The Circus

Dent tried to follow. He really did. But his legs refused to hold him up, and it was impossible to crawl with one arm. He lay in the dirt, hurting everywhere, trying not to cry.

This was ridiculous. Every move they made was to either protect a brother or sister from Rusty, or to avoid him themselves. He was always at the point of their minds....

...if only he hadn't missed....if only he had the stregnth to stop Rusty, to help Rogue....

If only...He smiled bitterly. Their lives were filled with those, too...

He grunted and tried once more to stand, but again, his knees crumpled. It was unbearable. He was so weak...

He took a deep breath. Somewhere out of the corner of his eye, he saw a long wooden stick, long and thick enough to be a staff.

Drawing another shaky deep breath (that seemed to nearly split him open), he dragged himself to the stick. He could make it just that far...he grabbed it triumphantly, then hoisted himself from the ground, leaning heavily on the staff.

Chase

"You watched," said Adeline, sounding a little surprised.

I smiled, "Yeah, it helped a whole lot that you convinced Rusty to let you go without makeup tonight."

She looked away, and seemed like she was about to say something when a shot echoed through the circus. The show stopped, a murmur running through the crowd as people tried to work out what had just happened.

Adeline and I, on the other hand, were already running to where the shot had come from: Dent's tent. We burst in without thought for who might be there, I just a little ahead of Adeline, "What happened?"

Lark was shaking, whether with fear, shock or sadness I didn't know. Dent using a piece of wood to support himself. It was Lark who spoke first, "D-Dent shot Rusty, and Rogue t-took the blame!"

I frowned, "But if he shot Rusty, wouldn't Rusty have known it was him?"

Dent nodded, he looked angry at himself, "Yeah, but Rogue said she put me up to it."

Lark

I told them what happened but as I heard Rusty beating Rogue two tents down, I knew I had to do something. I marched out of the tent and right into Rusty's. His shoulder was still bleeding as he whipped Rogue.

"Hey Rusty, you can blame Rogue and Dent for this all you want, but thus next thing s all my fault and I want you to punish me ttwice as hard for it," I told him lifting my head high.

"I'd gladly do that Sophia, but what are you talking about doing?" Rusty said, looking over his shoulder at me

"This," I said and snatched his keys to the lions' cage from his hip and ran with all my might

"HEY! LARK!!!" Rusty screamed

"Run Lark!" Rogue screamed.

I ran all the way over to Dent and helped him up and handed him the keys. "It's time Dent. You've got to defeat Rusty once and for all," I told him

"But I--"

"Yes I know you're injured but if it doesn't happen now it will never happen."

Dent was silenced and put on the face of a man a few years older than himself and snatched the keys from me (which must've been what I saw in my vision) and ran to the lions. I heard Rusty lumbering after me and quickly dodged the whip I ran after Dent and found him unlocking the lions' cages. All the guests began screaming and running over each other to get out of the tent. I grabbed a torch on the side of the tent and began lighting up areas of the tent where the people had evactuated. Almost everyone was out of the circus grounds now that the tent was flaming, so I handed Rogue the torch and told her to keep lighting up the tent.

I made sure everyone was out of the smaller tents, including my fortune reading tent, and ran back to Dent who had unleashed the lions.

"I'M GONNA GET YOU FOR THIS LARK!!! I SWEAR I'LL--" Rusty was cutoff when he saw his tent aflame and the lions being ordered by Dent. He sneakily tried to get away by sneaking around the other side of the tent to escape into the woods, but I shouted to Dent and he nodded and sent the lions after Rusty.

"Stay back you beasts," Rusty yelled, lashing his whip at them and making them furious. They all pounced on Rusty at the same time and we turned our faces from his screams. I ran into my tent to grab my better clothes and then into Dent's tent to grab Cowboy's hat I placed the hat on Dent's head and smiled a bit. Rogue had now set all the tents afire as we watched the lions walk away from the blood stain that was the remains of Rusty.

Kaiya

Tents were on fire, Rusty was being killed by lions. Kaiya finally found her way to where most of the people were.

*Blargarararg*

~Jewel~

Jewel hadn't realized she'd passed out until she woke up.

A tan face hovered over her. Jewel recognised it as the face of the guy who had comforted her. Unfortunately, she had no idea who he was.

But he was handsome as hell. He had tousled black hair, a rugged, outdoorsy look, and captivating blue eyes. The girl could not look away.

"Who are you?" She gaped in awe.

Before the stranger could answer, gunshots fired.

"I haven't much time," he said, his thick british accent expressing concealed panic. He pulled out a knife.

Jewel suddenly realised what was happening. "Please! Don't kill me!"

She tried to move, but her legs were numb and tied to her cot.

Jewel's breath caught. The knife in his hand swung forth, and pain as she had never experienced before submerged her.

Her last thought was, "I'll go the same way as Cowboy. I'll see Cowboy."


*I'm dropping out. I felt it was good to relieve Jewel of her pain. I'll come back if one of you can miraculously bring her back to life, but, if not, hasta la vista!*

Dent opened the cage with the keys Lark had given him. "Go," he whispered.

The lions, at first, were a little shocked, but Dent whispered and wistled and spoke to them in the high voice he had always spoken to them to, and they came out, enjoying the sudden space, wandering around languidly.

Someone saw them and screamed, and the lions looked at them in sharp annoyance at the sharp sound. Dent chuckled and rubbed one lions neck, fingers deep in his mane.

"Dent!" Lark shouted. "It's Rusty! He's getting away!"

Dent turned just to see the glimmer of red silk, and he frowned. I'm not going to miss again.

"Come on, kids!" He yelled at the lions, ladening his voice with enthusiasm. "Come on, go get him!"

They didn't understand his words, but the tone was good enough for them. They playfully moved around the tent, unknowingly threatening Rusty. He shouted and lashed the whip, and Dent turned around as the first scream began. He didn't need to see it, but he felt strangely relieved. Then he smiled.

In loving memory of Cowboy...

Maybe Jack--Christian-- wouldn't have enjoyed the fact that a death had been done in his memory, but he looked after all of them, and he would've been glad that they were all finally free.

"Get hidden!" He told to whoever listened. "The police could very well be on their way soon, and we can always run later. If anyone's caught, tell them that we hid when the lions were loose."

He hobbled over to the costume tent, still smoldering, and dragged a singed black cape from the rubble, then dove in a bush on the side of camp, near the forest.

Kaiya jumped in next to him and pulled the cape around her, also. Dent was slightly stunned, but wasn't going to deny her a safe hiding place. They were almost invisible in the gloom.

There was a small silence, dent waiting for the police to come. Then he whispered. "I'm sure you didn't come into my tent to talk about the gun...what did you really come for?"

Rogue (Robyn)

Most of my body was covered in blood, the royal red cascaded down my back, my wrists, my face, legs, arms. My make-up was smeared I laid on the ground, face down. Blood and tears stuck to the dirt floor. I was bleeding all over, I might even bleed to death. My face dark ewith make up and blood, my cheek was split open and my mouth was bruised. Pain consumed me...

Kaiya

“I..wanted to talk to you about Cowboy. But then the gun came to mind...” Kaiya whispered to him.

Dent sighed and leaned his head back. He shouldn't have said anything; Cowboy's death had just happened only today, and he still needed time.

Well, he was trapped with her.

"Alright, Fine," he said, his voice hoarse. "What about Cowboy?"

Adeline~

Chase and I were running away from the fire when I remembered Rogue. Oh, God. She was still in the tent. I started to run in the oppistie direction, towards Rusty's tent.
"What are you doing Adeline?" Chase yelled.
"I have to find Rogue!" I yelled back over my shoulder. I couldn't tell if he followed but I hoped he didn't, I didn't want him to get hurt.
I ran into the smoke filled tent and saw Rogue.
"Rogue!" I screamed. She was bleeding everywhere and she'd passed out. I grabbed her underher arms and attempted to pull her out.

Rogue (Robyn)

I awoke at once , I was being draged by Adeline.

"No, Adeline... Leave me." I said.

"What? No."

"Adeline.... Leave me. Leave me." I said.

She started to cry.

"I-I..."

"Go honey, run. Get out."

She didn't.

"Get out!!!"

She flinched.... and ran out of the tent by herself.

I coughed, I couldn't breathe. I felt I was going to die in here.

***I'm not dropping out yet,. ^_^***

Chase

I reached the tent only moments after Adeline, but she was already stumbling out, coughing. It took me a moment to realise it, but it wasn't just from smoke, she was crying as well. What had happened? "Adeline, what's wrong?"

"It's Rogue," she sobbed, "She won't come!"

I frowned. People were starting to act stranger and stranger in the circus of late. Why Rogue seemed to want to die was beyond me, but I couldn't see a good reason, and I wasn't just going to let her die. Especially when it had put Adeline in that state. "The hell she won't, she's not staying in there to die. Come on, give me a hand."

I could see Adeline steeling herself for Rogue's response, and then we went back in to try again. As soon as Rogue saw us, she started yelling at us again, trying to push us away.

Adeline~

The smoke hurt my eyes and Rogue was telling us to get out and leave her.
"No Rogue. We're getting you out!" Chase told her. We both grabbed her, Chase by the arms and I took the legs. It was easier when someone else helped.
We got Rogue out of the smothering smoke and away from the consuming fire. I started to cough and rub my eyes again but I smiled when I saw that Rogue was okay.
"Thank you Chase," I whispered.

Lark

I was trying to help round up others to escape into the woods but when I did a head count I realized I was missing Jewel, Adeline, Chase and Rogue.

"I need help finding Chase, Adeline, Rogue and Jewel, so does anyone volunteer to help?" I asked them all

"I'll help," the new girl Kaiya said.

Kaiya

She left hiding, and started quickly searching tents. Kaiya came to one tent, there was movement.

"Over Here!!" She shouted.