The Immortal next door.

Chapter 1 (Finding the unknown immortal)

The camp had been on the move for a while know, almost 2 months on the road non stop, not even to put on a show here and there, where ever Mr. Tall wanted to go he wasn't going to let anything or anyone get in his way of reaching his destination.

Finally after what felt like an eternity on the road, the Cirque De Freaks came to a complete stand still. It wasn't the best looking place to of stopped, surrounded by trees, and the faint sounds of water in the distant. This place reminded me far too much of the place where I first met Sam, if I couldn't hear the water in the background I would have sworn this was the exact same place.

Evra and me where kept extremely busy when the cirque first stopped, helping put up tents, helping cook, putting up more tents, cutting down fire wood, finding food for the little people, putting up more tents, the list was endless, things wasn't all bad though I got to catch up with people who had been on separate trucks to myself and Evra.

I often found himself wondering how they where going to move Mr. Crepsley's coffin whilst he was still in it, so I decided to ask one of the chef organisers David, who told people where to set what up where.

"Well to be honest we normally don't move his stuff until he is up and about. It stops little accidents like before." David scratched the back of his head nervously and smiled sheepishly.

"Why what happened before? What accident?" I had to know I would stop at nothing to find out.

"Well we 'use' to have a worker here, Lee the strong man I think his name was, he foolishly, one day decided it would be a good idea to carry Mr. Crepsley's coffin with him inside it I might add, to where it needed to go, anyway to cut a long story short, he somehow managed to drop the coffin, and sent Mr. Crepsley flying out into a lovely patch of sun, I was only apprentice at the time for the chef organiser before me but I remember it so clearly"

I was speechless "Wow…What happened to this worker Lee?"

"Well rumour has it." David lent in closer to me and spoke in an almost undetectable whisper, "Mr. Tall was so angry at Lee for so foolishly endangered the life of one of his closest friends, that he told the little people to 'dispose' of him" David stood back to his original position. "Others say that Lee was so worried as to what Mr. Crepsley would do to him come night fall, he high tailed it out of there and never looked back." David let out another nervous laugh "who could blame him, I would have run for the hills as quick as possible."

David had to return to his jutes, leaving me with so many questions I thought I was going to explode, when someone tapped me on the shoulder.

"Hay daydreamer, what's up you look like you have a lot on your mind." Evra looked worried at first but when I reviled the story David had just told me, he too was bursting with questions.

"Wow…imagine that." Evra looked at me confused. "Hang on are you sure you heard the clumsy workers name right?"

"Ye I'm positive; it was Lee the Strong man, why?"

"There has only ever been one Lee the strong man ever to of worked here and that was over 210 years ago." Evra looked a bit alarmed.

"How in Paradises name do you know that?" I had recently discovered that after spending so much time handing around the old red clothed vampire I myself was starting to talk like him. Dame it all.

"I was helping Mr. Tall sort out some old 'workers files' shall we say and I saw a drawing of him, and it was dated at the bottom 1800, which was 210 years ago."

"Hold on if that's true, how was David there to witness it, He said he was only an apprentice when it happened, that's imposable!" I was desperately trying to sort out what was going on, "maybe I should ask Mr. Crepsley when he wakes up?"

"Or…" Evra had a plan forming in his head and I knew I wasn't going to like it, "Maybe we should ask David ourselves."

The hunt was on for David; Evra was taking this really seriously, ducking behind tents and vans, where as for me I was just casually walking around asking people along the way if they had seen David and if they knew where he might be.

"Pissssst…Darren…Over here." Evra was underneath one of the vans.

"Evra come out I'm not getting under there you know."

Evra emerged from under the van, after the way was safe, "Have you found him yet?"

"Evra why are you running around like a member of the S.A.S? His not a terrorist you know." I was trying so hard to hold in my laughter my face was turning red.

"We have to make sure no one sees us, they might go to David and tell him we are looking for him."

"What do you need boys?" Evra jumped 6foot in the air and dashed back under the van, I shook my head and pinched the bridge of my nose, another Crepsley trait I have to put a stop to this and soon, "I herd you where looking for me."

"Ye sorry about Evra his been jumpy all day. Must be a snake thing." I giggled

"Well you found me; well really I found you but let's not knit pick, what…"

"DAVID WHERE YOU WANT THIS!" Bellowed an extremely loud man who was carrying a rather big box with a couple other people.

"Boy my work is never done…Hay Darren do you and Evra mind giving me a hand with his I might need your nimbleness." He put his hand on my shoulder.

"Ye sure ill just get Evra from under." As I bent down to look under his was gone. "Wow he moved fast, well it looks like it's just you and me then."

"That's fine, I don't think a jumpy Evra would be much use with this the stuff in the box is VERYYY fragile." He looked at me and shot me a look 'so don't you dear drop it.'

I didn't have a clue what was in the box but it was heavy, REALLY heavy even for me, paradise knows how the humans are picking it up, David on the other hand didn't look effected by the weight at all, and would occasionally carry his end of the box with one hand, whilst directing other people where he wanting this going. Finally with grunt from all including myself we put the box down in David's tent at the far end of the camp site. I decided I would ask him about it.

"Hay David." I looking around to find him kneeling next to the box messing with the side I couldn't see.

"One second Mate this bits delicate work." He stuck his tongue out to the side and bit down a sure sign he was concentrating, so I stood perfectly still and just watched him fiddle around. After a short time he emerged his hand above the box. He was holding a small glass vile full of water. I looked curiously at him 'he went through all of that for some water…strange'

"What ever you do Darren please don't drink ANY water that comes from this crate understand." He was nasty about what he said but he said it with enough force so I knew he wasn't joking.

"Ok I'll leave the water to you and ill stick with blood then." I was trying to make light of this unusual situation, luckily David smiled "Just as smart as your maker ay." I didn't know if I should have been offended or pleased that he compared me to Mr. Crepsley, but he said I was intelligent so it must be a good thing, I smiled in reply.

"Thanks I guess."

"Any way what was you looking for me for you need help with something?" he said down in a very commutable looking chair and sipped from his vile.

He looked at he with a cheeky grin, "Take a set, I don't bite, same can't be said about yourself but what can you do ay" he was trying to cover up his laughter as best he could, I giggled and sat down in the chair next to his. He handed me a vile of blood and I thanked him and uncorked it.

"So finally with no more interruptions, what was it you where looking for me for?" he sighed a breath of relief he would at long last be able to find out what Darren wanted.

"I just wanted to ask you something about the story you told me with Lee the strong man?" I looked at my vile of blood nervously.

"Oh…let me guess you want to know how I could of possibly been there as an apprentice when it was over 200 years ago it happened."

"Well ye I only realised when Evra told me Lee use to work here in 1800 I think it was."

"Evra is spot on, is this why he was hiding?" He smiled in disbelief.

"To be honest. Ye, god knows what he was thinking but it made him jumpy as I'm sure you saw." I had started to relax now enjoying my blood in the world's softest chair.

"Out of curiosity. Why weren't you jumpy?" he looked at me with a very intrigued look.

"Well as a vampire I age slower then humans, so I'm going to outlive a lot of people, it just seems normal to hear people live to be 200 500 plus."

"Do you think I'm a vampire?" he was looking at his case now with a hint of worry in his eyes.

"To be honest no I don't think you're a vampire, first off you don't have 10 lovely little give aways on your finger tips, and secondly you don't feel like a vampire to me."

"You would be absolutely correct, I'm not a vampire or a vampaneze, I'm a lot older then that, I watched both species grow and evolve from wolves to vampires from vampires to a split clan, I've lived every war imaginable, I speak many different tongues and I have seen the raise and fall of every empire known to man and some unknown." He was staring at his case intently now, not even blinking, I in turn stared at him, not blinking wondering what he was talking about.

"What are you then if neither vampire nor vampaneze yet you out live us all?"

"I am…complicated." He turned and looked at me and smiled at me. I took it as a sign I wasn't in danger and didn't have to make a brake for the exit.

"Ok them Mr. Complicated, what's in the crate?" I had gone this far why not go the rest of the way with the questions. I expected another riddle for an answer but he chuckled and sighed "That is even more complicated them me, now no more questions I'm sure Mr. Crepsley will be waking soon and he is bound to want to see you." He stood stretched, turned and faced me "Please keep this conversation we just had between me and you." I looked baffled at him what did he tell me I could really spread around, however I saw how much he didn't want anyone to know so I agreed and started heading for the doorway.

"Oh and one more think Darren." He smiled cheekily at me, "You sound more and more like Mr. Crepsley everyday.