Thanks guys for allll your comments I love them to bits! This chapter is a quiet one… but Darren is coming sooooooooon. I hope you get the twist at the end.

Thanks for the reviews. Hope you also recommend to other readers.

Love L

(ps I've been busy a lot lately so, sorry for crappy updates)

song quote from 'Lost' byAnouk

I do not own the cirque du freak or any of the amazing characters or the saga of Larten Crepsley

x x x

(14)

~ My hands are longing to touch you But I can barely breathe Starry eyes that make me melt Right in front of me~

Larten snapped his eyes open.

'Ahh…' he breathed out heavily. 'Eugh…'

His whole body was shivering.

He looked at the entrance of the hut. It was open, and the sky outside was black and starry. He frowned. It had been a long time since he'd encountered the nighttime. Agonizingly, Larten shook his head, images running through him like a carousel that didn't want to end. Scrunching his eyes, he pressed his fingers to his temple. Again he shook his head wildly.

And the he remembered the secret pond. And the bodies piled on top of each other. He remembered glimpsing the faces of all the people he loved. And then Malora's face flashed in his mind again.

Larten groaned.

'What is it that you desire, my dear Malora?' he cried out. His body convulsed lightly. And then he gasped. How had he got here? What had happened after he saw the bodies? He looked around him, and found Spits lying on his hammock. Larten almost jumped back in alarm.

He remembered Spit's vicious words. They cursed through his mind like a sharp knife. Larten shook his head and glared at the slumbering figure. He was not safe here. He turned to leave, but then remembered Darren. Groaning in exasperation, he sat back down on his hammock. He couldn't leave them. He couldn't leave Arra. His mind was sore and thick with thoughts.

Memories of him and Arra centuries ago, together, laughing, fighting, holding each other by the tips of their fingers but in the end they were together.

Larten smiled thinly.

Arra came crashing down by his injured body. The mist thickened around them in the alley, as if to block out their presence against the world.

'Are you alright?' she gasped laying a stone cold hand on his rough cheek. He shakily turned his head to her and grinned.

'I could not be better,' Larten chuckled light heartedly, but pain cursed through his back like a hot flame. Arra stroked his face and bent down to kiss him. She placed her lips lightly on each eye and pecked him gently on his lips.

'I'm going to get you to safety,' she playfully bit his ear then pushed her arms under him and picked him up. Immediately cries of agony rip out of Larten's throat.

'It's alright,' Arra softly said in a voice that was only used for him. 'It's just a dream. The pain will go. It's just a dream. Pretend. Hold it in Larten.'

Arra looked down at his semi-conscious body in her arms.

'It's just a dream,' she said again, her eyes boring into him.

'It's just a dream…Just a dream… Just a dream…'

And Larten clutched his hammock in dread. In the realisation of it all.

The woods.

The tunnel.

The lake.

The bodies.

Malora.

It was all just a dream…