"What do you mean she's just disappeared?"

"What d'you mean what d'you mean?" Avi ignored Mitch's blatant attempts to rile him up. He was beginning to realise that sarcasm and wit were the boy's most confident forms of communication and that if you just paid no mind he would get bored eventually.

"Well did she know you were looking for her?" Avi clarified, referring to Eva who, when Lucius and a few others had gone to speak to her after the most recent revelations, had vanished along with some personal possessions, leaving no trace.

"Obviously she did," Mitch replied, chucking a log onto the growing fire they had going, with a little bit of assistance from Kevin which meant they hadn't had to bother with any fire starters. "You'd be surprised how quickly word travels kid."

"It's weird don't you think?" Kirstie spoke up, the flames casting dancing shadows onto her cheeks, her face bathed in the warm, flickering amber light, like she too was one with the blaze. "Surely if she was guilty of something she would try and pretend she wasn't, rather than running off and making herself look even more suspicious."

Mitch shrugged, leaning his head onto Scott's shoulder. "Good riddance I'll say. She was always off with me," he muttered.

"Off..." Avi gave a half laugh. "Yeah that's a good word to describe her." Everything about that woman had been off, the moment he had seen and smelled her it was a pure rotten aroma he'd been confronted with.

And that was why he was still worried; because that aroma had yet to vanish along with her physical presence, it was like a lingering bad odour after something had died.

He caught Mitch giving him a long, unreadable look, the brown eyes piercing his skin and mouth tight as if he couldn't quite work out what he wanted to say. "You were right I guess," he said eventually. "All that stuff you said in the woods."

Avi couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. Was snake boy really about to apologise for his earlier belittling of the older boy's concerns? It sure sounded like it. He sat there slightly smugly, waiting for the boy to continue but, whether is was because he'd noticed the change in Avi's expression or simply had already said his peace, no more words came.

"Is that it?" he asked, expression turning frustrated.

The boy, who's head was still leant against his boyfriend's shoulder, merely raised one eyebrow, smiling slightly. "What else were you expecting?" he retorted quietly, eyes glistening in taunt.

"It's my fault."

They were both distracted by the hushed whisperings the blond suddenly voiced and Avi flicked his gaze to the other younger boy, who was also staring into the fire, his lilac orbs glowing even brighter than usual.

"What was that Scott?" Kevin queried.

"I," he paused, a frown settling on his features, "should not have seen it." He sounded angry. It seemed very unnatural, coming from him.

"Hey," Mitch said softly, giving the boy's arm a tap. "Don't start."

The blond shook his head, face just as upset as before. "I saw it...I- I'm going to make it happen," he stuttered.

Avi was confused. How's he gonna make it happen?

"Just because you see it sweetie doesn't mean you have any hand in it. You know that," Kirstie told the boy gently.

"But what if me seeing it is what causes it to occur?" Scott continued to ramble, voice getting ever more panicky. "What if it's me–"

"If you carry on with that nonsense, you won't be getting a blowjob ever again."

Mitch's crass statement had multiple and varied affects. Kevin choked on his drink, spraying droplets of it into the fire, sending a few sparks sailing into the air; Avi's cheeks turned painfully red as he tried to avoid eye contact with everyone; Kirstie merely shook her head, like an overworked mother who has lost control over her children; but for Scott, it did make him quit with the self-blame, blame over outcomes Avi was pretty certain the blond had no control over.

"We've gotta look on the bright side guys," the youngest carried on casually, as if he hadn't just said something completely out of line with normal social etiquette. "With Eva out there's a space in the show," he enticed, gesturing towards Kevin and Avi.

Avi took a deep inhale of air. No. He could taste the scent, the foul stench still hanging around them, invisible footprints only he could detect.

"She's not," he shook his head, trying to think of how to explain it. "She's...no, she's still around. I can sense her."

That explanation was apparently not good enough for Mitch.

"Sense her with these senses that you supposedly lost," the boy pointed out in an accusing manner, his lips quirked into a disbelieving smirk.

"Well they came back didn't they," he responded through gritted teeth. Is it really so easy for him to disregard what he can't see with his own eyes?

"How convenient," Mitch marvelled, only stopping himself from goading the older boy into an argument when Kirstie sent a warning glare his way. "Alright then," he went on, nodding towards Avi. "If your doggy nose thinks she's still nearby why don't you go and have a sniff around. We can take you for a nice walk."

Avi felt his jaw tightening. Mitch certainly didn't make it easy for Avi to ignore him, but there were more important matters to hand.

"No I mean it's life she's still here," he insisted, waving his hand about, motioning to the surrounding area, the field where the other performers and travellers were mulling around. "Like she's still with us but not...like she's existing in a dimension we just can't see." He struggled some more to give them a good visual representation before finding the perfect description. "It's like she's passed through a rift of some sort to another plain...I know that sounds stupid," he admitted.

He hadn't noticed, but during his last sentence there was a particular word that had made two of the others sit bolt upright and exchange glances of wonder and nervousness. He didn't realise his words had had any profound affect until he picked up on the fact that Mitch and Scott were both staring at him with open mouths and Kirstie was giving him a strange sidelong look, the red firelight only enhancing the intensity of the gaze.

"What?" he asked, looking to each of them individually, Kevin doing the same, just as puzzled by the others reactions as he was.

Mitch clicked his tongue a few times to fill the silence. "Do you want to tell them or shall I?" he asked Kirstie.

The older girl briefly looked his way before returning her attention to Avi. He could see her composing herself, shifting along her seat slightly so she was closer to the two new boys. "Where do we come from?" she questioned softly, out of the blue.

Avi had no answer to that ambiguous and open ended query and left it to Kevin to try and provide an answer.

"The uh...the moon?" His friend replied, referring to the huge lunar monstrosity that had appeared in the sky before his and Avi's lives were changed, although he was clearly completely unsure with what he was saying and what he had been asked.

Kirstie shook her head. "Not how are we born, but where do we come from, what is our history?" she clarified, looking directly at Avi.

How was he supposed to answer that? "I don't know," he told her quietly.

The girl took another deep breath, gathering herself as she launched into a story like no other Avi had ever heard before. "There a many tales, many old stories of our beginning," she began in a hushed voice so only those sat around the fire could hear. "Most tales go along similar lines; that we have been around since the dawn of humankind and simply creeped out of the word-work over the years, forming groups like this." She paused, glancing around to make sure they were still alone. "But there is a different tale. A much more darker one."

Overheard the skies darkened, the setting of the sun encompassing the land in a bleak dimness, like someone had thrown a blanket across the skies.

"Thousands of years ago there was a rift formed on our world," Kirstie continued, using the perfect storyteller voice. Perhaps after a year of travelling with a circus you gain a certain passion for a good performance. It was working though. Avi didn't think he'd ever been so enraptured in a story and he'd heard plenty of strange ones in the past few days.

"It was a portal that had opened - intentional or not we don't know - but it was to another completely different universe, a universe of freaks. Of people with scales, of people with the power to see into the future," she said while looking to Scott and Mitch. "Of people with wings, people who could manipulate the world around them," she carried on, motioning towards Kevin. "People who were just superior to the ones on Earth," she finished, eyes back to Avi.

He had no instant reply, struggling to take in all the crazy information he had been bombarded with. "So these people...came from their universe to ours, is that what you're saying?"

"They did. But the question you should be asking is why? Why would they come to earth when they had a whole universe to themselves," Kirstie urged him to think, tone lowering as the sun set even further, the shadows on her face even more prominent now. "What if I were to tell you they were running. Their universe, infected with a parasite or what you might prefer to call...demons."

At that Avi was almost certain they were pranking him, that Mitch had coerced them all into this elaborate little joke that they knew would work well on his already paranoid mind. But one look at the rare serious expression the youngest was wearing and the understanding one on his boyfriend's, he realised this was a story they had heard before and knew well.

He turned back to Kirstie as she went on. "They fled to our world, the few that could escape, but they could not let the rift stay open for long, for they could risk letting the demons get through also, with a whole new world to colonize."

A small frown graced her features as she thought about the ending of her tale, before speaking out loud: "And so they closed it. Closed the door on family, on friends, on people they loved. And they filtered themselves into our own society."

After the story was over Kevin of course was the first to pick scientific holes in it. "But that doesn't make sense," he challenged. "We're not descendants from these people. My mom," he gestured to his new appearance. "Did not look like this."

Well you don't know that for sure, Avi thought, seeing as Kevin had never met his mom, but he supposed there might have been stories passed around if Kevin's mom had looked half tree.

"We don't know what else was let through that rift, things unseen, a touch of magic or scientific element not known to us," Kirstie said. "But whatever it was, our world has never been the same since."

"So you'll understand, you talking about rifts and that bird carving my boy found, it's put us on edge a bit," Mitch added, although demeanour wise, he still seemed just as laid back as usual, as if he had not a care in the world.

"What's this got to do with that bird carving?" Avi asked them.

The snake boy chuckled. "If you thought that first bit was far fetched wait until you hear this."

There was another pause in conversation as Kirstie prepared her next part, maybe trying to recall word for word what she had been told herself. "There is a prophecy," she began slowly, eyes glancing upwards in thought. "Known by many but spoken by few," she explained, "that one day, driven by a hatred for our world and a yearn to take back what once was, the rift shall be re-opened."

Her brown eyes started into his green ones again as she recited the prophecy, seemingly looking straight into his soul but also not completely present at the same time. "When the day comes that the dark one returns, a bird turned to ash shall mark the return of monsters and the rise of evil. There comes a day when the sun turns dark, a woman clad in black shall mark the dawn of a new world, a one where demons roam free."

Avi felt his heart thumping in his chest as the story reached it's climax, completely focused on the lips of the girl in front of him and the words they spoke. "And it shall be then, when the blind man sees once more, a broken man shall bring an age of kinship. When the time comes that the last one is reborn, a sudden death shall bring forth the end of an era of sorrow and the downfall of an empire."

"A strange tale, is it not?" Mitch said with a smirk after she had finished. "People used to tell me stories of the ancient days when I was having trouble sleeping..." He hesitated, maybe slightly concerned he'd just revealed too much, and quickly added: "Most likely a load of bullshit."

"That wooden carving," Kevin chimed in, theories already forming in his head.

"It was bad," Scott confirmed. "And the ash. That was bad too," he affirmed with a shudder.

Beside him the youngest let out a huff. "You lot really want to dampen my spirits, don't you?" It was said in jest, but Avi could have sworn he was sending him a look of distaste.

"Maybe you should talk with Lucian as well," Kirstie decided, placing a dainty hand on his knee. "Please? For my sake of mind?" she pleaded. Avi could hardly deny that face.

"Okay," he agreed. "Yeah, I will."

Before any more could be said, Mitch was jumping up, pulling Scott with him. "Flag's up," he announced, pointing to the dining tent. "Talk to him after. At the moment the only demons here are in my stomach."

It was very dark as they made their way amongst the throngs of people to the location of food, the main source of light coming from the giant silver orb in the sky. Avi found himself gazing up at it as he walked, wondering what secrets it held. The moon tonight seemed extra large, a giant presence in the sky that was just as alive as they were down on Earth. For Avi, it was almost as if he could feel it reaching out to him; that his sense of hearing was increased so much he could hear its whispers.

"It's definitely a full moon," he remarked.

Mitch glanced back at him. "Pretty ain't it?"

"It feels different." The quiet murmurs from Scott stuck out in the midst of all the other chatter and Avi watched in curiosity as the blond also stared up at the silvery giant, having to be dragged along even more than usual by Mitch, his feet tripping over themselves as his focus was distracted.

Avi watched as Scott's face froze in concentration and then lit up in surprise. Oh! The boy's voice invading his head again was a shock, the blond suddenly concentrating on where he was going again but not before he turned around to Avi with a surprise smile on his face, and the older boy felt that now familiar feeling as Scott reached out to him, except maybe a bit more excited this time.

He only had one thing to tell him.

I think I understand now!

If all goes to plan I should have a chapter of TRC up tomorrow!