The boy before him had dark hair, with a long fringe stylishly brushed to one side. He was wearing a tight khaki green t-shirt and even tighter looking light blue jeans, with a pair of combat boots which looked spotlessly clean.

The boy's first reaction upon seeing Avi was to crouch to the floor and to lick his pointed teeth slowly and purposefully, his tongue lingering over the sharp point before he closed his mouth abruptly.

"Hmm, well he's not sick anymore," he informed the others, who appeared to be looking at the boy for some kind of reassurance. Sick? Avi had no recollection of being sick. The strange newcomer stood up and jerked his thumb to the side. "Alright, clear off you lot. He's alright," he commanded to the others. The two men gave Avi one last lingering look and walked off, both on feet and on hands.

The doll face girl was still whimpering as she turned about and the boy leant down, putting a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Here Lucinda, wipe those pretty eyes," he cooed, wiping a hand over her porcelain face. "Don't be crying over this green guy, he's just hit his head which was why he was acting loco."

Avi didn't like being referred to as green, like he was somehow inferior to this creepy runt, but he kept his mouth shut because he didn't want to upset the little girl - assuming she was actually a real child - any more. He wasn't a monster.

"I'll come and read you a story before we open doors," the boy told her, giving her gentle nudge to send her on her way.

When the room had emptied the boy turned back to Avi with one eyebrow raised. "That certainly was quite a way to make an entrance, kid," he said, before giving Avi a little bow. "The name is Grassi, Mitch Grassi. Those three you just had the pleasure of meeting were Seamus, Ricky and little Lucinda. And you," he held his palms out, "are Avi Kaplan!"

So the little fucker knew his name huh? Did he want a medal or something? Taking a deep breath, Avi asked all at once, "Who the fuck are you? Who the fuck are they? Where the fuck am I? And what the fuck have you done with Kevin?"

The boy just seemed amused by his interrogation. "Fucking follow me and you'll find out," he replied cheekily.

Avi glared at him. "Don't mess with me kid," he growled.

"You're in no position to be telling me what to do," the boy leered over him and Avi remembered he was still cowered on the ground. Avi had a short temper at the best of times, and being made fun of and belittled by a smart ass did not help.

He leapt to his feet with a quickness that was unnatural even for a seasoned fighter like he was and made a grab for the little guy's shoulders. He was going to have to get answers the hard way it seemed. Except his hands never made contact with skin - or scales, whatever - for in one fluid motion, the boy performed a gravity-defying manoeuvre where he leant backwards so he was almost at a ninety degree angle, and twisted under Avi's grasp so he was standing the other side of him.

Not one to back down easily, Avi made another grab for him and this time the boy made a dive for Avi's feet, looking like he was attempting to trip him up. Instead however, he once again broke the laws of physics and human bone structure by somehow not even touching the floor and serpentining between Avi's legs to come up behind him. This time he didn't give Avi a chance to strike again and grabbed him in a choke hold with a strength he wasn't allowed to have.

Avi felt his wind pipe being squeezed as if he were actually being strangled by a real boa constrictor and began flapping his arms about in a panic.

"Are you calm now?" the boy hissed in his ears and Avi had no choice but to go limp and nod his head in compliance. "You want answers, believe it or not I'm not the main guy around here," the boy - what was it Mike, Mark? - gave him a harsh shove away. "You wanna talk to Lucian, he's top dog around here, the gaffer so to speak, and it just so happens that now you're awake, he'll wanna talk to you too."

"H-how did you do that?" Avi spluttered.

"A Mitch never reveals his tricks," the boy told him. "At least not until he knows you better."

Mitch! That was it, Mitch. With his initial rage calming, Avi's senses returned to him along with his ability to remember names and right now there was only one name on the tip of his tongue.

"Kev–"

"Your friend is fine," Mitch interrupted him, crossing his skinny arms. "And he for one, didn't terrorise three performers upon waking up."

That took Avi aback. "I terrorised them?" he asked incredulously.

"Well I personally shake a persons hand rather than wave a chair at them." The small boy shrugged. "But each to their own I s'pose."

Then he turned, walked away and, when he noticed Avi wasn't following, waved his hand at him. "C'mon kid, let's get a move on," he ordered.

Avi frowned. "Don't call me kid, kid," he warned as he caught up to Mitch.

"I'll stop when you're not."

"What?"

"What, what?" The boy smirked.

"Jeez," Avi rubbed a hand over his eyes. "I must be in some kind of insane asylum."

Mitch paused before the opening of the tent. "Close," he gave Avi a wink. "Try Circo Di Freaks."

"Circo di what?"

Mitch didn't need to answer however, as he opened up the tent flap to reveal to Avi the outside world he had been longing for and everything else that came with it. It was a nice, sunny day and they were in a field - that explained the strong scent of grass Avi could smell earlier. Also there were more tents, a lot of them. And old fashioned traveller wagons and a big truck with the words Circo Di Freaks displayed in big gold letters on the side.

Avi stared around open mouthed at the site as Mitch dragged him along. "A freaking freak show," he stated, taking in the dozens of creeps like the ones he'd just met. People with weird skin tones, people with body parts missing or extra ones added. He could have sworn he even saw a crocodile at one point!

"Please," the small boy stood on his tiptoes to put an arm around Avi's shoulder. "We're civilised folk here with feelings and all that crap. We prefer a freak circus, or circus of freaks, or Circo Di Freaks if you read the name on the big tent or are of Italian origin like myself or Lucian."

Even though Avi had just met Mitch, he already got the impression he liked the sound of his own dumb voice. Also must be pretty important if those other three freaks had listened to him.

"Where is this?" he asked.

"Just outside your home town. Didn't you see our posters?"

Come to think of it he had seen a few plastered in some grimy back alleys. Not exactly prime promotion spots.

"I don't like circuses," he muttered in reply.

"Ha, that's only because you haven't seen our show."

Avi didn't give a fuck about their stupid show. He just wanted to know what had happened.

"What happened on the cliff?" He began interrogating Mitch again. "How did I get here? I was clinging to the rock and then there was that lunar moon and I blacked out, and when I wake up I'm somehow at a freak show."

"Not me you should be asking," Mitch said in his same annoying know-it-all tone, pulling Avi round a corner.

"Why not?"

"Cos I'm not in charge."

"Is there anything you can tell me?"

"She throws her eyes."

"Excuse me?"

"Ah! So he does posses manners," the boy threw his arms to the heavens and the only thing stopping Avi from decking him was...well, what had happened when he'd tried to do that earlier. "Miss Evie over there. She throws her own eyes," Mitch explained. "They're like little bullets that can penetrate through most solid objects." The boy grinned gleefully at the thought. "That's her act. Pretty good for the mid first half of our show. Keeps the audience on their toes."

Avi stared at the dark haired woman, who's eyes were both still perfectly attached in their sockets and began to suspect if Mitch really was just insane.

"That's not possible," he told the teen.

"Oh kid," the boy chuckled, skipping ahead. "You have a lot to learn."

"Stop calling me that! You're what, fifteen?"

"I'll have you know I'm seventeen and I already told you: I'll stop when you're not."

Avi sighed, giving up on his questioning. "I hate riddles dude."

"Little tip then, don't go talking to Johnny Riddlez over there. That's the only way he knows how to communicate. Well, Scott can get a bit like that at times but that's only when he's..." Mitch trailed off and looked uncertain for the first time, but quickly shook the emotions away and casually said, "ah, you'll find out sooner or later. We're here!"

Avi looked up and saw a small, plain wooden shack that barely looked big enough to fit one person in.

"I'm going in that?" he asked in disbelief, sure that this was some kind of joke. The supposed seventeen year old was definitely a mischief maker.

"Hmm...umm..." Mitch pretended to think very hard, scratching the small amount of stubble on his chin. "Yep!" he suddenly exclaimed, going to open the door.

"You're serious?"

"Hardly ever kid!" The boy laughed. "But this time, yes." He gave Avi a shove though the door. "Just get in the fucking shack, mind your step."

It took Avi's eyes only a few seconds to adjust to the dark and he realised now that this shack was not a room, but rather the entrance to steep, wooden, spiral stairs leading downwards. And Mitch couldn't have just told him this in the first place?

As if he could read his mind the boy called after him, "what you see, and what is, are two very different things kid." Then he slammed the door shut, leaving Avi to have to wait a few more seconds for his eyes to adjust again.

Well, it seemed like he was committed to going down now, so Avi began the slow descent to what he assumed was most likely his doom.

"You're speaking to Lucian remember," Mitch shouted through the door. "And I recommend you don't try that whole screaming chair act thing again. He's not a man you want to make a bad first impression on."

"Fuck you snake boy," Avi muttered to himself.

The stairs went down and down, and round and round, and down and down some more. Avi wondered who the hell dug this deep into the ground and whether the freaks did this every new town they went.

After a while, Avi got so used to just walking down that he barely noticed the sudden door in front of him. There was nothing special about this door except for the fact it didn't have a handle.

"Uh, hello?" he knocked the solid wood. "I'm looking for a Mr Lucian."

"It's just Lucian dear boy. Please, come in." The door swung itself open. "We've been waiting for you," the deep voice called out to him.

Avi marched straight in, fully intending to cause a scene. "Listen here, I don't know who you think–"

His angry tirade was cut short however when he came face to face with the last person he expected.

"Kevin!"

Hmm... I wonder if there will be anything different about Kevin? ;)