After the Show

Larten collected Octa from the body of the dead goat lying on the floor. He had just done the trick where Octa uses her web like a bunjee chord and leapt onto the unfortunate beast. It was killed almost instantly and now was bathed in sticky red blood...as was the spider. Larten collected Octa back in her cage and telapathically told her he would clean her after the show. The audience went crazy, pretty much all of them were on their feet and many whistled and screamed. The applause sounded like thunder and Crepsley loved it. He bowed to the audience and carried Octa off stage.
Backstage, he sat her cage onto a food table ~gaining a dissaproving look from a helper~ and asked one of the little people (they all had cloaks and barely ever had distinguishing features so there was no way of telling who was who) to fetch a basin of cold water, a sponge and a towel for him to clean Madam Octa. His spider was his only companion and he cared very much for her comfort and health.

Dean was sat somewhere at the back of the audience, arms crossed as he slouched in the seat. He was here with Sam, who seemed convinced there was a case here, something about vampires running the circus. Usually where there were vampires, there would be deaths, murders. Obviously not with this breed. With no murders, there was no reason for them to get involved in the same way that they would with a vengeful spirit.

Dean frowned, clapping along with the rest of the audience when the spider killed the goat, though he didn't get up. Really, he just wanted to get back to the motel, and move on. It was typical of Sam to bail out of joining him on this. Still, he might as well enjoy the rest of the show, it wasn't often he got a chance to do nothing, so there was little point in leaving early, especially seeing as they had no other cases lined up.

As the vampire left the stage, Dean got up, and subtly walked around the back of the audience, and round the side of the tent, to try and get access to the backstage. He was here to investigate, so he might as well have a snoop around, see if there was anything suspicious going on. He doubted there was, but Sam would be pissed if he didn't at least have a look.

It wasn't long till Dean had snuck into the backstage area. He stayed to the edges, trying to be inconspicuous. This was not an easy feat considering he was just over six feet tall, and most of the people in the room were little people.

Larten had finished cleaning madam Octa and placed her carefully back in her cage, she thanked him telepathically, "you're welcome" he replied. A little person shuffled up to him and rubbed its stomach with its green hand of decaying flesh. Crepsley noticed Cormack Limbs was coming off stage (the woman who's limbs could grow back if removed or cut off). Crepsley gestured for her to come over and by the look her face he knew she could tell what he wanted. She stood in front of him and rolled her eyes, holding out her arm. Larten smiled sympathetically and took hold, using his superhuman strength he tore it from her body and removed a couple of fingers from the disembodied arm. He posted them through the bars of Octa's cage for her dinner and gave the rest of the arm to the little person. It bit into it, ripping it apart with its sharp teeth. It was gone within seconds then it nodded and shuffled away.
Crepsley thanked Cormack whose shoulder had strings of flesh growing out of it, twisting and weaving together to create skin. Layer upon layer forming and solidifying until the arm was complete again.
"Thank you Cormack, for a second there I thought I was going to have to go rat hunting for a moment there." He smiled at her. Cormack nodded and went back on stage, Gerta Teeth (the woman who could bite through anything) was onstage and her act included biting off Cormack's and then it would regrow and the crowd would be amazed.

The guy from earlier who was doing the trick with the spider came into view as Dean turned a corner. He was just putting the spider away when one of the little people came up to him. Dean pressed himself tighter against the wall, as he watched on.

Dean's eyes widened at the women as one of the people tore her arm off. His eyes were fixed on the the limb in morbid fasicnation as it was fed to the spider. He was about to step forward, when the arm started to regrow, and he remained in place. This place was definitely a bit odd.

As the women went back on stage, Dean took a step forward. The coast looked clear, so Dean stepped foward.

"Saw your show earlier," he said, walking towards the vampire with a grin, arms my his side, "I like the thing you've got going on with the spider. What's your name?"

Larten smiled to himself and turned dramatically. "Ah, a fan." He smiled in a dark way, making the scar across his face more visable. "I am Vur Horsten." (his stage name) "I thank you, Madam Octa really is very talented." every word he said was spoken with a tone of mystery. (As was his way)

Dean has not noticed the scar before. Where could he have got it from? The spider? Dean didn't know, and wasn't going to ask. The smile the man gave him seemed a little bit creepy, making him feel uneasy. The man spoke in a very dramatic, mysterious way, making Dean wonder if any of it was genuine.

"Madam Octa? As in the spider?" Dean looked over at where the spider was being kept, "Yeah, she was good." He glanced back up at the man, "So, you in town long?"

Larten looked at Madam Octa fondly and then back at Dean. "Only as long as the show runs over the next few nights, then we will move on. Where to?" Crepsley shrugged before turning to the food table and pouring out a drink. He wasn't really thirsty or intending to drink it at all but merely mimed to fill the spaces during the conversation.

Jenny looked around, keeping her shoulder bag close to her body. Circus's freaked her out. She didn't like to admit it, but they did, especially the kind she'd gone to. This one was just like that one in a lot of ways, except they're hadn't been a spirit floating around, but still. Old memories came back to her. People around seemed to be okay with it, though they were mostly a bit weird. Some guy walked past giving her a glare and she raised an eyebrow at him before he walked off, glancing back.

She needed to see if there was anything out of the ordinary - which would be hard in a place like this.

Dean grinned, nodding his head. A few more nights? Plenty of time to see if there was any bad paranormal activity going on. Hopefully Sam would have recovered by then so that he could get in on it. Still, at least Jenny was here, so he had some form of backup.

"You been doing this thing long?" Dean asked, as Larten went to get a drink. As his back was turned, Dean got his phone out, texting Jenny that he was backstage, and asking if she had found anything.

Jenny didn't bother texting back, seeing that Dean was backstage so she just walked through to there. She was used to going to places she shouldn't be anyway, and if Dean was there it probably wouldn't be so forbidden. She did, however, not want to see the kind of freaks that would be around there. She'd missed the show to look around, and really was regretting ignoring Davis and coming there. As if Dean wouldn't be able to handle it himself, anyway. Sam was there too, as useless as he was right now...

"Dean." she said, seeing him talking to someone. She walked over.

Crepsley paused for a moment as he thought back over his life. " ....many years now.." he said dramatically, turning to face Dean as he spoke. He had been with the Cirque du Freak about 50 years now though he only looked around 43 so couldn't say that...
Crepsley heard the woman breathing the whole time and had looked up as she started walking. As she had said the name of the younger man, Crepsley turned to check on Madam Octa who was still devouring the fingers of Cormack Limbs.

The he got seemed ambiguous, the amount of years not specified. This was definitely seeming a little bit suspicious. The man looked relatively normal though, so he could not be sure that he was a vampire, or something else supernatural. Also, he could not assume that he was killing people, seeing as there had been no deaths linked with the circus. Still, this place seemed pretty interesting, though Sam would have hated it if he was with him. He had never liked circuses of any kind.

He looked round as he heard his name being called, the sight of blonde hair greeting him. It felt really weird not doing this with Sam, and as annoying as he was he was starting to miss him. Jenny did not look terribly happy, as if she was a bit uncomfortable being here.

"Hey," he greeted her with a soft smile, and turned back round to face the other man, "Jenny, this is Vur Horsten, you know, from the spider show earlier, with the goat?"

Crepsley bowed deeply "Madam" He was still used to using old fashioned gestures and was always very much the gentleman.

Jenny tore her eyes away from the person eating the fingers, raising her eyebrows at him bowing. "Hi." she smiled, not daring to hold out her hand for a handshake. God knows what any of the people had been doing.

"Sorry, I missed the show." she said apologetically. "I'm sure it was great though."

Looked like Jenny had noticed Vur Horsten's spider, Madam Octa was it? It did not exactly look that pleasant, her eating the man's fingers, and so Dean looked away, smiling in amusement. He did not really mind the place, it seemed a bit weird, but the people were obviously decent, and he was not really all that convinced that there was something up with them.

"It was," Dean agreed, "And Mr. Horsten here says their going to be here the next few days." He looked over to Vur Horsten, and smiled, "Are you going to be performing again tomorrow? Jenny here just loves spiders." Jenny was just going to love him for this...

Jenny smiled, annoyed at Dean. She gave him a hidden glare, stamping on his foot - hard. "Yeah, except I used to have a pet spider a few years ago." she lied, easily. "And a kid from my middle school came over and killed it. So whenever I see one it just upsets me." she smiled sadly.

"I would really like to come and see the show tomorrow though." Oh well. She could blank this out with all the other stuff she had at the back of her mind.

"Oh yes." Larten smiled, "I am a regular performer unless I am sick, then Mr Tall will take my act onstage. It's his circus you know.." Crepsley smiled politely, the idea of reading the humans' minds was tempting but he knew not to meddle in the affairs of humans. *What do you think Octa?* he asked his pet telepathically, the spider replied her uncertainty at these strangers.
"I'm sorry to hear about your pet, I am very fond of the creatures myself" He smiled politely again at the two.
"Do come along, it is a great show to behold"

Dean winced as Jenny stood on his foot, but quickly hid it. Was that really necessary? He was probably going to get bruises from that. It wasn't like the spider was that bad, anyway. The colors looked pretty, all blues and reds. How was he to know that she did not like them? Though her lie was quite amusing to listen to, as she tried to come up with a back story to what Dean had said.

"We intend to," Dean answered with a amused grin. He was starting to enjoy all this, anyway. Though Jenny's discomfort was particularly amusing. It would only be funnier if Sam was here too. Dean was still holding out for a miraculous recovery. "Does he perform here as well, often? Mr Tall."

Jenny kept her eyes of the spider. She wouldn't have minded it if it wasn't eating the fingers. That was all that was freaking her out, though she was good at hiding stuff like this. Just bury it, Jen, right to the back.

She listened to the conversation, trying to pick up anything that she could hold off as suspicious. There were no spirits around when she'd gone everywhere with the emf... if anything was around it would be a creature. But nothing seemed anything more than harmless.

"Mr Tall sometimes headlines and introduces people onto the stage. Otherwise he escorts people to their seats and helps with the general running of the performance." Mr Crepsley was cut off as another little person shuffled up to him and tugged on his cape before rubbing its stomach, its dark blue cloak consealing its face but not the decayed green flesh of its hand. Larten rolled his eyes and knelt down until he was face on to the little person. "Go hunt for some rats in the basement. The building is old so there'll probably be some dead ones lying around. Bring some back for the others as well." He stood up again and faced the young adults. "Sorry about that, hungry little bastards they are. Ah well, we'd be helpless without them."

Rats? These little people ate rats? Dean had assumed that they were normal people, albeit of a dwarfish size. They were after all undeniably tiny. But rats did not sound at all like a normal things to eat. Still, it could be worse. Rats were better then humans, and as long as none of these people were cannibals then it was not their problem. Definitely a reason to stay around though.

He watched the little person walk away, before looking back up at Larten. "So, do they help you run this thing?" he enquired, tilting his head to the side. Might as well try and get all the information possible out of these people.

Crepsley thought about how to answer that, "You could say that..." He replied mysteriously. He often gave vague responses as giving away too much information was almost always dangerous.

His answers were vague - much too vague for Jenny's taste. She'd heard these kinds of answers before, and they were the complete opposite of innocent. She glanced at Dean with an expression to say that maybe there could be something going on here, but she had found nothing to suggest such things. Maybe they were just the kind of people that liked to appear as mysterious, and keep up the whole act kind of thing. But still, she couldn't help think something was going on - especially since they ate rats. Seriously, could they not afford normal food, even with that kind of show going?

"Tight for money, huh?" she mused.

"No, not really. The people who work here are volunteers and the performers act for somewhere to live. It's give and take." Crepsley answered plainly, continuing to watch his beloved spider.

"Fair enough," Dean nodded, glancing at the little people as they scurried around. There was hardly anything too questionable about it, and if that was what floated their boat, then it wasn't his problem.