My perfect ending. No, I don't care if you don't like the fact Mr Tiny has two hearts in my fic - it's a FANFIC people...

The darkness surrounded him, pushing him and pulling him. He felt like he was being sucked through a long tunnel backwards and completely blind. He extended a hand. A door appeared. Darren's fist found the handle. He turned it and the door swung inwards easily. A dim, warm glow filled the room. It was a welcome relief from the darkness. With the light, there came a noise. It sounded like a faint heartbeat. Two heartbeats. They overlapped each other and were slow and steady. Darren stepped into the light. It immediately revealed a figure kneeling in the middle of the floor, bent double. It was groaning and rocking. Darren immediately walked towards it.

"Are you all right?" he called out. Up close, he recognised the attire. A head of red hair atop a black cloak revealed Mr Crepsley, shaking with pain. Darren knelt down beside him and placed a hand on the quivering man's shoulder. The moaning faded away and Darren reeled back as the man laughed. Well, it was more of a chortle. Wisps of grey hair slowly receded into a bald head and the body swelled in size. Mr Tiny staggered to his feet now laughing uncontrollably. His booming voice shook the room like an earthquake. Bits of plaster detached themselves from the ceiling and fell down around Darren. He screamed.

"Darren? Darren?" a gentle voice stirred the boy from his turbulent slumber. Darren struggled to open his eyes, blinking in the harsh new light and propped himself up on his elbows, sweat streaming down his forehead. Mr Crepsley was staring down at him with an odd expression.

"You had a nightmare," he announced, "your indecipherable shouting quite distracted me. I was trying to enjoy my breakfast." Darren regarded the man with disdain. The relief he had felt a moment ago to see him safe quickly evaporated.

"Sorry I disturbed you," he muttered, swinging his legs out of bed, "what are we having?" Mr Crepsley removed another glass from his desk drawer and filled it with a crimson liquid.

"Here," he said, passing the drink. "Now drink up. I have a friend arriving soon." Darren scowled and emptied the glass.

"Who?" he asked, placing the stained cup on the desk. Mr Crepsley reached over and moved it onto a coaster.

"Gavner. He wants to talk to you." The vampire sniffed. "He's here." Darren stifled a laugh. He knew vampires had an excellent sense of smell but the way Mr Crepsley's nose wrinkled in disgust suggested Gavner's scent was less than pleasant. A moment later the younger vampire arrived. He wrapped on the pole by the entrance with bony knuckles, feigning politeness. He was wearing a look that Darren found strange yet enthralling. He looked amused and sad at the same time. He bowed in respect of their presence.

"Larten!" he cried, "How are you? Have you quite recovered?" He removed his cloak and threw it in Darren's general direction. The boy shot out a hand and grabbed it before it fell to the floor and immediately wished he hadn't. He wasn't the man's servant. However good manners forced him to dust the cloak down and place it on a hook by the door. He carefully avoided Mr Crepsley's amused expression.

"I'm fine, load of fuss," mumbled Mr Crepsley patting his shoulder. The wound hadn't been deep. The blood that had flowed from the gash had been over dramatic in the vampire's opinion. He tutted at the injury in disapproval as though it had only bled for attention.

"Good. What about you, boy?" Darren looked into the vampire's piercing blue eyes and shrugged.

"Fine," he said nonchalantly. There was no point mentioning the nightmares; he was sure they'd fade with time. Gavner nodded and took a seat on the desk, ignoring Mr Crepsley's reproachful stare. For a while, no one said anything. Each were lost in their own thoughts. Darren seemed to come to his senses first. The silence embarrassed him.

"You wanted to talk to me?" he said to Gavner. Gavner looked at him without seeing him. Darren coughed and the vampire shook his head, freeing himself from the restraints of his thoughts.

"Yeah, er, yes, I did," he coughed, "I just wanted to be clear that you're in no danger." He looked sideways at Mr Crepsley. "Not anymore."

"But what about Mr Tiny? What about the Vampaneze? And Steve Leonard?" Gavner stared at his dirty fingernails intently.

"Oh we're fairly certain Mr Tiny won't return. He's a bit of a sore loser you see. He'll most likely sulk for a few hundred years and then challenge someone else. Maybe a while longer considering he only has one heart now. We have had confirmation that the Vampaneze managed to stab his first with great accuracy. I'll bet the demon will think twice next time he tries to start a war as he's only half immortal now."

"He had two hearts?" gasped Darren.

"I thought I heard an extra heartbeat that night he visited Mr Tall," added Mr Crepsley.

"Yes, well, and as for the Vampaneze, I think they're lying low and licking their wounds. Of course, it would be madness to think that the feud between us has ceased, quite contrary, I believe this minor fracas has served to fuel it but we should be thankful everyone got out alive."

"Most of us," said Darren pointedly. He recalled the heightened sounds of slaughter the night the Gang delivered him to the Vampaneze.

"The Gang? You mourn them? But they betrayed you!"

"They didn't deserve what Mr Tiny did to them. They wanted revenge. Their lives were miserable and they wanted to blame someone for it. You can understand that, can't you?"

"Sure," shrugged Gavner, "I strangled the man who turned me into a vampire."

"Well, fortunately for me then Darren enjoys his new life," said Mr Crepsley quickly.

"For now."

"Anyway," sighed Darren, "what about Steve? I know what he's like, he'll want revenge!" He frowned at the silent conversation that followed between the older vampires. They communicated through a complex code of eyebrow waggling and pulling faces.

"He's not here," said Gavner at last, "he's..."

"He's waiting for Rose offsite. They'll be long gone tomorrow. He won't trouble you again."

"Long gone..." said Darren. He stared at Mr Crepsley unseeingly for a long time and then blinked and searched his pockets frantically. He found what he was looking for in his back pocket and, excusing himself, hurried out of the door.

Outside the air was fresh and crisp and the sun was a watery light in the distance, partly concealed by off white clouds. Light bounced off puddles in the gravel and off wet windows. In the branches of trees around the campsite, crows croaked ominously. Darren found Rose sitting outside his own tent by herself staring a a faint moon which hadn't realised it was daytime. She offered a small smile when she saw him. Darren slowed to a walk and sat next to her.

"I wasn't waiting for you," she said at last, still watching the pale moon, "I've just said my goodbyes to Evra and Rebecca." Darren removed a folded envelope from his jeans.

"Here," he said, giving it to her, "put this in my room somewhere. If you happen to go past that way I mean," he added. Rose took it and nodded gravely. She turned it over in her hands before placing it carefully in a bag by her feet.

"I will," she promised. She stared carefully at the dew covered grass and tried not to smile. Darren had changed; he was making an effort to be happy. She bit back the phrase 'I told you so' for it is one of the most hated sentences in the world and instead focused on not ruining the peace between them.

"It's a diary entry," said Darren suddenly. Rose glanced up in surprise. The boy was picking at the grass.

"Oh...um, you don't..." Rose began. She didn't want Darren to feel like he had to reveal what the envelope held in case it made him uncomfortable.

"No, I want to tell you," he said firmly, "it was your idea after all. I wrote a few pages of meaningless stuff, just about school and friends, just to let them know I was happy. I wrote how my sister Annie made me laugh and that I was looking forward to my dad teaching me to drive...I wrote about how I could smell my mum's cooking downstairs and how good her dinners were. You were right Rose, they need closure and so do I." He looked up to see her grinning at him.

"I'm glad," she said, "you're finally getting things right. I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but first impressions are often entirely wrong. To think I used to think you stubborn."

"And I used to consider you evil!"

"I think I've changed my point of view," smiled Rose. She patted his hand awkwardly and stood up. Darren rose too.

"So you're leaving then. Now?"

"Not long," Rose sighed, "say goodbye to Crepsley for me. I've already thanked Mr Tall."

"Was he sad to see you go?"

"Oh, you know what he's like...he was solemn...said something about second chances - and strawberries." She shook her head and laughed. "And I've always got a home here, too."

"And friends," added Darren. Rose's mouth slid into a lop-sided smile as she shoulder her rucksack.

"I'll be sure to hide your goodbyes," she said, "and who knows, maybe I'll visit."

"Well, please send some warning first, okay?"

"Okay," laughed Rose. The two paused and felt their eyes inexplicably drawn to a gap in the trees in the distance.

"Is he waiting for you?" asked Darren. Rose smiled and nodded.

"We're traveling. It used to make me feel humble to know that the world was too big a place to see it all - and angry obviously - but now I have all the time in the world, I intend to spend it, if not wisely then at least well. After all, death is supposed to be an adventure, isn't it? What bigger adventure than to visit the unknown?"

"Sounds wonderful," agreed Darren, tearing his eyes away at last from the clearing, "Just don't forget where you came from, all right?"

"Oh I couldn't forget the past few months even if I tried," swore Rose. It was true. A year ago she was a completely different person, innocent, ignorant, unhappy. Everything had changed and Rose believed whole heartedly that it was for the better. In the distance, light winked as a moving shadow distorted it. Rose lifted her chin and smiled.

"Time to go," she said. Darren nodded and embraced her.

"Stay safe," he muttered. Rose pushed him away and looked into his cautious eyes.

"I couldn't be in safer company," she said. At last Rose felt ready to go and so with a final smile at her surroundings, she walked away from the Cirque without looking back. She could felt that unexplainable pressure on her back as dozens of eyes watched her leave.

In the shade of the overhanging branches, Steve met her with a grin. He was wearing his usual black clothing which he could not be persuaded to part with and his eyes gleamed with a new found happiness. He looked past her into the Cirque.

"Was it hard to leave?" he asked taking her hand.

"Yes," she shrugged. The Cirque and it's inhabitants had shown her uncompromising kindness and she would miss their company however the prospect of adventures in foreign worlds with Steve for the rest of forever tempted her into the unknown.

"I may go back...someday," she said, "now that Mr Tiny has gone and the Vampaneze aren't a threat."

"You're welcome," said Steve smartly. Rose looked at him sideways as they walked through the woods, their backs to the rising sun.

Rose didn't reply. She hid a beam behind her hair. Steve continued to mutter as they stomped through the dead leaves which littered the woodland floor in the golden glow of the midmorning sun. Rose ignored his complaints and basked in his aura of amity. Every now and again he'd glance over to check she was listening and she'd make sure he saw her smiling at the winding path ahead. When his mumblings dwindled down to the odd comment, Rose knew he was happy and so was she.

The afternoon looked bright and promising. The watery sun was rising through the clouds which were broken and few. Hand in hand, Rose and Steve shared a common thought. The past and everything it held, good or bad, and everything that made them who they were now, was behind them and today, at the beginning of a journey to nowhere in particular, it was time to put who they were to the test. Her fingers laced through his, their wandering steps took them at a steady pace through Eden along a provisional, solitary path.