Delilah’s story-The adventures of Poppy McLain

*This story is underneath my folder titled “Adventures of Poppy McLain and others”. Gacha Club character designs are under my forum titled “My character designs<33[2]”. Enjoy!*

Tuesday, Oct 25th, 1955.

It was little Delilah Cravens' birthday! She was turning four years old, which meant that she was becoming a big girl!

To celebrate her birthday, her parents decided to invite all of the kids in her neighborhood over. Delilah didn’t really have any friends, but her parents hoped that she’d be able to make some friends at her birthday party.

Delilah wholeheartedly believed that she’d make some new friends at her party, because movies and books had taught her that there would always be friends waiting for her no matter what and so, with this in mind, she couldn’t wait to play Hide and Seek with everyone, as that was her favorite game in the whole wide world!

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After hours upon hours upon hours of waiting, most of the people who were invited had arrived! It wasn’t everyone, but it was still something! A lot of people didn’t want to come because Delilah was very, very, very pale and wore black and gray clothes. She looked very much like a ghost to others and her long black hair wasn’t helping.

A lot of the people in town thought that she looked scary and either avoided her or picked on her. In fact, Delilah was certain that how she looked was the reason there were people who didn’t come, but did she let that dampen her joy?

No! If there were people who thought that she was “too scary” to play with, then that was their fault! She was going to have as much fun as she could, starting with a game of Hide and Seek.

So once everyone had seemed to settle in and Mom gave the okay, Delilah jumped on the couch and announced:

"HIDE AND SEEK TIME! EVERYONE, OUTSIDE!"

The kids all scrambled outside, Delilah taking that as a sign that they were all excited to play her game.

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Delilah’s house wasn’t too far from the rest of the houses, but it wasn’t quite close, either. If one drove past about twenty of the houses that spilled off into the dead end of the neighborhood, they’d find her house, with a wide expanse of land, her backyard being the local woods. Her house looked more like it belonged in a farm than in a suburban neighborhood, with its cracking yellow paint and windows that were covered with white lace curtains. It looked haunted and only added onto the whole “Delilah is more than a tad strange” story.

But Delilah didn’t mind at all! Her house was just her house and a pretty one at that! The woods being her backyard was perfect to play Hide and Seek, because there were so many spots for everyone to hide, so many spots for Delilah to search!

Only, Delilah was looking for the others for a long, long time and she could find nobody. Nobody behind the rocks or behind the trees. She was rather puzzled at first and then, she got scared, because where did everyone go? Were they okay? Did something happen to them? Did-

She could see three girls walking away, who looked to be about eight or nine years old, she couldn’t quite tell.

“Hey! Where are you going? You’re supposed to be hiding!” Delilah called out as she ran towards them, trying to help them out.

One of the girls turned around and said:

“We’re going home, just like everyone else! We don’t want to stay at your creepy house anymore!”

Home?! Home?! They couldn’t just go home, it was her birthday party! Her party wasn’t done yet! They still had to eat cake and get their goodie bags! There was still so much to do, they couldn’t just leave because they thought her house was “creepy”. Her house wasn’t even spooky in Delilah’s opinion, just a bit older looking.

So, Delilah kept running after the girls, trying to get them to stop, to actually hide while they were still playing, but they kept walking on until Delilah couldn’t see them anymore.

She saw a few other kids walking away and tried getting them to stop, but they didn’t listen, saying something similar to what one of the girls said to her before.

Delilah kept on trying to get the kids to stop, but none of them did. They all just walked on until they were gone. None of the kids were her age, either. They were all a little bit older than her and the younger kids that were invited were the ones that didn’t come. The other kids appeared to know just what path to take to go home, but Delilah…

Delilah had never been that far in the woods before. Her legs were getting tired, her eyes were starting to glisten with tears, all that running had made her breathe so hard and then-

She fell to the ground, landing on her back, feeling hurt on the inside and wiped out from the constant chasing.

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Delilah woke up to the sound of jaunty, jolly calliope music, circus tents surrounding her, an unpleasant greasy smell, and a weirdly nice bitter scent. It was the afternoon earlier, but the insanely bright sunlight made it look morning. Could it be the next day already?

Once her eyes had fully adjusted to her surroundings, she noticed an old man with completely white hair, dressed in a red and black ringmaster outfit, staring down at her with glittering brown eyes.

“Well, you’re finally up! That’s just perfect, because I need you to be my next act!” The old man beamed as though it were the most wonderful thing in the entire world.

Delilah shot up from the dirt ground, a bolt of panic simmering inside of her as she took in the fact that she was far away from home and had no idea on how she’d be able to get back.

“Where am I? Who are you? And can I go home?” Delilah asked, the circus tents starting to seem like they expanded off into infinity the more she looked at them.

“Why, you’re in my circus! I was just strolling out in the woods when I found you sleeping on the ground! Sleeping on the ground? That’s not what a kid like you should be doing! A kid like you should be going to the circus, perhaps even performing in a circus! That’s why I’ve taken you here and used my magic to make you a vampire and-“

“What?! I’m a…a vampire?!”

“All of the people that perform in my circus are monsters, so I just had to turn you into a monster! I’ve made you a vampire because who doesn’t love a child vampire? They’re cute and creepy, simply one of the most lovely monsters out there! That bitter scent you smell? That’s blood! You can smell blood now! Isn’t that pretty darn amazing?” The man asked, still smiling.

But Delilah could feel a sob working its way out of her throat as well as she could feel the awful fangs in her mouth and so she cried out:

“That’s not amazing, that’s scary! I don’t want to be a vampire and perform at the circus! I want to go home! Turn me back into a regular person and take me home! Now!”

How could he just take her away and make her a monster? Why would he do that? Was he just mean and horrible? Did Mom and Dad even know that she was gone? Were they looking for her? Could she just run away and go home? But she didn’t know how far the circus was from home! She never even heard of a circus in town until a few minutes before!

“Oh, I can’t do that. Once you’re a vampire, you stay a vampire. Don’t worry, you are going to stay the age that you are now until you are found and once you’re found, you will age until your twenties. You’ll be paler than you were before  and have yellow eyes. You’ll also want to drink blood, obviously, but sunlight isn’t going to hurt you! Now, don’t cry. There’s nothing to cry about. Not all vampires are bad. With you as a vampire, you’ll be more special than most of the kids in the world! What’s more is that how you age is different from other vampires, making you all the more better than others! You-“

“Can’t I just go home?” Delilah asked weakly, her voice cracking a bit from the tears that spilled out of her eyes. If she was going to be a vampire forever, then she wanted to go home to her parents and pretend that she was still a human, just so she could feel okay again, so she could feel safe again, like how she was before her birthday party happened.

The old man’s smile disappeared from his face, the frown in place of it making his wrinkles look twisted, malformed on his pale skin and he said:

“You’ll go home when your parents find you. It’s like Hide and Seek. It’s all just a fun game. You’re not going to stay here forever. Just for a little bit. My circus isn’t too far from your house, so they should be able to find you. I only want more kids to appreciate monsters and the circus, let them know that there is nothing to fear. We’ve been out for a while now, so let’s go and meet some of the other performers who are here, yeah? My name is Hunter and you are?”

Though Delilah wanted to run away and go home, she didn’t want to get lost in the woods again. There were too many circus tents for Delilah to be able to find a proper exit anyway, soo…

“I’m Delilah. You promise that my parents will find me?”

“I promise. Come on now, give this circus a chance.” Hunter said, extending a gloved hand out for Delilah to take.

Delilah studied it, thinking over what being in the circus would be like. Maybe she’d make some friends there. She never had any friends before. She might get to watch some performances too! She still had to drink blood, which was terrifying, but maybe she could find a way to make it less so.

Maybe it wasn’t even real. Maybe it was all a bad dream and she’d wake up in her bed on her birthday, as a human, no Hunter or circuses or vampires.

So, Delilah took his hand, kind of curious to see what would be waiting for her at the circus, a little upset that she couldn’t eat the fried food, because even though it smelled bad, the food in the few snack carts looked good, and above all, she hoped that her parents would find her and she’d be able to go home.

Just like her parents always said, she had to find the good in the bad. She wouldn’t be trapped in the circus forever, her parents would find her.

After all, they were adults and knew the neighborhood better than her. They’d be able to find Hunter’s circus, right?

It’d be absolutely ridiculous to think otherwise!