The Troupe

Devi~

I smiled at the black suit Noah had in his hand. It looked rather pretty. I turned to see the shop owner sweeping the front of the store, his hands shaking in fear.

I rolled my eyes, "What type of dress should I wear?" I asked Noah. He lifted his head and stared over at the dresses on the wall.

"That one" He motioned towards a pale white ball gown, the collar was embroided with beads of the one colours creating a pattern on the chest.

I shook my head "Nah, to fancy."

Lovie

I didn't want to take my dress off, and the shop owner certainly wasn't going to tell any of us what to do, so I kept it on, swirling around to the other groups, trying to help. I didn't have the same style as most of them, but I liked trying to help. Sudden;y, a thought hit me. "Coraline?" I asked her, swooshing up to her.

"Hmm?" was her response.

"Well, I...I just, em...Aren't we supposed to have escorts for a ball? Us being girls and all? Isn't it proper? Well, I mean, will people look at us funny if we don't? Or, what I'm trying to say is...uh, I'm not sure what I'm trying to say. Well, I know, but I can't, I don't know how to...Say it." I sighed, giving up on getting my jumbled thoughts out of my mouth.

Carmen

Boats make me sick, and I was glad when we arive in Italy.

"Ready to go?" I ask Lucian. He nodds. I have on a old favorite outfit of mine, a floor-length dress, high heels, and red purse. They wouldn't suspect a thing.

We get into the little horse drawn carrage that would be our ride to venice. I quickly practice my old manner of speaking, trying to 'get into character'. The accident had changed me, in more than one way. I went back through a few memories to get my voice perfect.

"How does this sound?" I ask Lucian in my once girly voice.

"Very forced." He replied.

"How about this?"

"Elongate your vowels a bit more."

"Or, this?"

"Perfect." Finally the ballroom comes into sight. I fix the strap on my purse, and prepare to go in.

I want to run into the room, but I restrain myself and walk in slowly. I see Devi. The sight of her makes me want to puke, but I run up like we were the best of friends.

"Devi, darling, it has been to long." I say.

"Oh, Carmen, I havent seen you in ages." She gave me a quick hug.

"How is everything around here?" Oh, I wish I were still with you guys."

"Everythings great, I wish you were still with us too.

Then Vincent comes up. This was almost too easy. I had my pistol ready behind my back.

*Coraline*

I was looking at masks when I saw Carmen come into the shop. I never really liked her. I always thought she was two faced and always had a sort of feeling that she would turn on me. She was talking to Devi and Vincent when I noticed something at her side.

It was Jame's old knife! We hadn't found it on him the day we found his body. I froze. I had always had these feelings but I never knew they were justified. If she was there, that meant other Wolves were around. We had to get out of there, and fast.

I crouched down and crawled over so that I was behind her. I needed to distort her vision, and quickly.

I directed thoughts of fog towards her, and she stumbled as it hit her. She drew her pistol.

"Run!" I screamed.

Woah, skipping ahead. Let me try to fill the gap...

Noah

"Nah, too fancy," Devi said.

Noah looked around the shop a few more times, settling on what he thought to be a very pretty gown (you can choose what it actually looks like ^.^). "That one," he said.

Devi smiled widely and grabbed it from the rack. "It's perfect!" she squealed, throwing her arms around Noah's neck.

Noah blushed slightly and took a step back from her.

"Isn't it improper for us to be attending a ball without escorts?" Lovie asked, after stumbling around her words for a while.

"Well," Noah said. "Vincent and I will be attending, and there are several other men in the troupe who would surely love to attend as well. I can escort Devi, and you two can fight over Vincent or whomever else Lovie and Coraline."

Devi blushed slightly, Noah caught it out of the corner of his eye. "You want to escort me?" she asked.

Noah smiled and grabbed two masks off a shelf. "Of course, we already match," he said, handing the female mask to her.

***

The ball was surely an event. Noah and his group arrived when it was what Lovie called 'fashionably late' and the music was already playing. Before Noah could ask Devi if she would like to dance, a girl who Noah didn't recognize came up to them and started talking to Devi like she knew her.

Perhaps she had been in the troupe before Noah had shown up. Noah didn't know, but he didn't feel good about this girl. He would have to keep an eye on her.

Carmen

"Run!" Coraline screamed. That was not what I needed. I gave the signal to Lucian and he ran in with his gun loaded.

Vincent called to me, "I thought you were better than that, Carmen."

"Says the person who's fault it is I don't have powers anymore." I am the gun in his direction, shot, and dont see if I happened to hit him or not. Three of the others are ganging up on me.

I grab Coraline and pull out James knife. Instead of hitting her neck, she moves and I only get a good length down her arm. She falls to the ground in pain.

Lucian pulls me away and we run out the door. Befor we are out I turn around and shoot. I hear a cry of pain and nearly laugh. I had hit someone. But we hadn't killed any that I knew of.

Not yet, anyway.

Devi~

I looked away in shock at the blood spilling down Coraline's arm. She grovelled in pain on the floor her eyes fluttering. Lovie was bent down over her protecively. Vincent stood over the shot guest, shaking him violently.
Noah clenched his fists "I won't let this happen again!" He rushed after the couple.

"Noah No!" I screamed after him.
I rushed towards the shot guest, he held his chest blood seeping though his pale washed out fingers. His face had a mask of pain covering him.
"Do you think he'll be okay?" I asked Vincent. He slipped his fingers under the other mas neck and shook his head.
Groaning a wave of nausea ran over me, "I'm going after Noah"

I ran through the screaming mass of people there shocked faces struck in my head. My legs left the air, jumping into the air my body morphed, black feathers sprouted out of my arms.
My eye sight changedand I shrunk, a black raven! I soared out of the ball room and into the night, my keen sight helping me.

Noah

He didn't know what had come over him, but suddenly he was sprinting after the girl, Carmen. Something he couldn't understand propelled him forward. He thought maybe it was rage that Coraline had been hurt, she was like family. The whole troupe was like family. But it something else was triggered in the back of his head. Something he couldn't remember.

"Noah, no!" Devi screamed after him.

Noah kept running though. He was gaining on Carmen and the man she was with. It wasn't difficult, he could anticipate a great deal of their moves. Soon he was right behind Carmen. The man had considerable distance on her, and wasn't looking back anytime soon.

Noah reached out and grabbed Carmen by the arm, pulling her to a hault.

She spun to face him, wide-eyed, and dropped the knife that was in her hand in her shock. The blood-stained blade clattered to the floor. Noah glanced at it. It was James' knife.

"You," Noah said breathlessly. "You. You killed James."

Carmen grinned widely and wrenched her arm from Noah's grip. She grabbed up her blade and stabbed it into Noah's shoulder. He gasped and fell to his knees, only to watch Carmen jog away, laughing.

*Coraline*

All I felt was pain. It took the air from my lungs, robbing me of breath. I fell onto my back. This wasn't how it was supposed to feel. Normal cuts didn't hurt this much.

Lovie knelt down beside me, her face wet with tears. "Cora..."

From where I was laying, I saw Carmen stab Noah. I saw him fall to the ground, and I saw her run away laughing. I saw him start to writhe in pain.

It hit me. "The blade!" I gasped out. "She dipped it in poison. She must have!"

Another wave of fire hit me. I bit my lip so hard to keep from screaming that I tasted blood. Sweat beaded my brow.

"What the bloody hell is-" Harold stormed in. "What happened here?"

"Carmen." I whispered. "She's with the Wolves. She dipped her knife in poison. She killed James..."

I saw Vincent carry Noah inside. He laid him on the floor next to me, and we writhed together. Then a wave of pain hit me that was so strong, so painful, I screamed. "My arm is on fire! Oh, God, please, put out the fire. God, please, please!" I sobbed.

Noah and I laid there together, screaming in pain.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought that maybe I could take myself and Noah away from the pain we were feeling. I reached over and grabbed his hand. I held on and he squeezed back. I directed thoughts of a beautiful place where there was no such thing as pain or betrayal. No anger. Nothing but happiness and love.

Suddenly, the pain was gone.

I opened my eyes and saw a blue sky above me, and golden grass blowing around me. Noah was beside me. We looked at each other, shocked.

"How did you do that?" he asked.

I shook my head. I sat up and looked around me. There was a never ending landscape. There were trees with leaves that were reds and golds and they shone brightly in the sun. There was a pool close to us, and we were able to hear a stream somewhere close. "I don't know."

We stood up. I looked at my arm. The gash was still there and bleeding a little bit, but when I touched it, it was like nothing was there. I turned to Noah, and saw that his wound was also there, but it didn't bleed at all.

"Noah, we're...we're in paradise." I whispered.

"Are we dead?" he asked.

"I don't think so."

We looked around and then Noah shouted, "Look!"

He pointed to the pool. We knelt down beside it and looked into the water.

We saw ourselves still laying on the floor of the shop, our mouths open in silent screams, our eyes squeezed shut, our hands still locked together. We were surrounded by our friends, who were trying to shake us awake.

"Noah! Cora! Wake up!" screamed Lovie.

Vincent looked up and somehow, he saw us. His eyes widened, and he said, clear as day, "Please come back to us."

I touched Noah's hand. "You do realize that we do have to go back, don't you?"

He smiled gently and grabbed my hand. "Yes. But first, promise me something."

"What?"

"That when we recover, we will go, and we will avenge ourselves and James. That we will rip that bitch's heart out of her chest while she's still alive."

Part of me was stunned by Noah's need for revenge, but I shared it as much as he did. "Maybe we'll even feed it to her." I said with a humorless smile.

"To revenge." he said.

"To revenge." I replied.

Then, we went back, and pain was all we felt.

Carmen

"Do you think I went a little to far with that?" I asked Lucian.

"Not sure, do you think you killed the two of them?"

"I rubbed the blade with Deathly Nightshade. It is the most toxic poison in the world. There is almost no way they WONT die."

"Mission acomplised." he said. I remembered James. He had been so easy to kill, willing to die for his friends. The others would not be so easy.

"We need more people." I said.

"I agree." We sat in silence for the rest of the ride.

Noah

Something changed in Noah's head when he went to 'paradise' with Cora. He felt it; something different inside him. He felt like...maybe...he remembered something.

"That when we recover, we will go, and we will avenge ourselves and James. That we will rip that bitch's heart out of her chest while she's still alive."

He had said those words. He could taste the wrath on his tongue. Was this the person he used to be?

Noah shook his head. No. He couldn't be remembering something. He hadn't ever remembered anything past a few years ago, he wouldn't remember anything now. He was only defending a fallen friend and comrade.

Coraline took them back to reality, leaving them writhing in pain again. Noah wished he had been born into an ability that could actually help them. All he could see was everyone wishing he and Cora would live.

"Wait...I have an idea!..." someone said. Noah tried to concentrate on people, on objects, but the pain was too much.

"Someone...do something..." he murmured.

Lovie

"Wait...I have an idea!" I yelled happily. I couldn't even look at Noah and Cora. It was killing me as much as it was killing them, I'm sure. But, I had an idea. Maybe, just maybe, it would be able to end their pain and mine. "Ok, ok.." I said, thinking through my plan in my head. " Can we....suck it out? Maybe? You know, I heard you can suck out snake venom. So can't we suck this out? Or flush out the wounds with water? I think that could work better. Don't you think? I can't think of anything else. I can't think about it! Oh God, when I think about it- look, I'm thinking about it! But-but when I t-think about it, what if they....W-what if they- if we c-couldn't think o-of anything else?" I rambled, my eyes tearing up and spilling over. If they died I don't know what I would do. I try not to think about James anymore because I can't do death very well. Oh, shoot, now I'm thinking about James. I really start sobbing now, hiccuping like I do when I cry. "O-oh, sh-shoot." I mumble, covering my face with my hands.

Devi~

I circled yet again in the air, to see that the wolves had escaped. Sighing I rushed back towards the ball my heart racing from the hurried flight. I changed my form back into human, sprinting towards Lovie.

Coraline and Noah lied on the floor, their breaths harsh and their eye lids fluttering. I dropped beside Noah and stared at his pained expression.
"We need water" Lovie exclaimed tears rolling down her face.

I shook my head, "That will do nothing" I said quickly. Grabbing at my skirt I teared at the end motioning for Lovie to do the same.

"The venom has probably already spread but we canstill probably limit it" Wrapping the peice of silk tightly around Noah's wound. Lovie followed in step with Coraline.
I satred over at Cora's face and bit back tears.

"Get their wounds up into the air as you can manage! This will stop the poisin circulating with the blood!" I added in tying the banadge tightly.