Larten Crepsley's Daughter

The Camp of Freaks

   I was happy that we made it back to camp; I missed my friends and my boyfriend. I was home again.
      Darren was probably lost so I went to go find him, Harkat the Little Person was wandering around. He always wore a grey cloak and he had a stitched up face and body; this made him look like a tiny zombie. "Harkat, where's Darren?" I asked. He looked up at me with his dead gray eyes and offered me his hand. I looked at him sternly "Yeah, I don't think so." he had a history of biting people he tried to hold hands with. He looked at me with a sad look, maybe he was being genuine this time. I took his hand, and just as he was about to bite mine I pulled it away from him. This was one of those times I was grateful for my vampire speed. "Harkat, if you do that again then you won't get any rats for dinner." I warned. He made a noise like he was saying sorry and took my hand without biting it. He brought me to Evra's tent. I opened the front of the tent and saw Darren inside. I guess this is where Mr. Tall put him. "Mind if I crash the party?" I said humorously dancing my way inside. "Hey beautiful." Evra said smiling. "Hey handsome." I kissed him softly and he kissed me back. We both had forgotten that Darren was there. "He's your boyfriend?" Darren asked surprised. I snuggled up with Evra on the couch "Four years today, he asked me to be his girlfriend." "Best decision I've ever made." he sweetly kissed me on the cheek. "So you're her friend from school?" he asked Darren. He nodded "Yeah, we've been friends since freshman year." "And we've caused trouble since then." I said jokingly. Both boys laughed "I have never seen you like this." Darren said amused. "I'm in my zone," I said with a smile. "I've been part of the Cirque du Freak for a very long time and they've been my family. I can be myself around them." I looked at Evra and I smiled warmly "Being part of the Cirque allowed me to meet Evra and fall in love with him." I held Evra's hand. A patch of scales came off on my hand. I shrugged and still held his hand. "Aren't you worried about getting pink eye?" Darren asked with a confused look. "Vampires can't get human illnesses, so I can't get pink eye." I told him proudly. "Half-vampires are a different story." I added. Darren looked horrified, but Evra and I looked at each other and laughed. As freak show performers we found humor in the most morbid things. "Sorry," we said. "You guys are weird." Darren said laughing. I shrugged "It's part of being in a freak show. We're all a little bit weird and that's what makes life more fun." "We can be ourselves here." Evra added. "You're gonna love the parties we throw." I told Darren excitedly.

The next morning...
I woke up from my tent and got ready to start my day. Father was asleep in his coffin so I was on my own until nightfall so I figured I would hang out with Darren, Evra, and my friend Rebecca; she was the costume girl for the show and her "deformity" was that she was part monkey. I put on my black leather jacket, my red T-Shirt and jeans, it was a cold morning so I had to bundle up. I smelled pancakes being made, Rhamus Twobellies must have been cooking breakfast for everyone. He made the best pancakes so I was excited! I walked up to the dining tent to eat with the rest of the performers. Gertha Teeth was snacking on the silverware while trying to get the man with the really tall head to notice her, Corma Limbs was showing everyone her newest trick where she can detach her ears and throw them like boomerangs, Alexander Ribbs was playing a pop song on his ribs, and Wolfie was sloppily eating his bowl of raw meat. I hoped that they would welcome Darren with open arms; Corma was being very flirtatious with him and offered her hands for Darren to eat. "Would you like to eat my hands? I can grow them back." I flitted to where they were to rescue him. "Sorry Corma, he's not interested. I'm sure Alexander would like to know you've been looking at other men." Corma always flirted with new male performers. I grabbed Darren's arm and we walked to where Evra was sitting. "Thanks, she was freaking me out." Darren said breathing a sigh of relief. I didn't realize how hard I was holding his arm because he was wincing "Lily, you're about to break my arm." I immediately stopped when I realized what I was doing "I'm so sorry Darren! I don't know my own strength sometimes." I felt bad that I nearly hurt Darren. "It's okay, I'm just grateful you didn't yank my arm off." he said humorously. We both laughed, it felt good to joke around with him after everything we've been through. However, we both knew that there was someone missing from our group. He knew that both of us were vampires, this was gonna get ugly...

   Evra, Darren, Rebecca, and I finished eating breakfast and set off to do our chores for the day. I cleaned Wolfie's cage while Evra cleaned Bippo's tank. Rebecca and Darren went off to find food for the Little People. They eat just about anything so that task would be super easy for them. In the Wolf-mans' cage he had piles and piles of trash, food, and dirt. This was Father's favorite way to ground me if I acted out, and this was my punishment for skipping class with Darren and Steve. I couldn't believe how much had changed since that day at school. I missed when it was just the three of us, but honestly I'm grateful that I'm here with Darren. We were safe at the camp with the Cirque. I was with my amazing boyfriend of four years and my best friend of three years. Despite our day being full of chores, we still had fun and it couldn't have been more perfect.