Author's note.

I'm sorry that it takes a lot of time for me to update, but from time to time I am very busy with school work and stuff. But now, I am back with another chapter! :)
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Cirque du Freak-series, nor the characters in it.

Enjoy! :D

SPLASH!

Four vampires came up from the liquid, coughing and cursing. The fall was pretty long, but the strange, slimy liquid made them land unharmed. It was a light green colour, with blue and pink leafs swirling around in it. Big bubbles popped up everywhere in it, and it looked like a multi-coloured swamp.

"Charna's guts!" Mika cursed and rubbed the liquid out of his eyes.

Vanez was trying to put his eyepatch right when another splash was heard.

"And there came Larten," he said.

The orange-haired vampire rose and spat.

"By the black blood of Harnon Oan! What is this? Have you been here before, Kurda?" he snarled.

"No... I have never seen anything like it... But it's beautiful." Kurda replied and dragged his fingers through the liquid. The leafs were like mirrors. He watched his reflection in one of them.

"Why isn't Darren here?" said Arra. She looked around in the cave. There were stalactites everywhere, and some of them almost reached the surface of the strange liquid, which was all over the ground. There was two tunnels leading out from the cave, one to the left of Arra, and one to the right.

Kurda still stood and watched his reflection in a leaf. It was so beautiful. "Why can't I just stop looking at it?" he thought. The leaf made him feel safe and calm. Suddenly, his reflection started changing. The leaf, which had been blue, turned silver. His reflection wasn't his any longer. He only saw a shadow in it. The shadow was as dark as a black hole, like the light itself was sucked into it. Kurda didn't want to look into the leaf. He tried hard to don't, but his eyes still stayed focused on it. He let out a shaky breath.

"Darren must have gone into one of those tunnels. We must follow." Larten said.

"Yes, but which one?" Mika eyed one of the tunnels suspiciously.

"I do not know... We will split up. I can go into the left one with... Arra and Mika..."

Kurda couldn't hear what Larten said anymore. The shadow in the leaf had opened it's eyes now. It had only narrow slits for eyes. They were completely white, and glowed eerie. The blond general started to feel uncomfortable. He watched the shadows eyes intensly, against his will. "It isn't a human, or a vampire shadow... None of them look like that." he thought, and felt himself panicking. Now, he felt like he was sucked into the creature's eyes. Everything started to spin, and Kurda fell down in the liquid.

"... And then we... What was that?" Larten said and turned around. "WHAT? Kurda, what is the matter?"

They all ran to the blonde and tilted him up. Kurda gasped and soon started screaming in pain. They all looked at his face, tried to get eye contact. But, if they had been looking after the spot that hurt, maybe they had noticed the smoke that rose from his palm. The silvery leaf that was burned into it.

After one or two minutes, Kurda could stand up again. The others didn't know what to do.

"What... What happened to you, Kurda?" Vanez asked, slowly.

Kurda only coughed in response.

"What happened?" Vanez insisted.

"Well... As I said, this liquid might be toxic." he winked and tried to joke. "No, but really, I'm fine now."

Arra shook her head and sighed. "Whatever. Now, Kurda. You and Vanez, take the tunnel to the right. The rest of us are going to the left."

Vanez looked pained and Kurda nodded.

Then they walked against the tunnel, without saying a word to each other. Kurda rubbed his hand and watched the leaf which was burned into his hand.

"I can't tell anyone about this... About what I saw. It wasn't anything important, but still... It would worry them. If I just pretend to be fine, they won't notice." he thought and followed Vanez, into the tunnel.

"I can not understand where Darren is! He is nowhere to be found!" Larten said and leaned against the wall. They had been walking constantly for four hours now.

"Come on, keep on walking." replied Mika .

"No... Can we not take a break? I am exhausted... I am usually not this worried about people." Larten said and shook his head.

"Okay." Arra sat down on the ground. "Did we bring anything to eat?"

"Ehh..." Larten's eyes went big when he understood that they had forgotten to bring the most important thing of all. Food!

"CHARNA'S GUTS!" Mika exclaimed. He was furious! "What the hell are we going to eat?"

"Do not worry, I... I shall bring us dinner." He instantly rose and walked away to search for food.

All the time, he worried about Darren. He remembered that night when he had first seen Darren. Why had he blooded Darren to begin with? He didn't regret it the slightest, but still... It wasn't his intention to do that. "Why cannot that little brat ever keep out of trouble?" he thought. "How can a stone floor break just li..."

His thoughts was interrupted when he walked into a rock and fell down.

"Ouch! Look where you are going, stupid!" he said to himself. Then, he saw something at the rock. Cobwebs!

He started smiling. When he was a kid, he had eaten cobwebs just before he met his master Seba for the first time.

"It will have to do." he mumbled to no one in particular and started collecting cobwebs.

When he got back, Mika had fallen asleep.

"Seems like I am not the only one who is tired." he smiled and dropped all the cobwebs on the ground.

"Is that what we're going to eat?" Arra asked and nodded against the webs.

"Yes. Since I could not find anything else, that will have to do." Larten replied and shrugged.

"It will do." She started eating, but looked really disgusted.

Larten waked Mika.

"Sire. It is time for dinner."

Mika yawned and stretched.

"Okay... It will be really interesting to see what you..." He went quiet when he saw Arra eating the spiderwebs. Then he started eating too.

"Aren't you going to eat anything?" Arra asked Larten. He shook his head.

"No, I am not hungry. I just want to find Darren." he sighed.

"I'm so tired..." Mika said and stretched. "I think it's morning outside the mountain. Perhaps we should go to sleep and keep on searching tomorrow?"

"Yes, I think so too!" Arra agreed.

"I do not know..." The scar faced vampire said.

"Come on... You won't be as handsome as you are now if you're walking around with bags underneath your eyes!" Arra tried.

Larten blushed slightly.

"Fine." he eventually answered and shrugged. He wanted to continue his searching, but he still knew that the others were right. They must sleep.

Arra smiled and kissed him. (When Mika looked away!)

"Good. That was the right choice," she said. "You'll feel much better tomorrow."

Larten nodded.

The sun was shining intensly outside when Mika woke up. He didn't notice that of course, since he was inside a tunnel. There was pretty dark in there, as always, and Mika sat up. "Why did I wake up?" he wondered. It wasn't like him to just wake up because of nothing. He just sat there on the ground, with two other vampires next to him, and stared into the wall. He tried to remember. "What caused me to wake up...? I know it was something, but I just can't remember..." He shook his head. Nevermind. He didn't need to know. He turned his head and looked down on Arra. His former assistant. He thought about when he and Arra first saw Larten in Vampire Mountain. Both he and the orange haired vampire tried to win Arra's heart. He didn't know why, but she wanted Larten. Mika sighed gloomly and was just about to caress her hair, when he heard a swishing sound. Then he remembered! "That was it! I woke up because of that noise!" He turned around to see where the sound came from. It was just dark. "Perhaps it was a bat." he thought and yawned.

Suddenly... He became aware of two narrow slits, watching him. They were white and glowed eerie. "What kind of animal has got that kind of eyes?" he mused. He leaned forward for a better look, but couldn't see any body. "Either those eyes hasn't got a body... Or, the body is so dark that it can't be seen against the wall."

An uncomfortable feeling started creeping up his spine. It grew stronger when the eyes went bigger and bigger. He understood that the creature was getting closer all the time.

"Stop it! Stay where you are!" Mika snarled. The creature didn't stop. Mika crept closer to wall. He was a tough prince, but he didn't want to hit this thing. Not kick either, or anything. It was something about it that made him want to stay as far away as possible. "What am I going to do?" he thought. "It will kill me..."

"ARRA! LARTEN! WAKE UP, NOW!" he roared angrily. Well, like that was going to help. None of them woke up, and the black-haired prince started sweating. The eyes were in front of his now. He refused to look into them and looked down at his legs instead. The uncomfortable feeling was almost unbearable. Mika started counting the time he had left to live. He felt the creatures long, thin fingers take a firm grip around his chin.

It tilted Mika's head up. Forced him to look into its eyes.

Wow... What will happen?
And where did that... thing come from? (Haha, okay, we all know that.) ;)
Write a review and let me know what you think! :)

~Virvelmaster