Book 1
CIRQUE DU FREAK
THE SAGA OF DARCY SHANE
A LIVING NIGHTMARE
"What if you could live forever, what would you live for?"
Darcy Shane read and reread this sentence over and over. The book she was holding in her hands was about passionate vampire romance, so the answer to the question had to be love, right? She had never really been in love before, not the real kind where you go weak at the knees at the sight of the person, or when you kiss there are so many butterflies in your stomach you feel like you're going to throw up. Nope, she's never felt that. Actually, she bet few young teenage girls have felt that.
Hm, she thought, flipping the book in her hands around to view the cover. Maybe that's why these books are so popular. She opened to the front page, settled into her library seat, and began reading.
Suddenly her view of the page was obscured by a large picture of Nosferatu. Usually the sight of the frighteningly ugly vampire would scare a girl like her, but on the other hand, she wasn't like the other girls at Mettlesome High school. She looked up from her vampire romance, and Nosferatu, into the light brown eyes of her best friend, Steve Leonard. He had snuck up behind her and shoved the Nosferatu book under her nose.
"Forget that romance crap," Steve said, and he waved the book in his hand in her face, "Read some real vampire stories."
She took the book from him with a small smile, and he sat down in the library seat next to her.
"If these books are 'crap,' then why are they so popular?" Darcy asked.
Steve shrugged his shoulders. "Beats me," he sneered at the book she was reading, "I mean, come on, everybody knows vampires aren't inhumanly attractive. They're butt ugly is what they are."
Darcy rolled her eyes, here we go, she thought.
"But they're amazing, and evil, and creatures of the night, and man, would I give anything to be that cool." He gave her a familiar wicked smile. "If I was one, I'd stalk you during the night, sneak through your window, and bite you!" He jumped at her then, wrapping his arms around her and forcing his lips on her neck.
Darcy laughted, but pushed him away, smoothing back her long dark brown hair. He always got excited like this, Steve. Ever since they met in elementary school he had been very hyper and extremely bad tempered. She was afraid of him, like everybody else, but in elementary school, Steve had protected her from all the others teasing; if anybody gave her trouble, Steve would punch their lights out without hesitation. Darcy's mom warned her about boys like Steve, that they were dangerous and controlling, and to stay away from them. But Steve was her best friend, her protector. They were inseparable.
Apart from being complete opposites, she being mellow and down to earth and Steve being hell raiser, they had quite a few things in common. For one thing, both he and she loved everything paranormal and classically scary. While most fourteen year old girls were shopping in packs at the mall, she was with Steve reading up on the latest issue of Dracula's Revenge at the comic store, or sneaking into the latest R rated scary movie. They loved getting scared; it was their kind of fun. Though Darcy did get a little nervous they might get in trouble for going to R rated movies, Steve would always reply, "Hey, getting a kick of adrenaline from scary movies is safer than getting the high from drugs, right? So we're just doing what our parents would want, so relax!"
So Darcy does what she always does and lets Steve take control. That's just how Steve is, over-controlling; it's not like she could change him, so why bother trying, right?
It had started as any other day. They were meeting in Mettlesome library before school started to talk about what plans they could make for the weekend. Ever since they met in elementary school they would spend the night at each other's house during the weekend. Mom and Dad were okay with it for the first nine years, all the way through middle school, but every since they started high school, her parents have been more hesitant to let them sleep over together. "It's not appropriate," her mom would complain. This gave Steve and Darcy a real kick. How is it not appropriate? It's not like they sleep together in the same bed or anything.
But then again, Darcy thought as she watched Steve flip through a pile of Monster Myth books, Steve has been acting different since they started high school. Before high school, Steve had treated her like one of the guys, like a buddy; but now it was like he moved his hands in such a way they made as much contact with Darcy's body as possible. If she let him touch her, he wouldn't stop, but if she pushed him away, he only forced his way back, like a boomerang.
Again, it was just another one of those things Darcy was learning to let pass.
"So," Steve said, keeping his eyes on the page in front of him, "you wanna meet this weekend, I don't know, hang out and stuff."
"You mean as usual," Darcy replied.
"You know what I mean," he said, his eyes reproachful. "I've been hearing rumors around, there's some night club opening just for this weekend at the old theater downtown. It's eighteen and up, but we could find our way in."
"A night club," Darcy wondered, "If it's downtown at night, wouldn't that be kind of dangerous?"
"Really, Darcy," Steve scoffed at her, giving her a dark look, "Do I look like an idiot? Do you really think I'm gonna let some creep mess you up?"
Darcy shrugged, not wanting to argue a losing fight with Steve.
"Listen," Steve growled, making her eyes flash back to his, "I think I can get my hands on one of the flyers for this thing. We check it out, and see what we think, alright?"
"I'd be happy just seeing a movie, but," Darcy hinted, but was stopped cold by a look from Steve, "I guess we could check it out."
"Good," he replied happily, seeming to have settled back into normal Steve and less of the Incredible Hulk.
"Hey . . . psst, hey Darcy," a mousy girl named Alana whispered a couple desks down from Darcy's.
Darcy looked over at her friend when their Social Studies teacher wasn't looking, and Alana flicked a folded up piece of notebook paper that landed square on Darcy's textbook. She quickly grabbed it and unfolded it under the privacy of her desk.
She read:
Hey D, what's up? Do you get number three on the homework, I'm not a genius when it comes to Imperialism, actually I'm not a genius period . . . anyway, HAVE YOU HEARD! Steve and Tommy found some freakish night club opening for the weekend. It sounds so creepy, like, the club is sponsored by some freak show that travels around the world. I forgot what it was called, something Du Freak, its French or something. I really really really times ten want to go. Tommy asked me to go with him *wink wink* I think he has a crush on me. So did Steve ask you to the night club, we could go double dating, ohmygosh, it would be SO fun! Anyways, we're meeting the boys after school, so see you there. G2g, Love Alana.
A freak show. Darcy thought that sounded amazingly scary. She knew freak shows were banned from most parts of the U.S. because of cruelty issues with the people and animals employed. But a dance sponsored by a freak show couldn't be too bad, right?
Darcy found the others after school in the Mettlesome courtyard. Tall, lean Tommy Jones stood with his back to a tree, looking as cool and handsome as ever; Alana leaned next to him, fixing her light brown hair and casting glances in Tommy's direction every now and then. Steve paced in the grass, grasping a light green piece of paper in his hands. When he looked up and saw Darcy approach, his face exploded with excitement.
"I got it!" He shouted, "I got the flyer! Take a look!" He ran over to her the rest of the way and shoved the paper into her hands.
The green flyer was bordered in fearsome looking figures of wolves with sharp teeth, and spider's long legs stretching across the page. On the flyer it read:
CIRQUE DU FREAK
NIGHT CLUB
ONE WEEK ONLY
SEE THE WORLD'S FREAKIEST LIVING BEINGS
INCLUDING: EVRA VAN "SNAKE BOY," THE WOLF-MAN, THE TWISTING TWINS, THE BEARDED LADY, LARTEN CREPSLEY AND HIS PERFORMING SPIDER MADAM OCTA
AND MORE!
SEE THEM ALL WHILE ENJOYING THE NEWEST MUSIC SCENE
WARNING: 18 AND OLDER, NOT FOR THE TIMOROUS AND COWARDLY
"Doesn't it sound amazing?" Steve asked, nearly bouncing up and down with excitement.
"It sounds . . . frightening," Darcy replied with a small smile.
"I heard it's so illegal the freak show night club never comes to the same town twice," Alana remarked.
Steve's eyes sparkled, "We're going."
"But how do you get into a thing like this?" Darcy asked, handing the fearsome flyer back to Steve. "Obviously not just anyone can go, there's got to be some kind of ticket or list, or something."
"It says here," Steve pointed to the bottom of the flyer, "that we have to bring this flyer to the old theater where it's held, and, I don't know, maybe this paper is our ticket in." He looked up at the others with a shrug.
"How did you get this flyer anyway?" Darcy asked, raising a dark brown eyebrow at him.
He gave her a wicked smile that made her stomach flip. "I've got connections."
Darcy groaned. She knew Steve occasionally hung out with the wrong crowd downtown, an older, tougher group. It started when he was just looking for the black market comics, the really dark stuff that they don't sell in stores. Since then he's always went to these older guys for 'stuff.' Darcy wasn't completely sure, but a part of her worried Steve was getting into the wrong kind of 'stuff' off these guys.
"And are these 'connections' going to be there at the freak show night club?" Darcy asked angrily.
"Maybe," Steve asked, his wicked smile turning to a sneer, "So what if they come, anyway, they're cool."
"Whatever," Darcy rolled her eyes, ending the subject.
Steve closed his eyes and took a deep breath, a lesson he learned in Anger Management classes, and then he was back to normal. "Today's Wednesday, we've got two days before this weekend, and we are going. There's no way we're going to miss this."
"I think it sounds fun," Alana piped up, tossing a strand of hair over her shoulder. "Are you excited Tommy?"
Tommy Jones shrugged, "Just as long as there's music and dancing I'm good; I don't really care much about the freak thing."
"Well," Steve began. He stepped up to Darcy and grabbed her hand, weaving his fingers through hers, "Darcy and I are going for the scare; these creepy freaks are gonna blow our minds."
Darcy gave him a half-smile to show him her excitement, but she swallowed to keep from revealing her nerves.