Bedlam. It was absolute bedlam backstage as Avi tried his best to follow Scott through crowds, who only knew where he himself was going through sheer photographic memory.

"'Scuse me," he called out, trying to squeeze past a lady who could inflate herself into a balloon shape; all very impressive but not very practical right now. She bobbed out of the way and Avi continued to chase after the blond.

Damn you for having such long legs.

He tried to look out for Kirstie or Mitch but they had long been lost to the sea of thirty or forty something performers and over twenty stage hands. He couldn't believe the show was scheduled to start in ten minutes - at eleven in the evening - when there was still so much mayhem backstage.

"Sorry!" He apologised as he stood on someone's costume, even though it was their ridiculously large skirt that had tripped him up.

"Scott! Slow down!" He yelled to the boy who either ignored or could not hear him above the racket, and the next time Avi lost sight of him for a split second, he disappeared completely.

"Scott?" Avi's eyes darted around frantically trying to locate his guide. There was too much going on. He thought that maybe with his new enhanced senses tracking people would be easier. Not apparently  when they were amongst a huge crowd and he was being bombarded with smells and sounds from every direction.

Luckily Kevin had been in a better position to view the blond at the time and knew where he had gone. "Under there," he spoke loudly into Avi's ear, pointing to a wooden plank lying at an angle against some boxes.

Only just managing to fit through the tight space himself, Avi wondered if Kevin had truly been right in the tall boy going this way.

The answer was yes, yes he had been; for there, sitting cross-legged on the lower part of some scaffolding was the blond.

"Thanks for showing us the way," Avi said sarcastically as he made his way over and sat down next to the younger boy.

Scott jumped at his presence, having been caught unawares, making Avi feel slightly guilty, but he had assumed that lilac eyes just somehow always knew who was near him, like when Mitch had first introduced them.

"Oh I'm very sorry!" Scott was extremely apologetic and Avi felt any sort of annoyance at him evaporate. "It's just I always have to be concentrating really hard at this time of day...and then it makes me forget about other stuff." Even though his eyes were completely alien to Avi, he could have sworn at that moment they looked sad. The guy really was sorry for unintentionally abandoning the two newcomers.

"No worries," Avi put his mind at ease. "You shouldn't have to be a baby sitter for us when you've got to do...crowd control or whatever it was."

The blond smiled. "That part usually comes later. Right now I have to check we have no unwanted guests arriving," he explained in his way that always left the listener wanting more. Avi didn't know if he was being purposefully ambiguous or if he forgot not everyone knew as much as him. Knowing the boy like he did so far, he was going to place a bet on the latter.

"Unwanted guests?" Kevin queried.

"Yeah," Scott nodded. "People from the organisations, like the ones who tried to kidnap Kirstie." He paused to concentrate on whatever was going on in that mysterious head of his. "Most of the time I'd have a premonition if someone bad was going to come and Lucian would send one of the guys out to deal with them before they got too close," he continued after checking out the latest lot of arrivals. "But it's always safe to check them at the doors as well."

"Has anyone from these organisations ever turned up on the night?" Avi asked.

"Once. A long time ago, when we weren't as prepared." Avi noticed the blond's body stiffen at the memory. "We had to resort to releasing the Croc man," he informed them quietly, before shaking his head and the memory away. "Some days I'm glad I wasn't able to see that."

Both boys were quiet as Scott continued acting as security guard for the time being. While he had the chance Avi took in the other boys scents. It sounded dumb but there was no denying that Avi could now individually identify different people by smell alone. It was so strange. Kevin and Scott smelled so different and yet if Avi had to describe what they smelled like he would have struggled. It wasn't anything like grass or hay, or like any aftershave. They were scents he had never really experienced before, but now he had there was really only one name for them. Kevin and Scott.

I'm a human hound dog! Avi jokingly thought, his impression on his new "abilities" a little more positive than earlier on.

Sight. That was the other one. His sight was definitely better, as confirmed when Kevin complained he could barely see anything, before getting embarrassed about making that comment in front of Scott.

Avi listened in amusement as Kevin began apologising to a very confused Scott, who obviously hadn't been paying attention anyway, while at the same time looking around the tent himself.

It is really dark, isn't it? Avi only realised now that the whole tent would be practically impossible to see in if you didn’t have super light-sensitive eyes. Even for him, it was more shapes than specific features he could make out.

The lights had been dim from the get go, and audience members were shown to their seats by a man who's whole body glowed bright neon yellow in the dark.

Unlike a conventional big top circus, Circo Di Freak had a more traditional theatre style layout, with rows of seats ascending to the back in a semi-circle. There was also a lot of scaffolding everywhere, like the one they were sat on right now, that probably didn't pass any health and safety regulations, and was from where Avi could just about see stage hands clambering about on top.

Then to the left of where the three were sitting was the backstage area, only visible from this side as a large black canvas. People would be shocked if they saw what was really going on behind there.

As for how performers were meant to get into the ring, it was not very clear, but Avi assumed that would all be revealed in due course and the circus hadn't been so busy that they forgot to add the key element of a door to their set.

Every seat was nearly occupied now and Avi guessed there to be about a hundred and fifty strong audience when Kevin kept pestering him to tell him what he could see.

Avi wanted to tell him that it wasn't what the audience looked like that was the most interesting thing, but how they smelled. Now that he wasn't trying to chase after a tall blond he could really concentrate on the different aromas people were giving off, some a lot worse than others, but all new for Avi. Seeing as he didn't know any of the audience by name he just had to settle for: woman wearing too much make up, man with very old shoes, woman who is pregnant.

Avi wanted to tell Kevin all about what he was finding out but truthfully it was all a bit much for him right now. He wasn't sure he was comfortable smelling previous nights sex coming off people, and knowing Kevin, the older boy would be absolutely fascinated and demand Avi to tell him a fact about every audience member.

Instead, Avi kept quiet about what he was experiencing and mentally blocked out the advanced senses, something he was extremely grateful he was able to do otherwise it most likely would have driven him crazy.

The chatter inside the tent was quite intense as everybody voiced their thoughts about what they were going to witness that night. Avi had a pretty could idea of the people they were going to see, but as far as incorporating it into a show, he had no idea.

Just as the chatting grew to max volume, there was a loud ferocious roar, like a lion's, that shocked the whole audience into shutting up. Avi figured it was coming from the guy he met earlier who could imitate any sound, unless the circus actually had a real lion hidden somewhere.

Avi also noticed Scott's stance change, as presumably his role switched from that of security guard to crowd control.

The roar continued for ages and ages - the owner must have had lungs of steel - and was getting louder and louder, and the last lights flicked out one by one until the tent was left in pitch black. Avi began to feel apprehensive, even though he had a better idea than any of the audience members about what they were about to witness.

All of a sudden, the roar stopped and there was silence. Avi's ears were ringing, the roar along with the stress of the day and the late hour, bringing on a brief wave of dizziness. Then he recovered and sat up in his seat the moment Lucian's very recognisable voice echoed around the tent, while somewhere high up in the scaffolding, one of the child travellers switched on a green light and the centre stage lit up looking all eerie but empty. Lucian was obviously stood out of view.

"If you go down to the woods today, you'd better not go alone," the man had begun singing in a creepy tone.

"It's lovely down in the woods today, but it's safer to stay at home."

Avi's eyes darted about trying to locate the man but he was too well hidden.

"For every person has a fear, and I'm proud to say that you'll find your's here," the creepy voice continued to sing the twisted nursery rhyme.

"Because today's the day these woods become a circus."

The 's' of the final word hung in the air, creating a hissing sound. The light switched off and they were plunged into darkness again.

And that's when it began. The screaming.

From their seats away from the audience it was unclear what was going on at first. Whatever was happening to the audience was not affecting them.

Avi squinted into the darkness and was able to see a number of small, dark, leggy creatures scuttling all over everybody. Spiders. There were spiders everywhere. People were jumping up and shaking themselves down, some were stamping their feet trying to squash the intruders, and a few were simply laughing at the others panicking.

Avi had no fear of spiders; he'd kept many trapped under a glass in his old foster homes, the closest he'd ever get to owning a pet, and wouldn't have minded if he was being jumped on by the eight-legged beasts.

He craned his neck forward, grinning widely as the audience grew more panicked and people's spider dances got more extravagant. Even Kevin had begun laughing quietly.

Then, all of a sudden the lights went up. Every single available one, so the whole tent was brightly lit. And there, in the middle of the ring, center stage if you like, was Lucian.

"Spiders. Ah, such a common fear, arachnophobia," he observed thoughtfully, before snapping his fingers and, just like that, the spiders began exploding. An unassuming wooden door in the canvas had randomly appeared, handleless, much like the one to Lucian's office.

"A truly terrifying way to start the show, if they were in fact real," the ring leader spoke calmly.

Panic slowly descended into confusion as more spiders popped into a cloud of grey dust. Now that the lights were up it was clear that these were not real spiders, they were far too plain and not detailed enough to pass for a living creature, but in the dark they had done the trick.

As people started to settle down once more, Lucian announced a lady called Jane, informing everyone that she had the ability to control and manipulate ash. Now Avi had visual on the lady he could in fact recall her from earlier, although when he and Kevin had met her she'd only created a few tiny ash flowers for them. What she'd just done right now was on another level entirely!

She left to rapturous applause and a few boo's. At least no one had passed out during that little performance.

Avi smiled as one of the last spiders scuttled his way before exploding into a puff of black ash.

Now that's an ability I wouldn’t mind having!

"Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls over the age of sixteen," Lucian began addressing the audience in a perfect and well practiced announcer voice. "I would like to welcome you to Circo Di Freak, home of the world's most remarkable human beings!"

He gave the audience some more time to calm down before launching into a prepared speech about their back story.

"We are an ancient circus," he proclaimed loudly and proudly. "Although this circus is only thirteen years old, if you include previous incarnations of it then we has been around for five hundred years, bringing the grotesque to generation after generation. Our lineup has changed many times, but never our aim, which is to astound and terrify you! We present acts both frightening and bizarre, acts you can find nowhere else in the world."

"Those who are easily scared should leave now," he warned. "I'm sure there are people who came tonight thinking this was a joke. Maybe they thought our freaks would be people in masks, or harmless misfits. This is not so! Every act you see tonight is real. Each performer is unique. And none are harmless."

With his speech over and done with, Lucian left and two women - they looked to be related - dressed in tight fitting silver cat-suits took his place. They then performed an act where they elongated their arms until they were five times the normal length and as such, extra springy and flexible. Avi watched in awe as they used their long arms as a kind of swing rope, wrapping each one around the scaffolding, enabling them to move as if they were on a trapeze. It was a nice relaxed start to the show if you didn't count the spiders.

Afterwards Seamus came on for some audience participation, inviting the fastest person up to face him on an obstacle course; he of course would be doing it all on his hands and promised if anyone saw either foot touch the floor, then he would be automatically disqualified. Having witnessed first hand just how fast the Irish man was on his hands, Avi had no doubt that there would be only one clear winner.

A cocky young man in the front row accepted the challenge and confidently leapt into the ring. Seamus greeted him cheerfully and offered the man a shoe to shake. They then took their marks and the guy who had been roaring earlier came back on to imitate the sound of gun shot to start the race.

Immediately the sound in the tent grew once more, cheering on both sides but mainly for Seamus. Even Avi at one point found himself yelling out a "Go on!". The guy made it look too easy, he was onto the second obstacle before the other man was halfway through the first. He scaled a five foot wall simply by bending and springing up on his arms, performing an elaborate somersault before landing perfectly on the other side.

"Seamus! Seamus! Seamus!" By the end the audience was fully on his side, and Avi was on his feet as the man reached the final and most tricky looking obstacle. It was one of those nets that you had to crawl under, only about half a foot above the ground, easy enough but not when your feet weren't allowed to touch the floor.

However it turned out there was a simple solution to this dilemma. As Seamus approached the net - by now his opponent had given up and was cheering him on also - he bent his elbows and balanced his body so it was lying almost horizontal to the floor and, to the cries of astonishment from the crowd, began to shuffle under the net without any body part except for his hands touching the ground once.

Once victory was secured the man leapt to his feet, surprising Avi as that was the first time he'd seen him the right way up, and walked normally, maybe even limped, off the stage to thunderous clapping.

Next there was another ensemble performance and Avi got the idea that the show was organised so the more interesting individuals, like running on hands man, were sandwiched between the equally strange but maybe not as jaw dropping acts, such as the guy who could make the hair on his head dance and curl into different shapes. Therefore the show would run well and keep the audience on their toes.

Avi certainly was in to it already. Kirstie sure wasn't lying when she said it'd be amazing.

Miss Evie was the next solo performer and she did her eye throwing act. Mitch hadn't been lying either when he'd said they were like bullets. She had five objects lined up about twenty paces away from her, with a large crash mat behind them. A teddy bear, can, wine bottle, TV and finally a suit of armour were her targets.

Without a word spoken, the petite woman reached up and plucked her right eye from it's proper place in her head. There was a kind of sickly popping sound as she pulled the eye from the socket, in plain view for everyone to see. Left behind was just an empty hole and a few loose blood vessels.

By now the audience had become slightly accustomed to freaky ad downright disgusting, but this latest act had even the toughest of them letting out cries of sickened horror.

Ignoring the crowd, Miss Evie lined up and aimed down sight at the helpless bear. She held the eye like one might hold a dart, bringing it up to her ear and moving her hand back and forth a bit before launching the body part in new fluid motion. It moved so quick that even Avi and his new highly trained eyes failed to keep track of it until the eye hit the bear square in the face, sending his head sailing off and releasing stuffing into the air, before sticking firmly into the crash mat behind; just a single eye watching them eerily from it's new home.

Disgusting eye socket now a thing of the past, the crowd were immediately hyped up again by this performance of incredible accuracy. Still without a word being spoken, the one eyed woman was handed that same eye back by one of the stage hands and lined up in front of the next target.

She didn't miss once. The can went flying, the wine bottle shattered into a thousand shards and the TV screen cracked into a spiderweb pattern.

For the grand finale of her act Miss Evie shocked everyone into silence again by removing her other eye, rendering herself completely blind, the only indication she had of where to throw being the direction the stage hands faced her in.

Avi held his breath along with everybody else as the woman took aim with both eyes.

Surely this is impossible, Avi thought as he watched her go through the same process of preparation. Surely this is some kind of trick.

You could have heard a pin drop as the woman brought both hands back a final time before releasing both eyes. That only lasted five seconds though as the whole crowd leapt to their feet, clapping as loudly as they could.

Avi stood too, nearly hitting his forehead on the scaffolding, shaking his head in wonder. Not only had Miss Evie hit the suit of armour while blind, but she had aimed it perfectly, with just the right amount of force, so the armour now had gained her eyes in the exact spot where they should be.

"I never knew how much I wanted to see a suit of armour with eyes until now!" Kevin shouted to him above the  noise.

Avi had to agree. It's incredible. It simply is incredible.

Many more incredible acts followed, including a double act of a man who acted as a human voodoo doll and a man who could feel no pain and regrow his fingers, toes and ears. That was probably the most disgusting act of the first half but also one of the most entertaining as the two guys somehow managed to turn it into a comedy act that had the audience, and Kevin and Avi, laughing.

To end the of the first half Harold came out and ate...well, basically everything while Tammy played and jovial tune on her ribs.

A stage hand came out with two carts full of food: cakes, fries, hamburgers, packets of candy and heads of cabbage. There was stuff there that Avi hadn't even seen before, never mind tasted!

"Delicious" Harold said, pointing to a huge clock being lowered by ropes from above. It stopped about ten feet above his head. "How long do you think it will take me to eat all this?" he asked, pointing to the food. "There will be a prize for the person who guesses closest."

"An hour!" One man shouted out.

"Three weeks!" Was another guess from a young woman.

"One day, three hours and forty five minutes," an older guy in glasses called out.

Soon everybody was calling out. Avi said an hour and three minutes. Kevin said twenty-nine minutes. The lowest guess was seventeen minutes.

When the crowd were finished guessing Harold gave Tammy the cue to start playing a countdown tune on her ribs, and the Canadian began his monstrosity of a feast.

He ate like the wind. His arms moved so fast, you could hardly see them. His mouth didn't seem to close at all. He shoveled food in - if you could call it food, swallowed, and moved on.

Everybody was amazed. Kevin complained it was making him feel sick as they watched. Some people actually were sick!

Strange. Out of everything you could throw up at, it's the guy eating a lot of food.

Although he had to admit that watching the guy eat at such a rate was not the most pleasant feeling in the world. Finally, Harold scoffed the last bun and the clock above his head stopped ticking, while Tammy went back to playing a bouncy tune.

Four minutes and fifty-six seconds! He'd eaten all that food in less than five minutes! Avi could hardly believe it. It didn't seem possible, even for a man who had chewed spoons in front of him earlier.

"That was nice," Harold said, "but I could have used more dessert."

While the crowd clapped and laughed, the stage hands rolled the carts away and brought out a new one, packed with glass statues and forks and spoons and bits of metal junk.

"Before I begin," Harold said, "I must warn you not to try this at home! I can eat things that would choke and kill normal people. Do not try to copy me! If you do, you may die."

No shit dude. Avi wondered if anyone had ever been stupid enough to try that.

He began eating again. He started with a couple of nuts and bolts, which he sucked down without blinking. After a few handfuls he gave his big round stomach a shake and you could hear the noise of the metal inside.
His stomach heaved and he spat the nuts and bolts back out. If there had only been one or two, Avi might have thought he was keeping them under his tongue or at the sides of his cheeks, but not even Harold's mouth was big enough to hold that number.

Next, he ate the glass statues. He crunched the glass up into small pieces before swallowing it with a drink of water. Then he ate the spoons and forks. He twisted them up into circles with his hands, popped them into his mouth, and let them slide down. He said his teeth weren't strong enough to tear all the way through metal.

After that, he swallowed a long metal chain, then paused to catch his breath. His stomach began rumbling and shaking. Avi didn't know what was going on, until the man gave a heave and the top of the chain came out of his mouth.

As the chain came out, it was clear to see that the spoons and forks were wrapped around it. He had managed to poke the chain through the hoops inside his stomach. It was unbelievable, even more impressive than the spoon trick from earlier.

After that Avi didn't think it was possible for someone to top that performance. Oh how wrong he was.

Don't worry Kirstie and Mitch will have their moments in the next chapter! Will be up tomorrow if all goes to plan <3