address on the flyer." He sighed.

"I think Darren said once that they hang out in abandoned buildings a lot." She tapped her forehead with her finger. "And empty fields. I think once they were in an old train depot."

"Helpful, but…" Mika sighed again, running a gloved hand through his thick hair. "Abandoned buildings are not listed on this map."

"That's really not what maps are for, Mika…" Juliet mumbled. Mika slumped into the chair. "But the internet has as few things to say about abandoned buildings in the area." She smiled into the small screen and Mika stood, looming over her to see.

"If we assume the wind kicked that flyer at most three miles before it got sticky and clung to the ground… we've got about a ten mile radius…"

"They hand out the flyers in person." Mika said. "Perhaps not even ten miles."

"Five miles?" Juliet asked. "Well that narrows it down. We're in the slums after all. Plenty of abandoned buildings in five miles. Want to go looking?"

Mika nodded and they began pulling out their weapons. "Sunrise is still four hours away."

"Damn-" Juliet said. "We've got a lot of buildings to hit in four hours." She sighed dejectedly.

"Don't worry." Mika stated. "I will carry you. We can search faster if I run."

"What, and can you leap buildings too?" Juliet snorted.

Mika nodded.

"WELL SHIT!" she jumped up and Mika caught her in his arms. "Let's go!"

The first spot Juliet and Mika reached was an abandoned textile factory on the outskirts of town. They had both agreed to start with the most distant building and work their way inwards. The dilapidated brick building was cold and forbidding, and Juliet only had to give the place a once over before saying they should leave. Mika agreed. "This place is creepy as hell." Juliet sighed as she climbed onto Mika's back, ready for him to begin running. "The kinda shit you see on paranormal investigator shows."

"Watch a lot of those, Juliet?" Mika snickered.

"Maybe too many. Hurry and go!" she slapped his shoulder forcefully, knocking the laugh out of him.

Spot number two was an old strip mall. Mika surveyed the ground while Juliet looked into the windows of each silent shop. "There are tire markings." He called. "But nothing to indicate a large crowd or set up for extended time."

"Probably drug deals, or places people go to get some in their car." Juliet shook her head in disgust.

"Get some?" Mika asked.

"Would you rather I say 'fuck like it's illegal'? Because it is." She rolled her eyes and Mika crouched down for her to climb onto his back.

As he ran to the third spot, Juliet said, "I've been thinking about what that Mr. Tiny guy said."

"What exactly." He asked, using his super strong nails to dig into and climb up the side of a brik building.

"How he said it will take us 'no time at all'." She sighed. "He really did play me."

"Don't fret, Juliet." Mika said, and Juliet actually chuckled at the rhyme. "He makes it his business to meddle in people's lives. You know there's an old tale about him interacting with the Vampires."

"What is it?"

"They say once long ago there was a Vampire who desperately wanted to have children. He approached Mr. Tiny and begged him to make some way possible for our kind to procreate until Mr. Tiny finally gave in."

"Obviously that's not true. You're all still barren." Juliet said, shaking off her own unease at the story as she remembered her miscarriage. 'Probably nothing. Probably just a stress baby or something. Medicine has come a long way since then…' "Unless… no! I Darren the first Vamp baby?"

Mika chuckled. "No, let me finish." He chided and could feel Juliet roll her eyes. "It's said that Mr. Tiny took the Vampire's blood, as well as some of his own blood, and put it into a pregnant wolf. When the wolf gave birth she didn't have pups, but instead two humanoid-infants."

"Well that's creepy." Juliet remarked.

Mika nodded. Jumping between buildings as they neared their destination. "The two children, a boy and a girl, grew quickly. Mr. Tiny told the Vampire that his two children could mate with Vampires and give them children. It is said that one of the children grew to be the Lady Evanna."

"Who's she?" Juliet asked as Mika crouched to let her off of his back. They were in an empty parking garage on the first floor.

"A witch, some say. I suppose if reaching the Cirque doesn't work out we could go to her. She may be willing to help us… if we ask politely." Instinctively he scratched at his face, thinking of Larten and his scar.

"What happened to the male?" Juliet asked.

"What male?" Mika replied, coming back to his thoughts.

"From the story. Tiny's son." Juliet gestured him to continue.

"Nobody knows. He disappeared." Mika shrugged. "They say he's dead."

"What a wonderful story." Juliet mumbled. Mika smirked as they walked to the bottom of the parking garage. "You Vampires have quite the lore."

"I'll tell you more of it if you want." He offered. Juliet nodded, then stopped, stooping down. She came back up with a piece of paper. "Is that?" Mika asked.

"Yeah, it's another flyer." Juliet said, scanning their surroundings.

"I don't hear anyone around." Mika said solemnly.

Juliet shook her head and ran for the exit. "Let's check outside!" she called.

Mika followed her out to an open field. Possibly this was once a soccer or football or baseball field. A popular one from the small parking garage. Now it was empty, the markings on the grass long faded, only one large field light remained. Mika scanned the area.

Empty.

"We missed them." Juliet sighed, falling to her knees and crumpling the flyer in her hand. The one streetlamp hung behind her, elongating her shadow across the field. She shook her head slowly. "It looks like they left hours ago."

Mika surveyed the empty lot, noticing tire markings and indentations in the grass, clear signs that there had been numerous trailers in this clearing. There were even a few more flyers fluttering on the grass. He nodded down at Juliet and crouched next to her. "I'm sorry Juliet. We'll just have to find another lead." Juliet nodded and sighed again, rolling her shoulders.

"Alright let's get back to the mot-" she paused, craning her neck to look forward. Mika followed her gaze, noticing the light dimming behind them.

Mika and Juliet froze, seeing the shadow loom over their bodies. Juliet turned first, ready to attack or run or anything that was needed. Instead she simply blinked, something in her dropping its guard. The man was gigantic, standing at least seven feet tall if not more. He looked even larger due to the top hat perched upon his head. He was thin and pale and looked down at her with expectance. Mika turned when he sensed Juliet stop moving. He too fell silent and still at the sight of the man before them.

"You're fifty years late, and yet I wasn't expecting you." He said, looking down at the couple with glowing eyes. "I am Hibernius Tall." He smiled down at them, showing small, straight black teeth. "Were you looking for the Cirque du Freak?"