NOTE: GENDERBENT DARREN AND TRUSKA.

PAIRING: CREPSLEY X DARREN.

DON'T LIKE GENDERBENT, LEAVE.

DON'T LIKE YAOI, LEAVE.

DON'T LIKE CIRQUE DU FREAK...

WHY ARE YOU EVEN HERE.

OKAY. On to the story..

"I'll never drink from a human. Never!"

That was me, swearing to not feast on a human when Mr. Crepsley finished drinking from the Scout Master, Stanley Collins. Yes, I can and I will prefer to drink an animal's blood instead of human blood. The blood of the kind of what I was. Never. It is disgusting, drinking blood from defenseless human just like that.

I'd thought that if I could control the desire to drink human blood, I may stand a chance in killing the vampire side of me, leaving only my human side with me, since I'm just a half-vampire. It was the only dream I had to cling on to, because I'm afraid I'll turn into one of Mr. Crepsley's kind if I drank human blood.

And so, I've always avoided from going out with Mr. Crepsley if he's going to feast on some random human. Even if I'm by his side, I'll have to look away, or else this little voice in my head will persuade me to drink the precious red mercury - as Mr. Crepsley called it - to satisfy just a bit of my thirst for human blood.

I was able to take my mind off about drinking human blood when Mr. Crepsley took me to the Cirque Du Freak. He left me in Mr. Tall's care, and he had simply went off to sleep in his so-called luxury coffin, as I was led to Evra Von's tent and got coiled by a sleep-crawling snake. We warmed up to each other in a short time, and we become friends along with Sam Grest, a boy who is obsessed with pickled onions and joining the Cirque Du Freak.

I felt worse when I found out that Mr. Crepsley is just testing me on the night he asked me to perform with him. Well, it's not his fault anyway. It was me who wanted to kill him using Madam Octa in the first place. The horrid feeling just increased when he brought me to Jimmy Ovo, the pathologist's place. He refilled blood from a corpse, and asked me to drink from it! Of course I refused, and this just made Mr. Crepsley angrier than he was when it comes to me and my drinking human blood issues. I was torn between accepting the fact that I'm a half-vampire and I have to drink human blood to survive, or stay true to my humanity, which will cost me my life.

The lack of blood made me feel dizzy, sick and out of place most of the time, and that even nearly cost me my life when I fall off the rafter in the abandoned guard house that Sam led me to. Luckily Sam saved me with his brains, or I'll end up dead from falling off at that height with the current state I'm in, with only animal blood to keep me sane and alive. I can't even think straight when R.V. questioned me about the missing animals, so I'd just decided that I'll tell Mr. Tall about it and hop off to bed, away from the fatigue, sickness and frequent dizziness that is building inside me.

But Mr. Truska had to drag me away and lead me to his tent before I could even reach mine. He quickly got my measurements using a measuring tape, before hurried around and gathered a stack of clothes for me. I got a new set of bra and panties before I stepped behind a silk screen to try on the clothes from Mr. Truska.

The clothes that I got was a light green shirt, dark purple miniskirt which revealed most of my thigh, but not excessively, and a small gold and blue jacket to go with my shirt. Mr. Truska tied a red, satin cloth around my waist, and I had to admit that I looked really cool. Mr. Truska looked at me from head to toe, before taking out a pair of black sandals, and gestured for me to try it on. I was amazed by Mr. Truska's sense of fashion, and before I could admire my reflection longer, Mr. Truska made me sit down on a chair and began to cut my messy, long hair. When he finished, he pressed a brown hat with a feather on it on my head, and that's when I was lost for words. I looked different, and was better than the usual me! I threw my arms around Mr. Truska and gave him a big hug and a messy kiss on his slightly stubby cheek as a thanks.

After that, I went to Evra's tent and began to show off my new look. I could tell that he is impressed but he swore that he did not ask for Mr. Truska to give me this new look. And then, Evra began to tease me with the possibility that Mr. Truska had taken a liking towards me. I swatted off his teases, before heading off to Mr. Crepsley's tent since Evra told me that his snake was in a foul mood because of the virus and may bite. I slept beside Madam Octa.

Within moments, I was woken up by Mr. Crepsley, who is trying to force-feed me using one of his many blood refills.

"You will be dead within a week if you do not drink, Darren. If you do not have the courage to drink, I'll force it into you." Mr. Crepsley announced, and I tried my best to glare at him savagely, as I sat on the floor with my knees crossed, one hand wildly wiping off the blood that had spilled around my mouth, another one supporting my body. Mr. Crepsley looked uncomfortable and turned his eyes away from mine.

"I was trying to help." He said after a while, "If you had swallowed even a little, it would have kept you going a while longer, and once you had the taste, you might not be so afraid to drink it again."

"I'll never have the taste!" I roared, "Even if I die, I'll not drink it!"

After adjusting my breathing, I continued speaking in a softer tone, "I just want to be human, like Sam. I want a family and ordinary friends. I don't want to live my life as a vampire, Mr. Crepsley. I want to grow old at the usual rate. I don't want to hurt other people when I interact with them. I don't want to.." Before I could speak more, Mr. Crepsley held an arm around me, pulling me into his embrace, and gently patted my head, making soft strokes along my back.

"Shush, Darren. You're waking Madam Octa up." He then turned around to make sure that his spider is asleep, before turning back to me and said, "and if she wakes up, the whole Cirque Du Freak does, so lower your voice if you are going to complain the whole night, okay?"

I hold back a small chuckle, while wondering to myself, how a person is able to make me get pissed at him, and totally forget about it when the exact same person tries to calm me down and cheer me up? Before I know it, warm tears began to flow out from my eyes.

"You are strange, Darren. You're mad at me a second before, and now you're crying with a really creepy smile on your face." Mr. Crepsley commented, and I'm still in a state to control myself from stopping those overflowing tears, so I did not give any proper reaction to Mr. Crepsley's teasing.

"Come, let me help you with those." Mr. Crepsley whispered, and pulled me closer to him, and I didn't even realize that I'm sitting on his thigh, with my knees on either side of him, because my eyes are focused on the finger that reached my face, and to my eye. Gently, and being really careful to not scratch me with his nails, he wiped off a few drops of tears on the corner of my eye. Using his other thumb to wipe off the other side of my tears, I can't help but blush furiously at Mr. Crepsley's actions. I mean, yes, he is a nice guy, but this... surely it's gotten a bit too far? And no, I'd rather drink human blood than admit that his touch felt nice, and that I'm secretly craving for more. No. Never. It is not normal to fall in love with a vampire.

"There. You look better." Mr. Crepsley's face is so close to me now, I can even feel his breath on my face. I lowered my head to hide the growing blush on my face. But Mr. Crepsley don't seemed to like this, and he cupped my chin with his finger, forcing me to look at him straight in the eye. I tried to focus on something else, like the part of hair on top of Mr. Crepsley's head, and the coffin behind Mr. Crepsley, or Madam Octa's cage, or anything else except Mr. Crepsley.

"Darren." Mr. Crepsley's demanding voice rang into my ear once again. I stopped looking around, and slowly shifted my gaze to the vampire in front of me. Mr. Crepsley is staring at me with his usual strict eyes. "Do not try and look away, Darren."

"B.. But why?" I whined, and then I found myself glaring back at Mr. Crepsley again. I looked away quickly, and decided to get up from Mr. Crepsley's lap. But before I could even straighten my legs, Mr. Crepsley pressed hard on my shoulder, forcing me to sit back down on his thigh with that extremely awkward position. I try not to wince when he slammed my body onto his leg.

"Oh. Does it hurt?" Mr. Crepsley saw the wince that I was trying to hide, and quickly apologized to me for making me stay with such an inappropriate way. I shook my head, telling him that it's okay. But actually, there's this little spot in between my legs - I couldn't put the exact spot on where it is - that hurts quite a lot when Mr. Crepsley forced me to sit back down.

"Well, okay then." Mr. Crepsley said, and pulled my face closer to his, feeling each other's breath. I'm not sure whether if he's going to breath out that gas that knocks out people, so I took less inhales as possible. Mr. Crepsley didn't seem to notice this, and I saw him shudder for a split second. While I was wondering why did he shudder, he locked lips with me.

I was too stunned, heartbeat increasing at a fast rate until I cannot even do anything. I could feel Mr. Crepsley's tongue, and saliva, inside my mouth. I always imagined that kissing is gross because of the saliva, but when it comes to kissing with the one you love, I guess a bit of the saliva won't hurt. Plus, Mr. Crepsley's saliva has healing abilities, isn't it? I wanted to kiss him back, to return the kiss, but then realized that I have zero experience in kissing. So I'd just subconsciously allow Mr. Crepsley to lead me in this, as he kissed me passionately, making my vision go blurry when our kiss parted. I can feel heat on my face, and saw that Mr. Crepsley's face is also flushed.

"So, how was it?" Mr. Crepsley asked after I regained control over my body, "Is it good? You're not resisting."

"Well, er..." I fumbled around for an answer, "I mean.. Why did you just kissed me all of a sudden? It's not normal for vampires to fall in..."

"Who says it's not normal?" Mr. Crepsley retorted, scratching on his scar and looked away, "Vampires have feelings too. And besides.." He turned back to me, "Did you feel better, Darren?"

"Yeah, sort of.. And what do you mean by "feel better", Mr. Crepsley?" I asked, confused by Mr. Crepsley's question.

"It's nothing..." Mr. Crepsley said, picking up the small bottle that he used to refill blood, and stuffed the cork back into the mouth of the bottle, before putting it into his suit. I noticed that the bottle is empty.

Wait a second... EMPTY?

I remembered that it still has a few milliliters of blood in it. Where did all the blood gone?

Mr. Crepsley saw the confused and horrid look on my face.

"What seems to be the matter, Darren?" Mr. Crepsley asked. I blinked for a few heartbeats, before telling him the missing milliliters of blood.

"Oh, that?" Mr. Crepsley said, "I thought you liked it?"

Putting one on one together, I finally know the truth. The so-called saliva that comes from Mr. Crepsley, it was actually blood!

I gagged myself and tried to spit out the blood, and Mr. Crepsley just looked at me and laughed out loud.

"I thought you liked it?" Mr. Crepsley repeated, and laughed harder when I glared at him.

"Larten Crepsley. Someday, I will kill you. With the cruelest way possible." I said through gritted teeth, and ignoring the light peck on the cheek from him, I rolled back to my bed, cursing at Mr. Crepsley along the way.

"I love you, Darren."

"Hate you too, Mr. Crepsley." With this, I drift off into sleep, dreaming of Mr. Crepsley for the whole night.

This... is actually a bit rushed.

I'm sorry if the ending is quite crappy.

Maybe I'll make a sequel, with Darren making her revenge. :)

Until then, enjoy! :D

~Velonica Sushi