Desmond groaned tonight wasn't his night. Usually everybody is quiet and nothing is going on except usually business. He had heard the fortune teller's request. He didn't care right now what his image was, He pulled out his pipe and light it. Besides, it was only the new girl that was around him. He took a nice healthy breath of it and exhaled it slowly enjoying the apple taste of the smoke. He made sure that he didn't get any in Violet's face. "As you can see, there are petty squabbles between us. I think the term you would use would be drama. I don't keep up with the lingo through out the ages. I've given up. It changes so quickly. Now, I believe it's time to take you to your trailer." He said motioning towards the lot of them. He knew which one was her's she didn't need to say it. He looked at it and sighed, "That's a terrible color. Hideous really. I'll repaint it. I know, I wouldn't want to live in something of that color." Desmond brought her hand up and kissed the knuckles, "Stay out of trouble now, and don't let what you heard bother you. I'll check in on you later." He tipped an invisible hat and disappeared.

He appeared outside of the tent. The was something wrong. He fought through the crowd getting about halfway there realize he could teleport there. He walked into the back, he didn't see a single soul. Not there was one to be had anyway. He ran out onto the stage and saw Alaska lying there. He knelt beside her and turned to Marshall and Sophie, "What happened? Tell me now!" She felt cold, her breathing was normal, but she was cold as Ice. "Go start a hot bath." He wasn't thinking clearly. He would have gone and got it, it would have been quicker, but his mind was on the fact Alaska was lying there.

Victor hopped to the closest puppet, a clown, and found the party, “Desmond we can’t keep this quiet, I would bet this will sober your brother up, and that dangerous we need to find out what happened or he’s gonna start digging up secrets, and at the top of that list is your fling with her, after that is the blood sucker feeding on her. We need a scapegoat let’s use the new girl she has no connections, we tell Lord Alexander that her powers activated and your girlfriend was an unlucky victim, worst case the new girl dies; or do you have a better plan, it’s not like we can say some one in the audience hurt her”.

During the dance, her, Alaska, and Mocha were super sexy. She got really into the dance and felt like it could have lasted all night. The music stopped, the lights dimmed, and she heard the biggest applause ever given. She couldn't believe it until something terrible happened. Alaska collapsed to the floor and the crowd went into a sudden gasp. Desmond came out of stage and she knew that something bad had happened. "I don't know." She said in all seriousness and nervousness. "We did our dance and she collapsed." She looked at Alaska and how pale she was.

Marshall watched her collapse in pure horror, and he ran from the stage before anyone noticed. He couldn't think, he was so freaked out. A random boy came up to him, and Marshall could only act. He took the boy and practically yanked him into a dark place. Passion overflew the fact that he should have been helping Alaska. She would freak if she found out what he was doing right now. The boy's lips were soft against the cold snake bites on his lips. Marshall knew he couldn't have that, so he left the boy and returned to the tent puffy lipped and glassy-eyed. Desmond yelled something about a hot bath, Marsh knew for Alaska, and ran to do it before anyone could know he was missing for those few blissful moments. Even though the boy wouldn't remember him, Marshall needed the relief from overwhelming fear. 

Violet

Violet nodded silently at Desmond before he disappeared. When she walked inside the hideous trailer, she made a mental note about not trusting anyone at this place. The walls inside the trailer had the same ugly colour as outside and there wasn't much space. A big trunk full of clothes was standing underneath the tiny table and without even questioning it; Violet crawled down and pulled it out. She didn't have anything to sleep in and her dress was wet. There were a lot of different colourful dresses and Violet found a pretty white nightgown. She slipped it on and then realized she hadn't closed the door to her trailer yet. Oh god... When she reached out for the door, she noticed that people was running from the tent clinging to their belongings, some of them was still trying to get their clothes back on. All of the performers that hadn't been backstage were also running towards the tent opening. Maybe there had been some kind of accident. Violet felt that it would be wrong not to help, but at the same time she was too scared after all the things Victor had said. She slammed the door and covered the two windows. She wasn't going anywhere.

Alyssa

Alyssa had been watching the whole thing from the side of the stage and at first she hadn't done anything out of shock. Then reality hit her and she jumped up on the stage to the others, still wearing her costume which was almost nothing. She'd never cared about Alaska, in her eyes she was a bitch. But now the bitch was lying almost dead on the floor and Alyssa got worried. Mostly because Alexander would freak out and throw one of his temper tantrums. "I saw it." Alyssa kept a few meters distance from Desmond and crossed her arms; she would never voluntarily go near him. "It almost looked like she was strangled." Alaska had been doing perfectly fine and then suddenly she grabbed her throat and started gasping for air. Almost like someone was strangling her, but Alyssa had seen everything and no one had been on the stage except for the three dancers.

Alistair smirked a creepy down right twisted smirk as he stood at the entrance of the Carnival of Dreams. Things here didn’t seem normal, they were far from reality and he could tell that right off the bat and he liked the thought of that. He walked into the carnival and it seemed as if the whole world had changed, people stared at him as if he belonged to the freak show, no correction as if he was the main attraction at the freak show. He walked through the carnival simply watching as people played games and had a great time, what a perfect playground, he thought mincingly. He walked slowly past the tunnel before stopping in front of it.

“How very odd.” He mumbled with a small smile on his face. “Seems someone is collecting souls.” He laughed darkly at the thought before he continued on his way through the carnival.
Loud music came from one of the tents, he peaked his head in seeing three dancers. He watched the three they were very talented he knew that much, but there was something off about all of them. He had a weird sense, he himself was immortal, he knew when others were as well almost as if he could smell the immortality coming off of them. After watching he made his way into the tent, invisible of course he wouldn’t dare interrupt. The lights went black and it seemed as though there performance was over. He sat on the side of the stage of course no one could see him and he loved that.

The lights on the stage were brought back to a dim purple as another song started with a very young attractive girl, she…was immortal. He had a very dark thought cross his mind followed by a twisted smile. He stood up and slowly made his way up the steps and on to the stage examining her as she danced.

“I could take you away from this, you poor, poor beautiful creature, degrading yourself in such a manor.” He whispered softly, knowing she’d be the only one to hear him causing Alaska to freeze was she going crazy had anyone else heard that, but before she had time to do anything she felt a hand wrap around her neck tightly, closing off her air tubes she struggled but she couldn’t breathe. The moment he was sure she he had almost killed her he let her go letting her live. “Poor souls like you don’t deserve to live forever my dear, you are weak, immortality or not you can still be tortured until you are mad.” He whispered to her kneeling down next to her pushing a strain of her dark hair behind her ear and kneeling down to kissing her forehead “Your soul may belong to this carnival, but your body belongs to me now.” He smirked and stood calmly making his way off the stage and into the crowed blending in almost perfectly.

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Wesley was amused by the girl, but he was still in a one of his moods and that wasn’t going to change. He glanced up when he had heard her say something might be wrong and his heart almost stopped. He took off running towards the tent heading inside, he saw Desmond lead down next to Alaska who almost seem lifeless, as she laid on the stage. She was almost as pale as him, death, he thought to himself. He made his way on the stage.

“What the hell happened?” he looked to Desmond worried “Why is she still laying here, take her to her trailer.” He said slightly freaking out seeing her laying there.

Wyatt didn’t like the feeling he was getting, the feeling in the pit of your stomach when you feel like something bad is going to happen, then he saw his brother take of running. He quickly followed after his brother worried. His eyes widened at the sight of Alaska. He joined everyone else on stage, though not saying anything, keeping quite shooting his brother a look that said he should probably do the same.

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Alaska could hear everything that was going on around her, Desmond was there and she desperately tried to speak, move, anything, but she couldn’t her body was paralyzed. She couldn’t figure out what had happened no one was there, but that voice. That dark, twisted, sick voice replayed in her head, like a broken record. “Your weak.” “you don’t deserve to live forever my dear” “your body belongs to me now” she wanted to scream. All she wanted was to wake up from this nightmare, she wanted everything to be okay, but it wasn’t, something was very, very wrong.

Alevina had chased off after Wesley when he had rushed into the tent, eyes widening the moment that she saw Alaska laid out on the ground. "Oh my God..." She blinked a couple of times, however didn't dash up towards where the crowd of carnies had gathered around her. She just watched from a reasonable distance, knowing too many people gathered around one unconscious girl would be nothing but hassle. She blinked around the tent and then looked to the audience members, wondering what could've caused the sudden disaster, knowing that Marshall and Sophia would never do anything to hurt Alaska... However, this was different. Something wasn't right here. Whilst her eyes drifted across the audience members, she caught sight of Theo dashing and weaving through audience members, going towards the exit. She knew he wouldn't try to leave, he'd been here too long. However, her concentration was focussed on other things.

However, Theodore was a bit more focussed on what he was chasing after. A man who looked like he belonged in a freak show, but had never been claimed by one. A few moments ago, Theodore was wandering around outside the tent when he noticed the slightly bold walk of a man walk in. Sure, the guy looked like a carnie, but his walk was way too confident and cocky to be that of a carnie at this carnival. Theo had picked up on it straight away, and before grabbing a lollipop to help him think, he was right on this guys feet, at a safe distance of course. However, he'd noticed a few things. When looking into the tunnel, instead of being curious, he seemed to know what he was looking at. Most of the carnie's didn't even know how the tunnel of dreams worked, so how did this guy?

Other things were of course picked up on the way, but that brought Theo to where he is now. Chasing after the hat of a demonic man who had seemed to destruct the show and bring about panic around the carnival members. Sure, he had no proof of this guy doing anything, but he was downright sure when he saw the man one moment, blinked and he was gone. Oh no, this was not something he wanted to let go. Something this juicy... With someone so puzzling... Oh, Theo was dying to find out everything. He didn't seemed the slightest bit concerned about Alaska in the slightest...

Desmond turned to Wesley and snapped, "I've already been asking the same questions, and Marshall was going to start a hot bath. Alright, I got it under control." His thoughts were going a mile a minute. He knew that she wasn't going to die, it was impossible. She couldn't die, but the thought of losing her was too great. He risked a caress to her face. She still felt cold as ice. He took off his purple suit jacket and put it around her shoulders. Desmond picked her up and disappeared. He reappeared infront of Alaska's trailer. He walked in and heard the bath water running. He sighed with relief. He walked into the bathroom and saw Marshall, "Get out. I've got it from here." After the boy had left he started stripping her. Desmond was careful not to get too frisky. He lowered her into the bath and sat on the toilet to make sure she was alright.

He reached for his jacket and grabbed his pipe and his box of matches. He leaned back and light up his pipe. "Tonight really isn't my night. All I wanted was a freaking quiet night... Or as quiet as a carnival would allow, but no. God has to slap me in the face and spit on me. Now, this." He took a healthy inhale and let the smoke go slowly as he tasted the apple flavored smoke against his tongue. Every decade he changed flavors or so, this decade was apple, last one was grape. He forgot about the year before. He got up from the toilet and sat down next to the love of his life. He kissed her forehead and watch the door intently, Desmond was waiting for people to crash this party. However the thought that took up the most in his memory was: "Where is my Brother?"

Victor hopped to another body after Desmond transported to his girlfriends , he gave until smelt the pipe, then knocked on the door, "DESMOND open up, we can't ignore this issue, to protect the secrets that Lord Alexander would kill people if he knew about. But I have news I thought I was imagining an invisible man but then Theodore saw him too, we don't have to scapegoat the girl anymore, if we catch this invisible man then Lord Alexander could kill him for hurting her it the answer to our problems, if you feel like helping then come find me". Victor puppet sat down waiting for in answer but another part of his mind was at the Alexanders trailer waiting for him to come out victor was gonna stall him and blame this invisible man nut that's the most the most he could do, and the final part of his mind had inhabited a gorilla puppet he kept on hand for when he needed speed and strength of it, and came right behind Theodore and put his hand on his shoulder and whispered, "ready to capture him"?

Theodore jumped slightly when he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned round quickly, though calmed as he saw it was a puppet. "Victor. Your choice of puppets never seems appropriate for the tone of the topic in hand." He commented dryly, rolling his eyes and still slipping between people as he followed the gap in the crowd that never seemed to be filled. "I don't want to capture him. Only an idiot would want to capture him." He whacked the puppet around the back of his head, still sucking on his lollipop every so often as he thought for a while. What kind of things could this man do? Was it possible that he was like the carnie's in the sense of immortality? Or was he... something else... Perhaps just an illusionist. All the same, his reasoning behind strangling Alaska made him curious about his behaviour. He couldn't help himself... why did he want to do this? Who was he? Oh, he hadn't been this curious about someone since he met Alexander...

Alistair wasn’t stupid he knew full well someone was following him, he didn’t really mind they couldn’t exactly prove anything and he could easily turn this little game of tag on them with ease. She smirked at the thought as she strolled through the carnival not ready to leave you looking for his next victim. Once he touched them it was like poison, he could always find them and he was always watching over them, the ones he liked anyways. His body turning invisible once again as he lends against one of the carnival games watching the fortune teller and puppet master search for him. He crossed his pals together and lifted them about an inch from each other he started to make flicking motions with his fingers and slowly a doll started to appear in his hands as if by some magic, it being identical to the fortune teller.
“Looks like someone wants to play.” He said to the doll that now sat in his hands. “What’s your name?” he ask the doll.
“Theodore Wilkonshire” the doll answered in a hypnotized voice.

“Very good, Say Theodore, want to play a game?” he asked the doll as he nodded his own head, the doll following suite. He slowly pulled a long needle from the sleeve of his jacket. He looked up seeing the fortune teller and the puppet master walking by him he followed behind them as he started in with his newest victim.

“You should learn not to stick your nose into someone else’s business, my dear boy. It’s a shame your such an attractive young fellow, but I’ll have to make you pay.” He whispered, only Theo would be able to hear his taunts. He jab the life like doll in the stomach pulling the long needle all the way out the other side slowly, torturously. Once he finished he tucked the needle back into his sleeve and dropped the doll once the doll hit the floor it was nothing more than a poorly made doll and was useless. “Consider this a warning.” He whispered before walking away, this time staying invisible as he left the carnival.

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As Alaska’s body temperature started to rise, she didn’t feel so trapped in her mind any more. Her eyes slowly opened as if she had been heavily medicated. Her eyes heavy and her vision was bleary, her head felt too heavy to lift, she slowly turned to the side seeing Desmond sitting next to her as he stared at the door.

“You shouldn’t be her my love.” She whispered “It’s too dangerous.” She frowned gently still out of it.
She slowly moved her hand up the length of her bare body until she reached her neck, that was extremely sore to the touch and was lightly bruised. She wasn’t at all bother by the fat that Desmond had stripped her, for one they had been having an affair for years now, secondly he job was to flaunt her body.

“Desmond you should go before your brother gets here.” She said softly staring to feel better, but her mind clearing more. She grabbed her purple rob as she slowly and carefully got out of the bath tub wrapping it around herself and tying. She knelt down next to Desmond placing her lips to his kissing him passionately, before pulling away hearing a knock at the door.

“Shit.” She whispered breathlessly, having not kissed him like that in some time, it got harder for them to sneak around with time. She tried to read the thoughts of the person who knocked at her trailer door but they were unreadable and only one person knew how to do that. She swallowed “Alexander.” She whispered terror was evident in her voice.

Theodore had continued walking through the crowd of people, keeping on track and thinking things over as he followed. However, after a few more moments, the hat of the mysterious man seemed to vanish from sight, either getting away too quickly or simply vanishing. "Oh Bloody hell..." Theo stopped in his tracks, looking around through the crowd but then pulling out of it and sighing. "He got away." He said back to Victor, or the puppet. He had another lick of his rainbow lollipop that was usually used for merch and then sighed gently. He thought they should walk back to the others, inform them what he and Victor seemed to pick up, even if they did have different intentions towards this other fellow. He turned to Victor, but then he simply froze as he heard words enter his ears. “You should learn not to stick your nose into someone else’s business, my dear boy. It’s a shame your such an attractive young fellow, but I’ll have to make you pay.” He flicked irately at his ear, the dark whispers that echoed around it. "Did you hear that?" He asked Victor pointlessly, but wasn't really thinking about it. Instead of getting fearful, he was just curious. He gathered it was this man that had attacked Alaska, but it made him curious as to how he was doing thi-

During mid-thought, a horrendous amount of pain entered his gut and his eyes widened. Theo yelled out and then stumbled slightly, not really caring what a spectacle he could make of himself. But he was trying to keep the noise down, no matter how much pain was surging through hi- "Oh f*ck." He grunted, falling to his knees and crouching over himself, feeling a damp patch on the front of his shirt. He grunted and then fell down onto his side, breathing heavily and reaching his hand up his shirt, holding the point where a hole had been pierced right through his body. He flinched and stared at the carnival tents, not really meaning to, but a little lost in the whirlpool of questions circling his mind. And then bringing him back to reality, he heard, “Consider this a warning.” He blinked repeatedly and then rested his head on the ground. He seemed to think for a moment, chest raising and falling in heavy breathing, before a smile seemed to grow on his face. "Oh he is a marvellous puzzle..." He said to himself with a little chuckle.

Victor was walking next to Theodore, when Theodore stopped and said "Oh he is a marvelous puzzle..." and was bleeding right through his shirt. Victor looked down and threw Theodore on his back on his back and headed to where Lord Alexander, Desmond, and the Nicer girl was. In his body by the trailer where he had left Desmond, he looked at Alexander and said "she immortal shes not gonna die, we have bigger problem he struck again he stabbed Theodore, and ran away. i think he like us but maybe for another ..... ringmaster. he turns invisible and if i didn't know all the freaks looks I'd of said he was one of them. my other body is bringing Theodore here Desmond can look at both there wounds, here but if we have any chance of catching this guy before he ruins your show we need to go now".

Desmond couldn't think straight. He turned towards his love and whispered, "I'm leaving. I had to make sure your alright. I'm sure he would think me concerned about your health, you are after all the Head of the Dancers. I love you Amelia." He kissed her forehead before facing the music. He opened the door as it was knocking again. "Hello dear brother. I was just making sure Alaska was alright. It would be terrible for the 'profits' if she was hurt. We wouldn't want our main attraction to get a roughed up now would we?" He shot a look to Victor to shut up, he could handle his brother. He had been for the past 2000 years or so. "Now, I've already asked Sophie and Marshall about what had happened, but they said she was fine one minute, one the ground the next. Trust me Alex, we will get to the bottom of this." He broke the sacred rule yet again. He wasn't afraid of the man. The worst he could do is kill him, and that would be a relief. Though he could kill Amelia, that would be worse.

He pulled out his pipe and light it again. He leaned up against Alaska's trailer while he waited for the damn fortune teller. He hated playing doctor, but he had picked it up over the years, his brother couldn't be trusted with this sort of thing. It took a delicate hand to repair somebody. He wasn't as good as somebody who was trained in it, but he had picked up the general gist of it. He let the smoke exit his lungs in a slow fashion. To somebody who didn't know him, it looked like he was solving a puzzle. To his friends, it looked like he was in great stress. He hardly ever smoked. This was his third pipe tonight.

Theodore's head laid limply against the puppet's shoulder for a while, looking rather pale as the pin hole stab went right through his body. His eyes were still open, though shut to about half way. It was almost like he was sleeping with his eyes slightly open, but in reality, he was on the verge of passing out. He was in a small state of just thinking to himself, his own memories playing in his head of what just happened to him and repeated over and over. Every time he re-watched his memory, he would take in a new detail. He closed his eyes and then replayed to himself the words he had heard... 'You should learn not to stick your nose into someone else’s business, my dear boy. It’s a shame your such an attractive young fellow, but I’ll have to make you pay.' Well... that seemed like a defensive motif, typically calling him attractive to seem like the weird stalker type. But he still wasn't sure why he had left-

His eyes suddenly opened and he stared at no point in particular. 'Consider this a warning'. His face lit up into a smile and he suddenly sprung upright. "Father of hell! How could I have been so stupid..." He bashed his head on the puppet's back. "He's only just found us, he was just having a play around today, see what would happen. He'll be back though. God, he wouldn't just leave after one visit and causing so much damage. If anything, it's to make his presence known, to get the fear element from people, much like Alexander does. It's just a warning. He's warning us that he'll be back, and next time, he's going to try and do something worse. My God, this is bloody well one of the most entertaining things I've heard in years!" Theo's grin lit up his face. "When he comes back, he'll do something else, and when he does, it'll be more grand and much more catastrophic than we'd ever believe!" He had a little gleeful laugh, finding the whole scandal rather exciting and intriguing, before he suddenly felt a shiver run through him. His head dropped and he groaned as a headache washed over him and he suddenly felt the pang back in his gut. It was as if his miniature thought wave had brought his body functions working at a faster pace. But as soon as it was over, reality would strike back at him again. Theo ran a hand through his hair and looked up to the monkey. "You realise that this feels rather degrading... being carried off by a gorilla puppet and spilling out thought processing to it." He murmured, flopping a little again and sucking in a breath.

“Theodore it might be degrading for you, but you have just gained my respect, which is a hard thing to do, the only other with my respect is Desmond, but he’s been losing it, he may be four times my age but he think he knows best, he the only one other than Lord Alexander that can control this Carnival, and with one mad and the other doing nothing about this, it fell to us. Because of this wound we’re brother in arms now, but I have been thinking he was new too, and the warning you’re talking about I didn’t hear anything but if he gonna come back we gotta be ready for him. Do you seriously believe this guy is as powerful as Lord Alexander? If it’s true then we stand no chance against him, we have to get one of the brothers to help hunt him down.” Victor stopped a little away and out of sight of where Desmond was, “I have one last question you have mind powers, did you get any hint from his mind to tell us more about him, and how did you not hear his thoughts before he stabbed you?”

Theodore let his head drop against the puppets back and bit his lip. "To be fair, this only happen literally a few minutes ago Victor. We don't know if Alexander or Desmond is going to do anything yet..." He grunted, closing his eyes gently. "However, I do want to find out more about this man, before you get one of the brothers to hunt him down. I believe that he's one puzzle that I won't see again for a very long time..." Theo bit his lip as he closed his eyes and thought about Victor's last question. It wouldn't normally take him that long to answer such a basic question to him. However, right now, he was on the verge of falling asleep. And it's oh so difficult to remember your name when you're sleepy. "I don't read minds... I control memories... bringing them forward, taking them away... turning them into... balloon animals..." Theo closed his eyes fully and dropped his head onto the puppet, drifting off into his own mind, which evidently usually meant having the memories he forgot about replaying in his head.