Chapter 1: Humans and their misery

Larten walked down the dark street slowly, absentmindedly. He leaned against a light post, staring up at the stars. He found himself lonely, and chuckled darkly to himself. Darren is making me soft. He sighed and shook his head. The youngest prince had that effect on people. You just, could not help liking him. He was infectious.

Mr. Crepsley didn't know why he had wandered down this street, he just felt a bizarre pull, as though he was meant to be here. His mind strayed back to Mr. Tall's ominous words before he had left.

"There will be much pain tonight Larten my friend. A cruelty you have never had the misfortune to witness will be thrust into your path. I cannot tell you what or why, I only warn you that your decision will determine another's fate today."

Larten sighed. He couldn't imagine what his old friend had meant. He had seen terrible atrocities in his lifetime. He'd seen murder, abusive boyfriends and fathers, he'd seen vampaneze attacks, and he'd seen a young human boy's insides eaten by the wolfman whilst he was still alive. He shuddered to think of something worse than that, or the way his apprentice had howled in an inhuman agony at the death of his little friend. The young vampire prince still had nightmares about it.

Larten was torn from his reverie as the sound of loud voices broke the silence of the night. Crepsley stepped back into the shadows of an alleyway to keep out of view. He wasn't exactly hard to notice, tall and thin, wearing all red, and a long gruesome scar marring the side of his face. He listened silently to the voices, hearing their words easily.

"Where the hell is he, they shoulda been here by now." More mumbles. There must have been two men by the sound of it, and it sounded like they were soon to be joined by more.

"Bout time Rick!" Larten looked in the direction of the voice, seeing the men. The one that spoke was a large burly man, short cropped hair. The one next to him was smaller than the first, but muscular and eerily quiet. Larten was relieved they were not vampaneze. Then he saw Rick. A big man with a hard face. He seemed to be dragging something behind him. Crepsley didn't look closely until he heard the something whimper. A young girl, maybe ten years old. She was being dragged roughly by her hair. Crepsley was surprised she didn't scream, or struggle. It was then he noticed that her hands were tied. His eyes narrowed. What was happening here?

"Mmm Rick, bout time man." The one who spoke led the way down the alley. Crepsley stood against the wall, silent and invisible as a shadow as the three men walked down the alley. They stopped.

"Please…father…" the girl whimpered.

Father? Crepsley frowned.

"She's a talker huh, guess we'll have plug that hole up too huh?" The other men laughed darkly as the girl was roughly thrown to the ground. She cowered as the large burly man grabbed her and pinned her arms above her to the alley wall. He tore her shirt off. The girl shivered, not looking at them. Crepsley was at a loss. What was this? His eyes widened as realization dawned on him. Enraged, he clenched his fists and stalked forward.

"Let. Her. Go." He commanded, stepping out of the shadows. The men turned and narrowed their eyes at the stranger. One pulled a gun out and pointed it at him.

"Beat it mate, we're busy." He said. Larten walked toward them until he pointed the gun at the girl's head. He stopped dead. The girl looked calmer now than before, which surprised Larten, considering a gun was aimed at her. He couldn't let the girl get hurt anymore.

Larten flitted, grabbing the gun wielding man, swiftly breaking his wrist. The two other guys cried out in shock. Larten turned to look at them, fire in his eyes.

"I should kill all of you for what you have done to this child. If you hand her over to me now, I shall let you live." He snarled dangerously. They dropped the girl and Larten flitted forward and caught her before she hit the ground. The men ran as fast as they could into the dark. He glanced down at the girl, who was staring at him with wide eyes.

"Do not fear little one. You are safe." He said softly, averting his eyes from her. He carefully wrapped her in his coat. With that he ran, fast as the wind to the Cirque du freak.

Authors notes:

Ok, I decided to take out some of the gory details of the ally scene. I know it's a bit vague, but some people found the content disturbing, and I plan to post this fanfic elsewhere, with less mature audiences. You should get the idea.

And no, Larten is not a pedophile. I promise.

I do not own any cirque du freak characters in this fanfic. The OC Arra belongs to me.