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"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Cirque Du Freak, hos"

I had no eyelids, so I couldn’t blink, but beneath s of a large theatre, staring out at a stage and the unure of the dead Hibernius Tall Except he wasn’t dead He was veryone of the fabled Cirque Du Freak perfor and bizarre, acts you can find nowhere else in the world Those who are easily scared should leave now I’m sure there are people who"

Two beautiful woging at their glittering costunized the women ¨C Davina and Shirley They’d been part of the Cirque Du Freak when I first joined, but had left after a few years to get jobs in the ordinary world The life of a travelling performer wasn’t for everyone

" is unique And none are harmless," Mr Tall finished, then walked off Davina and Shirley&ue, which stood uncovered in the e As they left, a Little Person took his place by my side His face was hidden beneath the hood of his blue robes, but his head turned in my direction There was a moment’s pause, then he reached up and pulled my hood further over my face, so that my features were hidden too

Mr Tall appeared by our side with the speed and silence for which he was once renowned Without a word he handed each of us a needle and lots of orange string The other Little Person stuck the needle and string inside his robes, so I did the sa to appear out of place

Davina and Shirley had released the Wolf Man froh the audience with hi people stroke the hairy man-beast I studied the theatre more closely while they paraded the Wolf Man around This was the old abandoned cinema theatre in my home tohere Steve had murdered Shancus, and where ¨C many years earlier ¨C I had first crossed paths with Mr Crepsley

I ondering why I’d been sent back here &uood hunch ¨C when there was a loud explosion The Wolf Man ild, as he often did at the start of an act ¨C what looked like aupon a screa woman, he bit one of her hands off In a flash, Mr Tall had left our side and reappeared next to the Wolf Man He pulled hi woe, while Davina and Shirley did their best to cal woman, picked up her severed hand and whistled loudly That was the signal for my fellow Little Person and me to advance We ran over to Mr Tall, careful not to reveal our faces Mr Tall sat the woman up and whispered to her When she was quiet he sprinkled a sparkly pink powder on to her bleeding wrist and stuck the hand against it He nodded toand started to stitch the hand back on to the wrist

I felt light-headed while I stitched This was the greatest sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu I’d ever experienced! I kneas co next, every second of it I’d been sent back into ettably into my memory All the tie the course of my future And now, in the most unexpected of circu and returned backstage I wanted to stand in the shadows again and watch the show ¨C if I remembered correctly, Alexander Ribs would come on next, followed by Rha none of it He nudgedJekkus Flang aiting In later years Jekkus would become an accomplished knife-thrower, and even take part in the shows But in this tie of preparing the interval gift trays

Jekkus handed each of us a tray packed with ites of the Wolf Man’s hair, and chocolate nuts and bolts He also gave us price tags for each item He didn’t speak to us ¨C this was back in the tiht Little People were mute, e, Jekkus sent us out into the audience to sell the gifts Wepeople study our wares and buy if they wished My fellow Little Person took charge of the rear areas of the theatre, leaving me to handle the front rows And so, a few minutes later, as I’d co boys, the only children in the entire theatre One was a wild child, the sort of kid who stole money fro a varew up The other was a quiet, but in his oay equally mischievous boy, the kind ouldn’t think twice about stealing a valass statue?" the i to a statue onto keep"I can’t read," Steve said "Will you tell me how much it costs?"

I noted the look of surprise on Darren’s &uuessed straightaway that there was soe about the Little People, but I hadn’t been so sharp The young

I shookSteve to explain to er self why he’d pretended he couldn’t read If I’d been feeling light-headed earlier, I felt positively e to look into the eyes of a youthful you, to see yourself as you once were, young, foolish, gullible I don’t think anyone ever remembers what they were really like as kids Adults think they do, but they don’t Photos and videos don’t capture the real you, or bring back to life the person you used to be You have to return to the past to do that

We finished selling our wares and headed backstage to collect fresh trays full of new items, based on the next set of perfor like a phantoht, Mr Crepsley and his perfor tarantula, Madam Octa

I couldn’tI crept forward and watched fros My heart leapt into e, startling in his red cloak with his white skin, orange crop of hair and tradeain, I wanted to rush out and throw my arms around him, tell him how much I missed him and how much he’d meant to me I wanted to say that I loved him, that he’d been a second father to me I wanted to joke with him about his stiff manner, his stunted sense of humour, his overly precious pride I wanted to tell hi taken in by the pretence and dying for no reason I was sure he’d see the funny side of it once he stopped stea!

But there could be no coue, Mr Crepsley wouldn’t have knoho I was On this night he hadn’t yet met the boy named Darren Shan I was nobody to him

So I stood where I was and watched One final turn from at the vampire who’d altered my life in so many ways One last perforh her paces and thrilled the crowd I shivered when he first spoke &u on his every word The h for e

A Little Person led a goat on stage for Madam Octa to kill It wasn’t the Little Person who’d been with me in the audience ¨C there were oat, then performed a series of tricks with Mr Crepsley, crawled over his body and face, pulsed in and out of his mouth, played with tiny cups and saucers In the crowd, the young Darren Shan was falling in love with the spider &us, the older Darren regarded her sadly I used to hate Madaht-legged beast &uer None of it was her fault It was destiny All along, fro, it had been Des Tiny

Mr Crepsley concluded his act and left the stage He had to passto communicate with hirabbed hie, warned hiet out now

He passed