They caught up to Kevin and Scott just outside the dining tent and just as Mitch had predicted, the green flag indicating the start of the meal was up. The two had already collected their food and were standing with their trays by the entrance just to make sure their respective partners turned back up in one piece.

Avi nodded towards Kevin to let him know all was good but before they could actually reach them, Kirstie breezed up from nowhere, grabbing the two boys by their elbows and pulling them inside. Mitch explained they were most likely going to find a smaller table as meal times could apparently get pretty rowdy and certain members - he wasn't going to name names but didn't look entirely innocent himself - liked to start food fights.

On their walk back Mitch had been surprisingly pleasant despite what had just occurred between them a few minutes beforehand. He still talked at a super fast pace, joking around, poking fun at Avi whenever he felt necessary, but it was a big improvement on the angry young boy who had been hissing at him earlier. He didn't even play that little trick he loved this time, the one where he would suddenly snake himself round to Avi's other side, despite having found the older boy's previous reactions hysterical.

Upon entering the dining tent Avi was immediately taken aback once again by just how many people there were. Every inch of the tent was packed with people, and all those people had one goal in mind. Eating.

On one end of the tent there was a long serving counter where people were walking down and grabbing whatever took their fancy. In the centre, it was mainly taken up by narrow tables that stretched the length of the whole tent, like you saw at weddings except nowhere near as glamourous. And on the other side there was a mini stage where a few of the performers were having a go at what sounded like stand-up. There were a lot of playful boo's directed towards them anyhow, or at least Avi thought they were playful.

Even though it was pretty self-explanatory how the the system worked, Avi still asked, "What do we do here?" He'd had enough of being shouted at today so wasn't about to take any risks.

If Mitch thought his question was a dumb one, he didn't call him out. "Old fashioned school system," he explained with a smile. "Little tip: avoid the beef, you don't wanna know what they feed those cows," he cackled, zipping off ahead of Avi to join the line.

Avi followed uncertainly, wondering what type of food he was going to be presented with, but to his great relief it was neither brains nor spider eggs he was greeted by, rather just your everyday fries, chicken and vegetables. In fact the vast variety of the food available was impressive and wouldn't have seemed out of place at a wedding, if that wedding was one between two broke college students.

In the end Avi helped himself to a load barbecue ribs, fries and a couple of tomatoes so he could give the impression he wasn't that unhealthy. Grabbing a drink of some bright green liquid in it that Mitch assured him only just qualified as non toxic, he followed the younger boy over to one of only a few small tables in the far corner, the one that the other three had dashed off to bag earlier.

Kirstie and Kevin were sat on one side, Kevin chatting away enthusiastically as always, making the girl laugh while Scott sat listening politely on the other side.

"Hey Avi," she greeted him as he took his - what he believed rightful - place at the head of the table so Mitch could sit next to Scott.

"Hi," he replied, giving the girl a big smile; he couldn't help himself, the moment he saw her he just felt like everything was a little bit better. The freakout his body had had not too long ago didn't frighten him quite as much.

Scott also greeted him, asking "Are you okay Avi?" with a concerned look, one which Avi did not feel he deserved considering what he'd said to the guy beforehand.

"Uh yeah...thanks."

The blond gave him a small smile. Don't worry, we're gonna help you. Avi stared at him. Scott had just spoken to him but no one else appeared to have heard, and he was pretty certain the boy hadn't opened his mouth. It was just like a repeat of the cliff, when he had heard Scott's voice in his head. He still wasn't quite sure how he felt about it and had a moment of panic where he wondered if the blond could read his mind as well.

While the others all chatted and laughed, Avi conducted a little experiment. He used all his experience of horror movies, and various...ahem, adult movies to imagine up some disgusting and vile images in his mind, so creepy that he even shocked himself, and watched for the blond's reaction the whole while.

Seeing as the blond was still able to consume his pizza without choking on it, Avi crossed out the theory that Scott was spying on his brain constantly. Still, Avi thought he should be careful about his feelings around the guy.

"So are you looking forward to watching the show tonight?" Kirstie's voice brought him back from the horrible scenes he had been conjuring up and back to her kind face.

"I can't wait!" Kevin exclaimed. "This is gonna be so awesome!"

The girl grinned at his friend. "I'm gonna be ramping up the action especially for you Kevin," she promised him with a wink.

That Avi would not mind one bit. "So do you all partake in the show?" he asked, attempting to insert himself into their conversations like someone who possessed natural social skills, a hard feat for him.

"We do," Mitch replied, gesturing to himself and Kirstie. "Scott does crowd control mainly."

"Huh?" Both Avi and Kevin responded at the same time.

Scott huffed. "Ignore him," he said, giving the small boy a nudge. "I just help calm people down sometimes if they get a bit freaked out," he explained.

Does that mean getting in their heads too? The blond did seem to have an calming aura about him, or at least Mitch was nowhere near as hyper as he was when it had just been him and Kevin. Anyway, more importantly why did people need to be calmed down in the first place? Surely they knew what to expect if they were heading to a freak sh...circus, Avi reminded himself, freak circus.

"Is that a normal occurrence?" Kevin asked for him in surprise.

"Yeah..." Scott admitted truthfully. "But people only faint a few times."

What?

"Faint from the amazingness of it all he means," Mitch butted in, reaching up to place an arm around his boyfriend and giving him a warning shake, ignoring the frown Scott sent his way.

"Great," Avi stated. "Great, can't wait," was the only reply he had for that nugget of information. Even Kevin looked a bit put out that people were blacking out during the show.

Kirstie smiled softly at the both of them. "Don't worry boys, you'll be fine," she insisted, trying to offer them some reassurance. "I know I loved it my first time."

Kevin was placated by that, the trusting guy he was. Avi not so much. He felt he'd embarrassed himself enough today without passing out in front of everyone. It's just the same as the movies, he tried to comfort himself. You've seen hundreds of horror films, you can handle it. This should be a weird kind of fantasy come true for me.

"How long have you guys been here then?" Kevin queried, and Avi was grateful for his friend attempting to bring the conversation back round to them rather than the show. "You get here the same as us, rescued by a pretty lady off a cliff?" he finished with a smirk.

Avi narrowed his eyes. Kevin always had been the better one at talking to girls. Not that Avi had cared before, but then there had never really been a girl he'd been interested in talking to until he met Kirstie.

"No," Kirstie answered, not taking Kevin's compliment for any more than a friendly comment, which is most likely what it probably was. "No, nothing of the sort."

"Kirstie's only been with us a year," Mitch informed then, before giving the girl a cheeky smirk. "That's one year too many if you ask me."

"Shut up," she laughed, throwing a bread roll at his face. Avi was pretty sure the boy had fast enough reflexes to duck but allowed it to hit him anyway, mock falling off the bench and rolling around the floor in pain while Scott looked around in confusion, having no idea his boyfriend had just been attacked by a baked good.

Kirstie just rolled her eyes and ignored his immature behaviour, turning back to Avi and Kevin. "I was working as a waitress at a little cafe," she began. "I lived the life of a perfectly normal sixteen year old girl, hung out with friends, went to the beach with my family, was well behaved in high school," she trailed off, her eyes gaining a faraway glint, reliving her now past life.

She met Avi's gaze again and he could see that the pain of whatever made her leave that life was still present. "Without wanting to spoil the show for you, I'll just say that I'd been living with my abilities for two years, it wasn't hard to hide luckily. At least not from the people closest to me," Kirstie continued, only focused on him now.

"And then...?" Avi breathed out.

"And then I got found." Her eyes turned dark. "The people who Lucian tried to scare you with, they're real I can confirm that." She took a deep inhale of air before regaling a tale that almost made Avi and Kevin's seem like a fun day out. "They came for me at the end of a shift one night, these guys dressed like they were some freaking bank robbers, grabbed me and dragged me to this black van, injected me with something that knocked me out instantly." She shivered involuntarily despite it not being remotely cold and Mitch - who had returned to a normal seating position - reached out across the table and took her hand.

Kirstie smiled at him. "I can't really tell you what happened in between then and waking up in this crazy town but I do know this little snake had a hand in it."

The boy grinned back at her. "That was a fun night!" He laughed. "They didn't stand a chance."

Did snake boy kill these guys or something? Avi didn't really want to hear that tale right now if he had and luckily Kevin didn't ask for any more detail, allowing Kirstie to finish.

Missing out anything else she might remember Kirstie skipped to: "Lucian read me rules and showed me the contract and...I didn't have a choice really. They'd found me so I couldn't stick around and put my family in danger." She chuckled slightly. "I made out that I'd "fallen in love" with some hot Italian boy–"

"Not too far from the truth–" Mitch put in, wiggling his eyebrows.

"And I wrote them a letter explaining how I was leaving with him and that they shouldn't look for me. I still write to them every couple of weeks but they can't reply of course." She cast her eyes downward, looking vulnerable for the first time since he'd met her. "I hope they miss me," she said in a small voice.

"Of course they do." Avi leaned forward in earnest, expressing more emotion than he normally did but he felt he had to comfort the girl in any way he could.

She gave him a grateful smile. "This life isn't bad though," she revealed. "Not when you've got these two around."

"What about you two then?" Avi directed his next question at Scott and Mitch, shocked that he was still leading the conversation. "Did you come as a pair?"

His small jest even brought a smile out of snake boy who yelled "I wish!" a bit too loudly that earned him some "shut up's" from other performers. "Nah," Mitch leant into the blond's side, "my big boy here's been with the circus since the start, or the start of what it is today anyway."

Avi felt a bit mean turning to Scott for answers; the guy really didn't like having attention on him but replied politely all the same. "It used to be just a normal circus. Lucian was still the ringleader but no one knew about his...extra stuff. And then I got here when I was five. Been here ever since."

When he was five? This guy really was an old-hand at the life of a traveller then.

Mitch gave the blond a poke in the head. "Kinda missed out some key information there babe."

"You tell it better than me," Scott argued, lowering his head in shyness. Mitch looked positively delighted.

"Alright, listen up gentleman!" he called out to his audience of two. "Picture this: it was a dark and stormy night–"

"It was midday in July."

"Shh," he placed a finger to Scott's lips "You've already given me the reigns," he reminded him before starting up again. "Okay it was a sunny day in July. A much younger Lucian was troubling himself over the circus's finances - what was it called before?"

"Lucian's Travelling Circus," Scott answered.

"Huh...no wonder they weren't making much money," Mitch marvelled. "So Lucian, needing to clear his head, goes for a walk by himself. He'd admiring the trees and the flowers and the little birds, when all of a sudden...BANG!"

Both of his listeners jumped back in fright as the boy suddenly shouted and smacked both his hands down on the table, causing the whole thing to shake. Kirstie just bit her lip to stop herself from laughing while Scott looked at him in surprise.

"What'd you do that for?" he asked.

"If you could see the looks of their faces baby, you would agree it was worth it." He grinned cheekily at the two still recovering boy's. "So there was no explosion," he edited his story, "but he hears this little voice say "Lucian," and he turns and see's no one. But then the voice calls him again and he looks down and see's this little boy with the most amazing eyes you've ever seen."

He lifted his hand to turn Scott's face to his, matching his line of vision with the other boy's so it looked as if they were staring into each others eyes like some sickeningly sweet lovebirds; only one of them was benefitting from it however.

Scott's face remained unchanged as Mitch finished with his little performance. "To cut a lot of chat short, Scott here tells old Lucian that he knew he had to find him and says that they have to find a guy named Harold who can eat and digest anything. The rest of it's history really, Lucian and Scott put together our rag-tag group from all corners of the world."

"But why did you go up to Lucian?" Avi continued to question, more fascinated by this tale than he thought he would be. "What about your family?"

Scott turned to his general direction and gave a small shrug.

"You don't know?"

"I don't remember anything from before this," he said, so quiet it was almost inaudible. "All I know is one day I woke up with only one goal in mind and I walked for a long time until I found Lucian. I don't really know why I did it."

Kevin shook his head in wonder. "That's insane."

Avi mumbled in agreement. "What about you Mitch?" he asked, getting ready for what was probably going to be a long and rambling story filled with reenactments and crazy hand gestures.

However quite the contrary the boy stiffened, suddenly very quiet and Avi could sense an awkwardness settle amongst the three. "Me?" he acted as though the query had come as a great surprise. "Oh I've been here since I was twelve, nothing interesting about my story."

"Everyone else has shared," he pointed out.

Mitch gave him a long look, as if was being the annoying one this time. "Valid point kid," he said through gritted teeth. "I came from a background not too dissimilar to you to, but let's just say I didn't stick around for as long." Scott went to move closer to the boy but he was stood up quicker than Avi had ever seen him move. "Oh, is that the time?" he asked, not studying any particular clock or watch. "I've got an audience to prepare for," he marched off cooly, stopping only to call out to Scott, "Coming?''

The blond stood up immediately. "Yeah Mitchy." He moved forward with his hand outstretched until he was close enough for Mitch to grab it, and then they both headed off, without a word more spoken.

Where did that come from? It was clear now that the boy's past life was a prickly subject. Still that didn't put him up much in Avi's estimations; he'd had a rough ride too and you didn't see him acting like...whatever word you used to describe the way Mitch acted. He's an enigma alright. And people say I have a split personality.

"I know he can seem like he's a cocky little know-it-all, but he's a good guy. Give him a chance," Kirstie spoke up in Mitch's defence as she stood up herself, placing a hand on Avi's shoulder.

"I'll be looking for you in the crowds tonight," she whispered into Avi's ear, before she too disappeared amongst the crowds.

He looked towards Kevin and saw that his friend was just as confused by what had happened as he was. Then he looked down at table and frowned.

Leave us to clear up your trays, why don't you?