As Marcozia lifted his stake into the air to strike the killing blow, Denika tried to fire another magical blast at the vampire, but it deflected it back as easily as it had done before, though at least this time Denika was able to evade the return blast too.
Denika continued to fire different kinds of spells at the vampire, but none were effective against Marcozia. The vampire didn't just block them with his own knowledge of magics, but through fusing energy of the Book of Khastran to him temporarily. (He had also adjusted the book somewhat, allowing it to create more vampire breeds per month, though doing so would have other complications.)
"Pathetic. You call yourself a Witch?" The vampire sneered at her. "You'd be the type to get burned at the stake because you were too stupid to realise you could just fly away on a broom!"
Whilst the vampire was taunting her however, the Circus Master pulled at the rug that Marcozia was standing on, knocking the vampire flat on his face.
Using the strongest magics she could conjur, Denika engulfed the vampire in an energy beam. It would be strong enough to vaporise a human in a matter of seconds, but Marcozia's vampiric constitution allowed him to survive longer. He fought hard against the beam, but its power was too strong and he collapsed to the floor, apparently beaten. The vampire let out a scream to alert his minions.
Four different breeds of vampire came crashing through the doors. A female vampire with red hair, and green slimy tentacles emerging from various parts of her body. A small vampire with green skin, horns on its head, four eyes, and six arms. A vampire with blue skin, black eyes like a shark, yellow fangs, and long arms that ended with three clawed fingers. Finally the last vampire was a large, skinny, deathly pale, blonde creature with spindly arms and completely red eyes. Its mouth was twisted into a hideous grin.
The tentacled vampire was actually Kelly the worker from Ferguson's old Mill who had now completed her transformation.
Kelly shot one of her tentacles at Denika, who was forced to place a magical shield around herself for protection. Unfortunately as a result she had to abandon her spell around Marcozia. Marcozia's flesh was badly burned from her spell and in rage he jumped at Denika tearing through her magical barrier with his strength and sending her crashing to the ground below. The Circus Master ran to help her, but as he did, Kelly reached out and wrapped her tentacle around his leg, pulling the vandal towards the other three vampires, who started to scratch, punch and kick the Circus Master furiously.
Marcozia slowly tried to choke the life out of Denika. He wanted to savor her death after what she had put him through. It had been a long time since anyone, apart from his maker, had been able to hurt him.
With her last ounce of strength Denika managed to summon up a small blast using magic that threw Marcozia across the room.
Marcozia however instantly jumped back up and ran at Denika. Too weak to summon up powerful magics, and knowing that Marcozia would most likely dodge her attacks, Denika fired a magical blast into the ceiling causing rubble to fall onto the vampire.
Getting her strength back, Denika then flew into the air and fired another blast at the ceiling above the vampire, burying him under a mass of rubble, after which she then flew towards the vampires attacking the Circus Master. She fired an energy blast at the blue clawed vampire, which clearly was not as strong as Marcozia and it was vaporized relatively quickly.
The other monsters then turned their attention to the witch and started attacking her, though Denika was able to evade their attacks, and whilst they were distracted, the Circus Master headed for his hat containing the weapons.
Kelly was soon able to get a lucky hit at Denika however and smacked her to the upper balcony, before scaling the side of the building with her tentacles in pursuit.
The Circus Master pulled a copper knife from his hat and plunged it into the blonde vampire's heart from behind. (He had encountered this breed in the future and knew their weaknesses.)
The smaller green vampire shoved its hand through the vandal's stomach, but the Circus Master finished him by putting his hat over the green vampire’s head and pulling it down. The hat's magical security system fired various anti vampire and demon repellents into the monster’s head causing the green vampire to slump to the floor in agony. Of all the weapons that had been fired into the monster’s head, the Circus Master could see that the iron knife had hurt him the most, and so he pulled it out and shoved it straight through the beast’s heart.
Kelly meanwhile had managed to ensnare Denika. Clinging to the roof by two of her tentacles, she wrapped one tentacle around Denika's waist, one around her neck and four around her arms and legs. The only reason Denika was still alive was because the monster couldn't decide whether it wanted to crush the life out of her, or tear her into five pieces.
Before it could make the grisly decision, the Circus Master jumped up to the ceiling to attack the vampire, but Kelly effortlessly batted him away with another tentacle.
Whilst the Circus Master was on the floor, Kelly reached one tentacle down and wrapped it around his legs and started to bash vandal against the roof and walls of the Church. The Circus Master however held onto his hat and threw two knives into the long arms the monster used to hold onto the roof, severing them.
Kelly fell to the ground, dropping Denika who then flew out of reach. The Circus Master threw several more knives into Kelly from his hat, distracting her long enough for Denika to catch Kelly in an energy blast, similar to the one she had used on Marcozia. Whilst caught in the blast, the vampire reached one tentacle out and wrapped it around Denika's throat. The Circus Master however jumped across, and again severed the tentacle, this time using his own claws! Within a matter of seconds Kelly was vaporised into nothing.
The two had not known Kelly in life, but they had ultimately done her a bigger favour than anyone who had. They had spared her from an eternity as that monster and put her down before she got a chance to harm her loved ones.
"Quick get them out of here now" the Circus Master said about Marcozia's prisoners who had remained too terrified to do anything during the ordeal. The Circus Master went for the book of the vampires meanwhile which he placed into his hat.
Denika wrapped an energy bubble around herself and the three people Marcozia had held prisoner who she then flew out of the church, with the Circus Master following her.
Marcozia meanwhile pulled himself out of the rubble, roaring and hissing. He ran towards the doors of the church, only to see Denika conjuring up a massive energy blast in front. In panic he ran back through the church. Denika's blast however brought the entire church down, though Marcozia was still able to escape just in time by jumping out the back window. The blast still scorched the vampire and threw him several feet through the air.
"Cursed Witch!" he screamed in pain and anger.
Meanwhile, still lost in the factory, Ashlei who had managed to evade her demonic brother again, thought she could hear the Strange Boy clawing at the two giant front doors for a few minutes before it stopped.
"Strange Boy." Strange Boy" She screamed, only to be met with her monstrous brother's cackle. "Why are you hiding?" Ashlei shouted whilst holding her crowbar up. "Then your pain would be over" Brian taunted in response.
Ashlei backed into a wall. She could barely see anything in the pitch black, but she could at least make sure that he couldn't jump her from behind this way.
"You fucking coward. Fight me!" she screamed in panic, only to be greeted by the sound of her Demonic brother laughing again." He soon emerged from the darkness, most of his burn wounds having healed.
"Don't feel bad sis. I'm going to make your death a lot more memorable than Tom's"
Suddenly as Brian prepared to strike, he was jumped from behind by the Strange Boy. The Jiang Shi hadn't managed to break his way into the door, but he had been able to pinpoint Ashlei by scent and had managed to make his way in through a window above.
In a one on one fight Brian had no chance, even against the child Jiang Shi, one of the strongest breeds. In just a few moments, the Strange Boy was able to break Brian's legs and pin his body to the ground.
The Strange Boy pulled out a copper knife and prepared to strike it into the vampire’s heart.
"STOP!" Ashlei shouted to both vampire’s surprise.
"Let me do it" she said.
After a few seconds of hesitation where The Strange Boy almost seemed to growl in anger,the Jiang Shi handed Ashlei the copper knife. The Strange Boy's behavior was always hard to predict, but he seemed to understand on some small level why Ashlei felt she should do this herself.
Ashlei still hesitated for a few minutes. The Strange Boy didn't react one way or the other. He just stood there as always with no expression.
"Please Ashlei. Don't fail me again like you always did." Brian whimpered. Even when begging for its life a vampire couldn't help but be cruel.
After waiting for a few minutes Ashlei finally plunged the knife straight through the vampire’s heart. Just before Brian crumbled into nothing, Ashlei said. "I'm doing this for Brian. The real Brian."
After killing the twisted demonic caricature of her brother Ashlei simply sat in silence. The danger was over, for her now anyway, but she started to wonder why she had even fought so hard for life. Where could she possibly go from here? The Strange Boy as always didn't speak or acknowledge anything had happened, but he still didn't leave her side.
Carlene, Florence and Keptis meanwhile had managed to make their way to what looked like an old prison where the vampires kept most of the humans for food, or to be turned into new Alpha's. (Though they also kept people in cages underneath other old buildings when the prison was full.)
The three had evaded the horde of pursuing vampires by jumping from the tops of buildings (with Carlene carrying Keptis.) and jumping down a back alley before sneaking in through a nearby house, after which they then slipped out through a window at the other end.
The vampires were running through the streets tearing up buildings to try and find their enemies, whilst the three time travellers, keeping out of sight, crept in through a back window of the prison.
Inside there were very few people. Most had either been turned into monsters or dragged off to be tortured and killed by the vampires. The prison was dark and dank and limbs and entrails were scattered around the place.
Whilst Carlene and Keptis searched the nearby area for any vampires, Florence approached the first prisoner they could see, a young man cowering in a nearby cell, covered in blood.
Suddenly the ground beneath Florence's feet began to shake and she was knocked over as something big began to emerge out of the floor.
It was a giant snail's shell. Carlene shouted at Florence to get out of there. She knew this breed of vampire from her time only too well.
Before Florence could even get up however, the upper body of a hideous, green, slimy bald, fanged man came out of the shell and grabbed Florence. The monster didn't even speak. It was completely animalistic.
Carlene tried to attack the Snail vampire, but it smacked her across the room and through the doors of a nearby cell.
Keptis tried to attack the vampire next with his flaming saw, but the monster deflected the saw onto its shell which it bounced off of!
Florence however reached for one of the poles from the cell door that Carlene had been thrown through and stabbed it into the vampire’s eye. Whilst the vampire screamed, Keptis sawed its hand off with his saw. Carlene then jumped on the vampire’s upper body and held it down, allowing Keptis to saw the monster’s head clean off.
"Snail Vampires were always my least favourite. When they get you inside that shell, let’s just say yeah it’s not pleasant." Carlene said with revulsion as she wiped the stinging slime from its back off her hands.
The two vampires and the Martian next freed all of the captives with Keptis easily slicing his way through the metal bars.
When they reached the bottom floor however, dozens of vampires came bursting in through the walls from different corners. The three time travellers were completely surrounded, but they made sure to put the prisoners in the middle. Fortunately help soon arrived in the form of Denika, who came crashing through from above in a magical bubble along with the Circus Master and Marcozia's prisoners.
The witch expanded the bubble to be large enough to scoop up the other three time travellers and the rest of the prisoners after which she then flew back through the sky.
Several winged vampires started to attack the bubble, though most of them simply bounced off of it. Still each time they struck the bubble, Denika was clearly hurt.
One particularly bold vampire managed to jump its way through the bubble just like Marcozia had done, but Keptis disposed of it with his flaming saw.
"There are other prisoners, we need to find them," Carlene said.
The Circus Folk would trace the very few remaining prisoners there were, using Carlene, Florence and the Circus Masters' advanced sense of smell. They'd break into each run down building, either dispose of, or keep the vampire guards distracted whilst Denika would take the prisoners and the Circus Folk themselves to safety. Unfortunately the stress of carrying so many people soon began to weigh heavily on Denika. She almost couldn't bear it.
"Down there" Carlene shouted, pointing at what looked like a small park. "The last of them is in there."
In the centre of the park were a few people hanging upside down from trees, all women, and they all looked as though they had been beaten and scratched.
Denika lowered them to an area just outside the trees. She was forced to temporarily release the bubble when she landed, she was so exhausted. It was a struggle just to stay awake.
Eight vampires instantly came jumping down from the trees as the Circus Folk approached the hostages. They were of the same breed as each other and looked relatively human, albeit with reddish skin. They were incredibly fast and agile. Carlene, Keptis, the Circus Master and Florence all battled the vampires whilst Denika recuperated and prepared for her next trip. Physically the vampires were very weak, and quite easy for the experienced hunters to overpower in a straight fight, but their speed made them a pain.
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Whilst the Circus folk were distracted however, the horde caught up with the time travellers and started to attack their prisoners. One of the winged vampires grabbed a prisoner, a young girl, and threw her to the rest of the mob of bloodthirsty monsters who then tore her apart.
Denika was too weak to even fight back. Seeing what was happening, Carlene picked up the Circus Masters hat and jumped in front of Denika and the prisoners who all huddled together. She started to throw various knives at the vampires. As there were so many different breeds, some vampires were not affected, though she did manage to slay over a dozen or so of the monsters. There were far too many of them however and they soon cornered Carlene and the prisoners up against a few trees.
Denika managed to muster up her strength just in time and send a wave to blast the vampires back, before placing the bubble around herself, her teammates and the old and new prisoners, who Keptis, Florence and the Circus Master had managed to bring down from the trees.
"We, we have to get out of here." Denika said weakly as they hovered to the sky. "I can't hold on much longer. We've scoured the entire village, Carlene said she can't smell any more survivors."
"Yes." Said the Circus Master. "If only we'd arrived earlier. We'll need to fly round the village one more time however." He continued.
"Why!" Denika said barely able to speak, she was in so much pain from the struggle.
"We need to burn it down that's why." The Circus Master replied as he reached into his hat for several of Denika's flame bottles. There were eight in total which he threw all over the village. The flames soon spread around the entire area. Among the vampires Carlene caught sight of in the panic was the young urchin boy. Even now she wanted to help him, but thankfully she knew better than to fall for that again.
In a matter of minutes the entire village went up in flames and Denika only just made it out before finally fainting in mid flight. She and all of the others she was carrying fell from about 20 feet onto the ground below.
One of the prisoners even broke their leg in the fall, but Florence still managed to catch Denika before she hit the ground, though she couldn't rouse her.
"Denika, Denika please say something" Florence screamed. She had been pushed too far, not just in carrying the prisoners, but also in levelling the building.
The sound of the vampires screaming in the flames was deafening, but not all of the bloodsuckers were consumed in the fire.
Four large orange vampires came marching out of the fire with one of them carrying Marcozia and another the urchin boy above the flames.
Marcozia instantly jumped at the Circus Master, whilst the vampires went for the others. Carlene tried to punch one of the monsters but it simply grabbed her arm which it then broke before throwing her back towards the flames, though Florence caught her in time.
Keptis' flaming saw was no use. It simply bounced off of the vampires and when he tried to fight them in hand to hand combat they easily dominated the Martian.
Marcozia meanwhile after overpowering the Circus Master had stolen the Vandals hat from him. Whenever the Circus Master tried to get it back, Marcoza would easily dodge his attacks and strike him to the floor.
"Without this box of tricks you're nothing! Tell you what, get on your knees and beg and I'll give them back and you can try and save your friends." Marcozia taunted.
The Circus Master looked around at Florence and Carlene being hopelessly overpowered by just one of the orange vampires, whilst the other three toyed with Keptis.
"Well do we have a deal?" The Circus Master said as he got down on his knees much to Marcozia's delight.
"I honestly thought you'd have more dignity than that, then again you are a vandal."
"Let me debase myself further" The Circus Master said enthusiastically as he reached his claws into his stomach and ripped it open. Marcozia couldn't stop laughing, but the Circus Master quickly threw his guts into the vampire’s eyes. Whilst Marcozia was blinded for just a few seconds, the Circus Master attacked the vampire and slashed him repeatedly, tearing Marcozia's guts out, as well as slashing one of his hands off. He even clawed one of his eyes out, before grabbing the hat.
The Circus Master threw two gold knives to Carlene and Florence. Carlene slashed the orange vampire that was holding both her and Florence by the throat before burying her knife into its chest, killing it instantly.
Florence meanwhile jumped onto the back of one of the orange vampires attacking Keptis' and stabbed it through the heart, before flipping over to face the other two. She managed to stab another of the monsters before it could even react, whilst with the final monster she easily dodged its attack, slashed at its kneecaps, then its chest, and its throat, before finally stabbing it through the heart.
In the confusion Marcozia grabbed Keptis whilst Florence was busy with the vampires and held him by the throat.
"Give me the book" he snarled at the Circus Master.
The Circus Master reached into his hat, but rather than the book, he threw a stake to Keptis who caught it and stabbed Marcozia in the shin, before punching him in the face.
Whilst the vampire was dazed and weakened from the pain, the Circus Master jumped him and lifted Marcozia above his head before throwing him into the flames of the village.
Marcozia screamed and actually managed to make his way out of the flames, but a final kick to the chest from the Circus Master sent him hurling back and in a few more seconds the screaming stopped.
The Circus Master went to check on Denika, whilst the rest of the Circus Folk stood guard over the flames to make sure none of the other vampires could escape. Up above Carlene, Keptis and Florence could see one of the winged vampires attempt to fly above the burning village, but its body had already gone up and though it did managd to fly out of the village it soon collapsed into a nearby tree causing it to go up in flames too.
After a few minutes Denika started to wake up, though she was still incredibly weak.
"Thank god for a minute you had me worried." The Circus Master said as he picked her up over his shoulder, whilst the rest of the Circus folk rallied the confused survivors together.
The vampire’s base of operations was destroyed and the book was now in the Circus Folk's possession. Sadly not all of the vampires perished in the flames. The Urchin had escaped in the fight with the orange vampires. Furthermore the Circus Folk and Carlene had encountered many of the new breeds in the village in the far future. Clearly some of them would escape the flames and infect others, or at the very least they had infected others around London already.
There was nothing the Circus Folk could do to stop that however. Vampires would always continue to exist, and indeed London would continue to have a huge vampire problem in particular for the next 200 years, which the Circus Folk knew began with this event.They knew they could never change that, but they had succeeded in their mission in preserving the timeline at least, and preventing the vampires from being able to spread out across Europe.
It would be several more months before the Circus Folk could leave Victorian England however. They had to make sure that the over 40 people they rescued from the vampires did not share anything they had learned about the supernatural to preserve the timeline. They also had to make sure that the families of those who didn't make it, such as Kelly, were informed, which was always the hardest part of the mission. It took them a long time to track down all the people who had been abducted and turned by the monsters.
The Circus folk also had to make sure that any of the surviving vampires didn't regroup and finally they had to find somewhere to bury the book. The Circus Master couldn't destroy it, even if he wanted to. Not only was it indestructable, but it would be discovered again at a later date according to the timeline, so he made sure to bury it in the place it wouldn't be found for decades, before its horrors were to be unleashed upon mankind again.
During this time Carlene not only helped the Circus Folk in their numerous grim tasks, but she also looked after the two surviving children. Carlene had been the one who found Ashlei in the factory after they returned to the Circus from the village. Ashlei didn't even have to tell Carlene what had happened. She couldn't bring herself to say it. As soon as Carlene arrived in the factory, Ashlei collapsed into her arms sobbing.
Ashlei always felt she could be herself around Carlene more than anyone. Even with her brothers she had always had to be the strong one, but with Carlene she could be honest with how she really felt. Even then however Ashlei still found it hard to talk about what happened with Tom and Brian. She simply didn't want to admit it happened.
Fortunately for Daniel meanwhile, Carlene had managed to catch the infection in time, though he still went through hell for a few days until he was sure he wasn't infected. It was only due to Carlene's support that both children were able to make it through what would be the darkest periods in their lives. The general public didn't disturb Carlene. They knew after that demon child's massacre that she was not responsible, even then however, some Londoners still had to be held back by the police from attacking Carlene's house.
Finally after two months. The Circus Folk were ready to go. Carlene met the Circus Master one last time outside of their Circus. The others, it seemed, didn't care enough to say goodbye in person.
"So where are you going now?" Carlene asked the Circus Master.
"We go where the timeline needs us. It could be anywhere on any planet, at any point in its history. The supernatural exist all over the universe."
"So eh" Carlene said awkwardly. "Why does it look like a Circus?"
"It was built by Vandals. When they ruled over Europe from behind the scenes, this was the product of all the thousands of years worth of magics they had access to. They built it as their ultimate weapon, to spread their evil across time and space. I stole it from them, and later with help from someone, I disguised it as something you'd never expect to be an ultimate weapon."
"A Circus?"
"Yes, exactly. To be fair we had to make do with what we had, as the mix of different magics already made it bright and colourful. Most of the time it's not a problem that it looks like a Circus. There are so many weird spaceship designs out there, but if we do land somewhere like here? It makes a perfect disguise."
"Interesting, so do you reckon you'll ever come round these parts again."
"If you want to come along, Carlene, you just have to ask."
"What makes you think I want too?"
"Like Marcozia said. You're not sure where you fit in. Too much of a human for monster town, too much of a monster for human town. You just helped to save this city from being overrun by bloodsucking demons, yet they still run away from you in the street. Even if you don't exactly see eye to eye with everyone in the Circus yet, I reckon you'll probably fit in with us more than anyone else."
"I've never been much of a team player."
"I don't know about that? I've read about your time in the Highlands, that saw you sent here? Then there's the family you had here when you first arrived. You also seemed to work quite well with us."
"How do you know so much about me?"
"Let's just say I had a peek into the Circus Folk's future and well it might be of interest to you."
"You're saying I’ll join you."
"Well I can't say for sure, timeline and all that, but if you'll just take the hint!" The vandal said with frustration. "They seem to keep going over that beehive of yours."
"Well maybe that's one possible future." Carlene replied.
"No, it isn't. Trust me on this. You can never, ever, under any circumstances change history. Do you understand. It's why I don't generally like to tell people their future."
"What happens if I change history?"
"You become an anomaly and the Guardians will take you to the Abyss."
"The what?"
"An endless void of nothingness, where you never age, never die."
"I don't understand? Didn't you change history now? For all you know vampires were supposed to take over London." Carlene enquired.
"No we didn't. We just made history, specifically the history you come from in the future. There is a difference between making history and changing it.."
"How can you possibly know that you are making history?" Carlene asked.
"I can tell when we are on the right course, all time travellers can. If you start to deviate you feel pain. Also in The Circus, in the fountain, which is at the centre of our vessel, we experience images of the timeline that will happen if we don't create it. If you fail to make your own history the Guardian's will come for you too. The version of history we just averted we saw a vision of in the Fountain. The vampires would have kept growing under the leadership of Marcozia before trying to seize London. This would have led to the supernatural being exposed in the late 19th century, leading to vampires all over the world siding with Marcozia and well, let's just say the resulting war would have been far worse and killed more people than both world wars combined, before the return of Khastran. "
"So you're telling me then I have to come with you or I'll get thrown into a black hole forever?" Carlene asked.
"Well when you put it that way yes. I thought it would be better if I came at it from the whole, you'll fit in better with us angle." The Circus Master said sheepishly.
"Well I suppose you were right about that darling. I don't like this time. It's horrible. No wonder the vampires thrived in this city. The corruption, poverty, greed." Carlene said with regret.
"It's the same in every period in human history. Vampires, vandals, demons, they're always waiting in the shadows preying on the weaknesses of humans for their own ends." The Circus Master replied.
"Well maybe I can find somewhere out in the universe where that's not the case. Awright I'll join you, though remember it's mostly because I don't have a choice." Carlene said
"I know, I don't either, remember." The Circus Master reminded her.
"You better let the others know." She said.
"I already told them. I lost the coin toss for being the one to tell you you had to come with us. You've taken it well though. Not everyone does when they're told they have to join us."
"What do you do if someone doesn't want to join, but you need them to for the timeline?"
The Circus Master didn't answer her and simply told Carlene to get her things ready.
Carlene returned to her mansion to let the children know she would be leaving, which would be no easy task. Carlene didn't want to leave either, but even without the changes to the timeline, Carlene felt it would be better for the children in the long run. Her presence here would just make Ashlei and Daniel targets for both the supernatural and the easily frightened citizens of London.
Carlene intended to leave her house and wealth to the two children, but sadly it wasn't enough. For Ashlei anyway. Daniel was upset but he understood Carlene's reasons. Ashlei simply couldn't bear to lose someone again.
"I'm sorry darling". Carlene said softly. " Call it fate or destiny or whatever, but my place is with them."
"In my entire life Carlene, you've been the closest thing I've ever had to a mother. Now I'm going to lose you too. I don't think I can." Ashlei sobbed.
Carlene hugged Ashlei. "I wish it could be different Ashlei."
"Take me with you." Ashlei said through the tears.
"I'm afraid I can't."
"You just want to abandon me like everyone else."
"You wouldn't be safe Ashlei."
"You can protect me. Please, just ask them."
Carlene thought about it for a second. Deep down she wanted Ashlei to come with her too. She had grown extremely fond of the young girl. Still she'd never forgive herself if anything happened to her. Carlene decided to let Ashlei ask the Circus Master, believing that he would tell her that she couldn't come to preserve the timeline. It was cowardly of her to want to unload this burden onto the Circus Master, but at least she felt that Ashlei would accept it more coming from him.
Daniel meanwhile was adamant about not going with them. Whilst he was sad to see both Ashlei and Carlene go, he had had his fill of adventure and monsters for one lifetime. Somehow Ashlei and Daniel both knew this would be the last time they would see one another and wished each other luck.
"Goodbye Ashlei. I hope you can find peace wherever you go." Daniel said as she and Carlene left.
"You too Daniel. I'm sorry I said I'd always be there for you."
"It's okay, I understand. You and Carlene have already done more for me than my actual family. I hope we meet again someday, but if we don't just know that I'm glad I met you. Both of you, thank you for everything."
When Carlene and Ashlei arrived at the Circus, the others except for the Circus Master were surprised to see Ashlei.
"You're not thinking of bringing her along too?" Denika said in disbelief.
"Please let me come with you. I've got nothing back here." she said as she clutched onto Carlene.
The Circus Master was silent for a few seconds before letting out a big smile.
"Of course you can come with us."
The rest of the Circus Folk were shocked.
"Are you taking the piss?" Denika said
"I don't make the rules up. You should know that by now. Do you remember in the year 1949 when we took care of that skirmish between the Goblins and the Monsters, the old man who made sure I took his diary with me? Take a look" The Circus Master said as he took the diary out of the bookcase and tossed it to Denika.
Denika flicked through the book for a few seconds before handing it round the others.
"Well that settles that then." Denika said somewhat embarrassed.
"I can't say that a young child with no fighting skills is an ideal choice of companion, but like I said I don't make the rules up. Miss McKay I hope you do us proud" The Circus Master beamed.
Ashlei hugged Carlene who was still unsure about the whole situation. At the very least she didn't have to break Ashlei's heart, but she wasn't sure what kind of a life they could give the young girl.
The Circus Master meanwhile tossed a coin into the fountain which then turned green, before the Circus vanished in a puff of purple smoke, to another time and place.
Whilst Daniel had had his fill of the supernatural, he would go on to use his wealth to fund research into the occult. He lived a long and very happy life thanks to Carlene's wealth and he never forgot who was responsible for it. Many years later he would repay the favour to Carlene and Ashlei in 1949 when he met a younger version of the Circus Master and gave him his diary, which he assured the vandal would come in handy one day for both of them.
Next Adventure
An Eye For An Eye